Jonathan's Space Report No. 492 2003 Jan 13, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial --------- Apologies for the non-appearance of JSR during the past month; I've been busy with other things but I now hope to resume normal irregular service. Shuttle and Station -------------------- At 2005 UTC on Dec 2 Endeavour undocked from the Station with the Expedition 5 crew aboard. Shortly afterwards, at 2205, the US Air Force MEPSI experiment was launched from a canister in the payload bay. MEPSI is pair of 1 kg picosatellites connected by a tether and is a prototype for a miniature inspector satellite. After several days of bad weather delays, Endeavour landed on KSC runway 33 at 1937:12 UTC on Dec 7. The next Shuttle launch is STS-107, a research mission using orbiter OV-102 Columbia. The mission was delayed from last year; here I repeat the payload details from JSR 483. Masses are guesswork. STS-107 payload bay manifest ---------------------------- Mass (kg) Bay 1 Tunnel Adapter 500? Bay 2-3 Tunnel 800? Bay 4-7 Spacehab RDM 8000? Bay 10 FREESTAR MPESS 2000? Keel 11 OARE 53 Bay 12-13 EDO pallet 3200? ------ Total 14553? The Spacehab Research Double Module is making its first flight. It carries a selection of microgravity experiments including the Combustion Module 2 racks, the Vapor Compression Distillation rack which is a prototype for a Station water recycling system, a centrifuge, a refrigerator/freezer, and three Animal Enclosure Modules carrying a total of 13 rats. Educational experiments include an ant colony, spiders, bees and Medaka fish. The RDM is pressurized and connected to the cabin by the Tunnel and the Tunnel Adapter (which has a hatch that could be used for emergency spacewalks). The FREESTAR (Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science Technology Applications and Research) is a Hitchhiker science payload managed by NASA-Goddard. FREESTAR uses an MPESS cross-bay bridge and is a followon to the USMP series. It carries the Critical Viscosity of Xenon experiment, as well as an ozone spectrometer, a detector to study solar radiation output, and an Israeli experiment with UV and IR cameras to study dust and aerosols in the atmosphere in the Mediterraean and the Sahara. An Israeli astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, will be flying on the mission. The OARE is an acceleration measuring package installed in the bottom of the payload bay. The EDO (Extended Duration Orbiter) pallet contains hydrogen and oxygen tanks used to generate electricity for the long duration mission. Recent Launches --------------- The Astra 1K satellite was deorbited on Dec 10 over the Pacific. The satellite had been stranded in low orbit after an upper stage failure. The first Ariane 5ECA launch, V517, ended in failure on Dec 11 when the first stage Vulcain 2 engine nozzle failed three minutes after launch because of a leak in the cooling system. The vehicle reached an apogee of about 140 km and then fell back towards the Atlantic, destroyed by range safety seven minutes after launch. The Ariane 5ECA uses slightly enhanced EAP solid boosters, a stretched EPC first stage with a new Vulcain 2 engine, and an entirely new ESC-A upper stage. The ESC-A is a derivative of the Ariane 4 upper stage but with the liquid hydrogen tank from the Ariane 5G first stage. It uses the HM7 engine. The payloads aboard the Ariane 5ECA were Stentor and Hot Bird 7. Hot Bird 7 was a 3300 kg Eurostar 2000+ satellite for Eutelsat with a Ka-band communications payload. Stentor was an experimental French communications technology satellite using the Alcatel Spacebus 3000 bus with Eurostar 3000 components. It carried an S400 liquid apogee engine as well as SEP and Fakel electric xenon thrusters; the communications payload included Ku-band and EHF transponders. Mass was 2210 kg. TDRS J was launched on Dec 5 by Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA flight AC-144. It became TDRS 10 on reaching operational orbit. The TDRS satellites provide data relay services for NASA; TDRS 10 is the last of three Boeing 601 class satellites which supersede the original TRW TDRS series. Mass is 1514 kg dry, 3189 full. The Japanese NASDA space agency's Midori-2 (ADEOS II) earth observing satellite was launched on Dec 14 from Tanegashima on an H-2A-202 with a type 5S fairing. This was the first sun-synchronous launch of the H-2A, which launched southbound and made a single burn of the second stage to reach an 804 x 806 km x 98.7 deg orbit. ADEOS-II carries a microwave radiometer, imagers, a sea wind speed sensor, and other remote sensing instruments. Secondary payloads ejected from the H-2A second stage were WEOS (Whale Earth Observing Satellite) for the Chiba