To: SAO Public Affairs

Caroline - here's the latest space news:

Space Report No. 1, Jan 30, 1989


The Mir space station raised its orbit last week to counteract the
effects of drag caused by high density in the upper atmosphere.
Every 11 years as solar activity increases, the Earth's outer atmosphere 
becomes denser and low orbit satellites burn up. Three cosmonauts 
are working aboard the Mir station, which is the first permanently
occupied space laborartory. Next week marks two years of continuous human
presence in space.

Space Shuttle Discovery was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building
last week for mating to its booster rockets. It will be moved to 
the launch pad next week and is likely to fly at the beginning of March.
This STS-29 mission is to launch a tracking and data relay satellite
which is needed to relay data from the Space Telescope (due next year).

The Soviet space probe Phobos-2 entered orbit around Mars on Jan 29. It is the first
Soviet Mars probe for 15 years. It will approach the Martian moon Phobos
in March or April.

A European Ariane rocket successfully launched an Intelsat communications satellite
last week. The satellite provides transatlantic telephone and television service and is 
owned by an international consortium.


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Feb 7, 1989

Jonathan's Space Report (2)

I've included all the more boring launches so you have some background
info...

Space Shuttle Discovery was moved to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space
Center last week. Repairs to the main engines are continuing
and the launch is scheduled for March 10. If launch
is not possible by March 18, the mission will be cancelled to
allow Atlantis to launch the Magellan Venus probe instead.

The Soviet satellite Kosmos-1990, launched January 12, is on a
mission to take photographs of earthquake-stricken Armenia. 
The photographs will be used to help the reconstruction effort.
The satellite is operated by the Priroda Center, part of the
USSR Central Geodesy and Cartography Agency (GUGK).

The first Israeli satellite, Offeq-1, burned up in the Earth's
atmosphere on January 14. It was launched last year.

Other January events:

Kosmos-1987,1988 launched Jan 10, Soviet Glavkosmos navigation satellites
Kosmos-1989 launched Jan 10, Soviet Glavkosmos satellite tracking and
  geophysical studies.
Kosmos-1991 launched Jan 18, GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) medium 
  resolution spy satellite, probably landed Feb 1.
Kosmos-1992 launched Jan 26, Probably part of the KGB satellite communications
  network.
Gorizont ('Horizon'), launched Jan 26, Soviet Ministry of Communications television
  and communications satellite.
Intelsat V, launched Jan 27 by Ariane from Kourou, French Guiana for
  INTELSAT (International Telecommunications Satellite Organization).
Kosmos-1993 launched Jan 28, GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) advanced
  spy satellite.

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Feb 16, 1989

Jonathan's Space Report (3)

Sorry it's late...



The first US space launch of the year came on Valentine's Day.
 The first USAF Block II Navstar satellite soared into space on board
the first launch of a Delta II rocket. The fleet of Navstar Global Positioning
Satellites, when operational, will allow both military and civilian
users to determine their exact position to within a hundred metres anywhere
in the world. The satellites carry an accurate atomic clock whose rate is
corrected for the gravitational redshift predicted by General Relativity
to occur between the satellite altitude of 20000 km and the ground.
 The Delta II is a new USAF rocket and is an improved version of NASA's
Delta which has launched nearly 200 satellites over 30 years.

Preparations continue for the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on
mission STS-29, during the week of March 13. Any further delays
are likely to result in cancellation of the mission to make way
for the STS-30 mission.

Soviet cosmonauts Volkov, Krikalyov, and Polyakov continue their
tour of duty on board the Mir space station. Last week the robot
cargo freighter Progress-39 was undocked from Mir, loaded
with refuse and surplus equipment. It was made to reenter
over the Pacific Ocean and was destroyed. A new robot freighter 
will be launched soon, carrying food, air, and fuel supplies for 
the station.



Other events:

Confirm landing of spy satellite Kosmos-1991 on Feb 1.


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Jonathan's Space Report

Feb 21, 1989  (No. 4)

As reported last week, the first US launch of the year went off
perfectly.  The Navstar 2-1 satellite has now circularised its orbit at
20000 km altitude.  The next Navstar /Delta 2 launch is set for April. 

The Soviet Union launched a robot cargo freighter on 10 Feb to 
deliver food, air, fuel and experiments to the Mir space station.
The Progress-40 spacecraft linked up with Mir on 12 Feb, and
will remain attached to the station for about a month. It will be
followed by Progress-41 in March, and then a month of major activity
in April when the station will be enlarged by the addition of a new
module, and a new crew will take over.

Also on Feb 10, the Kosmos-2000 satellite was launched into polar 
orbit. The second mission of the year to be operated by the Soviet
Priroda ("Nature") Center, it will be used to make maps of Antarctica.

The space shuttle Discovery is still on target for a mid-March
launch at Kennedy Space Center.


Other events:

6 satellites (Kosmos-1994 to 1999) were launched on a single Tsiklon
("Cyclone") booster on Feb 10, making a total of 8 satellites launched
that day. The small satellites are believed to be used for either
geodetic or communications purposes by the Soviet Navy.

The Kosmos-1990 satellite completed its mission to survey Armenia
and landed in the USSR after 30 days in space.




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Jonathan's Space ReportFeb 28, 1989 (No. 5)

As reported last week, the first US launch of the year went off perfectly.  The Navstar GPS-13 satellite, officially named 'USA-35', has now circularised its orbit at 20000 km altitude.  The next Navstar/Delta-2launch is set for April. 

Japan's scientific space agency ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences) launched the Akebono ('Dawn') satellite from Kagoshima Space Center on Feb 21 into an elliptical polar orbit.  The satellite, also known as EXOS-D, will study the formation of aurorae. 

A Japanese commercial communications satellite, JCSAT 1, is set for launch aboard a European Ariane 4 rocket this week.  The rocket will also carry Europe's first Operational Meteosat weather satellite into orbit. 

The space shuttle Discovery is still on target for a mid-March launch at Kennedy Space Center. A launch date will be set next week. 

Other events:

Kosmos-2001, launched Feb 14 by a 'Molniya' booster, is a missile early warning satellite operated by the PVO (Soviet Air Defence Forces). Kosmos-2002, launched Feb 14, is a small military satellite whose mission is unknown.  The USSR launches several satellites each year in this 'minor military' category; the small satellites do not maneuver and reenter after one or two years.  Possible missions include radiationmeasurement, atmospheric studies, cloud cover monitoring, communications security monitoring, and technology development. 

Kosmos-2003 is a GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) spy satellite, based on the old Vostok spacecraft.  It was launched on Feb 17 and will probably land in Kazakhstan on Mar 3. Kosmos-2004 was launched on Feb 22. No details yet. 

The 75th Soviet Ministry of Communications 'Molniya-1' comsat was orbited on Feb 15. Major launches due in March include Space Shuttle Mission STS-29,a European Ariane 44LP launch with two comsats, and a Soviet Progress cargo freighter. 
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Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 7, 1989 (No. 6)

Kennedy Space Center, Fla:
----------------------------
Space Shuttle Mission STS-29 is due to be launched on Mar 13 from Launch
Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, using Orbiter 103 (Discovery).  The
main payload is a Contel,Inc.  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite which
carries an IUS upper stage to deliver it to geostationary orbit.  The
TDRS satellite will replace TDRS-1, launched in 1983, as the operational
TDRS EAST satellite.  The crew of Discovery are Capt.  Michael Coats,
Col.  John Blaha, Col.  James Buchli, Dr.  James Bagian, and Col. 
Robert Springer.  (Source: NASA)

Mir Space Station, Low Earth Orbit:
-------------------------------------
The Progress-40 robot cargo freighter undocked from the Mir space
station on Mar 5.  According to Soviet reports, after it undocked it
deployed a special structure designed for holding equipment and
experiments.  Progress-40 was due to be de-orbited over the Pacific
Ocean and destroyed; the launch of Progress-41 is expected in the next
few days. (Source: Radio Moscow via Glenn Chapman)

Geostationary Transfer Orbit
--------------------------------- 
Ariane flight V29 was launched on Mar 6 from the Centre Spatial Guyanais
in South America.  The Ariane 44LP vehicle placed two satellites into
elliptical transfer orbit: EUMETSAT's MOP 1 (Meteosat Operational
Programme) weather satellite and Japan Satellite Communications Co's
JCSAT 1 comsat. The satellites will enter geostationary orbit in the
next few days. (Source: Arianespace, Inc; CNN)


Other events: (Source: NASA Two Line Orbital Elements and SPACEWARN)

Kosmos-2004 was launched on Feb 22 by Kosmos rocket from Plesetsk.  It
is a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, part of a system of six
satellites closely analogous to the US Navy Transit NNS system. 

The 18th GMS (Soviet Hydrometeorological Service) Meteor-2 weather
satellite was launched from Plesetsk on a Tsiklon rocket on Feb 28. 

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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 14, 1989 (No. 7)

Space Shuttle Mission STS-29 was launched on Mar 13 at 1457 UT from Launch
Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center. Orbiter OV-103 'Discovery' is
carrying out experiments on the effects of free fall on living
organisms, and testing components being designed for use on the Space
Station.

The TDRS-4 Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, owned by Contel, Inc., was
launched by IUS rocket yesterday from low earth orbit after it was
deployed from the cargo bay of the spaceship Discovery. The TDRS
satellite will enter geostationary orbit and replace TDRS-1 as the
TDRS EAST satellite.

Other events: (Source: NASA Two Line Orbital Elements and SPACEWARN)

Kosmos-2005 was launched on Mar 3 by Soyuz rocket from Plesetsk.  It
is a Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) advanced reconnaissance satellite.

The Kosmos-2000 mapping satellite and the Kosmos-2003 spy satellite have
completed their missions and landed in Kazakhstan, USSR. 

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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 21, 1989 (No. 8)

Space Shuttle Mission STS-29 ended on Mar 18 with the landing of
Discovery on concrete RW 22 at Edwards.  Atlantis has been mated with
the STS-30 stack at Kennedy Space Center; it has been in the VAB since
Mar 12 and is due to be moved to pad 39B tonight (Mar 21/22).

The Soviet Union has launched the Progress-41 robot cargo tanker, and
docked it with the Mir orbital station on Mar 19. 


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Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 29, 1989 (No. 9)

The third US satellite launch of the year was carried out successfully
on Mar 24.  The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) Delta
Star satellite was orbited by a Delta 3920 launch vehicle from Kennedy
Space Center.  Delta Star's mission is to detect and observe rocket
launches, in order to develop antimissile weapons. 

Space Shuttle Mission STS-30 is on Pad 39B and due for launch at the end
of April.  The Magellan probe to Venus will be deployed from orbiter
OV-104 Atlantis on its fourth mission.  Crew are David Walker, Ron
Grabe, and mission specialists Dr.  Norman Thagard, Dr.  Mary Cleave and
Mark Lee.  Dr.  Cleave will be the first woman to fly in space since the
Challenger accident. 

The Soviet Union lost contact with its Phobos-2 probe on Mar 27. 
Attempts continue to contact the probe, but it is not likely to be
recovered.  Another orbital manever had been made on Mar 15 to continue
the rendezvous with the Martian moon Phobos.  It had been planned to
attempt a landing on Phobos in the coming weeks. 


Other news:

Kosmos-2006, launched on Mar 14, is a medium resolution spy
satellite operated by the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence).

Kosmos-2007 was launched on Mar 23. No data yet.

Kosmos-2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014, and 2015 were launched by a
single Kosmos booster on Mar 24.  They are believed to be small
communications relay satellites used by the Soviet Navy. 

Space Services Inc carried out its first commercial launch of a
suborbital Starfire sounding rocket on Mar 29.  The payload was Consort
1, a set of materials processing experiments. 


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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 6, 1989 (No. 10)


The Swedish Space Corp. broadcasting satellite, Tele-X, was launched
on Apr. 1 by Ariane 2 flight V30 from Kourou, South America. It is
now in geostationary orbit.


Preparations continue for the launch of Soyuz TM-8 on Apr 19
and Space Shuttle mission STS-30 on Apr 28.

The Soviet Kosmos-1993 recon satellite landed on March 27 after a two 
month mission.


All a bit quiet, really..  I bet something really exciting happens while
I'm away down in DC for the weekend. 

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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 13, 1989 (No. 11)


The Soyuz TM-8 mission to Mir has been cancelled. The Soyuz TM-7
crew will land on Apr 27 leaving the Mir station unpiloted for
the first time in over two years.

The STS-30 mission is still scheduled for Apr 28.

Kosmos-2007, launched on Mar 23, is an advanced digital imaging
spy satellite operated by the GRU.

Kosmos-2016, launched on Apr 4, is a navigation satellite.

Kosmos-184, one of the early Meteor weather satellites launched
into a 600 km orbit in 1967, reentered in early April after
20 years of atmospheric drag had reduced its altitude to only
150 km.



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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 18, 1989 (No. 12)

The Soyuz TM-7 crew are winding up their research program
on the Mir orbital station. Mir is to be abandoned while
a new crew is trained to repair the electrical power system.

The STS-30 mission is still scheduled for Apr 28.

The 23rd Raduga ('Rainbow') geostationary comsat was launched by Proton
from Baykonur on Apr 14. The satellite is used principally for Soviet government
and military communications.

Other news:

Kosmos-2016, launched on Apr 4, is a VMF (Soviet Navy) navigation satellite,
part of a system analogous to the USN Transit.

Kosmos-2017, launched on Apr 6, is a GRU spy satellite based on the Vostok
design. It is expected to land on Apr 20.

The SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) satellite 
reentered on Apr 11. The NASA satellite was used in 1979-81 to study the ozone
layer as part of the Applications Explorer program.


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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 28, 1989 (No. 13)

The Soyuz TM-7 crew undocked from the Mir station and landed in 
Kazakhstan on Apr 27, leaving space unoccupied by humans for the
first time since Feb 1987.

The Progress-41 cargo freighter undocked from the Mir complex last week
and reentered.

The attempt to launch STS-30 was scrubbed today at T-31s, 1428 UT on Apr
28 with an RSLS abort apparently due to main engine pump problems. 



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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

May 4, 1989 (no. 14)

The space shuttle Atlantis was launched at 18:47:00 GMT today
on the STS-30 mission. At 22:30 GMT the mission was proceeding
nominally and Magellan deployment was scheduled for 01:04 GMT.

The Progress-41 ferry seems to have run into trouble after undocking
from Mir on Apr 20.  Instead of being deorbited, according to NORAD
tracking it ended up in a 124x390 km orbit.  It then slowly decayed,
reentering at 1202 GMT on Apr 25 from an orbit with a perigee of 94 km. 
This could indicate an engine underburn, possibly due to lack of fuel
after the unplanned boost of the Mir station to a storage orbit. 

The Foton-2 materials processing flight was orbited on Apr 26 from
Plesetsk. Based on the Vostok craft, the satellite will remain in
orbit for several weeks and land in the USSR.


Kosmos-2018, launched on Apr 20, is a GRU recon satellite, 
for high resolution imaging. It will probably operate until
late June.

Another old weather satellite, Kosmos-206, reentered on Apr 22





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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

May 11, 1989 (no. 15)

The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards AFB on the main runway (RW22)
on May 8. 

The Magellan Venus Radar Mapper probe was launched by IUS rocket into solar
orbit on May 5 after its deployment from Atlantis.

A Titan 34D/IUS payload was launched toward geostationary orbit on May 10
from Cape Canaveral; its payload is probably a pair of Phase III Defense
Satellite Communications System (DSCS III) sats. This is the 5th US space
launch of the year.

The second 'Foton' satellite, launched on Apr 26, carries a French
materials processing experiment. It is due to land on May 12.

Kosmos-2019 was launched on May 5; no data yet.

The Kosmos-2017 Vostok-class recon satellite landed on about Apr 20
after 14 days in space.  Kosmos-2005, a long duration recon satellite,
landed on Apr 25, 5 days after being replaced by Kosmos-2018. 

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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

May 18, 1989 (no. 16)

The second 'Foton' satellite, launched on Apr 26, landed on May 12 as
predicted.

Kosmos-2019 was launched on May 5; it is a GRU recon satellite.

Otherwise, it's all quiet on the High Frontier.....

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(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
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Jonathan's Space Report

May 24, 1989 (no. 17)


Delta II launch due for tonight if weather allows; Kosmos-2020 is up. 
The first launch of the Ariane 44L due soon.  Rather a quiet patch at
the moment, though. 

Have a nice long weekend; I'm forced to take it off as our system will
be down for upgrade. 

-Jonathan 






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Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 15, 1989 (no. 18)

Hello again girls and boys, I'm semi-back! We still dont have the usenet
back after our system upgrade, so I'm asking a friend to post this.  I
wont see the net for another week or so, so email me questions rather
than post them. 
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OV-102 Columbia due to be moved to the VAB on Jun 29

Launches: I'll be chronological for a change...

USA-37, launched May 10 by Titan 34D/Transtage, is a Vortex telemetry
intelligence satellite according to AvLeak, rather than a pair of
comsats as reported earlier.  It is now in geostationary orbit. 

Kosmos-2020, launched May 17 by RN Soyuz from Baykonur, is a GRU recon
satellite expected to remain in orbit until mid-July.

Kosmos-2021, launched May 24 by RN Soyuz from Plesetsk, is another GRU
recon satellite, probably a Vostok-class payload, and probably landed
around Jun 7.  Meanwhile, Kosmos-2019 landed on May 18 after a 13 day
flight. 

The first Resurs-F satellite, launched May 25 also by RN Soyuz from
Plesetsk, is another Vostok-class payload, this time for earth resources
photography.  The data is used by the 'Priroda' center.  Other
satellites in the same series have flown under the Kosmos name, like
Kosmos-2000 earlier this year; civilian applications are slowly being
declassified and removed from the Kosmos series. 

Pravda reports that two separable 'Pion' air density research
subsatellites were carried into orbit with Resurs-F.  The satellites,
built by students at the Korolev Aviation Institute in Kubyshev, have
not yet been catalogued by NORAD. 

Three GLONASS navigation satellites, Kosmos-2022,2023,2024, were
launched on May 31 by RN Proton from Baykonur into 19000 km orbits. 

Yet another recon satellite, Kosmos-2025, orbited Jun 1 from Plesetsk;
no details yet on Kosmos-2026 launched Jun 7.

The first launch of the 44L version of Ariane 4 was successful on Jun 5.
The payloads were Superbird 1, a commercial Japanese comsat, and 
Kopernikus/DFS, a West German TV (Deutsche FernSehen) satellite.

Jun 8 saw the launch of the 38th Molniya-3 satellite by RN Molniya
from Plesetsk, into a 12 hour elliptical orbit.

The second Delta II launch finally got off the ground on Jun 10,
from pad 17 at Cape Canaveral, placing a USAF Navstar navigation
satellite (USA-38) in orbit.

Finally, on Jun 14 the first Titan IV was launched from pad 41 at
Cape Canaveral, carrying the first of a new generation of early
warning satellites toward geostationary orbit.



 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
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Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 12, 1989 (no. 19)

Finally I have access again, so here goes on a catchup..
---------------------------------------------------------------------

OV-102 Columbia due to be rolled out to the pad tomorrow
for mission STS-28.

The first Titan 4 launch on Jun 15 was a success. Its payload was
a new generation missile early warning satellite. The upper stage
was an IUS, the same stage used by the Shuttle to launch TDRS
and Magellan.

The last Ariane 3 went into orbit on Jul 11. It carried ESA's
Olympus experimental communications satellite, formerly known as
L-SAT. Ariane 4 will now be the standard Ariane variant.

The first Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was recovered on Jun 17
after 23 days in orbit; a second Resurs-F satellite went into
space on Jun 27. On Jul 5, another similar remote sensing satellite,
also operated by the Priroda center, was launched and given the name
Kosmos-2029; the distinction between the satellites given the new
Resurs-F name and similar satellites which are still given the 
Kosmos code name is not clear yet.

Another Soviet program was further declassified with the launch on
Jul 4 of Nadezhda, a civilian navigation satellite. The Nadezhda 
satellite carries Doppler-type navigation equipment and a 
COSPAS-SARSAT search-and-rescue system. Satellites of this class
have been launched for over a decade with Kosmos codenames; it appears
that the various civilian subprograms are being separated from the
Kosmos program and declassified.

Two recent launches by Proton to geostationary orbit: Raduga-1 on Jun 21
and Gorizont on Jul 5.  Previous Raduga satellites have been named
simply 'Raduga' rather than 'Raduga-1', so this may imply that a
'Raduga-2' model will be introduced soon. 


Kosmos-2026 launched Jun 7, a Soviet navy navigation satellite.

The 38th Molniya-3 launched Jun 8, a Soviet comms relay satellite.

Kosmos-2027 launched Jun 14, probably a radar calibration target
or some other kind of military support satellite.

Kosmos-2028 launched Jun 16, a GRU recon satellite replacing Kosmos-2018
which landed on Jun 19.


 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell              |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
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Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 26, 1989 (no. 20)

Twenty years on ... 
---------------------------------------------------------------------

OV-102 Columbia is on the pad. The payload is a new imaging
recon satellite, presumably KH-12. (AvLeak, latest issue).
Mission STS-28 is due for early August.

One of the oldest satellites in orbit has reentered; the Sergeant rocket
used to launch Explorer VII in Oct 1959 burnt up on 16 July.  This is
the first time that a satellite of this vintage has reentered since 1982
(a fragment from Vanguard 3) and 1970 (Explorer I).  Still in orbit are
(from 1958) Vanguard I, its final stage rocket, and a separation clamp
which had connected them; and (from 1959) Vanguard 2, its final stage
rocket, and Explorer VII itself.  (In deep space, we also have the first
Luna AMS, its Blok-E final stage, the US Army Pioneer IV, and its
Sergeant final stage.)

The Japanese satellite Ohzora reentered on Jul 19 after 5 years in space;
and BP-26, a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft launched on a Saturn I test,
reentered on Jul 8.

Kosmos-2028 landed on Jul 6 after 20 days in orbit. This is the
first time that a standard Vostok-type recon satellite has 
flown such a long mission, although the same spacecraft type has
flown 20-day missions in the Resurs-F and biosatellite programs.

The Kosmos-2020 recon satellite reentered on Jul 15 after two months
in orbit. It was replaced by Kosmos-2030 launched on Jul 12

Another Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Jul 18,
together with two Pion air density subsatellites.  This satellite seems
to be on a mission similar to the first Resurs-F, while the second
Resurs-F was a short duration flight which released no subsatellites. 

Kosmos-2031, launched on Jul 18, is a recon satellite in an unusual 50.6
degree orbit. 

Kosmos-2032 was launched on Jul 20 into a low altitude 82 degree polar orbit. Satellites
in such an orbit are usually announced as being operated by the Priroda remote sensing
center, but there is about one exception a year, and this is it. It may be a 
military recon satellite with a target in the far north.

Kosmos-2033 was launched on Jul 24.

 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell              |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
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Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 4, 1989 (no. 21)

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OV-102 Columbia is on pad 39B. The payload is a new imaging
recon satellite, presumably KH-12. 
Mission STS-28 is due for launch on August 8.

The Hipparcos astrometry satellite is ready for launch
by Ariane, also due on Aug 8.

Kosmos-2033 was launched on Jul 24 by the military version
of the Tsiklon booster from Baykonur. It is an ELINT (Electronic
Intelligence) ocean reconnaissance satellite, which picks up
transmissions from US Navy ships. The satellite carries a 
low-thrust ion engine to maintain a precise orbit.

Kosmos-2034 was launched on Jul 25 by Kosmos launch vehicle
from Plesetsk. It is the Soviet Navy variant of the Nadezhda-class
navigation satellite, a clone of the US Navy Transit system.


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Contest for readers: 8 nations plus one international agency have
launched their own satellites. Can you name all 9, in chronological
order of first successful orbital launch? (Entries by email, no
prizes except fame).

 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell              |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'
(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 10, 1989 (no. 22)

I am on vacation until Aug 30, so this is the last report
for a while.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-28/OV-102 Columbia went into space at 1237 UT on Aug 8,
into a 300km altitude orbit inclined at 57 degrees. 
All passes over the US are in daytime. Columbia was expected
to deploy the KH-12 Ikon recon satellite on Aug 8/9. It will
land on Aug 13 at Edwards.

The Hipparcos astrometry satellite and the TVSAT-2 German 
direct broadcast comsat were launched by Ariane 4, also on Aug 8.

The Kosmos-1870 large oceanographic satellite was deorbited
by the Soviets on Jul 29, almost exactly two years after its
launch. The automated satellite was launched by a Proton and
was probably a Salyut class vehicle. Relatively little information
about its payload has been released, suggesting that its mission
may have been partly military in nature.

The Voyager 2 space probe entered Neptune's gravitational sphere
of influence on about July 4. Far Encounter phase is now in progress,

Kosmos-2035 was launched on Aug 2 into a polar orbit. It is either
a recon or a remote sensing satellite.

The Kosmos-2031 spacecraft continues to maneuver extensively 
in low Earth orbit.

The Kosmos-2030 satellite reentered unexpectedly on Jul 29; its
orbit had suggested that it was a two month duration mission, but
it reentered after only 17 days.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer to last week's contest - 

#	Nation	Satellite	Vehicle		Date

1	USSR	PS-1 		Sputnik		1957 Oct 4
2	US	Explorer I 	Jupiter C	1958 Jan 31
3	France	Asterix		Diamant A	1965 Nov 26
4	Japan	Ohsumi 		Lambda 4S	1970 Feb 11
5	China	Tungfanghung 	Chang Zheng 1	1970 Apr 24
6	UK 	Prospero 	Black Arrow	1971 Oct 28
7	ESA 	CAT		Ariane I	1979 Dec 24
8	India 	Rohini 		SLV-3		1980 Jul 18
9	Israel 	Offeq 		Shavit		1988 Sep 19

Congrats to Nick Watkins for coming closest.

Arguable is:
3a	Australia WRESAT	Redstone/SPARTA 1967 Nov 29
since the launch vehicle was really American, and the program
was part of a US/UK/Australia project.


 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell              |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'
(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 30, 1989 (no. 23)

Well, lots of things have been happening while
I've been sunning myself in the UK..
---------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-28 landed at Edwards on Aug 13 after deploying a large satellite,
probably the KH-12 recon satellite, and a small SDI tracking target.
Can anyone tell me the runway number Columbia used?

The MAGE-2 apogee boost motor on Hipparcos failed
to fire after repeated attempts. Hipparcos will get
some photometry, but no distances or proper motions.
A major loss to astronomy.

As everyone knows, Voyager 2 encountered Neptune and Triton.
Onwards to the heliopause!

The first modified Progress freighter, Progress-M, has docked
with the Mir orbital station. The launch announcement did not
specify the launch vehicle used, but it was probably the new
Zenit.

Two more successful Delta launches: GPS-15 Navstar (Aug 18) on a USAF
Delta II, and Marcopolo 1 (Aug 27) for the British Satellite Broadcasting
Ltd. on a McDonnell Douglas Delta I, the first commercial orbital
launch from the U.S.

Kosmos-2035, launched Aug 2, landed Aug 16, was a Vostok-class
GRU recon sat in an 82 degree orbit. Kosmos-2036, launched Aug 22,
was a similar craft in a 63 degree orbit.

Resurs-F launched Aug 15 for remote sensing mission; 4th craft in the
series. The third Resurs-F landed on Aug 8.

The Kosmos-2031 spacecraft continues to maneuver extensively 
in low Earth orbit. It is probably an advanced recon satellite
of the Kosmos-1426 class, but AvWeek suggests it is the first
test flight of a new recon generation. This claim seems to be
based on the orbital inclination, used previously only for
Kosmos-670 in 1974 (probable test flight of "4th generation" recon
sat) and Kosmos-1426 in 1982 (test flight of "5th generation" recon sat);
it may well be right.

The Kosmos-2030 satellite was destroyed in orbit after an
engine failure, rather than reentering due to orbital decay
as suggested in the previous report.

The defunct Orbiting Solar Observatory 2, launched in 1965,
reentered on Aug 9. Kosmos-851, launched in 1976, reentered
on Aug 5.

 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell              |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'
(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 7, 1989 (no.24)
Happy Plutonic Perihelion!
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Soyuz TM-8 was launched from Baykonur on Sep 5 and docked with the Mir
orbital station on Sep 7.  The crew are Aleksandr Viktorenko (Kdr) and
Aleksandr Serebrov (BI, or flight engineer). 

The final Titan 34D was launched on Sep 4 from Cape Canaveral.  AvLeak
prelaunch reports suggested the payload was a pair of DoD comsats (DSCS
II F-16 and DSCS III F-4) with an IUS upper stage, but I have not
managed to confirm this. 

Kosmos-2037, launched Aug 28 by Tsiklon from Plesetsk, is a geodetic
satellite. 

NASDA's Himawari-4/GMS-4 weather satellite was successfully
launched from Tanegashima, Japan by H-I vehicle on Sep 5.

(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 15, 1989 (no.25)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Soyuz TM-8/Mir/Progress M complex continues in orbit, crewed
by Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Serebrov.

Atlantis/STS-34/Galileo is scheduled for launch on Oct 12.

Two classified payloads were aboard the Titan 34D launch on Sep 4.
They are probably DSCS communication satellites and are now presumably
in geostationary orbit.

Another classified US satellite was launched on Sep 6. No details yet,
but it's a year since the first Titan II SLV launch from Vandenberg,
so another of those would be a good first guess. Any details, anyone?

Another Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched by the USSR
on Sep 6.


(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell




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Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 28, 1989 (no.26)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Soyuz TM-8/Mir/Progress M complex continues in orbit, crewed by
Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Serebrov.  The station's orbit was
altered on Sep 13 using the engine of Progress M.  Progress M does not
carry a recoverable capsule as has been reported elsewhere; recoveries
will begin with the 6th Progress M mission. Modul' D is scheduled for
launch Oct. 16

Atlantis/STS-34/Galileo is scheduled for launch on Oct 12. 

A classified payload was launched on Sep 6 by Titan II from Vandenberg.
It is probably a US Navy WhiteCloud ocean surveillance cluster.

The Resurs-F remote sensing satellite launched Sep 6 carries a
West German materials processing experiment.

Six small satellites successfully spaced Sep 14.  Kosmos-2038 to
Kosmos-2043 are probably communications relays used by the Soviet Navy. 
The Tsiklon vehicle is slowly replacing the Kosmos launch vehicle for a
number of missions, and this 6-up launch is one of a series thought
to be replacing a series of octuple launches on the Kosmos vehicle.

Kosmos-2044 was launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Sep 15.  It is an
international biological research satellite, whose payload includes US
experiments. 

Kosmos-2045 up on Sep 22, no details yet.

FLTSATCOM F-8 launched by Atlas Centaur on Sep 25 from Canaveral.  The
US Navy UHF geostatioanry communications relay was finally launched
after a 2 year delay; the previous launch vehicle was damaged in a pad
accident.  Atlas Centaur launches will from now on be carried out by
General Dynamics rather than NASA.  The last major NASA expendable
vehicle launch is the COBE satellite set for no earlier than Nov 9 on a
Delta. 

A Molniya communications satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Sep 27. 
The Aktivniy-IK magnetospheric research satellite was due for launch
soon afterwards. 

Kosmos-2031 reentered on Sep 15 after 59 days in orbit; despite its
unusual inclination and orbit it was probably a variant of the standard
4th generation spy satellite rather than a new model. 

(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell




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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




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Jonathan's Space Report

Oct 25,1989 (no.28)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis/STS-34 was launched on Oct 18 and landed on Oct 23. It deployed
the Galileo probe into a Venus transfer orbit.

Viktorenko and Serebrov continue to work on the Soyuz TM-8/Mir/Progress M
complex. The D module launch has been delayed.

The fourth Block II Navstar GPS satellite was launched by Delta 6925 from
Canaveral on Oct 21.

The Czechoslovak Magion-2 satellite was released from the IK-24 magnetospheric
research satellite on Oct 3.

Kosmos-2047, launched on Oct 3, and Kosmos-2048, launched Oct 17, are
GRU photo reconnaissance satellites.

The Uosat-1 amateur radio satellite reentered on Oct 13.

(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Nov 2,1989 (no.29)
---------------------------------------------------------------------


The first Intelsat VI communications satellite was launched
by Ariane on Oct 27.

A Meteor-3 weather satellite was launched for the Soviet Hydrometeorological
Service on Oct 24.


The defunct Kosmos-156 weather satellite reentered on Oct 23 after
22 years in space. 


(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 5,1989 (no.30)
OK, let's catch up on the backlog...
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Two major astrophysics missions were orbited this past month:

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was launched by Delta 5920 from
Vandenberg on Nov 18.  COBE carries three instruments to study the
diffuse extragalactic background radiation.  The DMR experiment is
searching for spatial variations in the 3K microwave background
radiation: is the radiation slightly more intense in some directions
than in others? The FIRAS experiment is studying the spectrum of the
background radiation: how does the intensity of the radiation vary with
wavelength? Is there an extra source of background radiation in the
submillimetre wavelength range? The DIRBE experiment will study the
amount of radiation at somewhat shorter infrared wavelengths, mapping
the distribution of dust in our Galaxy and possibly from galaxies at
high redshift.

The 'Granat' X-ray astrophysical observatory was launched by Proton
from Baykonur on Dec 2; it carries Soviet and French x-ray and gamma-ray
telescopes.

November also saw the flight of Discovery on the STS-33 mission, which
deployed a payload in a low 28 degree orbit on Nov 23. The payload
was probably a Mentor (alias Magnum) signals intelligence satellite
for the National Security Agency, boosted to geostationary orbit
with an IUS upper stage.

On November 26, the Kvant-2 space station module was put in orbit.
The module is due to dock with the Mir station, and carries an EVA
airlock and EVA manoeuvring unit. One of two solar arrays failed to
deploy initially, but has now been fully extended. The first attempt
to dock with Mir failed on Dec 2, and another attempt is due this week.

Kosmos-2049, launched Nov 17, is an advanced reconnaissance satellite.
Kosmos-2050, launched Nov 23, is an early warning satellite operated by
 the PVO (Soviet Air Defence). 
Kosmos-2051, launched Nov 24, is a recon satellite.
The 36th Molniya-3 communications satellite was orbited on Nov 28.

A number of large satellites have reentered recently: the Kosmos-122
weather satellite on Nov 14, the Kosmos-1064 navigation satellite on Nov
12, the Kosmos-1662 radar calibration satellite on Nov 16, and the Solar
Max satellite on Dec 2. 


The STS-32 mission is due for launch on Dec 18 from Complex 39A.

(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 12,1989 (no.31)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kvant-2 module docked with Mir on Dec 6 after the
attempt on Dec 2 failed.
The Progress M cargo craft had undocked and reentered on
Dec 2.


The STS-32 mission is due for launch on Dec 18 from Complex 39A.

(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell



 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 9, 1990 (no.32)
Hi again!
Jonathan emerges from a succession of work crises...
----------------------------------------------------

Columbia was launched on mission STS-32 on January 9; it deployed the
Syncom IV-5 (Leasat 5) comsat for Hughes Communications.  Hughes leases
the use of the satellite to the US Navy.  Columbia then retrieved the
Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) and returned it to Earth.  The
mission was the longest flight to date (261 hrs 1 min).  Columbia is in
the Orbiter Processing Facility being prepared for the STS-35 Astro-1
flight, which will make UV and X-ray observations of stars and galaxies,
including a few of my favorite quasars. 

Atlantis was launched on mission STS-36 on March 4; it deployed the
AFP-731 imaging and signals intelligence satellite into a 62 degree
orbit.  This is the highest inclination flight to date in the US piloted
space program.  (Soviet flights have gone up to 65 degrees). The mission
lasted 106 hr 18 min. Atlantis is at Edwards AFB being prepared
for return to Kennedy.

Discovery is in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, being prepared for
the STS-31 mission due for launch Apr 12.  This mission will deploy the
Hubble Space Telescope.  (The Space Telescope Science Institute has held
a series of annual "only two years till launch" parties during the past
decade; I hope they're having a "one month to launch" party next week!
Good luck, folks..)

The Mir orbital complex is crewed by Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and
Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener), who are unloading the Progress M-3
freighter.  The current configuration of Mir is

Mir Port 1: 	Soyuz TM-9 ferry
Mir Port 2: 	Kvant astrophysical module (Port 1)
Mir Port 3:	Kvant-2 airlock module
Mir Port 4: 	(docking cone ready for Kristall module)
Kvant Port 2: 	Progress M-3 cargo craft

Progress M undocked from Port 1 on Dec 1 and was deorbited.  Kvant-2
docked on Dec 6 at Port 1 and was rotated to Port 3 on Dec 8; Viktorenko
and Serebrov moved Soyuz TM-8 from Port 2 to Port 1 on Dec 12.  Progress
M-2 was launched on Dec 20 and docked at Port 2 on Dec 22.  Viktorenko
and Serebrov made EVAs on Jan 8 and Jan 11 from one of the Mir ports to
carry out maintenance and upgrades on Kvant; then on Jan 26 they used
the new main airlock on Kvant-2 for the first time to carry out preps
for the test flights of the SPK (Sredstvo Peredvizheniya Kosmonavtov)
manoeuvring unit.  The SPK tethered test flights were carried out on Feb
1 and 5.  Progress M-2 undocked from Port 2 on Feb 9 and was deorbited
over the Pacific.  Solov'yov and Balandin were launched in Soyuz TM-9 on
Feb 11 and docked at Kvant Port 2 on Feb 13.  Viktorenko and Serebrov
handed over command of the complex and prepared to return to Soyuz TM-8. 
TM-8 undocked from Port 1 and landed in the Arkalyk recovery zone on Feb
19.  Solov'yov and Balandin flew Soyuz TM-9 round from Kvant Port 2 to
Mir Port 1 a few days later. Progress M-3 was launched on Feb 28 and
docked at Kvant Port 2 on Mar 3.  Sometime in late March, Progress M-3
will undock and the crew will move Soyuz TM-9 back from Port 1 to Kvant
Port 2.  The Kristall module will then be launched and will dock at Port
1, and then be rotated to occupy Port 4.  Progress M-4 will then follow;
it may dock at either Port 1 or K-Port 2, depending on whether the crew
move Soyuz TM-9 yet again!

The LACE and RME satellites launched by Delta 6920 on Feb 14 are SDIO
payloads to study the effects of ground-based lasers.  USAF Block II
NavStar GPS satellites were launched by Delta 6925 on Dec 11 and Jan 24. 

The first commercial Titan 3 launch ocurred 7 minutes into the new year
(GMT) with the launch of the UK Ministry of Defense's Skynet 4A comsat
and a commercial Japanese comsat, JCSAT 2 belonging to Japan
Communications Satellite Corp. 

The French SPOT-2 remote sensing satellite was launched on Jan 22 by
Ariane V35 into polar orbit.  Six "microsat" amateur radio satellites
were launched along with SPOT: the University of Surrey's UoSAT 3 and
UoSAT 4; AMSAT North America (AMSAT-NA)'s PACSAT; AMSAT-NA and Weber
State College's WEBERSAT; AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-Brazil's DOVE (Digital
Orbiting Voice Encoder); and AMSAT-LU's LUSAT.  (I don't know what LU
stands for. Anyone who can enlighten me, please do so!)

The loss of Ariane V36 on Feb 22 resulted in the destruction of two
Japanese commerical comsats.  Superbird B belonged to Japan Space
Communications Corp.  (do not confuse with JCSAT) , and GE Astro Space's
BS-2X had been ordered by NHK television as an interim supplement to
NASDA's BS-2 satellites.  An as yet unknown malfunction in the Ariane
1st stage caused one main engine to partially fail seconds after launch,
and two minutes later the vehicle exploded. 

The Japanese ISAS space agency launched the MUSES-A space probe on Jan
24.  The probe is a technology test which will fly past the Moon and
attempt to insert a subsatellite in lunar orbit.  The other Japanese
space agency, NASDA, launched a marine observation satellite, Momo-2, on
Feb 7 with the H-I vehicle.  Two small payloads were orbited at the same
time: NASDA'S Orizuru space technology experiment which tests deployable
structures, and the Japanese amateur radio satellite Fuji-2 (Oscar-20). 

The Chinasat 3 comsat was launched by Chang Zheng (Long March) 3 on Feb 4
into geostationary orbit. 

A Molniya-3 comsat was launched on Jan 23; two Raduga comsats were put in
geostationary orbit by Proton on Dec 15 and Feb 15. 

A Nadezhda Transit-class civilian navigation satellite was launched by Kosmos
launch vehicle on Feb 27.

An Okean oceanographic research satellite was launched by Tsiklon from
Plesetsk on Feb 28. 

Kosmos-2051, launched from Baykonur on Nov 24, is unusual.  It appears
to be an EORSAT (Electronic intelligence Ocean Recon satellite) for
tracking US ships.  These satellites are usually placed in a 120 km x
420 km transfer orbit which is circularized the same day at about
405x415 km.  Kosmos-2051 went into a 280x420 km orbit, which it slowly
raised over the next 3 weeks to the canonical 405x415 km orbit which it
is maintaining with occasional small burns.  Presumably it suffered a
propulsion failure during the launch phase, and the on-board orbit
adjust system was used to raise the orbit.  This confirms that this
class of satellite has two propulsion systems, a conventional apogee
motor in addition to the low thrust stationkeeping system. 

Kosmos-2052, launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Nov 30, was a GRU photo
recon satellite.  It landed on Jan 23 and was replaced by Kosmos-2057. 

Kosmos-2053, launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Dec 27,
is a radar test satellite for the PVO (Soviet Air Defense Force).

Kosmos-2054, launched by Proton from Baykonur on Dec 27 into
geostationary orbit, is probably a communications satellite of some
kind, either technology development or military. 

Kosmos-2055, launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Jan 17, was a Vostok
class GRU recon satellite. It landed after 12 days in orbit.

Kosmos-2056, launched by Kosmos from Plesetsk on Jan 18, is believed
to be a communications relay in low orbit, possibly for the KGB.

Kosmos-2057, launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Jan 25, is a GRU photo
recon satellite with an expected life of 2 months.

Kosmos-2058, launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Jan 30, is a GRU
signals intelligence satellite. 

Kosmos-2059, launched by Kosmos from Plesetsk on Feb 6, is probably a
small military research satellite. 

Kosmos-58 reentered on Feb 25; Kosmos-103 reentered on Jan 2; Kosmos-1979
reentered on Dec 25; a Molniya-1 satellite (1979-31A) reentered on Dec 9.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell





 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 1, 1990 (no.33)
I have been off the net due to a hacker attack on our
computer network; anyone who sent me mail in the last
2 weeks should resend.
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery is on pad 39B, ready for launch of mission
STS-31 on Apr 12. The Hubble Space Telescope was moved to the
pad on Mar 25.

Atlantis returned to KSC aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on
Mar 13. It is due to fly another DoD mission in July.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport
and the Progress M-3 freighter are currently at the station.

The USA-53 strategic intelligence satellite launched by Atlantis at the
beginning of March appears to have failed.  The Soviet Union reports
that it broke up and pieces have reentered.  The DoD confirms that its
mission is over. 

The Japanese Hiten (MUSES-A) space probe placed a small test satellite
in lunar orbit on Mar 20.

Intelsat VI F-1, the second Intelsat VI satellite to be launched, went
into space aboard a Martin Marietta Commercial Titan III on Mar 14. 
The satellite failed to separate from the Titan final stage, and
was finally separated from its Orbus 21S perigee kick motor, leaving
it stranded in low orbit with only its stationkeeping engine
available for propulsion.
INTELSAT is an intergovernmental organization for international
telecommunications; of the 44 satellites it has launched since 1965,
it has lost 9 in launch accidents.

Another USAF Navstar GPS Block II navigation satellite was launched
by McDonnell Douglas Delta 6925 from Canaveral on Mar 26.

Kosmos-2060, a Soviet Naval Intelligence satellite for detecting radio
emissions from ships, was launched from Baykonur on Mar 14.

Kosmos-2061, a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, was launched from
Plesetsk on March 20.

Kosmos-2062 was launched on March 22.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell





 
r 18.
Hiten flew past the Moon at 14000 km and remains in orbit around the 
Earth-Moon system.

Intelsat VI F-1, the second Intelsat VI satellite to be launched, went
into space aboard a Martin Marietta Commercial Titan III on Mar 14.  The
satellite failed to separate from the Titan final stage, and was finally
separated from its Orbus 21S perigee kick motor, leaving it stranded in
low orbit with only its stationkeeping engine available for propulsion. 
The satellite's orbit has been raised to a several-hundred km parking
orbit using the stationkeeping engine, while the Titan/Orbus has
reentered.  INTELSAT is an intergovernmental organization for
international telecommunications; of the 44 satellites it has launched
since 1965, it has lost 9 in launch accidents. 

Another USAF Navstar GPS Block II navigation satellite (SVN-20) was
launched by McDonnell Douglas Delta 6925 from Canaveral on Mar 26. 

Ofek-2 (Offeq-2? comments on alternative transliterations and original
Hebrew spelling solicited), the second Israeli test satellite, was
launched on Apr 3.  Press speculation that Ofek is a recon satellite is
IMHO almost certainly unfounded; even the Israelis are unlikely to do
that on their second launch.  The satellite is a small one and would
probably contain only tests of telemetry and spacecraft systems (you
learn how to build sats first, then you try and do something with them!)
and possibly some elementary experiments.  While an early experiment
might well be a small CCD camera, it would not have the resolution
needed for recon work. 

Kosmos-2060, a Soviet Naval Intelligence satellite for detecting radio
emissions from ships, was launched from Baykonur on Mar 14.

Kosmos-2061, a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, was launched from
Plesetsk on March 20.

Kosmos-2062, a polar orbiting recon/remote sensing satellite, 
was launched on March 22.

[Acknowledgements: Aviation Week, Space News, Radio Moscow, Pravda,
Spacewarn telexes, Two-Line Orbital Elements, CNN, sci.space,
Canadian Space Society BBS, NASA Spacelink BBS, and the public
affairs depts of UTC, Intelsat and the Japanese Embassy.]

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell





 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 10, 1990 (no.34)
Fingers tightly crossed.....
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of orbiter Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope
was scrubbed at T-4min on Apr 10 due to a problem with APU 1.
The APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) exhibited erratic behaviour during
startup. The launch may be attempted again on Apr 11.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport
and the Progress M-3 freighter are currently at the station. 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 58 days.

The Pegasus winged rocket made its first flight on Apr 5, launched by
the NASA NB-52 over the Pacific Ocean.  NASA's Pegsat satellite was
successfully placed in orbit, together with the second DARPA Global Low
Orbiting Message Relay satellite. 

Remember Westar VI? Challenger deployed it in Feb 1984, the Pam-D upper
stage failed and left it in low orbit.  Discovery retrieved it in Nov
84, and the insurance company sold it.  The satellite eventually ended
up as Asiasat 1, property of Asia Satellite Communications Co of Hong
Kong.  Asiasat 1 returned to orbit on Apr 7 aboard a Chinese Chang Zheng
3 launch vehicle.  This was the first Chinese launch of a non-Chinese
satellite, from Xichang Space Center. 

Kosmos-2063, an early warning satellite, was launched on Mar 27.

Apr 12 will mark the 29th anniversary of the first human flight in 
space by Yuriy Alekseevich Gagarin aboard the spaceship 'Vostok'.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell





 

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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 19, 1990 (no.35)
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of orbiter Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope
has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Apr 24.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport
and the Progress M-3 freighter are currently at the station. 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 67 days. The launch
of the Kristall module has been delayed until June.

The second of the two satellites retrieved by Discovery in 1984, Palapa
B-2, was relaunched into orbit on Apr 13 by a Delta 6925 rocket from
Cape Canaveral.  (The first was Asiasat, formerly Westar 6, relaunched
last week from China.) Palapa is owned by the Indonesian
telecommunications agency Perumtel and will be used to relay
communications and TV between the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. 
It is a Hughes HS-376 class comsat, and is the third Palapa B to reach
stationary orbit. Palapa was owner by the insurers after recovery,
and then sold to Sattel, Inc. which later sold it back to the Indonesians.
(If anyone can shed light on the complicated ownership history of Westar,
please let me know.)

Three small DoD research satellites were launched by an Atlas E from
Vandenberg on Apr 11.  The Atlas carried an Altair III upper stage left
over from the Scout program.  (Reports that the vehicle was an
"Atlas-Scout" are rather an overstatement; the Altair is the fourth
stage of the Scout vehicle.) The three satellites are: Polar Orbiting
Geomagnetic Survey, Transceiver Experiment, and Selective Communications
Experiment.  The first will map the Earth's magnetic field, while the
other two will study radio communications through the ionosphere. 

NASA's Pegsat released its first barium canister on Apr 15.  The barium
spreads along the magnetic field lines, allowing the field to be traced. 

The Kosmos-2062 recon satellite landed on Apr 5.

Eight small Soviet Navy communications relays, Kosmos-2064 to Kosmos-2071,
were launched on a single Kosmos rocket on Apr 6. This is the 43rd launch
of this type since the program began in 1970. A new program began in 1985,
with 6 satellites at a time launched on the newer Tsiklon vehicle, and
this may eventually supersede the 8-satellite program.

Kosmos-2072 was launched on Apr 13. No details yet.

Glavkosmos launched a Foton materials processing satellite on a two week
mission on Apr 11.  This is the seventh launch of a Foton (the 3rd to be
officially named) and carries a French experiment among its payload. 
The Foton uses a Vostok spacecraft bus and carries several processing
furnaces to process crystals and pharmaceutical materials.  There is one
flight per year, each April. Launches are from Plesetsk aboard a Soyuz
rocket.

Summary of previous Foton flights:
ID	Name		Date			Dur(d)	Orbit (km, deg)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FotA1	Kosmos-1645	1985 Apr 16-29		13	215x390x62.8
FotA2	Kosmos-1744	1986 May 21-Jun  4	14	219x373x62.8
FotA3	Kosmos-1841	1987 Apr 24-May  8	14	218x381x62.8
FotA4	Foton		1988 Apr 14-28		14	219x374x62.8
FotA5	Foton		1989 Apr 26-May 12	16	222x378x62.8
FotA6	Foton		1990 Apr 11-*


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell
 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell     (6699::) |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 25, 1990 (no.36)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hubble Space Telescope was released into orbit
by the orbiter Discovery at 19:38 UTC on Apr 25.
Deployment was 1 orbit late because of solar panel
problems. McCandless and Sullivan began EVA preps
and waited in the airlock, which was depressurized
to 5 psi, but the EVA was cancelled when the final
attempt to command the starboard array open was 
successful. Discovery was launched on Apr 24 from
Complex 39B.

Columbia rolled out to Complex 39A on Apr 22. Its cargo
is the Astro-1 Spacelab payload and the BBXRT x-ray
telescope. Launch is due for May 16.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport
and the Progress M-3 freighter are currently at the station. 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 72 days. 

Kosmos-2072 was launched on Apr 13.  It is an advanced recon satellite
using digital data return via relay satellites.  The previous such
satellite, Kosmos-2049, is still in operation. 

Kosmos-2073 was launched on Apr 17. A Vostok-class recon satellite,
it will fly in polar orbit for 2 weeks.


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell
 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell     (6699::) |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report

May 1 1990 (no.37)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital
Verification phase. The High Gain Antenna #2 has
been disentangled from its power cable.

Discovery landed at Edwards on Apr 29.
Columbia rolled out to Complex 39A on Apr 22. Its cargo
is the Astro-1 Spacelab payload and the BBXRT x-ray
telescope. Launch is due for May 16.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport
and the Progress M-3 freighter are currently at the station. 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 78 days. Progress M-4
is being prepared for launch.

Kosmos-2074, a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, was launched
on Apr 20.

A Soviet Molniya-1 comsat was launched on Apr 26.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell
 .----------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell       |  phone : (617)495-7144              |
 |  Center for Astrophysics | uucp: husc6!harvard!cfa200!mcdowell |
 |  60 Garden Street        | bitnet : mcdowell@cfa.bitnet        |
 |  Cambridge  MA 02138     |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu   |
 |  USA                     |   span : cfa::mcdowell     (6699::) |
 |                          |  telex : 92148 SATELLITE CAM	  |
 |                          |    FAX : (617)495-7356              |
 '----------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report

May 8 1990 (no.38)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification phase.  A
large (6 arcsec/min) oscillation has been found by the Fine Guidance
Sensors.  First out-of-focus images are expected this week. 

Launch of STS-35/Columbia is due for May 17.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport and
the Progress-42 freighter are currently at the station.  The Progress
M-3 freighter undocked and was deorbited to destruction over the Pacific
on Apr 28.  Progress 42 was launched on May 5 to bring more supplies to
the station, and according to Glenn Chapman it docked on May 8. 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 85 days, breaking the US
record of 83 days in 1974.  The Soviet record is 1 year. 
 
The Foton materials processing satellite and the Kosmos-2073 recon
satellite landed in Kazakhstan on Apr 27 and Apr 28. 

Two Soviet Air Defense satellites were launched on Apr 25 and Apr 28,
the Kosmos-2075 radar calibration satellite and the Kosmos-2076 
missile early warning satellite.

Topic of the Week
---------------------------------------------------------------
Protivo-Vosdushnaya Oborona - Soviet Air Defense Command

The space activities of the PVO began in 1968 with the
antisatellite program. In this program, a satellite filled
with high explosive manoeuvred next to a target satellite
and exploded, damaging the target with shrapnel. 

There have been no launches in the ASAT program since 1982, but a series
of satellites with orbital characteristics similar to the old target
satellites continues.  This series, which began with Kosmos-752 in 1975,
was initially puzzling.  Were the Soviets launching targets and then
forgetting to launch the ASATs at them? Worse, the targets seemed to be
disintegrating anyway! Many fragments were being cataloged in orbit with
them.  Were they being attacked with secret laser weapons? Eventually it
was realized that some of the K-752 series were periodically releasing
groups of 25-30 small objects into orbit to simulate missile attacks, so
that Soviet defense radars could be tested.  The K752 series continues
with the launch of Kosmos-2075 on a Kosmos launch vehicle from Plesetsk,
but this launch vehicle is being phased out and a replacement series
using the Tsiklon launch vehicle began with Kosmos-1985 in 1988.  Not
all of the satellites release extra objects tracked in orbit; why is
unclear.  For instance, Kosmos-1960 in 1988 released 28 objects, while
Kosmos-2027 launched into an identical orbit a year later has released
none. 

Currently, the calibration satellite program sees one Tsiklon-class
launch per year each December, one Kosmos-class launch into elliptical
orbit in February, and one Kosmos-class launch into circular orbit in
mid-year.  All launches are from Plesetsk, except occasional Kosmos
circular orbit missions from Kapustin Yar. 

The PVO is also believed to operate the missile early warning
program, with spacecraft in similar orbits to the Molniya satellites.
Kosmos-2076 is the 63rd launch in the program, and the second this
year. A constellation of satellites in 9 orbital planes is maintained.
After many early failures, the satellites seem to be operating
more reliably in recent years.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

May 15 1990 (no.39)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification phase.
Focus tests are in progress but have been delayed by errors
in the Guide Star Catalog. High voltage testing of the
instruments has begun. First WF/PC image is due in about
a week.

Launch of STS-35/Columbia is due for about Jun 3 following
repairs to the orbiter cooling system.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport and
the Progress-42 freighter are currently at the station.  
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 92 days.

Two MACSAT (Multiple Access Comsat) lightsats were orbited by 
Scout G-1 from Space Launch Complex 5, Vandenberg AFB on May 9.
The satellites are a joint Navy/DARPA project.

Kosmos-2077, launched on May 7 from Plesetsk, is a film-return
imaging recon satellite with a life of two months.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

May 30 1990 (no.40)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-35/Columbia was scrubbed yesterday during fuelling due to
hydrogen leaks near the orbiter/ET attach point.  A new launch date has
not been set.  The launch of the ROSAT x-ray astronomy satellite is
scheduled for Jun 1. 

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification phase.  The
first WF/PC image gave 0.2 arcsec images; controllers are working to
improve the focus and stability of the telescope, check out the
instrument electronics, and resolve problems with acquiring guide stats. 
Command errors sent the HST into safemode on May 27, but operations were
resumed the next evening. 

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport is
currently at the station.  Progress-42 was due to undock a few days ago. 
Launch of the Kristall module is due for May 31.  Kristall will carry an
EVA ladder to assist the planned spacewalk repair of loose insulation
blankets on the Soyuz TM-9 SA (descent module). 
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 107 days. 

Kosmos-2078 was launched on May 15 by Soyuz from Baykonur; it is
a photographic mapping survey satellite.

Kosmos-2079, Kosmos-2080, and Kosmos-2081 are GLONASS navigation
satellites, the Soviet copy of Navstar.  They were launched on May 19 by
a single Proton vehicle into a 20,000 km orbit. 

Kosmos-2082, launched on May 22, is a large signals intelligence satellite
in an 800-km orbit. This was the first use of the new Zenit launch vehicle
since late 1988; no reason has been given for the hiatus in Zenit launches.

Topic of the week: Zenit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are two variants of the Zenit vehicle; a one-stage version used as
a strapon for the Energiya launch vehicle, and a two-stage version used
as a satellite launch vehicle. A three-stage variant is due to fly in 1993.
The Zenit 2 has carried two types of payload into orbit: a large signals
intelligence satellite which I call Ferret E, and a series of heavy low 
orbit payloads which I believe were related to Buran systems development.
The first two Ferret E craft were launched by 4-stage Proton before 
Zenit was operational. All Zenit launches have been successful with the
exception of Kosmos-1714, when the second stage failed to restart and
the payload was left in an elliptical transfer orbit. Zenit has been offered
for commercial use, and may be launched from Australia's planned Cape York 
spaceport.
	
	RN Zenit 1 Launch History:

No	Launch Date	Payload			Code			Site
1	   1987 May 15	Energiya		strap-on		KB
2	   1987 May 15	Energiya		strap-on		KB
3	   1987 May 15	Energiya		strap-on		KB
4	   1987 May 15	Energiya		strap-on		KB
5	   1988 Nov 15	Energiya/Buran		strap-on		KB
6	   1988 Nov 15	Energiya/Buran		strap-on		KB
7	   1988 Nov 15	Energiya/Buran		strap-on		KB
8	   1988 Nov 15	Energiya/Buran		strap-on		KB

	RN Zenit 2 Launch History:

No	Launch Date	Payload			Code			Site
1	   1985 Apr 13				suborbital test		KB
2	   1985 Jun 21				suborbital test 	KB
3		Oct 22	Kosmos-1697		Ferret E3		KB
4		Dec 28	Kosmos-1714		Ferret E4		KB
5	   1986 Jul 30	Kosmos-1767		Korabl' C1		KB
6		Oct 22	Kosmos-1786		Korabl' C2		KB
7	   1987 Feb 14	Kosmos-1820		Korabl' C3		KB
8		Mar 18	Kosmos-1833		Ferret E5 		KB
9		May 13	Kosmos-1844		Ferret E6		KB
10		Aug  1	Kosmos-1871		Korabl' C4		KB
11		Aug 28	Kosmos-1873		Korabl' C5		KB
12	   1988 May 15	Kosmos-1943		Ferret E7		KB
13		Nov 23	Kosmos-1980		Ferret E8		KB
14	   1990 May 20	Kosmos-2082		Ferret E9		KB


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 6 1990 (no.41)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-38/Atlantis is due for early July. Atlantis will
be transferred from the Orbiter Processing Facility
to the Vehicle Assembly Building this week, where it will
be mated with the ET and SRBs.

Launch of STS-35/Columbia has been rescheduled for August 9.
A fuelling test revealed a leak in the seal between the orbiter
and the External Tank; repairs will require destacking of the
Shuttle in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The delay means that
Spacelab Life Sciences 1 will also slip.

The ROSAT (Rontgensatellit) x-ray astronomy satellite was launched on a
Delta 6920 on Jun 1.  The satellite, which is in a 600 km orbit, is
similar to the Einstein Observatory (1978-81) but with more sensitive
detectors.  ROSAT is a joint project between the German DLR space agency
and NASA, with British collaboration.  The main X-ray telescope focusses
radiation onto the PSPC (Position Sensitive Proportional Counter) which
will make the best survey yet of the X-ray sky.  Another detector, the
HRI (High Resolution Imager) has higher spatial resolution and can be
rotated into the focus of the telescope.  ROSAT also carries a piggyback
British telescope, the Wide Field Camera which will observe the sky in
the extreme ultraviolet. 

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification Phase 1.  
All the instruments have been turned on for electronics checks;
acquisition of guide stars has improved greatly. Focussing of the
telescope continues.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport is
currently at the station.  The Kristall module was launched on May 31,
and is due to dock today at the forward port. It will be transferred
to a side port soon after. Progress-42 undocked from the rear port
on May 27, and Soyuz TM-9 made a 24-min flight from the front port
to the rear port on May 28, leaving the front port open for Kristall.
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 114 days. 

The 6th Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on May 29
by Soyuz from Plesetsk. 

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


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Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 12 1990 (no.42)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-38/Atlantis is due for early July. Atlantis has
been transferred to the VAB for mating with the STS-38
stack.

Launch of STS-35/Columbia has been rescheduled for August 9.
The stack was rolled back to the VAB on Jun 12. The STS-41
SRB stack was rolled out to pad 39B to make room for it.

Orbital verification of the Hubble Space Telescope and the ROSAT
observatory continue.  ROSAT systems appear to be working well.  HST
continues to have some problems; the solar array masts flex several cm
when exposed to sunlight, and a guidance computer is insufficiently
shielded from radiation in the South Atlantic Anomaly.  These problems
should eventually be correctable in software.  Pointing stability is at
the milliarcsec level during night portions of the orbit. 

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport is
currently at the station.  The Kristall module docked on Jun 10 at the
forward port after a postponement of several days due to worries about a
thruster.  Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 120 days. 

The last Delta I rocket was launched from Canaveral on Jun 12.
The Delta model 4925 carried an Indian communications and
weather satellite, INSAT 1D, into orbit.

The second Titan 4 was launched from Canaveral on Jun 8.
Space News reports that it went into a 57 degree orbit;
if so, the payload is probably a National Reconnaissance
Office payload, either a LACROSSE radar imaging satellite
or an advanced KENNAN digital optical imaging satellite. 

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


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Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 26 1990 (no.43)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-38/Atlantis is due for mid July. Atlantis has
been mated with the STS-38 stack and rolled out to pad 39A.

OV-102 Columbia is undergoing repairs in the Orbiter Processing
Facility.

Orbital verification of the Hubble Space Telescope and the ROSAT
observatory continue.  The first image from the ROSAT PSPC detector
was made last week. The HRI imager will have its first light next
week. HST continues to show poorly focussed images and more data
is being obtained on the state of the mirror alignment.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  They will make an EVA to
carry out repairs to the Soyuz TM-9 transport in mid July.  The Kristall
module has been moved to a side port opposite the Kvant-2 module. 

An Intelsat VI communications satellite was launched by Commercial
Titan 3 on Jun 23. It successfully separated from the Titan
and its Orbus 21S perigee kick motor fired to place it in
geostationary transfer orbit.


A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched from Plesetsk on
Jun 13.

Kosmos-2083, a recon satellite, was launched into polar orbit
on Jun 19.

Kosmos-2084 was launched from Plesetsk on Jun 21.  Analysis indicates
that it was successfully placed in low parking orbit by a Molniya launch
vehicle, but that the final stage malfunctioned and it ended up at an
altitude of a few hundred kilometers instead of its intended elliptical
orbit with an apogee of 40000 km.  The payload is probably an early
warning satellite. 


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


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Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 13 1990 (no.44)
----------------------------------------------------

The Space Shuttle fleet has been grounded after the discovery of
hydrogen leaks in Columbia and Atlantis.  Atlantis/STS-38 remains on pad
39A for further leak tests. 

The Hubble Space Telescope has spherical aberration in its optical
system.  The implications for science operations are under study.  The
error appears to have occurred during mirror manufacture.  Use of the
WF/PC camera will be extremely limited, but a replacement instrument
with corrective optics may be installed by early 1993.  The European FOC
camera will not be able to detect objects as faint as planned, but is
still the only instrument in our out of the world capable of taking
ultraviolet images.  The FOS and GHRS ultraviolet spectrographs will
also be limited to brighter objects and longer observing times since the
bigger point source images means that not all the light from an object
will go down the detector apertures.  However most of the spectrographic
program may still be doable.  Space Telescope Science Institute
astronomers say that the limitation of HST capablility is not that
severe, but most other astronomers feel that HST has been reduced to an
improved version of the old IUE satellite. 

Meanwhile, the successful first light of the HRI imager means that all
instruments on the ROSAT x-ray observatory are working well; the sky
survey will begin soon. 

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  They will make an EVA to
carry out repairs to the Soyuz TM-9 transport on July 17.  The Soyuz
transport was moved back to the front port last week in preparation for
the EVA, leaving the rear port free for a Progress supply ship. 

The Intelsat VI F-4 comsat, launched by Titan on Jun 23, has reached
geostationary orbit. 

Kosmos-2084, launched on Jun 21, is a Molniya communications satellite
stranded in low orbit by a perigee motor failure.

A Gorizont geostationary comsat was successfully launched on Jun 20 by
Proton; and a Meteor-2 weather satellite was launched on Jun 27 by
Tsiklon. 

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


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Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 24 1990 (no.45)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of Atlantis/STS-38 is scheduled for no earlier than
Aug 10. Another leak test will be made this week.

Vladimir Solov'yov and Aleksandr Balandin made a 6hr spacewalk on Jul 17
to inspect and repair the loose insulation panels on the Soyuz TM-9
ferry craft.  Their attempt to return to Mir ran into problems when they
couldn't close the airlock hatch, and they had to return via an
emergency airlock. Another EVA this week will attempt to close the hatch.

The Soviet-French Gamma 1 astronomy satellite reached orbit on Jul 11. 
The satellite's launch has been delayed for six years by a series of
technical problems.  The satellite's telescope observes photons in the
energy range 50 MeV to 5 GeV.  Meanwhile, the Soviet French Granat
satellite launched in Dec 1989, with the Sigma telescope (observing
softer 50 keV to 2 MeV gamma rays) has observed the galactic center
region.  Surprisingly, there appears to be no bright source at the exact
center. 

The first launch of the Chang Zheng (Long March) 2E vehicle was
successful on Jul 16.  The launch, from Xichang, placed a dummy model of
the Aussat satellite in low orbit.  An operational launch will carry the
real Aussat satellite with perigee and apogee motors attached.  The
perigee motor will place the satellite in geostationary transfer orbit,
and the apogee motor will circularize the orbit at synchronous altitude. 
The July 16 launch also carried BADR-A, a small experimental satellite
developed by Pakistan.  CZ-2E is an improved version of the CZ-2, in
service since 1974, with strap on motors attached. 

The Israeli 'Ofeq-2 satellite reentered on July 9.

A Soviet satellite was launched into 82 degree orbit on Jul 17;
either a civilian Resurs-F satellite or a military recon satellite,
I don't have the details yet.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



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Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 1 1990 (no.46)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis failed its tanking test; now Columbia gets
another go. Launch of STS-35 due no earlier than Aug 30.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ET/SRB stacks                    |
|                                 |
|STS-35                 VAB Bay 3 |
|STS-38/OV104           LC39A     |
|STS-41                 VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

(Acronym list: 
OV  Orbiter Vehicle
OPF Orbiter Processing Facility
VAB Vehicle Assembly Building
LC  Launch Complex 
STS Space Transportation System)


Vladimir Solov'yov and Aleksandr Balandin made another spacewalk
on Jul 26 to complete the Soyuz TM-9 repair and close the 
Kvant-2 EVA hatch. The EVA appears to have been successful.
Soyuz TM-10 was launched Aug 1 with crew Gennadiy Manakov
(Komandir) and Gennadiy Strekalov (Bortinzhener). The TM-9 crew 
will land Aug 9; the TM-10 crew will stay up until December.

Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane IV on Jul 24.  The two
payloads heading for geostationary orbit are TDF 2 and Kopernikus DFS 2,
both television direct broadcasting satellites.  The first is for the
French TV channel Telediffusion de France, and the second is for the
Deutsche Bundespost (DFS stands for Deutsche FernsehenSatellit, German
for German TV Satellite). 

The DoD/NASA CRRES (Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite)
was launched into elliptical orbit on Jul 25 by the first commercial
Atlas I Centaur.  The satellite carries experiments to study the
magnetosphere and ionosphere, and will also carry out chemical releases
to allow visual observations of the Earth's magnetic field.  (Ions
released into the field glow pretty colors as they move along the field
lines). Congratulations Nick, I hope you get good data.

A Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Jul 17.

Kosmos-2085, launched on Jul 18, is a geostationary comsat.

Kosmos-2086, launched on Jul 20, is a polar recon satellite.

Kosmos-2087, launched on Jul 25, is an early warning satellite.

Orbital Verification of the HST continues.  Software errors continue to
be found; controllers have been playing with the secondary mirror and
have been using the off-axis FOC camera to study the image quality. 
Instrument testing continues; there are a few problems but nothing too
major yet.  The HST science institute (STScI) logo used to be a graphic
of rays coming to a focus.  In the revised version spotted recently on
STScI office doors, the rays come to two different foci and the motto
below is "ABERRARE HUMANUM EST". 

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 7 1990 (no.47)
----------------------------------------------------

Soyuz TM-10 docked with Mir on Aug 3. The new crew, Manakov
and Strekalov, have taken over the station. The Soyuz TM-9
crew, Solov'yov and Balandin, are preparing to return to
Earth.

The USAF Navstar GPS 21 navigation satellite was launched 
on Aug 2 by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 6925 from Canaveral.

Kosmos-2088, launched by Tsiklon on Jul 30, is a geodetic satellite.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ET/SRB stacks                    |
|                                 |
|STS-35/OV102           VAB Bay 3 |
|STS-38/OV104           LC39A     |
|STS-41                 VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

Mir complex current configuration:
(docking port numbers are my own arbitrary assignments;
they are in order of use.)

Mir port 1:       Soyuz TM-9
Mir port 2:       Kvant (port 1)
Mir port 3:       Kvant-2 (port 1)
Mir port 4:       Kristall (port 1)
Mir port 5:       (vacant)
Mir port 6:       (vacant)
Kvant port 2:     Soyuz TM-10
Kvant-2 SPK port: SPK maneuvring unit?
Kristall port 2+: (vacant)
                                          ___
                                         / 2 \
                                         \   /
                                        ------- 
                                    |  /       \
                                    |  |       |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    | /Kristall \
              ______  _____________ | \_       _/
|\_____  __  _|     \ |            \|___\_1___/__  _____/|
|TM10| \/  \|  Kvant ||    Mir          \/4-\ /  \/ |TM9 |
| ___|_/\__/|_2     1||2            ____    1|\__/\_|___ |
|/            |     / |             ____/\3_/           \|
              ------  |____________/   _/---- \_
                                      /   1     \
                                      \_Kvant-2_/
                                       |       |
                                       |       |
                                       |   |   |
                                       |   |   |
                                  SPK  |       |
                                     []|       |
                                        \_____/
                                        |-----|
                                        
(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

Aug 13 1990 (no.48)
----------------------------------------------------
Magellan entered Venus orbit on Aug 10.

Solov'yov and Balandin landed successfully in Soyuz TM-9
on Aug 9. Manakov and Strekalov continue the crewing of the
Mir complex. Next major mission event will probably
be the launch of Progress M-4.

Kosmos-2089, launched by Soyuz on Aug 3, is a recon satellite.  Despite
some press reports, the launch was almost certainly scheduled and not in
response to the invasion of Kuwait; however its orbit is favorable for
Middle East observations. 

Kosmos-2090 to Kosmos-2095, launched on Aug 8, are six lightsats which
form part of a Soviet Navy communications relay network. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|                                 |
|ET/SRB stacks                    |
|                                 |
|STS-35/OV102           LC39A     |
|STS-38/OV104           VAB Bay 3 |
|STS-41                 VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space ReportAug 21 1990 (no.49)----------------------------------------------------Manakov and Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the Mircomplex, now consisting of Mir, Kvant, Kvant-2, Kristall,Soyuz TM-10, and Progress M-4. Progress M-4 was launchedon Aug 15 and docked on Aug 17 at the forward port.A Molniya-1 comsat was launched for the SovietMinistry of Communications on Aug 10.A Soviet satellite was launched into polar orbit onAug 16; it is either a Resurs-F remote sensing satellite or a Kosmos recon satellite, I don't know yet.British Satellite Broadcasting's Hughes HS376 comsat,Marcopolo 2, was launched by Delta 6925 from Canaveralon Aug 17.___________________________________|Current STS status:              ||Orbiters                         ||                                 ||OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     ||OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 ||OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 ||                                 ||ET/SRB stacks                    ||                                 ||STS-35/OV102           LC39A     | Launch due Sep 1|STS-38                 VAB Bay 3 ||STS-41                 VAB Bay 1 |-----------------------------------(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space ReportAug 29 1990 (no.50)
----------------------------------------------------

Manakov and Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. Progress M-4 will remain docked at the forward port until it is replacedby M-5 in September. 

A Soviet Resurs-F2 remote sensing satellite was launched into polarorbit on Aug 16, replacing one which landed the same day after a monthin orbit. 

STS-35/Columbia is targeted for launch Sep 1 with the Astro-1/BBXRTpayload.  Discovery has been mated with the STS-41 stack and will berolled out to LC39B in a few days for the Ulysses mission. 

Yuri-3A, a television broadcasting satellite, was launchedby the Japanese NASDA space agency on Aug 28, aboard an H-I rocket.

Kosmos-2097 was launched by Molniya on Aug 29; it is probablyan early warning satellite.

Kosmos-2098 was launched by Kosmos on Aug 29; I don't know what its orbit or mission are yet, or that of Kosmos-2096.
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              
||Orbiters                        
||                                 
||OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     
||OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1 
||OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 
||                                 
||ET/SRB stacks                    
||                                 
||STS-35/OV102           LC39A    | Countdown in progress
|STS-38                  VAB Bay 3 
||STS-41/OV103           VAB Bay 1
|-----------------------------------
(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell		`
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 4 1990 (no.51)	
----------------------------------------------------

STS-35/Columbia is targeted for launch Sep 6 with the Astro-1/BBXRT
payload.  Discovery has been mated with the STS-41 stack and will be
rolled out to LC39B tonight for the Ulysses mission. 

Manakov and Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the 
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-4 complex. 

Ariane V38, launched on Aug 30, orbited the first Eutelsat II
for the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
and Skynet 4C, a British military comsat.

Feng Yun 2, a Chinese weather satellite, was orbited
by the second Chang Zheng 4 rocket on Sep 3.

Kosmos-2096 was launched on Aug 23. It is an ocean
surveillance electronic intelligence satellite, tracking
radio emissions from ships.

Kosmos-2097, a missile early warning satellite, was launched by Molniya
on Aug 29.  

Kosmos-2098 was launched by a Kosmos R-14 vehicle on Aug 29.  It is a
small satellite in an elliptical 400x2000 km orbit inclined at 83
degrees, the sixth in a series of such satellites.  The purpose of these
satellites is unknown but probably some kind of military technology
development.  It is the first launch in this series since 1983 - a gap
of seven years.  It is also the first August R-14 launch since 1983; in
recent years as the R-14 vehicle is phased out in favour of the Tsiklon,
launches have been confined to certain periods within the year. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39A     | Countdown in progress
|ML1/STS-38/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-41/ET/OV103    VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

ML: Mobile launcher platform
ET: External Tank

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


		`

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 18 1990 (no.52)
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of STS-35/Columbia was scrubbed on Sep 17 due to 
another LH2 leak. STS-41/Discovery is on pad 39B.

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the 
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-4 complex. Launch
of Progress M-5 is due Sep 27.

Kosmos-2099 is a polar recon satellite; it was launched on Aug 31.

Atmosphere 1 is a Chinese balloon satellite; observations of
the effects of atmospheric drag on its orbit will allow the
density of the upper atmosphere to be measured. The satellite
was deployed as a secondary payload by the CZ-4 rocket which
launched Feng Yun 2 on Sep 3.

Another Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Sep 7;
this one carries a West German materials processing experiment.

Rimantas Stankyuvichiis, a Soviet Ministry of Aviation test pilot
assigned to a Buran shuttle mission, was killed in an air crash
in Italy on 9 Sep.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39B     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39A     | 
|ML1/STS-38/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-41/ET/OV103    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell


		`

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Sep 25 1990 (no.53)
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of STS-41/Discovery is due on Oct 6.

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10 complex.  The Progress M-4
automatic cargo craft undocked and reentered on Sep 20.  As it separated
from Mir, it conducted a plasma release experiment.  Launch of Progress
M-5 is due Sep 27.

Kosmos-2100 is a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, launched by a Kosmos
R-14 from Plesetsk on Sep 14.  The first Kosmos satellite was launched
in March 1962.  The navigation satellite program uses gravity gradient
stabilized satellites very similar in concept to the US Navy Transit, in
1000 km high orbits at 83 degree inclination.  There are two parallel
systems, a military one under the Kosmos label and an unclassified one
with satellites called Nadezhda.  The launch vehicle uses an R-14 IRBM
(NATO designation: SS-5 Skean) as its first stage; it used to be the
standard Soviet small satellite launcher, having replaced the Kosmos
R-12 in the early 1970's, but most of its payload classes apart from the
navsats have been transferred to the newer Tsiklon 3 vehicle.  Both the
Kosmos and the Tsiklon vehicles are products of the Yuzhnoye NPO.

Orbital launch summary for August:
Aug 1   Soyuz, Baykonur        Glavkosmos Soyuz TM-10 spaceship
Aug 2   Delta 6925, Canaveral  US Space Command Navstar 21 navigation satellite
Aug 3   Soyuz, Plesetsk        Soviet GRU Kosmos-2089 recon satellite
Aug 8   Tsiklon 3,Plesetsk     Soviet Navy Kosmos-2090/2095 small comsat cluster
Aug 10  Molniya,Plesetsk       Soviet MSvyazi Molniya-1 comsat
Aug 15  Soyuz, Baykonur        Glavkosmos Progress M-4 robot cargo spaceship
Aug 16  Soyuz, Plesetsk        Soviet GUGK Resurs-F commercial imaging/materials flight
Aug 18  Delta 6925,Canaveral   Hughes/BSB Ltd. Marcopolo 2 broadcasting satellite
Aug 23  Tsiklon 2,Baykonur     Soviet GRU? Kosmos-2096 naval electronic intelligence
Aug 28  Molniya,Plesetsk       Soviet PVO Kosmos-2097 early warning satellite
Aug 28  Kosmos R-14,Plesetsk   Soviet Kosmos-2098 small military research satellite
Aug 30  Ariane 44LP,Kourou     European Eutelsat II F-1 broadcasting satellite and
                               UK Ministry of Defense Skynet IVC comsat
Aug 31  Soyuz, Plesetsk        Soviet GRU Kosmos-2099 recon satellite
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39B     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39A     |
|ML1/STS-38/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-41/ET/OV103    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Oct 2 1990 (no.54)
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of STS-41/Discovery is due on Oct 6.  Atlantis was slightly
damaged while being remated to its external tank.  This is the first
time ever that there have been three fully mated Shuttle stacks at once. 

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex.  The
Progress M-5 automatic cargo craft was launched on Sep 27 and docked at
Mir's forward port on Sep 29. 

The USAF's Navstar GPS 15 navigation satellite was launched from
Canaveral on Oct 1 by a Delta 6925. GPS 15 is a Navstar Block IIA
satellite; future launches will use the improved Block IIB satellite.

A Soviet Ministry of Communications Molniya-3 comsat was launched from
Plesetsk on Sep 20. 

A Soviet Hydrometeorological Service Meteor-2 weather satellite
was launched from Plesetsk by a three-stage Tsiklon rocket
on Sep 29.

Ariel VI, the last of the British Ariel series of scientific
satellites, reentered on Sep 23 after 11 years in space.
The satellite, which operated from 1979 to 1982, was intended
to study x-ray astronomy; unfortunately, it was plagued with
technical problems and did not live up to the reputation of
its very successful predecessor, Ariel V. A British soft x-ray
experiment, the Wide Field Camera, is currently operating 
successfully on the German-led international ROSAT satellite.

British Scientific and Technological Satellites:

Satellite	Launch	End of	Reentered
			Ops

Ariel I		1962	1964	1976
Ariel II	1964	1967	1967
Ariel III	1967	1970	1970
Ariel IV	1971	1973	1978
Ariel V		1974	1980	1980
Ariel VI	1979	1982	1990
Prospero	1971	1981?	In orbit
Miranda		1974	1974	In orbit
AMPTE-UKS	1984	1984	In orbit

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39A     |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39B     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39A     |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-41/ET/OV103    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Oct 12 1990 (no.55)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery landed on Oct 10 on Runway 22 at Edwards, successfully
completing mission STS-41, launched on Oct 6. The ESA Ulysses probe
is in solar orbit on its way to Jupiter. The PAM-S final stage,
and the second stage of the IUS, as well as associated adapters,
also are in solar orbit. STS-38/Atlantis is due for launch around 
Nov 7, and even Av Leak has not revealed the nature of its DoD 
payload - yet.

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex.  
Progress M-5 carries a VBS (Vosvrashchaemaya Ballisticheskaya Kapsula)
ballistic recovery capsule which will carry the results of materials
processing experiments carried out in the Kristall module back
to a landing in Kazakhstan. Progress M-5 used its engine to raise
the Mir complex orbit on Oct 1 from  370x406 km to 373x420 km.
The Salyut-7/Kosmos-1686 complex continues to decay slowly; its
orbit is now 344x346 km high.

A Soviet electronic intelligence satellite was destroyed on Oct 4 
when the first stage of its Zenit launch vehicle exploded seconds
after launch from Kosmodrom Baykonur. This is the first failure
of a Zenit to reach orbit, although the upper stage of Kosmos-1714
failed to restart. The satellite would have been Kosmos-2102 had
it reached orbit.

Kosmos-2101 was launched on Oct 1 into an inital 170x296 km orbit by
Soyuz from Baykonur.  It is a photographic imaging recon satellite
operated by the GRU (Soviet military intelligence).  Kosmos-2101 will
remain in orbit until about Nov 14; unlike the high-resolution
Kosmos-2089, which reentered the same day, it has maneuvered into a
relatively high perigee 210x290 km orbit, suggesting that it is a
mapping flight.  The only other Soviet imaging satellite now in orbit is
Kosmos-2072, an advanced digital imaging satellite which was in a
237x277 km orbit on Oct 2. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       Edwards   |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    VAB Bay 1 |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                    VAB?      |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Oct 16 1990 (no.56)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis has been rolled out to the pad for mission
STS-38. Columbia has been rolled out for another 
tanking test. Discovery is on its way back to Florida.

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex.  They will
make an EVA in a few days.

A Chinese Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW, experimental recoverable satellite) 
was launched on Oct 5 by CZ-2C launch vehicle from Jiuquan. It will
probably stay in orbit for 8 days. The flight is the first Chinese
life sciences mission.

Two Hughes communications satellites, SBS 6 and Galaxy VI, were launched
on an Ariane 44L vehicle, flight V39, from Kourou on Oct 12.  SBS has a
complicated history.  In 1980, Satellite Business Systems, a consortium
of IBM, Aetna, and Comsat, launched its first satellite for Ku-band
(14/12 GHz) business data relay services.  In Jul 1984, Comsat left the
consortium.  In Jul 1985, Satellite Business Systems was sold to MCI;
four satellites were now in orbit.  Then, in (I think) 1987, the fleet
was sold off.  SBS 1 and 2 were sold to Comsat, SBS 3 remained with MCI,
and SBS 4 was sold to IBM's Satellite Transponder Leasing Corp (STLC)
together with the SBS 5 and 6 satellites still on the ground.  Finally,
in Apr 1990, Hughes Communications Inc (HCI) bought STLC from IBM. 
This leaves the fleet as follows:

Satellite/type	Launch Date	Vehicle	    Owner    	Owner 
					   (at launch)	(now)
SBS 1	HS376	1980 Nov 15	Delta 153   SBS		Comsat Corp
SBS 2	HS376	1981 Sep 24	Delta 156   SBS		Comsat Corp
SBS 3	HS376	1982 Nov 11	STS 5	    SBS		MCI Comms. Corp
SBS 4	HS376	1984 Aug 16	STS 41-D    SBS		Hughes HCI
SBS 5	HS376	1988 Sep  8	Ariane V25  IBM STLC	Hughes HCI
SBS 6	HS393	1990 Oct 12	Ariane V39  Hughes HCI  Hughes HCI

There are no more SBS satellites to come. (It's possible I may have
got some of this story wrong, and I welcome additions/corrections).

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39B     |
|OV-103 Discovery       Eglin AFB |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39B     |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    LC39A     |
|ML2                    VAB       |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Oct 23 1990 (no.57)
----------------------------------------------------

Tanking tests on Atlantis and Columbia are set for the next week. 
Discovery is in the orbiter processing facility.  Launch of Atlantis is
expected around Nov 10 with the AFP-658 recon satellite. 

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex. The
spacewalk has been delayed to Oct 30 because Strekalov has a cold.

Pioneer 11, in the outer solar system, is experiencing
communications difficulties.

The Kosmos-2102 recon satellite began a 2 month mission on Oct 16,
in a 184x338 km orbit at 62.8 degrees inclination.


BOOK PLUG:***:

 "The Soviet Cosmonaut Team" by Gordon Hooper. Available
from GRH Publications, 2 Wayne Close, Gunton 2001, LOWESTOFT,
Suffolk NR32 4SX, England. 2 vols, paperback, 22 pounds sterling
for sea mail, about 35 pounds sterling for airmail. (01144 502 508585)

This book gives complete biographies of all the Soviet cosmonauts
and cosmonaut trainees, updated to July 1990. It includes discussions
of how the cosmonauts were trained, missions that were planned but 
never flew, details of previously unknown cosmonaut trainees. Quality
and accuracy are excellent throughout. Another example of the fine
work done by the British Interplanetary Society's Soviet space analysts.
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Gordon Hooper or GRH Pubs., I
just think its a good book.

Since news is light this week, here's a summary of the current
Soviet cosmonaut team, with selection dates, drawn from Hooper's book
and from Soviet sources: [This list may be incomplete; and I have omitted
cosmonauts who are still officially attached to the team although no longer 
eligible for flights. The 1965 engineers who have not yet flown must
be somewhat unlikely to get a chance now, in their fifties.]

Soviet Air Force Cosmonaut Detachment

1960	Boris Volynov, Commander of Detachment (inactive)
1965	Yevgeniy Khludeev
1965	Edvard Stepanov
1967	Vladimir Lyakhov (Soyuz 32,T9,TM6)
1967	Yuriy Malyshev (Soyuz T2,T11)
1970	Anatoliy Berezovoy (Soyuz T5)
1970	Nikolai Fefelov
1976	Vladimir Titov (Soyuz T8,TM4)
1976	Aleksandr Volkov (Soyuz T14,TM7)
1976	Anatoliy Solov'yov (Soyuz TM5,TM9)
1978	Aleksandr Viktorenko (Soyuz TM3,TM8)
1987	Gennadiy Manakov (Soyuz TM10; in orbit)
1987	Viktor Afanas'ev
1987	Anatoli Artsebarskiy
1987	Yuriy Gidzenko
1987	Vladimir Dezhurov
1987	Valeriy Kazun
1987	Yuriy Malenchenko
1987	Vasiliy Tsibliev
1989	Yuriy Anufrienko
1989	Sergei Krichevskiy
1989	Gennadiy Padalko

Civilian cosmonaut group

1973	Gennadiy Strekalov (Soyuz T3,T8,T11,TM10; in orbit)
1978	Aleksandr Serebrov (Soyuz T7,T8,TM8)
1978	Aleksandr Laveykin (Soyuz TM2)
1978	Musa Manarov (Soyuz TM4)
1978	Aleksandr Balandin (Soyuz TM9)
1980	Svetlana Savitskaya (Soyuz T6,T12)
1980	Irina Pronina 
1980	Ekaterina Ivanovna
1985	Sergei Krikalyov (Soyuz TM7)
1985	Aleksandr Kaleri 
1985	Andrei Zaitsev
1985	Sergei Yemelyanov
1987	Sergei Avdeev
1989	Nikolai Budarin
1989	Elena Kondakova
1989 	Aleksandr Polishchuk
1989    Yuriy Usachyov

Institute of Medical-Biological Problems Cosmonaut-Physician Team:

1972	Valeriy Polyakov (Soyuz TM6)
1976	German Arzamazov, Aleksandr Borodin
1982	Elena Dobrokvashina, Larisa Pozharskaya, Tamara Zakharova
1983	Yuriy Stepanov
1984	Robert Dyakonov, Anatoli Zhernovkov

Ministry of Aviation Buran Test Pilots

1983	Mohammed Tolboev, Ural Sultanov
1985	Yuriy Sheffer, Sergei Tresvyatskiy, Viktor Zabolotskiy
1988	Yuriy Prikhodko

Air Force Buran test pilots

1979	Ivan Bachurin,Aleksei Boroday,Nail Sattarov
1983	Leonid Kadenyuk
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39B     |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39B     |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    LC39A     |
|ML2                    VAB       |
-----------------------------------


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Nov 3 1990 (no.58)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis and Columbia have passed their tanking tests, but the Atlantis
launch has been delayed until at least late November because of problems
with the AFP-658 recon satellite.  Meanwhile, European observers have
recovered the AFP-731 recon satellite launched on Atlantis' last
mission.  It is now in an 800 km high orbit at 65 degrees inclination. 
(Thanks to Ted Molczan for this information). 

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex. The
spacewalk has been delayed because Strekalov has a cold.

INMARSAT (the International Maritime Satellite Organization) launched
the Inmarsat II F-1 communications satellite on a Delta 6925 from
Canaveral on Oct 30. The satellite will be used for communications
by ships and airplanes. This is the first Inmarsat II satellite;
there were no Inmarsat I satellites, since Inmarsat leased sats
from other organizations in the first phase of its existence
(the Marisat satellites from Comsat General Corp, USA, and the 
MARECS satellites from the European Space Agency).

The final stage of the Chang Zheng 4 launch vehicle used to
orbit the Feng Yun 1B weather satellite has exploded into over
50 fragments.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39B     |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    LC39A     |
|ML2                    VAB       |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Nov 8 1990 (no.59)
----------------------------------------------------

STS-38/Atlantis is due for launch on Nov 15.  Stacking of the solid
rocket boosters for mission STS-39/Discovery has begun on Mobile
Launcher 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Columbia remains
on pad LC39B ready for a December launch.

Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex. 
The spacewalk on Oct 30 lasted 3h 45m; the cosmonauts failed
to repair the Kvant-2 EVA hatch.

The 21st Gorizont communications satellite was launched from
Baykonur on Nov 3 by 4-stage Proton.

The third Titan IV was launched on Nov 13 at 0037 UT.  It reportedly
carried the DSP F15 early warning satellite to geostationary orbit,
using an IUS upper stage.  The satellite carries an infrared Schmidt
telescope which monitors rocket launches; it is operated by US Space
Command.  The next satellite in the series, F16, is scheduled for launch
by Shuttle on mission STS 44. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        LC39B     |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104    LC39A     |
|ML2/STS-39             VAB       |
|ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space ReportNov 26 1990 (no.60)
----------------------------------------------------
STS-38/Atlantis was launched on Nov 15 and reportedly deployed the AFP-658 recon satellite into a 28 degree inclination orbit.  Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov 20. 

STS-35/Columbia is due for launch in early December. Crew are Vance Brand, commander; Guy Gardner, pilot; Mike Lounge, Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, Dr. Robert Parker, mission specialists; Dr. Ron Parise and Dr. Sam Durrance, payload specialists. This will be the last spaceflight by an Apollo astronaut; Brand first flew on the last Apollo mission, the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz flight.

