The SKYNET 4 constellation consists of three spacecraft which were launched between December 1988 and August 1990. The spacecraft are three-axis stabilized geostationary earth-orbiting military communications satellites with a design life of seven years on station. With the mission objective achieved all the batteries continue to give excellent performance. This paper presents a review of the history of the six batteries from cell procurement to the end of their design life and beyond. Differences in operational strategies are discussed and the lifetime trends in performance are analyzed. The combination of procurement acceptance criteria and the on-station battery management strategy utilized are presented as the prime factors in achieving completely successful battery performance throughout the mission.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    The In-Orbit Performance of Batteries on the Skynet 4 Spacecraft Fleet: A NIckel-Cadmium Success Story


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1997-02-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    The In-Orbit Performance of Batteries on the SKYNET 4 Spacecraft Fleet: A Nickel-Cadmium Success Story

    Johnson, P. J. / Miles, P. E. / United States; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Aerospace Flight Battery Systems Program | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997


    Space environmental effects on the SKYNET 2B spacecraft

    Robbins, A. / Short, C. D. | NTRS | 1977


    Advanced nickel-cadmium batteries for geosynchronous spacecraft

    Pickett, D.F. / Lim, H.S. / Krause, S.J. et al. | Tema Archive | 1988