Starsem Soyuz Launches Last Two Cluster Satellites For ESA

Flash! Archive
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000

Starsem Soyuz Launches Last Two Cluster Satellites For ESA

More Information:

A Soyuz U/Fregat launched two ESA Cluster satellites, Rumba and Tango, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, LC 31 pad 6, at 1113 UTC (4:13 a.m. PDT) August 9. The two spacecraft were placed into a parking orbit of 240 by 18,000 km. Their final elliptical orbits will range between 25,000 and 125,000 km, inclined at 64.8°. Starsem provided the launch services. The European Space Agency owns and will operate the Cluster constellation. The total mission cost is US$315 million. Mission life is planned to last two years.

The satellites are disk-shaped, 1.3 m high and 2.9 m in diameter. The four 1200 kg Cluster 2 satellites will fly in a tetrahedral (triangular pyramid) formation to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field in three dimensions using a suite of 11 instruments. The instruments will measure electric and magnetic fields; electrons, protons, and ions; and plasma waves.

The two spacecraft launched, FM 5 and 8, were assigned the names Rumba and Tango respectively. The two previous satellites, Salsa and Samba, were launched July 16, 2000. The four spacecraft replace the original four Cluster satellites, designated FM 1 through FM 4. Those four satellites were lost when the Ariane 5 booster failed after launch on its first flight in June 1996.

SPACEandTECH Digest is a weekly roundup of the latest industry news of interest to the space professional. SPACEandTECH Flash! is an internet push service offered by Andrews Space & Technology to bring the latest on orders, launches, and important breaking news to your desktop. SPACEandTECH Digest and SPACEandTECH Flash! are part of the Andrews Space & Technology www.spaceandtech.com website, a website designed to serve the information needs of the space industry.

If you would like to subscribe to the SPACEandTECH Flash! (currently a free service), contact the www.spaceandtech.com Editor-in-Chief, Joe Hopkins, at editor@spaceandtech.com

August 9, 2000