Status Report

‘Best and Final’ Trajectory Information for New Horizon’s Launch Vehicle Upper Stage

By SpaceRef Editor

January 24, 2006

Filed under New Horizons, Southwest Research Institute, US

Editor’s note: This is the ‘best and final’ trajectory info for the Boeing upper stage for New Horizon’s launch vehicle.

Trajectory Comparison For Upper Stage and Observatory (SC)

JUPITER

(Jupiter-Centered, Earth-Mean Ecliptic of J2000)

Event	Spacecraft	Upper Stage
Periapsis Date/Time	28-FEB-2007 05:41:23 UTC	28-FEB-2007 01:44:19 UTC
Radius of Closest Approach	2,305,447 km	2,819,811 km
B-vector Magnitude	2,651,698 km	3,169,795 km
B.T (Ecliptic, Jupiter-centered)	2,632,992 km	3,137,061 km
B.R (Ecliptic, Jupiter-centered)	314,412 km	454,372 km
Inclination (w.r.t. Ecliptic)	6.91 deg	8.33 deg
V-infinity	18.45 km/s	18.46 km/s

PLUTO

(Pluto-Centered, Earth-Mean Ecliptic of J2000)

Event	Spacecraft	Upper Stage
Periapsis Date/Time	14-JUL-2015 11:58:00 UTC	09-OCT-2015 22:42:27 UTC
Radius of Closest Approach	11,095 km	187,044,046 km
B-vector Magnitude	11,100 km	187,044,051 km
B.T (Ecliptic, Pluto-centered)	-9,893 km	186,171,405 km
B.R (Ecliptic, Pluto-centered)	5,034 km	-18,046,741 km
Inclination (w.r.t. Ecliptic)	151.71 deg	10.66 deg
V-infinity	13.77 km/s	13.33 km/s

Notes:

1. Spacecraft mass and solar pressure model used for modeling upper stage.

2. Relative separation speed between upper stage and observatory is 1.83 m/s (6 ft/s), was received
from Jim Stratton, and is based on Boeing’s final separation analysis published 13 December 2005.

3. SC separation attitude is from Centaur telemetry just before Star 48 separation, received from
Yanping Guo. Right ascension = 200.6 deg, declination = -14.3 degrees.

4. Separation Delta v applied to upper stage in negative SC attitude direction (modeled as impulsive Delta v).
KinetX, Inc New Horizons NAV 24 January 2006

SpaceRef Editor

SpaceRef staff editor.

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