Jonathan's Space Report No. 225 1994 Dec 27 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mir --- On Dec 26 the Mir complex was in a 390 x 393 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The EO-17 crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov continue their mission. Shuttle ------- 1995 will see Phase I of ISSA (International Space Station Alpha): the joint flights of Shuttle and Mir. The first few Shuttle/Mir flights are: STS-63 (Feb): Adapter, Transition, Spacehab, Spartan (Rendezvous only) STS-71 (May): Adapter, Tunnel, Docking Assembly, Spacelab Long Module STS-74 (Oct): Adapter?, Docking Assembly, ? STS-76 ('96): Adapter?, Transition, Spacehab. Later flights will see docking missions involving Spacehab modules instead of Spacelab. I'm a little confused about the exact configuration of the hardware in the payload bay for STS-74 and later Mir docking flights, so if anyone has a good description, please pass it on! My *impression* from what little I have read is that the APDA (Androgynous Peripheral Docking Assembly) will be mounted on the Spacelab Tunnel Adapter for STS-71, but on STS-74 it will be left on the Kristall module at Mir and later flights will just carry the Spacelab Tunnel Adapter, which will dock directly to the APDA on Kristall. Clarification will hopefully be forthcoming. Errata ------- Ta to Russell Eberst for pointing out that the RAF test base should be spelt Boscombe Down. Thanks also to Mark Matossian for catching another slip - the 63.4 degree critical inclination I discussed in the piece on Molniya stops the advance of perigee around the orbit, not the longitudinal precession of the orbital plane as I loosely implied. New Launches ------------ A new launch vehicle, the Rokot, made its debut on Dec 26. The first two stages of Rokot are the RS-18 ICBM (known in the West as the SS-19, and developed from the Chelomei bureau's original UR-100 missile). Rokot carries a new Briz third stage, which entered orbit with the RS-15 amateur radio satellite. The 1-m diameter, 70 kg payload uses a similar bus to the RS-3 to RS-8 satellites, and ended up in a 1884 x 2165 km x 64.8 deg orbit. Two suborbital tests of Rokot were carried out on 1990 Nov 20 and 1991 Dec 20. 1994 saw the first successful launch of four new launch vehicles: Japan's H-II, the US Taurus, India's PSLV and Russia's Rokot, and several upgraded ones: the US Titan 4 Centaur, China's Chang Zheng-3A, and the US Pegasus XL (which failed). Martin Marietta's Titan 4 number K-14 was launched from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral on Dec 22. The vehicle was a Titan 402 model with an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), and placed a TRW Defense Support Program satellite into geostationary orbit. DSP F17 carries a wide field infrared telescope to provide real-time warning of missile launches. It is the fourth advanced DSP to be launched; two others went up on Titan and another on the Shuttle. The Titan 4 places the DSP/IUS in low parking orbit; the SRM-1 IUS first stage goes to geostationary transfer orbit; and finally the SRM-2 fires to place itself and the DSP in near-synchronous orbit, eliminating the need for an internal apogee engine. This was the 4th Titan 4 mission this year, and the 11th since 1989; one launch in 1993 was a failure. (Thanks to Lt. Archer of Patrick AFB Public Affairs for the Titan serial number. Serial number F17 of the DSP is conjectural; the last three were F14, 15 and 16.) Six small communications satellites were launched by a Ukranian-built Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle on Dec 26 into 1400 x 1415 km x 82.5 deg orbits. Kosmos-2299 to Kosmos-2304 will supplement the Russian Defense Ministry's store-dump comsat network. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 24 0916 Kosmos-2297 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 SIGINT 77A Nov 29 0254 Geo-IK Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Geodetic 78A Nov 29 1021 Orion 1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 79A Nov 29 1702 DFH-3 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Comsat 80A Dec 1 2255 Panamsat K2 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat FTO Dec 14 1421 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 81A Dec 16 1200 Luch Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 82A Dec 20 0511 Kosmos-2298 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Comsat 83A Dec 22 2219 DSP F17 Titan 4/IUS Canaveral LC40 Early Warn 84A Dec 26 0300 RS-15 Rokot Baykonur Comsat 85A Dec 26 2227? Kosmos-2299 ) Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Comsat 86A Kosmos-2300 ) Comsat 86B Kosmos-2301 ) Comsat 86C Kosmos-2302 ) Comsat 86D Kosmos-2303 ) Comsat 86E Kosmos-2304 ) Comsat 86F Reentries --------- Nov 14 Atlantis Landed at Edwards AFB Dec 9 Kosmos-2238 Reentered 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 May OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-67 Mar 2 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'