Jonathan's Space Report No. 468 2001 Nov 28 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- The sojourn of Expedition 3 - Culbertson, Dezhurov, and Tyurin - is drawing to a close aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 4 crew of Yuriy Onufrikeno (Commander) and Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz (Flight Engineers) is preparing to ride to Station aboard Endeavour to replace them. The crew of mission STS-108 consists of Dom Gorie (Commander), Mark E. Kelley (Pilot), Linda Godwin and Dan Tani (Mission Specialists). STS-108 will fly the UF-1 Utilization Flight mission, distinguished from earlier Station flights which were considered assembly flights. In addition to the crew swap, UF-1 will bring supplies to the Station, and Godwin and Tani will do a spacewalk to add thermal blankets to the gimbals on the Station's solar arrays. In the cargo bay is the Raffaello (MPLM-2) logistics module with 4 RSP and 8 RSR resupply racks. Earlier, the MELFI freezer had been scheduled for this flight, but it isn't mentioned in the press kit. Also in the cargo bay are the MACH-1 and LMC experiment trusses flown under the Goddard small payloads program. MACH-1 is an MPESS-type Hitchhiker bridge carrying the CAPL-3 capillary thermal control experiment on top. On its forward side is the Starshine-2 launch canister, the CAPL-3 avionics plate, the Hitchhiker avionics plate, and the SEM-15 canister. On the aft side is the G-761 canister containing experiments from Argentina, the PSRD synchrotron detector (a prototype for the AMS antimatter experiment which will fly on Station later), the COLLIDE-2 and SEM-11 canisters. The SEM (Space Experiment Modules) are collections of high school experiments. LMC, the Lightweight MPESS Carrier (a nested acronym in the grand NASA tradition) is a new cargo bay bridge - it is actually LMC S/N 2, presumably S/N 1 was a ground test article - and carries four canisters with materials science and technology experiments: SEM-12, G-785, G-064 and G-730. In addition, an adapter beam on the starboard sidewall carries G-221 and G-775, with materials science and biology experiments. Jonathan's cargo manifest estimate: (Masses are wild guesses this time around) Mass/kg Bay 1-2 Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock 1800 3 EMU spacesuits? 360? Bay 3S Adapter beam with G-775/G-221 200? Bay 5 MACH-1 MPESS 2500? Starshine-2 39 Bay 7-12 MPLM FM2 (Raffaello) module 9000? Bay 13 LMC S/N 2 1000? Sill RMS arm No 303 410 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 15309? A Progress robot cargo supply ship was launched on Nov 26. The vehicle is Progress M1-7 (vehicle No. 256). Launch was by the uprated Soyuz-FG rocket (a Soyuz-U with improved core packet engines). The Progress M-45 undocked from Zvezda's rear port on Nov 22 and was deorbited over the Pacific later the same day. Progress M1-7 docked with Zvezda on Nov 28. However, following `soft dock' (initial capture), it appears that `hard dock' (firm latching) was not completed, raising fears that torques associated with next week's planned Shuttle docking could break the vehicle loose. The Russian Space Agency is continuing to evaluate the situation. Recent Launches --------------- The DirecTV-4S television broadcasting satellite was launched on Nov 27. The Arianespace Ariane 44LP put the Boeing 601HP satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite has a dry mass of 2100 kg and a launch mass of 4300 kg. DirecTV Inc. is currently owned by Hughes Electronics, but a takeover by Echostar is in the works. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 5 2120 USA 161 Titan 4B Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 44A Oct 6 1645 Raduga-1 Proton-K/DM2? Baykonur C telecom 45A Oct 11 0232 USA 162 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36B Data relay? 46A Oct 18 1851 QuickBird Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging 47A Oct 21 0859 Soyuz TM-33 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 48A Oct 22 0453 TES ) PSLV Sriharikota Imaging? 49A BIRD ) Imaging 49C PROBA ) Imaging/tech 49B Oct 25 1134 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/3 Comms 50A Nov 26 1824 Progress M1-7 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Cargo 51A Nov 27 0035 DirecTV 4S Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 TV broadcast 52A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-109 2002 Feb 14 HST SM-3B OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1? Maintenance OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2? STS-110 2002 Mar 21 ISS 8A OV-105 Endeavour LC39B STS-108 2001 Nov 29 ISS UF-1 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'