Jonathan's Space Report No. 243 1995 Jun 13 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- The STS-70 stack was rolled back to the VAB on June 8 and repairs to the foam insulation on External Tank ET-71 damaged by Northern Flicker Woodpeckers have begun. Discovery will be rolled back to the pad on around Jun 19, a few days before the scheduled launch of Atlantis to Mir. Erratum: STS-71 commander Hoot Gibson is the FORMER chief astronaut; the current incumbent is Bob Cabana, since Gibson stepped down prior to training for STS-71. Thanks to Nathan Bridges and Jerry Matulka for drawing this to my attention. Mir --- The Mir complex is now in the configuration needed for the Atlantis docking mission. The Spektr module was rotated to the -Y position at around 2000 UT on Jun 2. Rotation of Kristall back to the -X Atlantis docking position was carried out on Jun 10, brought forward from Jun 15 due to a leaky seal. Jim Oberg reports that an EVA is scheduled on Jun 15 to inspect malfunctioning solar arrays on Spektr and Kvant-2, and the leaky -Z port. Mir configuration, 13 Jun 1995 | | [] ||||| | ------- | | / \ | | | | | Relocated | | | | | Panel | | | | | | | | | | | / Spektr \ Soyuz __|___ _____________ | \_ -Y _/ |\_____ __ _| \ | \|___\_____/__/\_______ APAS |TM21| \/ \| Kvant || Mir \//\\ / \ __ | ___|_/\__/|_ ||+X ____ | |||-X Kristall |/ \/ <- Atlantis |/ | / | ____/\\// | |\__/\ docking ------ |____________/ / _/---- \-_ _______/ port || / / +Y \ \/ || / \_Kvant-2/ || Strela / | | || crane | | || | | | Sofora || | | | || SPK | | [_] []| | VDU \_____/ |-----| Airlock Note: Orientation of Strela, relocated panel, and Sofora girder are rotated from their actual positions. (c) JCM 1995 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EO-18 cosmonaut-researcher Norman Thagard had spent 96 days 17 h 49 min in space at 0000h on Jun 13, for a career total of 122 d 4h 33 min over his five spaceflights. This beats the longstanding US record of 84 days 1 hr 16 min set by Gerald Carr, Ed Gibson and William Pogue in 1974 aboard Skylab. Thagard's fellow crewmember Gennadiy Strekalov, also on his fifth flight, now has a career total of 250 days, which puts him 18th in the Russian experience rankings. Recent Launches -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kosmos-2313 is an electronic intelligence satellite for monitoring naval vessels. It uses a low thrust engine to maintain its 415 km orbit. It was launched from Baykonur on Jun 8 by a two-stage Yuzhnoe Tsiklon-2 rocket, based on the R-36 (SS-9) ICBM. DirecTV's DBS 3 satellite was launched on Jun 9. The three stage Ariane model 42P launch vehicle used for this flight has two strapon solid boosters. It inserted DBS 3 into a 220 x 31525 km x 7.0 deg, 550 minute geostationary transfer orbit. DBS 3 is an HS-601 direct broadcast television satellite for US domestic service. This was the fourth Ariane launch in less than three months. Geostationary satellite movements --------------------------------- GOES 9 is at 90.5 deg W. UHF F/O F5 is now drifting in the geostationary arc over the Pacific. On June 7 it was at 172W, drifting 0.1 deg E per day. SBS 3 apparently moved out of geostationary orbit from its 74W location in early June. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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 May 23 0552 GOES 9 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36B Weather 25A May 24 2010? Kosmos-2312 Molniya-M Plesetsk Early Warn 26A May 31 1527 UHF F/O F5 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat 27A Jun 8 0430? Kosmos-2313 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur Recon 28A Jun 10 0024 DBS 3 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 29A Reentries --------- May 23 Progress M-27 Deorbited May 31 Kosmos-2311 Landed? 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 Jul 13 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-71 Jun 22? OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-69 Jul 30 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72 VAB Bay 1 STS-69 ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103 VAB Bay 3 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'