Cerise (satellite)

Cerise
	Illustration of debris colliding with Cerise
Mission type	Military reconnaissance
COSPAR ID	1995-033B
SATCAT no.	23606
Spacecraft properties
Bus	SSTL-70
Manufacturer	Alcatel Space · Surrey Satellite Technology
Launch mass	50 kg (110 lb)
Dry mass	50kg
Dimensions	0.6 × 0.3 × 0.3 m (1.97 × 0.98 × 0.98 ft)
Start of mission
Launch date	7 July 1995, 16:23:34 UTC
Rocket	Ariane 4 V-75
Launch site	Guiana Space Centre ELA-2
Contractor	Arianespace
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Sun-synchronous
Eccentricity	0.0005756
Perigee altitude	581 km (361 mi)
Apogee altitude	589 km (366 mi)
Inclination	98.2413°
Mean motion	14.94 rev/day
Epoch	27 December 2016 12:15:03 UTC

Cerise (French for "cherry") was a French military reconnaissance satellite. Its main purpose was to intercept HF radio signals for French intelligence services.^[1] With a mass of 50 kg, it was launched by an Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana at 17:23 UT, 7 July 1995.^[1] Cerise's initial orbital parameters were period 98.1 min, apogee 675 km, perigee 666 km, and inclination 98.0 deg.^[1]

On 24 July 1996 it was hit by a catalogued space debris object from an Ariane rocket, making it the first verified case of an accidental collision between two artificial objects in space.^[2]^[3]

The collision (with relative velocity of 14.8 km/s) tore off a 2.8-2.9 metre (9.2-9.5 foot) portion of Cerise's gravity-gradient stabilization boom, which left the satellite severely damaged and tumbling with a limited attitude control system. Novel magnetic control algorithms were used to re-stabilise the otherwise undamaged microsatellite to regain almost full operational mission capability.^[4]^[5]

References[]

^ ^a ^b ^c "SPACEWARN Bulletin Number 501". NASA. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
^ "CO2 prolongs life of space junk". BBC News. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 8 March 2006.
^ Volume 1, Issue 2, Sept 1996. "Orbital Debris Quarterly News" (PDF). NASA, Johnson Space Centre. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
^ "History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations" (PDF). NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. June 2008. pp. 368–369. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
^ M.N. Sweeting; Y. Hashida; N.P. Bean; M.S. Hodgart; H. Steyn. "CERISE microsatellite recovery from first detected collision in low Earth orbit". Science Direct. Retrieved 8 August 2021.