ROSAT SPACECRAFT

Q.1) Description about Spacecraft

• A) Space mission objectives
• B) Orbital / trajectory parameters
• C) Launch vehicle and Launch site
• D) Overall mission and its status
• E) Successes and Failures
Q.2)
• A) Nature of the orbit / Trajectory of the spacecraft.
Semi-major axis, Eccentricity, Time of perigee passage,
Mean anomaly, Right ascension of the ascending node, Inclination,
Argument of the perigee, Departure velocity, Arrival orbit / trajectory,
Capture/flyby, Landing/reentry
• C) 1) Orbital time period
• 2) Apoapsis & periapsis
Q.3)
• A) Orbit of trajectory connected with mission objective
• B) Initial conditions and Orbital manoeuvres at time of injection /
after injection
Q.4) Nominal trajectory of the launch vehicle
Q.5)
• A) Key events in the trajectory taken by both launch vehicle
Q.7) Simulation of the mission
A) Mission Objective
• 1)ROSAT was a German Aerospace Centre led satellite X-ray telescope project.
• 2)It was US/UK/GERMAN colloboration
• 3) The ROSAT mission was divided into two phases:
• a)After a two-month on-orbit calibration and verification period, an all-sky survey
was performed for six months using the PSPC in the focus of XRT, and in two XUV
bands using the WFC. The survey was carried out in the scan mode.
• b)The second phase consists of the remainder of the mission and was devoted to
pointed observations of selected astrophysical sources. In ROSAT's pointed phase,
observing time was allocated to Guest Investigators from all three participating
countries through peer review of submitted proposals. ROSAT had a design life of 18
months, but was expected to operate beyond its nominal lifetime.
B)Orbit Trajectory
C)Launch Vehicle
Launch Vehicle Details:

Size

Height 38.2–39 m (125–128 ft)

Diameter 2.44 m (8 ft 0 in)

Mass 151,700–231,870 kg (334,440–511,190 lb)

Stages 2 or 3
 Payload

Capacity

Payload to LEO 2,700–6,100 kg (6,000–13,400 lb)

Payload to GTO 900–2,170 kg (1,980–4,780 lb)

Payload to HCO 1,000 kg (2,200 lb)

Stages of Vehicle:
First stage - Thor/Delta XLT(-C)
[2]
Engines 1 RS-27 (6000 series) or RS-27A (7000 series)

Thrust 1,054 kN (237,000 lbf)

Specific Impulse 302 s

Burn time 265 s

Fuel RP-1/LOX
Second stage

Second stage - DELTA-K

Engines 1 AJ-10/118K
Thrust 43.6 kN (9,800 lbf)
Specific Impulse 319 s
Burn time 431 s
Fuel Dinitrogen-tetroxide/Aerozine
Third stage

Third stage - PAM-D (optional)

Motor Star 48B
Thrust 66 kN (15,000 lbf)
Specific Impulse 286 s
Burn time 87 s
Fuel HTPB
C) Launch vehicle and Launch site
• ROSAT was originally planned to be launched on the Space
Shuttle but the Challenge disaster caused it to be moved to
the Delta platform
• Launch Vehicle: Delta II 6920-10
• Launch Site : Cape Canaveral LC-17A
• Launch Time : 21:48:00, June 1, 1990
D) Mission Status and overall mission
• 1) Originally designed for a five-year mission, ROSAT continued in its
extended mission for a further four years before equipment failure
forced an end to the mission.
• 2) Lifetime: 1 June 1990 - 12 February 1999.
• 3) ROSAT completed its very last observations before being finally
switched off on 12 February 1999.
• 4) On 23 October 2011 ROSAT re-entered Earth's atmosphere.In 1990,
the satellite was put in an orbit at an altitude of 580 km (360 mi) and
inclination of 53° over the Bay Of Bengal, east of India.
• 5) Mission Duration: 8 years and 8 months.
 Overall Mission:
• Highlights:
• X-Ray all-sky survey catalog, more than 150,000 objects
• XUV all-sky survey catalog (479 objects)
• Source catalogs from the pointed phase (PSPC and HRI) containing ~ 100,000
serendipitous sources
• Detailed morphology of Supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies.
• Detection of shadowing of diffuse X-ray emission by molecular cloud.
• Detection of pulsations from Geminga.
• Detection of isolated neutron stars.
• Discovery of X-ray emission from comets.
• Observation of X-ray emission from the collision of comet shoemaker
levy with Jupiter.
E) Success and Failures
Launch history
Status Active
Launch sites Cape Canaveral SLC-17
Vandenberg AFB SLC-2W
Total launches 153
Delta 6000: 17
Delta 7000: 130
Delta 7000H: 6
Successes 151
Delta 6000: 17
Delta 7000: 128
Delta 7000H: 6
Failures 1 (Delta 7000)
Partial failures 1 (Delta 7000)
Q.2)Nature of orbit
• Semi major axis:580km
• Eccentricity :0
• Time of perigee passage:
• Mean anomoly :
• Inclination :53°
• Right ascension of ascending node:
• Argument of perigee:
• Departure velocity:
• Arrival orbit :
B)
• a)Orbital time period: 96.2 minutes
• b)Periapsis: 580km
• Apoapsis:580km