Jonathan's Space Report No. 402 1999 Jul 4 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've updated the launch logs on my web site again. STS-93/Chandra --------------- 16 days to launch... Chandra is now in Columbia's payload bay at pad 39B. The operations control center in Cambridge is buzzing with simulations and rehearsals. It looks like I'll be at KSC for a few days starting Jul 18, if all goes well. Any readers in that area who'd like to meet up, send me email or meet me around 5:30pm Jul 19 in the lobby of the Cocoa Hilton. Recent Launches --------------- The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) was launched on Jun 24. A Boeing Delta 7320 launch vehicle with a 3-m payload fairing was used to place FUSE in a 754 x 769 km x 25.0 deg orbit. The Delta second stage then made a depletion burn and was left in a 182 x 915 km x 19.1 deg orbit. FUSE carries four 0.35m far ultraviolet telescopes each with an ultraviolet high resolution spectrograph. The detectors cover the far ultraviolet band from the hydrogen ionization edge at 912A (Angstrom) to 1187A, just short of the Lyman alpha line at 1215A. For comparison, Hubble starts operating just longward of this wavelength. The far UV spectra will measure the abundance of deuterium in the universe, as well as study helium absorption in the intergalactic medium, hot gas in the galactic halo traced by lines like Oxygen VI at 1034A, and cold gas in molecular clouds from molecular hydrogen lines. Checkout of FUSE in orbit was proceeding well as of July 1. The Cassini probe flew past Venus on Jun 24 at a distance of 600 km. Meanwhile, the inactive European Giotto probe skimmed past Earth on Jul 1 at a distance of 200000 km. Giotto's been in hibernation since its encounter with comet Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992. Also on Jul 1, Galileo flew past Callisto again. 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 ) 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 Jun 24 1544 FUSE Delta 7320-10 Canaveral SLC17A Astronomy 35A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-93 Jul 20 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-103 Oct 14 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 Dec 2 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'