Sunday, April 29, 2001

NATO 2A

  1970-021A


The Phase II NATO satellites were built by Philco-Ford/PaloAlto using the Skynet 1 bus. The spin stabilized satellite provided X-band communications for NATO. The first satellite was known as either NATO I or NATO IIA; the USAF referred to it as NATO-A before launch.

Inital tests were done from a ground station at Camp Parks, California, and then by SRDE/Christchurch in Dorset.

The launch vehicle was a DSV-3L Delta. Some records for the NATO 2 satellites suggest the Delta L variant with the UTC FW4D third stage was used, but this is contradicted by UTC's listing of FW4 launches, so I assume that the Delta M variant with the Star 37D stage was used for both NATO II flights.


NATO IIA 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1970 Mar 20  2352:00 Launch by Delta  CK LC17A 
  T+0:39 SRM 1-3 out 
  T+1:10 SRM 1-3 sep 
 2355:37 T+3:37 MECO 
  St 1 sep 
 2355:45 T+3:45 SES-1 6:14 
 2355:50 T+3:50 Fairing 
1970 Mar 21  0002 T+10:00 SECO-1 367 km 7.166 km/s  -1200? x 367 x 25.8 
 0014? St 2 sep 
 0015 T+23:08 TES 41s 339 km 7.199 km/s 
 0015 T+23:53 TECO 10.1653 km/s 
 0017 T+25:33 St 3 sep 
   277 x 37274 (PK)  
1970 Mar 21  0017   657.40 281 x 37051 x 25.8 
 0600?  Apo 1 86E 
 1700?  Apo 2 78W 
1970 Mar 22  0400? Apo 3 116E 
 1430? Apo 4 45W 
1970 Mar 23  0045? Apo 5 AKM Star 17A burn  1410.0 34234 x 36312 x 2.64 (TR1022) 
 0130?  Apo 5 150E 
1970 May 19   Turned over to SHAFE from SAMSO 
1970 Jun 10  
On station  GEO 18W 
1972 May   End of operational service 
1977 Jan 25    1436.1 35780 x 35794 x 3.0 GEO 100.3W 
1977? Decommissioned 
1980 Jan    GEO 95W 
1980 Mar    GEO 106W 
1981 Jan    GEO 110W 
1981 Mar    GEO 107W +0.004W/d 5.5 
1981 May 8    1435.97 35770 x 35797 x 5.6 GEO 104.7W+0.0 
1981 Dec    GEO 100W 
1982 Oct    GEO 107W 
1983 Jan    GEO 109W 
1983 Feb 20    1436.10 35766 x 35806 x 6.6 GEO 110.2W 
1987 Oct 7    1436.21 35782 x 35795 x 9.6 GEO 107.8W 
1992 Mar 20    1436.17 35764 x 35811 x 12.5 GEO 101.4W+0.02E 
1995 Nov 19    1436.03 35761 x 35809 x 14.0 GEO 110.0W+0.01W 
1998 May 19    1436.03 35759 x 35811 x 14.4 GEO 110.3W+0.01W 
1998 Aug 7    1435.97 35775 x 35792 x 14.5 GEO 108.4W+0.02W

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