Jonathan's Space Report No. 257 1995 Sep 19 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- The STS-69 mission was successfully completed on Sep 18. The Wake Shield Facility carried out its free flight from Endeavour from Sep 11 to Sep 14. The WSF satellite overheated and was placed in safemode at 1200 UTC on Sep 12 but was reactivated at 0800 UT on Sep 13. Four of the thin film high-vacuum manufacturing experiments were completed during the flight. By 1230 UTC on Sep 14 Endeavour completed its rendezvous with WSF and began a series of experiments to study the contaminating effect of thruster firings on the satellite. At around 1330 UTC the Orbiter began the approach to WSF. It was grappled by the RMS arm at 1359 UTC on Sep 14 and was then reberthed on the carrier at 1518 UTC. The orbit was lowered later that day to 338 x 346 km. WSF was unberthed again from around 0700 to 1200 UTC and maneuvered around the cargo bay to measure the electric field in the vicinity of the Orbiter. On Sep 16 at around 0820 UTC Voss and Gernhardt began a 6h 46m spacewalk to evaluate procedures and hardware for Space Station assembly. The astronauts worked at the task board on the starboard side of Bay 3, testing out foot restraints and assembling connectors; and flew at the end of the robot arm in cold conditions to check modifications to the spacesuit for cold weather conditions. The airlock was repressurized at 1502 UTC. Endeavour returned to Earth on Sep 18 with a deorbit burn at 1035 UTC. Main gear touchdown was at 1137:56 UTC on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center; wheels stop was at 1138:52. Mission duration from launch to main gear touchdown was 10 days 20 hr 28 min 56 s. Total flight time for OV-105 Endeavour over 9 flights is 2255h 21m. The external tank for STS-74 was connected to the solid rocket boosters on Sep 11. Examination of the STS-69 solid rocket boosters confirms that the joint repair was successful; no erosion was seen. The next Shuttle launch is mission STS-73 with orbiter Columbia, due on Sep 28. Mir ---- The EO-20/Euromir-95 crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter remain aboard the Mir complex. Next major events are the launch of the Progress M-29 supply ship and a spacewalk on Oct 20. Recent Launches -------------- Kosmos-2319 is now in geostationary orbit at 80 deg E. The slot has been used by both military communications and early warning satellites; Kosmos-2319 may be a Geizer communications satellite. Longitudes of Kosmos satellites operating in GEO: Al'tair data relay: Kosmos-1897 52.6E Kosmos-2054 15.9W Geizer military communications: Kosmos-1961 79.3E Kosmos-2085 70.8E Kosmos-2172 13.5W Kosmos-2291 79.9E Probable missile early warning satellites: Kosmos-1894 25.6W Kosmos-2133 79.9E Kosmos-2209 24.2W Kosmos-2224 11.5E Kosmos-2282 24.1W JCSAT 3 has lowered its orbit to geostationary. On Sep 10 it was in a 35718 x 42951 km x 0.25 deg orbit; by Sep 14 it was in a 35704 x 35921 km x 0.1 deg orbit at 128.2 E drifting 0.4 deg W per day. On Sep 11, N-Star a was at 132.0E; the Mugunghwa-ho (Koreasat) satellite is on station at 116.0E. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 2 2359 Prognoz-M2 ) Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/3 Science 39A Magion 4 ) Science 39F Aug 3 2358 PAS 4 Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Aug 5 1110 Mugunghwa-ho Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Comsat 41A Aug 9 0121 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43 Comsat 42A Aug 15 2230 Gemstar 1 LLV-1 Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat FTO Aug 29 0053 JCSAT 3 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 43A Aug 29 0641 N-STAR a Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 44A Aug 30 1933? Kosmos-2319 Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat? 45A Aug 31 0650 Sich-1 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Rem.sensing 46A FASat-Alfa Comsat 46A Sep 3 0900 Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 47A Sep 7 1509 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 48A Sep 8 1643 Spartan-201 OV-105, LEO Astronomy 48B Sep 11 1125 WSF 2 OV-105, LEO Micrograv. 48C Reentries --------- Sep 4 Progress M-28 Deorbited Sep 6 Kosmos-2314 Deorbited Sep 11 Soyuz TM-21 Landed in Kazakhstan Sep 18 Endeavour Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-73 Sep 28 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-74 Nov 2 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-72 Jan 11 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74 VAB Bay 1 STS-74 ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102 LC39B STS-73 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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/space/jsr/jsr.html | | ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'