SOLRAD 2

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SOLRAD 2
SOLRAD reserve satellite (similar to SOLRAD 2)
NamesGRAB (2)
SOLar RADiation 2
SR 2
GREB (2)
Mission typeSolar X-rays
OperatorNaval Research Laboratory (USNRL)
COSPAR ID1960-F16 (SRD-2)
Mission durationFailed to orbit
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft typeSOLRAD
ManufacturerNaval Research Laboratory (USNRL)
Launch mass18 kg (40 lb)
Dimensions51 cm (20 in) of diameter
Power6 watts
Start of mission
Launch date30 November 1960, 19:50 GMT
RocketThor-Ablestar
Launch siteCape Canaveral, LC-17B
ContractorDouglas Aircraft Company
End of mission
DestroyedFailed to orbit
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit (planned)
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude930 km (580 mi)
Apogee altitude930 km (580 mi)
Inclination66.70°
Period100.0 minutes
GRAB 2
 →

SOLRAD (SOLar RADiation) 2 was the public designation for a combination surveillance and

electronic surveillance package, the mission of which was to map the Soviet Union
's air defense radar network.

SOLRAD 2 was launched along with Transit 3A atop a Thor-Ablestar rocket on 30 November 1960, but both satellites failed to reach orbit when the booster flew off course and was destroyed, raining debris over Cuba, which prompted official protests from the Cuban government. As a result, future SOLRAD flights were programmed to avoid a Cuban flyover during launch.

Background

SOLRAD 1 on top of Transit 2A with four of its creators.[1] From left: Martin J. Votaw, George G. Kronmiller, Alfred R. Conover, and Roy A. Harding.

In 1957, the

Fan Song fire control radars. This development made penetration of Soviet air space by American bombers more dangerous. The U.S. Air Force began a program of cataloging the rough location and individual operating frequencies of these radars, using electronic reconnaissance aircraft flying off the borders of the Soviet Union. This program provided information on radars on the periphery of the Soviet Union, but information on the sites further inland was lacking. Some experiments were carried out using radio telescopes looking for serendipitous Soviet radar reflections off the Moon, but this proved an inadequate solution to the problem.[2]
: 362 

In March 1958,

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) was heavily involved in Project Vanguard, the U.S. Navy's effort to launch a satellite, NRL engineer Reid D. Mayo, determined that a Vanguard derivative could be used to map Soviet missile sites. Mayo had previously developed a system for submarines whereby they could evade anti-submarine aircraft by picking up their radar signals. Physically small and mechanically robust, it could be adapted to fit inside the small Vanguard frame.[2]
: 364 

Mayo presented the idea to Howard Lorenzen, head of the NRL's countermeasures branch. Lorenzen promoted the idea within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and six months later the concept was approved under the name "Tattletale".[2]: 364  President Eisenhower approved full development of the program on 24 August 1959.[3]: 4 

After a news leak by

need-to-know" personnel.[4]: 2  American space launches were not classified at the time,[5][6] and a co-flying cover mission that would share space with DYNO was desired to conceal DYNO's electronic surveillance mission from its intended targets.[7]
: 300 

The study of the Sun's

sounding rockets inadequate for the observation task. A satellite was required for long-term, continuous study of the complete solar spectrum.[9]: 5–6, 63–65 [10]

Wavelengths of light blocked by Earth's atmosphere

The NRL already had a purpose-built solar observatory in the form of

Van Allen belts.[9]: 63  Development of the DYNO satellite from the Vanguard design was managed by NRL engineer Martin Votaw, leading a team of Project Vanguard engineers and scientists who had not migrated to NASA.[11] The dual-purpose satellite was renamed GRAB ("Galactic Radiation And Background"), sometimes referred to as GREB ("Galactic Radiation Experiment Background"), and referred to in its scientific capacity as SOLRAD ("SOLar RADiation").[1]: 142, 149 [7]
: 300 

A dummy

Transit 1B,[7]: 301  proving the dual satellite launch technique.[12] On 5 May 1960, just four days after the downing of Gary Powers' U-2 flight over the Soviet Union highlighted the vulnerability of aircraft-based surveillance, President Eisenhower approved the launch of an operational SOLRAD satellite.[13]: 32  SOLRAD/GRAB 1 was launched into orbit on 22 June 1960, becoming both the world's first surveillance satellite and the first satellite to observe the Sun in X-ray and ultraviolet light.[7]

Spacecraft

SOLRAD 1, its principal external features labeled.

