Jonathan's Space Report No. 410 1999 Oct 28 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent Launches --------------- Boeing Sea Launch made its second successful Zenit-3SL flight from the Odyssey launch platform in the Pacific Ocean at 154W 0N. This was the first flight to carry a commercial payload, the Hughes DirecTV 1R. The HS-601 satellite used its R-4D apogee engine to enter geostationary orbit and is now in a 35742 x 35830 km x 0.0 deg orbit over 81.6W. China launched two Brazilian satellites, CBERS 1 and SACI 1 on Oct 14. Zi Yuan 1 (CBERS 1) is the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite. I believe CBERS 1 was actually built by CAST/Beijing, with INPE/Brasil taking the lead for CBERS 2. Mass is 1450 kg. The satellite is in a 732 x 745 km x 98.6 deg sun-synchronous orbit and is controlled from both Chinese and Brazilian ground stations. This was the second launch of the Shanghai group's CZ-4B rocket, which has an improved third stage and larger fairing compared to the earlier CZ-4A. SACI-1 is INPE's 60 kg experimental scientific satellite. It carries a magnetometer, particle detectors and an atmospheric experiment. INPE reportedly lost contact with the satellite in mid-October and its current status is unknown. Four more Globalstar satellites were launched on Oct 18. The Soyuz-U rocket placed the Ikar stage and the dispenser with satellites in elliptical transfer orbit. Ikar made a burn at apogee and the satellites were released; a second Ikar burn, with the dispenser still attached, was meant to deorbit the stage a day later, but Space Command data showed it in orbit on Oct 20. Thanks to Aleksandr Zheleznyakov for the correct launch time. Globalstar has now begun limited service with its satellite telephone system. Loral Orion's Orion 2 satellite was launched on Oct 19 by Ariane 44LP. Arianespace's fourth launch in a little over two months placed the FS-1300 class comsat in supersynchronous transfer orbit with a 60000 km apogee. The Orion satellites are used for international communications and complement the Telstar domestic series operated by Loral Skynet. The Resurs F-1M satellite was recovered on Oct 22 after completing its 3-week remote sensing mission. The Russian Ekspress-A1 communications satellite was launched on Oct 27 but the Proton-K launch vehicle failed early in flight, during second stage burn. This is the second failure of the 8K82K Proton-K this year. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 4 2234 Koreasat 3 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 46A Sep 6 1636 Yamal 101 ) Proton-K/DM Baykonur Comsat 47A Yamal 102 ) Comsat 47B Sep 9 1800 Foton 12 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Micrograv 48A Sep 22 1433 Globalstar 33) Soyuz-U/Ikar Baykonur LC1 Comsat 49A Globalstar 50) Comsat 49B Globalstar 55) Comsat 49C Globalstar 58) Comsat 49D Sep 23 0602 Echostar 5 Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 50A Sep 24 1821 Ikonos Athena-2 Vandenberg SLC6 Imaging 51A Sep 25 0629 Telstar 7 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 52A Sep 26 2230 LMI-1 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 53A Sep 28 1100? Resurs F-1M Soyuz-U Plesetsk Imaging 54A Oct 7 1251 Navstar SVN 46 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navsat 55A Oct 10 0328 DirecTV 1R Zenit-3SL Odyssey, POR Comsat 56A Oct 14 0315 Zi Yuan 1 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 57A SACI 1 ) Science 57B Oct 18 1322 Globalstar 31) Soyuz-Ikar Baykonur LC1 Comsat 58A Globalstar 56) Comsat 58B Globalstar 57) Comsat 58C Globalstar 59) Comsat 58D Oct 19 0622 Orion 2 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 59A Oct 27 1616 Ekspress-A1 Proton-K Baykonur Comsat F03 Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-103 1999 Dec OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 2000 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-99 2000 Jan MLP1/ MLP2/ MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET? VAB Bay 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'