The EO-5 (5th long stay) crew, Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex.  Soyuz TM-11 is due for launch on Dec 2, carrying the replacement EO-6 crew, Viktor Afanas'ev of the Soviet Air Force and Musa Manarov of NPO Energiya (the organization that operates the civilian cosmonaut team).  The third seat will be filled by passenger Toyohiro Akiyama of the Tokyo Broadcasting System, who will return with the EO-5 crew on board Soyuz TM-7. 

Kosmos-2103 was launched on Nov 14 by a two-stage version of the Tsiklon from Baykonur, It is a Soviet Naval Intelligence ferret satellite which listens to the electronic emissions from ships; it is in a 400 km circular orbit at 65 degrees to the equator.

Kosmos-2104 was launched on Nov 16 by Soyuz from Plesetsk. It is a GRU (Soviet military intelligence) imaging recon satellite.

Kosmos-2105 was launched on Nov 20 by Molniya from Plesetsk.  It is a PVO (Soviet Air Defence Command) missile early warning satellite in a 600x39300 km x 63 degree orbit. 

Two US comsats, Satcom C1 and GSTAR 4, were launched by Ariane 42P on Nov 20.  Satcom C1 is a C-band (6/4 GHz) cable TV relay satellite operated by GE American Communications (formerly RCA Americom).  GSTAR 4 is operated by GTE Spacenet as part of its Ku-band (14/12 GHz)communications network. Both satellites were built by GE Astro Space.

--- Hubble Space Telescope update ----

At a workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) on Nov 16, HST observers and STScI staff started to revise the telescope's observing program.  The Orbital Verification period is now essentially complete and Science Verification is beginning (lots of calibration observations and test exposures).  Proper scheduled observing will begin around July '91.  Contrary to initial expectations, it seems to me that programs using the cameras are in better shape than the spectrographs. Because of the aberration, HST can't see extremely faint objects, or moderately faint objects which are right next to rather bright ones(they get lost in the fuzzed out image of the bright one, and if the brightness of your faint object is comparable to the uncertainty in the shape of the point spread function of the bright object, no amount of deconvolution will help you).  But it can do very good imaging of groups of bright objects very close to one another, like the R136 cluster, or, with some extra observing time, of a point source on a diffuse background (like the core of NGC 7457).  Deconvolution techniques seem to work pretty well; relative to radio astronomy, you have a a much better sampled point spread function, but it varies in shape from one part of the detector to another in nasty ways, so it's not an easy task. FOC seems to be working really well and will get nice UV pictures.  The spectrographs, however, have the problem that because of the fuzzed out images, not all the light goes down the spectrograph slit.  If you can open up the aperture to let more light in, that's no problem, but that can lose spectral resolution or let in light from a nearby object.  If that's a problem for you, you're stuck with integrating for 5 times aslong, and the time real location committee is going to take a lot of convincing. The Faint Object Spectrograph itself seems to be working fine except for substandard shielding against the Earth's magnetic field, but that shouldn't be too bad for most programs. The telescope's pointing software and the solar array jitter are still giving problems, but in a few months things should improve enough for most purposes. All in all my impression is that while the telescope is not what it might have been, and some of the key projects (particularly the distance scale) are dead in the water until the repair mission, most observer's projects really can still be done without too much loss of science - I'm much more optimistic than I was a month or so ago. 
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              
||Orbiters                         ||                                 
||OV-102 Columbia        LC39B     
||OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 
||OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 ||                                 
||ML/ET/SRB stacks                 ||                                 
||ML1                    VAB       
||ML2/STS-39             VAB       
||ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 3 1990 (no.61)
----------------------------------------------------

STS-35/Columbia was launched at 0649UT on Dec 2. The payload
consists of Astro-1, which is a group of UV telescopes on a Spacelab
pallet, mounted on the IPS (Instrument Pointing System) used
on Spacelab 2; and BBXRT, the Broad Band X-ray Telescope,
which is a Goddard Space Flight Center experiment. The commander,
Vance Brand, is the oldest person (59) to fly in space.

Soyuz TM-11 was launched a few hours later at 0813UT (I think, but needs
confirming) carrying Afanas'ev, Manarov and Akiyama toward the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10 complex to join Manakov and
Strekalov.  Their launch means that 12 people are now in orbit, which is
a record.  Manakov, Strekalov and Akiyama will return to Earth in Soyuz
TM-10, with Afanas'ev and Manarov remaining in orbit.  The Progress M-5
cargo craft undocked on Nov 28 and returned a cargo capsule to
Kazakhstan. 
[NB Do not confuse:
Musa Khiramanovich MANAROV, civilian cosmonaut from Azerbijan
    with
Gennadiy Mikhailovich MANAKOV, Russian military pilot cosmonaut.]

The first Block IIB Navstar navigation satellite, GPS 23, was launched
on Nov 26 from Canaveral. The launch vehicle was the first Delta 7925,
which is the operational Delta II. Other recent launches were made by
the interim Delta II, model 6925, which has less powerful strap-on
Castor IV solid motors; the 7925 has Hercules GEM strap-on rockets.

The tenth Block 5D Defense Meterological Satellite Program military weather
satellite (DMSP Block 5D-2 F-10) was launched on Dec 1 by Atlas E
from Vandenberg. The spacecraft, built by GE Astro Space, is similar to
the civilian NOAA satellites but carries different sensors.

A Molniya-1 comsat was launched by Molniya from Plesetsk on Nov 23
for the Soviet Ministry of Communications. A Gorizont satellite, the second
in a month, was launched by Proton from Baykonur on the same day; it
will be used by the Russian Republic for domestic communications.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia      Earth orbit |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                    VAB       |
|ML2/STS-39             VAB       |
|ML3                    LC39B     |
-----------------------------------

Acronym expansion:
 ET  External Tank
 LC  Launch Complex
 ML  Mobile Launch Platform
 OPF Orbiter Processing Facility
 OV  Orbiter Vehicle
 SRB Solid Rocket Booster
 STS Space Transportation System
 VAB Vehicle Assembly Building

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell






||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 14 1990 (no.62)
----------------------------------------------------

Despite multiple spacecraft and payload failures, both Astro-1 and BBXRT
returned important results last week.  Columbia landed Dec 11 at Edwards
AFB on Runway 22. 

The Galileo spacecraft flew 960 km from Earth at 2035 UT on Dec 8
in a gravity assist maneuver.

Soyuz TM-11 docked with Mir's forward port on Dec 4.  Manakov, Strekalov
and Akiyama returned to Earth on Dec 10 in Soyuz TM-10.  The new
crewmembers of the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11 complex are
Afanas'ev and Manarov.  The rear port of Kvant is free to receive the
Progress M-6 cargo craft due for launch soon. Orbit of the complex is
371x405 km.

Meanwhile, the abandoned Salyut-7/Kosmos-1686 complex had decayed
to a 308x312 km orbit by Dec 3, dropping 0.5 km/day with reentry
expected in January or February.

Kosmos-2106 was launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Nov 28.
It is probably a radar calibration satellite used to deploy
targets for the Soviet PVO (Air Defence Force) radar system.

Kosmos-2107 was launched from Baykonur on Dec 4. It is
a naval electronic surveillance spacecraft.

Kosmos-2108 was launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Dec 4.
It is a recon satellite carrying a set of film return capsules,
and will remain in orbit until early February.

Kosmos-2101 had been in orbit for 60 days on Nov 30 when it
was deorbited. It was a Kosmos-1246 class mapping satellite,
distinguished from the usual recon satellites by its higher
perigee; it set a new record lifetime for the type.

Kosmos-2104 had been in orbit for 18 days when it landed on Dec 4.  It
was probably a recon satellite, but its orbit is unusual.  It remained in
a 240x362 km orbit inclined at 62.8 deg (a standard recon sat
inclination) for five days, then lowered its apogee by 80 km to a
230x282 km orbit; five days later its orbit was lowered again to 204x254
km and maintained at that altitude. It was probably a Vostok class
recon sat, but again the lifetime is unusually long for the type.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        EAFB RW22 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML2/STS-39             VAB       |
-----------------------------------


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell







||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Dec 27 1990 (no.63)
----------------------------------------------------

Columbia returned to KSC on Dec 20 and will be stored in the VAB prior
to processing for STS-40.  Discovery is being prepared for the STS-39
mission.  The STS-39 external tank was mated to the solid rocket
boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building this week. 

STS schedule:
STS-39  February  Discovery  AFP-675 and IBSS
STS-37  April     Atlantis   Gamma Ray Observatory
STS-40  May       Columbia   Spacelab Life Sciences 1

Afans'ev and Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11 complex.

Kosmos-1631 reentered on Dec 8. It was a radar calibration satellite.

The Pakistani amateur radio satellite BADR-A reentered on Dec 8.

The Kosmos-2102 recon satellite reentered on Dec 12, completing its 2
month mission as predicted in issue 57. 

Kosmos-2109, 2110, and 2111 were launched on Dec 8 by a single Proton
vehicle from Baykonur. They are GLONASS navigation satellites, the
Soviet version of the American Navstar GPS system, in 20000 km high
orbits at 65 degree inclination.

Kosmos-2112 was launched on Dec 12 by the R-14 based Kosmos launch
vehicle from Plesetsk. It is in a 700 km orbit at 74 degrees inclination,
and believed to be a store-dump communications relay satellite used
by the Soviet military or the KGB.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        VAB       |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML2/STS-39/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell








||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jan 24 1991 (no.64)
----------------------------------------------------

Afans'ev and Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex.  The
Progress M-6 cargo craft was launched on Jan 14 to resupply the station. 

Discovery will be moved to the VAB at the end of the month to be
mated to the external tank and solid boosters for mission STS-39,
an unclassified military mission due for launch in late Feb or
early Mar. Stacking of solid boosters for the GRO deployment mission
STS-37 has begun. 

The NATO IV-A comsat was launched by Delta 7925 from Canaveral on Jan 8
into geostationary orbit, to provide communications for NATO forces. 
Most NATO satellites are positioned over the Atlantic.  There were four
NATO III satellites launched between 1976 and 1984, and two smaller NATO
II satellites launched in 1970 and 1971.  These were preceded by the
Initial Defence Satellite Communications Program (IDCSP) of small
sub-synchronous satellites, which was a US system retrospectively
considered to have been the NATO I program. 

An Ariane 4 rocket launched two geostationary TV broadcasting satellites
on Jan 15, Italsat 1 from Italy and Eutelsat II F-2 for the European
Telecommunications Satellite Organization. 

Two Raduga comsats were launched in late December by Proton rockets from
Baykonur.  The first, on Dec 20, was the 26th standard Raduga TV relay
satellite.  The second, on Dec 27, was the second advanced Raduga-1
satellite, which first flew in 1989. Raduga ('Rainbow') is a C-band
satellite relaying TV and telephone communications in the Soviet Union.

Kosmos-2113, launched on Dec 21, is a new 7-tonne long duration digital
imaging recon satellite, replacing Kosmos-2072 which was deorbited on
Nov 21 after a 222-day mission.  It was launched from Baykonur on a
Soyuz booster, and is the most advanced Soviet spy satellite. 

Kosmos-2114, 2115, 2116, 2117, 2118, and 2119 are six small satellites
launched on a single three-stage Tsiklon launch vehicle from Plesetsk. 
They are probably military communication relays.  A couple of these
six-satellite launches occur each year, and appear to be replacing the
older octuplet system launched by the Kosmos R-14. 

Kosmos-2120, launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Dec 26 into a low 82
degree orbit, is probably a Vostok based recon satellite.  By mid
January it had undergone a number of large maneuvers to inspect
particular ground targets. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37             VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-39/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1991 Jonathan McDowell








||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Feb 14 1991 (no.65)

Space Report may continue to appear somewhat irregularly as I settle in
to my new home in Huntsville.  I hardly need to say that information
appearing here is gathered from open sources and reflects my own
interpretations; it is in no way anything official to do with NASA. 
----------------------------------------------------

Viktor Afans'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex.  
The crew have performed three spacewalks so far. The first
on Jan 7 repaired the EVA hatch on Kvant-2. The second and
third on Jan 23 and Jan 26 set up a crane on the outside of
the Mir core module which will be used in later spacewalks to
transfer solar panels from the Kristall module to the Kvant
module at the other end of the station.

Orbiter Discovery, in the VAB, was mated to the STS-39 tank and
boosters on Feb 11. Launch is due in early March. Atlantis
and Columbia are in the Orbiter Processing Facility, and the
boosters and tank for STS-37, the next Atlantis mission, have
been mated in the VAB.

Kosmos-2121, launched Jan 17, is a Vostok class recon satellite
replacing Kosmos-2120 which landed the same day.

Kosmos-2122, launched Jan 18, is an ocean surveillance satellite
which tracks naval radio emissions.

Informator-1 was launched Jan 29 by a Kosmos R-14 into a 1000 km
polar (83 degree) orbit, the same orbit used by the Tsikada
and Nadezhda navigation satellites. I think it's a position-locator
satellite like Geostar, but my files are still in the moving
truck somewhere in the Eastern US and I don't have access to
Pravda or TASS at the moment (any volunteers?)

Kosmos-2123 was launched Feb 5 by a Kosmos R-14.  It appears to be a
standard Soviet military Transit-equivalent navigation satellite, in a
similar orbit to Informator-1. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103   VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

(c) 1991 Jonathan McDowell

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (205)544-????                 |
 |  Space Science Lab ES65            | uucp:                                  |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center | bitnet :                               |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |   span : ssl::mcdowell                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 2 1991 (no.66)
----------------------------------------------------

The flight of STS-39/Discovery has been delayed.
Discovery will be rolled back for repairs, while
the STS-37/Atlantis flight (Gamma Ray Observatory
deploy) remains scheduled for early April. The latest
Ariane launch has been delayed till early March.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex.  
They will return in early May, and are to be replaced
by the Soyuz TM-12 crew, Anatoliy Artsebarskiy, Sergey Krikalyov
and Helen Sharman. Ms. Sharman, a British citizen, is flying
an 8 day mission as part of the Juno project financed by the
Moscow National Bank, and will return with the TM-11 crew.

The Salyut-7/Kosmos-1686 space station complex reentered
over Argentina on Feb 7.

The Kosmos-2123 navigation satellite also carries
the RS-12 and RS-13 amateur radio transponder packages.

Kosmos-2124 was launched Feb 7 by Soyuz from Plesetsk;
it is an imaging recon satellite and is expected to
remain in orbit until early April.

Eight small 'lightsats' carrying military communications 
transponders were launched from Feb 12 from Plesetsk on
a single Kosmos R-14 launch vehicle; they were assigned the
names Kosmos-2125 through Kosmos-2132.

A Proton vehicle launched Kosmos-2133, a Soviet geostationary communications
satellite on Feb 14. 

A Soyuz launch vehicle orbited Kosmos-2134, an advanced imaging recon
satellite from Baykonur on Feb 15.

Another navigation satellite, Kosmos-2135, went into orbit
on Feb 26. This is the fourth Kosmos R-14 launch vehicle to be
used in a month; R-14 launches often occur in groups like this.

The 80th Molniya-1 satellite was launched into elliptical
12-hour orbit on Feb 15; it is used for Soviet government
communications.
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
|ML3/STS-40             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 11 1991 (no.67)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-37/Atlantis and the Gamma Ray Observatory
remains due for early April.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex.  

An Ariane 4 rocket successfully orbited two satellites on Mar 2.
Astra 1B is a TV broadcasting satellite owned by the Luxembourg
based company SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites). 
MOP (Meteosat Operational Programme) 2 is a European geostationary
weather satellite and will probably be renamed Meteosat 5 now
that it is in orbit. It is operated by ESA for the EUMETSAT 
(European Meteorological Satellite Organization). The Arianespace SA
Ariane rocket is launched from the ESA base at Kourou in Guyane;
the third stage enters an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit
(GTO) with a perigee of a few hundred km and an apogee of 36000 km.
The two satellites separate from the third stage, and then once
at apogee ignite their internal rocket motors (a European MAGE rocket
for Meteosat, and probably a Thiokol Star 30 for Astra), putting
them in approximately circular equatorial 24 hour orbits. Small 
thrusters are used to put the satellites in near exact stationary
orbits once they have drifted to the right longitude.

The 27th Raduga geostationary communications satellite
was launched on Feb 28 by 4-stage Proton from Baykonur.
Raduga is a C-band comsat for relay of telephone and TV
transmissions, first launched in 1975 for the Soviet
Ministry of Communications.

A Delta II 6925 launch vehicle placed the INMARSAT II F-2
satellite in geostationary transfer orbit on Mar 10.
INMARSAT is the International Maritime Satellite Organization.
The INMARSAT satellites provide L-band mobile communications
links for ships, aircraft and vehicles. The first INMARSAT II
was launched last year. There were no INMARSAT I satellites;
previously INMARSAT leased the MARECS satellites from ESA,
the MARISAT satellites from Comsat General Corp., and the
MCS transponders on the INTELSAT VA satellites.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37/ET/OV-104   VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103   VAB Bay 3 |
|ML3/STS-40            Outside VAB|
-----------------------------------

10 years ago:  12 Mar 1981  Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh
reached orbit in Soyuz T-4. They were the last long stay crew aboard
the Salyut 6 space station, remaining there for two and a half months.

20 years ago:  3 Mar 1971  The second Chinese satellite, Shi Jian,
was launched by a Chang Zheng 1 rocket. Its transmitter operated
for 8 years.

30 years ago: 9 Mar 1961. Korabl'-Sputnik-4 was launched by Vostok rocket
from Baykonur on one of the final unpiloted test flights of the Vostok
spaceship. The cabin, containing guinea pigs, mice, insects, and a 
dog called Chernushka, was recovered after one orbit.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 19 1991 (no.68)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-37/Atlantis and the Gamma Ray Observatory
remains due for early April. Atlantis is on pad LC39B.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex.  
More spacewalks are planned in the next month. Manarov now
holds the record for cumulative time spent in space.

Kosmos-2136 was launched on Mar 6 by Soyuz from Plesetsk.
It is in a reconaissance satellite type orbit, but seems
to have unusually low drag as its orbit is decaying rather
slowly.

A classified Department of Defense satellite, USA-69 = 1991-17A
was launched by a Titan IV rocket from Space Launch Complex 4-East
at Vandenberg AFB, California on Mar 8. Press reports claim
that the satellite is a Lacrosse radar imaging satellite.
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37/ET/OV-104   LC39B     |
|ML2/STS-39/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML3/STS-40             VAB Bay 1?|
-----------------------------------

10 years ago:  19 Mar 1981  The Progress-12 cargo craft undocked from
the Salyut-6 space station and was deorbited over the Pacific.

20 years ago:  21 Mar 1971  The first of the NSA's JUMPSEAT 
electronic intelligence satellites was launched by a Titan IIIB/Agena D
rocket from Vandenberg into highly elliptical orbit. 

30 years ago: 24 Mar 1961. A Redstone rocket was flown on the 
Mercury-Redstone Booster Development (MR-BD) flight, a final test
of the Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle prior to Alan Shepard's piloted
flight.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 2 1991 (no.69)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-37/Atlantis and the Gamma Ray Observatory
remains due for April 5. Atlantis is on pad LC39B.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-7 complex.  
The Progress M-6 cargo craft undocked on Mar 15 and reentered.
Progress M-7 was launched on Mar 19 and docked on Mar 28 at
the third attempt. This is the first time that a Progress has
had an aborted docking; it got within 100m on Mar 22 and missed;
another attempt failed on Mar 23.
The Progress cargo craft is based on the Soyuz design.

Kosmos-2136 landed on Mar 20 after a standard 2 week
Vostok class recon mission.

Kosmos-2137 was launched on Mar 19 by a Kosmos/R-14 rocket
into a 449x494 km orbit inclined 65.8 degrees. This orbit
marks it as one of a rare class of small spacecraft
believed to be doing radar calibration or surveillance
work; it is the fourth in a series launched from 1979 onwards.

MLF1	Kosmos-1146	   1979 Dec  5			444x494x65.9
MLF2	Kosmos-1427	   1982 Dec 29			445x499x65.8
MLF3	Kosmos-1615	   1984 Dec 22			453x512x65.8
MLF4	Kosmos-2137	   1991 Mar 19			449x494x65.8

Kosmos-2138 was launched on Mar 26 by Soyuz from Plesetsk.
It is a recon satellite carrying a number of film return capsules
and will stay in orbit for 2 months.

A Nadezhda navigation/search and rescue satellite was launched
by Kosmos/R-14 on Mar 12. The Kospas search and rescue transponder is
similar to ones carried on US NOAA weather satellites.
Nadezhda satellites launched to date:

NE9	Kosmos-1383	   1982	Jun 29	(Kospas)	991x1029x83
NE10	Kosmos-1447	   1983 Mar 24	(Kospas)	961x1015x83
NE13	Kosmos-1574	   1984	Jun 21	(Kospas)	971x1010x83
NE19	Nadezhda	   1989 Jul  4	(Kospas)	960x1013x83
NE20	Nadezhda	   1990 Feb 27	(Kospas)	938x1003x83
NE22	Nadezhda	   1991	Mar 12  (Kospas)	958x1017x83

The 40-th Molniya-3 C-band comsat was launched from Plesetsk
on Mar 22. The Molniya launch vehicle is a Soyuz booster with
an extra Blok-L fourth stage.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B     |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-37/ET/OV-104   LC39B     |
|ML2/STS-39/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
|ML3/STS-40             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

10 years ago:  22-30 Mar 1981  Soyuz-39 carried out a week long
mission to the Salyut-6 space station. Commander was Vladimir
Dzhanibekov and researcher was the Mongolian cosmonaut
Jugderdemidyn Gurragcha, who we had lots of fun learning to pronounce.

20 years ago:  1 Apr 1971  The Canadian/US ISIS 2 ionospheric studies
satellite was launched. It transmitted until 1984. Also, the Soviet
Kosmos-402 spacecraft tested the nuclear reactor powered ocean surveillance
spacecraft bus.

30 years ago: 25 Mar 1961. NASA's Explorer 10 probe studied the
outer magnetosphere; and Korabl'-Sputnik-5 carried out the final
unpiloted 1-orbit test flight of the Vostok spaceship.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 8 1991 (no.70)
----------------------------------------------------

The Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched on mission STS-37
on Friday morning, April 5. Your correspondent was at the
viewing site for his first launch and is still totally blown
away by the experience. I bought myself a good pair of 
binoculars last week and am very glad I did; I was able to
see the orbiter windows and wing markings while it sat on
the pad a few miles away. Discovery was a little to the
right and closer, covered by the rotating service structure.
Rain hitting the motel roof all through the night was very
depressing, but the USAF forecasters seem to know their stuff-
it was warm and sunny by the time we got to the site, although
there was low cloud over the landing strip. We were able to follow
the launch for about 4 minutes, well after SRB sep - it became 
a bright pinpoint of light going off into the distance. It
was actually a lot quieter than I expected, but visually
overwhelming. Worth the 730-mile drive from Huntsville.
The day before, I drove to Patrick AFB a few miles south and
saw the astronaut T-38's lined up on the tarmac.

GRO was deployed on Apr 7 after a contingency EVA was performed
by astronauts Ross and Apt to free the spacecraft's main antenna.
Another EVA is due today.

Launch of STS-39/Discovery and the AFP-675 payload
from LC39A is due for late April.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-7 complex.  

The Anik E2 hybrid C-band/Ku-band comsat was launched by Ariane
on Apr 4 for the Telesat Canada Corp.
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis      Earth orbit |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                              |
|ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
|ML3/STS-40             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

10 years ago:  12 Apr 1981. Space Shuttle OV-102 Columbia was
launched on mission STS-1, the first space shuttle flight.
Crew were John Young and Robert Crippen. STS-1 was the first
orbital flight by a winged piloted spaceship, the first
spacecraft to return from orbit to land on a runway, the
first flight test of the reuseable thermal tiles, the first
piloted vehicle to make substantial aerodynamic maneuvers 
at velocities in excess of Mach 8, and the first piloted spaceship
to be launched with the help of solid propellant rockets.

20 years ago:  4 Apr 1971 The Kosmos-404 killer satellite made a flyby
of the Kosmos-400 target at 1000 km altitude and was then deorbited.

30 years ago: 12 Apr 1961. Yuriy Alekseevich Gagarin became the first
human in space. He made just under one orbit of the Earth in the spaceship
Vostok, which was launched from Kosmodrom Baykonur in Kazakhstan. The
flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Apr 24 1991 (no.72)
----------------------------------------------------

The launch of STS-39/Discovery is scheduled for
April 28, pending repairs to a main
engine sensor which scrubbed the Apr 23 launch attempt.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-7 complex.  
On Apr 12 and Apr 14 the engine of Progress M-7 was used
to raise the complex orbit from 360x377 km to 370x382 km.

The second commercial Atlas I Centaur launch on Apr 18
was a failure. This was particularly unfortunate as the
payload was the GE/NHK (General Electric/ Nippon Hoso Kyokai
Japanese Broadcasting Corp) BS-3H, a replacement for
the BS-2X spacecraft which fell in the Atlantic due
to an Ariane failure, and was in turn a replacement for
BS-2 spacecraft in orbit which have been suffering equipment
failures. The Atlas was successful, but one of the two
RL-10 engines on the upper Centaur AC-70 stage failed to ignite.
This is the first Centaur failure since AC-62 in Jun 1984.
The Centaur and payload were destroyed by the range safety
officer.

A navigation satellite, probably Kosmos-2142, was launched
by Kosmos R-14 rocket on Apr 16.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                              |
|ML2/STS-39/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
|ML3/STS-40/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

10 years ago: 25 Apr 1981.  The Kosmos-1267 spaceship was launched from
Baykonur.  Kosmos-1267 consisted of two spacecraft, a prototype Salyut
module of the Kvant-2/Kristall type now docked to Mir, and a prototype
piloted spaceship with room for two cosmonauts (it was cancelled before
being used with a crew); the reusable spaceship capsule was on its
second flight, the first flight being Kosmos-929 in 1977.  The capsule
separated and was recovered after 29 days in space; the next month the
Salyut module docked with the Salyut-6 space station.  It remained
attached to the station until their combined reentry in July 1982. 

20 years ago:  24 Apr 1971 The Soyuz-10 spaceship with three
crewmembers docked with the Salyut laboratory after launch
late on Apr 22. The cosmonauts were unable to attain a tight
docking seal and had to undock and return to Earth without
opening the hatch. 

30 years ago: 25 Apr 1961. The Mercury-Atlas-3 flight was intended
as the first unpiloted orbital test flight of the Mercury spacecraft.
The Atlas exploded at only 7 km altitude. On 27 Apr, the S-15
scientific satellite reached orbit and was renamed Explorer 11.
Explorer 11 was the first gamma ray astronomy satellite, the distant
ancestor of GRO; it was not sensitive enough to detect any sources.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

May 3 1991 (no.73)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery was launched on mission STS-39 at 1133.14 UT
on Apr 28. The IBSS-SPAS satellite was deployed on May 1
at 0817 and retrieved at 2225 on May 2. The CRO-C subsatellite
was deployed on May 2 at 0128; the CRO-B subsatellite was
deployed on May 2 at 1803; the CRO-A subsatellite was deployed on
May 3 at 1210. Landing is scheduled for May 6.

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 is due for May 18, with the replacement
long stay crew of Anatoliy Artesbarskiy and Sergey Krikalyov.
Soyuz TM-12 will also carry as a passenger the British Project
Juno cosmonaut Helen Sharman, who will return with Afanas'ev and
Manarov in Soyuz TM-11.

Kosmos-2142, a navigation satellite, was launched by Kosmos R-14 from
Plesetsk on Apr 16 into a 1000 km orbit. 

The fourth Meteor-3 weather satellite was launched by Tsiklon from
Plesetsk on Apr 24 into a 1200 km orbit. 


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia         LC39B    |
|OV-103 Discovery     Earth orbit |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale  |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                              |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-40/ET/OV-102   LC39B     |
-----------------------------------

20 years ago: 5 May 1971.  DSP F2 was launched by Titan 3C from Cape
Kennedy.  It was the first successful craft in the DSP early warning
satellite system, which watches for missile launches from stationary
orbit.  DSP F2 was stationed over the Indian Ocean. 

30 years ago: 5 May 1961. The Mercury spaceship "Freedom Seven", with
astronaut Alan B. Shepard aboard, was launched on the suborbital
MR-3 mission by a Redstone booster. Shepard became the first U.S.
citizen to enter space; the flight lasted 15 minutes.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

May 22 1991 (no.74)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center
at 1855 UT on May 6. It is not clear whether or not the MPEC
classified subsatellite was deployed. Launch of STS-40/Columbia
is scheduled for early June.

Soyuz TM-12 was launched on May 18 and docked with Mir on May 20.
The crew are Anatoliy Pavlovich Artsebarskiy (Komandir), 
Sergey Konstantinovich Krikalyov (Bortinzhener) and Helen Patricia
Sharman (Kosmonavt-issledovatel'). Artsebarskiy and Krikalyov
are the new Mir main crew, replacing Afanas'ev and Manarov who
will return to Earth with Sharman in Soyuz TM-11 on around May 26.
Sharman is the first British space traveller and her participation
in the mission is part of Project Juno, which is financed by the
Moskva Narodniy Bank and has no connection with the British government.
The Progress M-7 cargo craft undocked and reentered on May 7.

The NOAA 12 weather satellite was launched into polar orbit from
Vandenberg by an Atlas E launch vehicle with a Star 37S upper stage on
May 14. The NOAA satellites are operated by the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, which also operates the network
of GOES satellites in geostationary orbit.

Six Soviet spacecraft, Kosmos-2143 to Kosmos-2148, were launched on May
16 into a 1400 km orbit by a three stage Tsiklon rocket. They are small
store-dump communications satellites, the military version of the Gonets
satellites recently offered for commercial use by the NPO-PM company.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia         LC39B    |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43             VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-40/ET/OV-102   LC39B     |
-----------------------------------


10 years ago: 14-22 May 1981.  The Soyuz-40 mission carried Soviet
cosmonaut Yuriy Romanenko and Rumanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu on a
visit to the Salyut-6 space station. 

20 years ago: 12-28 May 1971.  Three Soviet Mars probes were launched. 
The first, Kosmos-419, was stranded in low earth orbit by an upper stage
failure.  Mars-2 and Mars-3 entered Mars orbit in Nov-Dec 1971 and
impacted probes on the surface.  The surface probes failed to return
useful data. 

30 years ago: 24 May 1961.  The S-45A ionospheric satellite failed to
reach orbit when its Juno II booster malfunctioned. 

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jun  5 1991 (no.75)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-40/Columbia occurred on June 5 at 13:24:51 UT approximately.
Crew are Bryan O'Connor, Sid Gutierrez, Dr. Rhea Seddon, Dr. Jim Bagian,
Dr. Tamara Jernigan, Dr. Mille Hughes-Fulford, Dr Andrew Gaffney, several
rats, and  many jellyfish.

Soyuz TM-11 undocked from the Mir complex and landed on May 26.  Aboard
were the long stay crew Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov, and Soyuz
TM-12 researcher Helen Sharman of England.  The
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12 complex is now crewed by Anatoliy
Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov.  The Progress M-8 cargo craft
carrying supplies and fuel for the station was launched from Baykonur on
May 30.  Musa Manarov landed with 540 days 22 hours and 31 minutes
spaceflight time accrued over two missions to Mir, beating Yuriy
Romanenko's record for cumulative spaceflight time by over 100 days, and
the US record by over a factor of six. 

The 10th Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on May 21 from
Plesetsk. It carries an MK4 multispectral camera, and is based on the 
Vostok spacecraft.

Kosmos-2149 was launched on May 24 from Plesetsk. It is an imaging recon
satellite and will remain in orbit for 2 months. It replaced Kosmos-2138
which was deorbited on May 24 after 59 days in space.

Aurora 2, a communications satellite for GE Alascom, was launched
by a Delta 7925 on May 29. The GE 3000 class C-band comsat will replace
the Aurora 1 which was launched in 1982.

TIP 2, a US Navy experimental navigation satellite, reentered on May 26.
It was launched in 1975. Kosmos-151, an electronic intelligence
satellite launched in 1967, reentered on May 6.

Delta 111, the second stage of the launch vehicle which orbited Nimbus 6
in 1975, exploded into hundreds of fragments about May 14. The Delta
stages of that era had a habit of exploding years after launch, due
to the detonation of left over propellants. More recent Delta launches
have burned up all their propellants to avoid this problem.
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia      Earth orbit |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43             VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-40/ET/OV-102   LC39B     |
-----------------------------------


10 years ago: 31 May 1981. The Indian Space Research Organization launched
Rohini RS-D-1, a remote sensing satellite. Problems with the launch vehicle
left the satellite in a low orbit from which it reentered in one week.

20 years ago: 30 May 1971. Mariner 9 was launched on its way to orbit Mars
and map its surface. Mariner 8 failed earlier in the month.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 14 1991 (no.76)
----------------------------------------------------

Columbia landed at 1539UT on Jun 14, on runway 22 at Edwards AFB.
This completed the STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences
1 mission.  Atlantis is being processed for the STS-43 mission which
will deploy another Tracking and Data Relay Satellite; this will be
followed by Discovery's STS-48 mission to launch the Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite.  After the current mission, Columbia will undergo
modification for extended duration flights, its next mission being
another Spacelab flight about a year from now. This week Columbia
recaptured the 'Orbiter with most flight hours' record from Discovery,
with a total of 1804 hours 23 minutes in its 11 flights.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit
aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.

An Okean oceanographic remote sensing satellite built by NPO Yuzhnoye was
launched on Jun 4 by Tsiklon from Plesetsk.

Correction: the date of the Delta 111 explosion was May 1,
according to calculations by Mike McCants. Also, the deployment
of the classified USA-70 satellite, international designation
1991-31C, from the STS-39 mission is now confirmed.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        EAFB RW22 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                    VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------


10 years ago: 4 Jun 1981. The Kosmos-1275 navigation satellite was launched.
On 1981 Jul 24 it disintegrated into many pieces, possibly as a result of colliding 
with another space object.

20 years ago: 6 Jun 1971. The first space station mission, with cosmonauts
Georgiy Dobrovol'skiy, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev launched in
Soyuz-11 to dock with the Salyut space lab and spend 22 days aboard.
Just prior to reentry on 29 June, a valve on the Soyuz-11 accidentally failed
open venting the cabin air and causing the deaths of all three crew members.

20 years ago: 15 Jun 1971. The first KH-9 HEXAGON ("Big Bird") spy satellite
was launched. The Big Bird has now been superseded by the Advanced Crystal
and Lacrosse recon satellites.

30 years ago: 8 Jun 1961. The Discoverer 24 spy satellite failed to reach orbit 
when its Agena engine did not ignite. Discoverer 25 completed a succesful mission
Jun 16-19.

(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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 20 1991 (no.77)
----------------------------------------------------

Kosmos-2150 was launched on Jun 11 by Kosmos R-14 from 
Plesetsk. It is a military communications
satellite in low orbit.

The long duration spy satellite Kosmos-2113 reentered on Jun 11
after 172 days in orbit. This is a bit surprising as recent members
of its class had showed lives about 8 months long, so I was expecting
it to stay in orbit until August.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit
aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia     Kelly AFB,TX |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   VAB Bay 1 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                    VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

New objects in orbit 1991 May

May 1	1975-52D to DM?	Delta 111 debris, 105 objects	1100x1400x99.8	Delta 111 explosion, orbit is typical
May 1	1991-31B	IBSS-SPAS 2 satellite		245x256x57.0	Retrieved May 2 by OV-103 Discovery
May 2	1991-31D	USAF CRO-C satellite		243x261x57.0	Reentered May 14
May 2	1991-31E	USAF CRO-B satellite		241x262x57.0	Reentered May 12
May 3	1991-31F	USAF CRO-A satelllite		250x269x57.0	Reentered May 13
May 6	1991-31C	USA-70 satellite		252x267x57.0	Classified
May 12?	1990-104K to R	7 PVO radar targets		500x525x82.5	Deployed from Kosmos-2106
May 14	1991-032A	NOAA 12 satellite		812x829x98.7	NOAA weather satellite
May 14	1991-032B,C	NOAA 12 sensor covers?		816x824x98.7
May 16	1991-033G	Tsiklon 3 rocket		1415x1473x82.6
May 16	1991-033A	Kosmos-2143 satellite		1400x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 16	1991-033B	Kosmos-2144 satellite		1412x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 16	1991-033C	Kosmos-2145 satellite		1406x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 16	1991-033D	Kosmos-2146 satellite		1394x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 16	1991-033E	Kosmos-2147 satellite		1390x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 16	1991-033F	Kosmos-2148 satellite		1383x1416x82.6	VMF Gonets class comsat
May 17	1990-104S to W	5 PVO radar targets		500x525x82.5	Deployed from Kosmos-2106
May 18	1991-034B	Blok-I rocket			191x208x51.6	Reentered May 19
May 18	1991-034A	Soyuz TM-12 spaceship		191x208x51.6	Docked with Mir complex May 19
May 21	1991-035B	Blok-I rocket			181x243x82.3	Reentered May 23
May 21	1991-035A	Resurs-F satellite		229x233x82.3	GUGK remote sensing sat
May 24	1991-036B	Blok-I rocket			164x342x67.1	Reentered May 27
May 24	1991-036A	Kosmos-2149 satellite		163x353x67.1	GRU imaging recon sat
May 24	1991-037B	Delta 205 rocket		400x2353x25.0
May 24	1991-037C	PAM-D rocket			Geo transfer 
May 24	1991-037A	GE3000 Aurora 2 satellite	Geostationary	GE Alascom comsat
May 26	1990-107	Soyuz TM-11 PAO			0x360x51.6	Reentered May 26
May 26	1990-107	Soyuz TM-11 BO			0x360x51.6	Reentered May 26
May 30	1991-038B	Blok-I rocket			185x218x51.6
May 30	1991-038A	Progress M-8 cargo ferry	185x218x51.6	Docked with Mir complex


10 years ago: 19 Jun 1981. The third Ariane launch places the Meteosat 2 
weather satellite and the experimental Indian APPLE comsat in orbit.

20 years ago: 27 Jun 1971. The third attempt to launch the Soviet 
N-1 lunar rocket ends in failure.


Copyright 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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 2 1991 (no.78)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is on the pad. The STS-43 mission will deploy
a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) sometime this
month.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  On Jun 12
they deployed a lightsat from one of the scientific airlocks.  'Mayak'
was intended for ionospheric studies, but its transmitter failed after
deployment.  They also jettisoned 9 garbage bags on Jun 10 and a further
8 on Jun 20.  On Jun 25 they made a five hour spacewalk to repair the
docking antenna on the Kvant module, and on Jun 28 they made another
spacewalk to install a radiation monitoring experiment and an external
TV camera. 

Scout S216C was launched from Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg AFB,
California, at 1400UT on Jun 29.  The Scout G-1 carried a USAF lightsat
into 830 km polar orbit.  The satellite, REX (Radiation EXperiment), was
built by Defense Systems, Inc and is similar in design to their Stacksat
payloads launched last year.  It will monitor near earth radiation and
ionospheric irregularities which affect radio communicaitons. 

Kosmos-2151, launched on Jun 13 by Tsiklon 3 from Plesetsk, is an
electronic intelligence satellite. 

The 10th Resurs-F remote sensing satellite landed on Jun 20 after a 30
day mapping mission with an MK4 camera. 

The 81st Molniya-1 comsat was launched on Jun 18 into elliptical 12-hour
orbit from Plesetsk.  The Molniya-1 is used for Soviet government
communications. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                    VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

Copyright 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                 |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 8 1991 (no.79)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is on the pad.  The STS-43 mission will deploy a Tracking and
Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), launch is scheduled for the last week of
the month.  Crew are Col John Blaha (Commander), Cdr Mike Baker (Pilot),
Dr Shannon Wells Lucid (Mission Specialist 1), David Low (Mission
Specialist 2), Col.  James Adamson (Mission Specialist 3). 

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  
Correction: the atmospheric study satellite deployed from Mir was 'Mak',
which is the Russian word for the poppy flower.

The 11th Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched from Plesetsk
on Jun 28. The 23rd Gorizont communications satellite was launched
by Proton from Baykonur on Jul 2.

The X-248 Altair I rocket stage used to orbit the first Tiros weather satellite
reentered on Jul 2 after 31 years in orbit. It was launched into
orbit on 1 Apr 1960 as the third stage of a Thor Able II launch vehicle, 
and had the catalog number 28 and the international designation
1960 Beta 1. Tiros 1 (1960 Beta 2) remains in a 660x700 km orbit.
The only object with a lower catalog number to reenter in the past
twenty years was the Baby Sergeant upper stage used to orbit Explorer 7,
which reentered in Jul 1989. 
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

Launches 1991 Jun

Launch	Date	Payload		Launch vehicle		Site		Payload User/Contractor

1991-39	Jun 4	Okean		Tsiklon 3		Plesetsk	GUGK/NPO Yuzhnoy
1991-40	Jun 5	STS-40		Space Shuttle		Kennedy		NASA/Rockwell
1991-41	Jun 11	Kosmos-2150	Kosmos R-14		Plesetsk	KGB?/NPO Yuzhnoy?
1991-42	Jun 13	Kosmos-2151	Tsiklon 3		Plesetsk	GRU/NPO Yuzhnoy
1991-43	Jun 18	Molniya-1	Molniya			Plesetsk	MSvyazi/NPO-PM
1991-44	Jun 28	Resurs-F	Soyuz			Plesetsk	GUGK/KB Foton
1991-45	Jun 29	REX		Scout G-1		Vandenberg	USAF/DSI

New objects in orbit 1991 Jun 

Jun  4	1991-39B	Tsiklon 3 rocket		633x664x82.5
Jun  4	1991-39A	Okean satellite			634x665x82.5	Ocean studies
Jun  5	1991-40A	OV-102 Columbia spaceship	278x296x39.0	Landed Edwards AFB Jun 14
Jun  5	1991-40A	Spacelab SLS 1			278x296x39.0	Aboard OV-102
Jun  9? 1986-17DJ to DT	Mir garbage bags (9)		355x392x51.6	
Jun 11	1991-41B	Kosmos R-14 rocket		802x812x74.0
Jun 11	1991-41A	Kosmos-2150 satellite		783x808x74.0	Communications
Jun 11	1991-41C	Kosmos-2150 adapter?		802x812x74.0
Jun 12	1986-17DV	Mak satellite			377x388x51.6	Deployed from Mir
Jun 12	1986-17DU	Mak satellite container?	305x369x51.6	
Jun 13	1991-42B	Tsiklon 3 rocket		636x661x82.5
Jun 13	1991-42A	Kosmos-2151 satellite		636x662x82.5	Electronic intelligence sat
Jun 18	1991-43B	Blok-I rocket			209x402x62.8	Reentered Jul 2
Jun 18	1991-43C	Blok-L rocket adapter		175x448x62.8	Reentered Jun 27
Jun 18  1991-43D	Blok-L rocket			442x40627x62.9	
Jun 18	1991-43A	Molniya-1 satellite		449x39900x62.9	Communications
Jun 20	1986-17DW to ED	Mir garbage bags (8)		384x390x51.6
Jun 20	1991-35C	Resurs-F engine			217x228x82.3	Jettisoned from Resurs-F
Jun 20	1991-35D,E	Resurs-F engine adapters	205x220x82.3	Reentered Jun 20, Jun 23
Jun 25	1986-17EE to EH	Kvant antenna repair parts (4)	388x392x51.6	Debris from EVA?
Jun 28	1991-44B	Blok-I rocket			180x240x82.3 ??	Reentered Jun 30
Jun 28	1991-44A	Resurs-F satellite		230x235x82.3 ??	Remote sensing
Jun 29	1991-45B	Star 20 rocket			830x830x90   ??	
Jun 29	1991-45A	REX satellite			830x830x90   ??	USAF radiation experiment
Jun 29	1991-45C	REX part			830x830x90   ??

Also cataloged during June

Jun  	1991-09BP to BX	Kosmos R-14 rocket debris,9 obj 1400x1700x74.0	Exploded 1991 Mar?
Jun	1975-52DN to GU	Delta 111 debris, 78 objects	1000x1500x99.9	Exploded 1991 May 1


Note: the names and descriptions of satellites are my own guesses at the most
likely identifications of given objects. Orbits are perigee height (km) x apogee height (km) x 
inclination (deg).

Copyright 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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 17 1991 (no.80)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is on the pad.  The STS-43 mission will deploy a Tracking and
Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), launch is scheduled for Jul 23.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  
On Jul 15 they made a third EVA to erect a large structure
outside the station. Sergey has just been told that his ride
home in November has been cancelled for budgetary reasons and he'll
have to stay up till March.

Further correction: The Mak satellite was apparently launched on Jun 17.

The second Block IIB Navstar navigation satellite was launched
on July 4 at 0232 UT. The Delta 7925 launch vehicle also carried
an SDIO secondary payload, the LOSAT-X satellite. LOSAT-X was
to observe the spectra of rocket plumes as part of the effort
to develop ways to observe and target missiles in flight.
Anyone who knows what LOSAT stands for, please email me.

Two Soyuz launch vehicles flew into orbit on Jul 9 and Jul 10.  One
carried an advanced recon satellite with a six-month lifetime.  The
other flew into an 82 degree polar orbit with a Vostok class recoverable
satellite, which is probably a Resurs-F remote sensing satellite - but
it might be a Kosmos short duration spy satellite.  I havent got the
name of the satellite yet so I can't tell. 

A successful Ariane launch on Jul 16 orbited the European Space Agency's
ERS-1 Earth Resources Satellite. The satellite, based on the French
SPOT imager, carries an active microwave radar imager, altimeters
and a radiometer. The Ariane also carried the second ASAP Ariane
Structure for Auxiliary Payloads, carrying four microsatellites.
One is TUBSAT from the Technische Universitat Berlin, a small
scientific data relay satellite. SARA, from the French amateur
organization Esie-espace, is an amateur radio-astronomy payload.
UoSat 5 (UoSat-OSCAR 22) is Surrey Satellite Technology's payload
carrying SateLife's store and forward electronic mail communications
for medical organizations in Africa, as well as an experimental
 wide field CCD camera. Surrey Satellite Technology is a spinoff
company from the engineering department of the University of Surrey,
Guildford, England (where Ford Prefect wasn't from after all), 
where Dr. Martin Sweeting led development of earlier UoSats.
Orbcomm-X is an Orbital Sciences lightsat to be 
used by the State of Virginia Center for Innovative Technology
for communications experiments (project VaStar).

Another Orbital Sciences venture, the second Pegasus launch vehicle,
was due for launch today as this edition of JSR closed for press
(or whatever the appropriate noun is for what happens to an email
publication).
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

Copyright 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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 25 1991 (no.81)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-43/Atlantis is scheduled for early August.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  More
spacewalks are planned soon.

The second Pegasus launch occurred on Jul 17.  The winged rocket was
dropped from NASA NB-52-0008 over the Pacific after takeoff from
Edwards.  A problem at first stage separation caused a guidance error
and the payload ended up in a 400 km orbit, half the intended altitude. 
The new HAPS fourth stage burned successfully.  Seven 20-kg Microsats
were placed in orbit for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA). Note for X-15 fans: There used to be two NB-52's used to
drop X-15's and lifting bodies; the older one, 0003, is now retired;
I ran into it recently at the Puma Air Museum in Tucson.

Kosmos-2152, a short duration Vostok-class spy satellite, was
launched on Jul 9 into 82 degree orbit

Kosmos-2153, a long duration advanced spy satellite, was launched
on Jul 10 into a 65 degree orbit.

Kosmos-2149, a spy satellite, ended its mission on Jul 4 after
41 days, shorter than the usual 55 day mission of its class.

Hinotori, a Japanese solar observatory launched in 1981, reentered
on Jul 11.

Congratulations to my old pulsar hunter friends at Jodrell for
the discovery of the planet around PSR1829-10; it's probably too
much to hope HMG will be inspired to fund British radio-astronomy
a little less parsimoniously. (I havent seen the actual paper yet,
Nature takes a long time to get to Alabama).
___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 30 1991 (no.82)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-43/Atlantis is scheduled for August 1.  Meanwhile,
Endeavour has been moved into the orbiter processing facility to begin
preparations for its first mission set for next year. 

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  More
spacewalks are planned soon. The new schedule is:

Soyuz TM-13 launch in October, crew up:
Commander:            Aleksandr Volkov (Soviet Air Force)
Cosmonaut-researcher: Tokhtar Aybarkirov (Republic of Kazakhstan)
Cosmonaut-researcher: Franz Viehbock (Republik Osterreich [Austria])
Crew down: Artsebarskiy, Aybarkirov, Viehbock.

Soyuz TM-14 launch in Mar 1992: crew up, Aleksandr Viktorenko 
plus flight engineer from NPO Energiya plus German researcher;
crew down, Volkov, Krikalyov and the German.

I'm not sure about the spelling of Aybarkirov's name.  This will be the
first time that two passengers have flown on a single Soyuz; normally
it's two pro cosmonauts and one passenger.  However, a number of
cosmonauts have trained to fly Soyuz single-handed in case they have to
fly an emergency rescue mission to Mir to bring a sick crew home, so it
is something they have the capability to do. 

Another Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Jul 23.
It replaces the 11th Resurs-F which landed on Jul 21 in Kazakhstan.
The Resurs-F satellites are based on the old Vostok spaceship bus.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 2 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-43/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48             VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

7 Aug 1991 (no.83)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is in orbit on mission STS-43.  Tracking and Data Relay
Satellte TDRS-5 has reached geostationary orbit.  Atlantis is currently
operating payload bay experiments SSBUV (an ozone monitor) and SHARE (a
test of space station hardware).  Meanwhile, Discovery has been mated
to the STS-48 stack and will  be rolled out to the pad next week.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  More
spacewalks were made to complete the installation of the 14 metre Sofora
structure on Jul 19, 23 and 27.

The Kosmos-2152 spy satellite landed on Jul 23.

NASA has issued a press release denying that an emergency HST repair
mission is being planned.  The Hubble Space Telescope has lost two
gyros, and a third one had a glitch recently.  But the most worrying
rumour has been that the solar panels are oscillating more strongly than
had been believed and are in danger of structural failure.  If an
emergency repair mission were necessary, it would be really bad news
because there probably wouldnt be enough money to fly the COSTAR optical
fixup mission as well.  Meanwhile, never daunted, astronomers are
preparing their observing proposals for the second cycle of HST
observations which is scheduled to begin in July next year. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LEO       |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                    VAB       |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103   VAB Bay 3 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


Launches 1991 Jul

Launch	Date	Payload/Launch vehicle		Site			Payload User/
									Manufacturer

1991-46	Jul 2	Gorizont/Proton-K		Baykonur,Kazakhstan	MSvyazi/NPO-PM
1991-47	Jul 4	Navstar 22,LOSAT-X/Delta 7925	Canaveral,USA		USAF/Rockwell
1991-48	Jul 9	Kosmos-2152/Soyuz		Plesetsk, Rossiya	GRU/KB Foton
1991-49 Jul 10	Kosmos-2153/Soyuz		Baykonur,Kazakhstan	GRU/KB Foton?
1991-50	Jul 17	ERS-1    )/Ariane 40		Kourou,France		ESA/Dornier
		Uosat 5  )						Univ.Surrey
		Orbcomm-X)						OSC/VCIT
		TUBSAT   )						Tech.Univ.Berlin
		SARA     )						Esieespace
1991-51	Jul 17	Microsat 1 to 7/Pegasus-HAPS	Edwards,USA		DARPA/DSI
1991-52	Jul 23	Resurs-F/Soyuz			Plesetsk,Rossiya	GUGK/KB Foton

New objects in orbit 1991 Jul
							km x km x deg
Jul  2	1991-46B	Proton rocket			200x200x51.6?	Reentered Jul 4
Jul  2  1991-46C	Proton adapter			200x200x51.6?	Reentered Jul 4?
Jul  2	1991-46E	Blok-DM adapter			347x35631x47.4	
Jul  2	1991-46F	Blok-DM adpater			295x35625x47.4
Jul  2	1991-46D	Blok-DM rocket			35540x35664x1.5
Jul  2	1991-46A	Gorizont satellite		35675x35803x1.5	Communications,TV
Jul  4	1991-47C	Delta 7920 rocket		389x403x37.5	
Jul  4	1991-47B	LOSAT-X satellite		400x413x40.0
Jul  4  1991-47D	PAM-D rocket			188x20241x34.5
Jul  4	1991-47A	Navstar 22 satellite		19765x20255x55.3 Navigation
Jul  9	1991-48B	Blok-I rocket			160x190x82.3?	Reentered Jul 10
Jul  9	1991-48A	Kosmos-2152 satellite		235x349x82.3	Landed Kazakhstan Jul 23
Jul 10	1991-49B	Blok-I rocket			182x251x64.9	Reentered Jul 13
Jul 10	1991-49A	Kosmos-2153 satellite		241x281x64.9	Advanced Recon
Jul 17	1991-50F	H-10 rocket/ASAP		744x815x98.5	
Jul 17	1991-50A	ERS 1 satellite			776x782x98.5	Earth resources
Jul 17	1991-50B	Uosat 5				766x776x98.5	Amateur
Jul 17	1991-50C	Orbcomm X			771x776x98.5	Virginia experiments
Jul 17	1991-50D	TUBSAT				768x776x98.5	Animal migration study
Jul 17	1991-50E	SARA				769x776x98.5	Amateur radio astronomy
Jul 17	1991-51H	HAPS rocket			361x478x82.0
Jul 17	1991-51A	Microsat 1			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51B	Microsat 2			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51C	Microsat 3			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51D	Microsat 4			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51E	Microsat 5			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51F	Microsat 6			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 17	1991-51G	Microsat 7			358x458x82.0	Communications
Jul 21	1991-44D	Resurs-F engine			243x260x82.3	
Jul 21	1991-44E,F	Resurs-F engine adapters	200x220x82.3
Jul 21	1991-44G,H	Resurs-F engine adapters	230x380x82.3
Jul 23	1991-52B	Blok-I rocket			160x180x82.3?
Jul 23	1991-52A	Resurs-F satellite		256x272x82.3	Remote sensing

Also cataloged during Jul: Lots more bits from the Delta explosion, and some other
objects I dont have international designators for yet.

Note: the names and descriptions of satellites are my own guesses at the most
likely identifications of given objects. Orbits are perigee height (km) x apogee height (km) x 
inclination (deg).


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

14 Aug 1991 (no.84)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis/STS-43 landed on KSC's runway 15 at 1223UT on Aug 11.
Mission specialist Dr. Shannon Lucid became the most
experienced woman space traveler, with a total of 498 flight hours
beating Svetlana Savitskaya's 1984 record. Two Russian,
one English, and fourteen American women have now flown;
Lucid is the first to make three flights. 260 people
in all have now flown above 80 km altitude.

Columbia is aboard the NASA 911 carrier aircraft on its
way to a major refit in Rockwell's California factory.
Discovery is on the pad awaiting launch on mission STS-48
in September.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  

A Molniya-1 comsat was launched on Aug 1.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        SCA 911   |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                    VAB       |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

21 Aug 1991 (no.85)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery is on the pad; launch on mission STS-48 is
due for Sep 12. It will launch the Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite. Columbia is in Palmdale, Ca. being
refitted for Extended Duration Orbiter operations.


Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-8 complex.  
I havent heard anything on Radio Moscow about them since the
coup began (not that there are any tanks on Mir). Progress M-8 will
soon be replaced by the Progress M-9 cargo craft.

An Ariane 44L, flight V45, was launched on Aug 14 from
Kourou, orbiting the Intelsat VI F-5 communications satellite.

A Meteor-3 weather satellite was launched on Aug 15 by
Tsiklon from Plesetsk. It carries a NASA experiment,
the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer.


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                    VAB       |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

5 Sep 1991 (no.86)
----------------------------------------------------

Preparations for the Sep 12 launch of the Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite on STS-48/Discovery continue.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-9 complex.  
Progress M-8 undocked and was deorbited on Aug 16. Progress M-9
was launched on Aug 20 and has now docked with the station,
bringing it supplies. The next launch is Soyuz TM-13 on Oct 2.

A Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Aug 21 by
Soyuz from Plesetsk.

Kosmos-2154, a navigation satellite, was launched from Plesetsk
on Aug 22. This was the first launch of the R-14 IRBM based 
Kosmos booster since a launch failure in June.

Yuri 3B (BS 3B before launch), a Japanese TV broadcast satellite, was
launched by H-1 launch vehicle on Aug 25 and succesfully reached
synchronous orbit.  BS-2X and BS-3H were launch failures and BS-3A
has had on-orbit problems, so BS-3B is really important for the 
Japanese satellite broadcasting program. The H-1 launch vehicle is
operated by the NASDA applications space agency.

Japan's other space agency, ISAS, which has responsibility for
science satellites, launched the Yohkoh ('Sunlight') satellite
on Aug 30 using a Mu 3S-II launch vehicle. The satellite carries
an array of X-ray instruments to observe the Sun.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44             VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Jonathan's Space Report6 Sep 1991 (no.86)----------------------------------------------------Preparations for the Sep 12 launch of the Upper AtmosphereResearch Satellite on STS-48/Discovery continue.Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard theMir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-9 complex.  Progress M-8 undocked and was deorbited on Aug 16. Progress M-9was launched on Aug 20 and has now docked with the station,bringing it supplies. The next launch is Soyuz TM-13 on Oct 2.A Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched on Aug 21 by Soyuz fromPlesetsk.  The spacecraft uses the Vostok bus and is operated by thePriroda center of the Soviet Geodesy and Cartography agency.  It'll beinteresting to see what happens to the All-Union state agencies in thenew republics, but my guess is that management of the space programswill remain unchanged for the forseeable future (i.e.  at least tillteatime this afternoon). Kosmos-2154, a Soviet Navy navigation satellite, was launched fromPlesetsk on Aug 22.  This was the first launch of the R-14 IRBM basedKosmos booster since a launch failure in June. Yuri 3B (BS 3B before launch), a Japanese TV broadcast satellite, waslaunched by H-1 launch vehicle on Aug 25 and succesfully reachedsynchronous orbit.  BS-2X and BS-3H were launch failures and BS-3Ahas had on-orbit problems, so BS-3B is really important for the Japanese satellite broadcasting program. The H-1 launch vehicle isoperated by the NASDA applications space agency. BS-3B uses theGE3000 bus first used by the RCA Advanced Satcom, but with a Japaneseapogee motor (I dont know what its called) first used on ETS 5.Japan's other space agency, ISAS, which has responsibility forscience satellites, launched the Yohkoh ('Sunlight') satelliteon Aug 30 using a Mu 3S-II launch vehicle. The satellite carriesan array of X-ray instruments to observe the Sun.Correction: the spacecraft launched on Jul 4 was Navstar 24, notNavstar 22.___________________________________|Current STS status:              ||Orbiters                         ||                                 ||OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  ||OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     ||OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 ||OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 ||                                 ||ML/ET/SRB stacks                 ||                                 ||ML1/STS-44             VAB Bay 3 ||ML2                              ||ML3/STS-48/ET/OV-103   LC39A     |-----------------------------------N.B.  Information in this report is obtained from public sources anddoes 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                               |                                        | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

15 Sep 1991 (no.87)
----------------------------------------------------

Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on Sep 12 at 2311 UTC.  It carried
the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite into orbit.  Deployment occurred
on 15 Sep at 0423.  Crew are J.O Creighton, Kenneth Reightler, Sam Gemar, Jim
Buchli, and Mark Brown.  Gemar is the first astronaut of the 1985 group
to make a second flight; four of his classmates have yet to fly at all
(mission specialists get more opportunities than pilots).  Buchli is the
first Shuttle generation (1978 group and later) astronaut to make four
flights, although Brewster Shaw and Guion Bluford will still have more
flight hours. 

Trivia corner: Astronauts with lots of flights.  There are 11 people who
have made four or more spaceflights (counting space as starting at 80 km
altitude).  John Young holds the record at six; Vladimir Dzhanibekov has
five, and so does Joe Engle.  Those with four are Charles Conrad, James
Lovell, Tom Stafford, Bob Crippen, Vance Brand, Jim Buchli, Oleg Makarov
and Gennadiy Strekalov.  Of these, only Buchli and Strekalov are likely
to make further flights, although I believe that Brand and Young are
still nominally on the active list. 


Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-9 complex.  

India's IRS-1B remote sensing satellite was launched by a commercial
Vostok booster from Kosmodrom Baykonur on Aug 29 into polar orbit. 

A Kosmos electronic intelligence satellite was lost on Aug 30 at
Kosmodrom Baykonur when its Zenit launch vehicle was destroyed during
launch.  This is the second Zenit failure in a row. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LEO       |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44             VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                    LC39A     |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

26 Sep 1991 (no.88)
----------------------------------------------------

Discovery landed at Edwards on Sep 18 at 0739 UTC.
Discovery is now the orbiter with the most missions and flight time.
 - Discovery 13 missions, flight hours 1812:08
   Columbia  11 missions, flight hours 1804:23
   Atlantis   9 missions, flight hours 1161:36
Next mission is STS-44 which will put an early warning satellite
in orbit.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is being
checked out in orbit.

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12/Progress M-9 complex.  
Launch of Soyuz TM-13 is due on October 2.

A geostationary comsat, Kosmos-2155, was launched by Proton from
Baykonur on Sep 13.  An elliptical orbit C-band comsat, the 41st
Molniya-3 satellite, was launched by Molniya from Plesetsk on Sep 17. 
Both satellites are made by NPO Prikladnoi Mechaniki (Applied Mechanics
Corp) in Krasnoyarsk.  The older Molniya satellite is in a 12 hour
period elliptical orbit, and has a KDU-414 engine for stationkeeping
with its apogee kept over the former USSR.  The more modern Kosmos-2155
is inserted into geostationary orbit by the Blok-DM fourth stage of the
Proton launcher.  The Proton inserts the Kosmos/Blok-DM into low earth
orbit at an inclination of 51.6 degrees, the Blok-DM ignites to put the
combination in GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) at an inclination of
46 degrees, and then six hours later reignites over the equator at
apogee for a second burn into synchronous orbit, after which the Blok-DM
separates and the Kosmos satellite's small stationkeeping engines
control the drift to the desired longitude.  This technique is similar
to that used by the old Titan 3C/Transtage, but the initial parking
orbit inclinations are much higher since Baykonur is far to the north of
Cape Canaveral.  The spacecraft are used by the MSvyazi (Soviet Ministry
of Communications), which I believe still exists for now. 

A failed GLONASS navigation satellite, Kosmos-1840, reentered
on Sep 14. Together with two other GLONASS satellites which
reentered in May, it was stranded in transfer orbit in 1987
when the Proton launch vehicle fourth stage failed.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       EAFB      |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44             VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3                              |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

2 Oct 1991 (no.89)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is being prepared for mission STS-44.  Cracks have been found
on some seals on Atlantis' wing leading edge; they're being replaced,
but there's no news on a possible delay to the November launch. 
Discovery has returned to the Kennedy Space Center and is in Orbiter
Processing Facility Bay 3, formerly the OMRF (Orbiter Maintenance and
Refurbishment Facility) and recently upgraded to the standards of the
other two OPF bays.  Its next mission is STS-42. 

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12 complex.  Progress M-9
has been undocked and deorbited. Soyuz TM-13 was launched on Oct 2
from Kosmodrom Baykonur in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It will
dock with Mir on Oct 4. Crew of TM-13 are Soviet Air Force cosmonaut
Aleksandr Volkov, Kazakh Republic cosmonaut Tokhtar Aubakirov, 
and Austrian cosmonaut Franz Viehbock. Artsebarksiy, Aubakirov and
Viehbock will return to Earth on Oct 10 in TM-12 leaving Volkov
and Krikalyov in orbit. Volkov has 185 days of flight experience
on Soyuz T-14, Soyuz TM-7, Salyut-7 and Mir.

The Canadian Anik E-1 communications satellite was
launched on Sep 26 by Ariane 44P from Kourou.

Kosmos-2156, launched Sep 19 by Soyuz from Plesetsk, is a high
resolution imaging spy satellite for Soviet military intelligence.

Kosmos-2157 to Kosmos-2162, six small communications relay satellites
possibly for the Soviet Navy, were launched by 3-stage Tsiklon from
Plesetsk on Sep 28.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

4 Oct 1991 (no.90)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is being prepared for mission STS-44.  Cracks have been found
on some seals on Atlantis' wing leading edge; they're being replaced,
but there's no news on a possible delay to the November launch. 
Discovery has returned to the Kennedy Space Center and is in Orbiter
Processing Facility Bay 3, formerly the OMRF (Orbiter Maintenance and
Refurbishment Facility) and recently upgraded to the standards of the
other two OPF bays.  Its next mission is STS-42. 

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12 complex.  Progress M-9
has been undocked and deorbited. Soyuz TM-13 was launched on Oct 2
from Kosmodrom Baykonur in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It will
dock with Mir on Oct 4. Crew of TM-13 are Soviet Air Force cosmonaut
Aleksandr Volkov, Kazakh Republic cosmonaut Tokhtar Aubakirov, 
and Austrian cosmonaut Franz Viehbock. Artsebarksiy, Aubakirov and
Viehbock will return to Earth on Oct 10 in TM-12 leaving Volkov
and Krikalyov in orbit. 

An alert reader has spotted my inability to add. Volkov has 216 days
flight experience, not 185 as I erroneously claimed last week.

The Canadian Anik E-1 communications satellite was
launched on Sep 26 by Ariane 44P from Kourou.

Kosmos-2156, launched Sep 19 by Soyuz from Plesetsk, is a high
resolution imaging spy satellite for Soviet military intelligence.

Kosmos-2157 to Kosmos-2162, six small communications relay satellites
possibly for the Soviet Navy, were launched by 3-stage Tsiklon from
Plesetsk on Sep 28.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

8 Oct 1991 (no.91)
----------------------------------------------------

Atlantis is being prepared for mission STS-44.  

Anatoliy Artsebarksiy and Sergey Krikalyov continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-12 complex.  Progress M-9
has been undocked and deorbited. Soyuz TM-13 was launched on Oct 2
from Kosmodrom Baykonur in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It will
dock with Mir on Oct 4. Crew of TM-13 are Soviet Air Force cosmonaut
Aleksandr Volkov, Kazakh Republic cosmonaut Tokhtar Aubakirov, 
and Austrian cosmonaut Franz Viehbock. Artsebarksiy, Aubakirov and
Viehbock will return to Earth on Oct 10 in TM-12 leaving Volkov
and Krikalyov in orbit. 


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET          VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

23 Oct 1991 (no.92)
I've been away for a couple of weeks, so there's a bit to
catch up on:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis was moved to the VAB on Oct 18 and mated to the STS-44 stack on
Oct 19.  It is due to be rolled out to the pad on Oct 23.  Launch is due
next month to place an early warning satellite in orbit. 

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  The
Soyuz TM-13 ferry was launched at 0559UT on Oct 2 and docked at the
front Mir port at 0739UT on Oct 4.  Crew Volkov, Aubakirov and Viehbock
joined Artsebarskiy and Krikalyov.  Late on Oct 9, Artsebarskiy,
Aubakirov and Viehbock transferred to Soyuz TM-12 and undocked from the
rear Kvant port, landing in Kazakhstan at 0412 UT on Oct 10.  At 0001UT
on Oct 15, Volkov and Krikalyov undocked from the front port in Soyuz
TM-13 and flew around the station to inspect it, docking at the rear
Kvant port at 0145 UT to test its new docking antenna.  The robot cargo
ship Progress M-10 was launched around 0010UT on Oct 17 and docked with Mir,
presumably on the front port, on about Oct 20 or so. When Krikalyov
lands in Soyuz TM-13 around Mar 24 or so next year, he has a chance
of beating Yuriy Romanenko by a few hours for second place in the 
cumulative space experience rankings - Musa Manarov holds the record
at 540 days, while Romanenko has 430 days.

A Foton commercial materials processing satellite was launched on Oct 4
from Plesetsk in Russia.  It will stay in orbit for a few weeks and be
recovered in Kazakhstan.  It is based on the Vostok spaceship bus. 

Kosmos-2163, an imaging military intelligence satellite, was launched
from Baykonur in Kazakhstan on Oct 9 by a Soyuz rocket.

Kosmos-2164 was launched by the small R-14 Kosmos rocket from
Plesetsk on Oct 10. It is a rare type of military satellite,
probably for electronic monitoring of some kind. Only four have
been launched over a 17 year period; two have reentered.
The launch dates and orbits of the four satellites are listed
below:

JCM-ID    Name             Launch      Reentry       Orb km x km x deg

MMB1	Kosmos-687	   1974 Oct 11-1978		286x698x74
MMB2	Kosmos-822	   1976 May 28-1978		280x711x74
MMB3	Kosmos-1868	   1987 Jul 14-			287x708x74
MMB4	Kosmos-2164	   1991 Oct 10-			285x704x74


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET/OV-104   VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

31 Oct 1991 (no.93)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Galileo probe passed less than 1600 km from minor planet (951)
Gaspra at 2237 UT on 1991 Oct 29.  Data from the encounter will be
stored on board and returned to Earth in late 1992. 

Atlantis was moved to pad LC39A on Oct 24.  The STS-44 mission will be a
military one; the Defense Support Program early warning satellite will
be deployed on an IUS upper stage, and US Army payload specialist Tom
Hennen will participate in the Terra Scout and M88-1 experiments to see
what a trained imagery analyst can see from orbit.  [Question to my
readers: can anyone who knows about military stuff explain to an
ignorant civilian what a Chief Warrant Officer 3 is and how it relates
to the ranks other military astronauts have like Major, Captain, etc?]

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  
The robot cargo ship Progress M-10 docked with Mir on Oct 21. This is
a longer interval than normal between launch and docking and may indicate
continuing problems with the rendezvous antenna.

According to the weekly listing issued by NASA-Goddard, satellite 21225,
the Compton Observatory (GRO), reentered on Oct 12.  However, the folks
down the hall assure me they're still getting data from it, so we can
safely assume the report is a typo.  Remember, never believe anything
you read, even from an official source. 

Meanwhile, the USAF/NASA Combined Release and Radiation Effects
Satellite, CRRES, has apparently failed in orbit.  The chemical release
part of the mission was complete but more data on the space radiation
environment had been hoped for. 

The Foton materials processing spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan
on Oct 20 after 16 days in orbit.

A geostationary satellite was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Oct
23.  Soviet geostationary satellite programs include Raduga (government
communications), Gorizont (TV relay), and various classified Kosmos
programs.  I don't know which this one is yet. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

11 Nov 1991 (no.94)
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Atlantis was moved to pad LC39A on Oct 24. Launch is due for
November 19.

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  
Progress M-10 docked with Mir on Oct 21 after a failed attempt on
Oct 19. Orbit of the complex on Nov 1 was 391x398 km inclined 51.6 deg.

A Gorizont comsat was launched on Oct 23 by a UR-500K Proton rocket with
a Blok-DM upper stage.  The comsat is probably the last of a series of
three belonging to the Russian Republic.  By Nov 4 it was on station at
80 deg E. 

The last Intelsat VI satellite, Intelsat VI F-1, was launched by Ariane
on Oct 29.  Its R4D liquid apogee motor was fired in several burns on
Oct 31 as it began the climb to stationary orbit.  Until a few years
ago, most geostationary comsats used solid motors to circularize the
orbit in a single burn, with small stationkeeping thrusters to move the
craft to the desired longitude, but the latest comsats mostly use liquid
engines to slowly raise the perigee of the transfer orbit in a series of
burns. 

Erratum: Mike McCants points out to me that Kosmos-1868, mentioned by me 
a couple of weeks ago, reentered in Mar 1989.


___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

19 Nov 1991 (no.95)
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Atlantis was moved to pad LC39A on Oct 24.  Launch is due for no earlier
than November 24.  The DSP early warning satellite payload will be
deployed on an IUS upper stage. Problems with the IUS scrubbed a launch
attempt due on Nov 19.

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  

A Titan IV was launched from Vandenberg at 0707 UT on Nov 8. It placed
a classified satellite in orbit, probably a Lacrosse radar
imaging satellite.

Six small communications relay satellites, Kosmos-2165 to Kosmos-2170,
were launched aboard a single Tsiklon rocket on Nov 12.

The Japanese Ginga x-ray astronomy satellite reentered on Nov 1.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1/STS-44/ET/OV-104   LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

28 Nov 1991 (no.96)		Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis was launched on Nov 24 at 2344 UT on Mission STS-44. The
DSP F16 satellite was deployed at 0602 UT Nov 25. Its IUS-14 upper
stage successfully fired to place the DSP in stationary orbit.

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  

The Kosmos-2156 spy satellite reentered on Nov 17 after a standard
59-day mission. 

SDIO's LOSAT-X satellite reentered on Nov 15.  It operated for only 9
days after launch on Jul 4. 

Asteroid 1991 VG, discovered earlier this month in a solar orbit similar
to that of the Earth, is probably not a terrestrial spacecraft as
originally thought.  Orbit analysis by Brian Marsden based on new
observations by Jim Scotti shows that the only close pass to Earth
during the space age was in Dec 1974 at a distance of at least 0.08AU,
too far to be a space probe.  The only plausible candidate in Dec 1974
was the Centaur TC-2 rocket stage, but Don Lesney of General Dynamics
reports that although TC-2 did indeed enter a heliocentric orbit with
about the right parameters, three hours later its engine was reignited
in a test burn which rebound it to the Earth with an orbital period of 3
days.  It thus became the first and so far only object to reenter Earth
orbit from solar orbit. As for 1991 VG, speculation is now centering
on natural explanations such as escaped Earth Trojans.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LEO       |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                    LC39A     |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report

1 Dec 1991 (no.97)	
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The STS-44 mission was cut short due to a failure in an IMU navigation
unit. Atlantis landed at 2234.42 UT on Dec 1, on runway 5 at Edwards
AFB. This is the first time that RW5 has been used by an Orbiter,
although RW23 (i.e. the same runway used in the opposite direction)
has been used eight times including the first Shuttle mission.
This is the first time since 1985 that an Orbiter has made three flights
in a single Gregorian calendar year. Atlantis has logged 1328 h 27 min
in 10 flights (Columbia has 1804 h 23 m in 11 flights, Discovery
has 1812 h 8 min in 13 flights). The next mission will be a Spacelab
flight by Discovery in February. Story Musgrave, on his fourth shuttle
mission, has accumulated 598 h 8 m in space, making him the most 
flight experienced mission specialist. Vance Brand is the only
possibly active NASA astronaut with more flight hours (746 h 3m);
I don't count Weitz and Young as active, since they have desk jobs now.

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  
The crew will be replaced in March of 1992, barring further political
upheavals. By that time both will be among the four humans with the
most flight experience in space (the others are Manarov and Romanenko).
So far Krikalyov has 196 days on this mission and 316 days total;
Volkov has 59 days on this mission and 276 days total.

1991-78A, launched Nov 20 by Soyuz from Plesetsk, is Kosmos-2171.  It is
an imaging spy satellite with a two month lifetime. It is built by
the KB Foton in Samara, Russia.

I have no data yet on 1991-79A; it may be a classified satellite.  If
so, it is probably an advanced signals intelligence satellite of a type
launched once a year by refurbished Titan II missiles (since all other
launch pads used by classified US satellites are accounted for).

1991-80A was Atlantis, and 1991-80B is the DSP F16 satellite.
Here is the complete list of DSP early warning satellites. They
were all built by TRW and share the same basic design of a
Schmidt telescope with a solid state IR array detector. There
have been three generations of the spacecraft. DSP F1 was a partial
launch failure, and DSP F7 failed on reaching stationary orbit.

DSP Block 1

DSP F1		   1970 Nov 6		1970-93A	
DSP F2		   1971 May 5		1971-39A	
DSP F3		   1972 Mar 1		1972-10A	
DSP F4		   1973 Jun 12		1973-40A	

DSP Block 2

DSP F7		   1975 Dec 14		1975-118A	
DSP F8		   1976 Jun 26		1976-59A	
DSP F9		   1977 Feb  6		1977-07A	
DSP F10		   1979 Jun 10		1979-53A	
DSP F11		   1981 Mar 16		1981-25A	
DSP F13		   1982 Mar  6		1982-19A	
DSP F12		   1984 Apr 14		1984-39A	
DSP F6R	USA-7	   1984	Dec 22		1984-129A	
DSP F5R	USA-28	   1987 Nov 28		1987-97A	

DSP Block 14

DSP F14	USA-39	   1989 Jun 15		1989-46A
DSP F15	USA-65	   1990 Nov 13		1990-95A
DSP F16 USA-74?	   1991 Nov 25		1991-80B

1991-81A, launched Nov 27, is Kosmos-2172.  It is a Tsikada class Soviet
Navy navigation satellite in the same orbital plane as Kosmos-2100. The
Tsikada satellites are probably built by NPO Yuzhnoye in the Ukraine.
They are functional copies of the US Navy Transit series, and are
launched by the Kosmos launch vehicle based on the R-14 IRBM.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-104 Atlantis      Edwards AFB |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1                              |
|ML2                              |
|ML3?/STS-42            VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

15 Dec 1991 (no.98)	
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis has returned to KSC to be prepared for Spacelab mission STS-45.
Discovery is now in the VAB being mated to the tank for mission STS-42.
This mission will carry the International Microgravity Lab into orbit.

Congratulations to General Dynamics on the successful launch of the
first Atlas II at 2247 UT on Dec 7 from Launch Complex 36A at Cape
Canaveral.  The Atlas II 8102/Centaur II AC-102 vehicle successfully
placed the European EUTELSAT II F-3 satellite in a 17 degree inclination
transfer orbit.  The first burn of the on-board German built S400 apogee
engine placed the satellite in a 5 degree intermediate orbit; a few more
burns are needed to place it in geostationary orbit. 

GD also carried out a successful launch together with USAF Space Command
of the refurbished Atlas 53E booster at 1323UT on Nov 28 from
Vandenberg.  This was the 500th Atlas launch since the first attempt in
1957.  Payload for the Atlas was the USAF weather satellite DMSP Block
5D-2 F-11, with an integrated Star 37S solid upper stage used to place
the satellite in polar orbit. 

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  

I goofed on 1991-79A; it is actually a Russian geostationary satellite,
Kosmos-2172. I don't know why no data on it was released initially.
It was launched around 1300UT on Nov 22 from Kosmodrom Baykonur by
a Proton launch vehicle. The third stage of the UR-500K stack placed
the payload and fourth stage in a 191x204 km orbit inclined 51.6 deg
to the equator. After less than one orbit the Blok-DM fourth stage ignited
and placed the combination in a 200x36300 km transfer orbit inclined 47 degrees.
At apogee the fourth stage ignited for a second time to circularise the
orbit and separated from the payload into a supersynchronous 36219x36292 km
orbit inclined 1.4 degrees and drifting at 6 degrees per day in longitude.
By Dec 12 the payload was drifting in near-stationary orbit (35546x35981 km)
at 0.3 deg per day across the Atlantic, at 16 degrees West longitude, approaching
its operational station.

1991-81A, the navigation satellite, is Kosmos-2173 rather
than Kosmos-2172 as erroneously stated last time.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45                      |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-42/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------

N.B.  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            |                                        |
 |  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |                                        |
 |  Huntsville AL 35812               |  inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov  |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



	

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

21 Dec 1991 (no.99)	Happy Winter Solstice!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery moved to pad LC39A on Dec 19; it was mated to the tank for
mission STS-42 in the VAB on Dec 13.  This mission will carry the
International Microgravity Lab into orbit. 

The Mir/Kvant/Sofora/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-13/Progress M-10 complex
continues in orbit with crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov.  

The Inmarsat II F-3 and Telecom IIA satellites were launched by Ariane
44L on Dec 16.  Both satellites use the Matra/British Aerospace Eurostar
bus and will be placed in geostationary orbits using liquid rocket
motors (Marquardt R-4D-12s, not MBB S400's as I claimed in an earlier
posting) on board the satellites. 1991 saw a record 8 launches for the
Ariane rocket.

Kosmos-2174 was launched into low orbit on Dec 17 by Soyuz rocket
from the Kazakh spaceport of Baykonur. It is probably a mapping satellite.

A Ukrainian-built Tsiklon rocket was launched from the Russian 
Plesetsk spaceport on Dec 18 and placed a satellite in a
400x3000 km orbit. An intermediate elliptical orbit of this
type is unusual for Soviet launches and the satellite is probably
a space science mission under the APEX program.

The Soviet Geodesy and Cartography Agency mapping satellite Kosmos-2163
returned to Earth after a 60 day mission on Dec 7. 

The Indian remote sensing satellite Bhaskara 2 reentered on Nov 30.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45                      |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-42/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



	

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

11 Jan 1992		Apologies for the interruption in service
			which was due to my move to Massachusetts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery is due for launch on Jan 22, carrying the IML
Spacelab to orbit on mission STS-42. Crew is Ronald Grabe (Commander),
Steve Oswald (Pilot), Norman Thagard, David Hilmers, and William Readdy,
(Mission Specialists), and payload specialists Dr. Roberta Bondar
(Canadian Space Agency) and Dr. Ulf Merbold (ESA). Merbold will be
the first ESA astronaut to fly twice (although J. Chretien, a French
but not an ESA astronaut, has flown twice).

The Interkosmos-25 space science satellite was launched on Dec 18
as reported last time. It is part of the APEX program to study
the magnetosphere. It released a small subsatellite, Magion-3.
Magion-3 was built by the Czech and Slovak Republic.

A Russian Raduga communications satellite was launched
from Baykonur in Kazakhstan by a Proton launch vehicle on
Dec 19. The satellite is in stationary orbit.

A Chinese DFH-3 communications satellite was launched
from Xichang by a Chang Zheng (Long March) 3 rocket
on Dec 28. The third stage of the launch vehicle shut
down prematurely and the satellite was stranded in a
213 x 2455 km orbit inclined 31 deg.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45            VAB       |
|ML2                              |
|ML3/STS-42/ET          VAB Bay 1 |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



	

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 101		23 Jan 1992		
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery was launched on Jan 22 at 1452.33 UT from LC39A at
Kennedy Space Center. The IML-1 Spacelab mission has
begun its experiments. Discovery also carries the
Australian 'Endeavour' GAS can UV astronomical imaging
experiment.

Chinese controllers have fired the apogee
motor of the DFH comsat stranded in low orbit.
It is now in 12-hour transfer orbit but has
no way of getting into stationary orbit from there.

Results from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO)
presented at the Atlanta AAS meeting indicate
that among the brightest 100 MeV gamma ray sources
in the sky are three flat spectrum radio quasars
at redshifts of order one; there doesn't seem
to be anything particulary special about the
three quasars (4C 38.41, PKS 0528+134, and PKS 0208-512) 
at other wavebands, and they weren't particularly 
well known until now.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LC39A     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45            VAB       |
|ML2?/STS-49            VAB       |
|ML3/STS-42/ET/OV-102   LC39A     |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 102		30 Jan 1992		
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery landed on Jan 30 at 1607.17 UT on runway 22 at Edwards. The
mission went well except for the Australian Space Telescope 'Endeavour';
the lid on its GAS can failed to open so no observations were possible.
Discovery now has 2005 hours of flight time in 14 missions. 270 humans
(252 men and 18 women) have now flown in space (adopting a definition of
80 km altitude for the beginning of space).

NPO Energiya have launched a robot resupply mission to the Mir
orbital complex. Progress M-11, launched from the Kazakh spaceport
Baykonur on Jan 25, docked with Mir on Jan 27. Mir crew Aleksandr
Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov will return to Earth in March when they
will be replaced by the Soyuz TM-14 crew.

The Kosmos-2171 recon satellite reentered on Jan 17 after a standard 58
day mission. It was replaced by Kosmos-2175, launched on Jan 21 by Soyuz
from the Russian spaceport of Plesetsk into a 67 degree, 162x337 km
orbit.

Microsat 4, one of the seven satellites placed in low orbit by the
second Pegasus launch, reentered on Jan 23.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale  |
|OV-103 Discovery       LEO       |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45/ET         VAB       |
|ML2?/STS-49            VAB       |
|ML3/STS-42/ET/OV-102   LC39A     |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 103      10 Feb 1992
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Columbia was returned to the Kennedy Space Center on Feb 9 after
being refurbished in California. With the return of Discovery to 
the Cape next week, all four orbiters will be at KSC.

Progress M-11 is docked to the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Sofora/Soyuz TM-13
complex. Progress M-11 was deorbited on Jan 20; no word yet on whether
an experiment capsule was recovered from it.

Kosmos-2176 was launched on Jan 24 by a Molniya rocket from Plesetsk. It
is an early warning satellite. These satellites were formerly operated
by the PVO (Soviet Air Defense Command). I understand they form part of
the strategic assets which according to Rossiya will be part of the
Commonwealth combined command.

Three GLONASS navigation satellites, Kosmos-2177 to Kosmos-2179, were
launched from Baykonur in Kazakhstan by a Russian Proton rocket on Jan 30.
They are the Russian equivalent of the Navstar satellites.

Kosmos-2174, a mapping survey satellite, landed on Jan 30 after a
44 day misson. The only imaging satellites Russia has left in orbit
are Kosmos-2175 ,launched last month on a two month mission, and
Kosmos-2152, launched in July last year. The latter satellite is of
a type which has demonstrated 260 day lifetimes, so it could
stay in orbit until April. The old Vostok-based two-week imaging
missions seem finally to have been phased out in the middle of last
year; all imaging missions since then have been of the more advanced
type introduced in 1975 which last over a month in orbit.

All seven DARPA Microsats (launched by Pegasus last year) reentered
between Jan 23 and Jan 26. Also down, on Jan 19, is Kosmos-604, 
an electronic intelligence satellite launched in 1973.

Launches in January:
01	Kosmos-2175
02	Discovery STS-42
03	Kosmos-2176
04	Progress M-11
05 	Kosmos-2177/Kosmos-2178/Kosmos-2179

Note that despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, most launches
are still carried out from Rossiya and Kazakhstan.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-103 Discovery       EAFB      |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45/ET         VAB       |
|ML2?/STS-49            VAB       |
|ML3                    VAB       |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 104      18 Feb 1992
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ulysses spaceprobe flew past Jupiter on Feb 8, with closes approach
at 1202 UT. It is now in a solar orbit with a perihelion of 1.5 AU, an
aphelion of 5.0 AU, and an inclination of 80 degrees. The previous
inclination record for a spacecraft in a bound heliocentric orbit was 15
degrees for the Pioneer-Saturn spacecraft between 1975 and 1979.

Atlantis has been moved to the VAB and mated to the STS-45 stack in
preparation for next month's Spacelab Atlas-1 mission. Columbia was
returned to the Kennedy Space Center on Feb 9 after being refurbished in
California. With the return of Discovery to  the Cape on Feb 16, all
four orbiters are at KSC.

Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov remain in orbit aboard the Mir
complex. According to the latest Spacewarn Bulletin, the VBS reentry
capsule from Progress M-11 was successfully recovered.

The USAF's DSCS III F-5 comsat was launched on Feb 11 by the second
Atlas II Centaur  (AC101) from complex 36A at Cape Canaveral. The DSCS
III satellites are built by GE Astro Space; previous ones were put into
stationary orbit by IUS upper stages, two at a time. From now on they
will be orbited one at a time with Atlas Centaur. This requires an extra
apogee kick stage, the IABS or Integrated Apogee Boost Motor, also
provided by GE. The DSCS satellites use X-band frequencies (8/7 GHz).

DSCS III launch history:

		       Launch date	Vehicle		Int'l designation
DSCS III F-1	      1982 Oct 30  Titan 34D-1/IUS		1982-106B
DSCS III F-2 USA-11   1985 Oct  3  STS-28[51-J]/IUS		1985-92B
DSCS III F-3 USA-12   1985 Oct  3  STS-28[51-J]/IUS		1985-92C
DSCS III F-4 USA-44   1989 Sep  4  Titan 34D-2/Transtage	1989-69B
DSCS III F-5 USA-78   1992 Feb 11  Atlas Centaur AC-101/IABS 	1992-06A


A two stage version of Japan's Thor-based H-I launch vehicle was
launched on Feb 12 at 0150 from Tanegashima Space Center. It placed into
orbit the NASDA satellite "Fuyo-1", formerly Earth Resources Satellite
ERS-1. It carries a synthetic aperture radar and visible light imagers.
The NASDA ERS-1 is not to be confused with ESA's ERS-1, or with the USAF
ERS lightsat program of the early 1960's. NASDA is one of Japan's two
space agencies, devoted to space applications. Space science is carried
out by the other agency, ISAS. Early reports indicate the SAR on Fuyo-1
has failed to deploy.

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3 |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45/ET/OV-104  VAB Bay 3 |
|ML2?/STS-49/ET         VAB       |
|ML3                    VAB       |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 105      24 Feb 1992
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The STS-45 stack is on launch pad 39A. Orbiter Atlantis carries
the Atlas-1 Spacelab payload. Commander is Charles Bolden,
pilot is Brian Duffy, Payload Commander is Dr. Kathryn Sullivan,
Mission Specialists Dr. Michael Foale and David Leestma.
The two Payload Specialists are Dirk Frimout, a Belgian citizen
and ESA astronaut, and Byron Lichtenberg of Payload Systems, Inc.
Frimout, Foale and Duffy have not flown before.

A Rockwell Block IIB Navstar Global Positioning System satellite
was launched on Feb 23 by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925
from Cape Canaveral. The GPS navigation satellites are used
for both military and civilian position finding.

The Japanese Hiten space probe was inserted into lunar orbit
on Feb 15 after two years of experiments in the Earth-Moon system.

Kosmos-2180 was launched on 17 Feb around 2200 UT  by the VS SNG
(Unified Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States) from the
Russian spaceport of Plesetsk. It is a navy navigation satellite, and
was inserted in the same orbital plane as Kosmos-2004, launched in 1989.
Launch vehicle was the Ukranian NPO Yuzhnoye's small Kosmos booster
based on the R-14 IRBM. 

___________________________________
|Current STS status:              |
|Orbiters                         |
|                                 |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3 |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2 |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A     |
|OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1 |
|                                 |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                 |
|                                 |
|ML1?/STS-45/ET/OV-104  LC39A     |
|ML2?/STS-49/ET         VAB       |
|ML3                    VAB       |
-----------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 106      1992 Mar 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis/STS-45 is on pad 39A at KSC, awaiting launch on March 23.
Endeavour was transferred to VAB bay 2 on Mar 7 for mating with the tank
and boosters for mission STS-49, the Intelsat rescue mission. Columbia
is being processed for mission STS-50,  the first Extended Duration
Orbiter mission. Discovery is undergoing modifications and will next fly
in October.

Mir crew Aleksandr Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov made a 4h spacewalk
on Feb 20 for external experiment retreival and routine maintenance.
Launch of Soyuz TM-14 is due on Mar 17.

An Ariane 44L orbited two satellites on Feb 26. Superbird B2 is
a communications satellite belonging to Space Communications Corp.
of Japan. Arabsat 1C is an Arab League comsat.

A Molniya communications spacecraft was launched on Mar 4. It is
probably owned by the Russian Ministry of Communications, Information
and Space.(Ministerstva po svyazi informatike i kosmosu). 

The first Indian satellite Aryabhata reentered on Feb 11. A Meteor-Priroda
earth resources satellite reentered on Mar 1 after 12 years in orbit.
The Russian Gamma 1 gamma ray astronomy satellite reentered on
Feb 28 after only 2 years in orbit; the main experiment on board
was reportedly a failure. Kosmos 2075, a military satellite,
reentered on Feb 20.
____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A      STS-45  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2  STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                          |
|                                          |
|ML1/STS-45/ET/OV-104   LC39A              |
|ML2/STS-49/ET          VAB Bay 2          |
|ML3/STS-50             VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 107      1992 Mar 25
I'm starting to do an email distribitution of this report. If you'd
like to be on the list, please let me know.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flight readiness firing (FRF) of Endeavour
on pad 39B is due on April 6 prior to preparations for mission STS-49.

The Hughes Communications cable TV relay satellite Galaxy V
was launched by Atlas I Centaur AC-72 at 0000 UTC on Mar 14 from Canaveral.
The satellite uses an HS-376 class bus.

