Yo-yo De-spin

A yo-yo de-spin mechanism is a device used to reduce the spin of satellite, typically right after launch. It consists of two lengths of cable with weights on the ends. The cables are wrapped around the final stage and/or satellite, in the manner of a double yo-yo. When the weights are released, the spin of the rocket flings them away from the spin axis. This transfers enough angular momentum to the weights to reduce the spin of the satellite to the desired value. The weights are often released.

De-spin is needed since some final stages are spin-stabilized, and require fairly rapid rotation (around 50 rpm, but some, such as Pioneer, rotated at over 600 rpm) to keep stable during firing (See, for example, the Star 48, a solid fuel rocket motor.) After the firing, the satellite cannot be simply released, since such a spin rate is beyond the capability of the satellite's attitude control. Therefore after the rocket firing but before satellite release, the yo-yo weights are used to reduce the spin rates to something the satellite can handle (often 2-5 RPM).

As an example of yo-yo de-spin, on the Dawn Mission, roughly 3 kg of weights, and 12 meter cables, reduce the initial spin rate of the 1420 kg spacecraft from 36 RPM down to 3 RPM in the opposite direction. The relatively small weights can have such a large effect since they are far from the axis of the spin, and their effect grows as the square of the length of the cables.

Yo-yo de-spin was originally invented, built, and tested at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Yo-yo hardware can contribute to the space debris problem on orbital missions, but this is not a problem when used on the upper stages of earth escape missions such as Dawn as the cables and weights are also on an escape trajectory.