The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

Gherman Titov Joachim Becker
gram. He served again in this capacity in 1997 aboard
STS-86, NASA’s seventh mission to rendezvous and dock
with the Mir.
Toftoy, Holger N. (1903–1967)
A career U.S. Army officer and an expert in ordnance,
who was responsible for bringing the German rocket
team under the leadership of Wernher von Braun to the
United States in 1945 (see Paperclip, Operation). The
idea for the Bumper-WAC was also his. Toftoy became
commander of the Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, in 1954
and worked closely with von Braun’s teams in the development
of the Redstone and Jupiter missiles. In the aftermath
of Sputnik 1 in 1957, he persuaded the Department
of Defense to allow the launch of America’s first Earthorbiting
satellite aboard the Jupiter missile, with the
result that Explorer 1 was placed in orbit on January 31,
1958. He also held a number of other positions in the
Army, including head of the Rocket Research Branch of
the Chief of Ordnance in Washington, D.C., and commander
of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
He retired from the Army in 1960 with the rank of major
general.
TOPEX-(Poseidon) 443
TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer)
A NASA Earth-observing instrument that measures longterm
changes in ozone concentrations to verify chemical
models of the stratosphereand to help predict future climatic
trends. The TOMS program is part of NASA’s
ESSP (Earth System Sciences Program). Various versions
of TOMS have flown aboard Nimbus-7 (1978), a Soviet
Meteor-3 (1991), TOMS-EP (1996), and ADEOS-1
(1996).
Originally intended for launch in 1994, TOMS-EP
(Earth Probe) was delayed by failures of the first two
Pegasus XL launch vehicles. As a result, TOMS-EP flew
simultaneously with the ADEOS TOMS instrument
(originally planned as TOMS-EP’s successor). To prevent
gathering redundant information, TOMS-EP was
placed in an orbit lower than originally planned to
obtain higher resolution measurements and data that
was complementary to that gathered by ADEOS. When
TOMS-EP began to show signs of premature aging,
NASA ordered QuikTOMS as a gap-filler until ozone
monitoring could be taken over by the EOS (Earth
Observing System) Aura satellite in 2003. However, the
fifth flight of TOMS ended in failure on September 21,
2001, when the Taurus rocket carrying the 162-kg Quik-
TOMS (and also OrbView-4) broke up less than two
minutes after liftoff.
TOMS-EP FACTS
Launch
Date: July 2, 1996
Vehicle: Pegasus XL
Site: Vandenberg
Mass: 248 kg (total), 35 kg (TOMS alone)
Orbit: 490 × 510 km × 97.4°
TOPEX-Poseidon
A highly successful joint American-French satellite that,
for almost a decade, has provided measurements of
global sea levels accurate to within 4 cm. Its results have
helped map ocean circulation patterns and improved our
understanding of how the oceans interact with the atmosphere
and our ability to predict the global climate.
NASA/JPL ( Jet Propulsion Laboratory) provided the
satellite bus and five instruments, and is responsible for
spacecraft operations; CNES (the French space agency)
furnished two of the spacecraft’s instruments and the
launch vehicle. Much of the payload was devoted to measuring
the exact height of the satellite above the ocean
using a laser altimeter and correcting the altimetry data
for effects such as the delay of radio pulses because of
water vapor in the atmosphere. TOPEX-Poseidon has
proven so successful that a follow-on mission, Jason-1,