Jonathan's Space Report No. 375 1998 Oct 12 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, with orbiter OV-103 Discovery. For mission STS-95, Discovery's payload bay carries a Spacehab module and an assortment of research experiments managed by NASA-Goddard (GSFC). Bay Sill RMS Arm 202 with ACVS Bay 1-2 External Airlock Bay 3-4 Tunnel Adapter 001 Bay 5-7 Spacehab Single Module (FU1) Bay 8S GABA with CRYOTSU Bay 10 SFSS with Spartan 201 Bay 11 UASE with HOST Bay 12 MPESS HH-M with IEH-3 and PANSAT Bay 13S APC? with IVHM Bay 13P GABA with G-467 and G-779 The external airlock (EAL) is installed in Discovery for use in Space Station docking missions, but the ODS docking system is not installed on this flight. The Tunnel Adapter has a hatch in case an emergency spacewalk is needed, and provides a pressurized tunnel connecting the EAL to the Spacehab module. The Spacehab module is flight unit 1, which has flown on 3 previous missions (SH-01/STS-57, SH-03/STS-63, SH-04/STS-77). On this flight it contains microgravity experiments, including the Microgravity Glovebox, the PCAM and APCF protein crystal growth units, the STES vapor diffusion unit, the ASP advanced separation facility, and the BioDyn commercial bioreactor. DSO 630 includes equipment to monitor John Glenn's heart rate. ACVS is the Autotrack Computer Vision System, a new camera system mounted on the RMS manipulator arm. CRYOTSU consists of an HH-G avionics box and a GAS canister mounted on a GABA (GAS Beam Adapter) on the payload bay wall. The joint USAF/GSFC experiment tests new thermal control technology. The SFSS (Spartan Flight Support Structure) is an MPESS bridge across the payload bay. It carries two canisters: SEM-4 which is full of high school experiments, and VGS (Video Guidance System) which includes a camera and laser for rendezvous experiments. Mounted on the SFSS is the Spartan-201 satellite which will be deployed and then retrieved by the RMS arm. Spartan-201 is on its fifth flight, a repeat of the fourth mission to support SOHO calibration. The fourth mission failed when the crew did not activate the satellite correctly. Spartan-201's main payload, as on all its flights, is the UVCS and WLC telescope package containing the SAO/Cambridge ultraviolet spectrometer and the HAO/Boulder white light coronagraph. On this mission, secondary experiments include the target for the VGS laser, and sample plates to trap beryllium ions from the solar wind. Behind SFSS in the bay is the UASE, UARS Airborne Support Equipment, a carrier first used to deploy the UARS satellite in 1991. It has been refurbished to carry the HOST (Hubble Orbital Systems Test) experiments. HOST includes the NICMOS infrared camera's new cooling system, an advanced computer and a solid state recorder; the systems are being tested in orbit before being installed on the Hubble Space Telescope on a servicing mission in 2000. The last major payload in the bay is the HH-M carrier, another MPESS bridge, configured to carry the IEH-3 International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker mission. IEH-3 carries the UVSTAR, STAR-LITE, SEH and SOLCON astronomical telescopes and the G-764 canister with an experiment to simulate accretion of interplanetary dust. It also carries the PANSAT canister which will eject a small satellite (PANSAT = Petite Amateur Navy Satellite) developed by the US Navy Postgraduate School. PANSAT is a 57 kg, 0.48m diameter UHF store-forward comsat. It appears similar to the GLOMR/SECS satellites launched in 1985 and 1990. Some documents indicate that canister G-238, a high school experiment to study cockroaches in space (I'm serious!) is also on IEH-3, while others list a materials processing experiment called CONCAP-IV. One payload probably bumped the other at a late date, but I'm not sure which one is current. At the rear of the bay, another GABA adapter carries two GAS canisters. G-467 carries the European Space Agency's TPX II thermal control system experiment, while G-779 carries Bellarmine College's 'Hearts in Space' experiment, with an artificial heart and circulation system to study changes in heart size in microgravity. On the opposite site of the bay, an IVHM (Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring) sensor is mounted. Editorial --------- I've added a new `work in progress' web