Jonathan's Space Report No. 451 2001 Apr 28, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: apologies for technical difficulties which prevented the distribution of JSR 451 last week. This is an updated version. Shuttle and Station -------------------- The Expedition 2 crew of Usachev, Voss and Helms remain aboard the International Space Station. Progress M-44 undocked from Zvezda's aft port on Apr 16 at 0848 UTC and was deorbited at 1323 UTC over the Pacific. Soyuz TM-31 undocked from the Zarya nadir port Apr 18 at 1240 UTC and redocked with the Zvezda aft port at 1301 UTC, leaving clearance for the Raffaello MPLM module to dock at the Unity nadir during STS-100. (Don't be confused by the graphic on Houston's screen which as of Sunday still showed Soyuz docked to Zarya.) Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour was launched on mission STS-100 at 1840:42 UTC on Apr 19. It will carry out International Space Station Flight 6A which will continue the outfitting of the Station. The SSRMS robot arm is also called Canadarm-2; the first generation Canadarm (of which there were five) is used on the Orbiter itself. RMS 302 was lost with Challenger; RMS 201 seems to have been retired in 1995. This leaves three active RMS shared between four orbiters. Canadarm history --------------- Serial No. First Use Most recent use 201 Columbia STS-2 1981 Discovery STS-63 202 Columbia STS-80 1990s Atlantis STS-98 301 Discovery 41-D 1984 Discovery STS-102 302 Challenger 41-C 1984 Lost with Challenger 51-L 303 Atlantis STS-37 1991 Endeavour STS-100 SSRMS Destiny ISS 6A 2001 - Here is an improved estimate of what's in the STS-100 payload bay; corrections still welcome. Note that the MPLM mass given in the Shuttle press kit is the empty mass without any cargo loaded. The MPLM cargo is probably about 3400 kg. (thanks to Bill Harwood for info). STS-100 cargo: The JSR guess (revised) Est. Mass (kg) Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System 1800 and External Airlock 3 EMU spacesuits (S/N unknown) 360? Bay 3 Stbd: Adapter Beam with 180? DCSU switching unit Bay 5?: Spacelab Pallet 1400 with SSRMS (Space Station Remote 1800 Manipulator System) LDA UHF Antenna 56? Bay 6 Port?: Adapter Beam with IMAX Camera 238 Bay 8-12: Rafaello Module (MPLM-2) 4100 MPLM racks and cargo 3400? Sill: Canadarm RMS 303 410 ------ Total payload bay cargo 13744 kg Endeavour reached an 80 x 317 km orbit at 1849 UTC; at 1924 UTC the OMS engines fired to raise perigee. After a series of rendezvous burns, the spaceship docked with the PMA-2 port on the ISS at 1359 UTC on Apr 21. Launch mass of Endeavour was quoted in the press kit as 103504 kg but I calculate it was much larger, probably 115652 kg at ET separation and 114740 kg after the OMS-2 burn. Crew of STS-100 are Commander Kent Rominger (NASA), Pilot Jeff Ashby (NASA), and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield (Canadian Space Agency), John Phillips (NASA), Scott Parazynski (NASA), Umberto Guidoni (ESA), and Yuriy Lonchakov (RAKA). Hadfield and Parazynski made a spacewalk on Apr 22 to begin installation of the Canadarm-2. The airlock was depressurized at 1144 UTC; the hatch was probably opened around the same time. The astronauts went to battery power at 1145 UTC; the thermal cover was opened at 1152 UTC as Hadfield emerged to become the first Canadian spacewalker. After a successful spacewalk in which the UHF comm antenna was installed on Destiny and the SSRMS initial setup was completed, they returned to the airlock, closing the hatch at 1845 UTC and repressurizing 10 min later for a duration of 7h11m (depress/repress), 7h01m (hatch open/close) or 7h10m (NASA rule). Unlike the RMS, the SSRMS has a `hand' ("latching end effector" or LEE) at each end and can `walk' along the station from fixture to fixture. The two LEE's are LEE A and LEE B; LEE B was used to connect to the PDGF fixture on Destiny. It was unberthed from the SLP (Spacelab pallet) at 1114 UTC on Apr 23 and latched on to the PDGF at 1416 UTC. During the second