HIPPARCOS ON-ORBIT ENVIRONMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Hipparcos was launched on 8 August 1989 for astrometry mission on geostationary orbit. Several unsuccessful attempts to ignite the ABM resulted in a revised mission on an eccentric orbit (500 km/36,000 km). Compared with the planned geostationary orbit, this one induced a more severe environment from physical and operational points of view. It resulted in major drawbacks for the radiation environment, since the radiation belts are crossed twice per orbit (i.e. roughly 4 times per day), and the eclipse duration increased up to 50%, for an orbit period divided by a factor two. Although the ground segment was extended to include additional ground stations, the revised orbit does not allow permanent contact between the ground stations and the spacecraft. The flexibility of the on-board software has been used for programming the main housekeeping functions during the non visibility periods. The spacecraft has been operating for several months, and after the payload calibration, the scientific mission started in November 1989. The results are very encouraging and the scientific returns will reach an unexpected level compared with the initial predictions after the ABM failure. The final performance relies on two major parameters. The payload characteristics measured on orbit are very well in line with ground measurements and simulations; however, radiation affects the photometry by the optics darkening effect. The mission lifetime will depend on resources and possible failures; the power budget was considered as a limiting factor, due to the solar generator degradation, but the last predictions, which are correlated with the on-orbit behaviour, indicate a possible lifetime of 3 years; however, the severe radiation levels could cause other problems which cannot be predicted. This paper presents the spacecraft status and payload performances as observed after 10 months of scientific mission. The first, astrometry performances will be known at that time, since the complete celestial sphere will have been covered, and the expected mission performance predictions will be re-evaluated more accurately. The last available results at the time of the congress could also be presented, i.e. after almost 1 year of mission.