Jonathan's Space Report No. 118 1992 Jun 15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Launches -------- A Ukranian-built Kosmos launch vehicle was launched from the Russian Plesetsk spaceport on Jun 3 carrying 8 small naval communications satellites (Kosmos-2187 through Kosmos-2194) into 1400 x 1500 km orbits inclined 74 degrees. NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer was launched at 1640 UTC on Jun 7 into a 514 x 528 km orbit inclined 28 degrees by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 6920-10 vehicle. EUVE carries three scanning EUV telescopes (two for the 70-400 A range, one for the 400-760 A range) and a Deep Survey/Spectrometer instrument. The Intelsat K satellite was launched by General Dynamics' first Atlas IIA Centaur, AC-105, on Jun 9. The Centaur IIA stage entered a 195x 35732 km orbit inclined 26.46 deg, and the Intelsat K separated; after the first burn of its liquid apogee motor (probably a British built Leros 1) its orbit on Jun 11 was 3133x 35758 km inclined 17.5 degrees. Several further burns will be required before it enters geostationary orbit. Intelsat K is a GE 5000 series comsat, originally built for RCA Americom as Satcom K4, and sold to Intelsat as a stopgap between the Intelsat VI and Intelsat VII series spacecraft. The General Dynamics Atlas Centaur range now includes the following variants: Name First Launch Atlas I AC-69, 1990 Jul 25 Atlas II AC-102, 1991 Dec 7 Atlas IIA AC-105, 1992 Jun 9 Atlas IIAS [Scheduled 1993] The Atlas I is essentially identical with the old Atlas SLV-3G/Centaur D-1AR. Atlas II and IIA are improved, stretched versions. IIAS will have solid strapons added to the first stage. Reentries --------- The Resurs-F remote sensing spacecraft launched on Apr 29 landed in Kazakhstan on May 29. The Kosmos-2182 recon satellite reentered on May 30. Shuttle Notes ------------- The STS-50 launch is due on Jun 25. The STS-46 stack is now on pad 39B. STS-50/Columbia crew bios: Richards, Richard Noel (Commander) Birth: 1946 Aug 24, Florida Rank: Capt USN Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1980 Pilot, Columbia, mission STS-28R, 1989 Commander, Discovery, mission STS-41, 1990 Total spaceflight hours: 219:10 Bowersox, Kenneth D. (Pilot) Birth: 1956 Nov 14, Virginia Rank: Lt Cdr USN Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1987 Dunbar, Bonnie Jeanne, (Payload Commander) Birth: 1949 Mar 3, Wash Education: PhD in biomed. engineering, Houston, 1983 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1980 Mission Specialist, Challenger/Spacelab D1, mission 61-A, 1985 Mission Specialist, Columbia, mission STS-32R, 1990 Total Spaceflight hours: 429:45 Baker (Shulman), Ellen Louise (Mission Specialist 2) Birth: 1953 Apr 27, N Carolina Education: MD, Cornell, 1978 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1984 Mission specialist, Atlantis, mission STS-34, 1989 Total spaceflight hours: 119:39 Meade, Carl J. (Mission Specialist 3) Birth: 1950 Nov 16 Rank: Col USAF Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1985 Mission Specialist, Atlantis, mission STS-38, 1990 Total spaceflight hours: DeLucas, Lawrence J (Payload Specialist 1) Birth: 1950, NY. Education: MD optometry, UAB, 1981; PhD biochemistry, UAB, 1981 Selected as USML candidate, 1990, Univ. Alabama Birmingham Trinh, Eugene H. (Payload Specialist 2) Birth: 1950 Sep 14, Saigon, Vietnam Education: PhD physics, Yale, 1978 Selected as Spacelab 3 candidate, 1983, JPL Backup Payload Specialist, SL3, 1985 Selected as USML candidate, 1990, JPL Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-50 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 Mod OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-46 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-47 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104 LC39B ML2/STS-47 VAB Bay 2 ML3/STS-50/ET/OV-102 LC39A .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'