Jonathan's Space Report Jul 26, 1989 (no. 20) Twenty years on ... --------------------------------------------------------------------- OV-102 Columbia is on the pad. The payload is a new imaging recon satellite, presumably KH-12. (AvLeak, latest issue). Mission STS-28 is due for early August. One of the oldest satellites in orbit has reentered; the Sergeant rocket used to launch Explorer VII in Oct 1959 burnt up on 16 July. This is the first time that a satellite of this vintage has reentered since 1982 (a fragment from Vanguard 3) and 1970 (Explorer I). Still in orbit are (from 1958) Vanguard I, its final stage rocket, and a separation clamp which had connected them; and (from 1959) Vanguard 2, its final stage rocket, and Explorer VII itself. (In deep space, we also have the first Luna AMS, its Blok-E final stage, the US Army Pioneer IV, and its Sergeant final stage.) The Japanese satellite Ohzora reentered on Jul 19 after 5 years in space; and BP-26, a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft launched on a Saturn I test, reentered on Jul 8. Kosmos-2028 landed on Jul 6 after 20 days in orbit. This is the first time that a standard Vostok-type recon satellite has flown such a long mission, although the same spacecraft type has flown 20-day missions in the Resurs-F and biosatellite programs. The Kosmos-2020 recon satellite reentered on Jul 15 after two months in orbit. It was replaced by Kosmos-2030 launched on Jul 12 Another Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Jul 18, together with two Pion air density subsatellites. This satellite seems to be on a mission similar to the first Resurs-F, while the second Resurs-F was a short duration flight which released no subsatellites. Kosmos-2031, launched on Jul 18, is a recon satellite in an unusual 50.6 degree orbit. Kosmos-2032 was launched on Jul 20 into a low altitude 82 degree polar orbit. Satellites in such an orbit are usually announced as being operated by the Priroda remote sensing center, but there is about one exception a year, and this is it. It may be a military recon satellite with a target in the far north. Kosmos-2033 was launched on Jul 24. .----------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617)495-7144 | | Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell | | 60 Garden Street | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | span : cfa::mcdowell | | | telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM | | | FAX : (617)495-7356 | '----------------------------------------------------------------'