Jonathan's Space Report No. 290 1996 Jun 16 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Launch of mission STS-78 is scheduled for Jun 20. A Spacelab Long Module is in Columbia's cargo bay together with the EDO (Extended Duration Orbiter) pallet with extra consumables to support the long 16-day mission. Crew of STS-78 are Col. Terence `Tom' Henricks, Kevin Kregel, Capt. Susan Helms, Dr. Charles Brady, M.D., Dr. Richard Linnehan, D.Vet.M, Dr. Bob Thirsk, M.D., and Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier, Ph.D. Thirsk is from the Canadian Space Agency and Favier is from the French CNES space agency. The crew will carry out the Life and Microgravity Science Spacelab (LMS) mission. The Mir EO-21 crew's 5th EVA took place at 1656 UTC on Jun 6 and lasted 3 hr 34 min. Onufrienko and Usachyov installed experiments to study the space environment on the outer surface of the station. EVA-6 took place on Jun 13, and involved the filming of the second part of a commercial for Pepsi-Cola. It lasted 5 hr 42 min. Errata ------- I got the launch time of Galaxy 9 wrong - it should have been 0110 UTC on May 24. I missed two types of rocket from my launch vehicle list last week: first, the Conestoga, which uses the Castor 4B as its core. As far as I know, the Castor 4 series first flew on an Athena H reentry test vehicle in 1971. The second one I missed was the NOTSnik Project Pilot air launched vehicle, recently declassified, which was used in 1958 and used a small HOTROC solid motor cluster as its first stage. Two of the 1958 Pilot launches may have reached orbit. HOTROC Pilot 1958 Jul 4 F 1958 Jul 25 S? Castor 4B Conestoga 1971 Apr 3 1995 Oct 23 F The LLV-1 (now LMLV-1) was deliberately omitted since it used the Castor 120 core, which is part of the same rocket family as the TU-904 used for Taurus, although a different variant. Recent Launches --------------- Ariane flight V87 was successfully launched on Jun 15. A member of the original Ariane family, the Ariane 44P model rocket placed its H-10-III third stage and the Intelsat 709 comsat in geostationary transfer orbit. The success is good news for Arianespace after the failure of the first Ariane 5 launch. Intelsat 709 is an Intelsat VIIA satellite using the Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 bus. The satellite has a mass of 1473 kg dry, or 3420 kg including all its propellant. It has 26 C-band and 10 Ku-band transponders and will be stationed at 18 deg W over the Atlantic to provide transatlantic telephone, TV and data relay for the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. Here are more details of the Ariane 5 flight from ESA: 1233:59 UTC: Vulcain main engine ignition 1234:06 UTC: EAP ignition, liftoff 1234:36 UTC: Altitude 3.5 km 1234:36 UTC: EAP solid booster nozzles swivel to limit Vulcain main engine swivels to limit Ariane 5 tilts sharply 1234:38 UTC: EPC structural failure 1234:38 UTC: Onboard destruct system fired ESA says: "The direction of inquiry is tending towards the launcher's electrical and software system". The on board computer incorrectly decided that the vehicle was off course and commanded a sharp turn, which then did in fact send Ariane off course. An automatic on board destruct system fired once the vehicle started to disintegrate. The Clipper Graham (DC-XA) made its second flight at 1615 UTC on Jun 7. The 62-second flight was successful. A third flight one day later was also successful and proved the rapid turnaround concept. Gorizont No. 44L, launched on May 25, is now on station at 53 degrees East. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 3 2301 Inmarsat III F1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A194z Comsat 20A Apr 8 2309 Astra 1F Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 21A Apr 20 2236 M-SAT 1 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 22A Apr 23 1148 Priroda Proton-K Baykonur LC81 Spaceship 23A Apr 24 1227 MSX Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech. 24A Apr 24 1303 Kosmos-2332 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Radar cal 25A Apr 24 2337 USA-118 Titan 401 Canaveral LC41 Sigint 26A Apr 30 0431 BeppoSAX Atlas I Canaveral LC36B Astronomy 27A May 5 0704 Progress M-31 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 28A May 12 2132 USA-119 Titan 403? Vandenberg SLC4E Recon? 29A USA-120? 29B? USA-121? 29C? USA-122 29D May 14 0855 Kometa Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon FTO May 16 0156 Palapa C2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 30A AMOS ) Comsat 30B May 17 0244 MSTI-3 Pegasus L-1011,Pacific Technology 31A May 19 1030 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 32A May 20 1129 Spartan 207 Technology 32B IAE Technology 32C May 22 0918 PAMS STU Technology 32D May 24 0110 Galaxy 9 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Comsat 33A May 25 0210? Gorizont Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat 34A Jun 4 1234 Cluster F1 ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Science FTO Cluster F2 ) Cluster F3 ) Cluster F4 ) Jun 15 0655 Intelsat 709 Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- May 13 Kosmos-2293 Reentered May 22 IAE Reentered May 29 Endeavour/Spartan Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-78 Jun 20 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 1 STS-79 Jul 31 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-77 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-54 VAB Bay 1 STS-79 ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79/OV102 LC39B STS-78 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'