Jonathan's Space Report No. 343 1997 Dec 4 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Errata ------ Several recent mistakes have been pointed out to me: the first STS-87 EVA ended 0745 UTC not 0945! Sorry about that. The GPS launch last month was Nov 6 at 0030 UTC, not Nov 5. In JSR 334, I reported the Mars Global Surveyor insertion burn time as 0015 UTC, should have been 0117 UTC. As always, I will try and correct mistakes when folks bring them to my attention. Shuttle and Mir --------------- STS-87/Columbia continues its flight with microgravity science research on the USMP-4 payload. NASA has decided not to redeploy Spartan on this mission. On Dec 2, Spartan was unberthed with the RMS arm and used while attached to the arm for tests of an instrument called the Video Guidance Sensor which will be used during space station dockings. During an EVA on Dec 3, Doi and Scott carried out more tests of the Space Station crane. They also deployed the AERCam/Sprint 'football' remote-controlled camera for a free flight in the payload bay. The astronauts went to battery power at 0909 UTC Dec 3, by which time the airlock was already depressurized. Scott deployed the camera at 1215 UTC and recovered it at 1327 UTC. Airlock was repressurized at 1409 UTC. Landing is expected Dec 5. Meanwhile, Endeavour is being prepared for a January launch and will soon be connected to the external tank; and stacking of solid boosters for Columbia's next flight has already begun. Recent Launches --------------- NASDA, Japan's applications space agency, launched an H-2 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on Nov 27 carrying TRMM and ETS-7. ETS-7 (Engineering Test Satellite 7) is also called Hikoboshi; a small target satellite, Orihime, will separate and Hikoboshi will carry out rendezvous and docking experiments with it. ETS-7 is built by Toshiba, with the docking system developed by Mitsubishi. ETS-7 is having some problems with its solar array drive, and orbit raising burns have been delayed. Although Space Command is tracking an object 1997-74C in a similar orbit which Goddard has identified as the ETS-7 target satellite, it seems unlikely that the latter has actually separated from ETS-7 at this point. Does anyone have definite info on the identification of objects 1997-74C and 74D? I suspect it is more likely that they are adapters connecting ETS-7 to the launch vehicle, or TRMM sensor covers. TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) is a joint NASDA/NASA project. Built by NASA-Goddard and part of NASA's Earth Probe series, it will improve climate models and study El Nino. JCSAT-5 is a comsat for Japan Satellite Systems (JSAT) built by Hughes/El Segundo using the HS-601 bus. It was launched on an Arianespace Ariane 44P rocket on Dec 2 into geostationary transfer orbit of 214 x 35758 km x 4.0 deg. Usually dual payload launches on Ariane involve an adapter called SPELDA which covers the lower satellite; on this mission a simpler and smaller cylinder called Cyclade covered the lower payload, a small space science satellite, Equator-S. (Cyclade was used once before, on the May 1993 launch of the Arsene satellite). Equator-S was built by Germany's MPE (Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik) and is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial physics Program. It will study particles and fields in the equatorial magnetosphere. A Thiokol Star 13A solid motor will fire to place Equator-S in an orbit with a 65000 km apogee. Astra 1G, launched on Dec 2, is an HS-601HP comsat from Hughes for the SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites, based in Luxembourg), which provides television broadcasting in Europe. Astra 1G was launched by International Launch Services on a Krunichev Proton-K rocket with an RKK Energiya upper stage, Blok DM3 No. 2L After six hours the second burn of the Blok DM3 placed Astra 1G in a 10211 x 35989 km x 12.3 deg transfer orbit. 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 6 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 Nov 27 2127 TRMM ) H-2 Tanegashima Rem.sens. 74A Hikoboshi ) Technology 74B Orihime ) Dec 2 2252 JCSAT-5 ) Ariane 44P Kourou Comsat 75A Equator-S ) Space sci 75B Dec 2 2310 Astra 1G Proton Baykonur Comsat 76A Dec 3 AERCam/Sprint OV-102, LEO Technology 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/ MLP2/RSRM65 VAB Bay 3 STS-90 MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'