Jonathan's Space Report No. 359 1998 May 11 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've updated the geostationary satellite log at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/geo.html Shuttle and Mir --------------- The next Shuttle mission is STS-91; orbiter OV-103 Discovery will dock with Mir to pick up Andrew Thomas, the final NASA resident on the station, and allow an inspection visit by Russian Shuttle-Mir program director Valeriy Ryumin. Recent Launches --------------- The Hughes HGS-1 satellite made its final translunar injection burn at 0042 UTC on May 8. It is now on a free-return trajectory to the Moon with an apogee of 413600 km, and will pass 8000 km from the Moon on May 13. Meanwhile, Hughes Global Services has moved the Leasat 5 satellite to 156E for use by the Australian Defence Force. The Hughes HS-381 Leasat satellites, which originally provided UHF services for the US Navy, have been replaced by satellites in the HS-601 class UHF Follow-On series. An 8K78M launch vehicle (built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara) with a 2BL fourth stage was launched from Plesetsk on May 7. It placed an Oko-class Russian military early warning satellite in elliptical twelve-hour orbit. The satellite, built by NPO Lavochkin of Moscow, was given the cover name Kosmos-2351 after launch. A Krunichev Proton-K launch vehicle placed the Echostar 4 satellite in a 213 x 35703 km x 48.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit on May 7. It appears that contrary to reports no second burn of the Blok DM3 stage was intended. The satellite separated from the stage near apogee, 6h 40m into the flight. On May 11, Echostar 4 was in a 12263 x 35747 km x 10.6 deg orbit after a burn of its Leros liquid apogee engine. Echostar 4 is an A2100AX class comsat built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale for Echostar Comms. Corp. of Littleton, Colorado. Launch services were provided by International Launch Services (the Lockheed/Krunichev/Energiya joint venture). A classified NRO satellite was launched on May 9 from Cape Canaveral, probably to geostationary orbit. The Lockheed Martin Astronautics Titan 4B rocket (serial B-25) has two SRMU solid boosters and a two-stage Titan liquid rocket core (serial K-25). The second stage delivered Centaur TC-18 and the payload to a suborbital trajectory. The TC-18 liquid hydrogen-fuelled upper stage made three rocket burns to deliver the satellite to geostationary orbit. The satellite is believed to be a follow-on to the ORION signals intelligence satellite. The first ORION follow-on was launched in May 1995. The correct flight model numbers of the recently launched Globalstar satellites are FM-6,8,14 and 15. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 2 0242 TRACE Pegasus XL Vandenberg Solar obs. 20A Apr 7 0213 Iridium 62 Proton-K Baykonur Comsat 21A Iridium 63 Comsat 21B Iridium 64 Comsat 21C Iridium 65 Comsat 21D Iridium 66 Comsat 21E Iridium 67 Comsat 21F Iridium 68 Comsat 21G Apr 17 1819 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 22A Neurolab ) Apr 24 2238 Globalstar FM6) Delta 7420 Canaveral LC17 Comsat 23A Globalstar FM8) 23B Globalstar FM14) 23C Globalstar FM15) 23D Apr 28 2253 Nilesat 1 ) Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 24A BSAT 1B ) Comsat 24B Apr 29 0437 Kosmos-2350 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat? 25A May 2 0916 Iridium 69 CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 26A Iridium 71 Comsat 26B May 7 0853 Kosmos-2351 Molniya-M Plesetsk Early Warn 27A May 7 2345 Echostar 4 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat 28A May 9 0138 USA 139 Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Sigint 29A? Current Shuttle Processing Status __________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Dec 3 OV-103 Discovery LC39A STS-91 Jun 2 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 ? MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A STS-91 MLP2/ 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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'