| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 899.1 | Jonathan's Space Report No. 191 | CXDOCS::J_BUTLER | E pur, si muove... | Sun Apr 10 1994 12:45 | 125 |
| From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 191
Date: 7 Apr 1994 11:53:58 -0700
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 191
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 191 1994 Apr 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not much news this week, but a few amplifications of earlier stories.
A drought of launches continues, but STS-59 is due tomorrow.
Shuttle
-------
Launch of Endeavour and the Space Radar Lab 1 is due for April 8. The
press kit on Spacelink for STS-59 is wrong about the layout of the
payload bay - there is no GAS Bridge. The cargo bay contains the
following:
MPESS Mission Peculiar Experiment Support Structure, carrying the
MAPS (Measurement of Air Pollution From Satellites) experiment
SL-PLT Spacelab pallet ) Carrying SRL-1, Space Radar Lab
ATS (2) Antenna Trunnion Structures ) with SIR-C and X-SAR radars
GABA Gas Beam Adapter, carrying CONCAP-IV GAS can payload on
bay 4-Port.
GABA Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-203 GAS can on bay 4-Starboard.
GABA Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-458 GAS can and GBP-1 ballast payload
on bay 13-Port.
GABA Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-300 GAS can on bay 13-Starboard.
RMS Remote Manipulator System RMS-303, on its 7th flight.
PSA Provisions Stowage Assembly (emergency EVA tools)
Thanks to all those who spotted the deliberate mistake :-), Mission
Specialist Richard Clifford flew on STS-53, so is not a rookie as I
claimed.
The Astro-2 mission has been delayed from Dec 1994 to Jan 1995
and switched to a different orbiter, as Columbia is to be sent
for its next maintainance period several months early.
Mir
---
The flight of the EO-15 crew continues aboard Mir. Soyuz TM-18
originally docked with the TsM-E (Kvant) module on Jan 10, but
on Jan 21 it redocked with the PkhO section docking port on the
main Mir module (source: Novosti Kosmonavtiki). Progress M-21,
and now Progress M-22, therefore used the TsM-E port. The current
station configuration is therefore:
"Mir" base block DOS 17KS-12701
"Kvant" TsM-E 37Ke-010 docked at Mir AO rear port
"Kvant-2" TsM-D 77KSD-17101 docked at Mir PkhO side port
"Kristall" TsM-T 77KST-17201 docked at Mir PkhO side port
"Soyuz TM-18" 7K-STM 11F732-67? docked at Mir PkhO front port
"Progress M-22" 7K-TGM 11F615A55-222 docked at TsM-E rear port
(7K is the official internal program name for the Soyuz program;
TsM means specialized module, DOS is an abbreviation for long-term
orbital station).
Space Probes
------------
Magellan lowered its orbit around Venus with orbit trim maneuvers on Mar
10 to lower periapsis, resulting in a 184 x 530 km orbit. More burns
were made on Apr 4 and Apr 5, and further trims are due Apr 11 and Apr
12. The target orbit is 220 x 390 km.
Clementine 1 made orbit trim burns on Mar 25 and Mar 26 to change
the latitude of its perilune from 30 deg S to 30 deg N, improving
mapping coverage of the northern hemisphere. Clementine will depart
lunar orbit in May.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 18 0756 Raduga Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 12A
Feb 19 2345 Galaxy IR Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Comsat 13A
Mar 2 0324 Koronas-I Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Solar phys 14A
Mar 4 1353 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 15A
Mar 10 0340 Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Navsat 16A
SEDS 2 ) 16B
Mar 13 2232 P90-5 ) Taurus Vandenberg Technology 17A
DARPASAT ) Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630 Kosmos-2274 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 18A
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-59
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-37/ET-63/OV-105 LC39A STS-59
ML3/RSRM-38?/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
|
| 899.2 | No. 192 - April 20 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Wed Jun 29 1994 22:55 | 143 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell 20-Apr-1994 1720"
20-APR-1994 17:21:06.02
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 192 1994 Apr 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Joel Runes for some data in this issue.
Shuttle
-------
Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off at 1105 UTC on Apr 9 from pad 39A.
The STS-59 stack used solid motors RSRM-37 and external tank ET-63
attached to orbiter OV-105. Endeavour reached orbit at 1113 UTC. On Apr
11 its orbit was 211 x 226 km x 57.0 deg. Operations with the Space
Radar Lab were successful; landing was originally due for Apr 19 but was
delayed until Apr 20 for weather and switched to Cailfornia. Endeavour
fired its deorbit engines at 1600 UTC. Entry interface was at
1622, with main gear touchdown on runway 22 at Edwards AFB at 1654.30
UTC for a mission duration of 11 days 5 hr 49 min. The next Shuttle
flight is STS-65, a long duration International Microgravity Lab flight
with orbiter Columbia.
LAUNCHES
--------
A cluster of 3 Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites were launched
on Apr 11 by an 8K82K Proton-K launch vehicle from Baykonur cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan. The cluster was inserted into low earth orbit attached to
the Blok-DM2 (11S861) upper stage, which then separated from the 8S812
third stage (1994-21B) and the Blok-DM2 fairing (1994-21C), both of
which reentered the same day. The Blok-DM2 ignited twice to enter first
a transfer orbit and then (after separation of two ullage motors) a
circular orbit at 19000 km altitude and 65 degrees inclination. The
three Uragan satellites, built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk, then separated from the Blok-DM2. They were given the post-launch
names Kosmos-2275, Kosmos-2276 and Kosmos-2277. The Uragan satellites form
part of the GLONASS system which is the Russian analog of the Navstar
Global Positioning System.
The first of a new series of GOES-NEXT weather satellites was launched
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Apr 13. The Atlas Centaur AC-73
launch vehicle successfully delivered GOES-I (GOES 8 after launch) to a
geostationary transfer orbit. A liquid apogee motor (probably a
Marquardt R4D, does anyone know for sure?) will be used to circularize
the orbit. The first burn of the motor on Apr 15 was cut short early
after unexpectedly high temperatures, leaving it in a 988 x 42653 km x
23.6 deg transfer orbit; further orbit raising burns are expected soon.
The GOES NEXT series of satellites are being built by Space
Systems/Loral (formerly Ford Aerospace, formerly Aeronutronic Ford);
there were a lot of problems developing GOES I's sensors and the
satellite is way late and over the originally planned budget. GOES
(pronounced as in "how goes it?") stands for Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellite; do not confuse GOES with GEOS (a frequent
mispelling - there have been two series of GEOS satellites, one by NASA
and one by ESA, but they have nothing to do with GOES). GOES satellites
are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), and originated as NASA's SMS (Synchronous Meteorological
Satellite) project. The GOES class satellites launched to date are as
follows:
Pre-launch name Post-launch Launch Date Manufacturer Int'l Desig
SMS A SMS 1 1974 May 17 Ford 1974-33A
SMS B SMS 2 1975 Feb 6 Ford 1975-11A
SMS C/GOES A GOES 1 1975 Oct 16 Ford 1975-100A
GOES B GOES 2 1977 Jun 16 Ford 1977-48A
GOES C GOES 3 1978 Jun 16 Ford 1978-62A
GOES D GOES 4 1980 Sep 9 Hughes 1980-74A
GOES E GOES 5 1981 May 22 Hughes 1981-49A
GOES F GOES 6 1983 Apr 28 Hughes 1983-41A
GOES G - 1986 May 3 Hughes Launch failure
GOES H GOES 7 1987 Feb 26 Hughes 1987-27A
GOES I GOES 8 1994 Apr 13 Loral 1994-22A
Recent Launches
---------------
Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 2 0324 Koronas-I Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Solar phys 14A
Mar 4 1353 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 15A
Mar 10 0340 Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Navsat 16A
SEDS 2 ) 16B
Mar 13 2232 P90-5 ) Taurus Vandenberg Technology 17A
DARPASAT ) Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630 Kosmos-2274 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 18A
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour Edwards AFB STS-59
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/
ML2/ LC39A STS-59
ML3/RSRM-39/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 17:05:05 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9404202105.AA14863@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.3 | No. 193 - April 29 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Wed Jun 29 1994 22:55 | 129 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 29-APR-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 193 1994 Apr 29
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
---------
I receive a number of inquiries from readers who see this newsletter on
bulletin boards about direct email subscriptions. To be added to the
mailing list, just send me a message telling me that you want to be sent
JSR. (As I am a human, not a mail exploder, please do not just send a
one-word 'subscribe' command!). Back issues of JSR are available by FTP
from sao-ftp.harvard.edu in directory pub/jcm/space/news. For real fans,
I note that extensive archaelogical research among some 9-track tapes
has turned up JSR 1 to 31 which were previously missing from the archive.
Shuttle
-------
Endeavour has been mated to the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
at Edwards AFB, but as of Apr 29 remained unable to depart for
Florida because of bad weather.
The next Shuttle mission is STS-65, scheduled for July. Orbiter
OV-102 Columbia will carry a Spacelab long module on the
International Microgravity Lab 2 flight. SRB stacking continues
for the mission in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
LAUNCHES
--------
Three Kosmos satellites were launched this week for the Russian
Ministry of Defense. Kosmos-2278 is a heavy electronic intelligence
satellite which was placed in an 800 km high orbit at an inclination of
71 degrees. The launch used a large Zenit booster; both satellite and
booster were made by NPO Yuzhnoe of the Ukraine, and the launch was from
the Baykonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.
Kosmos-2279 is a navigation satellite in the Parus ('sail') series,
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki. The Parus satellites are analogous to
the US Navy Transit spacecraft and are placed in 1000 km high orbits at
an inclination of 83 degrees. Kosmos-2279 replaces Kosmos-2180, launched
in 1992. The first Parus spacecraft was Kosmos-700, launched in 1974. A
more advanced version with civilian applications, called Tsikada, is
also launched into similar orbits.
Kosmos-2280 is an advanced imaging reconnaissance satellite, probably
an improved variant of the Yantar' series. It was launched into a
187 x 264 km orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees; it is expected
to manoeuvre to a more circular orbit within one day and remain operational
for six months to a year.
Maxim Tarasenko communicates an amplification to my report on the GLONASS
Uragan satellites: "NPO Prikladnoi mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk-26 is a lead
contractor for the WHOLE "Glonass" system. Uragan satellites are
DESIGNED JOINTLY by NPO PM and AKO Polyot of Omsk (AKO is for AeroSpace
Association - "AeroKosmicheskoye Ob'edineniye"). MANUFACTURING of the
satellites is performed by AKO Polyot."
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 2 0324 Koronas-I Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Solar phys 14A
Mar 4 1353 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 15A
Mar 10 0340 Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Navsat 16A
SEDS 2 ) 16B
Mar 13 2232 P90-5 ) Taurus Vandenberg Technology 17A
DARPASAT ) Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630 Kosmos-2274 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 18A
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour Edwards AFB STS-59
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Fri, 29 Apr 94 16:26:09 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9404292026.AA14105@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.4 | No. 194 - May 2 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Wed Jun 29 1994 22:55 | 124 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 2-MAY-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 194 1994 May 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
--------
I think I've added everyone who has requested it so far
to the distribution list - let me know if you don't get this message :-)
News is light this week.
Shuttle
-------
Endeavour departed Edwards AFB aboard the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
on Apr 29 and was flown to Biggs Army Airfield, El Paso, Texas. On Apr 30
the SCA/Orbiter combination flew to Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas and then
on to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. On May 2 the SCA took off again and
flew directly to Kennedy Space Center; the Orbiter will be towed
to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1 later today. [Does anyone know
which 747 was used - NASA 905 or 911?]
Mir
---
The EO-15 crew of Viktor Afanas'ev, Yuriy Usachyov and Vladimir Polyakov
remain aboard the Mir station after 114 days in orbit.
Physician-cosmonaut Polyakov, on his second spaceflight, has now
accumulated almost a year in space and is currently tenth in the all
time cumulative space experience rankings. Launch of the Progress M-23
robot cargo ship is scheduled for no earlier than May 18.
X-15
----
Advertisement: the Spring 1994 issue of the space history magazine Quest
will contain a set of articles on the X-15 rocketplane, including
one by the present author which contains the first ever complete
listing of X-15 flights. You might also want to check out the March
issue of Journal of the British Interplanetary Society which has
a neat article on the White Sands rocket base by Joel Powell, and
a dry and dull history of the Scout launch vehicle by myself.
LAUNCHES
--------
Michael Fennell reports that the SEDS 2 Delta stage is still in
orbit, with reentry expected around May 6. Part of the tether
is still attached.
Launch of Titan/Centaur TC-10 is expected from LC41 at Cape Canaveral on May 3.
The first Titan/Centaur launch, TC-12, was successfully carried out on Feb 7.
(TC numbers courtesy General Dynamics public affairs).
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 2 0324 Koronas-I Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Solar phys 14A
Mar 4 1353 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 15A
Mar 10 0340 Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Navsat 16A
SEDS 2 deployer) 16B
SEDS 2 end mass)
Mar 13 2232 P90-5 ) Taurus Vandenberg Technology 17A
DARPASAT ) Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630 Kosmos-2274 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 18A
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour KSC SLF STS-59
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/ VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Mon, 2 May 94 14:24:38 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9405021824.AA19768@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.5 | No. 195 - May 9 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Wed Jun 29 1994 22:56 | 157 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 9-MAY-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 195 1994 May 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Endeavour returned to KSC aboard the NASA 911 carrier aircraft on May 2.
Thanks to all those who passed on the identification of the aircraft.
Endeavour has been towed to Orbiter Processing Facility
Bay 1 and will be recycled for launch with the same Space Radar Lab
payload in August.
Assembly of the STS-65 stack is proceeding in the Vehicle Assembly
Building with preparations for connecting the external tank
to the solid boosters. The Spacelab module will be installed
in orbiter Columbia this week. Launch of STS-65 is due in July.
Mir ERRATUM
------------
My brain has been out to lunch recently - the physician cosmonaut aboard
Mir is of course Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov, not Vladimir Polyakov
as I have been typing recently. Thanks for everyone who caught that
piece of stupidity.
LAUNCHES
--------
The Deep Space Program Science Experiment probe, known to its friends as
Clementine, has completed mapping the Moon (and returned some
spectacular images!). Dean Bakeris reports that Clementine left lunar
orbit on May 4 at 0324:15 UTC. Perigee was due on May 8 at 0556, and
apogee will be at 0530 on May 16, when a targeting maneuver will be
performed. Second perigee will be around May 24, and Clementine will fly
past the moon again on May 27 on its way to solar orbit. It will reach
asteroid (1620) Geographos at 2116 UTC on Aug 31. It is hoped to send
the probe on to fly by the unnumbered minor planet 1983 RD in October 1995.
The second Titan 4 Centaur, TC-10, was launched from Cape Canaveral on
May 3. The Titan solid boosters and core stages 1 and 2 fell in the
Atlantic Ocean, and the first Centaur burn placed the Centaur and its
payload into a parking orbit inclined at 57 deg (estimated).
Observations from Europe of a bright comet like object over the US
suggest that the Centaur made a second burn in the southern hemisphere
to a highly elliptical orbit with apogee in the northern hemisphere. A
third burn may have been made to change the orbital inclination about
3.5 hours after launch. The Centaur then vented its excess propellants,
giving rise to the "comet". The best guess so far at the resulting orbit,
based on observations from Italy and the Czech Republic, is
a 12 hr period orbit around 64 degrees; a solution by Joel Runes gives
1323 x 39035 km x 64.4 deg, with TLEs as follows:
1 23098E 94026B 94123.83406471 .00000000 00000-0 00000 0 0 52
2 23098 64.4000 14.6349 7100000 266.5000 93.5000 2.00600000 29
Work by Mike McCants gives similar estimates; the eccentricity is rather
uncertain. The object may be visible in binoculars to observers in the
US around 03h UTC tonight. The payload, USA-103, is probably a signals
intelligence satellite, the third in a series which is a followon to
the National Security Agency's JUMPSEAT electronic monitoring series.
The first two payloads in the series were deployed by the Shuttle
and used an unknown upper stage (possibly an Orbus 7S solid motor)
to enter their 12 hour orbits.
Advanced JUMPSEAT spacecraft:
Flight Payload Launch Date Initial Orbit Final Orbit Int'l Designation
STS-28R USA-40 1989 Aug 8 401 x 502 x 57 ? 1989-61B
STS-53 USA-89 1992 Dec 2 364 x 380 x 57 ? 1992-86B
TC-10 USA-103 1994 May 3 250?x 600?x 57 1300?x39000?x64.4 1994-26A
The final launch of the Scout rocket took place at 0247 UTC on May 9.
It placed the MSTI-2 (Miniature Seeker Technology Integration) satellite
in orbit for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The orbit is
360 x 461 km x 96.8 deg. Vehicle S218C was a Scout G-1 variant,
consisting of an Algol 3A first stage, a Castor 2 second stage, an
Antares 3 third stage, and a Thiokol Star 20 fourth stage. The launch
took place from Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
which was originally Launch Complex D of Point Arguello Naval Missile
Facility when it saw its first Scout launch in 1962. S218C was the 125th
launch of an Algol-based Scout (including six launches of the USAF Blue
Scout version); there were also 22 launches of a variant called Blue
Scout Junior which omitted the first stage. Scout's first test flight
was on Apr 18, 1960; the first successful orbital launch on 16 Feb 1961
(Explorer IX). Among Scout's famous payloads were: Transit VA-3, the
first successful gravity gradient stabilized satellite; San Marco 1,
Italy's first satellite; ESRO 2B, Europe's first joint satellite (ESRO
was ESA's predecessor); Azur, Germany's first satellite; the Dutch
satellite ANS; and Uhuru and Ariel 5, the early X-ray astronomy satellites.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-59
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/ VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Mon, 9 May 94 15:09:02 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9405091909.AA04760@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.6 | No. 196 - May 19 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:55 | 122 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 19-MAY-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 196 1994 May 19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MIR
---
The Progress M-22 cargo ship fired its engine around May 15 to raise the
orbit of the Mir orbital station from 381 x 400 km to 398 x 399 km.
Maxim Tarasenko reports that the launch of the replacement cargo ship,
Progress M-23, is now due on May 22.
LAUNCHES
--------
Disaster befell the Clementine 1 probe on May 7. The on board
computer erroneously told the attitude control system to fire
its thrusters and depleted the attitude control propellant tanks.
Although the main propulsion system still has fuel, controllers
can't point the engine in the right direction so that's not much
help. The flight to (1620) Geographos and to (3551) 1983RD
(not unnumbered as claimed in JSR195, sorry Gareth!) appears impossible.
Clementine did successfully complete its lunar mapping mission and
the sensors are still operational. It is currently in a highly
elliptical orbit around the Earth. The Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization manages the Clementine project and the Naval Research
Lab built and operates the spacecraft.
Launch of the USAF Rome Lab's P91-A (STEP 2) satellite was aborted just
before launch last week. Problems were noticed in the Pegasus booster as
the B-52 carrier aircraft was flying above the Point Arguello Warning
Area launch site over the Pacific. The B-52 returned to Edwards AFB with
the Pegasus still attached. I don't know if a new launch date has yet
been set. STEP 2 carries SIDEX, a signal indentification experiment.
The ALEXIS EUV astronomy satellite was launched on a Pegasus flight last
year. Damage during launch meant that controllers didn't know which way
the satellite was pointing. The Los Alamos science team and the Aero
Astro Inc manufacturers have now come up with a way to determine the
satellite's orientation, which has enabled them to make the first useful
sky picture from the satellite's data. The picture shows the Moon and
the soft x-ray source HZ 43. HZ 43 is a white dwarf star from the
Humason-Zwicky catalog and was the first EUV galactic source identified,
during the Apollo-Soyuz misison in 1975. The new picture means that there's
a very good chance the rest of the data obtained by Alexis over the last
year will eventually be usable.
Information Wanted
------------------
Trivia question of the week: can anyone find out for me what solid
motor was used to raise the orbit of the German IRM satellite,
launched in 1984 as part of the AMPTE project?
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
Reentries
---------
Mar 15 SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Thu, 19 May 94 15:21:41 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9405191921.AA26552@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.7 | No. 197 - May 24 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:56 | 151 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 24-MAY-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 197 1994 May 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MIR
---
Progress M-23 was launched May 22 from Baykonur toward the Mir station.
The older Progress M-22 cargo ferry was deorbited on May 23. Progress
cargo ships are based on the Soyuz transport spaceship design, but
carry a fuel section instead of the cosmonaut descent module. They supply
water, air, food and fuel as well as carry new experiments and equipment
for the crew. Progress M-23 is scheduled to dock at the port on the
rear of the Kvant TKM-E astrophysical module.
LAUNCHES
--------
Launch of the USAF Rome Lab's P91-A (STEP 2) satellite was successfully
carried out on May 19. The B-52 carrier aircraft took off from RW4/22 at
Edwards AFB and flew out to the Point Arguello Warning Area over the
Pacific. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus was dropped at 1703 UTC and
all three stages fired placing the payload in orbit. However, the orbit
achieved was only 603 x 832 km x 82 deg instead of the planned 833 km
circular orbit. The low perigee is not a huge disaster, the old Scout
did the same thing a number of times and had the flights counted as
successes, and most missions would not be seriously affected by this
sort of anomaly. However, the next Pegasus launch will most likely be
delayed until the cause of the malfunction is understood and fixed. STEP
2 was built by TRW and is probably a lightsat in the Eagle series. It will
study propagation of radio signals through the ionosphere. This Pegasus
was the fifth of the winged boosters to be launched; all have reached orbit
although the second one was only partially successful.
Another Gorizont communications satellite for the US company Rimsat of
Ft. Wayne, Indiana was orbited on May 19 by Proton from Baykonur. It
will be placed over Eastern Asia at 142.5 deg E. The spacecraft is
probably owned by AO Informkosmos, a Russian company in which Rimsat
is a major holder; it is leased by Rimsat. The satellite, built by
NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, has both C and Ku band
transponders. The first Rimsat Gorizont was launched in November 1993.
The first Soviet Gorizont satellite was launched in 1978; the series
is soon to be replaced by an improved spacecraft called Express.
Information Wanted
------------------
This week's JSR Irregulars' Gold Medal goes to Bart de Pontieu (MPE),
Kelly Beatty (Sky & Tel), and Mark Shaffer (BAe) for giving me info
on the IRM kick motor. The AMPTE (Active Magnetospheric Particle
Tracer Explorers) launch was a complicated one; three spacecraft were
placed in geostationary transfer orbit by a three-stage Delta rocket.
The Johns Hopkins APL-built CCE satellite separated and fired its Star
13 rocket to move to a lower inclination orbit. The IRM satellite,
built by the German Max Planck MPE group, then fired its Hercules BE-3
motor to raise its apogee to more than 100 000 km. Finally the British
UKS satellite separated from IRM (UKS didn't have propulsion of its
own). The IRM satellite created three 'artifical comets' by releasing
lithium and barium into the magnetosphere.
