Observation by Nick James: Landsat 9 Centaur stage deorbit burn

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2021 Sep 27 - 21:12

Uploaded

2021 Sep 28 - 00:25

Objects

Spacecraft

Equipment

IMX307 video camera

Exposure

1/10s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

Landsat 9 Centaur

Title

Landsat 9 Centaur stage deorbit burn

About this image

I missed the predictions for this so didn't see it but my northwest camera picked it up. The video is here. I wish I'd seen it.

Files associated with this observation

vlcsnap-2021-09-28-01h21m48s821.png (1.4 MB)

Like this image

Eric Watkins, David Basey, Alan Thomas, Ron Arbour, Dominic Ford, Geof Lewis, Tor Schofield, Alan C Tough, Ron Johnson, Mike Harlow, Peter Carson

Comments

Nick James, 2021 Sep 28 - 12:00 UTC

A few more details:

The Atlas launch was at 18:12 UTC last night and a couple of orbits later the upper Centaur stage was deorbited by firing its engine for 25s. This happened over the UK shortly after the stage had emerged into sunlight.

The stage first does a 25s rocket burn to initiate the de-orbit and then dumps its residual propellants (LOX and LH2) through the RL-10 engine. On the video the bright plume starts to become visible at 21:11:24 and then grows rapidly into a conical shape. The top cone is the propellant dump and the bottom, fainter, one is the exhaust plume from the de-orbit burn.

Dominic Ford

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