Jonathan's Space Report No. 149 1993 Apr 10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STS-56 ----------------- The first attempt to launch STS-56 on Apr 6 at 0632 UTC ended in an RSLS hold at T-11s, prior to main engine ignition. This turned out to be due to software problems. Discovery finally took off at 0529 UTC on Apr 8 and entered a 290 x 299 km x 57 degree orbit. Payload is the Atlas-2 Spacelab pallet for Earth resources monitoring and the Spartan 201 solar observatory. Mir ---- The Progress M-16 cargo craft was undocked and deorbited on Mar 27. It was replaced by Progress M-17, launched on Mar 31. Astronaut Notes ---------------- Robert Rushworth, who flew in space on a 10 minute suborbital mission of the X-15-3 in Jun 1963, died this month at the age of 68. Launches -------- Errata: 1993-13A is a Raduga government comsat, not a Gorizont civil comsat. 1993-14A has not received an official name. The Russian launch rate has picked up again following a hiatus. This was a particularly long gap between launches; similar but shorter gaps in years past have occurred after major launch vehicle failures and during repainting of the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Kosmos-2238, launched Mar 30, is an EORSAT (Electronic Intelligence Ocean Reconnaissace Satellite), which tracks naval vessels by their radio emissions. It replaced Kosmos-2122 which was deorbited a few days earlier. Its R-36 launch vehicle is a converted ICBM which was phased out during the original SALT 1 treaty; the R-36 is known as the SS-9 in the West. Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 25 0240? Raduga Proton Baykonur Comsat 13A Mar 25 1330? Start-1? Start Plesetsk Comsat 14A Mar 25 2138 UFO F1 Atlas I Canaveral LC36 Comsat 15A Mar 26 0225? Kosmos-2237 Zenit Baykonur SIGINT 16A Mar 30 0309 Navstar GPS 31) Delta Canaveral LC17 Navsat 17A SEDS 1 ) Mar 30 1200 Kosmos-2238 R-36 Baykonur SIGINT 18A Mar 31 0334 Progress M-17 Soyuz Baykonur Cargo 19A Apr 1 1900? Kosmos-2239 Kosmos R-14 Plesetsk Navsat 20A Apr 2 1410? Kosmos-2240 Soyuz Plesetsk Recon? 21A Apr 6 1910? Kosmos-2241 Molniya Plesetsk Early Warn 22A Apr 8 0529 Discovery Shuttle Kennedy LC39 Spaceship 23A Reentries --------- Mar 11 Kosmos-1116 Reentered Mar 14 NSA B7 Reentered (1967-43B) Mar 16 DUVE Reentered Mar 25 Kosmos-2231 Landed in Kazakhstan? Mar 27 Progress M-16 Deorbited Mar 28 Kosmos-2122 Deorbited Mar 30 SEDS 1 Deorbited by tether Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-55 OV-103 Discovery LEO STS-56 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ LC39B ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102 LC39A Thanks to Ed O'Grady for information on recent Russian launches. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'