Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 14 1990 (no.62)
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Despite multiple spacecraft and payload failures, both Astro-1 and BBXRT
returned important results last week.  Columbia landed Dec 11 at Edwards
AFB on Runway 22. 

The Galileo spacecraft flew 960 km from Earth at 2035 UT on Dec 8
in a gravity assist maneuver.

Soyuz TM-11 docked with Mir's forward port on Dec 4.  Manakov, Strekalov
and Akiyama returned to Earth on Dec 10 in Soyuz TM-10.  The new
crewmembers of the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11 complex are
Afanas'ev and Manarov.  The rear port of Kvant is free to receive the
Progress M-6 cargo craft due for launch soon. Orbit of the complex is
371x405 km.

Meanwhile, the abandoned Salyut-7/Kosmos-1686 complex had decayed
to a 308x312 km orbit by Dec 3, dropping 0.5 km/day with reentry
expected in January or February.

Kosmos-2106 was launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Nov 28.
It is probably a radar calibration satellite used to deploy
targets for the Soviet PVO (Air Defence Force) radar system.

Kosmos-2107 was launched from Baykonur on Dec 4. It is
a naval electronic surveillance spacecraft.

Kosmos-2108 was launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Dec 4.
It is a recon satellite carrying a set of film return capsules,
and will remain in orbit until early February.

Kosmos-2101 had been in orbit for 60 days on Nov 30 when it
was deorbited. It was a Kosmos-1246 class mapping satellite,
distinguished from the usual recon satellites by its higher
perigee; it set a new record lifetime for the type.

Kosmos-2104 had been in orbit for 18 days when it landed on Dec 4.  It
was probably a recon satellite, but its orbit is unusual.  It remained in
a 240x362 km orbit inclined at 62.8 deg (a standard recon sat
inclination) for five days, then lowered its apogee by 80 km to a
230x282 km orbit; five days later its orbit was lowered again to 204x254
km and maintained at that altitude. It was probably a Vostok class
recon sat, but again the lifetime is unusually long for the type.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        EAFB RW22 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML2/STS-39             VAB       |
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(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell