Jonathan's Space Report No. 298 (Corrected) 1996 Sep 11 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erratum ------- Sorry, the previous email version had a foolish error in it. Kosmos-2333 was launched from Baykonur, not Plesetsk. Shuttle and Mir --------------- Soyuz TM-23 undocked from Mir on Sep 2 and landed safely in Kazakstan with Yuri Onufrienko, Yuriy Usachyov and Claudie Andre-Deshays. This concludes the French 'Cassiopee' mission. The spacecraft undocked at 0420:00 UTC, with a small sep burn at 0424:40 UTC. Deorbit was at 0647:20 UTC (preceding info from Vladimir Agapov via the seesat list). The three modules separated at 0714:36 and the parachute deployed at 0726 UTC. The landing was at 0741:40 UTC according to CNES, 100 km SW of Akmola. Progress M-32 redocked with Mir on Sep 3 after several days of free flight. It is docked at the rear port (+X) of the Kvant 37KE module, while Soyuz TM-24 is docked at the front (-X) port of the Mir complex. STS-79 was rolled back from the pad to the VAB on Sep 4 to avoid Hurricane Fran. It was in high bay 3, previously occupied by mobile launch platform 3. The Shuttle was returned to Pad 39A on Sep 5, with launch rescheduled for Sep 16. Hurricane Hortense, however, is approaching... Recent Launches --------------- Kosmos-2333, launched on Sep 4, is a signals intelligence satellite of the Tselina-2 series, built by KB Yuzhnoe of Ukraine. It was launched on a Ukrainian-built Zenit-2 launch vehicle from the Baykonur spaceport and will be operated by the Russian Defense Ministry. Kosmos-2334 was launched on Sep 5 by a Kosmos-3M rocket. It is a Parus navigation satellite in a 1000 km orbit inclined at 83 degrees. The satellite is in the same plane as Kosmos-2327 launched earlier this year. Parus satellites are built by AO Polyot of Omsk, who also are responsible for the Kosmos-3M booster. A secondary payload with Kosmos-2334 is the UNAMSAT-b small satellite, for the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). It replaces a satellite lost in a launch failure last year. The 10 kg satellite uses the 25cm cubic AMSAT Microsat bus. It carries an experiment to determine the velocity of meteors using radio doppler echo, and a communications data relay for environmental sensors in remote locations. The S2-A Magion-5 subsatellite, built in the Czech Republic, has separated from Interbol-Avroralniy-Zond. However, there were initial problems deploying the solar panels. The Auroral Probe itself has a larger nutation (4 degrees) than expected. The satellites are in an elliptical orbit inclined at 63 degrees. The International Maritime Satellite Organization's INMARSAT 3 satellite was launched on Sep 6 by a Proton rocket from Baykonur (GIK-5) in Kazakstan. This is the second commercial Proton launch, marketed by International Launch Services for the Krunichev center which builds Proton. It probably used the standard Proton-K rather than the new Proton-AST used for the Astra launch (as described recently in the Russian magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki). The fourth stage on this flight was the Blok-DM-1, yet another sub-variant of RKK Energiya's Blok-DM. If I've translated the NK article correctly and read between the lines appropriately, the intention was for a single burn of the DM-1 to place Inmarsat in geostationary transfer orbit. By Sep 9 the Inmarsat was in geosynchronous drift orbit. It is a GE4000 class spacecraft, which carries a solid Star 37 kick motor, but the exact launch profile isn't clear to me yet as GSFC hasn't released any Space Command elements for the Blok-DM stage. Inmarsat 3 F2 is built by Lockheed Martin, with a communications payload by Matra Marconi Space. Lockheed Martin launched Atlas IIA flight AC-123 on Sep 8, carrying the first Lockheed Martin Astro Space series A2100 satellite. The satellite, GE-1, is owned by GE Americom and is a continuation of the old RCA/GE Satcom series. GE-1 was placed in a supersynchronous transfer orbit of 191 x 56495 km x 25.0 deg. The A2100 satellites have a liquid apogee engine (I don't know what type) and electric arcjet thrusters. GE-1 has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders, and will replace Satcom K1. Arianespace launched an Ariane 42P on Sep 11 into geostationary transfer orbit. The rocket carried the Echostar II communications satellite for the Echostar Communications Corp. It is a Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 7000 satellite with 16 Ku-band transponders. The Galileo Orbiter flew past Ganymede at a distance of 262 km from the surface on Sep 6. The probe's third close approach to Jupiter was on Sep 7 at a distance of 10.7 Jovian radii. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 8 2249 Italsat F2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 44A Telecom 2D ) Comsat 44B Aug 14 2221 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 45A Aug 17 0153 ADEOS ) H-II Tanegashima Y Rem.sens. 46A JAS-2 ) Comsat 46B Aug 17 1318 Soyuz TM-24 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1? Spaceship 47A Aug 18 1027 Zhongxing 7 Chang Zheng 3 Xichang Comsat 48A Aug 21 0947 FAST Pegasus XL Vandenberg Auroral 49A Aug 29 0522 Interbol-2 ) Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43 Auroral 50B Magion 5 ) 50C Microsat ) 50A Sep 4 0901 Kosmos-2333 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45L Sigint 51A Sep 5 1347 Kosmos-2334 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat 52A UNAMSat ) 52B Sep 6 1737 Inmarsat III F2 Proton Baykonur LC81 Comsat 53A Sep 8 2149 GE-1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36B Comsat 54A Sep 11 0000 Echostar II Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-80 Oct 31 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-82 Feb 13 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-79 Sep 16 OV-105 Endeavour Palmdale OMDP ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-56/ET-81/OV-104 LC39A STS-79 ML2/ VAB Bay 1 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 | | Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'