Jonathan's Space Report No. 145 1993 Mar 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STS-55 ------ The launch of Columbia on mission STS-55 has been delayed until March 14. Mir --- Soyuz TM-15 landed at 0358 UTC on Feb 1 (Thanks to Yoshiro Yamada for coming up with the information!). Soyuz TM-15's flight was an in-orbit record for a Soyuz spaceship - 188 days 21 h 39 m. The TM-15 flight is thus the longest ever spaceflight in which the crew went up and came down in the same spaceship. There have been 6 longer missions aboard Salyut-7 and Mir since 1982. The mission gives Anatoli Solov'yov 377 days in space over 3 missions, putting him in the top 5 for cumulative flight hours. The Progress M-15 flight was also a record duration for a Progress craft - 103 days. Progress M-16 was launched on Feb 21 from Baykonur, it is an automated cargo craft, to deliver fuel, air, water and supplies to the Mir complex. It docked with Mir on Feb 23. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Asuka spacecraft has successfully deployed its solar panels. The next, and most critical, stage in its activation, expected as this issue goes to press, is the extension of the deployable optical bench: Asuka is the first truly *telescopic* telescope in space ( :-) ) and the correct alignment of the mirrors is essential for mission success. Note that the name Asuka is pronounced (the u is almost completely swallowed). Because of confusion by English-speaking journalists over the pronounciation, ISAS has invented a new name for use by Westerners, ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics). However, JSR will continue to use the name Asuka which I consider to be more 'correct'. The Kosmos-2183 spy satellite was deorbited on Feb 16 after 314 days in orbit. The 16th of this advanced series, Kosmos-2223, was launched in December to replace it. Kosmos-2225, 4th in a series of advanced mapping satellites, was deorbited after 58 days on Feb 18. There may have been an explosion during the deorbit burn, as several fragments appeared in eccentric orbits at the time of the deorbit. The classified signals intelligence satellite launched by Discovery in December finally entered the NORAD catalog around Feb 18 (although its orbital elements are still classified). It has been assigned the name USA 89 and the catalog number 22518; there is also a final stage rocket with number 22519. Cataloging of a final stage rocket 75-80 days after launch parallels the behaviour of USA 40, launched from Columbia in Aug 1989, which stayed in a low orbit for 114 days before firing and separating from its final stage rocket, probably moving to a highly elliptical 12-hour orbit. The satellite may carry out a high resolution survey of radio emitters (e.g. radars) in low orbit before moving to an orbit from which it can carry long term monitoring. Launches -------- Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 3 0255 Navstar GPS 22 Delta Canaveral Navsat 07A Feb 4 Znamya - Prog.M15,LEO R&D 1986-17GZ Feb 9 0250? Kosmos-2233 Kosmos R-14 Plesetsk Navsat 08A Feb 9 1430 SCD-1 ) NB52/Pegasus F3 Kennedy Comsat 09B Orbcomm OXP-1) Comsat 09A Feb 17 2030 Kosmos-2234 ) Proton/Blok DM Baykonur Navsat 10A Kosmos-2235 ) Navsat 10B Kosmos-2236 ) Navsat 10C Feb 20 0220 Asuka Mu-3S-2 Kagoshima Astronomy 11A Feb 21 1830? Progress M-16 Soyuz Baykonur Cargo 12A Reentries --------- Feb 1 0358 Soyuz TM-15 Landed in Kazakhstan Feb 5 Znamya Reentered Feb 7 Progress M-15 Deorbited over Pacific Feb 16 Kosmos-2183 Deorbited Feb 18 Kosmos-2225 Landed in Kazakhstan? Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LC39A 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/STS-57 VAB Bay 3 ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102 LC39A Erratum: In the annual launch list, I included a bogus orbit for the Topex/Poseidon spacecraft. The orbit should have read: 52A Topex/Poseidon 1331 x 1343 x 66.1 Thanks to Russell Eberst for pointing out this error and to Richard Langley for passing on the launch time of Kosmos-2234. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'