Jonathan's Space Report No. 219 1994 Nov 17 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erratum ------- Thanks to Pawel Moskalik for pointing out that the previous single-mission duration record for a woman was held by Chiaki Mukai of Japan, not Seddon and Lucid of the US. Shuttle ------- Atlantis carried out a new type of rendezvous on Nov 12, the plus R bar approach. R-bar is the radius vector of the target satellite (in Earth-centered spherical polar coordinates), while V-bar is the velocity vector of the satellite (almost parallel to the tangential - theta - vector in the orbit plane since low orbits are all roughly circular). Usually the Shuttle gets to the right value of R but a greater Theta and brakes to let the target catch up - a V-bar approach. In the R-bar approach the Shuttle gets to about the right Theta but a smaller value of R, with velocity adjusted so that its slightly elliptical orbit will carry it outward to the correct R value without any further thruster firings. This approach minimizes thruster effluent contamination of the target. (Rendezvous gurus, correct me if I have any of this wrong). The rendezvous with CRISTA-SPAS was completed early on Nov 12 and the satellite was grappled with the RMS arm at 1305 UT. It was berthed in the payload bay by 1650 UT. The deorbit burn was carried out at 1431 UT on Nov 14, with main gear touchdown on Edwards runway 22 at 1533:45UT. Wheels stop was at 1534:34. The 16cm icicle produced from waste water dumps survived reentry and landing, according to the KSC Shuttle Status Report. Atlantis will return to KSC next week to begin preparation for its next mission, the first Mir docking. Mir --- Progress M-25 docked with Mir at the rear Kvant port at 0904 on Nov 13. It will be replaced in February with Progress M-26. The next crew, aboard Soyuz TM-21 in March, will include NASA astronaut Norman Thagard. Plans for 1995 include the completion of the Mir complex with the docking of the Priroda and Spektr modules. Recent Launches --------------- The Resurs-O1 earth observation satellite is in a 660 x 663 km x 98.0 deg orbit. It carries the German Safir-R1 communications experiment as a secondary attached payload. There are three imaging recon satellites currently in orbit operated by the GRU (Central Intelligence Agency) of the MO RF (Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation): Kosmos-2267, launched 1993 Nov 5 by Soyuz-U, current orbit 236 x 299 km x 70.4 deg Kosmos-2280, launched 1994 Apr 28 by Soyuz-U, current orbit 232 x 269 km x 70.4 deg Kosmos-2290, launched 1994 Aug 26 by Zenit, current orbit 206 x 359 km x 64.8 deg. Kosmos-2267 and Kosmos-2280 are the 17th and 18th satellites in the advanced series which has replaced the older Yantar' class satellites. The first of the series was Kosmos-1426 in 1982, and Kosmos-2267 just exceeded the record 372-day lifetime of its predecessor Kosmos-2223. Kosmos-2290 is the first of a new series launched by Zenit. Its orbit is similar to the five satellites in the Soyuz-launched Kosmos-2031 series. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 11 1430 Okean-O1 No. 7 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 66A Oct 13 1619 Ekspress Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200 Comsat 67A Oct 15 0505 IRS-P2 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 68A Oct 31 1430 Elektro Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC81 Weather 69A Nov 1 0037 Astra 1D Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 70A Nov 1 0931 Wind Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Science 71A Nov 2 0104 Kosmos-2293 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 EORSAT 72A Nov 3 1700 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 73A Nov 4 0547 Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Rem.sensing 74A Nov 4 1250 CRISTA-SPAS - Atlantis, LEO Science 73B Nov 11 0722 Progress M-25 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1? Cargo 75A Reentries --------- Oct 11 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB Oct 12 Magellan Entered Venus atmosphere Nov 4 Molniya-1 Reentered (1984-29A) Nov 4 Soyuz TM-19 Landed in Kazakhstan Nov 14 Atlantis Landed at Edwards AFB Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP - OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-63 Feb 2 OV-104 Atlantis Edwards STS-66 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-67 Feb 23 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM/ET VAB Bay 3 STS-63 ML2/RSRM-43 VAB Bay 1 STS-67 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html | ! ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'