ROSAT has been launched with a McDonald Douglas Delta-II rocket from Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA)
on June 1, 1990 at 17:48 local time
and inserted directly into a circular Earth orbit with an altitude
of approximately 360 miles (580 km).
ROSAT Launch Vehicle Delta-II
Essential parameters of the ROSAT nominal orbit are given in the following
table:
Orbit Parameters
launch | 1990/6/1, 17:48 local |
altitude | 580 km |
inclination | 53° |
eccentricity | < 0.1% |
orbit period | 96.2 minutes |
precession | 66 days |
ground station contacts | 6 × 8 min/day |
DLR/GSOC 15 m Ground Station
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During all operational phases the mission control is performed by the
German Space Operation Center
(GSOC)
of the German Aerospace Establishment (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
After separation from the second stage of the rocket the telecommunication
link has been established between the ROSAT S-band antenna and the 15 m
ground station of DLR/GSOC at Weilheim.
All mission operations related functions such as data processing and display,
spacecraft instruments performance analysis, orbit and altitude determination
and control, command generation etc. is conducted from the ROSAT mission
control centre at GSOC.
Control Centre (DLR/GSOC)
All scientific data is routed to the Science Data Center at
Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrical Physiscs (MPE) in Garching
for analysis.
Science Data Centre (MPE)
Since GSOC is the only ground station involved ground contacts are very
short (6 to 8 minutes) and occur only in the course of six consecutive
orbits per day.
As a consequence extensive on-board data storage and a highly automatic
ROSAT operation is required.
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