Jonathan's Space Report No. 251 1995 Aug 5 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- STS-69 was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Aug 1 because of hurricane Erin. Only minor damage was done to facilities at KSC. It is still hoped that STS-69 will launch by the end of the month. For mission STS-69, the cargo bay of orbiter OV-105 Endeavour contains three NASA-Goddard science payloads and the commercial Wake Shield Facility. (1) the Spartan Flight Support Structure (an MPESS type pallet) with the free flyer Spartan 201 solar corona observatory, on its third flight. Spartan is managed by NASA-Goddard, and the main UV experiment is built by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Mass of the SFSS is 1090 kg, not including the 1289 kg Spartan satellite. (2) the Wake Shield Facility Carrier (1760 kg), with two GAS-can type experiments and the WSF Free Flyer satellite. The WSF Free Flyer (1979 kg) generates an ultra-hard vacuum in its wake for production of semiconductors and other experiments. WSF is built and operated by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center in Houston. (3) a Hitchhiker-M pallet (another MPESS) with the IEH-1 International EUV Hitchhiker (2209 kg). This includes a solar EUV telescope (SEH), and an Italian-US EUV telescope, UVSTAR, which will observe a variety of astronomical targets in the 500-1250A range. Prime target for this mission is Io plasma torus around Jupiter. Comet 6P/D'Arrest, currently near perihelion, may also be observed. UVSTAR has two 0.3m telescopes. The pallet also carries the GLO-3 airglow experiment in a canister and the CONCAP materials processing experiment in another canister. (4) a GAS Bridge Assembly or GBA (a third MPESS) with four standard GAS can experiments, plus the CAPL Hitchhiker experiment to test a cooling system for EOS satellites and the Thermal Energy Storage (TES) GAS can experiment to do research on solar dynamic power for the Space Station. (5) Two GAS Beam Adapters (? to be confirmed) attached to the cargo bay wall, carrying equipment for EDFT-2. EDFT-2 (EVA Development Flight Test) is the second in a series of spacewalks to develop hardware, experience and procedures for Space Station operations. Astronauts Voss and Gernhardt will conduct the six hour spacewalk. (6) Two ITEPC radiation dosimeters mounted on APC carriers on the payload bay wall. This will be the first flight to both deploy and retrieve two free flying satellites in the same mission. The RMS robot arm will be used to deploy and retrieve both Spartan 201 and the WSF Free Flyer. Many of the payloads on STS-69 involved reusable hardware; the GAS Bridge is on its 8th flight, the Hitchiker-M for IEH on its second, WSF on its second, and Spartan 201 is on its third flight. The Spartan and SEH instruments are modified sounding rocket payloads. This makes the overall payload cost of a mission like STS-69 lower, and fits in to NASA's `faster, cheaper, better' strategy. [Thanks to Gerry Daelemans of GSFC for information.] Mir --- The EO-19 mission continues with cosmonauts Solov'yov and Budarin aboard the Mir complex. They will be relieved by the EO-20 crew aboard Soyuz TM-22 in September. Recent Launches -------------- Lockheed Martin's Atlas Centaur AC-118, an Atlas IIA variant, was successfully launched on Jul 31 from Cape Canaveral. It placed a DSCS III Defense Satellite Communications System payload into geostationary transfer orbit. DSCS III satellites are built by the part of Lockheed Martin that used to be General Electric. They are used for US Department of Defense communications. Attached to the DSCS is an IABS (Integrated Apogee Boost System) liquid apogee engine which will place it in geostationary orbit. This was the first use of the Atlas IIA rather than the Atlas II for the DSCS missions (the IIA has more powerful Centaur engines, among other differences). The DSCS III satellites have used quite a variety of launch vehicles - DSCS III satellites to date: Launch order Launch Date Launch Vehicle Flight 1 1982 Oct 30 Titan 34D/IUS 34D-1 2,3 1985 Oct 3 Shuttle/IUS 51-J 4 1989 Sep 4 Titan 34D/Transtage 34D-2 5 1992 Feb 11 Atlas II Centaur/IABS AC-101 6 1992 Jul 2 Atlas II Centaur/IABS AC-103 7 1993 Jul 19 Atlas II Centaur/IABS AC-104 8 1993 Nov 28 Atlas II Centaur/IABS AC-108 9 1995 Jul 31 Atlas IIA Centaur/IABS AC-118 It is believed that all the DSCS III satellites launched to date have reached geostationary orbit. The Interbol-1 (Prognoz-M2) satellite was launched from Plesetsk late on Aug 2. The Molniya-M launch vehicle took off from complex 43 at 2359:11 UTC; the strapons and Blok-A core stage separated, and the Blok-I third stage ignited at 0004:03 UTC on Aug 3. The Blok-I shut down at 0008, and separated at 0008:07, leaving Prognoz-M2, the Blok 2BL-SM2 fourth