CHAMP Satellite Launched From Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Germany’s CHAMP satellite was successfully launched aboard a Cosmos-3M booster from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome today at 11:59:59.682 UTC. The first telemetry session with the satellite has been completed.

According to the mission’s homepage “CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) is a German small satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research and applications, managed by GFZ. With its highly precise, multifunctional and
complementary payload elements (magnetometer,
accelerometer, star sensor, GPS receiver, laser retro
reflector, ion drift meter) and its orbit characteristics
(near polar, low altitude, long duration) CHAMP will
generate for the first time simultaneously highly
precise gravity and magnetic field measurements
over a 5 years period. This will allow to detect besides
the spatial variations of both fields also their variability
with time.”

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° CHAMP misison, GFZ Potsdan