A Nadezhda class navigation satellite, Kosmos-2181, was launched
from Plesetsk on Mar 9 around 2230UT. It has been placed in the
same orbital plane as Nadezhda(1). 

The launch of Optus Communications' Aussat B1 satellite
on a Chinese Chang Zheng 2E launch vehicle has been postponed.
A launch attempt last week was scrubbed when the first stage
automatically shut down during ignition. The rocket did not
leave the launch pad; it's what in Shuttle lingo would be called
an RSLS abort, like the first time they tried to launch Discovery
in 1984. (I only mention this because some of the press coverage
talks about a 'launch failure', which in my book means a launch
that occurs and fails, not one that fails to occur).

Orbiter 104 Atlantis is in Earth orbit following launch from pad 39A at
KSC at 1313.39UTC on Mar 24. The STS-45 main payload consists of the Atlas-1
Spacelab mission. This is the mission that used to be known as EOM-1,
and was scheduled for mission 61-K prior to the Challenger accident; it
is the last of the delayed fiscal 1986 missions to fly, six years late.
Below is a table of the 61- and 62- series of missions as on the
manifest in Jan 1986 (61-D, which was cancelled in 1985, eventually
was ressurrected and flew as STS-40/SLS-1 in 1991).

Mission		Payload			Actual Mission
61-D		Spacelab 4		-> STS 40, 1991
61-E		Astro-1			-> STS 35, 1990
61-F		Ulysses			-> STS 41, 1990
61-G		Galileo			-> STS 34, 1989
61-H		Westar, Palapa,Skynet	Cancelled [Payloads to Delta 182, 1987;
					 Comm.Titan 1, 1990; and Ariane V39, 1990]
61-I		Insat, LDEF-1R		-> STS 32R, 1990 [Insat to Ariane V24,1988]
61-J		HST			-> STS 31R, 1990
61-K		Spacelab EOM1/2		-> STS 45, 1992
61-L		Gstar 3/Syncom 5	Cancelled, payloads to Ariane V25, 1987 and STS 32R, 1990
61-M		TDRS-IUS/PAM		-> STS 29R, 1989
61-N		DoD			-> STS 33R, 1989 (?)
62-A		Teal Ruby/Cirris	-> STS 39, 1991 [Teal Ruby cancelled]
62-B		DoD			-> STS 27R, 1988

The Progress M-11 cargo ship undocked from Mir's front port on Mar 13
and was deorbited over the Pacific the same day. Mir crew Aleksandr 
Volkov and Sergey Krikalyov undocked from the Kvant rear port on Mar 14
in Soyuz TM-13 and redocked about an hour later at the Mir front port.
On Mar 17 at 0854 UTC a Soyuz launch vehicle left Baykonur carrying  NPO
Energiya's Soyuz TM-14 spaceship into orbit. Crew are Aleksandr
Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri of Russia and Klaus-Dietrich Flade of
Germany. They docked at the Kvant rear port at 1233 UTC on Mar 19.
On Mar 25, Volkov, Krikalyov and Flade undocked from the front port
in Soyuz TM-13 and landed in Kazakhstan at 0851 UTC on Mar 25. This
leaves Viktorenko and Kaleri aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-14
complex. Krikalyov's flight was the third longest ever, at 311 days 20 hours
1 min, and he and Volkov hold second and fourth place in the cumulative
spaceflight experience rankings (Musa Manarov has 541 days,
Krikalyov has 463 days, Yuri Romanenko has 430 days, and Volkov has 391 days).


Biographical details of the new and old crews:

Viktorenko, Aleksandr Stepanovich:
 Birth: 1947 Mar 29, in Kazakhstan
 Rank: Polkovnik VVS (Col. in Air Force)
 Selected as Air Force cosmonaut, 1978
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz T-14, 1985
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz T-15, 1986
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-3/Mir, 1987
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz TM-7, 1988
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-8/Mir, 1989-1990
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz TM-13, 1991
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-14/Mir, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 4389:09 at Mar 17.0; 3 rendezvous/dockings
 EVA hours 17:36 in 5 EVAs

Kaleri, Aleksandr Yurievich:
 Birth: 1956 May 13, in Latviju (Latvia)
 Selected as NPO Energiya cosmonaut, 1985
 Backup Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-4, 1987
 Trained as Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-7, but grounded 1988
 Backup Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-12, 1991
 Trained as Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-13, but replaced by Kazakh, 1991
 Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-14/Mir, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 207:06 at Mar 26.0

Volkov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
 Birth: 1948 Apr 27, in Ukraine
 Rank: Polkovnik VVS (Col. in Air Force)
 Selected as Air Force cosmonaut, 1976
 Kosmonavt-issledovatel', Soyuz T-14/Salyut-7, 1985
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz TM-4, 1987
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-7/Mir, 1988-1989
 Backup Komandir, Soyuz TM-12, 1991
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-13/Mir, 1991-1992
 Total spaceflight hours 9395:54; 2 rendezvous, 4 dockings
 EVA hours 10:10 in 2 EVAs

Krikalyov, Sergey Konstantinovich
 Birth: 1958 Aug 27, in Rossiya (Russia)
 Selected as NPO Energiya cosmonaut, 1985
 Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-7/Mir, 1988-1989
 Backup Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-11, 1990
 Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-12/Mir, 1991-1992
 Total spaceflight hours 11119:11
 EVA hours 36:30 in 7 EVAs

Flade, Klaus Dietrich
 Birth: 1953?, in Deutschland (Germany) (?)
 Selected as DLR astronaut candidate, 1990
 Kosmonavt-issledovatel', Soyuz TM-14/Mir, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 191:57
 More bio details would be welcome if anyone knows them!
 
Biographical details of STS-45 crew:

Bolden, Charles Frank, Jr
 Birth: 1946 Aug 19, S Carolina
 Rank: Col. USMC
 Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1980
 Pilot, Columbia, mission 61-C, 1986
 Pilot, Discovery, mission STS-31R, 1990
 Commander, Atlantis, mission STS-45, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 305:06 at Mar 26.0

Duffy, Brian
 Birth: 1953 Jun 20, Massachusetts
 Rank: Lt Col USAF.
 Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1984
 Pilot, Atlantis, mission STS-45, 1992
 Training as Pilot, mission STS-57
 Total spaceflight hours 34:47 at Mar 26.0

Sullivan, Kathryn Dwyer
 Birth: 1951 Oct 3, New Jersey
 Education: Ph.D. in geology, 1978
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1978
 Mission Specialist 2, Challenger, mission 41-G, 1984
 Mission Specialist 3, Discovery, mission STS-31R, 1990
 Payload Commander, Atlantis, mission STS-45, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 353:27 at Mar 26.0; EVA hours 3:29 in 1 EVA

Leestma, David Cornell
 Birth: 1949 May 6, Michigan
 Rank: LtCdr USN
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut,1980
 Mission Specialist 3, Challenger, mission 41-G, 1984.
 Mission Specialist 1, Columbia, mission STS-28R, 1989.
 Mission Specialist 2, Atlantis, mission STS-45, 1992.
 Total spaceflight hours 353:11 at Mar 26.0; EVA hours 3:29 in 1 EVA

Foale, C. Michael
 Birth: 1957 Jan 6, England
 Education: Ph.D. in physics, Cambridge, 1982.
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1987
 Mission Specialist 3, Atlantis, mission STS-45, 1992
 Training as MS, STS-56
 Total spaceflight hours 34:47 at Mar 26.0

Frimout, Dirk D.
 Birth: 1941? in Belgique (Belgium)
 Education: Ph.D. in physics, Ghent, 1970.
 Selected as ESA Atlas payload specialist candidate, 1985
 Payload Specialist 1, Atlantis/Atlas-1, mission STS-45, 1992
 Total spaceflight hours 34:47 at Mar 26.0
 
Lichtenberg, Byron Kurt
 Birth: 1948 Feb 19, Pennsylvania
 Education: Ph.D. in biomechanical engineering, MIT, 1979
 Selected as Spacelab payload specialist, 1977
 Payload Specialist, Columbia/Spacelab-1, mission STS-9, 1983. (MIT)
 Payload Specialist 2, Atlantis/Atlas-1, mission STS-45, 1992 (Payload Systems, Inc).
 Total spaceflight hours 282:34 at Mar 26.0

Atlantis pilot Brian Duffy is the last surviving member of the
1985 astronaut group to make their first flight (Stephen Thorne
was killed in a plane crash while a trainee).

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LEO        STS-45  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      FRF     |
|                                          |
|ML/ET/SRB stacks                          |
|                                          |
|ML1/                   LC39A              |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50             VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 108      1992 Mar 30

I hope the email version of this is getting to people. If you see this
on the net and were expecting to have already received it by email, let
me know. It's nice to know who reads this regularly, so even if you
don't want to be on the email list, consider dropping me a note if you
find these reports useful.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, a correction to last week's report. Soyuz TM-14 was launched
at 1054 UTC not 0854 UTC on Mar 17. This reduces the flight hours
of Viktorenko, Kaleri and Flade by 2 hours. Thanks to Ed O'Grady
for spotting this typo which crept in half way through my sums!

The Soviet Union's last imaging spy satellite, Kosmos-2153, reentered on
Mar 13 after 247 days in space. This left Kosmos-2175, launched on Jan
21, as the SNG's (Commonwealth of Independent States) only remaining
imaging satellite, and it was expected to reenter on Mar 20. No replacement
had been launched by Mar 24.

The STS-45 mission continues in orbit. There have been some problems
with the FAUST (Far UV Space Telescope) and the SEPAC (electron gun
experiment) but both have got at least some data. Overall things are
going pretty well and I'm having fun watching NASA Select seeing the
folks I used to know at Huntsville hunched over their consoles at the
POCC (Hi, Chuck). Landing is due on Apr 2.

Kosmos-895 reentered on Mar 22. Launched in Feb 1977, it was
a Soviet military signals intelligence satellite.

There haven't been many launches recently so I thought I'd
take the opportunity to review the first quarter of the year,
giving launch vehicle, payload, organization responsible for the
launch and the payload, and manufacturer of the payload. Note that
barely half of the launches so far are by the ex-SSSR. This is way
down on previous years; of 22 launches to the same time last year
17 were Soviet, so not only has the ex-SSSR launch rate gone 
down but that for the rest of the world has increased somewhat
(not statistically significantly relative to last year, but
there has been a trend over the past few years). 

Of course, who owns the various Russian satellites is somewhat
speculative and probably not known by anyone, even the putative
owners.

Launch,Date	LV	 Payload			LV/org	PL/org		PL/Manufacturer

01  Jan 21	Soyuz	 Kosmos-2175			VS SNG  GRU		KB Foton
02  Jan 22	STS	 Discovery/Spacelab IML-1	NASA	NASA/ESA/CSA	Rockwell/MBB-Alenia
03  Jan 24	Molniya	 Kosmos-2176			VS SNG	PVO		NPO-PM
04  Jan 25	Soyuz	 Progress M-11			VS SNG	NPOE		NPO Energiya
05  Jan 29	Proton	 Kosmos-2177,2178,2179		VS SNG  VMF		PO Polyot
06  Feb 10	Atlas 2	 DSCS III F-5			GDCLS	USAF/DCA	GE
07  Feb 11	H-1	 Fuyo-1				NASDA	NASDA		Mitsubishi
08  Feb 17	Kosmos	 Kosmos-2180			VS SNG	VMF		PO Polyot
09  Feb 23	Delta 2	 GPS 25				MDSSC	USAF		Rockwell
10  Feb 26	Ariane	 Superbird B2			AE	SCCJ		SS/Loral
			 Arabsat 1C				ASCO	 	Aerospatiale
11  Mar  4	Molniya	 Molniya-1			VS SNG	RKA?		NPO-PM
12  Mar  9	Kosmos	 Kosmos-2181			VS SNG	VMF		PO Polyot
13  Mar 14	Atlas 1	 Galaxy V			GDCLS	HCI		Hughes
14  Mar 17	Soyuz	 Soyuz TM-14			VS SNG	NPOE/RKA	NPO Energiya
15  Mar 24	STS	 Atlantis/Spacelab Atlas-1	NASA	NASA/ESA	Rockwell/BAe

Abbreviations for organizations

AE	Arianespace SA, France
ASCO	Arab Satellite Communications Organization, Saudi Arabia
CSA	Canadian Space Agency, Canada
DCA	Defence Communications Agency, US Department of Defense, USA
ESA	European Space Agency
GDCLS   General Dynamics Commercial Launch Services, USA
GRU     Glavnoye Razvedivatel'noye Upravileniye (Soviet Military Intelligence), SNG
HCI	Hughes Communications Inc., USA
MBB	Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, Deutschland (Germany)
MDSSC	McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corp, USA
NASA	National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
NASDA   National Space Development Agency, Nippon (Japan)
NPOE    NPO Energiya (Energiya Scientific/Production Organization), Rossiya
NPO-PM	NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Rossiya
POP	PO Polyot, Rossiya
PVO     Protivo-Vosdushniya Oborona (SNG Air Defense Force), SNG
SCCJ	Space Communications Corp, Nippon (Japan)
SNG     Sodruzhestva Nezabisimikh Gosudarst' (Commonwealth of Independent States)
USAF	United States Air Force, USA
VMF     Voenno-Morskoy Flot (SNG Navy), SNG
VS SNG  Vooruzhennikh Sil Sodruzhestva Nezabisimikh Gosudarst'
         (Combined Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States)


/* followups to talk.politics.space: we want our NTV!
 For those of you who have wondered why NASA Select doesnt cover
 the expendable launches anymore, I hear that the Administrator decided
 that putting non-NASA launches on NASA Select is bad PR if there is 
 a failure, since everyone thinks the failure is NASA's. Maybe a nice
 big letter writing campaign to the new Administrator might change this.
*/ Oops, I editorialized, I promise I won't do it again.

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        LEO        STS-45  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      FRF     |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/                   LC39A              |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50             VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------

Key: 
ET  External Tank
FRF Flight Readiness Firing
LC  Launch Complex
LEO Low Earth Orbit
ML  Mobile Launcher
OPF Orbiter Processing Facility
OV  Orbiter Vehicle
SRB Solid Rocket Boosters
VAB Vehicle Assembly Building

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 109      1992 Apr  6

Thanks for all those who have emailed me so far; keep those
letters coming in!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Atlantis landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 1123 UTC on Apr 2.
The mission makes Kathy Sullivan the women's record holder for cumulative
spaceflight time. All experiments returned some data. Atlantis' next
mission is the Tethered Satellite expeiment.
The static firing of Endeavour was carried out on Apr 6, clearing the
way to its first launch next month.

A new SNG spy satellite, Kosmos-2182, was launched by Soyuz rocket on
Apr 1 around 1430 UTC, replacing Kosmos-2175 (which was deorbited on Mar
20 as expected) as their only imaging satellite. K-2182 is the same
class as K-2175, and is expected to be deorbited on May 29. It is
in a 67 degree low earth orbit.

Of the 19 new NASA astronaut candidates announced this week, only 4 are
pilot astronauts. This is the lowest ratio of pilots to mission
specialists yet and reflects the fact that more mission specialists than
pilots fly on each mission.
Breakdown:
Pilots 4, Mission Specialists 15
Men 16, Women 3
Civilians 9, USN 7, USAF 2, US Army 1
Ph.D  8, MD 4 (including two with both)
Last Job: Edwards AFB 1, Pax River 1, Other military 8, 
          NASA-JSC 3, JPL 1, other 5
More generic military people are being selected, fewer civilians and
fewer USAF and USN test pilots from Edwards and Pax River (the latter
reflecting the smaller number of pilot astronauts). I don't understand
the preference for military mission specialists given the lack
of DoD missions on the schedule.

 Summary list:
Mission Specialists
 Dr Daniel Barry, MD PhD
 Dr Charles Brady, Cdr USN, MD
 Dr Catherine Coleman, Capt USAF, PhD
 Dr Michael Gernhardt, PhD
 Dr John Grunsfeld, PhD
 Wendy Lawrence, LtCdr USN
 Dr. Jerry Linenger, Cdr USN, MD, PhD
 Dr. Richard Linnehan, Capt USA, DVM
 Michael Lopez-Alegria, LtCdr USN
 Dr. Scott Parazynski, MD
 Winston Scott, Cdr USN
 Steven Smith, NASA-JSC
 Joseph Tanner, NASA-JSC
 Dr. Andrew Thomas, PhD
 Dr. Mary Weber, PhD 
Pilots 
 Dr Scott Horowitz, Capt USAF, PhD
 Brent Jett, Jr, LtCdr USN
 Kevin Kregel, NASA-JSC
 Kent Rominger, LtCdr USN
 

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/                                      |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50             VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


Key: 
ET  External Tank
LC  Launch Complex
ML  Mobile Launcher
OPF Orbiter Processing Facility
OV  Orbiter Vehicle
SRB Solid Rocket Boosters
VAB Vehicle Assembly Building

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 110		1992 Apr 13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apr 12 marked the 31st anniversary of the first human space flight
by Yuriy A. Gagarin.

The replenishment of the Commonwealth spy satellite system continues
with the launch of Kosmos-2183 by Soyuz from Baykonur in Kazakhstan on
Apr 8 around 1230 UTC. Kosmos-2183 is one of the SNG's most advanced
class of spy satellite, parallel to the US KH-11, and should remain
operational for over 6 months. The initial orbit of Kosmos-2183 was
probably 180x270 km;  on Apr 9 it moved to its operational 240x293 km
orbit inclined 65 deg to the equator.

List of Kosmos-2183 type satellites launched to date:

[Advanced Recon C]

Code	Name		   Launch	Reentry		Life	Initial orbit	Op'l orbit

ARC1	Kosmos-1426	   1982 Dec 28-1983 Mar 4	66	202x356x50.5	200x340x50.5
ARC2	Kosmos-1552	   1984 May 14-1984 Nov 3	173	184x315x64.9	236x327x64.9
ARC3	Kosmos-1643	   1985 Mar 25-1985 Oct 18	207	184x278x64.9	222x295x64.8
ARC4	Kosmos-1731	   1986 Feb  7-1986 Oct  3	238	180x264x64.8	230x260x64.8
ARC5	Kosmos-1770		Aug  6-1987 Feb 2	180	181x281x64.8	239x283x64.8
ARC6	Kosmos-1810		Dec 26-1987 Sep 11	259	187x275x64.8	247x265x64.8
ARC7	Kosmos-1836	   1987 Apr 16-1987 Dec 2	230	180x291x64.8	241x293x64.8
ARC8	Kosmos-1881		Sep 11-1988 Mar 30	201	180x290x64.8	232x276x64.8
ARC9	Kosmos-1936	   1988 Mar 30-1988 May 18	 49	183x269x64.8	230x298x64.8
ARC10	Kosmos-2007	   1989 Mar 23-1989 Aug 25	155	182x278x64.8	230x285x64.8
ARC11	Kosmos-2049	    	Nov 17-1990 Jun 19	214			231x282x64.8
ARC12	Kosmos-2072	   1990 Apr 13-1990 Nov 21	222	183x252x64.8	240x287x64.8
ARC13	Kosmos-2113		Dec 21-1991 Jun 11	172	180x283x64.8	240x282x64.8
ARC14	Kosmos-2153	   1991 Jul 10-1992 Mar 13	247	182x251x64.9	241x281x64.9
ARC15	Kosmos-2183	   1992 Apr  8-						240x293x64.9

The Commonwealth also launched a Gorizont C-band communications
satellite into geostationary orbit on Apr 2. The payload is probably
owned by the RKA (Russian Space Agency). The launch occurred at  about
0200 UTC and the payload and Blok-DM fourth stage were placed in a 150
km orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. The Blok-DM ignited to
place the combination in a transfer orbit of  250 x 35600 km at 47
degrees, and then re-ignited at apogee to  enter a 1425 minute circular
equatorial orbit, following which the payload separated. Insertion
occurred around 90 deg E longitude and Gorizont drifted east at 2
deg/day until Apr 8 when it braked; late on Apr 8 it was at 103 deg E
drifting W at 0.4 deg/day, suggesting that it is a backup to the 23rd
Gorizont satellite, launched in Jul 1991 and currently on station at
103.2 deg E.

Space Shuttle mission STS-49, the maiden flight of orbiter Endeavour, is
still planned for early May.

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/                                      |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 111		1992 Apr 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOK REVIEWS: 
 
 Space Shuttle Almanac, by Joel Powell and Lee Caldwell. 262 pages. 
 $29.95 US  [+$10 overseas airmail] from Microgravity Press, 
 2351 Chicoutimi Dr. NW, Alberta Canada T2L OW2.
   This is unquestionably the best and most detailed source on the
 Shuttle available. It's very short on text, and has no pretty color
 pictures, but is packed with diagrams and information. For each
 mission up to STS-37, has details of the crew and payloads carried,
 diagrams of the payloads and of EVA operations, and all the numbers
 (serial numbers of engines, which robot arm was carried, what time
 orbital manuevers were carried out, etc, etc.). There are
 also diagrams of various parts of the orbiter, associated equipment,
 ground facilities, and maps of the KSC, Edwards, and White Sands
 landing sites. Finally, the inclusion of all the old launch schedule
 plans back to 1977 affords an amusing view of the way that the program
 has slipped.
  The book shows its somewhat 'home-published' nature in that a number
 of the diagrams are difficult to read, but I have no hesitation in
 recommending it to anyone who wants accurate and reliable information.
 The only mistakes I have found to date are the consistent misspelling
 of 'principal investigator'; the deploy time of TDRS 1, which
 is off by one day (p.231); an erroneous timeline for STS 61-B, and
 a reference to the nonexistent date Feb 29, 1990 (p.134).

 Cosmonautics 1991, by Y. Semenov et al. Matson Press. 68 pages.
 $25 US, from Aersopace Ambassadors, PO Box 12603, Huntsville AL 35815.
  This nicely produced book contains articles written about the
 Soviet space program by some of its senior members, including
 NPO Energiya director Semenov and former cosmonaut Ryumin. Notable
 articles include a review of 1991 activities in the Mir program,
 a historical overview of the DOS and Almaz (civilian and military
 Salyut) space station programs, and a brief summary of some of
 the already released information about the N-1 moon rocket.
 Unfortunately the book, like its 1990 predecessor, is spoilt by
 an apparent total lack of proofreading. The translation from Russian
 is rather poor, and filled with typos - KNES for the French space
 agency CNES; Timoty Meitss for the UK backup cosmonaut Timothy Mace,
 MARTA and MANTRA instead of MATRA (a French space firm) and so on.
 There are also factual errors (e.g. Kosmos-2122 is listed as being
 launched by a Soyuz launch vehicle, which is incorrect). However,
 there are some very nice color photos of the Mir station. An interesting
 contrast to the Powell book - pretty but superficial and unreliable.
 The Aerospace Ambassadors group is doing a lot of work on cooperation
 between the US and Russia in space, and I look forward to their forthcoming
 'Cosmonautics: The History'.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Space Shuttle mission STS-49, the maiden flight of orbiter Endeavour, is
still planned for early May.

Another USAF Navstar Global Positioning Satellite was launched at 0320
UTC on 10 Apr. Launch of Navstar 28 was by McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925
from complex 17 at Cape Canaveral. This was the 22nd Delta 2 launch; all
have been successful. The Thor first stage flew a suborbital trajectory;
the Delta second stage placed the payload and third stage in a low earth
orbit inclined 21 degrees, then separated and used up its remaining fuel
moving into a 530x715 km orbit (Deltas used to have a habit of blowing
up several years after launch and littering low earth orbit with lots of
fragments; the fuel depletion burn seems to have cured this problem).
The PAM-D Star-48 third stage ignited to put the payload in a 200 x
20400 km transfer orbit inclined 35 degrees to the equator. At apogee,
the Navstar's internal Star-37F apogee motor fired to place the payload
in a circular 20000 km  semi-synchronous (12-hour) orbit at an
inclination of 55 degrees; the orbit will be adjusted slightly over the
next few weeks. The Block IIA Navstar satellites are built by Rockwell;
they contain atomic clocks which are used to provide accurate
positioning information for military and civilian uses.  The next GPS
launch will be Navstar 26 in August.

The first Ariane 4 with an upgraded H10-Plus third stage was launched on
Apr 15 from the Centre Spatiale Guyanais in Kourou, France at about 2312
UTC. This was an Ariane 44L model; there have now been 22 Ariane 4
launches, with one failure. The payloads were Telecom 2A and Inmarsat II
F-4.

INMARSAT, the International Maritime Satellite Organization,
operates communications satellites used by ships and aircraft.
These use the L-band around 1.5 GHz rather than the C (6/4GHz) and
Ku (12/11 GHz) used by most communications satellites. Inmarsat
started off using satellites leased from other organizations
(the Comsat Corp. MARISAT and the ESA MARECS) and transponders
on INTELSAT satellites but now has its own INMARSAT II network
(INMARSAT I was considered to be the leased network). The satellites
are built by a Matra Marconi Space/British Aerospace collaboration
and are based on the Eurostar 1000 bus which uses a liquid
propellant apogee motor. 

INMARSAT II satellites

Satellite		Launch		Orbit

Inmarsat II F-1		1990 Oct 30	GEO Indian Ocean
Inmarsat II F-2		1991 Mar  9	GEO Atlantic Ocean
Inmarsat II F-3		1991 Dec 16	GEO Pacific Ocean
Inmarsat II F-4		1992 Apr 15	Due over Atlantic

The Telecom satellites are owned by France Telecom which
operates them in conjuction with the French space agency 
CNES. Based on Matra Marconi Space's Eurostar 2000 bus
which uses a Marquardt R4D liquid apogee motor, the
satellites provide 10 C-band transponders for communicatons
between mainland France and its overseas parts 
(departements et territoires d'outremer), 11 Ku-band
transponders for business communications links, and
5 X-band transponders for the Syracuse system, a military
communications network operated by the DGA (Delegation
Generale de l'Armament). 

France Telecom satellites

Satellite	Launch

Telecom 1A	1984 Aug  4
Telecom 1B	1985 May  8
Telecom 1C	1988 Mar 11
Telecom 2A	1991 Dec 16
Telecom 2B	1992 Apr 15				
Telecom 2C	1993?

The Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna on the Japanese Fuyo-1 satellite
has been successfully deployed. The antenna initially failed to
deploy after launch in February.

The Kosmos-2107 ocean surveillance satellite reentered on Apr 5. It was
launched in Dec 1990 and operated in a 404x418 km orbit at 65 deg
inclination until about Mar 10 this year, when its on board engine was
used to deboost it to a 226x400 km orbit from which it rapidly decayed. 

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/STS-46             VAB                |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 112		1992 Apr 27
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kosmos-2184 was launched from the Russian spaceport Plesetsk on Apr 15
around 0800 UT.  After the second stage circularization burn and payload
separation it was in a 967 x 1014 km orbit inclined 83 degrees. It is a 
Doppler beacon navigation satellite for the SNG navy, replacing
Kosmos-2074 launched in 1990.

Meanwhile back in Transoxiana, Progress M-12, a robot supply ship, was
launched from Baykonur on Apr 19 toward the Mir space station. Cosmonauts
Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri are aboard the station.

Space Shuttle mission STS-49, the maiden flight of orbiter Endeavour, is
planned for launch on May 4 at 1234UT.

STS-49, commanded by the NASA Chief of the Astronaut Office, Dan
Brandenstein, will be the first flight on which 4 crew members go EVA on
a single mission. (Possible exception: it depends on quite how you
define 'single mission' for the Mir). Primary spacewalk team is Pierre
Thout and Richard Hieb. They will perform EVA-1 and EVA-3, while Kathryn
Thornton and Thomas Akers will perform EVA-2. The first EVA will be to
attach a new UTC/CSD Orbus 21S kick stage to the Hughes Intelsat VI F-3
satellite stranded in low orbit. EVA-2 and EVA-3 will be part of the
ASEM experiment to practice assembling mock space station components;
the idea is to get a feel for what EVA construction crews can and can't
do. It's a more sophisticated version of the EASE/ACCESS experiments
done in 1985 on mission 61-B. 

STS-49 cargo:
 RMS (Remote Manipulator System)
 
 Hughes Cradle with Orbus 21S PKM, capture bar, docking adapter,
  and MFR (Manipulator Foot Restraint)
 
 MPESS (Mission Peculiar Experiment Support Structure) with
  ASEM Node boxes(2), Truss pyramid components, Grapple fixture
  and EVA rescue device prototypes: Astrorope, Telescopic pole,
  Bi-stem pole,	Inflatable pole, Crew propulsive device (based on Skylab-HHMU)

As far as I can tell the Hughes Cradle is a new design; the MPESS
cross-bay truss pallet has flown 13 times previously.

STS-49 bios:
Brandenstein, Daniel Charles (Commander)
 Birth: 1943 Jan 17, Wisconsin
 Rank: Capt USN
 Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1978
 Pilot, Challenger, mission STS-8, 1983
 Commander, Discovery, mission 51-G, 1985
 Chief of Astronaut Office, 1987
 Commander, Columbia, mission STS-32R, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours 575:48; 2 rendezvous/captures
 (Spartan-101, LDEF)

Chilton, Kevin P. (Pilot)
 Birth: 1954 Nov 3, L.A.
 Rank: Lt Col. USAF
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1987
 Total spaceflight hours 0:00 

Hieb, Richard J. (Mission Specialist 1)
 Birth: 1955 Sep 21, North Dakota
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1985
 Mission Specialist 5, Discovery, mission STS-39, 1991
 Total spaceflight hours: 199:22

Melnick, Bruce E. (Mission Specialist 2)
 Birth: 1949 Dec 5, N.Y.
 Rank: Cdr US Coast Guard
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1987
 Mission Specialist 1, Discovery, mission STS-41, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours: 98:10

Thuot, Pierre J. (Mission Specialist 3)
 Birth: 1955 May 19, Connecticut
 Rank: Cdr USN
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1985
 Mission Specialist 3, Atlantis, mission STS-36, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours: 106:18
 
Thornton, Kathryn Cordell (Mission Specialist 4)
 Birth: 1952 Aug 17, Alabama, as Kathryn Cordell
 Education: PhD in physics, U VA., 1979
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1984
 Mission Specialist 3, Discovery, mission STS-33R, 1989.
 Total spaceflight hours: 120:07

Akers, Thomas D. (Mission Specialist 5)
 Birth: 1951 May 20, Missouri
 Rank:  Capt USAF
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1987
 Mission Specialist 3, Discovery, mission STS-41, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours: 98:10

Historical note: The following Shuttle payloads
have involved major Station construction experiments:
 Payload		Mission	Date	Type
 MPESS/OAST-1 		41-D	1984	Deploy large structure
 MPESS/EASE-ACCESS	61-B	1985	In-orbit construction
 SHARE 1		29R	1989	Heat pipe component
 EDFE			37	1991	EVA transportation 
 SHARE 2		43	1991	Heat pipe component


____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/STS-46             VAB Bay 1          |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 113		1992 May 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour is due for its first flight on 1992 May 7
at 2306 UT. 

The third Titan 23G launch vehicle (a refurbished Titan II ICBM) was
launched at 0853 UT on Apr 25 from Space Launch Complex 4-West  at
Vandenberg AFB, California. The mission is classified; the fact that in
contravention of its international treaty obligations the previous
launch in the series was not reported by the US government to the United
Nations  Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space suggests that the
payload is probably a highly secret NSA electronic intelligence
satellite, most likely a successor to the Jumpseat series. 

A Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched from the Russian 
spaceport Plesetsk on Apr 29 by a Soyuz launch vehicle. The Resurs-F
spacecraft is based on KB Foton's Vostok bus and carries mapping
cameras. It is operated by the Priroda ('Nature') center of the
Russian Central Geodesy and Cartography Agency (GUGK). Russian President
Boris Yel'tsin attended the launch.

Another GUGK spacecraft was launched by Soyuz from Baykonur on Apr 29; 
the Kosmos-2185 mapping satellite is in a 70 degree orbit.

Russian cosmonauts Aleksander Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri  on board
the Mir complex have unloaded the Progress M-12 cargo transport and are
carrying out materials processing experiments.

____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      STS-49  |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/STS-46             VAB Bay 1          |
|ML2/STS-49/ET/OV-105   LC39B              |
|ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report

No. 114		1992 May 12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orbiter OV-105 Endeavour was launched on May 7 at 2340 UT from LC39B at
Kennedy Space Center. Solid rocket booster (RSRM22/ BI50) separation at
2342, main engine cutoff at 2348, external tank ET-43 separation at
2349, and the OMS-2 orbit circularization burn went smoothly. Several
more burns raised Endeavour's orbit toward its target parameters.  On
May 8, Endeavour was in a 278 x 336 km orbit at an inclination of 28.3
deg, on its way to the target circular 350 km orbit. The Intelsat VI F-3
satellite lowered its orbit to the same parameters in the first
dual-active rendezvous.

Endeavour was stationkeeping by around 2030 UTC May 10. Astronauts
Pierre Thout and Rick Hieb began their first EVA by depressurizing the
airlock at 2025 UTC May 10; Thout attached the Portable Foot Restraint
to the robot arm (the RMS) and, holding the Capture Bar (a rod with
clamps on each end) was moved by the RMS toward Intelsat. Unfortunately
on his first attempt to grapple the Intelsat (2157 UTC) he knocked it and the
tumbling motion that ensued was only made worse by a further attempt at
2214. Endeavour backed off and the EVA astronauts went back inside,
repressurizing the airlock at  0016 UTC May 11. Intelsat controllers
restabilized the satellite as Endeavour remained some km away.

The second rendevous occurred at 2200 UTC on May 11. Thuot and Hieb
depressurised the airlock around 2102 UTC, beginning a 5h 26m EVA.
Thout contacted the Intelsat five times with the capture bar
(at 2318, 0028, 0032, 0042, and 0100) but the capture bar latches
failed to grapple the satellite. Endeavour moved away again at 0145 UTC
May 12, and the EVA ended around 0228 UTC.

At this writing Rendezvous-3/EVA-3 is scheduled for May 13 and the ASEM
assembly EVA is scheduled for May 14. EVA-3 will be the first EVA since
May 1973 in which three astronauts will have worked in a depressurized
environment, and the first ever in which all three have been outside
their spacecraft (during  Apollo EVAs, the whole cabin was open to space
during the EVA but at least one spacesuited astronaut remained inside
the command module). The May 13 EVA will involve Thout, Hieb, and Tom Akers;
the May 14 EVA will be Akers and Kathy Thornton.

-----

Radar calibration satellite Kosmos-1985, launched in 1988,
reentered on May 4.
____________________________________________
|Current STS status:                       |
|Orbiters               Location   Mission |
|                                          |
|OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  |
|OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     |
|OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  |
|OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B      LEO     |
|                                          |
|ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       |
|                                          |
|ML1/STS-46             VAB Bay 1          |
|ML2/                   VAB Bay 2          |
|ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          |
--------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 115		1992 May 19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-49 Mission Report (Continued)
---------------------------------

The third rendevous with Intelsat began around 1530 UTC on May 13 with
an orbit adjustment maneuver. A software problem with the  targeting
code led to cancellation of the TPI (Terminal Phase Initiation) burn; at
1929 UTC a 'TI delay burn' was executed to keep Endeavour in the correct
phasing for a later rendezvous attempt. The three spacewalkers, Pierre
Thuot, Richard Hieb and Tom Akers, had already partially depressed the
airlock to 5 PSI; they remained in the airlock during the delay. The TPI
burn was finally executed at 2057.55 UTC and the depressurization was
resumed at 2109. The hatch opened for the longest ever EVA at 2112; over
the next hour (at 2119, 2153, 2203, and 2213) four mid  course
correction burns were made as Endeavour approached the Intelsat VI F-3
satellite; braking began at 2219. Intelsat was in a 355x370 km orbit at 28.3 deg.

By around the same time the EVA crew had assembled the lower plane of
the ASEM pyramid - three long poles forming a triangle attached to the
top of the payload bay walls. Akers attached himself to the ASEM using a
foot restraint; Hieb attached himself to the starboard sill of the
payload bay; and Thout attached himself to the RMS arm which was
operated from the cabin by Bruce Melnick. The Endeavour was then flown
slowly towards Intelsat until at 2359.31 UTC on May 13 the three
astronauts simultaneously grabbed the lower end of it and stopped its
rotation.

At 0045 UTC on May 14 Melnick started moving Thuot around the satellite
and at 0122.57 the infamous capture bar was soft docked to the satellite
by Hieb and Thuot. Thout then used an EVA power tool to hard dock the
bar at 0132.55. Thout then exited the RMS and at 0147.41 the RMS
grappled the capture bar grapple fixture allowing Hieb and Akers to
release the satellite; it had been hand-held for 1h 48m. At 0300 UTC the
Intelsat was hard berthed on the docking adapter to the Orbus 21S PKM,
and the RMS released the capture bar. The grapple extensions on the bar
were then removed and the PKM (Perigee Kick Motor) electrically
activated and mated to the satellite. The three astronauts returned to
the airlock.

At 0440 UTC the first attempt to deploy the satellite failed. After two
further failures and some rearranging of circuit breakers the satellite
was sprung out of the payload bay at 0453.22 UTC. Hieb returned to the
bay for cleanup tasks and the Endeavour moved away (a small burn at 0516
and a larger one at 0539). Finally at 0541 the airlock was repressurized
for a total EVA time of 8h 29m.

EVA-4 began at 2107 UTC on May 14, with Akers and Thornton in the
payload bay. They completed assembly of the ASEM pyramid, demonstrated
the Crew Propulsive Device, a  gas gun similar to the HHMUs used on
Gemini 4 and Skylab, and installed extra components on the MPESS pallet.
 The RMS was then used to unberth the MPESS from the  payload bay and
dock it to the ASEM pyramid. It was then undocked from the pyramid and
at 0241 UTC on May 15 it was reberthed in the bay. The RMS ungrappled
the MPESS at 0245 as the pyramid was disassembled. The crew returned to
the airlock at 0437 and repressurization began at 0452, for an EVA time
of 7h 45m.

Deorbit from the 343 x 360 km orbit occurred at 1955 UTC on May 16 and
Endeavour landed on runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base at 2057.38 UTC
on May 16. The drag chute was used for the first time to slow the craft
on rollout.

Next mission is STS-50/Columbia, the first flight of the Extended
Duration Orbiter kit.

STS-49 Statistics and Records
-----------------------------

* First flight of OV-105 Endeavour
* First dual active rendezvous (both Intelsat VI F-3 and OV-105
  maneuvered to meet each other)
* Dan Brandenstein gains most flight hours of any active US astronaut 
  (789:05 in 4 missions) and most rendezvous experience (5 rv in 3 missions)
  and is the first person to fly 4 different Orbiters (Challenger, Discovery,
  Columbia, Endeavour, but so far not Atlantis).
* Longest ever EVA (Hieb, Thuot, Akers: 08:29)
* Kathryn Thornton holds record for longest EVA by a woman (07:45 beating
  Savitskaya's record of 03:35)
* First 3-person EVA since 1973 and first ever in which all 3 were
  outside the spacecraft
* First use of drag chute on landing for piloted spaceship
* First manual in-orbit assembly of a rocket stage to a spacecraft 
  (first such assembly in general was docking of Gemini 10 with
  Agena 5005, which was used to move Gemini 10 to a higher orbit).
* 3 rendezvous in a single mission, joint record with Gemini 9 (1966),
  Soyuz T-15 (1986), and Progress M-7 (1991).
* Thuot holds record for largest number of docking failures !!

Pedantic Definition Corner: Spacewalks and Depress
--------------------------------------------------
                                                                                 
 NASA reported that EVA-3 was the 100th EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity)
in history. You have to be a little careful about how you define EVAs.
In 1969 Apollo 9 astronauts spacewalked in Earth orbit from a docked
Apollo command module and  lunar module; Scott and McDivitt EVA'd from
the command module and Schweickart from the LM. Since these were
separate spaceships with separate airlocks, albeit docked to each other
at the time, I count these as two separate EVAs  even though they were
simultaneous, making STS-49/EVA-3 spacewalk no. 101. But actually I
think a more interesting concept than EVA is 'depress work', time spent
in a spacesuit under depressurized (vacuum) conditions whether inside or
outside the shell of a spacecraft. NASA sort of implicitly agrees with
me since it counts EVA time up to the moment of repressurization of the
airlock, even if the crew spend an extra hour inside the airlock with
the hatch closed. After all, what's dangerous (and hence in some sense
significant) about EVA is that the astronaut is protected no longer by
the pressurized spaceship cabin but only by a spacesuit - the spacesuit
is their new spaceship. Logically extending this idea, I like to count
cases where the spaceship cabin is depressurized even when the crew do
not emerge. This is really pretty much the same as an EVA except for the
'E'. In Gemini and Apollo, the cabin was depressurized sometimes for
'Equipment Dumps' where the crew threw extra stuff out the hatch, e.g.
lunar overshoes on Moon landings after all the moonwalks were done.
These typically lasted 2 to 3 minutes, there were 9 of them. On the
Skylab 2 flight, docking problems led to the crew having to suit up,
depressurize the cabin, and disassemble their docking probe to repair
it, before they could successfully dock their spacecraft. This depress
is very poorly documented and not included in most lists of EVAs since
the crew stayed in the cabin. Finally, the Soyuz-11 spaceship was
unintentionally depressurized in June 1971 leading to the deaths of the
crew. Not counting this last, the total number of occasions when crews
worked in spacesuits in a depressurized environment (hmm, need an
acronym here clearly - how about DP for depressurizations?), the total
number of DPs by STS-49 EVA-3 is then 111 as opposed to 100 in the NASA
list of EVAs.

Launches
-----------

The Palapa B4 satellite was launched by Delta at 0040 UTC on May 14 from
Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral. This was the 589th Thor launch,
209th Delta launch, and the 23rd Delta 2 launch. All 23 Delta 2 launches
have been successful.

Palapa B4 is a Hughes HS376 class comsat, owned by the Indonesian
telecommunications agency PT Telekomunikasi, formerly PERUMTEL.
Indonesia was the first Third World country with a domestic comsat
system, as comsats have advantages for communications in a country made
up of lots of islands.

The Palapa series is summarized below.

Satellite	Type	Launch Date	Launch Vehicle

Palapa 1	HS333	1976 Jul  8	D125   Delta 2914
Palapa 2	HS333	1977 Apr 15	D129   Delta 2914
Palapa B1	HS376	1983 Jun 19	STS-7  OV-099/PAM-D
Palapa B2	HS376	1984 Feb  6	STS-11 OV-099/PAM-D
Palapa B2P	HS376	1987 Mar 21	D182   Delta 3920/PAM-D
Palapa B2R	HS376	1990 Apr 13	D194   Delta 6925
Palapa B4	HS376	1992 May 14	D209   Delta 7925

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3  STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2  Mod     
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1  STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       EAFB	  STS-49
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET          VAB Bay 1          
ML2/                   VAB Bay 2          
ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 116		1992 May 26
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

The third launch of India's ASLV rocket was the first successful one. 
The SROSS (Streched Rohini Satellite) 3 test satellite was inserted into
orbit on May 20. The indigenous Indian program has met with mixed
success to date. This launch clears the way for development of
the more ambitious PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle).

Indian satellites:
Aryabhata  (1975, launched by Kosmos from Kapustin Yar, Russia)
Bhaskara   (1979, launched by Kosmos from Kapustin Yar, Russia)
RS-1	   (1979, by SLV-3 from Sriharikota, fell in sea)
RS-1       (1980, by SLV-3 from Sriharikota, first Indian orbital launch)
RS-D-1	   (1981, by SLV-3 from Sriharikota, orbit lower than planned)
Apple      (1981, by Ariane from Kourou, Guyane)
Bhaskara 2 (1981, by Kosmos from Kapustin Yar, Russia)
Insat 1A   (1982, by Delta from Cape Canaveral, Florida)
RS-D-2     (1983, by SLV-3 from Sriharikota)
Insat 1B   (1983, by PAM-D from Challenger, low Earth orbit)
SROSS-1    (1987, by ASLV from Sriharikota, fell in sea)
IRS-1      (1988, by Vostok from Baykonur, Kazakhstan)
SROSS-2    (1988, by ASLV from Sriharikota, fell in sea)
INSAT 1C   (1988, by Ariane from Kourou, Guyane)
Insat 1D   (1990, by Delta from Cape Canaveral, Florida)
IRS-1B     (1991, by Vostok from Baykonur, Kazakhstan)
SROSS-3    (1992, by ASLV from Sriharikota, 4th Indian orbital launch)

Launch Vehicles of The World
----------------------------

With the successful Indian launch, it's a good moment to
look at the current launch capabilities of the various nations. Only 
vehicles with at least one successful orbital launch are listed.

USA:        Scout G, Delta 7925, Atlas E, Atlas Centaur (I,II), 
            Titan II/III/IV, STS, Pegasus
Russia:     Vostok, Soyuz, Molniya, Proton 3/4, Energiya
Ukraine:    Kosmos, Tsiklon 2/3, Zenit
France/ESA: Ariane
Japan:      Mu 3S, H-1
China:      Chang Zheng 2C, 2E, 3, 4
Israel:     Shaviyt
India:      ASLV

Only one country has developed space launch capability and
then abandoned it: Britain, which scrapped its Black Arrow in 1971.

Shuttle Notes
-------------

Record update: NASA Headline News credited Brandenstein with the
rendezvous record. Although he has done more rendezvous than any other
active astronaut, the all time record is shared by Tom Stafford and
Vladimir Dzhanibekov at 6 rendezvous each. The record for successful
dockings (at  least soft dock) is held by Charles Conrad with 8
dockings.

Correction: The record for docking failures is held by the Skylab 2
crew, not by Pierre Thuot. It took them 9 tries before they were hard
docked.

On May 18 the Intelsat VI F-3 satellite raised its perigee, 
entering a  9152x  71379 km x  7.53 deg orbit. By May 21 it
was in circular synchronous orbit.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     Mod     
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       Biggs AAF,TX  STS-49
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET          VAB Bay 1          
ML2/                   VAB Bay 2          
ML3/STS-50/ET          VAB Bay 3          


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 117		1992 Jun 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

As reported in JSR 113, a highly secret Titan 2 payload, USA 81, was
launched on Apr 25 from Vandenberg. The Canadian Space Society reports
that R. Kracht has found it in a 788 x 801 km x 85 deg orbit, as
expected similar to the USA 32 orbit. This supports the conclusion that
this series of payloads is a successor to the Jumpseat series and
carries signals intelligence sensors for the National Security Agency.

Kosmos-2186 was launched at 1900 UTC on May 28 by Soyuz from Plesetsk in
Russia into a 62.8 degree orbit. It is an imaging recon satellite with a
lifetime of two months, built probably by KB Foton of Samara and
operated by the GRU (SNG military intelligence). 

Reentries
---------

The SDI organization's Relay Mirror Experiment satellite reentered on
May 24. It had been in orbit since Feb 1990.

Shuttle Notes
-------------

Endeavour returned to Kennedy Space Center on May 30 aboard the NASA 911
carrier aircraft. Meanwhile, Columbia has been mated to the STS-50 stack
and rolled out to pad 39A on top of Mobile Launch Platform 3 (which was
used for the Apollo 11 launch in 1969). The STS-50 mission carries a
Spacelab module with materials processing experiments. Launch is due for
later this month. Atlantis has been mated to the STS-46 stack in the VAB
and will be rolled out to pad 39B next week.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     Mod     
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1     STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   VAB Bay 1          
ML2/                   VAB Bay 2          
ML3/STS-50/ET/OV-102   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 118		1992 Jun 15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

A Ukranian-built Kosmos launch vehicle was launched from the Russian
Plesetsk spaceport on Jun 3 carrying 8 small naval communications
satellites (Kosmos-2187 through Kosmos-2194) into 1400 x 1500 km orbits
inclined 74 degrees.

NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer was launched at 1640 UTC on Jun 7
into  a 514 x 528 km orbit inclined 28 degrees by a McDonnell Douglas
Delta 6920-10 vehicle. EUVE carries three scanning EUV telescopes
(two for the 70-400 A range, one for the 400-760 A range) and
a Deep Survey/Spectrometer instrument.

The Intelsat K satellite was launched by General Dynamics' first Atlas
IIA Centaur, AC-105, on Jun 9. The Centaur IIA stage entered a 195x 
35732 km orbit inclined  26.46 deg, and the Intelsat K separated; after
the first burn of its liquid apogee motor (probably a British built
Leros 1) its orbit on Jun 11 was  3133x  35758 km inclined 17.5 degrees.
Several further burns will be required before it enters geostationary
orbit. Intelsat K is a GE 5000 series comsat, originally built for RCA
Americom as Satcom K4, and sold to Intelsat as a stopgap between the
Intelsat VI and Intelsat VII series spacecraft.

The General Dynamics Atlas Centaur range now includes the following
variants:
Name		First Launch
 Atlas I 	AC-69,  1990 Jul 25
 Atlas II	AC-102, 1991 Dec 7
 Atlas IIA	AC-105, 1992 Jun 9
 Atlas IIAS	[Scheduled 1993]

The Atlas I is essentially identical with the old Atlas SLV-3G/Centaur D-1AR.
Atlas II and IIA are improved, stretched versions. IIAS will have solid
strapons added to the first stage.

Reentries
---------

The Resurs-F remote sensing spacecraft launched on Apr 29 landed in
Kazakhstan on May 29.

The Kosmos-2182 recon satellite reentered on May 30.

Shuttle Notes
-------------

The STS-50 launch is due on Jun 25.
The STS-46 stack is now on pad 39B.

STS-50/Columbia crew bios:

Richards, Richard Noel (Commander)
 Birth: 1946 Aug 24, Florida
 Rank: Capt USN
 Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1980
 Pilot, Columbia, mission STS-28R, 1989
 Commander, Discovery, mission STS-41, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours: 219:10

Bowersox, Kenneth D. (Pilot)
 Birth: 1956 Nov 14, Virginia
 Rank: Lt Cdr USN
 Selected as NASA pilot astronaut, 1987

Dunbar, Bonnie Jeanne, (Payload Commander)
 Birth: 1949 Mar 3, Wash
 Education: PhD in biomed. engineering, Houston, 1983
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1980
 Mission Specialist, Challenger/Spacelab D1, mission 61-A, 1985
 Mission Specialist, Columbia, mission STS-32R, 1990
 Total Spaceflight hours: 429:45

Baker (Shulman), Ellen Louise (Mission Specialist 2)
 Birth: 1953 Apr 27, N Carolina
 Education: MD, Cornell, 1978
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1984
 Mission specialist, Atlantis, mission STS-34, 1989
 Total spaceflight hours: 119:39

Meade, Carl J. (Mission Specialist 3)
 Birth: 1950 Nov 16
 Rank: Col USAF
 Selected as NASA mission specialist astronaut, 1985
 Mission Specialist, Atlantis, mission STS-38, 1990
 Total spaceflight hours:

DeLucas, Lawrence J  (Payload Specialist 1)
 Birth: 1950, NY.
 Education: MD optometry, UAB, 1981; PhD biochemistry, UAB, 1981
 Selected as USML candidate, 1990, Univ. Alabama Birmingham

Trinh, Eugene H. (Payload Specialist 2)
 Birth: 1950 Sep 14, Saigon, Vietnam
 Education: PhD physics, Yale, 1978
 Selected as Spacelab 3 candidate, 1983, JPL
 Backup Payload Specialist, SL3, 1985
 Selected as USML candidate, 1990, JPL

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     Mod     
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   LC39B
ML2/STS-47             VAB Bay 2          
ML3/STS-50/ET/OV-102   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 119		1992 Jun 25
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle Mission STS-50
------------------------

Orbiter OV-102 Columbia was launched on mission STS-50
from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center
at about 16:12:22 UTC on 1992 Jun 25. It entered orbit
at 1621 UTC with main engine cutoff and external tank 
separation.

Cargo is the USML-1 United States Microgravity Laboratory,
a Spacelab long module, with an EDO Extended Duration
Orbiter pallet in the aft cargo bay. The USML module
contains a Crystal Growth Furnace, a Drop Physics Module,
a Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment, the
Solid Surface Combustion Experiment, a materials science
glovebox, and the Space Acceleration Measurement System.
The EDO pallet carries extra fuel cells for electrical
power.

USML-1 is the 9th Spacelab mission and the 6th to
use the pressurised Spacelab Long Module.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     Mod     
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   LC39B
ML2/STS-47             VAB Bay 3
ML3/		       LC39A



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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Jonathan's Space Report

No. 120		1992 Jul 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle Mission STS-50
------------------------

The STS-50 mission continues with astronauts Richards, Bowersox, Dunbar,
Meade, Baker, DeLucas and Trinh carrying out experiments for the United
States Microgravity Lab 1 Spacelab mission. The spaceship is in a 300 km
orbit at 28 degrees inclination.

Meanwhile, Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri continue in orbit
aboard the Mir complex. They are due to be relieved by Anatoli Solov'yov
and Sergey Avdeev on Jul 27.

Launches
--------

Progress M-13 was launched from Baykonur in Kazakhstan on Jun 30.
The NPO Energiya robot resupply ship is scheduled to dock with the
Mir station on Jun 2 to replace the Progress M-12 cargo craft.

A Resurs-F  spacecraft was launched on Jun 23 from Plesetsk into an 82
degree orbit. The spacecraft, built by KB Foton of Russia, is based on
the old Vostok design and carries mapping cameras which will be returned
to Earth next month with their film. 

Reentries
---------

The Indian Space Research Organization's SROSS 3 satellite reentered
on Jun 24 after a month in orbit. SROSS 3 was the first launch
of ISRO's ASLV rocket to reach orbit, but the perigee was lower than
intended.

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization's Delta Star satellite,
launched in March 1989 to observe the infrared, optical and ultraviolet
emissions from rocket launches, reentered on Jun 23. It was switched off
in Dec 1989.

Quarterly Summary
-----------------

Here is a review of launches for the second quarter of 1992, giving
launch vehicle, payload, organization responsible for the launch and the
payload, and manufacturer of the payload.  The summary comparison with
last year shows that launches from Plesetsk are down by a factor of 2
over last year. Navigation satellites and remote sensing satellites have
been going up from Plesetsk at about the same rate, but the spy
satellite and military communications  satellite programs have been
sharply cut. Small number statistics make it difficult to be sure, but
it also seems that the Ukranian-built satellite programs (minor
military, oceanography, electronic intelligence) have been cut or
cancelled, and it has been reported that funding for the weather
satellite program  is in trouble.

    Date	Vehicle  Payload			V/Agency PL/Agency      PL/Manufacturer
 
16  Apr  1	Soyuz	 Kosmos-2182			VS SNG	GRU		KB Foton
17  Apr  2	Proton	 Gorizont			VS SNG  RKA		NPO-PM
18  Apr  8	Soyuz	 Kosmos-2183			VS SNG  GRU		KB Foton
19  Apr 10	Delta 2	 GPS 28  			MDSSC	USAFSC		Rockwell
20  Apr 15	Kosmos	 Kosmos-2184			VS SNG	VMF		NPO-PM
21  Apr 15	Ariane	 Telecom 2B			AE	CNES		Matra Marconi Space	
			 Inmarsat II F-4			INMARSAT	Matra Marconi Space	
22  Apr 19	Soyuz	 Progress M-12			VS SNG	NPOE		NPOE
23  Apr 25	Titan 2	 USA-81				USAF	NSA		?
24  Apr 29	Soyuz	 Resurs-F			VS SNG	RKA		KB Foton
25  Apr 29	Soyuz	 Kosmos-2185			VS SNG	GRU		KB Foton
26  May  7	STS	 Endeavour			NASA	NASA		Rockwell
27  May 14	Delta 2	 Palapa B4			MDSSC	TELCOM		Hughes
28  May 20	ASLV	 SROSS 3			ISRO	ISRO		ISRO
29  May 28	Soyuz	 Kosmos-2186			VS SNG	GRU		KB Foton
30  Jun  2	Kosmos   Kosmos-2187 to Kosmos-2194	VS SNG	VMF		NPO-PM
31  Jun  7	Delta 2	 EUVE				MDSSC	NASA		Fairchild
32  Jun  9	Atlas 2A Intelsat K			GDCLS	INTELSAT	GE
33  Jun 23	Soyuz	 Resurs-F			VS SNG	RKA		KB Foton
34  Jun 25	STS	 Columbia/Spacelab USML-1	NASA	NASA		Rockwell/MBB-Alenia
35  Jun 30	Soyuz	 Progress M-13			VS SNG	NPOE		NPOE

Summary of launches:

Jan - Jun 1992				Jan - Jun 1991 (for comparison)

Total 35; 				Total 45;
SNG 19, USA 12, Others 4		SSSR 32, USA 10, Others 3

By nation of launch site:
Rossiya (Russia)	11		SSSR/Rossiya	22
Kazahstan		 8		SSSR/Kazakh SSR 10
USA 			12 		USA		10
France 			 2 		France		 3
Nippon (Japan)		 1
India 			 1


Abbreviations for organizations

AE	Arianespace SA, Paris
CNES	Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, Paris
GDCLS   General Dynamics Commercial Launch Services
GRU     Glavnoye Razvedivatel'noye Upravileniye (Soviet Military Intelligence), Moskva
INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite Organization, London
INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
ISRO	Indian Space Research Organization
MDSSC	McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corp
NPOE    NPO Energiya (Energiya Scientific/Production Organization)
NPO-PM	NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki (Applied Mechanics Co.), Krasnoyarsk
RKA 	Rossiskoye Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo  (Russian Space Agency), Moskva
SNG  	Sodruzhestva Nezabisimikh Gosudarst' (Commonwealth of Independent States)
USAF	United States Air Force 
USAFSC	USAF Space Command, Colorado Springs
VMF     Voenno-Morskoy Flot (SNG Navy)
VS SNG  Vooruzhennikh Sil SNG  (Combined Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States)


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   LC39B
ML2/STS-47             VAB Bay 3
ML3/		       LC39A

Acronyms:
ET	External Tank
LC	Launch Complex
LEO	Low Earth Orbit
ML	Mobile Launcher
OMDP	Orbiter Maintenance Down Period
OPF	Orbiter Processing Facility
OV	Orbiter Vehicle
VAB	Vehicle Assembly Building
SRB	Solid Rocket Booster
STS	Space Transportation System (I also use
	the STS flight number to label the SRB stacks
	instead of the BI number).

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Birthday Space Report :-)

No. 121		1992 Jul 6 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle Mission STS-50
------------------------

Columbia  broke the Shuttle duration record at 1349 UTC today when it
passed the  10 d 21 h mark. That previous record was also set  by
Columbia, on the STS-32R mission in 1990. Columbia is due to land on Jul
8 at Edwards AFB. Columbia has also recaptured the record for total
Orbiter flight hours from Discovery; it has flown over 2060 hours in 12
missions, compared with 2005 hours by Discovery in 14 missions. Payload
Commander Dr. Bonnie Dunbar is now the active US astronaut with the most
flight hours, the first time a woman has held this record  (Chief
astronaut Dan Brandenstein has more flight hours and is still
technically active, but since he has announced he will retire in October
he will not be assigned to any more flights, so I've scratched him from
my list already.)  Dunbar also has gained the women's world cumulative
duration record, previously held by Kathy Sullivan.

Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri continue their mission
aboard the Mir complex; they have become the 23rd crew to pass
the 100-day mark. The longest US flight ever was 84 days.

Launches
--------

The SAMPEX (Solar and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer) satellite was
launched on Jul 3 at 1417 UTC by Scout S215C from Space Launch Complex 5 at
Vandenberg AFB in California. The satellite is NASA's first Small
Explorer, an attempt to return to the days when science satellite
projects were completed in only a few years with limited budgets. The
150 kg satellite carries four experiments to study cosmic rays, the
particle composition of solar flares, and precipitating electrons in the
magnetosphere.

Kosmos-2195 was launched on Jul 1.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-50  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   LC39B
ML2/STS-47             VAB Bay 3
ML3/		       LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 122		1992 Jul 13

I'll be in the real Cambridge for the next few weeks; normal service
will resume in early August.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle Mission STS-50
------------------------

Orbiter OV-102 Columbia landed on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center
at 1142:25 UTC Jul 9 (main gear touchdown) after a one day delay due
to bad weather at Edwards. Mission duration was 13 days 19 h 30 m 4 sec,
the longest Shuttle flight yet. Columbia now has 2132 flight hours
in 12 missions, more than any of the other orbiters. The mission beat
Gemini 7's duration by 55 minutes, making it the longest US spaceflight
with the exception of the three Skylab missions, although it is
still very short by Salyut/Mir standards. Bonnie Dunbar now has
761 h 15 min in 3 flights, more than any US astronaut except
Brandenstein, Young, and the Skylab astronauts.


Erratum: The Shuttle record was broken at 1312 UTC Jul 6 not 1349 UTC as I
mysteriously reported last week. Some day I'll learn to do arithmetic right :-)

After nearly 10 years, the concept of a reusable Spacelab is taking  on
more substance. Spacelab Long Module unit 1, the pressurized lab used
for the USML-1 flight, has now made 4 flights in space. Unit 2, which
will be used for the SL-J flight later this year, has made only 2
flights. Spacelab unpressurized pallets have been used on 8 flights,
but I have been unable so far to trace their re-use history (Any help
gratefully appreciated).

Giotto 
------

The European Space Agency probe Giotto encountered comet
P/Grigg-Skjellerup on 1992 Jul 10 at 1530 UTC. Its trajectory was expected
to pass 200 km from the nucleus. Giotto flew past P/Halley in
1986; during that encounter its camera was destroyed, but
its particles and fields experiments are still working.


Mir
---

Progress M-13 docked with the front port of Mir at 1655 UTC on Jul 4. An initial
attempt on Jul 2 was a failure. It will remain docked to Mir for only
a few weeks; on Jul 26 the Soyuz TM-15 will be launched with a replacement
crew and will use the docking port now occupied by the Progress.

Launches
--------

General Dynamics' Atlas II Centaur flight AC-103 was launched on Jul 2 around 2200 UTC from
Launch Complex 36A at Cape Canaveral. It carried the 6th DSCS III communications
satellite together with an IABS apogee stage; the DSCS III is built by GE Astro Space,
and owned by the Defense Communications Agency. DSCS stands for Defense Satellite
Communications System.

Rockwell Navstar GPS satellite 26 was launched at 0920 UTC on Jul 7 by Delta 211 ( a 7925 model)
from Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral. I don't know the serial number
of the GPS that was axed by the anti-nuclear activists, does anyone?

Kosmos-2195 was launched on Jul 1 around 2010 UTC. It is a naval navigation satellite built by
NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, Russia and launched by a Kosmos
R-14 booster built by NPO Yuzhnoye of Ukraine. Launch site was Plesetsk,
Russia. Kosmos-2195 entered the same plane as Kosmos-2135, launched in Feb 1991.
There are 6 orbital planes in the SNG navy navsat system, and another 4 in the
parallel civilian Tsikada system. Most recent launches to each plane are as follows:

PLANE	Sat		Launch Date	Orbit		System
					(km x km x deg)

0	Kosmos-2195	1992 Jul  1	958x1010x83	D76/ Navy
30	Kosmos-2184	1992 Apr 15	965x1016x83	D75/ Navy
60	Kosmos-2154	1991 Aug 22	970x1009x83	D72/ Navy
90	Kosmos-2172	1991 Nov 27	946x1019x83	D73/ Navy
120	Kosmos-2142	1991 Apr 16	961x1020x83	D71/ Navy
150	Kosmos-2180	1992 Feb 17	961x1015x83	D74/ Navy
195	Kosmos-2181	1992 Mar  9	971x1014x83	E23/ Tsikada
240	Nadezhda (3)	1991 Mar 12	955x1019x83	E22/ Tsikada-KOSPAS
285	Kosmos-2123	1991 Feb  5	964x1006x83	E21/ Tsikada-RS12,RS13
330	Nadezhda (2)	1990 Feb 27	953x1021x83	E20/ Tsikada-KOSPAS

A satellite launched at 1000 UTC on Jul 8 from Plesetsk by a Molniya
launch vehicle is probably an early warning satellite to be called Kosmos-2196.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-46/ET/OV-104   LC39B
ML2/STS-47             VAB Bay 3
ML3/		       VAB


Thanks to McDonnell Douglas/Huntsville, General Dynamics/San Diego,
the USNO GPS info service and Ruediger Jehn/ESOC for help in 
preparing this issue.

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 123		1992 Aug 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Progress M-13 cargo ship was undocked from Mir's front port on Jul
24. Soyuz TM-15 was launched at 0608 UTC on Jul 27 carrying Russian
astronauts Solov'yov and Avdeev and French astronaut Tognini into a 190
x 200 km orbit inclined 51.6 deg. Later on Jul 27 it moved to a 223 x
343 km orbit,  and on Jul 28 it docked with Mir in its 405 x 410 km
orbit. The Mir complex now consists of Mir, the Kvant module, the
Kvant-2 and Kristall axial modules, and the Soyuz TM-14 and Soyuz TM-15
ferry craft. Crew are Aleksandr Viktorenko, Aleksandr Kaleri, Anatoli
Solov'yov, Sergey Avdeev, and Michel Tognini.

Shuttle Mission STS-46
------------------------

Crew of mission STS-46 are Loren Shriver, Andy Allen, Jeff Hoffman,
Marsha Ivins, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Claude Nicollier, and Franco Malerba.
Malerba is a payload specialist for the Italian Space Agency, Nicollier
is an ESA astronaut seconded to NASA as a mission specialist. Cargo of
STS-46 is the Tethered Satellite, the EOIM experiment, the EURECA
satellite, and some GAS can experiments. Atlantis was launched at 1357
UTC on Jul 31 from LC 39B at Kennedy Space Center into a 422 x 431 km orbit
inclined 28.5 degrees. The ESA retrievable experiment carrier EURECA was
deployed by the  RMS arm at 0707 UTC on Aug 2, after a 1 day delay due
to problems with the payload. These problems continued with the first
EURECA orbit raising burn being aborted at 1236 UTC due to
communications dropouts. EURECA was left in a 430 x 440 km orbit at 28.5
degrees. At around 1100 UTC on Aug 3 Atlantis lowered its orbit to 294 x
301 km for TSS operations. The TSS deploy boom was extended by around 1630 UTC
on Aug 4. Problems were encountered separating the umbilicals from
the TSS satellite which delayed the flyaway (reeling out of the satellite
on its tether). Initial flyaway was attempted at 2121 UTC but aborted after
only 10 cm of motion. Flyaway was resumed at 2251 UTC Aug 4, but was
suspended overnight at a distance of a few hundred metres because
of a snag in the tether reel. So far the TSS satellite and tether 
dynamics seem to be stable.

12 humans are now in orbit, equalling the current record. They include
natives of the USA, Russia, Latvia, France, Switzerland, Italy,
and Costa Rica.

Launches
---------

Ariane V51 was launched on 1992 Jul 9 at 2242 UTC. Payloads were the
Indian Space Research Organization's comsat Insat IIA, and the European
Telecommunication Satellite Organization's  Eutelsat II F-4, an
Aerospatiale Spacebus 100 design. Both used liquid apogee motors to
enter geostationary orbit. On Jul 28 Insat IIA was at 73 deg E drifting
0.6 deg W per day. On Jul 29 Eutelsat II F-4 was on station at 8.0 deg
E.

A Ukranian Tsiklon rocket launched six small comm relay satellites from
the Russian Plesetsk spaceport on Jul 13 about 1800 UTC. Kosmos-2197,
Kosmos-2198, Kosmos-2199, Kosmos-2200, Kosmos-2201, and Kosmos-2202 were
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki and  placed in circular 1400 km orbits
at 82 deg inclination. Two of the satellites are test versions of the
commercial Gonets variant, the remainder are the standard military
communications version. This is the first launch of the Tsiklon since
the  fall of the Soviet Union.

Two Proton heavy launch vehicles were launched in July from Baykonur; a
Jul 14 launch orbited a Gorizont communications satellite, and a Jul 29
launch orbited three GLONASS navigation satellites (probably called
Kosmos-2204, 2205 and 2206). On Jul 29 the Gorizont was on station at
11.7 deg W. Both Gorizont and GLONASS satellites are built by NPO
Prikladnoi Mekhaniki.

The Japanese ISAS space agency's GEOTAIL magnetospheric research probe
was launched by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 6925 on Jul 24 from Cape
Canaveral. This is the first time ISAS has used a non-Japanese launch
vehicle for one of its spacecraft. The probe was inserted into an
initial 184 km by 341000 km orbit inclined 28 degrees. It is due to make
its first lunar swingby on Sep 8. The spacecraft carries seven
instruments to study plasmas and fields.

A small NASA experiment, the DUVE Diffuse Ultraviolet Experiment to
study the interstellar medium, was carried as a piggyback payload on the
Delta second stage of the Geotail launch. It was placed in a 217 x 1482
km orbit inclined 27 degrees.

An imaging spy satellite, Kosmos-2203, was launched by Soyuz from
Plesetsk on Jul 24. It replaces Kosmos-2186 and is  in a 180 x 350 km
orbit at 62.8 degrees.

A remote sensing satellite, probably in the Resurs-F series, was
launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Jul 30 around 1100 UTC.


Reentries
----------

The Resurs-F remote sensing satellite launched on Jun 23 landed Jul 9 
after 16 days in orbit. It was the old Resurs-F1 model, the first
such to fly this year.

Visual observers report the 8th KH-11 KENNAN spy satellite has not been
observed since June and has probably been deorbited, according to the
RAE. (I don't see the CSS N2L notes anymore, anyone willing to email
them to me or let me know an ftp site?)

The Indian Space Research Organization's SROSS 3 satellite reentered on
Jul 14, not in June as reported in JSR 120. (Space Command confused the
payload and the rocket final stage).

The Kosmos-2186 spy satellite reentered on Jul 24.

Biographies
------------

Solov'yov, Anatoli Yakovlevich
 Born 1948 Jan 16 in Riga, Latvia (Russian nationality)
 Komandir, Soyuz TM-5 (1988), Soyuz TM-9 (1990), Soyuz TM-15 (1992)

Avdeev, Sergey V.
 Born 1956 Jan 1 in Russia
 Bortinzhener, Soyuz TM-15 (1992)

Tognini, Michel 
 Born 1949 Sep 30 in France
 Kosmonavt-issledovatel', Soyuz TM-15 (1992)

Shriver, Loren James
 Born 1944 Sep 23, Iowa
 Pilot, STS 51-C (1985); Commander STS-31R (1990), STS-46 (1992)

Allen, Andrew M
 Born 1955 Aug 4, Pennsylvania
 Pilot, STS-46 (1992)

Hoffmann, Jeffrey Alan
 Born 1944 Nov 2, NY
 Mission Specialist, STS 51-D (1985); STS-35 (1990);
 Payload Commander, STS-46 (1992)

Ivins, Marsha Sue
 Born 1951 Apr 15, Maryland
 Mission Specialist, STS-32R (1990), STS-46 (1992)

Chang-Diaz, Franklin Ramon
 Born 1950 Apr 5, Costa Rica (naturalized as US citizen)
 Mission specialist, STS 61-C (1986), STS-34 (1989), STS-46 (1992)

Nicollier, Claude
 Born 1944 Sep 2, Switzerland 
 ESA Mission Specialist, STS-46 (1992)

Malerba, Franco
 Born 1946, Italy
 Payload Specialist, STS-46 (1992)


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-46  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/		       Refurbishment area
ML2/STS-47/ET          VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-52	       VAB Bay 1


Thanks to Ed O'Grady, Rex Hall and Phillip Clark for information used in
preparing this issue.

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 124		1992 Aug 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Soyuz TM-14 crew, Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri,
returned to Earth on Aug 10 together with French astronaut
Michel Tognini. The new Mir crew are Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey
Avdeev. The Soyuz TM-14 spaceship undocked from Mir at 2147 UTC on Aug 9,
and landed in Kazakhstan at 0107 UTC on Aug 10. Aleksandr Viktorenko
and Aleksandr Kaleri spent 145 d 14 h 13 min in space; Tognini
spent 13 d 18 h 59 min in space. Viktorenko has now spent 319 days
in space in 3 missions, and is 10th in the all-time cumulative
duration records (the US record-holders, the Skylab 4 crew,
are in places 31 to 33).

Shuttle Mission STS-46
------------------------

Deployment of the TSS tether was abandoned on Aug 5 at a distance
of 220 m when the tether became jammed. Tether retrieval began
at 2153 UTC and the TSS was docked on the extendible boom at 2253.
The boom was retracted at 2337-2347 UTC. On Aug 6 the orbit
of Atlantis was lowered from 295x301 km to 227x235 km for operations
with the EOIM experiment (Evaluation of Atomic Oxygen Interactions
with Materials). At 1217 UTC on Aug 8 the OMS engines ignited
for the 2 min deorbit burn; Atlantis reentered the atmosphere
and touched down at Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center
at 1311.50 UTC on Aug 8. The next mission is STS-47/Endeavour,
due in September.

The EURECA spacecraft reached an orbit of 466x505 km x 28.5 deg
on Aug 6.


Launches
---------

The launch on Jul 30 is probably an imaging spy satellite, Kosmos-2207,
rather than a Resurs-F satellite as I suggested last week.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 2     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-46
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/		       Refurbishment area
ML2/STS-47/ET          VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-52	       VAB Bay 1


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 125		1992 Aug 17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Soyuz TM-15 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev,
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are
due to remain aboard the station until January 1993.

Shuttle
-------

The STS-47/Spacelab-J mission is due for launch on Sep 11. Endeavour has
been transferred to the VAB and will be mated with the tank once
problems with an overhead crane have been resolved.

Launches
---------

The TOPEX/POSEIDON oceanography satellite was launched on Aug 10 by
Ariane 42P from Kourou. The satellite is operated jointly by JPL and the
French space agency CNES. It carries two radar altimeters to measure the
height of the ocean surface, a microwave radiometer, laser reflectors,
and orbit navigation systems. TOPEX's orbit is 1316 x 1331 km x 66.1 deg

The same Ariane launch put two 50kg microsatellites into orbit, KITSAT-A
and S80/T. KITSAT is owned by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology, and has CCD cameras and a store/forward comms
transponder. S80/T is owned by CNES.

The first Hughes 3-axis HS-601 comsat was launched on Aug 13 by a Chang
Zheng 2E launch vehicle from Xichang in China. The CZ-2E placed the
Optus B1 spacecraft in a low 200 x 1040 km x 28 deg  orbit; a Star 63F
kick  motor then moved it to geostationary transfer orbit. Optus B1 will
be used by the Australian Optus Communications  to replace the older
Optus (formerly Aussat) comsats. The launch had originally been
attempted in March but was postponed when the vehicle failed to ignite 
correctly.

The Chinese also launched a low orbit FSW recoverable satellite from
the northern Jiquan space center into a 63 degree polar orbit on Aug 9.

Kosmos-2208, a Russian military communications satellite, was launched 
on Aug 12 from Plesetsk into  a 787 x 806 km x 74 deg orbit. A Molniya
communications satellite was launched on Aug 6 into a 625x  39689 km x
62.8  deg orbit.



Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/		       
ML2/STS-47/ET          VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-52	       VAB Bay 1


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 126		1992 Aug 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Soyuz TM-15 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev, continue in
orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are due to remain aboard the station
until January 1993. The  Progress M-14 supply craft was launched to the
station on Aug 15 and was due to dock on Aug 17.

Shuttle
-------

The STS-47/Spacelab-J mission is due for launch on Sep 11. Endeavour has
been mated to the STS-47 stack and will be rolled out to the pad tomorrow.

Launches
---------

Atlas Centaur AC-71, launched at 2340 UTC (? time unconfirmed)  on Aug
22 from complex 36B at Cape Canaveral, was destroyed when the Centaur
second stage failed to ignite. This is the second Centaur I failure in 3
flights (although 4 Centaur II's have succesfully flown since the last
failure). The payload, Galaxy IR, a Hughes HS376 communications
satellite, was to have supplemented the Hughes Galaxy network. 

  Recent Atlas Centaur Launches:
     Launch UTC		Type     		Payload

496  1990 Jul 25 1921	Atlas I	  AC-69 	CRRES
498  1991 Apr 18 2330	Atlas I	  AC-70		BS-3H		[Centaur failure]
501  1991 Dec  7 2247	Atlas II  AC-102	Eutelsat II F-3
502  1992 Feb 11 0041	Atlas II  AC-101	DSCS III F-5/IABS
503  1992 Mar 14 0000	Atlas I	  AC-72		Galaxy V
504  1992 Jun 10 0000	Atlas IIA AC-105	Intelsat K
505  1992 Jul  2 2154 	Atlas II  AC-103	DSCS III F-6/IABS
506  1992 Aug 22 2340   Atlas I	  AC-71		Galaxy IR	[Centaur failure]

A Resurs-F remote sensing satellite was launched by Soyuz
from Plesetsk in Russia on Aug 19.

The Optus B1 satellite has made the first burn of its liquid
apogee engine on its way to geostationary orbit, following 
successful launch and burn of the Star 63F perigee kick
motor.

The Chinese recoverable satellite launched on Aug 9 was the first of the
new FSW-2 series, and used a new variant of the Chang Zheng 2 launch
vehicle, the CZ-2D. The FSW-1 series uses the CZ-2C, and the Optus
launch used the CZ-2E.

Reentries
---------

The Kosmos-2207 spy satellite reentered on Aug 13 after 14 days
in space. 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 3     STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/		       
ML2/STS-47/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-52	       VAB Bay 1


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 127		1992 Sep 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Soyuz TM-15 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev, continue in
orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are due to remain aboard the station
until January 1993. The  Progress M-14 supply craft docked with Mir on
Aug 17.

Shuttle
-------

The STS-47 mission is due for launch on Sep 12. Endeavour was
rolled out to pad 39B on Aug 25. Crew for STS-47 are
Robert 'Hoot' Gibson (Commander); Curtis Brown (Pilot); Mark Lee
(Payload Commander); Jan Davis, Mae Jemison, Jay Apt (Mission Specialists)
and Mahmoru Mori (Payload Specialist). Mae Jemison will be the first 
African-American woman to fly in space. Payloads are the Spacelab J
module, with Japanese materials processing experiments, and a GAS
Bridge, carrying 9 Getaway Special canisters, also mostly with
materials processing experiments.

Launches
---------

General Electric's GE3000 class Satcom C4 satellite was launched on Aug
31 by Delta from LC17B at Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft carries
24 C-band transponders and will replace an earlier Satcom craft. The Satcom
series was started by RCA Americom in 1975 and was continued by GE when
it took over RCA.


Erratum
--------

AC-71 was launched at 2240 UTC on Aug 22. It was destroyed at 2247 UTC.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/		       
ML2/STS-47/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/STS-52	       VAB Bay 1


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 128		1992 Sep 15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
----

The Soyuz TM-15 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev, continue in
orbit aboard the Mir complex. They are due to remain aboard the station
until January 1993. The crew made an EVA on Sep 3.

Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched from Complex 39B at KSC at 1423.00
UTC on Sep 12 on the Spacelab-J mission. The seven member crew are
carrying out experiments aboard Spacelab Long Module 2 for NASDA, the
Japanese National Space Development Agency. Orbit of Endeavour on
Sep 12 was 298 x 311 km at 57 degrees.

Launches
---------

Navstar GPS 27 was launched at 0857 UTC on Sep 9 by Delta 7925 from Launch
Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral. It is the 28th Delta II launch; all 28 have
been successful.

An Ariane 4 was launched on Sep 10, but I don't have the details yet.
There have been 25 Ariane 4 launches, including one failure. The
payloads on the latest launch were Hispasat 1A and Satcom C3.
Satcom C3 is a GE3000 class comsat to be used by GE Americom to 
replace one of its older Satcom C-band relay comsats. Hispasat 1A
is the first Spanish domestic comsat; the Eurostar 2000 class 
Ku-band satellite will carry relay communications within the
Iberian peninsula and will relay TV to Spanish speakers in
the Americas; it also has 3 direct broadcast TV transponders
for TV transmissions to Spain, and some military X-band comms
transponders.

Two passive Pion tracking targets were released by the latest Resurs-F satellite
on Sep 1. Tracking of their orbital decay will allow studies of atmospheric
density and radar calibration.

Reentries
---------

Kosmos-2096, an ocean surveillance satellite launched in 1990,
reentered on Aug 30. It was maneouvered into a low perigee orbit
on Aug 1. This leaves Kosmos-2122 as the remaining
Russian ocean surveillance satellite operating.

The Chinese FSW-2 recoverable satellite reentered on Sep 1.

The 16th Resurs-F satellite landed in Kazakhstan on Sep 4
after a 16 day flight.

Erratum
--------

Yoshiro Yamada tells me that the correct transliteration of the name
of the NASDA payload specialist on STS-47 is Mamoru Mohri.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-47
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53             VAB Bay 3
ML2/		       LC39B
ML3/STS-52/ET	       VAB Bay 1


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 129		1992 Sep 29
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
---

Russian cosmonauts Solov'yov and Avdeev have completed
four spacewalks to install the Sofora thruster package
and relocate the Kurs rendezvous antenna.

Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle Endeavour landed on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center
at 1253 UTC on Sep 20. Flight time was 190 hours and 30 minutes.
Columbia was mated to the STS-52 stack on Sep 22 and rolled out
to LC39B on Sep 26. Launch is scheduled for Oct 15. Crew
are Jim Wetherbee (Commander), Mike Baker (Pilot), Lacy
Veach, William Shepherd and Tammy Jernigan (Mission specialists),
all of NASA, and Steven MacLean of the Canadian Space Agency
(Payload specialist).
Columbia will carry the following payloads:
 IRIS cradle with Lageos/LAS/IRIS payload
 MPESS pallet with USMP-1 payload
 MPESS pallet with USMP-1 avionics
 HH-G mounting plates with ASP payload
 TPCE GAS payload
 CTA satellite
 
The ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) Lageos 2 satellite carries
retroreflectors for accurate laser tracking. It will allow
geodesists to measure accurately the shape of the Earth and
monitor the processes of plate tectonics. The 400 kg Lageos 2
will be inserted in a transfer orbit by the Italian Research
Interim Stage (IRIS), on its first flight. The MAGE 1SC 
apogee motor will then fire to circularize the orbit.

The United States Microgravity Payload continues the
MSL materials science series.

The European Space Agency's Attitude Sensor Package (ASP)
consists of three experimental trackers mounted on
Hitchhiker-G plates on the payload bay wall.

The Canadian Space Agency's CTA (Canadian Target Assembly)
is a small test satellite which will be released by the
remote manipulator arm and visually tracked by Canadian
payload specialist Steven MacLean using the Space Vision
System experiment.

The Tank Pressure Control Experiment is a Getaway Special
class experiment from NASA Lewis Research Center.


Launches
---------

Mars Observer was launched by Titan III CT-4 from LC40 at Cape
Canaveral at 1705 UTC on Sep 25. The MO/TOS combination was 
placed in low earth orbit by the Titan second stage, which was
deboosted shortly afterwards. The TOS (Orbital Sciences Corp.
Transfer Orbit Stage) meanwhile ignited to place the Mars Observer
on an escape trajectory. TOS then executed an avoidance maneuver
to make sure it will not impact Mars. No TOS telemetry was
transmitted, leaving flight controllers unsure of the launch's
success until Mars Observer started transmitting about 1.5 hours
after launch. Mars Observer will reach Mars orbit in Aug 1993.

Kosmos-2209, a Statsionar class geostationary comsat, was launched
by Proton from Baykonur on Sep 10. By Sep 20 it was on station
at 23.8 degrees west. It is probably a military comsat in the Kosmos-1546
series.

Kosmos-2210 was launched by Soyuz from Plesetsk on Sep 22 about 1620 UTC.
It is a two-month long imaging recon flight, replacing Kosmos-2203 which
was deorbited on the same day.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53             VAB Bay 3
ML2/		       
ML3/STS-52/ET/OV-102   LC39B


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 130		1992 Oct 14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-52 is due for launch on Oct 22.

Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Titov of the Russian Air Force and Sergey
Krikalyov of NPO Energiya have been selected to train to fly aboard
Shuttle mission STS-60 next year. The US crew for STS-60 has not yet
been announced.

China launched its 13th FSW-1 recoverable satellite from Jiuqan Space
Center with a Chang Zheng 2C launch vehicle on Oct 6 into a 214 x 311 km
orbit inclined 63 degrees. The Swedish Space Corporation's Freja
scientific satellite separated from the FSW-1 and used Thiokol Star 13
and Star 6B solid rocket motors to maneuver into a 548 km x 1759 km x 63
degree orbit. Freja will study the aurora and the magnetosphere; project
manager for Freja is  Sven Grahn, a longtime member of the famous
Kettering Group, an independent satellite tracking group.

Deutsche Bundespost Telekom's DFS 3 Kopernikus satellite was launched
Oct 12 at 0947 UTC by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 vehicle from Cape
Canaveral LC17. The Delta second stage put the payload and third stage
into a medium  altitude earth orbit. This orbit is much higher than the
corresponding one for any previous Delta launch: 1405 km x 3070 km
inclined 25 degrees. The Delta's PAM-D third stage then placed the
satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. An MBB S400 thruster will be
used to raise the perigee on several burns to reach geostationary orbit.
The DFS 3 satellite is Aerospatiale's seventh Spacebus 100 class
satellite to be launched.

A Russian satellite was launched on Oct 8 around 1900 UTC by Soyuz
launch vehicle from Plesetsk. I don't have any information yet
on the satellite's name, but the orbital elements indicate that
it is a recoverable Vostok class satellite built by the
TsSKB (Central Specialized Design Bureau) in Samara. Most likely
it is a Foton materials processing flight, although the apogee is
a bit low compared to previous flights. Other possibilities are that
it is a Bion life sciences flight or a Kosmos spy satellite.

Meanwhile, Russian military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (24 Sep p.4, 3 Oct
p.3) reports that the TsSKB is planning an unusual launch on November 16
from Plesetsk. The satellite is called 'Zvezda Kolumba' (Columbus Star)
or alternatively 'Resurs-500' and is part of project 'Europa-Amerika 500'.
The spacecraft is a Resurs-F type spacecraft but instead of the usual
landing in Kazakhstan, it will land in the Pacific Ocean off the
coast of Seattle. The idea is to drum up support for American commercial use
of the Russian space program. 

Molniya-3 (12), launched in 1979, reentered on Sep 26.

The two Pion air density satellites deployed on Sep 1 reentered on Sep 24 and Sep 25.

Thanks to Dean Adams, Phillip Clark and Sergey Voevodin for information in this report. 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53             VAB Bay 3
ML2/		       VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-52/ET/OV-102   LC39B


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 131		1992 Oct 22
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Columbia was launched at 1709:40 UTC on Oct 22 from Launch Complex 39B
on mission STS-52 and reached orbit a little over 8 minutes later.  The
count was held at T-9 minutes for 2 hours because of weather constraints.
This is the 13th mission for orbiter 102. Atlantis arrived at the Rockwell
plant in Palmdale, California on Oct 18 for modifications. It will not
fly again until 1994. Final mission for this year will be Discovery's
STS-53 military mission, which will deploy a large classified satellite
in low orbit.

Aviation Week provided more details of the Kopernikus 3 satellite launch
profile, which uses three burns of the Delta second stage. This new
Delta launch profile is more complex than for any other geostationary
launch vehicle; for instance, the Ariane third stage burns only once,
and the Atlas Centaur makes two Centaur burns. In the new Delta profile,
the Delta enters a standard low orbit on its first burn. Two further
burns then raise the apogee and perigee respectively to over 1000 km;
only at this point does the third stage/spacecraft combination separate.
The third stage then fires to place the spacecraft in a geostationary
transfer orbit; this orbit has a high perigee but is otherwise normal.
The payload apogee engine can then be burned to achieve geostationary
orbit. This profile was used for the first time in August for the Satcom
C4 launch, and Kopernikus 3 was its second use. By Oct 16 the three main
apogee engine burns were complete and Kopernikus 3 was approaching its
target longitude of 33 degrees East. Erratum: DFS 3 Kopernikus was built
by Deutsche Aerospace, not Aerospatiale as I said in the last report.
The companies collaborated on the Spacebus 100 design.

A Molniya communications satellite was launched into 12 hour elliptical orbit
from Plesetsk on Oct 14. The Molniya launch vehicle consists of a Soyuz
with an extra fourth stage, the Blok-L; the fourth stage and payload are placed
in low orbit, and then the fourth stage ignites to place the payload in
elliptical orbit.

The spacecraft launched on Oct 8 from Plesetsk is confirmed as a Foton 
materials processing flight.

Six small Gonets-class comsats built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk were launched by a three stage Tsiklon rocket (built
by the Ukranian company NPO Yuzhnoye) into 1400 km circular orbits
on Oct 20. This satellite system was previously used by the Soviet
military, but NPO-PM are now trying to sell the satellites commercially.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-52
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53/ET          VAB Bay 3
ML2/STS-54	       VAB Bay 1
ML3/		       LC39B


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 132		1992 Nov  2

**** This newsletter endorses Clinton-Gore '92 ***** Remember to vote !
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-52 mission, continued
-------------------------

On Oct 23 OV-102 Columbia was in a 301 x 303 km orbit inclined 28.5 deg.
The Italian Lageos 2 satellite was deployed from Columbia on Oct 23 at
1357 UTC. The Italian Research Iterim Stage, on its first mission,
carried out a sucessful burn at 1442 UTC and separated from Lageos 2 and
its apogee stage, leaving them in a 297 x 5923 km  x 41 deg orbit. The
MAGE 1 apogee motor ignited around 1630 UTC to place the Lageos 2
satellite in a near-circular 5617 x 5950 km x 52.6 deg orbit. Meanwhile,
OV-102 lowered its orbit to 285 x 293 km x 28.5 deg for operations with
the USMP microgravity payload. On Oct 25 the RMS arm was used to unberth
and reberth the CTA (Canadian Target Assembly) on three occasions, in a
simulation of Space Station truss assembly. Similar tests were conducted
on  Oct 29 and Oct 30. On Oct 30 the orbit was lowered again to  206 x
214 km. On Oct 31 the CTA was unberthed by the arm at 0857 and deployed
into orbit at 1006 while the Space Vision System was used to track it.
Deorbit was at 1312 on Nov 1; Columbia touched down at 1405:53 UTC on
Nov 1 on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility.

Mission duration of STS-52 was 9 days 20 hr 56 min 13 s. This was the
13th flight of Columbia which now has 2369 h 49 m of flight time, more
than any other orbiter. Commander Jim Wetherbee, after two long duration
flights, has more flight hours than all but two of the active pilot
astronauts (Gibson and Richards). 1992 may or may not be the Year of the
Woman in US politics, but it was a record year in spaceflight: 9 women
flew (previous record was 6) and totalled almost 3 woman-months in
orbit, which is nearly double the amount of flight time by women in any
previous calendar year. If STS-53 flies to schedule in December, the two
NASA astronauts with the most flight hours will be a woman and an
African-American, illustrating that the diversification of the makeup of
the astronaut corps has gone well beyond tokenism.

Mir Space Station
------------------

The Progress M-14 cargo craft undocked and was deorbited on Oct 21.
A new cargo craft, Progress M-15, was launched on Oct 27.

Launches and Reentries
----------------------

Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Oct 22 1709	Columbia	Shuttle		Kennedy Space Center  70A
Oct 23 1357	Lageos 2	IRIS		OV-102 Columbia, LEO  70B
Oct 27 1730?	Progress M-15	Soyuz		Baykonur              71A
Oct 28 0015?	Galaxy VII	Ariane		Kourou                72A
Oct 29 1030?	Kosmos-2218?	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk              73A
Oct 31 1006	CTA		-		OV-102 Columbia, LEO  70C

The Oct 29 launch is a navigation satellite, probably Kosmos-2218.

Galaxy 7 (or 7H) is the first of Hughes' new generation C-band/Ku-band
hybrid comsats; it is an HS-601 bus. The launch vehicle was an Ariane
42P with two solid strapons and the new H10 Plus upper stage.

