Jonathan's Space Report No. 141 1993 Jan 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mission STS-55 -------------- Mission STS-55 is due for launch in February. The payload is Spacelab D-2, a materials science laboratory. It will comprise a Spacelab Long Module with the Materials Science Double Rack, the Anthrorack, and the Advanced Fluid Physics Module; and a truss in the payload bay to carry more experiments outside the pressurized Long Module. The Spacelab mission is to be operated by DARA (Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten), the German space agency and is the second German Spacelab mission (Spacelab D-1 flew in 1985). The Spacelab payload will be aboard OV-102 Columbia on its 14th flight. Crew are Steven Nagel (Commander; 4th flight; commanded STS-37/GRO), Tom Henricks (Pilot; 2nd flight), Jerry Ross (Payload Commander; 4th flight), Dr. Bernard Harris, MD (Mission Specialist, 1st flight), Charles Precourt (Mission Specialist, 1st flight), Hans-Wilhelm Schlegel (DARA Payload Specialist, 1st flight), and Dr. Ulrich Walter (DARA Payload Specialist, 1st flight). Mir --- The Soyuz TM-16 spaceship was launched on Jan 24 at around 0600 UT. The crew are Gennadiy Manakov and Aleksandr Polishchuk. The Soyuz carries the APAS androgynous docking system instead of the usual probe system. Most dockings use the 'probe and drogue system' where a probe on one spacecraft is inserted into a socket on the other and latched. This has the disadvantage that two spacecraft with the same `sex', e.g. both probes, cannot dock with each other. NASA and NPO Energiya jointly developed an 'androgynous' system for the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975; each spacecraft has an identical system with three flanges sticking out, and the flanges of one spacecraft fit between the flanges of the other. After three solo test flights on Soyuz spaceships in 1974, the system was first used for a docking in 1975 when it was carried on Soyuz-19 and Apollo Docking Module 2 (the Apollo CSM 111 spaceship attached itself to the Docking Module using the traditional probe/drogue system). Despite the intention that it would replace the old system, it has not been used for 17 years, since the Soyuz continued to use the old system and the only American spaceships to have carried out a docking in that period are the Manned Maneuvering Units MMU 2 and 3, which used the probe/drogue system. However, the Kristall module launched in May 1990 and attached to the Mir complex carries the APAS system, with the intention that it be used for dockings with the Buran space shuttle. On Jan 26 Manakov and Polishchuk successfully carried out a manual docking with the Kristall module APAS port. This means there are now three active ports on the complex - the Mir front port, occupied by Soyuz TM-15 since Jul 1992; the Kvant rear port, occupied by Progress M-15 since Oct 1992; and the Kristall APAS port. Radio Moscow reports that an unpiloted flight of the second Buran orbiter is still nominally scheduled for the spring of 1994; the orbiter would carry out an automatic docking with the Kristall module after which a crew would enter it and possibly carry out a test flight in it. However it is clear that funding for this mission has not been approved and I remain doubtful that it will occur. Meanwhile, NASA orbiter OV-104 Atlantis is at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California being reconfigured to accept a docking module which would allow it to link up with the Kristall module port in 1995, as part of a mission of an American astronaut aboard the Mir station. Mir complex current configuration: (docking port numbers are my own arbitrary assignments; they are in order of use.) Mir port 1: Soyuz TM-15 Mir port 2: Kvant (port 1) Mir port 3: Kvant-2 (port 1) Mir port 4: Kristall (port 1) Mir port 5: (vacant) Mir port 6: (vacant) Kvant port 1: Mir core module (port 2) Kvant port 2: Progress M-15 Kvant-2 port 1: Mir core module (port 3) Kvant-2 SPK port: SPK maneuvring unit Kristall port 1: Mir core module (port 4) Kristall port 2: Soyuz TM-16 ______ \ / ------|TM |------ |______|16 |______| \ / / \ | | ----- /___\ <-- APAS unit / 2 \ \ / <--Kristall docking ------- node | / \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | /Kristall \ ______ _____________ | \_ _/ |\_____ __ _| \ | \|___\_1___/__ _____/| |PM15| \/ \| Kvant || Mir \/4-\ / \/ |TM15| | ___|_/\__/|_2 1||2 ____ 1|\__/\_|___ | |/ | / | ____/\3_/ \| ------ |____________/ _/---- \_ || / 1 \ || \_Kvant-2_/ || | | || | | || | | | Sofora || | | | || SPK | | [_] []| | VDU \_____/ |-----| Airlock (c) Jonathan McDowell 1993 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Launches -------- Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 12 1100? Kosmos-2230 Kosmos R-14 Plesetsk Navsat 01A Jan 13 0155? Molniya-1 Molniya Plesetsk Comsat 02A Jan 13 1359 Endeavour STS-54 Kennedy Spaceship 03A Jan 13 2012 TDRS 6 IUS STS-54,LEO Comsat 03B Jan 19 1455? Kosmos-2231 Soyuz Plesetsk Recon 04A Jan 24 0600? Soyuz TM-16 Soyuz Baykonur Spaceship 05A Reentries --------- Jan 10 0416 Kosmos-2229 Landed in Kazakhstan Jan 18 Kosmos-2220 Landed in Kazakhstan? Jan 19 1338 Endeavour Landed at Kennedy Space Center Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-55 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-56 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/STS-56 VAB Bay 1 ML2/ ML3/STS-55/ET VAB Bay 3 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'