Jonathan's Space Report No. 416 Y2K Issue Renuntiatio Caelestis CDXVI XVI Kal. Ian., G. Clintonius cos. VII, A. Gore cos. VII, MMDCCLII AVC. Cantabrigium (quondam Oppidum Novum), MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial --------- To avoid Y2K rollover problems, JSR is looking back instead of forward and has switched to the calendar of the Roman Republic. Happy New Year to all my readers (and note that the Julian new year is not till Jan 14 Gregorian - yet another excuse for a party!) - I hope the 2753rd year since the founding of Rome and final year of this Common Era millenium will be successful for you all. Shuttle ------- Discovery grappled the Hubble Space Telescope with the robot arm at 0034 UTC on Dec 22, in a 591 x 610 km x 28.5 deg. The first EVA on Dec 22-23, by Smith and Grunsfeld, was successful in replacing the six gyroscopes. On EVA-2, by Foale and Nicollier, the 486 computer was installed (replacing a 286/386) and the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS-2) was replaced. EVA-3 was by Smith and Grunsfeld, and completed part of the new insulation installation. HST was released on Dec 25 at 2303 UTC. The deorbit burn at 2248 UTC on Dec 27 placed the orbiter in a 50 x 616 km descent orbit, and Discovery landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 0001 UTC on Dec 28. In the spacewalks, the axial hatch on the external airlock was used. The hatch was opened before the astronauts went on battery power (I think this is a recent practice; can someone confirm this?) For EVA-3, Grunsfeld's EMU suit had a problem, so he used the suit worn by Foale on EVA-2 instead. I believe that a total of 3 EMUs were carried on the flight; serial numbers for the EMUs and PLSSs will eventually become available in the operational data book summaries, and hopefully it will be clear which one was used on which EVA (hi, JBC!). However, the new suit also had a problem at the end of the spacewalk, when it refused to switch to orbiter power. I track three different definitions of spacewalk time, none of which are quite the same as NASA's. The Hatch open/close time is essentially the definition used by Russia, although I'm not sure whether to use the main hatch or the thermal cover (values in parentheses) as the 'hatch' in question. The times below are approximate. Spacewalks: Depress (1psi) Depress Hatch open/close Ingress/Egress NASA start/UTC duration duration duration duration EVA-1 Dec 22 1838? 8:32 8:10 (7:57) 7:50 8:15 EVA-2 Dec 23 1845? 8:31 8:07 (7:52) 7:50 8:10 EVA-3 Dec 24 1910? 8:15 7:52 (7:35) 7:28 8:08 The next Shuttle launch is the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STS-99), using orbiter Endeavour. Discovery is now in one of the bays of the Orbiter Processing Facility (I don't know which one) and will fly again next summer. Recent Launches --------------- Korea's KOMPSAT (Korean Multipurpose Satellite) was launched on Dec 21 by an Orbital Sciences Taurus from Vandenberg. It carries an ocean color sensor developed by TRW and particle detectors. KOMPSAT was built by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) based on a test model built by TRW; it uses the TRW STEP Lightsat bus and has a mass of around 500 kg, with 73 kg of hydrazine fuel. The NASA ACRIMSAT satellite was launched on the same rocket; ACRIMSAT, managed by JPL, will measure the integrated solar energy output from 0.2 to 2 microns. ACRIMSAT was built by Orbital Sciences. The satellites are in a 690 x 722 km x 98.3 deg orbit. The Taurus used a Castor 120 solid motor first stage (stage zero in Orbital's nomenclature) and three Pegasus derived upper stages. Attached to the Taurus final stage is a Celestis burial canister containing cremated human remains. This is Celestis' third mission - I think; some of my sources suggest a Celestis package flew on the May 1999 Pegasus, but I believe that is not correct. Arianespace launched an Ariane 44L from Kourou on Dec 22. Aboard was Hughes' Galaxy 11, the first HS-702 satellite. Galaxy 11 will be the first satellite to use ion propulsion to go from geostationary transfer orbit to circular geostationary orbit, using its 25-cm XIPS ion engine. It also carries a bipropellant engine of some kind. Some HS-601 satellites used the smaller 13-cm XIPS for north-south stationkeeping. Galaxy 11 was initially in a 278 x 38900 km x 5.4 deg transfer orbit. The first XIPS burn phase seems to have gone well, as on Dec 28 it was tracked in a 5516 x 38924 km x 1.4 deg orbit. Launch mass was 4484 kg; Hughes refuse to reveal the true (dry) mass of their satellites. I am informed that the failed Brazilian SACI-2 satellite launch time was 1640 local time, which allegedly translates to 1940 UTC. Earlier wire reports gave 1830 UTC. Kosmos-2367, launched Dec 26, is a US-P passive electronic intelligence satellite. The US-P satellites, built by KB Arsenal of Sankt-Peterburg, are cylindrical with two large solar arrays and a low thrust propulsion system which keeps the satellite in a precise orbit. The two-stage 11K69 Tsiklon-2 launch vehicle (derived from the R-36 ICBM) placed the US-P satellite in a low 147 x 442 km orbit at 65 degree inclination. The US-P's propulsion module fired to circularize the orbit at apogee as 404 x 417 km x 65.0 deg. The last US-P satellite ended operations in November and reentered earlier this month. US-P is a Russian Navy system used to detect radio and electronic transmissions from ships. There's an excellent and very detailed history of the US-P program by Asif Siddiqi in the Nov/Dec issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. Kosmos-2368 was launched on Dec 28. It is an Oko-class early warning satellite. The Oko satellites are built by the Lavochkin company and carry a large telescope to monitor missile launches. The 8K78M (Molniya-M) launch vehicle placed the payload and fourth stage in a low 229 x 523 km x 62.8 deg orbit; the fourth stage (Blok-2BL) fired over South America on the first orbit and delivered the payload to a 12-hour 551 x 39138 km x 62.8 deg elliptical orbit. Launch times for Kosmos-2367 and Kosmos-2368 have been estimated from their orbital ground tracks. According to a so far unconfirmed report on the FPSPACE list, the RVSN-40 satellite and its Rokot launch vehicle were destroyed in an accident at Plesetsk on Dec 24. RVSN-40 was a small satellite to test spaceborne GLONASS (Russian GPS) receivers and new minisat systems. The Rokot launch vehicle, based on the Krunichev UR-100NUTTKh missile with a 14S12 Briz-K upper stage, would have made its second orbital flight. According to the story, the Rokot was undergoing tests when its stage separation systems all fired, sending the upper stage and payload flying out of the silo. Now this is a tricky question for a pedant like me. We consider an orbital launch attempt to occur if the launch vehicle leaves the pad. So, if the Shuttle ignites and then shuts down its main engines at T-2s in an RSLS abort, that's not a launch. But if a rocket leaves the pad by a few centimeters and then falls back down, it counts and I catalog it as a failed launch. The difference there is essentially that you don't get to try again. On the other hand, if a rocket explodes on the pad before launch, that's a different category. But what about this: it's an UNINTENTIONAL launch! Admittedly, with an apogee of only a few meters and without rocket propulsion. So, although I could make an argument to count this one as an orbital launch failure on the basis that the payload left the silo on a ballistic trajectory (if the rumours are correct, and I emphasize there's no confirmation yet), I think I'm going to group it with the prelaunch explosions (Discoverer 0 et al) rather than the orbital launch failures, and therefore it won't appear in my log. Aren't you all glad someone spends this much energy worrying about things like this? Lost and Found Department ------------------------- I've nearly completed a survey of world launch pad locations. I'm missing several locations, contributions with 0.1 degree accuracy or better would be welcome for the following sites whose locations are known poorly or not at all: Site Approximate location Green River, Utah 39.0N 110.2W Le Cardonnet, France (1950s Veronique test) ? Viking 4 launch site, Atlantic Ocean ? Marka Range, Lista, Poland ? OTRAG Shaba launch site, Zaire 8.0S 28.5E LC5, GIK-2 Svobodniy 51.7N 128.0E Qom missile test site, Iran 34.7N 50.9E Jhelum/Tilla range, Pakistan 33.4N 73.3E Gillam launch site, Manitoba (1972-1973) 56.1N 96.0W Kwajalein Pegasus drop box (planned 2000) ? SAC-B Pegasus drop box 37.0N 72.0W? I'll post the full list to the web site sometime early next year. I'm also trying to find details of the TRAILBLAZER project in which 1-gram pellets were accelerated to escape velocity, and so would have entered solar orbit had they not been heading down into the atmosphere at the time. It was an experiment to create artificial meteors; but I'd like to add the launches to my list of objects that were, however briefly, not gravitationally bound to Earth. If anyone knows of a reference where results were published, or has the date of the Meteor-6 flight in 1964/1965, please get in touch. The special annual launch issue should be out shortly after the new year. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date SPQR Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Julian Gregorian DES. I Kal Nov. Nov 13 2255 GE 4 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 60A IV Non. Nov Nov 15 0729 MTSAT H-2 Tanegashima Comsat F04 Non. Nov Nov 19 2230 Shenzhou Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 61A VI Id. Nov Nov 22 1620 Globalstar 29 ) Soyuz-Ikar Baykonur LC1 Comsat 62A Globalstar 34 ) Comsat 62B Globalstar 39 ) Comsat 62C Globalstar 61 ) Comsat 62D V Id. Nov Nov 23 0406 UHF F/O F10 Atlas 2A Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 63A XI Kal. Dec Dec 3 1622 Helios 1B ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Imaging 64A Clementine ) Sigint 64B XI Kal. Dec Dec 3 1951 Mars Polar Lander MPL Cruise Stage Lander 01D? XI Kal. Dec Dec 3 1951 Scott Probe ) MPL Cruise Stage Lander 01E? Amundsen Probe) Lander 01F? X Kal. Dec Dec 4 1853 Orbcomm FM30 ) Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops Comsat 65A Orbcomm FM31 ) Comsat 65B Orbcomm FM32 ) Comsat 65C Orbcomm FM33 ) Comsat 65D Orbcomm FM34 ) Comsat 65E Orbcomm FM35 ) Comsat 65F Orbcomm FM36 ) Comsat 65G IV Kal. Dec Dec 10 1432 XMM Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Astronomy 66A III Kal. Dec Dec 11 1940 SACI-2 VLS Alcantara Research F05 II Kal. Dec Dec 12 1738 DMSP 5D-3 F-15 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W Weather 67A I Non. Dec Dec 18 1857 Terra Atlas 2AS Vandenberg SLC3E Rem.Sens. 68A VIII Id. Dec Dec 20 0050 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 69A VII Id. Dec Dec 21 0712 KOMPSAT ) Taurus Vandenberg 576E Imaging 70A ACRIMSAT ) Science 70B Celestis-03) Burial 70C VI Id. Dec Dec 22 0050 Galaxy 11 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 71A II Id. Dec Dec 26 0800? Kosmos-2367 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 72A I Id. Dec Dec 27 1920? Kosmos-2368 Molniya-M Plesetsk Early Warn 73A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP OV-103 Discovery OPF STS-92 2000 Jun? ISS 3A OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 2000 Mar 16 ISS 2A.2 OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-99 2000 Jan 13 SRTM MLP1/ MLP2/ LC39B MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?/OV-105 LC39A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'