Sunday, January 25, 1998

Tiros 4

  1962-002A


Tiros IV (A-09, Tiros D), the fourth hatbox Tiros, was launched on 1962 Feb 8 at 1244, by Delta (317/2020/3020) and transmitted until 1962 Jul 19. The launch vehicle placed it in an orbit with a somewhat higher apogee than planned. In Dec 1993 Tiros IV was in a 693 x 812 km x 48.3 deg orbit.

Tiros IV pioneered ice reconnaissance with the NASA/WBu/USN/Canada project TIREC which compared airbone imagery with satellite data. The NASA/USAF Project Bright Cloud studied classification of cloud shape and brightness.

Archival TLEs for Tiros 4 are more consistent with an 1144 UTC launch time, but the primary source documents seem consistent; an error in the TLEs seems indicated.


Tiros 4 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1962 Feb 8  1243:45  Launch by Delta  CC LC17A 
  T+2:20 Altitude 80 km 
 1245:24 T+2:39 Thor 317 MECO  -5456 x 619 x 47.25  
 1245:29 T+2:44 Delta 2020 SES 1:48 
  T+3:04 Fairing 
 1248:17 T+4:32 Delta SECO  -3793 x 743 x 48.1  
  Coast for 7:15 
 1255:30 T+11:45 St 3 spin rockets 
 1255:32 T+11:47 St 2 sep  -3787 x 742 x 48.1 
 1255:45  T+12:00 Altair X248A5 SV-117 3020 burn 
 1256:27 T+12:42 Altair burnout 
 1306  Delta St 2 reentry, impact, 17W 48N? 
 1306:56 T+22:50 Altair sep   
 1310:45  Tiros despin 
   723 x 873 x 48.3 (DAC vels) 
   721 x 855 x 48.30 (DAC) 
   706 x 833 x 48.3 
1962 Jul 19   End of tx 

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