Explorer 2

  1958-F02

---

The second Explorer was launched on 1958 Mar 5 by Juno I. Stage 4 failed to ignite and Explorer II did not achieve orbit. The main innovation on Explorer II was a tape recorder to store cosmic ray data for regions not covered by ground stations.

Intended orbit was 351 x 1459 x 34.1.

Explorer 2 to 5 were formally under ARPA.

Explorer II
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1958 Mar 5	1827:57	Launch by Juno I	CC LC26A
		T+2:29 Redstone cutoff (LOX depl.)
		T+2:33 Redstone sep
	1834:29	Stage 2 burn T+6:30, 376 km	-5911 x 380
		Stage 2 cutoff
	1834:45	Stage 3 burn T+6:46
	1834:53	Stage 3 cutoff
	1834:58	Stage 4 failed to ignite	-3599 x 379 x 34.1
	1841?	Stage 4/payload impact, range 3260 km

March 9,1990

 https://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.32.txt

Club Management: September-October 1991

 https://welib.org/md5/b1eec4a9b701649956668b83d6a4ce85

Kosmos 44

  1964-053A

---

The first 11F614 Meteor satellite was launched on 1964 Aug 28. It carried an imaging radiometer to study cloud cover. Launch was by a Vostok rocket from Baikonur into a 65 degree orbit. The Blok-E stage appears to have overburned since the 857 km apogee is much higher than for later Meteor launches.

Kosmos-44
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1964 Aug 28	1600?	Launch by Vostok 8A92	KB
	1604?	Blok A sep
	1610?	Blok E MECO
			99.48 615 x 857 x 65.0
1990 Dec 20			583 x 822 x 65.1
1990 Dec 20		R/B orbit	652 x 778 x 65.1
1990 Dec 20		53C cat	652 x 777 x 65.1

Kosmos 1593

 1984-095A

---

Uragan No. 18L (216) was launched in Sep 1984.

Kosmos-1593
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1984 Sep 4	1549:53	Launch by Proton	KB
		T+2:07? Stage 1 sep
		T+3:18? Fairing
		T+5:38? Stage 2 sep
	1509	T+9:40? Stage 3 MECO	183 x 191 x 51.6
	1509	T+9:53? Stage 3 sep
	1706?	T+1:17? DM MES-1	377 x 19153 x 52.0
	1959?	DM MES-2
	2001?	DM MECO-2
	2002?	T+4:12? DM sep
1984 Sep 22		In service
1985 Nov 28		end of ops

Gambit 4

  1963-051A

---

The fourth KH-7, SV 954, was launched on 1963 Dec 18 by Atlas Agena D from Point Arguello. The Agena 4802 upper stage was not separately tracked, but for the first time it separated immediately after launch. The first use of a 4800 series Agena may indicate an operational variant. The orbit perigee was 30 km lower than targeted. The spacecraft remained in orbit for 31 hours. The lifeboat system was used to recover the SRV on rev 18, but all its gas had been used up killing the tumbling and an inaccurate deorbit burn sent the SRV 1200 km downrange of the target - remarkably the recovery team still managed to air-catch the package! 

Program 206 SV 954
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1963 Dec 18	2145:30	Launch by Atlas Agena D	NMFPA
	2147:48	BECO T+2:18
	2150:02	SECO T+4:32
	2150:16	VECO T+4:46
	2150:20	Atlas sep T+4:50
	2151:37	Agena burn T+6:07
	2155:38	Agena MECO T+10:08	88.33 138 x 280 x 97.88 (VCR)
1963 Dec 18	2200?	OCV sep from Agena D
1963 Dec 18		Agena D reentered?
1963 Dec 19		Last image (rev 16?)
1963 Dec 19	0230		88.48 122 x 266 x 97.89 (RAE)
	0309		88.47 126 x 271 x 97.90 (TLE)
1963 Dec 20	0015?	SRV sep?
1963 Dec 20	0050?	RV recovered on rev 18
1963 Dec 20	0405?	Reentered after 1.28d

Gemini 6A

 1965-104A

---

The planned GTA-6 (Gemini Titan Agena 6) mission was cancelled when the Agena docking target failed to reach orbit. In the replacement mission, Gemini Titan 6A, Spacecraft 6 would use Spacecraft 7 as a rendezvous target,without a docking. As Gemini 7 passed overhead, GT-6A sat on the pad ready for launch on Dec 12, 1965. But the Titan engines shut down 1.2s after ignition, before liftoff, and the launch was aborted. Crew commander Schirra decided not to eject, saving the mission for a second attempt 3 days later.

The Dec 15 launch went off smoothly at 1337. Six hours later, Schirra and Stafford had achieved the first ever rendezvous in space, stationkeeping a mere 37 metres from Gemini VII as both flew around the Earth. Finally, Schirra brought his spacecraft nose to nose with Borman's at a distance of only 0.3 metres. At 0051 on Dec 16, a brief engine firing saw the end of the rendezvous, and the Gemini VI-A crew left Borman and Lovell to continue their marathon flight. Schirra and Stafford splashed down later that day in the Atlantic at 23 25 N 67 50 W, and were recovered by the USS Wasp. Retrofire was 94 m/s aft, 35m/s down. 

