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 Gonets D1-1,
D1-2, D1-3, 1996-009A, 1996-009B, 1996-009C - A multiple launch of an Tsyklon from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on the 18th February
1996 put
six spacecraft into a 1415km orbit inclined at 82.58 degrees, three of which are part of
the Gonets LEO data communications network. 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). The remaining three Cosmos satellites are similar, but will
provide military services of data transfer and photo reconnaissance.
- Cosmos 2328,
Cosmos 2329, Cosmos 2330, 1996-009D, 1996-009E, 1996-009F
- On the same launch as Gonets D1-1 to D1-3, Cosmos 2328 to2330 are Russian military
spacecraft for Russian Federation Ministry of Defense (MO RF) also using the STRELA-3 bus,
but offer military data messaging and photo reconnaissance.
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- REX-II (P94-2),
1996-014A, CATN-23814
- The 110kg Radiation EXperiment REX-II was launched on the third Pegasus-XL from VAFB on the 9th March 1996, and placed into
a 803 x 832km, 89.96 deg inclined orbit. The satellite is part of the Space Test Program
for the US air force, sponsored by the Air Force Rome Laboratory in order to carry out
ionospheric research , testing the effects of the atmosphere on radio transmissions, It
will employ a GSFC funded GPS receiver for on-board navigation
and attitude control, as well as three axis magnetorquers, and a (yaw?) momentum wheel.
The power system comprises 3 NiCd batteries and an orbit average power of 30W is
available. The uplink and downlink are in the UHF band, operating at 2400bps. The downlink
power is 18W, and the uplink power is 60W from the groundstation. The antenna system
comprises a boom carried set of crossed dipoles and a helix. A back-door receiver also
exists. The satellite was built by CTA/SS, and cost US$5m. The launch is reported to have
cost US$9m A picture shows the satellite employs an 8-sided
structure measuring 762 diameter and 559mm high, with four deployed panels, and carries a
gravity gradient boom, wheel and torque rods for nadir pointing. The mission was for one
year of operation, with a thee year goal. The main payload has failed, however the
satellite is still employed to provide store and forward communications. More...
[CTA's press release][REX II at SMC/TE][Rex II launch movie]
Pictures courtesy of CTA
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- MSTI-3,
1996-031A, 23686
- MSTI-3 is the third in a series of satellites ordered by the BMDO from Spectrum Astro.
It was launched on the 15th May 1996 by a standard Pegasus, into a 361x296km orbit
inclined at 97 degrees, and will manoever into a 425km circular orbit. The satellite
weighs 211kg (dry mass 175kg), and as its main mission is in collecting data on the
Earth's atmosphere and terrestrial environment. It will also demonstrate advanced
technology for critical sensors, components, on-board processing technologies and
architectures for future development of advanced space systems. The satellite was
developed by the Phillips Laboratory for the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems
Centre, in cooperation with the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).
The design life time was 1 year, and the spacecraft carried SWIR and MWIR
imagers with 40m resolution. The data handling system was based on a rad
hard 8086 processor, and a hard-disk based data recorder was flown (Erasable
Disk Mass Memory Unit EDMM). On the 17th
October 1997, the satellite was used in a test to determine vulnerability of US spacecraft
to damage by ground based laser, apparently by damaging the imaging sensor. The satellite
finally decayed on the 11th December 1997 having returned over 3 million
images. The spacecraft is reported to have carried a
hyperspectral imager which was never used. More...
[MSTI-3 at Spectrum Astro]
Pictures courtesy of Spectrum Astro
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- TOMS-EP,
1996-037A
- TOMS-EP, the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer - Earth Probe was launched on the 2nd
July 1996 on a Pegasus XL from VAFB. It is in a 500km 97.36 deg sun-synchronous orbit. It
is to map the Earth's Ozone layer, using a modified Ebert-Fastie polychromator with fixed
exit slits at six near-UV wavelengths. The 295kg (wet), 248kg (dry) satellite is based
upon the Eagle-class bus, which was developed by TRW as a result of the STEP program.. It
measures 1.1m diameter by 1.73m tall, and deploys two 3.9m solar panels delivering a total
of 275W. The design life time for the mission was 2 years. The spacecraft is three-axis
sabilised.The communications system employs 50 and 202kbps downlinks, and 2kbps uplink. It
also carries a 16Mb solid data store in order to store experiment data before downlinking
it to the two supporting groundstations, which will monitor and store full-orbit data and
downlink them over one or two ground stations.
The spacecraft is reported to have entered an attitude safe mode, but depleted its fuel to
compensate for the reaction wheels which unexpectedly remained on. Subsequently, the
mission was partly recovered by using conventional magnetic control using its
magnetorquers.
- More...
- [GSFC main TOMS EP page, Spacecraft description]
- FAST, 1996-049A
- The Fast Auroral Snapshot
Explorer (FAST) was launched on Aug 21 into an elliptical 351x4165km 83 degree
inclined orbit on a Pegasus XL rocket from VAFB. The spacecraft was ready to go to the
launch site in July 1994, but the Pegasus XL was grounded due to the failure of its first
launch. FAST is a NASA-GSFC Small Explorer (SMEX) mission. It carries antennae to measure
the electric field, magnetometers to study the magnetic field, and electrostatic analysers
and the TEAMS, time-of-flight/energy/angle mass spectrograph to study electrons and ions.
FAST will study particle acceleration processes with much higher time resolution than
previously attempted. The spacecraft weighs 187 kg. The mission cost is valued at US$60m
(1996), with a split between bus, payloads and launch of $27m, $18m and $13.2m.
- More:...
- [GSFC NASA]
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- HETE
- The 126kg High Energy Transient Experiment is a NASA program managed by MIT. It was
launched alongside SAC-B on the 4th November 1996 on a Pegasus-XL, but the launcher
deployment mechanism failed. The satellite was manufactured by AeroAstro Inc. and was
dedicated to observe bursts of gamma rays, X-rays and Ultra-violet. It was expected to
pinpoint 30 gamma ray bursts per year and employs 24 amateur station to transfer the data
over the internet. NASA investment in the mission is US$15m. The intended orbit was 550km
at 38degrees.
More at [LANL, MIT]
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- SAC-B
- The SAC-B
(Satellite de Aplicaciones Cientificas) was launched alongside HETE on the 4th November
1996 on a Pegasus-XL, but the launcher deployment mechanism failed. Penn State University
built the CUBIC instrument with NASA funding. It is an Argentine-USA minisat to study
energetic space plasma phenomena, solar flares, gamma ray bursts and the diffuse X-ray
background and energetic neutral atoms. The 181kg spacecraft is rectangular with four 90
degree deployed 210W GaAs panels, and had a minimum mission design lifetime of three years
in a 550km circular orbit inclined at 38 degrees. The mission is reported to cost
US$29.5m, and NASA's investment in the mission comprises two of the five on-board
instruments, the launch and operations support worth US$17m. A third instrument is
provided by the Italian Space Angency. Several follow-on missions (SAC-C and SAC-D) are
planned. The intended orbit for SAC-B was 550km at 38degrees. Various photographs of the
mission can be found here.
- [more
at NASA, Brochure]
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