Mission Status Report #1 Star Date: June 24, 1999
Photos: FUSE launch photos, courtesy of NASA. (Click photos to see larger version.)
FUSE LAUNCH SUCCESSFUL!The FUSE launch was picture perfect this morning at 11:44 a.m. EDT. The Satellite Control Center at JHU had telemetry through the entire launch and insertion phase, and took control of the satellite after separation from the second stage at 76 minutes after launch. Solar array deploy happened six minutes later, and the batteries charged nominally. Science Operation Team Lead, Bill Oegerle, reports: Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 19:36:22 -0400 (EDT) The spacecraft team (Orbital Sciences) reports that everything is looking very good. In fact, the team said they were getting a little bored, because they had finished all their tasks planned for the first day after only 6 hours! I love it when the engineers say they are bored... The solar arrays are producing the expected power output, and they have been tilted to the sun line (because they actually produce too much power). The initial orbit determination looks excellent. We are very close to the planned 768 km altitude (within a km or so), and with the planned inclination of 25 degrees. There is still some uncertainty in the eccentricity of the orbit, but it is very nearly circular (e=0.0005 or less). The gyros are now running and producing data (although it is not used in the attitude solution). The ACS engineer reports that the 3-axis magnetometer data look very good, and the attitude solution is converging well. Data will continue to be taken overnight, and the coarse sun sensors will be tested tomorrow. Reported by: Bill Blair, Chief of Mission Planning, and Bill Oegerle, Science Ops Team Lead.
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