Orbital maneuver and keeping of FORMOSAT-2

This paper presents the orbital maneuver (OM) and keeping of FORMOSAT-2 (or FS2, Formosa Satellite #2) since its launch on 20 May 2004. The successful launch put FS2 in a sun-synchronous parking orbit with 729.94 km perigee and 743.31 apogee. Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO) then spent 11 days to perform the first orbital maneuver (OM#1) and raised FS2 to its sun-synchronous circular mission orbit at 888.47 km altitude. Due to various kinds of disturbances, FS2’s orbit shifts gradually but constantly. Therefore, four times of OM had been performed for orbital keeping. Details of all 5 OMs are described.