Jonathan's Space Report No. 369 1998 Aug 22 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web site updates ---------------- I've updated my edited version of the United Nations Registry of Space Objects, at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/un/un.html Member states of the UN are required to register space objects owned by them; the accuracy and completeness of the information provided is pretty spotty. The United States remains the state with the most errors and omissions in its submissions; Mexico, Germany, Australia, and Brazil are grossly overdue in updating their registrations. The US should be registering INTELSAT's satellites, but does not; the United Kingdom should be registering INMARSAT's satellites, but does not. Since 1991, when the US last failed to register one of its classified satellites, there is no evidence of any state deliberately failing to register a satellite to avoid detection - the omissions seem to be due to sloppiness. I've also updated the geostationary log at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/geo.html including the addition of manufacturer's names and serial numbers for Russian/Soviet geostationary satellites, as revealed in Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine. The full satellite catalog at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/satcat has also been updated and extensively revised. Shuttle and Mir --------------- Soyuz TM-28 was launched at 0943:10 UTC on Aug 13. The spacecraft, production vehicle 7K-STM 11F732 No. 77, is built by RKK Energiya and consists of a service module (priborno-agregatniy otsek), a descent module (spuskaemiy apparat) and a hab module (bitovoy otsek). Crew on this flight are air force officer Gennadiy Padalka, EO-26 crew commander; RKK Energiya engineer Sergey Avdeev, flight engineer; and cosmonaut-researcher Yuriy Baturin, who is the former head of the Russian Federation Defence Council. Soyuz TM-28 docked at 1056 UTC on Aug 15 with the rear (Kvant) port of the Mir space station, which was vacated at 0928UTC on Aug 12 by the Progress M-39 cargo ship. The EO-25 crew, Musabaev and Budarin, will land with Baturin on Aug 25, leaving the EO-26 crew of Padalka and Avdeev on the station. Recent Launches --------------- It now appears that the advanced VORTEX-type satellites like the one lost in the Titan 4A-20 explosion on Aug 12 are probably called MERCURY, as suggested in COUNTDOWN magazine for Jan 1995. However, these code names are usually changed as soon as they become public. The rumours that the satellite was built by Hughes turn out to be pretty weak; TRW or Lockheed Martin are more likely contractors. The communications intelligence program has been operated since its first launch in 1968 by the USAF program within the National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the National Security Agency. A first generation series, CANYON, was based on the Agena vehicle. A later improvement in 1972 had a heavier but similar payload which separated from the Agena. This was followed by the more advanced CHALET (renamed VORTEX when the name CHALET appeared in the New York Times) and then by the new satellites probably called MERCURY. I have reconstructed the launch history based on unclassified documents and media reports: Flight Codename Launch date Launch vehicle No at launch --- First generation, Agena attached --- 1 CANYON 1968 Aug 6 Atlas Agena D 2 CANYON 1969 Apr 13 Atlas Agena D 3 CANYON 1970 Sep 1 Atlas Agena D 4 CANYON 1971 Dec 4 Atlas Agena D (failed to orbit) --- Improved version, Agena separated --- 5 CANYON 1972 Dec 20 Atlas Agena D 6 CANYON 1975 Jun 18 Atlas Agena D 7 CANYON 1977 May 23 Atlas Agena D --- Second generation, Titan launch --- 8 CHALET 1978 Jun 10 Titan 3C 9 VORTEX 1979 Oct 1 Titan 3C 10 VORTEX 1981 Oct 31 Titan 3C 11 VORTEX 1984 Jan 31 Titan 34D/Transtage 12 VORTEX 1988 Sep 2 Titan 34D/Transtage (upper stage failed) 13 VORTEX 1989 May 10 Titan 34D/Transtage --- Third generation --- 14 MERCURY 1994 Aug 27 Titan 4A/Centaur 15 MERCURY 1996 Apr 24 Titan 4A/Centaur 16 MERCURY 1998 Aug 12 Titan 4A/Centaur (failed to orbit) Aviation Week reported that there were 15 payloads in the program launched since the late 1970s, which is almost certainly wrong. They also imply that the latest satellite is `the same' payload as the earlier ones, but the larger Titan 4 payload shroud makes it almost certain that the antenna is significantly larger than the CHALET/VORTEX series, even if the basic satellite bus is the same. In addition to the CANYON/CHALET/VORTEX/MERCURY program used for communications intelligence, there was another geostationary signals intelligence program led by the CIA program within the NRO. The Aviation Week article suggests that those satellites are now called ORION, but that name was `outed' some years ago and has probably been changed by now; just as the MERCURY was referred to by analysts as `Advanced VORTEX' when its true name was unknown, the latest satellites are probably best referred to as `Advanced ORION' until their true codename is leaked. Launch history of the CIA-originated geostationary sigint program (now integrated with the rest of the NRO SIGINT series) is as follows: --- First generation --- 1 RHYOLITE 1970 Jun 19 Atlas Agena D 2 RHYOLITE 1973 Mar 6 Atlas Agena D 3 AQUACADE 1977 Dec 11 Atlas Agena D 4 AQUACADE 1978 Apr 8 Atlas Agena D --- Second generation --- 5 MAGNUM 1985 Jan 25 Shuttle/IUS 6 ORION 1989 Nov 23 Shuttle/IUS --- Third generation? --- 7 ORION? 1995 May 14 Titan 4A/Centaur 8 ORION? 1998 May 9 Titan 4B/Centaur The early satellites in this series were built by TRW, and the early ones were compromised by spies in the mid-1970s. I don't know who builds the ORION craft, but it may well still be TRW. Meanwhile, salvage work on the Titan wreckage continues at the Cape, but there's no word yet on the reason for the failure. Another attempt to redock the Hikoboshi and Orihime satellites was unsuccessful on Aug 13. Further attempts will be made, while for the time being the two Japanese test satellites remain a few kilometers apart. Two more Iridium cellphone satellites were launched on Aug 19 from Taiyuan in China. The CZ-2C two-stage launch vehicle placed the Smart Dispenser bus in elliptical transfer orbit; the SD then fired to circularize the orbit, deployed the satellites, and fired again to lower its perigee and ensure rapid reentry. The new satellites, placed in plane 2, include satellite production number 3, which was kept as a ground test article until now. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jul 1 0048 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 40A Jul 3 1812 Nozomi M-5 Kagoshima Mars probe 41A Jul 7 0315 Tubsat-N ) Shtil'-1 K-407,Barents Comsat 42A Tubsat-N1 ) Comsat 42B Jul 10 0630 Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Rem. Sens. 43A Fasat-Bravo ) Exptl. 43B TMSAT ) Exptl. 43C Gurwin Techsat 1B) Exptl. 43D WESTPAC ) Geodesy 43E SAFIR-2 ) Comsat 43F Jul 18 0920 Sinosat CZ-3B Xichang LC2 Comsat 44A Jul 28 0915 Kosmos-2360 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Sigint 45A Aug 2 1624 Orbcomm FM13 ) Pegasus XL Wallops Comsat 46A Orbcomm FM14 ) Comsat 46B Orbcomm FM15 ) Comsat 46C Orbcomm FM16 ) Comsat 46D Orbcomm FM17 ) Comsat 46E Orbcomm FM18 ) Comsat 46F Orbcomm FM19 ) Comsat 46G Orbcomm FM20 ) Comsat 46H Aug 12 1130 MERCURY Titan 4A Canaveral SLC41 Sigint FTO Aug 13 0943 Soyuz TM-28 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 47A Aug 19 2301 Iridium SV03) CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 48A Iridium SV76) Comsat 48B Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Jan 21? OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-95 Oct 29 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Dec 3? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'