In-Plane and Out of Plane Maneuvers in GÖKTÜRK Operations

GÖKTÜRK Earth Observation mission has a low altitude near circular polar orbit. To ensure that the Earth's surface is observed in a regular and systematic manner, a repetitive ground track has to be maintained, such that the spacecraft follows the same path relative to the Earth and therefore the same point can be observed several times. During orbital revolutions some perturbations act on the spacecraft such that the repeated pattern is altered. In this text orbit correction operations are described for controlling the LTAN., fixed at 10:30 AM and maintaining the spacecraft on a Sun-synchronous frozen orbit with repetitive ground track.