Small Astronomy Satellite 3
SAS-C (Explorer 53) | |
---|---|
Type: | X-ray satellite |
Country: | United States |
Operator: | NASA |
COSPAR-ID : | 1975-037A |
Mission dates | |
Dimensions: | 195 kg |
Begin: | May 7th 1975 |
Starting place: | San Marco platform |
Launcher: | Scout F-1 S194C |
Status: | burned up on April 9, 1979 |
Orbit data | |
Rotation time : | 94.7 min |
Orbit inclination : | 3.0 ° |
Apogee height : | 507 km |
Perigee height : | 498 km |
The Small Astronomy Satellite 3 (also SAS-C , SAS-3 or Explorer 53 ) was an X-ray satellite from NASA .
mission
SAS-3 was launched into low equatorial earth orbit on May 7, 1975 with a Scout missile from the San Marco platform . The satellite was spin-stabilized , but the rotation could also be stopped temporarily to observe individual objects. The mission ended in April 1979.
SAS-3 had four different experiments that could detect X-rays with energies between 0.1 and 60 keV . Particular emphasis was placed on good positioning of X-ray sources with an accuracy of about 15 arc seconds in order to be able to better identify them with known celestial objects. This enabled sources with X-ray bursts with close binary stars to be identified and certain X-ray sources to be recognized as white dwarfs , quasars and core regions of globular clusters .
Web links
- NASA: The Third Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS-3) (English)
- SAS in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- SAS-C on Gunters Space Page (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ SAS-C in the NSSDCA Master Catalog , accessed on August 1, 2014 (English).
- ↑ SAS in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 26, 2012 (English).