The VS02 Mission is the second Flight of a Soyuz Rocket launching from the Kourou Spaceport, French Guiana. A Soyuz 2.1b Launch Vehicle equipped with a Fregat Upper Stage is set to deliver a total of six satellites to orbit for their long duration missions. On this mission, the first of two Pleiades Satellites, four ELISA Spacecraft and the Chilean SSOT Vehicle will be deployed into Sun/Synchronous Orbit. VS02 is the second flight of a Soyuz from Kourou in 2011. |
Photo: Arianespace
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Payloads
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Pleiades 1
Pleiades 1 is the first of two French Earth Observing Satellites. Built by Astrium Satellites Toulouse, the satellites will be operated by CNES, France. Pleiades is a high resolution imaging satellite that will provide imagery with a resolution of 50 to 70 centimeters. The spacecraft will operate in a 695-km, sun-synchronous orbit around Earth. Pleiades 1 and its twin both have a mass of 970kg. Three deployable solar arrays provide 1,500W of power. The satellite is three axis stabilized and uses thrusters for attitude control offering excellent yaw, pitch and roll control including slews for image acquisition. Each satellite has a designed lifetime of at least 5 years. Images produced by the Pleiades Satellite System will be used for a variety of applications in many different fields demmanding remote sensing imagery including land planning, science and defense as well as the development of different models concerned with various applications like aviation training. |
Source: Arianespace
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Source: Arianespace
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ELISA
Four ELISA Demonstrator Satellites will be realeased by the Soyuz Vehicle. These satellites are part of a program between the French Defense Procurement Agency DGA and the Space Agency CNES. The satellites were built by EADS Astrium and Thales Airborne Systems. ELISA will record and analyze Radar Transmitters on Earth evaluating characteristics of Radar Emissions around the Planet. Each of the satellites has a liftoff mass of about 120 Kilograms and is based on the Myriade Satellite Platform for small satellites that was designed by CNES; France. ELISA has a deployable solar array and pointing capabilities to target its detectors to point towards Earth in order to record Radar Activity. The system will operate from a 700-km sun synchronous orbit. All of the ELISA Satellites have a designed lifetime of more than 3 years. |
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SSOT
The single SSOT Satellite will be the last payload to be deployed on the VS02 Flight. The full name of the Chilean Project is "Sistema Satelital para la Observación de la Tierra". SSOT will be operated by Chilean Armed Forces and was built by Astrium. The Satellite is also based on the Myriade Platform and has a liftoff mass of 117 Kilograms. Power is supplied by one deployable solar array. A high resolution imager will prove imagery with a resolution of up to 1.45 meters that will be used for different applications like mapping agriculture and managing natural disasters, resources and risks. SSOT operates from a sun snychronous orbit with a mean altitude of 610 Kilometers. It will operate for at least 5 years and provide chilean armed forces with a unprecedented imaging capability. |
Source: Arianespace
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Mission Timeline
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The Soyuz Rocket launching from the Kourou Spaceport will follow a normal mission profile, ascending on a eastward trajectory boosted by its core stage and four strap-on boosters. Shortly after liftoff from the new Soyuz Launch Complex, the Rocket will perform a maneuver to roll on course and make a pitch maneuver to put itself on the correct path toward its cutoff target in space. Two minutes into the flight, the four boosters will have burned out and separate from the vehicle to fall into the ocean. After that, the vehicle will only be powered by its core stage and continue a normal ascent path. Three and a half minutes into the VS02 Mission, the protective Payload Fairing will separate to expose the six payload elements. When the core stage has burned out, the third stage and its RD-0124 Engine will take over powered flight and put the vehicle into a preliminary orbit. After almost nine minutes, the Launcher's job will be complete as the third stage and the Upper Composite separate from each other. One minute after separation, the first Fregat Burn begins. This Burn will last just over three and a half minutes before the upper stage shuts its engine down and begins the coast phase. Less than half an hour of coasting will be performed before the second ingition of Fregat commences. This burn will have a duration of 4 minutes and 9 seconds. When this burn is complete, Fregat maneuvers to the correct orientation to separate the Pleiades 1 Spacecraft at the 55-minute mark. Only four minutes later, ELISA is released into its desired orbit. Following the deployment of the first five payloads, the mission will enter another coast phase with a duration of 1 hour. After completing two hours of flight, a short 12-second Fregat Burn will take place to maneuver into the correct orbit for SSOT release. One more 10-second burn will occur one hour of coasting later and set the stage for the final chapter of the mission. Passing the three-hour-mark, the ASAP-S Payload Adapter is jettisoned to expose the SSOT Spacecraft. SSOT is deployed after a re-orientation maneuver. At this point, the Fregat and Soyuz Mission is complete and six new satellites will have taken their place in orbit. Fregat will make a fifth burn to avoid re-contacting any of the satellites and to put it into a graveyard orbit for disposal.
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Mission Profile
Source: Arianespace