SOLRAD 2 was roughly a duplicate of its predecessor, SOLRAD/GRAB 1,[14] spherical and 51 cm (20 in) in diameter,[8] slightly lighter than SOLRAD/GRAB 1 despite carrying the same scientific experiments (18 kg (40 lb) versus 19.05 kg (42.0 lb)),[4] and powered by six circular patches of solar cells.[4]: a1-4  The solar cells powered nine D cell batteries in series (12 volts total) [4]: 10  providing 6 watts of power.[13]: 32 

The satellite's SOLRAD scientific package included two

ion chambers) for the study of ultraviolet light in the 1,050–1,350 Å wavelength range and one X-ray photometer (an argon ion chamber) in the 2–8 Å wavelength range, all mounted around the equator of the satellite.[15] As with SOLRAD 1, permanent magnets were installed to deflect charged particles from the detector windows to address the saturation issue that had impacted the Vanguard 3 mission.[9]
: 64–65 

The satellite's GRAB surveillance equipment was designed to detect Soviet air defense radars broadcasting on the

pulse repetition frequency.[3]: 4–7 [1]
: 108 

"NSA Data Reduction", indicating the intelligence to be derived by processing the satellite downlink

Omaha, Nebraska, for analysis and processing.[17]

Like most early automatic spacecraft, SOLRAD 2, though spin stabilized,[7]: 300  lacked active attitude control systems and thus scanned the whole sky without focusing on a particular source.[9]: 13  So that scientists could properly interpret the source of the X-rays detected by SOLRAD 2, the spacecraft carried a vacuum photocell to determine when the Sun was striking its photometers and the angle at which sunlight hit them.[9]: 64 

Mission

SOLRAD 2's Thor-Ablestar on launch day

In November 1960, Votaw and his 14-man team drove the technical components for the SOLRAD 2 launch (loaded in the trunks of their own cars) from NRL headquarters in Washington, D.C. to Cape Canaveral, flying having been ruled out due to the recent rash of skyjackings to Cuba. Upon arrival, the NRL team set up a temporary ground station in a hangar on the Cape's west side. SOLRAD 2's booster (first stage Thor No. 283 and second stage Able-Star 006) was erected nearly three miles away at Cape Canaveral Pad LC-17B.[18]

On launch day, 30 November 1960, minor glitches caused so many holds in the hours-long countdown that the NRL team commissioned a betting pool as to when the launch would occur.[18] Nevertheless, SOLRAD 2 did launch, along with Transit 3A (a separate satellite on the same rocket), at 19:50 GMT,[12] into a sunny sky. The Thor first stage shut down prematurely (it had been scheduled to burn for 163 seconds). Out of caution, despite the possibility that its payload could still be orbited, the now separated first and second stages of the booster were destroyed by the range safety officer.[18]

Like SOLRAD 1 (but no other American launches to date), SOLRAD 2's course to orbit took it over the

Cuban Army post at Holguín reported fragments falling along a 200 sq mi (518 km2) swath and reported recovering "two complete sphere [sic], two apparatuses in the form of cones and various cylinders" with English inscriptions. One piece of recovered debris was described as a "sealed sphere of some 40 pounds". Given that Vanguard TV-3's satellite survived a booster explosion, it is possible that this was SOLRAD 2, recovered intact. The items were then delivered to army headquarters at Palma Soriano. According to a 1988 Chinese document, some of the recovered debris was sold to the People's Republic of China and used in aid of the design of the second stage of the CSS-4 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).[18]

The Cuban government protested the incident: Revolución, an official Cuban newspaper, accused the United States of "Yankee provocation", and government radio stations denounced what they described as efforts to destroy Castro's regime. Cuba lodged an official complaint with the United Nations. In response to these protests, American launches overflying Cuba were postponed, improvements were made to the range-safety system at Cape Canaveral,[18] and future SOLRAD flights were programmed to follow a more northerly course to orbit during launch that did not overfly Cuba.[20]

Legacy

The SOLRAD/GRAB series flew three more times finishing with the

Explorer program numbers. The last in this final series of SOLRAD satellites flew in 1976. In all, there were thirteen operational satellites in the SOLRAD series.[7] The GRAB program was declassified in 1998.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Review and Redaction Guide" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office. 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-307-42505-8
    .
  3. ^ a b c d McDonald, Robert A.; Moreno, Sharon K. "GRAB and POPPY: America's Early ELINT Satellites" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office. Retrieved 11 February 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ a b c d e "History of the Poppy Satellite System" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office. 14 August 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2010. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ISBN 978-1-56098-830-4
    .
  6. OCLC 1032873498
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1-85109-519-3
    .
  8. ^ a b c d ""Bonus" Payload Set for Transit 2A Orbit". Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. 20 June 1960. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  9. ^
    OCLC 860060668. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-309-18120-4. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  11. ^ Parry, Daniel (2 October 2011). "NRL Center for Space Technology Reaches Century Mark in Orbiting Spacecraft Launches". U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  12. ^ a b c McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathon's Space Report. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  13. ^ a b c "NRO Lifts Veil On First Sigint Mission". Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. 22 June 1998. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  14. ^ "Transit IIIA Planned for November 29 launch". Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. 7 November 1960. Archived from the original on 12 January 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  15. ^ "SOLRAD 1". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  16. ISBN 978-1-97353-209-5. SP-4202. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  17. ^ "GRAB, Galactic Radiation And Background, World's First Reconnaissance Satellite". Naval Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on 26 July 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  18. ^ a b c d e "The Navy's Spy Missions in Space". U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. April 2008. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  19. ^ "Cubans Claim U.S. Rocket His Near 3rd Largest City". The Logan Daily News. Associated Press. 1 December 1960. p. 1. Retrieved 18 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b LePage, Andrew (30 September 2014). "Vintage Micro: The First ELINT Satellites". Drew Ex Machina. Archived from the original on 12 January 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
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