Jonathan's Space Report No. 342 1997 Nov 27 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- OV-102 Columbia was launched on Nov 19 on the STS-87 science mission. Solid rocket motors RSRM-63 separated two minutes after launch. The orbiter rolled to a heads up position five minutes after launch, in a test of communications via the TDRS comsat. Main engine cutoff and separation of External Tank ET-89 came at T+8 minutes, leaving OV-102 in an elliptical transfer orbit. It then entered a 300 km circular orbit at 28 deg inclination. Cargo bay payloads are: NaSBE GABA, Bay 2 Stbd Sodium-Sulfur battery EDFT-OTD APC?, Bay 3 Port EVA crane Foot restraint Bay 3 Stbd G-036 GABA, Bay 4 Port High school experiment EDFT-ORU GABA?, Bay 4 Stbd EVA dummy mass Spartan MPESS, Bay 5 Solar observatory TGDF GABA, Bay 6 Port Physics of flames experiment LHP GABA, Bay 6 Stbd Heat pipe technology test SOLSE GABA, Bay 7 Stbd Ozone study USMP-4 Fwd MPESS, Bay 8 Materials processing USMP-4 Aft MPESS, Bay 9 OARE Bay 11 keel Accelerations EDO Bay 12-13 Extended duration kit Spartan 201 was released a day late (because of a safemode event on the SOHO satellite whose results it will calibrate), at 2105 UTC on Nov 21. However the satellite did not start its automatic orientation maneuver because the crew failed to send it the correct commands prior to release. Mission specialist Chalwa moved the robot arm in to grapple it again at about 2110 UTC. The grapple was unsuccessful and the Spartan was left tumbling. At 2210 it was decided to move away from Spartan for the day. Spartan was recaptured at around 0200 UTC on Nov 25. The capture was made by hand, during a spacewalk by Takao Doi and Winston Scott. The astronauts had difficulty berthing it so Chalwa grappled it with the RMS arm and berthed it around 0330 UTC. The spacewalk started at 0002 UTC Nov 25 and ended 0945 UTC; the tests of space station tools went well, but the free-flying Sprint camera subsatellite was not deployed due to lack of time. Recent Launches --------------- A Resurs-F1M satellite, built by the Progress Central Specialized Design Bureau, was launched on Nov 18 by a Soyuz-U rocket (also built by Progress). It is based on the Vostok/Zenit type bus used since 1960 for spy satellites, civil recoverable satellites, and the Vostok and Voskhod spaceships. On Nov 26 Resurs-F1M was in a 208 x 243 km x 82.3 deg orbit. Thanks to all the folks at Primex (formerly Olin and Rocket Research) who sent me information on Cakrawarta 1. This is the first geostationary satellite to use a Primex propulsion system for attitude control (with twelve MR-103G thrusters) and stationkeeping (with four MR-501 electrothermal hydrazine thrusters); a Thiokol Star 30E solid motor was used for the apogee burn. (Primex provided small propulsion systems for many other spacecraft, including the Voyager probes.) Last week I reported a rumour that the classified TRUMPET sigint satellite (whose codename was leaked to the Baltimore Sun a couple years ago) was built by Boeing/Seattle; however, for the record, Aviation Week claims that Hughes/El Segundo is the prime contractor. Maxim Tarasenko reports that Global Info Systems, the owner of Kupon, is in fact a subsidiary of the Russian central bank. The Kupon, Sirius 2 and Cakrawarta satellites are currently drifting toward their stations in the geostationary ring. 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-Teamsat) 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 Nov 18 1115 Resurs-F1M Soyuz-U Plesetk Rem.sens. 72A Nov 19 1946 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 73A Nov 21 2105 Spartan 201 OV-102, LEO Astronomy 73B Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-87 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/ 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'