Jonathan's Space Report Oct 6,1989 (no.27) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Atlantis/STS-34/Galileo is scheduled for launch on Oct 12, but legal challenges to RTG launch safety will be heard in court Oct 10. Modul' "D" is due for launch to Mir on Oct 16 by Proton from Baykonur. Viktorenko and Serebrov continue to work on the Soyuz TM-8/Mir/Progress M complex. The Interkosmos-24 satellite was launched on Sep 28 from Plesetsk, with western press in attendance. The satellite is part of the Aktivniy-IK magnetospheric research program. A small Czechoslovak subsatellite, Magion-2, will be released from Interkosmos-24 within a few weeks. A Gorizont TV broadcast satellite was launched by Proton on Sep 28; a Molniya-1 government communications relay satellite was launched on Sep 27. Kosmos-2045, launched on Sep 22, is a GRU photo recon satellite. Kosmos-2046, launched on Sep 27, is a Soviet Naval Intelligence electronic ocean surveillance satellite. In historical news (if you'll excuse the oxymoron), the race to the Moon was finally acknowledged in August by the Soviet government newspaper Izvestiya. An article describes Korolev's N-I lunar launch vehicle, which was designed to send two cosmonauts to the Moon. One was to orbit and another to land on the surface alone. Four flight tests of the booster, in 1969-1972, all ended in failure. Development of the lunar spacecraft, based on Soyuz-Zond, also suffered repeated setbacks. The program was finally abandoned in 1975. So after 20 years we finally know for sure: there really was a race, right up to the finishing line. (c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell