Star-crossed orbits : inside the U.S.-Russian space alliance

 https://welib.org/md5/d20ea1a0e4885dd1b2b7448a31b14baf

Explorer 42

  1970-107A

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The first small Explorer payload, SAS-A, carried two x-ray proportional counters provided by the American Science and Engineering team which later became the x-ray astronomy group of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It was launched at 1053 on 1970 Dec 12 by a Scout B from the San Marco Launch Complex in the Indian Ocean off Kenya. It reached a 95.30 min, 522 x 563 km x 3.04 deg orbit and began operations on Dec 18. SAS-A was given the designations Small Astronomy Satellite 1 (SAS 1) and Explorer 42, but it is famous by the name given to it in honor of the Kenya-based launch site - Uhuru, the Swahili for `freedom'. Uhuru was the first successful x-ray astronomy satellite and made a survey of the 2-10 keV x-ray sky which was turned into a series of catalogs, the final one being the Fourth Uhuru (4U) catalog. Uhuru operations ended on 1973 Mar 18 and the satellite reentered on 1979 Apr 5.

Uhuru
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1970 Dec 12	1053:50	Launch by Scout B S175C	SMLC
		T+1:16 St 1 burnout
		T+1:19 Stage 2 burn
		T+1:59 Stage 2 burnout
		T+2:13 Stage 3 burn
		T+2:49 Stage 3 burnout
		T+9:05 spinup
		T+9:07 Stage 3 sep
	1103:02	T+9:12 Stage 4 burn
	1103:37	T+9:47 Stage 4 burnout
	1108:17	T+14:27 Stage 4 sep
		Magnetic despin
1970 Dec 13			95.76 535 x 574 x 3.0
1971 Feb		Tape recorder failed
1971 May 25			95.63 530 x 568 x 3.0
1971 Aug		Transmitter strength weakened
1971 Sep		Degraded star sensors
1971 Dec		Transmitter recovered
1972 Mar		Battery failed, day ops only
1973 Mar 18		End of ops

Wolves in Chic Clothing

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Anik E2

 1991-026A

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Anik E-2, the first Anik E to be launched, left the South American launch pad in Apr 1991. 8 days later on Apr 12 the C-band antenna failed to deploy, but finally on Jul 3 the antenna was successfully released. In Sep 1991 E-2 replaced the Anik C-1 Ku-band satellite.

In Jan 1994 a magnetic storm caused the momentum wheel assembly to fail, and the spacecraft was feared lost. Services were transferred to other satellites. However, control was regained in Jun 1994 using a ground based computer to control attitude thruster firings. 

Anik E-2
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1991 Apr 4	2333:00	Launch by Ariane 44P V53	CSG ELA2
		T+1:09 PAL sep
		T+3:32 St 1 sep
		T+3:34 St 2 MES
		T+4:27 Fairing 01 sep
		T+5:43 St 2 sep
	2338:46	T+5:46 St 3 MES
	2350:47	T+17:47 St 3 MECO
	2352:42	T+19:43 St 3 sep	636.35 451 x 35805 x 4.0
1991 Apr 5	1540?	LAM-1	724.50 4907 x 45778 x 1.8
1991 Apr 6	1500?	LAM-2	918.11 14077 x 35748 x 0.7
1991 Apr 8	1330?	LAM-3	1090.64 21692 x 35747 x 0.2
1991 Apr 10	0150?	LAM-4	1195.52 26119 x 35751 x 0.3
1991 Apr 11	1800?	LAM-5	1434.56 35715 x 35797 x 0.0 GEO 109.3W+0.4E
1991 Apr 25			1432.26 35671 x 35751 x 0.1 GEO 98.1W+1.0E
1991 Jun 11			1435.30 35749 x 35792 x 0.3 GEO 81.5W+0.2E
1991 Jul 31		mv in	1436.05 35779 x 35791 x 0.1 GEO 108.6W
1991 Sep 1		Replaced Anik C-1
1991 Sep 28			1436.09 35777 x 35795 x 0.0 GEO 107.3W
1993 Jan 26			1436.10 35777 x 35795 x 0.0 GEO 107.4W
1994 Jan 21		Attitude control failure
1994 Mar 1			1436.11 35777 x 35796 x 0.1 GEO 107.4W
1994 Jun 21		Attitude control regained
1994 Aug		Restored to service
1994 Oct 19			1436.09 35780 x 35792 x 0.0 GEO 107.3W
1996 Sep 5			1436.08 35776 x 35796 x 0.0 GEO 107.3W
1999 Jun 10			1436.08 35777 x 35795 x 0.0 GEO 107.3W
2001 Feb 19			1436.16 35774 x 35801 x 0.1 GEO 107.3W
2001 Feb		Move to 111W
2001 Feb 27			1436.14 35783 x 35791 x 0.1 GEO 111.1W
2003 Jun 27			1436.09 35776 x 35796 x 0.1 GEO 111.1W
2003 Jul 7			GEO 111W
2003 Jul 23		Move to 119W	GEO 119W
2003 Sep 6			1436.12 35768 x 35805 x 0.2 GEO 118.7W
2005 Mar 29			1436.01 35766 x 35803 x 1.7 GEO 118.5W

Opera: A Research and Information Guide, 2nd Edition

https://welib.org/md5/7f81cc095070cb195c849cd83e8294e5