Jonathan's Space Report No. 370 1998 Aug 30 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Soyuz TM-27 undocked from Mir at 0205 UTC on Aug 25, with Talgat Musabaev, Nikolai Budarin and Yuriy Baturin aboard. They landed on Aug 25 at 0523 UTC near Arkalyk in Kazakstan. Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev remain on the Mir complex. Padalka and Avdeev boarded Soyuz TM-28 on Aug 27 and undocked from the Kvant port on the Mir complex, redocking at 0607 UTC at the front (-X) port of the PKhO transfer module. This leaves the Kvant port free for redocking of the Progress M-39 cargo ship, which undocked earlier in the month to free up a parking space. Recent Launches --------------- The first Delta III launch vehicle was lost 75 seconds into flight, 16 km above Cape Canaveral, on Aug 27. Boeing Expendable Launch Systems (formerly McDonnell Douglas) builds the Delta III at Huntington Beach, California with final assembly in Pueblo, Colorado. The standard Delta II model is widely regarded as one of the world's most reliable launch vehicles. While I expect that the Delta team will recover from this failure and eventually bring the new rocket up to the same standard, the loss of the initial vehicle is certainly a major blow for Boeing and for the US space launch industry; although it represents less money than the recent Titan failure, it will probably have a wider impact. The Delta III consists of: - Nine Alliant GEM-46 solid strapon motors, a scaled up version of the GEM-40 motors used on the Delta II 7925. The graphite-epoxy case motors use HTPB solid propellant. The motors are built in Alliant's Bacchus, Utah factory; Alliant was formerly known as Hercules Powder and built the upper stage for the first Delta back in 1960. Three of the GEM-46 motors have thrust vector control (TVC), in which movable nozzles are used to steer the rocket. - The Delta III First Stage, similar to the Delta II first stage, but with the fuel tank at the top reshaped to fit with the wider upper stage. It uses the same LOX/kerosene RS-27A main engine as the Delta II. - The Delta III Second Stage. This is an entirely new stage, and the first entirely new high energy upper stage developed in the US since the 1960s. It uses a Pratt and Whitney LOX/liquid hydrogen RL10B-2 engine with a long extensible nozzle built by SEP of France. The RL10B-2, with a world record specific impulse of over 462 seconds, is a new version of the venerable RL10 engine used in the Lockheed Martin Astronautics Centaur, the other US high energy upper stage. The liquid hydrogen tank for the Delta III second stage is build by Mitsubishi of Japan, which also builds the liquid hydrogen stage of the Japanese H-II rocket. The Delta III second stage is 4.0m in diameter, much larger than the Delta II stage which still uses tankage derived in part from the 1960-vintage Ablestar. However, the appearance of the new stage, with the narrower LOX tank held inside an interstage and the large nozzle assembly, is still reminiscent of the traditional Delta stage. - The 4.0 meter fairing, much larger than the old 10-foot Delta II fairing. Boeing also builds the large Titan IV fairings, so has lots of experience in this field. Delta III has about twice the launch capacity of the Delta II. The launch profile involves igniting the RS-27A main engine and six of the GEM-46 solids at launch. At 80 seconds into flight the six solids separate and the remaining three GEM-46 solids ignite. Initially it appeared that the failure happened at exactly this time, raising the possibility that Alliant's new GEM-46 graphite-epoxy case motors were implicated in the failure. However, latest info is that pitch and yaw control gave problems as early as 50 seconds into flight, the hydraulic fluid ran out on the three GEM-46 with TVC steering, the vehicle disintegrated around 72 seconds and its self-destruct signal fired. Range safety sent its own destruct signal at 75 seconds for good measure. The accident investigation now focusses on the rocket's guidance. The planned launch profile included a first burn of the second stage engine from T+4min to T+13 min, leaving Delta in a 157 x 1176 km parking orbit. After a 9 minute coast, the stage would burn again to enter a 185 x 35719 km x 27.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit, separating from the Galaxy 10 satellite payload. Galaxy 10, the payload destroyed in this launch, was a Hughes HS-601HP satellite built by Hughes/El Segundo for Panamsat. The satellite carried 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders to provide US/Caribbean coverage, and was to have replaced the aging SBS-5 satellite at 123 deg West. Launch mass of Galaxy 10 was 3876 kg; I haven't been able to find its dry mass. Replenishing the Galaxy/PAS constellation is a high priority for Panamsat following the loss of Galaxy 4 and problems with Galaxy 7. Galaxy 11 is scheduled to go up on the first launch of another rocket, the Sea Launch Zenit-3SL, early next year, and there are several PAS satellites awaiting launch over the next year on Proton and Ariane. Arianespace is back in action, after several months downtime when their customers were late getting payloads ready. An Ariane 44P launched the Singapore-Taiwan-1 (ST-1) satellite on Aug 25. The Matra Marconi Space Eurostar 2000 class satellite will provide communications for Singapore Telecom and for Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan. On Aug 29, ST-1 was in a 24937 x 35735 km x 0.3 deg orbit, using its liquid apogee motor to approach geostationary orbit. Another International Launch Services commercial Proton, serial 383-01, took off from Baykonur on Aug 30. It placed the Astra 2A satellite in a 220 x 36007 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit with the first burn of its Blok DM3 upper stage (a second burn is awaited at the time of writing). The Astra 2A satellite is another Hughes HS-601 comsat, and is owned by Societe Europeene de Satellites, based in Luxembourg. Luxembourg has not registered any of the Astra satellites with the United Nations, in violation of treaty requirements. 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 F02 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 Aug 25 2307 ST-1 Ariane 44P Kourou Comsat 49A Aug 27 0117 Galaxy X Delta III Canaveral SLC17B Comsat F03 Aug 30 0031 Astra 2A Proton Baykonur Comsat 50A 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'