On Sun, 2 Dec 2001, Paul J Henney wrote: > I assume by "casing" we mean payload fairing? Or is this something > different?? In my Worldwide Satellite Launches I call the second object which the four-stage Proton-K leaves in LEO (other than the Proton-K third stage) as the "fourth stage casing". At launch the Blok DM class fourth stage is encased in a cylinder and this is discarded in LEO after separation from the third stage and before the fourth stage performs its first burn. Since it is a hollow cylinder it always decays from orbit far more rapidly than the third stage. The payload fairing is completely different, since the fourth stage casing does _not_ cover the payloads at launch. Phillip Clark --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phillip S Clark Flat 2 Wellington Houses Molniya Space Consultancy Castle Hill Passage Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Hastings Launches E Sussex TN34 1PG U.K. Specialist in "space archeology" - the older and more obscure the more interesting it is ! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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