Jonathan's Space Report No. 153 1993 May 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STS-55 ------- Columbia was diverted to Edwards AFB due to bad weather at Kennedy Space Center. Deorbit was at 1329 UTC May 6 with main gear touchdown on Runway 22 at Edwards at 1430.00 UTC. On this mission, Columbia retook the lead from Discovery for the orbiter with most flight hours. The current rankings are: Orbiter Number of Flights Hours:Minutes Columbia 14 2609:19 Discovery 16 2392:51 Atlantis 12 1737:51 Challenger 10 1495:58 Endeavour 3 556:25 ------------------------------------------------- Total 55 8792:24 = 366 days 8 h 24 m The long flight (4th longest mission) put Steve Nagel and Jerry Ross into the top five active NASA astronauts ranked by total flight hours: Astronaut No Flts Hours 'Rank' Bonnie Dunbar 3 761:15 Payload Commander Steve Nagel 4 721:35 Commander Guy Bluford 4 688:34 Mission Specialist Jerry Ross 4 653:23 Payload Commander Hoot Gibson 4 632:56 Chief Astronaut Orbits for Classified Satellites -------------------------------- The latest US submissions to the United Nations (ST/SG/SER.E/258 and 260) reports a number of orbits for classified satellites. The reports cover the period Sep 1990 to Sep 1992. The orbits give only apogee, perigee and inclination rather than the full 2-line set needed to track the objects. In some cases the orbits agree well with those established from direct observation by the group coordinated by T. Molczan. In other cases the orbits reported by the US government are highly implausible, sometimes because of sloppiness and sometimes because of deliberate deception. Note that the names assigned to pieces below are my guesses; the UN info contains only the designation (e.g. 1991-17B) and the orbit. DESIG PERIOD PERI APO INC NAME-GUESS NOTES 1990-50F 129.2 1228 x 2960 x 63.5 NOSS part 1990-50G 125.4 1224 x 2601 x 63.4 NOSS part 1990-95A 1421.8 35614 x 35699 x 3.1 USA-65 (DSP) 1990-95B 142 171 x 35352 x 27.4 SRM-1 1 1990-95C 622.1 35311 x 35702 x 3.1 SRM-2 1 1990-97B 87.5 78 x 226 x 28.5 USA-67 2 1990-97C 87.5 78 x 226 x 28.5 SRM-1 2 1990-97D 87.5 78 x 226 x 28.5 SRM-2 2 1991-17A 95.5 420 x 662 x 68.0 USA-69 (Lac.2) 3 1991-17B 95.5 420 x 662 x 68.0 Titan 4 1991-31C ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE USA-70 (MPEC) 4 1991-76A ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE USA-72 4 1991-76B ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE Titan 4 4 1991-76C 113.9 1399 x 1427 x 82.6 USA-74 5 1991-76D (Omitted from UN report) USA-76 6 1991-76E (Omitted from UN report) USA-77 6 1991-76F 93.3 275 x 614 x 61.0 NOSS part 1991-80B 1421.8 35795 x 53787 x 2.5 USA-75 7 1991-82A 101.9 844 x 871 x 98.9 USA-73 (DMSP) 1991-82B ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE DMSP part 8 1991-82C 93.3 596 x 275 x 61.0 DMSP part 8 1991-82D 93.3 596 x 275 x 61.0 DMSP part 8 1991-82E 101.8 835 x 853 x 98.9 DMSP part 1992-06A 1300.5 30675 x 35503 x 0.9 USA-78 (DSCS) 9 1992-06B 608.8 265 x 34669 x 26.4 Centaur 1992-06C 1298.0 27397 x 38679 x 0.3 IABS 1992-23A 89.3 145 x 175 x 84.9 USA-81 10 1992-23B 89.1 145 x 175 x 85.0 Titan 4 1992-37A 1436.2 35775 x 35800 x 0.2 USA-82 (DSCS) 1992-37B 617.3 223 x 35053 x 26.5 Centaur 1993-37C 1416.6 35289 x 35520 x 0.3 IABS 1 Period clearly a typo, violates Kepler's third law 2 These orbits are probably completely spurious. The low perigee would cause rapid reentry. Most analysts believe that the initial orbit of the spacecraft B was more like 241x241 km x28.5 deg, with an immediate upper stage burn to geostationary transfer before separation of C and then D. 3 This is in very good agreement with the orbit derived by observers. However 17A changed its orbit within a month of launch, so the information is misleading. 4 ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE is blatantly a fiction for 'Elements still classified in violation of UN convention'. 5 Orbit reported by observers as 107.5 1052x1164x63.4; this is in serious disagreement with the UN orbit. 6 Omitted from UN report in violation of UN convention. 7 Apogee clearly a typo for 35787. 8 Orbits are spurious. This launch is unclassified and NORAD released elements for these objects which were similar to 1991-82A, 1991-82E. Possibly the listed orbits are really part of the 1991-76 launch. 9 This orbit was probably later raised using the satellite's on-board propulsion system. 10 Orbit later raised; found by observers in the following orbit: 100.77 788 x 801 x 85.0 Reentries --------- Apr 29 Kosmos-925 Reentered May 6 Columbia Landed at Edwards AFB Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia Edwards STS-55 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-51 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour LC39B STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105 LC39B 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 | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'