Jonathan's Space Report No. 199 1994 Jun 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erratum ------- Thanks to Maxim Tarasenko for pointing out that the Gorizont 42 satellite was launched on May 20 at 0201 UTC. I carelessly gave the date as May 19 in JSR 197-198. I'm glad someone is paying attention! Shuttle ------- Columbia was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jun 8, for connecting to the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Discovery has now been moved back to the Orbiter Processing Facility, taking Columbia's old spot. LAUNCHES -------- Kosmos-2281 was launched on June 7 from Plesetsk. The spacecraft, whose orbit is 226 x 292 km high at an inclination of 82.6 degrees, is an imaging satellite based on the Vostok/Zenit spaceship, and will probably stay in orbit for 14 days. The last launch in this series was Kosmos-2260 in 1993, and was the first to be assigned a civilian mission - it was given the alternate name Resurs-T. I don't know if this new flight is another Resurs-T or if it is a reconnaissance flight like Kosmos-2207 in 1992. [The code name Kosmos-2281 was originally given to a different satellite, which failed to reach orbit on May 25]. [Source: TLEs] The first Vostok based spy satellites were the Zenit-2 series, which have now been declassified. The first one to reach orbit, in 1962, was given the code name Kosmos-4. The Zenit derived spy satellites have now been almost entirely phased out in favour of a newer bus called Yantar'. All the Russian imaging spy satellites are made by the Central Specialized Design Bureau in Samara. [Source: JPRS reports; Novosti Kosmonavtiki] Information Wanted ------------------ Thanks to Ken Jenks for confirming that NASA 911 (the newer 747) was used to take Atlantis back from Palmdale to Florida. Recent Launches --------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 23 0802 Kosmos-2278 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 23A Apr 26 0214 Kosmos-2279 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 24A Apr 28 1714 Kosmos-2280 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 25A May 3 1555 USA-103 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT 26A May 4 0000 SROSS C2 ASLV Sriharikota Science 27A May 9 0247 MSTI-2 Scout G-1 Vandenberg SLC5 Technology 28A May 19 1703 P91-A (STEP 2) Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello WA Science 29A May 20 0201 Gorizont 42 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 30A May 22 0430 Progress M-23 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 31A May 25 1015 Kosmos Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk SIGINT? FTO Jun 7 0716? Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon? 32A Reentries --------- May 8 SEDS 2 deployer Reentered May 21 Kosmos-2274 Reentered May 23 Progress M-22 Deorbited Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia VAB Bay 1 STS-65 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-40 VAB Bay 3 STS-68 ML2/ ML3/RSRM-39/ET 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 | | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'