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 SROSS C,
1992-028A - A 106 kg Indian minisatellite was launched by a ASLV booster from Sriharikota station at
on the 20th May 1992 into a 256x436km, 46.0 degree inclined orbit which was lower than
expected causing the satellite to re-enter on the 14th July 1992. The spacecraft employs a
stretched Rohini platform. It carried a Retarding Potential Analyser (RPA) for measuring
ionospheric plasma and a Gamma ray detector. The satellite was replaced in May 1992 by
SROSS-C2 which ended up in the wrong orbit. The satellite was designed for a 4 year
lifetime.
- SAMPEX, 1992-038A
- The 158kg Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, was successfully
launched by a Scout rocket from Vandenberg AFB into a 687x512, 81.7 degree orbit on July
3, 1992. It measured 1.37m x 0.85m before deployment of its two solar panels (picture). It is investigating the composition of local
interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric charged
particles into the Earth's atmosphere using four cosmic ray monitoring instruments. It is
the first in the NASA small explorer (SMEX) fleet.
The spacecraft carries an Intel 80386 processor with 26.5Mbytes of solid state RAM, as
part of the Small Explorer Data Recorder (SEDS). The spacecraft employs a dual redundant
MIL1773 fibre optic bus. EEPROMs are emplyed to boot the system from. More...
[Sampex page at NASA][NSSDC SAMPEX page]
[SAMPEX at GSFC]
Pictures courtesy of NASA.
- Cosmos
2197-2202, Gonets, 1992-042A-F
- A multiple launch of an Tsyklon from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on the 13th July 1992 put six
spacecraft into a 1415km orbit inclined at 82.58 degrees, which are part of the Gonets LEO data communications network demonstration. They will
monitor disasters like oil spills and illicit transport of radioactive cargo, and provide
prompt alerts. The spacecraft use the STRELA-3 bus, weigh 231kg each and are designed for
a five year lifetime by NPO Applied Mechanics (NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk,
Russia) for SMOLSAT (Russia).
- Freja, 1992
- The 235kg Freja satellite was launched on a Long-March 2C launcher on 6 October 1992
from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert in the People's Republic of
China, into a 601 x 1756km orbit with 63 degree inclination. A picture shows that the
spacecraft is disk shaped and 2.2m diameter, with several instruments on booms. Some
operational data can be obtained here.
It has been estimated that the mission cost was US$23m. More
[Freja at IRF][Freja at SSC]
Pictures courtesy of SSC.
- Cosmos
2211-2216, 1992-067A-F
- A multiple launch of an Tsyklon from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on the the 20th October 1992
put six spacecraft into a 1415km orbit inclined at 82.6 degrees, The spacecraft form part
of the military constellation for the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence
(MO RF). The
spacecraft use the STRELA-3 bus, weigh 231kg each and are designed for a five year
lifetime by NPO Applied Mechanics (NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, Russia) for
SMOLSAT (Russia). The spacecraft will provide military services of data transfer and photo
reconnaissance.
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- Lageos-2,
1992-070B.
- An Italian 400kg 600mm diameter passive aluminium reflector was launched on the
22nd October 1992, and is tracked to measure small perturbations in the Earth's gravitational
field. A picture shows is a dense sphere of with 426 laser
reflectors on its surface. Reflected laser beams enable accurate geodetic measurements It
was released from STS 52, to be positioned eventually into a circular orbit of 5800 km
altitude.
- MSTI-1, 1992.
- MSTI-1, the 142kg Miniature Sensor Technology Integration (MSTI) was launched on the
21st November 1992 on a SCOUT S210C launcher. The BMDO procured minisat was built by
Spectrum Astro, and provides an advanced technology test platform for risk reduction for
critical sensors, components and architectural tradeoffs for the detection and tracking of
ballistic missiles. It was delivered 10 months after contract and 9% under
budget. The avionics are based on VME bus, and autocode generated flight
control software was used. The spacecraft employed externally mounted
components. During its lifetime, it collected more than 110,000 MWIR background
images using its 4.4-4.8 microns 256x256 pixel Infrared camera.
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