stage, and the attached BOZ interstage platform in a 240 x 827 km x 62.8 deg, 95.0 min parking orbit around the Earth. At 0100:30 UTC, as the combination reached apogee, the Blok 2BL stage ignited, and 40 seconds later the BOZ platform was jettisoned. At 0104:15 UTC the fourth stage shut down and separated from the Prognoz payload, leaving it in a highly elliptical orbit of 797 x 193000 km x 62.8 deg (prelaunch estimated parameters), with an orbital period of 3 days 20 hours. US tracking gave an orbit of 505 x 193064 x 63.8 deg, 3 days 19.5 hr. Prognoz-M2 (SO-M2 no. 512) is the Khvostovoy Zond ("Tail") satellite of Project Interbol, intended to investigate the Earth's geomagnetic tail. The 1250 kg probe carries a detachable 50 kg subsatellite provided by the Czech Republic. The Magion-4 subsatellite, which separated from Prognoz-M2 at around 0925 UTC on Aug 3, carries instruments to measure electric and magnetic fields for comparison with the Prognoz instruments. (The original plan was for Magion-4 to remain attached for several days, it's not clear why it separated so early). The first Prognoz (SO-M) solar-terrestrial observatory was launched in 1972. Earlier Prognoz flights were all launched from Baykonur in Kazakhstan. (The scientific Prognoz satellites should not be confused with the geostationary Prognoz early warning satellites which are also built by the NPO Lavochkin company). The Tail probe carries the following science instruments: SKA-1, PROMICS-3, VDP, AMEI-2, CORAL, ALPHA3 (plasma ions) ELECTRON, (plasma electrons) MONITOR-3 (solar wind ions with high time resolution) IFPE (ion and electron flux variations) MIF-M, FGS-1, FM-31 (magnetometers); OPERA (electric field) AKR-X (solar radio emission 0.1-1.5 MHz) RF-15-1 (solar X-rays 2-240 keV) SKA-2, DOK-2, SOSNA-2, RKA-2 (energetic particles) Project Interbol will be completed with the launch of the Auroral probe (SO-M2 no. 511) which also carries a Magion subsatellite. This launch will occur in 1996 if funds become available. [Some of the above information is from the Kelydsh institute homepage, http://www.kiam1.rssi.ru. ] The PAS 4 satellite was launched by an Ariane 4 on Aug 3 into geostationary transfer orbit. Panamsat of Greenwich, Connecticut operates the PAS satellites for international commercial communications. PAS 4 is a Hughes HS-601 satellite and was known as PanAmSat K3 during construction. The satellite has a dry mass of 1671 kg and carried 1372 kg of fuel at launch for a total mass of 3043 kg. The 3.5 x 2.8 x 3.6 metre box shaped satellite has two solar panel arrays with a wingspan of 26.2m. The shaped antennas cover Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia from PAS 4's planned location of 69 deg E. PAS 4 has 16 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. This launch was the sixth successful Ariane launch this year. Flight V76 was an Ariane 42L model, using the H10+ upper stage rather than the new H10-3 stage (according to the press kit). Orbital injection into geostationary transfer orbit was achieved with a single third stage burn terminating 18 min 25 sec after launch, with PAS 4 separating at launch plus 21 min 14 sec into a standard transfer orbit of 507 x 35735 km x 4.2 deg, 636.1 min. [Thanks to Arianespace for info.] The next launch scheduled from Cape Canaveral is Korea Telecom's Mugunghwa satellite, to be launched on a McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 from LC17B. Check the Orbital Stop Press page, http://hea-www..harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/latest.html, for updates during the week. Geostationary Satellite Movements --------------------------------- 1995-35B, TDRS 7 moved on station on Jul 31 and is now at 150.1W, in a 1436.21 min, 35787 x 35790 km x 0.0 deg orbit. 1994-55A, Optus B3 has been moved to 156E, colocated with Optus A3. Optus A3 will be moved to 152E when its traffic has been transferred. (Thanks to Anthony Belo of Optus for info.) 1990-91B, Galaxy 6 appears to be moving off station at 74W. 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 36A Jul 24 1552 Kosmos-2316 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC?? Navigation 37A Kosmos-2317 ) Navigation 37B Kosmos-2318 ) Navigation 37C Jul 31 2330 DSCS III F9 Atlas IIA Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat 38A Aug 2 2359 Prognoz-M2 ) Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/3 Science 39A Magion 4 ) Science 39E? Aug 3 2358 PAS 4 Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Reentries --------- Jun 8 Kosmos-2258 Reentered Jul 7 Atlantis Landed at KSC Jul 22 Discovery 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 VAB Bay 1 STS-69 Aug ? ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 STS-69 ML2/ ML3/RSRM-50 VAB Bay 3 STS-73 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'