OPS 0855
Boilerplate MOL spacecraft launched in 1966 with Manifold experiments.
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In 1966, the U.S. launched OPS 0855, also called OV4-3, a boilerplate Manned Orbiting Laboratory test craft. It was assembled from a retired Titan I first-stage oxidizer tank attached to a Transtage. The vehicle carried Manifold research experiments meant to run for 75 days, but they stopped working after only 30.
History
The primary payload of the Titan IIIC 3C-9 rocket was OPS 0855, which carried the Manifold experimental package. This package included two micrometeoroid detectors, a beacon called ORBIS-Low, a cell growth experiment, a prototype hydrogen fuel cell, a thermal control experiment, a system for transferring and monitoring propellant to study zero-gravity fluid dynamics, a prototype attitude control system, an experiment on light reflection in space, and a heat transfer experiment.
The spacecraft was painted so ground-based optical tracking and observation experiments could use it as a target. The same rocket also carried the Gemini B prototype capsule, Gemini SC-2, which was released on a suborbital path during launch. Inside the adapter linking the Gemini spacecraft to OPS 0855 were three additional satellites: two OV4-1 satellites and OV1-6, all deployed into low Earth orbit. OPS 0855 achieved an orbit with an apogee of 305 km, a perigee of 298 km, and an inclination of 32.82 degrees.
It remained in orbit until it decayed on 9 January 1967. The MOL project was canceled in June 1969, and no further missions were flown.
More in Military Space Program of the United States
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: OPS 0855 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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