Abstract The Hipparcos astrometry satellite was launched on 8 August 1989, and after spacecraft and payload commissioning, commenced the routine data acquisition phase on 26 November 1989. Having failed to reach its planned geostationary orbit, major revisions in the mission operations had to be performed, although the impact on the final mission accuracies now appears to be less severe than originally foreseen. The final astrometric accuracies attainable by the Hipparcos mission will be influenced by the spacecraft and payload performances on the one hand, and by the data reductions procedures on the other. This paper addresses the former aspects, and will cover the overall mission performances (expected lifetime, useful fraction of the time for which useful scientific data is acquired, etc) as well as some details of the spacecraft and payload performances. The in-orbit calibration and environmental results (thermal environment, background levels, geometric, photometric and optical performances) and key operational features (real-time attitude determination quality, etc) will be presented. The subsequent stages of the data processing and final elements of the accuracy assessment are presented in accompanying contributions.
Hipparcos: Revised mission overview
Advances in Space Research ; 11 , 2 ; 15-23
1991-01-01
9 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Hipparcos: Revised mission overview
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