Saturday, October 3, 1992

Transit 2A

  1960-007A


The Transit IIA satellite carried the first subsatellite, NRL's GRAB 1 (GREB). It carried an experimental clock, and an Alouette program ionospheric beacon. Launch was southeast over South America, to reach high inclination. The despin weights were on a timer set to deploy after 7 day.s This reportedly did not work and 2A was despun using magnetic effects by late July. However, two objects were cataloged in orbit which may have been the despin weights.

The press kit claimed that the NOTS IR scanner was intended to measure the spin period of the satellite.


Transit IIA 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1960 Jun 22  0554  Launch by Thor Ablestar  CC LC17 
  T+2:44 Thor MECO 
  T+2:46 Thor sep 
  T+2:46 Ablestar burn 
  T+3:35 Fairing 
 0603 T+7:28 Ablestar SECO-1 
  20 min coast 
 0619  T+25:25 Circ burn, 10 sec 
  Plan 926 km 6.808 km/s  -986 x 925 
 0619 T+25:39 SECO-2 
 0620
926 x 950  
 0622T+28:55 Ablestar sep  628 x 1047 x 66.7 
 0628? GRAB 1 satellite sep 
1962 Oct 26   End of transmissions 

Payload:

  • Electronic clock for navigation use

  • Infrared sensor (NOTS)

  • Ionospheric beacon and cosmic radio noise experiment (DRTE/Canada)

  • Beacon B 162/216 MHz, Beacon C 54/324 MHz

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May 13,2026

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