KSC-05-S-00293

Video source record: https://images.nasa.gov/details/ksc_081505_goesn_dress_13

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Summary

BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: And our last question today is from Stuart in Charlottesville, and the question is: 'Why the tight launch window for a weather satellite?' ANDRE' DRESS: Okay, that's a really excellent question. And it has to do, it gets down to the configuration of the spacecraft and orbit geometry, so a lot of factors in here. So the spacecraft is actually buttoned up in a certain way, we have a solar array panel that's mounted on the spacecraft, so it's very important to actually point that panel towards the Sun. At the same time, we actually have constraints on when we can do maneuvers orbitally in those certain locations, as well as maintain communication with the Earth. Okay, so with all those three factors defined, okay, the spacecraft has to be at a certain place, at a certain location and a certain attitude, and at a certain place where the Sun is actually pointing at the panels, and so all those things just happen to line up at a certain time, and so getting it there

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Details

• Source collection: NASA
• License: Public Domain (US Government)
• Category: Mathematics

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Academic references

1. Primary source record: https://images.nasa.gov/details/ksc_081505_goesn_dress_13
2. Topic lookup: Google Scholar search for “KSC-05-S-00293”