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:
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“It was common practice for me to take my children with me whenever I went shopping, out for a walk in a white neighborhood, or just felt like going about in a white world. The reason was simple enough: if a black man is alone or with other black men, he is a threat to whites. But if he is with children, then he is harmless, adorable.”
—Gerald Early (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 (1906–1989)
“The Indians feel that each stage is crucial and that the child should be allowed to dwell in each for the appropriate period of time so that every aspect of his being can evolve, just as a plant evolves in the proper time and sequence of the seasons. Otherwise, the child never has a chance to master himself in any one phase of his life.”
—Alan Quetone (20th century)