Jonathan's Space Report No. 173 1993 Oct 18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shuttle ------- Columbia/STS-58 was launched from pad 39B at 1453 UTC on Oct 18. Main engine cutoff was at 1502 UTC and the OMS 2 burn to circularize the orbit was at 1535 UTC. The Spacelab Life Sciences 2 mission is planned to be the longest Shuttle flight yet. Mir --- Progress M-19 was deorbited on Oct 13. Progress M-20 probably docked with Mir the same day (no confirmation yet). Obituary: Dr. Karl Gordon Henize (1926-1993) -------- Karl Henize, a native of Ohio, got his masters' in astronomy from the University of Virginia in 1948, followed by a PhD from Michigan in 1954. After a successful career in astronomy (a number of well known emission line stars carry his name, e.g. the x-ray pulsar Henize 715= 4U1145-61) he was selected as an astronaut in 1967. However, Apollo was cancelled, and he had to wait until 1985 for a flight. At 58 he was at that time the oldest person to fly in space, and it's still a record age for a first flight. He was a Mission Specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on the Spacelab 2 mission. Henize left the astronaut corps in Apr 1986 to work in the science division at NASA-JSC. He died of respiratory failure on Oct 5, at the age of 66, while trying to climb Mt. Everest. Henize was buried on the mountain. Launches -------- The geostationary launch on Sep 30 has been referred to by TASS both as Raduga and as Kosmos-2265. China's Jian Bing satellite failed to return its descent module to Earth on Oct 16 as planned. Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 16 0736 Kosmos-2263 Zenit Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 59A Sep 17 0043 Kosmos-2264 Tsiklon-M Baykonur LC90 EORSAT 60A Sep 20 0012 IRS-1E PSLV Sriharikota Remote s. FTO Sep 26 0145 SPOT 3 ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA 2 Remote s. 61A Stella ) Geodesy 61B KITSAT-OSCAR 25 Remote s,com 61C ITAmsat/OSCAR 26 Comsat 61F Eyesat 1/OSCAR 27 Comsat 61G Posat 1 ) Test 61D Healthsat 1 ) Comsat 61E Sep 30 1706 Kosmos-2265? Proton/Blok DM Baykonur LC81 Comsat 62A Oct 5 1756 Landsat 6 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W Remote s. FTO Oct 8 0800 Jian Bing Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Remote s. 63A Oct 11 2133 Progress M-20 Soyuz Baykonur LC2 Cargo 64A Oct 18 1453 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39 Spaceship Spacelab SLS 2) Reentries --------- Sep 22 Discovery Landed at KSC Sep 28 Molniya-1 (1977-82A) reentered Oct 13 Progress M-19 Deorbited Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-58 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-60 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-61 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ LC39B STS-58 ML2/RSRM-23/ VAB Bay 1 STS-61 ML3/RSRM-35? VAB Bay 3 STS-60 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'