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A review of the development of Europa 2 inertial guidance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

A. H. Cairns
A. H. Cairns*
Affiliation:
Marconi Space and Defence Systems Limited
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Extract

The economic advantages of the Woomera Launch Site in South Australia that were all important in the initial formation of ELDO were, by 1966, outweighed by the limitations that the north pointing range imposed on future applications of the three stage Europa Launcher. The predominance of equatorial orbits (and, in particular, geostationary orbits) in the communications satellite field, demanded a near equatorial, east pointing range for efficient satellite launching.

To overcome this limitation on future Europa applications, a supplementary programme to establish an equatorial launch site (ELS) at Kourou in French Guyane, and to develop the Europa 2 launch vehicle for operations from the ELS, was therefore initiated in 1966.

Type
Supplementary Papers
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 77 , Issue 752 , August 1973 , pp. 436 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1973 

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References

1. Riley, A. The Inertial Guidance System for the Europa Satellite Launcher. xix International Astronautical Congress, New York 1968.Google Scholar
2. Cairns, A. H. The Elliott MCS 920 M Computer with particular reference to its application to the inertial guidance of the CECLES-ELDO launcher. Conference on Aerospace Oomputers in Rockets and Spacecraft. Paris 1968.Google Scholar
3. Gage, M. J. W. The guidance of satellite launch vehicles with particular reference to the ELDO vehicle, ELDO/ ESRO Scientific and Technical Review. 1970.Google Scholar
4. Cairns, A. H. Autopilot compatibility of the digital inertial guidance system used in the ELDO Europa launch vehicle. 2nd International Conference on Space Engineering, Venice. May 1969.Google Scholar
5. Dr.Ewart, D. G. Development of the Europa I first stage attitude control system to the Europa II requirements. 2nd International Conference on Space Engineering. Venice, May 1969.Google Scholar
6.The General Report of the Project Review Commission on the Europa 2 Project. 1972.Google Scholar