MAP (MIDEX 2)

Launch data: Designation  26859 / 01027A Launch date  30 Jun 2001 - 19:46:46 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-17B Launch vehicle  Delta 7425-10 (D286) Mission  Government: Astrophysics, Sun observation Elliptical Cislunar orbit on Nov 1, 2010: Perigee / Apogee  3144 x 347874 Eccentricity  9,48E-01 Inclination  28.3° Period  12866.59 min

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor  Princeton/NASA-Goddard Operator  Goddard Space Flight Center Platform   Mass at launch  835 kg (72 kg of propellant) Dry Mass  768 kg Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Solar array   Stabilization   DC power  400 W Design lifetime  3-5 yrs

Decay:

Mission details:

• NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) was launched on Jun 30, 2001 at 1946:46 UTC. The Boeing Delta 7425-10 launch vehicle entered a 167 x 204 km x 28.8 deg parking orbit at 1958 UTC. At 2104 UTC the second stage ignited again for a brief 4s burn raising the orbit to around 181 x 308 km; the third stage spun up and ignited at 2108 UTC, accelerating MAP to a highly elliptical orbit of 182 x 292492 km x 28.7 deg.
• On Jul 22, 2001 the MAP probe was in a 4055 x 355935 km x 28.0 deg orbit.
• MAP will use on-board fuel to tweak the orbit and make a lunar flyby at fourth apogee on July 30 and arrive at the L2 point 1.5 million km from Earth in about three months. From L2, MAP will observe the dark extragalactic sky with differential microwave radiometers using two 1.5-meter reflectors working at 22 to 90 GHz, and measure fluctuations in the cosmic 3 Kelvin microwave background down to 35 microKelvin on scales of down to 0.2 degrees. Ground based experiments have recently provided convincing evidence that the background fluctuations are consistent with a model in which the total density of the universe is closely equal to the critical density; MAP will refine and extend these observations. It was built at NASA-Goddard, and the microwave instrument was built incollaboration with Princeton University.
• MAP flew past the Moon on Jul 30, 2001 at 16:39 UTC at a distance of 5200 km above the lunar surface. 
• WMAP mission was proposed to NASA in 1995, launched in summer 2001 on a Med-Lite Delta II 7425-10 vehicle into a lunar assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth L2 libration point for a nominal 27 month mission (3 months transit to L2, 24 months observing). The mission has now been extended for several years to collect additional high quality data. The total payload mass is ~830 kg. The WMAP instrument is continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft to allow lower thermal disturbances.
  
  
  
• WMAP ended the collection of science data on August 19th 2010. The final two years of data will be analyzed and published in approximately two years with the final funding received.
• Following its final burns, WMAP is in a 1.00 x 1.09 AU x 1.5 deg solar orbit. As of Nov 5, it is still only 1.7 million km from Earth, just outside the L2 region.