HCMM

 1978-041A

---

Applications Explorer Mission A (AEM-A) was the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM). HCMM's mission was to generate thermal maps, carry out thermal source location, and study plant canopy temperature, soil temperature cycle, thermal effluents, feasibility of remote sensing geothermal source locator, and snow field studies. It was launched on 1978 Apr 26 by a Scout D-1 from Vandenberg into a 96.7 min, 560 x 641 km x 97.6 deg. Operations with HCMM began on 1978 May 11. By June the internal propulsion system had raised the orbit to 607 x 630 km x 97.6 deg. A small burn was made on 1979 Mar 7. HCMM transmitted until 1980 Sep 15 and reentered on 1981 Dec 22.

HCMM
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1978 Apr 26	1020	Launch by Scout D-1	V SLC5
		T+1:23 St 1 burnout
		T+1:28 St 1 sep
		T+1:35 St 2 burn 39s
		T+2:06 St 2 burnout
		T+2:31 Fairing
		T+2:33 St 2 sep
		T+2:33 St 3 burn
		T+3:06 St 3 burnout 182 km 5.546 km/s
		T+9:49 Spinup
	1029	T+9:51 St 3 sep
	1029	T+9:55 St 4 burn 33s 621 km 4.805 km/s
	1030	T+10:29 St 4 burnout 621 km 7.547 km/s
	1035	T+14:51 St 4 sep
	1035	T+14:56? Despin
		Solar arrays deploy
1978 Apr 26			96.67 548 x 649 x 97.6
1978 Apr 27			96.80 561 x 649 x 97.6
1978 May 3		Operational orbit achieved	97.15 605 x 639 x 97.6
1978 Nov 22			97.16 614 x 630 x 97.6
1979 Mar 6			97.13 614 x 627 x 97.6
1979 Mar 7			97.16 618 x 627 x 97.6
1980 Feb 6			97.13 615 x 626 x 97.6
1980 Feb 20			97.12 615 x 625 x 97.7
1980 Feb 21			97.00 609 x 620 x 97.7
1980 Feb 24			95.57 539 x 551 x 97.7
1980 Mar 12			95.54 537 x 552 x 97.7
1980 Sep 14		end of ops
1980 Sep 21			95.51 538 x 548 x 97.7
1980 Oct 3			95.38 533 x 540 x 97.7
1980 Dec 14			95.08 521 x 523 x 97.7
1981 Jul 21			93.86 461 x 465 x 97.7
1981 Dec 14			90.25 279 x 293 x 97.7
1981 Dec 22		reentered