Jonathan's Space Report No. 345 1997 Dec 31 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Progress M-37 (7K-TGM No. 236) was launched from Baykonur on Dec 20, and brought new supplies to the Mir station. It docked at 1022 UTC on Dec 22. Recent Launches --------------- Intelsat 804 was launched on Dec 22 by an Ariane 42L rocket. The satellite, built for the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, will be placed in geostationary orbit by its liquid apogee engine. Eight small 40 kg Orbcomm communications satellites were placed in low orbit on Dec 23 by a Pegasus XL rocket with a HAPS hydrazine fourth stage. The L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Wallops Island and released the rocket over the Atlantic. Orbcomm is a subsidiary of Orbital Sciences, who also make the Pegasus rocket. Early Bird, Earth Watch Inc's 3-m commercial remote sensing satellite, was launched on Dec 24 by an STT Kompleks Start-1 launch vehicle from the Russian Svobodniy (2-GIK) launch site. A Krunichev Proton-K launch from Baykonur on Dec 24 placed an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage in low perigee orbit with the Asiasat 3 payload attached. An hour later the Blok DM3 ignited to enter a geosynchronous transfer orbit, but 6 hr 20min after launch the second burn of the Blok DM3 shut down after only one second, stranding Asiasat in elliptical transfer orbit. Asiasat 3 was a Hughes HS-601 comsat for Hong Kong based Asia Telecommunications. The launch of Iridium 42 and 44 by a Chinese CZ-2C rocket on Dec 8 left the second stage and several pieces of debris in low transfer orbit. However, another object, 1997-77H/25084, was cataloged in an orbit similar in height to the Iridium payloads, but more elliptical. This object must be associated with the SD (Smart Dispenser) upper stage; the SD itself is meant to deorbit after releasing the Iridiums, to minimize space debris, but perhaps this last burn of the SD did not go right and it ended up still in orbit. Alternatively, 77H may be some kind of adapter that got released. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 2 1225 SCD-2A VLS Alcantara Rem.sens. FTO Nov 3 0405 Sputnik-40 Mir,LEO Demo 58C Nov 6 0030 GPS 38 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 67A Nov 8 0205 TRUMPET 3? Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41 Signal int 68A Nov 9 0134 Iridium 38 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 69E Iridium 39 ) Comsat 69D Iridium 40 ) Comsat 69C Iridium 41 ) Comsat 69B Iridium 43 ) Comsat 69A Nov 12 1700 Kupon Proton Baykonur LC200 Comsat 70A Nov 12 2148 Sirius 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 71A Cakrawarta 1 ) Comsat 71B Nov 18 1115 Resurs-F1M Soyuz-U Plesetk Rem.sens. 72A Nov 19 1946 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 73A Nov 21 2105 Spartan 201 OV-102, LEO Astronomy 73B Nov 27 2127 TRMM ) H-2 Tanegashima Rem.sens. 74A Hikoboshi ) Technology 74B Orihime ) Dec 2 2252 JCSAT-5 ) Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 75A Equator-S ) Space sci 75B Dec 2 2310 Astra 1G Proton Baykonur Comsat 76A Dec 3 1215 AERCam/Sprint OV-102, LEO Technology Dec 8 0716 Iridium 42 ) CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 77A Iridium 44 ) Comsat 77B Dec 8 2352 Galaxy 8I Atlas 2AS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 78A Dec 9 0717 Kosmos-2347 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 79A Dec 15 1540? Kosmos-2348 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon 80A Dec 17 0737 X-Mir Inspector Progress,LEO Technology 58D Dec 20 0845 Progress M-37 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 81A Dec 20 1316 Iridium 45 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 82A Iridium 46 ) Comsat 82B Iridium 47 ) Comsat 82C Iridium 48 ) Comsat 82D Iridium 49 ) Comsat 82E Dec 22 0016 Intelsat 804 Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 83A Dec 23 1911 Orbcomm A1 ) Pegasus XL/H Wallops Comsat 84A Orbcomm A2 ) Orbcomm A3 ) Orbcomm A4 ) Orbcomm A5 ) Orbcomm A6 ) Orbcomm A7 ) Orbcomm A8 ) Dec 24 1332 EarlyBird Start-1 Svobodniy Rem Sens. 85A Dec 24 2319 Asiasat 3 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 86A Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-87 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-89 Jan 22 MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/ MLP2/RSRM65 VAB Bay 3 STS-90 MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90/OV-105 LC39A STS-89 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'