Jonathan's Space Report No. 333 1997 Sep 5 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historical Space Archive ------------------------ Over the past year I have been digitizing an archive of historical launch vehicle photos. Peter Hunter generously loaned me his photo collection, which includes many previously unpublished photographs of early United States launch vehicles, including some recently declassified ones. I hope to continue adding to this archive over the coming years, but it's now substantial enough to warrant making it publicly available. You can explore this archive at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/lv.html. In the coming months, I'm also planning to complete a list of all orbital launches and a comprehensive Shuttle cargo history - stay tuned. Shuttle and Mir --------------- A Russian commission of enquiry has formally blamed EO-23 crewmembers Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Lazutkin, as well as flight controllers, for the Jun 25 accident in which the Progress M-34 cargo ship collided with the Mir complex. A spacewalk by Solov'yov and Foale to locate the punctures in Spektr is scheduled for Sep 6; the airlock is about to be depressurized as I write this. Recent Launches --------------- A Chang Zheng 2C rocket built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology was orbited from the Taiyuan polar orbit launch site at 37.8N 111.5E on Sep 1 at 1400:15.7 UTC. It carries two dummy Iridium satellites (Iridium Mass Frequency Simulators), in preparation for the start of regular Iridium launches from Taiyuan. This is the first CZ-2C from Taiyuan, earlier CZ-2C missions were from Jiuquan and previously Taiyuan was used for the CZ-4. This version of the CZ-2C is believed to have a somewhat lengthened second stage compared to the usual version. As far I can tell, the Iridium MFS satellites were probably built by Motorola/Chandler but are owned by China Aerospace Corp. Mass is about 650 kg per satellite. The satellites are inert, but are built to reproduce the mass distribution and oscillation frequencies of a true Iridium satellite during launch, to provide a realistic test of the CZ-2C launch vehicle. The second stage of the CZ-2C entered a 215 x 638 km x 86.2 deg orbit 5 min after launch. The new Smart Dispenser (SD) stage with the two satellites attached separated 5 min later, and its solid motor ignited at apogee 48 min after launch, to enter a 623 x 633 km x 86.3 deg orbit from which the two mass simulators were dispensed at around 1450 UTC. Another motor on the SD ignited four minutes later to deorbit the stage, avoiding cluttering up Earth orbit with debris. The solid motor is probably a Chinese motor built by CALT/Shaanxi. Space Command has redesignated the objects in the launch since they were first cataloged (actually, the designations seem to still be somewhat in flux:) Originally Now Object 48A 48C CZ-2C stage 2 in transfer orbit 48B,48F 48B,48A Dummy Iridium satellites in circular orbit 48C 48F Debris in transfer orbit 48D,E 48D,E Debris (launch adapter?) in transfer orbit, decaying fast. The SD stage was deorbited before being cataloged, in keeping with Iridium's policy of having as few objects adding to the orbital debris population as possible. Twelve more Iridium satellites are due to be launched this month, seven on a Proton and five on a Delta. Meanwhile, sources report that the successful launch of a CZ-3B rocket last month, which orbited the Agila 2 satellite, may have been marred by a downrange accident. The first stage of the CZ-3B impacted in Hunan province 1000 km downrange from Xichang, and allegedly caused property damage in a village, although I understand that this has not been acknowledged by China Great Wall Industry Corp or China Aerospace Corp. There have also been rumours of casualties but those are denied by the Chinese authorities. Ariane flight V99, on Sep 2, launched two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit. Hot Bird 3 is a high power television broadcasting satellite for EUTELSAT, the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization, and Meteosat 7 is a weather satellite for EUMETSAT (European Meteorological Satellite Organization) built by Aerospatiale. Hot Bird 3 is built by Matra Marconi Space (Toulouse) and is a Eurostar 2000+ satellite with a Marquardt R-4D apogee engine. Meteosat 7 is the first Meteosat Transition Programme satellite (MTP-1), using the same design as the Meteosat Operational Programme (MOP) satellites Meteosat 4 to 6. It carries a three channel radiometer with 2.5km resolution. Launch mass was 750 kg; it has a solid Mage 1 apogee motor. The first Meteosat weather satellite was launched in 1977. GE Americom's GE 3 communications satellite was launched on Sep 4 by a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS, flight AC-146. The satellite has C and Ku band transponders for domestic communications relay and broadcasting. It was built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications and is an A2100 series satellite like its two precursors. The satellite was placed in a mildly supersynchronous transfer orbit of 309 x 43913 km x 19.1 deg; its Royal Ordnance Leros apogee engine will circularize the orbit. The Cassini launch to Saturn, originally scheduled for Oct 6, will be delayed because overpressurized air hoses at the launch pad blew away some insulation on the Huygens Titan entry probe. They are still expecting to launch within the window, which extends to Nov 4. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. 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 Jul 23 0343 GPS SVN 43 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 35A Jul 28 0115 Superbird C Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 36A Aug 1 2020 OrbView 2 Pegasus XL Vandenberg Remote sen.37A Aug 5 1536 Soyuz TM-26 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 38A Aug 7 1441 Discovery Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A Aug 7 2227 CRISTA-SPAS OV-103,LEO Remote sen.39B Aug 8 0646 PAS 6 Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Aug 14 2049 Kosmos-2345 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Early Warn 41A Aug 19 1750 Agila 2 CZ-3B Xichang LC2 Comsat 42A Aug 21 0038 Iridium SV022) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 43E Iridium SV023) Comsat 43D Iridium SV024 Comsat 43C Iridium SV025) Comsat 43B Iridium SV026) Comsat 43A Aug 23 0651 Lewis LMLV-1 Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A Aug 25 1439 ACE Delta 7920 Canaveral LC17A Space sci. 45A Aug 28 0033 PAS 5 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 46A Aug 29 1502 FORTE Pegasus XL Vandenberg Space sci. 47A Sep 1 1400 Iridium MFS ) CZ-2C Taiyuan Inert 48B Iridium MFS ) Inert 48F Sep 2 2221 Hot Bird 3 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A Meteosat 7 ) Weather 49B Sep 4 1203 GE-3 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36A Comsat 50A Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-87 Nov 19 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-91 May 28 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-86 Sep 22 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-89 Jan 15 MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/ MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104 LC39A STS-86 MLP3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'