Delta Star

 1989-026A

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The third of the SDIO Delta missions was Delta Star, again with an APL payload, this time separate from the McDonnell Douglas Delta second stage. McDonnell Douglas made the spacecraft bus. The hydrazine propulsion system was adapted from Block II GPS. The first target was its own second stage which made a deorbit burn. The reentry was reported to be at 2336 UTC over the Indian Ocean; this is not consistent with the orbit data, and must mean that the burn was at 2336 UTC over N America, but the entry was at around 0015 UTC over the Indian Ocean. The Black Star sounding rocket missions were also observed.

Delta Star
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1989 Mar 24	2150:49	Launch by Delta 3920	CC LC17
	2154:29	Thor MECO (T+3:40)
	2154:43	Delta burn (T+3:54)
	2201:02	Delta SECO (T+10:13)	182? x 524? x 36.4?
	2230?	Delta SES-2 4s
	2230?	Delta SECO-2	482 x 503 x 47.7
	2235?	Delta sep
	2237?	Delta deorbit burn 9s
	2310?	Delta depletion burn 4s
	2336	T+1:45:55 Delta reentry burn
1989 Mar 25	0015?	Delta reentry
1989 Mar 29			94.47 482 x 503 x 47.7
1989 Apr 2			94.57 485 x 512 x 47.7
1989 Apr 25			94.46 483 x 502 x 47.7
1989 Apr 26			94.51 488 x 502 x 47.7
1989 May 3			94.50 488 x 501 x 47.7
1989 May 4			94.54 491 x 502 x 47.7
1989 May 7			94.60 496 x 504 x 47.7
1989 May 9			94.63 497 x 505 x 47.7
1989 May 24			94.60 488 x 511 x 47.7
1989 May 25			94.79 497 x 519 x 47.7
1989 May 27			94.76 497 x 517 x 47.7
1989 Jun 2			94.43 471 x 511 x 47.7
1989 Jun 10			94.40 471 x 509 x 47.7
1989 Jun 16			94.53 477 x 515 x47.7
1989 Jun 21			94.52 476 x 514 x 47.7
1989 Jun 24			94.47 475 x 509 x 47.7
1989 Jul 8			94.44 474 x 508 x 47.7
1989 Jul 21			94.51 480 x 509 x 47.7
1989 Jul 30			94.49 479 x 507 x 47.7
1989 Aug 16			94.53 483 x 508 x 47.7
1989 Aug 25			94.40 481 x 497 x 47.7
1989 Aug 28			94.86 484 x 539 x 47.7
1989 Sep 1			94.85 483 x 538 x 47.7
1989 Oct 15			94.48 483 x 503 x 47.7
1989 Dec		orbit lowering burns
1989 Dec 27		end of ops
1992 Jun 23		Reentered

Payload:

• Hughes LWIR camera

• GE IR imager

• Materials experiment

• Laser/radar

• JPL 4-channel UV imager

• AFA video camera

• APL visible imagers (2)