The first countdown got scrubbed, weather.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/01/jaxa-ss-520-rocket-tricom-1-launch/
On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 10:33 AM, Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Tue, 3 Jan 2017, Lars Osborne wrote:
180 x 1500 km orbit?
If that is a limitation of the launch vehicle, it seems to be of limited
utility. :/
As Nathan has already noted, it's a one-shot tech demo (like Lambda-4S, in
fact) with no intention of being practically useful.
I'm sure you could get a lower apogee by reducing the fuel load in the
final motor, but anything resembling precision insertion would be hard with
a simple solid. If you asked Scout for a circular orbit, insertion
altitude was fairly accurate, but the other side of the orbit had only
about a 75% chance of being less than 100km off! This is why modern
all-solid launchers generally have at least the option of a little liquid
final stage for orbit trim.
Similarly, a higher perigee probably requires either a trim stage or major
design revisions -- most likely, 180km is the highest final-stage ignition
altitude that the lower stages can provide.
Henry
