Jonathan's Space Report No. 340 1997 Nov 12 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Solov'yov and Vinogradov carried out another EVA on Nov 6, with hatch open at 0012 UTC and close at 0629 UTC. The Kvant-2 interior compartment was used as the airlock. The Russian MSB-SO solar array, which has been stored on the outside of the SO module since its delivery to the station by Atlantis on mission STS-74, has now been installed on the Kvant module replacing the elderly MSB-4. (The new array is not, as I claimed last week, the MCSA US/Russian array, which is already deployed on the opposite side of Kvant. Thanks to Gabe Katell for pointing out this goof). The Kvant-2 airlock hatch was thought to be sealed after the Nov 6 EVA, but it turns out that the ShSO (Airlock special compartment) of Kvant 2 is still leaking. The PNO (Instrument-science compartment), which is the next room in, can continue to be used as the airlock until the outer lock is fixed. Jim Oberg points out that it's not clear how long the depressurized activity on Nov 3 lasted. The ShSO was no longer at vacuum as early as 0940 UTC, but at 0953 UTC and possibly as late as around 1045 UTC (guessing from the fact that Chris van den Berg monitored radio from them in the inner airlock at 1109) the crew were still operating at a pressure under 5 psi. and they were not able to remove their suits until after 1100 UTC. So it depends on what pressure level you consider to count as vacuum conditions. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying Atlantis has left Kennedy en route to the Boeing North American plant at Palmdale, California for Atlantis' Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) refit. OV-104 will not be making any flights until 1999. Recent Launches --------------- The final Block IIA Navstar Global Positioning Satellite, SVN 38, was orbited on Nov 5. The Block IIA GPS satellites were built by Boeing/Seal Beach (former Rockwell), and launched on Boeing/Huntingdon Beach (former McDonnell Douglas) Delta 7925 rockets. GPS SVN 38 fired its Thiokol Star 37 apogee motor on Nov 8 and is now in a 19914 x 20626 km x 54.9 deg orbit. The PAM-D third stage remains in the 187 x 20391 km x 35.0 deg transfer orbit, while in its final depletion burn the Delta second stage orbit was raised to 459 x 561 km x 35.2 deg. The Ariane 502 launch anomaly seems to be really minor. Apparently when the solid boosters separated there was a bit more roll torque on the core stage than expected, and the centrifugal force pushed the propellant away from the fuel gauge, fooling it into thinking that the rocket was out of fuel a little early. Sounds like an easy fix for the next mission, and the sort of thing that would be hard to catch prior to an actual test flight. The Lockheed Martin/USAF Titan 4A-17 was launched on Nov 8 into highly elliptical orbit, carrying a classified signals intelligence satellite for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), probably in conjuction with the NSA (National Security Agency). It is believed that the satellite is a TRUMPET, with a large deployable mesh antenna, designed to monitor Soviet communications and missile tests (yes, *I* know the Soviets no longer exist... but I'm sure NRO can find something useful to listen into). One rumour was that the prime contractor for TRUMPET is Boeing/Seattle, but that's not well established. Two earlier TRUMPET satellites were launched in May 1994 and Jun 1995. The new satellite and Centaur TC-16 were launched into a 185 x 185 km x 55.0 deg parking orbit. The Centaur restarted to enter a 204 x 27890 km x 55.0 deg transfer orbit, and made a third burn to an 1100 x 39059 km x 63.6 deg operational orbit. This 'Molniya type' 12-hour, low precession, orbit is also used by the SDS communications satellites which relay data from NRO imaging recon satellites. After spacecraft separation the Centaur vented its remaining propellants, and as on previous TRUMPET missions this caused some comet discovery reports to come in to the IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Meanwhile, the NRO's LACROSSE 3 classified radar imaging payload is now in a 664 x 666 km x 55.0 deg operational orbit, according to amateur observers. Its Lockheed/Sunnyvale Bus-1 propulsion system raised the perigee from an initial 430 x 669 km orbit. Five more Motorola Iridium satellites were launched by Boeing Delta 2 on Nov 9 into a 625 x 642 km x 86.6 deg orbit. The Delta second stage then lowered its perigee to 253 km. Of the Iridium satellites launched previously, all but three are in a 777 x 777 km x 86.4 deg operational orbit. Iridium SV011 is 15 km lower; Iridium SV021 and SV027 never left their initial parking orbits. Mars Global Surveyor resumed aerobraking on Nov 9. Orbit is now 135 x 45088 km x 93 deg. It will continue aerobraking for a few months and then pause again, before finally reaching its target sun-synchronous orbit in 1999, a year later than planned thanks to the problem with its solar panel. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 5 1508 Progress M-36 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 58A Oct 5 2101 Echostar III Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36 Comsat 59A Oct 9 1808 Foton No. 11 ) Soyuz-U Plesetsk Micrograv 60A Mirka ) Oct 15 0843 Cassini ) Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A Huygens ) Titan probe Oct 16 1913 Apstar 2R CZ-3B Xichang Comsat 62A Oct 22 1315 STEP M4 Pegasus XL Wallops I? Technology 63A Oct 24 0232 Lacrosse 3? Titan 4A Vandenberg SLC4E Recon 64A Oct 25 0046 DSCS III B-13 ) Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 65A Falcon Gold ) Technology 65B Oct 30 1343 Maqsat H ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Technology 66A Maqsat B ) 66B YES ) 66C Nov 2 1225 SCD-2A VLS Alcantara Rem.sens. FTO Nov 3 0405 Sputnik-40 Mir,LEO Demo 58C Nov 5 0030 GPS 38 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 67A Nov 8 0205 Trumpet 3 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 Signal int 68A Nov 9 0134 Iridium 38 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 69E Iridium 39 ) Comsat 69D Iridium 40 ) Comsat 69C Iridium 41 ) Comsat 69B Iridium 43 ) Comsat 69A Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-87 Nov 19 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28 OV-104 Atlantis En route Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-89 Jan 15 MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89/OV-102 LC39B STS-87 MLP2/ MLP3/RSRM64 VAB Bay 1 STS-89 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'