This is an artists concept of the Viking satellite in space

Aurora as seen in ultraviolet light by the Viking satellite

Viking satellite entering vacuum chamber

Viking underneath the satellite SPOT-1

Space was limited underneath SPOT, and the satellite had to be sturdy to withstand the stress of launch. The basic shape of the Swedish satellite was a flat octagonal disc, only 0.5 meters thick and 1.9 meters across. The mechanical interface of the payload adapter from the Ariane rocket was duplicated on top of Viking. That enabled it to be carried with a minimum of redesign of the SPOT program. After SPOT had been released Viking fired its own rocket engine and was sent into a different polar orbit.

Once in orbit, 4 wire segments of 40 meter length each were spooled out in a radial direction from the edge of the spinning satellite disc. Also, 2 stiff rods of 4 meter length were extended in the axial direction. A sensor pod was held at the end of each of these, forming three orthogonal pairs. Together they could measure the electric field in all three dimensions. Stiff booms were also extended for other types of sensors and antennas.

External links

• Viking information at NSSDC Master Catalog
• About Viking from the Swedish Space Corporation

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