[FPSPACE] Black Arrow Orba launch

[PeterRBond at aol.com]

Hi,
 
Here's a description of the Black Arrow Orba mission from Missiles and  
Rockets by Ken Gatland (1975). Hope it helps.
 
Peter B
 
 
With  the next launch of Black Arrow there was a chance at last of  Britain 
becoming  the sixth nation after the Soviet Union, the  United States,  
France,  Japan and  China to achieve  orbit by its own efforts. The satellite 
called 'Orba', was a 30 lb (13-6  kg.) gold plated sphere designed by  
scientists at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, for the purpose of  
measuring air density in the Earth’s outer atmosphere. 
If  all went well, Orba would be accompanied in orbit by a separate 150 lb 
(68 kg)  instrument package used to check Black Arrow's performance up to 
the stage when  the 'golden ball' separated. The object was to send the two 
payloads into  near­ polar orbits ranging between 220 and 620 miles ( 352 
and 997 km.)  Orba, which contained a small battery-powered radio 
transmitter, would then be  tracked by ground stations around the world to see how its 
orbit was affected by  density changes at the fringe of the Earth's 
atmosphere. 
Though a modest experiment, no other satellite of the  type was in orbit at 
this height. Its mass was accurately known, it had a  constant 
cross-section and a carefully-controlled surface finish; and after the  battery was 
exhausted, the sphere could still be tracked by radar and optical  methods by 
anyone with suitable equipment around the world. However, when Black  Arrow- 
R-2 was launched at Woomera at 01.34 BST on 2 September, it failed to  
achieve orbital velocity.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/fpspace/attachments/20090901/5cefeefe/attachment.html