Jonathan's Space Report No. 155 1993 May 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shuttle ------- The STS-57 launch is due on June 3. Endeavour's main payload is the Spacehab module. This is a commercial pressurized module belonging to Spacehab, Inc. The pressurized module itself was built by Alena Spazio of Italy. It's somewhat smaller than a Spacelab module and much less fancy, and provides extra storage space for experiments and limited lab facilities. On this mission there are about 20 main experiments for materials processing, life sciences, and technology, including a test of a water recycling system for the Space Station. Other payloads include SHOOT, the Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer, and a GAS Bridge Assembly with ten getaway special canisters, also mostly with materials processing and life sciences experiments. GAS can G-601 carries a helioseismology experiment developed by the San Diego section of the AIAA. SHOOT will carry liquid helium at a temperature of 1.1 K, and will test ways of moving the cryogen from one dewar to another. Further activities on the mission will be the rendezvous with and retrieval of the EURECA (European Carrier) satellite, and the DTO1210 spacewalk to practise for the Station assembly and the HST repair. Crew for STS-57 are Col. Ronald Grabe (Commander), Col. Brian Duffy (Pilot), David Low (Payload Commander), Capt. Nancy Sherlock (Mission Specialist 2), Dr. Jeff Wisoff (Mission Specialist 3) and Dr. Janice Voss (Mission Specialist 4). Low and Wisoff will make the spacewalk. Mir --- The Progress M-18 supply ship was launched from Baykonur on May 22. It is to dock at the front port of the Mir complex. The Progress M, built by NPO Energiya, is a modified Soyuz ship without a crew, and carries food, water, air and other supplies. This one also carries repair equipment for a spacewalk device damaged last month. Cosmonauts Manakov and Poleshchuk will make another spacewalk to carry out the repair. Launches -------- A spacecraft was launched into a 82.6 degree inclination orbit from Plesetsk on May 21 by a Soyuz launch vehicle. The satellite is probably a Resurs-F satellite built by KB Foton of Samara. The Resurs-F is a modified version of the original Vostok spaceship, carrying film cameras to image the Earth for civilian remote sensing. The spacecraft will be recovered in a few weeks. Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. May 11 1450? Kosmos-2245 ) Tsiklon Plesetsk Comsat 30A Kosmos-2246 ) 30B Kosmos-2247 ) 30C Kosmos-2248 ) 30D Kosmos-2249 ) 30E Kosmos-2250 ) 30F May 12 0056 Astra 1C ) Ariane 42L Kourou Comsat 31A Arsene ) Comsat 31B May 13 0007 Navstar GPS 37 Delta 7925 Canaveral Navsat 32A May 21 Resurs-F? Soyuz Plesetsk Remote Sens. 33A May 22 Progress M-18 Soyuz Baykonur Cargo 33A Reentries --------- May 6 Kosmos-2243 Reentered May 6 Columbia Landed at Edwards AFB Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-58 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-51 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour LC39B STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1?/RSRM-33 VAB Bay 1 STS-51 ML2/RSRM-32/ET-58/OV-105 LC39B STS-57 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 | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'