Cluster Status Report - March 2008
Out of 19 successive eclipses only 12 could be run nominally. For four eclipses a special decoder-only mode was developed where everything is switched off except for the decoder. For the remaining three, the Cluster 1 spacecraft had to be switched off entirely. A pre-heating of the spacecraft helped to keep the temperature within design limits up to the end of the eclipses.
Operations and Archiving
The mid-term review held at ESOC on 15 November was successful. The Board concluded that the performance of all four spacecraft was very close to the forecast of 2004.
On 30 October 2007 the perigee raising and constellation change manoeuvres were initiated, which were successfully completed early December. The perigee was raised about 2500 km to decrease the number of eclipses in 2008 and 2009, which has as a side effect an extended orbital lifetime of the Cluster spacecraft.
Legal disclaimer
This report is based on the January SPC submission. Please see the copyright section of the legal disclaimer (bottom of this page) for terms of use.