2007-014A
Near Field IR Experiment, General Dynamics (former Spectrum Astro) built payload for MDA. Missile/plume discrimination experiment.
Launch by Minotaur from WI LA0B in 2006.
Will observe one missile at 20 km flyby, and one at 3.7 km flyby.
494 kg
495 x 495 x 49
Hi Pete, Here's what I know.
- The use of LF06 is new info from you, as is the nomenclature Mission 2A/2B. - According to unclassified SpaceTrack data, NFIRE has NEVER been in a 450 nm orbit, it has been at 264 nm (490 km) since shortly after launch. Perhaps you meant 'lowered from 264 nm to 250 nm' ? ) There was no manuever up to Aug 2, but maybe the orbit has been adjusted between Aug 2 and Aug 5. - The management stuff and the planned use of Minotaur II targets is widely available on the Web. The material on the web mentions the 4 and 20 km values but mostly misinterprets it as being a plan to specifically have mission 2A do 20 km and mission 2B do 4 km. - I don't have any quantitative info on the wavelengths of the NFIRE sensors; I assume that "long wavelength IR" is around 10 microns or so (as opposed to the 100 microns it would mean for astronomers!)
The NFIRE (Near Field IR Experiment) satellite was launched on Apr 24 by a Minotaur I from Launch Area 0B at Wallops Island. The Missile Defense Agency satellite was built by General Dynamics' Gilbert, Arizona (former Spectrum Astro) unit based on its SA-200 bus and is managed by the USAF Missile Defense Space Systems Office (SMC/SS) at Los Angeles Air Force Base, which is also responsible for the STSS space tracking satellite program. NFIRE was launched into a 255 x 465 km x 48.2 deg orbit; from May 3 to May 18 the orbit was raised to 489 x 497 km and it remained in that orbit on Aug 2. NFIRE carries a German laser communications terminal, Tesat, as a secondary payload, but its main instrument is TSP, the Track Sensor Payload, which includes visible and short, medium and long wave infrared sensors to track missiles and their rocket plumes, and is designed to distinguish between the missile and its plume. The satellite is 494 kg full 380 kg dry, 2.7m long and 1.3m diameter.
In a major test of the satellite, a Minotaur II rocket, TLV-7, was launched at 0830 UTC on Aug 23 from Vandenberg's LF06 silo as NFIRE Mission 2a. The Minotaur II is a three-stage Minuteman 2 missile refurbished by Orbital Sciences with a new guidance and payload section, and has been used for a number of suborbital missile defense tests. (The Minotaur 1 is an orbital launch vehicle which uses the first two stages of a Minuteman 2, topped with two stages taken from the Pegasus space launch vehicle). On each of the two planned Mission 2 flights, the rocket will be aimed to pass within 4 and 20 km of the NFIRE satellite while its third stage motor is burning, allowing NFIRE to get a close look at the rocket and its exhaust. The Missile Defense Agency reported that the Mission 2a flyby was successful.
NFIRE Mission 2A and 2B will use Minotaur II TLV, also called Chimera.
| NFIRE | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 Apr 24 | 0648 | Launch by Minotaur | WI LA0B |
| T+1:01 St 1 sep | |||
| T+1:18 Skirt sep | |||
| T+2:13 St 2 sep | |||
| T+2:15 St 3 burn | |||
| T+2:23 61-inch Fairing sep | |||
| T+3:29 St 3 burnout | |||
| T+7:41 St 3 sep | |||
| 0655 | T+7:52 St 4 burn | ||
| 0657 | T+9:00 St 4 burnout | ||
| 0659? | T+11:00? St 4 sep | ||
| 2007 Apr 24 | 91.67 252 x 459 x 48.22 | ||
| 2007 Apr 26 | Orbit trim | 92.76 255 x 465 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 5 | Orbit raise | 91.91 273 x 462 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 8 | Orbit raise | 92.79 359 x 462 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 11 | Orbit raise | 93.63 441 x 462 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 16 | Apogee raise | 94.13 462 x 490 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 18 | Orbit raise | 94.48 489 x 497 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 May 24 | Control to MDA | ||
| 2007 Aug 2 | 94.47 489 x 496 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 8 | 93.46 397 x 490 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 8 | 91.86 243 x 487 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 14 | 91.31 245 x 432 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 19 | 91.38 236 x 438 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 21 | 91.44 230 x 459 x 48.2 | ||
| 2007 Aug 22 | Orbit lower | 211 x 460 x 48.2 | |
| 2007 Aug 23 | Intercept flyby by Minotaur | ||
| 91.24 219 x 450 x 48.2 | |||
| 2008 Nov | Lasercom tests begin | ||
| 2015 Apr | Lasercom experiments end | ||
| 2015 Aug 1 | 93.09 417 x 434 x 48.2 | ||
| 2015 Aug 2? | Orbit lower | ||
| 2015 Aug 3 | Decommissioned | 90.99 316 x 329 x 48.2 | |
| 2015 Oct 24 | 89.98 267 x 278 x 48.4 | ||
Payload:
- TSP Track Sensor Payload, Plume discrimination sensors
- Tesat German laser comms terminal (LCT)
No comments:
Post a Comment