Saturday, November 6, 1999

Rhyolite 1

  1970-046A


The first Program 720 satellite was launched on 1970 Jun 19 into geostationary transfer orbit by Atlas Agena D. An integral liquid bipropellant apogee motor, probably using a Rocketdyne thruster of around 440N thrust, was used for the first time ever to circularize the orbit and make the inclination equatorial, after which hydrazine thrusters adjusted it to become geostationary. The large antenna was deployed and the mission was a complete success.


Rhyolite 1
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1970 Jun 19  1137  Launch by Atlas Agena D  CC  
 1139 Atlas BECO 
 1139 Atlas booster sep 
 1142 Atlas SECO 
 1143 Atlas sep 
 1143 Agena burn 1 
 1144? Fairing 
 1146? Agena MECO-1  178 x 180 x 28.5 ?  
 1230? Agena MES-2 
 1231? Agena MECO-2  178 x 33685 x 28.2  
 1233? Agena sep 
 
LAM-1  
1970 Jun   GEO, tests over US 
1970 Aug ?   Data to Pine Gap  GEO 105E 
1971   Over India/Pakistan? 
1971   GEO over USSR 
1973   GEO over China/Vietnam 
1975   Still operational 

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