Jonathan's Space Report No. 294 1996 Jul 26 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- Atlantis is in VAB High Bay 1. The new BI-83 solid booster stack is being assembled on Mobile Launch Platform 1 in VAB High Bay 3. However, a problem during assembly means that they're going to have to disassemble one part of one of the SRBs and try again; no word yet on whether this will be a delay. Around Aug 1, external tank ET-82, originally intended for STS-80, will be connected to the BI-83 stack. Atlantis will be dismounted from BI-82/ET-80 about the same time, and connected to the BI-83/ET-82 stack on around Aug 13. ET-80 will then be disconnected from BI-82, the SRB stack will be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled (possibly getting a new BI designation?), and according to a story on Bill Harwood's page will be used for STS-81. Launch of Atlantis is now planned for around Sep 12. Launch to Mir of a Progress cargo ship (vehicle No. 232) was originally planned for Jul 25, but was scrubbed due to a tank pressurization problem at T-45s. Another launch attempt will be made Jul 26. Recent Launches --------------- Atlas II flight AC-125 was launched from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Station on Jul 25. Payload was an HS-601 comsat built by Hughes for the US Navy, UHF Followon F7 (UHF F/O F7). The UHF Followon comsats are used for US Navy fleet communications. The Lockheed Martin Atlas II uses a stretched Atlas first stage and a Centaur II liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen second stage. The Centaur makes two burns to deliver the HS-601 satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The early UHF F/O satellites were launched on Atlas I, but with the addition of an EHF (extremely high frequency) communications package they were moved to the Atlas II. Navstar SVN 40's apogee motor fired successfully prior to Jul 21 and on Jul 23 it was in a 723.65 min, 20275 x 20368 km x 55.0 deg drift orbit. It has been assigned the telemetry number PRN 10 and will be placed in position E3 to begin service on Aug 12. Meanwhile, Navstar 20, launched in 1990, was retired last May 21; it was the first of the Block II GPS satellites to leave service. The two comsats launched by Ariane on Jul 9 are reaching their final orbits. Arabsat 2A was on station at 26.0 deg E on Jul 23. Turksat 1C was at 31.3 deg E on Jul 22, drifting 0.1 degree per day. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jun 4 1234 Cluster F1 ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Science FTO Cluster F2 ) Cluster F3 ) Cluster F4 ) Jun 15 0655 Intelsat 709 Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 35A Jun 20 1449 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 36A Spacelab LMS 1) Jun 20 1845 Kosmos Soyuz-U Plesetsk Recon FTO Jul 2 0748 TOMS Pegasus XL Vandenberg Rem.sens. 37A Jul 3 0031 USA 125 Titan 404 Canaveral LC40 Comsat? 38A Jul 3 1047 Apstar 1A Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 39A Jul 9 2224 Arabsat 2A ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 40A Turksat 1C ) Comsat 40B Jul 16 0050 Navstar SVN 40 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17B Navsat 41A Jul 25 1242 UHF F7 Atlas 2 Canaveral LC36 Comsat Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- Jul 7 Columbia/LMS Landed at KSC Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-80 Nov 11 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis VAB Bay 1 STS-79 Sep 12 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-56 VAB Bay 3 STS-79 ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104 VAB Bay 1 STS-79 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'