The BE-3 "Alcyone" rocket has an interesting history, it was
originally the retro-rocket used to try and land the Block II Ranger
probes on the Moon in 1962. It was used on the Vela satellites as an
apogee motor, as the third stage of the Redstone/SPARTA rocket used to
launch Australia's first satellite WRESAT in 1967, and as the fifth
stage of the Scout E-1 launch vehicle, used only once in 1974 to
launch the Hawkeye satellite. This comes to a total of 27 flights that
I am aware of, any more examples gratefully received.
That question was so successful I'm going to try another fishing
expedition. Does anyone have any information on the Redstone rockets
launched in 1966/1967 from San Nicolas Island, CA as part of the US
Army's Project Defender? I know there was at least one launch in Nov
1966. The Redstone was the rocket that launched Alan Shepard, and I have
(partial) details on all its flights except for these Defender launches.
Even the History Office at Redstone Arsenal had no record of them. Anyone
with details on the launches from Fort Wingate, please get in touch too,
as my info on these is pretty sketchy. I have records of 101 Redstone
launches in all so far.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 19 0201 Gorizont/Rimsat Proton/DM2 Baykonur Comsat 30A
May 22 0431? Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 31A
Reentries
---------
Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21 Kosmos-2274 Reentered
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Tue, 24 May 94 16:12:34 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9405242012.AA02136@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.8 | No. 198 - May 31 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:56 | 164 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 31-MAY-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj:
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 198 1994 May 31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
OV-104 Atlantis has returned to Florida after modifications at Rockwell's
Palmdale, California plant. The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flew from
Palmdale to Biggs AAF, El Paso, TX on May 27; from Biggs to
Warner-Robbins AFB, Macon, GA on May 28; and on to the Shuttle Landing
Facility at KSC on May 29. During the refurbishment, OV-104 was modified
to support the Mir docking module. Atlantis is now in Orbiter
Processing Facility Bay 3; Discovery vacated that slot and is being
garaged in the Vehicle Assembly Building until Columbia's processing is
complete (around Jun 10); Discovery will then take that parking spot.
[Source: Spacelink; KSC PAO]
Summary of forthcoming missions:
Jul OV-102 Columbia STS-65, carrying Spacelab Long Module (International
Microgravity Lab 2) and Extended Duration Orbiter pallet (4th flight).
Aug OV-105 Endeavour STS-68, carrying Spacelab Pallet (Shuttle Radar Lab 2)
and MPESS pallet (MAPS air pollution monitor)
Sep OV-103 Discovery STS-64, carrying Spacelab Pallet (Lidar In-Space
Techology Experiment), and MPESS pallet with Spartan-201 free flyer.
Oct OV-104 Atlantis STS-66, carrying Spacelab Igloo and Pallet
(ATLAS-3), and Astro-SPAS free flyer (CRISTA).
Columbia's crew consists of six NASA astronauts and the third Japanese
space traveller, Dr. Chiaki Naito Mukai, who will become the first
Japanese woman in space.
MIR
---
Progress M-23 docked with the Mir complex at 0618 UTC on May 24.
[Source: V. Agapov]. The EO-15 commander and flight engineer,
Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy Usachyov, will be replaced next
month by the EO-16 crew, Yuriy Malenchenko and Talgat Musabaev,
who will be launched on the Soyuz TM-19 ferry ship on Jun 20.
Physician-cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov will remain aboard Mir.
Both Malenchenko, a Russian Air Force cosmonaut, and Musabaev,
a Kazakh Space Agency cosmonaut, will be on their first flights.
LAUNCHES
--------
Pegasus update: the fifth Pegasus flight on May 19 used a four stage
version of Pegasus, not the three stage one as I implied last week.
The HAPS (Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System) fourth stage has
flown once before, on the second Pegasus fight. The first three
Pegasus stages fired successfully, and Orbital Sciences is
investigating the cause of STEP Mission 2's low perigee. It may have
been a guidance problem or a malfunction in the HAPS burn; the problem
occurred out of telemetry range so it's not immediately clear what
happened. [Source: OSC Public Affairs]
Pegasus launch list:
Date Type Drop site Payloads
1990 Apr 5 Pegasus Point Arguello W.A. Pegsat, SECS
1991 Jul 17 Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello W.A. Microsats 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
1993 Feb 9 Pegasus Mayport, FL W.A. SCD-1, Orbcomm CDS
1993 Apr 25 Pegasus Point Arguello W.A. Alexis
1994 May 19 Pegasus/HAPS Point Arugello W.A. STEP Mission 2 (P91-A)
Russian Space Forces launched a three stage Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk on May
25, but a problem seems to have occurred during separation of the second
stage from the S5M third stage, and the vehicle and its payload impacted
in the Arctic. The payload was referred to as Kosmos-2281, but it is not
clear if it will keep this codename - launch failures have never yet been
given Kosmos names. The Ukranian Yangel design bureau (now NPO
Yuzhnoe) converted the R-36M ICBM (known in the West as the SS-9 Scarp)
to a two stage space launcher called Tsiklon-2. (Tsiklon-1 was a
cancelled project using the R-16 ICBM). Tsiklon-2 first flew in the late
1960s, and in 1977 the S5M third stage was added to make the Tsiklon-3,
which is now the standard light launch vehicle used by the Russians.
[Source: Press reports (failure); Plesetsk Press Releases (S5M, Tsiklon
details)]
Information Wanted
------------------
Well, I have no takers so far on my Redstone/Defender question. This
week's questions:
1) Who can tell me which 747 was used on Atlantis' cross country trip?
(Rick A, are you there?)
2) Can anyone tell me ANYTHING about the MG-18 (also known as M-2)
rocket used as the fourth stage of the Scout X-2M variant?
3) What propulsion system is used by the SPOT 1, 2, 3 satellites, and
who builds it?
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A
Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A
Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B
Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C
Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 19 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A
May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 31A
May 25 1015 Kosmos-2281 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk ? FTO
Reentries
---------
Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21 Kosmos-2274 Reentered
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Tue, 31 May 94 14:19:32 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9405311819.AA08418@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
|
| 899.9 | No. 199 - June 9 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:56 | 113 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 9-JUN-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 199
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 199 1994 Jun 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erratum
-------
Thanks to Maxim Tarasenko for pointing out that the Gorizont 42
satellite was launched on May 20 at 0201 UTC. I carelessly gave
the date as May 19 in JSR 197-198. I'm glad someone is paying attention!
Shuttle
-------
Columbia was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jun 8, for
connecting to the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Discovery
has now been moved back to the Orbiter Processing Facility, taking
Columbia's old spot.
LAUNCHES
--------
Kosmos-2281 was launched on June 7 from Plesetsk. The spacecraft, whose
orbit is 226 x 292 km high at an inclination of 82.6 degrees, is
an imaging satellite based on the Vostok/Zenit spaceship, and will probably
stay in orbit for 14 days. The last launch in this series was Kosmos-2260
in 1993, and was the first to be assigned a civilian mission - it was
given the alternate name Resurs-T. I don't know if this new flight
is another Resurs-T or if it is a reconnaissance flight like
Kosmos-2207 in 1992. [The code name Kosmos-2281 was originally given
to a different satellite, which failed to reach orbit on May 25].
[Source: TLEs]
The first Vostok based spy satellites were the Zenit-2 series, which
have now been declassified. The first one to reach orbit, in 1962, was
given the code name Kosmos-4. The Zenit derived spy satellites have now
been almost entirely phased out in favour of a newer bus called Yantar'.
All the Russian imaging spy satellites are made by the Central Specialized
Design Bureau in Samara. [Source: JPRS reports; Novosti Kosmonavtiki]
Information Wanted
------------------
Thanks to Ken Jenks for confirming that NASA 911 (the newer 747)
was used to take Atlantis back from Palmdale to Florida.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 20 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A
May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 31A
May 25 1015 Kosmos Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk SIGINT? FTO
Jun 7 0716? Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon? 32A
Reentries
---------
May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21 Kosmos-2274 Reentered
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia VAB Bay 1 STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 16:21:19 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9406092021.AA15599@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 199
|
| 899.10 | No. 200 - June 18 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:57 | 121 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 18-JUN-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 200
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 200 1994 Jun 18 Mt. Hopkins, Arizona
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
The STS-65 stack consisting of orbiter OV-102 Columbia,
the external tank, and the solid rocket boosters, was moved
to pad 39A on June 15.
LAUNCHES
--------
The Kosmos-2281 imaging satellite is in a 236 x 292 km x 82.6 deg orbit.
The 9th Foton materials processing spacecraft was launched from
Plesetsk on Jun 14. The Russian Space Agency's Foton program
carries Russian and international commercial experiments; Foton
contains a variety of microgravity ovens in its pressurized Vostok-class
descent module.
The second Intelsat VII communications satellite was orbited on Jun
17. INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite
Organization, is an intergovernmental entity which has been launching
communications satellites since 1965. The seventh generation satellite
is built by Space Systems/Loral, has a mass of 1500 kg plus 2200 kg of
fuel, and with its solar panels deployed has a wingspan of 22 metres.
The communications payload consists of 10 Ku-band and 26 C-band
transponders. Intelsat 702 will be inserted into geostationary orbit
and be stationed over Africa at longitude 1 deg W.
The Ariane V64 launch vehicle which carried Intelsat 702 to space also
carried an ASAP structure which holds small piggyback satellites. Two
tiny (0.5m) satellites were carried on this mission, the STRV (Space
Technology Research Vehicle) satellites for the United Kingdom Ministry
of Defense's Defence Research Agency (DRA). DRA is the new name for the
RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment) at Farnborough, the home of the
famous air show. RAE was the lead agency for all of Britain's technology
(as opposed to science or communications) satellites. STRV 1A has a mass
of 50 kg and carries experiments to study surface erosion effects on
spacecraft materials, a cosmic ray detector, and a gamma ray burst
experiment. STRV 1B, with a mass of 53 kg, has an experimental cooler,
solar cells, and electronics. The satellites will remain in
geostationary transfer orbit.
Here's a list of the RAE's satellites:
X-2 1970 Sep 2 Failed to orbit
Orba 1970 Sep 2 Failed to orbit
Prospero (X-3) 1971 Oct 28 The only satellite launched by a British rocket
Miranda (X-4) 1974 Mar 9 Launched by a US Scout
STRV 1A, 1B 1994 Jun 17 Small DRA test satellites
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 20 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A
May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 31A
May 25 1015 Kosmos Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk SIGINT? FTO
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Reentries
---------
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET/OV-102 VAB Bay 1 STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Sat, 18 Jun 94 18:14:22 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9406182214.AA28544@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 200
|
| 899.11 | No. 201 - June 27 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Keep Looking Up | Thu Jun 30 1994 18:57 | 155 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 27-JUN-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 201
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 201 1994 Jun 27 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Launch of STS-65 is due on July 8 from pad 39A into a 28 degree orbit.
The cargo bay of Columbia contains a Spacelab Long Module and the
Extended Duration Orbiter pallet. Crew are Robert Cabana (Commander),
James Halsell (Pilot), Richard Hieb (Payload Commander), Carl Walz,
Leroy Chiao, and Donald Thomas (Mission Specialists), and Dr. Chiaki
Mukai (Payload Specialist), a NASDA astronaut. The International
Microgravity Laboratory-2 contains experiments from NASA, the European
Space Agency and its member national space agencies, and the National
Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. Dr. Mukai will become the
first Japanese woman to fly in space.