Launch of the USAF's MSTI satellite aboard Scout S210C was scrubbed
last week and is now scheduled for Nov 4.

According to NASA-GSFC, the Russian radar remote sensing satellite Almaz
was deorbited on Oct 17 from a 300 km high orbit after 1.5 years in
orbit. The Almaz lasted a shorter time than its prototype, Kosmos-1870,
and one of its SAR radars failed at the beginning of the year. Its
successor is not scheduled to be launched until 1995.

The Foton spacecraft launched on Oct 8 landed on Oct 24 in Kazakhstan.
16-day missions are now standard for this type of spacecraft.

The Molniya satellite launched on Oct 14 is one of the Molniya-3 class,
the 42nd to be given the Molniya-3 name (two other Molniya-3 class
satellites failed to reach the correct orbit and were called Kosmos-1175
and Kosmos-1305 in an attempt to conceal the failures). Meanwhile,
according to NORAD, the 55th Molniya-1 satellite, launched in 1982,
reentered on Oct 10; it had been taken out of service in 1984. The 15th
Molniya-3 satellite, launched in 1981, reentered on Oct 19. The 46th
Molniya-1, launched in 1980, reentered on Oct 22. It is possible
that these reentries are only 'administrative decays', i.e. NORAD lost
track of these elliptical orbit satellites ages ago and has decided
to remove them from the list.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53/ET          VAB Bay 3
ML2/STS-54	       VAB Bay 1
ML3/		       


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 133		1992 Nov  18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery is on Pad 39A awating launch on mission STS-53. This mission
will deploy a classified reconnaissance satellite for the National
Reconnaissance Office and a group of small radar calibration satellites
called ODERACS. The mission will be commanded by David Walker.
Pilot is Robert Cabana and mission specialists are Guion Bluford,
Jim Voss and Mike Clifford.

An Ekran direct broadcasting satellite was launched by Proton from
Baykonur on Oct 30. This is the first Ekran launch since 1988; an
improved version had been expected to replace the system. By Nov 5 the
Ekran satellite was at 98.6 degrees E approaching its operational
99 E station.

As predicted, the publicity mission by a group of Russian companies
using a Resurs-F satellite was launched on Nov 15. The Vostok class
spacecraft, Resurs-500, is to commemorate the 500th anniversary of
Columbus and to drum up US investment in Russian trade. Orbit is 181 x
242 km x 82.6 degrees. The  descent craft is scheduled to land in the
ocean off Seattle, Washington.

The first successful Zenit launch in over two and a half years
occurred from Baykonur on Nov 17, after three failures in a row. It
placed a Russian military signals intelligence satellite in an 850 km
orbit inclined 71 degrees. The Zenit launch vehicle is built by NPO
Yuzhnoye in the Ukraine.

The Canadian CTA target satellite deployed from STS-52 reentered
on Nov 1. A defunct signals intelligence satellite, Kosmos-756,
reentered on Nov 5 after 17 years in space.

As usual around now, the launch rate is way down. For some reason November
is almost always a very quiet time for launches.

Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Oct 30 1340?	Ekran		Proton		Baykonur	      74A
Oct 31 1006	CTA		-		OV-102 Columbia, LEO  70C
Nov 15 2150?	Resurs-500	Soyuz		Plesetsk	      75A
Nov 17 0750?	Kosmos-2219	Zenit		Baykonur	      76A

Reentries:
Date
Nov  1 1406	Columbia			
Nov  1		CTA
Nov  5		Kosmos-756

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53/ET/OV-103   LC39A 
ML2/STS-54/ET	       VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 134		1992 Nov  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery is on Pad 39A awating launch on mission STS-53. This mission
will deploy a classified reconnaissance satellite for the National
Reconnaissance Office and a group of small radar calibration satellites
called ODERACS. The mission will be commanded by David Walker.
Pilot is Robert Cabana and mission specialists are Guion Bluford,
Jim Voss and Mike Clifford.

The MSTI-1 (Miniature Seeker Technology Integration) satellite was
launched into a 331 x 443 km polar (96.8 deg) orbit by Scout S210C from
Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Bace at 1345 UTC on Nov
21. The MSTI-1 is operated by the USAF Phillips Lab for the Strategic
Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) and was built by JPL. It carries
an IR camera which will be used for imaging ground targets. The mission
is intended as a test of the new small spacecraft bus.

Navstar GPS 32 was launched on Nov 22 by Delta from Launch Complex 17
at Cape Canaveral. The Rockwell-built navigation satellite, placed
into an initial 160 x 20340 km transfer orbit inclined 34.7 deg, will
be placed in a 20000 km high orbit and carries atomic clocks to provide
navigation signals. This was the 30th launch of McDonnell Douglas' Delta II
launch vehicle. All 30 launches have been successful, an unrivalled
record.

Kosmos-2220 was launched on Nov 20 by Soyuz from Plesetsk. It is an
imaging recon satellite operated by Russian military intelligence,
replacing Kosmos-2210 which was launched in September. Kosmos-2210
was expected to complete its mission around Nov 20 and reenter.
Kosmos-2220 will remain in orbit until about Jan 20.

The Resurs-500 spacecraft was recovered from the Pacific Ocean off
Seattle by the ship Marshal Krylov on Nov 22. The spacecraft, owned by
Konsortsium Evropa-Amerika 500, had been launched from Plesetsk on Nov
15.

Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Nov 15 2150?	Resurs-500	Soyuz		Plesetsk	      75A
Nov 17 0750?	Kosmos-2219	Zenit		Baykonur	      76A
Nov 20 1540?	Kosmos-2220	Soyuz		Plesetsk	      77A
Nov 21 1345     MSTI-1		Scout		Vandenberg	      78A
Nov 22 2354 	Navstar GPS 32 	Delta 7925	Canaveral	      79A

Reentries:
Date
Nov  1 1406	Columbia			
Nov  1		CTA
Nov  5		Kosmos-756
Nov 22		Resurs-500

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53/ET/OV-103   LC39A 
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 135		1992 Dec 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cosmonauts Solov'yov and Avdeev continue in orbit aboard the
Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-15/Progress M-15 orbital complex. On
Nov 23 they ejected a small satellite, Mak-2, from one of the airlocks
into a 392 x 397 km orbit inclined 51.6 deg. The precursor Mak-1
satellite, which was deployed in June 1991 but failed, carried an
experiment to study plasma in the upper atmosphere. I don't have any
details on Mak-2 yet, it may be a replacement. If anyone knows the
payload or the deployment time please let me know.

Discovery is on Pad 39A awating launch on mission STS-53 on Dec 2. 
Recent speculations by Sean Sullivan and Philip Chien passed on to me by
Bruce Watson suggests that the payload is to enter an elliptical 12-hour
orbit. This implies it is probably the second satellite in a series of
highly classified electronic intelligence satellites which I refer to as
Advanced JUMPSEAT. These satellites apparently are replacing the
JUMPSEAT satellites launched by Titan 34B Agena D from 1971 to 1983. The
JUMPSEAT satellites, also known as AFP 711, were built by Hughes
Aircraft, who also built the LEASAT comsats. The unclassified payload
bay drawings for STS-53 suggest a shape and size similar to LEASAT for
the Adv JUMPSEAT, so I speculate that the propulsion system is the same,
namely a UTC Orbus 7S solid perigee motor and a Marquardt R4D liquid
apogee motor. Here is the launch history of the JUMPSEAT series as I
have reconstructed it, but there are still some uncertainties:

Satellite	Launch		Date	Orbit

Jumpseat 1	T3B-36	   1971 Mar 21	390x33800x63.2	   1971-21A
Jumpseat 2	T3B-37	   1972 Feb 16	Agena failed	    -
Jumpseat 3	T3B-38	   1973 Aug 21	460x39296x63.3	   1973-56A
Jumpseat 4	T3B-50	   1975 Mar 10	295x39337x63.5	   1975-17A
Jumpseat 5	T34B-2	   1978 Feb 25	805x34272x63.5	   1978-21A
Jumpseat 6	T34B-8	   1981 Apr 24	700x39300x63??	   1981-38A
Jumpseat 7	T34B-9	   1983 Jul 28	1028x39321x63.4	   1983-78A
Adv Jumpseat 1	STS-28	   1989 Aug  8	Unknown		   1989-61B

I had earlier speculated that the Titan 2 launches in Sep 1988,
Sep 1989 and Apr 1992 were the Advanced JUMPSEAT payloads, but
I now believe this to be incorrect; they remain among the most
mysterious US military payloads; the launch of the second one
was omitted from US reports to the UN in an unusual contravention of
the treaty on registration of space objects.

Kosmos-2221 was launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Nov 24.
It is an electronic intelligence spacecraft in a 650x 663 km 
x 82.5 deg orbit.

Kosmos-2222, launched on Nov 25, is an early warning satellite
in an elliptical 597x  39758 km x 62.90 deg orbit.

Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Nov 20 1540?	Kosmos-2220	Soyuz		Plesetsk	      77A
Nov 21 1345     MSTI-1		Scout		Vandenberg	      78A
Nov 22 2354 	Navstar GPS 32 	Delta 7925	Canaveral	      79A
Nov 23 		Mak-2		-		Mir		1986-17GX
Nov 24 0420?	Kosmos-2221	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	      80A
Nov 25 1100?	Kosmos-2222	Molniya		Plesetsk	      81A
Nov 27 1325?	?		Proton/Blok-DM	Baykonur	      82A

Reentries:
Date
Nov 19		Molniya-1 (54)
Nov 20		Kosmos-2210	[Landed in Kazakhstan?]
Nov 22		Resurs-500	[Landed in Kazakhstan]

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-53/ET/OV-103   LC39A 
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 136		1992 Dec 8
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Space Shuttle Discovery was launched at 1324 UTC on Dec 2 into a  369 x
379 km x 57 deg orbit. At 1918 UTC the DoD-1 satellite was deployed. On
Dec 3 the orbit was lowered to 317 x 331 km; on Dec 4 an attempt to
deploy the ODERACS satellites failed due to electrical problems. Landing
is scheduled for Dec 9. 

STS-53 is the 15th flight of Discovery.  This is the 8th Shuttle flight
in 1992, a record surpassed only by the 9 flights in 1985. More
impressive, however, is NASA's success at meeting target launch dates.
Since the delay to STS-39 in early 1991, there have been no major delays
to the manifested missions, and every countdown this year has resulted
in a launch, with the exception of the first STS-45 countdown which was
scrubbed due to bad weather, delaying the mission by one day. Although
we must expect scheduling problems in the future, up to and including
loss of another orbiter, it does seem that NASA has ridden up the
learning curve and can now operate this reusable piloted spacecraft 
on a schedule whose reliability is at least comparable, say, with
unpiloted expendable rockets like Delta.

STS-53 Mission Specialist Mike Clifford is the first of the 1990
astronaut group to fly in space; the last of the 1987 group astronauts
made their first flight on STS-47. Things have improved a lot since the
days when astronauts had to wait over a decade for their first flight! 
(See table below; group 5 was the first to feel the post-Apollo slump;
group 9 the first to be delayed by the Challenger accident. This table
ignores the effects of resignations prior to first flight).

NASA Group   Time from selection to first flight (years)
		Min			Max		Median

1/1959		2 (Shepard)		16 (Slayton)	3
2/1962		3 (Young)		 4 (Armstrong)	3
3/1963		3 (Scott)		 6 (Bean)	4
4/1965		7 (Schmitt)		 8 (Gibson)	8
5/1966		4 (Haise)		19 (Lind)	7
6/1967	       15 (Lenoir)		18 (England)   16
7/1969	       12 (Crippen)		14 (Peterson)  13
8/1978		5 (Hauck,Ride,Thg.,Fab.) 7 (Covey)	6
9/1980		4 (Leestma)		 9 (Richards)   5
10/1984		4 (Shepherd)		 7 (Gutierrez)  5
11/1985		5 (Thout)		 7 (Duffy)      6
12/1987		3 (Melnick,Akers)	 5 (Brown,Davis,Jemison) 4
13/1990		2 (Clifford)	-		-

Robert 'Hoot' Gibson has been named the fourth Chief of the NASA
astronaut office, succeeding Alan Shepard (1964-1974),
John Young (1974-1987), and Dan Brandenstein (1987-1992).


A Gorizont C-band comsat was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Nov 27
for the Russian Ministry of Communications.  A Molniya-3 elliptical
orbit TV relay satellite was launched from Plestesk on Dec 2. The
Molniya launch vehicle is a  Soyuz with an additional Blok-L fourth
stage.

A Titan 4 launch vehicle, possibly a 404 variant, was orbited from Space
Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg AFB on Nov 28. The USA-86 payload is
most likely an Advanced Crystal imaging recon satellite, replacing
the KH-11/Crystal launched in 1987.

Arianespace carried out its seventh launch of the year on Dec 1, using
the Ariane 42P variant to place Space Communications Corp. of Japan's
Superbird A1 satellite into orbit.  The Space Systems/Loral satellite
replaces Superbird A, which failed in orbit due to ground controller
error.

Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Nov 23 		Mak-2		-		Mir		1986-17GX
Nov 24 0420?	Kosmos-2221	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	1992- 80A
Nov 25 1100?	Kosmos-2222	Molniya		Plesetsk	      81A
Nov 27 1325?	Gorizont	Proton/Blok-DM	Baykonur	      82A
Nov 28 2134	USA-86		Titan 4		Vandenberg	      83A

Dec  1 2248	Superbird A1	Ariane 42P	Kourou		      84A
Dec  2 0155?	Molniya-3 (43)	Molniya		Plesetsk	      85A
Dec  2 1324	Discovery STS53	Shuttle		Kennedy		      86A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B        STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 137		1992 Dec 22		A happy winter solstice to all my readers 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Space Shuttle Discovery landed at 2043 UTC Dec 9 on runway 22 at Edwards
AFB. The payload deployed by Discovery has not yet been allocated a USA
number; it will probably be USA-88. (Navstar 29, launched Dec 18, has
been named USA-87.) The Molczan team of observers have reported that on
Dec 13 the payload was in a 364 x 380 km orbit inclined 57 degrees; 
apparently it maneouvred on Dec 15 to a new orbit.

The next launch is STS-54 in January; Endeavour will deploy a TDRS comsat.

The Titan 4 launched on Nov 28 has been confirmed as the 404 variant.
Here is the Titan 4 launch history:

No	Date		Variant	Site		Upper stages/payloads	

1	1989 Jun 15	402	CC LC41		IUS/DSP F14
2	1990 Jun 23	403	CC LC41		Advanced NOSS 1
3	1990 Nov 13	402	CC LC41		IUS/DSP F15
4	1991 Mar  8	405	V SLC4E		LACROSSE 2
5	1991 Nov  8	405	V SLC4E		Advanced NOSS 2
6	1992 Nov 28	404	V SLC4E		Advanced CRYSTAL?
?	1993?		401	CC 		Centaur/?

Kosmos-2223, launched on Dec 9, appears to be a fifth generation
imaging recon satellite, probably replacing Kosmos-2183.

Kosmos-2224, launched on Dec 17, is a geostationary satellite; it is
probably either a communications or an early warning satellite.

Another Rockwell Navstar navigation satellite was launched on Dec
18 by McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corp. using a Delta from
Cape Canaveral. 

-------------------------------------------------------------
Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Dec  1 2248	Superbird A1	Ariane 42P	Kourou		      84A
Dec  2 0155?	Molniya-3 (43)	Molniya		Plesetsk	      85A
Dec  2 1324	Discovery STS53	Shuttle		Kennedy		      86A
Dec  2 1918	USA-88?		-		Discovery	      86B
Dec  9 1116?	Kosmos-2223	Soyuz		Baykonur	      87A
Dec 17 1300?	Kosmos-2224	Proton		Baykonur	      88A
Dec 18 2216	Navstar GPS 29	Delta 7925	Canaveral	      89A

Reentries:
Nov 22		Resurs-500	[Landed in Pacific Ocean]
Dec  9		Discovery	[Landed at Edwards AFB]
Dec 12		Kosmos-2164

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 138		1993 Jan  4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A rapid series of launches ended off the year. However, to Dec 29 there
were only 95 launches to Earth orbit. Although an increase over last
year, it is still low compared to the 1970s and 1980s (see table below).
The 1991 and 1992 launch totals are the lowest since 1964, reflecting
the collapse of the USSR.

ORBITAL LAUNCHES 1979-1992

130-                 X
   -              X  X
120-        X  X  X  X  X  
   -        X  X  X  X  X        X     X  
110-        X  X  X  X  X     X  X     X  
   -  X  X  X  X  X  X  X     X  X     X  
100-  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X     
   -  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X     X
 90-  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X     X
   -  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
 80-  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
      __________________________________________
      79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92

The third launch of the Chinese CZ-2E rocket placed the Australian Optus
B2 spacecraft in low earth orbit, but apparently the US-built Star 63F
perigee motor  did not fire as intended to send the comsat towards
geostationary orbit. Optus B2 is a Hughes HS601 comsat.
[If anyone has the launch time, please let me know.]

Kosmos-2225, launched Dec 22, is a fifth generation
recon satellite with an expected lifetime of around
six months.

Kosmos-2226, launched Dec 22, is a geodetic satellite
in a 1500 km orbit.

Kosmos-2227, launched Dec 25, is a heavy signals intelligence
satellite. This is the second successful launch of the
Zenit rocket this year, after a string of three failures.

Kosmos-2228, launched Dec 25, is a signals intelligence
satellite of an older and smaller type than Kosmos-2227.

Bion 10, launched Dec 29, is a biological satellite
using the Vostok spacecraft bus. The Bion series began
in 1974 as part of the Kosmos program and includes
experiments from many countries.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Launches:
Date		Payload		Rocket		From

Dec  1 2248	Superbird A1	Ariane 42P	Kourou		      84A
Dec  2 0155?	Molniya-3 (43)	Molniya		Plesetsk	      85A
Dec  2 1324	Discovery STS53	Shuttle		Kennedy		      86A
Dec  2 1918	USA-88?		-		Discovery	      86B
Dec  9 1116?	Kosmos-2223	Soyuz		Baykonur	      87A
Dec 17 1300?	Kosmos-2224	Proton		Baykonur	      88A
Dec 18 2216	Navstar GPS 29	Delta 7925	Canaveral	      89A
Dec 21		Optus B2	Chang Zheng 2E	Xichang		      90A
Dec 22 1200?	Kosmos-2225	Soyuz		Baykonur	      91A
Dec 22 1215?	Kosmos-2226	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	      92A
Dec 25 0710?	Kosmos-2227	Zenit		Baykonur 	      93A
Dec 25 2010?	Kosmos-2228	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	      94A
Dec 29 1335?	Bion 10		Soyuz	 	Plesetsk	      95A


Reentries:
Nov 22		Resurs-500	[Landed in Pacific Ocean]
Dec  9		Discovery	[Landed at Edwards AFB]
Dec 12		Kosmos-2164

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-54
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/STS-55	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report : 1992 Launch Summary

No. 139		1993 Jan  13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stop press: Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour was launched at 1359 UTC on Jan 13
from pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-54. It will deploy the
TDRS-F satellite and operate the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1992 

  Orbits are given for late Dec 1992: perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)

INT'L	NAME			AGENCY	TYPE		LAUNCH	  ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.							DATE

1992-
01A	Kosmos-2175		MOM	Imaging Recon	Jan 21 	Landed in Kazakhstan Mar 20		
02A	Discovery STS-42	NASA	Spaceship	Jan 22	Landed at Edwards AFB Jan 30
02A	Spacelab IML-1     NASA/ESA/CSA Science lab	Jan 22	Remained attached to STS-42
03A	Kosmos-2176		MOM	Early Warning	Jan 24	  948 x 39402 x 63.9
04A	Progress M-11		NPOE	Cargo ferry	Jan 25	Deorbited over Pacific Mar 13 
05A	Kosmos-2177		MOM	Navigation	Jan 29	19109 x 19150 x 64.8
05B	Kosmos-2178		MOM	Navigation	Jan 29	19087 x 19172 x 64.8
05C	Kosmos-2179		MOM	Navigation	Jan 29	19112 x 19147 x 64.8
-	Kosmos			RKA	SIGINT		Feb  5	Failed to orbit
06A	DSCS III F-5		USAF	Comsat		Feb 10	35780 x 37580 x  0.0 ?
07A	Fuyo 1			NASDA	Remote sensing	Feb 11	  569 x   573 x 97.7
08A	Kosmos-2180		RKA	Navigation	Feb 17	  962 x  1015 x 82.9
09A	Navstar GPS 24		USAF	Navigation	Feb 23	20029 x 20336 x 54.5
10A	Superbird B		SCCJ	Comsat		Feb 26	35768 x 35804 x  0.0 162.0E
10B	Arabsat 1C		ASCO	Comsat		Feb 26	35666 x 35902 x  0.1  31.0E
11A	Molniya-1		RKA	Comsat		Mar  4	  837 x 35918 x 62.9
12A	Kosmos-2181		RKA	Navigation	Mar  9    973 x  1013 x 82.9
13A	Galaxy V		HCI	Comsat		Mar 14	35781 x 35789 x  0.0 124.8W
14A	Soyuz TM-14		NPOE	Spaceship	Mar 17	Landed in Kazakhstan Aug 10
15A	Atlantis STS-45	     	NASA	Spaceship	Mar 24	Landed at KSC Apr  2
15A	Spacelab Atlas-1     NASA/ESA	Science lab	Mar 24	Remained attached to STS-45
16A	Kosmos-2182		RKA	Imaging Recon	Apr  1	Landed in Kazakhstan May 30
17A	Gorizont		RKA	Comsat		Apr  2	35774 x 35796 x  0.9 103.2E
18A	Kosmos-2183		RKA	Imaging Recon	Apr  8    240 x   284 x 62.8	
19A	Navstar GPS 28		USAF	Navigation	Apr 10  19992 x 20371 x 55.3
20A	Kosmos-2184		RKA	Navigation	Apr 15    966 x  1015 x 82.9
21A	Telecom 2B		CNES	Comsat		Apr 15  35769 x 35803 x  0.0   4.9W
21B	Inmarsat II F4	       INMAR    Comsat		Apr 15  35722 x 35852 x  2.2  54.0W
22A	Progress M-12		NPOE	Cargo ferry	Apr 19	Deorbited over Pacific Jun 27
23A	USA-81			NRO	Recon?		Apr 25    791 x   797 x 85.0 
24A	Resurs-F		RKA	Remote sensing	Apr 29	Landed in Kazakhstan May 29
25A	Kosmos-2185		RKA	Mapping		Apr 29	Landed in Kazakhstan Jun 11
26A	Endeavour STS-49	NASA	Spaceship	May  7	Landed at Edwards AFB May 16
27A	Palapa B4		TCI	Comsat		May 14  35685 x 35889 x  0.1 118.1E
28A	SROSS 3			ISRO	Science		May 20  Reentered Jul 14
29A	Kosmos-2186		RKA	Imaging Recon	May 28	Landed in Kazakhstan Jul 24
30A	Kosmos-2187		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1401 x  1481 x 74.0
30B	Kosmos-2188		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1388 x  1479 x 74.0
30C	Kosmos-2189		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1416 x  1480 x 74.0
30D	Kosmos-2190		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1430 x  1480 x 74.0
30E	Kosmos-2191		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1473 x  1502 x 74.0
30F	Kosmos-2192		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1471 x  1486 x 74.0
30G	Kosmos-2193		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1445 x  1480 x 74.0
30H	Kosmos-2194		RKA	Comsat		Jun  2   1457 x  1485 x 74.0
31A	EUVE			NASA	Science		Jun  7    511 x   527 x 28.4
32A	Intelsat K		INTEL	Comsat		Jun  9  35782 x 35791 x  0.0  21.6W
33A	Resurs-F		RKA	Remote sensing	Jun 23	Landed in Kazakhstan Jul 9
34A	Columbia STS-50		NASA	Spaceship	Jun 25	Landed at KSC Jul 9
34A	Spacelab USML-1		NASA	Science lab	Jun 25	Remained attached to STS-50
35A	Progress M-13		NPOE	Cargo ferry	Jun 30	Deorbited over Pacific Jul 24
36A	Kosmos-2195		RKA	Navigation	Jul  1    957 x  1010 x 82.9
37A	DSCS III F-6		USAF	Comsat		Jul  2  35780 x 35780 x  0.0 ?
38A	SAMPEX			NASA	Science		Jul  3    512 x   684 x 81.7
39A	Navstar GPS 26		USAF	Navigation	Jul  7  19967 x 20397 x 55.0
40A	Kosmos-2196		RKA	Early Warning	Jul  8    727 x 39637 x 63.6
41A	Insat IIA		ISRO	Comsat		Jul  9  35769 x 35803 x  0.1  74.1E
41B	Eutelsat II F-4		EUTEL	Comsat		Jul  9  35497 x 36066 x  0.1   9.0E
42A	Kosmos-2197		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1397 x  1416 x 82.6
42B	Kosmos-2198		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1409 x  1417 x 82.6
42C	Kosmos-2199		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1412 x  1426 x 82.6
42D	Kosmos-2200		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1404 x  1416 x 82.6
42E	Kosmos-2201		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1411 x  1422 x 82.6
42F	Kosmos-2202		RKA	Comsat		Jul 13   1407 x  1418 x 82.6
43A	Gorizont		RKA	Comsat		Jul 14  35768 x 35806 x  1.1  10.7W
44A	Geotail			ISAS	Science		Jul 24  In deep Earth-Moon space
44B	DUVE			NASA	Science		Jul 24    205 x   935 x 27.5
45A	Kosmos-2203		RKA	Imaging Recon	Jul 24	Landed in Kazakhstan Sep 22
46A	Soyuz TM-15		NPOE	Spaceship	Jul 27	Docked to Mir complex
47A	Kosmos-2204		RKA	Navigation	Jul 29  19110 x 19149 x 64.9
47B	Kosmos-2205		RKA	Navigation	Jul 29  19110 x 19148 x 64.9
47C	Kosmos-2206		RKA	Navigation	Jul 29  19094 x 19165 x 64.9
48A	Kosmos-2207		RKA	Imaging Recon	Jul 30	Landed in Kazakhstan Aug 13
49A	Atlantis STS-46		NASA	Spaceship	Jul 31	Landed at KSC Aug  8
49B	EURECA-1		ESA	Science		Jul 31    495 x   498 x 28.5
50A	Molniya-1		RKA	Comsat		Aug  6    820 x 39533 x 62.9
51A	FSW-2			PRC	Recon?		Aug  9	Reentered Sep 1
51A	FSW-2 capsule		PRC	-		Aug  9	Landed in China Aug 15?
52A	Topex/Poseidon	   NASA/CNES	Science		Aug 10   1634 x  1647 x 66.0
52B	Uribyol			KAIST	Remote sensing	Aug 10   1305 x  1327 x 66.1
52C	S80/T			CNES	Comsat		Aug 10   1303 x  1326 x 66.1
53A	Kosmos-2208		RKA	SIGINT		Aug 12    787 x   806 x 74.0
54A	Optus B1		OPTUS	Comsat		Aug 13  35783 x 35790 x  0.1 160.0E
55A	Progress M-14		NPOE	Cargo ferry	Aug 15	Deorbited over Kazakhstan Oct 21
-	Progress M-14 VBS	NPOE	Cargo capsule	Aug 15	Landed in Kazakhstan Oct 22
56A	Resurs-F		RKA	Remote sensing	Aug 19	Landed in Kazakhstan Sep  4
56C	Pion-Germes		Germes	Calibration	Aug 19	Reentered Sep 25
56D	Pion-Germes		Germes	Calibration	Aug 19	Reentered Sep 24
-	Galaxy IR		HCI	Comsat		Aug 22	Failed to orbit
57A	Satcom C4		GE	Comsat		Aug 31  35772 x 35796 x  0.1 135.1W
58A	Navstar GPS 27		USAF	Navigation	Sep  9  19911 x 20453 x 54.7 
59A	Kosmos-2209		RKA	Early Warning	Sep 10  35764 x 35806 x  1.1  24.3W
60A	Hispasat 1A		Hisp.	Comsat		Sep 10  35782 x 35793 x  0.0  30.2W
60B	Satcom C3		GE	Comsat		Sep 10  35783 x 35790 x  0.1 131.1W
61A	Endeavour STS-47	NASA	Spaceship	Sep 12	Landed at KSC Sep 20
61A	Spacelab J		NASDA	Science lab	Sep 12	Remained attached to STS-47
62A	Kosmos-2210		RKA	Imaging Recon	Sep 22	Landed in Kazakhstan Nov 20
63A	Mars Observer		NASA	Space probe	Sep 25	En route to Mars
64A	Freja			SSC	Science		Oct  6    597 x  1760 x 63.0
64B	FSW-1			PRC	Imaging Recon	Oct  6	Reentered Oct 31
64B	FSW-1 capsule		PRC	-		Oct  6	Landed in China Oct 14
65A	Foton			RKA	Science		Oct  8	Landed in Kazakhstan Oct 24
66A	Kopernikus 3		DBP	Comsat		Oct 12	35792 x 35797 x  0.0  29.7E drifting
67A	Molniya-3		RKA	Comsat		Oct 14    558 x 39794 x 62.8
68A	Kosmos-2211		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1401 x  1413 x 82.6
68B	Kosmos-2212		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1409 x  1413 x 82.6
68C	Kosmos-2213		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1412 x  1414 x 82.6
68D	Kosmos-2214		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1413 x  1422 x 82.6
68E	Kosmos-2215		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1412 x  1428 x 82.6
68F	Kosmos-2216		RKA	Comsat		Oct 20   1411 x  1415 x 82.6
69A	Kosmos-2217		RKA	Early Warning	Oct 21    711 x 39638 x 63.0
70A	Columbia STS-52		NASA	Spaceship	Oct 22	Landed at KSC Nov  1
70B	Lageos 2		ASI	Science		Oct 23   5616 x  5950 x 52.7
70C	CTA			CSA	Space Tech.	Oct 31	Reentered Nov 1
71A	Progress M-15		NPOE	Cargo ferry	Oct 27	Docked to Mir complex
-	Mak-2			NPOE	Science		Nov 20    374 x  380  x 51.6
72A	Galaxy VII		HCI	Comsat		Oct 28  35778 x 35796 x  0.1  91.0W
73A	Kosmos-2218		RKA	Navigation	Oct 29    968 x 1014  x 82.9
74A	Ekran			RKA	Comsat		Oct 30  35780 x 35799 x  1.4  99.1E
75A	Resurs-500		EA500	Advertising	Nov 15	Landed in Pacific Ocean Nov 22
76A	Kosmos-2219		RKA	SIGINT		Nov 17    848 x   856 x 71.0
77A	Kosmos-2220		RKA	Imaging Recon	Nov 20    177 x   328 x 67.1
78A	MSTI-1			SDIO	Military R&D	Nov 21    317 x   420 x 96.8
79A	Navstar GPS 32		USAF	Navigation	Nov 23  20076 x 20289 x 54.9
80A	Kosmos-2221		RKA	SIGINT		Nov 24    635 x   665 x 82.5
81A	Kosmos-2222		RKA	Early Warning	Nov 25    644 x 39721 x 62.9
82A	Gorizont		RKA	Comsat		Nov 27  35814 x 36528 x  1.3 drifting
83A	USA-86			NRO	Imaging Recon	Nov 28  Orbit unknown
84A	Superbird A		SCCJ	Comsat		Dec  1  35773 x 35800 x  0.1 158.1E
85A	Molniya-3		RKA	Comsat		Dec  2    410 x 39942 x 62.9 
86A	Discovery STS-53	NASA	Spaceship	Dec  2	Landed at Edwards AFB Dec 9
86B	Advanced Jumpseat 2?	NRO/NSA	SIGINT		Dec  2  Orbit unknown
-	ODERACS 1 - 6		NASA/DoD Calibration	Dec  2	Failed to deploy from Discovery
87A	Kosmos-2223		RKA	Imaging Recon	Dec  9    235 x   283 x 64.7
88A	Kosmos-2224		RKA	Comsat?		Dec 17  35976 x 36069 x  2.3 drifting
89A	Navstar GPS 29		USAF	Navigation	Dec 18  20038 x 20325 x 54.8
90A	Optus B2		Optus	Comsat		Dec 21    208 x  1029 x 28.1
91A	Kosmos-2225		RKA	Imaging Recon	Dec 22    209 x   310 x 64.9
92A	Kosmos-2226		RKA	Geodesy		Dec 22   1478 x  1525 x 73.6
93A	Kosmos-2227		RKA	SIGINT		Dec 25    849 x   853 x 71.0
94A	Kosmos-2228		RKA	SIGINT		Dec 25    663 x   668 x 82.5
95A	Kosmos-2229 (Bion 10)	RKA	Science		Dec 29    216 x   368 x 62.8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Notes:
Mak 2 (1986-17GX) was ejected from a Mir airlock on Nov 20. It was probably
brought into space aboard Progress M-15.

Acronyms:

ASCO	Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
ASI	Agenzia Spaziale Italiano (Roma, Italy)
CNES	Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (Paris, France)
CSA	Canadian Space Agency
DBP	Deutsche Bundespost (Germany)
DoD	United States Department of Defense
EA500	Konsortium Evropa-Amerika 500 (Russia)
ESA	European Space Agency
EUTEL	Euro. Telecommunications Satellite Organization
GE	GE American Communications
Germes	Germes ("Hermes") Oil Co. (Russia)
HCI	Hughes Communications Inc.
Hisp	Hispasat SA, Spain
INMAR   Int'l Maritime Satellite Organization
INTEL	Int'l Telecommunications Satellite Organization
ISAS	Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan
ISRO	Indian Space Research Organization
KAIST	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
KSC	NASA Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
MOM	Ministry of General Machine Building (Moskva, Russia)
NASA	United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASDA	National Space Development Agency, Japan
NPOE	NPO Energiya (Kaliningrad, Russia)
NRO	National Reconnaissance Office (DoD/CIA/NSA)
NSA	National Security Agency (Ft. Meade, MD)
Optus	Optus Pty (Australia)
PRC	Chinese Ministry of Astronautics
RKA	Russian Space Agency (Moskva, Russia)
SCCJ	Space Communications Corp. (Japan)
SDIO	Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, DoD
SSC	Swedish Space Corporation
TCI	Telcom, Indonesia
USAF	United States Air Force

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 140		1993 Jan 21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission STS-54
--------------

Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour was launched at 1359:30 UTC on Jan 13
into a 300 km, 28 degree orbit. At 2012 UTC the TDRS-6 satellite was
deployed; the two solid motors of IUS-13 ignited to place TDRS-6 in
synchronous orbit. The other payload in the bay was DXS, the University
of Wisconsin Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer. Initially, DXS did not shut
down quickly enough when passing through the intense South Atlantic
Anomaly radiation zone, causing damage to the instrument. After a gas
flushing procedure the problem was solved and it is believed that good
data were obtained. At 1050 UTC on Jan 17, the airlock was depressurized
for the DTO 1210 spacewalk experiment. Astronauts Greg Harbaugh and 
Mario Runco carried out a 4h 27 min spacewalk to verify the accuracy of
water training exercises. Deorbit came at 1238 UTC on Jan 19, with
landing at 1338 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour's
next mission is STS-57 in April. The next Shuttle flight is Columbia's
STS-55/Spacelab D-2 in February; the external tank has now been
mated to the solid rocket boosters.

Mir
---

Launch of Soyuz TM-16 is scheduled for Jan 24. Crew are
Gennadiy Manakov and Aleksandr Polishchuk. They will replace
the current Mir crew of Anatoliy Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2230 is a navigation satellite launched Jan 12 from Plesetsk.
It is built by PO Polyot of Omsk.

A Molniya comsat was launched Jan 13 from Plesetsk into 12 hour
elliptical orbit. It is built by NPO-PM of Krasnoyarsk.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/
ML3/STS-55/ET	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 141		1993 Jan 26
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mission STS-55
--------------

Mission STS-55 is due for launch in February. The payload is
Spacelab D-2, a materials science laboratory. It will comprise
a Spacelab Long Module with the Materials Science Double Rack,
the Anthrorack, and the Advanced Fluid Physics Module;
and a truss in the payload bay to carry more experiments
outside the pressurized Long Module. The Spacelab mission is to
be operated by DARA (Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten),
the German space agency and is the second German Spacelab
mission (Spacelab D-1 flew in 1985). The Spacelab payload will
be aboard OV-102 Columbia on its 14th flight. Crew are
Steven Nagel (Commander; 4th flight; commanded STS-37/GRO),  Tom
Henricks (Pilot; 2nd flight), Jerry Ross (Payload Commander; 4th
flight), Dr. Bernard Harris, MD (Mission Specialist, 1st flight),
Charles Precourt (Mission Specialist, 1st flight), Hans-Wilhelm Schlegel
(DARA Payload Specialist, 1st flight), and Dr. Ulrich Walter (DARA
Payload Specialist, 1st flight).


Mir
---

The Soyuz TM-16 spaceship was launched on Jan 24 at around 0600 UT. The
crew are Gennadiy Manakov and Aleksandr Polishchuk. The Soyuz carries
the APAS androgynous docking system instead of the usual probe system.
Most dockings use the 'probe and drogue system' where a probe on one
spacecraft is inserted into a socket on the other and latched. This has
the disadvantage that two spacecraft with the same `sex', e.g. both
probes, cannot dock with each other. NASA and NPO Energiya jointly
developed an 'androgynous' system for the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975;
each spacecraft has an identical system with three flanges sticking out,
and the flanges of one spacecraft fit between the flanges of the other.
After three solo test flights on Soyuz spaceships in 1974, the system
was first used for a docking in 1975 when it was carried on Soyuz-19 and
Apollo Docking Module 2 (the Apollo CSM 111 spaceship attached itself to
the Docking Module using the traditional probe/drogue system). Despite
the intention that it would replace the old system, it has not been used
for 17 years, since the Soyuz continued to use the old system and the
only American spaceships to have carried out a docking  in that period
are the Manned Maneuvering Units MMU 2 and 3, which used the
probe/drogue system. However, the Kristall module launched in May 1990
and attached to the Mir complex carries the APAS system, with the
intention that it be used for dockings with the Buran space shuttle. On
Jan 26 Manakov and Polishchuk successfully carried out a manual docking
with the Kristall module APAS port. This means there are now three
active ports on the complex - the Mir front port, occupied by Soyuz
TM-15 since Jul 1992; the Kvant rear port, occupied by Progress M-15
since Oct 1992; and the Kristall APAS port. Radio Moscow reports that an
unpiloted flight of the second Buran orbiter is still nominally
scheduled for the spring of 1994; the orbiter would carry out an
automatic docking with the Kristall module after which a crew would
enter it and possibly carry out a test flight in it. However it is clear
that funding for this mission has not been approved and I remain
doubtful that it will occur. Meanwhile, NASA orbiter OV-104 Atlantis is
at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California being reconfigured to
accept a docking module which would allow it to link up with the
Kristall module port in 1995, as part of a mission of an American
astronaut aboard the Mir station.

Mir complex current configuration:
(docking port numbers are my own arbitrary assignments;
they are in order of use.)

Mir port 1:       Soyuz TM-15
Mir port 2:       Kvant (port 1)
Mir port 3:       Kvant-2 (port 1)
Mir port 4:       Kristall (port 1)
Mir port 5:       (vacant)
Mir port 6:       (vacant)
Kvant port 1:	  Mir core module (port 2)
Kvant port 2:     Progress M-15
Kvant-2 port 1:   Mir core module (port 3)
Kvant-2 SPK port: SPK maneuvring unit
Kristall port 1:  Mir core module (port 4)
Kristall port 2:  Soyuz TM-16
					______
					\    /
			           ------|TM |------
				  |______|16 |______|
					 \   /
					 /   \
					 |   |
					 -----
                                         /___\ <-- APAS unit
                                         / 2 \
                                         \   /  <--Kristall docking
                                        -------    node
                                    |  /       \
                                    |  |       |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    | /Kristall \
              ______  _____________ | \_       _/
|\_____  __  _|     \ |            \|___\_1___/__  _____/|
|PM15| \/  \|  Kvant ||    Mir          \/4-\ /  \/ |TM15|
| ___|_/\__/|_2     1||2            ____    1|\__/\_|___ |
|/            |     / |             ____/\3_/           \|
              ------  |____________/   _/---- \_
                 ||                   /   1     \
                 ||                   \_Kvant-2_/
                 ||                    |       |
                 ||                    |       |
                 ||                    |   |   |
         Sofora  ||                    |   |   |
                 ||               SPK  |       |
                [_]                  []|       |
              VDU                       \_____/
                                        |-----|
					Airlock                                        

(c) Jonathan McDowell 1993


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Jan 12 1100?	Kosmos-2230	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Navsat	   01A
Jan 13 0155?	Molniya-1	Molniya		Plesetsk	Comsat	   02A
Jan 13 1359	Endeavour	STS-54		Kennedy		Spaceship  03A
Jan 13 2012	TDRS 6		IUS		STS-54,LEO	Comsat     03B
Jan 19 1455?	Kosmos-2231	Soyuz		Plesetsk	Recon      04A
Jan 24 0600?	Soyuz TM-16	Soyuz		Baykonur	Spaceship  05A

Reentries
---------

Jan 10 0416	Kosmos-2229	Landed in Kazakhstan
Jan 18		Kosmos-2220	Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jan 19 1338	Endeavour	Landed at Kennedy Space Center

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/
ML3/STS-55/ET	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 142		1993 Feb 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
------

Columbia was moved today from Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2
to Vehicle Assembly Building Bay 3 and mated to the ET/SRB 
stack. The mail STS-55 payload is Spacelab D-2. A small
secondary payload was to have been the BREMSAT microsatellite
which was to have been deployed from a GAS (Getaway Special)
canister. However, the failure of the similar ODERACS deployment
in December is still not understood, so the BREMSAT has been
removed from Columbia and will fly on a later mission. Launch
of STS-55 is expected on Feb 25.

Mir
---

Aleksandr Solov'yov and Sergey Avdeev undocked from the Mir complex
aboard Soyuz TM-15 on Feb 1 and landed the same day in Kazakhstan
after six months in space. The Soyuz TM-16 crew, Manakov and Polishchuk,
remain in orbit aboard the station. The Progress TM-15 cargo ferry
will undock soon to perform the Znamya solar sail experiment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2232 is a missile early warning satellite. It was launched from 
Plesetsk on Jan 26. Probably built by NPO-PM of Krasnoyarsk, the 
satellite is operated by the Russian Air Defense Forces (Voyska PVO). 
It is in an elliptical 63 degree, 12 hour orbit.

Large numbers of debris fragments have been detected in orbit associated
with the Kosmos-2227 satellite, launched on Dec 25. Either the satellite
or, more likely, its Zenit upper stage rocket, has disintegrated.

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Jan 12 1100?	Kosmos-2230	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Navsat	   01A
Jan 13 0155?	Molniya-1	Molniya		Plesetsk	Comsat	   02A
Jan 13 1359	Endeavour	STS-54		Kennedy		Spaceship  03A
Jan 13 2012	TDRS 6		IUS		STS-54,LEO	Comsat     03B
Jan 19 1455?	Kosmos-2231	Soyuz		Plesetsk	Recon      04A
Jan 24 0557	Soyuz TM-16	Soyuz		Baykonur	Spaceship  05A
Jan 26 1425?	Kosmos-2232	Molniya		Plesetsk	Early Warn 06A

Reentries
---------

Jan 10 0416	Kosmos-2229	Landed in Kazakhstan
Jan 18		Kosmos-2220	Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jan 19 1338	Endeavour	Landed at Kennedy Space Center
Feb  1		Soyuz TM-15	Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 143		1993 Feb 10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
------

Columbia is on pad 39A, ready for launch later in the month for
the Spacelab D-2 mission.

Mir
---

Progress TM-15 undocked from Mir on Feb 4. Later the same day, in a 400
km altitude orbit, it deployed the Znamya solar sail. The Progress was
used to point the sail for the mirror experiment, where sunlight was
reflected onto Western Europe; the patch of light was observed by the
Mir cosmonauts. Znamya was then jettisoned; because of its high surface
area to mass ratio, atmospheric drag rapidly lowered its orbit. By 0930
on Feb 5 it was in a 191 x 203 km orbit and it reportedly has since
reentered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

A McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 rocket launched the Rockwell Navstar GPS
22 satellite on Feb 3 into a 174x  20387 km x 34.8 deg orbit. The
satellite's on board apogee motor was then due to circularize the orbit
at 20000 km and change the inclination to 55 degrees. The satellite has
been given the designation USA 88. 

I note that the classified satellite deployed by Discovery in December
has still not been given either a USA number or a NORAD/Space Command
permanent  satellite catalog number. This is the first time that any US
payload has been omitted from the official satellite catalog, and seems
a particularly pathetic attempt at pretending it doesn't exist, given
that the object was observed by amateurs at sites across the world.  The
omission is further confirmation that the spacecraft has a signals
intelligence mission, since historically these satellites are treated
with the most secrecy. It will be interesting to see whether the US will
include the satellite in its next list of launchings submitted to the
United Nations under the Convention on Registration of Space Objects.
Only satellite USA-72 has so far been omitted from these listings
entirely, although other classified payloads have been listed with
erroneous or misleading orbital information.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s third Pegasus launch was a success. NASA's
NB-52 (S/N 008) flew from Edwards AFB to Kennedy Space Center in Florida
carrying the  Pegasus F3 launch vehicle, nicknamed 'Santos Dumont'. On
Feb 9 the NB-52 took off from the  SLF (Shuttle Landing Facility,
RW05/33) at Kennedy at around 1320 UTC and flew until it was 130 km off
the coast at 13 km altitude. The Pegasus was dropped at 1430 UTC and its
Hercules Orion 50S first stage motor ignited 5 seconds later. All three
stages worked well and Pegasus placed its Orion 38 third stage and the
110 kg Brazilian SCD-1 satellite in a 750 x 770 km x 25.0 deg orbit.  
The 'Satelite de Coleta de Dados' is operated by the Instituto Nacional
de Pesquisas Espacias (INPE) and will be used to forward environmental
data from remote stations in the Amazon, basin to a central ground
station.


Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Feb  3 0255	Navstar GPS 22	Delta 		Canaveral	Navsat	   07A
Feb  4 		Znamya 		-		Prog.M15,LEO	R&D	   1986-17GZ
Feb  9 1430	SCD-1		NB52/Pegasus F3	Kennedy		Comsat	   	   

Reentries
---------

Jan 24		Kosmos-1463	Reentered
Feb  1		Soyuz TM-15	Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  5?		Znamya		Reentered


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 144		1993 Feb 23
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
------

The launch of Columbia on mission STS-55 has been delayed until March.

Mir
---

Progress M-15 was deorbited on Feb 7 after completion of the
Znamya and autonomous operation experiments.
Another spacecraft was launched on Feb 21 from Baykonur; it is probably the
Progress M-16 cargo craft, to deliver fuel, air, water and supplies to
the Mir complex.

I have been unable to find the landing time for Soyuz TM-15. If anyone
has it, please let me know!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches
--------

A new X-ray astronomy observatory is in orbit. The Institute for Space
and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS), Japan's scientific space agency,
launched the Asuka satellite from Kagoshima Space Center on Feb 20. The
three stage Mu-3S-2 launch vehicle placed Asuka, formerly known as
ASTRO-D, into a 515 x 606 km x 31.1 deg orbit, which should give a good
lifetime for the mission and reasonable radiation background. Asuka is
Japan's first X-ray imaging telescope (its previous X-ray satellites
have carried x-ray detectors without focussing optics). It carries CCD
detectors and an imaging proportional counter. The spacecraft is
sensitive to the 0.5-12 keV energy range; this can be compared to the
soft 0.1-2.4 keV X-rays observed by ROSAT, the other main x-ray
satellite currently in orbit. The Asuka telescope has a 30 arcmin field
of view and 2 arcmin spatial resolution. Before the telescope enters
operation, it must be extended from its present folded configuration.
Asuka is the 22nd satellite successfully launched by ISAS.

Kosmos-2233, launched on Feb 9 from Plesetsk, is a 150 MHz doppler
navigation satellite. 

Kosmos-2234, 2235, and 2236, launched by Proton on Feb 17 from
Baykonur, are GLONASS atomic-clock navigation satellites.

The Orbcomm OXP-1 Capabilities Demonstration Satellite was carried
into orbit piggyback on the SCD-1 Pegasus flight on Feb 9. Orbcomm
is a satellite communications company which is a subsidiary of
Orbital Sciences, the company which builds the Pegasus.

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Feb  3 0255	Navstar GPS 22	Delta 		Canaveral	Navsat	   07A
Feb  4 		Znamya 		-		Prog.M15,LEO	R&D	   1986-17GZ
Feb  9 0250?	Kosmos-2233	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Navsat	   08A
Feb  9 1430	SCD-1	     )	NB52/Pegasus F3	Kennedy		Comsat	   09B
                Orbcomm OXP-1)                                  Comsat     09A
Feb 17 2025?	Kosmos-2234 )	Proton/Blok DM	Baykonur	Navsat	   10A
		Kosmos-2235 )					Navsat	   10B
		Kosmos-2236 )				  	Navsat	   10C
Feb 20 0220	Asuka		Mu-3S-2		Kagoshima	Astronomy  11A
Feb 21 1830?	Progress M-16?	Soyuz?		Baykonur	Cargo	   12A


Reentries
---------

Jan 24		Kosmos-1463	Reentered
Feb  1		Soyuz TM-15	Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  5		Znamya		Reentered
Feb  7		Progress M-15	Deorbited over Pacific?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/STS-57	       VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 145		1993 Mar  3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
------

The launch of Columbia on mission STS-55 has been delayed until March 14.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-15 landed at 0358 UTC on Feb 1 (Thanks to Yoshiro Yamada for
coming up with the information!).  Soyuz TM-15's flight was an in-orbit
record for a Soyuz spaceship - 188 days 21 h 39 m. The TM-15 flight is
thus the longest ever spaceflight in which the crew went up and came
down in the same spaceship. There have been 6 longer missions aboard
Salyut-7 and Mir since 1982. The mission gives Anatoli Solov'yov
377 days in space over 3 missions, putting him in the top 5 for
cumulative flight hours.

The Progress M-15 flight was also a record duration for a Progress craft
- 103 days. Progress M-16 was launched on Feb 21 from Baykonur, it is an
automated cargo craft, to deliver fuel, air, water and supplies to the
Mir complex. It docked with Mir on Feb 23.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Asuka spacecraft has successfully deployed its solar panels. The
next, and most critical, stage in its activation, expected as this issue
goes to press, is the extension of the deployable optical bench: Asuka
is the first truly *telescopic* telescope in space ( :-) ) and the
correct alignment of the mirrors is essential for mission success. Note
that the name Asuka is pronounced <As'ka> (the u is almost completely
swallowed). Because of confusion by English-speaking journalists over
the pronounciation, ISAS has invented a new name for use by Westerners,
ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics). However, JSR
will continue to use the name Asuka which I consider to be more
'correct'. 

The Kosmos-2183 spy satellite was deorbited on Feb 16 after 314 days in
orbit. The 16th of this advanced series, Kosmos-2223, was launched in
December to replace it.

Kosmos-2225, 4th in a series of advanced mapping satellites, was deorbited
after 58 days on Feb 18. There may have been an explosion during
the deorbit burn, as several fragments appeared in eccentric orbits at
the time of the deorbit.

The classified signals intelligence satellite launched by Discovery in
December finally entered the NORAD catalog around Feb 18 (although its
orbital elements are still classified). It has been assigned the name
USA 89 and the catalog number 22518; there is also a final stage rocket
with number 22519. Cataloging of a final stage rocket 75-80 days after
launch parallels the behaviour of USA 40, launched from Columbia in Aug
1989, which stayed in a low orbit for 114 days before firing and
separating from its final stage rocket, probably moving to a highly
elliptical 12-hour orbit. The satellite may carry out a high resolution
survey of radio emitters (e.g. radars) in low orbit before moving to an
orbit from which it can carry long term monitoring.

Launches
--------

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Feb  3 0255	Navstar GPS 22	Delta 		Canaveral	Navsat	   07A
Feb  4 		Znamya 		-		Prog.M15,LEO	R&D	   1986-17GZ
Feb  9 0250?	Kosmos-2233	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Navsat	   08A
Feb  9 1430	SCD-1	     )	NB52/Pegasus F3	Kennedy		Comsat	   09B
                Orbcomm OXP-1)                                  Comsat     09A
Feb 17 2030	Kosmos-2234 )	Proton/Blok DM	Baykonur	Navsat	   10A
		Kosmos-2235 )					Navsat	   10B
		Kosmos-2236 )				  	Navsat	   10C
Feb 20 0220	Asuka		Mu-3S-2		Kagoshima	Astronomy  11A
Feb 21 1830?	Progress M-16	Soyuz		Baykonur	Cargo	   12A


Reentries
---------

Feb  1	0358	Soyuz TM-15	Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  5		Znamya		Reentered
Feb  7		Progress M-15	Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 16		Kosmos-2183	Deorbited
Feb 18		Kosmos-2225	Landed in Kazakhstan?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/STS-57	       VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A


Erratum: In the annual launch list, I included a bogus
orbit for the Topex/Poseidon spacecraft. The orbit should have
read:
52A	Topex/Poseidon            1331 x 1343 x 66.1
Thanks to Russell Eberst for pointing out this error and to
Richard Langley for passing on the launch time of Kosmos-2234.


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 146		1993 Mar 15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not much has happened for the past couple weeks...

STS-55
------

The launch of Columbia on mission STS-55 has been delayed until March 21.
Meanwhile, Discovery was rolled to VAB Bay 1 on Mar 2 and mated with
the external tank on Mar 3, in preparation for STS-56, now scheduled
for April 7. Rollout of STS-56 to pad B was due on Mar 15.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Asuka spacecraft has successfully extended its optical bench.
Meanwhile, the call for observing proposals for the repaired Hubble
Space Telescope has been issued. The repair mission is scheduled for
December. For the first time in 10 years, a backup NASA astronaut is
being assigned to the mission. Greg Harbaugh will serve as  backup to
EVA astronauts Musgrave, Akers, Hoffman, and Thornton in case one of
them is unable to fly. The decision reflects the extensive training
required for the mission. NASA used to have full backup crews for every
mission. After the first four Shuttle flights, it was felt that there
would be enough Shuttle crews in training that crew members could be
replaced by someone from another crew, and that the training specific to
a particular mission didn't take that long. For Spacelab missions, the
non-NASA astronaut payload specialists have continued to have backups.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56/ET/OV-103   VAB Bay 1 
ML2/STS-57/ET	       VAB Bay 3
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 147		1993 Mar 22
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


STS-55
------

Launch of space shuttle Columbia on mission STS-55 was aborted
just after main engine ignition today. It appears that
at least one of the main engines failed to reach full thrust,
but details are not yet available. The engines were automatically
shut down and the SRBs were not ignited. The abort occurred
at 14:51:01 UTC on Mar 22, 3 seconds before scheduled liftoff.
This is the first abort since the Challenger accident.

 Space Shuttle Aborts after T-31s

1984 Jun 26		41-D		RSLS abort at T-6s
1985 Jul 12		51-F		RSLS abort at T-3s
1985 Jul 29		51-F		ATO abort at T+345s
1985 Dec 18		61-C		RSLS abort at T-14s
1986 Jan 28		51-L		Contingency abort at T+72s
1993 Mar 22		55		RSLS abort at T-3s

RSLS: Redundant Something Launch Sequencer
ATO : Abort To Orbit (ends up in low orbit)

Meanwhile, Discovery/STS-56 is now on pad 39B. The stack
for STS-57 has been moved to Bay 1 of the VAB while Bay 3
undergoes refurbishment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Linda Godwin has been appointed Deputy Chief of the Astronaut
Office, the first time a woman has held such a senior position in the
NASA Astronaut Office. Godwin flew on mission STS-37 in 1991.

Asuka has made its first observations of an astronomical source
using the GSIS detector. The advanced CCD detectors have
not yet been tested.

Mars Observer completed its third trajectory 
correction maneuver (TCM) on Mar 18.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56/ET/OV-103   LC39B 
ML2/STS-57/ET	       VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 148		1993 Mar 31
I'll be travelling for a couple of weeks so JSR will probably not
appear for a while.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55 and STS-56
-----------------

Analysis of the STS-55 launch pad abort is continuing. Contamination has
been found in the failed main engine check valve. STS-56 has jumped the
queue and is now due to launch on April 6 at 0532 UTC. STS-55 will
follow, in late April, and STS-57 will fly in late May. Now that STS-57
has been mated to its tank and boosters, there are three complete
Shuttle stacks at KSC.

New Russian Launch Vehicle
---------------------------

The first launch of the Start, a  converted RS-12M (NATO designation
SS-25) ICBM, was carried out from Plesetsk on Mar 25. It placed an test
satellite in orbit, carrying a comsat made by NPO Kompleks. The orbit is
683 x 970 km inclined 75.8 degrees, similar to the orbits used for test
launches of the Tsiklon rocket in 1977. The RS-12M was developed from 
the 1970's vintage RS-12 missile, known by NATO as SS-13. Both missiles
were developed by the Nadiradize design bureau. This is the first time
in many years that a Soviet military missile has been converted for
space use; previous cases were the Korolev R-7 (1957, became Vostok/Soyuz launcher),
the Yangel R-12 (1962, became original Kosmos launcher); the Yangel R-14
(1964, became current Kosmos launcher); and the Yangel R-36 (1966,
used for military space projects; civilian modification Tsiklon introduced
in 1977). The other Soviet launch vehicles (UR-500 Proton, N-1, Energiya, Zenit)
were developed directly for space use.

Atlas Failure
-------------

General Dynamics' Atlas-Centaur AC-74 was launched at 2138 UTC on Mar
25. The Atlas lost some power during the booster burn, and the Centaur
had to burn longer to make up and get into parking orbit. As a result,
the second Centaur burn to transfer orbit ran out of fuel during the
burn. The Hughes UHF Follow On (UFO) F1 satellite was left in a 219 x
9158 km x 27.3 deg orbit. The UFO F1 satellite is an HS-601 comsat built
by Hughes, and currently owned by Hughes. It was to be delivered
on-orbit to the US Navy to replace the Fltsatcom series of UHF
communications satellites, hence the name. This is the third failure of
the Atlas I class rocket in the last 4 launches; however, the Atlas II
class rocket has not had any failures.

Russian Launches
----------------

A geostationary satellite was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Mar
25. It hasn't reached its final position yet and I don't know what kind
of satellite it is (the name Gorizont in the table below is just a
guess). A signals intelligence satellite was launched by Zenit from
Baykonur on Mar 26. Again, I don't know the correct name yet, but the
orbit is one used by the latest generation of Kosmos electronic
listening satellites. 

Launches
--------

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Mar 25 0240?	Gorizont?	Proton		Baykonur	Comsat?	   13A
Mar 25 1330?	Kosmos-2237?	Start		Plesetsk	Comsat	   14A
Mar 25 2138	UFO 1		Atlas I		Canaveral	Comsat	   15A
Mar 26 0225?	Kosmos-2238?	Zenit		Baykonur	SIGINT	   16A
Mar 30 0309	Navstar GPS 31	Delta		Canaveral	Navsat	   17A


Reentries
---------

Mar 11		Kosmos-1116	Reentered
Mar 14		NSA B7 		Reentered (1967-43B)
Mar 16		DUVE		Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56/ET/OV-103   LC39B 
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 150		1993 Apr 19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-56 
----------------- 

The Spartan-201 satellite was deployed using the RMS arm on Apr 11 at
0611 UTC. It carried an ultraviolet coronagraph and a white light
coronagraph for studies of the Sun. On Apr 12 the NIXT x-ray telescope
was launched on a sounding rocket from White Sands to get a simultaneous
x-ray image of the Sun. Discovery carried out re-rendezvous maneuvers
on Apr 12 and the Spartan satellite was grappled with the arm at
0720 on Apr 13. By 0802 it was reberthed in the payload bay.
Discovery fired its OMS engines to return from orbit at 1034 on Apr 17;
main gear touchdown on RW33 at Kennedy Space Center was at 1137 on Apr 17,
for a mission duration of 9d 6h 8m 19s. Discovery's next mission
is STS-51 in June. Columbia is due to launch on mission STS-55 on Apr 24.


Erratum: The Apr 6 launch attempt of STS-56 was an RSLS hold, not an
RSLS abort. The distinction is that the main engines had not started, so
it was not considered an abort. The hold was due to a faulty sensor and
not a software problem as was reported by various media;  the workaround
for the successful Apr 8 launch was to modify the software to ignore the
sensor and monitor it manually. To keep the statistics hounds happy, I
here present a revised list of all occasions on which a Shuttle countdown
got past the T-31s point (when the RSLS computers take over the count)
but either did not launch or did not reach the planned orbit. This
includes 8 FRF static tests, where the orbiter engines were fired
to test them out. Each orbiter had one of these tests carried
out before its first launch. The Challenger one had to be repeated
because of engine problems on the first try. In addition, an FRF
was carried out for Discovery before the first `return to flight'
mission after the loss of Challenger. This one also had to be repeated
because of an abort one second after engine ignition.

 Space Shuttle Holds and Aborts after T-31s

Date		 Where	Orbiter	Mission		Description
1981 Feb 20,1345 LC39A	102	STS-1 FRF	FRF for 20s
1982 Dec 18	 LC39A	099	STS-6 FRF 	FRF for 20s
1983 Jan 25	 LC39A	099	STS-6 FRF-2 	FRF for 20s
1984 Jun  2	 LC39A  103	STS 41-D FRF	FRF for 20s?
1984 Jun 26,1243 LC39A	103	STS 41-D	RSLS abort at T-6s
1985 Jul 12,2030 LC39A	099	STS 51-F	RSLS abort at T-3s
1985 Jul 29,2105 Ascent	099	STS 51-F	ATO abort at T+345s
1985 Sep 12 	 LC39A	104	STS 51J	FRF  	FRF for 20s
1985 Dec 18	 LC39A	102	STS 61-C	RSLS hold at T-14s
1986 Jan 28,1639 Ascent	099	STS 51-L	Contingency abort at T+72s
1988 Aug  4	 LC39B  103	STS-26R FRF 	RSLS abort T-5, 1s of planned 22s FRF
1988 Aug 10	 LC39B	103	STS-26R	FRF-2	FRF for 22s
1992 Apr  6,1513 LC39B  105	STS-49 FRF	FRF for 22s
1993 Mar 22,1451 LC39A	102	STS-55		RSLS abort at T-3s
1993 Apr  6,0632 LC39B	103	STS-56		RSLS hold at T-11s

FRF: Flight Readiness Firing (static test of Shuttle engines, intentionally
stopped after 20 second firing)
RSLS: Redundant Set Launch Sequencer
ATO : Abort To Orbit (ends up in low orbit)


Hiten Mission Ends
------------------

The Hiten space probe, operated by the Japanese scientific space agency
ISAS, has impacted the lunar surface. Hiten (MUSES-A) was launched on
1990 Jan 24 from the Kagoshima Space Center. On 1990 Mar 18 it made a
16000 km lunar flyby and separated the Hagoromo subsatellite which
entered lunar orbit. Further lunar flybys occurred on 1990 Jul 10, Aug
4, Sep 7, Oct 2, 1991 Jan 3, Jan 27, Mar 3, Apr 26 and Oct 2, at
distances between 12000 and 76000 km. On 1991 Mar 19 Hiten carried out
the first aerobraking experiment in Earth's atmosphere, with a perigee
of 125.5 km. A second aerobraking pass was made on Mar 30 at 120.2 km,
to make a planned change in Hiten's orbit. On 1992 Feb 15 after a final
2000 km flyby of the Moon Hiten fired its engine to enter a 9600 km x
49400 km x 35 deg lunar orbit. On 1993 Apr 10 at 1803.38 its orbit, by
this time perturbed to a lower periapsis, intersected the lunar surface
at 55.5 deg E, 34.0 deg S. Hiten and Hagoromo were the first new
probes in lunar orbit since Luna-24 in 1976.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       KSC           STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                   
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 1
ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 151		1993 Apr 26
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
----------------- 

Columbia was launched on mission STS-55 at 1450.00 UTC on 1993 Apr 26.
The payload is the German Spacelab D-2 module. This is Columbia's 14th
flight. Discovery has now made 16 flights (it started later, but
Columbia was out of service for most of the 1983-1988 period, only
making two flights in those 5 years, which put it behind). Hans-Wilhelm
Schlegel and Ulrich Walter become the 6th and 7th German space
travelers, after Sigmund Jahn, Ulf Merbold, Reinhard Furrer, Ernst
Messerschmid, and Klaus-Dietrich Flade. NASA crew members are
Steve Nagel, Tom Henricks, Jerry Ross, Charles Precourt, and 
Bernard Harris. Spacelab D-2 carries materials processing and
life sciences experiments, as well as an ultraviolet Schmidt
camera which will image the galactic plane.


Launches
--------

Kosmos-2242, a signals intelligence spacecraft was launched on Apr 16
from Plesetsk by Tsiklon into a 632 x 666 km x 82.5 deg orbit. The launch
vehicle, and possibly the spacecraft, are built by the Ukrainian
company NPO Yuzhnoye. 

A Molniya-3 communications spacecraft was launched on Apr 21 from
Plesetsk using the standard R-7 Soyuz vehicle with a Blok-L fourth
stage, a configuration known as the Molniya launch vehicle. There are
two types of Molniya in service, the Molniya-1 used for Russian
government and military communications and the Molniya-3 used for
television programming. They are built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki
of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The Molniya satellites use a highly elliptical
orbit with a 12 hour period; most of the time is spent near apogee high
over northern Russia.

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

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
Apr 11 0611	Spartan-201			Discovery,LEO	Astronomy  23B
Apr 16 0800?	Kosmos-2242	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	SIGINT	   24A
Apr 21 0030?	Molniya-3	Molniya		Plesetsk	Comsat	   25A
Apr 26 1450	Columbia	Shuttle		Kennedy LC39	Spaceship

Reentries
---------

Apr  1		Mak-2		Reentered
Apr 17		Discovery	Landed at KSC



Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                   
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   VAB Bay 1
ML3/                   LC39A


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 152		1993 May 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
----------------- 

Columbia/Spacelab D-2 continues on orbit on mission STS-55. Landing is due
for May 6. Orbit of Columbia is 297 x 303 km x 28.5 deg.
Meanwhile Endeavour has been moved to the pad for mission
STS-57, due in June. 

Mir
---

Gennady Manakov and Aleksandr Polischuk made a 5h 25m spacewalk
on Apr 19 to begin work on moving the Kristall module's solar
panels to the Kvant module. On this EVA they installed equipment
on the outside of the Kvant module which will be used on 
later walks to attach the panels. These later walks have now been
postponed due to damage to a crane which occurred on this EVA.

Launches
--------

The Los Alamos/Aero-Astro Corp  Alexis x-ray astronomy satellite was
launched by a three stage Orbital Sciences Corp Pegasus booster from
NASA's NB-52 on Apr 26. The B-52 took off from Edwards AFB at 1244 UTC
and dropped the Pegasus over the Pacific along the Western Test Range
near Vandenberg at 1356 UTC. During the coast between second and third
stage burns, damage to the satellite was detected. At least one of the
solar panels appears to have become detached. Although the payload was
inserted into an 800 km, 70 degree orbit, controllers could not
establish communication with it and it appears that the mission is lost.
Orbital Sciences claim that the damage to the satellite was not caused
by any Pegasus component. Alexis was to have monitored the sky in three
narrow energy bands between 0.06 and 0.1 keV; it also carried the
Blackbeard experiment to study ionospheric effects on radio
transmissions. Alexis is part of the USAF Space Test Program and is also
known as P89-1.

Kosmos-2243 is a high resolution reconnaissance satellite in a 180 x 220
km x 70.4 deg orbit.

Kosmos-2244 is an electronic intelligence satellite which
tracks ships by detecting their radio transmissions. It is working
together with Kosmos-2238, launched on Mar 30. Data from the two
satellites is compared to determine the location of the target.
They operate in a 400 x 420 km orbit inclined 65 deg.

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

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
Apr 11 0611	Spartan-201			Discovery,LEO	Astronomy  23B
Apr 16 0800?	Kosmos-2242	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	SIGINT	   24A
Apr 21 0030?	Molniya-3	Molniya		Plesetsk	Comsat	   25A
Apr 25 1244	Alexis		Pegasus		Edwards/NB52	Astronomy  26A
Apr 26 1450	Columbia	Shuttle		Kennedy LC39	Spaceship  27A
Apr 27 1230?	Kosmos-2243	Soyuz		Baykonur	Recon	   28A
Apr 28 0335?	Kosmos-2244	R-36		Baykonur	Ocean Rec. 29A


Reentries
---------

Apr  1		Mak-2		Reentered
Apr 17		Discovery	Landed at KSC



Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                   
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/                   


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 153		1993 May 11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STS-55
-------

Columbia was diverted to Edwards AFB due to bad weather at Kennedy Space
Center. Deorbit was at 1329 UTC May 6 with main gear touchdown on Runway
22 at Edwards at 1430.00 UTC. On this mission, Columbia retook the lead
from Discovery for the orbiter with most flight hours. The current
rankings are:
   
 Orbiter	Number of Flights  	Hours:Minutes

 Columbia	14			2609:19
 Discovery	16			2392:51
 Atlantis	12			1737:51
 Challenger	10			1495:58
 Endeavour	 3			 556:25
-------------------------------------------------
 Total		55 			8792:24 = 366 days 8 h 24 m

The long flight (4th longest mission) put Steve Nagel and Jerry Ross into
the top five active NASA astronauts ranked by total flight hours:

Astronaut	No Flts  Hours  'Rank'

Bonnie Dunbar 	3	761:15	Payload Commander
Steve Nagel 	4	721:35	Commander
Guy Bluford 	4	688:34	Mission Specialist
Jerry Ross 	4	653:23	Payload Commander
Hoot Gibson 	4	632:56	Chief Astronaut



Orbits for Classified Satellites
--------------------------------

The latest US submissions to the United Nations (ST/SG/SER.E/258 and
260) reports a number of orbits for classified satellites. The
reports cover the period Sep 1990 to Sep 1992. The orbits
give only apogee, perigee and inclination rather than the full 2-line
set needed to track the objects. In some cases the orbits agree well
with those established from direct observation by the group coordinated
by T. Molczan.  In other cases the orbits reported by the US government
are highly implausible, sometimes because of sloppiness and sometimes
because of deliberate deception. Note that the names assigned to pieces below
are my guesses; the UN info contains only the designation (e.g. 1991-17B)
and the orbit.


DESIG    PERIOD  PERI    APO     INC    NAME-GUESS  	NOTES
1990-50F  129.2  1228 x  2960 x 63.5   NOSS part
1990-50G  125.4  1224 x  2601 x 63.4   NOSS part
1990-95A 1421.8 35614 x 35699 x  3.1   USA-65 (DSP)
1990-95B  142     171 x 35352 x 27.4   SRM-1		1
1990-95C  622.1 35311 x 35702 x  3.1   SRM-2		1
1990-97B   87.5    78 x   226 x 28.5   USA-67		2
1990-97C   87.5    78 x   226 x 28.5   SRM-1		2
1990-97D   87.5    78 x   226 x 28.5   SRM-2		2
1991-17A   95.5   420 x   662 x 68.0   USA-69 (Lac.2)	3
1991-17B   95.5   420 x   662 x 68.0   Titan 4
1991-31C   ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE      USA-70 (MPEC)    4
1991-76A   ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE      USA-72           4
1991-76B   ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE      Titan 4          4
1991-76C  113.9  1399 x  1427 x 82.6   USA-74		5
1991-76D   (Omitted from UN report)    USA-76		6
1991-76E   (Omitted from UN report)    USA-77		6
1991-76F   93.3   275 x   614 x 61.0   NOSS part
1991-80B 1421.8 35795 x 53787 x  2.5   USA-75		7
1991-82A  101.9   844 x   871 x 98.9   USA-73 (DMSP)
1991-82B  ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE       DMSP part	8
1991-82C   93.3   596 x   275 x 61.0   DMSP part	8
1991-82D   93.3   596 x   275 x 61.0   DMSP part	8
1991-82E  101.8   835 x   853 x 98.9   DMSP part
1992-06A 1300.5 30675 x 35503 x  0.9   USA-78 (DSCS)     9
1992-06B  608.8   265 x 34669 x 26.4   Centaur
1992-06C 1298.0 27397 x 38679 x  0.3   IABS
1992-23A   89.3   145 x   175 x 84.9   USA-81		10
1992-23B   89.1   145 x   175 x 85.0   Titan 4
1992-37A 1436.2 35775 x 35800 x  0.2   USA-82 (DSCS)    
1992-37B  617.3   223 x 35053 x 26.5   Centaur
1993-37C 1416.6 35289 x 35520 x  0.3   IABS

1  Period clearly a typo, violates  Kepler's third law
2  These orbits are probably completely spurious. The low perigee would
  cause rapid reentry. Most analysts believe that the initial
  orbit of the spacecraft B was more like 241x241 km x28.5 deg,
  with an immediate upper stage burn to geostationary transfer
   before separation of C and then D.
3  This is in very good agreement with the orbit derived by
  observers. However 17A changed its orbit within a month
  of launch, so the information is misleading.
4  ELEMENTS NOT AVAILABLE is blatantly a fiction
  for 'Elements still classified in violation of UN convention'.
5  Orbit reported by observers as 107.5 1052x1164x63.4; 
   this is in serious disagreement with the UN orbit.
6  Omitted from UN report in violation of UN convention.
7  Apogee clearly a typo for 35787.
8  Orbits are spurious. This launch is unclassified and
   NORAD released elements for these objects which were
   similar to 1991-82A, 1991-82E. Possibly the listed orbits
   are really part of the 1991-76 launch.
9  This orbit was probably later raised using the satellite's
   on-board propulsion system.
10 Orbit later raised; found by observers in the following orbit:
	100.77 788 x 801 x 85.0

Reentries
---------

Apr 29		Kosmos-925	Reentered
May  6		Columbia	Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        Edwards       STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                   
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/                   


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 154         1993 May 18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
----------------- 

Columbia returned to KSC aboard the 747 on May 14 and is now in the
Orbiter Processing Facility  being turned around for the STS-58 mission
in August. Next mission is Endeavour/STS-57 due for June 3; according to
the magazine Space News, pad workers have been unable to locate the
source of a crash-bang-clatter sound heard emanating from the orbiter
during pad tests. Doesn't that give you a great feeling? STS-57
will carry the Spacehab experiment module and retrieve the European
EURECA satellite.

Mir
---

Gennady Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk remain in orbit aboard the Mir
complex. Soyuz TM-16 is docked to the Kristall axial port and Progress
M-16 is docked to the Kvant port. A new Progress mission is due for
launch on May 18 and will dock to the forward Mir port. Apologies
for misspelling Poleshchuk's name in previous reports; the new spelling
is consistent with the transliteration scheme I normally use.

Launches
--------

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr 16 0800?    Kosmos-2242     Tsiklon         Plesetsk        SIGINT     24A
Apr 21 0030?    Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     25A
Apr 25 1244     Alexis          Pegasus         Edwards/NB52    Astronomy  26A
Apr 26 1450     Columbia     )  Shuttle         Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  27A
                Spacelab D-2 )
Apr 27 1230?    Kosmos-2243     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      28A
Apr 28 0335?    Kosmos-2244     R-36            Baykonur        Ocean Rec. 29A
May 11 1450?    Kosmos-2245 )   Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     30A
                Kosmos-2246 )                                              30B
                Kosmos-2247 )                                              30C
                Kosmos-2248 )                                              30D
                Kosmos-2249 )                                              30E
                Kosmos-2250 )                                              30F
May 12 0056     Astra 1C   )    Ariane 42L      Kourou          Comsat     31A
                Arsene     )                                    Comsat     31B
May 13 0007     Navstar GPS 37  Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     32A

Reentries
---------

Apr 17          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Apr 29          Kosmos-925      Reentered
May  6          Kosmos-2243     Reentered
May  6          Columbia        Landed at Edwards AFB


Six small Gonets class communications satellites, Kosmos-2245 to Kosmos-2250,
were launched into a 1400 x 1420 km orbit at an inclination of 82.6 degrees
on May 11. The satellites are built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhanikoi of Krasnoyarsk.

It has been reported that the Kosmos-2243 recon satellite launched
on Apr 27 was destroyed due to an explosion in the Blok-I third stage
of the Soyuz launch vehicle near the end of third stage burn. Space
Command cataloged the satellite (or its main fragment) as reentering
on May 6.

The Ariane launch vehicle made its much delayed first launch of the year
on May 12. The main payload was the Astra 1C television broadcasting
satellite for SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites, based in
Luxembourg) and it will be stationed at 19 degrees E over the equator.
This satellite is the fifth Hughes HS-601 comsat to be launched; two of
the five have been lost in launch accidents. A second payload was the
ARSENE satellite built by the French amateur radio group RACE (Radio
Amateur Club de L'Espace).  This launch was the first flight of the
Ariane 42L variant, with two liquid strapon boosters. The basic Ariane 4
variant without strapons is the 40, which has made two flights. The 42P
(4 flights) and 44P (2 flights) have two and four liquid strapons; the
44LP (6 flights)  has two liquids and two solids; and the 44L (13
flights) has 4 liquid boosters. Ariane 4 has made a total of 28 flights
of which one was a failure. Its main rival, the Delta II, has now made
34 flights with no failures.

The latest Delta II flight also marked the 600th launch of  McDonnell
Douglas' Thor first stage. The Thor started life in 1957 as an
intermediate range ballistic missile; it is one of the most used large
rocket stages, beaten only by the Minuteman (about 760 launches of the
M55A1/M55E1 first stage) and OKB-1's R-7 ICBM (at least 1490 launches,
of which 1424 put a payload in orbit, since pre-Sputnik suborbital tests
in 1957 to the Apr 27 launch of Kosmos-2243). 

The Delta's payload was a Rockwell Navstar navigation satellite GPS/SVN 37, 
which carries an atomic clock and operates in a 20000 km high circular orbit.
The last Navstar launch, GPS/SVN 31, carried an interesting secondary
payload, the SEDS tether experiment. Enrico Lorenzini,
one of the scientists involved in the experiment, graciously gave me some 
technical details on the mission, so I include a detailed recap of the flight
below. Opinions and errors are, of course, mine.



The SEDS 1 Mission
-------------------

Space tethers were experimented with on the Gemini XI and XII missions
in 1966 with the idea of eventually using them to provide artificial
gravity. At the time the true potential of space tethers was not
understood. Recent theoretical work has led to the idea that long
tethers can be used to generate electricity, alter a spacecraft's orbit,
and deliver probes to study the upper atmosphere. In August 1992 an
ambitious Italian Space Agency experiment on the Shuttle, TSS-1,
attempted to deploy a long tether. However, there were problems with the
deployer mechanism and the tether only got out to a quarter of a
kilometre. Although a lot was learned about tether dynamics during
retrieval - a time when the tether is least controllable - the mission
was a failure. The first fully successful tether mission was carried out
on 1993 Mar 30. The SEDS (Small Expendable Deployer System) consisted of
a small 10 kg deployer cylinder 33 cm long and a tiny 23 kg satellite
(`end mass') of similar size. The satellite was connected to the
cylinder by a rope made of Spectra-1000 which was 0.75 mm in diameter
and 20 km long. The cylinder remained attached to the Delta second stage
rocket in orbit. Here is a log of the mission events.

1993 Mar 30
Time (UTC)
0309   A Delta model 7925 launch vehicle, Delta 219,
       ignited on Launch  Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral. 9 solid Hercules GEM
       strapon boosters and an Extra Extended Long Tank Thor liquid first stage
       propelled the Delta onto a suborbital trajectory. 
0314?  The Delta ignited its single Aerojet AJ10-118K engine for the first time. 
0320?  Delta main engine cut off; the spacecraft entered a 184 x 746 km orbit 
       inclined 34.0 deg to the equator. 
0321?  The Delta's main payload separated: a PAM-D solid rocket carrying the 
       Navstar GPS 31 navigation satellite. 
0330?  The PAM-D ignited, placing itself and GPS 31 in an elliptical 
       150 x 20415 km orbit inclined 34.8 degrees. The GPS 31 would later
       fire its internal Star 37 solid motor to end up in a 20000 km circular
       orbit.
0412   Delta 219 reached first apogee at 746 km. The SEDS-1 end mass was
       released from the deployer cylinder and began to unreel down towards
       Earth.
0527   The SEDS-1 end mass was now 20 km below Delta 219 - at the end
       of its tether (pun intended). The end mass was allowed to swing
       back and forth on the tether like a huge pendulum so its dynamics
       could be studied.
0541   A knife on the deployer cylinder aboard Delta 219 cut through the
       tether, while Delta 219 was at its second apogee. The end mass
       now found itself free in orbit at an altitude of 726 km. 
       However, the combination of the backwards speed it picked up 
       while swinging on the tether and the lower altitude meant that 
       its new orbit was -50 x 726 km x 34.0 deg, with a perigee 50 km
       below the surface of the Earth.
0612   Delta 219 reignited its main engine to use up excess fuel. Earlier
       Deltas had exploded in orbit because of leftover fuel, so this
       maneuver was introduced to reduce the pollution of orbital debris.
       The Delta ended up in a 305 x 1300 km orbit inclined 36.2 deg.
0616   The path of the SEDS end mass, following its orbital trajectory, 
       intersected the atmosphere 100 km above the Pacific Ocean just
       south of Baja California. The end mass and the attached tether
       burned up on reentry, and the SEDS 1 mission was at an end.

The SEDS system was developed and  built by NASA-Marshall, the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Tether Applications of
San Diego, CA; the end mass was built by NASA-Langley. A second SEDS
mission this summer will investigate the electromagnetic properties of
space tethers.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                   
ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105   LC39B
ML3/                   


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 155         1993 May 25
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The STS-57 launch is due on June 3. Endeavour's main payload is the 
Spacehab module. This is a commercial pressurized module belonging to
Spacehab, Inc. The pressurized module itself was built by Alena Spazio
of Italy. It's somewhat smaller than a Spacelab module and much less
fancy, and provides extra storage space for experiments and limited lab
facilities. On this mission there are about 20 main experiments for
materials processing, life sciences, and technology, including a test of
a water recycling system for the Space Station. Other payloads include
SHOOT, the Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer, and a GAS Bridge
Assembly with ten getaway special canisters, also mostly with materials
processing and life sciences experiments. GAS can G-601 carries a
helioseismology experiment developed by the San Diego section of the
AIAA. SHOOT will carry liquid helium at a temperature of 1.1 K, and will
test ways of moving the cryogen from one dewar to another. Further
activities on the mission will be the rendezvous with and retrieval
of the EURECA (European Carrier) satellite, and the DTO1210 spacewalk
to practise for the Station assembly and the HST repair.

Crew for STS-57 are Col. Ronald Grabe (Commander), Col. Brian Duffy
(Pilot), David Low (Payload Commander), Capt. Nancy Sherlock (Mission
Specialist 2), Dr. Jeff Wisoff (Mission Specialist 3) and Dr. Janice
Voss (Mission Specialist 4). Low and Wisoff will make the spacewalk.


Mir
---

The Progress M-18 supply ship was launched from Baykonur on May 22. It
is to dock at the front port of the Mir complex. The Progress M, built
by NPO Energiya,  is a modified Soyuz ship without a crew, and carries
food, water, air and other supplies. This one also carries repair
equipment for a spacewalk device damaged last month. Cosmonauts
Manakov and Poleshchuk will make another spacewalk to carry out
the repair.


Launches
--------

A spacecraft was launched into a 82.6 degree inclination orbit 
from Plesetsk on May 21 by a Soyuz launch vehicle. The satellite
is probably a Resurs-F satellite built by KB Foton of Samara.
The Resurs-F is a modified version of the original Vostok spaceship,
carrying film cameras to image the Earth for civilian remote
sensing. The spacecraft will be recovered in a few weeks.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 11 1450?    Kosmos-2245 )   Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     30A
                Kosmos-2246 )                                              30B
                Kosmos-2247 )                                              30C
                Kosmos-2248 )                                              30D
                Kosmos-2249 )                                              30E
                Kosmos-2250 )                                              30F
May 12 0056     Astra 1C   )    Ariane 42L      Kourou          Comsat     31A
                Arsene     )                                    Comsat     31B
May 13 0007     Navstar GPS 37  Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     32A
May 21          Resurs-F?       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote Sens. 33A
May 22          Progress M-18   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      33A

Reentries
---------

May  6          Kosmos-2243     Reentered
May  6          Columbia        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1?/RSRM-33             VAB Bay 1   STS-51
ML2/RSRM-32/ET-58/OV-105 LC39B       STS-57
ML3/                   


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 156         1993 Jun 2
Off to the AAS in Berkeley for a week - there will probably
be no JSR next week. Anyone at the AAS, stop by and say hi
at my poster on Monday. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The STS-57 launch has been delayed until the middle of June.
The delay was caused by the decision to replace a main engine
turbopump.

Here's an update on the current Shuttle schedule.

Jun  STS-57  Endeavour  Spacehab-1, GBA 5, SHOOT, Eureca retrieval,DTO-1210 EVA
Jul  STS-51  Discovery  ACTS/TOS, ORFEUS-SPAS, DTO-1210 EVA
Sep  STS-58  Columbia   Spacelab Life Sciences 2/Extended Duration Orbiter
Nov  STS-60  Discovery  Spacehab-2, GBA 6, Wake Shield Facility, RKA 
Dec  STS-61  Endeavour  HST Servicing Mission, 5 repair EVAs

Mir
---

The Progress M-18 cargo craft docked with Mir on May 24. The Mir complex
now consists of the core module, the Kvant, Kvant-2 and Kristall modules,
the Sofora structure, and the Soyuz TM-16, Progress M-17 and Progress
M-18 ferry craft. A return capsule on board Progress M-18 will be
used to return experimental samples to Earth in July.

Launches
--------

The spacecraft launched on May 21 has been confirmed as a Resurs-F
remote sensing flight. It is the Resurs-F2 model, which stays in orbit
for around 30 days. On May 26 its orbit was 228 x 233 km x 82.6 deg.


The Arsene amateur radio satellite has successfully fired its SEP Mars
apogee motor and is in a 17600 x 37000 km orbit inclined at 1 degree to
the equator. Its VHF system isn't working right but the S-band
reportedly is fine.

A Gorizont communications satellite was launched by Proton on May 27
from Baykonur. I don't have any orbital elements yet, but a Space News
article indicates that the NPO Energiya-built Blok-DM fourth stage
failed, leaving  the payload either in parking orbit or in an incorrect
transfer orbit. The Blok-DM is separate from the main UR-500K Proton
rocket built by NPO Mashinostroeniye, and is essentially considered to
be part of the payload,  like IUS stages on Shuttle missions. On
geostationary orbit missions, it burns twice, first to go from low
circular orbit to geostationary transfer orbit, and second to
circularize the transfer orbit at apogee. A bigger stage is needed for
this than for US launch vehicles: Russia's launch site in Kazakhstan is
at 46 deg North, and because of ground range constraints the initial
orbit is at 51 degrees to the equator, requiring a large velocity change
to enter the final equatorial orbit. The Blok-D series of upper stages
was originally developed for the Soviet piloted moon landing program.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 11 1450?    Kosmos-2245 )   Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     30A
                Kosmos-2246 )                                              30B
                Kosmos-2247 )                                              30C
                Kosmos-2248 )                                              30D
                Kosmos-2249 )                                              30E
                Kosmos-2250 )                                              30F
May 12 0056     Astra 1C   )    Ariane 42L      Kourou          Comsat     31A
                Arsene     )                                    Comsat     31B
May 13 0007     Navstar GPS 37  Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     32A
May 21 0920?    Resurs-F2       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote Sens. 33A
May 22 0645?    Progress M-18   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      34A
May 26 0335?    Molniya-1       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     35A
May 27          Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     36A?

Reentries
---------

May  6          Kosmos-2243     Reentered
May  6          Columbia        Landed at Edwards AFB
May 20          Molniya-1(37)   Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1?/RSRM-33             VAB Bay 1   STS-51
ML2/RSRM-32/ET-58/OV-105 LC39B       STS-57
ML3/                     

Acronym reminder:
ET:   External Tank
LC:   Launch Complex
ML:   Mobile Launcher
OMDP: Orbiter Maintainance Down Period
OPF:  Orbiter Processing Facility
OV:   Orbiter Vehicle
RSRM: Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor
SRB:  Solid Rocket Booster
VAB:  Vehicle Assembly Building




 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 157         1993 Jun 14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proton Failure - ERRATUM
------------------------

The launch failure of a Gorizont comsat on May 27 turns out to be due to
the Proton's third stage rather than an upper stage problem. It now
appears that the spacecraft failed to enter orbit. The UR-500K Proton is
built by NPO  Mashinostroenie's Krunishchev factory. This is the first
time the UR-500K has failed to reach orbit since 1986, although there
have been several upper stage failures since then.

Kosmos-2240
-----------

The Kosmos-2240 spy satellite, launched on Apr 2, reentered on Jun 7.
Kosmos-2240 is one of a series of satellites known in the West as '4th
generation' spy satellites. It appears that, unlike all earlier Soviet
imaging recon satellites, they do not use the 1959-vintage Vostok
satellite bus, although they are probably still made by the same
company, the TsSKB (Central Specialized Design Bureau), formerly a
subdivision of NPO Energiya. They were introduced in 1975,  and
originally had a lifetime of 30 days which was a big improvement on the
Vostok satellites, at that time limited to 15 day missions. Later minor
improvements increased the lifetime, first to 44 days and then, in 1984,
to 59 days. The two flights so far this year show a further improvement,
lasting 65 and 66 days. This modest increase is nevertheless significant
as the first sign of an upgrade to this satellite class in a decade. By
my count, Kosmos-2240 is the 107th in the series, although the
classification of several flights is controversial.

Shuttle
-------

The launch of STS-57 is now due for June 20. The following launch,
STS-51, has now slipped to July 17. The new manifest is out; here
is my own version, concentrating on the major items of cargo.
(most acronyms explained at the end)

Mission Date      Orbiter    Cargo Type        Cargo Name
STS-57  1993 Jun  Endeavour  SHAB              Spacehab-1
                             SL-TA             Spacehab-1
                             MPESS-GBA         GBA 5
                             MPESS-HH-M        SHOOT
                             EURECA            EURECA-1

STS-51  1993 Jul  Discovery  TOS/GE4000        ACTS
                             ASTRO-SPAS        ORFEUS

STS-58  1993 Aug  Columbia   SL-LM             Spacelab SLS-2
                             SL-TT,SL-TA       Spacelab SLS-2
                             EDO               EDO 2


STS-60  1993 Nov  Discovery  SHAB              Spacehab 2
                             SL-TA             Spacehab 2
                             WSF               Wake Shield Facility
                             MPESS-GBA         GBA 6

STS-61  1993 Dec  Endeavour  FSS               HST SM-1 
                             SAC               HST SM-1 (solar panels)
                             ORUC              HST SM-1 (COSTAR, WFPC2, etc)

STS-62  1994 Feb  Columbia   MPESS             USMP-2 
                             MPESS             USMP-2 
                             MPESS HH-M        OAST 2
                             EDO               EDO 3

STS-59  1994 Mar  Endeavour  SL-PLT            Spacelab SRL-1
                             MPESS             Spacelab SRL-1

STS-63  1994 May  Discovery  SHAB              Spacehab 3
                             SL-TA             Spacehab 3
                             MPESS-SFSS/SEC    Spartan-201
                             MPESS-HH-M        International EUV/FUV Hitchhiker

STS-65  1994 Jun  Columbia   SL-LM             Spacelab IML-2
                             SL-TA,SL-TT       Spacelab IML-2
                             EDO               EDO 4

STS-66  1994 Aug  Endeavour  SL-IG             Spacelab Atlas-3
                             SL-PLT            Spacelab Atlas-3
                             ASTRO-SPAS        CRISTA

STS-64  1994 Sep  Discovery  SL-PLT            LITE
                             MPESS-SFSS/SEC    Spartan-204
                             MPESS-GBA         GBA 7

STS-67  1994 Nov  Columbia   SL-IG             Spacelab Astro-2
                             SL-PLT            Spacelab Astro-2
                             SL-PLT            Spacelab Astro-2
                             EDO               EDO 5

STS-68  1994 Dec  Atlantis   SL-PLT            Spacelab SRL-2
                             MPESS             Spacelab SRL-2

STS-69  1995 Jan  Discovery  SHAB              Spacehab 4
                             SL-TA             Spacehab 4
                             SPAS              SPAS-3 (BMDO)

STS-70  1995 May  Endeavour  MPESS-HH-M        Int'l EUV/FUV Hitchhiker
                             MPESS-SFSS/SEC    OAST-Flyer
                             MPESS-GBA         GBA 8
                             WSF               Wake Shield Facility

STS-71  1995 Jun  Atlantis   SL-LM             Spacelab-Mir
                             SL-DM             Mir Docking Module
                            
STS-72  1995 Jul  Discovery  IUS/TDRS          TDRS 7

STS-73  1995 Sep  Endeavour  SHAB              Spacehab 5
                             SL-TA             Spacehab 5
                             MPESS-SFSS/SEC    Spartan 201
                             MPESS-HH-M        OAST-3
                            
STS-74  1995 Sep  Columbia   SL-LM             Spacelab USML-2
                             SL-TA,SL-TT       Spacelab USML-2
                             EDO               EDO 6                           


Cargo Types:
ASTRO-SPAS 2nd generation Shuttle Pallet Satellite built by MBB GmBH
EDO        Extended Duration Orbiter Pallet
EURECA     European Retrievable Carrier, to be retrieved from orbit;
           based on modified SL-PLT
GE4000     Martin Marietta Astro Space comsat with Star 37FXP apogee motor
FSS        Flight Servicing Structure
IUS        Inertial Upper Stage (Orbus 21 and Orbus 6 motors)
MPESS      Mission-Peculiar Experiment Support Structure, cross-bay truss
MPESS-GBA  GAS Bridge Assembly, modified MPESS type truss for GAS cans
MPESS-HH-M Hitchhiker-MSFC, modified MPESS with avionics for experiments
MPESS-SFSS Spartan Flight Support Structure, modified MPESS type truss
ORUC       HST Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier
SAC        HST Solar Array Carrier
SEC        Spartan Experiment Carrier (deployable satellite)
SHAB       Spacehab, Inc. pressurized module
SL-DM      Docking Module for Mir docking mission
SL-IG      Spacelab Igloo (avionics container)
SL-LM      Spacelab Long Module. 
SL-PLT     Spacelab Pallet
SL-TA      Spacelab Airlock Tunnel Adapter
SL-TT      Spacelab Transfer Tunnel
TOS        Transfer Orbit Stage based on Orbus 21 motor
WSF        Wake Shield Facility (deployable experiment)


Selected payload acronyms:

ACTS       Advanced Communications Technology Satellite
GBA        Getaway-Special (GAS) Bridge Assembly with ~10 GAS cans
HST SM     Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission
IML        International Microgravity Lab
ORFEUS     Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme UV Spectrometer
SHOOT      Superfluid Helium On Orbit Transfer experiment
SLS        Spacelab Life Sciences
SRL        Space Radar Lab
USMP       US Microgravity Payload

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Launches



Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 11 1450?    Kosmos-2245 )   Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     30A
                Kosmos-2246 )                                              30B
                Kosmos-2247 )                                              30C
                Kosmos-2248 )                                              30D
                Kosmos-2249 )                                              30E
                Kosmos-2250 )                                              30F
May 12 0056     Astra 1C   )    Ariane 42L      Kourou          Comsat     31A
                Arsene     )                                    Comsat     31B
May 13 0007     Navstar GPS 37  Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     32A
May 21 0920?    Resurs-F2       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote Sens. 33A
May 22 0645?    Progress M-18   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      34A
May 26 0335?    Molniya-1       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     35A
May 27          Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     FTO

Reentries
---------

May  6          Kosmos-2243     Reentered
May  6          Columbia        Landed at Edwards AFB
May 20          Molniya-1(37)   Reentered
Jun  7          Kosmos-2240     Landed in Kazakhstan?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1?/RSRM-33/ET-59       VAB Bay 1   STS-51
ML2/RSRM-32/ET-58/OV-105 LC39B       STS-57
ML3/                     


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 158         1993 Jun 21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour lifted off from complex 39B at Kennedy
Space Center at 1307:22 UTC on 1993 Jun 21. The solid rocket boosters
(set RSRM-32) separated at 1309:26 and the main engines cut off at
1315:56. The External Tank (ET-58) then separated from the Orbiter. At
1349:34 the OMS engines ignited for the OMS-2 burn to place Endeavour in
a 391 x 467 km x 28 degree orbit. Mission STS-57 is Endeavour's fourth flight
and the 56th launch in the STS program. Endeavour will retrieve the
EURECA satellite and operate experiments in the commercial Spacehab module.

An earlier launch attempt was scrubbed on Jun 20 at T-5 min for weather.
Crew of Endeavour are Ron Grabe, Brian Duffy, David Low, Janice Voss,
Nancy Sherlock, and Jeff Wisoff. Grabe (pronounced 'Gray-bee') has
made three previous flights, Low two, and Duffy one; the others
are making their first flights.

Meanwhile, Discovery was rolled to the VAB on Jun 19 in preparation
for its next launch, scheduled for July.

Launches
--------

Apart from the Shuttle, none recently.


Astronaut News
--------------

With the death of Deke Slayton last week and the deaths of two Group 1
Soviet Air Force cosmonauts recently reported by Sergey Voevodin, there
remain alive five of the original seven NASA astronauts and twelve of
the original twenty Soviet cosmonauts. The youngest of these pioneers is
Vostok-2 pilot Col.-Gen. German S. Titov, 57 years old. The oldest is
Friendship Seven pilot Sen. John Glenn, who turns 72 next month.
Of twelve X-15 pilots selected between 1958 and 1966, only seven
survive, the oldest being Scott Crossfield at age 71. 


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1     STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1?/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 VAB Bay 1   STS-51
ML2/                      LC39B       STS-57
ML3/                     


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 159         1993 Jun 29
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour completed its rendezvous with the EURECA satellite on Jun 24.
The satellite was grappled with the RMS arm at 1353 UTC and berthed in
the payload bay at 1636. However, two antennas on the satellite failed
to close up correctly. During the spacewalk on Jun 25, astronauts David
Low and Jeff Wisoff successfully latched the antennas. This was the
first time the Spacelab Tunnel airlock has been used for a spacewalk;
this airlock is carried on all Spacelab module and Spacehab module
missions, since the tunnel to the modules connects to the usual Shuttle
airlock. The airlock was depressurized at 1300 and the astronauts opened
the hatch at 1312. As well as the EURECA work the astronauts practised
techniques for the HST repair mission. The hatch was closed at 1850 and
the repress began by 1857, making an EVA of 5 hr 57 min. A landing
attempt on Jun 29 was waved off due to bad weather; another attempt
is due on Jun 30.

Meanwhile, Discovery was rolled out to pad 39B on Jun 28.
Mission STS-51 is due for launch on July 17.

Mir
---

The EO-13 crew, Gennadiy Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk, made a
spacewalk on Jun 18 to carry out further preparatory work for the next
crew's solar panel relocation experiment. As of Jun 25, both Progress
M-17 and Progress M-18 were still docked to the complex, as well as the
Soyuz TM-16 ferry. The next crew, EO-14, will be launched on July 1
aboard Soyuz TM-17. Crew commander is rookie Vasiliy Vasilevich
Tsibliev, who joined the former Soviet Air Force cosmonaut corps in
1987. Flight engineer ('bortinzhener') is  Aleksandr Aleksandrovich 
Serebrov, a member of the NPO Energiya cosmonaut group since 1978. He
has made three spaceflights, aboard Soyuz T-7, Soyuz T-8, and Soyuz
TM-8. Cosmonaut researcher is Jean-Pierre Haignere, a French Air Force
pilot who has been an astronaut trainee with CNES (Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales) since 1985.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2251, launched Jun 16, is the 47th in a series of small
low orbit communications satellites thought to be used by
Russian military and intelligence services. It was launched
by an 11K65M Kosmos rocket built by NPO Yuzhnoye of Ukraine.

Six small communications satellites were launched by a single
Tsiklon rocket, and have been given the designations Kosmos-2252
to Kosmos-2257. I haven't determined their exact launch date yet.

The RADCAL satellite was launched by Scout S217C from Space Launch
Complex 5 at Vandenberg on Jun 25. RADCAL, also known as P92-1, was
built by Defense Systems Inc. for the USAF Space Test Program. It will
be used by Vandenberg AFB's 40th Space Wing to calibrate the radars used
to track objects in orbit. RADCAL carries a C-band transponder operating
on the same frequency as the radars, and a GPS navigation package so
that its orbit can be precisely determined. This calibration will allow
the Space Command radars to determine orbital positions of other
satellites to within a few metres. The 87 kg satellite was due to be
placed in a 830 km polar orbit. Only one more launch of LTV's Scout
is currently planned: MSTI-2, also from Vandenberg later this year.

Hughes Communications' Galaxy 4H comsat was launched on Jun 25
by Ariane. This is the 6th HS-601 class comsat to be launched.
The satellite is a 'hybrid', with both C-band (6/4 GHz) and
Ku-band (12/11 GHz) transponders.

NASA's second SEDS (Small Expendable Deployer System) mission was
launched piggyback on a Delta second stage on Jun 26. The primary
payload was the Navstar GPS 39 navigation satellite. SEDS 2 carried the
PMG (Plasma Motor Generator) payload, with a 500m conducting tether
containing a copper cable. The tether deployer and end mass contained a
xenon gas dispenser to complete a 0.1 kV electrical circuit through the
tether with a 0.3 amp current, in a 6-hour experiment to study space
tethers' electrodynamic properties.

Rockwell's GPS 39 is the 32nd Navstar satellite to be launched
(they put them up in a fairly random order!) and the 21st of the
Block II series. The Navstar satellites carry atomic clocks
which are used to generate navigation signals. 



Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 26 0335?    Molniya-1       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     35A
May 27          Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     FTO
Jun 16 0420	Kosmos-2251	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Comsat	   36A
Jun 21 1307	Endeavour	Shuttle		Kennedy		Spaceship  37A
Jun 21?		Kosmos-2252  ) 	Tsiklon		Plesetsk	Comsat	   38A
		Kosmos-2253  )					Comsat	   38B
		Kosmos-2254  )					Comsat	   38C
		Kosmos-2255  )					Comsat	   38D
		Kosmos-2256  )					Comsat	   38E
		Kosmos-2257  )					Comsat	   38F
Jun 25		Galaxy 4H	Ariane 42P	Kourou		Comsat	   (39?)
Jun 25 2330	RADCAL		Scout G-1	Vandenberg	Calib.	   (40?)
Jun 26 1327	Navstar GPS 39) Delta 7925	Canaveral	Navsat	   (41?)
		SEDS 2/PMG    )					Tether 


Reentries
---------

Jun  7          Kosmos-2240     Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jun 20		Resurs-F2	Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1?/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51
ML2/                                  
ML3?/RSRM-34		  VAB Bay 3   STS-58


Thanks to Ed O'Grady and Sergey Voevodin for information
appearing in this issue.

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 



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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 160         1993 Jul 6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour landed on Jul 1 at Kennedy Space Center. Main gear touchdown
on runway 33 was at 1252:16 UTC for a flight time of 239 hours 44 min 54
sec or just less than 10 days. Endeavour was rolled to Orbiter
Processing Facility bay 1 for payload removal and preparation for its
next flight - the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Mir
---

The Soyuz TM-17 spaceship was launched from Baykonur at 1432 UTC on Jul
1, carrying two Russian astronauts (the EO-14 long-stay Mir crew)
and one French astronaut. The crew will carry out the French 'Altair'
research mission aboard Mir until Jul 22 when the French astronaut will
return to Earth with the EO-13 crew aboard Soyuz TM-16; the EO-14
crew will then begin their main mission, remaining aboard Mir until
they are relieved at the beginning of December.

Soyuz TM-17 has now docked with the Mir complex,  probably replacing
Progress M-17 at the rear Kvant port. (However, Space Command element
sets still showed  Progress M-17 docked to Mir on Jun 30). The complex
now has Soyuz TM-16 docked at the APAS-89 port on Kristall, Progress
M-18 docked at the prime Mir port, and Soyuz TM-17 at the rear Kvant
port. Crew are: EO-13 commander Col. Gennadiy Mikhailovich Manakov (Air
Force cosmonaut detachment); EO-13 flight engineer Aleksandr Fyodorovich
Poleshchuk (NPO Energiya); EO-14 commander  Lt.Col. Vasiliy Vasilevich
Tsibliev (Air Force cosmonaut detachment); EO-14 flight engineer
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Serebrov (NPO Energiya); and Altair mission
cosmonaut-researcher Col. Jean-Pierre Haignere (Centre national
d'etudes spatiales, France). Serebrov is making his 4th spaceflight,
having flown aboard Soyuz T-7, Soyuz T-8, and Soyuz TM-8. Tsibliev
and Haignere are making their first flights.

There have been more spaceflights by French citizens than by
any other country except the (former) Soviet Union, the USA, and
Germany. The French spaceflights have been typically longer than
the German ones, so the total time in space by French citizens
will again surpass that by the Germans at 0632 UTC on Jul 15.

Spaceflights by German nationals:
                          Spaceship       Date   Agency          Days:hr:min
1 Sigmund J\"ahn          Soyuz-31        1978   DDR/Interkosmos 07:20:49
2 Ulf Merbold             Columbia/SL1    1983   ESA             10:07:47
3 Ernst Messerchmid       Challenger/SLD1 1985   DFVLR           07:00:44
4 Reinhard F\"urrer       Challenger/SLD1 1985   DFVLR           07:00:44
5 Klaus-Dietrich Flade    Soyuz TM-14     1990   DFVLR           07:21:57
6 Ulf Merbold             Columbia/IML-1  1992   ESA             08:01:15
7 Ulrich Walter           Columbia/SLD2   1993   DLR             09:23:40
8 Hans-Wilhelm Schlegel   Columbia/SLD2   1993   DLR             09:23:40
                                                          Total: 68:04:36

French spaceflights (all under the auspices of CNES):
                          Spaceship    Date    Mission  Days:hr:min
1 Jean-Loup Chr\'etien    Soyuz T-6   (1982)            07:21:51
2 Patrick Baudry          Discovery   (1985)   51-G     07:01:39
3 Jean-Loup Chr\'etien    Soyuz TM-7  (1988)   Aragats  25:18:07
4 Michel Tognini          Soyuz TM-15 (1992)   Antares  13:18:59
5 Jean-Pierre Haign\'ere  Soyuz TM-17 (1993)   Altair  (05:01:28 at 1600 Jul 6 )
                                                       (20:16:13 due by landing)
 Total:  59d 14h by 1600 Jul 6.
[N.B. to non-TeX lovers: the \' in Haigner\'e indicates the presence
of an acute accent over the following letter. I'll omit it in subsequent
uses of his name.]


Countries whose citizens have made spaceflights:
USSR           (Yuriy Gagarin, 1961 et. al.)
USA            (Alan Shepard, 1961  et. al.)
Czechoslovakia (Vladimir Remek, 1978)
Poland         (Miroslaw Hermaszewski, 1978)
Germany (DDR)  (Sigmund J\"ahn, 1978 as DDR citizen)
Bulgaria       (Georgiy Ivanov, 1979; Alexander Alexandrov, 1988)
Hungary        (Farkas Bertalan, 1980)
Vietnam        (Pham Tuan, 1980)
Cuba           (Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, 1980)
Mongolia       (Jugderdemidiyn Gurragcha, 1981)
Romania        (Dumitru Prunariu, 1981)
France         (Jean-Loup Chr\'etien, 1982 et. al.)
Germany (Bundesrepublik) (Ulf Merbold, 1983 et. al.)
India          (Rakesh Sharma, 1984)
Canada         (Marc Garneau, 1984; Roberta Bondar, 1992; Steven MacLean, 1992)
Saudi Arabia   (Sultan al-Saud, 1985)
Netherlands    (Wubbo Ockels, 1985)
Mexico         (Rodolfo Neri Vela, 1985)
Syria          (Mohammed al Fares, 1987)
Afghanistan    (Abdul Ahad Mohmand Sarvar, 1988)
Japan          (Toyohiro Akiyama, 1990; Mamoru Mohri, 1992)
United Kingdom (Helen Sharman, 1991)
Austria        (Franz Viehb\"ock, 1991)
Belgium        (Dirk Frimout, 1992)
Switzerland    (Claude Nicollier, 1992)
Italy          (Franco Malerba, 1992)

I haven't tried to separate out the various Soviet nationalities as I am
confused about the citizenship and nationality (as opposed to birthplace) 
of the various former Soviet astronauts.

In addition, former citizens of Australia, Costa Rica, China, the Netherlands
and Vietnam have made flights as naturalized American citizens. (Challenge
for the enthusiastic: who were they?)

Launches
--------

Another Resurs-F satellite was launched on  Jun 25, replacing
the one which landed 5 days earlier. The Resurs-F satellites, built
by the Central Specialized Design Bureau in Samara, Russia, carry
out remote sensing photography for environmental and mapping research.

Another contact was made with the Alexis satellite on Jun 30,
raising hopes for recovering control of the spacecraft.

Erratum: I have corrected launch times in the table for the last couple
of launches in May. 

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 26 0407     Molniya-1       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     35A
May 27 0122     Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     FTO
Jun 16 0420     Kosmos-2251     Kosmos R-14     Plesetsk        Comsat     36A
Jun 21 1307     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy         Spaceship  37A
Jun 21?         Kosmos-2252  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     38A
                Kosmos-2253  )                                  Comsat     38B
                Kosmos-2254  )                                  Comsat     38C
                Kosmos-2255  )                                  Comsat     38D
                Kosmos-2256  )                                  Comsat     38E
                Kosmos-2257  )                                  Comsat     38F
Jun 25 0018     Galaxy 4H       Ariane 42P      Kourou          Comsat     39A
Jun 25 0840?    Resurs-F        Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 40A
Jun 25 2330     RADCAL          Scout G-1       Vandenberg      Calib.     41A
Jun 26 1327     Navstar GPS 39) Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     42A
                SEDS 2/PMG    )                                 Tether 
Jul  1 1432     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A

Reentries
---------

Jun  7          Kosmos-2240     Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jun 20          Resurs-F2       Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul  1          Endeavour       Landed at Kennedy Space Center

Publication Review
------------------

WORLDWIDE SATELLITE LAUNCHES, by Phillip S. Clark.

I thought readers might be interested to know about this publication.
For thirty years the standard source of  satellite launch information
was the RAE Table of Earth Satellites, published by the British Royal
Aircraft Establishment. It included launch and reentry dates and orbital
heights and inclination for every payload and rocket stage launched
into orbit.

Funding cuts axed the RAE Tables last year, and Clark's WSL is
essentially a privately produced continuation of them, with the same
format of monthly issues which are then combined, corrected and reissued
at the end of the year in an annual volume. Clark is  one of the leading
researchers on the Chinese and former Soviet space programs, and his
expertise shows in the production of the first 6 issues of WSL; the data
seems to be at least as reliable as that which came from the RAE.  There
are even a large number of improvements; launch sites are included; 
more details are given on the missions of the payloads and the names of
the rocket stages and other objects associated with the launch; and more
details are given on newly cataloged fragments. However, estimates of
future orbital lifetime of the satellites are no longer included; this
was an important part of the RAE's own research. Also, Clark retains the
limited orbital information of the RAE tables (perigee, apogee, argument
of perigee, inclination and approximate epoch). The inclusion of the
ascending node and an accurate perigee passage time would allow proper
orbital calculations to be done, and it is a pity that he hasn't done
this. Another disappointment is the low quality of the presentation; in
this era of sophisticated desktop publishing, I had hoped for  something
more than the old-style printer output. Hopefully if Phillip makes some
more money out of this he'll be able to afford a proper computer. But
overall, I would say that the WSL is an excellent replacement for the
old RAE tables. [TRUTH IN ADVERTISING WARNING: I know Phillip
personally, so I'd like you to buy his stuff. But it is good. Honest!] 

The annual subscription for the WSL tables is US $100, available from
Phil at Molniya Space Consultancy, 30 Sonia Gardens, Heston,
Middlesex TW5 0LZ, England.


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34              VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 161         1993 Jul 12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of STS-51 is scheduled for Jul 17. The payloads are the ACTS
satellite and the ORFEUS-SPAS satellite. ACTS, the Advanced
Communications Technology Satellite, is a NASA satellite built around
Martin Marietta Astro Space's GE4000 bus. It will carry out experiments
in the 30/20 GHz Ka-band and is intended to help development of future
commercial comsats. The Japanese Superbird comsats have already
experimented with the Ka band. ACTS will use Orbital Sciences' TOS
(Transfer Orbit Stage) to reach geostationary orbit. This will be the
second TOS flight; the first launched Mars Observer aboard a Titan 3. 

ORFEUS-SPAS is a German astronomical satellite. It will be deployed by
the RMS arm and retrieved about 6 days later. The main instrument is the
1-meter Orfeus (Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme UV
Spectrometer) telescope with EUV (400-1150A) and far UV (900-1250A)
spectrometers with high spectral resolution. A secondary experiment is
the Princeton Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph which
will study very fine structure in ultraviolet absorption lines caused by
interstellar gas in stellar spectra. The ORFEUS program is managed by
the German DARA space agency and the associated DLR institute; the
satellite uses the ASTRO-SPAS bus made by MBB (Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm). 
The ASTRO-SPAS is double the size of the original SPAS (Shuttle Pallet
Satellite) which has been used on several missions (STS-7, STS-11,
STS-39). An experiment-carrying truss (USS) based on the original SPAS
structure (but without the avionics and attitude control) was also flown
on the Spacelab D-1 and D-2 missions. 

The STS-51 mission will also feature another of the DTO-1210 series of
training spacewalks, by mission specialist astronauts Maj. Carl Walz and
Dr. James Newman. Commander and Pilot of STS-51 are Capt. Frank
Culbertson and William Readdy; the third mission specialist is Cdr.
Daniel Bursch. Only Culbertson and Readdy have flown previously.


Mir
---

Progress M-18 undocked from Mir's front port at around 1725 UTC
on Jul 3, and Soyuz TM-17 docked at the same port only 20 minutes
later at 1745 UTC. The Progress vehicle was deorbited the
next day. Meanwhile, Progress M-17 remains docked to the
Kvant rear port. Astronauts Tsibliev, Serebrov, Manakov, Poleshchuk,
and Haignere are carrying out experiments aboard the station;
the latter three will return to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-16 on Jul 22.

Launches
--------

Erratum: I have corrected some more of the launch times in the table.

Erratum No 2: The tether experiment launched on Jun 26 was not
SEDS 2. The PMG experiment uses somewhat different hardware from
the SEDS deployer, although it is for the most part built by the
same groups. The PMG tether remains attached to the Delta stage
in a 192 x 850 km x 26 deg orbit.

Kosmos-2258 was launched on Jul 8. It is an electronic intelligence
ocean surveillance satellite (EORSAT) used to track surface shipping,
the third launched this year (with Kosmos-2238 and Kosmos-2244) after a
two year break with no launches. The spacecraft is in a 404 x 417 km
orbit inclined 65 degrees. The orbit is maintained in phase with the
other spacecraft with a low thrust engine. The spacecraft is made either
by NPO Mashinstroeniye of Moskva or possibly by NPO Arsenal of
Sankt-Peterburg. The Tsiklon-M 11K69 launch vehicle is a two stage
rocket based on the R-36 ICBM (known as SS-9 by NATO). The R-36/Tsiklon
series of rockets are built by the Ukranian space company NPO Yuzhnoe in
Dniepropetrovsk; the three stage civilian Tsiklon has been commercially
available for some time, but the older Tsiklon-M has only recently been
declassified.


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jun 16 0417     Kosmos-2251     Kosmos R-14     Plesetsk        Comsat     36A
Jun 21 1307     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy         Spaceship  37A
Jun 24 0412     Kosmos-2252  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Comsat     38A
                Kosmos-2253  )                                  Comsat     38B
                Kosmos-2254  )                                  Comsat     38C
                Kosmos-2255  )                                  Comsat     38D
                Kosmos-2256  )                                  Comsat     38E
                Kosmos-2257  )                                  Comsat     38F
Jun 25 0018     Galaxy 4H       Ariane 42P      Kourou          Comsat     39A
Jun 25 0820     Resurs-F        Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 40A
Jun 25 2330     RADCAL          Scout G-1       Vandenberg      Calib.     41A
Jun 26 1327     Navstar GPS 39) Delta 7925      Canaveral       Navsat     42A
                PMG           )                                 Tether 
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A

Reentries
---------

Jun  7          Kosmos-2240     Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jun 20          Resurs-F2       Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul  1          Endeavour       Landed at Kennedy Space Center
Jul  1          EURECA          Returned to Earth aboard Endeavour
Jul  4          Progress M-18   Deorbited


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34              VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51

Thanks to Mike Fennell and Vladimir Agapov for information in this issue.

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 162         1993 Jul 27
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------
Launch of STS-51 has been delayed until at least Aug 2. Meanwhile,
the external tank and solid rocket boosters for STS-58 have
been mated in the VAB. The STS-58 mission will be a Spacelab
mission using orbiter Columbia.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-16 landed at 0642 UTC on Jul 22, returning Gennadiy Manakov,
Aleksandr Poleshchuk and Jean-Pierre Haignere to Earth. Vasiliy Tsibliev
and Aleksandr Serebrov remain aboard the Mir complex. Correct docking
time for Soyuz TM-17 is probably 1624 UTC on Jul 3.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2259 was launched on Jul 14. Built by the Central Specialized
Design Bureau, it is a fourth generation imaging spy satellite. Another
Resurs-F remote sensing  satellite built by the same organization went
up on Jul 22. It is based on the Vostok spacecraft bus. 

The DSCS III F-7 comsat, built by Martin Marietta Astro Space for the
USAF, was launched by Atlas II Centaur from pad 36 at Cape Canaveral on
Jul 19. Following two straight Atlas I failures, this successful launch
will go  some way to restoring General Dynamics' reputation. All five
Atlas II/IIA launches have been successful.


An Ariane 44L put two communications satellites into orbit on Jul 22.
Hispasat 1B is the fourth Eurostar 2000 satellite built by the European
company Matra Marconi Space. Operated by the Spanish government-owned
company Hispasat, it carries 11 Ku band transponders for communications
and direct TV broadcast to the Iberian peninsula and the Canary Islands,
and a further Ku band transponder for TV transmission to  Latin America.
It also carries 4 X-band military transponders. The second payload
aboard Ariane was Insat 2B, built by and operated by the Indian Space
Research Organization. It carries 18 C-band transponders and a
meteorological instrument package.


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A
Jul 14 1640     Kosmos-2259     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Recon      45A
Jul 19 2204     DSCS III        Atlas AC-104    Canaveral       Comsat     46A
Jul 22 0830?    Resurs-F        Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 47A
Jul 22 2258     Hispasat 1B  )  Ariane 44L      Kourou          Comsat     48A
                Insat 2B     )                                  Comsat     48B

Reentries
---------

Jul  1          Endeavour       Landed at Kennedy Space Center
Jul  1          EURECA          Returned to Earth aboard Endeavour
Jul  4          Progress M-18   Deorbited
Jul  4          Raduga capsule  Landed in Russia
Jul 12          Resurs-F1       Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 18          MSTI-1          Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57        VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 163 (Revised)        1993 Aug  4
Last minute amendment since I guessed wrong on the Titan payload first
time around.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Launch of STS-51 has been delayed until at least Aug 12. Concern about
possible exceptional Perseid meteor shower activity this year  during
the perihelion passage of Perseid parent comet P/Swift-Tuttle caused the
delay until after the annual Perseid display.
 Meanwhile, the external tank and solid rocket boosters for STS-58 have
been mated in the VAB. The STS-58 mission will be a Spacelab mission
using orbiter Columbia.

Mir
---

Tsibliev and Serebrov continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.
Their callsigns are 'Sirius-1' and 'Sirius-2'. 

Launches
--------

A Titan 4 blew up one minute 41 seconds after launch on Aug 2, and is
being billed as the most expensive space accident since the loss of
Challenger. According to the New York Times, the  payload was not a
LACROSSE as originally thought, but an advanced Naval Ocean Surveillance
Satellite system. This system, consisting of three satellites which
maintain a fixed distance from each other to carry out interferometric
location of radio signals from ships, is the third in a
second-generation series. In the first generation, WHITECLOUD, which
flew from 1976 to 1987, the three satellites were reportedly physically
connected by long (several km!) wires to a central deployer core, 
the configuration being visible in binoculars from the ground as a 
fixed pattern moving across the sky. The details of the new generation 
are not yet clear.

Launch of the Titan 4 was from Space Launch Complex
4-East at Vandenberg AFB, California. This is the seventh
Titan 4 launch and its first failure. The largest Titan 4
variant, the Titan 401/Centaur, has been stuck on the pad
at Cape Canaveral for over a year because of various delays;
this setback will certainly delay the launch even further.

Titan 4 launches:

1       1989 Jun 15     Titan 402/IUS   DSP F14 early warning
2       1990 Jun  8     Titan 405       Advanced Ocean Surveillance
3       1990 Nov 13     Titan 402/IUS   DSP F15 early warning
4       1991 Mar  8     Titan 403       LACROSSE 2
5       1991 Nov  8     Titan 403       Advanced Ocean Surveillance
6       1992 Nov 28     Titan 404/TPA   Advanced CRYSTAL spy sat?
7       1993 Aug  2     Titan 403       Advanced Ocean Surveillance

First Generation WHITECLOUD launches:

Test vehicle       1971 Dec 14          983x999x70      1971-110A,C,D,E

NOSS 1             1976 Apr 30          1092x1128x63    1976-38 A,C,D,J
NOSS 2             1977 Dec  8          1054x1169x63    1977-112A,D,E,F
NOSS 3             1980 Mar  3          1048x1166x63    1980-19 A,C,D,G 
NOSS 4                  Dec  9          -       -
NOSS 5             1983 Feb  9          1052x1168x63    1983-08 A,E,F,H
NOSS 6                  Jun  9          1051x1170x63    1983-56 A,C,D,G
NOSS 7             1984 Feb  5          1052x1172x63.4  1984-12 A,C,D,F
NOSS 8             1986 Feb  9          1049x1166x63.0  1986-14 A,E,F,H
NOSS 9             1987 May 15          1045x1179x63    1987-43 A,E,F,H

Erratum: The launch on Jul 22 was not in the Resurs-F series. It
has been given the name Kosmos-2260. The launch announcement
stated that it was part of a series to compile an official
register of natural resources and to study soil properties
(i.e. perhaps agricultural studies?). It has also reportedly
been given the name Resurs-T. 


The recon satellite Kosmos-2259 surprisingly reentered after only
11 days in space. It was expected to stay up for two months.
On its last day in space its orbit was 172 x 322 km, which is
high enough to suggest a deliberate de-orbiting rather than
a reentry due to engine failure.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A
Jul 14 1640     Kosmos-2259     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Recon      45A
Jul 19 2204     DSCS III        Atlas AC-104    Canaveral       Comsat     46A
Jul 22 0856     Kosmos-2260     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 47A
Jul 22 2258     Hispasat 1B  )  Ariane 44L      Kourou          Comsat     48A
                Insat 2B     )                                  Comsat     48B
Aug  2 1959     LACROSSE 3?     Titan 403       Vandenberg      Recon      FTO

Reentries
---------

Jul  1          Endeavour       Landed at Kennedy Space Center
Jul  1          EURECA          Returned to Earth aboard Endeavour
Jul  4          Progress M-18   Deorbited
Jul  4          Raduga capsule  Landed in Russia
Jul 12          Resurs-F1       Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 18          MSTI-1          Reentered
Jul 22          Soyuz TM-16     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 25          Kosmos-2259     Reentered?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57        VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   --- WORLDWIDE SATELLITE LAUNCHES ---

Following my review of Worldwide Satellite Launches (WSL), a monthly 
publication by Phillip Clark, I received from him a rebuttal of some
minor criticisms I expressed. In the interests of completeness I 
reproduce an abridged version of his comments below:

"Following the demise of the RAE Tables I decided to produce a
replacement on a commercial basis; not a straight copy but an expansion
which would result in the kind of publication I wish had been around
twenty years ago. Naturally there are omissions as well as additions to
the RAE format, and I invite comments and suggestions which will all be
seriously considered. "

"Dr. McDowell mourns the lack of lifetimes in WSL. This was a conscious
decision on my part as I do not have the RAE algorithms and would rather
not give estimated figures which could be greatly in error. I do give
descent dates and times for all objects, and I do include launch and
descent times to the nearest minute when they are announced, something
that the RAE did not do.  More orbital data for manoeuvring objects, and
orbital data for more objects involving recognizable operational debris,
are included.  As for including perigee passage and ascending node data,
I had not considered this but will ponder over it as something to add
later. Orbital epochs are given to one more decimal place than in the
RAE table. The descriptive data for Russian rocket stages is more
complete and more accurate. Finally, unlike the RAE Tables, data for
launch failures are included. "

"As for the production standard, I appreciate Dr. McDowell's comments.
Should the number of subscribers increase I shall be able to invest in a
laser printer. At present masters are prepared in bold print on a 24-pin
dot matrix printer to ensure to good quality original. However I would
hope that the amount of information in WSL is not overlooked because of
the printer quality which in any case is normally very clear. "

"Anyone interested in further details of WSL can contact me at: Molniya
Space Consultancy, 30 Sonia Gardens, Heston, Middlesex TW5 0LZ, England
(tel and fax +44 81 570 3248). The subscription for 1993 launches is
US$100 and that for 1994 (including the fully-updated and corrected 1993
launch list) will be about US$120."

   Phillip S Clark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 164        1993 Aug  11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Launch of STS-51 has been delayed until at least Aug 12 because
of the Perseids.   Payloads are the ACTS communications satellite and the
ORFEUS astronomy satellite. Meanwhile, the STS-58 stack is awaiting
the rollover of Columbia from the processing facility to the VAB;
stacking of solid rocket boosters for the STS-60 mission has
begun in the VAB; and preparation of Endeavour for the STS-61 mission
is continuing in the processing facility.

Mir
---

Tsibliev and Serebrov continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.
Launch of the Progress M-19 cargo freighter was due on Aug 10.


Obituary: Milton Thompson (1926-1993)
--------

NASA-Dryden Chief Engineer Milt Thompson died on Aug 6. Milton Orville
Thompson, born on 4 May 1926, was a NASA test pilot from 1956 (when it
was still NACA) until 1967. He trained as an astronaut in the (later
cancelled) military X-20 Dyna-Soar program from 1962 to 1963, and  made
14 flights in the X-15-1 and X-15-3 spaceplanes. He also was a leading
force in the early days of the lifting body program, and was the first
pilot of the original M2-F1 lifting body demonstrator and the
rocket-powered M2-F2. 

Milt Thompson is the person who  came closest to flying in space without
actually doing so: he is the only person ever to have flown into the
mesosphere (above the stratopause at about 50 km) without making it
above the 80 km limit that is becoming the accepted boundary of space by
space historians. On May 25, 1965 he flew mission 1-54-88 aboard the
X-15-1 from Mud Lake, Nevada to Edwards AFB and reached 54.8 km apogee.
He made a second flight into the mesosphere on Aug 25, 1965 (mission
1-57-96) from Delamar Dry Lake, Nevada to Edwards, this time reaching
65.2 km. His fastest flight was in Jan 1965, when he reached almost 6000
km/hr (Mach 5.4) in the X-15-3. 


Launches
--------

NOAA-13 (formerly NOAA-I) was launched on Aug 8 from Space Launch
Complex 3 at Vandenberg by an Atlas E (probably serial number 34E, can
anyone confirm this?). The NOAA satellites are polar orbiting weather
satellites used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA-13 is an Advanced TIROS-N model; the NOAA series is the
continuation of the original TIROS series of weather satellites started
by NASA in 1960. 

A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched into highly
elliptical orbit with a 12 hour period on Aug 4 from Plesetsk. 

Few details of the Titan 4 failure have so far emerged. 
A correspondent reports that visual observations indicate
the second generation NOSS satellites consist of a pair
fixed about 50 km apart, with a third satellite between
them but moving from side to side, reaching distances of
over 100 km from the pair.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A
Jul 14 1640     Kosmos-2259     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Recon      45A
Jul 19 2204     DSCS III        Atlas AC-104    Canaveral       Comsat     46A
Jul 22 0856     Kosmos-2260     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 47A
Jul 22 2258     Hispasat 1B  )  Ariane 44L      Kourou          Comsat     48A
                Insat 2B     )                                  Comsat     48B
Aug  2 1959     Adv NOSS 3?     Titan 403       Vandenberg      Recon      FTO
Aug  4          Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     49A
Aug  8 1002     NOAA 13         Atlas 34E?      Vandenberg      Weather

Reentries
---------

Jul  1          Endeavour       Landed at Kennedy Space Center
Jul  1          EURECA          Returned to Earth aboard Endeavour
Jul  4          Progress M-18   Deorbited
Jul  4          Raduga capsule  Landed in Russia
Jul 12          Resurs-F1       Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 18          MSTI-1          Reentered
Jul 22          Soyuz TM-16     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 25          Kosmos-2259     Landed

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57        VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML2/RSRM-35              VAB Bay 1   STS-60
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51

Shuttle Processing Explanation (or,  what are all these acronyms
anyway?):

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM).  The
OV is prepared for flight in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which
consists of three bays (one of which is actually a separate building)
after which it is towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and
`mated to the stack' or joined to the ET and RSRM. First, the segments
of the RSRM are stacked up on a Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the
ET is connected to it. After the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is
moved underneath the ML and carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of
the two pads (A or B) at launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually
launched on a Space Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally
an OV is returned to the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale,
California for refit - an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP. 



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 165        1993 Aug  16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Launch of STS-51 was halted in an RSLS abort three seconds before
liftoff at 1312 UTC on Aug 12. All three main engines ignited, but a
faulty sensor in engine 2033 caused the launch sequencer computer to shut
them down.  All three engines will be replaced prior to the next launch
attempt, which will occure no earlier than the beginning of September.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. Launch of the Progress  M-19
cargo freighter occurred on Aug 10, and the freighter docked with the
Mir complex on Aug 13. It will be replaced on Oct 12 by Progress M-20;
on Nov 16 the Expedition 15 crew of Afanas'ev, Usachyov and Polyakov
will be launched aboard Soyuz TM-18. I haven't heard yet about
whether Progress M-17, which was previously docked to the complex,
has come down or not.

[Thanks to Vladimir Agapov and Sergey Voevodin for keeping me up
to date. If anyone is in contact with Sergey, please let him know
that all my email to him is bouncing.] 


Obituary: Sergey Vozovikov (1958-1993)
--------

Major Sergey Yurievich Vozovikov, a member of the VVS TsPK (Russian Air
Force cosmonaut training center)  cosmonaut detachment since 1990, was
drowned during emergency landing training in the Black Sea on July 11.
Vozovikov, who was born in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan on 1958 Apr 17, had not
yet flown in space.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2261 was launched on Aug 10. It is an early warning satellite
in the Oko ("Eye") series, built by NPO Lavochkin (who also build
the planetary probes).

Meanwhile, the Resurs-T mapping mission (Kosmos-2260) landed after
a standard 14 day flight.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A
Jul 14 1640     Kosmos-2259     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Recon      45A
Jul 19 2204     DSCS III        Atlas AC-104    Canaveral       Comsat     46A
Jul 22 0845     Kosmos-2260     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 47A
Jul 22 2258     Hispasat 1B  )  Ariane 44L      Kourou          Comsat     48A
                Insat 2B     )                                  Comsat     48B
Aug  2 1959     Adv NOSS 3?     Titan 403       Vandenberg      Recon      FTO
Aug  4 0052     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     49A
Aug  8 1002     NOAA 13         Atlas 34E?      Vandenberg      Weather    50A
Aug 10 1500?    Kosmos-2261     Molniya         Plesetsk        Early Warn 51A
Aug 10 2224?    Progress M-19   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      52A

Reentries
---------

Jul 12          Resurs-F1       Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 18          MSTI-1          Reentered
Jul 22          Soyuz TM-16     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 25          Kosmos-2259     Landed
Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57        VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML2/RSRM-35              VAB Bay 1   STS-60
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 166        1993 Aug 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Discovery's main engines have now been changed. Columbia was moved to
the VAB on Aug 11 and mated to the external tank on Aug 13. Meanwhile,
the solids for STS-60 have been removed from the mobile launcher since
that mission has been delayed to next year. The Discovery STS-51
launch is now set for Sep 10 at 1138 UTC.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. Progress M-17 undocked
on Aug 11 at 1537 UTC from the Kvant rear port. Progress M-19
was launched on Aug 10 and 2224 UTC and docked at the Kvant
rear port at 0000 UTC on 13 Aug.

Other Missions
------------------

Mars Observer was due to enter orbit on Aug 24. At the time of writing
(about 1 hour before the MOI burn was due) there was still no contact
with the probe. Contact was lost on Aug 21 when the spacecraft was due
to pressurize its fuel tanks for the Mars Orbit Insertion burn. There is
a possibility that the MOI burn will execute correctly and that MO will
switch back to its low gain, omnidirectional antenna in a few days and
restore contact with Earth. But right now, things do not look very
encouraging, although NASA are maintaining that MO will likely get
into orbit OK.

Galileo is approaching encounter with minor planet (243) Ida. Flyby will
be on Aug 28 at 1622 UT. This is Galileo's second and last minor planet
encounter. (The first was with (951) Gaspra. Unfortunately there are no
plans for a flyby with the newly named (4589).)

The experimental reusable suborbital McDonnell Douglas DC-X rocket 
made its first test flight on Aug 19, to an altitude of about 50 m.
Takeoff and landing were at the White Sands Missile Range.

On Aug 21, the same day as the Mars Observer failure, the newly
launched NOAA-13 satellite stopped transmitting. NOAA-13
had been turned over to NOAA for checkout on Aug 12. It looks
like the solar arrays stopped talking to the batteries
and the satellite lost power.

The Hipparcos satellite was turned off this week; it stopped
returning science data in June. The satellite gathered data
for the best catalog yet of star positions and motions, which will
form a basic astronomical dataset for decades to come. The
catalog won't be ready for a few years. Hipparcos got off to
a rocky start in 1989 when an apogee motor failure left it
in transfer orbit, but heroic software rewrites allowed the mission
to get its data.

Launches
--------

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jul  1 1433     Soyuz TM-17     Soyuz 2         Baykonur        Spaceship  43A
Jul  8 0715     Kosmos-2258     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur        EORSAT     44A
Jul 14 1640     Kosmos-2259     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Recon      45A
Jul 19 2204     DSCS III        Atlas AC-104    Canaveral       Comsat     46A
Jul 22 0845     Kosmos-2260     Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote sens. 47A
Jul 22 2258     Hispasat 1B  )  Ariane 44L      Kourou          Comsat     48A
                Insat 2B     )                                  Comsat     48B
Aug  2 1959     Adv NOSS 3?     Titan 403       Vandenberg      Recon      FTO
Aug  4 0052     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     49A
Aug  8 1002     NOAA 13         Atlas 34E       Vandenberg      Weather    50A
Aug 10 1500?    Kosmos-2261     Molniya         Plesetsk        Early Warn 51A
Aug 10 2224     Progress M-19   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      52A

Reentries
---------

Jul 12          Resurs-F1       Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul 18          MSTI-1          Reentered
Jul 22          Soyuz TM-16     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 25          Kosmos-2259     Landed
Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML2/                     VAB Bay 1   STS-60
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 167        1993 Sep 10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Launch of Discovery on mission STS-51 is now due for Sep 12. Meanwhile,
several new crews have been selected for 1994 missions. Of particular
interest is the crew for STS-63: it includes the first woman to fly as a
pilot on an American space mission, Eileen Collins. She is thus likely
to become the first woman ever to command a spaceflight crew on a later
mission (pilot astronauts usually fly one or two missions in the pilot
seat before being given the command seat). Also on the crew is Vladimir
Titov, who will become the second Russian to fly on the Shuttle, and the
first serving Russian military officer to do so.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. Aviation Week reports
that a Perseid left a visible hole in one of the solar panels.
There was no damage to the pressurized sections of the station.
The Progress M-19 cargo ferry and the Soyuz TM-17 transport ship
remain docked to the station. On Sep 2, Progress M-17 was
still in orbit almost a month after its undocking from the station,
in a test of the longevity of its onboard systems.

Other Missions
------------------

Mars Observer remains silent, probably in solar orbit as it
now seems unlikely that the MOI burn happened.

The Galileo probe flew 2400 km from minor planet (243) Ida
at 1622 UTC on Aug 28. 

To add to the loss in recent weeks of Mars Observer, NOAA-13,
Hipparcos, and the Titan 4, I omitted to report on the loss
of ESA's Olympus comsat. The satellite lost attitude control
during the Perseid shower. It was later recovered, but had
used up so much fuel it had to be moved out of geostationary
orbit and turned off. Also, the Alexis satellite went silent
again in August, but, thank goodness, they now have it back
and returning data (phew!).

Launches
--------

Two successful US expendable launches happened recently:
McDonnell Douglas launched a Delta 2 with another Navstar
navigation satellite for the USAF; and General Dynamics
launched an Atlas I Centaur with a Hughes HS-601 communications
satellite (UHF Follow On) for the US Navy. The first UHF Follow On
(UFO) satellite was left in the wrong orbit earlier in the year;
the last two successful Atlas launches are a hopeful sign
for General Dynamics after a less than ideal launch record in
recent years. Delta 2's launch record remains perfect.

A Ukranian-built Tsiklon launch vehicle was launched from the Russian
Plesetsk spaceport on Aug 31. The rocket's main payload was a Meteor-2
weather satellite, built by VNII Elektromekhaniki.  Aboard as a
piggyback payload is the Temisat  (Telespazio Micro Satellite) built by
the German company Kayser-Threde for the Italian company Telespazio. The
30 kg microsatellite will relay environmental data from field sites.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug  2 1959     Adv NOSS 3?     Titan 403       Vandenberg      Recon      FTO
Aug  4 0052     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     49A
Aug  8 1002     NOAA 13         Atlas 34E       Vandenberg      Weather    50A
Aug 10 1500?    Kosmos-2261     Molniya         Plesetsk        Early Warn 51A
Aug 10 2224     Progress M-19   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      52A
Aug 24 1050?    Resurs-F        Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote s.  53A
Aug 30 1238     Navstar GPS 35  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navigation 54A
Aug 31 0450?    Meteor-2   )    Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Weather    55A
                Temisat    )                                               55C
Sep  3 1117     UHF F2          Atlas I         Canaveral LC36  Comsat    

Reentries
---------

Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed
Aug 18          Molniya-3 (22)  Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/RSRM-33/ET-59/OV-103 LC39B       STS-51



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 168        1993 Sep 16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Discovery was launched at 1145 UTC on Sep 12. Mission STS-51 is the 57th
Shuttle launch. The Transfer Orbit Stage was deployed at 2113 on Sep 12
and ignited at 2158 to place its ACTS (Advanced Communications
Technology Satellite) payload in geostationary transfer orbit. The
German ASTRO-SPAS carrier with the ORFEUS telescope was deployed on Sep
13 at 1506  into a 297 x 327 km orbit inclined 28.5 deg. ORFEUS-SPAS
carries an ultraviolet telescope with high spectral resolution for
absorption line studies. It is due to be retrieved before the end of the
mission. Cameras on ORFEUS-SPAS got beautiful views of Discovery as it
separated (well, *I* thought they were great). Carl Walz and Jim Newman
carried out a 7 hour 5 minute spacewalk on Sep 16 to test tools
scheduled for use in the HST repair later this year. 

Meanwhile, Columbia is due to be rolled out to pad 39B on Sep 17.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. 

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2262, launched on Sep 7, appears from its orbit to
be the fifth in a new series of imaging satellites which fly
two-month long missions. After a day in a 172 x 290 km x 65 degree
parking orbit, the satellite moved to an operational orbit
of 207 x 323 km x 65 degrees. Previous satellites in the
series, which have flown one a year since 1989, were Kosmos-2031,
2101, 2163, and 2225. 

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug 24 1050?    Resurs-F1       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote s.  53A
Aug 30 1238     Navstar GPS 35  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navigation 54A
Aug 31 0450?    Meteor-2   )    Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Weather    55A
                Temisat    )                                               55C
Sep  3 1117     UHF F2          Atlas I  AC-75  Canaveral LC36  Comsat     56A
Sep  7 1330?    Kosmos-2262     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      57A
Sep 12 1145     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship  58A
Sep 12 2113     ACTS            TOS             Discovery, LEO  Comsat     58B
Sep 13 1506     ORFEUS-SPAS     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy  58C


Reentries
---------

Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed
Aug 18          Molniya-3 (22)  Reentered
Aug 28          Meteor-Priroda (77-57A) Reentered


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-51
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 VAB Bay 3   STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/                     Refurb      STS-51

Shuttle Processing Explanation (or,  what are all these acronyms
anyway?):

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM), also
knownas SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters).  The OV is prepared for flight in
the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which consists of three bays (one
of which is actually a separate building) after which it is towed to the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or joined to
the ET and RSRM. First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked up on a
Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it. After
the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML and
carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at
launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space
Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally an OV is returned to
the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California for refit - an
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP.  After launch the ML is
returned to a refurbishment area near the VAB and then is used for
stacking a new set of RSRMs.

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 169        1993 Sep 23
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Discovery retrieved the ORFEUS-SPAS satellite from orbit on Sep 19.
Commander Frank Culbertson flew Discovery up to SPAS and
mission specialist Dan Bursch used the RMS to grapple it at 1149 UTC.
Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at
0756:06 (main gear touchdown) on Sep 22, in the first night
landing at KSC. The mission duration was 236 hr 11 min,
giving Discovery a total flight time of 2629 hr 02 min in
17 flights. This temporarily gives it back the lead in total flight
hours from Columbia, which was rolled out to pad 39B on Sep 17.
Launch of Columbia's STS-58 flight is scheduled for Oct 14.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. They made two 
spacewalks in the past week, one of which overlapped with the
Discovery EVA. More details next week, I hope.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2263, launched into a 848 x 854 km x 71.0 deg orbit, is 
a heavy signals intelligence satellite. Other satellites in
the same series include Kosmos-2219, 2227 and 2237. The program
had three consecutive launch failures in 1990-1992, but the
last 4 launches have been successful. Zenit has had 21 launches
with 5 failures since the first suborbital test flight in 1985.

Kosmos-2264, launched into a 402 x 418 km x 65.0 deg orbit,
is an electronic intelligence ocean reconnaissance satellite
or EORSAT. It carries a low thrust engine to maintain precise
separation with other EORSATs and uses radio interferometry
to locate transmissions from ships. The Tsiklon-M launch
vehicle uses a modified R-36M ICBM (known as SS-9 in the West).

The ACTS communications satellite is drifting in the geostationary
ring towards its scheduled position of 100 deg West.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug 24 1045     Resurs-F1       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote s.  53A
Aug 30 1238     Navstar GPS 35  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navigation 54A
Aug 31 0440     Meteor-2        Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Weather    55A
Aug 31 1520     Temisat         -               Meteor-2,LEO               55C
Sep  3 1117     UHF F2          Atlas I  AC-75  Canaveral LC36  Comsat     56A
Sep  7 1325     Kosmos-2262     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      57A
Sep 12 1145     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship  58A
Sep 12 2113     ACTS            TOS             Discovery, LEO  Comsat     58B
Sep 13 1506     ORFEUS-SPAS     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy  58C
Sep 16 0736	Kosmos-2263	Zenit		Baykonur LC45	SIGINT	   59A
Sep 17 0043	Kosmos-2264	Tsiklon-M	Baykonur LC90	EORSAT	   60A

Reentries
---------

Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed
Aug 18          Molniya-3 (22)  Reentered
Aug 28          Meteor-Priroda (77-57A) Reentered
Sep 10          Resurs-F        Landed
Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 LC39B       STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/                     Refurb      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 170        1993 Sep 28
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Vladimir Agapov and Joel Runes for info included
in last week's report and in this one. Apologies to sci.space.news
readers; due to a problem with our new news software my posts
have not been getting to the net. 

Shuttle 
------- 

Columbia/STS-58 is due for launch on Oct 14.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. They have made three
spacewalks recently. The first one was on Sep 16 at 0557 UT and lasted 4
h 18 min. The second was on Sep 20 at 0352 UT and lasted 3h 13 min. The
third one was on Sep 28 and was scheduled to be a 4 hr 43 min spacewalk
beginning at 0120 UTC. The Sep 16 EVA overlapped with the spacewalk from
Discovery for 1h 43 min; this is the first time 4 people have been
spacewalking at once, and the first time American and Russian cosmonauts
have spacewalked at the same time. (An earlier pair of EVAs this year,
Manakov/Poleshchuk on Jun 18 and Low/Wisoff on Jun 25, were separated by
only a week; otherwise there have been only three cases of Russian and
American spacewalks occuring within a month of each other. The Russians
made the first spacewalk but then only made one more between 1965 and
1977, by which time the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs were long
over; then they started doing lots of EVAs from Salyut and Mir, but
until this year spacewalks from the Shuttle were relatively rare.)


Launches
--------

The first launch of the Indian Space Research Organization's PSLV (Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle) ended in failure on Sep 20.  However, all four
stages burnt well, which is encouraging for future flights. The problem
was at second stage separation when the vehicle ended up pointing the
wrong way. The IRS-1E payload ended in the ocean; it was a remote
sensing satellite built from the IRS-1 engineering model. With the
failure of two out of three ASLV launches with Streched Rohini (SROSS)
satellites, ISRO now has three out of the last four orbital attempts in
the drink.  However, considering that these attempts were all tests of
new launch vehicles, this isn't quite as bad as it sounds, and hopefully
the second PSLV launch, scheduled for next year, will be successful.
ISRO's launch site is the Sriharikota Range (SHAR). 

 Indian IRS remote sensing program:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Satellite       Launch Date     Launch Vehicle  Site     Orbit
IRS-1           1988 Mar 17     8A92M Vostok    Baykonur 870x914 km x 99.0 deg
IRS-1B          1991 Aug 29     8A92M Vostok    Baykonur 862x918 km x 99.2 deg
IRS-1E          1993 Sep 20     PSLV-1          SHAR     -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Indian launch vehicle record:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Satellite       Launch Date     Launch Vehicle  Site    Orbit
Rohini RS-1     1979 Aug 10     SLV-3-01        SHAR    -
Rohini RS-1     1980 Jul 18     SLV-3-02        SHAR    305x919 km x 44.7 deg
Rohini RS-D-1   1981 May 31     SLV-3-03        SHAR    186x416 km x 46.3 deg
Rohini RS-D-2   1983 Apr 17     SLV-3-04        SHAR    388x852 km x 46.6 deg
SROSS 1         1987 Mar 24     ASLV-01         SHAR    -
SROSS 2         1988 Jul 12     ASLV-02         SHAR    -
SROSS 3         1992 May 20     ASLV-03         SHAR    246x396 km x 46.0 deg
IRS-1E          1993 Sep 20     PSLV-01         SHAR    -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile the Ariane 4 had another successful launch in its 40
configuration on Sep 26, chalking up 30 successes out of 31 launches,
compared with rival McDonnell Douglas Delta's 36 out of 36.  The
Ariane's main payload was the 1900 kg SPOT 3 remote sensing satellite.
Also on board was a passive 48 kg spherical geodetic satellite, Stella,
and an ASAP package (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads). Stella
was built by the French space agency CNES (but apparently will be used
by a German agency, can anyone confirm this?) 

The Ariane ASAP deployed  five microsatellites. First is Uribyol 2, 
built by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for
SATREC Korea; it carries CCD cameras, store/forward communication
equipment and a radiation  detector. The spacecraft is based on the
British Uosat bus developed by the University of Surrey's Surrey
Satellite Technology Labs (SSTL). POSAT 1 is the first Portuguese
satellite. Also using the 50 kg Uosat bus, it was built by SSTL in
collaboration with engineers from the Portuguese national engineering
lab LNETI. It carries an earth imaging camera, a GPS receiver, and a
digital signal processing experiment. Healthsat 1, a Uosat bus built by
SSTL for the American company SatelLife, will be used as a packet radio
satellite to link up doctors in Africa.  The last two satellites are
even smaller, using the 12 kg bus developed by a US company,
Interferometrics. Interferometrics' Eyesat A carries a small experiment
for monitoring of mobile industrial equipment (i.e., at least at first, 
tracking truckers). ITAmsat is an Italian amateur radio satellite, built
by Interferometrics for the ITAmsat organization and the ARI
(Associazione Radioamatori Italiani).

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug 24 1045     Resurs-F1       Soyuz           Plesetsk        Remote s.  53A
Aug 30 1238     Navstar GPS 35  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navigation 54A
Aug 31 0440     Meteor-2        Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Weather    55A
Aug 31 1520     Temisat         -               Meteor-2,LEO               55C
Sep  3 1117     UHF F2          Atlas I  AC-75  Canaveral LC36  Comsat     56A
Sep  7 1325     Kosmos-2262     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      57A
Sep 12 1145     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship  58A
Sep 12 2113     ACTS            TOS             Discovery, LEO  Comsat     58B
Sep 13 1506     ORFEUS-SPAS     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy  58C
Sep 16 0736     Kosmos-2263     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT     59A
Sep 17 0043     Kosmos-2264     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT     60A
Sep 20 0012     IRS-1E          PSLV            Sriharikota     Remote s.  FTO
Sep 26 0145     SPOT 3      )   Ariane 40       Kourou ELA 2    Remote s.  61A
                Stella      )                                   Geodesy    61B
                Uribyol 2   )                                 Remote s,com 61C      
                Posat  1    )                                   Test       61D
                Healthsat 1 )                                   Comsat     61E
                Eyesat A    )                                   Comsat     61F
                ITAmsat     )                                   Comsat     61G

Reentries
---------

Aug  5          Kosmos-2260     Landed
Aug 18          Molniya-3 (22)  Reentered
Aug 28          Meteor-Priroda (77-57A) Reentered
Sep 10          Resurs-F        Landed
Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 LC39B       STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/                     Refurb      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 171       1993 Oct 4
Today is the 36th anniversary of the first Earth satellite launch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Bob McGwier, Win Decker, Joel Runes for input this week.

Shuttle 
------- 

Columbia/STS-58 is due for launch on Oct 14.

Mir
---

The Expedition 14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov 
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. On their Sep 16 and Sep 20
spacewalks they installed a boom called Ripana on the station;
experiments will be mounted on the boom. On the third spacewalk they
were intending to carry out a detailed photo survey of the station's
exterior but Tsibliev's spacesuit overheated, and the spacewalk was cut
short after only 1 hr 55 min. It began at 0052 UT on Sep 28, and the
astronauts did manage to exchange some  exposure sample containers
before the problems arose.


Launches
--------

The Eyesat and Itamsat satellites which went into orbit piggyback with
SPOT 3 are based on the AMSAT-NA Microsat bus. AMSAT-NA is the North
American branch of the Radio  Amateur Satellite organization which took
over in the 1970s from the original Project OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite
Carrying Amateur Radio). Below I give a listing of the satellites which
have used the AMSAT bus; I'm not sure this list is correct and offer it
as a lure for people to send me corrections.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 AMSAT-NA class microsatellites (provisional)

PO-16   PACSAT          1990 Jan 20 788x804 km x 98.7 deg AMSAT-NA, USA
DO-17   DOVE            1990 Jan 20 788x804 km x 98.7 deg AMSAT-BR, Brasil
WO-18   WEBERSAT        1990 Jan 20 788x804 km x 98.7 deg Weber CAST, Utah
LO-19   LUSAT           1990 Jan 20 788x804 km x 98.7 deg AMSAT-LU, Argentina
IO-26   ITAMSAT         1993 Sep 26 793x805 km x 98.7 deg ARI/ITAMSAT, Italia
AO-27   Eyesat/AMRAD    1993 Sep 26 793x805 km x 98.7 deg Interferometrics
                                                                /AMRAD, Va.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to John Macagliane's SpaceNews, several of the SPOT 3
piggyback satellites have also received OSCAR numbers. Eyesat carries an
AMRAD amateur radio package which is AMRAD-OSCAR 27; Uribyol 2 is 
KITSAT-OSCAR 25; and ITAMSAT-OSCAR 26 and POSAT-OSCAR 28 round out the
quartet (POSAT's OSCAR number is still provisional). OSCAR 24 has been
reserved for the ARSENE satellite in case it decides to join the OSCAR
system.

The Stella geodetic satellite is a copy of Starlette, a small satellite
launched as primary payload on the first Diamant B P.4 test flight in
1975. They are, roughly speaking, French versions of the Lageos
satellite, with laser retroreflectors to allow precise determination of
the position of the satellite from the ground (or, really, of the
position of the ground relative to the satellite!). The Stella and Starlette
satellites are owned by the French space agency CNES (Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales) and continue a French involvement in space geodesy
which began early in their space program.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  French geodetic satellites
Name            Launch Vehicle          Launch Date        Initial Orbit

Diapason        Diamant A               1966 Feb 17     499x 2738 km x 34.0 deg
Diademe 1       Diamant A               1967 Feb  8     569x 1350 km x 40.0 deg
Diademe 2       Diamant A               1967 Feb 15     591x 1881 km x 39.5 deg
Peole           Diamant B               1970 Dec 12     517x 747 km x 15.0 deg
Starlette       Diamant B P.4           1975 Feb  6     806x1108 km x 49.8 deg
Stella          Ariane 40               1993 Sep 26     797x 805 km x 98.7 deg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A geostationary satellite was launched from Baykonur on Sep 30. This
was the first launch of the 8K82K Proton launch vehicle since a
failure in May dropped a Gorizont in the drink. 


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep  3 1117     UHF F2          Atlas I  AC-75  Canaveral LC36  Comsat     56A
Sep  7 1325     Kosmos-2262     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      57A
Sep 12 1145     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship  58A
Sep 12 2113     ACTS            TOS             Discovery, LEO  Comsat     58B
Sep 13 1506     ORFEUS-SPAS     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy  58C
Sep 16 0736     Kosmos-2263     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT     59A
Sep 17 0043     Kosmos-2264     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT     60A
Sep 20 0012     IRS-1E          PSLV            Sriharikota     Remote s.  FTO
Sep 26 0145     SPOT 3      )   Ariane 40       Kourou ELA 2    Remote s.  61A
                Stella      )                                   Geodesy    61B
                Uribyol 2/OSCAR 25 (KITSAT B)                   Remote s,com 61C
                ITAmsat/OSCAR 26                                Comsat     61F
                Eyesat 1/OSCAR 27                               Comsat     61G
                Posat 1     )                                   Test       61D
                Healthsat 1 )                                   Comsat     61E
Sep 30 1706     Raduga          Proton/Blok DM  Baykonur LC81   Comsat     62A


Reentries
---------

Sep 10          Resurs-F        Landed
Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Sep 28          Molniya-1 (1977-82A) reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 LC39B       STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?             VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 172       1993 Oct 12
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Columbia/STS-58 is due for launch on Oct 14. The payload is Spacelab
Life Sciences 2; the orbiter will carry the Extended Duration
Orbiter kit in the payload bay for the second time.
Crew are John Blaha (Commander), Richard Searfoss (Pilot),
Rhea Seddon, William McArthur, David Wolf, and Shannon Lucid
(Mission Specialists) and Martin Fettman (Payload Specialist)
plus 48 rats.

Mir
---

The Progress M-20 cargo spaceship was launched on Oct 11 from
Baykonur. It was due to link up with the Mir station on Oct 13.


Launches
--------

Another bad day for the US space program - the long awaited Landsat 6
remote sensing satellite is on the bottom of the Pacific. The Martin
Marietta Titan 23G launch vehicle lifted off successfully from  Space
Launch Complex 4-West at Vandenberg AFB at 1756 UTC on Oct 5; the two
stage launch vehicle delivered the payload to the planned suborbital
trajectory and separated at 1802 UTC an altitude of 724 km. The Thiokol
Star 37XFP apogee motor was meant to fire at 1810 UTC to place Landsat
in a circular orbit, but the burn was not monitored and there has been
no sign of Landsat since. (Thanks to Joel Runes for getting these
details for me). The apogee motor is considered to be part of the
payload, although earlier Landsats, which were all launched on Deltas,
didn't need one. The first Landsat was launched in 1972 and was then
called Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1. The first three Landsats
used the Nimbus weather satellite bus, while the last three have used
the Multimission Spacecraft (MMS) bus first used for Solar Max.

   Landsat program
   ---------------

ERTS 1          1972 Jul 23     903x921 km x 99 deg
Landsat 2       1975 Jan 22     907x918 km x 99 deg
Landsat 3       1978 Mar  5     900x918 km x 99 deg
Landsat 4       1982 Jul 16     683x700 km x 98 deg
Landsat 5       1984 Mar  1     699x700 km x 98 deg
Landsat 6       1993 Oct  5       0x724 km x 98 deg

    Unclassified MMS buses
    ----------------------

Solar Max       1980 Feb 14     566x569 km x 29 deg
Landsat 4       1982 Jul 16     683x700 km x 98 deg
Landsat 5       1984 Mar  1     699x700 km x 98 deg
UARS            1991 Sep 12     574x581 km x 57 deg
EUVE            1992 Jun  9     514x528 km x 28 deg
TOPEX/Poseidon  1992 Aug 10     1331x1343 km x 66 deg
Landsat 6       1993 Oct  5       0x724 km x 98 deg

The Star 37 motor has a long and illustrious history, descending
from the retro-rockets used to land the Surveyor probes on
the Moon in the 1960s. The 37XF was used as an apogee motor
on Intelsat V, and the new 37XFP version was used successfully
on the Satcom K1 and K2, Astra 1A and ACTS satellites.

A recoverable satellite was launched from Jiuquan space
center in the Gobi desert on Oct 8. The Chinese FSW-1
(Fanhui Shi Weixing) satellite was placed in a 207 x 295 km
orbit inclined 57 degrees to the equator. 

The Galileo probe made a TCM (Trajectory Correction Maneuver) last week
(in five daily segments from Oct 4 to Oct 8). The reboost of the Compton
Observatory's orbit is proceeding; after the first two burns the orbit
had been raised from 337 km to 355 km; the original orbit was 452 km
high.


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Sep 16 0736     Kosmos-2263     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT     59A
Sep 17 0043     Kosmos-2264     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT     60A
Sep 20 0012     IRS-1E          PSLV            Sriharikota     Remote s.  FTO
Sep 26 0145     SPOT 3      )   Ariane 40       Kourou ELA 2    Remote s.  61A
                Stella      )                                   Geodesy    61B
                KITSAT-OSCAR 25                               Remote s,com 61C
                ITAmsat/OSCAR 26                                Comsat     61F
                Eyesat 1/OSCAR 27                               Comsat     61G
                Posat 1     )                                   Test       61D
                Healthsat 1 )                                   Comsat     61E
Sep 30 1706     Raduga          Proton/Blok DM  Baykonur LC81   Comsat     62A
Oct  5 1756     Landsat 6       Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4W Remote s. FTO
Oct  8 0800     FSW-1           Chang Zheng 2C  Jiuquan         Remote s.  63A
Oct 11 2133     Progress M-20   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      64A

Reentries
---------

Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Sep 28          Molniya-1 (1977-82A) reentered

Erratum
-------

The first KITSAT was renamed Uribyol 1 after launch. I haven't managed to 
confirm that the new one was also renamed, so I'm returning to the KITSAT
name in this week's listing.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-34/ET-57/OV-102 LC39B       STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?             VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 173       1993 Oct 18
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle 
------- 

Columbia/STS-58 was launched from pad 39B at 1453 UTC on Oct 18.
Main engine cutoff was at 1502 UTC and the OMS 2 burn
to circularize the orbit was at 1535 UTC.
The Spacelab Life Sciences 2 mission is planned to be the longest
Shuttle flight yet.

Mir
---

Progress M-19 was deorbited on Oct 13. Progress M-20 probably
docked with Mir the same day (no confirmation yet).


Obituary: Dr. Karl Gordon Henize (1926-1993)
-------- 

Karl Henize, a native of Ohio, got his masters' in astronomy from the
University of Virginia in 1948, followed by a PhD from Michigan in 1954.
After a successful career in astronomy (a number of well known emission
line stars carry his name, e.g. the x-ray pulsar Henize 715= 4U1145-61)
he was selected as an astronaut in 1967. However, Apollo was cancelled,
and he had to wait until 1985 for a flight. At 58 he was at that time
the oldest person to fly in space, and it's still a record age for a
first flight. He was a Mission Specialist aboard the Space Shuttle
Challenger on the Spacelab 2 mission. Henize left the astronaut corps in
Apr 1986 to work in the science division at NASA-JSC.  He died of
respiratory failure on Oct 5, at the age of 66, while trying to climb
Mt. Everest. Henize was buried on the mountain.

Launches
--------

The geostationary launch on Sep 30 has been referred to by TASS 
both as Raduga and as Kosmos-2265.

China's Jian Bing satellite failed to return its descent module
to Earth on Oct 16 as planned.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Sep 16 0736     Kosmos-2263     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT     59A
Sep 17 0043     Kosmos-2264     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT     60A
Sep 20 0012     IRS-1E          PSLV            Sriharikota     Remote s.  FTO
Sep 26 0145     SPOT 3      )   Ariane 40       Kourou ELA 2    Remote s.  61A
                Stella      )                                   Geodesy    61B
                KITSAT-OSCAR 25                               Remote s,com 61C
                ITAmsat/OSCAR 26                                Comsat     61F
                Eyesat 1/OSCAR 27                               Comsat     61G
                Posat 1     )                                   Test       61D
                Healthsat 1 )                                   Comsat     61E
Sep 30 1706     Kosmos-2265?    Proton/Blok DM  Baykonur LC81   Comsat     62A
Oct  5 1756     Landsat 6       Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4W Remote s. FTO
Oct  8 0800     Jian Bing       Chang Zheng 2C  Jiuquan         Remote s.  63A
Oct 11 2133     Progress M-20   Soyuz           Baykonur LC2    Cargo      64A
Oct 18 1453     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  
                Spacelab SLS 2)


Reentries
---------

Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Sep 28          Molniya-1 (1977-82A) reentered
Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                     LC39B       STS-58
ML2/RSRM-23/             VAB Bay 1   STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?             VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


 


        

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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 174       1993 Nov  1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

OV-102 Columbia landed on runway 22 at Edwards AFB at 1005:43 UTC on Nov
1 after 14 days and 12 minutes in space, the longest Shuttle flight to
date. After 15 flights it has clocked up 2945 h 31 min, the most of any
orbiter. 50-yr old Dr. Shannon Wells Lucid now has the most flight hours
of any active NASA astronaut (838:51 over 4 flights compared to John
Blaha's 789 hr, Bonnie Dunbar's 761 hr, and Rhea Seddon's 722 hr) and is
the most experienced woman space traveller to date. Shannon Wells was
born in Shanghai, China of American parents.

Endeavour was rolled out to pad 39A for the HST Servicing Mission on Oct 28.
Launch is due for Dec 1. 

Mir
---

Progress M-20 docked with Mir on Oct 13 at 2324 UTC. Cosmonauts
Tsibliev and Serebrov made a brief 38 min spacewalk on Oct 22; Serebrov
became the first person to make 9 full spacewalks. The NASA astronaut
Charles Conrad worked under depressurized conditions 10 times, but
two of those were equipment dumps which only lasted a few minutes
and didn't involve the astronaut leaving the spacecraft, and a third
involved disassembly of a docking probe within the spacecraft. Although
in each case the spacecraft was open to vacuum and the astronauts were
only protected by their spacesuits, these are not normally included
in lists of spacewalks. The recordholder for time spacewalking
is Sergey Krikalyov, with 36 h 30 m over 7 occasions; US record is
Gene Cernan with 25 h 24 m over 7 occasions. Serebrov has
27h 40m over 9 walks, some relatively brief.


Launches
--------

The Chinese Jian Bing satellite's reentry vehicle fired its
deorbit motor successfully but, alas, in the wrong direction; the capsule
ended up in a 187 x 3016 km orbit, starting from a low 196 x 251 km
orbit.

The first Intelsat VII satellite, Intelsat 701, was launched on Oct 22.
INTELSAT is an intergovernmental consortium which operates the main
global civil communications satellite network; Intelsat I (better known
as Early Bird) was launched in 1965 and Intelsat 701 is the 49th
Intelsat to be launched. The Intelsat VII series uses the Ford Aerospace
(now Space Systems/Loral) FS-1300 satellite bus, which is derived from
the earlier Intelsat V and Japan's Superbird. The larger Intelsat VI
satellites which continue to provide the  main transoceanic capacity use
the Hughes HS389 bus. 

The Proton launch vehicle chalked up another successful flight
on Oct 28, the second since its May launch failure. It orbited
a Gorizont communications satellite.

Another Delta 2 launch went up on Oct 26 with a Navstar navigation
satellite.

Kosmos-2265, launched on Oct 26, is in a 291 x 1573 km x 82.9 deg
orbit. These orbital parameters are unusual for a Kosmos satellite
but it is probably a small radar calibration or electronic intelligence
satellite.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Sep 16 0736     Kosmos-2263     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT     59A
Sep 17 0043     Kosmos-2264     Tsiklon-M       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT     60A
Sep 20 0012     IRS-1E          PSLV            Sriharikota     Remote s.  FTO
Sep 26 0145     SPOT 3      )   Ariane 40       Kourou ELA 2    Remote s.  61A
                Stella      )                                   Geodesy    61B
                KITSAT-OSCAR 25                               Remote s,com 61C
                ITAmsat/OSCAR 26                                Comsat     61F
                Eyesat 1/OSCAR 27                               Comsat     61G
                Posat 1     )                                   Test       61D
                Healthsat 1 )                                   Comsat     61E
Sep 30 1706     Raduga          Proton/Blok DM  Baykonur LC81   Comsat     62A
Oct  5 1756     Landsat 6       Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4W Remote s. FTO
Oct  8 0800     Jian Bing       Chang Zheng 2C  Jiuquan         Remote s.  63A
Oct 11 2133     Progress M-20   Soyuz           Baykonur LC2    Cargo      64A
Oct 18 1453     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  65A
                Spacelab SLS 2)
Oct 22 0646     Intelsat 701    Ariane          Kourou          Comsat     66A
Oct 26 1301?    Kosmos-2265     Kosmos          Plesetsk        ?          67A
Oct 26 1704     Navstar GPS 34  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat     68A
Oct 28 1500?    Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     69A

Reentries
---------

Sep 22          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Sep 28          Molniya-1 (1977-82A) reentered
Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-58
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                                 
ML2/RSRM-23/ET-61/OV-105 LC39A       STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?             VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 175       1993 Nov  18
***
I apologize for the erratic nature of JSR at the moment. Normal
service will be resumed as soon as possible.
***
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Erratum: STS-58 landing was 1505:43 UTC, not 1005:43 UTC. Sorry for
the typo.

After contamination was found at pad 39A, STS-61/Endeavour was transferred
to pad 39B on Nov 15. Launch is still due for Dec 1.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2266, launched on November 2, is a military navigation
satellite in the 'Parus' series, built by NPO-PM of Krasnoyarsk.

Kosmos-2267, launched on Nov 5, is a spy satellite in a 70.4 degree
orbit. 

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Oct  5 1756     Landsat 6       Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4W Remote s. FTO
Oct  8 0800     Jian Bing       Chang Zheng 2C  Jiuquan         Remote s.  63A
Oct 11 2133     Progress M-20   Soyuz           Baykonur LC2    Cargo      64A
Oct 18 1453     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  65A
                Spacelab SLS 2)
Oct 22 0646     Intelsat 701    Ariane          Kourou          Comsat     66A
Oct 26 1000     Kosmos-2265     Kosmos          Plesetsk        Calib      67A
Oct 26 1704     Navstar GPS 34  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat     68A
Oct 28 1517     Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     69A
Nov  2 1210?    Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk        Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825?    Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur        Recon      71A

Reentries
---------

Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited
Nov  1          Columbia        Landed 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                                 
ML2/RSRM-23/ET-61/OV-105 LC39B       STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?             VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 176       1993 Dec 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks again to Joel Runes and Vladimir Agapov for contributing info.

Shuttle  
-------  

The first attempt to launch STS-61 was scrubbed on Dec 1 due to weather.

Mir
---

Cosmonauts Tsibliev and Serebrov continue in orbit aboard Mir, beginning
their fifth month aboard the station.
The Progress M-20 cargo spacecraft was undocked and deorbited on
Nov 21. It was reported to be carrying a Raduga reentry capsule
but I don't know if it was recovered successfully.

Launches
--------

The Gorizont satellite launched on Nov 18 is reportedly the one purchased
by the US company Rimsat for Pacific Rim communications. It will be
stationed at 130 degrees E. 

Solidaridad 1 is a Hughes HS-601 comsat built for the Mexican government
company Telecomunicaciones de Mexico. 

Meteosat 6 is part of ESA's Meteosat Operational Program. Ownership
of the Aerospatiale-built satellite will be transferred to EUMETSAT,
the European Meteorological Satellite Organization, in February.

Atlas Centaur 106, an Atlas II variant with an IABS apogee stage,
launched another Defense Satellite Communications System comsat
for the US DoD on Nov 28. The next Atlas launch is the first
Atlas IIAS, with strap-on solid boosters. 

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Oct 11 2133     Progress M-20   Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Cargo      64A
Oct 18 1453     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy  LC39B  Spaceship  65A
                Spacelab SLS 2)
Oct 22 0646     Intelsat 701    Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     66A
Oct 26 1000     Kosmos-2265     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Calib      67A
Oct 26 1704     Navstar GPS 34  Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat     68A
Oct 28 1517     Gorizont        Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     69A
Nov  2 1210     Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825     Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur  LC1   Recon      71A
Nov 18 1355     Rimsat/Gorizont Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     72A
Nov 20 0117     Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     73A
                Meteosat 6    )                                 Weather    73B
Nov 28 2340     DSCS III        Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     74A


Reentries
---------

Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited
Nov  1          Columbia        Landed 
Nov 20          Kosmos-808      Reentered
Nov 21          Progress M-20   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/                                 
ML2/RSRM-23/ET-61/OV-105 LC39B       STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET?         VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 177       1993 Dec 8  STS-61 SPECIAL REPORT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Endeavour was launched on mission STS-61 at 0927.00 on Dec 2.
Main engine cutoff came at 0935.31; the OMS-2 burn raised the orbit
to about 398 x 570 km at 1010 UT. Over the next few days
a series of rendezvous burns were carried out:
 NC1  Dec 2 1455    Phase adjust
 NSR  Dec 3 0811    Coelliptic burn
 NC2  Dec 3 0844    Phase adjust
 NH   Dec 4 0234    Height adjust
 NC3  Dec 4 0322    Phase adjust
 NPC  Dec 4 0403    Plane change
 NCC  Dec 4 0535    Corrective combination
 TI   Dec 4 0635    Terminal phase initiation
 MCC1 Dec 4 0715?   Mid course correction
 MCC2 Dec 4 0729    Mid course correction
 MCC3 Dec 4 0738    Mid course correction
 MCC4 Dec 4 0749.   Mid course correction

By 0755 on Dec 4 commander Covey took over manual control of Endeavour and
at 0847 Nicollier used the RMS arm to grapple the Hubble Space Telescope.

The spacecraft were now in a 585 x 592 km orbit inclined 28.5 degrees.
At 0922 HST was berthed onto the Flight Support System (FSS) last used
for the Solar Max repair. At 0935 the RMS was detached from HST and
by 1000 HST was on external power.

As of this writing 4 of the 5 planned spacewalks have been carried out.
EVA-1 on Dec 5 saw the replacement of the HST gyros and fuses. The
astronauts had problems closing the gyro shroud doors on HST, probably
due to thermal warping. On Dec 5 at 1325 the first solar panel was
retracted; the second one stuck because it was warped. On Dec 6 the
EVA-2 spacewalkers removed the dud solar panel; Kathy Thornton threw it
into space at 0451 on Dec 6; it received the catalog number 22920 and
designation 1990-37C. They then put the new solar panels on. The EVA
ended with a delayed repressurization when Thornton's ears had problems
re-adjusting to higher pressure. EVA-3, on Dec 7, saw the replacement of
WFPC-1 with WFPC-2 and the installation of two new magnetometers. One
of the magnetometer electronics boxes was discovered to be falling apart
and Hoffmann removed loose parts of it.
Next on EVA-4 came the removal of HSP and its replacement by COSTAR.
Also on this spacewalk Akers took over the MFR (Manipulator Foot Restraint
platform on the robot arm) from Thornton for an hour for the installation
of a new coprocessor for the HST on board computer.
        
       Start      End         Duration MFR/RMS   Free floater
EVA-1  Dec 5 0329 Dec 5 1138  08:00    Hoffmann  Musgrave
EVA-2  Dec 6 0325 Dec 6 1010  06:45    Thornton  Akers
EVA-3  Dec 7 0333 Dec 6 1024  06:51    Hoffmann  Musgrave
EVA-4  Dec 8 0305 Dec 8 1003  06:58    Thornton  Akers

Note: I measure durations from airlock depressurization to
repressurization; NASA's rule is a little different so they 
quote slightly shorter EVA times.

At the end of EVA 4, Tom Akers had 29 h 49 min of EVA time by my
count, making him the 6th ranked in all time spacewalk duration
after Russian cosmonauts Krikalyov (36h), Manarov (34h), Artsebarskiy
(32h), Kizim (31h) and V. Solov'yov (31h), and beating the US
record set by Conrad on Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights.


Launches
--------


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Nov  2 1210     Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825     Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur  LC1   Recon      71A
Nov 18 1355     Rimsat/Gorizont Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     72A
Nov 20 0117     Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     73A
                Meteosat 6    )                                 Weather    73B
Nov 28 2340     DSCS III        Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     74A
Dec  2 0927     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy   LC39  Spaceship  75A
Dec  8 0048     NATO IVB        Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat     76A

Reentries
---------

Oct 13          Progress M-19   Deorbited
Nov  1          Columbia        Landed 
Nov 20          Kosmos-808      Reentered
Nov 21          Progress M-20   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-61
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?             VAB Bay  1  STS-62
ML2/                     LC39B       STS-61
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET?         VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 178       1993 Dec 17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

STS-61: The fifth and final spacewalk was carried out on Dec 9, with
depressurization at 0326 UT and repress at 1050 UT for a duration of 7h
24 m. During the EVA, Musgrave (on the robot arm) and Hoffmann
(free-floating) changed out the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE) and
manually deployed the solar array masts from the side of the  telescope.
They next repaired the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph and added
covers to the magnetometers.  Finally, the astronauts removed the MFR
(Manipulator Foot Restraint) from the robot RMS arm. As the astronauts
were preparing to enter the airlock, the solar panels were unrolled from
the array masts.

The next day, at 0744 UT on Dec 10, the RMS arm grappled the Hubble
Space Telescope and at 0756 it was lifted off the Berthing and
Positioning System on the Flight Support Station in the cargo bay. At
0937 the HST aperture door was opened and at 1026.50 UT the arm released
HST into orbit again. Separation burns were carried out at 1027 and 1057
and the RMS arm was berthed.

The deorbit burn came at 0414 UT on Dec 13, with reentry at 0454 and
main gear touchdown on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center  at 0525.33. 

The active NASA astronauts with the most flight hours are now:
Story Musgrave (858 hr in 5 flights), Shannon Lucid (838 hr in 4 flights),
Jeff Hoffmann (834 hr in 4), John Blaha (789 hr in 4), and Bonnie
Dunbar (761 hr in 3 flights). 

The next flight is STS-60, scheduled for launch on Feb 3. Discovery will
carry Spacehab 2 and the Wake Shield Facility, and will include Russian
cosmonaut Sergey Krikalyov on the crew.

Trivia
------

On Dec 11 at Sotheby's in New York a number of items from the Soviet
space program were auctioned. Ivan Ivanovich, the dummy launched
aboard a Vostok test flight, went for $170k; Sergey Korolev's slide
rule went for $21k; a few grains of moonrock went for $400k. Among
the more interesting items were the Merkur-TKS descent module from
the Kosmos-1443 military spaceship, and the film return capsule
from Salyut-5. Alas, everything turned out to be beyond the reach
of my credit card, but it was a fun trip anyway...

Launches
--------

The first Atlas Centaur IIAS, AC-108, with four Castor IVA strap on
solid boosters, was launched from Cape Canaveral on Dec 16.
This is the first time strap on solid rockets have been used on the Atlas,
although the technique has been used on Thor and Thor Delta vehicles
since 1963. The Thiokol Castor IVA rockets were used on Delta 6925 rockets
launched from 1989 to 1992; the current Delta 7925 uses GEM strapons
made by Hercules Aerospace. The Atlas IIAS is otherwise the same as the
Atlas IIA, and has the same Centaur IIA second stage.  All 7 Atlas II
series launches have been successful, despite recent problems with the
older Atlas I. 

The payload of AC-108 was AT&T Skynet Satellite Services' Telstar 401.
This satellite is the  first GE 7000 series satellite, built by Martin
Marietta Astro Space (formerly GE, formerly RCA...). The satellite
carries 24 C-band and 16 Ku-band communications transponders. AT&T
was the first commerical company to launch its own satellite,
the Telstar I satellite in 1962. 

  Telstar satellite launches:
Telstar I     1962 Jul 10
Telstar II    1963 May  7
Telstar 301   1983 Jul 28
Telstar 302   1984 Sep  1
Telstar 303   1985 Jun 17
Telstar 401   1993 Dec 16


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Nov  2 1210     Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825     Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur  LC1   Recon      71A
Nov 18 1355     Rimsat/Gorizont Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     72A
Nov 20 0117     Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     73A
                Meteosat 6    )                                 Weather    73B
Nov 28 2340     DSCS III        Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     74A
Dec  2 0927     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy   LC39  Spaceship  75A
Dec  8 0048     NATO IVB        Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat     76A
Dec 16 0040     Telstar 401     Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     77A

Reentries
---------

Nov 20          Kosmos-808      Reentered
Nov 21          Progress M-20   Deorbited
Dec 13		Endeavour	Landed

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?             VAB Bay  1  STS-62
ML2/                     
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET?         VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 


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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 179       1994 Jan 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Discovery has been moved to the VAB and mated to the external tank
for mission STS-60. Launch is due for Feb 3.
 
Mir
---

Transport spaceship Soyuz TM-18 was launched on Jan 8 from Baykonur
(planned launch time was 1008 UTC)  carrying the EO-15 crew, callsign
'Derbent'. Crew commander is  Viktor Afanas'ev of the Russian Air Force
cosmonaut  corps; flight engineer is  Yuriy Usachyov of the NPO Energia
cosmonaut corps; the third member of the crew is Dr. Valeriy Polyakov,
head of the IMBP (Institute of Medical-Biological Problems)
physician-cosmonaut team. Polyakov, a cosmonaut since 1972, has made one
flight in space to date, a 240-day tour of duty as Medic-researcher
("vrach-issledotvatel'") on the EO-3 expedition in 1988-89. The only
other IMBP team member to have flown is Oleg At'kov, who was
Cosmonaut-researcher ("kosmonavt-issledovatel'") on the Soyuz T-10
(EO-3) expedition to Salyut-7 in 1984. I don't know what Poyakov's title
on this mission is yet. Afanas'ev has also flown in space before, as
commander of the EO-8 expedition to Mir in 1990-1991. 

The EO-14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov are preparing
to return to Earth after a week-long handover period. Afanas'ev and
Usachyov will stay on the station for six months, and will be replaced
by a joint Russian-Kazakh crew. If all goes according to plan, Polyakov
will stay on Mir until mid 1995, setting a new space endurance record.

Launches
--------

Two comsats were launched on Dec 18 by Ariane from Kourou in
Guiane. DBS 1 is a Hughes HS-601 satellite owned by DirecTV,
itself a Hughes subsidiary. The satellite has 16 Ku-band transponders
and will beam a high power TV signal to small rooftop home
receivers in the US. The satellite will be used by DirecTV
and USSB (US Satellite Broadcasting).

Thaicom 1, the other Ariane payload, is another Hughes satellite,
of the older HS-376 type. It is owned by Shinawatra Computer Co,
of Bangkok, and operated by them for the Thai Ministry
of Transport and Communications. It is a hybrid comsat with 
10 C-band and 2 Ku-band transponders.
 


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Nov  2 1210     Kosmos-2266     Kosmos          Plesetsk  LC132 Navsat     70A
Nov  5 0825     Kosmos-2267     Soyuz           Baykonur  LC1   Recon      71A
Nov 18 1355     Rimsat/Gorizont Proton          Baykonur  LC81  Comsat     72A
Nov 20 0117     Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     73A
                Meteosat 6    )                                 Weather    73B
Nov 28 2340     DSCS III        Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     74A
Dec  2 0927     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy   LC39  Spaceship  75A
Dec  8 0048     NATO IVB        Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat     76A
Dec 16 0040     Telstar 401     Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     77A
Dec 18 0127     DBS 1     )     Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     78A
                Thaicom 1 )                                                78B
Dec 22          Molniya-1T      Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     79A
Jan  8          Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur        Spaceship  


Reentries
---------

Dec 16          Kosmos-2223     Deorbited
Dec 18          Kosmos-2262     Landed

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?              VAB Bay 1  STS-62
ML2/                     
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET-61/OV-103 VAB Bay 3   STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 180      1994 Jan 17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

The STS-60 stack with orbiter OV-103 Discovery was moved to
pad 39A on Jan 10.  Launch is due for Feb 3. Payloads
are the Wake Shield Facility free flyer satellite, the
Spacehab 2 commercial lab module, and a GAS Bridge Assembly (GBA)
carrying Getaway Special canisters. These include cans containing
the ODERACS and BREMSAT microsatellites. ODERACS was carried
into space in 1992 but its ejection mechanism failed; it consists
of six small spheres which will be used to calibrate space
debris tracking systems. 

The crew of STS-60 includes five NASA astronauts and one
Russian astronaut.
Commander: Charles Bolden (three flights already, including
pilot of HST deployment and commander of ATLAS-1 Spacelab mission.)
Pilot: Kenneth Reightler (first flight)
Mission Specialists: Franklin Chang-Diaz (three flights to date), 
Jan Davis (one flight), and Ron Sega (rookie).
Payload Specialist: Sergey Krikalyov, engineer-cosmonaut of NPO Energiya,
the "last Soviet citizen" who was aboard Mir during the fall of the USSR.

Meanwhile, crew members have been assigned to the STS-66 and STS-67
missions scheduled later this year. Donald McMonagle will command
STS-66, the first astronaut of the 1987 group to get a command. Stephen
Oswald will command the STS-67 Astro-2 mission. The assignments of
Curtis Brown as STS-66 pilot and William Gregory as pilot on STS-67
means that all of the 1990 group now have flight slots and all of the
1987 group now have assignments to their second flight.
 
Mir
---

Soyuz TM-18 was launched at 1005 UTC on Jan 8 and docked at the Kvant
module on Jan 10 at 1115. The EO-14 crew landed at 0818 UTC on Jan 14 in
the Soyuz TM-17 spaceship. The EO-14 expedition lasted 196 days 18hr 45
m, the 7th longest spaceflight. Aleksandr Serebrov has now spent over a
year in space on 4 flights; he is one of 8 people to have accumulated
more than a year of spaceflight time.

Vladimir Polyakov is now the Mir resident physician, and is on his
second flight to Mir. He will pass the cumulative one year mark on April
12 (the 33rd anniversary of Gagarin's flight). Romanenko's 1987 record
will be beaten on Jul 17, Krikalyov's 1992 cumulative duration will be
passed on Aug 18, and the all time cumulative record of Musa Manarov
(541 days, set in 1991) will be passed on Nov 4. The current record for
a single flight set by Manarov and Titov in 1988 will be passed on Jan 9
next year.

The other two members of the EO-15 crew, Viktor Afanas'ev and
Yuriy Usachyov, are schedule to land in early July and will be
replaced by cosmonauts Malenchenko and Musabaev, neither of
whom has flown before.


Launches
--------

A Molniya-1T communications satellite was launched on Dec 22 from
Plesetsk. The Molniya-1 class satellites are built by NPO
Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, and are used for Russian 
government and military communications. The 8K78M Molniya 
launch vehicle places the payload and fourth stage in a low parking
orbit; after a partial orbit, the fourth stage ignites to place
the payload in a highly elliptical orbit with a 12 hour period. An
on-board engine on the satellite is used for precise maintenance
of the orbital period.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Dec  2 0927     Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy   LC39  Spaceship  75A
Dec  8 0048     NATO IVB        Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat     76A
Dec 16 0040     Telstar 401     Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36  Comsat     77A
Dec 18 0127     DBS 1     )     Ariane          Kourou    ELA2  Comsat     78A
                Thaicom 1 )                                                78B
Dec 22          Molniya-1T      Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat     79A
Jan  8 1005     Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur        Spaceship  01A


Reentries
---------

Dec 16          Kosmos-2223     Deorbited
Dec 18          Kosmos-2262     Landed
Jan 14          Soyuz TM-17     Landed

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?              VAB Bay 1  STS-62
ML2/                     
ML3/RSRM-35?/ET-61/OV-103 LC39A      STS-60


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jonathan's Space Report : 1993 Launch Summary

No. 181		1993 Jan  24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mir Flash: Soyuz TM-17 collided with the Mir station during its
flyaround after undocking. The collision was minor and at low
velocity and apparently caused no serious damage, but a spacewalk
to inspect the station is expected.

Erratum: As usual, I failed to subtract correctly: The EO-14 expedition to Mir 
lasted 196 days 17hr 45 min, an hour shorter than my claim in JSR180.
Also, Ken Reightler is making his second flight on STS-60, not his
first as I stated in JSR 180; he was pilot of STS-48. Thanks to Pawel
Moskalik for pointing out these goofs.

Launches: The Gals 1 comsat was launched from Baykonur on Jan 20.
Details in the regular issue next week. This week JSR is devoted to the
usual annual launch summary.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1993

 Orbits are given for early Jan 1993: 
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)

INT'L	NAME		AGENCY	TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.					  DATE

1993-
01A  Kosmos-2230       MO RF    Navsat     Jan 12     970 x  1008 x 82.9
02A  Molniya-1         MSvyazi  Comsat     Jan 13     519 x 39832 x 62.8
03A  Endeavour STS-54  NASA     Spaceship  Jan 13   Landed at KSC Jan 19
03B  TDRS F6           NASA     Comsat     Jan 13   35779 x 35795 x  0.7  45.8W
04A  Kosmos-2231       MO RF    Recon      Jan 19   Deorbited Mar 25
05A  Soyuz TM-16       NPOE     Spaceship  Jan 24   Landed in Kazakhstan Jul 22
06A  Kosmos-2232       PVO      Early Warn Jan 26     844 x 39509 x 62.8
07A  Navstar GPS 22    USAF     Navsat     Feb  2   19995 x 20371 x 54.7
-    Znamya            NPOE     Technology Feb  4   Reentered Feb 5
08A  Kosmos-2233       MO RF    Navsat     Feb  9     952 x  1010 x 82.9
09A  Orbcomm CDS       OSC      Comsat     Feb  9     727 x   789 x 25.0
09B  SCD-1             INPE     Technology Feb  9     725 x   788 x 25.0
10A  Kosmos-2234       MO RF    Navsat     Feb 17   19106 x 19153 x 64.9
10B  Kosmos-2235       MO RF    Navsat     Feb 17   19110 x 19148 x 64.9
10C  Kosmos-2236       MO RF    Navsat     Feb 17   19093 x 19166 x 65.0
11A  Asuka             ISAS     Astronomy  Feb 20     535 x   642 x 31.1
12A  Progress M-16     NPOE     Cargo      Feb 21   Deorbited Mar 27
13A  Raduga            MSvyazi  Comsat     Mar 25   35776 x 35793 x  0.9  11.4E
14A  Start-1           NPOK     Comsat     Mar 25     682 x   970 x 75.7
15A  UFO F1            HCI      Comsat     Mar 25   36037 x 36110 x 26.9
16A  Kosmos-2237       MO RF    SIGINT     Mar 26     846 x   855 x 71.1
17A  Navstar GPS 31    USAF     Navsat     Mar 30   20072 x 20290 x 55.0
17B  SEDS 1            NASA     Technology Mar 30   Reentered Mar 30
18A  Kosmos-2238       MO RF    SIGINT     Mar 30     403 x   417 x 65.0
19A  Progress M-17     NPOE     Cargo      Mar 31     235 x   344 x 51.6
20A  Kosmos-2239       MO RF    Navsat     Apr  1     966 x   988 x 82.9
21A  Kosmos-2240       MO RF    Recon      Apr  2   Deorbited Jun  7
22A  Kosmos-2241       PVO      Early Warn Apr  6     896 x 39458 x 63.9
23A  Discovery STS-56  NASA     Spaceship  Apr  8   Landed at KSC Apr 17
23B  Spartan 201       NASA     Astronomy  Apr 11   Retrieved Apr 13
24A  Kosmos-2242       MO RF    SIGINT     Apr 16     632 x   668 x 82.5
25A  Molniya-3         MSvyazi  Comsat     Apr 21     763 x 39585 x 63.3
26A  Alexis            USAF     Astronomy  Apr 25     747 x   835 x 69.9
27A  Columbia STS-55   NASA     Spaceship  Apr 26   Landed at Edwards AFB Apr 26
28A  Kosmos-2243       GUGK     Mapping    Apr 27   Reentered May 6
29A  Kosmos-2244       MO RF    SIGINT     Apr 28     403 x   418 x 65.0
30A  Kosmos-2245       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1397 x  1417 x 82.6
30B  Kosmos-2246       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1400 x  1417 x 82.6
30C  Kosmos-2247       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1403 x  1417 x 82.6
30D  Kosmos-2248       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1401 x  1417 x 82.6
30E  Kosmos-2249       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1404 x  1417 x 82.6
30F  Kosmos-2250       MO RF    Comsat     May 11    1403 x  1418 x 82.6
31A  Astra 1C          SES      Comsat     May 12   35750 x 35822 x  0.0  19.2E
31B  Arsene            RACE     Comsat     May 12   17221 x 36832 x  1.4
32A  Navstar GPS 37    USAF     Navsat     May 13   20046 x 20318 x 55.1
33A  Resurs-F          RKA      Rem/Sen    May 21   Landed in Kazakhstan Jun 20
34A  Progress M-18     NPOE     Cargo      May 22   Landed in Kazakhstan Jul  4
35A  Molniya-3         MSvyazi  Comsat     May 26     751 x 39603 x 62.9
FTO  Gorizont          MSvyazi  Comsat     May 27   Fell in Pacific Ocean May 27
36A  Kosmos-2251       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 16     780 x   806 x 74.0
37A  Endeavour STS-57  NASA     Spaceship  Jun 21   Landed at KSC Jul 1
38A  Kosmos-2252       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1404 x  1416 x 82.6
38B  Kosmos-2253       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1410 x  1425 x 82.6
38C  Kosmos-2254       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1393 x  1414 x 82.6
38D  Kosmos-2255       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1405 x  1414 x 82.6
38E  Kosmos-2256       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1401 x  1414 x 82.6
38F  Kosmos-2257       MO RF    Comsat     Jun 20    1409 x  1420 x 82.6
39A  Galaxy 4H	       HCI      Comsat     Jun 25   35774 x 35799 x  0.0  99.1W
40A  Resurs-F          RKA      Rem/Sen    Jun 25   Landed in Kazakhstan Jul 12
41A  RADCAL            USAF     Calib      Jun 25     754 x   887 x 89.5
42A  Navstar GPS 39    USAF     Navsat     Jun 26   20114 x 20248 x 54.6
42B  PMG               NASA     Technology Jun 26   Reentered Aug 30
43A  Soyuz TM-17       NPOE     Spaceship  Jul  1   Landed in Kazakhstan 94 Feb
44A  Kosmos-2258       MO RF    SIGINT     Jul  7     404 x   417 x 65.0
45A  Kosmos-2259       MO RF    Recon      Jul 14   Deorbited Jul 25
46A  DSCS III F-7?     USAF     Comsat     Jul 19   35780 x 35780 x  0.0 ??
47A  Kosmos-2260       GUGK     Rem/Sen    Jul 22   Landed in Kazakhstan Aug  5
48A  Hispasat 1B       HISPA    Comsat     Jul 22   35772 x 35801 x  0.0  30.1W
48B  Insat 2B          ISRO     Comsat     Jul 22   35773 x 35798 x  0.0  93.5E
FTO  Adv. NOSS 3?      USN      Recon      Aug  2   Exploded on launch
49A  Molniya-3         MSvyazi  Comsat     Aug  4     623 x 39736 x 62.9
50A  NOAA 13           NOAA     Metsat     Aug  9     849 x   863 x 98.9
51A  Kosmos-2261       PVO      Early Warn Aug 10     813 x 39545 x 63.1
52A  Progress M-19     NPOE     Cargo      Aug 10   Deorbited Oct 13
53A  Resurs-F          RKA      Rem/Sen    Aug 24   Landed in Kazakhstan Sep 10
54A  Navstar GPS 35    USAF     Navsat     Aug 30   20115 x 20249 x 54.9
55A  Meteor-2          RKA      Metsat     Aug 31     936 x   969 x 82.5
55C  Temisat           Telespz  Comsat     Aug 31     936 x   969 x 82.5
56A  UFO F2            HCI      Comsat     Sep  3   35766 x 35804 x  5.0  71.6E
57A  Kosmos-2262       MO RF    Recon      Sep  7   Deorbited Dec 18
58A  Discovery STS-51  NASA     Spaceship  Sep 12   Landed at KSC Sep 22
58B  ACTS              NASA     Comsat     Sep 12   35777 x 35796 x  0.0 100.1W
58C  ORFEUS-SPAS       DARA     Astronomy  Sep 13   Retrieved Sep 19
59A  Kosmos-2263       MO RF    SIGINT     Sep 16     844 x   858 x 71.0
60A  Kosmos-2264       MO RF    SIGINT     Sep 17     401 x   419 x 65.0
FTO  IRS-1E            ISRO     Rem/Sen    Sep 20   Destroyed on launch
61A  SPOT 3            CNES     Rem/Sen    Sep 26     824 x   825 x 98.7
61B  STELLA            CNES     Geodesy    Sep 26     796 x   806 x 98.7
61C  Uribyol 2         KAIST    Comsat     Sep 26     793 x   806 x 98.7
61D  Posat 1           LNETI    Technology Sep 26     792 x   806 x 98.7
61E  Healthsat 1       Satelife Comsat     Sep 26     792 x   805 x 98.7
61F  Eyesat A          Interf   Comsat     Sep 26     792 x   805 x 98.7
61G  ITAMsat           ARI      Comsat     Sep 26     791 x   805 x 98.7
62A  Raduga            MSvyazi  Comsat     Sep 30   35754 x 35815 x  1.3  84.2E
FTO  Landsat 6         NOAA     Rem/Sen    Oct  5   Fell in Pacific Ocean Oct 5
63A  Jian Bing         PRC      Rem/Sen    Oct  8     192 x  2874 x 56.6
64A  Progress M-20     NPOE     Cargo      Oct 11   Landed in Kazakhstan Nov 21
65A  Columbia STS-58   NASA     Spaceship  Oct 18   Landed at Edwards AFB Nov 1
66A  Intelsat 701      INTELSAT Comsat     Oct 22   35608 x 35967 x  0.1 121.7E
67A  Kosmos-2265       PVO      Calib      Oct 26     293 x  1560 x 82.9
68A  Navstar GPS 34    USAF     Navsat     Oct 26   20109 x 20256 x 55.1
69A  Gorizont          MSvyazi  Comsat     Oct 28   35772 x 35803 x  1.3  90.2E
70A  Kosmos-2266       MO RF    Navsat     Nov  2     948 x  1020 x 82.9
71A  Kosmos-2267       MO RF    Recon      Nov  5     241 x   282 x 70.4
72A  Gorizont/Rimsat   Rimsat   Comsat     Nov 18   35770 x 35798 x  1.3 129.8E
73A  Solidaridad 1     TdM      Comsat     Nov 20   35776 x 35796 x  0.0 109.2W
73B  Meteosat 6        EUMETSAT Metsat     Nov 20   35772 x 35801 x  1.3  10.1W
74A  DSCS III F-8?     USAF     Comsat     Nov 28   35780 x 35780 x  0.0 ??
75A  Endeavour STS-61  NASA     Spaceship  Dec  2   Landed at KSC Dec 13
76A  NATO IVB          NATO     Comsat     Dec  8   35116 x 36445 x  4.1  (54W)
77A  Telstar 401       AT&T     Comsat     Dec 16   19132 x 35822 x  3.8  
78A  DBS 1             DirecTV  Comsat     Dec 18   35767 x 35806 x  0.0 101.3W
78B  Thaicom 1         Shinaw.  Comsat     Dec 18   35772 x 35804 x  0.1  78.6E
79A  Molniya-1T        MSvyazi  Comsat     Dec 22     444 x 39247 x 62.8

ARI      Associazone Radioamatori Italiani
AT&T     American Telephone and Telegraph Corp., USA
CNES	 Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (Paris, France)
DARA     Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten, Germany
DirecTV  DirecTV Corp., USA
EUMETSAT European Meteorological Satellite Organization
GUGK     Central Agency for Geodesy and Cartography, Russia
HCI	 Hughes Communications Inc.
INPE     Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Brazil
INTELSAT Int'l Telecommunications Satellite Organization
ISAS	 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan
ISRO	 Indian Space Research Organization
KAIST	 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
HISPA    Hispasat SA, Spain
Interf.  Interferometrics Inc, USA
ISRO     Indian Space Research Organization
LNETI    National Engineering Lab, Portugal
MO RF    Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
MSvyazi  Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation
NASA	 United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NOAA     United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NPOE 	 NPO Energiya (Kaliningrad, Russia)
NPOK     NPO Kompleks
OSC      Orbital Sciences Corp. (VA).
PRC	 Chinese Ministry of Astronautics
PVO      Air Defence Forces, part of MO RF
RACE     Radio Amateur Club de l'Espace (France)
Rimsat   Rimsat Corp, USA.
RKA	 Russian Space Agency (Moskva, Russia)
Satelife Satelife Corp, USA
SES      Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
Shinaw.  Shinawatra Corp. (Bangkok, Thailand)
TdM      Telecommunicaciones de Mexico
Telespz. Telespazio, Italy
USAF	 United States Air Force
USN      United States Navy



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 182     1994 Jan 31
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Mission STS-60 is still scheduled for Feb 3, carrying the Wake Shield
Facility, the GAS Bridge Assembly, and the Spacehab-2 module.
The external tank and solid rocket boosters for STS-62 have been 
assembled in the VAB; that mission is due for early March.
 
Mir
---

The Progress M-21 cargo craft was launched on Jan 28, to carry supplies
to the EO-15 crew of Viktor Afanas'ev, Yuriy Usachyov and Vladimir
Polyakov. The Progress M cargo carriers are robot ships based on the
Soyuz spaceship design, but with the descent module replaced by
fuel tanks and the orbital module stuffed with water, food, mail,
and new equipment for the station. Progress M-21 was due to dock
on Jan 30 with the Mir station.

Launches
--------

Four of the five launches so far this year have been Russian ones.
Gals 1 is the first of a series of direct TV broadcasting satellites,
built by NPO-PM of Krasnoyarsk. The Meteor-3 satellite launched on
Jan 25 is a weather satellite built by VNII-EM for the Russian
Hydrometeorological Service. It carries the French SCARAB
Earth radiation budget experiment. The Ukrainian-built Tsiklon
launch vehicle also carried a small 40 kg subsatellite, TUBSAT-B.
TUBSAT-B was built for the German space agency DARA by the
Technische Universitat Berlin (Technical University of Berlin).
The satellites are in an 1187 x 1208 km x 82.6 deg orbit.

The Clementine 1 (formally Deep Space Program Sensor Experiment or
DSPSE) probe was launched into a 255 x 299 x 67.0 deg Earth orbit on Jan
25. The attached Star 37 kick motor was due to fire in early February to
send it on a trip to the Moon; if the burn is successful, it will be the
first lunar or planetary probe to be launched from the Vandenberg AFB
site in California. The launch vehicle was a recycled Titan II ICBM, and
the spacecraft was built by the Naval Research Lab for the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization (BMDO, formerly SDIO - "Star Wars"). The
idea is to test infrared and ultraviolet sensors after exposing them to
the  space environment. Clementine is scheduled to map the Moon and then
go on to fly past minor planet (1620) Geographos.


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jan  8 1005     Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Spaceship  01A
Jan 20 0951?    Gals 1          Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     02A
Jan 25 0021     Meteor-3      ) Tsiklon         Plesetsk        Weather    03A
                Tubsat B      )                                 Technology 03B
Jan 25 1634     Clementine 1    Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4 Spaceprobe 04A
Jan 28 0210?    Progress M-21   Soyuz           Baykonur        Cargo      05A


Reentries
---------

Jan 14          Soyuz TM-17     Landed

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?/ET-62        VAB Bay 1  STS-62
ML2/                     
ML3/RSRM-35/ET-61/OV-103  LC39A      STS-60


Errata:

  1993-35A was a Molniya-1T, not a Molniya-3 as reported in JSR 181.
  There is still some confusion as to the exact designations of the
  small satellites launched with SPOT 3.
  Krikalyov is designated a Mission Specialist rather than just a
  Payload Specialist on the STS-60 crew (JSR 180).

 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 183        1994 Feb 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kudos to Vladimir Agapov, Yoshiro Yamada, Kelly Beatty and Joel Runes for
info provided for this week's issue.

Shuttle  
-------  

Discovery was launched at 1210 UTC on Feb 3. The Wake Shield Facility
was grappled by the robot RMS arm and unberthed, but after several days
of problem solving failed to resolve attitude control system failures
on the satellite and it was replaced in the cargo bay. Several GaAs 
semiconductor growth experiments were conducted while the WSF was exposed
to space on the end of the RMS. Discovery was observed from Porter
Square, Cambridge, MA at 1055 UTC on Feb 7 by your somnolent correspondent.

Columbia was moved to the VAB on Feb 3 and joined to the external tank
and solid rocket boosters. It will be rolled out to pad 39 this week.
 
Mir
---

Progress M-21 docked with Mir at 0356 on Jan 30. Reports indicate
that the collision of Soyuz TM-17 with Mir was due to some kind
of engine control problem; Tsibliev was attempting to brake the
spacecraft, and telemetry indicated the engines were firing, but
there was apparently no corresponding trajectory change. Communications
transcripts suggest that the two cosmonauts, particularly the flight
engineer who was observing from the spaceship's orbital module, became
quite alarmed. ("She canna take it, Cap'n!" - oh no, that was another
ship, wasn't it..:-)). The current crew of Mir are Viktor Afanas'ev,
Yuriy Usachyov, and Valeriy Polyakov. 

Launches
--------

I forgot to report last week on the launch failure of an Ariane rocket!
Ariane V63 was launched at 2137 on Jan 24. During the burn of the H10+
third stage, a turbopump failed and the engine shut down prematurely. It
and the two payloads impacted the Atlantic ocean off West Africa. Both
payloads were Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 comsats; the first was Turksat
1 for the government of Turkey, and the second was Eutelsat II F-5, a TV
satellite for the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization.

The Clementine space probe is on its way to the Moon. The Star 37 apogee
motor fired on Feb 3 at 0628 UTC, placing the probe in a 168 x 128095 km
orbit inclined 66.8 deg to the Earth's equator. After two Earth gravity
assists, it is due to reach lunar orbit on Feb 21.

This week saw the first launches of two important launch vehicles.
The H-II is the new large launch vehicle developed by NASDA,
the National Space Development Agency of Japan. The first H-II
was launched at 2220 UTC on Feb 3 from the Yoshinobu complex
at Tanegashima Space Center. At 2233 the LE-5A second stage engine
completed its first burn, and the OREX Orbital Reentry Experiment
spacecraft was inserted into a 448 x 458 km x 30.50 deg orbit.
At 2245 the LE-5A ignited again and at 2248 delivered the VEP satellite
(Vehicle Evaluation Payload) to a 468 x 36078 km x 28.5 deg geostationary
transfer orbit. VEP was renamed Myouzyou ("Morning/evening star") 
after orbit insertion. I don't know if OREX got renamed.
At around 0001 UTC on Feb 4, the OREX fired its
hydrazine deorbit motor and at around 0030 it splashed down near
Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. OREX carried experimental
thermal tiles designed for NASDA's proposed HOPE spaceplane.
With the reentry of OREX, Japan becomes the fourth nation 
after the US, Russia, and China to return a spacecraft from orbit.

On Feb 7, after many delays, the first Titan 401 vehicle was
launched from Cape Canaveral. The Titan 401 is the Titan IV variant
with a Centaur upper stage, and is the most powerful unpiloted launch
vehicle built in the US. As of this writing the Centaur had completed
its second burn and remained attached to the Milstar DFS 1 comsat
in geostationary transfer orbit; a third burn was due to place Centaur
and Milstar in geostationary orbit. Launch was at 2147 UTC, and Centaur
burns 1 and 2 were at 2156 and 2253. 


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jan  8 1005     Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Spaceship  01A
Jan 20 0949     Gals 1          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Comsat     02A
Jan 24 2137     Eutelsat IIF5 ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat     FTO
                Turksat 1     )                                 Comsat     FTO
Jan 25 0025     Meteor-3      ) Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Weather    03A
                Tubsat B      )                                 Technology 03B
Jan 25 1634     Clementine 1    Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4 Spaceprobe 04A
Jan 28 0212     Progress M-21   Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Cargo      05A
Feb  3 1210     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  06A
Feb  3 2220     OREX     )      H-II            Tanegashima     Technology 07A
                Myouzyou )                                      Technology 07B
Feb  5 0848?    Kosmos-2268?    Proton          Baykonur        Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     


Reentries
---------

Jan 14          Soyuz TM-17     Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  4          OREX            Landed in Pacific Ocean

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 1     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-60
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?/ET-62/OV-102 VAB Bay 1  STS-62
ML2/RSRM-37?              VAB Bay 3  STS-59             
ML3/                      LC39A      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 184        1994 Feb 16
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shuttle  
-------  

Seven small satellites were deployed from Discovery's cargo bay on Feb
9. The ODERACS (Orbital DEbris RAdar Calibration System) satellites are
six tiny, passive aluminum spheres which will be used to calibrate
radars used to study space debris. ODERACS A and B are 10 cm spheres
(one rough, the other polished); C and D are 5 cm spheres, while
E and F are 15 cm spheres. The 63 kg BREMSAT satellite,
developed for the German space agency by the University of Bremen, will
measure  heat conductivity, micrometeorites, and the density of the
upper atmosphere.

Discovery made its deorbit burn at 1815 UTC on Feb 11 and
landed on runway 15 at KSC at 1919 UTC. Discovery has now made
18 flights, more than any other orbiter, although Columbia maintains
the record of the most flight hours, and should increase its lead on
its forthcoming flight.

 
Launches
--------

Another new launch vehicle made its debut this week - the Chang Zheng
(Long March) 3A. The CZ-3A is based on China's previous 
geostationary launch vehicle CZ-3, with an upgraded third stage.
The vehicle delivered a dummy model of a communications satellite
to geostationary transfer orbit; it also carried a scientific satellite
called Shi Jian 4. As of Feb 15 the objects had not been tracked in the West
so the launch must be considered unconfirmed at the moment.

Russia launched another Raduga-1 comsat on Feb 5. The Raduga-1 series
are improved versions of the Raduga ("Rainbow") government communications
satellites in use since 1975. The satellite will be placed at 49 deg East
in the geostationary ring.

The launch of a Galaxy communications satellite on a Delta 7925 from
Cape Canaveral was aborted on Feb 9 during main engine ignition. The
vehicle did not leave the pad and the payload is intact. No new launch
date has been set.

The Japanese OREX reentry test spacecraft has been renamed 'Ryusei' (meteor).
It splashed down in the Pacific but was allowed to sink; no recovery of
the vehicle was planned, as all the experimental data was telemetered back.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jan  8 1005     Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Spaceship  01A
Jan 20 0949     Gals 1          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Comsat     02A
Jan 24 2137     Eutelsat IIF5 ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat     FTO
                Turksat 1     )                                 Comsat     FTO
Jan 25 0025     Meteor-3      ) Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Weather    03A
                Tubsat B      )                                 Technology 03B
Jan 25 1634     Clementine 1    Titan 23G       Vandenberg SLC4 Spaceprobe 04A
Jan 28 0212     Progress M-21   Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Cargo      05A
Feb  3 1210     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  06A
Feb  3 2220     Ryusei   )      H-II            Tanegashima     Technology 07A
                Myojo    )                                      Technology 07B
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton          Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A?
                Dummy payload )
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )


Errata:

 The VEP satellite's on-orbit name is transliterated Myojo, not Myouzyou.
 The Feb 5 launch was a Raduga-1, not a Kosmos.

Reentries
---------

Jan 14          Soyuz TM-17     Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  4          Ryusei          Impacted Pacific Ocean
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?/ET-62/OV-102 LC39B      STS-62
ML2/RSRM-37?              VAB Bay 3  STS-59             
ML3/                      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 185        1994 Feb 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Launch of Columbia is due on March 3 on mission STS-62. The payload bay
contains three cross-bay MPESS class pallets. Two of them comprise the
USMP-2 (United States Microgravity Payload 2), a set of crystal growth
experiments. The experiments are: AADSF (Advanced Automated Directional
Solidification Furnace), CFLSE (Critical Fluid Light Scattering
Experiment), IDGE (Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment), Mephisto
(Material Pour L'Etude Des Phenomenes Interessant La Solidification Sur
Terre Et En Orbite) and SAMS (Space Acceleration Measurement System).
USMP-1 flew on STS-52 in 1992 and carried Mephisto, SAMS and another
experiment called LPE.

The third pallet is a Hitchhiker-M class pallet and carries a bunch of
space technology experiments, many with relevance to the Space Station.
The experiments study spacecraft glow, arcing in solar cells, and heat
pipes. The pallet is called OAST-2, after the NASA Office of Aeronautics
and Space Technology which originally sponsored it (now the office
is called Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology). OAST-1 flew on
Discovery's first flight in 1984 and carried a large array deployment test.

Possibly the most interesting aspect of the STS-62 mission, however,
is the DEE (Dexterous End Effector) experiment. This is a special
magnetic 'hand' for the RMS robot arm. Mission specialist Marsha
Ivins will use the arm to test the DEE, which may allow smaller
grapple fixtures to be used on future satellites.

The crew of STS-62 is very experienced; commander is John Casper,
(STS-36, STS-54), pilot is Andy Allen (STS-46); mission
specialists are Pierre Thout (STS-36, STS-49 Intelsat spacewalk),
Marsha Ivins (STS-32R, STS-36) and Sam Gemar (STS-38, STS-48). 

 
Launches
--------

The Chinese Shi Jian 4 satellite and the dummy DFH-3 communications
satellite have now had orbital data made public. Shi Jian 4 is
in a 208 x 36134 km x 28.6 deg orbit.

Six satellites launched on Feb 12 by an 11K68 Tsiklon launch vehicle
from Plesetsk are part of a network of small communications satellites,
possibly operated by Russian intelligence agencies.

The second Galaxy IR satellite was launched on Feb 19 from Cape
Canaveral. Galaxy IR, operated by Hughes Communications, replaces a
satellite of the same name which was lost during launch in 1992. That in
turn was intended to replace the Galaxy I satellite still on orbit. Here
is the list of Galaxy satellites:

 Name           Type    Launch Date     Rocket
Galaxy 1        HS376   1983 Jun 28     Delta
Galaxy 2        HS376   1983 Sep 22     Delta
Galaxy 3        HS376   1984 Sep 21     Delta
Galaxy 6        HS376   1990 Oct 12     Ariane
Galaxy 5        HS376   1992 Mar 14     Atlas Centaur
Galaxy 1R       HS376   1992 Aug 22     Atlas Centaur (Destroyed on launch)
Galaxy 7H       HS601   1992 Oct 28     Ariane 4
Galaxy 4H       HS601   1993 Jun 25     Ariane 4
Galaxy 1R       HS376   1994 Feb 19     Delta II



Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Jan  8 1005     Soyuz TM-18     Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Spaceship  01A
Jan 20 0949     Gals 1          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Comsat     02A
Jan 24 2137     Eutelsat IIF5 ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat     FTO
                Turksat 1     )                                 Comsat     FTO
Jan 25 0025     Meteor-3      ) Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Weather    03A
                Tubsat B      )                                 Technology 03B
Jan 25 1634     Clementine 1    Titan 23G-11    Vandenberg SLC4 Spaceprobe 04A
Jan 28 0212     Progress M-21   Soyuz           Baykonur LC1    Cargo      05A
Feb  3 1210     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  06A
Feb  3 2220     Ryusei   )      H-II            Tanegashima     Technology 07A
                Myojo    )                                      Technology 07B
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton          Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A
                Dummy payload )
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )
Feb 18          Raduga?         Proton          Baykonur        Comsat      12A
Feb 19          Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A


Reentries
---------

Jan 14          Soyuz TM-17     Landed in Kazakhstan
Feb  4          Ryusei          Impacted Pacific Ocean
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/RSRM-36?/ET-62/OV-102 LC39B      STS-62
ML2/RSRM-37?              VAB Bay 3  STS-59             
ML3/                      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 186       1994 Mar  4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Space Shuttle Columbia was launched at 1153 UTC on Mar 4 and reached
a 80 x 285 km transfer orbit about 8 minutes later, with the OMS-2
circularization burn expected around the time I write this. The
cargo bay contains the EDO extended duration orbiter pallet (on its
third mission) and three MPESS cross-bay pallets, two for the 
US Materials Payload-2 and one for the OAST-2 technology payload.
Five GAS Beam Adapter (GABA) plates are installed on the cargo
bay walls, carrying the Dexterous End Effector magnetic 'hand' for
the RMS arm, three GAS cans for the LDCE materials exposure experiment,
and two GAS cans for the SSBUV ozone monitoring experiment.
It's unusual for Columbia to carry the RMS arm, this is only the third
time in nine post-Challenger flights it has done so; the one on board
is probably arm 301, originally belonging to Discovery.
  
 
Launches
--------

The first of two Koronas solar physics satellites was launched from the
Russian spaceport of Plesetsk on Mar 2. The Koronas program is managed
by the Russian RKA space agency (probably by the IKI science institute),
but the AUOS-SM satellite bus and its 11K68 Tsiklon launch vehicle were
built by the Ukranian company NPO Yuzhnoe. The program had been
threatened with delay because of problems between Russia and the
Ukraine, and was originally scheduled for launch in late 1992. The
Koronas-I payload was developed by the IZMIRAN institute (Institute of 
Terrestrial Magnetism in Moscow) and includes the Terek
spectroheliometer, the RES-K solar x-ray spectrograph, the Helikon solar
gamma ray detector, the SUVR-SP-C ultraviolet radiometer, the DIFOS
optical photometer, and other instruments. Koronas-F, developed by FIAN,
the Lebedev Physical Institute, carries a similar set of  instruments.
Koronas is in a 487 x 527 km x 82.5 deg orbit.



Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb  3 1210     Discovery       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39    Spaceship  06A
Feb  3 2220     Ryusei   )      H-II            Tanegashima     Technology 07A
                Myojo    )                                      Technology 07B
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A
                DFH-3 mockup  )
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )
Feb 18          Raduga?         Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81?  Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2          Koronas-I?      Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32?  Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A


Reentries
---------

Feb  4          Ryusei          Impacted Pacific Ocean
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC



 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 187       1994 Mar  9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks this week go to Rudiger Jehn and Russell Eberst for info and errata.

Shuttle  
-------  

Oops! Launch time was of course 1353 UTC, not 1153 UTC as I said
last week. Columbia continues on orbit on mission STS-62 in
a 296 x 305 km x 39.0 deg orbit. The next scheduled mission
is STS-59, which will carry the Space Radar Laboratory.
  
Mir
---

The Progress M-17 cargo craft, which had been left in orbit
for longevity tests, reentered over the South Atlantic on March 3.
The Soyuz TM-18 crew of Afanas'ev, Usachyov and Polyakov continue
in orbit aboard the Mir station.
 
Launches
--------

None since last week. GPS 36 / SEDS 2 is due for launch
on March 10 at 0332 UT by Delta from Cape Canaveral.

The Clementine DSPSE probe entered lunar orbit on Feb 21.
It is reportedly in a 2171 x 4658 km orbit with an inclination of
89.3 deg to the lunar equator.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A
                DFH-3 mockup  )
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )
Feb 18          Raduga          Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81?  Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2          Koronas-I?      Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32?  Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A


Reentries
---------

Feb  4          Ryusei          Impacted Pacific Ocean
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Mar  3          Progress M-17   Reentered over Atlantic


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/ 
ML2/RSRM-37?/ET-63        VAB Bay 3  STS-59             
ML3/                      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 188       1994 Mar 14
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apologies to Internet readers for the interruption in posting
these reports, which was due to my inability to use our 
`improved' newsgroup software. Back issues are available from
sao-ftp.harvard.edu in directory pub/jcm/space/news, and 
you can be added to the direct email subscription on request.
This version is being posted to sci.space.shuttle since
I understand sci.space is defunct and sci.space.news is down.

Shuttle  
-------  

The Columbia continues in orbit on mission STS-62; the orbit was lowered
slightly on Mar 14. The USMP-2 and OAST-2 primary payloads are
functioning well. Meanwhile, Endeavour is being prepared for its next
mission, STS-59, and was rolled over to the VAB on Mar 14 where it will
be joined to the external tank.
 
Launches
--------

The first launch of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus rocket was 
successfully carried out on March 13. Payloads for the mission were the
P90-5 satellite and Ball's DARPASAT small satellite. The 204 kg DARPASAT
will carry out advanced technology demonstrations for the Advanced
Research Projects Agency. The 500 kg (?) P90-5 is  operated by the USAF
Phillips Lab as part of the Space Test Program. Also known as TAOS
(Technology for Autonomous Operations Survivability) and STEP 0 (Space
Technology Experiments Program), it carries autonomous navigation
systems and a GPS receiver, in an attempt to reduce the need for ground
controllers. The planned orbit was 520 x 520 km x 105 deg.   Taurus was
launched from a new pad at Vandenberg which doesn't have a designation
yet; I believe it to be in North Vandenberg near the old 576/BMRS/ABRES
Atlas launch pads. If any readers have been to Vandenberg and know where
the pad is relative to any of the other launch complexes, please get in
touch! (VAFB PAO has no clue about this.)

The first Taurus used a TU-903 first stage rocket (from the 
Peacekeeper ICBM), and Orion 50S, Orion 50 and Orion 38 second,
third and fourth stage rocket motors (from the first, second
and third stages of Pegasus). Future Taurus launches will use
the new Castor 120 first stage instead.

NASA's latest tether experiment was launched on March 10 at 0340 UTC as
a secondary payload on a USAF Navstar GPS navigation satellite launch.
The SEDS (Small Expendable Deployer System) 2 is a package attached to
the Delta second stage rocket, which is in a 347 x 352 km x 34.9 deg
orbit. At 0445 UT the package deployed a 20 km tether to compare actual
tether dynamics with theoretical models. Early reports indicate the 23
kg end mass behaved as expected, and unreeled in 1 h 48 min, to a
maximum length of 19.8 km. Control algorithms developed at the Center
for Astrophysics (plug!) were used to ensure a stable deployment, with
the enormous 'pendulum' swinging with an amplitude of less than 4
degrees. Unlike SEDS 1, when the tether was severed after deploy, on
this mission the tether remains attached to the Delta rocket. The
end mass mini-satellite transmitted for 10 hours. The SEDS 2 tether
is visible from the ground by the naked eye (for those at more
fortunate latitudes - hope it's visible from Arizona next week
while I'm there!). The success of SEDS 2 confirms that tether systems
can be used to deploy sensors which require a particular orientation
to the local vertical, such as atmospheric composition experiments.
(Thanks to Enrico Lorenzini for some of these details).

   Space Tether experiments to date
   --------------------------------

Date            Spacecraft      End mass        Tether length deployed
1966 Sep 14     Gemini XI       Agena 5006       0.03 km
1966 Nov 13     Gemini XII      Agena 5001R      0.03 km
1992 Aug  4     Atlantis        TSS-1            0.22 km
1993 Mar 30     Delta 219       SEDS 1          20    km
1993 Jun 26     Delta 221       PMG              0.50 km
1994 Mar 10     Delta 226       SEDS 2          19.8  km


Dean Bakeris of NRL has kindly provided more info on the Clementine
probe. The lunar orbit insertion burn happened at 1251 UTC on Feb 19 and
lasted for 6 minutes; a day later, at 1242 UTC on Feb 20 a second burn
was used to reach the operational orbit. It turns out that the orbit I
reported last week for NRL's Clementine probe was from the center of the
Moon rather than heights above the lunar surface. In the latter, more
conventional description, that orbit would be 433 x 2920 km x 89.3 deg.
The new elements provided by Dean imply an orbit of 401 x 2952 km x 89.7
deg assuming a 1738 km lunar radius.

 The ISA (Interstage Adapter) satellite launched with
Clementine remains in highly eccentric Earth orbit. It carries 
a set of space environment experiments.


Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A
                DFH-3 mockup  )                                            10C?
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )
Feb 18 0756     Raduga          Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology 
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology?

Reentries
---------

Feb  4          Ryusei          Impacted Pacific Ocean
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Mar  3          Progress M-17   Reentered over Atlantic


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 3     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/ 
ML2/RSRM-37?/ET-63        VAB Bay 3  STS-59             
ML3/                      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 189       1994 Mar 22
              Mt Hopkins, Arizona
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm away from home so forgive me if I've missed any major news
items! 

Shuttle  
-------  

Columbia landed at 1409 UTC  Mar 18 on RW33 at Kennedy Space Center,
after a mission lasting 13d 23h 16m 17s, less than an hour short
of the record set by the same orbiter on mission STS-58. Columbia
now has 3280 hr 47 min of flight time in 16 flights (compare its
nearest rival Discovery with only 2828 hr in 18 flights.) Marsha
Ivins now has 787 h 32 m of flight time over 3 flights, making her
the second most experienced woman astronaut.

Endeavour was rolled out to pad 39A on Mar 19. Its STS-59
mission will carry the SIR-C and X-SAR imaging radars
(probably on one or two Spacelab pallets),
and two MPESS cross bay experiment trusses. One will hold
the MAPS air pollution experiment, and the other will be
a GAS Bridge Assembly holding three GAS canisters. GAS
Bridge flights normally carry 8 to 12 GAS canisters.
The CONCAP IV materials exposure experiment is another GAS can
attached to an adapter plate on the payload bay wall.
 
Mir
---

A new cargo ship was launched to Mir on Mar 22. Progress M-22
(serial 11F615A55 no 222) was launched into a 192 x 238 x 51.6 km
orbit and will dock with the Mir complex in a few days. Deorbiting
of Progress M-21 is expected on Mar 23. Reports indicate that
the launch vehicle was probably the 11A511U variant rather than 
the 11A511U2 variant normally used for Soyuz-TM and Progress-M.

Launches
--------

The Taurus launch was from complex 576-E at Vandenberg.
576-E was used for four Atlas F ICBM test launches in 1962-64, including
the first Atlas F test from the west coast, and was then mothballed.
Taurus used a new concrete pad on the same site.
Thanks to all those who identified the site for me.
According to an OSC press release, the 500 kg P90-5 satellite was
injected into a ~ 540 x 555 km orbit inclined 105 deg. Two-line
elements have not been released yet.

Reports indicate that the SEDS 2 end mass has now separated
from the tether, presumably due to an impact of some kind.

A Yantar' class spy satellite was launched into a 67 degree
inclination orbit on Mar 17 and given the code name Kosmos-2274.
The spacecraft, built by the Central Specialized Design Bureau
of Samara, Russia, returns film from orbit using capsules and
a large descent vehicle. The first Yantar' type satellite was
flown in 1974; it has now entirely replaced the old Zenit
spy satellites based on the original Vostok spaceship.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb  5 0846     Raduga-1        Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat     08A
Feb  7 2147     Milstar DFS 1   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat     09A
Feb  8 0830     Shi Jian 4    ) Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Scientific 10A
                DFH-3 mockup  )                                            10C?
Feb  9 1454     ODERACS  A )    GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Calibration 06B
                ODERACS  B )                                                06C
                ODERACS  C )                                                06D
                ODERACS  D )                                                06E
                ODERACS  E )                                                06F
                ODERACS  F )                                                06G
Feb  9 1932     BREMSAT         GAS can         Discovery, LEO  Scientific  06H
Feb 12 0854     Kosmos-2268  )  Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      11A
                Kosmos-2269  )
                Kosmos-2270  )
                Kosmos-2271  )
                Kosmos-2272  )
                Kosmos-2273  )
Feb 18 0756     Raduga          Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo



Reentries
---------

Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Mar  3          Progress M-17   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-62
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/ 
ML2/RSRM-37?/ET-63/OV-105  LC39A     STS-59             
ML3/                      


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 190       1994 Mar 29              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Launch of Endeavour is due for April 7. The SIR-C/X-SAR payload is
mounted on a Spacelab pallet and two Antenna Trunnion Structure cross
bay trusses.  Crew for STS-59 is Commander Sidney M Gutierrez (Col
USAF), Pilot Kevin Chilton (Col USAF), Payload Commander Dr. Linda
Godwin, and Mission Specialists Dr. Jay Apt, Dr. Thomas Jones and
Richard Clifford (LtCol USAF). Jones is on his first
flight.
 
Mir
---

The flight of the EO-15 crew continues aboard Mir. 
The crew is:
 Komandir (commander)                   Viktor Afanas'ev
 Bortinzhener (flight engineer)         Yuriy Usachyov
 Vrach-kosmonavt (physician-cosmonaut)  Valeriy Polyakov
Transport ship Soyuz TM-18 remains docked to Mir.
port. The robot cargo ship Progress M-21 undocked from
the station at 0118 UT Mar 23 and was deorbited
at 0423 UT Mar 23. Progress M-22 docked at the vacant
port at 0639 UT Mar 24.

Launches
--------

It has been confirmed that the SEDS 2 tether was broken
by an impact on Mar 15. The SEDS 2 end mass subsatellite
and about half the tether reentered within a few orbits.
About 11 km of tether remains attached to the Delta rocket.

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb 18 0756     Raduga          Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A




Reentries
---------

Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Mar  3          Progress M-17   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 15          SEDS 2          Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/ 
ML2/RSRM-37?/ET-63/OV-105  LC39A     STS-59             
ML3/RSRM-38?/              VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 191       1994 Apr 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not much news this week, but a few amplifications of earlier stories.
A drought of launches continues, but STS-59 is due tomorrow.

Shuttle  
-------  

Launch of Endeavour and the Space Radar Lab 1 is due for April 8. The
press kit on Spacelink for STS-59 is wrong about the layout of the
payload bay - there is no GAS Bridge. The cargo bay contains the
following:

  MPESS Mission Peculiar Experiment Support Structure, carrying the
    MAPS (Measurement of Air Pollution From Satellites) experiment
  SL-PLT Spacelab pallet              ) Carrying SRL-1, Space Radar Lab
  ATS (2) Antenna Trunnion Structures )  with SIR-C and X-SAR radars
  GABA   Gas Beam Adapter, carrying CONCAP-IV GAS can payload on
         bay 4-Port.
  GABA   Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-203 GAS can on bay 4-Starboard.
  GABA   Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-458 GAS can and GBP-1 ballast payload 
         on bay 13-Port.
  GABA   Gas Beam Adapter, carrying G-300 GAS can on bay 13-Starboard.
  RMS    Remote Manipulator System RMS-303, on its 7th flight.
  PSA    Provisions Stowage Assembly (emergency EVA tools)

Thanks to all those who spotted the deliberate mistake :-), Mission
Specialist Richard Clifford flew on STS-53, so is not a rookie as I
claimed. 

The Astro-2 mission has been delayed from Dec 1994 to Jan 1995
and switched to a different orbiter, as Columbia is to be sent
for its next maintainance period several months early.
 
Mir
---

The flight of the EO-15 crew continues aboard Mir. Soyuz TM-18
originally docked with the TsM-E (Kvant) module on Jan 10, but
on Jan 21 it redocked with the PkhO section docking port on the
main Mir module (source: Novosti Kosmonavtiki). Progress M-21,
and now Progress M-22, therefore used the TsM-E port. The current
station configuration is therefore:
   "Mir" base block DOS    17KS-12701
   "Kvant"          TsM-E  37Ke-010      docked at Mir AO rear port
   "Kvant-2"        TsM-D  77KSD-17101   docked at Mir PkhO side port
   "Kristall"       TsM-T  77KST-17201   docked at Mir PkhO side port
   "Soyuz TM-18"    7K-STM 11F732-67?    docked at Mir PkhO front port
   "Progress M-22"  7K-TGM 11F615A55-222 docked at TsM-E rear port
(7K is the official internal program name for the Soyuz program;
TsM means specialized module, DOS is an abbreviation for long-term
orbital station). 

Space Probes
------------

Magellan lowered its orbit around Venus with orbit trim maneuvers on Mar
10 to lower periapsis, resulting in a 184 x 530 km orbit. More burns
were made on Apr 4 and Apr 5, and further trims are due Apr 11 and Apr
12. The target orbit is 220 x 390 km.

Clementine 1 made orbit trim burns on Mar 25 and Mar 26 to change
the latitude of its perilune from 30 deg S to 30 deg N, improving
mapping coverage of the northern hemisphere. Clementine will depart
lunar orbit in May.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.
Feb 18 0756     Raduga          Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      12A
Feb 19 2345     Galaxy IR       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Comsat      13A
Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A


Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2          Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/ 
ML2/RSRM-37/ET-63/OV-105   LC39A     STS-59             
ML3/RSRM-38?/              VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 192       1994 Apr 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Joel Runes for some data in this issue.

Shuttle  
-------  

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off at 1105 UTC on Apr 9 from pad 39A.
The STS-59 stack used solid motors RSRM-37 and external tank ET-63
attached to orbiter OV-105. Endeavour reached orbit at 1113 UTC. On Apr
11 its orbit was 211 x 226 km x 57.0 deg. Operations with the Space
Radar Lab were successful; landing was originally due for Apr 19 but was
delayed until Apr 20 for weather and switched to Cailfornia. Endeavour
fired its deorbit engines at 1600 UTC. Entry interface was at
1622, with main gear touchdown on runway 22 at Edwards AFB at 1654.30
UTC for  a mission duration of 11 days 5 hr 49 min. The next Shuttle
flight is STS-65, a long duration International Microgravity Lab flight
with orbiter Columbia.

LAUNCHES
--------

A cluster of 3 Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites were launched
on Apr 11 by an 8K82K Proton-K launch vehicle from Baykonur cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan. The cluster was inserted into low earth orbit attached to
the Blok-DM2 (11S861) upper stage, which then separated from the 8S812
third stage (1994-21B) and the Blok-DM2 fairing (1994-21C), both of
which reentered the same day. The Blok-DM2 ignited twice to enter first
a transfer orbit and  then (after separation of two ullage motors) a
circular orbit at 19000 km altitude and 65 degrees inclination. The
three Uragan satellites, built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk, then separated from the Blok-DM2. They were given the post-launch
names Kosmos-2275, Kosmos-2276 and Kosmos-2277. The Uragan satellites form
part of the GLONASS system which is the Russian analog of the Navstar
Global Positioning System.

The first of a new series of GOES-NEXT weather satellites was launched
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Apr 13. The Atlas Centaur AC-73
launch vehicle successfully delivered GOES-I (GOES 8 after launch) to a
geostationary transfer orbit. A liquid apogee motor (probably  a
Marquardt R4D, does anyone know for sure?) will be used to circularize
the orbit. The first burn of the motor on Apr 15 was cut short early
after unexpectedly high temperatures, leaving it in a 988 x 42653 km x
23.6 deg transfer orbit; further orbit raising burns are expected soon.
The GOES NEXT series of satellites are being built by Space
Systems/Loral (formerly Ford Aerospace, formerly Aeronutronic Ford);
there were a lot of problems developing GOES I's sensors and the
satellite is way late and over the originally planned budget. GOES
(pronounced as in "how goes it?") stands for Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellite; do not confuse GOES with GEOS (a frequent
mispelling - there have been two series of GEOS satellites, one by NASA
and one by ESA, but they have nothing to do with GOES). GOES satellites
are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), and originated as NASA's SMS (Synchronous Meteorological
Satellite) project. The GOES class satellites launched to date are as
follows:

Pre-launch name Post-launch  Launch Date     Manufacturer    Int'l Desig
 SMS A           SMS 1        1974 May 17     Ford            1974-33A
 SMS B           SMS 2        1975 Feb  6     Ford            1975-11A
 SMS C/GOES A    GOES 1       1975 Oct 16     Ford            1975-100A
 GOES B          GOES 2       1977 Jun 16     Ford            1977-48A
 GOES C          GOES 3       1978 Jun 16     Ford            1978-62A

 GOES D          GOES 4       1980 Sep  9     Hughes          1980-74A
 GOES E          GOES 5       1981 May 22     Hughes          1981-49A
 GOES F          GOES 6       1983 Apr 28     Hughes          1983-41A
 GOES G          -            1986 May  3     Hughes          Launch failure
 GOES H          GOES 7       1987 Feb 26     Hughes          1987-27A

 GOES I          GOES 8       1994 Apr 13     Loral           1994-22A


Recent Launches
---------------

Date            Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105	Endeavour 	Space Shuttle	Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11          Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A


Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2          Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       Edwards AFB   STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/ 
ML2/                       LC39A     STS-59             
ML3/RSRM-39/               VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 193       1994 Apr 29
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial
---------

I receive a number of inquiries from readers who see this newsletter on
bulletin boards about direct email subscriptions. To be added to the
mailing list, just send me a message telling me that you want to be sent
JSR. (As I am a human, not a mail exploder, please  do not just send a
one-word 'subscribe' command!). Back issues of JSR are available by FTP
from sao-ftp.harvard.edu in directory pub/jcm/space/news. For real fans,
I note that extensive archaelogical research among some 9-track tapes
has turned up JSR 1 to 31 which were previously missing from the
archive.


Shuttle  
-------  

Endeavour has been mated to the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
at Edwards AFB, but as of Apr 29 remained unable to depart for
Florida because of bad weather.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-65, scheduled for July. Orbiter
OV-102 Columbia will carry a Spacelab long module on the
International Microgravity Lab 2 flight. SRB stacking continues
for the mission in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

LAUNCHES
--------

Three Kosmos satellites were launched this week for the Russian
Ministry of Defense. Kosmos-2278 is a heavy electronic intelligence
satellite which was placed in an 800 km high orbit at an inclination of
71 degrees. The launch used a large Zenit booster; both satellite and
booster were made by NPO Yuzhnoe of the Ukraine, and the launch was from
the Baykonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.

Kosmos-2279 is a navigation satellite in the Parus ('sail') series,
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki. The Parus satellites are analogous to
the US Navy Transit spacecraft and are placed in 1000 km high orbits at
an inclination of 83 degrees. Kosmos-2279 replaces Kosmos-2180, launched
in 1992. The first Parus spacecraft was Kosmos-700, launched in 1974. A
more advanced version with civilian applications, called Tsikada, is
also launched into similar orbits. 

Kosmos-2280 is an advanced imaging reconnaissance satellite, probably
an improved variant of the Yantar' series. It was launched into a
187 x 264 km orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees; it is expected
to manoeuvre to a more circular orbit within one day and remain operational
for six months to a year.

Maxim Tarasenko communicates an amplification to my report on the GLONASS
Uragan satellites: "NPO Prikladnoi mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk-26 is a lead
contractor for the WHOLE  "Glonass" system. Uragan satellites are
DESIGNED JOINTLY by NPO PM and AKO  Polyot of Omsk (AKO is for AeroSpace
Association - "AeroKosmicheskoye  Ob'edineniye"). MANUFACTURING of the
satellites is performed by AKO Polyot."

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2        )                                             16B
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit           Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A                                                                                 
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A

Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2          Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       Edwards AFB   STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/ 
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/               VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 194       1994 May 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial
--------

I think I've added everyone who has requested it so far 
to the distribution list - let me know if you don't get this message :-)
News is light this week.

Shuttle  
-------  

Endeavour departed Edwards AFB aboard the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
on Apr 29 and was flown to Biggs Army Airfield, El Paso, Texas. On Apr 30
the SCA/Orbiter combination flew to Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas and then
on to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. On May 2 the SCA took off again and
flew directly to Kennedy Space Center; the Orbiter will be towed
to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1 later today. [Does anyone know
which 747 was used - NASA 905 or 911?]

Mir
---

The EO-15 crew of Viktor Afanas'ev, Yuriy Usachyov and Vladimir Polyakov
remain aboard the Mir station after 114 days in orbit.
Physician-cosmonaut Polyakov, on his second spaceflight, has now
accumulated almost a year in space and is currently tenth in the all
time cumulative space experience rankings. Launch of the Progress M-23
robot cargo ship is scheduled for no earlier than May 18.

X-15
----

Advertisement: the Spring 1994 issue of the space history magazine Quest
will contain a set of articles on the X-15 rocketplane, including
one by the present author which contains the first ever complete
listing of X-15 flights. You might also want to check out the March
issue of Journal of the British Interplanetary Society which has
a neat article on the White Sands rocket base by Joel Powell, and
a dry and dull history of the Scout launch vehicle by myself.

LAUNCHES
--------

Michael Fennell reports that the SEDS 2 Delta stage is still in
orbit, with reentry expected around May 6. Part of the tether
is still attached.

Launch of Titan/Centaur TC-10 is expected from LC41 at Cape Canaveral on May 3.
The first Titan/Centaur launch, TC-12, was successfully carried out on Feb 7.
(TC numbers courtesy General Dynamics public affairs).

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar  2 0324     Koronas-I       Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Solar phys  14A
Mar  4 1353     Columbia        Shuttle         Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   15A
Mar 10 0340     Navstar GPS 36) Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17  Navsat      16A
                SEDS 2 deployer)                                             16B
                SEDS 2 end mass)
Mar 13 2232     P90-5    )      Taurus          Vandenberg      Technology  17A
                DARPASAT )                                      Technology? 17B
Mar 17 1630     Kosmos-2274     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       18A
Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A                                                                                 
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A

Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC SLF       STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/               VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 195       1994 May 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle  
-------  

Endeavour returned to KSC aboard the NASA 911 carrier aircraft on May 2.
Thanks to all those who passed on the identification of the aircraft.
Endeavour has been towed to Orbiter Processing Facility
Bay 1 and will be recycled for launch with the same Space Radar Lab
payload in August.

Assembly of the STS-65 stack is proceeding in the Vehicle Assembly
Building with preparations for connecting the external tank
to the solid boosters. The Spacelab module will be installed
in orbiter Columbia this week. Launch of STS-65 is due in July.

Mir ERRATUM
------------

My brain has been out to lunch recently - the physician cosmonaut aboard
Mir is of course Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov, not Vladimir Polyakov
as I have been typing recently. Thanks for everyone who caught that
piece of stupidity.

LAUNCHES
--------

The Deep Space Program Science Experiment probe, known to its friends as
Clementine, has completed mapping the Moon (and returned some
spectacular images!). Dean Bakeris reports that  Clementine left lunar
orbit on May 4 at 0324:15 UTC. Perigee was due on May 8 at 0556, and
apogee will be at 0530 on May 16, when a targeting maneuver will be
performed. Second perigee will be around May 24, and Clementine will fly
past the moon again on May 27 on its way to solar orbit. It will reach
asteroid (1620) Geographos at 2116 UTC on Aug 31. It is hoped to send
the probe on to fly by the unnumbered minor planet 1983 RD in October
1995.

The second Titan 4 Centaur, TC-10, was launched from Cape Canaveral on
May 3. The Titan solid boosters and core stages 1 and 2 fell in the
Atlantic Ocean, and the first Centaur burn placed the Centaur and its
payload into a parking orbit inclined at 57 deg (estimated). 
Observations from Europe of a bright comet like object over the US
suggest that the Centaur made a second burn in the southern hemisphere
to a highly elliptical orbit with apogee in the northern hemisphere. A
third burn may have been made to change the orbital inclination about
3.5 hours after launch. The Centaur then vented its excess propellants,
giving rise to the "comet". The best guess so far at the resulting orbit,
based on observations from Italy and the Czech Republic, is
a 12 hr period orbit around 64 degrees; a solution by Joel Runes gives
1323 x 39035 km x 64.4 deg, with TLEs as follows: 

1 23098E 94026B   94123.83406471  .00000000  00000-0  00000 0 0    52
2 23098  64.4000  14.6349 7100000 266.5000  93.5000  2.00600000    29
 
Work by Mike McCants gives similar estimates; the eccentricity is rather
uncertain. The object may be visible in binoculars to observers in the
US around 03h UTC tonight.  The payload, USA-103, is probably a signals
intelligence satellite, the third in a series which is a followon to
the National Security Agency's JUMPSEAT electronic monitoring series.
The first two payloads in the series were deployed by the Shuttle
and used an unknown upper stage (possibly an Orbus 7S solid motor)
to enter their 12 hour orbits.

 Advanced JUMPSEAT spacecraft:
Flight Payload    Launch Date   Initial Orbit   Final Orbit     Int'l Designation
STS-28R USA-40    1989 Aug  8   401 x 502 x 57  ?                 1989-61B
STS-53  USA-89    1992 Dec  2   364 x 380 x 57  ?                 1992-86B
TC-10   USA-103   1994 May  3   250?x 600?x 57  1300?x39000?x64.4 1994-26A

The final launch of the Scout rocket took place at 0247 UTC on May 9. 
It placed the MSTI-2 (Miniature Seeker Technology Integration) satellite
in orbit for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.  The orbit is
360 x 461 km x 96.8 deg. Vehicle S218C was a Scout G-1 variant,
consisting of an Algol 3A first stage, a Castor 2 second stage, an
Antares 3 third stage, and a Thiokol Star 20 fourth stage. The launch
took place from Space Launch Complex 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
which was originally Launch Complex D of Point Arguello Naval Missile
Facility when it saw its first Scout launch in 1962. S218C was the 125th
launch of an Algol-based Scout (including six launches of the USAF Blue
Scout version); there were also 22 launches of a variant called Blue
Scout Junior which omitted the first stage. Scout's first test flight
was on Apr 18, 1960; the first successful orbital launch on 16 Feb 1961
(Explorer IX). Among Scout's famous payloads were: Transit VA-3, the
first successful gravity gradient stabilized satellite; San Marco 1,
Italy's first satellite; ESRO 2B, Europe's first joint satellite (ESRO
was ESA's predecessor); Azur, Germany's first satellite; the Dutch
satellite ANS; and Uhuru and Ariel 5, the early X-ray astronomy
satellites.


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A                                                                                 
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A

Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
May  8          SEDS 2 deployer Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-59
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/               VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 196       1994 May 19 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIR
---

The Progress M-22 cargo ship fired its engine around May 15 to raise the
orbit of the Mir orbital station from 381 x 400 km to 398 x 399 km.
Maxim Tarasenko reports that the launch of the replacement cargo ship,
Progress M-23, is now due on May 22.

LAUNCHES
--------

Disaster befell the Clementine 1 probe on May 7. The on board
computer erroneously told the attitude control system to fire
its thrusters and depleted the attitude control propellant tanks.
Although the main propulsion system still has fuel, controllers
can't point the engine in the right direction so that's not much
help. The flight to (1620) Geographos and to (3551) 1983RD
(not unnumbered as claimed in JSR195, sorry Gareth!) appears impossible. 
Clementine did successfully complete its lunar mapping mission and
the sensors are still operational. It is currently in a highly
elliptical orbit around the Earth. The Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization manages the Clementine project and the Naval Research
Lab built and operates the spacecraft.

Launch of the USAF Rome Lab's P91-A (STEP 2) satellite was aborted just
before launch last week. Problems were noticed in the Pegasus booster as
the B-52 carrier aircraft was flying above the Point Arguello Warning
Area launch site over the Pacific. The B-52 returned to Edwards AFB with
the Pegasus still attached. I don't know if a new launch date has yet
been set. STEP 2 carries SIDEX, a signal indentification experiment.

The ALEXIS EUV astronomy satellite was launched on a Pegasus flight last
year. Damage during launch meant that controllers didn't know which way
the satellite was pointing. The Los Alamos science team and the Aero
Astro Inc manufacturers have now come up with a way to determine the
satellite's orientation, which has enabled them to make the first useful
sky picture from the satellite's data. The picture shows the Moon and
the soft x-ray source HZ 43. HZ 43 is a white dwarf star from the
Humason-Zwicky catalog and was the first EUV galactic source identified,
during the Apollo-Soyuz misison in 1975. The new picture means that there's
a very good chance the rest of the data obtained by Alexis over the last
year will eventually be usable.


Information Wanted
------------------

Trivia question of the week: can anyone find out for me what solid
motor was used to raise the orbit of the German IRM satellite,
launched in 1984 as part of the AMPTE project?


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A                                                                                 
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A

Reentries
---------

Mar 15          SEDS 2 end mass Reentered
Mar 18          Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
May  8          SEDS 2 deployer Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40                VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET             VAB Bay 1 STS-65


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu        |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
 '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 

,


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 197       1994 May 24
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIR
---

Progress M-23 was launched May 22 from Baykonur toward the Mir station.
The older Progress M-22 cargo ferry was deorbited on May 23. Progress
cargo ships are based on the Soyuz transport spaceship design, but
carry a fuel section instead of the cosmonaut descent module. They supply
water, air, food and fuel as well as carry new experiments and equipment
for the crew. Progress M-23 is scheduled to dock at the port on the
rear of the Kvant TKM-E astrophysical module.

LAUNCHES
--------

Launch of the USAF Rome Lab's P91-A (STEP 2) satellite was successfully
carried out on May 19. The B-52 carrier aircraft took off from RW4/22 at
Edwards AFB and flew out to the Point Arguello Warning Area over the
Pacific. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus was dropped at 1703 UTC and
all three stages fired placing the payload in orbit. However, the orbit
achieved was only 603 x 832 km x 82 deg instead of the planned 833 km
circular orbit. The low perigee is not a huge disaster, the old Scout
did the same thing a number of times and had the flights counted as
successes, and most missions would not be seriously affected by this
sort of anomaly. However, the next Pegasus launch will most likely be
delayed until the cause of the malfunction is understood and fixed. STEP
2 was built by TRW and is probably a lightsat in the Eagle series. It will
study propagation of radio signals through the ionosphere. This Pegasus
was the fifth of the winged boosters to be launched; all have reached orbit
although the second one was only partially successful.

Another Gorizont communications satellite for the US company
Rimsat of Ft. Wayne, Indiana was orbited on May 19 by Proton from Baykonur.
It will be placed over Eastern Asia at 142.5 deg E. The spacecraft
is probably owned by AO Informkosmos, a Russian company in which Rimsat
is a major holder; it is leased by Rimsat.  The satellite, built by
NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk, has both C and Ku band transponders.
The first Rimsat Gorizont was launched in November 1993. The first Soviet
Gorizont satellite was launched in 1978; the series is soon to be replaced by an
improved spacecraft called Express.


Information Wanted
------------------

This week's JSR Irregulars' Gold Medal goes to Bart de Pontieu (MPE),
Kelly Beatty (Sky & Tel),  and Mark Shaffer (BAe) for giving me info on
the IRM kick motor. The AMPTE (Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer
Explorers) launch was a complicated one; three
spacecraft were placed in geostationary transfer orbit by a three-stage
Delta rocket. The Johns Hopkins APL-built CCE satellite separated and
fired its Star 13 rocket to move to a lower inclination orbit. The IRM
satellite, built by the German Max Planck MPE group, then fired its
Hercules BE-3 motor to raise its apogee to more than 100 000 km. Finally
the British UKS satellite separated from IRM (UKS didn't have propulsion
of its own). The IRM satellite created three 'artifical comets' by
releasing lithium and barium into the magnetosphere.

The BE-3 "Alcyone" rocket has an interesting history, it was originally the
retro-rocket used to try and land the Block II Ranger probes on the
Moon in 1962. It was used on the Vela satellites as an apogee motor,
as the third stage of the Redstone/SPARTA rocket used to launch
Australia's first satellite WRESAT in 1967, and as the fifth
stage of the Scout E-1 launch vehicle, used only once in 1974 to
launch the Hawkeye satellite. This comes to a total of 27 flights that
I am aware of, any more examples gratefully received.

That question was so successful I'm going to try another fishing
expedition. Does anyone have any information on the Redstone rockets
launched in 1966/1967 from San Nicolas Island, CA as part of the US
Army's Project Defender? I know there was at least one launch in Nov
1966. The Redstone was the rocket that launched Alan Shepard, and I have
(partial) details on all its flights except for these Defender launches.
Even the History Office at Redstone Arsenal had no record of them. Anyone
with details on the launches from Fort Wingate, please get in touch too,
as my info on these is pretty sketchy. I have records of 101 Redstone
launches in all so far.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar 22 0454     Progress M-22   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       19A
Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A                                                                                 
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus         Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 19 0201     Gorizont/Rimsat Proton/DM2      Baykonur        Comsat      30A
May 22 0431?    Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Cargo       31A


Reentries
---------

Mar 23          Progress M-21   Deorbited
Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
May  8          SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21          Kosmos-2274     Reentered
May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40                VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET             VAB Bay 1 STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 198       1994 May 31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------

OV-104 Atlantis has returned to Florida after modifications at Rockwell's
Palmdale, California plant. The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flew from
Palmdale to Biggs AAF, El Paso, TX on May 27; from Biggs to
Warner-Robbins AFB, Macon, GA on May 28; and on to the Shuttle Landing
Facility at KSC on May 29. During the refurbishment, OV-104 was modified
to support the Mir docking module. Atlantis is now in  Orbiter
Processing Facility Bay 3; Discovery vacated that slot and is being
garaged in the Vehicle Assembly Building until Columbia's processing is
complete (around Jun 10); Discovery will then take that parking spot. 
[Source: Spacelink; KSC PAO]

Summary of forthcoming missions:
Jul     OV-102 Columbia STS-65, carrying Spacelab Long Module (International 
         Microgravity Lab 2) and Extended Duration Orbiter pallet (4th flight).
Aug     OV-105 Endeavour STS-68, carrying Spacelab Pallet (Shuttle Radar Lab 2) and 
         MPESS pallet (MAPS air pollution monitor)
Sep     OV-103 Discovery STS-64, carrying Spacelab Pallet (Lidar In-Space Techology 
         Experiment), and MPESS pallet with Spartan-201 free flyer.
Oct     OV-104 Atlantis STS-66, carrying Spacelab Igloo and Pallet (ATLAS-3), and
         Astro-SPAS free flyer (CRISTA).

Columbia's crew consists of six NASA astronauts and the third Japanese
space traveller, Dr. Chiaki Naito Mukai, who will become the first
Japanese woman in space.

MIR
---

Progress M-23 docked with the Mir complex at 0618 UTC on May 24.
[Source: V. Agapov]. The EO-15 commander and flight engineer,
Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy Usachyov, will be replaced next
month by the EO-16 crew, Yuriy Malenchenko and Talgat Musabaev,
who will be launched on the Soyuz TM-19 ferry ship on Jun 20.
Physician-cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov will remain aboard Mir.
Both Malenchenko, a Russian Air Force cosmonaut, and Musabaev,
a Kazakh Space Agency cosmonaut, will be on their first flights.

LAUNCHES
--------

Pegasus update: the fifth Pegasus flight on May 19 used a four stage
version of Pegasus, not the three stage one as I implied last week.
The HAPS (Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System) fourth stage 
has flown once before, on the second Pegasus fight. The first three
Pegasus stages fired successfully, and Orbital Sciences is 
investigating the cause of STEP Mission 2's low perigee. It may have
been a guidance problem or a malfunction in the HAPS burn; the problem
occurred out of telemetry range so it's not immediately clear what happened.
[Source: OSC Public Affairs]

 Pegasus launch list:
  Date         Type         Drop site             Payloads

  1990 Apr  5  Pegasus      Point Arguello W.A.   Pegsat, SECS
  1991 Jul 17  Pegasus/HAPS Point Arguello W.A.   Microsats 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
  1993 Feb  9  Pegasus      Mayport, FL W.A.      SCD-1, Orbcomm CDS
  1993 Apr 25  Pegasus      Point Arguello W.A.   Alexis
  1994 May 19  Pegasus/HAPS Point Arugello W.A.   STEP Mission 2 (P91-A)

Russian Space Forces launched a three stage Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk on May
25, but a problem seems to have occurred during separation of the second
stage from the S5M third stage, and the vehicle and its payload impacted
in the Arctic. The payload was referred to as Kosmos-2281, but it is not
clear if it will keep this codename - launch failures have never yet been
given Kosmos names. The Ukranian Yangel design bureau (now NPO
Yuzhnoe) converted the R-36M ICBM (known in the West as the SS-9 Scarp)
to a two stage space launcher called Tsiklon-2. (Tsiklon-1 was a
cancelled project using the R-16 ICBM). Tsiklon-2 first flew in the late
1960s, and in 1977 the S5M third stage was added to make the Tsiklon-3,
which is now the standard light launch vehicle used by the Russians.
[Source: Press reports (failure); Plesetsk Press Releases (S5M,  Tsiklon
details)]

Information Wanted
------------------

Well, I have no takers so far on my Redstone/Defender question. This week's
questions:
1) Who can tell me which 747 was used on Atlantis' cross country trip?
(Rick A, are you there?)
2) Can anyone tell me ANYTHING about the MG-18 (also known as M-2)
rocket used as the fourth stage of the Scout X-2M variant?
3) What propulsion system is used by the SPOT 1, 2, 3 satellites, and
who builds it?

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr  9 1105     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   20A
                Space Radar Lab
Apr 11 0749     Kosmos-2275   ) Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Navigation  21A
                Kosmos-2276   )                                 Navigation  21B 
                Kosmos-2277   )                                 Navigation  21C
Apr 13 0604     GOES 8          Atlas Centaur I Canaveral LC36B Weather     22A
Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus/HAPS    Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 19 0201     Gorizont 42     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      30A
May 22 0430     Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Cargo       31A
May 25 1015     Kosmos-2281     Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk        ?           FTO

Reentries
---------

Apr 20          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
May  8          SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21          Kosmos-2274     Reentered
May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40                VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET             VAB Bay 1 STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 199       1994 Jun 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Erratum
-------

Thanks to Maxim Tarasenko for pointing out that the Gorizont 42
satellite was launched on May 20 at 0201 UTC. I carelessly gave
the date as May 19 in JSR 197-198. I'm glad someone is paying attention!


Shuttle
-------

Columbia was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jun 8, for
connecting to the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Discovery
has now been moved back to the Orbiter Processing Facility, taking
Columbia's old spot.


LAUNCHES
--------

Kosmos-2281 was launched on June 7 from Plesetsk. The spacecraft, whose
orbit is 226 x 292 km high at an inclination of 82.6 degrees, is
an imaging satellite based on the Vostok/Zenit spaceship, and will probably
stay in orbit for 14 days. The last launch in this series was Kosmos-2260
in 1993, and was the first to be assigned a civilian mission - it was
given the alternate name Resurs-T. I don't know if this new flight
is another Resurs-T or if it is a reconnaissance flight like
Kosmos-2207 in 1992. [The code name Kosmos-2281 was originally given
to a different satellite, which failed to reach orbit on May 25].
[Source: TLEs]

The first Vostok based spy satellites were the Zenit-2 series, which
have now been declassified. The first one to reach orbit, in 1962, was
given the code name Kosmos-4. The Zenit derived spy satellites have now
been almost entirely phased out in favour of a newer bus called Yantar'.
All the Russian imaging spy satellites are made by the Central
Specialized Design Bureau in Samara.  [Source: JPRS reports; Novosti
Kosmonavtiki]

Information Wanted
------------------

Thanks to Ken Jenks for confirming that NASA 911 (the newer 747)
was used to take Atlantis back from Palmdale to Florida.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus/HAPS    Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 20 0201     Gorizont 42     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      30A
May 22 0430     Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Cargo       31A
May 25 1015     Kosmos          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk        SIGINT?     FTO
Jun  7 0716?    Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Recon?      32A


Reentries
---------

May  8          SEDS 2 deployer Reentered
May 21          Kosmos-2274     Reentered
May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited
Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 1     STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40                VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET             VAB Bay 1 STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 200       1994 Jun 18     Mt. Hopkins, Arizona
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The STS-65 stack consisting of orbiter OV-102 Columbia,
the external tank, and the solid rocket boosters, was moved
to pad 39A on June 15. 


LAUNCHES
--------

The Kosmos-2281 imaging satellite is in a 236 x 292 km x 82.6 deg orbit.

The 9th Foton materials processing spacecraft was launched from
Plesetsk on Jun 14. The Russian Space Agency's Foton program
carries Russian and international commercial experiments; Foton
contains a variety of microgravity ovens in its pressurized Vostok-class
descent module.

The second Intelsat VII communications satellite was orbited on
Jun 17. INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization,
is an intergovernmental entity which has been launching
communications satellites since 1965. The seventh generation satellite
is built by Space Systems/Loral, has a mass of 1500 kg plus 2200 kg of fuel,
and with its solar panels deployed has a wingspan of 22 metres.
The communications payload consists of 10 Ku-band and 26 C-band transponders.
Intelsat 702 will be inserted into geostationary orbit and be stationed
over Africa at longitude 1 deg W.

The Ariane V64 launch vehicle which carried Intelsat 702 to space also
carried an ASAP structure which holds small piggyback satellites. Two
tiny (0.5m) satellites were carried on this mission, the STRV  (Space
Technology Research Vehicle) satellites for the United Kingdom Ministry
of Defense's Defence Research Agency (DRA). DRA is the new name for the
RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment) at Farnborough, the home of the
famous air show. RAE was the lead agency for all of Britain's technology
(as opposed to science or communications) satellites. STRV 1A has a mass
of 50 kg and carries experiments to study surface erosion effects on
spacecraft materials, a cosmic ray detector, and a gamma ray burst
experiment. STRV 1B, with a mass of 53 kg, has an experimental cooler,
solar cells, and electronics. The satellites will remain in
geostationary transfer orbit.

Here's a list of the RAE's satellites:
  X-2            1970 Sep  2   Failed to orbit
  Orba           1970 Sep  2   Failed to orbit
  Prospero (X-3) 1971 Oct 28   The only satellite launched by a British rocket
  Miranda  (X-4) 1974 Mar  9   Launched by a US Scout
  STRV 1A, 1B    1994 Jun 17   Small DRA test satellites



Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus/HAPS    Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 20 0201     Gorizont 42     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      30A
May 22 0430     Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Cargo       31A
May 25 1015     Kosmos          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk        SIGINT?     FTO
Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C

Reentries
---------

May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited
Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40                VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET/OV-102      VAB Bay 1 STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 201      1994 Jun 27           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of STS-65 is due on July 8 from pad 39A into a 28 degree orbit.
The cargo bay of Columbia contains a Spacelab Long Module and the
Extended Duration Orbiter pallet. Crew are Robert Cabana (Commander), 
James Halsell (Pilot), Richard Hieb (Payload Commander), Carl Walz,
Leroy Chiao, and Donald Thomas (Mission Specialists), and Dr. Chiaki
Mukai (Payload Specialist), a NASDA astronaut. The International
Microgravity Laboratory-2 contains  experiments from NASA, the European
Space Agency and its member national  space agencies, and the National
Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. Dr. Mukai will become the
first Japanese woman to fly in space.


LAUNCHES
--------

General Dynamics successfully launched an Atlas I Centaur from pad 36B
at Cape Canaveral on Jun 24. The AC-76 flight placed a Hughes HS-601
communications satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite,
UHF Follow-On F3, is operated by Hughes for the United States Navy. This
marks seven successful flights in a  row for Atlas, following some
problems in 1991-93. The next Atlas launch is due on July 28, with
DirecTV 2.  [Thanks to Al Hegemann for info].

  Here  is a log of recent Atlas launches. There have been 519 Atlas 
launches since 1957. (Atlas I first stages have 5000-series tail
numbers; Atlas II's have 8100-series tail numbers, but I don't have the
numbers for most of the recent flights). 

Atlas Centaur  Model   Date         Payload type and name
5054  AC-74  Atlas I    1993 Mar 25  Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F1"
?     AC-104 Atlas II   1993 Jul 19  MM Astro DSCS III
34E          Atlas E    1993 Aug  8  MM Astro Advanced Tiros-N "NOAA-13"
?     AC-75  Atlas I    1993 Sep  3  Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F2"
?     AC-106 Atlas II   1993 Nov 28  MM Astro DSCS III
?     AC-108 Atlas IIAS 1993 Dec 16  MM Astro GE7000 "Telstar 401"
?     AC-73  Atlas I    1994 Apr 13  SS/Loral GOES-Next "GOES 8"
?     AC-76  Atlas I    1994 Jun 24  Hughes HS-601 "UHF F/O F3"


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus/HAPS    Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 20 0201     Gorizont 42     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      30A
May 22 0430     Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1?   Cargo       31A
May 25 1015     Kosmos          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk        SIGINT?     FTO
Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A

Reentries
---------

May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited
Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65          VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-39/ET-64/OV-102   VAB Bay 1 STS-65

Shuttle Processing Status Explanation (or,  what are all these acronyms
anyway?):

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM), also
known as Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).  The OV is prepared for flight in
the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which consists of three bays (one
of which is actually a separate building) after which it is towed to the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or joined to
the ET and RSRM. First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked up on a
Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it. After
the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML and
carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at
launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space
Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally an OV is returned to
the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California for refit - an
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP. 

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 202 (revised)      1994 Jul  5           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A serious goof in the first version of this report, so I'm
trying again. Please delete the previous version!

Shuttle
-------

Launch of STS-65 is still due on July 8.

LAUNCHES
--------

NPO Energiya's Soyuz spacecraft 11F732 no. 68 was launched at 12:24:50
UTC on Jul 1 from Baykonur, becoming Soyuz TM-19 on reaching orbit.
Soyuz TM-19 carried the Mir EO-16 crew (callsign: "Agat") to the orbital
complex, and docked at the rear port of the Kvant module (vacated by
Progress M-23 on Jul 2) at 13:55:01 UTC on Jul 3. The EO-16 crew
commander is Lt-Col.  Yuriy Ivanovich Malenchenko of the Russian Air
Force. The flight engineer is Lt-Col. Talgat Bigeldinovich Musabaev,
also of the Russian Air Force. Both men are currently members of the
Russian Air Force cosmonaut detachment, although Musabaev is a Kazakh
and was originally selected as backup for the Kazakh mission to Mir
flown by Tokhtar Aubakirov in 1991. The EO-16 crew will replace two of
the EO-15 crewmembers currently aboard Mir,  Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy
Usachyov, who will land back on Earth on Jul 9. Physician-cosmonaut
Valeriy Polyakov will remain aboard Mir with the EO-16 crew.

Orbital Sciences' revolutionary Pegasus winged launch vehicle suffered
its first complete launch failure on Jun 27. The modified Lockheed
L-1011 carrier plane took off from Vandenberg AFB, California and
released the first Pegasus XL over the Point Arguello Warning Area at
2115 UTC. The rocket malfunctioned during the first stage burn and was
destroyed. Payload on this sixth Pegasus launch was the US Air Force
Space Test Program's STEP Mission 1 satellite. STEP 1 was a DSI/TRW
Eagle class light satellite carrying radio propagation experiments, a
plasma environment analyser, the CHAMPION ionosphere-magnetosphere
coupling experiment, and an accelerometer and mass spectrometer to study
the upper atmosphere.

In last week's report, I should have noted that Martin Marietta have
bought the old General Dynamics launch vehicle group. Therefore, the
recent Atlas I  AC-76 flight was a Martin Marietta launch, not a General
Dynamics one. Apologies to Martin Marietta and its Atlas Centaur team
for the misattribution.

The UHF F/O F-3 satellite launched by AC-76 carries 39 UHF
communications channels (21 narrow band, 17 relay, and 1 Fleet
Broadcast). This HS-601 class satellite is owned by Hughes Space and
Communications, and will be delivered to the US Navy's Space Command
once it has been checked out in geostationary orbit. Launch of AC-76
occurred at 1350:02 UTC; the booster engines were jettisoned within
three minutes and the Atlas main stage fell away at  1354. The first
Centaur burn ended at 1400, placing the Centaur/HS-601 in parking orbit
a few hundred km above the Earth. Centaur reignited at 1414 for a 70
second burn, and separated at 1418 UTC leaving the HS-601 in a 221 x
15600 km x 27 deg transfer orbit. The HS-601 later began burns
of its ARC 490N liquid apogee engine to raise the satellite's orbit
towards its operational geostationary height of 35780 x 35780 km x 0 deg.
However orbital details for the satellite have not been released; this
is unusual as earlier UHF F/O mission trajectories have been unclassified.

The satellite launched into a 63 degree orbit on Jul 3 is a Chinese FSW
(Fanhui Shi Weixing)  recoverable satellite launched from Jiuquan, and
not a Russian Kosmos from Plesetsk, as I suggested in the first version
of this report. Orbit of the FSW satellite is 173 x 342 km x 63.0 deg.
This is very similar to the orbits used by Russian's Yantar' satellites,
and the ground track of the satellite passes close to the Plesetsk
launch site on the first orbit before the actual launch, hence my
initial confusion.

The McDonnell Douglas DC-X reusable rocket has made two more test
flights, on Jun 20 and Jun 27. The second flight was aborted 
because of an explosion in the aft compartment at launch time; the
rocket made a successful emergency landing and the damage is reportedly
not severe.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr 23 0802     Kosmos-2278     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      23A
Apr 26 0214     Kosmos-2279     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      24A
Apr 28 1714     Kosmos-2280     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       25A
May  3 1555     USA-103         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      26A
May  4 0000     SROSS C2        ASLV            Sriharikota     Science     27A
May  9 0247     MSTI-2          Scout G-1       Vandenberg SLC5 Technology  28A
May 19 1703     P91-A (STEP 2)  Pegasus/HAPS    Point Arguello WA  Science  29A
May 20 0201     Gorizont 42     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   Comsat      30A
May 22 0430     Progress M-23   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1?   Cargo       31A
May 25 1015     Kosmos          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   SIGINT?     FTO
Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A
Jun 27 2115     STEP 1          Pegasus XL      Point Arguello WA Science   FTO
Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0804?     FSW             Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A

Reentries
---------

May 23          Progress M-22   Deorbited
Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65          VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41                VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/RSRM-39/ET-64/OV-102   LC39A     STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 203               1994 Jul 14             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on mission STS-65 at 1643 UTC on Jul
8. This is Columbia's 17th flight and the long two week mission, if
successful, will significantly extend Columbia's record as the orbiter
with the most flight hours. On Jul 11 Columbia was in a 299 x 302 km
orbit inclined 28.5 deg to the equator. The Spacelab Long Module in the
cargo bay carries the International Microgravity Laboratory 2 payload.

Mir
---

The Progress M-23 cargo ship undocked and was deorbited on Jul 2. (I
don't know the time or whether it had a Raduga reentry capsule). Soyuz
TM-19 docked with the vacated rear port of the Kvant module on Jul 3, as
reported earlier. On Jul 9, the EO-15 commander and flight engineer,
Viktor Afanas'ev and Yuriy Usachyov, boarded the Soyuz TM-18 ferry
docked at the Mir front port, and undocked from the complex. Several
hours later they ignited the Soyuz braking engine, and the descent
module was separated from the orbital and instrument modules. The Soyuz
TM-18 descent module landed 110 km north of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at
1032:35 UTC on Jul 9. Afanas'ev and Usachyov's flight time was 182 days
0 hr 27 min if my arithmetic is correct. This gives Afanas'ev a
cumulative flight time of 357 days 02 h 19 min over his two flights.
EO-15 physician-cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov remains aboard Mir with the
new EO-16 crew of Malenchenko and Musabaev. 


Launches
--------

Ariane V.65 was launched at 2305 on Jul 8 from the Ensemble de Lancement
Ariane No. 2 at the Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou in Guyane, South
America. The 44L model Ariane has four liquid PAL strapon boosters on
the L220 first stage, an L33 second stage, and a high-energy H10+ third
stage. After the H10+ reached geostationary transfer orbit, the PanAmSat
2 satellite separated, followed by the cover of the SPELDA
dual-satellite adapter, followed finally by the BS-3N satellite.
PanAmSat 2 is owned by Alpha Lyracom, a Connecticut-based communications
company. It is a Hughes HS-601 model satellite with a liquid apogee
motor. BS-3N is owned by the Japanese NHK television company (it may be
renamed Yuri-3N on reaching orbit, since previous BS satellites owned by
the NASDA space agency were renamed in that way). It is a smaller GE3000
model built by Martin Marietta Astro Space (formerly GE, formerly RCA).

The Kosmos-2282 geostationary satellite launched on Jul 6
is apparently an early warning satellite in the Prognoz series.

A navigation satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 14 into a 1000
km, 83 degree orbit. It is either a Nadezhda civil navsat or a Parus
navy navigation satellite.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A
Jun 27 2115     STEP 1          Pegasus XL      Point Arguello WA Science   FTO
Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0804?    FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0508     Nadezhda?       Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk        Navsat      41A?
 
Reentries
---------

Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered
Jul  2          Progress M-23   Deorbited
Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65          VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41                VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/                       LC39A     STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 204               1994 Jul 19             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Columbia continues in orbit on the STS-65 mission.

Mir
---

I now have details of the Progress M-23 flight from Vladimir
Agapov. The Progress undocked from the Kvant module at
0946:46 UTC on Jul 2. The braking engine was ignited at
1444 UTC, and the Raduga VBK reentry capsule was ejected
at 1455:45 UTC. The Progress burnt up in the atmosphere
at 1457. The Raduga deployed its parachute after reentry
and landed at 1509 UT at 51 deg 41 min N, 59 deg 21 min E,
in the Orenburg region of Russia.

Launches
--------

The BS-3N satellite successfully fired its Star 30BP
apogee motor at 0306:31 UT on Jul 13. It is a Martin
Marietta Astro Space Series 3000 satellite (I said
GE3000 last week, but that's the old name for the bus).

A Nadezhda ("Hope") navigation, search and rescue satellite
was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 14. Nadezhda satellites
are produced and designed by AO Polyot of Omsk and NPO Prikladnoi
Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk. They operate in 1000 km orbits
at 83 degree inclination.

Fireworks on Jupiter
--------------------

The fragments of Comet 1993e (P/Shoemaker-Levy 9) have begun to impact
Jupiter. Fragment G, which hit on Jul 18, left an impact site larger
than the Earth. The impact sites are visible in small telescopes; the
150-year-old 12" Northumberland refractor in Cambridge has contributed
central meridian crossing times (these are the most important things for
amateurs to note, as the longitudes and rotation periods of the
individual sites are not all well determined).

       Predicted     Approximate observed impact times (UTC)
  A    Jul 16.833  Jul 16.844
  B    Jul 17.121  Jul 17.122
  C    Jul 17.293  Jul 17.302
  D    Jul 17.491  Jul 17.496
  E    Jul 17.629  Jul 17.637
  F    Jul 18.020  Jul 18.060
  G    Jul 18.311  Jul 18.315
  H    Jul 18.810  Jul 18.813
  K    Jul 19.430  Jul 19.434
  L    Jul 19.923

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A
Jun 27 2115     STEP 1          Pegasus XL      Point Arguello  Science     FTO
Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0804?    FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A

Not So Recent Launches
----------------------

Saturn SA-506 was launched from LC39A at Cape Kennedy on 1969 Jul 16 at
1332 UTC inserting the S-IVB-506 third stage and attached Apollo 11
spacecraft into a 188 x 192 km x 32.6 deg Earth orbit. At 1616 the S-IVB
reignited for the TLI burn; Apollo CSM 107 separated at 1649, completed
the transposition and docking maneuver at 1656, and separated with the
attached Lunar Module 5 at 1749. Lunar orbit insertion of the CSM 107/
LM 5 complex occurred at 1721 on Jul 19. On Jul 20, Apollo 11 Commander
Neil A. Armstrong and LM Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. transferred to LM 5,
leaving CM Pilot Michael Collins in the CSM. At 1745 on Jul 20, LM 5
(callsign "Eagle") undocked from the CSM 107 (callsign "Columbia") in a
100 x 122 km lunar orbit. The Descent Orbit Insertion burn at 1908
lowered LM 5's orbit to 16 x 106 km. At 2005 the Powered Descent
Initiation burn was begun, and at 1969 Jul 20 d 20 h 17 m 40 s UTC the
spaceship LM 5 "Eagle" carrying astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin landed
at Tranquility Base, Statio Tranquillitatis (00 deg 41 ' 15 " N 23 deg
26 ' 00 " E) in the Mare Tranquillitatis on Luna.

Exploration of the Tranquility Base area was carried out from 0227 to
0458 on Jul 21 by Armstrong (in spacesuit A7L56) and Aldrin (in suit
A7L77). LM 5 was again depressurized from 0740 to 0745? for an equipment
dump. LM 5's ascent stage was launched from the descent stage at 1754 on
Jul 21 and reached a 17 x 84 km lunar orbit at 1801. The LM 5 ascent
stage docked with CSM 107 at 2135 on Jul 21. After the crew and cargo
were transferred, LM 5 was undocked at 2342. CSM 107 fired its SPS
engine at 0455 for the transearth injection burn. The SM-107 service
module was jettisoned at 1621 on Jul 24 and the CM began reentry at
1635. At 1650 on Jul 24 the CM-107 "Columbia" landed at 13 deg 30 ' N
169 deg 15 ' W in the Pacific Ocean, and was recovered by the carrier
USS Hornet.

Meanwhile, flight 5L (the second test launch) of the N-1 lunar launch
vehicle resulted in a massive explosion at 2018 on 1969 Jul 3, damaging
the N-1 launch pad at Baykonur. Luna E-8-5 sample return probe no. 401
was launched by Proton-K at 0255 on 1969 Jul 13 from Baykonur and given
the code name Luna-15. Luna-15 reached lunar orbit at 1000 on 1969 Jul
17 but the attempted landing at 1552 UT on 1969 Jul 21 resulted in
destruction of the spacecraft on impact at 17 N 60 E.
 
Reentries
---------

Jun  3          Tiros VII       Reentered
Jul  2          Progress M-23   Landed in Russia
Jul  2          Foton No. 9     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18?		FSW-2           Landed in China?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-65
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65          VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41                VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/                       LC39A     STS-65


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 205               1994 Jul 25             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Columbia landed at 1038 UTC on Jul 23 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center.
This was the longest Shuttle mission yet, at 353 h 55 m 01 sec. 
Columbia is in Orbiter Processing Bay 1 being prepared for the trip
back to California for its Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (refurbishment).
Meanwhile, Endeavour was towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jul 21
for mating to the External Tank and solid boosters for mission STS-68,
due in August.

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2283, launched Jul 20 from Plesetsk, is a Yantar' class imaging
reconnaissance satellite built by the Samara Central Specialized
Design Bureau (TsSKB). It is in a 67 degree inclination orbit and
will stay up for about 60 days.

