Jonathan's Space Report No. 594 2008 Mar 29, Los Angeles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station ------------------- Endeavour landed on Mar 27 after a successful STS-123 mission. On Mar 15 Linnehan and Foreman carried out the second spacewalk of the flight, leaving the Quest airlock with depressurization at 2343 UTC, hatch open at about 2348 UTC and egress just after 0000 UTC on Mar 16. During the spacewalk they assembled the Dextre robot manipulator, in its Spacelab pallet attached to the Station truss. Quest was repressurized at 0657 UTC following hatch closure at 0654. On Mar 17 Behnken and Linnehan performed EVA-3, depressurizing Quest at 2246 UTC and opening the hatch at 2251. They completed assembly of Dextre, installed the LWAPA adapter plate on the External Payload Facility of Columbus, and transferred spare equipment from Endeavour's payload bay to External Stowage Platform 2. However, attempts to install the MISSE 6 sample exposure experiment on the LWAPA were not successful on this EVA; this was eventually completed on EVA 5. On Mar 20 Behnken and Foreman made another spacewalk, with depressurization to 0.7 psi by 2159 UTC and hatch open at 2203 UTC. They replaced a power control box on the truss and carried out the T-RAD experiment to repair sample damaged heat shield tiles using a putty-like material. Hatch closed at 0425 UTC and repress at 0428 UTC. Behnken and Foreman made EVA-5 from 2030 UTC Mar 22 to 0236 UTC Mar 23 (depress/repress; 2034 to 0231 hatch open/close). They helped install the OBSS arm, used to inspect the underside of the Shuttle, on the Station truss. It will be left there until STS-124, since that mission can't fit the OBSS in its payload bay. They also made further inspections of the damaged SARJ (Solar Alpha Rotary Joint). Endeavour undocked at 0025 UTC on Mar 25, leaving Garrett Reisman aboard the station with Whitson and Malenchenko. After a flyaround completed at 0136 UTC they prepared for reentry, with deorbit at 2333 UTC on Mar 26 and landing at 0039 UTC on Mar 27, touching down on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center. AMC 14 ------ The Russian federal space agency reports that AMC 14's Briz M stage second burn was short by 2 min 13s. On Mar 16 it was in a 770 x 26447 km x 49.2 deg orbit. AMC 14's orbit is now being raised; on Mar 20 the satellite was moved to a 767 x 32333 km x 49.1 deg orbit and on Mar 21 to a 772 x 35576 km x 49.0 deg orbit. AMC 14 had a total mass at launch of 4140 kg of which 2130 kg was propellant; a rough calculation suggests that reaching geostationary orbit will be difficult. DirecTV ------- Sea Launch fired a Zenit-3SL from the Odyssey platform in the Pacific on Mar 19. The payload was a television satellite for DirecTV. The satellite reached a 267 x 36473 km x 0.1 deg transfer orbit. GPS --- A Boeing Delta 2 was launched at 0610 UTC on Mar 15 carrying a Navstar GPS navigation satellite, SVN 48 (IIR-19/M6). The second stage first cutoff was at 0620 UTC in a 174 x 205 km orbit. The GPS satellite was delivered to a 188 x 20325 km x 40.0 deg transfer orbit. GPS SVN 48 fired its apogee motor at about 0921 UTC on Mar 17, reaching a 20134 x 20152 km x 55.1 deg orbit. SAR-Lupe 4 ---------- Germany's fourth SAR-Lupe radar recon satellite was launched on Mar 27 by a Russian Kosmos-3M from Plesetsk into a 470 x 508 x 98.2 deg orbit. On 2008 Mar 28.0 the orbits of the four satellites were: SAR-Lupe 1 2006 Dec 19 466 x 501 x 98.1 NodeRA = 204 deg SAR-Lupe 2 2007 Jul 2 472 x 496 x 98.2 NodeRA = 304 deg SAR-Lupe 3 2007 Nov 1 473 x 494 x 98.2 NodeRA = 142 deg SAR-Lupe 4 2008 Mar 27 470 x 508 x 98.2 NodeRA = 334 deg The Mystery of 1971-00E - progress ---------------------------------- Mike Waterman and TS Kelso have kindly sent me element sets for 1971-00E (5310) which I have converted to pseudo TLE format at http://www.planet4589.org/space/elements/05300/S05310 They show that the object was drifting slowly over the Pacific in 1973-1974 and that its elements are identical with those archived for the Tacsat 1 satellite (03691, 1969-13A). USA 200 ------- The USA 200 satellite has been found by independent observers in a 1112 x 37580 km x 63.6 deg orbit. Errata ------- The forward pallet on Spacelab 2 was F004, not F002. Information from Robert Pearlman, quoting Scott Higginbotham, suggests that F004 was renamed MD002 and was used on STS-100 and STS-123. Friend of JSR Pete Young points out that the Space Test Program is a Dept. of Defense program, not a USAF program, although it is managed by USAF. I thank him for drawing this fine distinction. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 5 1303 Progress M-63 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 04A Feb 7 1945 Atlantis (STS-122) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 05A Columbus ) Module - Feb 11 1134 Thor 5 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 06A Feb 23 0855 Kizuna H-IIA 2024 Tanegashima Comms 07A Mar 9 0403 Jules Verne ATV Ariane 5ES Kourou ELA3 Cargo 08A Mar 11 0628 Endeavour(STS-123) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 09A Mar 13 1002 USA 200 Atlas V 411 Vandenberg SLC3E Sigint 10A Mar 14 2318 AMC 14 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 11A Mar 15 0610 GPS 48 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 12A Mar 19 2248 DirecTV 11 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, POR Comms 13A Mar 27 1715 SAR-Lupe 4 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Radar 14A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'