Jonathan's Space Report No. 289 1996 Jun 5 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Endeavour landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 11:09:38 UTC on May 29 (with wheels stop at 11:10:32), completing mission STS-77. It has been returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility and is being prepared for transfer to Palmdale in California for its first Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP). Erratum: the PAMS STU deploy was at 0918 UTC on May 22. On May 30, Columbia was moved to the launch pad in preparation for mission STS-78. Mir EO-21 commander and flight engineer-1 Onufrienko and Usachyov made their 4th spacewalk from 1820 UTC to 2240 UTC on May 30 (C v.d. Berg's MirNews). They installed the European MOMS-2 earth resources camera on the Priroda module's science platform. Flight engineer-2 Shannon Lucid remained inside the complex. Recent Launches --------------- The first launch of the new Ariane 5 rocket, mission V501, ended with destruction of the rocket after 40 seconds of flight, at an altitude of 4000 m. The vehicle pitched over and then was destroyed by the range safety officer. It is not yet known whether the problem was in the main stage or the solid boosters. Ariane 5 consists of two P230 Aerospatiale EAP (Etage Acceleration a Poudre) solid strapon boosters, the Aerospatiale/SEP EPC (Etage Principal Cryotechnique) cryogenic main stage, and the Daimler-Benz EPS (Etage 'a Propergols Stockables) storable liquid propellant upper stage with an L9.7 Aestus engine. The design is completely different from the Ariane 1 through 4 family which shared a common core stage with evolutionary modifications. First flights of large launch vehicles are very rare - Ariane 1 in 1979, Shuttle in 1981, Energiya in 1987, H-2 in 1994. This is the only failure of a large core stage on initial flight apart from the Russian N-1 moon rocket in 1969 and the first launch failure of a major space science payload since Mariner 8 in 1971. My best wishes and condolences to those of my friends working on the Cluster project. For comparison, I list below the history of initial launch attempts of new orbital rocket designs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orbital Launch Vehicle Core Stage First Flights ----------------------------------------------- Stage Name Vehicle First Notes First orbital suborbital attempt attempt Large and Medium ---------------- Thor Thor, Delta 1957 Jan 25 F 1958 Aug 17 F R-7 Soyuz 1957 May 15 F 1957 Oct 4 S Atlas Atlas 1957 Jun 11 F 1958 Dec 18 S Titan Titan 1959 Feb 6 1964 Apr 8 S Saturn S-I Saturn I 1961 Oct 27 S 1964 Jan 29 S R-36 Tsiklon 1963 Sep ? 1965 Dec 16 S Blue Streak Europa 1964 Jun 5 S 1968 Nov 29 F UR-500 Proton 1965 Jul 16 S (Titan/SRM Titan 3C 1965 Dec 21 S) (Saturn S-IB Saturn IB 1966 Feb 26 S 1966 Jul 5 S) (LT Thor Thor, Delta 1966 Aug 9 S) Saturn S-IC Saturn V 1967 Nov 9 S N-1 Blok-A N-1 1969 Feb 21 F DF-5 Chang Zheng 1971 Sep? ? 1973 Sep 18 F Ariane L144 Ariane 1979 Dec 24 S OV/ET/SRB Shuttle 1981 Apr 12 S Zenit 11S771 Zenit-2 1985 Apr 13 F Energiya Energiya 1987 May 15 S (Ariane L220 Ariane 4 1988 Jun 15 S) (EELT Thor Delta II 1989 Feb 14 S) (Titan 4 Titan 4 1989 Jun 14 S) (Atlas II Atlas II 1991 Dec 7 S) H-II H-II 1994 Feb 3 S Ariane EPC Ariane 5 1996 Jun 4 F Small ---- Redstone Juno I 1953 Aug 20 S 1958 Feb 1 S Jupiter Juno II 1957 Mar 1 F 1958 Dec 6 S R-12 Kosmos 11K63 1957 Jun 22 S? 1961 Oct 27 F Vanguard Vanguard 1957 Oct 23 S 1957 Dec 6 F Algol Scout 1960 Apr 18 S 1960 Dec 4 F R-14 Kosmos-3M 1960 Jun 6 ? 1964 Aug 18 S L735 Lambda 1963 Aug 24 S 1966 Sep 26 F Emeraude Diamant 1964 Jun 15 S 1965 Nov 26 S Black Arrow Black Arrow 1969 Jun 28 F 1970 Sep 2 S M-10 Mu 1969 Aug 17 S 1970 Sep 25 F DF-3 Chang Zheng 1 1970 Jan 10? 1970 Apr 24 S SLV-3 SLV-3 1979 Aug 10 F Jericho Shaviyt ? 1988 Sep 19 S Topol' Start 1982 Oct 27 S 1993 Mar 25 S TU-904 MX/Taurus 1983 Jun 17 S 1994 Mar 13 S Pegasus S1 Pegasus 1990 Apr 5 S PS1 PSLV 1993 Sep 20 S UR-100N Rokot 1972? 1994 Dec 26 S Notes: Suborbital attempt listed if prior to first orbital attempt. First orbital attempt is that of stage, may not be that of listed vehicle (e.g. 11A511 Soyuz did not fly until 1966, but used R-7 core stage which had Sputnik orbital flight in 1957). F = Failed, S = Successful first stage. Major upgrades to previously flown core designs in parentheses. Castor 120 is considered a minor upgrade to TU-904; Amethyste a minor upgrade to Emeraude, etc. Energiya core stage worked OK but payload engine failed to place payload in orbit. Relationship between UR-100N and 1960's UR-100 is unclear. Have I missed anything? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The payload of mission 501 was a set of 4 identical space science satellites called Cluster. The satellites would have been delivered to geostationary transfer orbit of 280 x 36000 km x 10 deg to demonstrate Ariane 5's suitability for commercial comsat missions. Cluster F1 and Cluster F2 were carried in a pair on top of a Speltra support structure. They would separate from Speltra and then later from each other; the Speltra would then separate from the EPS stage revealing the Cluster F3 and F4 pair it had encapsulated. F3 and F4 would then separate from EPS and finally from each other. The four satellites would then have used their own propulsion to maneuver to entirely different highly elliptical orbits to study the magnetosphere. The Cluster satellites, built by Daimler-Benz Aerospace's Dornier unit, have a dry mass of 600 kg and carry 600 kg of N2O2/MMH fuel for their DASA S400 liquid propulsion system. The 400N engine would have made five burns to enter a final orbit of 25000 x 140000 km and a polar inclination. The satellites had four 50-m long booms to study electric fields and plasma, and included ion spectrometers, magnetometers, and particle imaging detectors. Cluster, together with the successful SOHO satellite, was ESA's first Cornerstone (CS1) mission under the Horizon 2000 program. Its loss puts a big dent in the European space science program. TSS-1R Investigation -------------------- NASA's Tethered Satellite failure review board has reported its findings. According to the board and to scientists familiar with the project, the proximate cause of the TSS-1R tether snapping was because of arcing from the tether to the deployer, burning through the Kevlar which provided tether strength. This happened when there was a high voltage (3500V) between the tether and the deployer. It is believed that the arcing occurred because of contamination in the system, and extreme vulnerability of the system to a single small defect in the tether insulation. Metal and plastic debris was present in the deployer system built by Martin-Marietta, and inside the tether (built by Cortland Cable Co.) underneath the insulation. The latter must have arisen during the manufacturing process; the former may have arisen at any time prior to the TSS-1R launch since the deployer lower tether control mechanism was not opened up following the first unsuccessful flight. One possibility is that a piece of debris made a small hole in the insulation of the tether as it unreeled while it was at a high voltage with no current path to the science instruments (since the switch was in the open position). The circuit was completed through gas in the deployer system to the metal in the deployer, arcing and causing scorching on several of the pulley systems as the bad spot on the tether moved through the deployer. The arcing continued until the bad spot was travelling up the deployer boom, at which point the tether broke. A spark test to verify tether integrity was performed at the time of manufacture, but no repeat test was performed after years of storage prior to the TSS-1R flight. Of course NASA studiously avoids assigning any specific blame either to managers at NASA-Marshall or to Martin Marietta and its subcontractors; but it looks like an important issue is checking quality control after long storage times, the same thing that fried the Galileo HGA (no relubrication of the antenna pins) and a host of less serious setbacks that ensued after the long launch delays of the 1980s. Another issue as far as I can see is that it looks like the design could have been made more likely to survive such an electrical failure by providing alternate current paths to shut the system down when a short is detected. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 3 2301 Inmarsat III F1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36 Comsat 20A Apr 8 2309 Astra 1F Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 21A Apr 20 2236 M-SAT 1 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 22A Apr 23 1148 Priroda Proton-K Baykonur LC81 Spaceship 23A Apr 24 1227 MSX Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech. 24A Apr 24 1303 Kosmos-2332 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Radar cal 25A Apr 24 2337 USA-118 Titan 401 Canaveral LC41 Sigint 26A Apr 30 0431 BeppoSAX Atlas I Canaveral LC36B Astronomy 27A May 5 0704 Progress M-31 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 28A May 12 2132 USA-119 Titan 403? Vandenberg SLC4E Recon? 29A USA-120? 29B? USA-121? 29C? USA-122 29D May 14 Kometa? Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon FTO May 16 0156 Palapa C2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 30A AMOS ) Comsat 30B May 17 0244 MSTI-3 Pegasus L-1011,Pacific Technology 31A May 19 1030 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 32A May 20 1129 Spartan 207 Technology 32B IAE Technology 32C May 22 0918 PAMS STU Technology 32D May 23 2310 Galaxy 9 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Comsat 33A May 25 Gorizont Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat 34A Jun 4 1234 Cluster F1 ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Science FTO Cluster F2 ) Cluster F3 ) Cluster F4 ) Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- May 13 Kosmos-2293 Reentered May 22 IAE Reentered May 29 Endeavour/Spartan Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-78 Jun 20 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 1 STS-79 Jul 31 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-54 VAB Bay 1 STS-79 ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79/OV102 LC39B STS-78 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'