Jonathan's Space Report No. 498 2003 Apr 26, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- On the International Space Station, the Progress M-47 cargo craft is docked to the aft Zvezda port and the Soyuz S/N 211 (Soyuz TMA-1) transport ship is docked to the Pirs module. Soyuz spacecraft S/N 212 (Soyuz TMA-2) was launched on April 26 carrying the new Expedition 7 crew of Yuriy Malenchenko and Edward Lu. Launch aboard the Soyuz-FG rocket was at 0353 UTC on Apr 26 from complex 1, pad 5 at Baykonur. The third stage ignited at 0358 UTC and shut down at 0402 UTC with a successful orbit insertion. Soyuz TMA-2 will dock at the Zarya nadir port on the Station. Recent Launches --------------- Kosmos-2397 was launched on Apr 24 from Baykonur by a Krunichev Proton-K with an Energiya Blok-DM2 upper stage. The DM2 first burn placed the payload complex into a 47 degree geostationary transfer orbit; the second burn is believed to have occurred at 1100 UTC and put Kosmos-2397 into geostationary orbit (however, US tracking had not released any new orbital data as of Apr 25). Kosmos-2397 is believed to be a 71Kh6 US-KMO geostationary early warning satellite built by NPO Lavochkin. NASA has announced that the first Mars Exploration Rover launch has been delayed by one week. They also announced that the delay will probably make the second rover miss its launch window - however I think they didn't mean to say this, but just confused the (in the context, completely opposite) meanings of the verbs "effect" and "affect". Meanwhile, the SIRTF launch has been delayed to August. Amateur observers report that the secret Japanese IGS-1b satellite lowered its perigee on Apr 22. Amateur tracking puts IGS-1a in a 483 x 495 km x 97.4 deg orbit and IGS-1b at 489 x 500 km x 97.4 deg. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 11 0059 DSCS III A-3 Delta IVM Canaveral SLC37B Comms 08A Mar 28 0127 IGS Optical-1 ) H2A 2024 Tanegashima Imaging 09A IGS Radar-1 ) Radar 09B Mar 31 2209 GPS SVN 45 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 10A Apr 2 0153 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk Comms 11A Apr 8 1343 Milstar 6 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral SLC40 Comms 12A Apr 9 2252 Galaxy 12 ) Ariane 5G Kourou ELA3 Comms 13B Insat 3A ) Comms 13A Apr 12 0047 Asiasat 4 Atlas 3B/SEC Canaveral SLC36B Comms 14A Apr 24 0423 Kosmos-2397 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81/24 Early Warn 15A Apr 26 0353 Soyuz TMA-2 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'