Jonathan's Space Report No. 247 1995 Jul 7 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial --------- Please note the slight change in URLs for the WWW and FTP locations of this report. Shuttle ------- After undocking from Mir on Jul 4, Atlantis spent several days on orbit, carrying out medical research work with the Spacelab-Mir module in the cargo bay. On Jul 5 Atlantis was in a 92.44 min, 390 x 398 km x 51.65 deg orbit. The orbit of Mir was 92.47 min, 393 x 398 km. The payload bay doors were closed in preparation for the deorbit burn on Jul 7 at 1211 UTC (scheduled), and at 1345 UTC the OMS engines ignited for the 3h 32s deorbit burn. Atlantis reached the nominal entry interface with the atmosphere at 1422. The landing gear was lowered at 1454:21 UTC, and main gear touchdown on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center was at 1454:36 UTC. The drag chute was deployed at 1454:39, with nose gear touchdown at 1454:44. Atlantis rolled down RW15, releasing the chute at 1455:10 and coming to a stop at 1455:27. The Atlantis flight duration (launch to main gear touchdown) was 9 days 19 h 22 min 15s. The Mir EO-18 crew spent 114 days, 8 h 43 min in space, setting a US record for Norm Thagard. Career totals for the astronauts of both crews: Gibson 868 h 18m (5 flights) Precourt 475 h 02m (2 flights) Baker 686 h 31m (3 flights) Harbaugh 578 h 22m (3 flights) Dunbar 996 h 37m (4 flights) Dezhurov 2744 h 43 m (1 flight) Strekalov 6430 h 21 m (5 flights) Thagard 3349 h 27 m (5 flights) The previous US record was 2017h 16m (Carr, Gibson, Pogue) and the previous career record for currently active US astronauts was Story Musgrave's 858 h 6m, now surpassed by both Dunbar and Thagard. Of course, the world record is held by Valeriy Polyakov with 16288 hr 34m. As Atlantis sits on the runway at Kennedy Space Center, Discovery and Endeavour are on pads 39B and 39A ready for the STS-70 and STS-69 missions in July and August. Endeavour was rolled out to the pad on Jul 6. Obituary -------- Georgiy Timofeevich Beregovoy died on 1995 Jun 30 at the age of 74. Beregovoy, born in the Ukraine on 15 Apr 1921, was a World War II pilot and later a test pilot. In 1964 he joined the Soviet Air Force cosmonaut detachment as a late addition to the 1963 group which included younger pilots such as Shatalov and Filipchenko. Beregovoy trained on a backup crew for the cancelled Voskhod-3 mission, and in 1968 flew into space to test-fly the Soyuz spaceship after the fatal 1967 accident which resulted in the death of Komarov. Beregovoy's Soyuz-3 carried out a rendezvous with the automated Soyuz-2 but was unable to dock with it. Beregovoy left flight status in 1969 but remained attached to the cosmonaut training team until his retirement in 1987. [Thanks to Jim Oberg for passing on news of Beregovoy's death.] Recent Launches -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Russian launched a Tsikada class navigation satellite on Jul 5 from Plesetsk into a 104.7 min, 959 x 1004 km x 82.9 deg orbit. The Tsikada satellites are built by PO Polyot of Omsk. Satellites of this type have been named in the Kosmos, Tsikada, and Nadezhda at various times; this one is probably Nadezhda, the subtype that carries a COSPAS/SARSAT search and rescue transponder. It was launched into orbital plane 11. Recent launches into each of the Tsikada system orbital planes are: Plane 11 Plane 12 Plane 13 Plane 14 Nadezhda (7/89) Kosmos-1861 (6/87) Kosmos-2123 (2/91) Nadezhda (2/90) Kosmos-2181 (3/92) (+RS-10/RS-11) (+RS-12/RS-13) Nadezhda (7/94) Kosmos-2230 (1/93) Nadezhda (3/91) Tsikada (1/95) Nadezhda? (7/95) The Kosmos-2314 spy satellite raised its orbit from 164 x 328 km x 67.1 deg to 168 x 350 km x 67.1 deg on Jul 3. Such orbit raising maneuvers are carried out several times during the mission for satellites of this class. Ariane V75 was launched at 1623 UTC on Jul 7 from Kourou, and launched the first European spy satellite, Helios 1A. Matra Marconi Space's 2537 kg Helios 1A is based on the SPOT remote sensing satellite bus. It was originally going to be a purely French satellite, but Spain and Italy have joined the program. The Ariane 40 launch vehicle also carried an ASAP (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) with two microsatellites, CERISE and UPMSAT 1. CERISE is a 50 kg satellite built by Alcatel Espace for the French civil space agency CNES and the Delegation General de l'Armament (DGA) of the French defense ministry. CERISE is a technology precursor for French electronic intelligence satellites and is based on Surrey Satellite Technology's UOSAT bus. UPMSAT 1 is a small 47 kg satellite for microgravity and telecommunications research built by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. (Does anyone know if this is also a UOSAT bus?) The DC-X made its seventh flight on Jul 7. Geostationary Satellite Movements --------------------------------- 1982-110B, The SBS 3 satellite, launched in 1982 and previously at 74.0W, was moved out of geostationary orbit on about Jun 2. 1988-91B, TDRS 3 is on station at 84.8E. 1995-27A, UHF F5 was at 173.0W drifting 0.05 deg W per day on Jul 1. 1986-26B, Brasilsat 2 moved out of geostationary orbit at 65W in early June and is now drifting W at 0.3 deg per day. The current list of geostationary satellites is available at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/geo.log. 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 LC16 Early Warn 26A May 31 1527 UHF F/O F5 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat 27A Jun 8 0443 Kosmos-2313 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 28A Jun 10 0024 DBS 3 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 29A Jun 22 1958 STEP 3 Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA Science FTO Jun 27 1932 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 30A Jun 28 1825 Kosmos-2314 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Recon 31A Jul 5 0310? Nadezhda? Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132? Navigation 32A Jul 7 1623 Helios 1A ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Recon 33A? CERISE ) Sigint 33B? UPMSAT 1 ) Technology 33C? Reentries --------- May 23 Progress M-27 Deorbited May 31 Kosmos-2311 Landed? Jun 8 Kosmos-2258 Reentered Jul 7 Atlantis Landed at KSC 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 KSC RW15 STS-71 OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-69 Aug 3 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105 LC39A STS-69 ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103 LC39B STS-70 ML3 VAB .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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/space/jsr/jsr.html | | ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'