Jonathan's Space Report No. 125 1992 Aug 17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mir ---- The Soyuz TM-15 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev, continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are due to remain aboard the station until January 1993. Shuttle ------- The STS-47/Spacelab-J mission is due for launch on Sep 11. Endeavour has been transferred to the VAB and will be mated with the tank once problems with an overhead crane have been resolved. Launches --------- The TOPEX/POSEIDON oceanography satellite was launched on Aug 10 by Ariane 42P from Kourou. The satellite is operated jointly by JPL and the French space agency CNES. It carries two radar altimeters to measure the height of the ocean surface, a microwave radiometer, laser reflectors, and orbit navigation systems. TOPEX's orbit is 1316 x 1331 km x 66.1 deg The same Ariane launch put two 50kg microsatellites into orbit, KITSAT-A and S80/T. KITSAT is owned by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and has CCD cameras and a store/forward comms transponder. S80/T is owned by CNES. The first Hughes 3-axis HS-601 comsat was launched on Aug 13 by a Chang Zheng 2E launch vehicle from Xichang in China. The CZ-2E placed the Optus B1 spacecraft in a low 200 x 1040 km x 28 deg orbit; a Star 63F kick motor then moved it to geostationary transfer orbit. Optus B1 will be used by the Australian Optus Communications to replace the older Optus (formerly Aussat) comsats. The launch had originally been attempted in March but was postponed when the vehicle failed to ignite correctly. The Chinese also launched a low orbit FSW recoverable satellite from the northern Jiquan space center into a 63 degree polar orbit on Aug 9. Kosmos-2208, a Russian military communications satellite, was launched on Aug 12 from Plesetsk into a 787 x 806 km x 74 deg orbit. A Molniya communications satellite was launched on Aug 6 into a 625x 39689 km x 62.8 deg orbit. Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-52 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-53 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 OMDP OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 3 STS-47 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/STS-47/ET VAB Bay 3 ML3/STS-52 VAB Bay 1 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'