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NASA6 News
N. National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Washington. D.C. 20546
AC 202 755-8370

For Release:
IMMEDIATE

PR ES SKIT PROJ ECT: SYMPHONIE-B

RELEASE NO: 75-234 Contents

GENERAL RELEASE ........................... 1-4

DELTA 2914 LAUNCH VEHICLE ................. 5
MAJOR DELTA 114 SYMPHONIE FLIGHT EVENTS ... 6

LAUNCH OPERATIONS ......................... 7

SYMPHONIE/DELTA 114 TEAM .................. 7-8

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 National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Washington. DC 20546
AC 202 755-8370
/. ;
W Fear Release
Nicholas Panagakos
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
1h (Phone: IMMEDIATE
202/755-3680)

Joe McRoberts
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Md.
(Phone: 301/982-4955)

RELEASE NO: 75-234

SYMPHONIE-P SET FOR AUG. 26 LAUN1CH

NASA will launch the second French/German

communications
satellite aboard a Delta rocket
from Kennedy Space Center,
Fla., no earlier than Aug. 26.

The launch marks the 47th time that

a non-NASA group
has purchased a Delta and complete
launch services from the
space agency.

Called Symphonie-B, the experimental

satellite still test
and demonstrate communications equipment
for television,
radio, telephone, telegraph and data
transmission.

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The spacecraft will provide the equivalent of two

channels of color television transmission and eight voice
channels, or 1,200 telephone circuits.

t Traveling at a speed that maintains its position in

relation to the Earth's surface, Symphonie will be located

35,900 kilometers (22,300 miles) over the equator at 11.5
degrees west longitude.

The satellite will be capable of transmitting between

ground stations in portions of South America, Europe and
Africa.

Weighing 402 kilograms (886 pounds), the spacecraft

has a diameter of 1.85 meters (6.06 feet) and a height of
0.5 m (1.64 ft.) and includes an apogee motor engine and
nozzle, super high frequency antenna feed and reflectors,
reception horn, solar sensors, VHF antennas and three

attached solar panels extending outward 2.57 m (8.3 ft.)

from the spacecraft.

Power is generated by the solar panels. Two batteries

supply power for spacecraft housekeeping during eclipses
when transmitting equipment cannot be operated.

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Liquid fuel is used for Symphonie's

apogee motor,
which will be ignited by ground command
to place the
satellite into its final synchronous
orbit.
SYmphonie-A, launched by a Delta vehicle
in Decermber
1974, marked the first use of liquid
fuel for an apogee
motor of a spacecraft planned for
synchronous orbit.

The Spaceflight Tracking and Data

Network (STDN) and
minitrack tracking stations of NASA's
Goddard Space Fliaht
Center, Greenbelt, Md., will provide
backup tracking support
to the Symphonie project during the
transfer orbit (launch-
through-apogee motor firing) in cooperation
with French and
German ground stations. Data will go via the NASA Communi-
cations Switching Center in Madrid
to the O-erations Control
Centers at Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich,
German,, and at
Toulouse, France.

The French-German Symphonie organization

consists of
the French space agencv, Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales
(CNES), and the German counterpart,
the Bcreichi 'uer
Projecttragerschaften (BPT). A Franuo-,er-an
industrial con-
sortium, Consortium Industriel Franco-Allernand
pour Symphonie
(CIFAS), is the prime contractor.
Three German and three
wrench companies make up the consortium.

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The French firms are Societe Nationale Aerospatiale,

Societe Anonyme de Telecommunications (SAT) and Thomson-

CSF. Germany's are AEG-Telefunken, Messarschmitt-

Boalkow-Blohm (MBB) and Siemens, A.G.

;.

The Goddard Space Flight Center is responsible for

project management of the Delta project, Kennedy Space

Center is responsible for launch support and the prime

contractor is McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co., Huntington

Beach, Calif.

Robert Baumann is Associate Director of Projects for

Delta at the GSFC. Peter Eaton, Office of Space Science,

NASA Headquarters, is Delta Program Manager. John Neilon

is Director of Unmanned Launch Operations at KSC. The NASA
Project Manager for the Symphonie missions is Robert Goss

of GSFC.

The Symphonie Project is managed by a Franco-German

Executive Committee. The French executive secretary is

Jack Muller and the German executive secretary is Dr. George

Moesl. Dr. Burk Pfeiffer is Symphonie Satellite Group

Manager. Pierre Madon is CIFAS Project Group Manager.

