Jonathan's Space Report No. 120 1992 Jul 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shuttle Mission STS-50 ------------------------ The STS-50 mission continues with astronauts Richards, Bowersox, Dunbar, Meade, Baker, DeLucas and Trinh carrying out experiments for the United States Microgravity Lab 1 Spacelab mission. The spaceship is in a 300 km orbit at 28 degrees inclination. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are due to be relieved by Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev on Jul 27. Launches -------- Progress M-13 was launched from Baykonur in Kazakhstan on Jun 30. The NPO Energiya robot resupply ship is scheduled to dock with the Mir station on Jun 2 to replace the Progress M-12 cargo craft. A Resurs-F spacecraft was launched on Jun 23 from Plesetsk into an 82 degree orbit. The spacecraft, built by KB Foton of Russia, is based on the old Vostok design and carries mapping cameras which will be returned to Earth next month with their film. Reentries --------- The Indian Space Research Organization's SROSS 3 satellite reentered on Jun 24 after a month in orbit. SROSS 3 was the first launch of ISRO's ASLV rocket to reach orbit, but the perigee was lower than intended. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization's Delta Star satellite, launched in March 1989 to observe the infrared, optical and ultraviolet emissions from rocket launches, reentered on Jun 23. It was switched off in Dec 1989. Quarterly Summary ----------------- Here is a review of launches for the second quarter of 1992, giving launch vehicle, payload, organization responsible for the launch and the payload, and manufacturer of the payload. The summary comparison with last year shows that launches from Plesetsk are down by a factor of 2 over last year. Navigation satellites and remote sensing satellites have been going up from Plesetsk at about the same rate, but the spy satellite and military communications satellite programs have been sharply cut. Small number statistics make it difficult to be sure, but it also seems that the Ukranian-built satellite programs (minor military, oceanography, electronic intelligence) have been cut or cancelled, and it has been reported that funding for the weather satellite program is in trouble. Date Vehicle Payload V/Agency PL/Agency PL/Manufacturer 16 Apr 1 Soyuz Kosmos-2182 VS SNG GRU KB Foton 17 Apr 2 Proton Gorizont VS SNG RKA NPO-PM 18 Apr 8 Soyuz Kosmos-2183 VS SNG GRU KB Foton 19 Apr 10 Delta 2 GPS 28 MDSSC USAFSC Rockwell 20 Apr 15 Kosmos Kosmos-2184 VS SNG VMF NPO-PM 21 Apr 15 Ariane Telecom 2B AE CNES Matra Marconi Space Inmarsat II F-4 INMARSAT Matra Marconi Space 22 Apr 19 Soyuz Progress M-12 VS SNG NPOE NPOE 23 Apr 25 Titan 2 USA-81 USAF NSA ? 24 Apr 29 Soyuz Resurs-F VS SNG RKA KB Foton 25 Apr 29 Soyuz Kosmos-2185 VS SNG GRU KB Foton 26 May 7 STS Endeavour NASA NASA Rockwell 27 May 14 Delta 2 Palapa B4 MDSSC TELCOM Hughes 28 May 20 ASLV SROSS 3 ISRO ISRO ISRO 29 May 28 Soyuz Kosmos-2186 VS SNG GRU KB Foton 30 Jun 2 Kosmos Kosmos-2187 to Kosmos-2194 VS SNG VMF NPO-PM 31 Jun 7 Delta 2 EUVE MDSSC NASA Fairchild 32 Jun 9 Atlas 2A Intelsat K GDCLS INTELSAT GE 33 Jun 23 Soyuz Resurs-F VS SNG RKA KB Foton 34 Jun 25 STS Columbia/Spacelab USML-1 NASA NASA Rockwell/MBB-Alenia 35 Jun 30 Soyuz Progress M-13 VS SNG NPOE NPOE Summary of launches: Jan - Jun 1992 Jan - Jun 1991 (for comparison) Total 35; Total 45; SNG 19, USA 12, Others 4 SSSR 32, USA 10, Others 3 By nation of launch site: Rossiya (Russia) 11 SSSR/Rossiya 22 Kazahstan 8 SSSR/Kazakh SSR 10 USA 12 USA 10 France 2 France 3 Nippon (Japan) 1 India 1 Abbreviations for organizations AE Arianespace SA, Paris CNES Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, Paris GDCLS General Dynamics Commercial Launch Services GRU Glavnoye Razvedivatel'noye Upravileniye (Soviet Military Intelligence), Moskva INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite Organization, London INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization ISRO Indian Space Research Organization MDSSC McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corp NPOE NPO Energiya (Energiya Scientific/Production Organization) NPO-PM NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki (Applied Mechanics Co.), Krasnoyarsk RKA Rossiskoye Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo (Russian Space Agency), Moskva SNG Sodruzhestva Nezabisimikh Gosudarst' (Commonwealth of Independent States) USAF United States Air Force USAFSC USAF Space Command, Colorado Springs VMF Voenno-Morskoy Flot (SNG Navy) VS SNG Vooruzhennikh Sil SNG (Combined Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States) Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-50 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 OMDP OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-46 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-47 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104 LC39B ML2/STS-47 VAB Bay 3 ML3/ LC39A Acronyms: ET External Tank LC Launch Complex LEO Low Earth Orbit ML Mobile Launcher OMDP Orbiter Maintenance Down Period OPF Orbiter Processing Facility OV Orbiter Vehicle VAB Vehicle Assembly Building SRB Solid Rocket Booster STS Space Transportation System (I also use the STS flight number to label the SRB stacks instead of the BI number). .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'