Thursday, September 16, 2010

HETE-2

 2000-061A


The HETE-2 gamma ray burst locator satellite was funded to replace the original HETE lost in a launch failure. It replaced the UV sensor with an extra soft X-ray imager, following the discovery by BeppoSAX of X-ray afterglows to gamma ray bursts. HETE-2 is built by MIT rather than AeroAstro, using left over HETE parts. The ground network is a series of small terminals across the world, which relay data back to MIT. MIT operates the satellite; management is GSFC.

HETE-2 was staged from KMR on Pegasus mission P-35. The Pegasus H (Hybrid) has standard stages 1 and 2, with XL's stage 3 and avionics. Takeoff from PKWA (Bucholz Army Airfield) RW 06/24, at 08 42.9N 167 43.6E. Drop point is 7.65N 167.7E; azimuth is 118.45 deg, altitude 11.9km.

Launch control was remotely from CCAFS Hangar AE.

Mass is 124 kg. Size is about 1.0h 0.5d 2.5 span. Resolution 10' to 10".

In Dec 2005 NASA stopped funding but MIT continued operating the satellite.


HETE 2 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

2000 Oct 9  0440  TO from PKWA 
 0538:18  Drop Pegasus P-35 
 0538:23 Ignition 
  T+1:21 St 1 burnout 
  T+1:30 St 1 sep 
  T+2:10 fairing sep
  T+2:49 St 2 burnout 
  527 s coast 
  T+8:58 St 2 sep 
 0547:32 T+9:09 St 3 burn 
 0548:39 T+10:16 St 3 burnout 
 0550:34  T+11:16 Stage 3 sep 
  Orbit  600 x 600 x 2 
2000 Oct 10    97.02 595 x 636 x 1.95 
2005 Dec   Control transfer to NASA 
2007 Mar 28   Still operational, sporadic ops 
2009?  end of operations 
2010 Aug 30    96.24 561 x 594 x 1.95 

Payload:

  • FREGATE French Gamma Telescope, Lilas-derived Omnidirectional gamma ray spectrometer, 2 sr resolution, 6-400 keV

  • WFXM Wide field X-ray monitor, coded mask 2-25 keV

  • SXC Soft XR imagers, 2; 33" resolution

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...