Jonathan's Space Report No. 311 1997 Jan 22 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Atlantis docked with Mir at 0355 UTC on Jan 15. Jerry Linenger has replaced John Blaha on the Mir crew. The Shuttle undocked from the SO module on Mir at 0216 UTC on Jan 20, and backed off along the -RBAR (i.e. toward the Earth) to a distance of 140m before beginning a flyaround at 0231 UTC. Most of the flyaround was at a distance from Mir of about 170m. The first 'orbit' around Mir was complete at 0315, and the second was completed at 0402 UTC, when the Orbiter fired its jets to separate from the vicinity of Mir. The return crew for Atlantis comprised Mike Baker, Brent Jett, Marsha Ivins, Jeff Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, and John Blaha. Atlantis closed its payload bay doors early on Jan 22 and fired the OMS engines for the deorbit burn at 1317 UTC. The spaceship touched down on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 1422 UTC, completing mission STS-81. Atlantis will make its next trip to Mir in May. The next Shuttle mission, STS-82 on Feb 11, will deliver new science instruments to the Hubble Space Telescope. Discovery was rolled to the pad on Jan 17; during the rollout, the steel surface plate of Mobile Launch Platform 1 developed a 7 meter long crack, with a 'loud bang'. NASA reports that the weight-bearing surface of the MLP, which supports the fully fuelled Shuttle, is intact and there is apparently no big problem. Mobile Launch Platform 1 was originally part of Apollo-Saturn Launch Umbilical Tower 3 (LUT-3), first rolled out to pad 39A in March 1966 and first used for a launch for Apollo 10 in May 1969. Recent Launches --------------- A McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 was destroyed shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral on Jan 17. According to a Florida Today report, a solid rocket booster may have failed just before the spectacular explosion. This is the first Delta II rocket to fail to reach orbit, and the first failure to orbit of any Delta since 1986. The payload was the first GPS Block IIR spacecraft to be launched (actually the second production vehicle), built by the former Lockheed Martin Astro Space in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. (now part of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space/Sunnyvale). Navstar GPS satellites carry atomic clocks to provide precise navigational information; Boeing North American Block II and Block IIA GPS satellites make up the current system, which Block IIR will replace. The Delta 7925 is a three stage rocket. The first stage is an Extra Extended Long Tank Thor, a derivative of the 1950s Thor IRBM. The second stage is a restartable liquid stage, usually denoted 'SSPS' for Second Stage Propulsion System, and using the Aerojet AJ-10-118K engine. This stage derives from the AJ-10-118E Improved Delta stage of the mid-1960's which in turn came from the AJ-10-104 Ablestar stage. The third stage is the PAM-D (Payload Assist Module-Delta) which uses the Thiokol Star 48 solid motor. In addition to the three main stages, there are nine strap-on solid motors attached to the first stage. These Alliant Techsystems GEM (Graphite Epoxy Motor) solids distinguish the Delta 7000 series from earlier models using Thiokol Castor solid boosters. The only GEM failure to date occurred when a GEM failed to separate during the Koreasat 1 launch, but it appears that one of the GEMs may have failed on this latest launch. AT&T's Telstar 401 communications satellite has failed in geostationary orbit. Reason for the failure is unknown. The satellite was built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space/East Windsor and is a Series 7000 model. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Dec 4 0658 Mars Pathfinder Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Mars probe 68A Dec 11 1200 Kosmos-2335 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 69A Dec 18 0157 Inmarsat III F3 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36 Comsat 70A Dec 20 0644 Kosmos-2336 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navsat 71A Dec 20 1804 USA 129 Titan 4 Vandenberg SLC4E Recon 72A Dec 24 1350 Bion No. 11 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Life sci 73A Jan 12 0928 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 01A Jan 17 1628 GPS IIR No. 2 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat FTO Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-83 Apr 3 OV-103 Discovery OPF LC39A STS-82 Feb 11 OV-104 Atlantis KSC RW33 STS-81 OV-105 Endeavour Palmdale OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81/OV-103 LC39A STS-82 ML2/ LC39B STS-81 ML3/RSRM-59/ VAB Bay 1 STS-83 Shuttle Processing Explanation (or, what are all these acronyms anyway?): The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank (ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM). It is launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The OV is prepared for flight in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which consists of three bays (one of which is actually a separate building) after which it is towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or joined to the ET and RSRM. First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked up on a Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it. After the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML and carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally an OV is returned to the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California for refit - an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP. .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'