Jonathan's Space Report No. 293 1996 Jul 16 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- NASA has announced that the SRBs for STS-79 will be replaced, delaying the mission until September, because of concerns about hot gas in the field joints during STS-78. A new adhesive used in the booster assembly is the leading suspect. Currently Atlantis is attached to External Tank ET-80 and booster integration set BI-82 (with the RSRM-54 solid booster pair) on Mobile Launcher 2, while the left booster for BI-83 (RSRM-56) is being stacked on Mobile Launcher 1. BI-83 was originally to be the stack for STS-80. The two Mobile Launchers are probably in VAB High Bays 1 and 3, but I don't know which is in which. Presumably the Orbiter will first be destacked from the ET-80 (External Tank), then the ET will be moved from BI-82 to BI-83, and the orbiter restacked on the new stack on Mobile Launcher 1. (I assume the ET-81 originally intended for the new BI-83 SRBs is not ready yet). Most likely, BI-82 (the suspect boosters) will be disassembled, and the segments will be refurbished with a different adhesive. Recent Launches --------------- A Navstar Block IIA Global Positioning System satellite, spacecraft number 40 or IIA-26, was launched on Jul 16 by McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 from Cape Canaveral into an elliptical 191 x 20354 km x 35.0 deg transfer orbit. The Block IIA Navstar GPS satellites are built by Rockwell; the satellite will use a Star 37 solid motor to circularize its orbit at 20000 km altitude. The remaining Block IIA satellites awaiting launch are Navstar SVN 30 and Navstar SVN 38. The USA-125 satellite launched on Jul 3 into a 300 km orbit appears to have maneuvered into a higher orbit around Jul 8. It may be a second generation Satellite Data System payload which relays data from recon satellites. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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. 37A Jul 3 0031 USA 125 Titan 404 Canaveral LC40 Comsat? 38A Jul 3 1047 Apstar 1A Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 39A Jul 9 2224 Arabsat 2A ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Turksat 1C ) Comsat 40B Jul 16 0050 Navstar SVN 40 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Navsat 41A Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- Jul 7 Columbia/LMS Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-80 Oct 31 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis VAB STS-79 Jul 31 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-56 VAB STS-80 ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104 VAB 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'