CCE (AMPTE 1, Explorer 65)

AMPTE (Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer) was a joint US - German - UK endeavor with the US providing the Charge Composition Explorer (CCE), an equatorial mission with apogee close to 8 R_e, with Germany providing the Ion Release Module (IRM) with an apogee close to 20 R_e and the UK providing the UK Subsatellite (UKS) in the same orbit as the IRM. It was designed to study the access of solar-wind ions to the magnetosphere, the convective-diffusive transport and energization of magnetospheric particles, and the interactions of plasmas in space.

The CCE (Charge Composition Explorer) spacecraft was instrumented to detect those lithium and barium tracer ions from the IRM released that were transported into the magnetosphere within the CCE orbit. The spacecraft was spin-stabilized at 10 rpm, with its spin axis in the equatorial plane, and offset from the earth-sun line by about 20 degrees. It could adjust attitude with both magnetic torqueing and cold gas thrusters.

Five instruments were mounted on the CCE spacecraft:

• Hot Plasma Composition Experiment (HPCE)
• Medium Energy Particle Analyzer (MEPA)
• Charge-Energy-Mass Spectrometer(CHEM)
• Plasma Wave Experiment (PWE)
• CCE Magnetometer (MAG)