Jonathan's Space Report

26 Sep 1991 (no.88)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery landed at Edwards on Sep 18 at 0739 UTC.
Discovery is now the orbiter with the most missions and flight time.
 - Discovery 13 missions, flight hours 1812:08
   Columbia  11 missions, flight hours 1804:23
   Atlantis   9 missions, flight hours 1161:36
Next mission is STS-44 which will put an early warning satellite
in orbit.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is being
checked out in orbit.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-9 complex.  
Launch of Soyuz TM-13 is due on October 2.

A geostationary comsat, Kosmos-2155, was launched by Proton from
Baykonur on Sep 13.  An elliptical orbit C-band comsat, the 41st
Molniya-3 satellite, was launched by Molniya from Plesetsk on Sep 17. 
Both satellites are made by NPO Prikladnoi Mechaniki (Applied Mechanics
Corp) in Krasnoyarsk.  The older Molniya satellite is in a 12 hour
period elliptical orbit, and has a KDU-414 engine for stationkeeping
with its apogee kept over the former USSR.  The more modern Kosmos-2155
is inserted into geostationary orbit by the Blok-DM fourth stage of the
Proton launcher.  The Proton inserts the Kosmos/Blok-DM into low earth
orbit at an inclination of 51.6 degrees, the Blok-DM ignites to put the
combination in GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) at an inclination of
46 degrees, and then six hours later reignites over the equator at
apogee for a second burn into synchronous orbit, after which the Blok-DM
separates and the Kosmos satellite's small stationkeeping engines
control the drift to the desired longitude.  This technique is similar
to that used by the old Titan 3C/Transtage, but the initial parking
orbit inclinations are much higher since Baykonur is far to the north of
Cape Canaveral.  The spacecraft are used by the MSvyazi (Soviet Ministry
of Communications), which I believe still exists for now. 

A failed GLONASS navigation satellite, Kosmos-1840, reentered
on Sep 14. Together with two other GLONASS satellites which
reentered in May, it was stranded in transfer orbit in 1987
when the Proton launch vehicle fourth stage failed.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       EAFB      |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44             VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                              |
-----------------------------------

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                               |                                        |
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