Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 177       1993 Dec 8  STS-61 SPECIAL REPORT
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Shuttle  
-------  

Endeavour was launched on mission STS-61 at 0927.00 on Dec 2.
Main engine cutoff came at 0935.31; the OMS-2 burn raised the orbit
to about 398 x 570 km at 1010 UT. Over the next few days
a series of rendezvous burns were carried out:
 NC1  Dec 2 1455    Phase adjust
 NSR  Dec 3 0811    Coelliptic burn
 NC2  Dec 3 0844    Phase adjust
 NH   Dec 4 0234    Height adjust
 NC3  Dec 4 0322    Phase adjust
 NPC  Dec 4 0403    Plane change
 NCC  Dec 4 0535    Corrective combination
 TI   Dec 4 0635    Terminal phase initiation
 MCC1 Dec 4 0715?   Mid course correction
 MCC2 Dec 4 0729    Mid course correction
 MCC3 Dec 4 0738    Mid course correction
 MCC4 Dec 4 0749.   Mid course correction

By 0755 on Dec 4 commander Covey took over manual control of Endeavour and
at 0847 Nicollier used the RMS arm to grapple the Hubble Space Telescope.

The spacecraft were now in a 585 x 592 km orbit inclined 28.5 degrees.
At 0922 HST was berthed onto the Flight Support System (FSS) last used
for the Solar Max repair. At 0935 the RMS was detached from HST and
by 1000 HST was on external power.

As of this writing 4 of the 5 planned spacewalks have been carried out.
EVA-1 on Dec 5 saw the replacement of the HST gyros and fuses. The
astronauts had problems closing the gyro shroud doors on HST, probably
due to thermal warping. On Dec 5 at 1325 the first solar panel was
retracted; the second one stuck because it was warped. On Dec 6 the
EVA-2 spacewalkers removed the dud solar panel; Kathy Thornton threw it
into space at 0451 on Dec 6; it received the catalog number 22920 and
designation 1990-37C. They then put the new solar panels on. The EVA
ended with a delayed repressurization when Thornton's ears had problems
re-adjusting to higher pressure. EVA-3, on Dec 7, saw the replacement of
WFPC-1 with WFPC-2 and the installation of two new magnetometers. One
of the magnetometer electronics boxes was discovered to be falling apart
and Hoffmann removed loose parts of it.
Next on EVA-4 came the removal of HSP and its replacement by COSTAR.
Also on this spacewalk Akers took over the MFR (Manipulator Foot Restraint
platform on the robot arm) from Thornton for an hour for the installation
of a new coprocessor for the HST on board computer.
        
       Start      End         Duration MFR/RMS   Free floater
EVA-1  Dec 5 0329 Dec 5 1138  08:00    Hoffmann  Musgrave
EVA-2  Dec 6 0325 Dec 6 1010  06:45    Thornton  Akers
EVA-3  Dec 7 0333 Dec 6 1024  06:51    Hoffmann  Musgrave
EVA-4  Dec 8 0305 Dec 8 1003  06:58    Thornton  Akers

Note: I measure durations from airlock depressurization to
repressurization; NASA's rule is a little different so they 
quote slightly shorter EVA times.

At the end of EVA 4, Tom Akers had 29 h 49 min of EVA time by my
count, making him the 6th ranked in all time spacewalk duration
after Russian cosmonauts Krikalyov (36h), Manarov (34h), Artsebarskiy
(32h), Kizim (31h) and V. Solov'yov (31h), and beating the US
record set by Conrad on Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights.


Launches
--------


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Nov  2 1210     Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825     Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur  LC1   Recon      71A
Nov 18 1355     Rimsat/Gorizont Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     72A
Nov 20 0117     Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     73A
                Meteosat 6    )                                 Weather    73B
Nov 28 2340     DSCS III        Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     74A
Dec  2 0927     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy   LC39  Spaceship  75A
Dec  8 0048     NATO IVB        Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat     76A

Reentries
---------

Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited
Nov  1          Columbia        Landed 
Nov 20          Kosmos-808      Reentered
Nov 21          Progress M-20   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?             VAB Bay  1  STS-62
ML2/                     LC39B       STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET?         VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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