Jonathan's Space Report Mar 11 1991 (no.67) ---------------------------------------------------- Launch of STS-37/Atlantis and the Gamma Ray Observatory remains due for early April. Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex. An Ariane 4 rocket successfully orbited two satellites on Mar 2. Astra 1B is a TV broadcasting satellite owned by the Luxembourg based company SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites). MOP (Meteosat Operational Programme) 2 is a European geostationary weather satellite and will probably be renamed Meteosat 5 now that it is in orbit. It is operated by ESA for the EUMETSAT (European Meteorological Satellite Organization). The Arianespace SA Ariane rocket is launched from the ESA base at Kourou in Guyane; the third stage enters an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) with a perigee of a few hundred km and an apogee of 36000 km. The two satellites separate from the third stage, and then once at apogee ignite their internal rocket motors (a European MAGE rocket for Meteosat, and probably a Thiokol Star 30 for Astra), putting them in approximately circular equatorial 24 hour orbits. Small thrusters are used to put the satellites in near exact stationary orbits once they have drifted to the right longitude. The 27th Raduga geostationary communications satellite was launched on Feb 28 by 4-stage Proton from Baykonur. Raduga is a C-band comsat for relay of telephone and TV transmissions, first launched in 1975 for the Soviet Ministry of Communications. A Delta II 6925 launch vehicle placed the INMARSAT II F-2 satellite in geostationary transfer orbit on Mar 10. INMARSAT is the International Maritime Satellite Organization. The INMARSAT satellites provide L-band mobile communications links for ships, aircraft and vehicles. The first INMARSAT II was launched last year. There were no INMARSAT I satellites; previously INMARSAT leased the MARECS satellites from ESA, the MARISAT satellites from Comsat General Corp., and the MCS transponders on the INTELSAT VA satellites. ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 | |OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 | |OV-104 Atlantis VAB Bay 3 | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML1/STS-37/ET/OV-104 VAB Bay 1 | |ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103 VAB Bay 3 | |ML3/STS-40 Outside VAB| ----------------------------------- 10 years ago: 12 Mar 1981 Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh reached orbit in Soyuz T-4. They were the last long stay crew aboard the Salyut 6 space station, remaining there for two and a half months. 20 years ago: 3 Mar 1971 The second Chinese satellite, Shi Jian, was launched by a Chang Zheng 1 rocket. Its transmitter operated for 8 years. 30 years ago: 9 Mar 1961. Korabl'-Sputnik-4 was launched by Vostok rocket from Baykonur on one of the final unpiloted test flights of the Vostok spaceship. The cabin, containing guinea pigs, mice, insects, and a dog called Chernushka, was recovered after one orbit. (c) 1991 Jonathan McDowell. Information in this report is obtained from public sources and does not reflect the official views of NASA. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (205)544-7724 | | Space Science Lab ES65 | uucp: | | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center | bitnet : | | Huntsville AL 35812 | inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov | | USA | span : ssl::mcdowell | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'