Jonathan's Space Report
No. 251 1995 Aug 5 Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle
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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
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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