Jonathan's Space Report No. 235 1995 Mar 27 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Endeavour was at Edwards AFB late last week being prepared for its trip home to Kennedy Space Center. Mir --- The Soyuz TM-20 spaceship landed 22 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 0404 UT on 1995 Mar 22. It carried cosmonauts Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov home from the Mir complex. Soyuz TM-20 was launched on 1994 Oct 3 with Viktorenko, Kondakova and Merbold, and its flight duration was 169 days 5 hr 22 min. Kondakova's 169 day flight beats the previous womens' space duration record of 14 days set last year by Japan's Chiaki Mukai and the previous career total of 34 days held by NASA's Shannon Lucid. Viktorenko now has a career total of 489 days, making him the third most experienced space traveller in terms of flight hours. But Valeriy Polyakov, who had been aboard Mir as station doctor since Jan 1994, beats all records with a flight lasting 437 days 17 hr 59 min and a career total of 678 days 16 hr 34 min. The EO-18 crew (callsign 'Uragan' or "Hurricane") of Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennadiy Strekalov and Norman Thagard continue work aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-21 ship is docked to the rear port; the Progress M-27 (No. 227) cargo ferry is being prepared for launch next month. The launch schedule for the Spektr module is being revised. Recent Launches -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kosmos-2310, launched Mar 22 into a 105.02 min, 980 x 1010 km x 82.9 deg orbit from Plesetsk, is a Parus type navigation satellite for the Russian Navy. The Parus satellites are built by PO Polyot of Omsk. Kosmos-2311, launched Mar 22 from Plesetsk into a 89.54 min, 169 x 334 km x 67.1 deg orbit, is a Yantar' class reconnaissance satellite. It is expected to remain in service for a little over two months. Erratum: I didn't spot the "PM" in the NASDA news release; launch time of the H-II was 0801 on Mar 18, not 12 hours earlier as I reported last issue. GMS-5 has been renamed Himawari ("Sunflower") 5. The apogee motor fired at 0054 UTC on Mar 19 and separated, leaving GMS-5 drifting at the geostationary altitude. Meanwhile, SFU raised its orbit at 0549 on Mar 23 from 365 x 395 km x 28.5 deg to its operational height of 467 x 496 km. Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 3 0522 Discovery ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 04A Spacehab SH03) Feb 4 0457 ODERACS II A ) Discovery, LEO Calibration 04C ODERACS II D ) Calibration 04F ODERACS II C ) Calibration 04E ODERACS II B ) Calibration 04D ODERACS II F ) Calibration 04H ODERACS II E ) Calibration 04G Feb 7 1226 Spartan 204 Discovery, LEO Astronomy 04B Feb 15 1648 Progress M-26 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 05A Feb 16 1740 Foton No. 10 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 06A Mar 2 0638 Endeavour ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 07A Astro 2 ) Mar 2 1300 Kosmos-2306 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Calibration 08A Mar 7 0923 Kosmos-2307 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC200 Navigation 09A Kosmos-2308 ) Navigation 09B Kosmos-2309 ) Navigation 09C Mar 14 0611 Soyuz TM-21 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 10A Mar 18 0801 SFU ) H-II Tanegashima Science 11A GMS-5 ) Weather 11B Mar 22 0405? Kosmos-2310 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Navigation 12A Mar 22 0618 Intelsat 705 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 13A Mar 22 1645? Kosmos-2311 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon 14A Reentries --------- Mar 2 ODERACS II D Reentered Mar 3 ODERACS E Reentered Mar 3 Foton 10 Landed in Russia Mar 10 Kosmos-2280 Deorbited Mar 15 Progress M-26 Deorbited over Pacific Mar 18 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB Mar 18 Kosmos-2244 Deorbited Mar 22 Soyuz TM-20 Landed in Kazakhstan Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP - OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-70 Jun 22 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-71 Jun OV-105 Endeavour EAFB STS-67 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-44 VAB Bay 3 STS-70 ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70 VAB Bay 1 STS-71 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html | ! ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'