Tuesday, February 10, 1976

Explorer 33

  1966-058A


Explorer 33 was launched on 1966 Jul 1 at 1602 by a Delta E1 from Launch Complex 17A at Cape Kennedy. The three-stage Delta was meant to put the probe on a lunar intercept trajectory, and a Star 13 solid motor would insert it into a 1300 x 6400 km, 175 deg lunar orbit. The Delta second stage produced excess thrust and lunar orbit could not be reached. It was reported that the planned transfer orbit was 293 x 548920 x 28.8. This could be achieved with a 2.863 km/s burn of the FW4 at around 1621 UTC. A 23m/s overspeed would put IMP in a 300 x 853670 km orbit instead. The Star 13 retromotor was fired at 2032, placing the probe in a lower energy orbit. The burn was carried out at about 60000 km altitude, and slowed the probe by about 1 km/s.


Explorer 33 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1966 Jul 1  1602:25  Launch by Delta E1  CK LC17A 
  T+0:43 SRM burnout 
 1603:35  T+1:10 SRM sep 
 1604:56 T+2:31 Thor MECO 
 1605:00  T+2:35 St 1 sep 
 1605:01 T+2:36 Delta S/N 20207 burn  6:19 
 1606:03  T+2:51 Fairing 
 1611:20 T+9:10 Delta SECO 
 1619:12  Spinup 
 1619:24  T+16:48 Delta sep  101.64 183 x 1489 x 28.8 
 1619:26 T+17:00 FW-4D burn 32s, at 425 km? 
 1619:57 T+17:32 FW-4D cutoff 
 1620:41  T+19:08? Despin yo-yo weights 
 1620:51  Paddles deploy
 1621:21 Stage 3 sep 
 1622 Stage 3 tumble yo weight 
 1622?  293 x 860741 x 28.9 

 

2232:57  Star 13 burn  15000? x 500000? x 28.8 
 2233:13  Star 13 burnout 
1966 Jul 2  0033:47  Star 13 sep 
 0800?  Pass EL1:4 
1966 Jul 7   434000 km apogee 1 
1966 Jul 8   35000 km lunar flyby  
1966 Jul 8    30532 x 494230 x 29.0 (SSR) 
1966 Jul 13   43000 km perigee 1  43000 x 475000 km x 7.4 
1966 Jul 15    40800 x 476233 x 7.5 (SSR)  
1966 Jul 21   475000 km apogee 2 
1966 Jul 22    40805 x 476289 x 7.5 
1966 Jul 29   40600 km perigee 2  40600 x 491000 km x 7.5  
1966 Jul 31    15900 x 435425 x 28.7 (SSR) 
1966 Aug 2   91500 km lunar flyby  
1966 Aug 2   491000 km apogee 3  60000 x 491000 km x 12.0  
1966 Aug 15   60000 km perigee 3  60000 x 514000 x 14.0  
1966 Aug 23   
1966 Aug 24   508000 km apogee 4 
1966 Sep 2   59000 km perigee 4  59000 x 508000 x 13.8  
1966 Sep 11   508000 km apogee 5 
1966 Sep 20   56400 km perigee 5 
1966 Sep 27   Lunar flyby 2, 60000 km 
  XYZ(SE) = -57, 40, 0 
1966 Sep 28   XYZ(SE) = -65, 38, -5 
1966 Sep 30   XYZ(SE) = -60, 28, -16 
1966 Sep 30   468000 km apogee 6 
1966 Oct 6   76600 km perigee 6  76600 x 478000 x 21.8  
1966 Oct 12    79526 x 477378 x 21.7 (TLE) 
1966 Nov 20   Lunar flyby 3, 59000 km  43000 x 452000 x 22.0 
1966 Dec 16   Lunar flyby 4, 51000 km  30500 x 458000 x 27.7  
1967 Jan 13   Lunar flyby 5, 58000 km  26000 x 458000 x 35.1  
1967 Feb 7   Lunar flyby 6, 56000 km  37800 x 446000 x 43.3  
1967 Mar 6   Lunar flyby 7, 58400 km  90600 x 432000 x 48.5  
1967 Apr 28    98439 x 431337 x 49.2 
1967 Apr 30   115000 km from Moon  
1967 May 27   Lunar flyby 8, 45900 km  98600 x 488000 x 41.8  
1967 Jun 7    36500 x 427500 x 30.9 (IFR)  
1967 Jun 10
 
1967 Jun 23   111800 km from Moon 
1967 Jul 13    20300 x 408200 x 28.9 (IFR)  
1967 Jul 31    98438 x 431334 x 49.2 (SSR) 
1967 Aug 16   Lunar flyby 9, 28800 km  
1967 Aug 25   Perigee  63200 x 430000 x 37.3 (IFR)  
1967 Sep 13   81800 km from Moon 
1967 Oct 20   
1967 Oct 27    98439 x 431339 x 49.2 (TLE) 
1967 Dec 15    115679 x 472832 x 40.4 (SSR) 
1968 Jan 22    80166 x 484230 x 40.6 
1968 Jan 26   80900 km from Moon 
1968 Jan 31    90292 x 478603 x 41.3 (SSR) 
1968 Feb 11    85228 x 481417 x 40.9 (SSR) 
1968 Feb 14    69500 x 480000 x 39.5 (IFR) 
1968 Feb 28    80165 x 484230 x 40.5 (SSR) 
1968 Apr 15    89110 x 481271 x 42.6 (SSR) 
1968 May 19    158600 x 558600 x 24.0 (predict) 
1968 May 31    89527 x 466159 x 44.6 (SSR) 
1968 Sep 15    78393 x 457886 x 58.8 (SSR) 
1968 Oct 10   
1968 Oct 31    92958 x 461113 x 59.1 (SSR) 
1968 Dec 12    162227 x 479414 x 60.6 
1968 Dec 31    168550 x 495137 x 60.5 (SSR) 
1969 Feb 15    162471 x 480118 x 60.6 (SSR) 
1969 Mar 31    267240 x 852531 x 56.7 (SSR) 
1969 Jul 31    267229 x 852493 x 56.7 (SSR) 
1969 Nov 25   
416751 x 421611 x 34.7 
1969 Dec 15    145372 x 668432 x 35.3 (SSR) 
1970 Jan 15    176127 x 662236 x 34.6 (SSR) 
1970 May 31    170656 x 656012 x 28.1 (SSR) 
1970 Jun 22    246128 x 638118 x 24.8 
1970 Nov 30    196568 x 510727 x 23.4 (SSR)  
1971 Feb 28    239142 x 469015 x 24.8 (SSR)  
1971 Apr 1    294241 x 502196 x 24.0 
1971 May 12    265678 x 480760 x 24.1 
1971 May 31   end of ops

These Are Not My Beautiful Stories

  Summary: The chapters within are outlines for both future stories I’ve got planned (in the case that I never get around to writing them) a...