Thursday, December 25, 1980
Wednesday, December 24, 1980
Gambit-3 3
1966-113A
KH-8 flight 4303 was launched on 1966 Dec 14 by Titan 3B Agena D from Vandenberg. The spacecraft entered a 138 x 368 km x 110 degree orbit, parameters which would remain typical of KH-8 missions for a decade. The orbit was lowered during the 8-day primary flight. The Agena was deorbited after 10 days.
| KH-8 3 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 Dec 14 | 1814 | Launch by Titan 3B Agena D | V SLC4W |
| 1819 | Agena MES | ||
| 1824 | Agena MECO | ||
| TCM1, lower peri from 153 km | |||
| TCM2, lower peri to 141 km | 89.6 138 x 368 x 109.6 | ||
| 1966 Dec 22 | 2302? | SRV recovered rev 131 | |
| 1966 Dec 24 | 1945? | Deboost rev 162 | |
| 1966 Dec 24 | Reentered after 9 days | ||
Tuesday, December 23, 1980
Kosmos 854
1976-090A
| Kosmos-854 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 Sep 3 | 0920 | Launch by Soyuz-U | Plesetsk |
| 0924 | Blok-I burn | ||
| 0928 | Blok-I sep | ||
| 1976 Sep 4 | 89.20 164 x 305 x 81.4 | ||
| 1976 Sep 9 | 88.84 162 x 272 x 81.4 | ||
| 1976 Sep 10 | 88.90 172 x 268 x 81.3 | ||
| 1976 Sep 12 | 88.86 171 x 264 x 81.3 | ||
| 1976 Sep 16 | |||
| 0523? | Deorbit | ||
| 0531? | PO sep | ||
| 0538? | Entry | ||
| 0554? | Landed | ||
Monday, December 22, 1980
Denpa
1972-064A
ISAS's Radio Exploration Satellite (REXS) was launched in 1972 and renamed Denpa (Radio wave). It studied the ionosphere and lower magnetosphere but failed after 3 days. Switch on of the EBA caused electrical discharges which toasted the spacecraft encoder. The radio beacon continued to operate until May 1973. REXS was a 70 kg, octagonal cylinder 0.68 h 0.71 dia with three 2m antennas.
M-4S-2 Mass of stage 4 plus payload is 525 f 145 em. Prop mas 380 kg. Payload mass 75 kg implying M-40 is 450f 70 em. Isp 276.0s?
| Denpa | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 Aug 19 | 0240 | Launch by Mu-4S-4 | KAG |
| T+0:07 SB burnout | |||
| T+0:09 SB sep | |||
| T+1:01 St 1 burnout | |||
| T+1:21 Upper fairing sep | |||
| T+1:22 Lower fairing sep | |||
| T+1:23? St 1 sep | |||
| 0241 | T+1:26? St 2 burn | ||
| T+2:32? St 2 burnout | |||
| T+2:42? St 2 sep | |||
| T+2:43? St 3 burn | |||
| T+3:25? St 3 burnout | |||
| 0243? | T+3:45? St 3 sep, 300 km | -4202 x 282 x 31.04 | |
| T+6:28? | Stage 4 burn | ||
| 0247 | T+7:08 Stage 4 cutoff | ||
| 0247 | T+7:08 Stage 4 sep (Marman clamp) at 8.897 km/s, 287 km | ||
| 156.9 245 x 6291 x 31.0 | ||
| 1972 Aug 22 | 0007 | EBA switch on | |
| 1980 May 19 | Reentered | ||
Payload:
- IPS Impedance Probe for Satellite, gyro-plasma probe.
- IPH High Freq gyro-plasma probe 0.2-15 MHz
- IPL Low Freq gyro-plasma probe 0.3-15 kHz
- IPS CAL Frequency cal circuits
- CIE Cyclotron Instability Experiment
- TEL Electron Temperature Probe
- MGS Fluxgate magnetometer
- EBA Electron Beam Analyser