Jonathan's Space Report No. 203 1994 Jul 14 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on mission STS-65 at 1643 UTC on Jul 8. This is Columbia's 17th flight and the long two week mission, if successful, will significantly extend Columbia's record as the orbiter with the most flight hours. On Jul 11 Columbia was in a 299 x 302 km orbit inclined 28.5 deg to the equator. The Spacelab Long Module in the cargo bay carries the International Microgravity Laboratory 2 payload. Mir --- The Progress M-23 cargo ship undocked and was deorbited on Jul 2. (I don't know the time or whether it had a Raduga reentry capsule). Soyuz TM-19 docked with the vacated rear port of the Kvant module on Jul 3, as reported earlier. On Jul 9, the EO-15 commander and flight engineer, Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy Usachyov, boarded the Soyuz TM-18 ferry docked at the Mir front port, and undocked from the complex. Several hours later they ignited the Soyuz braking engine, and the descent module was separated from the orbital and instrument modules. The Soyuz TM-18 descent module landed 110 km north of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 1032:35 UTC on Jul 9. Afanas'ev and Usachyov's flight time was 182 days 0 hr 27 min if my arithmetic is correct. This gives Afanas'ev a cumulative flight time of 357 days 02 h 19 min over his two flights. EO-15 physician-cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov remains aboard Mir with the new EO-16 crew of Malenchenko and Musabaev. Launches -------- Ariane V.65 was launched at 2305 on Jul 8 from the Ensemble de Lancement Ariane No. 2 at the Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou in Guyane, South America. The 44L model Ariane has four liquid PAL strapon boosters on the L220 first stage, an L33 second stage, and a high-energy H10+ third stage. After the H10+ reached geostationary transfer orbit, the PanAmSat 2 satellite separated, followed by the cover of the SPELDA dual-satellite adapter, followed finally by the BS-3N satellite. PanAmSat 2 is owned by Alpha Lyracom, a Connecticut-based communications company. It is a Hughes HS-601 model satellite with a liquid apogee motor. BS-3N is owned by the Japanese NHK television company (it may be renamed Yuri-3N on reaching orbit, since previous BS satellites owned by the NASDA space agency were renamed in that way). It is a smaller GE3000 model built by Martin Marietta Astro Space (formerly GE, formerly RCA). The Kosmos-2282 geostationary satellite launched on Jul 6 is apparently an early warning satellite in the Prognoz series. A navigation satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 14 into a 1000 km, 83 degree orbit. It is either a Nadezhda civil navsat or a Parus navy navigation satellite. Recent Launches --------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jun 7 0720 Kosmos-2281 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Recon 32A Jun 14 1605 Foton No. 9 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43 Materials 33A Jun 17 0707 Intelsat 702 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 34A STRV 1 ) Technology 34B STRV 2 ) Technology 34C Jun 24 1350 UHF F/O F3 Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat 35A Jun 27 2115 STEP 1 Pegasus XL Point Arguello WA Science FTO Jul 1 1224 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 36A Jul 3 0804? FSW-2 Chang Zheng 2 Jiuquan Remote sens 37A Jul 6 2358 Kosmos-2282 Proton/DM2 Baykonur LC81 EarlyWarn 38A Jul 8 1643 Columbia ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 39A Spacelab IML-2) Jul 8 2305 PAS 2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A BS-3N ) Comsat 40B Jul 14 0508 Nadezhda? Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Navsat 41A? Reentries --------- Jun 3 Tiros VII Reentered Jul 2 Progress M-23 Deorbited Jul 9 Soyuz TM-18 Landed in Kazakhstan Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-65 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-64 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-66 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-68 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65 VAB Bay 3 STS-68 ML2/RSRM-41 VAB Bay 1 STS-64 ML3/ LC39A STS-65 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'