Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Explorer 50

  1973-078A


The final IMP satellite was IMP J (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform J), which became Interplanetary Monitoring Platform 8 (Explorer 50) after launch. Launch was at 0226:02 on 1973 Oct 26, by Delta 1604 from Cape Kennedy. The Star 37E separated at 0238 and left the IMP in a 197 x 228809 km x 28.8 deg. The TE-M-521 (Star 17A) motor fired at the first apogee, at 0600 on Oct 29, but did not provide as much thrust as planned, and IMP 8 entered a 141185 x 288857 km x 28.7 deg orbit. It was still operating in 1998, with special measures taken to process its VHF telemetry after the STDN tracking network was closed down.


IMP 8 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1973 Oct 26  0226:03  Launch by Delta 1604  CK LC17B 
  T+0:38 SRM 1-6 off 
  T+1:15 SRM sep 
  T+4:29 MECO 
  T+4:33 Stage 1 sep 
 0230 T+4:37 SES-1 5:27 
  T+4:55 Fairing 
 0236:04 T+10:01 SECO-1 
 0237:20 T+11:17 St 2 sep  154 x 521? x 28.7 (78B orbit) 
 0237:33 T+11:30 TES 43s 
 0238:15 T+12:12 TECO 
 0239:57  T+13:55 Star 37 sep  197 x 228809 x 28.8 
 0258? SES-2 experimental 
  SECO-2 (78C orbit)  360 x 2326 x 28.9 
 1956  Pass EL1:4 
1973 Oct 29  0600  AKM burn  
1973 Oct 29  0800  141185 x 288857 x 28.67 
1975 Jul 25   
17287.48 215092 x 215092 x 19.7 
1978 Jul 20    17375.79 177677 x 254023 x 40.63 
1984 Apr 14    17550.98 190940 x 243718 x 43.3 
1998 May 21    17576.75 190893 x 244218 x 31.8 
1998 Oct 25   Still operating 

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...