Small Astronomy Satellite 3

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SAS-C (Explorer 53)
SAS-C (Explorer 53)
Type: X-ray satellite
Country: United StatesUnited States United States
Operator: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA 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

Individual evidence

  1. SAS-C in the NSSDCA Master Catalog , accessed on August 1, 2014 (English).
  2. SAS in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 26, 2012 (English).