Jonathan's Space Report

23 Oct 1991 (no.92)
I've been away for a couple of weeks, so there's a bit to
catch up on:
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Atlantis was moved to the VAB on Oct 18 and mated to the STS-44 stack on
Oct 19.  It is due to be rolled out to the pad on Oct 23.  Launch is due
next month to place an early warning satellite in orbit. 

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  The
Soyuz TM-13 ferry was launched at 0559UT on Oct 2 and docked at the
front Mir port at 0739UT on Oct 4.  Crew Volkov, Aubakirov and Viehbock
joined Artsebarskiy and Krikalyov.  Late on Oct 9, Artsebarskiy,
Aubakirov and Viehbock transferred to Soyuz TM-12 and undocked from the
rear Kvant port, landing in Kazakhstan at 0412 UT on Oct 10.  At 0001UT
on Oct 15, Volkov and Krikalyov undocked from the front port in Soyuz
TM-13 and flew around the station to inspect it, docking at the rear
Kvant port at 0145 UT to test its new docking antenna.  The robot cargo
ship Progress M-10 was launched around 0010UT on Oct 17 and docked with Mir,
presumably on the front port, on about Oct 20 or so. When Krikalyov
lands in Soyuz TM-13 around Mar 24 or so next year, he has a chance
of beating Yuriy Romanenko by a few hours for second place in the 
cumulative space experience rankings - Musa Manarov holds the record
at 540 days, while Romanenko has 430 days.

A Foton commercial materials processing satellite was launched on Oct 4
from Plesetsk in Russia.  It will stay in orbit for a few weeks and be
recovered in Kazakhstan.  It is based on the Vostok spaceship bus. 

Kosmos-2163, an imaging military intelligence satellite, was launched
from Baykonur in Kazakhstan on Oct 9 by a Soyuz rocket.

Kosmos-2164 was launched by the small R-14 Kosmos rocket from
Plesetsk on Oct 10. It is a rare type of military satellite,
probably for electronic monitoring of some kind. Only four have
been launched over a 17 year period; two have reentered.
The launch dates and orbits of the four satellites are listed
below:

JCM-ID    Name             Launch      Reentry       Orb km x km x deg

MMB1	Kosmos-687	   1974 Oct 11-1978		286x698x74
MMB2	Kosmos-822	   1976 May 28-1978		280x711x74
MMB3	Kosmos-1868	   1987 Jul 14-			287x708x74
MMB4	Kosmos-2164	   1991 Oct 10-			285x704x74


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET/OV-104   VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
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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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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