Jonathan's Space Report No. 299 1996 Sep 11 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid is preparing to come home after the longest space flight by a US citizen. Atlantis was launched on mission STS-79 at 0854:49 UTC on Sep 16. The replaced RSRM-56 solid rocket boosters operated just fine and separated at 0857 UTC, although we'll have to wait till they get towed home to know if there was any gas blowby. MECO (Main Engine Cutoff) came at 0903 UTC, followed by external tank ET-81 separation with Atlantis in a 82 x 296 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The OMS 2 burn to raise orbit to 157 x 293 km was carried out at 0937 UTC, and the payload bay doors were opened at 1015 UTC. On Sep 19 Atlantis docked with the Mir complex. The crew reported 'tally ho' (visual contact) at 0107 UTC, after the terminal burn at 0033 UTC. By 0139 they were 3 km apart; twenty minutes later that distance had dropped by a factor of ten. The crew closed in to 10 meters at 0303 UTC, and carried out stationkeeping at that distance for a few minutes, before closing in again for docking at 0313 UTC. The docking rings retracted and brought the two vehicles together for `hard dock' at 0320 UTC. At 0540 the hatch was opened and Lucid, Korzun and Kaleri were able to greet Blaha, Readdy, Wilcutt, Akers, Apt and Walz. Aboard Atlantis in the payload bay are the Orbiter Docking System, the modified Long Tunnel, and the Spacehab Double Module. The Spacehab has supplies for the Mir station. Astronaut John Blaha will relieve Shannon Lucid as NASA resident on the complex. Recent Launches --------------- The launch profile of Inmarsat III F-2 satellite is still unclear. Apparently it did not carry an apogee motor, and was placed directly in geostationary orbit by the Blok-DM-1 upper stage. However, Space Command have not yet tracked the stage. Inmarsat III F-2 is a Series 4000 satellite built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications (formerly Astro Space). It will serve the Atlantic Ocean region; Inmarsat III F-1 is operating over the Indian Ocean. The Inmarsat satellites provide mobile communications services at L-band, primarily for ships and aircraft. A Navstar Block IIA GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation satellite, SVN 30, was launched on Sep 12. The McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 placed it in an elliptical transfer orbit, and the Star 37 apogee motor fired to place it in a 12 hour orbit at 55 deg inclination. One more GPS Block IIA satellite, SVN 38, remains to be launched. The Block IIA satellites are built by Rockwell. The first calibration reference sphere was ejected from the MSX ballistic missile defence research satellite on Aug 24. Its SPIRIT III solid-hydrogen cooled infrared telescope is operating well. Erratum: Kosmos-2333 was launched from GIK-5 Baykonur, not GIK-1 Plesetsk. Sorry! Erratum: The Inmarsat III F-2 launch contract was directly with Krunichev and did not involve International Launch Services. My apologies for the error. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 8 2249 Italsat F2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 44A Telecom 2D ) Comsat 44B Aug 14 2221 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 45A Aug 17 0153 ADEOS ) H-II Tanegashima Y Rem.sens. 46A JAS-2 ) Comsat 46B Aug 17 1318 Soyuz TM-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1? Spaceship 47A Aug 18 1027 Zhongxing 7 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 48A Aug 21 0947 FAST Pegasus XL Vandenberg Auroral 49A Aug 29 0522 Interbol-2 ) Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43 Auroral 50B Magion 5 ) 50C Microsat ) 50A Sep 4 0901 Kosmos-2333 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45L Sigint 51A Sep 5 1347 Kosmos-2334 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat 52A UNAMSat ) 52B Sep 6 1737 Inmarsat III F2 Proton Baykonur LC81 Comsat 53A Sep 8 2149 GE-1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36B Comsat 54A Sep 11 0000 Echostar II Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 55A Sep 12 0849 Navstar 30 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 56A Sep 16 0855 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 57A Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-80 Oct 31 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis Mir STS-79 OV-105 Endeavour Palmdale OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-54 VAB Bay 1 STS-79 (old) ML3/RSRM-49 VAB Bay 3 STS-80 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'