LAUNCHES
--------
General Dynamics successfully launched an Atlas I Centaur from pad 36B
at Cape Canaveral on Jun 24. The AC-76 flight placed a Hughes HS-601
communications satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite,
UHF Follow-On F3, is operated by Hughes for the United States Navy. This
marks seven successful flights in a row for Atlas, following some
problems in 1991-93. The next Atlas launch is due on July 28, with
DirecTV 2. [Thanks to Al Hegemann for info].
Here is a log of recent Atlas launches. There have been 519 Atlas
launches since 1957. (Atlas I first stages have 5000-series tail
numbers; Atlas II's have 8100-series tail numbers, but I don't have the
numbers for most of the recent flights).
Atlas Centaur Model Date Payload type and name
5054 AC-74 Atlas I 1993 Mar 25 Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F1"
? AC-104 Atlas II 1993 Jul 19 MM Astro DSCS III
34E Atlas E 1993 Aug 8 MM Astro Advanced Tiros-N "NOAA-13"
? AC-75 Atlas I 1993 Sep 3 Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F2"
? AC-106 Atlas II 1993 Nov 28 MM Astro DSCS III
? AC-108 Atlas IIAS 1993 Dec 16 MM Astro GE7000 "Telstar 401"
? AC-73 Atlas I 1994 Apr 13 SS/Loral GOES-Next "GOES 8"
? AC-76 Atlas I 1994 Jun 24 Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F3"
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 20 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A
May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1? Cargo 31A
May 25 1015 Kosmos Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk SIGINT? FTO
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Reentries
---------
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/
ML3/RSRM-39/ET-64/OV-102 VAB Bay 1 STS-65
Shuttle Processing Status Explanation (or, what are all these acronyms
anyway?):
The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM), also
known as Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The OV is prepared for flight in
the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which consists of three bays (one
of which is actually a separate building) after which it is towed to the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or joined to
the ET and RSRM. First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked up on a
Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it. After
the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML and
carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at
launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space
Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally an OV is returned to
the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California for refit - an
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP.
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 14:43:09 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9406271843.AA12802@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 201
From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 29-JUN-1994
To: usenet-space-news@arc.nasa.gov
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, Erratum
JSR 201 Erratum
In this week's report, I should have noted that Martin Marietta have
bought the old General Dynamics launch vehicle group. Therefore, this
week's Atlas I launch was a Martin Marietta launch, not a General
Dynamics one. Apologies to the Atlas team for the misattribution.
- Jonathan
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Newsgroups: sci.space.news
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, Erratum
% Date: 29 Jun 1994 06:11:27 -0700
% Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
% Approved: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
% Message-Id: <9406291314.AA16200@urania.harvard.edu>
% Nntp-Posting-Host: news.arc.nasa.gov
% Apparently-To: usenet-space-news@arc.nasa.gov
|
| 899.12 | No. 202 - July 5 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Houston, Tranquility Base here... | Wed Jul 06 1994 17:12 | 148 |
| From: US2RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 6-JUL-1994
To: distribution:;@us2rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 202
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 202 (revised) 1994 Jul 5 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A serious goof in the first version of this report, so I'm trying again.
Please delete the previous version!
Shuttle
-------
Launch of STS-65 is still due on July 8.
LAUNCHES
--------
NPO Energiya's Soyuz spacecraft 11F732 no. 68 was launched at 12:24:50
UTC on Jul 1 from Baykonur, becoming Soyuz TM-19 on reaching orbit.
Soyuz TM-19 carried the Mir EO-16 crew (callsign: "Agat") to the orbital
complex, and docked at the rear port of the Kvant module (vacated by
Progress M-23 on Jul 2) at 13:55:01 UTC on Jul 3. The EO-16 crew
commander is Lt-Col. Yuriy Ivanovich Malenchenko of the Russian Air
Force. The flight engineer is Lt-Col. Talgat Bigeldinovich Musabaev,
also of the Russian Air Force. Both men are currently members of the
Russian Air Force cosmonaut detachment, although Musabaev is a Kazakh
and was originally selected as backup for the Kazakh mission to Mir
flown by Tokhtar Aubakirov in 1991. The EO-16 crew will replace two of
the EO-15 crewmembers currently aboard Mir, Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy
Usachyov, who will land back on Earth on Jul 9. Physician-cosmonaut
Valeriy Polyakov will remain aboard Mir with the EO-16 crew.
Orbital Sciences' revolutionary Pegasus winged launch vehicle suffered
its first complete launch failure on Jun 27. The modified Lockheed
L-1011 carrier plane took off from Vandenberg AFB, California and
released the first Pegasus XL over the Point Arguello Warning Area at
2115 UTC. The rocket malfunctioned during the first stage burn and was
destroyed. Payload on this sixth Pegasus launch was the US Air Force
Space Test Program's STEP Mission 1 satellite. STEP 1 was a DSI/TRW
Eagle class light satellite carrying radio propagation experiments, a
plasma environment analyser, the CHAMPION ionosphere-magnetosphere
coupling experiment, and an accelerometer and mass spectrometer to study
the upper atmosphere.
In last week's report, I should have noted that Martin Marietta have
bought the old General Dynamics launch vehicle group. Therefore, the
recent Atlas I AC-76 flight was a Martin Marietta launch, not a General
Dynamics one. Apologies to Martin Marietta and its Atlas Centaur team
for the misattribution.
The UHF F/O F-3 satellite launched by AC-76 carries 39 UHF
communications channels (21 narrow band, 17 relay, and 1 Fleet
Broadcast). This HS-601 class satellite is owned by Hughes Space and
Communications, and will be delivered to the US Navy's Space Command
once it has been checked out in geostationary orbit. Launch of AC-76
occurred at 1350:02 UTC; the booster engines were jettisoned within
three minutes and the Atlas main stage fell away at 1354. The first
Centaur burn ended at 1400, placing the Centaur/HS-601 in parking orbit
a few hundred km above the Earth. Centaur reignited at 1414 for a 70
second burn, and separated at 1418 UTC leaving the HS-601 in a 221 x
15600 km x 27 deg transfer orbit. The HS-601 later began burns
of its ARC 490N liquid apogee engine to raise the satellite's orbit
towards its operational geostationary height of 35780 x 35780 km x 0 deg.
However orbital details for the satellite have not been released; this
is unusual as earlier UHF F/O mission trajectories have been unclassified.
The satellite launched into a 63 degree orbit on Jul 3 is a Chinese FSW
(Fanhui Shi Weixing) recoverable satellite launched from Jiuquan, and
not a Russian Kosmos from Plesetsk, as I suggested in the first version
of this report. Orbit of the FSW satellite is 173 x 342 km x 63.0 deg.
This is very similar to the orbits used by Russian's Yantar' satellites,
and the ground track of the satellite passes close to the Plesetsk
launch site on the first orbit before the actual launch, hence my
initial confusion.
The McDonnell Douglas DC-X reusable rocket has made two more test
flights, on Jun 20 and Jun 27. The second flight was aborted
because of an explosion in the aft compartment at launch time; the
rocket made a successful emergency landing and the damage is reportedly
not severe.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A
Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A
Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A
May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A
May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A
May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A
May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A
May 20 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A
May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1? Cargo 31A
May 25 1015 Kosmos Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 SIGINT? FTO
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello WA Science FTO
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0804 FSW Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Reentries
---------
May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/RSRM-39/ET-64/OV-102 LC39A STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Wed, 6 Jul 94 11:46:04 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9407061546.AA01717@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us2rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 202
|
| 899.13 | No. 203 - July 14 | RANGER::KLAES | Houston, Tranquility Base here... | Tue Jul 19 1994 21:12 | 122 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 14-JUL-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 203
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 203 1994 Jul 14 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on mission STS-65 at 1643 UTC on Jul
8. This is Columbia's 17th flight and the long two week mission, if
successful, will significantly extend Columbia's record as the orbiter
with the most flight hours. On Jul 11 Columbia was in a 299 x 302 km
orbit inclined 28.5 deg to the equator. The Spacelab Long Module in the
cargo bay carries the International Microgravity Laboratory 2 payload.
Mir
---
The Progress M-23 cargo ship undocked and was deorbited on Jul 2. (I
don't know the time or whether it had a Raduga reentry capsule). Soyuz
TM-19 docked with the vacated rear port of the Kvant module on Jul 3, as
reported earlier. On Jul 9, the EO-15 commander and flight engineer,
Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy Usachyov, boarded the Soyuz TM-18 ferry
docked at the Mir front port, and undocked from the complex. Several
hours later they ignited the Soyuz braking engine, and the descent
module was separated from the orbital and instrument modules. The Soyuz
TM-18 descent module landed 110 km north of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at
1032:35 UTC on Jul 9. Afanas'ev and Usachyov's flight time was 182 days
0 hr 27 min if my arithmetic is correct. This gives Afanas'ev a
cumulative flight time of 357 days 02 h 19 min over his two flights.
EO-15 physician-cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov remains aboard Mir with the
new EO-16 crew of Malenchenko and Musabaev.
Launches
--------
Ariane V.65 was launched at 2305 on Jul 8 from the Ensemble de Lancement
Ariane No. 2 at the Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou in Guyane, South
America. The 44L model Ariane has four liquid PAL strapon boosters on
the L220 first stage, an L33 second stage, and a high-energy H10+ third
stage. After the H10+ reached geostationary transfer orbit, the PanAmSat
2 satellite separated, followed by the cover of the SPELDA
dual-satellite adapter, followed finally by the BS-3N satellite.
PanAmSat 2 is owned by Alpha Lyracom, a Connecticut-based communications
company. It is a Hughes HS-601 model satellite with a liquid apogee
motor. BS-3N is owned by the Japanese NHK television company (it may be
renamed Yuri-3N on reaching orbit, since previous BS satellites owned by
the NASDA space agency were renamed in that way). It is a smaller GE3000
model built by Martin Marietta Astro Space (formerly GE, formerly RCA).
The Kosmos-2282 geostationary satellite launched on Jul 6
is apparently an early warning satellite in the Prognoz series.
A navigation satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 14 into a 1000
km, 83 degree orbit. It is either a Nadezhda civil navsat or a Parus
navy navigation satellite.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello WA Science FTO
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0804? FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0508 Nadezhda? Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Navsat 41A?
Reentries
---------
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Jul 2 Progress M-23 Deorbited
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/ LC39A STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 13:27:07 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9407141727.AA18939@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 203
|
| 899.14 | No. 204 - July 19 | RANGER::KLAES | Houston, Tranquility Base here... | Tue Jul 19 1994 21:13 | 164 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 19-JUL-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 204
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 204 1994 Jul 19 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Columbia continues in orbit on the STS-65 mission.
Mir
---
I now have details of the Progress M-23 flight from Vladimir Agapov.
The Progress undocked from the Kvant module at 0946:46 UTC on Jul 2.
The braking engine was ignited at 1444 UTC, and the Raduga VBK reentry
capsule was ejected at 1455:45 UTC. The Progress burnt up in the
atmosphere at 1457. The Raduga deployed its parachute after reentry
and landed at 1509 UT at 51 deg 41 min N, 59 deg 21 min E, in the
Orenburg region of Russia.
Launches
--------
The BS-3N satellite successfully fired its Star 30BP apogee motor at
0306:31 UT on Jul 13. It is a Martin Marietta Astro Space Series 3000
satellite (I said GE3000 last week, but that's the old name for the bus).
