No. 280 1996 Mar 16 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Launch of OV-104 Atlantis on the third Mir docking mission, STS-76, is scheduled for Mar 21. The cargo bay includes the Orbiter Docking System and the Spacehab Flight Unit 2 module, which previously flew on the SH-02 (STS-60) flight in 1994. On this mission, the Spacehab module is carrying supplies for the Mir station. Also in the cargo bay are four Passive Experiment Carriers on the sidewall (possibly GAS Adapter beams?) with the MEEP (Mir Environmental Effects Payload) experiments which will be placed on the outside of the Mir Docking Module in the course of a spacewalk by astronauts Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford. The four MEEP experiments are the Polished Plate Micrometeoroid and Debris experiment, the Orbital Debris Collector, and the Passive Optical Sample Assembly I and II exposure experiments which will be used to qualify materials for Space Station use. The Mir Docking Module is where Atlantis docks to the Mir complex; the cylindrical module was brought to the station on Atlantis' last flight in November, and is attached to the end of the Kristall module. Other sidewall mounted payloads on STS-76 are the TRIS cosmic ray Getaway Special canister on a GAS Beam and a small APC sidewall carrier with the TCS laser ranger for rendezvous operations. Godwin and Clifford will carry the SAFER backpack on their spacewalk in its first operational use as a backup rescue device. SAFER was test flown on STS-64. STS-76 crew commander is Kevin Chilton; pilot is Rick Searfoss; payload commander is Ron Sega, mission specialists are Linda Godwin, Rich Clifford, and Shannon Lucid. Lucid will remain on the Mir station, joining the EO-21 crew of Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov. She will be the first woman to make five flights, and at 53 is the oldest woman to fly in space. Of the 1978 group of women astronauts selected by NASA, Lucid and Rhea Seddon remain active, and Anna Fisher recently returned to active status after a several-year leave of absence (she hasn't flown since 1985). Sally Ride left the group in 1987, and Kathy Sullivan left in 1992 to become chief scientist at the NOAA weather agency. Judy Resnik died in the 51-L accident in 1986. Mir --- Correction: I reported the landing of Soyuz TM-22 as being in Kazakhstan (JSR 278). As Jim Oberg has pointed out, the correct spelling of this country in the Latin alphabet is now deemed to be Kazakstan (no 'h'), reflecting the modifications to the post-Soviet Kazak alphabet (Qazaqstan would be a more consistent transliteration, but the name of the country and the people is to be spelt with K as a special case). Jim also reports that the town formerly known as Leninsk, which lies next to Kosmodrom Baykonur (Test Range NIIP-5), has now been officially named Baykonur. Recent Launches --------------- The Intelsat 707 communications satellite was launched by an Arianespace Ariane 44LP launch vehicle on Mar 14. It will be placed over the Atlantic. The success of 707 follows the loss of the Intelsat 708 satellite which was destroyed in the explosion of a Chang Zheng 3B rocket last month. Intelsat 707 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class satellite. It was inserted into a 189 x 35772 km x 7.0 deg transfer orbit. A Yantar'-class imaging recon satellite was launched on Mar 14 from Plesetsk. Given the code name Kosmos-2331, it was placed in a 164 x 355 km orbit with an inclination of 67.1 degrees by a Soyuz-U launch vehicle. This Russian Defense Ministry payload carries a US Department of Defense secondary experiment launched as part of the Space Test Program, the BINRAD package which will attempt to detect the presence of beryllium at orbital altitudes. BINRAD was flown twice before on Russian civilian Resurs-F remote sensing missions. The Pegasus XL launch was carried out from 36 deg N, 123 deg W which I understand is in special use airspace W-283, San Francisco Warning Area, rather than in W-532, Point Arguello Warning Area just south of there (can pilots confirm?) The L-1011 aircraft is based in Bakersfield, California, but for launches takes off from runway 30/12 at Vandenberg AFB. The REX-II satellite launched on the Pegasus has now extended its 6-m long gravity gradient boom. The FSW-1 (Jianbing-93) recovery capsule, stranded in orbit in 1993, reentered over the ocean on Mar 12. The ECS 1 (Eutelsat I F-1) satellite raised its orbit in February and is now drifting. Koreasat 2 is now on station at 113.0 deg E. The Telecom 1C satellite has moved from 3.0 deg E to 1.0 deg E. Intelsat 501 moved back into the geostationary ring at 72.0E (Indian Ocean). The Galileo orbit made a perijove raise burn at apojove on Mar 14, changing its orbit from 185000 x 19000000 km to 670000 x 19000000 km and targeting it for a close approach to Ganymede on Jun 27. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 1 0115 Palapa C-1 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 06A Feb 5 0719 N-STAR b Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 07A Feb 14 1901 Intelsat 708 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comsat FTO Feb 17 2043 NEAR Delta 7925-8 Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A Feb 19 0058 Gonets-D1 ) 09A? Gonets-D1 ) 09B? Gonets-D1 ) Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Comsats 09C? Kosmos-2328) 09D? Kosmos-2329) 09E? Kosmos-2330) 09F? Feb 19 0832 Raduga Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 10A Feb 21 1234 Soyuz TM-23 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 11A Feb 22 2018 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 12A Feb 24 1124 Polar Delta Vandenberg SLC2W Science 13A Feb 26 0130 TSS-1 OV-102,LEO Science 12B Mar 9 0133 REX-II Pegasus XL L1011/Vandenberg Technol. 14A Mar 14 0711 Intelsat 707 Ariane 44LP Kourou Comsat 15A Mar 14 1745? Kosmos-2331 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon 16A Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- Feb 22 Progress M-30 Deorbited over Pacific Feb 29 Soyuz TM-22 Landed in Kazakstan Mar 9 Columbia Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-78 Jun 27 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-76 Mar 21 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-77 May 16 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-54/ VAB Bay 1 STS-77 ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B STS-76 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'