GT-6A
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1965 Dec 12	1454:06	Launch abort on pad
	1533	Crew extracted from GT6
1965 Dec 15	1337:26	Launch
	1340:03	BECO 62 km	-5912 x 114 x 29.6
	1340:03	T+2:36 Stage 1 sep
	1343:02	T+5:36 SECO
	1343:02	Orbit insertion
	1343:20	T+5:56 Titan stage 2 sep	161 x 250
	1343:20	IVAR burn	161 x 262 x 29
	1343:34	T+6:08 IVAR off
	1343:35	T+6:09 Fairings sep
	1511:28	NH TCM height adjust, correct apo 24s 4m/s	161 x 272 x 29
	1555:25	NCL TCM phase adjust 18m/s 77s	224 x 272 x 29
	1619:33	10m/s 40s TCM plane change (node)	223 x 272 x 28.9
	1640:45	0.2m/s 1s TCM height adjust (apo 2)	223 x 271 x 28.9
	1725:03	TCM NSR coelliptic 13m/s 53s (apo 3)	270 x 274 x 28.9
	1849	Tally ho GT7
	1853	TPI (terminal phase) 10m/s 41s
	1909	Terminal phase burn
	1921	Terminal phase burn
	1924	At 3 km
	1927	At 750m
	1929	At 250m
	1931	At 35m, begin stationkeep
	1933:26	Rendezvous with GT7
	1934	At 35m
	1943	At 6m
	1948	At 3 m
	2031	At 6m, night s'keep
	0040?	At 20m, prepare to sep
1965 Dec 16	0051:55	Sep burn 15s 3m/s
	0303:18	3m/s 11s posigrade mvr	90.54 283 x 312 x 28.89
	1452:54?	Adapter module sep	270 x 274? x 28.9
	1453:24	Retrofire 6N 180W
	1453	Retrofire complete	-14 x 295 x 28.89
	1454?	Retro jet
	1454?	Docking bar jet
	1513:34	Entry 400k
	1528:47	Splashdown
	1546	Recovered by USS Wasp

Gemini 7

  1965-100A

---

Spacecraft 7 was assigned to the second long duration mission; it would simulate a full lunar expedition, a fortnight long. The failure of Agena 5002 saw it also pressed into service as the rendezvous target for Spacecraft 6; it was therefore launched first, out of sequence.

After orbit insertion, Borman practised stationkeeping with the second stage. This was the first ever successful `prox ops' (proximity operations). The IVAR burn moved Gemini ahead of the second stage along its +Vbar (velocity vector). Borman yawed Gemini to face the venting upper stage; the astronauts observed a variety of small debris between them and the rocket, later identified as frozen rocket propellant vented from the stage. At a separation distance of about 60 m Borman fired thrusters again to reapproach, and began stationkeeping at 15 m. A small out of plane maneuver was made to keep the Sun out of the crew's eyes. After 15 minutes of stationkeeping the spacecraft made a 9 m/s separation maneuver. On the two succeeding revolutions of the Earth, Gemini 7 and the Titan stage reapproached each other due to their almost identical orbits. It had been planned that Gemini would stay ahead of the Titan stage, but it appears that instead it slipped behind a little more each orbit, possibly due to an incorrect orientation of the spacecraft at the time of the separation burn. After two and a half orbits, Jim Lovell carried out a 76s rocket burn to raise the orbit for the long two week haul; the burn carried them through the booster debris cloud.

On Dec 11 the crew tested an optical communications experiment. Retrofire was 90m/s aft 34m/s down. Gemini VII splashed down in the Atlantic on Dec 18 at 25 25 01 N, 70 06 07 W.

 

GT-7
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1965 Dec 4	1930:04	Launch
	1932:39	T+2:35 BECO	-5908 x 121 x 29.0
	1932:40	Staging
	1935:41	T+5:37 SECO Orbit insertion
	1936:12	IVAR burn, 2s	161 x 327 x 28.9
	1936:13	T+6:09 Stage 2 sep
	1936:13?	Fairing jettison
	1936:14	OAMS off
	1938	MSC-3 magnetometer boom deploy
	1941	Stationkeeping with stage 2 at 30m
	1946	At 15m from stage 2
	1951:13	Sep burn 20s (D-4/D-7 burn)
	1952	Begin D-4/D-7 experiment
	1952?	Experiment cover jettison?
	2114	First flypast of stage 2
	2232	Second flypast of stage 2
	2318:04	T+3:47 OAMS raise peri, 75s 18m/s	222 x 327 x 28.9
1965 Dec 7	1304	Stage 2 impact IOR
1965 Dec 7			222 x 317 x 28.9
1965 Dec 7	1713:23	Orbit adjust 16s 4m/s	236 x 317 x 28.9
1965 Dec 9	1841:59	OAMS circ at peri, 78s 19m/s	299 x 317 x 28.9
	1925:05	OAMS circ at apo 12s 5m/s	299 x 303 x 28.9
1965 Dec 14	1748?	D-4 Observe MM reentry at KMR	296 x 302 x 28.9
1965 Dec 15	1100		295 x 302 x 28.9
1965 Dec 15	1933	Rendezvous by GT-6A
1965 Dec 16	0050	end of rendezvous
1965 Dec 17		RCS thruster problem
1965 Dec 18	1327?	Adapter sep	293 x 304 x 28.9
	1328:07	Retrofire	0 x 295 x 28.9
	1328:50?	Retro jettison
	1340:00	Entry 114 km	-8 x 297 x 28.90
	1405:04	Splashdown
	1437	Recovery by USS Wasp

