Monday, November 9, 1970

Midas 2

 1960-006A


Midas 2 also used an Atlas Agena A; the launch on 1960 May 24 was successful. The satellite tumbled, however, operating for one day, and obtained only some IR background measurements. However after 16 orbits the telemetry failed, foiling plans to observe a Titan II launch.

The micrometeorite detector worked for four orbits and returned discrepant answers: an upper limt for the two wire-grid detectors and detections for the three acoustic detectors. Acoustic detectors were later regarded as unreliable.


Midas II 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1960 May 24  1735:46  Launch by Atlas Agena A  CC  
  T+2:26 BECO 
  T+3:58 SECO 
  T+4:17 VECO  ? x 541 x 33 
 1744:57 T+9:11 Agena burn 
 1746:46 T+11:00 Agena MECO 
  484 x 511 x 33 
1960 May 25   End of transmissions 

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