Jonathan's Space Report No. 256 1995 Sep 12 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Orbiter OV-105 Endeavour was launched at 1509:00 UTC on 1995 Sep 7 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The SRBs (RSRM-48) separated at about 1511:03, and the main engines shut down at 1517:33, with separation of External Tank ET-72 a few seconds later. Endeavour was inserted into a 65 x 365 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS 2 orbit circularization burn at 1551 UTC was successful, placing Endeavour in a 368 x 377 km x 28.5 deg orbit. Opening of the payload bay doors was planned for around 1630 UTC. Crew of STS-69 are David Walker, Kenneth Cockrell, James Voss, James Newman and Michael Gernhardt. The Spartan 201 satellite was grappled by the RMS arm at around 1500 UTC on Sep 8 and unberthed at 1515 UTC. It was released into orbit at 1543 UTC. Orbital parameters on Sep 9 were 368 x 376 km x 28.5 deg. Spartan 201 is built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It carries a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ultraviolet telescope to study the Sun. Endeavour made re-rendezvous with Spartan 201 on Sep 10 at around 1420 UTC. However, Spartan appears to have entered safemode and was not in the expected orientation. Walker and Cockrell flew the Orbiter around Spartan until the RMS arm was aligned with the grapple fixture on Spartan, and Gernhardt drove the RMS in to grapple Spartan at 1502 UTC. The satellite was berthed on the SFSS (Spartan Flight Support Structure) around 1516 UTC and latched at 1521 UTC. The RMS then released the satellite by 1524. The OMS-3 and OMS-4 burns were scheduled on Sep 10 at 1836 UTC and 1922 UTC to raise the orbit for WSF operations to 396 x 404 km x 28.5 deg. The RMS was then used to grapple the Wake Shield Facility to establish a data connection; the RMS remained attached to WSF overnight, and then was used to unberth it early in the morning. The crew used the RMS to move WSF over the side of the Orbiter and expose it to the direction of flight (ram direction), to scrub it clean with the flow of the thin upper atmosphere impacting it at orbital speeds. WSF was then moved on the other side of the orbiter for release with its instrument side oriented to the orbital wake, protected from further contamination. The Wake Shield Facility was deployed into its first free flight on Sep 11 at 1125 UTC. Mir ---- The EO-20 crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev, and Reiter, callsign `Uran', are now on board the Mir complex. On previous international flights to Mir, the visiting astronaut has had the title "Kosmonavt-issledovatel'" (Cosmonaut-researcher). On this mission Reiter has extra responsibilities and instead has the title "Bortinzhener-2" (Flight Engineer 2). Gidzenko is "Komandir" (Commander) and Avdeev is "Bortinzhener" (Flight Engineer), the usual designations. [Thanks to Ashot Bakunts]. Progress M-28 undocked from the front port of Mir at 0607 UTC on Sep 4 and was deorbited over the Pacific later that day. [C. vd Berg] The EO-19 crew returned to Earth on Sep 11 in the Soyuz TM-21 spaceship. Anatoli Solov'yov and Nikolai Budarin undocked from the Kvant rear port on Mir at 0330:44 UTC and landed at 50 deg 41'N 68 deg 15'E, 108 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, at 0652:40 UTC. [Thanks Vladimir!] Soyuz TM-21 had been used to ferry the EO-18 crew (including Norm Thagard) into space in March; the EO-18 crew returned to Earth in June aboard Atlantis, which had delivered the EO-19 crew to the station. The EO-19 flight lasted for 75 days 11 hr 20 min 22 sec, relatively short by Mir standards. Solov'yov has now spent 453 days in space on his four flights, which puts him fifth in the world rankings. Recent Launches -------------- As reported in JSR 254, the JCSAT 3 satellite was launched on Aug 29 at 0053:01 UTC by a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS. Further data have become available: The AC-117 Centaur stage ignited at 0058:17 and burned for 4min 26s, shutting down at 0102:44 UTC in a 155 x 395 km x 28.2 deg parking orbit. At 0116:45 UTC the AC-117 stage reignited for 1min 47s; Centaur MECO2 (main engine cutoff 2) was at 0118:32 UTC. The Centaur then separated and inserted the Hughes HS-601 JCSAT payload into a 167 x 81423 km x 23.5 deg orbit. On Aug 30, Space Command elements gave JCSAT 3 in a 260 x 80799 km x 23.2 deg orbit. The Centaur stage has not yet been cataloged. JCSAT 3 is owned by Japan Satellite Systems (Kabushiki-gaisha Nihon Sateraito Sisutemuzu). Thanks to Peter Collins (Cape Canaveral Air Station) and Jun Takei (JSAT) for information. Obituary -------- Reinhard Furrer, who flew on the Spacelab D-1 mission in 1985, died on Sep 9 at the age of 54. The Austrian-born physicist was a payload specialist for the DFVLR (German space agency) on the mission, aboard flight 61-A of Orbiter OV-099 Challenger. He died in the crash of an antique Me-108 airplane at an air show in Berlin. [Thanks to Andreas H"orstemeier for info.] Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 2 2359 Prognoz-M2 ) Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/3 Science 39A Magion 4 ) Science 39F Aug 3 2358 PAS 4 Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Aug 5 1110 Mugunghwa-ho Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Comsat 41A Aug 9 0121 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 42A Aug 15 2230 Gemstar 1 LLV-1 Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat FTO Aug 29 0053 JCSAT 3 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 43A Aug 29 0641 N-STAR a Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 44A Aug 30 1933? Kosmos-2319 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat? 45A Aug 31 0650 Sich-1 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 46A FASat-Alfa Comsat 46A Sep 3 0900 Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 47A Sep 7 1509 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 48A Sep 8 1643 Spartan-201 OV-105, LEO Astronomy 48B Sep 11 1125 WSF 2 OV-105, LEO Micrograv. 48C Reentries --------- Sep 4 Progress M-28 Deorbited Sep 6 Kosmos-2314 Deorbited Sep 11 Soyuz TM-21 Landed in Kazakhstan Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-73 Sep 26 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-74 Oct 26 OV-105 Endeavour LEO STS-69 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-51 VAB Bay 1 STS-74 ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102 LC39B STS-73 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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/space/jsr/jsr.html | | ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'