GATV-2

  1965-F11

---

TDA 2 was the first Gemini target to be launched, aboard Agena 5002 in Oct 1965. The Agena had a Bell 8247 main engine with a Bell 8250 secondary propulsion system (SPS). The mission failed when the Agena exploded upon ignition. It is also referred to as GATV (Gemini Agena Target Vehicle) 5002. It was intended for use as the GTA 6 target, and that mission was cancelled after the launch failure; the GT 6A mission was flown instead in Dec 1965, rendezvousing with GT 7.

TDA 2 mission events
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1965 Oct 25	1500:04	Launch by LC14
	1502:14	T+2:10 BECO 59 km
	1502:07	T+2:13 Booster sep	-5954 x 130 x 28.70
	1504:45	T+4:41 SECO
	1505:07	T+5:03 VECO	-4405 x 292 x 28.90
	1505:07	T+5:03 Horizon sensor cover ejected
	1505:10	T+5:06 Atlas sep, 190 km
	1505:53	T+5:49 Agena SPS burn
	1506:13	T+6:09 SPS cutoff
	1506:13	Agena PPS TIG, 246 km, explosion	-4408 x 294 x 29.02
	1506:13	PPS shutdown
	1506:19	Loss of telemetry
	1507	Apogee 294 km
	1512?	Reentry at around 28N 50W

Luna 19

  1971-082A

---

The E-8 No. 202 spacecraft was modified for a lunar orbital mission. The Lunokhod, with its wheels removed, was firmly attached to the orbiter section and used as the science instrument compartment. The modified probe was designated E-8LS No. 202 and named Luna-19 after launch in Sep 1971.

Luna-19
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1971 Sep 28	1000:22	Launch by Proton-K	KB
	1010:10	T+9:48 Stage 3 sep
	1014	Blok D MES-1
	1016	Blok D MECO-1, Earth orbit
	1035?	Desc node
	1115?	MES-2
	1118	Asc node
	1122	MECO-2
1971 Sep 29	1900:26	TCM
1971 Oct 1	1900:27	TCM
1971 Oct 2	2122:55	Lunar orbit insertion
	2126:35	LOI CO	121.75 140 x 140 x 40.58
1971 Oct 6		0100? TCM	120.9 126 x 137 x 40.6
1971 Nov 26		TCM
1971 Nov 28		TCM	130.7 72 x 390 x 40.68
1972 Feb 4			130.7 83 x 379 x 40.6
1972 Apr 3			130.7 134 x 329 x 40.2
1972 Aug 1			130.7 161 x 303 x 40.9
1972 Sep 30		Out of fuel?
1972 Oct 20		End of transmissions

Payload:

• TV cameras

• Gamma ray spectrometer

• Radio altimeter, 3.2cm pulse mod. antenna with 12 km swath.

• Magnetometer

A Whisper and a Wish

 https://welib.org/md5/e0f24fac3e4238c9aba3aaf32930fbf3

Seventeen: November 1991

 https://welib.org/md5/48115fcf8c35d49d74995312ca9dba27

Aurora 7

  1962-019A

---

Mercury spacecraft 18 was assigned to the Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7) mission. The pilot was Lt. Cdr. Scott Carpenter, USN.

A 76 cm balloon was released on a 30-m long line from the nose, to measure air drag and reflectivity, but it failed to inflate and jettison. The balloon mass was 0.2 kg and tether was 3 kg; associated equipment had a mass of 2 kg. Two balsa block liners 0.08 x 0.16m in size (one orange/black, one yellow/black) and `numerous' small 6mm colored aluminized mylar disks were also ejected.

Carpenter carried out a ground flare visibility experiment, a horizon definition test, and photography of the airglow layer.

The Mercury landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 19 29 N, 64 05 W.

MA-7
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1962 May 24	1245:16	Range zero time
	1245:16	Launch by Atlas 107D
	1247:24	Booster sep
	1247:49	LES sep
	1250:26	SECO
	1250.30	Atlas 107D sep	161 x 264 x 32.5 (TEC)
	1250:34	Posigrade burn 6.4m/s	160 x 288 x 32.5 (TEC)
			154 x 260 x 32.5 (RAE)
	1423:16	Balloon release
	1559	Balloon jettison failed
	1718:26	Retrofire 130W 32N 160 km
	1719:27	Retropack jettison
	1730:00	Entry
	1736	Drogue parachute deployed
	1737:04	Main parachute deployed
	1741:21	Landed in Atlantic
	2352	Recovered by USS Intrepid