YES 2

Launch data: Designation  320xx / 07040B Launch date  14 Sep 2007 - 11:00 UT Launch site  Baik, Launch vehicle  Soyuz-U Mission  Technique Earth orbit on: Perigee / Apogee  2 km Inclination  ° Period   min

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor   Operator   Platform   Mass at launch   kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Solar array   Stabilization   DC power   Design lifetime

Credit: ESA

Mission details:

• Sep 08, 2007 - Assembly Foton-M & YES 2 on 3e stage.
• YES-2/Fotino is a European space tether/re-entry experiment, and will be released from Foton M-3, before re-entry.
• On Sep 25 at 0447 UTC, the ESA YES-2 tether was deployed from the battery pack on the front end of Foton. The tether was then severed at the battery pack end at about 0720 UTC, after it had reached only 8.5 km of its planned 30 km length. The tiny 5 kg Fotino reentry capsule separated from the attached MASS data support system shortly afterwards. The idea was that the dynamics of space tethers let you send a capsule back to Earth without using a heavy retro-rocket; as the tether swings beneath the parent satellite, if you wait until the velocity of the capsule is too low for orbit at that height and then release it, it will reenter for free. It is not yet known what actually happened to the capsule; my best guess is that both MASS/tether and Fotino did reenter sometime on Sep 25 either on their first orbit or shortly afterwards. The next day at Foton deorbit, the battery pack and its attached YES2 deployer was ejected into a 257 x 275 km orbit and two retrorocket covers were ejected into higher 265 x 500 km orbits.