Jonathan's Space Report No. 222 1994 Dec 9 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clarifications -------------- The loss of the H-10-III stage on Ariane V70 was due to a gas generator failing to reach full thrust. The component is reportedly the same as the one on the usual H-10+ stage. (Space News, Aviation Week). The Orion Systems' Orion 1 satellite was built by a part of British Aerospace that now belongs to Matra Marconi Space - I apologize for the error, it's tough work keeping up with all these corporate realignments. By Dec 4, Orion 1 was in a 35500 x 122584 km x 1.3 deg orbit. Mir --- On Dec 4 the Mir complex was in a 391 x 395 km x 51.6 deg orbit. As of Dec 9, Commander Aleksandr Viktorenko and Flight Engineer Yelena Kondakova have been in orbit for 66 days as part of the 17th main expedition (EO-17 crew). The station doctor, Valeriy Polyakov, came aboard in January as part of the EO-15 crew and has been in orbit for 335 days, longer than any other spaceflight except one (the Titov/Manarov flight in 1987/88). His cumulative time in space over 2 missions is 576 days, a world record. At present, the Mir complex consists of: The Mir core module The Kvant astrophysics module, docked to the Mir rear port The Kvant-2 airlock module, docked to a side port at Mir's transfer (front) compartment The Kristall technological module, docked to a side port of the transfer compt. The Soyuz TM-20 transport spaceship, docked to the front port of the transfer compartment. The Progress M-25 robot cargo freighter, docked to the Kvant module's rear port. The Raduga 10 reentry capsule, carried in the Progress cargo compartment. Shuttle ------- Discovery is being prepared for its 20th flight into space. Crew of Mission STS-63 will be James Wetherbee (commander), Eileen Collins (pilot), Michael Foale, Janice Voss, and Bernard Harris (mission specialists), and Vladimir Titov (Russian Space Agency). In the payload bay will be the RMS robot arm, the pressurized Spacehab 3 module, together with the Spacelab Tunnel Adapter and the Spacehab transition/flex section which connects the tunnel to the module, an MPESS (Multi purpose Experiment Support Structure) truss in its Spartan Flight Support Structure (SFSS) variant, and a second MPESS truss. The first MPESS will carry the Spartan-204 free flyer satellite, which will be deployed and retrieved during the mission using the RMS arm. Spartan-204 carries detectors to study the solar wind. The second MPESS (probably the Hitchhiker-M variety) will carry a modified Getaway Special (GAS) canister which will eject six ODERACS-2 radar calibration satellites, as well as the Cyro Systems and GLO-II payloads. The TCS/DTO 700-5 laser rendezvous experiment package will be attached to the payload bay wall (with a GABA adapter plate?) Discovery will carry out a rendezvous with the Mir complex (experiment DTO-835). Two crew members will carry out a spacewalk, one of a series used to train astronauts and test out new spacewalking techniques (DTO-1210, 671, 672, 833). Launch of STS-63 is due on Feb 2. Recent Launches --------------- No new launches this week. Does anyone have the launch time for the DFH-3? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 1 0037 Astra 1D Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 70A Nov 1 0931 Wind Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Science 71A Nov 2 0104 Kosmos-2293 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 EORSAT 72A Nov 3 1700 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 73A Nov 4 0547 Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Rem.sensing 74A Nov 4 1250 CRISTA-SPAS - Atlantis, LEO Science 73B Nov 11 0722 Progress M-25 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 75A Nov 20 0039 Kosmos-2294 ) Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC200 Navsat 76A Kosmos-2295 ) Navsat 76B Kosmos-2296 ) Navsat 76C Nov 24 0916 Kosmos-2297 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 77A Nov 29 0254 Geo-IK Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Geodetic 78A Nov 29 1021 Orion 1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 79A Nov 29 DFH-3 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Comsat 80A Dec 1 2255 Panamsat K2 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat FTO Reentries --------- Nov 4 Molniya-1 Reentered (1984-29A) Nov 4 Soyuz TM-19 Landed in Kazakhstan Nov 14 Atlantis Landed at Edwards AFB Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP - OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-63 Feb 2 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-71 May OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-67 Mar ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68 VAB Bay 3 STS-63 ML2/RSRM-43 VAB Bay 1 STS-67 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html | ! ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'