A

David

Darling

QuikTOMS (Quick Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) satellite

QuikTOMS (Quick Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) satellite is the fifth launch of NASA's TOMS instrument. TOMS-5 had been scheduled fly aboard the Russian Meteor-3M(2) satellite but this mission was terminated in April 1999. Because of the urgent need to continue the daily mapping of the global distribution of atmospheric ozone, TOMS-5 was moved to a modified Microstar Bus tailored for the QuikTOMS mission and procured through the Goddard Space Flight Center's Rapid Spacecraft Development Office. It took off on 21 September 2001 aboard a Taurus rocket as a secondary payload alongside the OrbView-4 satellite but ended up in the Indian Ocean minutes later after the launch vehicle malfunctioned.