Jonathan's Space Report 7 Aug 1991 (no.83) ---------------------------------------------------- Atlantis is in orbit on mission STS-43. Tracking and Data Relay Satellte TDRS-5 has reached geostationary orbit. Atlantis is currently operating payload bay experiments SSBUV (an ozone monitor) and SHARE (a test of space station hardware). Meanwhile, Discovery has been mated to the STS-48 stack and will be rolled out to the pad next week. Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex. More spacewalks were made to complete the installation of the 14 metre Sofora structure on Jul 19, 23 and 27. The Kosmos-2152 spy satellite landed on Jul 23. NASA has issued a press release denying that an emergency HST repair mission is being planned. The Hubble Space Telescope has lost two gyros, and a third one had a glitch recently. But the most worrying rumour has been that the solar panels are oscillating more strongly than had been believed and are in danger of structural failure. If an emergency repair mission were necessary, it would be really bad news because there probably wouldnt be enough money to fly the COSTAR optical fixup mission as well. Meanwhile, never daunted, astronomers are preparing their observing proposals for the second cycle of HST observations which is scheduled to begin in July next year. ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 | |OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 | |OV-104 Atlantis LEO | |OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML1 VAB | |ML2 | |ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103 VAB Bay 3 | ----------------------------------- N.B. 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 | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Launches 1991 Jul Launch Date Payload/Launch vehicle Site Payload User/ Manufacturer 1991-46 Jul 2 Gorizont/Proton-K Baykonur,Kazakhstan MSvyazi/NPO-PM 1991-47 Jul 4 Navstar 22,LOSAT-X/Delta 7925 Canaveral,USA USAF/Rockwell 1991-48 Jul 9 Kosmos-2152/Soyuz Plesetsk, Rossiya GRU/KB Foton 1991-49 Jul 10 Kosmos-2153/Soyuz Baykonur,Kazakhstan GRU/KB Foton? 1991-50 Jul 17 ERS-1 )/Ariane 40 Kourou,France ESA/Dornier Uosat 5 ) Univ.Surrey Orbcomm-X) OSC/VCIT TUBSAT ) Tech.Univ.Berlin SARA ) Esieespace 1991-51 Jul 17 Microsat 1 to 7/Pegasus-HAPS Edwards,USA DARPA/DSI 1991-52 Jul 23 Resurs-F/Soyuz Plesetsk,Rossiya GUGK/KB Foton New objects in orbit 1991 Jul km x km x deg Jul 2 1991-46B Proton rocket 200x200x51.6? Reentered Jul 4 Jul 2 1991-46C Proton adapter 200x200x51.6? Reentered Jul 4? Jul 2 1991-46E Blok-DM adapter 347x35631x47.4 Jul 2 1991-46F Blok-DM adpater 295x35625x47.4 Jul 2 1991-46D Blok-DM rocket 35540x35664x1.5 Jul 2 1991-46A Gorizont satellite 35675x35803x1.5 Communications,TV Jul 4 1991-47C Delta 7920 rocket 389x403x37.5 Jul 4 1991-47B LOSAT-X satellite 400x413x40.0 Jul 4 1991-47D PAM-D rocket 188x20241x34.5 Jul 4 1991-47A Navstar 22 satellite 19765x20255x55.3 Navigation Jul 9 1991-48B Blok-I rocket 160x190x82.3? Reentered Jul 10 Jul 9 1991-48A Kosmos-2152 satellite 235x349x82.3 Landed Kazakhstan Jul 23 Jul 10 1991-49B Blok-I rocket 182x251x64.9 Reentered Jul 13 Jul 10 1991-49A Kosmos-2153 satellite 241x281x64.9 Advanced Recon Jul 17 1991-50F H-10 rocket/ASAP 744x815x98.5 Jul 17 1991-50A ERS 1 satellite 776x782x98.5 Earth resources Jul 17 1991-50B Uosat 5 766x776x98.5 Amateur Jul 17 1991-50C Orbcomm X 771x776x98.5 Virginia experiments Jul 17 1991-50D TUBSAT 768x776x98.5 Animal migration study Jul 17 1991-50E SARA 769x776x98.5 Amateur radio astronomy Jul 17 1991-51H HAPS rocket 361x478x82.0 Jul 17 1991-51A Microsat 1 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51B Microsat 2 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51C Microsat 3 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51D Microsat 4 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51E Microsat 5 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51F Microsat 6 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 17 1991-51G Microsat 7 358x458x82.0 Communications Jul 21 1991-44D Resurs-F engine 243x260x82.3 Jul 21 1991-44E,F Resurs-F engine adapters 200x220x82.3 Jul 21 1991-44G,H Resurs-F engine adapters 230x380x82.3 Jul 23 1991-52B Blok-I rocket 160x180x82.3? Jul 23 1991-52A Resurs-F satellite 256x272x82.3 Remote sensing Also cataloged during Jul: Lots more bits from the Delta explosion, and some other objects I dont have international designators for yet. Note: the names and descriptions of satellites are my own guesses at the most likely identifications of given objects. Orbits are perigee height (km) x apogee height (km) x inclination (deg).