Insitute of Technology, FedSat for Australia, and Mu-Lab-Sat for NASDA. WEOS relays data from transmitters attached to whales; the 58 kg Fedsat carries a magnetometer, a GPS navigation experiment, a UHF/Ka band communications experiment, and an experimental computer. The 54 kg Mu-Lab-Sat (Micro-Lab-Sat) tested the separation mechanism for the Selene moon probe subsatellites. Arianespace launched the penultimate Ariane 44L with the NSS-6 satellite for New Skies (the commercial Intelsat spinoff) on Dec 17. NSS-6 is a Lockheed Martin A2100AX with a launch mass of 4575 kg and a Ku and Ka band communications payload. The satellite reached geostationary orbit in late December. ISC Kosmotras launched a Dnepr rocket on Dec 20 from Baykonur. The Dnepr is a refurbished Yuzhnoe R-36M2 ballistic missile. The second stage of the Dnepr fell in the Pacific while the third stage reached orbit 11 min after launch and deployed six satellites. The main payload on this flight was an inert mockup of both the TransOrbital Trailblazer lunar probe payload and its attached solid motor, probably with a total mass of at least 200 kg and a size around 2m long. Five much smaller satellites were also carried, each with a mass of around 10 kg: the Saudisat 1C test satellite for King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology; the Latinsat-A and Latinsat-B communications relays for Aprize Argentina, a spinoff of Virginia-based Aprize Satellite and SpaceQuest; the Unisat-2 technology satellite from the University of Roma/La Sapienza, and the Rubin-2 technology satellite for OHB/Carlo Gavazzi Space. The satellites were placed in 630 x 670 km x 64.6 deg orbits, while the Dnepr third stage ended up in a 600 x 1004 km x 64.6 deg orbit. A US-KS Oko early warning satellite built by NPO Lavochkin was launched on Dec 24 by a TsSKB-Progress Molniya-M rocket with a BL upper stage. The satellite, named Kosmos-2393 after launch, is in a 545 x 39717 km x 62.8 deg orbit. Uragan-M satellites 791, 792 and 793 were launched on Dec 25 and named Kosmos-2394, 2395 and 2396. The satellites form part of the GLONASS navigation system. They were launched on a Krunichev Proton-K rocket with an Energiya Blok DM-2 upper stage, the first use of the DM series since the failure with Astra 1K. The Proton-K third stage and the DM upper adapter entered a 162 x 185 km x 64.9 deg orbit at 0748 UTC; they were not cataloged by Space Command and must have reentered rapidly. The DM stage fired at 0840 UTC to enter a 196 x 19137 km x 64.6 deg transfer orbit and then again at 1132 UTC to circularize the orbit at apogee. The three Uragan-M satellites separated between 1135 and 1211 UTC. Two SOZ ullage motors separated from the DM at the beginning of its second burn. The Uragan-M satellites are built by PO Polyot (Omsk). China launched Shenzhou 4 at 1640 UTC on Dec 29. This is the fourth automated test flight of the Soyuz-like Shenzhou spaceship, and it is expected that the next flight will carry China's first astronauts. SZ-4 carried two dummy astronauts with equipment to monitor the life support system. The spacecraft was placed in a 198 x 331 kmx 42.4 deg orbit, which was raised to 330 x 337 km x 42.4 deg at 2335 UTC on Dec 29. The orbital module separated on Jan 5 to operate independently in orbit, and shortly afterwards at about 1026 UTC the main spacecraft fired its deorbit engine for a landing in Inner Mongolia at 1116 UTC. International Launch Services' first commercial launch of the Krunichev Proton-M/Briz-M on Dec 29 placed the Nimiq 2 satellite in orbit for Telesat Canada. Nimiq 2 is a Lockheed Martin A2100AX satellite with Ku-band and Ka-band communications transponders for television and broadband data, and has a launch mass of 3600 kg. The Proton-M is an uprated version of the standard Proton-K; the Briz-M stage, also built by Krunichev, is used in place of the old Energiya DM stage. The Proton-M was launched at 2316 UTC on Dec 29 and put the Briz/Nimiq stack on a suborbital trajectory at 2326 UTC. The Briz first burn lasted from 2327 to 2338 UTC and put it in a 213 x 213 km x 51.5 deg parking orbit. The second Briz burn was from 0016 to 0043 UTC on Dec 30 and the planned intermediate orbit was about 608 x 17142 km x 49.6 deg. At this point the DTB auxiliary propellant tank separated; it has not been cataloged by Space Command. A third Briz burn from 0045 to 0050 UTC raised apogee to geostationary altitude, with a 946 x 35783 x 49.0 deg orbit according to Space Command elements. The fourth burn from 0551 to 0558 UTC put the combination in a 7904 x 35886 km x 16.5 deg transfer orbit. Briz-M separated at 0610 UTC and the Nimiq satellite started using its own liquid apogee engine to raise its