HETE II / Pegasus
Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully launched a Standard Pegasus launch vehicle at 1:38 a.m. on October 9, 2000. The Pegasus carried the HETE II satellite to an orbit of 590 km x 650 km, with an inclination of 1.95 degrees. The launch of the Pegasus commenced with the takeoff of the L-1011 from Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Pegasus was released from the L-1011 over the Pacific Ocean. HETE - High Energy Transient Explorer: HETE's prime objective is to carry out a multwavelength study of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) with UV, X-ray, and gamma ray instruments. A unique feature of the mission is its capability to localize bursts with several arcsecond accuracy, in near real-time aboard the spacecraft. These positions are transmitted to the ground, and picked up by the global network of primary and secondary ground stations (SGS), enabling sensitive follow-up studies. HETE II was assembled at MIT. HETE Consortium Institutions: The Center for Space Research (CSR) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, generally known as RIKEN by the abbreviation of its Japanese name (Rikagaku Kenkyusyo), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR) (France), UC-Berkeley, University of Chicago, UC-Santa Cruz, Ecole Nationale Superieure de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace (Supaero). Satellite telemetry is being successfully received and commands are being reliably issued at both the Kwajalein and Singapore ground stations.