karn (04/06/83)
The latest information I have from a contact at the Goddard Space Flight Center is that about half of the onboard hydrazine will be necessary to achieve geostationary orbit. However, this will not impact the planned 10 year lifetime since the onboard hydrazine had been overbudgeted by about 500%. Unfortunately, the hydrazine thrusters were designed only for stationkeeping use so it will take a long time to circularize the orbit. The current orbit is about 35,700 km apogee (geostationary altitude) by 22,500 km perigee, with a 2.4 deg inclination. Phil