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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 2239.PDF
1038 FLIGHT International, 26 December 1% The F.I Blue Streak, scheduled for its first flight next April from Woomera, was due to leave the United Kingdom for Australia by sea on December 23. The stage is here seen prior to leaving Spadeadam Rocket Establishment in Cumberland Missiles and Spaceflight AIR-DENSITY EXPLORER LAUNCH DUE The launch of an inflatable 12ft-diameter sphere into an elliptical orbit designed to furnish information on upper-atmosphere air densities was scheduled by NASA to take place from Point Arguello, California, "no earlier than December 19." Launched by a Scout four-stage solid-propellant rocket, the satellite if successful would be designated Explorer 19. The mission of the air-density Explorer is similar to that of Explorer 9, launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, on February 16, 1961. The scheduled orbit is inclined at 78.5° to the equator, with a perigee of about 375 miles, an apogee of about 1,875 miles and a period of 122min. Major objectives of the flight are quoted as: (1) t© extend upper- atmosphere air-density studies to the polar region, and to determine density and temperature of the atmosphere at various latitudes; (2) to measure flight performance of the new X-258 fourth stage of the Scout launch vehicle. In addition, the flight will serve to test recent modifications to the third-stage hydrogen peroxide control system of the rocket. COSMOS 23 IN ORBIT The launch of the 23rd satellite in the Cosmos series was announce by the Soviet Union on December 13. "Continued space researc under the programme announced by Tass on March 16, 1962 was stated as the objective of the launching. After listing the achieved orbital elements as 92.9min perioc 49° inclination, 613km apogee and 240km perigee, the announce ment continued: "In addition to scientific instrumentation th< satellite carries a radio transmitter operating on the frequency c 20.005Mc/s, a radio system for precise measurement of the element of the orbit, and a radio-telemetric system for transmitting back tc Earth the readings of instruments and scientific equipment. The instruments on board the satellite are functioning normally and the co-ordination-computing centre is processing the incoming information." ECHO IN THE ROUND At the present time the orbit of the largest artificial satellite in space, Echo I, is becoming approximately as circular as when it was launched, on August 12, 1960. In the period of almost 3£ years since this launch date the shape of the orbit has changed drastically from near-circular to elliptical and back again four times. This change is caused by Echo's size (100ft diameter) and weight (about 1351b), which make its density very low and the satellite susceptible to small perturbing forces. Solar radiation pressure. therefore, has a much greater effect on the Echo balloon than on any other satellite. When the apogee of the orbit is on the daylight side of the Earth, Echo is "pushed" away from the Sun and the orbital eccentricity gets smaller. The position of the apogee is moving round within the orbital plane, however, and when the perigee reaches the da>- light side of the Earth, the Sun still pushes in the same direction but the orbit becomes more elliptical. Thus, as the apogee moves round the orbit with respect to the Sun, the eccentricity of the orbit varies. The dates when extreme values were reached are as follows: Date Aug 12, 1960 Dec 16, 1960 Jun 20, 1961 Dec 6, 1961 May 8, 1962 Nov 20, 1962 Mar 30, 1963 Sep 6, 1963 (Feb 26, 1964) Perigee height (km) 1,524 966 1,550 904 1,500 942 1,495 960 1,450? Apogee height (km) 1,684 2,157 1,550 2,120 1,524 2,010 1,495 1,945 1,450? Eccen tricity 0.010 0.075 0.0 0.077 0.002 0.068 0.0 0.063 0.0? Nodal period (Min) 118.22 117.28 117.03 116.18 116.1" 115.35 115.43 114.80 114.75 Orbital inclination =47.25 degrees. From the above dates the average time between two circular orbits is about ten months and 26 days, and so the orbit is expected to become circular again in late February 1964. If these heights are plotted on a graph, a "butterfly" pattern will be seen. The lowest perigee height Echo has experienced is 900km, at which the atmos pheric drag is very small and has only brought the period down by 3i minutes. The drag will be a minimum in about a year's time. however, and a maximum again in 1968, as the Sun's eleven-year cycle of activity affects the density of the Earth's atmosphere. I" spite of this, and assuming the greatest eccentricity reached in future years to be less than 0.08, the Echo satellite should remain a familiar object in our skies for perhaps another 20 years. NASA in Australia The moving of US manned spaceflight track ing and data acquisition facilities in Australia from Muchea to the new site being constructed near Carnarvon was announced o December 5 by NASA and the Australian Department of SupplJ- This move is designed to consolidate at one site NASA's groun support facilities in Australia in the Gemini and Apolio Pr0" grammes. In the Gemini project, the prime job at Carnarvon wi be to track the Agena target stage and later the astronaut's spac craft as each in turn swings up from the Indian Ocean towar - Australia, and to enable exact determinations of the orbits to made. Tracking and communication with the spacecraft by ra telemetry will continue during the rendezvous manoeuvre*- reported in our September 26 issue, the Carnarvon station *'lUa be used in connection with the unmanned orbiting observa series of US scientific satellites.
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