Jonathan's Space Report No. 209 1994 Sep 2 Mt Hopkins, Arizona -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- The next Shuttle mission is STS-64. The orbiter Discovery will carry a variety of science payloads. The payload bay will contain: 1) a Spacelab pallet with the LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE). LITE's laser transmitter and telescope receiver will be used to make atmospheric measurements and demonstrate laser measurement technology. 2) an MPESS pallet with the Spartan 201 solar observatory on its second mission; it will be deployed for two days of observations of the solar south pole, to coordinate with the Ulysses data. 3) SPIFEX, the Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment. This is a package of instruments on a 10m boom to be attached to the RMS arm. It's for testing what happens when the Shuttle maneuvers near another spacecraft such as a space station. 4) an MPESS type GAS Bridge pallet carrying 10 GAS (Getaway Special) canisters. 5) A sidewall Hitchhiker-G pallet carrying the ROMPS (Robot Operated Materials Processing System), two GAS cans testing use of robotics in space processing. 6) SAFER Recharge Station, a nitrogen gas refuelling station for the SAFER (Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue), a new propulsive spacesuit backpack to be tested by Mark Lee and Carl Meade on a spacewalk. The Recharge Station is on the payload bay wall; SAFER itself will be stored in the crew cabin. Launches -------- Progress M-24 failed to dock with Mir on Aug 27. A second automatic docking attempt on Aug 30 also failed. A third and final attempt, manually controlled by Mir commander Yuriy Malenchenko, was successful on Sep 2. Kiku-6's LAPS apogee motor failed to develop the correct thrust when it was fired on Aug 31 at 0519 UT. The LAPS was separated at 1510 UTC, leaving Kiku-6 in a 7791 x 38715 km x 13.1 deg transfer orbit instead of the intended geostationary one. The USA-105 satellite, launched by Titan 4 Centaur from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral, is believed to have entered geostationary orbit. It may be the first of a new series of geostationary signals intelligence satellites, following on from the MAGNUM satellites launched from the Shuttle since 1985. The Magellan Venus probe lowered its periapsis to 182 km on Sep 25 in preparation for the Windmill experiment to study the amount of torque produced by the Venusian upper atmosphere. Kosmos-2290 was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baykonur on Aug 26 into a 211 x 292 km x 64.8 deg orbit. This type of orbit suggests that it may be the first of a new generation of imaging reconnaissance satellites. All previous Soviet and Russian imaging spy satellites were launched by derivatives of the R-7 ICBM, the most recent of which are the 11A511U and 11A511U2 variants of the Soyuz booster. This would mark the first use of the Zenit for a spy satellite, although 1987 test flights of the rocket which placed inert satellites into similar orbits may have been related. Optus B3 was launched by a Chang Zheng 2E (Long March) rocket from the Xichang space center in China on Aug 27. Optus is an Australian telecommunications company. The CZ-2E placed the Optus satellite into a 189 x 1084 km orbit at an inclination of 27.8 deg. The Thiokol Star 63F solid perigee motor then fired to place Optus B3 in a 383 x 39123 km x 24.1 deg transfer orbit. Optus B3 will use its own liquid apogee motor to raise the orbit to a circular geostationary one. The satellite is a Hughes HS-601 comsat and replaces Optus B2, which disintegrated during launch in Dec 1992. The Optus B satellites are successors to the Aussat K series launched in the 1980s. Chinese CZ-2E and CZ-3 geostationary class launches CZ3 1984 Jan 29 Chinese comsat CZ3 1984 Apr 8 Chinese comsat CZ3 1986 Feb 1 Chinese comsat CZ3 1988 Mar 7 Chinese comsat CZ3 1988 Dec 22 Chinese comsat CZ3 1990 Feb 4 Chinese comsat CZ3 1990 Apr 7 HS-376 Asiasat 1 CZ3 1991 Dec 28 Chinese comsat CZ3 1994 Jul 21 HS-376 Apstar 1 CZ2E 1990 Jul 16 HS-601 dummy, Test launch CZ2E 1992 Aug 13 HS-601 Optus B1 CZ2E 1992 Dec 21 HS-601 Optus B2 CZ2E 1994 Aug 27 HS-601 Optus B3 CZ3A 1994 Feb 8 DFH-3 dummy, Test launch The 12th Block 5D Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft was orbited by a refurbished Atlas E from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Aug 29. DMSP F-12, or DMSP 23545 as it is also known, is built by Martin Marietta Astro Space and based on the Tiros-N bus also used by the civilian NOAA weather satellites. 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 1527 Kosmos-2287 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navsat 50A Kosmos-2288 ) Navsat 50B Kosmos-2289 ) Navsat 50C Aug 23 1431 Molniya-3 Molniya Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 51A Aug 25 1425 Progress M-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 52A Aug 26 1200 Kosmos-2290 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Recon? 53A Aug 27 0858 USA-105 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 SIGINT? 54A Aug 27 2310 Optus B3 CZ-2E Xichang Comsat 55A Aug 28 0750 Kiku 6 H-II Tanegashima Comsat 56A Aug 29 1743? DMSP 23545 Atlas E Vandenberg Weather 57A 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 LC39B STS-64 Sep 9 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 Oct 27 OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-68 Oct 2 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 STS-68 ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103 LC39B 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 | | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'