Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Japanese sounding rocket claims record-breaking orbital launch - smallest rocket ever to carry satellite into orbit
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/02/japanese-rocket-record-borbital-launch/
All three stages of the SS-520 vehicle burn solid propellant. The first stage, the S-520, carries 1,587 kilograms (3,499 lb) of propellant, the second stage carries 325 kg (717 lb) and the third stage 78 kg (172 lb). The overall vehicle is 9.54 meters (31.3 feet) long, with a diameter of 52 centimeters (1.71 feet) and a total mass of about 2,600 kilograms (5,700 lb) at launch.
When it launched on Saturday, the SS-520 was expected to take less than four and a half minutes to reach orbit, with spacecraft separation timed for seven and a half minutes after liftoff. The rocket is spin-stabilized; as it ascends through the atmosphere fins at the base of the first stage impart a rolling motion which helps it to stay pointing in the correct direction.
The first stage burned for 31.7 seconds, during which time the vehicle reached an altitude of 26 kilometers (16 miles, 14 nautical miles) and a velocity of 2.0 kilometers per second (1.2 miles per second). After burnout the rocket coasted towards the apogee of its trajectory, shedding its nose cone 67 seconds into flight and the spent first stage one second later.
The interstage between the first and second stages houses rhumb line thrusters, which fire pulses timed to re-orient the rocket while it is still spinning. The thrusters began pulsing two and a half seconds after stage separation, and fire over a period of 47.1 seconds. Two minutes and 27 seconds into the flight about half a minute after the thrusters have finished firing the interstage will have jettisoned.
Two minutes and 37 seconds after liftoff, a check of the vehicles status will have been conducted. This serves two purposes: to ensure that the rocket is in good health and able to continue to orbit, and to determine the optimal time for second stage ignition. If the mission was continuing to plan, a command to enable second stage ignition and a revised ignition time will have been transmitted to the vehicle seven seconds later. Should it have been necessary to terminate the launch this command will not have been sent to the rocket, which prevents the second stage from igniting and the rocket would then fall into the drop zone that had been reserved for the first stage.
The exact timing of second stage ignition depends on the vehicles trajectory when the status check is undertaken, however the burn would have begun at around the three-minute mark in the flight and lasted for 24.4 seconds. After the burn ended, the second stage will have remained attached for about 30 seconds before it separated, with third stage ignition taking place three seconds after separation. The third stage burn is for 25.6 seconds, injecting itself and TRICOM-1R into orbit.
The SS-520 was expected to reach an orbit of approximately 180 by 1,500 kilometers (112 by 932 miles, 97 by 810 nautical miles), with inclination of 31 degrees. TRICOM-1R was to separate from the SS-520s third stage seven minutes and thirty seconds after liftoff. Unusually for a CubeSat, TRICOM-1R does not use a deployment pod and separates directly from the rockets upper stage.
TRICOM-1R carries a store-and-forward communications payload and five small cameras that will return images of the Earth. The satellite was built by the University of Tokyo and was designed around the three-unit (3U) CubeSat form factor, although it is slightly larger than a standard 3U satellite due to its deployment mechanism and communications antennae. The satellite measures 11.1 by 11.1 by 34.6 centimeters (4.6 x 4.6 x 13.6 inches), including its antennae.
S-310/S-520/SS-520 (Sounding Rockets)
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/s_rockets/
TRICOM-1R
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRICOM-1R
[video=youtube;OeW-Qqu9-8U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeW-Qqu9-8U[/video]
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/02/japanese-rocket-record-borbital-launch/
All three stages of the SS-520 vehicle burn solid propellant. The first stage, the S-520, carries 1,587 kilograms (3,499 lb) of propellant, the second stage carries 325 kg (717 lb) and the third stage 78 kg (172 lb). The overall vehicle is 9.54 meters (31.3 feet) long, with a diameter of 52 centimeters (1.71 feet) and a total mass of about 2,600 kilograms (5,700 lb) at launch.
When it launched on Saturday, the SS-520 was expected to take less than four and a half minutes to reach orbit, with spacecraft separation timed for seven and a half minutes after liftoff. The rocket is spin-stabilized; as it ascends through the atmosphere fins at the base of the first stage impart a rolling motion which helps it to stay pointing in the correct direction.
The first stage burned for 31.7 seconds, during which time the vehicle reached an altitude of 26 kilometers (16 miles, 14 nautical miles) and a velocity of 2.0 kilometers per second (1.2 miles per second). After burnout the rocket coasted towards the apogee of its trajectory, shedding its nose cone 67 seconds into flight and the spent first stage one second later.
The interstage between the first and second stages houses rhumb line thrusters, which fire pulses timed to re-orient the rocket while it is still spinning. The thrusters began pulsing two and a half seconds after stage separation, and fire over a period of 47.1 seconds. Two minutes and 27 seconds into the flight about half a minute after the thrusters have finished firing the interstage will have jettisoned.
Two minutes and 37 seconds after liftoff, a check of the vehicles status will have been conducted. This serves two purposes: to ensure that the rocket is in good health and able to continue to orbit, and to determine the optimal time for second stage ignition. If the mission was continuing to plan, a command to enable second stage ignition and a revised ignition time will have been transmitted to the vehicle seven seconds later. Should it have been necessary to terminate the launch this command will not have been sent to the rocket, which prevents the second stage from igniting and the rocket would then fall into the drop zone that had been reserved for the first stage.
The exact timing of second stage ignition depends on the vehicles trajectory when the status check is undertaken, however the burn would have begun at around the three-minute mark in the flight and lasted for 24.4 seconds. After the burn ended, the second stage will have remained attached for about 30 seconds before it separated, with third stage ignition taking place three seconds after separation. The third stage burn is for 25.6 seconds, injecting itself and TRICOM-1R into orbit.
The SS-520 was expected to reach an orbit of approximately 180 by 1,500 kilometers (112 by 932 miles, 97 by 810 nautical miles), with inclination of 31 degrees. TRICOM-1R was to separate from the SS-520s third stage seven minutes and thirty seconds after liftoff. Unusually for a CubeSat, TRICOM-1R does not use a deployment pod and separates directly from the rockets upper stage.
TRICOM-1R carries a store-and-forward communications payload and five small cameras that will return images of the Earth. The satellite was built by the University of Tokyo and was designed around the three-unit (3U) CubeSat form factor, although it is slightly larger than a standard 3U satellite due to its deployment mechanism and communications antennae. The satellite measures 11.1 by 11.1 by 34.6 centimeters (4.6 x 4.6 x 13.6 inches), including its antennae.
S-310/S-520/SS-520 (Sounding Rockets)
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/s_rockets/
TRICOM-1R
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRICOM-1R
[video=youtube;OeW-Qqu9-8U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeW-Qqu9-8U[/video]