Jonathan's Space Report No. 258 1995 Oct 2 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note ---- The second edition of my on-line version of the UN Registry of Space Objects is now available at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/un/un.html It contains the data given by member states to the UN about their launchings; readers should beware that this data is often incomplete and the document should not be used as a principal source of launch information. Shuttle ------- Launch of Mission STS-73 on Sep 28 was scrubbed at 0800 UTC on Sep 28, at T-3h, due to a hydrogen leak. Orbiter Columbia carries the Spacelab Long Module, with transfer tunnel and tunnel airlock adapter. The module being used is probably Long Module Flight Unit 1, last flown on the IML-2 mission in 1994. This time the mission is designated US Microgravity Lab 2. There is one other payload in the cargo bay, the small Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment accelerometer attached to an Adaptive Payload Carrier (I think) on the cargo bay wall. The next launch attempt for STS-73 will be Oct 5. Orbiter OV-103 Discovery has arrived in Palmdale aboard one of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (905 or 911, as usual I'd like someone to tell me which!). It will remain there for about a year for refurbishment. Mir ---- Launch of the Progress M-29 cargo ship is scheduled for Oct 8. Recent Launches -------------- The Telstar 402R satellite was launched on Sep 24. Telstar 402R is a Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 7000 communications satellite built for AT&T. It replaces the Telstar 402 satellite which exploded shortly after orbit insertion in Sep 1994. Telstar 402R is a hybrid C/Ku band comsat and will be stationed at 89 deg W for US domestic communications. The satellite has successfully reached geostationary altitude and is drifting towards its initial location. The Russian Space Agency's Resurs-F2 recoverable remote sensing satellite was launched on Sep 26. The satellite, built by KB Foton of Samara, Russia, is based on the Vostok spacecraft. Vladimir Agapov reports that this is the final Resurs-F mission. It is in a 230 x 233 km x 82.3 deg orbit. The Resurs-F satellites carry cameras which are returned to Earth with their film cassettes in a reentry vehicle at the end of the mission. An advanced generation recon satellite, Kosmos-2320, was launched by Soyuz from Baykonur on Sep 29 into a 179 x 284 km x 64.9 deg orbit. It probably raised its perigee on Sep 30 but I don't have the orbital data yet. 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 LC200L Comsat? 45A Aug 31 0650 Sich-1 Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32-2 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 1543 Spartan-201 OV-105, LEO Astronomy 48B Sep 11 1125 WSF 2 OV-105, LEO Micrograv. 48C Sep 24 0006 Telstar 402R Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A Sep 26 1120 Resurs-F Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A Sep 29 0425 Kosmos-2320 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 51A 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 Oct 5 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 STS-74 Nov 1 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-72 Jan 11 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-51 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'