spacewalk on Apr 24, it started getting power through the PDGF at 1455 UTC and Susan Helms aboard Destiny started to use the arm's LEE A to lift up the SLP from Destiny. The SLP was unberthed from the Lab Cradle Assembly at 1825 UTC. At 1458 UTC on Apr 23 the MPLM-2 Raffaello module was unberthed from Endeavour using the Shuttle's RMS and docked to the nadir port on Unit at 1600 UTC. Over the next few days, the cargo racks on the MPLM were transferred to Destiny. Raffaello was then unberthed from Unity at 2003 UTC on Apr 27 and reberthed in the rear of Endeavour's bay at 2059 UTC. The second spacewalk began with depressurization of the airlock at around 1232 UTC on Apr 24. The hatch was probably open around the same time, with the astronauts switching to battery power at 1234 UTC. They removed a temporary communications antenna from Unity, connected up power to the Canadarm-2, and moved the DCSU switching unit from a sidewall carrier on the port side of Endeavour's cargo bay to the ESP (External Stowage Platform) on Destiny, next to the PFCS (Pump Flow Control System) which was installed on the ESP on the previous mission. The astronauts returned to the airlock at 2000 UTC, closed the hatch at 2003 UTC, and repressurized the airlock at 2014 UTC, for a duration of 7h42m (depress/repress), 7h31m (hatch open/close) or 7h40m (NASA rule). Undocking of Endeavour has been delayed due to a series of computer problems on the Station. After three days, failures in the Station's command and control computers are still unresolved and only one of the three computers is up and running. The SLP remains attached to SSRMS LEE A; it is still hoped to return it to the cargo bay before Endeavour leaves. Soyuz spacecraft 7K-STM No. 206 was launched from Baykonur on Apr 28 and became Soyuz TM-32. The `taxi' mission is ISS flight 2S according to NASA, and flight EP-1 (Visting Crew 1) according to Energiya. The EP-1 crew deliver spacecraft 206 to Station and return in the old spacecraft 205 which has been at the Station since November, making sure the long-stay crew have a Soyuz on hand which isn't past its sell-by date. The crew are Talgat Musabaev (Komandir, commander), Yuriy Baturin (Bortinzhener, flight engineer) and Dennis Tito (Uchastnik poleta, flight participant). Musabaev, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, was originally selected as a Kazakh cosmonaut but is now a member of the Russian astronaut corps; Baturin first flew as an adviser to former president Yeltsin and is now also a regular member of the corps. Dennis Tito is a business executive from Los Angeles who is flying as a tourist. Soyuz TM-32 will dock with the Zarya nadir port on the Station; this is near to the current position of Endeavour's tail and NASA wants to make sure the Orbiter is undocked before Soyuz arrives. The first non-governmental paying customer to orbit was McDonnell Douglas' Charles Walker, who operated commercial experiments on the Space Shuttle in 1984. (The list below excludes the arguable case of Prince Al-Saud of Arabsat in 1985, since I'm considering Arabsat to be a Saudi goverment agency). Commercial and Tourist Astronauts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charles Walker STS 41-D Discovery 1984 Aug McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Corp. (MDAC) Charles Walker STS 51-D Discovery 1985 Apr MDAC Charles Walker STS 61-B Atlantis 1985 Nov MDAC Robert Cenker STS 61-C Columbia 1986 Jan RCA Astro-Electronics Corp Toyohiro Akiyama TBS Soyuz TM-11 1990 Dec Tokyo Broadcasting System Helen Sharman Juno Soyuz TM-12 1991 May Project Juno Dennis Tito ISS EP-1 Soyuz TM-32 2001 Apr Space flight participant Other Passengers Jake Garn STS 51-D Discovery 1985 Apr US Senate (R-Utah) Bill Nelson STS 61-C Columbia 1986 Jan US House of Reps. (D-Fla.) Christa McAuliffe STS 51-L Challenger 1986 Jan Teacher-In-Space (launch failed to reach space) Yuriy Baturin Mir EO-26 Soyuz TM-28 1998 Aug Russian Federation John Glenn STS-95 Discovery 1998 Oct US Senate (D-Ohio) Recent Launches --------------- India's first GSLV launch was carried out successfully on Apr 18 from the Sriharikota range. The GSLV (Geostationary Launch Vehicle) is a derivative of ISRO's earlier PSLV. It uses the solid first stage and storable propellant second stage (with an Ariane-derived Vikas engine) from PSLV. The four liquid strapons are a new design, derived from the second stage and using the Vikas engine. The third stage was supplied by Russia, and is the first Russian liquid hydrogen cryogenic upper stage to fly (the Energiya core stage also used LH2). The Isaev KVD-1M (11D56M) engine has a thrust of 74 kN. The Krunichev 12KRB upper stage is 8.7m long, 2.8m diameter. The rocket underperformed slightly leaving the 1500 kg GSAT-1 experimental communications satellite in a 166 x 31977 km x 19.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit. GSAT-1 has a 440N ISRO liquid apogee motor, and S-band and C-band communications transponders; it is similar to the Insat 2 satellites. By Apr 26 it was in a 33804 x 35738 km x 1.0 deg near-geosynchronous orbit. More fuel than planned was using during the orbit raising, and GSAT-1 was unable to reach its final planned stationary position. 2001 Mars Odyssey is in a 0.982 x 1.384 AU x 3.05 deg solar orbit. It escaped Earth's nominal gravitational sphere of influence at around 1900 UTC on Apr 10 and will enter Mars orbit on Oct 24. Space Command has cataloged the expected three objects from the Ekran launch. 2001-13B is the Briz-M torus tank, and 2001-13C is the Briz-M itself in synchronous orbit. 2001-13A, the Ekran, was expected to reach its 99E location on around Apr 24. The Russian Ministry of Defense's Kosmos-2372 spy satellite reentered on Apr 20 after a 7 month mission. Not-so-recent launches ---------------------- On 1961 Apr 12 the spacecraft Vostok-3A No. 3 was launched from the 5 NIIP test range carrying pilot-astronaut of the Soviet Union, Major of the Soviet Military Air Forces Yuriy Alexeevich Gagarin. At around 0613 UTC the 8K72K launch vehicle passed the 80 km point (which I use as the boundary of space) and at 0618 UTC the Blok-E third stage shut down and separated leaving the Vostok spaceship in orbit. After one orbit, the spaceship landed near Saratov at 0747 UTC. The pilot ejected at around 0743 UTC and landed nearby by parachute a few minutes later. Thanks to the MIT crew who organized the Yuri's Night 40th anniversary celebrations here in Boston and congratulations to all those around the world who celebrated with us. 2001 Apr 12 also marked the 20th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle flight by John Young and Bob Crippen aboard OV-102 Columbia. Erratum ------- Looks like I goofed on the Proton-M launch time last issue: the reported launch time was 0747 Moscow Time, but apparently this was summer time and not standard time, and so corresponds to 0347 UTC not 0447 UTC. All the times reported for the mission in JSR 450 should be amended accordingly. The Ekran has been redesignated 2001-13A by Space Command. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 8 1142 Discovery (STS-102) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 10A Leonardo Module Mar 8 2251 Eurobird ) Ariane 5G Kourou ELA3 Commsat 11A BSAT-2a ) Commsat 11B Mar 18 2233 XM-2 Rock Zenit-3SL Odyssey,Pacific Commsat 12A Apr 7 0347 Ekran-M No. 18 Proton-M Baykonur LC81/24 Commsat 13A Apr 7 1502 2001 Mars Odyssey Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 14A Apr 18 1013 GSAT-1 GSLV Sriharikota Commsat 15A Apr 19 1840 Endeavour ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 16A Raffaello ) Module Canadarm-2 ) Apr 28 0737 Soyuz TM-32 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 17A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-109 2001 Nov 19 HST SM-3B OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-105 2001 Jul 12 ISS 7A.1 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-104 2001 Jun 7 ISS 7A OV-105 Endeavour ISS STS-100 2001 Apr 19 ISS 6A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'