Saturday, February 9, 1974
Friday, February 8, 1974
Explorer 20
1964-051A
The S-048 Ionosphere Explorer A, nicknamed Topsi, was a topside ionospheric sounder: it used a radio signal transmitted through the ionosphere from above (as opposed to the traditional technique with ground based stations reflecting signals from below) to study ionospheric structure. The S-48 satellite was built by Cutler-Hammer Inc.'s Airborne Instrument Lab Division for GSFC. It had a mass of 44 kg and was 0.83m long and 0.66m diameter.
S-48 was launched at 1343:17 on 1964 Aug 25 by Scout X-4 from Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg (formerly PALC-D). At 1355:23 it was inserted into a 103.97 min, 871 x 1018 km x 79.9 deg orbit and became Explorer XX. It operated until 1966 Jul.
| Explorer 20 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 Aug 25 | 1343:17 | Launch by Scout X-4 | V SLC5 |
| T+1:04 St 1 burnout | |||
| T+1:13 St 2 burn | |||
| T+1:55 St 2 burnout | |||
| T+1:59 Fairing sep | |||
| T+2:01 St 3 burn | |||
| T+2:34 St 3 burnout | |||
| T+11:31 St 3 sep | |||
| T+11:41 St 4 burn 25s | |||
| 1355:23 | T+12:06 St 4 burnout | 103.97 871 x 1018 x 79.9 | |
| St 4 sep | |||
| Despin rockets fire | |||
| 1415 | Antenna extension complete | ||
| 1966 Mar 30 | Last transmission (GSFC) | ||
| 1966 Jul | End of ops | ||
Payload:
- Topside sounder (Fixed frequency ionosonde)
- 9m sounding antennas, 4
- 18m sounding antennas, 2
- Ion mass spectrometer
Wednesday, February 6, 1974
Asterix
1965-096A
The A-1 (Arm'ees 1) satellite, named after launch Ast'erix after Ast'erix le Gaulois, a well known comic book superhero, was the first French satellite and the first satellite to be launched by a nation other than the US and the USSR with the use of its own launch vehicle. The Diamant launch vehicle was developed by SEREB from the Saphir ballistic missile reentry test rocket. The Ast'erix programme was a joint venture between CNES and the DMA. A-1 was built by SEREB and Matra for DMA as a techonology satellite, and its only payload was a radio transmitter. Several A-1 class capsules were launched on Rubis test rockets prior to the orbital launch. The Diamant A rocket took off from pad Brigitte at France's Hammaguir range in Algeria on 1965 Nov 26 and placed the satellite in a 527 x 1808 km orbit (planned orbit was 550 x 2850 km, so velocity was 0.215 km/s too low). Ast'erix was intended to transmit for 2 days but its antennae were damaged during launch and no signals were received beyond basic carrier telemetry. Mass of Asterix was 42 kg. Third stage was 65 kg including a 16 kg equipment bay built by Dassault. It carried 641 kg of prop.
| Ast'erix | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 Nov 26 | 1447:21 | Launch by Diamant A | HMG |
| 1448:54 | T+93s Emeraude MECO | ||
| 1448:54 | T+1:35 Emeraude sep at 43 km | -6263 x 125 x 34 | |
| 1448:54 | Topaze burn 43s | ||
| 1449:25 | T+2:04 Topaze burnout | -5830 x 529 x 34.2 | |
| 1449:53 | T+2:32 Fairing sep | ||
| Coast | |||
| T+4:39 Spinup | |||
| 1452:15 | T+4:59 Topaze sep | ||
| T+6:32 Stage 1 impact | |||
| 1454:41 | T+7:20 Rubis burn 45s at 547 km | ||
| 1455:26 | T+8:05 Rubis burnout | ||
| 1457:43 | T+10:22 A-1 sep | ||
| 1455? | 108.6 527 x 1808 x 34.2 | ||
| T+14:04 Stage 2 impact | |||
| 1965 Nov 29 | End of transmissions | ||