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Bulgaria 1300

Bulgaria's first artificial satellite

Field	Value
name	Bulgaria 1300
mission_type	Science
operator	BSA
COSPAR_ID	1981-075A
mission_duration
(achieved)
manufacturer	BAC
BAS
SSA
launch_mass	1500 kg
launch_date	UTC
launch_rocket	Vostok-2M
launch_site	Plesetsk 43/3
last_contact
decay_date	2550 (planned)
orbit_epoch	Epoch start: 1981-08-06 20:00:00 UTC
orbit_reference	Geocentric
orbit_regime	Low Earth
orbit_periapsis	792 km
orbit_apoapsis	883 km
orbit_inclination	81.2 degrees
orbit_period	101.6
apsis	gee

(achieved)

BAS SSA

Interkosmos 22, more commonly known as Bulgaria 1300 (), was Bulgaria's first artificial satellite.

It was named after the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state. It was designed to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth.

Description

The satellite was developed by the Bulgarian Space Agency around the "Meteor" bus, provided by the Soviet Union as part of the Interkosmos program. Assembly took place in Bulgaria, and the spacecraft was launched from Plesetsk in 13:35 local time on 7 August 1981. During that same year the Bulgarian government organized a massive celebration to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the country's founding.

Bulgaria 1300 was successfully inserted in a near-polar orbit. The outer skin of the spacecraft, including the solar panels, is coated with a conducting material in order to allow the proper measurement of electric fields and low energy plasma. Power is provided by the two solar panels, which generate 2 kW of electricity. A rechargeable battery pack is used as an energy supply when the spacecraft is in an eclipse period. Gathered data is stored on two tape recorders, each with a capacity of 60 megabits. The main transmitter radiates 10 W in the 130-MHz band. No operational limit was planned.

The spacecraft operated for two years and then data transmission stopped. In the spring of 2016, however, it became clear that the satellite was active. It is not expected to reenter until approximately the year 2550.

Equipment

The satellite contains a large set of scientific devices, designed and built in Bulgaria:

Ion Drift Meter combined with a Retarding Potential Analyzer;
Spherical Electrostatic Ion Trap (SEIT);
Cylindrical Langmuir probe;
Double spherical electron temperature probes;
Low-Energy Electron-Proton Electrostatic Analyzer Array in 3 orthogonal directions
Ion Energy-Mass Composition Analyzers
Wavelength Scanning UV Photometer
Proton Solid-State Telescope
Visible Airglow Photometers
Triaxial Spherical Vector Electric Field Probes
Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer

References

"Intercosmos 22 (Bulgaria 1300)".
(1983). "First results of the Bulgaria-1300". Elsevier.
"Interkosmos 22".
"NSSDCA Spacecraft Details". NASA.
"Intercosmos 22 Satellite details". n2yo.com.
"The prototype of the first Bulgarian satellite in orbit around the Earth will soon be exhibited in Stara Zagora".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

satellites-of-bulgaria satellites-orbiting-earth first-artificial-satellites-of-a-country bulgaria–soviet-union-relations spacecraft-launched-in-1981 1981-in-the-soviet-union 1981-in-bulgaria derelict-satellites-orbiting-earth

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