Starlette / Stella (original) (raw)
Please make a donation to support Gunter's Space Page.
Thank you very much for visiting Gunter's Space Page. I hope that this site is useful and informative for you.
If you appreciate the information provided on this site, please consider supporting my work by making a simple and secure donation via PayPal. Please help to run the website and keep everything free of charge. Thank you very much.
Stella [CNES]
Starlette (Satellite de Taille Adapt�e avec R�flecteurs Laser por les Etudes de la Terre) and Stella are virtually identical French passive satellites launched by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in 1975 and 1993, respectively. They are dedicated to geodetic and geophysical studies with SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging).
Their small size compared to their mass gives them a much larger sensitivity to the gravitational attraction than to the surface forces due either to the residual atmosphere at the satellite or to radiation pressure. Both Stella and Starlette are covered with 60 identical retroreflectors.
| Nation: | France |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Geodesy |
| Operator: | CNES |
| Contractors: | CNES |
| Equipment: | 60 retroreflectors |
| Configuration: | 24 cm sphere |
| Propulsion: | None |
| Power: | None |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | 47 kg (Starlette), 48 kg (Stella) |
| Orbit: | 806 km × 1108 km, 49.82� (Starlette); 798 km × 805 km, 98.68� (Stella) |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starlette (BETA) | 1975-010A | 06.02.1975 | Ko ELD | Diamant-BP4 | |
| Stella | 1993-061B | 26.09.1993 | Ko ELA-2 | Ariane-40 H10 | with SPOT 3, Healthsat 2, Kitsat 2, Eyesat 1, Itamsat, PoSAT 1 |
References:
- eoPortal Directory: Starlette / Stella - Geodetic Satellites
- SSTL SSHP: STELLA - The centimetre over centuries