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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1347.PDF
FLIGHT International, 2 August 1962 SPACECRAFT LOG 10 My 1962 TELSTAR 1 1962 Alpha Epsilon US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and American Telephone and Telegraph Company CAPE CANAVERAL Major objectives Orbit satellite provided by American Telephone and Telegraph Co to test broadband microwave communications in space; study radiation effects; test satellite tracking techniques. Major results Orbit achieved; satellite used successfully in several communications tests. Flight programme LAUNCH TIME 9.35 a.m. GMT. LAUNCH VEHICLE Delta. Stages: (1) Modified USAF Thor booster; (2) Aerojet-General Able liquid-propellant rocket with radio guidance; (3) spin-stabilized Allegany Ballistics Laboratory X-248 solid-propellant rocket. LIFT-OFF WEIGHT Approximately 112,0001b. DIMENSIONS 90ft high, 8ft base diameter. PROGRAMME Place satellite in elliptical Earth orbit. PROGRAMME RESULTS Orbit achieved. ORBITAL DATA perigee 593 miles inclination 44.79° apogee 3,503 miles period 157.8min velocity 18,382 m.p.h (perigee); 11,217 m.p.h. (apogee) Payload and instrumentation DIMENSIONS 34Jin diameter. WEIGHT 1701b. SHAPE Spherical. INSTRUMENTATION Communications equipment; mirrors for optical tracking; experiments to study Van Allen belt radiation and its effects on semiconductors. TRANSMITTERS Communications experiments on simplex at 2i watts on 4,170 Mc/s and duplex on 4,165 Mc/s and 4,175 Mc/'s at one watt each; telemetry on 136 Mc/s; beacons on 4,080 Mc/s and 136 Mc/s. POWER SUPPLY 3,600 solar cells, 19 nickel-cadmium batteries. Additional data Successful transmissions via Telstar include (1) television signals and duplex telephony from Andover, Maine, to Andover, Goonhilly Downs and Pleumeur-Bodou; and from Goonhilly Downs and Pleumeur-Bodou to Andover; and (2) telephony from Andover to Holmdel, New Jersey. Telstar system described in Flight International of July 19, 1962. Satellite designed and built by Bell Telephone Laboratories; NASA launch vehicle and services paid for by American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Functional life of satellite planned to be approximately two years. Information source: NASA.
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