Saturday, November 30, 1996

SEDS-1

 1993-017B


The first SEDS mission, the Tether Dynamics Experiment, was launched at 0309 on 1993 Mar 30. The Delta 219 stage entered a 184 x 746 km x 33.96 deg orbit. After separation of the PAM-D upper stage with its Navstar payload, Delta 219 coasted to apogee, where at 0412 the SEDS tether began to deploy. After 75 min of unreeling, at 0527 the dynamics of the 19 km long tether were monitored for 14 minutes. At this point the effective orbit of the End Mass Payload (EMP) was 164 x 726 km. At 0541 the tether was severed at the deployer end, leaving the end mass and attached tether in a -50 x 726 km x 34.0 deg orbit. The end mass (1993-17B) reentered over Baja California at an altitude of 100 km beginning at 0616. The tether is believed to have remained attached down to about 110 km. Meanwhile, the Delta perigee was raised by several km. At 0612, Delta 219 made its depletion burn and ended up in a 305 x 1300 km x 36.2 deg orbit.


SEDS-1 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1993 Mar 30  0309:00?  Launch by Delta 7925  CC LC17 
 0310  SRM sep 
 0311  SRM sep 
  Stage 1 sep 
  SES-1 
  Fairing sep
 0319  Delta SECO-1  185 x 185 
 0329? T+20? Delta SES-2 
 0329? T+20? Delta SECO-2  184 x 746 x 33.96  
 0330? Delta/SEDS sep from GPS/PAM-D 
 0412:00  SEDS deploy 
 0420  Length 600m 
 0429  Length 1400m 
 0500  Perigee 
 0528  Active braking of tether deploy 
 0529  Tether deploy complete 
 0545:31  Tether release 
 0545:31  Tether free  -50 x 726 x 34.0 
 0558  41 km separation 
 0603  64 km separation 
 0612 Delta depletion  305 x 1300 x 36.2 
 0616  Reentry 
 0622:27  Alt. 85 km   
 0623:27  Alt. 70 km  
 0624:27  Alt 56 km 
 0624:40  Breakup  
 0625:21  Last flare near 18.8N 106.8W at 42 km

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