orbit, reaching geostationary altitude of 35779 x 35789 km x 0.1 deg sometime between Jan 3 and Jan 10. The Coriolis satellite was launched on Jan 6. Coriolis is mission P98-2 in the USAF Space Test Program, and carries two instruments which may be used in the joint civil/military NPOESS weather satellite program. The Naval Research Lab's Windsat polarimetric radiometer measures microwave radiation to study the strength and direction of ocean surface winds; the Solar Mass Ejection Imager uses a precisely calibrated camera to take pictures of solar eruptions which can affect the ionosphere. Coriolis is a Spectrum Astro SA-200HP spacecraft with a mass of 745 kg plus 82 kg of hydrazine propellant. Coriolos was launched aboard Titan II G-4 from Vandenberg at 1419 UTC on Jan 6. The Titan second stage main engine shut down at 1424 UTC in a 219 x 824 km orbit; small thrusters on the second stage fired near apogee at 1514 UTC to raise the orbit to 278 x 827 km, and Coriolis then separated. By Jan 11 its own propulsion system had raised the orbit to 489 x 849 km x 98.7 deg. NASA's ICESAT satellite was launched on Jan 13 by a Boeing Delta 7320-10. The two-stage Delta entered a 185 x 597 km x 94.0 deg transfer orbit 11 min after launch, and then circularized the orbit 1 hr after launch to 586 x 594 km x 94.0 deg. ICESAT separated, followed by the RH-DPAF adapter cone, and finally the CHIPSat astronomy satellite. ICESAT is part of NASA's Earth science program and was orginally EOS Laser ALT-1. It carries the GLAS Geoscience Laser Altimeter System, a 1-meter telescope with a laser for lidar observations of the Earth and in particular the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets. ICESAT is a Ball BCP-2000 spacecraft with a mass of 300 kg. CHIPSat is a NASA University Explorer (UNEX) mission, led by UC Berkeley and carrying the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma instrument. CHIPS has a 5 x 26 degree feild of view and will obtain spectra of the diffuse EUV background in the 90-260 Angstrom range. One of the key goals is to find out which spectral lines dominate the emission from hot gas in the solar neighbourhood. CHIPSat was built by SpaceDev and has a mass of 60 kg. Leon van Speybroeck ------------------- I am sad to report the death on Dec 25 of Leon van Speybroeck, the scientist who designed the remarkable X-ray telescopes aboard the Einstein and Chandra observatories. Leon, who had the office just across the corridor from me, was a key figure in the development of X-ray astronomy, perhaps not as famous as he should have been because of his gentle, self-effacing modesty. He had just won the Rossi Prize, and was to speak at the January AAS meeting in Seattle, but unexpectedly fell ill in early December. He's a big loss to astronomy, a very smart guy, and one of the nicest people I've known. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 20 2239 Eutelsat W5 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Comms 51A Nov 24 0049 Endeavour ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 52A P1 ) Station module Nov 25 2304 Astra 1K Proton-K Baykonur LC81/23 Comms 53A Nov 28 0607 AlSAT-1 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Imaging 54A Mozhaets ) Technology 54B Rubin-3-DSI ) Technology 54C Dec 2 2205 MEPSI - Endeavour, LEO Technology 52B Dec 5 0242 TDRS 10 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36 Comms 55A Dec 11 2221 Stentor ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms F03 Hot Bird 7 ) Comms F03 Dec 14 0131 Midori 2 ) H2A-202 Tanegashima Rem.Sensing 56A WEOS ) Rem.Sensing 56C FedSat ) Technology 56B MuLabSat ) Technology 56D Dec 17 2304 NSS 6 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comms 57A Dec 20 1700 Trailblazer ) Dnepr Baykonur LC109 Dummy 58E Latinsat A ) Comms 58H Latinsat B ) Comms 58B Saudisat 1C ) Comms 58C Unisat-2 ) Technology 58D Rubin-2 ) Technology 58A Dec 24 1220 Kosmos-2393 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC16/2 Early warn 59A Dec 25 0737 Kosmos-2394 ) Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC81/23 Navigation 60A Kosmos-2395 ) 60B Kosmos-2396 ) 60C Dec 29 1640 Shenzhou 4 Chang Zheng 2F Taiyuan Spaceship 61A Dec 29 2316 Nimiq 2 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 62A Jan 6 1419 Coriolis Titan II Vandenberg SLC4W Environment 01A Jan 13 0045 ICESAT ) Delta 7320-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Environment 02A CHIPSat ) Astronomy 02B Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-107 2003 Jan 16 Spacehab OV-103 Discovery OPF Maintenance OV-104 Atlantis OPF STS-114 2003 Mar 1 ISS ULF1 OV-105 Endeavour OPF STS-115 2003 May 23 ISS 12A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'