Jonathan's Space Report No. 327 1997 Jul 13 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Columbia is on orbit for mission STS-94 (Microgravity Science Lab 1R). Experiments continue with controlled investigations of fires in microgravity. On Jul 13 the spacecraft was in a 296 x 301 km x 28.5 deg orbit. Meanwhile, Discovery is scheduled to be rolled out to pad 39A on Jul 14 in preparation for launch of STS-85. Progress M-35 was launched on Jul 5 at 0411:54 UTC toward the Mir station. It docked with the rear of the 37KE (Kvant) module at 0559:24 UTC on Jul 7 using the automatic Kurs system. (The Progress M-34 also docked successfully using this system; it was only when they tried testing the new manual system that things went wrong). Carl Sagan Memorial Station ---------------------------- The Mars Pathfinder (MPF) space probe landed on Mars at 1656 UTC on Jul 4. It now appears that the lander made about 15 bounces before coming to rest and rolled about 1 km. On Jul 5, the lander was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station. Early on Jul 6, the Sagan Station deployed the rover ramps. A few hours later the Sojourner rover rolled down the ramps and it is now on the Martian surface. The new estimate of the landing site coordinates is 33.55 deg West, 19.33 deg N. I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere and had forgotten it myself, but the Sagan Station site is actually within the ellipse of Viking Site A-1, where Viking Lander 1 (since renamed Mutch Memorial Station) was originally meant to land on July 4, 1976. When Viking 1 reached Mars orbit in Jun 1976 and started imaging site A-1, JPL decided that the terrain was too rough, and delayed the landing while they searched for a smoother site, eventually settling on the Chryse Planitia site where Viking landed on 1976 Jul 20. Mars Pathfinder was able to land on the rougher A-1 site because of its robust airbag landing system, and indeed the rocky images from Sagan Memorial Station suggest that it was a really good thing Viking didn't try landing there. Oh, and Russell Eberst points out that I can't spell Margaritifer Sinus. (see last week). Recent Launches --------------- Five more Iridium satellites were launched from Vandenberg on Jul 9. The Delta launch vehicle placed the five Motorola-built communications satellites in polar orbits. Their on-board propulsion systems will be used to raise their orbits later from 640 km to 780 km. The satellites from the previous two launches have now reached their operating orbits. The three Iridium launches have places their satellites into orbital planes 30 degrees apart. Iridium satellites in orbit: Satellite Launch date Orbit RA of plane (Jul 12) SV004 May 5 771 x 783 km x 86.4 deg 120 SV005 May 5 771 x 783 km x 86.4 deg 120 SV006 May 5 774 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 120 SV007 May 5 773 x 781 km x 86.4 deg 120 SV008 May 5 776 x 779 km x 86.4 deg 120 SV009 Jun 18 774 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV010 Jun 18 773 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV011 Jun 18 776 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV012 Jun 18 772 x 781 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV013 Jun 18 774 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV014 Jun 18 775 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV015 Jul 9 621 x 641 km x 86.4 deg 184 SV016 Jun 18 775 x 779 km x 86.4 deg 150 SV017 Jul 9 618 x 649 km x 86.4 deg 184 SV018 Jul 9 627 x 642 km x 86.4 deg 184 SV020 Jul 9 632 x 653 km x 86.4 deg 184 SV021 Jul 9 626 x 643 km x 86.4 deg 184 The FY-2 (FengYun 2) weather satellite, launched by a CZ-3 rocket from Xichang on Jun 10, is now on station at 104.1 deg E. (Some Western publications call this satellite FY-2 1R to denote that it is a replacement flight article for the first FY-2 which was destroyed in a ground test, but I haven't seen that name used by Chinese news releases). Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jun 3 2321 Inmarsat 3 F4) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 27A Insat 2D ) Comsat 27B Jun 6 1757 Kosmos-2344 Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200 Recon? 28A Jun 10 1201 FY-2 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Weather 29A Jun 18 1402 Iridium SV009 ) Proton-K/DM-5 Baykonur Comsat 30D Iridium SV010 ) Comsat 30C Iridium SV011 ) Comsat 30G Iridium SV012 ) Comsat 30B Iridium SV013 ) Comsat 30E Iridium SV014 ) Comsat 30A Iridium SV016 ) Comsat 30F Jun 25 2344 Intelsat 802 Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 31A Jul 1 1802 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 32A Spacelab MSL-1R ) Jul 5 0411 Progress M-35 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 33A Jul 6 0600 Sojourner - Sagan Station, Mars Rover Jul 9 1304 Iridium SV015 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 34A Iridium SV017 ) Comsat 34B Iridium SV018 ) Comsat 34C Iridium SV020 ) Comsat 34D Iridium SV021 ) Comsat 34E Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-94 Jul 1 OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 STS-85 Aug 7 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-86 Sep 18 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-89 Jan 15 MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/ MLP2/RSRM-61 VAB Bay 1? STS-86 MLP3/RSRM-57/ET-87/OV-103 VAB Bay 3? STS-85 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'