Cerise (French for "cherry") was a French military

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

. Its main purpose was to intercept

HF radio High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to te ...

signals for French intelligence services. With a mass of 50 kg, it was launched by an

Ariane rocket Ariane is a series of European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. France first proposed the Ariane project and it was officially agreed upon at ...

from

Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

at 17:23 UT, 7 July 1995. Cerise's initial orbital parameters were

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

98.1 min,

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

675 km,

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ell ...

666 km, and

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

98.0 deg. On 24 July 1996 it was hit by a catalogued

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...

object from an

, making it the first verified case of an accidental collision between two artificial objects in space. 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 Gravity-gradient stabilization (a.k.a. "tidal stabilization") is a method of stabilizing artificial satellites or space tethers in a fixed orientation using only the orbited body's mass distribution and gravitational field. The main advantage ove ...

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.

References

External links

NSSDC Master Catalog - Cerise
Derelict satellites orbiting Earth Satellites of France Spacecraft launched in 1995 Spacecraft launched by Ariane rockets Military equipment introduced in the 1990s {{france-mil-stub

See also

References

External links