Friday, January 3, 2020

TRACE

 1998-020A


The Transitional Region and Coronal Explorer was the 4th SMEX mission, to study magnetic fields and heating in solar corona. It returns the highest resolution EUV images of the sun. Mass is 250 kg; the bus was a GSFC SMEX. TRACE carries a 0.3m aperture Ritchey-Chretien telescope, with coatings for both optical-UV and EUV (narrow 171A, 195A and 284A bands) imaging. One quadrant of the primary observes in the UV, the remainder in the EUV. The telescope has an 8.5min field of view, and is derived from the NIXT sounding rocket and the EIT telescope on SOHO.


TRACE 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1998 Apr 2  0144  L-1011 t/o from VAFB 
 0242:39  Pegasus drop 
 0242:44  Stage 1 burn  
 0243:59  Stage 2 burn 
 0245:06  Stage 2 MECO 
 0249:55  Stage 2 sep 
 0250:04  Stage 3 burn 
 0251:12  Stage 3 MECO 
 0252:12  Stage 3 sep 
1998 Apr 2  1430   97.10 598 x 641 x 97.8 
1998 Apr 20   First light 
2017 Jun 21   end of science ops 

Payload:

  • TRACE telescope

  • CCD camera

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