AMPTE

 1984-088A

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The Active Magnetosphere Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) project saw the launch of three satellites on a single launch vehicle to study magnetospheric interaction with the solar wind and particle transport processes. AMPTE-IRM, the Ion Release Module, was German; AMPTE-UKS, the UK Subsatellite, was British; the US contribution, AMPTE-CCE, or Charge Composition Explorer satellite, was provided by JPL and built by APL in collaboration with GSFC. Launch was on 1984 Aug 16 at 1448 by a Delta 3924 launch vehicle from Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral. The ELT Thor stage separated and the Delta stage ignited at T+3:56. At 1457 (T+9:49) Delta 175 entered parking orbit at 28 degrees inclination. At 1557 the Star 37E third stage ignited for 44s, separating at 1600 to place the AMPTE payload in a 558 x 49642 km x 28.7 deg orbit. At 1601 the CCE separated from the IRM/UKS stack, and at 2342 it fired its Star 13B solid motor to lower its inclination, ending in a 939.3 min, 1112 x 49690 km x 4.8 deg orbit. A yo-yo despin of the satellite was to be carried out after the spacecraft spin axis reached 76 deg to the sun. Its magnetometer boom was deployed at 0431 on 1984 Aug 17.

CCE
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1984 Aug 16	1448	Launch by Delta 3924	CC LC 17
		T+0:59 SRM 1-6 burnout
		T+1:03	SRM 7-9 burn
		T+1:04 SRM 1-6 sep
		T+2:03 SRM 7-9 burnout
		T+2:04 SRM 7-9 sep
		T+3:43 MECO
		T+3:49 VECO
	1451	T+3:51 Thor sep
	1451	T+3:56 Delta burn
	1454	T+4:23 Fairing sep
	1457	T+9:49 Delta SECO-1	157 x 667 x 28 (Pred)
	1555	T+1:07:28 Delta SES-2
	1556	T+1:08:46 Delta SECO-2	550 x 3943 x 28 (Pred)
	1559	T+1:09:33 Delta sep
	1600	T+1:10:16 Star 37E burn 44s
	1601	T+1:11:02 Star 37E burnout
	1602	T+1:12:14 Star 37E sep	558 x 49642 x 28.7
	1603	CCE sep from IRM/UKS
	1621	T+1:33:21 Delta SES-3 (depletion)
	1621	T+1:33:27 Delta SECO-3
	2342	Star 13B IAR fired 16s	939.3 1112 x 49690 x 4.8
1984 Aug 17	0002?	Yo-yo despin
1984 Aug 17	0431	Deploy mag boom
1989 Jan		end of tx

1984-088B

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AMPTE-IRM was the German component of the international Active Magnetosphere Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) project, together with the NASA AMPTE-CCE and British AMPTE-UKS satellites launched on the same vehicle.

The 605 kg, 2m x 7m satellite carried 16 lithium and barium canisters which were released to study the effect of adding the chemicals to the magnetosphere, making `artificial comets'. Each Li/CuO container is 15.5 kg, each Ba/CuO canister is 23 kg; they contain 5.9 and 13.5 kg of material respectively. They are launched in pairs at 1.7m/s and detonate 600s later. The PKM is 98 kg. Total launch mass is 705 kg (98 kg + 304 kg canisters + 303 kg IRM structure). It carried out solar wind ion releases in Sep 1984, an artifical comet release in Dec 1985, and magnetotail ion releases in Mar-May 1985.

If deployed perpendicular to the velocity vector the orbits of the canisters would be changed by 0.14 deg in inclination and unchanged in perigee/apogee; if deployed along the vector the perigee would change by of order 40 km.

IRM
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1984 Aug 16	1448	Launch by Delta 3924	CC LC17
		T+1:00 SRM 1-6 out
		T+1:03 SRM 7-9 on
		T+1:04 SRM 1-6 sep
		T+2:03 SRM 7-9 out
		T+2:04 SRM 7-9 sep
		T+3:43 MECO
		T+3:49 VECO
	1451	T+3:51 Thor sep
	1451	T+3:56 Delta burn
		T+4:23 Fairing
	1457	T+9:49 Delta SECO-1	158 x 667 x 28
		T+1:07:28 SES-2
		T+1:08:46 SECO-2	550 x 3943
		T+1:09:33 Stage 2 sep
	1558	T+1:10:16 Star 37E burn, 44s
	1559	T+1:11:02 Star 37E burnout
	1600	T+1:12:14 Star 37E sep	558 x 49642 x 28.7
	1601	CCE sep from IRM/UKS
	1621	T+1:33:21 SES-3
	1621	T+1:33:27 SECO-3 depletion
1984 Aug 17	0724:55?	IRM PKM fired	383 x 114570 x 29
	0725:03	PKM burnout
	1040:06	Yo-yo despin
	1409:56	Boom deploy
1984 Aug 19	0745:04	UKS sep; mass now 661 kg
	1241:42	Begin PWA extension
	1444:29	Complete PWA extension
1984 Sep 11		Mass 650 kg (11 kg missing)
1984 Sep 11	0715	2 x Li release; mass now 619 kg
1984 Sep 19		Mass 588 kg; 31 kg missing
1984 Sep 20		2 x Li release?; Mass 557 kg
1984 Oct 18		Mass 554 kg; 3 kg missing
1984 Dec 27		Mass 553 kg; 1 kg missing
1984 Dec 27	1222:00	Two Ba canisters ejected
	1232:01	Canisters ignited at 17.2Re, 0.9km from IRM
1984 Dec 27		Mass 507 kg
1985 Mar 21	0910:38	Ba release
	0920:38	Canisters ignited
1985 Apr 11		Li release
1985 Apr 23		Li release
1985 May 13		Ba release
1985 Jul 18	0400	Two Ba canisters ejected, ignited
1986 Jun 22		Magnetometer off
1986 Aug 1		Plasma experiment off
1986 Aug 14		end of ops
1987 Dec 8		Reentered

1984-088C

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The AMPTE-UKS United Kingdom Subsatellite was part of the international Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers project. It was launched together with NASA's AMPTE-CCE and Germany's AMPTE-IRM on 1984 Aug 16. 

AMPTE-UKS
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1984 Aug 16		Launch by Delta 3924	CC LC17
	1451	T+3:56 Thor sep
	1451	T+3:56 Delta burn
	1457	T+9:49 Delta SECO	x 28
	1557	Star 37E burn, 44s
	1558	Star 37E burnout
	1600:08	Star 37E sep	558 x 49642 x 28.7
	1601	CCE sep from IRM/UKS
1984 Aug 17	0724:55?	IRM PKM fired	383 x 114570 x 29
	0725:03	PKM burnout
1984 Aug 19	0337?	perigee
	0745	UKS sep, 0.37m/s
	0805	Mag Booms deploy
	0930	UKS spin axis change part 1
1984 Aug 20	1750	UKS spin axis change part 2
	1400?	E field boom deploy
			1028 x 113388 x 27.4
1984 Aug 26	1306:50	dV = 0.018m/s
1984 Nov 7	1006:50	dV = 0.002m/s
1984 Nov 10	0341:46	dV = 0.045m/s
1984 Nov 23	0140:42	dV = 0.011m/s
1984 Dec 9	1608:43	dV = -0.029m/s
1984 Dec 18	2131:35	dV = -0.064m/s
1984 Dec 24	1020:10	dV = 0.041m/s
1985 Jan 16		end of ops
1989 Dec 8		Reentered