This report documents the first Spartan mission. The Spartan program, an outgrowth of a joint Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) development effort, was instituted by NASA for launching autonomous, recoverable payloads from the space shuttle. These payloads have a precise pointing system and are intended to support a wide range of space-science observations and experiments. The first Spartan, carrying an NRL X-ray astronomy instrument, was launched by the orbiter Discovery (STS51G) on June 20, 1985 and recovered successfully 45 h later, on June 22. During this period, Spartan 1 conducted a preprogrammed series of observations of two X-ray sources -- the Perseus cluster of galaxies and the center of our galaxy. The mission was successful from both on engineering and a scientific viewpoint. Only one problem was encountered-the attitude control system (ACS) shut down earlier than planned because of high-attitude control-system gas consumption. A preplanned emergency mode then placed Spartan 1 into a stable, safe condition and allowed a safe recovery. This report describes the events of the mission and presents X-ray maps of the two observed sources, which have been produced from the flight data. Keywords: X-ray astronomy; Space shuttles; Space launched payload. (EDC)
Spartan 1 Mission
1989
17 pages
Report
No indication
English
Astronautics , Astrophysics , Space sciences , X ray astronomy , Aiming , Emergencies , Flight , Galaxies , Instrumentation , Launching , Maps , Missions , Naval research laboratories , Payload , Precision , Range(Extremes) , Recovery , Safety , Space launched , Space shuttles , Stability , Spartan Project , Space shuttle payloads
NTRS | 1990
|NTRS | 1989
|Spartan 1 Mission Operation Report
NTIS | 1985
Engineering Index Backfile | 1930
Engineering Index Backfile | 1932