Jonathan's Space Report No. 341 1997 Nov 17 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Columbia is awaiting a Nov 19 launch on the STS-87 science mission. Cargo bay payloads are: (Bay locations are approximate only; I will try and correct them later) NaSBE GABA, Bay 2 Stbd EDFT-OTD APC?, Bay 3 Port G-036 GABA, Bay 4 Port EDFT-ORU GABA?, Bay 4 Stbd Spartan MPESS, Bay 5 TGDF GABA, Bay 6 Port LHP GABA, Bay 6 Stbd SOLSE GABA, Bay 7 Stbd USMP-4 Fwd MPESS, Bay 8? USMP-4 Aft MPESS, Bay 9? OARE Bay 11 keel EDO Bay 13 The MPESS is a large cross-bay device to carry the big experiments. The GABA and APC are small carriers attached to the payload bay side wall. The main payloads for STS-87 are Spartan 201 and USMP-4. Spartan 201 is a small free flying solar observatory that sits on top of an MPESS carrier. It will be deployed and recovered with the robot arm; this is its fourth flight. USMP-4 is a US Microgravity Payload, with experiments to process materials in free fall. It uses two MPESS carries on which a variety of furnaces and processing equipment are installed. The EDFT payloads are equipment for Space Station spacewalk practice; the OTD is an experimental crane and the ORU is a dummy Orbital Replacement Unit. The EDO in the rear of the bay is the Extended Duration Orbiter kit, which provides extra power for long duration missions. The G-036, NaSBE, TGDF, LHP and SOLSE experiments are small experiments using GAS (Getaway Special) canisters. LHP is the Loop Heat Pipe, and NaSBE is the Sodium Sulfur Battery Experiment. SOLSE and LORE are ozone measuring devices. G-036 is a student experiment from El Paso Community College to mix cement in space; it was originally going to fly on STS-86. TGDF is Turbulent Gas Diffusion Flames, a basic physics experiment. OARE flies on all Columbia missions, and measures accelerations during flight. During the spacewalk, a small satellite which is brought up inside the Shuttle cabin will be taken out and released. AERCam Sprint is a remote controlled free-flying TV camera attached to gas thrusters, in a padded sphere. It's a prototype to test out the ability to inspect the Space Station exterior without actually sending astronauts outside. Crew of STS-87 consists of commander Kevin Kregel, pilot Steven Lindsey, mission specialists Winston Scott, Kalpana Chawla (a native of India), Takao Doi (from the Japanese NASDA space agency), and payload specialist Leonid Kadenyuk from the Ukrainian space agency. Atlantis has arrived in Palmdale for its Orbiter Maintenance Down Period. New cockpit displays will be installed, and the airlock will be relocated to the payload bay docking system area. The outer Kvant-2 EVA hatch on Mir is still leaking. A new outer hatch seal will be delivered by the next Progress cargo ship. Meanwhile, the inner airlock compartment is safely sealed and will continue to be used for external spacewalks. Recent Launches --------------- A Krunichev Proton was launched from Baykonur on Nov 12 with an Energiya Blok DM-2 upper stage and a geostationary payload, the first Kupon comsat for the Russian banking system. Kupon is the first commercial comsat made by the Lavochkin group, who usually make planetary probes and early warning satellites; previous Russian comsats were made by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki. Kupon, owned by the Russian Federation Central Bank (and possibly Global Information Systems of Moscow), relays financial data for the Bankir network. Ariane V102 successfully launched two communications satellites on Nov 12 at 2148 UTC. The Ariane 44L type rocket has four strapon PAL liquid boosters made by Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The Aerospatiale L220 first stage separates after 3 minutes; the Daimler-Benz L33 second stage then fires for 2 more minutes, followed by the long 13 minute burn of Aerospatiale's H-10-3 high energy liquid-hydrogen third stage, which entered orbit at 2208 UTC along with the payload. Unlike Delta, Atlas and Proton, the Ariane 4 flies directly to elliptical geostationary transfer orbit without first entering a low parking orbit. The Sirius 2 satellite was ejected at 2210 UTC, then at 2212 the top of the SPELDA structure which encapsulates the lower payload. At 2214 the Carkawarta-1 satellite was ejected from the lower part of SPELDA which remains attached to the H-10-3. V102's first payload was Sirius 2, a Spacebus 3000 Ku-band communications and broadcast satellite for Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska Satellit aktiebolaget), built by Aerospatiale/Cannes. NSAB's first satellite was TELE-X, a Spacebus 300 launched in 1989. It was later supplemented by Sirius 1, a much smaller satellite already in orbit. Sirius 1 was originally British Satellite Broadcasting's Marcopolo 1, and was bought in orbit by NSAB in Dec 1993. The second payload was Cakrawarta 1, formerly known as Indostar. This is the first of a new type of small comsat, the StarBus, developed by CTA Inc. of Rockville, Maryland, which has since been bought by Orbital Sciences. Although press reports have described StarBus as a lightsat, the launch and dry masses of Indostar are 1385 kg and 643 kg, very similar to the venerable (but still in production) Hughes HS-376 class. The satellite is owned by PT MediaCitra Indostar, which will use it for television broadcasting in Indonesia. The satellite features an Primex Aerospace liquid propulsion system (maybe! I've seen different stories on this - can anyone confirm?) and, unusually, an S-band antenna - most television broadcast satellites use 11GHz Ku-band, but apparently the 2.5 GHz S-band frequencies give better transmission through the rainy Indonesian skies. Errata: Lacrosse 3 is in a 57.3 degree orbit; the second TRUMPET was launched in Jul 1995. 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 LC36B 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 SLC2W Comsat 69E Iridium 39 ) Comsat 69D Iridium 40 ) Comsat 69C Iridium 41 ) Comsat 69B Iridium 43 ) Comsat 69A Nov 12 1700 Kupon Proton Baykonur LC200 Comsat 70A Nov 12 2148 Sirius 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 71A Cakrawarta 1 ) Comsat 71B 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 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'