Jonathan's Space Report No. 325 1997 Jun 25 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apologies for the delay in this issue. Shuttle and Mir --------------- The robot cargo ship Progress M-34 undocked from Mir at 1022 UTC on Jun 24 to perform a redocking test using recently developed remote-control procedures which are replacing the old automatic systems that Russia can no longer afford to buy from Ukraine. At around 0918 UTC on Jun 25, Mir commander Tsibliev was remotely commanding the approach of Progress to the Kvant (37KE) module when, for reasons that remain unclear, the Progress went off course and collided with a solar array on the Spektr module and then the module itself. A large hole was made in the solar panel, and one of Spektr's radiators was badly buckled. A small breach in Spektr's hull appears to have been made and the module began to depressurize. This was not a slow leak - apparently the crew heard a hissing sound and felt their ears pop. They closed the hatch on the core module transfer section that leads to Spektr. The Spektr module is now fully depressurized. It remains docked to Mir with its docking hatch open. The electrical connection between Spektr's solar panels and the main station was broken off, also cutting off the power supply from the solar panels on the Kristall module. The crew of Mir are Vasiliy Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin, and Mike Foale. (It has been noted that Tsibliev was also driving on the only previous documented orbital fender-bender, when he banged Soyuz TM-17 into Mir in Jan 1994). The Progress M-34 cargo ship is at a safe distance and is under control. It will be deorbited on Jun 26. Many details of this incident are thanks to Igor Lissov of Videocosmos Inc/Novosti Kosmoavtiki. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the fire on Mir on February 23 was much more serious than earlier reported. It lasted 14 minutes and metre-long flames of burning lithium perchlorate in the Kvant module blocked the way to one of the two Soyuz spaceships. OV-102 Columbia was moved to pad 39A on Jun 11 in preparation for launch on mission STS-94. Erratum ------- Oops - I misspoke last issue. The 63.4 degree 'magic' inclination stops precession of the perigee around the orbit, not the precession of the orbit plane with respect to an inertial frame. In other words, if you have a really elliptical orbit and you launch so that the apogee is way up north and the perigee over the southern hemisphere, then if you wait a few months the orientation of the orbit will have rotated within the orbital plane so that the perigee is now at the equator, or eventually in the north... unless you use the magic inclination which locks in the direction of the orbit and keeps the apogee in the north (or wherever you put it). Have I confused you all properly now? Recent Launches --------------- China launched a satellite on Jun 10 using a CZ-3 (Long March 3) rocket from Xichang. The CZ-3 third stage and satellite entered a 206 x 35987 km x 28.4 deg orbit. The satellite later fired an apogee motor to enter geosynchronous orbit. The payload is the Feng Yun 2 geostationary weather satellite. (There's some confusion as to whether this was a CZ-3 or CZ-3A rocket but the Xinhua news report says it was a CZ-3.) Seven more Iridium comsats were launched on Jun 18 by a Proton from Baykonur. The three-stage 8K82K Proton-K rocket placed the payload and fourth stage in a 170 x 170 km x 73 deg parking orbit. The Proton-K third stage may have reentered without being cataloged. The RKK Energiya Blok DM-5 fourth stage made an inital burn to 170 x 516 km x 73 deg, followed by a second burn to raise perigee and change inclination to a 504 x 523 km x 86.4 deg orbit. It then dispensed the seven Iridium satellites, and made a third burn to place itself on a suborbital trajectory (to avoid leaving space debris around). The seven satellites will use their own on-board propulsion to raise their orbits. The Intelsat 802 comsat was launched on Jun 25 by an Ariane 44P rocket. It will replace the Intelsat 701 satellite at the standard Pacific Ocean Region slot of 174 deg E. Galileo made a 415 km flyby of Callisto on Jun 25. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. May 5 1455 Iridium SV004 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 20E Iridium SV005 ) Comsat 20D Iridium SV006 ) Comsat 20C Iridium SV007 ) Comsat 20B Iridium SV008 ) Comsat 20A May 11 1617 DFH-3 CZ-3A Xichang LC2 Comsat 21A May 14 0033 Kosmos-2342 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/4 EarlyWarn 22A May 15 0808 Atlantis STS-84 Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 23A May 15 1210 Kosmos-2343 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 24A May 20 0707 - Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Sigint FTO May 21 2239 Thor 2 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Comsat 25A May 24 1700 Telstar 5 Proton-K/DM-4 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 26A Jun 3 2321 Inmarsat 3 F4) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 27A Insat 2D ) Comsat 27B Jun 6 1757 Kosmos-2344 Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200 Recon? 28A Jun 10 1201 FY-2B Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Weather 29A Jun 18 1402 Iridium SV009 ) Proton-K/DM-5 Baykonur Comsat 30 Iridium SV010 ) Comsat 30 Iridium SV011 ) Comsat 30 Iridium SV012 ) Comsat 30 Iridium SV013 ) Comsat 30 Iridium SV014 ) Comsat 30 Iridium SV016 ) Comsat 30 Jun 25 2344 Intelsat 802 Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-94 Jul 1 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-85 Aug 7 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-86 Sep 18 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-89 Jan 15 MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/RSRM-62/ET-86/OV-102 LC39A STS-94 MLP2/ MLP3/RSRM-57 VAB Bay 3? STS-85 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'