SWAS

 1998-071A

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A NASA-GSFC SMEX mission, the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite was to be the first in that waveband. Originally scheduled for a 1995 launch, SWAS slipped to late 1998 because of Pegasus problems. Principal investigator was Gary Melnick of SAO, which operated the mission science center.

The 0.71m primary antenna was used to study molecular clouds.

600x600 km x 70 deg orbit. Launch by Pegasus XL from VAFB.

Spacecraft was a wasp-shaped double cone with two solar panels, plus the instrument module with the primary mirror, three radiator horns, and a magnetometer. Size 1.65 l 0.97 d, mass is 282 kg.

m1/m2 = 484/1254

The last science observations were taken on 2004 Jul 23; GSFC will use it as a software testbed until 2005 Sep.

SWAS
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1998 Dec 5	2358	L-1011 takeoff from VAFB
1998 Dec 6	0057:54	Drop 12.2 km
		T+0:05 Stage 1 burn
		T+1:05 Stage 1 burnout
		T+1:31 Stage 2 burn
		T+2:08 Fairing sep
	0100	T+2:42 Stage 2 burnout
		T+9:18 Stage 2 sep
		T+9:29 Stage 3 burn
		T+10:37 Stage 3 burnout
	0109:34	T+11:37 Stage 3 sep
		T+11:47 Deploy solar arrays	98.09 634 x 699 x 70.0
2003 Sep		End of main mission
		Begin Mars/Venus mission
2003 Dec		Mars campaign
		Idle
2004 Mar		2-week Venus campaign
2004 Jul		2-week Venus campaign
2004 Jul 23		End of science ops
2005 Jun		Reactivate for Deep Impact obs
2005 Aug		Deactivated

Payload:

• 0.6m Al mirror Cassegrain telescope