Jonathan's Space Report No. 192 1994 Apr 20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks to Joel Runes for some data in this issue. Shuttle ------- Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off at 1105 UTC on Apr 9 from pad 39A. The STS-59 stack used solid motors RSRM-37 and external tank ET-63 attached to orbiter OV-105. Endeavour reached orbit at 1113 UTC. On Apr 11 its orbit was 211 x 226 km x 57.0 deg. Operations with the Space Radar Lab were successful; landing was originally due for Apr 19 but was delayed until Apr 20 for weather and switched to Cailfornia. Endeavour fired its deorbit engines at 1600 UTC. Entry interface was at 1622, with main gear touchdown on runway 22 at Edwards AFB at 1654.30 UTC for a mission duration of 11 days 5 hr 49 min. The next Shuttle flight is STS-65, a long duration International Microgravity Lab flight with orbiter Columbia. LAUNCHES -------- A cluster of 3 Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites were launched on Apr 11 by an 8K82K Proton-K launch vehicle from Baykonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The cluster was inserted into low earth orbit attached to the Blok-DM2 (11S861) upper stage, which then separated from the 8S812 third stage (1994-21B) and the Blok-DM2 fairing (1994-21C), both of which reentered the same day. The Blok-DM2 ignited twice to enter first a transfer orbit and then (after separation of two ullage motors) a circular orbit at 19000 km altitude and 65 degrees inclination. The three Uragan satellites, built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, then separated from the Blok-DM2. They were given the post-launch names Kosmos-2275, Kosmos-2276 and Kosmos-2277. The Uragan satellites form part of the GLONASS system which is the Russian analog of the Navstar Global Positioning System. The first of a new series of GOES-NEXT weather satellites was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Apr 13. The Atlas Centaur AC-73 launch vehicle successfully delivered GOES-I (GOES 8 after launch) to a geostationary transfer orbit. A liquid apogee motor (probably a Marquardt R4D, does anyone know for sure?) will be used to circularize the orbit. The first burn of the motor on Apr 15 was cut short early after unexpectedly high temperatures, leaving it in a 988 x 42653 km x 23.6 deg transfer orbit; further orbit raising burns are expected soon. The GOES NEXT series of satellites are being built by Space Systems/Loral (formerly Ford Aerospace, formerly Aeronutronic Ford); there were a lot of problems developing GOES I's sensors and the satellite is way late and over the originally planned budget. GOES (pronounced as in "how goes it?") stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite; do not confuse GOES with GEOS (a frequent mispelling - there have been two series of GEOS satellites, one by NASA and one by ESA, but they have nothing to do with GOES). GOES satellites are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and originated as NASA's SMS (Synchronous Meteorological Satellite) project. The GOES class satellites launched to date are as follows: Pre-launch name Post-launch Launch Date Manufacturer Int'l Desig SMS A SMS 1 1974 May 17 Ford 1974-33A SMS B SMS 2 1975 Feb 6 Ford 1975-11A SMS C/GOES A GOES 1 1975 Oct 16 Ford 1975-100A GOES B GOES 2 1977 Jun 16 Ford 1977-48A GOES C GOES 3 1978 Jun 16 Ford 1978-62A GOES D GOES 4 1980 Sep 9 Hughes 1980-74A GOES E GOES 5 1981 May 22 Hughes 1981-49A GOES F GOES 6 1983 Apr 28 Hughes 1983-41A GOES G - 1986 May 3 Hughes Launch failure GOES H GOES 7 1987 Feb 26 Hughes 1987-27A GOES I GOES 8 1994 Apr 13 Loral 1994-22A Recent Launches --------------- Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 2 0324 Koronas-I Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Solar phys 14A Mar 4 1353 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 15A Mar 10 0340 Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Navsat 16A SEDS 2 ) 16B Mar 13 2232 P90-5 ) Taurus Vandenberg Technology 17A DARPASAT ) Technology? 17B Mar 17 1630 Kosmos-2274 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 18A Mar 22 0454 Progress M-22 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 19A Apr 9 1105 Endeavour Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 20A Space Radar Lab Apr 11 Kosmos-2275 ) Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 21A Kosmos-2276 ) Navigation 21B Kosmos-2277 ) Navigation 21C Apr 13 0604 GOES 8 Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather 22A Reentries --------- Mar 15 SEDS 2 Reentered Mar 18 Columbia Landed at KSC Mar 23 Progress M-21 Deorbited Apr 20 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-65 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-64 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour Edwards AFB STS-59 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/ LC39A STS-59 ML3/RSRM-39/ VAB Bay 1 STS-65 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ,