Starlette
| Starlette | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Research satellite |
| Country: |
 France
|
| Operator: |
 CNES
|
| COSPAR-ID : | 1975-010A |
| Mission dates | |
| Dimensions: | 47 kg |
| Size: | 24 cm diameter |
| Begin: | February 6, 1975, 16:35 UTC |
| Starting place: | Center Spatial Guyanais |
| Launcher: | Diamond-B-P4 |
| Status: | in orbit |
| Orbit data | |
| Rotation time : | 104.2 min |
| Orbit inclination : | 49.8 ° |
| Apogee height : | 1108 km |
| Perigee height : | 805 km |
Starlette ( French S atellite de T aille A daptée avec R éflecteurs L aser pour les et udes de la Te rre) is the name of a French satellite that on February 6, 1975, a diamond B-P4 from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou was launched for purposes of satellite geodesy .
The main areas of application of the Starlette satellite are the determination of:
- Earth and Sea Tides (main target)
- geocentric station coordinates
- tectonic movements
- Earth's gravitational field
- Pole motion and earth rotation
- Tidal friction
Because of the comparatively low orbit, the tides of the solid earth and the associated elasticity models of the earth can be studied.
The passive satellite has 60 identical retroreflectors (cube-corner mirrors), a diameter of 24 cm, but a mass of 47 kg due to its uranium nucleus . This reduces the influence of non-gravitational orbit disturbances , while the anomalies of the earth's gravity field that are actually to be analyzed act as small irregularities in the orbit . The satellite also serves as a purely high-level target to connect distant stations by means of stellar triangulation .
An identical satellite was launched on September 26, 1993 by an Ariane rocket under the name Stella .
Web links
- Starlette in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- ILRS Missions: Starlette and Stella (English)
- Gunter's Space Page: skyrocket.de (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Starlette in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on September 26, 2012 (English).