Jonathan's Space Report No. 571 2006 Sep 22, Moskva ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- The Station now has a new set of solar arrays, and is hosting a new crew and a visiting tourist. Atlantis docked with the Station at 1048 UTC on Sep 11. The Shuttle RMS grappled the P3/P4 solar array truss assembly and unberthed it. At 1452 UTC the Station arm grappled the P3/P4 and at 1503 UTC it was released by the Shuttle arm. P3/P4 was connected to the P1 truss at 0727 UTC on Sep 12, with the bolts tight by 0835. On Sep 12, astronauts Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper made the first spacewalk of the flight, EVA-1. They begain activation of the P3/P4. On Sep 13, Burbank and MacLean made EVA-2, continuing to prepare P3/P4 for use. The solar array wings were deployed on Sep 14. On Sep 15, Tanner and Stefanyshyn-Piper made their third spacewalk to complete work with P3/P4, deploying a radiator, and replacing an S-band antenna assembly elsewhere on the truss. The airlock was repressurized at 1643 UTC. The Shuttle undocked from the Station's PMA-2 port at 1250 UTC on Sep 20. Atlantis landed safely at Kennedy Space Center's runway 33 on Sep 21 at 1021 UTC after a one-day delay due to weather and concerns over a debris object which was probably a plastic tile shim. The deorbit burn was at 0914 UTC. The Progress M-56 cargo ship undocked from Zvezda at 0028 UTC on Sep 19. It was later deorbited over the Pacific. Progress M-57 and Soyuz TMA-8 remain docked to the Station. Soyuz TMA-9 was launched from Baykonur on Sep 18, carrying the Expedition 14 crew of Mikhail Tyurin and Mike Lopez-Alegria, as well as spaceflight participant (tourist) Anousheh Ansari. TMA-9 docked with Station at 0521 UTC on Sep 20, linking up with the aft port of Zvezda. Ansari is well known as an advocate of spaceflight; she donated millions of dollars to fund the Ansari X-Prize won by Burt Rutan's Spaceship One. IGS --- The Japanese space agency JAXA launched its Information Gathering Satellite Optical-2 spy satellite on Sep 11. The satellite will replace IGS O-1 launched in 2003 Mar and an earlier IGS O-2 lost in a launch failure in 2003 Nov. As best I can gather from the JAXA website and the wonders of Babelfish, the replacement is being called Optical-2 and not Optical-3. The launch vehicle was an H2A - but I'm not sure which version. It is probably the light H2A 202 version with no small strapons, and the small 4S fairing. The replacement Radar-2 will be launched separately; on earlier launches the Optical and Radar satellites shared the same launch vehicle. Optical-2 is in an orbit of approximately 460 x 484 km x 97.2 deg. ZX-22A ------ China launched the Zhongxing-22A satellite from Xichang on Sep 12 into a 202 x 41817 km x 25.0 deg transfer orbit. The ZX-22A is thought to be a military communications satellite. It will replace ZX-22, launched in 2000, at the 98.0E longitude location. Kosmos-2423 ----------- Kosmos-2423, a Don-class imaging satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry, was launched from Baykonur on Sep 14 into an initial 170 x 317 km x 64.9 deg orbit. Editorial --------- Many thanks to my friends at Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru for their hospitality during my visit to Moscow. Russian-reading JSR readers are encouraged to check out their magazine, the best spaceflight periodical in print. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 4 2148 Hot Bird 8 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 32A Aug 11 2215 JCSAT-10 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 33A Syracuse 3B) Comms 33B Aug 22 0327 Koreasat 5 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey Comms 34A Sep 9 0700? SJ-8 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Micrograv. 35A Sep 9 1515 Atlantis (STS-115) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 36A Sep 11 0435 IGS Optical-2 H2A Tanegashima Imaging 37A Sep 12 1602 Zhongxing-22A Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Comms 38A Sep 14 1341 Kosmos-2423 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Imaging 39A Sep 18 0408 Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 40A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'