Seds 2
Small Expendable Deployer System
It is a package attached to the Delta second stage rocket which was to deploy a
20 km tether to compare actual tether dynamics with theoretical models. The end
mass behaved as expected and unreeled in 1 h 48 min to a maximum length of
19.8 km.
Unlike
Seds 1
for which the tether was severed after deploy, the tether remained attached to
the Delta rocket. The end mass mini-satellite transmitted for 10 hours. On 15
Mar 1995 Seds separated from the tether because of an impact and reentred.
The success of Seds 2 confirms that tether systems can be used to deploy
sensors which require a particular orientation to the local vertical, such as
atmospheric composition experiments.
Out
of service
|
15
Mar 1994
|
Decay
|
8
May 1994
|
sat-index articles