Jonathan's Space Report No. 401 1999 Jun 22 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STS-93/Chandra --------------- One month to launch! (I assume it will not surprise readers if these newsletters become even more irregular than usual for a while... we're just a *little* busy here!) The STS-93 stack was rolled out to pad 39B on Jun 7. The Chandra/IUS-27 vehicle was placed in the payload canister on Jun 19. It was to be transferred to the pad on Jun 22, but problems with the pad service structure have delayed the transfer to Jun 24. Launch is still scheduled for Jul 20, but NASA Administrator Goldin has not yet approved the launch; he's waiting for the failure report on IUS-21 earlier this year. Recent Launches --------------- Four Globalstar satellites were launched by Boeing Delta 7420-10 on Jun 10. The two-stage Delta deployed the satellites in an intermediate orbit. The Globalstar satellites are built by Loral and Alenia, and will provide L-band mobile personal communications. As of Jun 22 the spacecraft were in 1410 km circular orbits at 52 deg inclination. On Jun 11, two Iridium satellites were launched from Taiyuan, China on a CALT Chang Zheng 2C with a Smart Dispenser upper stage. The satellites replaced the failed Iridium 14 and Iridium 21. The Iridium satellites are built by Motorola with a Lockheed Martin spacecraft bus; I don't know the production numbers of these satellites. A Krunichev/International Launch Services Proton-K took off from Baykonur on Jun 18 and placed in orbit an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage with the Astra 1H payload. The DM3 ignited to enter a 200x 35854 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit. A second DM3 burn six hours after launch was successful in placing Astra in a 7474 x 35842 km x 16.4 deg deployment orbit. Astra 1H is a Hughes HS-601HP satellite with 28 Ku-band transponders and two higher frequency Ka-band transponders to support Astra's Return Channel System for two-way bandwidth-on-demand services. The satellite carries a Marquardt R-4D liquid bipropellant apogee motor and a XIPS ion propulsion system for stationkeeping. The Astra satellites are owned by the Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES) and registered by Luxembourg. NASA's QuikScat satellite was launched on Jun 20. QuikScat, built by Ball under a rapid delivery contract, carries the SeaWinds scatterometer for remote sensing of ocean winds. QuikScat was launched on Titan 23G-7, a two-stage refurbished ICBM. Titan 23G-7 took off from Space Launch Complex 4-West at Vandenberg at 0215 UTC. The second stage burned from 0217 UTC to 0220 UTC. The second stage then coasted to apogee with QuikScat still attached. Some descriptions of the mission implied that the second stage would separate early and an apogee motor would be used to achieve orbit (the NASA press kit even includes a drawing of such a motor), but I believe this represents confusion with earlier Titan 23G missions such as Landsat. On this mission, the payload entered elliptical orbit at the end of the Titan second stage burn, and the Titan second stage vernier thrusters ignited at apogee to raise perigee, leaving QuikScat in a 280 x 813 km x 98.7 deg parking orbit. The QuikScat's own hydrazine propulsion system will then fire to raise the perigee further over a period of weeks. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. May 5 0100 Orion 3 Delta 8930 Canaveral SLC17B Comsat 24A May 10 0133 Feng Yun 1C ) CZ-4B Taiyuan Imaging 25A Shi Jian 5 ) Research 25B May 18 0509 TERRIERS ) Pegasus XL/H Vandenberg Space sci 26A MUBLCOM ) Comsat 26B May 20 2230 Nimiq 1 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 27A May 22 0936 USA 144? Titan 4 Vandenberg SLC4E Unknown 28A May 26 0622 OceanSat 1 ) PSLV Sriharikota Imaging 29A Kitsat-3 ) Imaging 29B DLR-Tubsat-C) Imaging 29C May 27 1049 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 30A Spacehab-DM ) Jun 5 0721 Starshine - OV-103, LEO Education 30B Jun 10 1348 Globalstar 52) Delta 7420-10 Canaveral SLC17B Comsat 31A Globalstar 49) 31B Globalstar 25) 31C Globalstar 47) 31D Jun 11 1715 Iridium 14A ) CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 32A Iridium 21A ) Comsat 32B Jun 18 0149 Astra 1H Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 33A Jun 20 0215 QuikScat Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing 34A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-93 Jul 20 OV-103 Discovery KSC RW15 STS-96 May 27 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 Oct 14 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-99 Sep 18 MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99/OV-102 LC39B STS-93 MLP2/ MLP3/RSRM-71? VAB Bay 3 STS-99 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'