Viking (satellite)
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This article is about the Swedish spacecraft. For the NASA Mars probes, see Viking program.
Viking was Sweden's first satellite. It was launched on an Ariane 1 rocket as a piggyback payload together with the French satellite SPOT 1, on February 22, 1986.[2] Operations ended on May 12, 1987. Viking was used to explore plasma processes in the magnetosphere and the ionosphere.[3]
Quick Facts Mission type, COSPAR ID ...
Mission type | Earth observation |
---|---|
COSPAR ID | 1986-019B |
SATCAT no. | 16614 |
Mission duration | 1 year, 2 months and 20 days |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 22 February 1986 (1986-02-22) |
Rocket | Ariane 1 |
Launch site | Guiana Space Centre |
Entered service | 22 February 1986 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Polar |
Semi-major axis | 13,550 km (8,420 mi) |
Eccentricity | 0.0001538 |
Perigee altitude | 801 km (498 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 13,538 km (8,412 mi) |
Inclination | 98.7863° |
Period | 261.56 minutes |
Epoch | 15 April 2019, 18:22:45[1] |
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