A Nadezhda ("Hope") navigation, search and rescue satellite was
launched from Plesetsk on Jul 14. Nadezhda satellites are produced and
designed by AO Polyot of Omsk and NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk. They operate in 1000 km orbits at 83 degree inclination.
Fireworks on Jupiter
--------------------
The fragments of Comet 1993e (P/Shoemaker-Levy 9) have begun to impact
Jupiter. Fragment G, which hit on Jul 18, left an impact site larger
than the Earth. The impact sites are visible in small telescopes; the
central meridian crossing times (these are the most important things for
amateurs to note, as the longitudes and rotation periods of the
individual sites are not all well determined).
Predicted Approximate observed impact times (UTC)
A Jul 16.833 Jul 16.844
B Jul 17.121 Jul 17.122
C Jul 17.293 Jul 17.302
D Jul 17.491 Jul 17.496
E Jul 17.629 Jul 17.637
F Jul 18.020 Jul 18.060
G Jul 18.311 Jul 18.315
H Jul 18.810 Jul 18.813
K Jul 19.430 Jul 19.434
L Jul 19.923
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello Science FTO
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0804? FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Not So Recent Launches
----------------------
Saturn SA-506 was launched from LC39A at Cape Kennedy on 1969 Jul 16 at
1332 UTC inserting the S-IVB-506 third stage and attached Apollo 11
spacecraft into a 188 x 192 km x 32.6 deg Earth orbit. At 1616 the S-IVB
reignited for the TLI burn; Apollo CSM 107 separated at 1649, completed
the transposition and docking maneuver at 1656, and separated with the
attached Lunar Module 5 at 1749. Lunar orbit insertion of the CSM 107/
LM 5 complex occurred at 1721 on Jul 19. On Jul 20, Apollo 11 Commander
Neil A. Armstrong and LM Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. transferred to LM 5,
leaving CM Pilot Michael Collins in the CSM. At 1745 on Jul 20, LM 5
(callsign "Eagle") undocked from the CSM 107 (callsign "Columbia") in a
100 x 122 km lunar orbit. The Descent Orbit Insertion burn at 1908
lowered LM 5's orbit to 16 x 106 km. At 2005 the Powered Descent
Initiation burn was begun, and at 1969 Jul 20 d 20 h 17 m 40 s UTC the
spaceship LM 5 "Eagle" carrying astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin landed
at Tranquility Base, Statio Tranquillitatis (00 deg 41 ' 15 " N 23 deg
26 ' 00 " E) in the Mare Tranquillitatis on Luna.
Exploration of the Tranquility Base area was carried out from 0227 to
0458 on Jul 21 by Armstrong (in spacesuit A7L56) and Aldrin (in suit
A7L77). LM 5 was again depressurized from 0740 to 0745? for an equipment
dump. LM 5's ascent stage was launched from the descent stage at 1754 on
Jul 21 and reached a 17 x 84 km lunar orbit at 1801. The LM 5 ascent
stage docked with CSM 107 at 2135 on Jul 21. After the crew and cargo
were transferred, LM 5 was undocked at 2342. CSM 107 fired its SPS
engine at 0455 for the transearth injection burn. The SM-107 service
module was jettisoned at 1621 on Jul 24 and the CM began reentry at
1635. At 1650 on Jul 24 the CM-107 "Columbia" landed at 13 deg 30 ' N
169 deg 15 ' W in the Pacific Ocean, and was recovered by the carrier
USS Hornet.
Meanwhile, flight 5L (the second test launch) of the N-1 lunar launch
vehicle resulted in a massive explosion at 2018 on 1969 Jul 3, damaging
the N-1 launch pad at Baykonur. Luna E-8-5 sample return probe no. 401
was launched by Proton-K at 0255 on 1969 Jul 13 from Baykonur and given
the code name Luna-15. Luna-15 reached lunar orbit at 1000 on 1969 Jul
17 but the attempted landing at 1552 UT on 1969 Jul 21 resulted in
destruction of the spacecraft on impact at 17 N 60 E.
Reentries
---------
Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered
Jul 2 Progress M-23 Landed in Russia
Jul 2 Foton No. 9 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18? FSW-2 Landed in China?
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-65
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/ LC39A STS-65
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Tue, 19 Jul 94 16:39:23 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9407192039.AA29668@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 204
|
| 899.15 | No. 205 - July 25 | MTWAIN::KLAES | Houston, Tranquility Base here... | Mon Jul 25 1994 19:31 | 104 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 25-JUL-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 205
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 205 1994 Jul 25 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Columbia landed at 1038 UTC on Jul 23 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center.
This was the longest Shuttle mission yet, at 353 h 55 m 01 sec.
Columbia is in Orbiter Processing Bay 1 being prepared for the trip
back to California for its Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (refurbishment).
Meanwhile, Endeavour was towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jul 21
for mating to the External Tank and solid boosters for mission STS-68,
due in August.
Launches
--------
Kosmos-2283, launched Jul 20 from Plesetsk, is a Yantar' class imaging
reconnaissance satellite built by the Samara Central Specialized
Design Bureau (TsSKB). It is in a 67 degree inclination orbit and
will stay up for about 60 days.
APStar 1 was launched by a CZ-3 (Long March 3) from China's Xichang
spaceport. It is a Hughes HS-376 communications satellite, and is owned
by Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) Satellite Co., a consortium of
telecommunications companies based in Hong Kong and China.
This is the fourth attempted commercial Chinese launch to geostationary
orbit. Previous Chinese commercial geostationary launches:
1990 Apr 7 Asiasat 1 by CZ-3
1992 Aug 13 Optus B1 by CZ-2E
1992 Dec 21 Optus B2 by CZ-2E (satellite or rocket exploded)
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello Science FTO
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0804? FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A
Jul 21 1030? APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A
Reentries
---------
Jul 2 Foton No. 9 Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18? FSW-2 Landed in China?
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Mon, 25 Jul 94 14:53:21 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9407251853.AA11492@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 205
|
| 899.16 | No. 206 - August 4 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Fri Aug 05 1994 16:14 | 181 |
| From: US4RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 4-AUG-1994
To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 206
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 206 1994 Aug 4 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Endeavour and the STS-68 stack was rolled out to pad 39A on Jul 27. In
the orbiter's payload bay is the Space Radar Lab, which first flew on
Endeavour's last flight (STS-59 in April). This is the first time that
the same main payload has flown on two successive flights of an orbiter.
(In 1991 and 1992 the Unit 1 Spacelab Long Module flew on successive
flights of Columbia, but the experiment payload was changed from
Spacelab Life Sciences to International Microgravity Lab). SRL-2
carries JPL's SIR-C Shuttle Imaging Radar and the German/Italian X-SAR
radar. Also aboard are an MPESS pallet carrying the MAPS (Measurement of
Air Pollution from Satellites) experiment on its fourth flight, and
Getaway Special payloads G-316 (North Carolina A&T Univ. student biology
and chemistry experiments), G-503 (U of Alabama Huntsville SEDS student
experiments) and G-541 (Swedish Space Corp. gradient furnace for crystal
growth experiment). US Postal Service commemorative Apollo 11
anniversary covers will also be carried in two GAS cans. Launch of
STS-68 is due on Aug 18 at 1054 UTC.
Launches
--------
Martin Marietta Commercial Launch Services (formerly the General Dynamics
team) successfully launched an Atlas IIA from Cape Canaveral on Aug 3.
The AC-107 Centaur stage and the Hughes HS-601 satellite payload were
delivered into a 211 x 39459 km x 26.9 deg geostationary transfer orbit.
The satellite, named DBS-2, is a direct broadcast TV satellite jointly
owned by DirecTV (a subsidiary of Hughes) and USSB (United States
Satellite Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Hubbard Broadcasting). Its
ARC490N liquid fuel apogee engine will be fired several times to raise
the orbit to a circular geostationary one. [Thanks to special correspondent
Joel Runes for his report from the launch site.]
This was the second launch of the Atlas IIA configuration (the IIAS has
also flown once). All Atlas II class flights have been successful:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight Date Payload Type of Atlas
AC-102 1991 Dec 7 Aerospatiale Spacebus 100 "Eutelsat II F-3" Atlas II
AC-101 1992 Feb 11 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-5 Atlas II
AC-105 1992 Mar 14 MM Astro Space Series 5000 "Intelsat K" Atlas IIA
AC-103 1992 Jul 2 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-6 Atlas II
AC-104 1993 Jul 19 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-7 Atlas II
AC-106 1993 Nov 28 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-8 Atlas II
AC-108 1993 Dec 16 MM Astro Space Series 7000 "Telstar 401" Atlas IIAS
AC-107 1994 Aug 3 Hughes HS-601 "DBS 2" Atlas IIA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(MM = Martin Marietta)
Orbital Sciences Corporation also had a successful launch earlier the
same day. NASA's NB-52 carrier aircraft took off from Edwards AFB around
1325 UTC and dropped a standard Pegasus over the Point Arguello Warning
Area at 1439 UTC on Aug 3 and the three stage solid rocket successfully
inserted the APEX satellite into the intended orbit. APEX (Advanced
Photovoltaic and Electronics Experiments) is an OSC Pegastar bus and
carries a variety of advanced solar cell experiments for the US Air
Force: Photovoltaic Array and Space Power Plus Diagnostics (PASP-Plus),
Ferroelectric Experiment (FERRO), and Cosmic Ray Upset Experiment
(CRUX). Versions of CRUX have previously flown as Shuttle GAS can
experiments. The APEX satellite is part of the USAF Space Test Program
and also has the designation P90-6. The intended orbit was 360 x 2000 km
x 70 deg, and the actual one was 365 x 2551 km x 69.9 deg. The
elliptical orbit gives high plasma densities at perigee and high
radiation levels at apogee; the USAF reports that the orbit achieved is
excellent for the mission. [Thanks to V. Arruda of USAF for info]. In
June, the first launch of an advanced Pegasus XL from the L-1011
Stargazer carrier plane ended in failure; the cause has been identified
as aerodynamic problems due to faulty hydro simulations (no wind tunnel
testing was done). The Pegasus XL will probably be cleared for flight
later in the year.
Kosmos-2284, launched Jul 29, is an imaging satellite. Based on its
orbit, it is presumably the 17th in the 'Kometa' series of topographic
mapping satellites, based on the Yantar' spy satellite design. Vladimir
Agapov reports that the Kometa satellite imagery is commercially
distributed by AO Sovinformsputnik. The last Kometa satellite,
Kosmos-2243, was damaged during launch in Apr 1993. Typical mission
length is 44 days. The first Kometa satellite was Kosmos-1246, in 1981.
All the Kometa satellites are launched by Soyuz-U from Baykonur.
Kosmos-2285 was launched Aug 2 by the light Kosmos-3M launch vehicle.
Kosmos-3M, built by PO Polyot of Omsk, is derived from the R-14 (NATO
designation SS-5) IRBM built originally by the Yangel design bureau.
Kosmos-2285 was inserted in a 974 x 1013 km x 74.0 deg orbit, which is
quite unusual. The altitude range is that used by Parus-class navigation
satellites, but the inclination has not been used by those satellites
since the early 1970s. The most likely missions for Kosmos-2285 are
radar calibration or geodesy.
