Jonathan's Space Report No. 241 1995 May 22 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- STS-70 is scheduled for Jun 8. Congratulations to Mike Cassutt who not only found all eight answers to my astronaut challenge last week, but trumped me with two more I didn't know about. The first person to fly in space having previously changed their name was Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who was born Vladimir Krysin. Mir --- EO-18 cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov carried out their second spacewalk on May 17. A solar array was removed from the Kristall module and transferred to the Kvant module; however, they were unable to attach it properly, and it is lashed to the mounting with string and sticky tape or the equivalent. A third spacewalk on May 22 appears to have been successful. The Spektr TKM-O module was launched from Baykonur on May 20. Spektr carries an array of remote sensing instruments including the Grif, Astra, Taurus and Oktava-Pion sensors in the main TKS based module and the Oktava-Lira/Buton, Faza, and Elis sensors on the equipment truss. It also carries a small manipulator arm and a small science airlock for deploying materials exposure canisters. The module is based on the military TKS spacecraft which was first tested in 1977. The O module (as Spektr is also known) will attempt to dock with Mir on June 1. It will join the similar D module (Kvant-2) and the T module (Kristall). TKS class flights: Launch Spacecraft Cargo 1977 Jul Kosmos-929 Merkur spaceship 1981 Apr Kosmos-1267 Merkur spaceship 1983 Mar Kosmos-1443 Merkur spaceship 1985 Sep Kosmos-1686 Military payload 1987 Mar Kvant SB Kvant module 1987 May Polyus Polyus spacecraft 1989 Nov Kvant-2 Airlock module 1990 May Kristall Docking module Recent Launches -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Intelsat 706 was launched on May 17 by an Ariane 44LP rocket. This launch marked the second use of the improved H-10-III third stage. Intelsat 706 was built by Space Systems/Loral. On May 18 it was in a 4376 x 35791 km x 4.0 deg transfer orbit. The DC-X has returned to flight at White Sands, making a 2 minute, 1 km apogee flight on May 16. Reports indicate that the classified USA 110 satellite probably entered geostationary orbit. Geostationary satellite movements --------------------------------- Intelsat 506 left its 50.0W station in early May to begin an eastward drift; TDRS 3 left its 171.5W station on May 1, drifting at 2 deg per day. On May 19 it was at 108E; Brasilsat B2 has moved from 60.8W to 65.0W; the Raduga satellite 1994-12A has begun to drift west from its 45.8 deg E station. Gorizont satellite 1989-04A is at 34.1 deg E. Meteosat 4 was moved off station at 8W around May 10. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 3 1348 Orbcomm 1 ) Pegasus/L1011 VAFB/PAWA Comsat 17A Orbcomm 2 ) Comsat 17B Microlab 1 ) Science 17C Apr 5 1116 'Ofeq-3 Shaviyt Palamchim Technol. 18A Apr 7 2347 AMSC-1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 19A Apr 9 1934 Progress M-27 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 20A Apr 19 1912 GFZ-1 - Mir Geodesy 8617JE Apr 21 0144 ERS-2 Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Rem Sensing 21A May 14 1345 USA 110 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40 Sigint? 22A May 17 0634 Intelsat 706 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 23A May 20 0333 Spektr Proton Baykonur LC81 Mir module 24A Reentries --------- Apr 3 Kosmos-2137 Reentered Apr 4 Kosmos-2290 Deorbited over Pacific Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-73 Sep 21 OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-70 Jun 8 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-71 Jun 22-24? Under review OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-69 Jul 20 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103 LC39B STS-70 ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104 LC39A 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'