Jonathan's Space Report No. 496 2003 Apr 6, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- Expedition 6 crew Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin remain aboard the International Space Station. The Progress M-47 cargo craft is docked to the aft Zvezda port and the Soyuz TMA-1 transport ship is docked to the Pirs module. Soyuz TMA-2 will be launched in April or May carrying the new Expedition 7 crew of Yuriy Malenchenko and Edward Lu. The investigation into the Columbia accident continues. One possible scenario is that a piece of external tank foam which broke off 80 seconds after launch hit the underside of the leading edge and loosened a carrier panel near RCC leading edge segment number 6, possibly previously weakened by corrosion or some other problem. During an attitude manuever on Jan 17 the panel separated (and was tracked on radar). As Columbia reached entry interface on Feb 1, hot gas entered as early as 1351:09 UTC, and began melting the aluminium wing structure. Since the investigation continues, this reconstruction is obviously highly speculative; analysis of the recently recovered onboard OEX recorder will help reveal the actual sequence of events. Recent Launches --------------- The first two Japanese military surveillance satellites were launched on Mar 28 aboard an H2A rocket (Stefan Barensky reports that a 2024 model was used). The two Information Gathering Satellites include an optical imager and a radar imager. The H2A second stage made a single burn to enter a 485 x 491 km x 97.3 deg sun-synchronous orbit. The IGS-1a Information Gathering Satellite separated, followed by the dual launch adapter cone, the two half cylinders of the lower fairing, and then the IGS-1b craft. A GPS Block IIR navigation satellite, SVN 45, was launched on Mar 31 by a Boeing Delta 7925-9.5. The Delta entered an initial parking orbit of 174 x 197 km x 36.8 deg. 1 hr 6 min after launch the third stage put the GPS satellite in a transfer orbit; its Star 37 kick motor was fired on Apr 23 circularize the orbit at 20063 x 20433 km x 55.0 deg. Russian Space Forces launched a Molniya-1T elliptical-orbit communications satellite on Apr 2 from Plesetsk. The spacecraft has a mass of around 1660 kg and is in an initial 624 x 40644 km x 62.9 km orbit. The Japanese USERS satellite raised its orbit slightly on Apr 4 from 487 x 498 km x 30.4 deg to 500 x 511 km. This may indicate that recovery is imminent. The satellite is operated by the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyers in Tokyo and was launched in Sep 2002; it was meant to be recovered near the Ogasawara Islands after a six month microgravity mission, but very little information has been made available on its status. Erratum ------- DSCS III B-8 was launched 2000 Jan 21, not Jan 31. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 2 1259 Progress M-47 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 06A Feb 15 0700 Intelsat 907 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comms 07A Mar 11 0059 DSCS III A-3 Delta IVM Canaveral SLC37B Comms 08A Mar 28 0127 IGS-1a ) H2A 2024 Tanegashima Imaging? 09A IGS-1b ) Radar? 09B Mar 31 2209 GPS SVN 45 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 10A Apr 2 0153 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk Comms 11A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-103 Discovery OPF Maintenance OV-104 Atlantis VAB STS-114 Unknown ISS ULF1 OV-105 Endeavour OPF STS-115 Unknown ISS 12A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'