Jonathan's Space Report No. 291 1996 Jul 2 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Orbiter OV-102 Columbia was launched on 1996 Jun 20 at 1449:20 UTC on mission STS-78, carrying the Life and Microgravity Science Spacelab (LMS-1). Launch was from Mobile Launch Platform 3 at Complex 39B. The solid rocket boosters, serial RSRM-55, separated at about 1451:24, with main engine cutoff (MECO) at 1457 UTC. External tank ET-79 separated from the Orbiter a few seconds later. The OMS engines were fired for the OMS-2 burn to circularize the orbit about half an hour later, and the payload bay doors were opened at around 1615 UTC. Inital orbit was 272 x 285 km x 39.0 deg; by Jul 2 the orbit was 259 x 268 km x 39.0 deg. The medical and materials processing experiments on Spacelab are proceeding well, and the mission is scheduled to last a record 17 days. Does anyone know which Spacelab Long Module flight unit is being used on this flight? There are two. My guess is that it is Unit 2 (FOP), which was first flown on Spacelab D-1 in 1985 and was probably last used on the Spacelab Mir mission (STS-71). Orbiter 104 Atlantis was moved to the VAB on Jun 24, and attached to the external tank and solid rocket boosters. The stack was rolled out to pad 39A on Jul 1 in preparation for a Jul 31 launch on mission STS-79 to Mir. Discovery has returned to the Cape from its refurbishment in California. It left Palmdale aboard the SCA (Boeing 747) on Jun 28. The SCA refuelled at Altus AFB, Oklahoma and spent the night at Robins AFB, GA. On Jun 29 it flew from Robins to KSC, and on Jun 30 it was towed to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2. Its next mission is STS-82, to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. Errata ------- Apologies to Lt. Col. Helms (pilot, STS-78) for not having noted her promotion in the last issue. Recent Launches --------------- Igor Lissov reports that another Soyuz-U launch vehicle failed to reach orbit on Jun 20 after 50 seconds of flight. This is the second Soyuz-U failure in a row, following the loss of a recon satellite on May 14. Rumour has it that the payload shroud failed in both cases. Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully launched the fourth Pegasus XL on Jul 2. It placed into orbit NASA-Goddard's TOMS/Earth Probe ozone monitoring satellite. The L-1011 Stargazer carrier airplane took off from Vandenberg AFB and released the three stage Pegasus XL rocket over the drop zone in the Pacific. Florida Today reports the launch as 0742 UTC; the TOMS web page reports 0748 UTC. Orbit is 345 x 954 km x 97.4 deg, to be raised later to a circular 500 km. TOMS/EP was built by TRW and is based on the STEP/Eagle small satellite bus. It carries a single instrument, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. The 188 kg satellite carries 73 kg of fuel for the orbit raising system. Earlier TOMS instruments flew on Nimbus 7 (1978) and Meteor-3 No. 5 (1991), and another will fly on the Japanese ADEOS mission. Pegasus XL launch delays resulted in a two year gap in TOMS coverage following the failure of the Meteor instrument in 1994. Aviation Week reports that the May 12 Titan launch carried as a secondary payload the Naval Research Laboratory's TiPS Tether Physics and Survivability satellite. The 53 kg satellite consists of 2 end masses connected by a 4 km tether. NRO (the National Reconnaissance Office) provided funding for the TiPS project. Observers have seen the TiPS payload in an 1019 x 1024 km x 63.4 deg orbit. (The following paragraph is for satellite catalog fans only!) The status of the different objects from the May 12 Titan launch is confused. As best I can tell, the current official unclassified catalog states: Desig. Name SATCAT 1996-29A USA 119 23893 1996-29B USA 120 23907 1996-29C USA 121 23908 1996-29D USA 122 23862 1996-29E 1996-29F 1996-29G Debris 23863 Possibly USA 122 is TiPS and USA 119 to 121 are the triplet satellites. 29E and 29F are then likely debris like 29G, each being a cover for one of the triplets. However this leaves no object to be the dispenser/upper stage. An alternative possibility is that USA 122 (or USA 119) is a primary payload in a different orbit, 1996-29E is the dispenser/upper stage (to get the name USA 123) and TiPS is 1996-29F and will get the name USA 124. This is suggested by the use in the Satellite Situation report of the name 'USA 119-124 debris' for 29G; however the weekly OIG summary uses 'USA 119-122 debris', so '119-124' may just be a typo. The Galileo probe successfully completed its flyby of Ganymede on Jun 27. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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 TiPS ) 29? 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 35A Jun 20 1449 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 36A Spacelab LMS 1) Jun 20 1845 Kosmos Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon FTO Jul 2 0748 TOMS Pegasus XL Vandenberg Rem.sens. 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 LEO STS-78 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-79 Jul 31 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-77 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104 LC39A STS-79 ML3/ 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'