I have confirmed that the Apstar 1 satellite was launched
using the CZ-3 (Long March 3) and not the more advanced CZ-3A,
and that the launch time was 1055 UT on Jul 21 (Chen Baosheng, CGWIC,
personal communication). On Aug 7, Apstar 1 was in a 35646 x 35920 km
x 0.04 deg orbit stationary over 138.4 deg E. Some other recent
geostationary satellites are also now on station: PAS 2 at 165.4W;
BS-3N at 122.0E, and Kosmos-2282 at 24.1W. Elements for UHF F/O F3
have not been released.
Erratum
-------
Progress M-23 was undocked at 0847 UTC and not 0947 UTC on Jul 2.
Apologies for the error which was caused by confusion between Moscow
decree time and Moscow daylight time. (Thanks Sven for catching this.)
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A
Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A
Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A
STRV 1 ) Technology 34B
STRV 2 ) Technology 34C
Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A
Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello Science FTO
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0800 FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A
Jul 21 1055 APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A
Jul 29 0929 Kosmos-2284 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 44A
Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A
Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A
Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A
Reentries
---------
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18 FSW-2 Landed in China
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 LC39A STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Thu, 4 Aug 94 11:56:19 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9408041556.AA01546@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us4rmc.pko.dec.com
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 206
|
| 899.17 | No. 207 - August 12 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Fri Aug 12 1994 19:40 | 130 |
| From: US1RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 12-AUG-1994
To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 207
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 207 1994 Aug 12 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Launch of STS-68 is still scheduled for Aug 18 with the Space Radar Lab
payload. Crew are Capt. Michael Baker, USN (Commander), Maj. Terry Wilcutt,
USMC (Pilot), Dr. Tom Jones, NASA (Payload Commander, MS4), Steve Smith,
NASA (Mission Specialist 1), Cdr. Dan Bursch, USN (Mission Specialist 2),
Dr. Jeff Wisoff, NASA (Mission Specialist 3). Smith and Wilcutt are making
their first flights.
Discovery was rolled over to the VAB for stacking with the External
Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters on Aug 11. It is due for launch
on Sep 9 on mission STS-64.
Launches
--------
Ariane V66 was launched at 2305 on Aug 10. Payloads were a Hughes HS376W
satellite, Brasilsat B1, and an Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 satellite,
Turksat 1B. Brasilsat B1 carries a solid Thiokol Star 30 apogee motor,
which makes a single burn to geosynchronous altitude. Turksat 1B has an
MBB S400 liquid apogee engine, and will make several burns to raise its
altitude from transfer orbit.
Brasilsat B1 is the first of Brazil's second generation communications
satellites, replacing the Embratel agency's Brasilsat S1 and S2,
launched in 1985 and 1986 by Ariane. Those satellites were an earlier
version of the HS376 model. Brasilsat B1 is the first 'widebody' HS376,
3.6m in diameter compared to 2.2m for all earlier HS376 satellites, and
is the 40th HS376 to be launched by my count. It carries 28 C-band
transponders for the Telebras television organization and, reportedly, a
single military X-band transponder.
Turksat 1B should become Turkey's first successful comsat. Turksat 1A
was lost in an Ariane launch failure earlier this year. Turksat will
be delivered to the Turkish Ministry of Posts and Communications once
it reaches its final orbit. It has 16 55W Ku-band transponders.
Kosmos-2286, launched on Aug 5, is a missile early warning satellite
in the Oko ("Eye") series. It carries a large telescope to detect
ballistic missile launches. The spacecraft and upper stage were placed
in low earth orbit at an inclination of 62.8 deg to the equator; the
upper stage then ignited to place the Oko in a high elliptical orbit
with a 12 hour orbital period. The Oko's on board engine refines the
orbit to be exactly semi-synchronous, with alternate passes over the
same longitude.
Kosmos-2287, Kosmos-2288, Kosmos-2289, launched on Aug 11, are Uragan-class
GLONASS navigation satellites, the Russian equivalent of the Navstar Global
Positioning System. They operate in orbits at an altitude of 19000 km.
Note: The intended apogee for APEX was in fact 2500 km (very close to the
acheived 2551 km), not 2000 km as I stated in JSR206. Congratulations
to Orbital Sciences on a successful mission.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0800 FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A
Jul 21 1055 APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A
Jul 29 0929 Kosmos-2284 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 44A
Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A
Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A
Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A
Aug 5 0112 Kosmos-2286 Molniya Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 48A
Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A
Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B
Aug 11 1533? Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Navsat 50A
Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B
Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C
Reentries
---------
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18 FSW-2 Landed in China
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 1 STS-64 Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct
OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-68 Aug 18
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 LC39A STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103 VAB Bay 1 STS-64
ML3/ VAB Bay 3? STS-66
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Fri, 12 Aug 94 15:14:25 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9408121914.AA17693@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 207
|
| 899.18 | No. 208 - August 29 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Mon Aug 29 1994 19:51 | 118 |
| From: US1RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 29-AUG-1994
To: usenet-space-news@arc.nasa.gov
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 208
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 208 1994 Aug 29 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some catching up to do now I'm back from vacation:
Shuttle
-------
The attempted launch of STS-68 was terminated with an RSLS Abort at
1053:58 UTC on Aug 18. The High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump temperature
on the third main engine, SSME 2032, registered high after the engine
started up and the launch was cancelled at T-2 seconds. This is the
closest to launch that a Shuttle flight has ever been aborted.
Endeavour was rolled back to the VAB on Aug 24 and its main engines are
being replaced. The new target launch date is October 2.
Discovery was rolled out to pad 39B a few hours after Endeavour's abort
on pad 39A. Its STS-64 mission is still scheduled to be launched on Sep 9.
Launches
--------
A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched on Aug 24 into
a 600 x 39000 km orbit inclined 62.8 deg.
The Progress M-24 cargo ship was launched from Baykonur on Aug 25.
It is scheduled to dock with Mir, but the first attempt at docking
on Aug 27 was unsuccessful.
Titan Centaur TC-11 was launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug 27.
The payload is possibly another Advanced JUMPSEAT type electronic
intelligence satellite. I hope to have more details on this launch
in the next issue.
The second H-II launch vehicle, TF-2, successfully orbited its Kiku-6
(Engineering Test Satellite VI) payload on Aug 28. The H-II is the
Japanese NASDA agency's heavy lift launch vehicle. Kiku-6 carries the
first Japanese made liquid propellant apogee engine, which will place
the satellite in geostationary orbit and then separate (nevertheless,
it is considered part of the payload rather than a third stage of the
launch vehicle). The satellite, to be stationed at 153.8 deg E, is to
test technology for 2-tonne class 3-axis stabilized comsats. It
carries a nickel-hydrogen battery, and a small ion engine for
north-south station keeping. The 3.0 x 2.0 x 2.8 m box shaped
satellite has solar panels spanning 30m, and 3.5 and 2.5 m diameter
antennae for fixed and mobile communications, together with K and
S-band antennae for intersatellite communications as well as a laser
communications experiment. Mass is about 1800 kg.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0800 FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A
Jul 21 1055 APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A
Jul 29 0929 Kosmos-2284 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 44A
Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A
Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A
Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A
Aug 5 0112 Kosmos-2286 Molniya Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 48A
Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A
Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B
Aug 11 1527 Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Navsat 50A
Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B
Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C
Aug 23 1433? Molniya-3 Molniya Plesetsk Comsat 51A
Aug 25 1428? Progress M-24 Soyuz-U? Baykonur Cargo 52A
Aug 27 0858 USA-105 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT? 53A
Aug 28 0750 Kiku 6 H-II Tanegashima Comsat
Reentries
---------
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18 FSW-2 Landed in China
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-64 Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-68 Oct 2
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103 LC39B STS-64
ML3/ VAB Bay 3? STS-66
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
|
| 899.19 | No. 209 - September 2 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Wed Sep 07 1994 22:25 | 184 |
| From: US1RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 3-SEP-1994
To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 209
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 209 1994 Sep 2 Mt Hopkins, Arizona
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
The next Shuttle mission is STS-64. The orbiter Discovery will carry a
variety of science payloads. The payload bay will contain:
1) a Spacelab pallet with the LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment
(LITE). LITE's laser transmitter and telescope receiver will be used
to make atmospheric measurements and demonstrate laser measurement
technology.
2) an MPESS pallet with the Spartan 201 solar observatory on its
second mission; it will be deployed for two days of observations of
the solar south pole, to coordinate with the Ulysses data.
3) SPIFEX, the Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment. This is a
package of instruments on a 10m boom to be attached to the RMS arm.
It's for testing what happens when the Shuttle maneuvers near another
spacecraft such as a space station.
4) an MPESS type GAS Bridge pallet carrying 10 GAS (Getaway Special)
canisters.
5) A sidewall Hitchhiker-G pallet carrying the ROMPS (Robot Operated
Materials Processing System), two GAS cans testing use of robotics in
space processing.
6) SAFER Recharge Station, a nitrogen gas refuelling station for the
SAFER (Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue), a new propulsive spacesuit
backpack to be tested by Mark Lee and Carl Meade on a spacewalk. The
Recharge Station is on the payload bay wall; SAFER itself will be
stored in the crew cabin.
Launches
--------
Progress M-24 failed to dock with Mir on Aug 27. A second automatic docking
attempt on Aug 30 also failed. A third and final attempt, manually
controlled by Mir commander Yuriy Malenchenko, was successful on Sep 2.
Kiku-6's LAPS apogee motor failed to develop the correct thrust when it
was fired on Aug 31 at 0519 UT. The LAPS was separated at 1510 UTC,
leaving Kiku-6 in a 7791 x 38715 km x 13.1 deg transfer orbit
instead of the intended geostationary one.
The USA-105 satellite, launched by Titan 4 Centaur from pad 41
at Cape Canaveral, is believed to have entered geostationary orbit.
It may be the first of a new series of geostationary signals
intelligence satellites, following on from the MAGNUM satellites
launched from the Shuttle since 1985.
The Magellan Venus probe lowered its periapsis to 182 km on Sep 25 in
preparation for the Windmill experiment to study the amount of torque
produced by the Venusian upper atmosphere.
Kosmos-2290 was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baykonur on Aug 26
into a 211 x 292 km x 64.8 deg orbit. This type of orbit suggests that
it may be the first of a new generation of imaging reconnaissance
satellites. All previous Soviet and Russian imaging spy satellites
were launched by derivatives of the R-7 ICBM, the most recent of which
are the 11A511U and 11A511U2 variants of the Soyuz booster. This would
mark the first use of the Zenit for a spy satellite, although 1987
test flights of the rocket which placed inert satellites into similar
orbits may have been related.
Optus B3 was launched by a Chang Zheng 2E (Long March) rocket from the
Xichang space center in China on Aug 27. Optus is an Australian
telecommunications company. The CZ-2E placed the Optus satellite into
a 189 x 1084 km orbit at an inclination of 27.8 deg. The Thiokol Star
63F solid perigee motor then fired to place Optus B3 in a 383 x 39123
km x 24.1 deg transfer orbit. Optus B3 will use its own liquid apogee
motor to raise the orbit to a circular geostationary one. The
satellite is a Hughes HS-601 comsat and replaces Optus B2, which
disintegrated during launch in Dec 1992. The Optus B satellites are
successors to the Aussat K series launched in the 1980s.
