NOAA-8

 1983-022A

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NOAA E (NOAA 8), the first Advanced Tiros N satellite, included the US portion of the COSPAS-SARSAT search and rescue satellite project, with a 151 MHz transponder to pick up and locate emergency beacons. It was launched from Vandenberg on 1983 Mar 28. Its orbit was 101.3 min, 808 x 831 km x 98.8 deg. During apogee firing, attitude was lost and the roll thrusters were depleted. By Mar 31 it had failed to stabilize its attitude, but controllers managed to bring it under control the following month. More problems developed on 1984 Jun 13 and the satellite fell silent on 1984 Jul 16. It was successfully reactivated in May 1985, but lost stabilization from November to December 1985. Finally, in late Dec 1985, an onboard battery exploded (fragments 1983-22D, E and F were cataloged on Jan 5),and mission operations ended.

NOAA E was 1009 kg full, 3.71m by 1.88m with a 4.9 x 2.4m solar array. The ESM is 0.48m longer to accommodate the larger payload.

NOAA 8
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1983 Mar 28	1552:00	Launch by Atlas
		T+2:01 BECO
		T+2:04 BPJ Booster Package Jettison
		T+2:31 NFJ Nose Fairing Jettison
		T+5:30 SECO
		T+5:40 VECO
	1557:45	T+5:45 Atlas sep
	1605:36	T+13:36 Star 37 burn
	1606:20	T+14:20 Star 37 burnout
		T+14:25 RCS start
		T+14:39 RCS stop
		T+17min Hydrazine blowdown; roll N2 gas depleted
		T+30min arrays and booms deployed
1983 Mar 31		Attitude tumbling
1983 Apr 18		Attitude recovered
1984 Jun 13		Malfunction
1984 Jul 16		Transmissions suspended
1985 May		Reactivated
1985 Jul 1		NOAA declared operational
1985 Nov		Lost attitude
1985 Dec		Attitude recovered
1985 Dec 29		Battery exploded, end of ops

Payload:

• AVHRR Advanced Very High Res Radiometer with optical and IR bands: 0.55-0.9,0.725-1.3,10.5-11.5,3.53-3.93 mu

• SEM Space Environment Monitor (EEPAT,HEPAT,POD,TED)

• DCS Data Collection System

• TOVS Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder (temperature and humidity measurements by imaging in narrow bands: 3.7, 4.3 (CO2), 9.7, 11.1, 7x 15 (CO2), 3x 18 (rotnl bands) mu. Includes HIRS/2, SSU (Stratospheric sounding unit), and MSU.

• APT APT on 136.77 MHz

• SAR COSPAS-SARSAT receiver