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Pegasus user’s guide – Orbital Pegasus User Manual

Page 45

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Release 7.0

Apr 2010

34

Pegasus User’s Guide

Orbital will provide limited space within the Launch
Panel Operator (LPO) Station on the carrier
aircraft for the payload’s electrical support
equipment. As a standard service, Orbital will
provide personnel to operate the payload electrical
support equipment during launch operations. This
Payload LPO will monitor critical payload data,
send commands, and adjust Airborne Support
Equipment (ASE) settings as required per
payload-provided procedures.

5.3.2. Mission-Unique Electrical Interface
As a nonstandard service, Orbital can provide a
wide range of electrical interface options to meet
the mission-specific requirements of the payload.
These services include increased umbilical pass-
through circuits, payload ordnance initiation,
discrete commanding of the payload, processing
of payload analog instrumentation, and a serial
telemetry interface used to incorporate payload
data into launch vehicle telemetry.

As described in detail in Section 10.7, Orbital can
provide 40 additional umbilical pass-through wires
from the payload separation interface to payload-
supplied electronic support equipment installed on
the carrier aircraft. This nonstandard service
brings the total pass-through circuits to 50 wires
(25 twisted shielded wire pairs).

The Pegasus launch vehicle can provide up to 6
high-current pulsed circuits that can be used to
initiate payload ordnance or deployment devices
such as propulsion system isolation valves,
deployment system pin pullers or payload-
provided separation systems. The nominal
electrical output of these circuits is 6 A into a 1
Ohm load for 75 ms. If the payload uses an
Orbital-supplied separation system, only four of
the six circuits are available for payload use.

As described in detail in Section 10.14, payload
status and state of health data can be

Figure 5-10. Standard Payload Electrical Interface