Insertion of Calipso into the A-Train Constellation: Operational Results and Lessons
- Paper number
IAC-05-C1.7.07
- Author
Dr. Francois Dufour, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
- Coauthor
Mrs. Corinne Salcedo, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
- Coauthor
Mrs. Véronique Piou, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Next summer, Calipso and Cloudsat satellites will be launched together by a Delta-2 rocket from Vandenberg. Calipso will be operated by a CNES team and Cloudsat by a NASA-JPL team during LEOP operations but both will be heading towards already flying Aqua and Parasol satellites to complete what we call the A-Train constellation. The A-Train constellation is a formation of up to five satellites that fly on almost the same orbit but in a single file. The head satellite is Aqua, followed by Cloudsat, Calipso, Parasol and Aura. Calipso and Cloudsat will fly very close together into the A-Train. In fact, Cloudsat will be only 15 seconds ahead of Calipso. Taking into account that Aqua and Parasol are already in place, the insertion of two new satellites into the A-Train requires careful and precise operations. Moreover, as the two satellites are launched together, the rising maneuvers from the launch up to the constellation need to be closely coordinated between the two operation teams to avoid all collision risks. To fulfill these goals, a sequence of orbit raise and trim maneuvers to the final formation-flying configuration have been carefully designed for the two satellites taking into account execution errors. This operational sequence has already been presented at previous meetings. However, this LEOP scenario still needs to be confronted to the hard facts of a real satellite launch. In this paper, we intend to present real LEOP operations that we will be performed to raise the Calipso satellite from the injection orbit up to its insertion into the A-Train constellation. A comparison will be made with previously planned maneuvers. We will conclude the paper with the lessons learned from these complex LEOP operations involving two satellites flying closely together.
- Abstract document