E1P F2

Spacecraft n°:

US spacecraft n°:

Launch data: Designation  37855 / 11061F Launch date  28 Oct 2011 - 09:48 UT Launch site  Va, SLC-2W Launch vehicle  Delta-7920-10C Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Its mission is to detect the Van Allen radiation belts in honor of the 50th anniversary of Explorer-1, America's first satellite that first discovered the cloud of highly energetic electrons trapped in the Earth's magnetic field.
• E1P will carry a miniature Geiger tube donated by Dr. Van Allen using it to measure the intensity and variability of these electrons in low earth orbit.
• E1P will demonstrate software technology developed at SSEL that uses a popular chip radio to close a digital data link with standard ham radio hardware allowing people around the world to contact the satellite and download science and housekeeping data.

Mission details:

• Launch from Space Launch Complex 2-West at Vandenberg was at 0948 UTC; Stage 2 reached a 195 x 853 km x 98.7 deg orbit at 0958 UTC. At 1040 UTC a second burn circulazed the orbit at 816 x 819 km and the NPP satellite separated at 1046 UTC.
• The Delta 7920 launch vehicle carried six Cubesats in deployers attached to its final stage. The first P-POD deployer carried three 1U Cubesats, each 1 kg, 0.1m in size: AubieSat-1 from Auburn University, Alabama; M-Cubed (the Michigan Multipurpose Mission) from the University of Michigan; and E1PU2 (Explorer-1 Prime, Unit 2) from Montana State University, which carries one of Van Allen's Geiger tubes.
• Stage 2's third burn at 1120 UTC lowered the orbit and increased inclination, to 458 x 816 km x 101.7 deg (a higher perigee than originally planned). At 1126 UTC the three 1U Cubesats were ejected,
• The University of Michigan M-Cubed cubesat, launched with the NPP weather satellite on Oct 28, 2011 is now thought to be attached to, or entangled with, Montana State's Hiscock Radiation Belt Explorer (E1PU2) cubesat which was ejected along with it. The two craft are being tracked as 2011-61F, catalogue 37855.