Thursday, April 19, 2001

Iridium MFS-1

 1997-048A


Two Iridium Mass and Frequency Simulators were launched on a CZ-2C from Taiyuan to demonstrate the capability of the CZ-2C launch vehicle and its new Smart Dispenser upper stage. The MFS were probably built by Motorola/Chandler, but are owned by China. The inert satellites, with a mass of around 650 kg, were designed to reproduce the mass distribution and oscillation frequency response of a real Iridium payload.

The apogee burn is about 125 m/s, while the reported capability of the SD is around 200 m/s with 125 kg propellant.


Iridium MFS 1 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1997 Sep 1 1400:15  Launch  
 1402:17  T+2:02 Stage 1 cutoff 
 1402:17  T+2:02 Stage 2 burn 
 1402:17  T+2:02 Stage 1 sep 48 km  -6180 x 81? 
 1404:05  T+3:50 Fairing sep 117 km  -5560 x 120 ?  
 1405:17  T+5:02 Stage 2 MECO  -3000 x 150 ? 
 1410:25  T+10:11 Stage 2 VECO 
 1410:29  T+10:14 Stage 2 sep  177 x 615 x 86.3 
 1448:23  T+48:08 SD burn 
 1448:59  T+48:44 SD burnout 
 1450:18  T+50:03 SD sep 623 x 633 x 86.3  
 1454:09  T+53:54 SD deorbit  215 x 638 x 86.2  
1997 Sep 3    97.26 623 x 631 x 86.3 
1997 Sep 10    97.26 623 x 631 x 86.3 
1998 Mar 9    97.26 620 x 634 x 86.3 
2000 Jun 24    97.06 614 x 621 x 86.4 

No comments:

Post a Comment

These Are Not My Beautiful Stories

  Summary: The chapters within are outlines for both future stories I’ve got planned (in the case that I never get around to writing them) a...