Jonathan's Space Report No. 183 1994 Feb 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kudos to Vladimir Agapov, Yoshiro Yamada, Kelly Beatty and Joel Runes for info provided for this week's issue. Shuttle ------- Discovery was launched at 1210 UTC on Feb 3. The Wake Shield Facility was grappled by the robot RMS arm and unberthed, but after several days of problem solving failed to resolve attitude control system failures on the satellite and it was replaced in the cargo bay. Several GaAs semiconductor growth experiments were conducted while the WSF was exposed to space on the end of the RMS. Discovery was observed from Porter Square, Cambridge, MA at 1055 UTC on Feb 7 by your somnolent correspondent. Columbia was moved to the VAB on Feb 3 and joined to the external tank and solid rocket boosters. It will be rolled out to pad 39 this week. Mir --- Progress M-21 docked with Mir at 0356 on Jan 30. Reports indicate that the collision of Soyuz TM-17 with Mir was due to some kind of engine control problem; Tsibliev was attempting to brake the spacecraft, and telemetry indicated the engines were firing, but there was apparently no corresponding trajectory change. Communications transcripts suggest that the two cosmonauts, particularly the flight engineer who was observing from the spaceship's orbital module, became quite alarmed. ("She canna take it, Cap'n!" - oh no, that was another ship, wasn't it..:-)). The current crew of Mir are Viktor Afanas'ev, Yuriy Usachyov, and Valeriy Polyakov. Launches -------- I forgot to report last week on the launch failure of an Ariane rocket! Ariane V63 was launched at 2137 on Jan 24. During the burn of the H10+ third stage, a turbopump failed and the engine shut down prematurely. It and the two payloads impacted the Atlantic ocean off West Africa. Both payloads were Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 comsats; the first was Turksat 1 for the government of Turkey, and the second was Eutelsat II F-5, a TV satellite for the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization. The Clementine space probe is on its way to the Moon. The Star 37 apogee motor fired on Feb 3 at 0628 UTC, placing the probe in a 168 x 128095 km orbit inclined 66.8 deg to the Earth's equator. After two Earth gravity assists, it is due to reach lunar orbit on Feb 21. This week saw the first launches of two important launch vehicles. The H-II is the new large launch vehicle developed by NASDA, the National Space Development Agency of Japan. The first H-II was launched at 2220 UTC on Feb 3 from the Yoshinobu complex at Tanegashima Space Center. At 2233 the LE-5A second stage engine completed its first burn, and the OREX Orbital Reentry Experiment spacecraft was inserted into a 448 x 458 km x 30.50 deg orbit. At 2245 the LE-5A ignited again and at 2248 delivered the VEP satellite (Vehicle Evaluation Payload) to a 468 x 36078 km x 28.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit. VEP was renamed Myouzyou ("Morning/evening star") after orbit insertion. I don't know if OREX got renamed. At around 0001 UTC on Feb 4, the OREX fired its hydrazine deorbit motor and at around 0030 it splashed down near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. OREX carried experimental thermal tiles designed for NASDA's proposed HOPE spaceplane. With the reentry of OREX, Japan becomes the fourth nation after the US, Russia, and China to return a spacecraft from orbit. On Feb 7, after many delays, the first Titan 401 vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral. The Titan 401 is the Titan IV variant with a Centaur upper stage, and is the most powerful unpiloted launch vehicle built in the US. As of this writing the Centaur had completed its second burn and remained attached to the Milstar DFS 1 comsat in geostationary transfer orbit; a third burn was due to place Centaur and Milstar in geostationary orbit. Launch was at 2147 UTC, and Centaur burns 1 and 2 were at 2156 and 2253. Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 8 1005 Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 01A Jan 20 0949 Gals 1 Proton Baykonur LC81 Comsat 02A Jan 24 2137 Eutelsat IIF5 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat FTO Turksat 1 ) Comsat FTO Jan 25 0025 Meteor-3 ) Tsiklon Plesetsk LC32 Weather 03A Tubsat B ) Technology 03B Jan 25 1634 Clementine 1 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4 Spaceprobe 04A Jan 28 0212 Progress M-21 Soyuz Baykonur LC1 Cargo 05A Feb 3 1210 Discovery Shuttle Kennedy LC39 Spaceship 06A Feb 3 2220 OREX ) H-II Tanegashima Technology 07A Myouzyou ) Technology 07B Feb 5 0848? Kosmos-2268? Proton Baykonur Comsat 08A Feb 7 2147 Milstar DFS 1 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40 Comsat Reentries --------- Jan 14 Soyuz TM-17 Landed in Kazakhstan Feb 4 OREX Landed in Pacific Ocean Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia VAB Bay 1 STS-62 OV-103 Discovery LEO STS-60 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-59 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-36?/ET-62/OV-102 VAB Bay 1 STS-62 ML2/RSRM-37? VAB Bay 3 STS-59 ML3/ 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 | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ,