Jonathan's Space Report Apr 16 1991 (no.71) ---------------------------------------------------- Atlantis landed at 1355 UT on Apr 11, on lakebed runway 33 at Edwards AFB, after 143 hours and 32 minutes in space. After 8 flights, Atlantis has flown 952 hr 15 min. Activation of GRO is proceeding smoothly so far. Launch of STS 39/Discovery is due for Apr 23 at 07:05 EST. Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-7 complex. Launch of Soyuz TM-12 remains due for May 12. The Almaz radar satellite was launched by 3-stage Proton from Baykonur on Mar 31. The satellite design is related to the Salyut/Mir space stations, and was originally intended as part of a piloted military space station project also called Almaz. The original Almaz project was cancelled in the late 1970s and the crews transferred to Soyuz and Buran training. The current Almaz satellite was preceded by a simpler version, Kosmos-1870, in 1987. Data from the satellite will be commercially available. A 4-stage Proton launched three GLONASS navigation satellites, Kosmos-2139, Kosmos-2140, and Kosmos-2141, on Apr 4. The ASC 2 television relay satellite was launched on Apr 12 by a Delta 7925. The ASC satellites were originally planned by American Satellite Corp (Amersat). The company was bought by Continental Telecommunications Inc (Contel) before the first one was launched, and became Contel ASC. ASC 1 was launched on 27 Aug 1985 by a PAM-D rocket from the spaceship Discovery. In Mar 1991, General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) merged with Contel, and Contel ASC is being merged with the GTE Spacenet Corp. After on orbit checkout by Contel ASC, the new ASC 2 satellite will be renamed Spacenet 4. GTE already has two fleets of satellites: Gstar and Spacenet. Gstar was its original fleet; the Spacenet satellites were built by Southern Pacific Communications (SPC). SPC was bought up by GTE before the first Spacenet was launched. The full GTE fleet is: Satellite Bands Launch Date Vehicle Status Spacenet F1 C, Ku 1984 May 23 Ariane V9 In GEO Spacenet F2 C, Ku 1984 Nov 10 Ariane V11 In GEO Gstar 1 Ku 1985 May 8 Ariane V13 In GEO ASC 1 C, Ku 1985 Aug 27 STS 51-I In GEO Spacenet F3 C, Ku 1985 Sep 12 Ariane V15 Destroyed on launch Gstar 2 Ku 1985 Mar 28 Ariane V17 In GEO Spacenet F3R C, Ku 1988 Mar 11 Ariane V21 In GEO Gstar 3 Ku 1988 Sep 8 Ariane V25 In GEO Gstar 4 Ku 1990 Nov 20 Ariane V40 In GEO Spacenet F4(ASC2) C,Ku 1991 Apr 12 Delta 204 Just launched ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 | |OV-103 Discovery LC39A | |OV-104 Atlantis EAFB | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML1 | |ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103 LC39A | |ML3/STS-40 VAB Bay 3 | ----------------------------------- 10 years ago: 21 Apr 1981. Kosmos-1266, the 19th Soviet nuclear reactor satellite, was launched from Baykonur. Its reactor powered a radar intended to track naval vessels. However the spacecraft malfunctioned and on Apr 29 the reactor was separated and moved to a 950 km high orbit where it will remain for several centuries. Its companion satellite, Kosmos-1249, continued operating until Jun 1981. 20 years ago: 19 Apr 1971 The first Salyut space station was launched on a 3-stage Proton rocket from Baykonur. Salyut was a pressurised laboratory with a solar telescope and other instruments. The Soyuz 11 crew later spent a month aboard it. 30 years ago: Apr 1961. The week following the flight of Vostok was rather quiet, with tests of Pershing, Jupiter and Polaris ballistic missiles. (c) 1991 Jonathan McDowell. Information in this report is obtained from public sources and does not reflect the official views of NASA. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (205)544-7724 | | Space Science Lab ES65 | uucp: | | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center | bitnet : | | Huntsville AL 35812 | inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov | | USA | span : ssl::mcdowell | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'