Jonathan's Space Report No. 207 1994 Aug 12 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Launch of STS-68 is still scheduled for Aug 18 with the Space Radar Lab payload. Crew are Capt. Michael Baker, USN (Commander), Maj. Terry Wilcutt, USMC (Pilot), Dr. Tom Jones, NASA (Payload Commander, MS4), Steve Smith, NASA (Mission Specialist 1), Cdr. Dan Bursch, USN (Mission Specialist 2), Dr. Jeff Wisoff, NASA (Mission Specialist 3). Smith and Wilcutt are making their first flights. Discovery was rolled over to the VAB for stacking with the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters on Aug 11. It is due for launch on Sep 9 on mission STS-64. Launches -------- Ariane V66 was launched at 2305 on Aug 10. Payloads were a Hughes HS376W satellite, Brasilsat B1, and an Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 satellite, Turksat 1B. Brasilsat B1 carries a solid Thiokol Star 30 apogee motor, which makes a single burn to geosynchronous altitude. Turksat 1B has an MBB S400 liquid apogee engine, and will make several burns to raise its altitude from transfer orbit. Brasilsat B1 is the first of Brazil's second generation communications satellites, replacing the Embratel agency's Brasilsat S1 and S2, launched in 1985 and 1986 by Ariane. Those satellites were an earlier version of the HS376 model. Brasilsat B1 is the first 'widebody' HS376, 3.6m in diameter compared to 2.2m for all earlier HS376 satellites, and is the 40th HS376 to be launched by my count. It carries 28 C-band transponders for the Telebras television organization and, reportedly, a single military X-band transponder. Turksat 1B should become Turkey's first successful comsat. Turksat 1A was lost in an Ariane launch failure earlier this year. Turksat will be delivered to the Turkish Ministry of Posts and Communications once it reaches its final orbit. It has 16 55W Ku-band transponders. Kosmos-2286, launched on Aug 5, is a missile early warning satellite in the Oko ("Eye") series. It carries a large telescope to detect ballistic missile launches. The spacecraft and upper stage were placed in low earth orbit at an inclination of 62.8 deg to the equator; the upper stage then ignited to place the Oko in a high elliptical orbit with a 12 hour orbital period. The Oko's on board engine refines the orbit to be exactly semi-synchronous, with alternate passes over the same longitude. Kosmos-2287, Kosmos-2288, Kosmos-2289, launched on Aug 11, are Uragan-class GLONASS navigation satellites, the Russian equivalent of the Navstar Global Positioning System. They operate in orbits at an altitude of 19000 km. Note: The intended apogee for APEX was in fact 2500 km (very close to the acheived 2551 km), not 2000 km as I stated in JSR206. Congratulations to Orbital Sciences on a successful mission. Recent Launches --------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A Jul 3 0800 FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A Spacelab IML-2) Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A BS-3N ) Comsat 40B Jul 14 0513 Nadezhda Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC133 Navsat 41A Jul 20 1735 Kosmos-2283 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 42A Jul 21 1055 APStar 1 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 43A Jul 29 0929 Kosmos-2284 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 44A Aug 2 2000 Kosmos-2285 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 ? 45A Aug 3 1439 P90-6 APEX Pegasus/NB-52 Point Arguello Technology 46A Aug 3 2357 DBS 2 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 47A Aug 5 0112 Kosmos-2286 Molniya Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 48A Aug 10 2305 Brasilsat B1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A Turksat 1B ) Comsat 49B Aug 11 1533? Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Navsat 50A Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C Reentries --------- Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan Jul 18 FSW-2 Landed in China Jul 23 Columbia Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 OMDP - OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 1 STS-64 Sep 9 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-68 Aug 18 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 LC39A STS-68 ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103 VAB Bay 1 STS-64 ML3/ VAB Bay 3? STS-66 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'