Chinese CZ-2E and CZ-3 geostationary class launches
CZ3 1984 Jan 29 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1984 Apr 8 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1986 Feb 1 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1988 Mar 7 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1988 Dec 22 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1990 Feb 4 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1990 Apr 7 HS-376 Asiasat 1
CZ3 1991 Dec 28 Chinese comsat
CZ3 1994 Jul 21 HS-376 Apstar 1
CZ2E 1990 Jul 16 HS-601 dummy, Test launch
CZ2E 1992 Aug 13 HS-601 Optus B1
CZ2E 1992 Dec 21 HS-601 Optus B2
CZ2E 1994 Aug 27 HS-601 Optus B3
CZ3A 1994 Feb 8 DFH-3 dummy, Test launch
The 12th Block 5D Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft
was orbited by a refurbished Atlas E from Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California on Aug 29. DMSP F-12, or DMSP 23545 as it is also known, is
built by Martin Marietta Astro Space and based on the Tiros-N bus also
used by the civilian NOAA weather satellites.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A
Jul 3 0800 FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A
Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A
Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A
Spacelab IML-2)
Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A
BS-3N ) Comsat 40B
Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A
Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A
Jul 21 1055 APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A
Jul 29 0929 Kosmos-2284 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 44A
Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A
Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A
Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A
Aug 5 0112 Kosmos-2286 Molniya Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 48A
Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A
Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B
Aug 11 1527 Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navsat 50A
Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B
Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C
Aug 23 1431 Molniya-3 Molniya Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 51A
Aug 25 1425 Progress M-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 52A
Aug 26 1200 Kosmos-2290 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Recon? 53A
Aug 27 0858 USA-105 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT? 54A
Aug 27 2310 Optus B3 CZ-2E Xichang Comsat 55A
Aug 28 0750 Kiku 6 H-II Tanegashima Comsat 56A
Aug 29 1743? DMSP 23545 Atlas E Vandenberg Weather 57A
Reentries
---------
Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18 FSW-2 Landed in China
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-64 Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-68 Oct 2
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103 LC39B STS-64
ML3/ VAB Bay 3? STS-66
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Sat, 3 Sep 94 02:22:03 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9409030622.AA27244@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 209
|
| 899.20 | No. 210 - September 10 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Mon Sep 12 1994 16:33 | 161 |
| From: US1RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 10-SEP-1994
To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 210
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 210 1994 Sep 10 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Shuttle mission STS-64 was launched at 2222:53 UTC on Sep 9 from pad
39B at Kennedy Space Center. The Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors
separated at 2 min into the flight, and the lightweight External Tank,
ET-66, was jettisoned at 9 min after launch, just after main engine
cutoff. Orbit on Sep 10.6 was 253 x 266 km x 57.0 deg. This is
Discovery's 19th flight into space.
One of the main payloads is LITE (the Lidar In-Space Technology
Experiment). Lidar is essentially radar using an optical wavelength
laser instead of microwaves. LITE consists of a Spacelab pallet with a
laser transmitter and a receiver telescope. In an interesting
historical note, the 96-cm receiver telescope was built in the 1960s
as the engineering model for the telescope on the OAO-B satellite,
lost in a 1970 launch failure. It was refurbished for the LITE mission.
Mir
---
The Mir commander and flight engineer, Yuriy Malenchenko and
Talgat Musabaev, made a spacewalk on Sep 9 to inspect the damage
to the Kvant module made by Progress M-24 when it collided with
Kvant during its second attempted docking on Aug 30. [I don't
have the start time or duration of this EVA yet]. Valeriy Polyakov,
station doctor, stayed inside Mir during the EVA.
Launches
--------
AT&T Skynet Satellite Services' Telstar 402 was launched by an Ariane
42L on Sep 9 into a 224 x 35717 km orbit inclined 6.9 degrees. This
was the 30th Ariane 4 launch, and the 28th successful one. The payload
was a Martin Marietta Astro Space Series 7000 satellite, the second
to be launched. It carried 24 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders,
and a pair of UK Royal Ordnance bipropellant Leros liquid apogee engines.
A few minutes after Telstar 402 separated from the Ariane H10+ third stage,
controllers commanded the spacecraft tanks to be pressurized. Telemetry
indicates that an explosion occurred at this point and all contact with
the satellite was lost. The first Series 7000 satellite, Telstar 401,
continues to operate successfully in geostationary orbit.
More details on the DMSP launch: DMSP F-12 (23545) is a Martin Marietta
(formerly GE, formerly RCA, soon to be Lockheed Martin) Astro Space
Block 5D-2 class USAF weather satellite. Launch was at 1738 UTC on Aug
29, and the launch vehicle was a Martin Marietta (formerly General
Dynamics, formerly Convair) Atlas. This particular rocket was Atlas 20E,
a refurbished ICBM originally built in the early 1960s.
56 Atlas E rockets have been launched, with a variety of payloads:
Atlas 11E and two others remain in the inventory.
Atlas Date Mission Atlas Date Mission
3E, 4E: 1960 ICBM R&D 52E 1986 NOAA-10
5E 1964 ABRES reentry
test
8E, 9E, 12E, 13E: 1961 ICBM R&D 53E 1991 DMSP 22546
14E: 1984 Navstar 10 54E 1988 DMSP 20542
16E, 17E, 18E: 1961 ICBM R&D 55E 1985 Navstar 11
20E: 1994 DMSP 23545 57E 1964 ICBM test
21E, 22E 1961 ICBM R&D 58E 1983 DMSP 18541
24E 1963 ICBM test 59E 1987 DMSP 19543
25E, 26E, 27E 1961 ICBM R&D 60E 1982 DMSP 17540
28E 1990 USAF Stacksat 61E 1990 DMSP 21544
30E, 32E 1961 ICBM R&D 62E 1963 ICBM test
34E 1993 NOAA-13 63E 1988 NOAA-11
35E, 36E 1961 ICBM R&D 64E,65E,66E,67E 1962-3 ICBM tests
39E 1984 NOAA-9 68E 1980 USN PARCAE 4
40E 1962 ICBM R&D 69E,70E,71E,72E 1963 ICBM tests
41E 1985 USN Geosat 73E 1983 NOAA-8
42E 1984 Navstar 9 74E 1968 ABRES reentry test
48E 1964 ICBM test 75E 1983 Navstar 8
50E 1991 NOAA-12 76E 1981 Navstar 7
77E,78E 1968 ABRES reentry tests
The Kosmos-2290 spy satellite was launched on Aug 26 into a 211 x 292 km
orbit at an inclination of 64.8 degrees. It raised its orbit from 208 x
280 km to 208 x 348 km on Sep 6. This confirms that 2290 is indeed an
active payload, and supports the interpretation that it is an imaging
spy satellite. Earlier low orbit Zenit launches were just dummy
satellites which made no manouevres.
Causality Erratum
-----------------
Magellan's orbit trim was on Aug 25, not on Sep 25 as I claimed in JSR 209.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A
Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A
Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A
Aug 5 0112 Kosmos-2286 Molniya Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 48A
Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A
Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B
Aug 11 1527 Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navsat 50A
Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B
Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C
Aug 23 1431 Molniya-3 Molniya Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 51A
Aug 25 1425 Progress M-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 52A
Aug 26 1200 Kosmos-2290 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Recon 53A
Aug 27 0858 USA-105 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 54A
Aug 27 2310 Optus B3 CZ-2E Xichang Comsat 55A
Aug 28 0750 Kiku 6 H-II Tanegashima Comsat 56A
Aug 29 1738 DMSP 23545 Atlas 20E Vandenberg Weather 57A
Sep 9 0029 Telstar 402 Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 58A
Sep 9 2222 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 59A
Reentries
---------
Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery LEO STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-68 Oct 2
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/ LC39B
ML3/RSRM-42/ VAB Bay 3 STS-66
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Sat, 10 Sep 94 14:58:18 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9409101858.AA13345@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 210
|
| 899.21 | No. 211 - September 20 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Tue Sep 20 1994 21:46 | 98 |
| From: US1RMC::"jcm@urania.harvard.edu" "Jonathan McDowell" 20-SEP-1994
To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
CC:
Subj: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 211
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 211 1994 Sep 20 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Discovery's STS-64 mission was successful, with the LITE lidar
and the SPIFEX experiment working well.
The Spartan 201 satellite was deployed on Sep 13 at 2136
and retrieved on Sep 15 at 2101. The EVA to test the SAFER backpack
was successfully carried out on Sep 16 at 1442 and lasted 6 h 51 min.
Both Mark Lee and Carl Meade tried out the SAFER backpack.
Discovery landed on Runway 04 at Edwards AFB in California
at approximately 2112:53 UTC on Sep 20 (main gear touchdown),
giving a flight time of 10 days 22h 50 min 0 sec.
Endeavour was rolled out to pad 39A on Sep 13 for another try
at the STS-68 mission. Launch is due on Sep 27.
Mir
---
The Mir commander and flight engineer made another EVA on Sep 14
to install solar array mounts on the Kvant module.
Launches
--------
No new launches this week.
Recent Launches
---------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A
Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B
Aug 11 1527 Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navsat 50A
Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B
Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C
Aug 23 1431 Molniya-3 Molniya Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 51A
Aug 25 1425 Progress M-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 52A
Aug 26 1200 Kosmos-2290 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Recon 53A
Aug 27 0858 USA-105 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 54A
Aug 27 2310 Optus B3 CZ-2E Xichang Comsat 55A
Aug 28 0750 Kiku 6 H-II Tanegashima Comsat 56A
Aug 29 1738 DMSP 23545 Atlas 20E Vandenberg Weather 57A
Sep 9 0029 Telstar 402 Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 58A
Sep 9 2222 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 59A
Sep 13 2130 Spartan 201 - Discovery, LEO Astronomy 59B
Sep 16 SAFER/M. Lee - Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 SAFER/C. Meade - Discovery, LEO
Reentries
---------
Sep 20 Discovery Landed at Edwards AFB
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery Edwards RW04 STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-68 Sep 30
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 LC39A STS-68
ML2/ LC39B
ML3/RSRM-42/ET VAB Bay 3 STS-66
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 17:24:40 EDT
% From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
% Message-Id: <9409202124.AA06307@urania.harvard.edu>
% To: distribution:;@us1rmc.bb.dec.com (see end of body)
% Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 211
|
| 899.22 | Looking for more details on KVANT birds... | 56821::BATTERSBY | | Wed Sep 21 1994 16:35 | 7 |
| Where is there more information to be found on the KVANT I, II
satellites. I've noticed that they have a hign inclination orbit,
(up in this neck of the woods, in terms of potential viewing).
The information I've not come across is how big they are and how
bright they possibly may be for their orbit altitude.
Bob
|
| 899.23 | | skylab.zko.dec.com::FISHER | Indecision is the key to flexibility! | Wed Sep 21 1994 19:37 | 5 |
| Have you looked under "Mir" in this conference? They are hooked onto Mir, so
they should be :-) in the same orbit. And Mir is quite a bit hunk of metal and
quite visible.
Burns
|
| 899.24 | RE: KVANT modules | 56821::BATTERSBY | | Wed Sep 21 1994 21:37 | 12 |
| Gary Hughes sent me some mail explaining the Kvant-1 & 2 system
modules. I'm still not sure I understand if there aren't ancillary
service modules for each Kvant docking module. My reason for asking
in the first place is that there are 2-line element sets for both
Kvant-1 , -2 in the most recent element set I pulled off USENET,
yet I'm told that both KVANT modules have been docked with MIR for
quite some time. So I couldn't understand how NORAD still was showing
them as separate elements (although I'm willing to believe they are
probably in the same orbit with MIR but either in front or in back
of MIR), but probably "parked" while something else is docking.
Bob
|
| 899.25 | | STAR::HUGHES | Samurai Couch Potato | Thu Sep 22 1994 14:49 | 20 |
| I did some checking last night. The Kvant-1 service module was quite
large (Kvant-1 was packed full of supplies at launch) so it may still
appear as a seperate object. Kvant-1 is pretty much an integral part of
the Mir core. I doubt they could undock it if they wanted to without
crippling Mir.
