Jonathan's Space Report Jun 6 1990 (no.41) ---------------------------------------------------- Launch of STS-38/Atlantis is due for early July. Atlantis will be transferred from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building this week, where it will be mated with the ET and SRBs. Launch of STS-35/Columbia has been rescheduled for August 9. A fuelling test revealed a leak in the seal between the orbiter and the External Tank; repairs will require destacking of the Shuttle in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The delay means that Spacelab Life Sciences 1 will also slip. The ROSAT (Rontgensatellit) x-ray astronomy satellite was launched on a Delta 6920 on Jun 1. The satellite, which is in a 600 km orbit, is similar to the Einstein Observatory (1978-81) but with more sensitive detectors. ROSAT is a joint project between the German DLR space agency and NASA, with British collaboration. The main X-ray telescope focusses radiation onto the PSPC (Position Sensitive Proportional Counter) which will make the best survey yet of the X-ray sky. Another detector, the HRI (High Resolution Imager) has higher spatial resolution and can be rotated into the focus of the telescope. ROSAT also carries a piggyback British telescope, the Wide Field Camera which will observe the sky in the extreme ultraviolet. The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification Phase 1. All the instruments have been turned on for electronics checks; acquisition of guide stars has improved greatly. Focussing of the telescope continues. Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener) continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport is currently at the station. The Kristall module was launched on May 31, and is due to dock today at the forward port. It will be transferred to a side port soon after. Progress-42 undocked from the rear port on May 27, and Soyuz TM-9 made a 24-min flight from the front port to the rear port on May 28, leaving the front port open for Kristall. Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 114 days. The 6th Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on May 29 by Soyuz from Plesetsk. (c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell