Orbital Test Satellite

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Orbital Test Satellite 2
Mission typeTechnology demonstration
Communications satellite
OperatorESA
COSPAR ID1978-044A
SATCAT no.10855
Mission durationFinal: 12 years, 7 months, 21 days
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerBritish Aerospace[1]
Launch mass865 kg (1,907 lb)[1][2]
BOL mass445 kg (981 lb)[1]
Dimensions2.4 × 2.1 m (7.9 × 6.9 ft)[1]
Power600 watts[1]
Start of mission
Launch date11 May 1978, 22:59 (1978-05-11UTC22:59) UTC[2]
RocketDelta 3914[2]
Launch siteCape Canaveral LC-17A[2]
End of mission
DisposalPlaced in graveyard orbit
Deactivated2 January 1991 (1991-01-03)[2]
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeGeosynchronous
 

The Orbital Test Satellite programme was an experimental satellite system inherited by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1975 from its predecessor, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO).

The first of the pair of OTS satellites (OTS-1) was lost at launch in the failure of its US Delta launcher in September 1977. OTS-2 was successfully launched in 1978, again using the Delta rocket and became one of the first geostationary communications satellites to carry six Ku-band transponders and was capable of handling 7,200 telephone circuits. With a mass of approximately 445 kg on station, the OTS 2 bus was hexagonal with overall dimensions of 2.4 m by 2.1 m. Two solar panels with a span of 9.3 m provided 0.6 kW of electrical power. British Aerospace was the prime contractor from the European MESH consortium which developed the OTS vehicle. It completed its primary mission in 1984 after which the spacecraft was involved in a 6-year program of experiments, including the testing of a new attitude control technique taking advantage of solar radiation pressure forces. In January 1991, OTS 2 was moved out of the geostationary ring and into a graveyard orbit.

References

This article contains information that originally came from a U.S. Government website, in the public domain.

  1. ^ a b c d e "OTS 2". National Space Science Data Center. NASA. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e "ECS/OTS". Retrieved 6 January 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |encyclopedia= ignored (help)


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