Space History for Jan 25: Artificial Moon, Real Moon

[CalliArcale]

January 25, 1964: the US launched the Echo 2 spacecraft aboard a Thor-Agena B rocket. Echo 2 was a huge mylar balloon designed as a passive commsat -- radio signals would bounce off of its reflective surface to be received by a point over the limb of the Earth. It was a follow-on to the successful Echo 1A (which replaced Echo 1, lost to a launch vehicle failure). Not only did Echo 2 carry on Echo 1's task to facilitate intercontinental relay of signals, it also is notable for another reason. It was the first joint mission between the United States and the Soviet Union. Echo 2 orbited at an 82 degree inclination, with an orbit of about 1000 x 1300 km. With its large size and low mass (256 kg), it did eventually decay. Echo 2 reentered the atmosphere on July 6, 1969.<br /><br />January 25, 1994: the US launched Clementine 1 aboard a Titan 2 rocket from Vandenburg AFB in California. It was a mission from the Department of Defense, not NASA, although it nevertheless contributed considerable scientific data. The main intent of the mission was technology demonstration. The first part of the mission was lunar mapping. Following two orbits of the Earth in a dramatically elliptical orbit, Clementine 1 inserted itself into lunar orbit on February 21. The next two months were spent mapping the Moon. Interestingly, it made a dramatic alteration to its lunar orbit during this time, shifting its perilune from one hemisphere to the other, greatly improving the quality of its data by allowing better coverage between the two phases of the lunar mapping effort. It then left lunar orbit to head for an encounter with the asteroid Geographos. Unfortunately, it experienced a failure in one of its computers, resulting in one thruster firing until the propellant was expended. This resulted in an unrecoverable 80 RPM spin. The mission did continue, however, testing various spacecraft components until end of mission. It remains in a highly elliptical Earth orbit today -- 801 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[thinice]

This scene reminds me of the movie <i>Sphere</i>. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[waxy]

i'd love to see the pinball machine it came out of.<br />(sorry, couldn't resist)