The Symphonie launch window extends from 9:42 p.m. to

10:10 p.m. EDT.

(END OF GENERAL RELEASE. BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOLLOWS.)

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DELTA 2914 LAUNCH VEHICLE

The spacecraft will be launched by a 2914 three-stage

Delta launch vehicle, which has an overall length of approx-
imately 35 meters (116 feet), and a body diameter of 2.4 m
(8 ft.). The Delta launch vehicle has a success-to-launch
ratio of 93 per cent for the past 15 years.
First Stage

The first stage is a McDonnell Douglas extended-long-

tank Thor booster incorporat.ing nine strap-on Thiokol
Castor II solid-fuel rocket motors. The booster is powered
by a Rocketdyne RS-27 engine using liquid oxygen (LOX) and
liquid hydrocarbon propellants. The main engine is gimbal-
mounted to provide pitch and yaw control from liftoff to
main-engine cutoff (MECO). Two liquid propellant vernier
engines provide roll control throughout first stage operation
and pitch and yaw control from MECO to separation of the
first and second stages.
Second Stage
The second stage is powered by a TRW TR-201 liquid-fuel
pressure-fed engine that uses aerozine 50 fuel and N204
oxidizer and is gimbal-mounted to provide pitch and yaw con-
trol through second-stage burn. A nitrogen gas system using
eight fixed nozzles provides roll control during powered and
coast flight as well as pitch and yaw control during coast
and after second-stage cutoff (SECO). Two fixed nozzles,
fed by the propellant-tank helium-pressurization system,
provide retro-thrust after third-stage separation.
Third Stage
The third stage is the Thiokol TE-365-4 spin-stabilized
solid-propellant motor. The third-stage motor is secured in
a spin table mounted to the second stage. The firing of
eight small propellant rockets fixed to the spin table accom-
plishes spinup of the third stage assembly.
Injection Into Synchronous Orbit
The Delta vehicle places the spacecraft in an elliptical
sync-transfer orbit. The spacecraft apogee motor will be
fired at the fourth apogee cf the orbit about 40 lhours after
launch. This maneuver will circularize the orbit at synchronous
altitude above the equator. The spacecraft hydrazine attitude
control system is used to drift the satellite to its final
station at 11.5 degrees west longitude. About a month after
launch, following checkout of the onboard communications
systems, the spacecraft will become operational.

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LAUNCH OPERATIONb

The John F. Kennedy Space Center's Unmanned

Operations Directorate plays a key role in Launch
the preparation
and launch of the three-stage, thrust-augmented
rocket carrying the Symphonie-B spacecraft, Delta
which will be
Delta mission 114.

The Delta 114 first stage was erected on Pad

launch from 17A pad was OSO-H A (last
Sept. 29, 1971) at Complex
17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June
30. Four of
the nine solid strap-on rocket motors were mated
first stage on July 9 and the remaining five with the
were mated on
July 10. The Delta second stage was erected on Tuly
The Symphonie spacecraft was received at KSC 11.
on June 24,
checked out in Hangar S at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station
and moved to the pad for mating with Delta.
The payload
fairing which will protect Symphonie during
its flight
through the atmosphere will be placed atop Delta
114 four
days before launch.

The three-day countdown leading to launch is

conducted
by a joint NASA/industry team.

SYMPHONIE/DELTA 114 TEAM

NASA Headquarters

Dr. Noel Hinners Associate Administrator

for Space Science
Joseph Mahon Director, Launch Vehicle-,
and Pronulsion Progrars
Peter Eaton 1anager, Delta Progrdm
Isaac Gillam Manager, Small Launch Vehiclci
and International Programs

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Kennedy Space Center

Lee R. Scherer Director

John J. Neilon Director, Unmanned Launch

Operations

Hugh A. Weston, Jr. Manager, Delta Launch

Operations

William R. Fletcher, Jr. Manager, Delta Spacecraft

Operations

David Bragdon Spacecraft Proiect Engineer

Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. John F. Clark Director

Robert Baumann Associate Director of

Projects for Delta

Robert Goss Head, Spacecraft Coordination

Branch, Delta, and NASA
Manager for Symphonie
Missions

Charles Gunn Technical Director and

Deputy Project Manager,
Delta

August 1.9, 1975