Jonathan's Space Report No. 301 1996 Oct 15 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- The next Shuttle launch is STS-80. The payload bay will include the ORFEUS ultraviolet telescope on the ASTRO-SPAS free flying satellite and the Wake Shield Facility, another free-flying satellite which will grow crystals in vacuum and microgravity. Another Space Station development spacewalk is planned. Launch of the Progress M-33 cargo ship to Mir has been delayed to early November. It will resupply Mir crewmembers Korzun, Kaleri and Blaha. Joel Powell points out that mission STS-79 used external tank ET-82, not ET-81 as I said. Geoff Perry spotted my error on the undocking time: Atlantis undocked from Mir at 0133 UTC on Sep 24. Recent Launches --------------- The world's launch pads have been quiet recently, so I'll take the opportunity to talk about space history instead. 40 Years Ago: The Jupiter C and JPL Cluster Program --------------------------------------------------- In 1953 the Redstone missile, developed by Werner Von Braun's Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) in Huntsville, Alabama, made its first flight. Launches after Sep 1955 were designated Jupiter A, as they were nominally in support of ABMA's Jupiter IRBM program. (Jupiter itself is a significantly different rocket). Meanwhile, the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California developed the JPL Cluster, a multi-stage clustered rocket to be used as an upper stage velocity package. The Cluster consisted of a Stage 2 Assembly with 11 small rocket motors known as Scaled Sergeants or Baby Sergeants (they were scaled down from the design of JPL's Sergeant missile), a Stage 3 Assembly with three Scaled Sergeants, and a Stage 4 assembly with a single Scaled Sergeant. The Cluster was spin-stabilized and mounted on the Redstone's nose. The initial tests of the Cluster had no Stage 4 and were known as Jupiter C, with the first launch 40 years ago on 1956 Sep 20 achieving a world altitude record of 1097 km. The fourth Cluster launch on 1958 Feb 1 (UTC) placed the first US satellite in orbit, Explorer 1. The orbital Jupiter C's were designated Juno I. Unfortunately the available records at JPL for these launches are patchy and I'm not certain of the Cluster unit serial number for the historic Explorer I launch, but one diagram gives the designation 'RTV-7'. If anyone can fill in the missing Cluster designations, I'd love to get them. The final Redstone/Cluster launch carried the Army's Beacon balloon satellite, together with the first ever apogee motor, a small 2 lb solid rocket. Unfortunately the Stage 2 Assembly failed and Beacon did not reach orbit. Explorer II and V were also failures. Following the final Juno I launch, the JPL Cluster was used as an upper stage to the Jupiter rocket, the combination being known as Juno II. Meanwhile, the Explorer name was used for scientific satellites developed at NASA-Goddard and NASA-Langley. Launch Date Redstone No. JPL Cluster No. Payload -------------------------------------------------------- 1956 Sep 20 RS-27 Cluster 1 Dummy stage 4, Microlock beacon 1957 May 15 RS-34 Cluster 2 Scaled Jupiter nosecone 1957 Aug 8 RS-40 Cluster 5? Scaled Jupiter nosecone 1958 Feb 1 RS-29 Cluster 7? Explorer I 1958 Mar 5 RS-26 Cluster 6? Explorer II 1958 Mar 26 RS-24 Cluster 4? Explorer III 1958 Jul 26 RS-44 Cluster 8 Explorer IV 1958 Aug 24 RS-47 Cluster 9 Explorer V 1958 Oct 23 RS-49 Cluster 10? Apogee motor/Beacon The Juno II launches, carried out by ABMA under NASA auspices, were: Launch Date Jupiter No. JPL Cluster No. Payload --------------------------------------------------------- 1958 Dec 6 AM-11 Cluster 11 Pioneer III 1959 Mar 3 AM-14 Cluster 12 Pioneer IV 1959 Jul 16 AM-16 Cluster 14 NASA S-1 1959 Aug 15 AM-19B Cluster 15 Beacon 2 1959 Oct 13 AM-19A Cluster 13 NASA S-1A 1960 Mar 23 AM-19C Cluster 16 NASA S-46 1960 Nov 3 AM-19D Cluster 17 NASA S-30 1961 Feb 24 AM-19F Cluster 19 NASA S-45 1961 Apr 27 AM-19E Cluster 18 NASA S-15 1961 May 24 AM-19G Cluster 20? NASA S-45A Cluster 14 and Cluster 15, used in the unsuccessful S-1 and Beacon 2 launch attempts, did not have an Assembly 4 stage. S-1A was named Explorer VII after the successful launch; S-30 became Explorer VIII, and S-15 became Explorer XI. Pioneer IV entered solar orbit. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 4 0901 Kosmos-2333 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45L Sigint 51A Sep 5 1347 Kosmos-2334 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat 52A UNAMSat ) 52B Sep 6 1737 Inmarsat III F2 Proton Baykonur LC81 Comsat 53A Sep 8 2149 GE-1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36B Comsat 54A Sep 11 0000 Echostar II Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 55A Sep 12 0849 Navstar 30 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 56A Sep 16 0855 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 57A Sep 26 1751 Ekspress Proton-K Baykonur Comsat 58A Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia VAB Bay 2 STS-80 Nov 8 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-81 Jan 12 OV-105 Endeavour Palmdale OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-54 VAB Bay 1 STS-81 ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80/OV-102 VAB Bay 3 STS-80 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'