page giving details of the French national space program, including previously unpublished information on the French sounding rocket program courtesy of CNES/Toulouse. Comments and corrections, as always, welcome. http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/nbook/programs/europe/cnes/ Errata ------- A couple of launches got missed from my new launch log because they were rockets with no payloads aboard (e.g. early Centaur test flights). I've updated the launchlog.txt file to fix these and some other minor errors. The Ariane V111 launch was a 44L model, with four PAL liquid strapons, and not a 44LP as I said last issue. The Ariane 44L is the most powerful version of Ariane 4. There have been 10 flights of the 44L with the improved H-10-3 upper stage, listed below: 1995 Dec 6 V81 Insat 2C/Telecom 2C 1996 Jan 12 V82 Measat 1/PAS 3R 1996 May 16 V86 Palapa C2/Amos 1 1996 Jul 9 V89 Turksat 1C/Arab. 2A 1996 Aug 8 V90 Italsat 2/Telecom 2D 1996 Nov 13 V92 Arab. 2B/Measat 2 1997 Jan 30 V93 Nahuel 1A/GE-2 1997 Jun 3 V97 Inmarsat 3/Insat 2D 1997 Nov 12 V102 Sirius 2/Cakrawarta 1998 Oct 5 V111 Eutelsat W2/Sirius 3 The (French) spelling of the home region of the CSG launch site is Guyane, not Guiane. The line in the list of launch sites should have read CSG Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, Guyane, France 05 14N 52 47W where the revised position is that of the ELA2 pad. Recent Launches --------------- In a launch provided by International Launch Services, a Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas IIA, serial AC-134, placed the Eutelsat Hot Bird 5 satellite in orbit on Oct 9. The second comsat launch for Eutelsat in a few days, Hot Bird 5 is a Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+. It provides high power broadcasting to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Launch mass of the satellite was 3000 kg. The Atlas IIA took off from Space Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral, and the Atlas booster and sustainer delivered the Centaur IIA stage onto a suborbital trajectory. The Centaur first burn placed the vehicle in a low parking orbit, probably about 170 km, and the second burn raised apogee to geostationary altitude. After separation from Hot Bird, the Centaur made a final burn to deplete its propellant and prevent a later explosion. Hot Bird 5 will use its Marquardt R-4D liquid apogee engine to reach geostationary orbit, where it will replace Eutelsat II F-1. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 8 2113 Iridium SV77) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 51E Iridium SV79) Comsat 51D Iridium SV80) Comsat 51C Iridium SV81) Comsat 51B Iridium SV82) Comsat 51A Sep 9 2029 Globalstar FM5 ) Zenit-2 Baykonur Comsat F05 Globalstar FM7 ) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM9 ) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM10) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM11) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM12) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM13) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM16) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM17) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM18) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM20) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM21) Comsat F05 Sep 16 0631 PAS 7 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 52A Sep 23 0506 Orbcomm FM21 ) Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I Comsat 53A Orbcomm FM22 ) Comsat 53B Orbcomm FM23 ) Comsat 53C Orbcomm FM24 ) Comsat 53D Orbcomm FM25 ) Comsat 53E Orbcomm FM26 ) Comsat 53F Orbcomm FM27 ) Comsat 53G Orbcomm FM28 ) Comsat 53H Sep 28 2341 Molniya-1T? Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 54A Oct 3 1004 STEX ) ARPA Taurus Vandenberg 576E Technol. 55A ATEX ) Oct 5 2251 Eutelsat W2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 56A Sirius 3 ) Comsat 56B Oct 9 2250 Hot Bird 5 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 57A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-95 Oct 29 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 ? OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Dec 3 MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103 LC39B STS-95 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'