POINTS in cruise configuration
JPEG
During the 17 hour cruise to high earth orbit (nominally 100,000 km), the
solar shield opens to produce power for the instrument-box heaters and
other functions; but the boom remains folded until after the Star 37FM
motor fires at apogee to circularize the spacecraft's orbit. Before that
motor fires, a spin-up motor (blue) imparts a rotation of a few RPM, and
after orbit insertion is complete, the spin-down motor returns the
spacecraft to zero spin, leaving it three-axis stabilized with gyros and
reaction wheels. The cold-gas thrusters may be used to dump angular
momentum when necessary.
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