Apr 28 1983
From The Space Library
NASA launched GOES-F from ESMC at 6:26 p.m. EDT on a three-stage Delta into a transfer orbit with 48.400-kilometer apogee, 33,483-kilometer perigee, 1707.4-minute period, and 0.5° inclination, before moving it into geosynchronous station at 135 °W over the Pacific to acquire environmental data as "Goes West." The launch was the 34th consecutive success for a Delta. (NASA MOR E-612-83-04 [prelaunch] Apr 28/83; NASA Dly Acty Rpt, Apr 29/83; Spacewarn, SPX-355)
Press reports described NASA plans to raise the orbit of TDRS to the pro-per 22,300 miles altitude by as many as 12 separate firings of different engines over a two-week period. Robert Aller, TDRS program manager, said that TDRS was essential to U.S. military and civilian satellites for the next 20 years. "Without it, we can't use the Space Shuttle [or] Spacelab the way we want to, and we can't use some very expensive projects like Landsat or the space telescope at all." The $1 billion telescope, called the most ambitious scientific instrument ever built, would be useless without TDRS's high-speed communications relays.
TDRS was about 10,000 miles below the lowest point at which it should approach Earth. The proper orbit would be geosynchronous at 22,335 miles altitude, where its speed would match Earth's spin at the equator. TDRS should reach that point by June: if not, NASA would face "a long trudge up Capitol Hill to explain the impact of the loss." (NY Times, Apr 25/83, B-12; W Post, Apr 28/83, A-17)
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