Jonathan's Space Report No. 407 1999 Sep 7 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chandra --------------- Chandra's first light image has been released: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/cas.jpg It's been an amazing few weeks. We opened the sunshade door and looked at the quasar PKS 0637-75, an old favorite of mine, expecting it to be a point source that would be good for focussing, but we could easily see X-rays from the quasar radio jet sticking out to the side. Turns out we were pretty well focussed anyway. Only a few radio jets have been seen in the X-ray before now, so seeing one in this quasar suggest to me that we'll be seeing a lot of them in other objects (specifically, flat-spectrum radio quasars like this one, in which we know the jet is pointing close to the line of sight). We looked at the supernova remnant Cas A, and saw lots of detail including a possible neutron star compact remnant in the center. After checking out the ACIS camera, we turned to the HRC camera which has also been working spectacularly. The HETG grating has also been tested out, making a high resolution spectrum of the bright star Capella. So far, so good! In fact better than good - pretty much everything we've looked at so far has fascinating surprises. Of course, there are the usual detailed issues with the processing software, and lots of numbers to tweak from on-orbit measurements, so although all in all things have been working remarkably well, there's been no shortage of things for us to do. Orbital activation and checkout will be completed later this month, at which point hopefully I start working less than 16-hour days. Shuttle and Mir --------------- For the first time since Sep 1989 there are no humans in space. The Mir EO-27 crew landed in Kazakhstan at 0035 UTC on Aug 28. Soyuz TM-29 undocked from Mir at 2117 UTC on Aug 27 with Afanas'ev, Avdeev and Haignere aboard. The hatch between Mir and Soyuz was closed for the last time at 1812 UTC. The Shuttle fleet remains grounded while NASA continues checks and repairs to the wiring in the Orbiters. Launches might resume by late October. Recent Launches --------------- Arianespace launched Koreasat 3 for Korea Telecom on Sep 4 on an Ariane 42P rocket. The H-10-3 third stage placed Koreasat 3 in a 214 x 35756 km x 7.0 deg transfer orbit. Koreasat 3 is a Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale A2100 class comsat with both Ka and Ku band transponders. Launch mass was 2790 kg; it will be located at 116 deg E. The first two Yamal comsats were launched by Krunichev's Proton on Sep 6. An Energiya DM-2M (11S861-01) upper stage placed the satellites in a 197 x 36311 km x 49.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit according to Space Command data, but this seems to be an error since Energiya reports that the DM-2M made two successful burns, which would have left the satellites in circular 36000 km orbit. Stay tuned for clarification of this issue. Yamal 101 reportedly ran into problems after it was deployed. RKK Energiya is building the Yamal 101 and 102 satellites for AO Gazcom of Moscow, a joint venture of RKKE and RAO Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly. The two Yamal-100 satellites each carry a communications payload of 12 C-band transponders built by Space Systems/Loral, and will support internal communications for RAO Gazprom. Satellite mass is 1360 kg. The satellite carries Fakel SPD-70 plasma thrusters for inclination control. Launch pad for Kosmos-2365 was PU3 at Plesetsk LC43 according to Aleksandr Zheleznyakov. (Last week's issue had a typo). Kosmos-2366 was launched on Aug 26 by a two-stage 11K65M rocket from Plesetsk into an 83 degree orbit. Kosmos-2366 is a Parus-class navigation satellite built by Polyot of Omsk. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 12 2252 Telkom 1 Ariane 42P CSG ELA2 Comsat 42A Aug 17 0437 Globalstar 24) Delta 7420 Canaveral SCL17 Comsat 43A Globalstar 27) Globalstar 53) Globalstar 54) Aug 18 1800 Kosmos-2365 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43/3 Recon 44A Aug 26 1203 Kosmos-2366 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Navsat 45A Sep 4 2234 Koreasat 3 Ariane 42P CSG ELA2 Comsat 46A Sep 6 1636 Yamal 101 ) Proton-K/DM Baykonur Comsat 47A Yamal 102 ) Comsat 47B Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 OMDP OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-103 1999 OV-104 Atlantis VAB Bay 2 STS-101 2000 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-99 1999 MLP1/ MLP2/ MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET? VAB Bay 3 STS-99 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'