[Satnews] The SSC Group announces that on Monday, October 19 at 16:09 LT (14:09 UTC), O-STATES #2 was launched from Esrange—this was the second launch of O-STATES in 2,5 weeks—the flight was nominal and reached an altitude of 243,6 km.
This will be the first rocket mission under the new Swedish national balloon and rocket program. O-STATES carries a payload of optical and electrical sensors, for detection of oxygen in its different states, to between 80 and 240 km. This is to extend the understanding of mechanisms in the upper atmosphere and to characterize remote sensing techniques.
The second payload launch of O-STATES.
Photo is courtesy of SSC.
The research is being carried out using a two stage rocket (S31 /Improved Orion). Two identical payloads have now been launched into geo-magnetically opposite conditions to study the atmospheric band airglow.
Early morning on October 2 at 05:39 UTC, a successful launch of the O-STATES payload took place from Esrange Space Center. The rocket reached an altitude of 246 km and the impact took place east of the village of Pulsujärvi inside Esrange Impact area. The scientists have received data and are now starting the process of analyzing it. The recovery begins as soon as the weather permits.
SSC is, in addition, providing...
- Project management
- Service systems
- Instrumentation integration
- System integration and testing
- Launch service (Eurolaunch)
- Operations
The launch site is the Esrange Space Center. The first payload launch occurred on October 2 at 05:39 UTC. The rocket is a S31 / Improved Orion with a payload diameter of 14 inches, a nominal payload weight ~ 205 kg, an apogee ~ 240 km.