In Spacecraft Operations, The Launch and Early Orbit Phase is one of the most critical phases of a mission. Spacecraft operations engineers take control of the satellite after it separates from the launch vehicle up to the time when the satellite is safely positioned in its final orbit.
During this period, operations staff works 24 hours a day to activate, monitor and control the various subsystems of the satellite, including the deployment of any satellite appendages (antennas, solar array, reflector, etc.), and undertake critical orbit and attitude control manoeuvres.
For geostationary satellites, the launch vehicle typically carries the spacecraft to Geostationary Transfer Orbit, or GTO. From this elliptical orbit, the LEOP generally includes a sequence of apogee engine firings to reach the circular geostationary orbit.
Famous quotes containing the words launch, early, orbit and/or phase:
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Make-believe is the avenue to much of the young childs early understanding. He sorts out impressions and tries out ideas that are foundational to his later realistic comprehension. This private world sometimes is a quiet, solitary
world. More often it is a noisy, busy, crowded place where language grows, and social skills develop, and where perseverance and attention-span expand.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“To my thinking boomed the Professor, begging the question as usual, the greatest triumph of the human mind was the calculation of Neptune from the observed vagaries of the orbit of Uranus.
And yours, said the P.B.”
—Samuel Beckett (19061989)
“I had let preadolescence creep up on me without paying much attentionand I seriously underestimated this insidious phase of child development. You hear about it, but youre not a true believer until it jumps out at you in the shape of your own, until recently quite companionable child.”
—Susan Ferraro (20th century)