Thursday, October 29, 1970
Wednesday, October 28, 1970
Monday, October 26, 1970
Midas 12
1966-089A
The final MIDAS flight, number 12, entered a 3700 km circular orbit on 1966 Oct 5. It operated for 372 days.
As well as ORS and EGRS subsatellites, Vela and AFAPL secondary payloads may have been carried.
| RTS-1 F3 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 Oct 5 | 2200 | Launch by Atlas Agena D | V |
| 2204 | T+4:50? Atlas sep | ||
| 2205 | T+5:46? Agena D MES-1 | ||
| 2209 | T+9:26? Agena-D MECO-1 | ||
| 2310? | MES-2 | ||
| 2315? | EGRS ejected | ||
| MECO-2 | 167.6 3682 x 3702 x 90.2 | ||
Saturday, October 24, 1970
Skynet 1B
1970-062A
The second Philco-built Skynet 1 was launched on 1970 Aug 19. The Star 17A apogee motor failed; telemetry and tracking vanished half way through the apogee motor burn. Launch operations were by NASA until stage 3 sep, then control was transferred to AFSCF who commanded the ABM burn.
Satellite mass 129 kg BOL, 243 full consistent with 114 kg prop. Star 17A has mass 112 kg prop 12 kg inert with Impulse 319.5 kNs; Seff = 286.7s = 2.812 km/s; so dV = 2.812 ln ( minitial/mfinal ) = 2.812 ln (243 / 129 ); for full burn, = 1.781 km/s. GTO apogee vel = 1.596 km/s at 28.0 deg; GEO vel = 3.075 km/s at 0 deg. So dV required is 1.827 km/s at 24 deg, within 3 percent of estimate. Now if the AKM failed halfway through burn, mass final = 186 kg, so dV = 0.752 km/s. Scaling components, final vel is 2.142 km/s at 12 deg for an estimated orbit of 7300 x 36000 km x 12 deg, if no extra impulse provided after the explosion. Of course this is very approximate. Another solution gives 10100 x 38300 x 18 deg.
| Skynet 1B | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 Aug 19 | 1211:00 | Launch by Delta | CK LC17A |
| T+0:39 SRM 1-3 burnout | |||
| 1212 | SRM sep (T+1:10) | ||
| 1214 | Thor MECO (T+3:38) | ||
| 1214 | Delta burn T+3:45 | ||
| Thor sep T+3:45 | |||
| 1214 | Fairing sep (T+3:49) | ||
| 1220 | Delta SECO, coast (T+9:53) | -1200? x 400? x 29? | |
| 1233 | Delta sep (T+22:53) | ||
| 1234 | Star 37 burn (T+23:06) | ||
| 1234 | Star 37 cutoff (T+23:46) | ||
| 1235 | Star 37 sep (T+25:30) | ||
| 636.5 270 x 36041 x 28.04 (RAE) | |||
| 664 254 x 37523 x 25.94 (TR1022) | |||
| 664 254 x 37523 x 26.02 (MOR P) | |||
| 1700? | Apo 1 101E | ||
| 1970 Aug 20 | 0400? | Apo 2 68W | |
| 1530? | Apo 3 125E | ||
| 1970 Aug 21 | 0230? | Apo 4 40W | |
| 1330? | Apo 5 150E | ||
| 1970 Aug 22 | 0030 | Apo 6 10W | |
| 1130? | Apo 7 180E | ||
| 1970 Aug 22 | 1140? | Star 17A AKM, failed (7th apogee) | |
| 7300? x 36000? x 12? (guess) | |||
Friday, October 23, 1970
Thursday, October 22, 1970
Wednesday, October 21, 1970
Tuesday, October 20, 1970
ESRO 1B
1969-083A
The ESRO IB auroral research satellite was launched in Oct 1969 to complement the ESRO IA mission but problems with the Scout left it in low orbit and it reentered after less than two months. The Antares third stage pitched down incorrectly, and the fourth stage underperformed, causing low altitude and velocity. Planned orbit was 400 x 435 km x 86.0 deg.
Mass 85 kg. Size is 0.76 dia 0.96m high, with 2.43m span across the deployed booms. Yo-yo masses of 0.11 kg on 4.70m long wires were deployed.
The E transition section on the Scout carried a LaRC performance experiment to study final stage performance.
| ESRO 1B | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 Oct 1 | 2229:00 | Launch by Scout B | V SLC5 |
| 2230 | Algol burnout T+1:13 | ||
| T+1:17 Algol sep | |||
| 2230 | Castor burn T+1:17 | ||
| 2230 | Castor burnout T+1:57 | ||
| T+2:55 Fairing sep | |||
| T+2:56 Castor sep | |||
| 2231 | Antares burn T+2:56 | ||
| 2232 | Antares burnout T+3:33 | ||
| 2232 | Coast phase T+3:37 | ||
| 2236 | Altair burn T+7:20 | ||
| 2236:56 | Altair burnout T+7:55 | ||
| 2241:55 | Altair sep | ||
| 2241:57 | S-44 boom deploy | ||
| 2242 | T+13:00 Yo-yo deploy | ||
| T+13:02 S-45 boom deploy | |||
| 91.4 291 x 389 x 85.1 | |||
| 1969 Nov 23 | 0952 | Reentered over Canary Islands | |
Payload:
- S32 Auroral photometer 4278A and 4861A (NICP-Oslo)
- S44 Electron probes (UCL)
- S45 Ion probe (UCL)
- S71A Scintillator and pulse analyser, e 40-400 keV (RSRS,Slough)
- S71B Electrostatic analyser, e 1-10 keV, p 1 -5 keV (Kiruna)
- S71C Solid state detectors p 100 keV-5 MeV (TU Denmark, Bergen)
- S71D GM counters e > 40 keV (TU Denmark, NSC-Oslo)
- S71E Scintillator and solid state detector p 5-30 MeV (RSRS)
Friday, October 16, 1970
Gambit 22
1965-076A
KH-7 22 was launched on 1965 Sep 30 by Atlas Agena D from Vandenberg. The Agena was tracked as 1965-76B and reentered after 2 days. The OCV reentered after 4.7 days. High gas consumption led to restrictions on roll maneuvers and early recovery on rev 67, with imagery that reached better than 1 meter resolution.
| KH-7 22 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 Sep 30 | 1922 | Launch by Atlas Agena D | V |
| T+2:18? BECO | |||
| T+4:37? SECO | |||
| T+4:54? VECO | |||
| T+4:59? Atlas sep | |||
| T+5:51? Agena MES | |||
| 1931 | T+9:50? Agena MECO | ||
| OCV sep | 88.8 158 x 264 x 95.6 | ||
| 1965 Oct 4 | Rev 64 last image | ||
| 1965 Oct 4 | 2230? | SRV ejected? (guess) | |
| 2310? | SRV recovered (guess) | ||
| 1965 Oct 5 | 1215? | Reentered | |