Jonathan's Space Report No. 365 1998 Jul 3 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October. Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin are continuing work aboard the Mir complex. AXAF ---- The STS-93 crew visited the AXAF Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Mass. on Jun 25. STS-93 commander Eileen Collins drew attention to the fact that AXAF deployment is scheduled for the first mission day, when cremembers are still adjusting to free fall, and that the AXAF mission will be the heaviest Shuttle launch weight ever, with a center of gravity well to the rear of the payload bay. Pilot Jeff Ashby, a Navy Gulf War veteran, will be on his first mission. Steve Hawley is the most experienced crew member; he's the only astronomer aboard so many in the audience felt a strong sense of identification with him. He will be the mission flight engineer. Cady Coleman, whose MIT and UMass background were critical in navigating the crew from Hanscom AFB to the control center, will be in charge of AXAF/IUS deployment. She will be backed up by Michel Tognini, a French astronaut who is a veteran of a 1992 Mir visit. Tognini is also prime EVA crewmember for the flight, in case an emergency (`contingency') spacewalk were needed. This would be particularly tricky since AXAF fills the whole payload bay, with the delicate science instrument module pretty close to the airlock door. Recent Launches --------------- The Planet-B probe to Mars was launched on Jul 3. The ISAS M-5 launch vehicle took off from Kagoshima space center in Japan and placed Planet-B in parking orbit. After lunar flybys, Planet-B will be placed in solar orbit and reach Mars in Oct 1999. It carries instruments to study the Martian ionosphere and plasma environment from Mars orbit. I don't have many details of the launch yet, but I hope to know more by next issue. Kosmos-2358, launched on Jun 24, is a Yantar'-class spy satellite, probably in the Kobal't series. It consists of an instrument-aggregate module which has some design heritage in common with the Soyuz service module, together with a large reentry vehicle containing the camera system, and probably at least two small reentry capsules which return film during the mission, expected to last about three months. The Yantar' series are built by the TsSKB-Progress enterprise in Samara, Russia, which also built the 11A511U "Soyuz-U" launch vehicle. The low perigee, 67 degree inclination orbit used by Kosmos-2358 is characteristic of the high resolution recoverable Yantar' satellites. Kosmos-2359, launched on Jun 25, is another recon satellite launched by Soyuz-U and built by TsSKB-Progress. It entered a 170 x 290 km x 64.9 deg initial orbit typical of the Kosmos-2031 class, thought to be a further development of the Yantar' series with multiple small return capsules and no main recoverable section. It will probably maneuver to a 205 x 320 km orbit on Jun 26. A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched on Jul 1 into an elliptical 62.8 degree orbit. The Molniya satellites are built by NPO PM; the Molniya-M (8K78M) launch vehicle is built by TsSKB-Progress and is similar to the Soyuz-U but with a 'Blok ML' fourth stage. The SOHO solar observatory, orbiting the Earth-Sun L1 point, has been lost due to an apparent gyroscope problem. No contact has been made with the satellite since Jun 25. Attempts to resume contact with the satellite continue, but it looks bad for the very successful SOHO satellite. Proton Launch Vehicle --------------------- Issue 1998 No. 10 of the Russian magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki (published by Videocosmos, icosmos@dol.ru) contains a complete listing of launches of the Proton launch vehicle, including such details as launch times, pads, and even payload serial numbers. Some teasing highlights from the Proton launch list to give you a flavor: - Kosmos-382, the orbital test of the lunar Soyuz, was L1-E No. 2K, launched at 1700:00 UTC 1970 Dec 2 from pad 81L by Proton No. 252-01 with Blok D No. 26. - Kosmos-637, Russia's first 24-hour satellite, was a GVM (mass mockup) of the 11F638 Raduga satellite, military name Gran', launched by Proton 282-01 from pad 81L. - Satellite N-4 No. 3 (would have been Proton-3) launched by Proton 211 in Mar 1966, failed to orbit due to second stage failure. - Kosmos-2291 is comsat Geizer No. 19L, launched by Proton 381-02. If you haven't been following the details of the USSR space program since its glory days, trust me that it's amazing to see this level of detail about stuff we spent years guessing about. I'll be updating the geostationary satellite log soon to reflect the correct names of the Russian geostationary satellites. For score counters, the following satellites are not fully identified in the Proton list and may be presumed to be still classified: Kosmos-775; Kosmos-1546, 1894, 1940, 2133, 2155, 2209, 2224, 2282, 2345, 2350 (all thought to be early warning sats); Raduga-1 satellites; Luch-1, and also Kosmos-1603, Kosmos-1656 (identified as Tselina-2 but no serial nos.) In addition, serial numbers for the Kosmos-997/998 reentry tests are not given. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jun 2 2206 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 34A Spacehab ) Jun 10 0035 Thor 3 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Comsat 35A Jun 15 2258 Kosmos-2352 ) Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Comsat 36A Kosmos-2353 ) Comsat 36B Kosmos-2354 ) Comsat 36C Kosmos-2355 ) Comsat 36D Kosmos-2356 ) Comsat 36E Kosmos-2357 ) Comsat 36F Jun 18 2248 Intelsat 805 Atlas 2AS Canaveral LC36A Comsat 37A Jun 24 1830 Kosmos-2358 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon 38A Jun 25 1400 Kosmos-2359 Soyuz-U Baykonur Recon 39A Jul 1 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 40A Jul 3 1812 Planet B M-5 Kagoshima Mars probe Current Shuttle Processing Status __________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Unknown OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-95 Oct 29 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Unknown .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'