Algeria’s first satellite mission completed
Alsat-1, the first satellite launched in the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation led by SSTL, has finally completed its mission for the Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) having exceeded its original 5-year design lifetime by 50% to a remarkable 7 years and 9 months.
Engineer working on Alsat-1
Launched in November 2002 into a 700km sun-synchronous orbit on board a Kosmos 3-M rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, Alsat-1 was Algeria's first national satellite - as well as being the first Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite, it was also the first SSTL spacecraft to carry SSTL's newly developed Slim 6 Line Scan Imager payload.
Alsat-1 launch preparations
Throughout its lifetime, SSTL engineers have continued to work closely with the Algerian Operations team to prolong the life of the satellite, including developing new charge control strategies and turning the satellite around in orbit to effectively fly backwards. This enabled its battery pack to face into outer space to provide additional cooling as the battery aged.
Algeria's first satellite: Alsat-1
In 2009, SSTL Engineers worked with the Algerian Operations team to prepare the satellite for end of mission by using up the remaining propellant to both passivate the satellite and to lower the orbit by around 20km to reduce its remaining time in orbit. After this work was complete, Alsat-1 continued providing imagery to the Algerian CNTS team (Centre National des Techniques Spatiales of Algeria) on a regular basis, although at a reduced capacity in order to further extend the battery life and this continued right up until end of mission.
This entry was posted by Robin Wolstenholme on Thursday, August 26. 2010 at 10:49.
and is filed under In the news.
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