Jonathan's Space Report No. 249 1995 Jul 23 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- After deployment of TDRS 7, Discovery's crew spent the week carrying out a variety of in-cabin experiments. The new Mission Control room in Houston was used to control orbit operations. Meanwhile, the TDRS 7 tracking and data relay satellite deployed by Discovery is in geosynchronous orbit approaching its operational position over the Pacific. Discovery's payload bay doors were closed in preparation for landing early on Jul 21, but both KSC landing opportunities were waved off due to weather, and at 1233 UTC the bay doors were opened once more as the STS-70 crew prepared for an extra day in orbit. On Jul 22 at 1100 UTC the OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) engines ignited for a 2 minute 55 second deorbit burn, putting Discovery on track for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft touched down at 1202:00 UTC on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery will be towed to Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 and will be prepared for a ferry flight to Palmdale in California where it will be refurbished at the Rockwell plant. One of the RSRM O-rings on the Atlantis STS-71 mission was found to be charred when the SRM was disassembled; this may be an issue for the date of the next launch, currently set for Aug 5. This mission, STS-69, will use orbiter Endeavour and includes the Wake Shield Facility and Spartan subsatellites as well as the IEH astronomy experiment. Mir --- Solov'yov and Budarin carried out their first EVA on Jul 14 at 0356 UTC. Duration was five hours 34 min. The stuck Spektr solar array has now been fixed. The Kristall module was redocked on Jul 17 from the -X axis to the -Z axis. A second spacewalk was carried out on Jul 19; Ron Baalke's Space Calendar reports that Solov'yov had problems with his spacesuit and not all the planned work was carried out, and another EVA was due to be carried out on Jul 21. Progress M-28 was launched on Jul 20 at 0304 UTC. According to Vladimir Agapov, the launch mass was 7125 kg. Progress M-28 separated from the Blok-I third stage at 0313 UTC into a 191 x 258 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The first two orbital corrections were carried out at 0647 and 0737. On Jul 22 at 0440, Progress M-28 docked with the -X port on the Mir orbital complex (info from Agapov). Corrected durations for the EO-18 crew: 115 days 08 hr 43 m, giving Dezhurov 2768:43, Strekalov 6454:21, Thagard 3373:27. Geostationary Satellite Movements --------------------------------- 1995-35B, TDRS 7 was at 171W drifting 2.5 deg/d E on Jul 19. 1995-29A, DBS 3 is at 110.4W. 1995-27A, UHF F/O F5 is drifting west at 4.5 deg/d. On Jul 17 it passed 99 deg E. 1995-25A, GOES 9 is at 90.8W. 1995-23A, Intelsat 706 is at 53.1W. 1995-03A, UHF F/O F4 is at 177.2W. 1989-20B, Meteosat 4 is at 9.2E. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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 0309 Kosmos-2315 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navigation 32A Jul 7 1623 Helios 1A ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Recon 33A CERISE ) Sigint 33B UPM LBSAT 1 ) Technology 33C Jul 10 1238 USA 112 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41 Sigint 34A Jul 13 0530 Galileo Probe - Galileo, Solar orb. 89-84E Jul 13 1342 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 35A Jul 13 1955 TDRS 7 IUS Discovery,LEO Comsat 35B Jul 20 0304 Progress M-28 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo Reentries --------- 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 OPF Bay 1 OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-74 Oct 26 OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-69 Aug 5 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105 LC39A STS-69 ML2/ ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'