APStar 1 was launched by a CZ-3 (Long March 3) from China's Xichang
spaceport. It is a Hughes HS-376 communications satellite, and is owned
by Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) Satellite Co., a consortium of
telecommunications companies based in Hong Kong and China. 
This is the fourth attempted commercial Chinese launch to geostationary
orbit.
Previous Chinese commercial geostationary launches:
 1990 Apr  7  Asiasat 1  by CZ-3
 1992 Aug 13  Optus B1   by CZ-2E
 1992 Dec 21  Optus B2   by CZ-2E  (satellite  or rocket exploded)


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A
Jun 27 2115     STEP 1          Pegasus XL      Point Arguello  Science     FTO
Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0804?    FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A
Jul 20 1735     Kosmos-2283     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       42A
Jul 21 1030?    APStar 1        Chang Zheng 3   Xichang         Comsat      43A
 
Reentries
---------

Jul  2          Foton No. 9     Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18?		FSW-2           Landed in China?
Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 3     STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   VAB Bay 3 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41                VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/                       


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 206               1994 Aug  4             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour and the STS-68 stack was rolled out to pad 39A on Jul 27. In
the orbiter's payload bay is the Space Radar Lab, which first flew on
Endeavour's last flight (STS-59 in April). This is the first time that
the same main payload has flown on two successive flights of an orbiter.
(In 1991 and 1992 the Unit 1 Spacelab Long Module flew on successive
flights of Columbia, but the experiment payload was changed from 
Spacelab Life Sciences to International Microgravity Lab).  SRL-2
carries JPL's SIR-C Shuttle Imaging Radar and the German/Italian X-SAR
radar. Also aboard are an MPESS pallet carrying the MAPS (Measurement of
Air Pollution from Satellites) experiment on its fourth flight, and
Getaway Special payloads G-316 (North Carolina A&T Univ. student biology
and chemistry experiments), G-503 (U of Alabama Huntsville SEDS student
experiments) and G-541 (Swedish Space Corp. gradient furnace for crystal
growth experiment). US Postal Service commemorative Apollo 11
anniversary covers will also be carried in two GAS cans. Launch of
STS-68 is due on Aug 18 at 1054 UTC.

Launches
--------

Martin Marietta Commercial Launch Services (formerly the General Dynamics
team) successfully launched an Atlas IIA from Cape Canaveral on Aug 3.
The AC-107 Centaur stage and the Hughes HS-601 satellite payload were
delivered into a 211 x 39459 km x 26.9 deg geostationary transfer orbit.
The satellite, named DBS-2, is a direct broadcast TV satellite jointly
owned by DirecTV (a subsidiary of Hughes) and USSB (United States
Satellite Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Hubbard Broadcasting). Its
ARC490N liquid fuel apogee engine will be fired several times to raise
the orbit to a circular geostationary one. [Thanks to special correspondent
Joel Runes for his report from the launch site.]
This was the second launch of the Atlas IIA configuration (the IIAS has
also flown once). All Atlas II class flights have been successful:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Flight Date        Payload                                      Type of Atlas
 AC-102 1991 Dec  7 Aerospatiale Spacebus 100 "Eutelsat II F-3"  Atlas II
 AC-101 1992 Feb 11 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-5                  Atlas II
 AC-105 1992 Mar 14 MM Astro Space Series 5000 "Intelsat K"      Atlas IIA
 AC-103 1992 Jul  2 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-6                  Atlas II
 AC-104 1993 Jul 19 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-7                  Atlas II
 AC-106 1993 Nov 28 MM Astro Space DSCS III F-8                  Atlas II
 AC-108 1993 Dec 16 MM Astro Space Series 7000 "Telstar 401"     Atlas IIAS
 AC-107 1994 Aug  3 Hughes HS-601 "DBS 2"                        Atlas IIA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (MM = Martin Marietta)

Orbital Sciences Corporation also had a successful launch earlier the
same day. NASA's NB-52 carrier aircraft took off from Edwards AFB around
1325 UTC and dropped a standard Pegasus over the Point Arguello Warning
Area at 1439 UTC on Aug 3 and the three stage solid rocket successfully
inserted the APEX satellite into the intended orbit. APEX (Advanced
Photovoltaic and Electronics Experiments) is an OSC Pegastar bus and
carries a variety of advanced solar cell experiments for the US Air
Force: Photovoltaic Array and Space Power Plus Diagnostics (PASP-Plus),
Ferroelectric Experiment (FERRO), and Cosmic Ray Upset Experiment
(CRUX). Versions of CRUX have previously flown as Shuttle GAS can
experiments. The APEX satellite is part of the USAF Space Test Program
and also has the designation P90-6. The intended orbit was 360 x 2000 km
x 70 deg, and the actual one was 365 x 2551 km x 69.9 deg. The
elliptical orbit gives high plasma densities at perigee and high
radiation levels at apogee; the USAF reports that the orbit achieved is
excellent for the mission. [Thanks to V. Arruda of USAF for info]. In
June, the first launch of an advanced Pegasus XL from the L-1011 
Stargazer carrier plane ended in failure; the cause has been identified
as aerodynamic problems due to faulty hydro simulations (no wind tunnel
testing was done). The Pegasus XL will probably be cleared for flight
later in the year. 

Kosmos-2284, launched Jul 29, is an imaging satellite. Based on its
orbit, it is presumably the 17th in the 'Kometa' series of topographic
mapping satellites, based on the Yantar' spy satellite design. Vladimir
Agapov reports that the Kometa satellite imagery is commercially
distributed by AO Sovinformsputnik.  The last Kometa satellite,
Kosmos-2243, was damaged during launch in Apr 1993. Typical mission
length is 44 days. The first Kometa satellite was Kosmos-1246, in 1981.
All the Kometa satellites are launched by Soyuz-U from Baykonur.

Kosmos-2285 was launched Aug 2 by the light Kosmos-3M launch vehicle.
Kosmos-3M, built by PO Polyot of Omsk, is derived from the R-14 (NATO
designation SS-5) IRBM built originally by the Yangel design bureau.
Kosmos-2285 was inserted in a 974 x 1013 km x 74.0 deg orbit, which is
quite unusual. The altitude range is that used by Parus-class navigation
satellites, but the inclination has not been used by those satellites
since the early 1970s. The most likely missions for Kosmos-2285 are
radar calibration or geodesy.

I have confirmed that the Apstar 1 satellite was launched
using the CZ-3 (Long March 3) and not the more advanced CZ-3A,
and that the launch time was 1055 UT on Jul 21 (Chen Baosheng, CGWIC, 
personal communication). On Aug 7, Apstar 1 was in a 35646 x 35920 km 
x 0.04 deg orbit stationary over 138.4 deg E. Some other recent
geostationary satellites are also now on station: PAS 2 at 165.4W;
BS-3N at 122.0E, and Kosmos-2282 at 24.1W. Elements for UHF F/O F3
have not been released.


Erratum
-------

Progress M-23 was undocked at 0847 UTC and not 0947 UTC on Jul 2.
Apologies for the error which was caused by confusion between
Moscow decree time and Moscow daylight time. (Thanks Sven for catching this.)

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jun  7 0720     Kosmos-2281     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC16   Recon       32A
Jun 14 1605     Foton No. 9     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   33A
Jun 17 0707     Intelsat 702 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      34A
                STRV 1       )                                  Technology  34B
                STRV 2       )                                  Technology  34C
Jun 24 1350     UHF F/O F3      Atlas I Centaur Canaveral LC36B Comsat      35A
Jun 27 2115     STEP 1          Pegasus XL      Point Arguello  Science     FTO
Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0800     FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A
Jul 20 1735     Kosmos-2283     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       42A
Jul 21 1055     APStar 1        Chang Zheng 3   Xichang         Comsat      43A
Jul 29 0929     Kosmos-2284     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       44A
Aug  2 2000     Kosmos-2285     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           45A
Aug  3 1439     P90-6 APEX      Pegasus/NB-52   Point Arguello  Technology  46A
Aug  3 2357     DBS 2           Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      47A
 
Reentries
---------

Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18		FSW-2           Landed in China
Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-64
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-68
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   LC39A     STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66          VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/                       


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 207               1994 Aug 12             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of STS-68 is still scheduled for Aug 18 with the Space Radar Lab
payload. Crew are Capt. Michael Baker, USN (Commander), Maj. Terry Wilcutt,
USMC (Pilot), Dr. Tom Jones, NASA (Payload Commander, MS4), Steve Smith,
NASA (Mission Specialist 1), Cdr. Dan Bursch, USN (Mission Specialist 2),
Dr. Jeff Wisoff, NASA (Mission Specialist 3). Smith and Wilcutt are making
their first flights.

Discovery was rolled over to the VAB for stacking with the External
Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters on Aug 11. It is due for launch
on Sep 9 on mission STS-64.

Launches
--------

Ariane V66 was launched at 2305 on Aug 10. Payloads were a Hughes HS376W
satellite, Brasilsat B1, and an Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 satellite,
Turksat 1B. Brasilsat B1 carries a solid Thiokol Star 30 apogee motor,
which makes a single burn to geosynchronous altitude. Turksat 1B has an
MBB S400 liquid apogee engine, and will make several burns to raise its
altitude from transfer orbit.

Brasilsat B1 is the first of Brazil's second generation communications
satellites, replacing the Embratel agency's Brasilsat S1 and S2,
launched in 1985 and 1986 by Ariane. Those satellites were an earlier
version of the HS376 model. Brasilsat B1 is the first 'widebody' HS376,
3.6m in diameter compared to 2.2m for all earlier HS376 satellites,  and
is the 40th HS376 to be launched by my count. It carries 28 C-band
transponders for the Telebras television organization and, reportedly, a
single military X-band transponder.

Turksat 1B should become Turkey's first successful comsat. Turksat 1A was lost
in an Ariane launch failure earlier this year. Turksat will be delivered
to the Turkish Ministry of Posts and Communications once it reaches
its final  orbit. It has 16 55W Ku-band transponders.

Kosmos-2286, launched on Aug 5, is a missile early warning satellite in the Oko
("Eye") series. It carries a large telescope to detect ballistic missile launches.
The spacecraft and upper stage were placed in low earth orbit at an inclination
of 62.8 deg to the equator; the upper stage then ignited to place the Oko
in a high elliptical orbit with a 12 hour orbital period. The Oko's on board
engine refines the orbit to be exactly semi-synchronous, with alternate passes
over the same longitude.

Kosmos-2287, Kosmos-2288, Kosmos-2289, launched on Aug 11, are Uragan-class
GLONASS navigation satellites, the Russian equivalent of the Navstar Global
Positioning System. They operate in orbits at an altitude of 19000 km.

Note: The intended apogee for APEX was in fact 2500 km (very close to the
acheived 2551 km), not 2000 km as I stated in JSR206. Congratulations
to Orbital Sciences on a successful mission.


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0800     FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A
Jul 20 1735     Kosmos-2283     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       42A
Jul 21 1055     APStar 1        Chang Zheng 3   Xichang         Comsat      43A
Jul 29 0929     Kosmos-2284     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       44A
Aug  2 2000     Kosmos-2285     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           45A
Aug  3 1439     P90-6 APEX      Pegasus/NB-52   Point Arguello  Technology  46A
Aug  3 2357     DBS 2           Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      47A
Aug  5 0112     Kosmos-2286     Molniya         Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  48A
Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1533?    Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C

Reentries
---------

Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18		FSW-2           Landed in China
Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 1     STS-64  Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-68  Aug 18
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   LC39A     STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103   VAB Bay 1 STS-64 
ML3/                       VAB Bay 3? STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 208               1994 Aug 29             Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some catching up to do now I'm back from vacation:

Shuttle
-------

The attempted launch of STS-68 was terminated with an RSLS Abort at
1053:58 UTC on Aug 18. The High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump temperature
on the third main engine, SSME 2032, registered high after the engine
started up and the launch was cancelled at T-2 seconds. This is the
closest to launch that a Shuttle flight has ever been aborted.
Endeavour was rolled back to the VAB on Aug 24 and its main engines are
being replaced. The new target launch date is October 2.

Discovery was rolled out to pad 39B a few hours after Endeavour's abort
on pad 39A. Its STS-64 mission is still scheduled to be launched on Sep 9.

Launches
--------

A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched on Aug 24 into
a 600 x 39000 km orbit inclined 62.8 deg.

The Progress M-24 cargo ship was launched from Baykonur on Aug 25.
It is scheduled to dock with Mir, but the first attempt at docking
on Aug 27 was unsuccessful.

Titan Centaur TC-11 was launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug 27. 
The payload is possibly another Advanced JUMPSEAT type electronic
intelligence satellite. I hope to have more details on this launch
in the next issue.

The second H-II launch vehicle, TF-2, successfully orbited its Kiku-6
(Engineering Test Satellite VI) payload on Aug 28. The H-II is
the Japanese NASDA agency's heavy lift launch vehicle. Kiku-6
carries the first Japanese made liquid propellant apogee engine,
which will place the satellite in geostationary orbit and then
separate (nevertheless, it is considered part of the payload rather
than a third stage of the launch vehicle).
The satellite, to be stationed at 153.8 deg E, is to test technology
for 2-tonne class 3-axis stabilized comsats.
It carries a nickel-hydrogen battery, and a small ion
engine for north-south station keeping.
The 3.0 x 2.0 x 2.8 m box shaped satellite has 
solar panels spanning 30m, and 
3.5 and 2.5 m diameter antennae for fixed
and mobile communications, together with K and S-band
antennae for intersatellite communications
as well as a laser communications experiment. Mass is about 1800 kg.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0800     FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A
Jul 20 1735     Kosmos-2283     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       42A
Jul 21 1055     APStar 1        Chang Zheng 3   Xichang         Comsat      43A
Jul 29 0929     Kosmos-2284     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       44A
Aug  2 2000     Kosmos-2285     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           45A
Aug  3 1439     P90-6 APEX      Pegasus/NB-52   Point Arguello  Technology  46A
Aug  3 2357     DBS 2           Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      47A
Aug  5 0112     Kosmos-2286     Molniya         Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  48A
Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1527     Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C
Aug 23 1433?    Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk        Comsat      51A
Aug 25 1428?    Progress M-24   Soyuz-U?        Baykonur        Cargo       52A
Aug 27 0858     USA-105         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT?     53A
Aug 28 0750     Kiku 6          H-II            Tanegashima     Comsat      

Reentries
---------

Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18	        FSW-2           Landed in China
Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-64  Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-68  Oct 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103   LC39B     STS-64 
ML3/                       VAB Bay 3? STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 209               1994 Sep 2                   Mt Hopkins, Arizona
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-64. The orbiter Discovery
will carry a variety of science payloads. The payload
bay will contain:
 1) a Spacelab pallet with the LIDAR In-Space Technology
Experiment (LITE). LITE's laser transmitter
and telescope receiver will be used to make atmospheric
measurements and demonstrate laser measurement technology.
 2) an MPESS pallet with the Spartan 201 solar observatory
on its second mission; it will be deployed for two days of
observations of the solar south pole, to coordinate with
the Ulysses data.
 3) SPIFEX, the Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment.
This is a package of instruments on a 10m boom to be attached
to the RMS arm. It's for testing what happens when the Shuttle
maneuvers near another spacecraft such as a space station.
 4) an MPESS type GAS Bridge pallet carrying 10 GAS (Getaway Special)
canisters.
 5) A sidewall Hitchhiker-G pallet carrying the
ROMPS (Robot Operated Materials Processing System), two GAS cans
testing use of robotics in space processing.
 6) SAFER Recharge Station, a nitrogen gas refuelling station for
the  SAFER (Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue), a new propulsive
spacesuit backpack to be tested by Mark Lee and Carl Meade
on a spacewalk. The Recharge Station is on the
payload bay wall; SAFER itself will be stored in the crew cabin.



Launches
--------

Progress M-24 failed to dock with Mir on Aug 27. A second automatic docking
attempt on Aug 30 also failed. A third and final attempt, manually
controlled by Mir commander Yuriy Malenchenko, was successful on Sep 2.

Kiku-6's LAPS apogee motor failed to develop the correct thrust when it
was fired on Aug 31 at 0519 UT.  The LAPS was separated at 1510 UTC,
leaving Kiku-6 in a 7791 x 38715 km x 13.1 deg transfer orbit
instead of the intended geostationary one.

The USA-105 satellite, launched by Titan 4 Centaur from pad 41
at Cape Canaveral, is believed to have entered geostationary orbit.
It may be the first of a new series of geostationary signals 
intelligence satellites, following on from the MAGNUM satellites
launched from the Shuttle since 1985. 

The Magellan Venus probe lowered its periapsis to 182 km 
on Sep 25 in preparation for the Windmill experiment to
study the amount of torque produced by the Venusian upper
atmosphere.

Kosmos-2290 was launched by a Zenit rocket from Baykonur
on Aug 26 into a 211 x 292 km x 64.8 deg orbit. This type
of orbit suggests that it may be the first of a new generation
of imaging reconnaissance satellites. All previous Soviet
and Russian imaging spy satellites were launched by
derivatives of the R-7 ICBM, the most recent of which are
the 11A511U and 11A511U2 variants of the Soyuz booster. This
would mark the first use of the Zenit for a spy satellite,
although 1987 test flights of the rocket which placed
inert satellites into similar orbits may have been related.


Optus B3 was launched by a Chang Zheng 2E (Long March) rocket
from the Xichang space center in China on Aug 27. Optus 
is an Australian telecommunications company. The CZ-2E placed
the Optus satellite into a 189 x 1084 km orbit at an inclination
of 27.8 deg. The Thiokol Star 63F solid perigee motor then
fired to place Optus B3 in a 383 x 39123 km x 24.1 deg transfer
orbit. Optus B3 will  use its own liquid apogee motor to raise
the orbit to a circular geostationary one. The satellite is
a Hughes HS-601 comsat and replaces Optus B2, which disintegrated
during launch in Dec 1992. The Optus B satellites are successors
to the Aussat K series launched in the 1980s.

  Chinese CZ-2E and CZ-3 geostationary class launches

CZ3   1984 Jan 29  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1984 Apr  8  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1986 Feb  1  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1988 Mar  7  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1988 Dec 22  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1990 Feb  4  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1990 Apr  7  HS-376 Asiasat 1
CZ3   1991 Dec 28  Chinese comsat
CZ3   1994 Jul 21  HS-376 Apstar 1

CZ2E  1990 Jul 16  HS-601 dummy, Test launch
CZ2E  1992 Aug 13  HS-601 Optus B1
CZ2E  1992 Dec 21  HS-601 Optus B2
CZ2E  1994 Aug 27  HS-601 Optus B3

CZ3A  1994 Feb  8  DFH-3 dummy, Test launch

The 12th Block 5D Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft
was orbited by a refurbished Atlas E from Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California on Aug 29. DMSP F-12, or DMSP 23545 as it is also known, is
built by  Martin Marietta Astro Space and based on the Tiros-N bus also
used by the civilian NOAA weather satellites.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jul  1 1224     Soyuz TM-19     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   36A
Jul  3 0800     FSW-2           Chang Zheng 2   Jiuquan         Remote sens 37A
Jul  6 2358     Kosmos-2282     Proton/DM2      Baykonur LC81   EarlyWarn   38A
Jul  8 1643     Columbia      ) Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   39A
                Spacelab IML-2)
Jul  8 2305     PAS 2     )     Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
                BS-3N     )                                     Comsat      40B
Jul 14 0513     Nadezhda        Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC133  Navsat      41A
Jul 20 1735     Kosmos-2283     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       42A
Jul 21 1055     APStar 1        Chang Zheng 3   Xichang         Comsat      43A
Jul 29 0929     Kosmos-2284     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       44A
Aug  2 2000     Kosmos-2285     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           45A
Aug  3 1439     P90-6 APEX      Pegasus/NB-52   Point Arguello  Technology  46A
Aug  3 2357     DBS 2           Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      47A
Aug  5 0112     Kosmos-2286     Molniya         Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  48A
Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1527     Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC81   Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C
Aug 23 1431     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      51A
Aug 25 1425     Progress M-24   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       52A
Aug 26 1200 	Kosmos-2290	Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Recon?      53A
Aug 27 0858     USA-105         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT?     54A
Aug 27 2310     Optus B3        CZ-2E           Xichang         Comsat      55A
Aug 28 0750     Kiku 6          H-II            Tanegashima     Comsat      56A
Aug 29 1743?    DMSP 23545      Atlas E         Vandenberg      Weather     57A


Reentries
---------

Jul  9          Soyuz TM-18     Landed in Kazakhstan
Jul 18	        FSW-2           Landed in China
Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-64  Sep 9
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-68  Oct 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/RSRM-41/ET-66/OV-103   LC39B     STS-64 
ML3/                       VAB Bay 3? STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 210               1994 Sep 10                 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Shuttle mission STS-64 was launched at 2222:53 UTC on Sep 9 from pad 39B
at Kennedy Space Center. The Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors
separated at 2 min into the flight, and the lightweight External
Tank, ET-66, was jettisoned at 9 min after launch, just after main
engine cutoff. Orbit on Sep 10.6 was 253 x 266 km x 57.0 deg.
This is Discovery's 19th flight into space.

One of the main payloads is LITE (the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment).
Lidar is essentially radar using an optical wavelength laser instead
of microwaves. LITE consists of a Spacelab pallet with a laser
transmitter and a receiver telescope. In an interesting historical
note, the 96-cm receiver telescope was built in the 1960s
as the engineering model for the telescope on the OAO-B satellite,
lost in a 1970 launch failure. It was refurbished for the LITE mission.

Mir
---

The Mir commander and flight engineer, Yuriy Malenchenko and
Talgat Musabaev, made a spacewalk on Sep 9 to inspect the damage
to the Kvant module made by Progress M-24 when it collided with
Kvant during its second attempted docking on Aug 30. [I don't
have the start time or duration of this EVA yet]. Valeriy Polyakov,
station doctor, stayed inside Mir during the EVA.

Launches
--------

AT&T Skynet Satellite Services' Telstar 402 was launched by an Ariane
42L on Sep 9 into a 224 x 35717 km orbit inclined 6.9 degrees. This
was the 30th Ariane 4 launch, and the 28th successful one. The payload
was a Martin Marietta Astro Space Series 7000 satellite, the second
to be launched. It carried 24 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders,
and a pair of UK Royal Ordnance bipropellant Leros liquid apogee engines.
A few minutes after Telstar 402 separated from the Ariane H10+ third stage,
controllers commanded the spacecraft tanks to be pressurized. Telemetry
indicates that an explosion occurred at this point and all contact with
the satellite was lost. The first Series 7000 satellite, Telstar 401,
continues to operate successfully in geostationary orbit.

More details on the DMSP launch: DMSP F-12 (23545) is a Martin Marietta
(formerly GE, formerly RCA, soon to be Lockheed Martin) Astro Space
Block 5D-2 class USAF weather satellite. Launch was  at 1738 UTC on Aug
29, and the launch vehicle was a Martin Marietta (formerly General
Dynamics, formerly Convair) Atlas. This particular rocket was Atlas 20E,
a refurbished ICBM originally built in the early 1960s. 
56 Atlas E rockets have been launched, with a variety of payloads:
Atlas 11E and two others remain in the inventory.

 Atlas              Date Mission        Atlas           Date Mission

  3E, 4E:           1960 ICBM R&D       52E             1986 NOAA-10
  5E                1964 ABRES reentry
                         test
  8E, 9E, 12E, 13E: 1961 ICBM R&D       53E             1991 DMSP 22546
 14E:               1984 Navstar 10     54E             1988 DMSP 20542
 16E, 17E, 18E:     1961 ICBM R&D       55E             1985 Navstar 11
 20E:               1994 DMSP 23545     57E             1964 ICBM test
 21E, 22E           1961 ICBM R&D       58E             1983 DMSP 18541
 24E                1963 ICBM test      59E             1987 DMSP 19543
 25E, 26E, 27E      1961 ICBM R&D       60E             1982 DMSP 17540
 28E                1990 USAF Stacksat  61E             1990 DMSP 21544
 30E, 32E           1961 ICBM R&D       62E             1963 ICBM test
 34E                1993 NOAA-13        63E             1988  NOAA-11
 35E, 36E           1961 ICBM R&D       64E,65E,66E,67E 1962-3 ICBM tests
 39E                1984 NOAA-9         68E             1980 USN PARCAE 4 
 40E                1962 ICBM R&D       69E,70E,71E,72E 1963 ICBM tests
 41E                1985 USN Geosat     73E             1983 NOAA-8
 42E                1984 Navstar 9      74E             1968 ABRES reentry test
 48E                1964 ICBM test      75E             1983 Navstar 8
 50E                1991 NOAA-12        76E             1981 Navstar 7
                                        77E,78E         1968 ABRES reentry tests

The Kosmos-2290 spy satellite was launched on Aug 26 into a 211 x 292 km
orbit at an inclination of 64.8 degrees. It raised its orbit from 208 x
280 km  to 208 x 348 km on Sep 6.  This confirms that 2290 is indeed an
active payload, and supports the interpretation that it is an imaging
spy satellite. Earlier low orbit Zenit launches were just dummy
satellites which made no manouevres.

Causality Erratum
-----------------

Magellan's orbit trim was on Aug 25, not on Sep 25 as I claimed in JSR
209.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug  2 2000     Kosmos-2285     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           45A
Aug  3 1439     P90-6 APEX      Pegasus/NB-52   Point Arguello  Technology  46A
Aug  3 2357     DBS 2           Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      47A
Aug  5 0112     Kosmos-2286     Molniya         Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  48A
Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1527     Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC81   Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C
Aug 23 1431     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      51A
Aug 25 1425     Progress M-24   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       52A
Aug 26 1200     Kosmos-2290     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Recon       53A
Aug 27 0858     USA-105         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      54A
Aug 27 2310     Optus B3        CZ-2E           Xichang         Comsat      55A
Aug 28 0750     Kiku 6          H-II            Tanegashima     Comsat      56A
Aug 29 1738     DMSP 23545      Atlas 20E       Vandenberg      Weather     57A
Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A



Reentries
---------

Jul 23          Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-64  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-68  Oct 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   VAB Bay 1 STS-68
ML2/                       LC39B     
ML3/RSRM-42/               VAB Bay 3 STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 211               1994 Sep 20                 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Discovery's STS-64 mission was successful, with the LITE lidar
and the SPIFEX experiment working well.
The Spartan 201 satellite was deployed on Sep 13 at 2136
and retrieved on Sep 15 at 2101. The EVA to test the SAFER backpack
was successfully carried out on Sep 16 at 1442 and lasted 6 h 51 min.
Both Mark Lee and Carl Meade tried out the SAFER backpack.
Discovery landed on Runway 04 at Edwards AFB in California
at approximately 2112:53 UTC on Sep 20 (main gear touchdown),
giving a flight time of 10 days 22h 50 min 0 sec.

Endeavour was rolled out to pad 39A on Sep 13 for another try
at the STS-68 mission. Launch is due on Sep 30.

Mir
---

The Mir commander and flight engineer made another EVA on Sep 14
to install solar array mounts on the Kvant module.

Launches
--------

No new launches this week.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1527     Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC81   Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C
Aug 23 1431     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      51A
Aug 25 1425     Progress M-24   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       52A
Aug 26 1200     Kosmos-2290     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Recon       53A
Aug 27 0858     USA-105         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      54A
Aug 27 2310     Optus B3        CZ-2E           Xichang         Comsat      55A
Aug 28 0750     Kiku 6          H-II            Tanegashima     Comsat      56A
Aug 29 1738     DMSP 23545      Atlas 20E       Vandenberg      Weather     57A
Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A
Sep 13 2130     Spartan 201     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   59B
Sep 16          SAFER/M. Lee    -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 16          SAFER/C. Meade  -               Discovery, LEO

Reentries
---------

Sep 20          Discovery       Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       Edwards RW04  STS-64  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-68  Sep 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   LC39A     STS-68
ML2/                       LC39B     
ML3/RSRM-42/ET             VAB Bay 3 STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 212               1994 Sep 29                 Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of Endeavour on mission STS-68 is due on Sep 30. Payload is a
Spacelab pallet with the Shuttle Radar Lab's SIR-C and X-SAR radars; an
MPESS pallet with the MAPS ozone monitor;  and five GAS Beam Adapter
mounted GAS cans: G-316, G-503, G-541, and two unnumbered cans with US
Postal Service commemorative stamps.

Discovery left Edwards AFB aboard Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905
on Sep 26 and arrived at the Cape on Sep 27 after a stop at
Kelly AFB, Texas. Its next flight is STS-63, the Mir rendezvous
mission. Columbia is scheduled to fly to Palmdale next week
for refurbishment at the Rockwell plant.

Mir
---

Launch of the EO-17 crew to Mir is scheduled for Oct 3 at 2242 UT. Crew commander
is veteran cosmonaut Alexander Viktorenko of the Russian air force.
Flight engineer is Elena Kondakova of NPO Energiya. Cosmonaut-research
is Ulf Merbold of the European Space Agency. The crew will be launched aboard
Soyuz TM-20. The flight will mark the first time that a Russian woman has
formed part of a regular space crew (as opposed to being flown on a special
propaganda flight as 'the first woman to do x'.)

Launches
--------

Kosmos-2291 was launched on Sep 21. It is a geostationary satellite,
probably one of the Geyzer series for military communications.
On Sep 29 it was drifting west at 1 deg per day past 80 deg E longitude,
after a small braking maneuver on Sep 28. Orbit was 35853x  35886 km x 1.3 deg.

Kosmos-2292 was launched on Sep 27. The satellite is one of a series
launched infrequently into ellipical orbits, possibly for radar calibration
purposes. The launch vehicle was the Kosmos-3M 11K65M, built by PO Polyot
of Omsk and based on the Ukranian Yangel' bureau's R-14 IRBM missile.

    Kosmos-2292 class satellites
  Satellite    Launched     Orbit (km x km x deg)
  Kosmos-660   1974 Jun 18  397x1972 x 83.0
  Kosmos-807   1976 Mar 12  398x1973 x 83.0
  Kosmos-1238  1981 Jan 16  406x1958 x 83.0
  Kosmos-1263  1981 Apr  9  397x1970 x 83.0
  Kosmos-1508  1983 Nov 11  400x1966 x 83.0
  Kosmos-2098  1990 Aug 28  396x1976 x 83.0
  Kosmos-2292  1994 Sep 27  400x1953 x 83.0


Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Aug 10 2305     Brasilsat B1  ) Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
                Turksat 1B    )                                 Comsat      49B
Aug 11 1527     Kosmos-2287   ) Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC81   Navsat      50A
                Kosmos-2288   )                                 Navsat      50B
                Kosmos-2289   )                                 Navsat      50C
Aug 23 1431     Molniya-3       Molniya         Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      51A
Aug 25 1425     Progress M-24   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       52A
Aug 26 1200     Kosmos-2290     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Recon       53A
Aug 27 0858     USA-105         Titan Centaur   Canaveral LC41  SIGINT      54A
Aug 27 2310     Optus B3        CZ-2E           Xichang         Comsat      55A
Aug 28 0750     Kiku 6          H-II            Tanegashima     Comsat      56A
Aug 29 1738     DMSP 23545      Atlas 20E       Vandenberg      Weather     57A
Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A
Sep 13 2130     Spartan 201     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   59B
Sep 16 1516     SAFER/M. Lee    -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 1740?    SAFER/C. Meade  -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 21 1753     Kosmos-2291     Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat?     60A
Sep 27 1400     Kosmos-2292     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 61A

Reentries
---------


Sep 11          Kosmos-2284     Landed 
Sep 13          FSW-2 service module  Reentered
Sep 20          Discovery       Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb   
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-68  Sep 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-40/ET-65/OV-105   LC39A     STS-68
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-42/ET-67          VAB Bay 3 STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 213               1994 Oct  4                 Somerville, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apologies - I accidentally sent out No 212 a second time.
That's what you get for working over a modem. Here is no. 213 for real. 
 - Jonathan

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour was launched at 1116.00 UT on 1994 Sep 30 from complex 39A at
Kennedy Space Center. STS-68 is the 65th Space Shuttle flight and
Endeavour's seventh. On Sep 30 Endeavour's orbit was 213 x 226 km x 57.0
deg. The Space Radar Lab payload is working well. Crew of Endeavour are
Capt. Michael Baker, USN (crew commander), Maj. Terrence Wilcutt, USMC,
Dr. Tom Jones (payload commander), Steven Smith, Cdr. Daniel Bursch,
USN, and Dr. Jeff Wisoff.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-20 was launched at 2242:30 UT on Oct 3. Crew commander of the EO-17 crew
is veteran cosmonaut Alexander Viktorenko of the Russian air force.
Flight engineer is Elena Kondakova of NPO Energiya. Cosmonaut-researcher
is Ulf Merbold of the European Space Agency. The spacecraft entered a 200 x 249 km
orbit at an inclination of 51.6 deg, and will rendevous and dock with the Mir orbital
complex tomorrow. Viktorenko and Kondakova will relieve the current commander and
flight engineer, Yuriy Malenchenko and Talgat Musabaev, who will return to Earth
next month with Merbold. The station doctor, Valeriy Polyakov, will remain aboard
Mir with the new crew. Kondakova is the third Russian woman to fly in space, after
Valentina Tereshkova (1963), and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982, 1984). 

Progress M-24 undocked from the Kvant module at 1855:52 UT on Oct 4, leaving
the rear docking port free for Soyuz TM-20.
It was deorbited at 2144 UT and decayed into the Pacific at 38.4 deg S,
137.4 deg W, according to data recieved from Vladimir Agapov.

Recent Launches
---------------

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A
Sep 13 2130     Spartan 201     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   59B
Sep 16 1516     SAFER/M. Lee    -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 1740?    SAFER/C. Meade  -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 21 1753     Kosmos-2291     Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat?     60A
Sep 27 1400     Kosmos-2292     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 61A
Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A

Reentries
---------


Sep 11          Kosmos-2284     Landed 
Sep 13          FSW-2 service module  Reentered
Sep 20          Discovery       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct  4          Progress M-24   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb   
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-66  Oct 27
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-68  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-42/ET-67          VAB Bay 3 STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 214               1994 Oct  12               Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Vladimir Agapov, Joel Runes, and Al Hegemann for info
in this issue. Any errors, as usual, are mine.

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour landed at 1702:09 UT on 1994 Oct 11 on runway 22 at Edwards AFB.
STS-68 mission duration was 11 days 5 hours 46 min 9 sec.

Columbia left Ellington AFB, Texas on Oct 11 aboard the SCA 905 en route
to Palmdale, CA via El Paso. It flew over Edwards AFB while Endeavour
was on the runway. At the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale it
will begin an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period. It is to return to flight
in mid 1995.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-20 docked with Mir at 0028 on 1994 Oct 6.
The Soyuz TM is an 11F732 spacecraft, probably serial number 69. 
I believe that Soyuz TM-20 is docked with the forward Mir port
and Soyuz TM-19 is docked at the rear Kvant port (can someone
confirm this?)

The current crew aboard Mir consists of Yuriy Malenchenko, Aleksandr
Viktorenko, and Talgat Musabaev of the Russian Air Force cosmonaut
corps, Elena Kondakova of NPO Energiya, Valeriy Polyakov of the
Institute for Biological-Medical Problems, and Ulf Merbold of the
European Space Agency. With the six Shuttle astronauts in orbit
last week, there were 12 people in space, which equals the all time
record.

Recent Launches
---------------

Intelsat 703 was launched on Oct 6 at 0635:02 UT by Atlas Centaur
AC-111.  The satellite is a 3-axis stabilized Space Systems/Loral
FS-1300 with 26 C-band and 10 Ku-band transponders and will serve the
Pacific Ocean region. The Martin Marietta Atlas IIAS Centaur delivered
the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. Since the
Atlas IIAS is a relatively new launch vehicle, I thought
I'd record a detailed description of the launch profile, based
on information provided by Al Hegemann. The MA-5A main engine
and two of the four Castor IVA solid rocket boosters ignited at liftoff;
the other two solids ignited at 0636:02. The first two solids were
jettisoned at 0636:14 and the second two at 0636:57. The MA-5A
propulsion system on the Atlas consists of two booster engines and a
central sustainer engine. At 0637:47 the booster engines were shut down,
and at 0637:50 the tail section of the Atlas IIA fell away leaving the
main sustainer engine exposed. At 0638:31 the payload fairing around the
Intelsat payload was discarded - AC-111 was now high enough that
aerodynamic protection was not needed. The Atlas sustainer cut off at
0639:53 and the Atlas IIA stage separated onto its suborbital trajectory
at 0639:55. Intelsat 703 was now attached to the AC-111 Centaur IIA. At
0640:17 the two RL-10-4A liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines on the
Centaur ignited and burned until 0645:17. The combination was now in a
parking orbit. After a coast period, AC-111 reignited at 0659:29. It
shut off at 0701:12, and separated from Intelsat 703 at  0703:22.
Intelsat 703 was now in a 283 x 38575 km x 25.9 deg orbit. The apogee
was higher than initially expected and will let the satellite save fuel
on reaching its final orbit. Over the next few days it fired its R4D
liquid apogee engine to enter first a 7598 x 38540 km x 11.2 deg orbit
(Oct 9) and then a 35670 x 38552 km x 0.2 deg orbit (Oct 11). This final
orbit is a little higher than geostationary; on Oct 11 at 1815 UT the
satellite was over 138 deg East and drifting 16 degrees per day.


An Ariane 44L was launched on Oct 8. The rocket placed two
communications satellites in orbit: Solidaridad 2, and Thaicom 2. Both
satellites are built by Hughes. Solidaridad is a 3-axis stabilized HS601
satellite for the Mexican government communications agency,
Telecomunicaciones de Mexico. Thaicom 2 is an HS376 spin-stabilized
satellite  for Shinawatra Satellite Public Co. of Bangkok. 
The initial orbit for Thaicom 2 was 277 x 36165 km x 3.9 deg.
Thaicom 2 fired its Thiokol Star 30 solid apogee motor on Oct 10 and
entered a 33964 x 36208 km x 0.00 deg orbit, drifting at 9 deg per day
eastward over the Indian Ocean. By Oct 11, Solidaridad 2's
ARC490N liquid engine had raised its orbit to 15922 x 36146 km x 0.8 deg

Okean-O1 no. 7 was launched on Oct 11 into a 631 x 666 km x 82.5 deg 
orbit. The satellite, built by NPO Yuzhnoe, has a mass of 1950 kg. It
carries instruments for studying the ocean surface, probably including
side-looking radar. A more advanced Okean is under development for
launch on the Zenit rocket. This Okean was launched on a Tsiklon launch
vehicle with an S5M upper stage. Earlier Okean-O1 spacecraft were launched
on 1986 Jul 29, 1987 Jul 16, 1988 Jul 5, 1990 Feb 28, and 1991 Jun 4.

Magellan carried out the Termination Experiment on Oct 11,
firing its thrusters at 1321 to descend into the atmosphere of Venus.
It will burn up today or tomorrow.

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A
Sep 13 2130     Spartan 201     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   59B
Sep 16 1516     SAFER/M. Lee    -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 1740?    SAFER/C. Meade  -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 21 1753     Kosmos-2291     Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat?     60A
Sep 27 1400     Kosmos-2292     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 61A
Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A
Oct  6 0635     Intelsat 703    Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Comsat      64A
Oct  8 0107     Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      65A
                Thaicom 2     )                                 Comsat      65B
Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A


Reentries
---------


Sep 11          Kosmos-2284     Landed 
Sep 13          FSW-2 service module  Reentered
Sep 20          Discovery       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct  4          Progress M-24   Deorbited
Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12?         Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb   
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-66  Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour       Edwards RW22  STS-68  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-42/ET-67/OV-104   LC-39B    STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 215               1994 Oct  18               Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-66, due for launch on Nov 3.
This will be the first flight of Atlantis since its refurbishment.
Payloads include the Atlas-3 earth observing Spacelab pallet and the
CRISTA free flyer SPAS satelite.

Mir
---

The Mir complex is undergoing power difficulties and the crew's
experiments were interrupted for several days. The station's
solar panels will be in a more favorable orientation this
week and normal operations should resume. The Mir complex
consists of the core module, the Kvant astrophysical module,
the Kvant-2 airlock module, and the Kristall module. Soyuz TM-19
is docked at the Kvant rear port and Soyuz TM-20 is docked at
the Mir forward port.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scored a success on Oct 15
with the launch of its PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (The first
PSLV failed in Sep 1993). The four stage rocket orbited the 870 kg IRS-P2
satellite into a 798 x 882 km x 99 deg polar orbit. IRS-P2 is part of
the Indian Remote Sensing satellite series. Developed by the ISRO Satellite
Centre in Bangalore, it carries the LISS-II (Linear Imaging Self Scanner)
CCD camera with a 32m resolution and four visible and near infrared bands.

  IRS satellites:

  IRS-1A  1988 Mar 17  Vostok, Baykonur       870 x 914 km x 99.0 deg
  IRS-1B  1991 Aug 29  Vostok, Baykonur       862 x 918 km x 99.2 deg
  IRS-1E  1993 Sep 20  PSLV-D1, Sriharikota    (Failed)
  IRS-P2  1994 Oct 15  PSLV-D2, Sriharikota   798 x 882 km x 98.7 deg

The PSLV first stage (PS-1) is a 129 tonne solid motor 2.8m in dia with
a thrust of 4500 kN. Six strap-on HTPB/Ammonium Perchlorate solid motors
of 662 kN are attached, two of which ignite at launch, the other four
igniting 30 sec later. The first two separate at 73s, the remaining four
are jettisoned at 90s. At T+111s the PS-1 falls away and the PS-2
ignites. This is a 38 tonne liquid fuel stage (India's first) using
UDMH/N2O4. The single Vikas engine has a thrust of 725 kN. At T+154s the
vehicle reached 117 km altitude and the fairing was jettisoned, with
second stage separation at 261s. The third stage (PS-3) is a 7 tonne
solid motor with a thrust of 340 kN. It burns from T+261s to T+380s,
to an altitude of 421 km. The payload and attached PS-4 stage now
coast in transfer trajectory until T+591.4s when the PS-4's MMH/N2O4
liquid engine ignites for a 397s burn. PS-4 and IRS-P2 separated at
T+1012s. [Source: ISRO Press Release, 1994 Oct 15].



The first Ekspress communications satellite was launched on Oct 13. The
Ekspress satellites, operated by AO Informkosmos, will replace the
Gorizont domestic TV relay satellites which the Soviet Union introduced
in 1979. Ekspress features a north-south stationkeeping capability which
will keep the inclination within 0.2 deg. The bus is 3.6 x 6.1 m in size
with a solar array span of 21m, and has a mass of 2500 kg. The payload
includes ten C-band and two Ku-band (14/11 GHz) transponders. The launch
used a Proton-K rocket with the 11S861-01 (uprated Blok DM-2) upper
stage. This is the second flight of this upper stage, which was used for
the Gals launch earlier this year. The next Proton launch is expected to
carry Elektro, the much delayed geostationary weather satellite first
planned for the late 1970s.
[Note for transponder fans: the C-band transponders are 
(6000-6450)/(3675-4125) MHz (with spacing 50 MHz) and the Ku band are
14325/11525 and 14475/11675 MHz. Bandwidth of each channel is 34 MHz.
Information on Ekspress is from Vladimir Agapov.]


Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep  9 0029     Telstar 402     Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      58A
Sep  9 2222     Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   59A
Sep 13 2130     Spartan 201     -               Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   59B
Sep 16 1516     SAFER/M. Lee    -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 16 1740?    SAFER/C. Meade  -               Discovery, LEO
Sep 21 1753     Kosmos-2291     Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat?     60A
Sep 27 1400     Kosmos-2292     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 61A
Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A
Oct  6 0635     Intelsat 703    Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Comsat      64A
Oct  8 0107     Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      65A
                Thaicom 2     )                                 Comsat      65B
Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A

Reentries
---------


Sep 11          Kosmos-2284     Landed 
Sep 13          FSW-2 service module  Reentered
Sep 20          Discovery       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct  4          Progress M-24   Deorbited
Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb   
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-66  Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour       Edwards       STS-68  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-42/ET-67/OV-104   LC-39B    STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 216               1994 Oct  31              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis is being prepared for launch on Nov 3 on mission STS-66. Discovery
will fly on the Mir rendezvous flight in February, and has been
joined in the Orbiter Processing Facility by Endeavour. Endeavour
was flown back from California last week aboard SCA 911, and will fly
the Astro-2 flight in late February or early March.


Recent Launches
---------------

None for the past two weeks. Launch activity often drops in October-November
for some reason. Anticipated launches include the Elektro weather satellite
from Baykonur, the Wind science satellite and the Orion communications
satellite from Cape Canaveral, and STS-66. Soyuz TM-19 will land on Nov 3
or Nov 4.


Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A
Oct  6 0635     Intelsat 703    Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Comsat      64A
Oct  8 0107     Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      65A
                Thaicom 2     )                                 Comsat      65B
Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A

Reentries
---------


Oct  2          ODERACS A       reentered
Oct  4          ODERACS B       reentered
Oct  4          Progress M-24   Deorbited
Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-66  Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM                   VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/RSRM/ET-67/OV-104      LC-39B    STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |                                    |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 217               1994 Nov 3              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis took from pad 39B at 1659:43 UT on Nov 3, with main engine
cutoff at 1708 UT. STS-66 payloads are the Spacelab ATLAS 3 (Igloo plus
pallet), the ASTRO-SPAS carrier with CRISTA, and three GAS beam adapters
with SSBUV (the Shuttle solar backscatter Ultraviolet spectrometer),
ESCAPE II (a solar spectrometer), and ITEPC (a radiation dosimeter). The
expected orbit was 295 x 311 km x 57.0 deg. Crew are Donald McMonagle,
Curtis Brown, Ellen Ochoa, Joe Tanner, Scott Parazynski, and ESA's
Jean-Francois Clervoy, a French citizen. Since ESA's Ulf Merbold is
still aboard Mir, this marks the first time that two ESA astronauts have
been in space at the same time.

Mir
---

Malenchenko, Musabaev and Merbold undocked from the rear port of Mir at 
1030 UT on Nov 3 and flew out to a distance of 190m. They then engaged
the automatic docking mode and came back in to the same docking port
with redocking at 1105. This was a special test of the automatic docking
system after recent failures. The three cosmonauts are now back on Mir,
but will land tomorrow, leaving the rear port free for the next
Progress cargo freighter. Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov will remain
on the station which is currently in a 393 x 395 km x 51.7 deg orbit.
[Thanks to Jim Oberg for passing on details of the redocking].

There's been some confusion lately about which spaceship used
which docking port on Mir. Here is a table giving my understanding -
please send corrections if you disagree. The two ports in regular
use are the rear port on Kvant and the PKhO port on the nose
of Mir.

           PKhO                     Kvant


Progress M-18  to 1993 Jul 3      Progress M-17  to 1993 Aug 11
Soyuz TM-17    1993 Jul 3-Jan 14  Progress M-19  1993 Aug 13- Oct 13      
                                  Progress M-20  1993 Oct 13- Nov 21
                                  Soyuz TM-18    1994 Jan 10- Jan 21
Soyuz TM-18    1994 Jan 21-Jul 9  Progress M-21  1994 Jan 30-Mar 23     
                                  Progress M-22  1994 Mar 24-May 23
                                  Progress M-23  1994 May 24-Jul  2
                                  Soyuz TM-19    1994 Jul  3-Nov  3
Progress M-24  1994 Sep  2-Oct  4      
Soyuz TM-20    1994 Oct  6-       Soyuz TM-19    1994 Nov  3-4 (due)



Recent Launches
---------------

NASA-Goddard's Wind space science satellite was launched on Nov 1. The 
McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925-10 rocket entered a 186 x 3038 km x 28.7
deg orbit, and the PAM-D third stage ignited to plance Wind in a lunar
transfer orbit. Wind carries a set of instruments to study the solar
wind, as well as two gamma ray burst detectors. It was built by Martin
Marietta Astro Space. Wind will fly past the Moon, study the outer
magnetosphere, and eventually be placed in a `halo orbit' around
the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun.

The long awaited Russian geostationary meteorological satellite
was launched on Oct 31. Elektro, built by VNII ElektroMekhaniki,
flew into orbit aboard a Proton. On Nov 2, Elektro was in a
1441.65 min, 35858 x 35931 km x 1.3 deg orbit over 88.4 deg E,
drifiting 1.4 degrees west per day.

Nov 1 also saw the launch of another Hughes HS601 communications
satellite. The Ariane V69 flight placed Astra 1D in a 217 x 31006 km x
7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit. Astra 1D is a television satellite
for the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES). 

Kosmos-2293, launched on Nov 2, is an Electronic Intelligence Ocean
Reconnaissance Satellite (EORSAT), operated by the Russian Ministry of Defence
for naval intelligence. It was placed in a 403 x 417 km x 65.0 deg orbit.

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A
Oct  6 0635     Intelsat 703    Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Comsat      64A
Oct  8 0107     Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      65A
                Thaicom 2     )                                 Comsat      65B
Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A
Oct 31 1435?    Elektro         Proton-K/DM-2-1? Baykonur       Weather     69A
Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta           Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0115?    Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur        EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship

Reentries
---------


Oct  2          ODERACS A       reentered
Oct  4          ODERACS B       reentered
Oct  4          Progress M-24   Deorbited
Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-66  Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM                   VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                       LC-39B    STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http:/hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                        |
!      ftp:/sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 218               1994 Nov 11              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

STS-66 payload commander Ellen Ochoa grappled the CRISTA-SPAS payload
with the RMS arm at 2154 on Nov 3, but left it berthed in the payload
bay overnight. On Nov 4 Atlantis was in a 296 x 310 km x 57.0 deg orbit.
CRISTA-SPAS was deployed from Atlantis on Nov 4 at 1250UT, and Atlantis
moved away to a distance of 90 km from the satellite. The orbit was
lowered on Nov 5 to 291 x 310 km, and again on Nov 6 to 290 x 307 km. By
Nov 11 Atlantis was in a 287 x 301 km orbit and beginning its return to
the vicinity of SPAS.

The external tank for STS-63 was mated to the solid rocket boosters
on Nov 8 in the vehicle assembly building.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-19 undocked from Mir at 0729 UT on Nov 4. The Soyuz instrument
module (PAO, priborno-agregatniy otsek) fired its deorbit engine, and
was jettisoned together with the orbital module (BO, bitovoy otsek) at
1051 UT, with entry interface for the descent module (SA, spuskaemiy
apparat) at 1054. It landed 170 km north-east of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan
on 1994 Nov 4 at 1118 UT. Cosmonauts Yuriy Malenchenko, Talgat Musabaev
and Ulf Merbold were aboard. Progress M-25 was launched on Nov 11 at 0722
carrying supplies and experiments toward the station. The EO-17 crew
aboard includes Valeriy Polyakov, who on Nov 5 passed the cumulative
duration record (total career time in space) of 541 days set by Musa
Manarov. Polyakov's current spaceflight has lasted 306 days so far,
longer than all but three expeditions: Sergey Krikalyov in 1991 (311
days), Yuri Romanenko in 1987 (326 days), and Titov and Manarov in 1988
(365 days). Meanwhile, Elena Kondakova broke the record for the duration
of a single spaceflight by a woman (of 14 days, held by NASA's Rhea
Seddon and Shannon Lucid) and Shannon Lucid's cumulative duration record
of 34 days - Kondakova has now been in space for 38 days. Ulf Merbold
broke Jean-Loup Chretien's record for spaceflights by a non-Soviet,
non-American, with a 31 day  mission and a career total of 49 days 21h
38min (more than any currently active US astronaut).

Recent Launches
---------------

The third Resurs-O1 spacecraft was launched on Nov 4. The two previous
spacecraft, codenamed Kosmos-1689 and Kosmos-1939, were launched by
the obsolete Vostok booster, and this was the first to use the newer,
Ukranian-built, Zenit launch vehicle.

Positions of recent geostationary launches:

Oct 24: Intelsat 703 over 120.4 deg E drifting 0.1 deg per day
Oct 29: Solidaridad 2 at 112.9 deg W, on station.
Nov  3: Thaicom 2 at 86.3E drifting 0.04 deg per day
Nov  9: Ekspress at 70.8E drifting 0.05 deg per day.
Nov  6: Elektro was over 82 E drifting 1.4 deg per day.
Nov  9: Astra 1D over 14.4E drifting 0.15 deg per day

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Sep 30 1116     Endeavour       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   62A
Oct  3 2242     Soyuz TM-20     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   63A
Oct  6 0635     Intelsat 703    Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Comsat      64A
Oct  8 0107     Solidaridad 2 ) Ariane 44L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      65A
                Thaicom 2     )                                 Comsat      65B
Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A
Oct 31 1430     Elektro         Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC81     Weather     69A
Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1?   Cargo       75A

Reentries
---------


Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-66  Nov 3
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM/ET                VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                       LC-39B    STS-66   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http:/hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                        |
!      ftp:/sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 219               1994 Nov 17              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Erratum
-------

Thanks to Pawel Moskalik for pointing out that the previous
single-mission duration record for a woman was held by Chiaki
Mukai of Japan, not Seddon and Lucid of the US.

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis carried out a new type of rendezvous on Nov 12, the plus R bar 
approach. R-bar is the radius vector of the target satellite (in
Earth-centered spherical polar coordinates), while V-bar is the velocity
vector of the satellite (almost parallel to the tangential - theta -
vector in the orbit plane since low orbits are all roughly circular).
Usually the Shuttle gets to the right value of R but a greater Theta and
brakes to let the target catch up - a V-bar approach. In the R-bar
approach the Shuttle gets to about the right Theta but a smaller value
of R, with velocity adjusted so that its slightly elliptical orbit will
carry it outward to the correct R value without any further thruster
firings. This approach minimizes thruster effluent contamination of the
target. (Rendezvous gurus, correct me if I have any of this wrong).

The rendezvous with CRISTA-SPAS was completed early on Nov 12 and the
satellite was grappled with the RMS arm at 1305 UT. It was berthed in
the payload bay by 1650 UT. The deorbit burn was carried out at 1431 UT
on Nov 14, with main gear touchdown on Edwards runway 22 at 1533:45UT.
Wheels stop was at 1534:34. The 16cm icicle produced from waste water
dumps survived reentry and landing, according to the KSC Shuttle Status
Report. Atlantis will return to KSC next week to begin preparation for
its next mission, the first Mir docking.

Mir
---

Progress M-25 docked with Mir at the rear Kvant port at 0904 on Nov 13.
It will be replaced in February with Progress M-26. The next crew,
aboard Soyuz TM-21 in March, will include NASA astronaut Norman
Thagard. Plans for 1995 include the completion of the Mir complex
with the docking of the Priroda and Spektr modules.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Resurs-O1 earth observation satellite is in a 660 x 663 km x 98.0
deg orbit. It carries the German Safir-R1 communications experiment as a
secondary attached payload.

There are three imaging recon satellites currently in orbit
operated by the GRU (Central Intelligence Agency) of the MO RF
(Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation):
 Kosmos-2267, launched 1993 Nov  5 by Soyuz-U, 
              current orbit  236 x 299 km x 70.4 deg
 Kosmos-2280, launched 1994 Apr 28 by Soyuz-U, 
              current orbit 232 x 269 km x 70.4 deg
 Kosmos-2290, launched 1994 Aug 26 by Zenit, 
              current orbit 206 x 359 km x 64.8 deg.
Kosmos-2267 and Kosmos-2280 are the 17th and 18th satellites in
the advanced series which has replaced the older Yantar' class satellites.
The first of the series was Kosmos-1426 in 1982, and Kosmos-2267 just
exceeded the record 372-day lifetime of its predecessor Kosmos-2223.
Kosmos-2290 is the first of a new series launched by Zenit. Its orbit
is similar to the five satellites in the Soyuz-launched Kosmos-2031 series.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A
Oct 31 1430     Elektro         Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC81     Weather     69A
Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1?   Cargo       75A

Reentries
---------

Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere
Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        Edwards       STS-66  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM/ET                VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                        |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 220               1994 Nov 26                New York, NY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (I don't know whether it was 905 or 911)
carrying Atlantis  left Edwards on Nov 21 and flew to Eglin AFB in
Florida after a refuelling stop at Kelly AFB, San Antonio. It left Eglin
AFB on Nov 22 and landed at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at 1521 on
Nov 22, to be towed to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3.


Recent Launches
---------------

Three Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites were launched on Nov 20
at 0039 UT aboard a single Proton-K launch vehicle. The third stage of
the Proton vehicle entered a low circular orbit with an inclination of
64.8 deg; by 1200 its orbit was only 122 x 137 km x 64.8 deg and it
probably reentered the same day. Meanwhile, the Blok-DM2 upper stage
separated and made its first burn to enter an elliptical transfer orbit.
Two small ullage motors fired to force the DM2's propellant to the rear
of the stage and separated, remaining in transfer orbit. The DM2 then
reignited to enter a 19064 x 19127 km x 64.0 deg circular orbit in which
it dispensed the three Uragan satellites, which received the names
Kosmos-2294, Kosmos-2295, and Kosmos-2296. The satellites have small
on-board propulsion units to maintain precise positions in their 11hr,
15 min circular 19100 km high orbits. They form part of the GLONASS
(Global Navigation Satellite System) network operated by the Russian
Defense Ministry.

Kosmos-2297 was launched by the Ukranian Zenit-2 rocket from Baykonur
on Nov 24 into an 851 x 879 km x 71.0 deg orbit. The satellite carries
an array of electronic intelligence detectors to monitor radio emissions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Oct 11 1430     Okean-O1 No. 7  Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 66A
Oct 13 1619     Ekspress        Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC200  Comsat      67A
Oct 15 0505     IRS-P2          PSLV            Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 68A
Oct 31 1430     Elektro         Proton-K/DM-2-1 Baykonur LC81     Weather     69A
Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       75A
Nov 20 0039     Kosmos-2294  )  Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Navsat      76A
                Kosmos-2295  )                                  Navsat      76B
                Kosmos-2296  )                                  Navsat      76C
Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A


Reentries
---------

Oct 11          Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Oct 12          Magellan        Entered Venus atmosphere
Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM/ET                VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                        |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 221               1994 Dec  2           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recent Launches
---------------

Ariane V70 was lost during third stage burn on Dec 1. This 
vehicle was an Ariane 42P model which included the first flight of
the H-10-III third stage. The new third stage was meant to burn
30s longer and carries an extra 75 kg of payload, and replaces
the H-10+ stage, which in turn replaced the original H-10 stage
for the Ariane 4. The H-10-III failed to achieve full thrust,
causing the mission to fail to reach orbit. The planned orbit
was 200 x 30526 km x 7.0 deg. V70 was the 42nd Ariane 4 flight
and is the third failure. The others were in Feb 1990 and Jan 1994.
The next flight is due to use the older H-10+ third stage.

Payload of Ariane V70 was Panamsat K2. The satellite, a Hughes
HS601 comsat, was to be stationed at 43W to provide Atlantic
communications for Panamsat. 

The British Aerospace-built Orion 1 comsat was launched by a  Martin
Marietta Atlas IIA launch vehicle on Nov 29. The comsat will be used by
Orion Satellite Systems. The AC-110 Centaur stage delivered Orion 1 into an
unprecedented elliptical transfer orbit of 403 x 122762 km x 25.5 deg. 
By Nov 30 the liquid apogee engine had raised the Orion's orbit to 25010
km x 122766 km x 3.0 deg. The apogee will subsequently be lowered until
the orbit is a circular 35780 km geostationary one. The fuel-saving
high apogee transfer technique has been used before, but never with
such an extreme apogee.

A Musson-class geodetic satellite, Geo-IK, was launched from Plesetsk
on Nov 29 into a 1480 x 1527 km x 73.6 deg orbit. The Tsiklon's S5M third
stage also entered orbit. The gravity-gradient stabilized Geo-IK
carries transponders to allow mapping of the Earth's gravitational
field and (probably) laser reflectors for precise tracking.

The first Chinese DFH-3 communications satellite was reportedly launched on
Nov 29. The launch vehicle is the Chang Zheng (Long March) 3A, which
made a test flight in February. It placed the DFH-3, built by Germany
for China, in a 246 x 36052 km x 28.1 deg geostationary transfer orbit.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       75A
Nov 20 0039     Kosmos-2294  )  Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Navsat      76A
                Kosmos-2295  )                                  Navsat      76B
                Kosmos-2296  )                                  Navsat      76C
Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A
Nov 29 0254     Geo-IK          Tsiklon         Plesetsk LC32   Geodetic    78A
Nov 29 1021     Orion 1         Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      79A
Nov 29          DFH-3           Chang Zheng 3A? Xichang         Comsat      80A
Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO

Reentries
---------

Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Feb 23
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM/ET                VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 222               1994 Dec  9           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clarifications
--------------

The loss of the H-10-III stage on Ariane V70 was due to
a gas generator failing to reach full thrust. The component
is reportedly the same as the one on the usual H-10+ stage.
(Space News, Aviation Week).

The Orion Systems' Orion 1 satellite was built by a part of
British Aerospace that now belongs to Matra Marconi Space -
I apologize for the error, it's tough work keeping up
with all these corporate realignments. By Dec 4, Orion 1 was
in a 35500 x 122584 km x 1.3 deg orbit.


Mir
---

On Dec 4 the Mir complex was in a 391 x 395 km x 51.6 deg orbit. As of
Dec 9, Commander Aleksandr Viktorenko and Flight Engineer Yelena
Kondakova have been in orbit for 66 days as part of the 17th main
expedition (EO-17 crew). The station doctor, Valeriy Polyakov, came
aboard in January as part of the EO-15 crew and has been in orbit for
335 days, longer than any other spaceflight except one (the
Titov/Manarov flight in 1987/88). His cumulative time in space over 2
missions is 576 days, a world record. At present, the Mir complex
consists of:
 The Mir core module
 The Kvant astrophysics module, docked to the Mir rear port
 The Kvant-2 airlock module, docked to a side port at Mir's transfer (front)
             compartment
 The Kristall technological module, docked to a side port of the transfer compt.
 The Soyuz TM-20 transport spaceship, docked to the front port of the 
             transfer compartment.
 The Progress M-25 robot cargo freighter, docked to the Kvant module's rear port.
 The Raduga 10 reentry capsule, carried in the Progress cargo compartment.

Shuttle
-------

Discovery is being prepared for its 20th flight into space. Crew of
Mission STS-63 will be James Wetherbee (commander), Eileen Collins
(pilot), Michael Foale, Janice Voss, and Bernard Harris (mission
specialists), and Vladimir Titov (Russian Space Agency).  In the payload
bay will be the RMS robot arm, the pressurized Spacehab 3 module,
together with the Spacelab Tunnel Adapter and the Spacehab
transition/flex section which connects the tunnel to the module, an
MPESS (Multi purpose Experiment Support Structure) truss in its Spartan
Flight Support Structure (SFSS) variant, and a second MPESS truss. The
first MPESS will carry the Spartan-204 free flyer satellite, which will
be deployed and retrieved during the mission using the RMS arm.
Spartan-204 carries detectors to study the solar wind. The second MPESS
(probably the Hitchhiker-M variety) will carry a modified Getaway
Special (GAS) canister which will eject six ODERACS-2 radar calibration
satellites, as well as the Cyro Systems and GLO-II payloads. The TCS/DTO
700-5 laser rendezvous experiment package will be attached to the
payload bay wall (with a GABA adapter plate?) Discovery will carry out a
rendezvous with the Mir complex (experiment DTO-835). Two crew members
will carry out a spacewalk, one of a series used to train astronauts and
test out new spacewalking techniques (DTO-1210, 671, 672, 833).  Launch
of STS-63 is due on Feb 2.


Recent Launches
---------------

No new launches this week.
Does anyone have the launch time for the DFH-3?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       75A
Nov 20 0039     Kosmos-2294  )  Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Navsat      76A
                Kosmos-2295  )                                  Navsat      76B
                Kosmos-2296  )                                  Navsat      76C
Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A
Nov 29 0254     Geo-IK          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Geodetic    78A
Nov 29 1021     Orion 1         Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      79A
Nov 29          DFH-3           Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Comsat      80A
Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO

Reentries
---------

Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  May
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68          VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 223               1994 Dec 15           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Discovery is nearly ready for transfer from the Orbiter
Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building
in preparation for mission STS-63.
The External Tank for mission STS-67 was due to be connected
to the Solid Rocket Boosters in the VAB this week.

Recent Launches
---------------

The next Titan 4 launch is scheduled for Dec 17 from LC40 at Cape
Canaveral.

Thanks to Mike Kenny and Roy Parnell for giving me the launch time of
the Chinese DFH-3 satellite. The DFH-3 satellite has begun to raise its
orbit; on Dec 14 it was in a 6389 x 36064 km x 12.4 deg orbit.

The Orion-1 satellite has reached near-synchronous orbit.
Around Dec 10 it lowered apogee from 35686 x 65286 km and
by Dec 14 it was in a 35620 x 36021 km x 0.03 deg orbit,
over 43.5 deg W drifting 0.4 deg per day.

A Molniya-1T satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Dec 14 into a 426 x
39091 km x 63.1 deg orbit with a period of 700.88 minutes. The orbit
will later be raised until the period is 717.8 minutes (half a sidereal
day). This is reportedly the 48th Molniya-1T to be launched from
Plesetsk, which implies that the Molniya-1T variant must have replaced
the original Molniya-1 around 1975. Until recently, official statements
continued to use the 'Molniya-1' name. The Molniya satellites relay
C-band (6/4 GHz) and 1 GHz communications to ground stations in the
former USSR's Orbita network. 

 13 Molniya-1, 48 Molniya-T, 19 Molniya-2 satellites, and 48 Molniya-3
satellites have been launched from Plesetsk since Feb 1970 toward
elliptical 12 hour orbits (two of the Molniya-2 and two of the Molniya-3
had upper stage failures). The orbits have a 62.8 degree (65 deg before
1973) inclination which minimizes orbital precession; their perigees are
in the Southern hemisphere so that the apogees (where a satellite spends
most of its time in an elliptical orbit) are high above the northern
hemisphere, providing good visibility from the high latitude parts of
the Soviet Union. 

 33 Molniya-1 and Molniya-1T satellites were launched from the Baykonur
cosmodrome into similar orbits between 1964 and 1989, and one Molniya-1S
satellite was launched from Baykonur into geostationary orbit. All
Molniya launches used the Molniya-M launch vehicle, except for the first
few test flights which used the original Molniya rocket, and Molniya-1S
which used the Proton. Molniya-M consists of the standard Soyuz launch
vehicle with an extra Blok-L fourth stage.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       75A
Nov 20 0039     Kosmos-2294  )  Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Navsat      76A
                Kosmos-2295  )                                  Navsat      76B
                Kosmos-2296  )                                  Navsat      76C
Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A
Nov 29 0254     Geo-IK          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Geodetic    78A
Nov 29 1021     Orion 1         Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      79A
Nov 29 1702     DFH-3           Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Comsat      80A
Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A


Reentries
---------

Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  May
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68          VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 224               1994 Dec 20           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Close Call
----------

Minor planet 1994 XM1, a five-meter rock discovered by the Spacewatch
telescope on Dec 9, passed within about 100000 km of Earth at 1900 UT on
Dec 9. Orbit of 1994 XM1 is about 0.9 x 3.1 AU inclined at 5.6 deg to
the ecliptic. (It came within lunar orbit, so I figure that makes it
fair game for this newsletter :-)

Shuttle
-------

NASA has selected a new group of astronauts, its 15th since the Original
Seven. The 19 new astronauts include ten pilots and nine mission
specialists; five women and 14 men; 6 civilian and 13 military. The
pilots include only two test pilots from Edwards Air Force Base, USAF
Majs. Michael Bloomfield and Pamela Melroy (whom I believe to be the
first Wellesley graduate to be an astronaut), and one from the Navy's
Pax River test pilot base, USMC Capt. Frederick Sturckow. Two other USAF
test pilots in the group are Maj. Steven Lindsey of Eglin AFB and Maj.
Rick Husband, currently on an exchange leading RAF Tornado flight test 
at Boscome Down (near Stonehenge). LtCdr Joe Edwards, USN, is currently
assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. The remaining four pilots
are Lt Scott Altman, USN (Fighter Sqn 31, San Diego); Cdr Jeffrey Ashby,
USN (CO of Fighter Sqn 94, near Fresno); Cdr Dominic Gorie, USN, F/A-18
pilot at Strike Fighter Sqn 106, near Jacksonville); and Lt Susan Still,
USN, F-14 pilot from Fighter Sqn 101 at Virginia Beach.

The three military mission specialists are Maj Michael Anderson, USAF,
of Plattsburgh AFB, NY; Lt. Robert Curbeam, Jr., USN, an instructor at
Annapolis; and Maj. Carlos Noriega, USMC, based at Okinawa. The civilian
mission specialists are Dr. Kalpana Chawla from Overset  Methods Inc,
Los Altos, CA, who has a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Univ. of
Colorado; Kathryn Hire, a Shuttle processing engineer from Lockheed
Space Ops. Co. at KSC; Dr. Janet Kavandi, an engineer from Boeing with a
PhD in chemistry from the U. of Washington;  Dr Edward Lu, an astronomy
postdoc at Hawaii, with a PhD in physics from Stanford; and Dr. Stephen
Robinson, a research at NASA-Langley with a PhD in mechanical engineering 
from Stanford.

This selection seems to mark a trend away from the practice of hiring
JSC mission controllers and other Shuttle program insiders as mission
specialists, but the biggest change is the high fraction of pilots in
this group, the first time since 1969 that NASA has selected a group
which is mostly pilot astronauts, perhaps making up for the last
selection in which only four of 19 were pilots. From Mar 1995 to Mar
1996 the new group will be 'ascans', astronaut candidates in training,
after which they will start to be assigned to missions.

The astronauts selected in the late 1960s had to wait many years to get
a flight (18 to 19 years in the cases of Don Lind, Karl Henize and Tony
England, who finally flew in 1985), but recent groups have fared much
better - the last two of the 1990 group are scheduled to have flown by
March, and the 1987 group had all flown by 1992. The 1992 group has
begun to fly, with all but four in training for missions slated for
1995. 

Meanwhile, one of the Apollo veterans has passed away: Stuart Roosa,
CM Pilot for Apollo 14, died of pancreatitis on Dec 12 in Washington, DC.
Col. Roosa, a former Edwards test pilot and a member of the 1966 astronaut
group, left NASA in 1976.

Mir
---

On Dec 19 the Mir complex was in a 390 x 394 km x 51.6 deg orbit. As of
Dec 20, Commander Aleksandr Viktorenko and Flight Engineer Yelena
Kondakova have been in orbit for 77 days as part of the 17th main
expedition (EO-17 crew). The station doctor, Valeriy Polyakov, has been
in orbit for 346 days, and his record cumulative time in space over 2
missions is 587 days. Soyuz TM-20 and Progress M-25 remain docked to
the station. Jim Oberg reports that Soyuz TM-20 is due to undock and
redock in early January in a test of the automatic docking system.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Russian Al'tair class tracking and data relay satellite was launched
from Baykonur on Dec 16. The satellite was named Luch ("Beam"). 
The three previous Al'tair satellites were:
 Kosmos-1700   1985 Oct 25
 Kosmos-1897   1987 Nov 26
 Kosmos-2054   1989 Dec 27
The launch is the 12th launch of Proton so far this year, with one
more expected.

Kosmos-2298 was launched from Plesetsk on Dec 20 into a 785 x 810 km x 74.0
deg orbit. Satellites are launched into this orbit at the rate of about
one a year; Kosmos-2298 is the 48th to reach orbit since Kosmos-372 in
1970. Western analysts have suggested that the series are communications
satellites for sensitive military or intelligence communications.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Nov  1 0037     Astra 1D        Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      70A
Nov  1 0931     Wind            Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Science     71A
Nov  2 0104     Kosmos-2293     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   EORSAT      72A
Nov  3 1700     Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   73A
Nov  4 0547     Resurs-O1 No. 3 Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   Rem.sensing 74A
Nov  4 1250     CRISTA-SPAS     -               Atlantis, LEO   Science     73B
Nov 11 0722     Progress M-25   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       75A
Nov 20 0039     Kosmos-2294  )  Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC200  Navsat      76A
                Kosmos-2295  )                                  Navsat      76B
                Kosmos-2296  )                                  Navsat      76C
Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A
Nov 29 0254     Geo-IK          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Geodetic    78A
Nov 29 1021     Orion 1         Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      79A
Nov 29 1702     DFH-3           Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Comsat      80A
Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A
Dec 16 1200?    Luch            Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur        Comsat      82A
Dec 20 0515?    Kosmos-2298     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Comsat      83A

Reentries
---------

Nov  4          Molniya-1       Reentered (1984-29A)
Nov  4          Soyuz TM-19     Landed in Kazakhstan
Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB
Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  May
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68          VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 225               1994 Dec 27           Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mir
---

On Dec 26 the Mir complex was in a 390 x 393 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
The EO-17 crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov continue
their mission.

Shuttle
-------

1995 will see Phase I of ISSA (International Space Station Alpha):
the joint flights of Shuttle and Mir. The first few Shuttle/Mir flights are:
  STS-63 (Feb):  Adapter, Transition, Spacehab, Spartan    (Rendezvous only)
  STS-71 (May):  Adapter, Tunnel, Docking Assembly, Spacelab Long Module
  STS-74 (Oct):  Adapter?, Docking Assembly, ?
  STS-76 ('96):  Adapter?, Transition, Spacehab.
Later flights will see docking missions involving Spacehab
modules instead of Spacelab. I'm a little confused about the
exact configuration of the hardware in the payload bay for 
STS-74 and later Mir docking flights, so if anyone has a good description,
please pass it on! My *impression* from what little I have read is that
the APDA (Androgynous Peripheral Docking Assembly) will be mounted on
the Spacelab Tunnel Adapter for STS-71, but on STS-74 it will be left on
the Kristall module at Mir and later flights will just carry the
Spacelab Tunnel Adapter, which will dock directly to the APDA on
Kristall.  Clarification will hopefully be forthcoming.

Errata
-------

Ta to Russell Eberst for pointing out that the RAF test base should be
spelt Boscombe Down. Thanks also to Mark Matossian for catching another
slip - the 63.4 degree critical inclination I discussed in the piece on
Molniya stops the advance of perigee around the orbit, not the
longitudinal precession of the orbital plane as I loosely implied.

New Launches
------------

A new launch vehicle, the Rokot, made its debut on Dec 26. The first two
stages of Rokot are the RS-18 ICBM (known in the West as the SS-19, and
developed from the Chelomei bureau's original UR-100 missile). Rokot
carries a new Briz third stage, which entered orbit with the RS-15
amateur radio satellite. The 1-m diameter, 70 kg payload uses a similar
bus to the RS-3 to RS-8 satellites, and ended up in a 1884 x 2165 km x
64.8 deg orbit. Two suborbital tests of Rokot were carried out on 1990 
Nov 20 and 1991 Dec 20. 1994 saw the first successful  launch of four
new launch vehicles: Japan's H-II, the US Taurus, India's PSLV and
Russia's Rokot, and several upgraded ones: the US Titan 4 Centaur, 
China's Chang Zheng-3A, and the US Pegasus XL (which failed).

Martin Marietta's Titan 4 number K-14 was launched from pad 40 at Cape
Canaveral on Dec 22. The vehicle was a Titan 402 model with an Inertial
Upper Stage (IUS), and placed a TRW Defense Support Program satellite
into geostationary orbit. DSP F17 carries a wide field infrared
telescope to provide real-time warning of missile launches. It is the
fourth advanced DSP to be launched; two others went up on Titan and
another on the Shuttle. The Titan 4 places the DSP/IUS in low parking
orbit; the SRM-1 IUS first stage goes to geostationary  transfer orbit;
and finally the SRM-2 fires to place itself and the DSP in
near-synchronous orbit, eliminating the need for an internal apogee
engine. This was the 4th Titan 4 mission this year, and the 11th
since 1989; one launch in 1993 was a failure.

(Thanks to Lt. Archer of Patrick AFB Public Affairs for the
Titan serial number. Serial number F17 of the DSP is conjectural;
the last three were F14, 15 and 16.)

Six small communications satellites were launched by a Ukranian-built
Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle on Dec 26 into 1400 x 1415 km x 82.5 deg
orbits. Kosmos-2299 to Kosmos-2304 will supplement the Russian Defense
Ministry's store-dump comsat network. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Nov 24 0916     Kosmos-2297     Zenit-2         Baykonur LC45   SIGINT      77A
Nov 29 0254     Geo-IK          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Geodetic    78A
Nov 29 1021     Orion 1         Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      79A
Nov 29 1702     DFH-3           Chang Zheng 3A  Xichang         Comsat      80A
Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A
Dec 16 1200     Luch            Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      82A
Dec 20 0511     Kosmos-2298     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Comsat      83A
Dec 22 2219     DSP F17         Titan 4/IUS     Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  84A
Dec 26 0300     RS-15           Rokot           Baykonur        Comsat      85A
Dec 26 2227?    Kosmos-2299 )   Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      86A
                Kosmos-2300 )                                   Comsat      86B
                Kosmos-2301 )                                   Comsat      86C
                Kosmos-2302 )                                   Comsat      86D
                Kosmos-2303 )                                   Comsat      86E
                Kosmos-2304 )                                   Comsat      86F

Reentries
---------

Nov 14          Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB
Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  May
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68          VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 226               1995 Jan 6           Brookline, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An abbreviated JSR this week - I've been busy with other crises. Normal service 
will be resumed in a couple of weeks.

Discovery was moved to the VAB on Feb 5 and has now been mated to the
external tank. It will be rolled out to the pad next week.

New Launches
------------

The NOAA-J polar orbiting weather satellite was launched on board the
refurbished Atlas 11E ICBM on Dec 30 into a 847 x 860 x 98.9 deg orbit.
It is the sixth Advanced Tiros N weather satellite, built by Martin
Marietta Astro Space, and the last to be launched by an Atlas. NOAA K
is expected to be launched by Titan II. NOAA-14, as NOAA-J was renamed
on reaching orbit, carries a variety of meteorological sensors including
the AVHRR imaging radiometer, and a SARSAT search and rescue relay
package. It replaces NOAA-13, which failed in 1993 shortly after launch.

Kosmos-2305 is an advanced imaging spy satellite, launched from Baykonur
into a 180 x 283 km x 64.90 deg orbit on Dec 29. The next day the orbit
was raised to its operational altitude of 240 x 297 km, characteristic of
the longest duration Russian spy satellites with lifetimes of more than
a year.

A Raduga communications satellite was launched by Proton from Baykonur.
This completes a busy year for Proton, which had 13 launches.

The next scheduled Russian launch is a Tsikada navigation satellite, due
for Jan 24 (info from V. Agapov).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A
Dec 16 1200     Luch            Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      82A
Dec 20 0511     Kosmos-2298     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Comsat      83A
Dec 22 2219     DSP F17         Titan 4/IUS     Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  84A
Dec 26 0301     RS-15           Rokot           Baykonur        Comsat      85A
Dec 26 2227     Kosmos-2299 )   Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      86A
                Kosmos-2300 )                                   Comsat      86B
                Kosmos-2301 )                                   Comsat      86C
                Kosmos-2302 )                                   Comsat      86D
                Kosmos-2303 )                                   Comsat      86E
                Kosmos-2304 )                                   Comsat      86F
Dec 28 1131?    Raduga          Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur        Comsat      87A
Dec 29 1130?    Kosmos-2305     Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Recon       88A
Dec 30 1002     NOAA-14         Atlas E         Vandenberg      Weather     89A

Reentries
---------

Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68          VAB Bay 3 STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


**** In memoriam Leanne and Shannon *****
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 227               1995 Jan 18          Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

OV-103 Discovery, attached to the STS-63 stack on Mobile Launcher 1, was
moved to Pad 39B on Jan 10. It was transferred to the Vehicle Assembly
Building on Jan 5 (not Feb 5 as I said last week!). Launch of mission
STS-63 remains scheduled for Feb 2.

Mir
---

The Mir crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov boarded
the Soyuz TM-20 ferry craft on Jan 11, and undocked from Mir's
front port at 0900 UTC. The craft withdrew to about two hundred
metres from Mir and then redocked in a test of the automatic
Kurs system, which had failed in Progress M-24's attempted
docking last year. Redocking came at 0925 UTC.

On Jan 8 Valeriy Polyakov passed the one year mark in orbit.
His flight is now the longest ever, beating the 365 day
record of Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov set in 1988.

New Launches
------------

The German space agency's Experiment Reentry Space System (EXPRESS)
payload was launched on Jan 15 by Mu-3S-II from Kagoshima. The payload
uses a Russian-built reentry vehicle and the launch was carried out by
the Japanese ISAS space agency. It was due to land in the Australian
desert after a five day flight, but a guidance failure on the M-23
second stage of the Mu launch vehicle apparently left the spacecraft and
its final stage in an incorrect orbit; EXPRESS reentered the atmosphere
over the Pacific within a few orbits. This was the 8th Mu-3S-II launch
and the first to have a significant failure. These details are all
provisional, I don't have full information yet. In particular, Yoshiro
Yamada reports that the Mu-3S-II-8 was a four-stage version instead of
the basic three-stage one. The standard Mu-3S-II has a  M-13 first
stage, an M-23 second stage, and an M-3B third stage. Four flights have
used extra solid propellant KM-P, KM-M or KM-D kick motors as fourth
stages.

  Mu launch history:
Mu-4S vehicle:  M-10/M-20/M-30/M-40 configuration.
 First launch 1966 with M-10 live only; 1969 with first three stages live;
 3 of 4 orbital attempts successful 1970-1972.
Mu-3C vehicle : M-10/M-22/M-3A configuration with thrust vector control
 second stage. 
 3 of 4 launches successful, 1974-1979.
Mu-3H vehicle:  M-13/M-22/M-3A configuration.
 3 of 3 successful, 1977-1978, all flown with unidentified fourth stage
 kick motor? (any details welcome)
Mu-3S vehicle:  As Mu-3H but with thrust vector control added to M-13 stage.
 4 of 4 successful, 1980-1984.
Mu-3S-II vehicle: M-13/M-23/M-3B configuration.
 1985 Jan  7  Mu-3S-II/KM-P MS-T5    (Sakigake)
 1985 Aug 18  Mu-3S-II/KM-P Planet-A (Suisei)
 1987 Feb  5  Mu-3S-II      Astro-C  (Ginga)
 1989 Feb 21  Mu-3S-II/KM-D EXOS-D   (Akebono)
 1990 Jan 24  Mu-3S-II/KM-M MUSES-A  (Hiten) + Hagoromo
 1991 Aug 23  Mu-3S-II      Solar-A  (Yohkoh)
 1993 Feb 20  Mu-3S-II      Astro-D  (Asuka)
 1995 Jan 15  Mu-3S-II/?    EXPRESS

An Intelsat 7 satellite was launched by a Martin Marietta Atlas IIAS on
Jan 10. The Atlas first stage (serial no. 8203) and its Castor IV solid
strapons took off from Pad 36 at Cape Canaveral; the Centaur II AC-113
second stage then ignited to enter a 306 x 41000 km x 26.4 deg transfer
orbit. The Space Systems/Loral Intelsat 7 satellite first fired its apogee
engine on Jan 11 and over several days reached geostationary orbit;
the profile is pretty typical for recent comsats with bipropellant engines,
and I include each orbit reached below:
 Jan 10   306 x 41000 km x 26.4 deg
 Jan 11  1353 x 42238 km x 23.4 deg
 Jan 12  4033 x 41128 km x 15.7 deg
 Jan 12 16563 x 41116 km x  4.7 deg
 Jan 14 35787 x 36974 km x  0.2 deg
 Jan 16 35793 x 35809 km x  0.0 deg, 56 deg E drifting 0.2 deg/day
Intelsat satellites are operated by the International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization, an intergovernmental consortium with over
a hundred member nations (the US participation is via Comsat Corporation). 
The first Intelsat satellite was Early Bird, launched in 1965.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A
Dec 16 1200     Luch            Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      82A
Dec 20 0511     Kosmos-2298     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Comsat      83A
Dec 22 2219     DSP F17         Titan 4/IUS     Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  84A
Dec 26 0301     Radio-ROSTO     Rokot           Baykonur LC175  Comsat      85A
Dec 26 2227     Kosmos-2299 )   Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      86A
                Kosmos-2300 )                                   Comsat      86B
                Kosmos-2301 )                                   Comsat      86C
                Kosmos-2302 )                                   Comsat      86D
                Kosmos-2303 )                                   Comsat      86E
                Kosmos-2304 )                                   Comsat      86F
Dec 28 1131     Raduga          Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      87A
Dec 29 1130     Kosmos-2305     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       88A
Dec 30 1002     NOAA-14         Atlas E         Vandenberg SLC3 Weather     89A
Jan 10 0618     Intelsat 704    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      01A
Jan 15 1345     EXPRESS         Mu-3S-II        Kagoshima       Materials   

Reentries
---------

Dec  5          Molniya-3 (85-04A) Reentered
Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered
Jan 15          EXPRESS         Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68/OV-103   LC39B     STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 228               1995 Jan 27          Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

STS-63 remains scheduled for Feb 2. The press kit is now out
and gives more details on the planned payloads (thanks also
to S. Pickard of Spacehab for info) -
 The Spacelab Tunnel Adapter will connect the Orbiter middeck
to the Spacehab module and contains the airlock hatch to be
used for EVA.

 Spacehab FU-1 will make its second flight on the Spacehab SH-03
mission. Flight Unit 1 first flew in June 1993 (SH-01), while
the SH-02 mission in Feb 1994 used FU-2. The Spacehab module
is a pressurized laboratory containing experiment racks
and lockers. FU-1 has a new window in the roof to help in the
Mir rendezvous operation.

 The Spartan Flight Support Structure (SFSS) is an MPESS class
cross-bay truss structure on which Spartan 204 is mounted.
The Spartan satellites are small free flyers deployed by the
RMS robot arm for a couple of days and then retrieved. SPTN-204
carries NRL's FUVIS Far Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph which will
be used to study the Shuttle environment and make astronomical
observations. This is the first Spartan mission to be sponsored
by the USAF Space Test Program rather than NASA.

 A second MPESS will carry a Hitchhiker-M class payload, 
CGP-ODERACS II. The payload comprises several experiments:
the Cryo System Experiment (CSE), the GLO-2 Shuttle glow experiment,
the IMAX cargo bay camera, and the ODERACS II canister which 
will release six subsatellites: a 2-in diameter steel sphere,
a 4-in diameter Al sphere, a 6-in dia. Al sphere, a 1.7 in 
length dipole wire, and two 5.2-in long dipole wires. 
(For readers living in 20th century countries, 1 in = 25.4 mm). 

 The TCS (Trajectory Control Sensor, DTO-700-5) rendezvous experiment,
which has flown repeatedly,  will be mounted on the payload bay wall. 

 Mission specialists Foale and Harris will make an EVA to test modified
EMU spacesuits and conduct a mass handling exercise in which SPTN-204
will be manually unberthed, moved around, and reberthed. I believe this
EVA is probably the experiment referred to in the manifest as EDFT-1
(maybe it stands for EMU Development Flight Test?).

 The highlight of the mission should be Detailed Test Objective DTO 835,
the Mir Approach Demonstration.

Errata
------

Rick Cooper of Martin Marietta reports that Intelsat 704's initial
perigee was 200 km, not 306 km; for readers of my Sky and Telescope
column Mission Update, note the major goof this month about Galileo:
its orbit insertion engine is a liquid propellant system, not
a Star 48 solid motor. Don't know how that one crept into my brain...
I seem to have made up several sentences of pure fantasy. Oh well, 
thanks to Drew Lepage for catching it.
Pressure of work has delayed the annual launch summary, but don't
worry, I'll get to it soon.

New Launches
------------

More details on EXPRESS: The TVC (thrust vector control) on the second
stage malfunctioned 103 seconds after launch, and the fourth stage and
payload eventually entered a 110 x 250 km x 33 deg orbit (source: Av
Week), instead of the intended 270 x 380 km one.  The reentry capsule
and the service module, still attached to each other, reentered over the
Pacific between 1600 and 1630, on its second orbit of the Earth. US
Space Command have not allocated it a satellite number, and have
allocated the next international designation (1995-02) to the later
Tsikada launch, although the international agreement (in force since the
early 1960s) is that anything which completes one orbit should get an
international designation whether the US tracks it or not.  It is
possible that an out-of-sequence international designation will be
allocated later, as was done on several occasions, e.g. for the secret
Soviet launch 1966-88A which was launched between 1966-83A and 1966-84A.

Yoshiro Yamada reports that ISAS says the EXPRESS launch vehicle's
fourth stage was a modified KM-M solid motor The KM-M was first used for
the MUSES/Hiten launch. The reentry vehicle carried two CATEX materials
processing ovens, and three German (CETEX, PYREX and RAFLEX) and one
Japanese (RTEX) heat shield material reentry experiments.

A Tsikada navigation satellite was launched by Kosmos-3M from Plesetsk
at 0354 UTC on Jan 24 into a 965 x 1020 km x 82.9 deg orbit. 
The Tsikada series of navigation satellites uses
similar technology to the US Navy's Transit system. This Tsikada
satellite was equipped with a special adapter and carried two
microsatellites into orbit, ASTRID and FAISAT. 

ASTRID is the Swedish Space Corporation's latest space physics
satellite, using the new Freja-C bus, a 0.4 m cube with 4 solar panel
wings. The payload, which will emphasize studies of energetic neutral
particles in the Earth's magnetosphere, includes PIPPI, the neutral
particle imager; MIO, the miniature UV imaging system (with optical, UV
continuum and Lyman alpha monitors) and EMIL, an electron spectrometer.
The 26 kg satellite separated from the Tsikada adapter at 0458 UTC.

FAISAT is a 114 kg store and forward communications satellite modified
by Final Analysis, Inc., an American company from an existing satellite
bus whose mission was cancelled (probably a DARPA satellite).  It
separated from the adapter at 0919 UTC.

A Chinese Long March (Chang Zheng) 2E launch vehicle was destroyed one
minute after takeoff on Jan 25. The payload, Asia Pacific Telecom (APT)
Satellite Co's Apstar 2 communications satellite, was lost. It was a
Hughes HS-601 comsat; Apstar 1, launched in Jul 1994 by CZ-3, was an
HS-376 model.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Dec  1 2255     Panamsat K2     Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      FTO
Dec 14 1421     Molniya-1T      Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      81A
Dec 16 1200     Luch            Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      82A
Dec 20 0511     Kosmos-2298     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Comsat      83A
Dec 22 2219     DSP F17         Titan 4/IUS     Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  84A
Dec 26 0301     Radio-ROSTO     Rokot           Baykonur LC175  Comsat      85A
Dec 26 2227     Kosmos-2299 )   Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Comsat      86A
                Kosmos-2300 )                                   Comsat      86B
                Kosmos-2301 )                                   Comsat      86C
                Kosmos-2302 )                                   Comsat      86D
                Kosmos-2303 )                                   Comsat      86E
                Kosmos-2304 )                                   Comsat      86F
Dec 28 1131     Raduga          Proton-K/DM-2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      87A
Dec 29 1130     Kosmos-2305     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       88A
Dec 30 1002     NOAA-14         Atlas E         Vandenberg SLC3 Weather     89A
Jan 10 0618     Intelsat 704    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      01A
Jan 15 1345     EXPRESS         Mu-3S-II        Kagoshima       Materials   -
Jan 24 0354     Tsikada     )   Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      02A
                ASTRID      )                                   Science     02B
                FAISAT      )                                   Comsat      02C
Jan 25 1926?    Apstar 2        Chang Zheng 2E  Xichang         Comsat      FTO


Reentries
---------

Dec  5          Molniya-3 (85-04A) Reentered
Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered
Jan 15          EXPRESS         Reentered


Review  - "Novosti Kosmonavtiki" and "Russian Space News"
------

From time to time I review interesting books and periodicals in this
newsletter. For readers of Russian, the biweekly magazine Novosti
Kosmonavtiki is unquestionably the best source available on the Russian
space program. The magazine covers the Mir program, cosmonaut training,
the Russian satellite and launch vehicle programs, and both history and
future plans, as well as providing Russian coverage of US and other
nations' space programs. The coverage is technical (in the sense that
this newsletter is), lots of facts and figures, designations and serial
numbers, but also comprehensive - e.g. voice transcripts of crucial
mission phases, direct interviews with the orbiting cosmonauts by the
editors - and serious journalism, not just parroting the Russian Space
Agency's - uh, I guess "party line" would be the wrong word nowadays,
but you know what I mean. For those who don't read Russian, Charles
Radley's Tranquest Corp. provides Russian Space News, a partial
translation into English of Novosti Kosmonavtiki. Only those articles
dealing with the Russian program are translated, since that's the
information not available in other English language publications. The
translation is not that great, but it does get the essential info
across, and the latest issue seems better than the first few attempts.

