Jonathan's Space Report No. 236 1995 Apr 4 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Endeavour arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Mar 27 and is now being prepared for the STS-69 flight. Launch of the Spektr module to Mir will be delayed, and this may delay the planned launch of Atlantis in June. Recent Launches -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The last Atlas E was launched on Mar 24 from Space Launch Complex 3-West at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Atlas E launch vehicles were refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles which had been built in the early 1960s. Atlas 45E carried an Air Force DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) satellite into space. The DMSP's Star 37S solid motor fired to insert the satellite in a 101.9 min, 846 x 854 km x 98.8 deg orbit. It is one of the Block 5D-2 series; all DMSP satellites were built by RCA Astro Space, which is now Lockheed Martin Astro Space. The satellite carries the OLS (Operational Linescan System) weather imager, and a set of microwave sounders and particle detectors. The satellite is 5D F-13 (the 13th flight satellite of the Block 5D class), and is also designated DMSP 24547 (probably, I haven't got confirmation of this). The 24547 designation says that this is the 24th Block 5 satellite to be launched, and is spacecraft construction number 47 (these last two digits do not necessarily reflect the launch order). Three satellites were lost when a Russian launch vehicle fell in the Sea of Okhotsk on Mar 28. The five-stage Start launch vehicle, which took off from Plesetsk, is based on the Nadiradze bureau's three stage Topol' ballistic missile. A four stage Start-1 variant successfully placed a test satellite in orbit in Mar 1993. This time, although the basic four stages worked fine, the new fifth stage failed and the payloads did not reach orbit. The two commercial payloads on the Start were Gurwin-1 and UNAMSAT. The Start also carried a prototype satellite, the EKA (Eksperimental'niy Kosmicheskiy Apparat). Gurwin-1, also known as Techsat, was built by the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel. The 50 kg satellite carried a CCD camera, a radiation detector, an ozone monitor, and an amateur radio packet BBS as well as satellite technology tests. UNAMSAT was an AMSAT Microsat class amateur radio satellite built by UNAM, the Autonomous University of Mexico. The Ariane launch vehicle returned to flight on Mar 28, following a failure last December. It successfully placed in geostationary transfer orbit two communications satellites, Eutelsat Hot Bird 1 and Brasilsat B2. Hot Bird 1, an Aerospatiale-built Spacebus 2000 satellite, is also known as Eutelsat II F-6. It was enhanced from the standard Eutelsat II configuration to carry extra Ku band transponders. Eutelsat satellites are owned by the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization and broadcast TV to Europe and the Mediterranean. Brasilsat B2 is owned by Embratel, the Brazilian government telephone company. It is the second HS-376W, a wide diameter variant of the classic Hughes HS-376 comsat in use since 1980. The new generation Zenit-launched spy satellite Kosmos-2290 was launched on 1994 Aug 26. In late March of this year (between Mar 24 and 29) it raised its apogee by 200 km, from an orbit of 181 x 382 km x 64.8 deg to 181 x 571 km x 64.8 deg, and four new small objects were tracked in the post-manouevre orbit. It seems likely that this marks the end of the Kosmos-2290 mission. Russian spy satellites are usually deorbited at the end of their mission, and it is not clear whether the orbit raise of Kosmos-2290 reflects a new operational regime, a new disposal strategy, a deorbit burn that went in the wrong direction, or (less likely) a tracking by US Space Command of a residual part of the spacecraft following recovery of a reentry vehicle. There was another launch on Apr 3, but I don't have any details yet. Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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 Mar 24 1405 DMSP 24547 Atlas E Vandenberg SLC3 Weather 15A Mar 28 0900 Gurwin-1 ) Start Plesetsk Technology FTO UNAMSAT ) Comsat FTO EKA ) Dummy FTO Mar 28 0618 Eutelsat HB1 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou Comsat 16B Brasilsat B2 ) Comsat 16A Apr 3 1500? ? 17A 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 Under review OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-69 Jul 20 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'