1993-058B
ACTS, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, was a controversial program. NASA's first experimental comsat for almost twenty years was to test out new methods for relaying communications and data. Critics charged that the commercial satellite industry was developing these techniques anyway, and that the program was a waste of taxpayer money and a handout to prime contractor Martin Marietta Astro Space (formerly GE).
ACTS, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, was used for Ka band communications. It was operated by NASA's Lewis Research Center (LeRC). Deployed from Orbiter OV-103 Discovery using a Transfer Orbit Stage, it was inserted into geosynchronous orbit by a solid apogee motor burn at 1544 on 1993 Sep 15. Later the same day it began a westward drift in an 0.4 deg inclination orbit.
The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite was a GE (Martin Marietta) Astro Space Series 4000 communications satellite. ACTS was 9.0 m long, 4.3 m diameter, and had a 14 m span set of solar arrays. The 3-axis stabilized satellite had a mass of 2770 kg at launch and 1450 kg on orbit. It was carried into orbit on Shuttle mission STS-51.
ACTS/TOS was deployed from OV-103 Discovery on 1993 Sep 12 at 2113. The Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS), named USS Fred C. Alcorn after an investor in the rocket project, fired 45 minutes later to insert ACTS in geostationary transfer orbit. The apogee motor was fired at 1544 on Sep 15. The scheduled on-station position was 100 deg W.
| ACTS | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 Sep 12 | 1145:00 | Launch from LC39 | |
| 1147:05 | SRB sep | ||
| 1153:31 | MECO | ||
| 1153:49 | ET sep, peri 67 km | ||
| 1225 | OMS-2 | ||
| 1856 | ASE unlatch | ||
| 1902 | Clamshell open | ||
| 1908 | Tilt table raised | ||
| 2113:28 | ACTS/TOS deploy | ||
| 2158:35 | TOS burn (1:40) | ||
| 2200:15 | TOS burnout | ||
| 2210? | TOS sep | ||
| 718.71 320 x 40080 x 15.4 | |||
| 1993 Sep 15 | 1544 | AKM burn at apo 6 | |
| 1993 Sep 17 | 1454.55 35509 x 36784 x 0.3 GEO 77.9W+4.6W | ||
| 1993 Sep 24 | 1437.72 35708 x 35928 x 0.2 GEO 97.2W+0.4W | ||
| 1993 Nov 8 | 1436.10 35773 x 35800 x 0.1 GEO 99.9W | ||
| 1994 Jan 3 | 1436.12 35777 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 100.1W | ||
| 1995 Jan 29 | 1436.09 35782 x 35790 x 0.0 GEO 100.0W | ||
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