SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK: VOLUME III
PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS 1969-1978

 

Table 3-108. Solrad 11A Characteristics

 

Also called:

Solar Radiation Monitoring Satellite System or Solrad Hi

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

between NASA and Naval Research Laboratory Naval Electronics Systems Command

Date of launch (range):

Mar. 15, 1976 (ETR)

Launch vehicle:

Titan IIIC

Shape:

donut-shaped

Weight (kg):

182

Dimensions (m):

1.4, diam.

0.4, height

Power source:

solar panels

Prime contractor:

NRL in-house

Date of reentry:

N/A

NASA's role:

tracking and data acquisition support

Responsible NASA center:

GSFC

Project manager:

N/A

Project scientist:

N/A

Objectives:

One of a pair of spacecraft to provide real-time, continuous monitoring of solar x-ray, ultraviolet, and energetic particle emissions.

Experiments (responsible country or organization):

.

25 experiments that made use of the following hardware:

broadband ion chamber

proportional counters and scintillators

EUV detector

variable resolution Ebert-Fostic spectrometer

solar wind monitor

solar proton, electron, and alpha particle monitors

x-ray polarimeters

Bragg spectrometer

Large-area auroral x-ray detector

passively-cooled solid-state -ray detector

cosmic-ray burst detector

experiments sponsored by the following organizations:

NRL

Johns Hopkins

MIT

U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

Aerospace Corp.

Results:

Successful; NASA support terminated in Nov. 1979. For information on Solrad 10, see Explorer 44 (table 3-58); payload launched with Solrad 11B and LES-8 and LES-9, two experimental Air Force communications satellites.

Reference: NRL Press Release 9-1-76B, "Solrad Hi Is Up!" Mar. 14, 1976; and NRL, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Eastern Test Range, "Launch of the Solrad 11 A/B Satellites (Solrad Hi)," 1976.


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