Oct 22 1977
From The Space Library
NASA launched two international satellites, the U.S. ISEEA and ESA's ISEE-B, on a single Delta rocket at 9:53am EDT (1353hr GMT) from ETR at Cape Canaveral into a highly elliptical orbit ranging from about 138,000km apogee to 280km perigee, 28.7° inclination, and 2.4-day period. The ISEEs had separated an hr after launch, the A craft (Isee 1) spin axis perpendicular to the ecliptic and the B spacecraft (Isee 2) spin axis parallel to the ecliptic to permit magnetometer calibration and boom extension. The satellites would measure earth's environment, assisted by a third spacecraft ISEE-C scheduled for launch in 1978. (NASA Release 77-123; ESA Release Oct. 24/77; MOR S-862-77-01/02 [prelaunch] Oct 11/77, [postlaunch] Oct 25/77; W Post, Oct 23/77, A13; W Star, Oct 23/77, A-2)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