Kvant-2 did not have a seperate service module. It could in theory be
undocked and fly free, but I've never seen any mention of that
happening. Remember that Mir has a total of 6 docking ports; 4 radial
ports of which 2 are permanently occupied (Kvant-2 and Krystal) and two
lateral ports which are used for Soyuz and Progress. Kvant-1 has a
second docking port to replace the one it occupies.
Those elements were close to identical. I've no idea why NORAD
continues to list seperate elements for the various modules (but
remember that NORAD claimed the predecessors to these modules were
space weaons platforms when they docked with Salyuts 6 and 7, paranoia
runs deep).
gary
|
| 899.26 | Go to the source and seek knowledge.... :-) | 56821::BATTERSBY | | Thu Sep 22 1994 16:03 | 8 |
| Ahh more in-depth info....thanks Gary. I'd have to go back to some
older element sets I may have pulled off from somewhere and look
to see if they are listed. An element set back in mid June lists
them.
Maybe I'll blast some e-mail to T.S. Kelso and ask him if he could
shed any light on it. He'd probably respond.
Bob
|
| 899.27 | No. 215 - October 18 | 56821::BATTERSBY | | Wed Oct 19 1994 14:57 | 141 |
| Article: 6562
From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 215
Date: 18 Oct 1994 11:21:00 -0700
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Sender: daemon@news.arc.nasa.gov
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 215 1994 Oct 18 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
The next Shuttle mission is STS-66, due for launch on Nov 3.
This will be the first flight of Atlantis since its refurbishment.
Payloads include the Atlas-3 earth observing Spacelab pallet and the
CRISTA free flyer SPAS satelite.
Mir
---
The Mir complex is undergoing power difficulties and the crew's
experiments were interrupted for several days. The station's
solar panels will be in a more favorable orientation this
week and normal operations should resume. The Mir complex
consists of the core module, the Kvant astrophysical module,
the Kvant-2 airlock module, and the Kristall module. Soyuz TM-19
is docked at the Kvant rear port and Soyuz TM-20 is docked at
the Mir forward port.
Recent Launches
---------------
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scored a success on Oct 15
with the launch of its PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (The first
PSLV failed in Sep 1993). The four stage rocket orbited the 870 kg IRS-P2
satellite into a 798 x 882 km x 99 deg polar orbit. IRS-P2 is part of
the Indian Remote Sensing satellite series. Developed by the ISRO Satellite
Centre in Bangalore, it carries the LISS-II (Linear Imaging Self Scanner)
CCD camera with a 32m resolution and four visible and near infrared bands.
IRS satellites:
IRS-1A 1988 Mar 17 Vostok, Baykonur 870 x 914 km x 99.0 deg
IRS-1B 1991 Aug 29 Vostok, Baykonur 862 x 918 km x 99.2 deg
IRS-1E 1993 Sep 20 PSLV-D1, Sriharikota (Failed)
IRS-P2 1994 Oct 15 PSLV-D2, Sriharikota 798 x 882 km x 98.7 deg
The PSLV first stage (PS-1) is a 129 tonne solid motor 2.8m in dia with
a thrust of 4500 kN. Six strap-on HTPB/Ammonium Perchlorate solid motors
of 662 kN are attached, two of which ignite at launch, the other four
igniting 30 sec later. The first two separate at 73s, the remaining four
are jettisoned at 90s. At T+111s the PS-1 falls away and the PS-2
ignites. This is a 38 tonne liquid fuel stage (India's first) using
UDMH/N2O4. The single Vikas engine has a thrust of 725 kN. At T+154s the
vehicle reached 117 km altitude and the fairing was jettisoned, with
second stage separation at 261s. The third stage (PS-3) is a 7 tonne
solid motor with a thrust of 340 kN. It burns from T+261s to T+380s,
to an altitude of 421 km. The payload and attached PS-4 stage now
coast in transfer trajectory until T+591.4s when the PS-4's MMH/N2O4
liquid engine ignites for a 397s burn. PS-4 and IRS-P2 separated at
T+1012s. [Source: ISRO Press Release, 1994 Oct 15].
The first Ekspress communications satellite was launched on Oct 13. The
Ekspress satellites, operated by AO Informkosmos, will replace the
Gorizont domestic TV relay satellites which the Soviet Union introduced
in 1979. Ekspress features a north-south stationkeeping capability which
will keep the inclination within 0.2 deg. The bus is 3.6 x 6.1 m in size
with a solar array span of 21m, and has a mass of 2500 kg. The payload
includes ten C-band and two Ku-band (14/11 GHz) transponders. The launch
used a Proton-K rocket with the 11S861-01 (uprated Blok DM-2) upper
stage. This is the second flight of this upper stage, which was used for
the Gals launch earlier this year. The next Proton launch is expected to
carry Elektro, the much delayed geostationary weather satellite first
planned for the late 1970s.
[Note for transponder fans: the C-band transponders are
(6000-6450)/(3675-4125) MHz (with spacing 50 MHz) and the Ku band are
14325/11525 and 14475/11675 MHz. Bandwidth of each channel is 34 MHz.
Information on Ekspress is from Vladimir Agapov.]
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 9 0029 Telstar 402 Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 58A
Sep 9 2222 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 59A
Sep 13 2130 Spartan 201 - Discovery, LEO Astronomy 59B
Sep 16 1516 SAFER/M. Lee - Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 1740? SAFER/C. Meade - Discovery, LEO
Sep 21 1753 Kosmos-2291 Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC200 Comsat? 60A
Sep 27 1400 Kosmos-2292 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Calibration 61A
Sep 30 1116 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 62A
Oct 3 2242 Soyuz TM-20 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 63A
Oct 6 0635 Intelsat 703 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 64A
Oct 8 0107 Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 65A
Thaicom 2 ) Comsat 65B
Oct 11 1430 Okean-O1 No. 7 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619 Ekspress Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200 Comsat 67A
Oct 15 0505 IRS-P2 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 68A
Reentries
---------
Sep 11 Kosmos-2284 Landed
Sep 13 FSW-2 service module Reentered
Sep 20 Discovery Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 4 Progress M-24 Deorbited
Oct 11 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12 Magellan Entered Venus atmosphere
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-63 Feb
OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-66 Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour Edwards STS-68
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-43 VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-42/ET-67/OV-104 LC-39B STS-66
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
|
| 899.28 | No. 217 - November 3 | 56821::BATTERSBY | | Fri Nov 04 1994 14:43 | 145 |
| Article: 6666
From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 217
Date: 3 Nov 1994 10:04:55 -0800
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Sender: daemon@news.arc.nasa.gov
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 217 1994 Nov 3 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------
Atlantis took from pad 39B at 1659:43 UT on Nov 3, with main engine
cutoff at 1708 UT. STS-66 payloads are the Spacelab ATLAS 3 (Igloo plus
pallet), the ASTRO-SPAS carrier with CRISTA, and three GAS beam adapters
with SSBUV (the Shuttle solar backscatter Ultraviolet spectrometer),
ESCAPE II (a solar spectrometer), and ITEPC (a radiation dosimeter). The
expected orbit was 295 x 311 km x 57.0 deg. Crew are Donald McMonagle,
Curtis Brown, Ellen Ochoa, Joe Tanner, Scott Parazynski, and ESA's
Jean-Francois Clervoy, a French citizen. Since ESA's Ulf Merbold is
still aboard Mir, this marks the first time that two ESA astronauts have
been in space at the same time.
Mir
---
Malenchenko, Musabaev and Merbold undocked from the rear port of Mir at
1030 UT on Nov 3 and flew out to a distance of 190m. They then engaged
the automatic docking mode and came back in to the same docking port
with redocking at 1105. This was a special test of the automatic docking
system after recent failures. The three cosmonauts are now back on Mir,
but will land tomorrow, leaving the rear port free for the next
Progress cargo freighter. Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov will remain
on the station which is currently in a 393 x 395 km x 51.7 deg orbit.
[Thanks to Jim Oberg for passing on details of the redocking].
There's been some confusion lately about which spaceship used
which docking port on Mir. Here is a table giving my understanding -
please send corrections if you disagree. The two ports in regular
use are the rear port on Kvant and the PKhO port on the nose
of Mir.
PKhO Kvant
Progress M-18 to 1993 Jul 3 Progress M-17 to 1993 Aug 11
Soyuz TM-17 1993 Jul 3-Jan 14 Progress M-19 1993 Aug 13- Oct 13
Progress M-20 1993 Oct 13- Nov 21
Soyuz TM-18 1994 Jan 10- Jan 21
Soyuz TM-18 1994 Jan 21-Jul 9 Progress M-21 1994 Jan 30-Mar 23
Progress M-22 1994 Mar 24-May 23
Progress M-23 1994 May 24-Jul 2
Soyuz TM-19 1994 Jul 3-Nov 3
Progress M-24 1994 Sep 2-Oct 4
Soyuz TM-20 1994 Oct 6- Soyuz TM-19 1994 Nov 3-4 (due)
Recent Launches
---------------
NASA-Goddard's Wind space science satellite was launched on Nov 1. The
McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925-10 rocket entered a 186 x 3038 km x 28.7
deg orbit, and the PAM-D third stage ignited to plance Wind in a lunar
transfer orbit. Wind carries a set of instruments to study the solar
wind, as well as two gamma ray burst detectors. It was built by Martin
Marietta Astro Space. Wind will fly past the Moon, study the outer
magnetosphere, and eventually be placed in a `halo orbit' around
the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun.
The long awaited Russian geostationary meteorological satellite
was launched on Oct 31. Elektro, built by VNII ElektroMekhaniki,
flew into orbit aboard a Proton. On Nov 2, Elektro was in a
1441.65 min, 35858 x 35931 km x 1.3 deg orbit over 88.4 deg E,
drifiting 1.4 degrees west per day.
Nov 1 also saw the launch of another Hughes HS601 communications
satellite. The Ariane V69 flight placed Astra 1D in a 217 x 31006 km x
7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit. Astra 1D is a television satellite
for the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES).
Kosmos-2293, launched on Nov 2, is an Electronic Intelligence Ocean
Reconnaissance Satellite (EORSAT), operated by the Russian Ministry of Defence
for naval intelligence. It was placed in a 403 x 417 km x 65.0 deg orbit.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 30 1116 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 62A
Oct 3 2242 Soyuz TM-20 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 63A
Oct 6 0635 Intelsat 703 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 64A
Oct 8 0107 Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 65A
Thaicom 2 ) Comsat 65B
Oct 11 1430 Okean-O1 No. 7 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619 Ekspress Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200 Comsat 67A
Oct 15 0505 IRS-P2 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 68A
Oct 31 1435? Elektro Proton-K/DM-2-1? Baykonur Weather 69A
Nov 1 0037 Astra 1D Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 70A
Nov 1 0931 Wind Delta Canaveral LC17B Science 71A
Nov 2 0115? Kosmos-2293 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur EORSAT 72A
Nov 3 1700 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship
Reentries
---------
Oct 2 ODERACS A reentered
Oct 4 ODERACS B reentered
Oct 4 Progress M-24 Deorbited
Oct 11 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12 Magellan Entered Venus atmosphere
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-63 Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis LEO STS-66 Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-67 Feb 23
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM VAB Bay 3 STS-63
ML2/RSRM-43 VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/ LC-39B STS-66
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
| |
| JSR: http:/hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html |
! ftp:/sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* |
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