Jonathan's Space Report No. 150 1993 Apr 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STS-56 ----------------- The Spartan-201 satellite was deployed using the RMS arm on Apr 11 at 0611 UTC. It carried an ultraviolet coronagraph and a white light coronagraph for studies of the Sun. On Apr 12 the NIXT x-ray telescope was launched on a sounding rocket from White Sands to get a simultaneous x-ray image of the Sun. Discovery carried out re-rendezvous maneuvers on Apr 12 and the Spartan satellite was grappled with the arm at 0720 on Apr 13. By 0802 it was reberthed in the payload bay. Discovery fired its OMS engines to return from orbit at 1034 on Apr 17; main gear touchdown on RW33 at Kennedy Space Center was at 1137 on Apr 17, for a mission duration of 9d 6h 8m 19s. Discovery's next mission is STS-51 in June. Columbia is due to launch on mission STS-55 on Apr 24. Erratum: The Apr 6 launch attempt of STS-56 was an RSLS hold, not an RSLS abort. The distinction is that the main engines had not started, so it was not considered an abort. The hold was due to a faulty sensor and not a software problem as was reported by various media; the workaround for the successful Apr 8 launch was to modify the software to ignore the sensor and monitor it manually. To keep the statistics hounds happy, I here present a revised list of all occasions on which a Shuttle countdown got past the T-31s point (when the RSLS computers take over the count) but either did not launch or did not reach the planned orbit. This includes 8 FRF static tests, where the orbiter engines were fired to test them out. Each orbiter had one of these tests carried out before its first launch. The Challenger one had to be repeated because of engine problems on the first try. In addition, an FRF was carried out for Discovery before the first `return to flight' mission after the loss of Challenger. This one also had to be repeated because of an abort one second after engine ignition. Space Shuttle Holds and Aborts after T-31s Date Where Orbiter Mission Description 1981 Feb 20,1345 LC39A 102 STS-1 FRF FRF for 20s 1982 Dec 18 LC39A 099 STS-6 FRF FRF for 20s 1983 Jan 25 LC39A 099 STS-6 FRF-2 FRF for 20s 1984 Jun 2 LC39A 103 STS 41-D FRF FRF for 20s? 1984 Jun 26,1243 LC39A 103 STS 41-D RSLS abort at T-6s 1985 Jul 12,2030 LC39A 099 STS 51-F RSLS abort at T-3s 1985 Jul 29,2105 Ascent 099 STS 51-F ATO abort at T+345s 1985 Sep 12 LC39A 104 STS 51J FRF FRF for 20s 1985 Dec 18 LC39A 102 STS 61-C RSLS hold at T-14s 1986 Jan 28,1639 Ascent 099 STS 51-L Contingency abort at T+72s 1988 Aug 4 LC39B 103 STS-26R FRF RSLS abort T-5, 1s of planned 22s FRF 1988 Aug 10 LC39B 103 STS-26R FRF-2 FRF for 22s 1992 Apr 6,1513 LC39B 105 STS-49 FRF FRF for 22s 1993 Mar 22,1451 LC39A 102 STS-55 RSLS abort at T-3s 1993 Apr 6,0632 LC39B 103 STS-56 RSLS hold at T-11s FRF: Flight Readiness Firing (static test of Shuttle engines, intentionally stopped after 20 second firing) RSLS: Redundant Set Launch Sequencer ATO : Abort To Orbit (ends up in low orbit) Hiten Mission Ends ------------------ The Hiten space probe, operated by the Japanese scientific space agency ISAS, has impacted the lunar surface. Hiten (MUSES-A) was launched on 1990 Jan 24 from the Kagoshima Space Center. On 1990 Mar 18 it made a 16000 km lunar flyby and separated the Hagoromo subsatellite which entered lunar orbit. Further lunar flybys occurred on 1990 Jul 10, Aug 4, Sep 7, Oct 2, 1991 Jan 3, Jan 27, Mar 3, Apr 26 and Oct 2, at distances between 12000 and 76000 km. On 1991 Mar 19 Hiten carried out the first aerobraking experiment in Earth's atmosphere, with a perigee of 125.5 km. A second aerobraking pass was made on Mar 30 at 120.2 km, to make a planned change in Hiten's orbit. On 1992 Feb 15 after a final 2000 km flyby of the Moon Hiten fired its engine to enter a 9600 km x 49400 km x 35 deg lunar orbit. On 1993 Apr 10 at 1803.38 its orbit, by this time perturbed to a lower periapsis, intersected the lunar surface at 55.5 deg E, 34.0 deg S. Hiten and Hagoromo were the first new probes in lunar orbit since Luna-24 in 1976. Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-55 OV-103 Discovery KSC STS-51 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102 LC39A .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'