The INTELSAT IV F-3 spacecraft developed a slight wobble of 0.1 half-angle following a long firing of the system A axial thruster on Februrary 14, 1973. This thruster firing used 8.8 kg of hydrazine propellant to change the orbit inclination by 0.5 . The spacecraft attitude sensors indicated a shift in the spin axis of 0.1 with respect to the rotor body-fixed axis. The direction and magnitude of the spin axis shift of the spacecraft mass center that would result in the 8.8 kg of propellant used for the firing had come from only one system A propellant tank instead of in equal amounts from both tanks. Since blockage of the propellant line from tank 2 by dirt or corrosion seemed improbable, the hypothesis of a blocking bubble trapped in a thermal expansion loop in the propellant line was advanced and eventually proved to be correct
Blocking bubbles in the INTELSAT IV fuel lines
Blockierungsblasen in den Brennstoffleitungen des INTELSAT IV
Comsat Technical Review ; 4 , 2 ; 499-506
1974
, 1 Quelle
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Englisch
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|NTRS | 1974
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