Jonathan's Space Report No. 220 1994 Nov 26 New York, NY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (I don't know whether it was 905 or 911) carrying Atlantis left Edwards on Nov 21 and flew to Eglin AFB in Florida after a refuelling stop at Kelly AFB, San Antonio. It left Eglin AFB on Nov 22 and landed at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at 1521 on Nov 22, to be towed to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3. Recent Launches --------------- Three Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites were launched on Nov 20 at 0039 UT aboard a single Proton-K launch vehicle. The third stage of the Proton vehicle entered a low circular orbit with an inclination of 64.8 deg; by 1200 its orbit was only 122 x 137 km x 64.8 deg and it probably reentered the same day. Meanwhile, the Blok-DM2 upper stage separated and made its first burn to enter an elliptical transfer orbit. Two small ullage motors fired to force the DM2's propellant to the rear of the stage and separated, remaining in transfer orbit. The DM2 then reignited to enter a 19064 x 19127 km x 64.0 deg circular orbit in which it dispensed the three Uragan satellites, which received the names Kosmos-2294, Kosmos-2295, and Kosmos-2296. The satellites have small on-board propulsion units to maintain precise positions in their 11hr, 15 min circular 19100 km high orbits. They form part of the GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) network operated by the Russian Defense Ministry. Kosmos-2297 was launched by the Ukranian Zenit-2 rocket from Baykonur on Nov 24 into an 851 x 879 km x 71.0 deg orbit. The satellite carries an array of electronic intelligence detectors to monitor radio emissions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 11 1430 Okean-O1 No. 7 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 66A Oct 13 1619 Ekspress Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200 Comsat 67A Oct 15 0505 IRS-P2 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 68A Oct 31 1430 Elektro Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC81 Weather 69A 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 Reentries --------- Oct 11 Endeavour Landed at Edwards AFB Oct 12 Magellan Entered Venus atmosphere 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 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-67 Feb 23 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM/ET 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'