Jonathan's Space Report No. 350 1998 Feb 22 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Anatoliy Solov'yov and Pavel Vinogradov of the Mir EO-24 crew and Leopold Eyharts of the CNES Pegase mission undocked from the -X port on Mir at 0552 UTC on Feb 19 aboard the Soyuz TM-26 ship. Soyuz TM-26 fired its deorbit engines at 0816 UTC and the craft landed in Kazakstan at 50 11N, 67 31E at 0910 UTC. Solov'yov handed over command of Mir to the EO-25 commander, Talgat Musabaev on Feb 18 or Feb 19 (can anyone tell me when the official transfer occurred?) On Feb 20, the Mir EO-25 crew, Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin, together with Andy Thomas of the NASA-7 mission, boarded their Soyuz TM-27 transport and undocked from the Kvant +X port at 0848 UTC. They redocked with the -X port on Mir at 0932 UTC. This frees up the Kvant port for a test redocking of the Progress M-37 cargo ship, currently parked in orbit. Recent Launches --------------- Boeing/Huntingdon Beach (former McDonnell Douglas) carried out two Delta launches within a week in mid-Feb, placing a total of 9 payloads in orbit. The first four Globalstar satellites, built by Space Systems/Loral, were launched on Feb 14. The Boeing Delta 7420 placed them in a 1400 km orbit. Most sources are naming them Globalstar U1, U2, L1 and L2; as far as I can tell these just denote that on this particular launch they were the upper and lower pairs on the Delta dispenser, so there will be a U1,U2,L1,L2 on every Delta Globalstar launch and they don't really reflect unique names for the satellites. If anyone has the actual production or post-launch names for these satellites, please let me know. The Globalstar launch was the first Delta 7420-10 variant, one of a number of new cheaper Delta variants. The first digit in the Delta indicates the first stage variety; 7 means the Delta II first stage with Alliant GEM solid motors. The second digit indicates the number of solid motors; the third digit gives the type of second stage; and the fourth digit gives the type of third stage ( 0 means no third stage ). The fairing designation is then given after a hyphen; -10 means the 10-foot (3.1m) diameter fairing. Versions in use in 1998-99 are: Delta 7320 Delta II Lite with 3 strapons Delta 7326 Delta II Lite with 3 strapons and Star 37FM third stage Delta 7420 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons Delta 7425 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and PAM-D (Star 48) stage Delta 7426 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and Star 37FM Delta 7920 Delta II standard, LEO missions Delta 7925 Delta II with PAM-D third stage for GEO and escape missions - Delta III with GEM LDXL strapons and LH2/LOX second stage Boeing hasn't announced a corresponding designation for the Delta III yet. For consistency with the existing 28-year-old tradition, I suggest it should be the Delta 8930, with the 8 indicating the change to the LDXL strapons, 9 indicating the number of strapons, and 3 indicating a new type of second stage. They'll need some designation like this as soon as someone orders a slightly different kind of Delta 3, say one with fewer strapons, and they could then denote the planned Delta 4 variants as 9020/9025, 9030, and 9240 in the same system. However, since consistency of nomenclature has never been the space program's strong point, I expect they'll ignore my suggestion and introduce an entirely different scheme. Five more Motorola/Lockheed Iridium satellites were launched on Feb 18 by a Boeing Delta 7920-10C from Vandenberg. The five satellites will use their own on-board propulsion systems to reach their final orbits. The two recently launched Orbcomm satellites are Orbcomm G1 and G2, production numbers FM3 and FM4. With Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm launches now underway, the expected shift of commercial emphasis from geostationary to low orbit constellations is now a fact. Kosmos-2349, launched on Feb 17, is an imaging satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry. On Feb 19, Kosmos-2349 was in a 212 x 276 km x 70.4 deg orbit. The satellite is built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara and is based on the Yantar' bus. It is probably a Kometa mapping satellite, using the 11F660 Yantar'-1KFT spacecraft. The last Kometa launch in May 1996 was a failure. Japan's largest launch vehicle, the H-II, suffered its first failure this week during launch of the Kakehashi satellite. The Japanese applications space agency NASDA carried out the launch of H-II No. 5F on 1998 Feb 21. This was actually the 6th H-II launch, as H-II No. 6F was launched last November with the TRMM and ETS-7 satellites. The payload for the new flight was COMETS, or Communuications and Broadcasting Experimental Test Satellite. COMETS, based on the ETS-6 bus, carries an experimental Ka-band communications payload and a payload for inter-satellite data relay. The H-II was meant to deliver COMETS and its attached LAPS transfer engine into geostationary transfer orbit with 35000 km apogee, but orbital tracking data indicate a much lower 250 x 1883 km x 30.0 deg orbit. This was reportedly due to premature shutdown 44s into the H-II second stage's second burn. COMETS, renamed Kakehashi now it is in orbit, has successfully deployed its solar arrays and checked out its on-board systems. It may still be possible to use the LAPS-derived UPS (Unified Propulsion System) apogee engine to raise COMETS to some kind of useful orbit. This engine itself failed the last time it was used, on the ETS-6 flight in 1994. Meanwhile, troubles with control of the ETS-7 satellite continue, and it is not clear when the rendezvous/docking experiments will take place. NASDA have run into a lot of trouble recently, also suffering the failure of ADEOS and problems in their engine development program. However, their previous record of success, and the fact that all 6 H-II flights have at least reached orbit, suggests they have the expertise to eventually overcome their current difficulties. I now understand that the informal name change of the USAF operated pads at Cape Canaveral from LC (Launch Complex) to SLC (Space Launch Complex) was made official at some point during 1997, so I am adopting the change in my launch listings. I'm guessing, however, that NASA KSC retains the honorable name of LC39 for their Shuttle pads. Vandenberg introduced the SLC abbreviation for their orbital pads in July 1966. Erratum: Apogee motor for Inmarsat is Star 37FM, not Star 30. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 7 0228 Lunar Prospector Athena-2 Canaveral SLC46 Probe 01A Jan 10 0032 Skynet 4D Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17B Comsat 02A Jan 22 1256 'Ofeq-4 Shaviyt Palmachim Imaging F01 Jan 23 0248 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 03A Jan 29 1633 Soyuz TM-27 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 04A Jan 29 1837 CAPRICORN Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36A Comsat? 05A Feb 4 2329 Brasilsat B3 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 06A Inmarsat 3 F5 ) Comsat 06B Feb 10 1320 GFO ) Taurus Vandenberg 576E Altimeter 07A Orbcomm G1 ) Comsat 07B Orbcomm G2 ) Comsat 07C Celestis-02 ) Burial 07D Feb 14 1434 Globalstar 1 ) Comsat 08A Globalstar 2 ) Delta 7420 Canaveral SLC17A Comsat 08B Globalstar 3 ) Comsat 08C Globalstar 4 ) Comsat 08D Feb 17 1030? Kosmos-2349 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31? Recon 09A Feb 18 1358 Iridium 50 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 10A Iridium 51 ) Comsat 10B Iridium 52 ) Comsat 10C Iridium 53 ) Comsat 10D Iridium 54 ) Comsat 10E Feb 21 0755 Kakehashi H-II Tanegashima Y Comsat 11A Current Shuttle Processing Status __________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-90 Apr 2 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Sep 17? MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/ MLP2/RSRM65 VAB Bay 3 STS-90 MLP3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'