Articles in 1994 issue no 22, which just arrived on my desk
in both versions, contain the following Russian space news articles:
 - 12 densely packed pages covering Mir activities from Oct 22
to Nov 4, including all the details you could want on Soyuz TM-19's
undocking and landing;
 - the complete planned Mir flight program for 1995;
 - extensive details of the Elektro, K-2293, Resurs, Okean and other satellites,
   including info on the previously unknown Vektor, Yug and Romb
   calibration satellites hidden in the Kosmos program;
 - report on the failure investigation of the May 1994 Tsiklon launch,
 - Biographies of the Soyuz TM-20 crew.

I understand that the subscription rates for individuals in the US are
$? for the Russian language version (Novosti Kosmonavtiki, Videokosmos,
12/3 Akademika Koroleva, Moscow 127427, Russia) and $75 (currently, but
may go up substantially) for the English version (Tranquest Corporation,
PO Box 30208, Cleveland Ohio 44130 USA).

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-63  Feb 2
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-42/ET-68/OV-103   LC39B     STS-63                       
ML2/RSRM-43                VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                      


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 229               1995 Feb 3              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

STS-63 was launched at 0522:04 on Feb 3 from Kennedy Space Center.
Discovery was easily visible to the naked eye from here in the Boston
area in the seconds preceding main engine cutoff (MECO) at 0530. It
entered a 310 x 341 km x 51.6 deg, 91.1 min orbit. Discovery's crew are
Jim Wetherbee, Eileen Collins, Bernard Harris, Mike Foale, Janice Voss,
and the Russian Space Agency's Vladimir Titov. On board Mir are Valeriy
Polyakov, Aleksandr Viktorenko, and Elena Kondakova. This is the second
time there have been three women in space (STS-40 was the first), and
the second time that a Russian has flown on a US spaceship. It is
Discovery's 20th flight into space. Rendezvous with Mir, due on Monday
afternoon, will be the second by US and Russian space vehicles.
Deployment of the ODERACS 2 satellites is due early on Feb 4.

Endeavour was rolled over to the VAB on Feb 3 for stacking with the ET
and SRBs. It will fly in March on the Astro 2 mission.

New Launches
------------

The UHF Follow-On F4 satellite (also known as EHF F4) was launched on
Jan 29. The Hughes HS-601 class satellite was launched on a Martin
Marietta Atlas II, flight AC-112. The satellite is a 3.2 x 3.4 x 3.4 m
box which deploys to a height of 7.0 m and a solar wingspan of 18.3 m on
orbit. AC-112 reached a 287 x 27626 km x 26.9 deg orbit, with UHF F/O F4
later  climbing to 313 x 36042 km x 26.7 deg, 638.3 min. and (by Feb 2)
24473 x 36387 km x 5.38 deg, 1171.4 min. It will eventually reach
geostationary orbit. This UHF satellite is the first to also carry an
EHF communications payload; it had a mass of about 3000 kg at orbit
insertion and will be around 1200 kg on orbit. The UHF satellites are
delivered by Hughes for use by the US Navy once they reach their operational
orbit.

Reports indicate that 6 people were killed and 27 injured 
by debris from the explosion of the CZ-2E launch vehicle 
at Xichang, China on Jan 25.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jan 10 0618     Intelsat 704    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      01A
Jan 15 1345     EXPRESS         Mu-3S-II        Kagoshima       Materials   -
Jan 24 0354     Tsikada     )   Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      02A
                ASTRID      )                                   Science     02B
                FAISAT      )                                   Comsat      02C
Jan 25 1926?    Apstar 2        Chang Zheng 2E  Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Jan 29 0125     UHF F/O F4      Atlas II        Canaveral LC36  Comsat      03A
Feb  3 0522     Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
                Spacehab SH03)
                Spartan 204  )

Reentries
---------

Dec  5          Molniya-3 (85-04A) Reentered
Dec  9          Kosmos-2238     Reentered
Jan 15          EXPRESS         Reentered


Review  - "Novosti Kosmonavtiki" and "Russian Space News"
------

Erratum - the $78 sub for NK is for six months, not a year.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-63  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       LC39B     STS-63
ML2/RSRM-43/ET-69          VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                       Refurb    STS-71         


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 230               1995 Feb 11              Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

The STS-63 mission was completed successfully on Feb 11. Discovery
deployed the six ODERACS calibration objects on Feb 4 at 0457. Next, the
RMS arm was used to move Spartan-204 around the payload bay making
ultraviolet spectra of Shuttle glow (the interaction of the Orbiter with
the upper atmosphere) and reaction control jet firings. Spartan-204 was
unberthed at around 0600 on Feb 4 and reberthed on the Spartan Flight
Support Structure by around 1100 (?). 

On Feb 6 at 1416, 1502 and 1637 UTC Discovery made the final burns in
the Mir rendezvous, arriving at 120m from Mir at about 1816 UTC. After
stationkeeping at that distance, the crew were given the go to proceed
in to a close approach (a leaky thruster had been shut off). The body of
the Shuttle was  parallel to the core of the Mir station, with the bay
facing the Kristall module where Atlantis will dock in June. On the
STS-63 flight the Orbiter Docking System is replaced by a Spacehab
module and no docking was possible. The Shuttle began the approach at
1840 and at around 1929 UTC it reached a distance of 11m, measured from a
point on the roof of the Spacehab module to the Kristall docking port.
Discovery remained  stationkeeping at the 11m distance for about 5
minutes, and then backed off to the 120m point again. It then carried
out a flyaround of the complex starting at 2016, and making a final
burn to end the rendezvous at around 2113.

On Feb 7 the RMS arm again unberthed the Spartan-204 satellite, and at
1226 Titov released it from the arm for a free flight to make UV
spectroscopic observations of the interstellar medium. The satellite was
retrieved at 1133 on Feb 9 and berthed shortly afterwards. Mission
Specialists Bernard Harris and Mike Foale depressurized the airlock at
1156 on Feb 9 and entered the payload bay from the hatch on the Tunnel
Adapter. They carried out a 15-minute cold soak test of their modified
Hamilton Standard EMU spacesuits; earlier EVA crews have had problems
with getting their hands too cold while in shadow. Next, Harris
practised moving the Spartan satellite around by hand to gain experience
for Space Station assembly tasks, but a second such exercise by Foale
was cancelled when the astronauts reported cold hands. The EVA ended
after 4h 39m at 1535 UT. Development of heated spacesuit gloves is
to be accelerated.

After closing the payload bay doors on Feb 11, Discovery's OMS engines
were fired at 1044 UT to deorbit the spaceship. OV-103 completed its
20th mission with main gear touchdown on Kennedy Space Center's
Runway 15 at 1150:19 UT on Feb 11, with wheels stop at 1150:39.

[Details I don't have yet: individual designations and deployment
order for the ODERACS satellites; actual timeline for unberth/reberth
of Spartan for the mass handling exercise].

Discovery's next mission will be in the summer, when Tom Henricks
will command a crew of five on a mission to deploy the TDRS-G
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. This will follow the Astro-2
astronomy mission by Endeavour next month and the Mir docking
by Atlantis in June.

Launch of the next Progress tanker to Mir is expected in a few
days' time.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jan 10 0618     Intelsat 704    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      01A
Jan 15 1345     EXPRESS         Mu-3S-II        Kagoshima       Materials   -
Jan 24 0354     Tsikada     )   Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      02A
                ASTRID      )                                   Science     02B
                FAISAT      )                                   Comsat      02C
Jan 25 1926?    Apstar 2        Chang Zheng 2E  Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Jan 29 0125     UHF F/O F4      Atlas II        Canaveral LC36  Comsat      03A
Feb  3 0522     Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
                Spacehab SH03)
Feb  4 0457     ODERACS II   )                  Discovery, LEO  Sphere      04
                ODERACS II   )                                  Sphere
                ODERACS II   )                                  Sphere
                ODERACS II   )                                  Wire
                ODERACS II   )                                  Wire
                ODERACS II   )                                  Wire
Feb  7 1226     Spartan 204                     Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   04H?

Reentries
---------

Jan 15          EXPRESS         Reentered
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       KSC RW15      STS-63  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       LC39B     STS-63
ML2/RSRM-43/ET-69          VAB Bay 1 STS-67
ML3/                       Refurb    STS-71         

Occasional Shuttle Processing Status Explanation (or,  what are all these
acronyms anyway?):

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter Vehicle (OV), an expendable External
Tank (ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM),
also known as Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).  The OV is prepared for
flight  at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in the Orbiter Processing
Facility (OPF) which consists of three bays (one of which is actually a
separate building) after which it is towed to the Vehicle Assembly
Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or joined to the ET and RSRM.
First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked up on a Mobile Launch
Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it. After the OV is mated,
a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML and carries the
ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at launch complex 39
(LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space Transportation System
(STS) mission. The ML is then moved to the Refurb site before it goes
back to the VAB to become the base for another stack. The Orbiter
usually lands at either Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) or KSC. 
Occasionally an OV is returned to the Rockwell International plant in
Palmdale, California for refit - an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or
OMDP. When the OV is moved from site to site it is carried aboard a
modified Boeing 747 called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft - there are two
of these, SCA 905 and SCA 911.


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 231               1995 Feb 26                  Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

Endeavour is now on complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center awaiting its
March 2 launch on the Astro 2 flight (STS-67). Astro 2 is a Spacelab
mission, using two Spacelab Pallets with the Spacelab Igloo avionics
container and the IPS instrument pointing system. 
Mounted on the IPS are three ultraviolet telescopes. The
0.9-m Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) takes spectra in the 900 to
1900 Angstrom short wavelength UV range and the 500 to 900 A extreme
ultraviolet range. The 0.5m Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter
Experiment (WUPPE) telescope studies spectra in the longer wavelength
1400-3200A ultraviolet range. The 0.38m Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
(UIT) is a wide-field (0.6 degree) imaging telescope which uses
ultraviolet-sensitive film.
 Also in the cargo bay are the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) pallet
and two Getaway Special (GAS) cans (G-387/G-388) which constitute the 
Endeavour Telescope, a project of the Australian Space Office.
The 0.1m telescope takes a narrow-band, 2-degree wide-field ultraviolet
image. Unlike UIT, it uses CCDs rather than film. The Australian
Endeavour telescope first flew (as G-609/G-610) aboard Discovery in Jan 1992,
but failed to work correctly. On that mission it was attached to
a cross-bay GAS Bridge Assembly (GBA) with other GAS cans; this time the cans
are mounted on a GAS Beam Adapter (GABA) on the side of the payload bay wall.
(Note that the name of the telescope is nothing to do with the name of the
Shuttle except that both are named after Cook's ship.)


Mir
---

The Mir station raised its orbit on Feb 10; on Feb 10 its orbit was 390
x 391 km x 51.6 deg, 92.38 min; on Feb 20 it was in a 391 x 397 km x
51.6 deg, 92.45 min orbit. Progress vehicle no. 226 was launched on Feb
15,  and given the name Progress M-26 once reaching orbit. Progress M-25
undocked on Feb 16 (due at 1303 UT) and was deorbited. Progress M-26
then docked at the vacant Kvant docking port on Feb 17 (due at 1821 UT).
It carries experiments for the visit of US astronaut Norman Thagard
to Mir, due next month.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Foton No. 10 was launched from Plesetk on Feb 16 into a
219 x 368 km x 62.8 deg, 90.39 min orbit. The Foton recoverable
materials processing satellite, built by the Central Specialized Design
Bureau in Samara, is based on the Vostok/Zenit spy satellite bus.
This mission carries materials processing experiments from Germany and
France.

Date UT         Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jan 10 0618     Intelsat 704    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      01A
Jan 15 1345     EXPRESS         Mu-3S-II        Kagoshima       Materials   -
Jan 24 0354     Tsikada     )   Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      02A
                ASTRID      )                                   Science     02B
                FAISAT      )                                   Comsat      02C
Jan 25 1926?    Apstar 2        Chang Zheng 2E  Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Jan 29 0125     UHF F/O F4      Atlas II        Canaveral LC36  Comsat      03A
Feb  3 0522     Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
                Spacehab SH03)
Feb  4 0457     ODERACS II A )                  Discovery, LEO  Calibration 04C
                ODERACS II B )                                  Calibration 04D
                ODERACS II C )                                  Calibration 04E
                ODERACS II D )                                  Calibration 04F
                ODERACS II E )                                  Calibration 04G
                ODERACS II F )                                  Calibration 04H
Feb  7 1226     Spartan 204                     Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   04B
Feb 15 1648     Progress M-26   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       05A
Feb 16 1615?    Foton No. 10    Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Materials   06A


Reentries
---------

Jan 15          EXPRESS         Reentered
Feb 11          Discovery       Landed at KSC
Feb 12          BREMSAT         Reentered
Feb 16          Progress M-25   Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun 22  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-67  Mar 2
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                                 STS-70
ML2/RSRM-43/ET-69/OV-105   LC39A     STS-67
ML3/RSRM-45                VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 232               1995 Feb 27                  Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1994

This special issue includes the annual list of launches, containing
more info than usual.
Orbits are given for mid Feb 1995 except where indicated; orbits with "?"
are approximate orbits for classified satellites.
Orbits are given as  perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)  Period (min)
Each line of the main data has been broken in two to fit within the 
standard 80-column width, and may be rejoined by combining the * characters.
Please let me know of any errors or omissions in this table.

Line 1:
INT'L	NAME	      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS              GEO-LONG *
*                       AGENCY      MANUFAC.   BUS            TYPE
1994- 
01A  Soyuz TM-18        Jan  8   Landed in Kazakhstan Jul  9          *
*                       RKA         Energia    Soyuz          Spaceship
02A  Gals 1             Jan 20   35776x  35794x  0.03 1436.06  70.91E *
*                       AOIK        NPO PM     Gals           Comsat
FTO  Eutelsat II F-5    Jan 24   Destroyed on launch                  *
*                       EUTELSAT    Aespt.     Spacebus 2000  Comsat
FTO  Turksat 1A         Jan 24   Destroyed on launch                  *
*                       Turkey PTT  Aespt.     Spacebus 2000  Comsat
03A  Meteor-3 No. 7     Jan 25    1184x   1209x 82.55  109.36         *
*                       RKA/GGM     VNII-EM    Meteor         Weather
03B  Tubsat-B           Jan 25    1183x   1209x 82.55  109.35         *
*                       TUB         TUB                       Technology
04A  Clementine 1       Jan 25   Solar orbit, elements unknown        *
*                       BMDO        NRL                       Space probe
04C  ISA                Jan 25     168x 128094x 66.80 3105.52 (1/94)  *
*                       BMDO        NRL                       Science
05A  Progress M-21      Jan 28   Deorbited Mar 23                     *
*                       RKA         Energia    Soyuz          Cargo
06A  Discovery (STS-60) Feb  3   Landed at KSC Feb 11                 *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
06A  GBA                Feb  3   Remained attached to STS-60          *
*                       NASA        MDAC       MPESS          Science
06A  SCBC/WSF           Feb  3   Remained attached to STS-60          *
*                       NASA        SVEC/SII   SCBC           Science
06A  Wake Shield Facil. Feb  3   Remained attached to STS-60          *
*                       NASA        SVEC/SII   WSF            Science
07A  Ryusei             Feb  3   Landed in Pacific Feb 4              *
*                       NASDA       NASDA                     Technology
07B  Myojo              Feb  3     430x  36114x 29.12  641.95         *
*                       NASDA       NASDA?                    Technology
08A  Raduga-1           Feb  5   35780x  35792x  0.72 1436.09  48.72E *
*                       RKA         NPO PM     (Raduga-1)     Comsat
09A  Milstar DFS 1      Feb  7   35780x  35790 x 0    1436.1 (?)      *
*                       USAF        Lockheed   Milstar        Comsat
10A  Shi Jian 4         Feb  8     221x  34459x 28.41  605.89         *
*                       PRC                                   Science
10B  DFH-3 mockup       Feb  8     211x  32578x 27.49  570.03         *
*                       PRC                                   Technology
06B  ODERACS A          Feb  9   Reentered Oct 2                      *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration 
06C  ODERACS B          Feb  9   Reentered Oct 4                      *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration 
06D  ODERACS C          Feb  9   Reentered?                           *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration   
O6E  ODERACS D          Feb  9   Reentered?                           *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration   
06F  ODERACS E          Feb  9     223x    226x 56.97   89.00         *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration   
06G  ODERACS F          Feb  9     198x    202x 56.96   88.51         *
*                       NASA                                  Calibration   
06H  BREMSAT            Feb  9   Reentered 1995 Feb 12                *
*                       DARA        OHB                       Science
11A  Kosmos-2268        Feb 12    1411x   1426x 82.57  114.20         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
11B  Kosmos-2269        Feb 12    1410x   1421x 82.56  114.13         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
11C  Kosmos-2270        Feb 12    1406x   1417x 82.57  114.05         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
11D  Kosmos-2271        Feb 12    1403x   1415x 82.56  113.99         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
11E  Kosmos-2272        Feb 12    1396x   1415x 82.56  113.91         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
11F  Kosmos-2273        Feb 12    1408x   1416x 82.56  114.05         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
12A  Raduga             Feb 18   35785x  35797x  0.70 1436.35  45.38E *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     (Raduga)       Comsat
13A  Galaxy IR          Feb 19   35784x  35786x  0.01 1436.05 133.01W *
*                       HCI         Hughes     HS-376         Comsat
14A  Koronas-I          Mar  2     483x    526x 82.49   94.71         *
*                       RKA         Yuzhnoe    AUOS-SM        Science
15A  Columbia (STS-62)  Mar  4   Landed at KSC Mar 18                 *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
15A  USMP-2 Fwd         Mar  4   Remained attached to STS-62          *
*                       NASA        MDAC       MPESS          Materials
15A  USMP-2 Aft         Mar  4   Remained attached to STS-62          *
*                       NASA        MDAC       MPESS          Materials
15A  OAST-2             Mar  4   Remained attached to STS-62          *
*                       NASA        MDAC       MPESS          Science
16A  Navstar GPS 36     Mar 10   20023x  20339x 55.04  717.95         *
*                       USAF        Rockwell   GPS Block IIA  Navigation
16B  SEDS 2/Delta       Mar 10   Reentered May 8                      *
*                       NASA        MDAC       Delta          Technology
16B  SEDS 2 End Mass    Mar 10   Reentered Mar 15                     *
*                       NASA        NASA                      Technology
17A  P90-5 TAOS         Mar 13     556x    568x105.04   95.91         *
*                       USAF        TRW        Eagle          Technology
17B  DARPASAT           Mar 13     550x    550x105.0    95.9 ?        *
*                       DARPA       Ball                      Technology
18A  Kosmos-2274        Mar 17   Landed in Kazakhstan May 21          *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Yantar'        Recon
19A  Progress M-22      Mar 22   Deorbited May 23                     *
*                       RKA         Energia    Soyuz          Cargo
20A  Endeavour (STS-59) Apr  9   Landed at Edwards Apr 20             *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
20A  SRL-1              Apr  9   Remained attached to STS-59          *
*                       NASA                   SL-PLT         Science
20A  MAPS               Apr  9   Remained attached to STS-59          *
*                       NASA                   MPESS          Science
21A  Kosmos-2275        Apr 11   19117x  19142x 64.78  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
21B  Kosmos-2276        Apr 11   19057x  19201x 64.78  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
21C  Kosmos-2277        Apr 11   19103x  19156x 64.77  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
22A  GOES 8             Apr 13   35739x  35774x  0.23 1434.58  79.04W *
*                       NOAA        SS/Loral   GOES-Next      Weather
23A  Kosmos-2278        Apr 23     845x    858x 71.02  101.97         *
*                       MO RF       Yuzhnoe?                  SIGINT
24A  Kosmos-2279        Apr 26     955x   1007x 82.94  104.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot?    Parus          Navigation
25A  Kosmos-2280        Apr 28     244x    305x 70.35   90.01         *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Yantar'?       Recon
26A  USA 103            May  3    1323x  39034x 64.4   717.9 ?        *
*                       NRO                                   SIGINT
27A  SROSS C2           May  4     430x    619x 46.04   95.13         *
*                       ISRO        ISRO       SROSS          Science
28A  MSTI 2             May  9     411x    427x 97.11   92.96         *
*                       BMDO/USAF   SpecAst    SA             Technology
29A  P91-A STEP-2       May 19     604x    818x 81.96   99.01         *
*                       USAF        TRW        Eagle          Technology
30A  Gorizont No. 42    May 20   35772x  35796x  0.78 1435.99 142.43E *
*                       Rimsat      NPO PM     Gorizont       Comsat
31A  Progress M-23      May 22   Landed in Russia Jul 2               *
*                       RKA         Energiya   Soyuz          Cargo
FTO  Kosmos             May 25   Destroyed on launch                  *
*                       MO RF       Yuzhnoe?                  SIGINT
32A  Kosmos-2281        Jun  7   Landed Jul 29                        *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Zenit/Oblik    Recon
33A  Foton No. 9        Jun 14   Landed Jul 2                         *
*                       RKA         TsSKB      Zenit/Foton    Materials
34A  Intelsat 702       Jun 17   35776x  35795x  0.02 1436.07   1.03W *
*                       INTELSAT    SS/Loral   FS-1300        Comsat
34B  STRV-1A            Jun 17     251x  35518x  7.34  626.87         *
*                       DRA         DRA                       Technology
34C  STRV-1B            Jun 17     239x  35588x  7.36  628.00         *
*                       DRA         DRA                       Technology
35A  UHF F/O F3         Jun 24   35776x  35795x  4.81 1436.05  14.38W *
*                       USN         Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
FTO  P90-1 STEP 1       Jun 27   Destroyed on launch                  *
*                       USAF        TRW        Eagle          Science
36A  Soyuz TM-19        Jul  1   Landed in Kazakhstan Nov 4           *
*                       RKA         Energiya   Soyuz          Spaceship
37A  FSW-2              Jul  3   Landed in China Jul 18               *
*                       PRC                                   Remote sensing
37A  FSW-2 service mod. Jul  3   Reentered Sep 13                     *
*                       PRC                                   Remote sensing
38A  Kosmos-2282        Jul  6   35754x  35817x  1.86 1436.06  24.06W *
*                       MO RF       Lavochkin  Prognoz        Early Warning
39A  Columbia (STS-65)  Jul  8   Landed at KSC Jul 23                 *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
39A  Spacelab IML-2     Jul  8   Remained attached to STS-65          *
*                       NASA                   Spacelab-LM    Science
39A  EDO                Jul  8   Remained attached to STS-65          *
*                       NASA                   EDO            Technology
40A  Panamsat 2         Jul  8   35772x  35799x  0.04 1436.07 168.97E *
*                       A-Lyracom   Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
40B  BS-3N              Jul  8   35777x  35797x  0.05 1436.15 109.67E *
*                       NHK         MMAS       Series 3000    Comsat
41A  Nadezhda           Jul 14     951x   1007x 82.94  104.68         *
*                       RKA         Polyot?    Tsikada        Navigation
42A  Kosmos-2283        Jul 20   Landed Sep 29                        *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Yantar'        Recon
43A  Apstar 1           Jul 21   35785x  35789x  0.00 1436.12 137.97E *
*                       APT         Hughes     HS-376         Comsat
44A  Kosmos-2284        Jul 29   Landed Sep 11                        *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Yantar'/Kometa Mapping
45A  Kosmos-2285        Aug  2     974x   1013x 74.03  104.98         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM?                   Calibration?
46A  P90-6 APEX         Aug  3     360x   2534x 69.98  114.82         *
*                       USAF        OSC        Pegastar       Technology
47A  DBS 2              Aug  3   35776x  35797x  0.01 1436.11 100.79W *
*                       DirecTV     Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
48A  Kosmos-2286        Aug  5     747x  39608x 63.39  717.81         *
*                       MO RF       Lavochkin  Oko            Early Warning
49A  Brasilsat B1       Aug 10   35782x  35791x  0.03 1436.12  70.05W *
*                       Telebras    Hughes     HS-376W        Comsat
49B  Turksat 1B         Aug 10   35740x  35829x  0.06 1436.01  41.92E *
*                       Turkey PTT  Aespat.    Spacebus 2000  Comsat
50A  Kosmos-2287        Aug 11   19109x  19150x 64.81  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
50B  Kosmos-2288        Aug 11   19091x  19168x 64.81  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
50C  Kosmos-2289        Aug 11   19126x  19133x 64.81  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
51A  Molniya-3          Aug 23     622x  39726x 62.97  717.67         *
*                       RKA         NPO PM     Molniya-3      Comsat
52A  Progress M-24      Aug 25   Deorbited over Pacific Oct 4         *
*                       RKA         Energiya   Soyuz          Cargo
53A  Kosmos-2290        Aug 26     181x    392x 64.80   90.25         *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      ?              Recon
54A  USA 105            Aug 27   35780x  35790x  0    1436.1 ?        *
*                       NRO         TRW?       Adv. ORION?    SIGINT
55A  Optus B3           Aug 27   35671x  35905x  0.48 1436.19 151.74E *
*                       Optus       Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
56A  Kiku 6             Aug 28    8565x  38677x 13.23  861.84         *
*                       NASDA       Toshiba                   Comsat
57A  DMSP 23545         Aug 29     840x    860x 98.89  101.94         *
*                       USAF        MMAS       Block 5D-2     Weather
58   Telstar 402        Sep  9     201x  35295x  6.62  621.60 (?)     *
*                       AT&T        MMAS       Series 7000    Comsat
59A  Discovery (STS-64) Sep  9   Landed at Edwards Sep 20             *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
59A  LITE               Sep  9   Remained attached to STS-64          *
*                       NASA                   SL-PLT         Science
59A  GBA                Sep  9   Remained attached to STS-64          *
*                       NASA                   MPESS          Science
59A  SFSS               Sep  9   Remained attached to STS-64          *
*                       NASA                   MPESS          Science
59B  Spartan 201        Sep 13   Retrieved by STS-64 Sep 15           *
*                       NASA        NASA       Spartan 200    Science
60A  Kosmos-2291        Sep 21   35748x  35827x  1.13 1436.16  79.79E *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Geyzer         Comsat
61A  Kosmos-2292        Sep 27     400x   1951x 82.99  108.90         *
*                       MO RF       Yuzhnoe    Vektor?        Calibration
62A  Endeavour (STS-68) Sep 30   Landed at Edwards Oct 11             *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
62A  SRL-2              Sep 30   Remained attached to STS-68          *
*                       NASA                   SL-PLT         Science
62A  MAPS               Sep 30   Remained attached to STS-68          *
*                       NASA                   MPESS          Science
63A  Soyuz TM-20        Oct  3   Docked to Mir orbital station        *
*                       RKA         Energiya   Soyuz          Spaceship
64A  Intelsat 703       Oct  6   35779x  35792x  0.04 1436.07 176.96E *
*                       INTELSAT    SS/Loral   FS-1300        Comsat
65A  Solidaridad 2      Oct  8   35775x  35797x  0.02 1436.08 113.06W *
*                       TdM         Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
65B  Thaicom 2          Oct  8   35778x  35795x  0.04 1436.11  78.42E *
*                       Shinaw.     Hughes     HS-376         Comsat
66A  Okean-O1 no. 7     Oct 11     631x    665x 82.54   97.70         *
*                       RKA         Yuzhnoe    Okean-O        Rem.sensing
67A  Ekspress           Oct 13   35776x  35794x  0.06 1436.04  14.00W *
*                       AO IK       NPO PM     Ekspress       Comsat
68A  IRS-P2             Oct 15     818x    820x 98.67  101.29         *
*                       ISRO        ISRO       IRS-P          Rem.sensing
69A  Elektro            Oct 31   35776x  35797x  1.03 1436.10  76.61E *
*                       RKA         VNII-EM    Elektro        Rem.sensing
70A  Astra 1D           Nov  1   35773x  35796x  0.02 1436.00  19.29E *
*                       SES         Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
71A  Wind               Nov  1   48840x1578658x 19.65  221d           *
*                       NASA        MMAS       Wind           Science
72A  Kosmos-2293        Nov  2     402x    418x 65.03   92.78         *
*                       MO RF       NPO-M?                    Recon
73A  Atlantis (STS-66)  Nov  3   Landed at Edwards Nov 14             *
*                       NASA        Rockwell   Shuttle        Spaceship
73A  ATLAS 3            Nov  3   Remained attached to STS-66          *
*                       NASA/ESA               SL-PLT         Rem.sensing
74A  Resurs-O1 No. 3    Nov  4     660x    663x 98.03   97.98         *
*                       RKA         VNII-EM    Resurs-O       Rem.sensing    
73B  CRISTA-SPAS        Nov  4   Retrieved by STS-66 Nov 12           *
*                       DARA        DASA       Astro-SPAS     Rem.sensing
75A  Progress M-25      Nov 11   Deorbited 1995 Feb 16                *
*                       RKA         Energiya   Soyuz          Cargo
76A  Kosmos-2294        Nov 20   19052x  19207x 64.91  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
76B  Kosmos-2295        Nov 20   19094x  19165x 64.89  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
76C  Kosmos-2296        Nov 20   19118x  19141x 64.89  675.73         *
*                       MO RF       Polyot     Uragan         Navigation
77A  Kosmos-2297        Nov 24     845x    857x 71.01  101.96         *
*                       MO RF       Yuzhnoe                   SIGINT
78A  Geo-IK             Nov 29    1480x   1526x 73.61  116.06         *
*                       RKA/GUGK    NPO PM?    Musson         Geodesy
79A  Orion 1            Nov 29   35775x  35798x  0.03 1436.11  37.48W *
*                       Orion       MMS        Eurostar 2000  Comsat
80A  DFH-3              Nov 29   35225x  35957x  0.15 1426.15         *
*                       PRC         CAST/DASA  DFH-3          Comsat
FTO  Panamsat K2        Dec  1   Destroyed on launch                  *
*                       A-Lyracom   Hughes     HS-601         Comsat
81A  Molniya-1T         Dec 14     516x  39833x 62.83  717.68         *
*                       MO RF       NPO-PM     Molniya-1T     Comsat
82A  Luch               Dec 16   35757x  35815x  2.48 1436.09  95.27E *
*                       RKA         NPO-PM     Al'tair        Comsat
83A  Kosmos-2298        Dec 20     785x    810x 74.03  100.83         *
*                       MO RF       NPO-PM                    Comsat
84A  DSP F17            Dec 22   35780x  35790x  0    1436.1 ?        *
*                       USAF        TRW        DSP            Early Warning
85A  Radio-ROSTO RS-15  Dec 26    1881x   2163x 64.81  127.71         *
*                       RKA?                                  Comsat
86A  Kosmos-2299        Dec 26    1402x   1415x 82.57  113.97         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
86B  Kosmos-2300        Dec 26    1410x   1414x 82.55  114.05         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
86C  Kosmos-2301        Dec 26    1414x   1415x 82.56  114.11         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
86D  Kosmos-2302        Dec 26    1413x   1423x 82.55  114.20         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
86E  Kosmos-2303        Dec 26    1413x   1430x 82.56  114.26         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
86F  Kosmos-2304        Dec 26    1412x   1417x 82.56  114.11         *
*                       MO RF       NPO PM     Gonets-type    Comsat
87A  Raduga             Dec 28   35784x  35793x  1.41 1436.22  69.52E *
*                       RKA         NPO PM     Raduga         Comsat
88A  Kosmos-2305        Dec 29     231x    288x 64.90   89.70         *
*                       MO RF       TsSKB      Yantar'?       Recon
89A  NOAA 14            Dec 30     847x    861x 98.88  102.02         *
*                       NOAA        MMAS       Adv Tiros-N    Weather

Abbreviations and organizations:

Aespt.   Aerospatiale (Toulouse, France)
A-Lyracom Alpha Lyracom, USA
AOIK     AO Informkosmos, Russia
APT      APT Satellite Co, Hong Kong (Asia Pacific Telecom)
AT&T     American Telephone and Telegraph Co.
Ball     Ball Aerospace, USA
BMDO     Ballistic Missile Defence Organization (formerly SDIO)
CAST     Chinese Academy for Space Technology 
DARA     Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten, Germany
DASA     Deutsche Aerospace
DirecTV  DirecTV (Hughes subsid); DBS jointly owned by USSB.
DRA      Defense Research Agency, Farnborough, England (UK MoD)
Energiya RKK Energiya, Kaliningrad, Russia
EUTELSAT European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
GGM      Goskogidromet (Russian Weather Service)
GUGK     Central Agency for Geodesy and Cartography, Russia
HCI	 Hughes Communications Inc.
Hughes   Hughes Aircraft Corp.
INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
ISRO     Indian Space Research Organization
Lavochkin NPO Lavochkin, Russia
Lockheed Lockheed Space and Missile Co.
MDAC     McDonnell Douglas Astronautics (USA)
MMAS     Martin Marietta Astro Space, USA
MMS      Matra Marconi Space
MO RF    Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
NASA	 United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASDA    National Space Development Agency, Japan
NHK      Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japan
NOAA     United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NPO-M    NPO Mashinostroenie
NPOPM    NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
NRL      Naval Research Lab (Washington, DC, USA)
NRO      National Reconnaissance Office, USA
OHB      OHB Systemtechnik GmbH, Germany
Optus    Optus Communications, Australia
Orion    Orion Satellite Systems
OSC      Orbital Sciences Corp. (VA).
Polyot   AKO Polyot, Omsk, Russia
PRC	 Chinese Ministry of Astronautics
Rimsat   Rimsat Corp, USA.
RKA	 Russian Space Agency (Moskva, Russia)
Rockwell Rockwell International, USA
SES      Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
Shinaw.  Shinawatra Corp. (Bangkok, Thailand)
SII      Space Industries Inc., Texas, USA
SpecAst  Spectrum Astro Inc.
SS/Loral Space Systems/Loral, USA
SVEC     Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, Houston, Texas, USA
TdM      Telecommunicaciones de Mexico
TsSKB    Central Specialized Design Bureau (Samara, Russia)
TRW      TRW Corp., USA
TUB      Technische Universitat Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
USAF	 United States Air Force
USN      United States Navy
VNII-EM  VNII Elektromekhaniki (Russia)
Yuzhnoe  NPO Yuzhnoe, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 233               1995 Mar 11                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

Shuttle mission STS-67 was launched on Mar 2 at 0638:14 UT. The Astro-2
telescopes, HUT, WUPPE, and UIT appear to be operating well, as is the
IPS Instrument Pointing System. On Mar 11 it was in a 91.6 min, 341 x
360 km x 28.5 deg orbit. STS-67 is the 68th Shuttle flight and the
eighth flight of OV-105 Endeavour. Astro 2 is the fifth EDO (Extended
Duration Orbiter) flight and the eighteenth Spacelab mission (or
maybe only the 16th, did SRL-1 and SRL-2 count officially as Spacelab?).
Astro 2 uses the pressurized avionics container known as the Spacelab
Igloo to support the payload bay experiments; the Igloo previously
flew on Spacelab 2, Astro 1 and the three Atlas flights.
Crew of STS-67 are Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot William Gregory, 
Payload Commander Tamara Jernigan, Mission Specialists Wendy Lawrence
and John Grunsfeld, and Payload Specialists Ron Parise (Computer Sciences
Corp) and Sam Durrance (Johns Hopkins University).

Based on information obtained by Joel Runes, it appears the
ODERACS satellites deployed from STS-63 were deployed in the
following order (for those who *really* like to nitpick):

  ODERACS II-A, 10-cm sphere
  ODERACS II-D, 13 cm wire
  ODERACS II-C, 5-cm sphere
  ODERACS II-F, 4 cm wire
  ODERACS II-B, 15-cm sphere
  ODERACS II-E, 13 cm wire
 

Preparations for the STS-71 mission continue; the external tank will
be mated to the solid boosters next week, and the Orbiter Docking
System and Spacelab module are ready to be installed in the cargo bay
of Atlantis.

Mir
---

Progress M-26 docked with the Kvant port on Mir at 1821 UT on Feb 17. It
will remain at the station until shortly before the arrival of Soyuz
TM-21 in mid-March. Soyuz TM-21 carries the EO-18 crew. The commander is
the Russian Air Force cosmonaut Vladmir Dezhurov, on his first flight.
Flight engineer is experienced RKK Energiya cosmonaut Gennadiy
Strekalov, who flew on Soyuz T-3, which docked with the Salyut-6 space
station; Soyuz T-8, which failed to dock with Salyut-7; Soyuz T-11,
which did reach Salyut-7; and Soyuz TM-10 in 1990, which saw him
spending 130 days on Mir with Gennady Manakov. Strekalov was also on the
Soyuz launch of Sep 1983, when the launch escape system rocketed him and
Vladimir Titov (who flew on Discovery last month) clear of the launch
vehicle, which exploded on the pad. The third member of the EO-18 crew
is Dr. Norman Thagard, a NASA astronaut whose four previous missions 
were STS-7 (Challenger); STS 51-B/Spacelab 3 (Challenger); STS-30R/Magellan
(Atlantis); and STS-42/Spacelab IML-1 (Discovery). Launch of the Soyuz
is scheduled for Mar 14.

Note
----

Thanks to Maxim Tarasenko and Asif Siddiqi for comments on the
annual launch list; I'll make a revised version available in a few weeks
by ftp.


Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three Uragan class navigation satellites built by AKO Polyot were launched
on Mar 7 to become part of the Glonass system. According to the Russian
Space Forces, the satellites are Glonass numbers 765, 766 and 777.
The satellites are in 12-hour, 19000 km high orbits. Launch was by a
Proton-K with a Blok-DM2 upper stage.

Kosmos-2306 was launched on Mar 2 into a 94.5 min, 469 x 516 km x 65.8
deg orbit. It appears to be a calibration satellite of the Kosmos-816
type, which releases a series of small objects at intervals, to act as
calibration targets for the radars of the Space Forces or the Air
Defense. Four such objects were released on Mar 6. The previous mission
of this type to reach orbit was Kosmos-2075, which was launched in 1990
and reentered in 1992.



Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Feb  3 0522   Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
              Spacehab SH03)
Feb  4 0457   ODERACS II A )                  Discovery, LEO  Calibration 04C
              ODERACS II D )                                  Calibration 04F
              ODERACS II C )                                  Calibration 04E
              ODERACS II B )                                  Calibration 04D
              ODERACS II F )                                  Calibration 04H
              ODERACS II E )                                  Calibration 04G
Feb  7 1226   Spartan 204                     Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   04B
Feb 15 1648   Progress M-26   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       05A
Feb 16 1740   Foton No. 10    Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   06A
Mar  2 0638   Endeavour    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   07A
              Astro 2      )
Mar  2 1230?  Kosmos-2306     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk                    08A
Mar  7 0923?  Kosmos-2307 ?)  Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Navigation  09A
              Kosmos-2308 ?)                                  Navigation  09B
              Kosmos-2309 ?)                                  Navigation  09C

Reentries
---------

Jan 15        EXPRESS         Reentered
Feb 11        Discovery       Landed at KSC
Feb 12        BREMSAT         Reentered
Feb 16        Progress M-25   Deorbited
Feb 23        Molniya-1 (58)  Reentered
Feb 24        ODERACS F       Reentered
Feb 27        ODERACS II E    Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun 22  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-67  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                                 STS-70
ML2/                                 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-45                VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 234               1995 Mar 19                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
--------

Endeavour landed on the concrete Edwards runway 22 at 
2147:00 on 1995 Mar 18, ending the longest Shuttle mission yet.
Duration was 16 days 15 hr 8 min 47 sec. The deorbit burn
was at 2039:13 and lasted an unusually long 5 min 0 sec, placing
Endeavour in a 33 x 357 km descent orbit. OV-105's next flight
is STS-69 in the summer; first comes the Atlantis docking with
Mir and Discovery's deployment of a TDRS comsat.

The External Tank, ET-70, for mission STS-71 was mated to the solid
rocket boosters on Mar 16.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-21 (spacecraft 11F732 no. 70) was launched at 0611:34 on 1995
Mar 14 carrying the EO-18 Mir crew, Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennadiy
Strekalov and Norman Thagard.  According to Vladimir Agapov, orbit
insertion and separation of the 7170 kg spaceship from the Blok-I third
stage was at 0620:23. Soyuz TM-21 entered an 88.61 min, 190 x 220 km x
51.65 deg orbit; (Note: this is based on a spherical Earth and the Space
Command elements; Agapov reports a 201 x 247 km orbit based on an oblate
Earth and Russian elements. I haven't attempted to reconcile the data.)
Two burns at 0946 and 1045 UTC raised the orbit to 89.89 min, 231 x 306
km. A small phasing burn was carried out the following day at 0709, and
then two final rendezvous burns raised the orbit to 92.43 min, 390 x 396
km, matching that of the Mir station.  Soyuz docked with Mir at 0745:26
UTC on Mar 16 and the crew entered Mir at around 0930.  Launch of  TM-21
meant that there were 13 people in space at once for the first time
ever: Dezhurov, Strekalov, Thagard on Soyuz; Viktorenko, Kondakova and
Polyakov on Mir; and Oswald, Gregory, Lawrence, Jernigan, Grunsfeld,
Parise, and Durrance on Endeavour.

The Soyuz TM spaceship is made up of three sections:  the
priborno-agregatniy otsek (service-equipment module), 3057 kg, which
contains the engine and carries the solar panel wings; the spuskaemiy
apparat (descent vehicle), 2835 kg, with heat shield, command and
control cabin, and the three cosmonaut couches; and the bitovoi otsek
(living module) of 1278 kg with the docking unit. Thagard is the
first American to be launched in a Soyuz, although the ASTP crew
flew in one while their Apollo craft was docked to it in 1975.
Soyuz TM-21 was launched by the Soyuz-U2 (11A511U2) variant of 
Energiya's standard R-7 based launch vehicle.

The Progress M-26 cargo craft undocked on Mar 15 at 0226:38
and deorbited itself over the Pacific at 0528 UT.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan's NASDA space agency launched the third H-II launch vehicle from
Tanegashima on Mar 17. Launch was at 2001 UTC; the first stage flew a
suborbital trajectory, and the LE-5A second stage completed its first
burn to enter a  322 x 336 km x 28.5 deg orbit, deploying the SFU (Space
Flyer Unit) satellite at 2014. The LE-5A then ignited again to enter
geostationary transfer orbit, and at 2028 the second payload,
Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5, separated into a 329 x 36669 x
28.5 deg orbit.

The SFU will carry out materials processing, technology and astronomy
experiments, and will be retrieved by the STS-72 mission in December. It
carries the 0.15m liquid helium cooled IR Telescope in Space (IRTS),
with near and mid infrared spectrometers; a biology experiment studying
salamander eggs; an electron density experiment; materials  processing
furnaces; and technology experiments with solar arrays and an electric
thruster. It also carries an experimental platform to test technology
for the JEM Exposed Facility planned for the Space Station, and as such
it is the first flight element of Japan's Station program.

GMS-5 carries a Star 27 solid motor which is intended to place it in
geostationary orbit. The satellite has visible and IR radiometers
and will continue the Japanese Meteorological Agency's operational
weather satellite system.

Foton 10 landed on Mar 3, 135 km SE of Orenburg in Russia. The descent cabin
was later severely damaged when it was dropped from the helicopter carrying
it back for deintegration; many of the experiments were destroyed.

Telemetry has been received from the Clementine probe in solar orbit,
last heard from in Jul 1994. Further attempts will be made to restore
comms with the probe.



Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Feb  3 0522   Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
              Spacehab SH03)
Feb  4 0457   ODERACS II A )                  Discovery, LEO  Calibration 04C
              ODERACS II D )                                  Calibration 04F
              ODERACS II C )                                  Calibration 04E
              ODERACS II B )                                  Calibration 04D
              ODERACS II F )                                  Calibration 04H
              ODERACS II E )                                  Calibration 04G
Feb  7 1226   Spartan 204                     Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   04B
Feb 15 1648   Progress M-26   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       05A
Feb 16 1740   Foton No. 10    Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   06A
Mar  2 0638   Endeavour    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   07A
              Astro 2      )
Mar  2 1300   Kosmos-2306     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 08A
Mar  7 0923   Kosmos-2307  )  Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC200  Navigation  09A
              Kosmos-2308  )                                  Navigation  09B
              Kosmos-2309  )                                  Navigation  09C
Mar 14 0611   Soyuz TM-21     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   10A
Mar 17 2001   SFU          )  H-II            Tanegashima     Science     
              GMS-5        )                                  Weather 

Reentries
---------

Jan 15        EXPRESS         Reentered
Feb 11        Discovery       Landed at KSC
Feb 12        BREMSAT         Reentered
Feb 16        Progress M-25   Deorbited
Feb 23        Molniya-1 (58)  Reentered
Feb 24        ODERACS F       Reentered
Feb 27        ODERACS II E    Reentered
Mar  2        ODERACS II D    Reentered
Mar  3        ODERACS E       Reentered
Mar  3        Foton 10        Landed in Russia

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun 22  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       EAFB RW22     STS-67  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                                 STS-70
ML2/                                 STS-67
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70          VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 235               1995 Mar 27                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour was at Edwards AFB late last week being prepared for
its trip home to Kennedy Space Center.

Mir
---

The Soyuz TM-20 spaceship landed 22 km northeast of Arkalyk in
Kazakhstan at 0404 UT on 1995 Mar 22. It carried cosmonauts Viktorenko,
Kondakova and Polyakov home from the Mir complex. Soyuz TM-20 was
launched on 1994 Oct 3 with Viktorenko, Kondakova and Merbold, and its
flight duration was 169 days 5 hr 22 min. Kondakova's 169 day flight
beats the previous womens' space duration record of  14 days set last
year by Japan's Chiaki Mukai and the previous career total of 34 days
held by NASA's Shannon Lucid. Viktorenko now has a career total of 489
days, making him the third most experienced space traveller in terms of
flight hours. But Valeriy Polyakov, who had been aboard Mir as station
doctor since Jan 1994, beats all records with a flight lasting 437 days
17 hr 59 min and a career total of 678 days 16 hr 34 min.

The EO-18 crew (callsign 'Uragan' or "Hurricane") of Vladimir Dezhurov,
Gennadiy Strekalov and Norman Thagard continue work aboard the Mir
complex. The Soyuz TM-21 ship is docked to the rear port; the Progress
M-27 (No. 227) cargo ferry is being prepared for launch next month.
The launch schedule for the Spektr module is being revised.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kosmos-2310, launched Mar 22 into a 105.02 min, 980 x 1010 km x 82.9 deg
orbit from Plesetsk, is a Parus type navigation satellite for the Russian
Navy. The Parus satellites are built by PO Polyot of Omsk.

Kosmos-2311, launched Mar 22 from Plesetsk into a 89.54 min, 169 x 334
km x 67.1 deg orbit, is a Yantar' class reconnaissance satellite. It is
expected to remain in service for a little over two months.

Erratum: I didn't spot the "PM" in the NASDA news release; launch
time of the H-II was 0801 on Mar 18, not 12 hours earlier as I reported last
issue.

GMS-5 has been renamed Himawari ("Sunflower") 5. The apogee motor fired
at 0054 UTC on Mar 19 and separated, leaving GMS-5 drifting at the
geostationary altitude. Meanwhile, SFU raised its orbit at 0549 on Mar
23 from 365 x 395 km x 28.5 deg to its operational height of 467 x 496
km.


Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Feb  3 0522   Discovery    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   04A
              Spacehab SH03)
Feb  4 0457   ODERACS II A )                  Discovery, LEO  Calibration 04C
              ODERACS II D )                                  Calibration 04F
              ODERACS II C )                                  Calibration 04E
              ODERACS II B )                                  Calibration 04D
              ODERACS II F )                                  Calibration 04H
              ODERACS II E )                                  Calibration 04G
Feb  7 1226   Spartan 204                     Discovery, LEO  Astronomy   04B
Feb 15 1648   Progress M-26   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       05A
Feb 16 1740   Foton No. 10    Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Materials   06A
Mar  2 0638   Endeavour    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   07A
              Astro 2      )
Mar  2 1300   Kosmos-2306     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 08A
Mar  7 0923   Kosmos-2307  )  Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC200  Navigation  09A
              Kosmos-2308  )                                  Navigation  09B
              Kosmos-2309  )                                  Navigation  09C
Mar 14 0611   Soyuz TM-21     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   10A
Mar 18 0801   SFU          )  H-II            Tanegashima     Science     11A
              GMS-5        )                                  Weather     11B
Mar 22 0405?  Kosmos-2310     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk        Navigation  12A
Mar 22 0618   Intelsat 705    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      13A
Mar 22 1645?  Kosmos-2311     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Recon       14A


Reentries
---------

Mar  2        ODERACS II D    Reentered
Mar  3        ODERACS E       Reentered
Mar  3        Foton 10        Landed in Russia
Mar 10        Kosmos-2280     Deorbited
Mar 15        Progress M-26   Deorbited over Pacific
Mar 18        Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Mar 18        Kosmos-2244     Deorbited
Mar 22        Soyuz TM-20     Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun 22  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Jun
OV-105 Endeavour       EAFB          STS-67  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44                VAB Bay 3 STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70          VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 236               1995 Apr 4                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Mar 27
and is now being prepared for the STS-69 flight.
Launch of the Spektr module to Mir will be delayed, and
this may delay the planned launch of Atlantis in June.


Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last Atlas E was launched on Mar 24 from Space Launch Complex 3-West
at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Atlas E launch vehicles
were refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles which had been
built in the early 1960s. Atlas 45E carried an Air Force DMSP (Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program) satellite into space. The DMSP's Star
37S solid motor fired to insert the satellite in a 101.9 min, 846 x 854
km x 98.8 deg orbit. It is one of the Block 5D-2 series; all DMSP
satellites were built by RCA Astro Space, which is now Lockheed Martin
Astro Space. The satellite carries the OLS (Operational Linescan System)
weather imager, and a set of microwave sounders and particle
detectors. The satellite is 5D F-13 (the 13th flight satellite of
the Block 5D class), and is also designated DMSP 24547 (probably,
I haven't got confirmation of this). The 24547 designation says that
this is the 24th Block 5 satellite to be launched, and is spacecraft
construction number 47 (these last two digits do not necessarily
reflect the launch order). 

Three satellites were lost when a Russian launch vehicle fell in the Sea
of Okhotsk on Mar 28. The five-stage Start launch vehicle, which took
off from Plesetsk, is based on the Nadiradze bureau's three stage Topol'
ballistic missile. A four stage Start-1 variant  successfully placed a
test satellite in orbit in Mar 1993. This time, although the basic four
stages worked fine, the new fifth stage failed and the payloads did not
reach orbit.

The two commercial payloads on the Start were Gurwin-1 and UNAMSAT.
The Start also carried a prototype satellite, the EKA
(Eksperimental'niy Kosmicheskiy Apparat). Gurwin-1, also known as Techsat,
was built by the Technion Institute of Technology in  Israel.
The 50 kg satellite carried a CCD camera, a radiation detector,
an ozone monitor, and an amateur radio packet BBS as well as satellite
technology tests.  UNAMSAT was an AMSAT Microsat class amateur radio
satellite built by UNAM, the Autonomous University of Mexico. 

The Ariane launch vehicle returned to flight on Mar 28, following a
failure last December. It successfully placed in geostationary transfer
orbit two communications satellites, Eutelsat Hot Bird 1 and Brasilsat
B2. Hot Bird 1, an Aerospatiale-built Spacebus 2000 satellite,
is also known as Eutelsat II F-6. It was enhanced from the standard
Eutelsat II configuration to carry extra Ku band transponders.
Eutelsat satellites are owned by the European Telecommunications Satellite
Organization and broadcast TV to Europe and the Mediterranean.
Brasilsat B2 is owned by Embratel, the Brazilian government telephone
company. It is the second HS-376W, a wide diameter variant of the
classic Hughes HS-376 comsat in use since 1980. 

The new generation Zenit-launched spy satellite Kosmos-2290 was launched
on 1994 Aug 26. In late March of this year (between Mar 24 and 29) it
raised its apogee by 200 km, from an orbit of 181 x 382 km x 64.8 deg to
181 x 571 km x 64.8 deg, and four new small objects were tracked in the
post-manouevre orbit. It seems likely that this marks the end of the
Kosmos-2290 mission. Russian spy satellites are usually deorbited at the
end of their mission, and it is not clear whether the orbit raise of
Kosmos-2290 reflects a new operational regime, a new disposal strategy, 
a deorbit burn that went in the wrong direction, or (less likely) a
tracking by US Space Command of a residual part of the spacecraft
following recovery of a reentry vehicle.

There was another launch on Apr 3, but I don't have any details yet.

Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar  2 0638   Endeavour    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   07A
              Astro 2      )
Mar  2 1300   Kosmos-2306     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 08A
Mar  7 0923   Kosmos-2307  )  Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC200  Navigation  09A
              Kosmos-2308  )                                  Navigation  09B
              Kosmos-2309  )                                  Navigation  09C
Mar 14 0611   Soyuz TM-21     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   10A
Mar 18 0801   SFU          )  H-II            Tanegashima     Science     11A
              GMS-5        )                                  Weather     11B
Mar 22 0405?  Kosmos-2310     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk        Navigation  12A
Mar 22 0618   Intelsat 705    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      13A
Mar 22 1645?  Kosmos-2311     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Recon       14A

Mar 24 1405   DMSP 24547      Atlas E         Vandenberg SLC3 Weather     15A

Mar 28 0900   Gurwin-1     )  Start           Plesetsk        Technology  FTO
              UNAMSAT      )                                  Comsat      FTO
              EKA          )                                  Dummy       FTO

Mar 28 0618   Eutelsat HB1 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou          Comsat      16B
              Brasilsat B2 )                                  Comsat      16A

Apr  3 1500?  ?                                                           17A

Reentries
---------

Mar  2        ODERACS II D    Reentered
Mar  3        ODERACS E       Reentered
Mar  3        Foton 10        Landed in Russia
Mar 10        Kosmos-2280     Deorbited
Mar 15        Progress M-26   Deorbited over Pacific
Mar 18        Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Mar 18        Kosmos-2244     Deorbited
Mar 22        Soyuz TM-20     Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun 22  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44                VAB Bay 3 STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70          VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 237               1995 Apr 12                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Processing of Discovery for STS-70 and Atlantis for STS-71 continues; it
seems likely that STS-70 will fly first because of the delays in the Mir
program. Columbia completed its refit in California and departed
Palmdale on Apr 11 aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft en route to KSC.

Mir
---

Dezhurov, Strekalov and Thagard remain aboard Mir; they had been
in space for 29 days 9 hr 49 min at 1600UTC on Apr 12. Launch of
Progress No. 227 (named Progress M-27 after launch) 
was carried out on Apr 9 at 1934 UTC, and the Progress docked with
the Mir complex on Apr 11 at 2300 UTC.

Apr 12 is the 34th anniversary of the launch of the Vostok spaceship,
when Yuriy A. Gagarin became the first human in space.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The newly formed Lockheed Martin carried out its first launch
on Mar 22; the former General Dynamics Commercial Launch Services,
which had become Martin Marietta CLS, is now part of the new
Lockheed Martin empire, and the San Diego (old GD/Convair Space Systems
Division) and Denver (old Martin Marietta Astronautics Titan plant)
operations are to be merged.

Lockheed Martin's Atlas IIAS launch vehicle flight AC-115 (Atlas stage
number 8204) took off from LC36B at Cape Canaveral and placed a Space
Systems/Loral FS-1300 class communications satellite in orbit for
INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization.
Intelsat 705 will be placed over the Atlantic Ocean. 

The AC-115 launch was swiftly followed by the final Atlas E launch from
Vandenberg on Mar 24, and a further Atlas Centaur launch, this time a
IIA model, from pad 36A at Canaveral on Apr 7. AC-114 (with Atlas first
stage 8111) placed  American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s AMSC-1 into orbit.
AMSC-1 (also known as M-SAT) is a Hughes HS-601 class comsat with 16
L-band and one Ku-band transponders. The satellite is the first to be
optimized for mobile telephone communications. It will be complemented
by a similar M-SAT satellite for Canada's Telesat Mobile Inc., to be
launched later this year.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Pegasus launch vehicle returned to flight on
Apr 3. This was the first successful launch using the Lockheed L-1011
carrier airplane, which took off from Vandenberg AFB and dropped the
Pegasus over the Point Arguello Warning Area in the Pacific. The 3-stage
standard Pegasus placed three small satellites in a 730 x 750 km x 70.0
deg orbit. The three satellites all use OSC's new Microstar bus design.
Two of the satellites, Orbcomm FM1 and FM2, are the first satellites in
OSC's  Orbital Communications Corp. (Orbcomm) subsidiary's low Earth
orbit (LEO) communications network. They are 1.0m in diameter and 0.16m
high, with a mass of 40 kg; once on orbit they deploy a 3.3m long
VHF/UHF communications antenna and a pair of solar panels spanning 2.2m.
Orbcomm FM2's uplink antenna was malfunctioning last week, but FM1
was operating well.

The third satellite is Microlab 1, a 68 kg scientific satellite 1.0m in
diameter and 0.3m high. It carries NASA-MSFC's Optical Transient
Detector experiment to study the global distribution of lightning, and
the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's GPS-MET experiment
 which will study the occultation of GPS navigation satellite signals by
the atmosphere to derive meteorological information. Microlab is owned
by OSC, with NASA and NSF renting the space for and operation of their
experiments.

The Orbcomm program has been shrouded in commercial secrecy, with
few details released on the precursor test payloads:
  Satellite     Launch date    Orbit             Design.
  Orbcomm-X     1991 Jul 17    771 x 776 x 98.5  1991-50B
  Orbcomm-XP-1  1993 Feb  9    727 x 790 x 25.0  1993-09A
  Orbcomm?      1993 Apr 25    747 x 835 x 69.9  1993-26B
  Orbcomm FM1   1995 Apr  3    727 x 756 x 70.0  1995-17A
  Orbcomm FM2   1995 Apr  3    737 x 747 x 70.0  1995-17B
  Microlab 1    1995 Apr  3    731 x 749 x 70.0  1995-17C

On Apr 5 Israel launched its most sophisticated satellite to date, the
'Ofeq-3  ("Horizon-3") 3-axis stabilized technology satellite. The
Shaviyt launch vehicle  took off on a westward trajectory from Palamchim
Air Force Base in Israel and placed the satellite and the AUS-51 solid
motor third stage in a retrograde orbit. 'Ofeq-3 carries an
electro-optical scanner and has a mass of 225 kg. It has been reported
in the media as Israel's first spy satellite, but I think this is
probably an overstatement. 'Ofeq-3 should probably be considered as
Israel's first 3-axis-stabilized technology development satellite, with
an experimental imaging system (whose resolution may be as good as a few
metres) intended for both remote sensing and military reconnaissance
applications, but it isn't a full fledged spysat.

'Ofeq-3's westward orbit is rare, but not a record; some US Air Force
satellites in the 1960s went to an inclination of 144 degrees to the
eastward equator (i.e. 36 degrees to the westbound equator). There are
quite a few polar retrograde satellites with inclinations up to around
105 degrees, and the GAMBIT spy satellites used inclinations up to 110
degrees regularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Below I give a table of all
satellites whose inclinations exceeded 110.5 degrees.

   Highest inclination satellite orbits

Satellite       Launch       Orbit (km x km x deg)   Owner
 GAMBIT 28      1966 May 14   133 x  358 x 110.6      NRO
 GAMBIT 68      1971 Jan 21   139 x  418 x 110.9      NRO
 GAMBIT 69      1971 Apr 22   132 x  401 x 110.9      NRO
 GAMBIT 71      1971 Oct 23   134 x  416 x 110.9      NRO
 GAMBIT 64      1970 Apr 15   130 x  388 x 111.0      NRO
 GAMBIT 66      1970 Aug 18   151 x  365 x 111.0      NRO
 GAMBIT 67      1970 Oct 23   135 x  396 x 111.1      NRO
 GAMBIT 70      1971 Aug 12   137 x  424 x 111.0      NRI
 GAMBIT 72      1972 Mar 17   131 x  409 x 111.0      NRO
 GAMBIT 44      1966 Jun 20   127 x  325 x 111.4      NRO
 GAMBIT 49      1968 Jan 18   138 x  404 x 111.5      NRO
 GAMBIT 51      1968 Apr 17   134 x  427 x 111.5      NRO
 GAMBIT 47      1967 Oct 25   136 x  429 x 111.6      NRO
 GAMBIT 45      1967 Aug 16   142 x  449 x 111.9      NRO
 CORONA 66?     1964 Jun 13   350 x  364 x 115.0      NRO
 CORONA 70?     1964 Aug 21   349 x  363 x 115.0      NRO
 Geos 3         1975 Apr  9   839 x  853 x 115        NASA
 GAMBIT 27      1966 Apr 19   145 x  398 x 117.0      NRO
 RAE 1          1968 Jul  4  5861 x 5861 x 120        NASA
 NTS 1          1974 Jul 14 13445 x13767 x 125        USAF
 'Ofeq-1        1988 Sep 19   245 x 1152 x 142.9      Israel
 'Ofeq-2        1990 Apr  3   206 x 1586 x 143.2      Israel
 'Ofeq-3        1995 Apr  5   369 x  729 x 143.4      Israel
 OV1-2          1965 Oct  5   403 x 3462 x 144.3      USAF
 OV1-8P         1966 Jul 14   998 x 1013 x 144.3      USAF
 OV1-4          1966 Mar 30   879 x 1011 x 144.5      USAF
 OV1-5          1966 Mar 30   996 x 1048 x 144.7      USAF

Kosmos-2290 was deorbited on Apr 4 from its 180 x 557 km x 64.8 deg
orbit. The reason for the unusual maneuver a week before deorbit
(see JSR 236) remains unclear.

My description of the Start launch vehicle last week was inaccurate;
it differs from Start-1 in that there is a new second stage inserted
between the first and second stages of Start-1. According to Maxim
Tarasenko, apparently there are actually six stages including a small
kick motor to circularize the orbit. The failure was in the fourth
stage, and the fifth stage never got a chance to fire. The debris
impacted eastern Russia.

Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar  2 0638   Endeavour    )  Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   07A
              Astro 2      )
Mar  2 1300   Kosmos-2306     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Calibration 08A
Mar  7 0923   Kosmos-2307  )  Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC200  Navigation  09A
              Kosmos-2308  )                                  Navigation  09B
              Kosmos-2309  )                                  Navigation  09C
Mar 14 0611   Soyuz TM-21     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   10A
Mar 18 0801   SFU          )  H-II            Tanegashima     Science     11A
              GMS-5        )                                  Weather     11B
Mar 22 0405?  Kosmos-2310     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk        Navigation  12A
Mar 22 0618   Intelsat 705    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      13A
Mar 22 1645?  Kosmos-2311     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Recon       14A

Mar 24 1405   DMSP 24547      Atlas E         Vandenberg SLC3 Weather     15A

Mar 28 0900   Gurwin-1     )  Start           Plesetsk        Technology  FTO
              UNAMSAT      )                                  Comsat      FTO
              EKA-2        )                                  Dummy       FTO

Mar 28 0618   Eutelsat HB1 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou          Comsat      16B
              Brasilsat B2 )                                  Comsat      16A

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C

Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur        Cargo       20A


Reentries
---------

Mar  2        ODERACS II D    Reentered
Mar  3        ODERACS E       Reentered
Mar  3        Foton 10        Landed in Russia
Mar 10        Kosmos-2280     Deorbited
Mar 15        Progress M-26   Deorbited over Pacific
Mar 18        Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Mar 18        Kosmos-2244     Deorbited
Mar 22        Soyuz TM-20     Landed in Kazakhstan
Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        Aboard SCA    OMDP    -
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Under review
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-71  Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44                VAB Bay 3 STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70          VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 238               1995 Apr 24                    Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis was rolled to the VAB on Apr 20 and was mated with the external
tank and SRBs on Apr 21. Launch is to be no earlier than Jun 19.
Atlantis should be on pad 39A by Apr 26; Discovery could
be on pad 39B by May 11. 

The SCA 905 carrier aircraft returned Columbia to Kennedy Space
Center on Apr 14. It was stored in Vehicle Assembly Building Bay 2 pending
availability of a parking space in the Orbiter Processing Facility.
On Apr 21 it was towed to OPF Bay 3 after that bay was vacated by
Atlantis.


Mir
---

The docking time of Progress M-27 was 2100 UT on Apr 11, not 2300 UT as
I reported last week. Included in Progress M-27's cargo was a small
geodetic satellite built by Kayser-Threde for the Geoforschungszentrum
Potsdam, Germany. GFZ-1 is a 21 cm diameter, 20 kg sphere covered with
laser retroreflectors. It was ejected from Mir's science airlock on Apr
19 and given the international designation 1986-17JE. I don't have the
time of ejection yet. GFZ-1's orbit was 92.34 min, 383 x 394 km x 51.6
deg on Apr 20. 

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ESA's ERS-2 Earth Resources Satellite was launched on Apr 21 by Ariane
flight V72. The spacecraft, built by Dornier for the European Space
Agency, will be operated in tandem with ERS-1. It is based on Matra's
SPOT bus, and carries a hydrazine engine for precise orbit control.
ERS-2 has a 10-m long SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) for C-band radar
imaging of the Earth. Its primary mission is to study the sea surface
and polar ice. The SAR is linked to an Active Microwave Imager
instrument; also carried are a radar altimeter for wave heights, the
ATSR Along Track Scanning Radiometer for sea surface  temperatures, and
the PRARE orbit determination experiment. These are all similar to
experiments aboard ERS-1; ERS-2 also carries a new GOME global ozone
monitoring experiment. ERS-2 entered a 100.56 min, 783 x 786 km x 98.6
deg orbit.

According to Michelle Lyle of Arianespace, this V72 launch and
the preceding V71 launch both used the H-10+ third stage.
An enhanced third stage, the H-10-3, was first used on V70 and will
be phased in to eventually replace the H-10+. The Ariane is usually
flown to geostationary transfer orbit; flights to sun-synchronous
orbits are rarer, and usually carry secondary microsatellite payloads.
No secondary payloads were carried on this latest mission.

                Ariane Polar Flights
 Date           Flight   Model    Payload   Secondary       Orbit
                                                          km x km x deg
 1986 Feb 22     V16      AR1      Spot      Viking      824 x 825 x 98.8
 1990 Jan 22     V35      AR40     Spot 2    ASAP 1      825 x 825 x 98.7
 1991 Jul 17     V44      AR40     ERS-1     ASAP 2      776 x 782 x 98.5
 1992 Aug 10     V52      AR42P    Topex     ASAP 3     1316 x1331 x 66.1
 1993 Sep 26     V59      AR40     Spot 3    ASAP 4      816 x 818 x 98.7
 1995 Apr 21     V72      AR40     ERS-2                 783 x 786 x 98.6


Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

EUTELSAT's Hot Bird 1 satellite has been on station at 12.5 deg E since
Apr 9. Brasilsat B2, launched on the same Ariane flight, reached its
60.9 deg W station on Apr 7. 

Intelsat 705 is now at 56 deg W. Meanwhile, during April Intelsat 507 left 
its GEO position at 56.5 deg E and by Apr 21 was at 48E drifting 0.2 deg
per day W.

The AMSC-1 mobile communications satellite has reached geostationary
altitude. On Apr 11 it raised its orbit from 367 x 40142 km x 25.6 deg
to 10064 x 40165 km x 9.0 deg. By Apr 16 the orbit was 35666x  40110 km
x  0.92 deg, and by Apr 19 it was circularized at 35759 x 35797 km x 0.1
deg, drifting 0.1 deg per day eastward over 102 deg W.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Mar 22 0409   Kosmos-2310     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  12A
Mar 22 0618   Intelsat 705    Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      13A
Mar 22 1645   Kosmos-2311     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       14A

Mar 24 1405   DMSP 24547      Atlas E         Vandenberg SLC3 Weather     15A

Mar 28 1000   Gurwin-1     )  Start           Plesetsk LC158  Technology  FTO
              UNAMSAT      )                                  Comsat      FTO
              EKA-2        )                                  Dummy       FTO

Mar 28 0618   Eutelsat HB1 )  Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16B
              Brasilsat B2 )                                  Comsat      16A

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C

Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       20A
Apr 19?       GFZ-1           -               Mir             Geodesy     8617JE
Apr 21 1344   ERS-2           Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Rem Sensing 21A


Reentries
---------

Mar 10        Kosmos-2280     Deorbited
Mar 15        Progress M-26   Deorbited over Pacific
Mar 18        Endeavour       Landed at Edwards AFB
Mar 18        Kosmos-2244     Deorbited
Mar 22        Soyuz TM-20     Landed in Kazakhstan
Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Deorbited over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-70  Jun? Under review
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1     STS-71  Jun? Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71          VAB Bay 3 STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   VAB Bay 1 STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 239               1995 May 4                    Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A quiet week...

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39A on Apr 26 for mission STS-71;
Discovery was rolled from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle
Assembly Building on May 3 and mated to the external tank and solid
boosters for mission STS-70 the same day. It has now been decided to fly
Discovery before Atlantis. Discovery will carry a TDRS communications
satellite into orbit.

Mir
---

Launch of the GFZ-1 satellite from Mir, described in the last issue,
was at 1912 UT on Apr 19.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Erratum: The ERS-2 launch time was 0144 UT, not 1344 UT; I misunderstood
the information provided by Arianespace's PAO.


Contact with the Clementine space probe in solar orbit has now been
fully regained. Not enough fuel remains for an asteroid encounter,
so a burn was due to be made last week to slow the probe's drift
away from Earth to maximize communications time.

Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

Here are the positions of the satellites launched so far this year:
 Intelsat 704   66.0E
 UHF F/O F4    177.9W
 Himawari 5    159.7E
 Intelsat 705   56.2W
 Brasilsat B2   60.8W
 Hot Bird 1     12.5E
 AMSC-1        101.8W drifting 0.1E/day


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C

Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       20A
Apr 19 1912   GFZ-1           -               Mir             Geodesy     8617JE
Apr 21 0144   ERS-2           Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Rem Sensing 21A


Reentries
---------

Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Deorbited over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jun  8
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 19-24? Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 240               1995 May 15                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Discovery was rolled out to pad 39B on May 11, joining Atlantis which
has been on pad 39A for two weeks. Launch of Discovery is scheduled for
Jun 8. Crew are Col. Tom Henricks, USAF (Commander); Kevin Kregel
(Pilot); and mission specialists  Maj. Nancy Currie, US Army, Dr. Donald
Thomas, and Dr. Mary Weber. Kregel and Weber are making their first
flights. For those pedants who keep track: Nancy Currie, born Nancy
Decker, was called Nancy Sherlock at the time of her previous mission -
I think this is the first time someone has flown twice under different
names. Trivia question: Who was the first person to fly in space using a
surname other than the one they were born with? There have been eight by
my count, not including Christa Corrigan who didn't reach orbit. Bonus
question for Mike C. and Jim O. - list the eight by birth surname.

Discovery's mission is STS-70. The only major cargo bay payload is the
TDRS-G communications satellite with an IUS upper stage, mounted on an
IUS tilt table in the cargo bay.

Mir
---

EO-18 cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov carried out
their first spacewalk on May 12, starting at 0420 UT. The cosmonauts
used the airlock on the Kvant-2 module, and the EVA lasted 6 hr 8 min.
The purpose of the spacewalk was to prepare for removal of the Kristall
solar arrays and their transfer to the Kvant module.


Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A classified US satellite was launched at 1345 UT on May 14 from pad 40
at Cape Canaveral Air Station by Titan Centaur TC-17. The Titan 401
model core stage was serial no. K-23. In the past, classified Titan 401
missions have orbited geostationary and highly elliptical orbit signals
intelligence satellites. I don't have any details yet on the current
mission.

Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

 Intelsat 507 has arrived at its new station of 47.1E.

 Between Apr 28 and May 5 Intelsat 705 moved from its 56W testing location
to a new station of 50.0W.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus/L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C
Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       20A
Apr 19 1912   GFZ-1           -               Mir             Geodesy     8617JE
Apr 21 0144   ERS-2           Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Rem Sensing 21A
May 14 1345   USA 110?        Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     

Reentries
---------

Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Deorbited over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jun  8
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 22-24? Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 241               1995 May 22                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

STS-70 is scheduled for Jun 8.

Congratulations to Mike Cassutt who not only found all eight answers to
my astronaut challenge last week, but trumped me with two more I didn't
know about. The first person to fly in space having previously
changed their name was Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who was born Vladimir Krysin.

Mir
---

EO-18 cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov carried out
their second spacewalk on May 17. A solar array was removed from the
Kristall module and transferred to the Kvant module; however, they were
unable to attach it properly, and it is lashed to the mounting with
string and sticky tape or the equivalent. A third spacewalk on May 22
appears to have been successful.

The Spektr TKM-O module was launched from Baykonur on May 20. Spektr
carries an array of remote sensing instruments including the Grif,
Astra, Taurus and Oktava-Pion sensors in the main TKS based module and
the Oktava-Lira/Buton, Faza, and Elis sensors on the equipment truss. It
also carries a small manipulator arm and a small science airlock for
deploying materials exposure canisters. The module is  based on the
military TKS spacecraft which was first tested in 1977. The O module (as
Spektr is also known) will attempt to dock with Mir on June 1. It will
join the similar D module (Kvant-2) and the T module (Kristall).

TKS class flights:

Launch      Spacecraft        Cargo
1977 Jul    Kosmos-929        Merkur spaceship
1981 Apr    Kosmos-1267       Merkur spaceship
1983 Mar    Kosmos-1443       Merkur spaceship
1985 Sep    Kosmos-1686       Military payload
1987 Mar    Kvant SB          Kvant module
1987 May    Polyus            Polyus spacecraft
1989 Nov    Kvant-2           Airlock module
1990 May    Kristall          Docking module

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intelsat 706 was launched on May 17 by an Ariane 44LP rocket. This launch
marked the second use of the improved H-10-III third stage. Intelsat 706
was built by Space Systems/Loral. On May 18 it was in a 4376 x 35791 km x 4.0 deg
transfer orbit.

The DC-X has returned to flight at White Sands, making a 2 minute,
1 km apogee flight on May 16.

Reports indicate that the classified USA 110 satellite probably entered
geostationary orbit.

Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

Intelsat 506 left its 50.0W station in early May to begin an eastward
drift; TDRS 3 left its 171.5W station on May 1, drifting at 2 deg per
day. On May 19 it was at 108E; Brasilsat B2 has moved from 60.8W to
65.0W; the Raduga satellite 1994-12A has begun to drift west from its
45.8 deg E station. Gorizont satellite 1989-04A is at 34.1 deg E.
Meteosat 4 was moved off station at 8W around May 10.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus/L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C
Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       20A
Apr 19 1912   GFZ-1           -               Mir             Geodesy     8617JE
Apr 21 0144   ERS-2           Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Rem Sensing 21A
May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A

Reentries
---------

Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Deorbited over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jun  8
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 22-24? Under review
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 20 
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 242               1995 Jun 4                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of STS-70 has been delayed until after the Mir docking flight
(STS-71). Woodpeckers pecked holes in the external tank's spray-on foam
insulation. STS-70 will be rolled back to the VAB this week for repairs.
Launch of the STS-71 mission is now scheduled for Jun 22. The mission
commander is Robert 'Hoot' Gibson, chief of the Astronaut Office. The
pilot is Charles Precourt, and the three mission specialists are Ellen
Baker, Greg Harbaugh and Bonnie Dunbar. All have flown in space before.
Atlantis will also carry into orbit the Mir EO-19 crew, commander
Anatoliy Solov'yov and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin. Solov'yov, a
Russian born in Latvia, has made three spaceflights, commanding Soyuz
TM-5, TM-9 and TM-15, for a total of over a year in space. Budarin is a
rookie.

In response to readers' requests, here is the full list of  space
travellers who changed their names before flying: Vladimir Krysin (Dzhanibekov),
Georgiy Kakalov (Ivanov), Shannon Wells (Lucid), Anna Tingle (Fisher),
Millie Hughes (Hughes-Fulford),   Ellen Shulman (Baker), Kathryn Cordell
(Thornton), Nancy Decker (Sherlock, Currie), Chiaki Naito (Mukai). Mike
Cassutt says that Rich Clifford's birth name is probably Uram, but I don't
have confirmation of this.

Mir
---

It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Mir complex. On May 22, the Mir
complex had the Kvant module docked at the rear (+X) port, and the
Progress M-27 cargo ship docked at the front, -X (containing docking
cone no. 1). There are four more ports at the front of Mir, +Y, -Y, +Z,
-Z, which share a single docking cone (no 2) which is needed each time a
docking is made. The Kvant-2 TsM-D module is docked at +Y, and the
Kristall TsM-T module was attached at -Y with cone no 2. On May 17 the
cosmonauts had transferred one of the  solar arrays from Kristall to the
Kvant (TsM-e) module at the other end of the station using the Strela
crane. Dezhurov and Strekalov carried out EVA-3 on May 22, completing
the attachment of one the Kristall solar array to the Kvant module and
rolling up the other one on Kristall so it doesn't get in the way. 

On May 23 the Progress M-27 cargo ship undocked from the -X port and was
deorbited. Then on May 26 Kristall was rotated from the -Y to the -X
port.  On May 28 the cosmonauts carried out a 21 min EVA to move cone
no. 2 from the -Y to the -Z ports, allowing Kristall to be moved to -Z
on May 30. Next, the Spektr module, which was launched on May 20, docked
with the station at -X at around 0056 on Jun 1. Dezhurov and Strekalov
went outside again for 23 minutes to move cone 2 again, back to the -Y
port. Spektr was due to be rotated into the -Y slot on June 3.

The plan is for  the transfer of Kristall from -Z
to -X on June 7. All will then be ready for the docking of Atlantis with
Kristall, which has to be at the -X position so that Atlantis doesn't
bump into the solar panels from the other modules. After the STS-71
flight, Kristall goes back to -Z. Later in the year, STS-74 will
deliver the SM (Stikovochnoy Modul' or docking module) to be docked
to the Kristall shuttle port; this extension will let Atlantis dock
safely with Kristall in the -Z position, avoiding repeated reconfigurations.
At the end of the year, the final TsM-I (Priroda) module will dock at -X
and be rotated to the remaining port, +Z. The following year, if
Atlantis is docked at the same time as both a Soyuz and a Progress
there will be a total of seven modules plus three spaceships docked
together at once - not a bad space station.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kosmos-2311 spy satellite completed its 70 day mission on May 31.

Kosmos-2312, an Oko early warning satellite, was launched on May 24. The
satellite and Blok-L upper stage were placed in a 213 x 518 km x 62.8
deg parking orbit; the Blok-L fired to place Kosmos-2312 in a 12 hr, 602
x 39274 km x 62.9 deg orbit. The Oko satellites are built by NPO
Lavochkin.

Lockheed Martin chalked up two Atlas launch successes in 8 days with the
launch of the GOES J weather satellite and the UHF Followon F5 comsat.
First up was GOES J (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite J),
which became GOES 9 on orbit. The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral,
is the second in the GOES Next series and will be used by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). GOES 9 was launched by
Atlas Centaur AC-77, an Atlas I class launch vehicle at 0552 on May 23.
The Centaur first burn was at 0557, and the second burn at 0616.
At 0621 the Centaur separated, leaving GOES 9 in a 206 x 42319 km x 27.5 deg
transfer orbit. On May 27, perigee was raised to 10928 km and inclination
lowered to 8 deg, and on May 29 perigee was raised again to
35622 km. On May 31 the spacecraft was in a 35614 x 42419 km x 0.29 deg
orbit, at 91 deg West drifting 1.5 deg west per hour.

The UHF Followon F5 comsat, also known as EHF F5, was launched on May
31. The satellite is an HS-601 class, built by Hughes. It will be used
by the US Navy for communications. The Atlas II Centaur launch vehicle,
AC-116, took off from pad 36A at 1527 UT on May 31. The Centaur ignited
at 1532 as the Atlas fell away, and entered parking orbit at 1538:52.
The engine restarted at 1550 UT to place the HS-601 satellite in
geostationary transfer orbit. The orbit was 293 x 27133 km x 27.0 deg;
the low apogee  was deliberate, and will be increased by firings of the
HS-601's onboard liquid propellant engine. Note the difference between
this and the GOES 9 transfer orbit, whose apogee is higher than
synchronous altitude; the replacement of solid apogee motors with the
more flexible liquid ones during the 1980s has led to a wide variety of
strategies for delivering payloads to geostationary orbit.

Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

GOES 5 is on station at 67.1W.
Intelsat 506 is on station at 31.5W
TDRS 3 drifted past 96E on May 23
AMSC 1 is now on station, at 101.0W
Intelsat 706 went on station at 55.9W around June 1.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Apr  3 1348   Orbcomm 1  )    Pegasus/L1011   VAFB/PAWA       Comsat      17A
              Orbcomm 2  )                                    Comsat      17B
 	      Microlab 1 )                                    Science     17C
Apr  5 1116   'Ofeq-3         Shaviyt         Palamchim       Technol.    18A
Apr  7 2347   AMSC-1          Atlas IIA       Canaveral LC36A Comsat      19A
Apr  9 1934   Progress M-27   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       20A
Apr 19 1912   GFZ-1           -               Mir             Geodesy     8617JE
Apr 21 0144   ERS-2           Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Rem Sensing 21A
May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010?  Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk        Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A

Reentries
---------

Apr  3        Kosmos-2137     Reentered
Apr  4        Kosmos-2290     Deorbited over Pacific
May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul?
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 22?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Aug?
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72          VAB Bay 1? STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
!      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 243               1995 Jun 13                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

The STS-70 stack was rolled back to the VAB on June 8 and repairs to the
foam insulation on External Tank ET-71 damaged by Northern Flicker
Woodpeckers have begun. Discovery will be rolled back to the pad on
around Jun 19, a few days before the scheduled launch of Atlantis to
Mir. Erratum: STS-71 commander Hoot Gibson is the FORMER chief
astronaut; the current incumbent is Bob Cabana, since Gibson stepped down
prior to training for STS-71. Thanks to Nathan Bridges and Jerry Matulka
for drawing this to my attention.

Mir
---

The Mir complex is now in the configuration needed for the Atlantis
docking mission.
The Spektr module was rotated to the -Y position at around 2000 UT on Jun 2.
Rotation of Kristall back to the -X Atlantis docking position was carried out
on Jun 10, brought forward from Jun 15 due to a leaky seal.
Jim Oberg reports that an EVA is scheduled on Jun 15 to inspect 
malfunctioning solar arrays on Spektr and Kvant-2, and the leaky -Z port.


Mir configuration, 13 Jun 1995

                                         |
                                         |  []
                                         |||||
                |                       -------    
                |                   |  /       \
                |                   |  |       |
                | Relocated         |  |   |   |
                | Panel             |  |   |   |
                |                   |  |   |   |
                |                   | /  Spektr \
   Soyuz      __|___  _____________ | \_   -Y  _/
|\_____  __  _|     \ |            \|___\_____/__/\_______   APAS
|TM21| \/  \|  Kvant ||    Mir          \//\\ /           \  __
| ___|_/\__/|_       ||+X           ____ |  |||-X Kristall |/  \/ <- Atlantis
|/            |     / |             ____/\\// |            |\__/\    docking
              ------  |____________/ / _/---- \-_  _______/          port
                 ||                 /  /  +Y   \ \/
                 ||                /   \_Kvant-2/
                 ||       Strela  /    |       |
                 ||       crane        |       |
                 ||                    |   |   |
         Sofora  ||                    |   |   |
                 ||               SPK  |       |
                [_]                  []|       |
              VDU                       \_____/
                                        |-----|
                                        Airlock                                        


Note: Orientation of Strela, relocated panel, and Sofora girder 
are rotated from their actual positions.
(c) JCM 1995
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EO-18 cosmonaut-researcher Norman Thagard had spent 96 days 17 h 49 min
in space  at 0000h on Jun 13, for a career total of 122 d 4h 33 min over
his five spaceflights. This beats the longstanding US record of 84 days
1 hr 16 min set by Gerald Carr, Ed Gibson and William Pogue in 1974
aboard Skylab. Thagard's fellow crewmember Gennadiy Strekalov, also on
his fifth flight, now has a career total of 250 days, which puts him
18th in the Russian experience rankings.

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kosmos-2313 is an electronic intelligence satellite for monitoring
naval vessels. It uses a low thrust engine to maintain its 415 km orbit.
It was launched from Baykonur on Jun 8 by a two-stage Yuzhnoe Tsiklon-2 rocket,
based on the R-36 (SS-9) ICBM.

DirecTV's DBS 3 satellite was launched on Jun 9. The three stage Ariane
model 42P launch vehicle used for this flight has two strapon solid
boosters. It inserted DBS 3 into a 220 x 31525 km x 7.0 deg, 550 minute
geostationary transfer orbit. DBS 3 is an HS-601 direct broadcast
television satellite for US domestic service. This was the fourth Ariane
launch in less than three months.

Geostationary satellite movements
---------------------------------

GOES 9 is at 90.5 deg W.
UHF F/O F5 is now drifting in the geostationary arc over the Pacific.
 On June 7 it was at 172W, drifting 0.1 deg E per day.
SBS 3 apparently moved out of geostationary orbit from its 74W location in 
 early June.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010?  Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk        Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A
Jun  8 0430?  Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur        Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A

Reentries
---------

May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 22?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72          VAB Bay 1 STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   VAB Bay 3 STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 244               1995 Jun 20                   Cambridge, MA
* Happy birthday to the Special Theory of Relativity, 90 years old this week! *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-71 to the Mir station is
scheduled for Jun 22 at 2108 UTC. Docking with Mir is scheduled for
Jun 26 at 1430 UTC.

Discovery was moved back to pad 39-B on Jun 15 after the completion
of woodpecker hole repairs. It is now scheduled for launch
on mission STS-70 on Jul 13.

Mir
---

The spacewalk scheduled to check the solar arrays has been cancelled.
EO-18 cosmonaut-researcher Norman Thagard had spent 96 days 17 h 49 min
in space  at 0000h on Jun 19 (the Jun 13 number I gave last week should
have been 90 days, apologies for the typo).

Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were no new orbital launches this week.

The McDonnell Douglas DC-X reusable rocket made its seventh flight
on Jun 12, reaching an apogee of 1.9 km and testing the reaction
control system. The rocket angle of attack was pitched over 
in a preparatory test for the next flight, which includes
a 180 degree pitchover simulating  the attitude change needed
after reentry from orbit.

DirecTV's DBS 3 satellite was in a 35773 x 35830 km x 0.1 deg, 1436.9
min drift orbit over 110.3 deg W on Jun 19.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010?  Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk        Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A
Jun  8 0430?  Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur        Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A

Reentries
---------

May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?
Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-71  Jun 23
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72          VAB Bay 1 STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104   LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 245               1995 Jun 27                   Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial Note: The WWW version of the newsletter will now be
making available draft info throughout the week as it becomes
available to me, on the Stop Press page
<URL:http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/latest.html>.

Shuttle
-------

OV-104 Atlantis lifted off from pad 39A at 1932:18 UTC on 1995 Jun 27.
Ascent was normal through main engine cutoff and external tank ET-70
separation at 1941 UTC. The OMS 2 orbit circularization burn
was carried out at 2015 UTC. Expected post-OMS 2 orbit was 157 x 295 km
x 51.7 deg, period 89.0 min. Docking with Mir is expected on Thursday.


Recent Launches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second flight of the Pegasus XL air-launched rocket ended in failure
on Jun 22. The Lockheed L-1011 Stargazer carrier aircraft took off from
Vandenberg AFB around 1900 UT and flew to the Point Arguello Warning
Area over the Pacific Ocean off the California Coast. The Pegasus was
dropped at 1958 and the first stage fired successfully. However, an
interstage ring failed to jettison prior to second stage ignition at
1959 UT. This caused loss of vehicle control, and at 2000 UT the range
safety officer destroyed the vehicle at an altitude of  144 km. STEP 3,
built by TRW, had a mass of 265 kg. It  carried the SAMME  (Space Active
Modular Materials Experiments) payload to study exposure to space of
solar cells and advanced materials, as well as vibration suppression
technology and experimental computer disk drives. The first Pegasus XL
flight last year also failed to reach orbit. The latest failure is bad
news for manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp. and for the small satellite
owners whose launches will be delayed; NASA's science program was
planning to use the Pegasus XL intensively over the next year.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010   Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A
Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A?

Reentries
---------

May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?
Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-71  Jun 27
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72          VAB Bay 1 STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3                        LC39A     STS-71

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu    |
|  USA                               |          jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/jsr.html                       |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 246
Date: Tuesday, 04 July, 1995 10:16

Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 246               1995 Jul 4                   Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Atlantis fired its OMS engines for the first rendezvous burn, NC-1, at
2311 UTC on Jun 27, putting it in a 91.35 min, 293 x 387 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. A second burn at 1048 UTC on Jun 28 raised the orbit to 91.47
min, 302 x 390 km. Further rendezvous burns were the NH burn at about
2157 on Jun 28; NC3 at about 0757 on Jun 29; and the TI (Terminal
Initiation) burn at 0930 on Jun 29. By 1100 UTC on Jun 29 Atlantis was
stationkeeping 100 metres from Mir; at 1240 it had approached to 10
metres from the Kristall port.

Docking of Atlantis with Kristall was completed successfully on time at
1300 UTC. The docking ring was retracted to draw the spacecraft together
and make a tight seal by 1306 UTC, and at around 1500 UTC the Atlantis
crew entered Mir.

The ten individuals on board the Mir/Atlantis complex were a record
for the crew of a single space vehicle (although there have been
as many as thirteen humans in space at once). The ten were:
   Robert 'Hoot' Gibson (STS-71 Commander), 
   Charles Precourt (STS-71 Pilot), 
   Ellen Baker (STS-71 Mission Specialist 1), 
   Greg Harbaugh (STS-71 Mission Specialist 2), 
   Bonnie Dunbar (STS-71 Mission Specialist 3),
   Vladimir Dezhurov (Mir EO-18 Komandir), 
   Gennadiy Strekalov (Mir EO-18 Bortinzhener), 
   Norman Thagard (Mir EO-18 Kosmonavt-issledovatel'),
   Anatoliy Solov'yov (Mir EO-19 Komandir), and 
   Nikolai Budarin (Mir EO-19 Bortinzhener).
The Mir/Atlantis complex was in a 393 x 399 km x 51.6 deg orbit with
a period of 92.49 min on Jun 30.

At 0218 UTC on Jun 29 Mir and Atlantis were easily observable from
the Harvard campus, Atlantis following Mir by a few minutes and of
comparable brightness.

On Jul 3 the EO-18 and STS-71 crews returned to Atlantis, and
the EO-19 crew (Solov'yov and Budarin) closed the Mir hatch at
around 2000 UT. Early on Jul 4, the two EO-19 cosmonauts entered
the Soyuz TM-21 ferry ship and prepared to undock for an exercise
in joint manoeuvring and photography. 

Soyuz TM-21 undocked at 1055 UTC on Jul 4, and backed off to a distance
of 100m. Atlantis then undocked at 1109:45 UTC and began to back away
from the Mir station. As Atlantis began its flyaround at a distance of
210m, Soyuz redocked with the Kvant module at 1139 UTC. Redocking was
about a minute early. Just prior to the redocking, one of Mir's attitude
control  computers crashed, putting Mir in free drift, although this was
not considered a serious problem. This was Solov'yov's seventh docking
with Mir over the course of four missions. At 1235 UTC, Atlantis
completed its 360 degree flyaround and ignited its engines for the
separation burn, while sending back spectacular TV of the Mir complex. 

There have been two previous occasions in which three Russian spacecraft
have been flown in proximity operations. On 1969 Oct 15 the Soyuz-6,
Soyuz-7 and Soyuz-8 spacecraft carried out a rendezvous, although the
planned docking of Soyuz-7 and Soyuz-8  was not carried out. Details
of this operation are still not available. All three
spacecraft were occupied on that occasion. On 1993 Jul 3, the Progress
M-18 cargo ship undocked from Mir while the Soyuz TM-17 ferry was
stationkeeping a few hundred metres away, docking at the vacated port
twenty minutes later. On that occasion the EO-13 crew were aboard Mir
and the EO-14 crew aboard Soyuz, while the Progress does not carry a
crew. The only occasions on which three US spacecraft have carried
out proximity ops involved use of the Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU);
I only count occasions when the spacecraft were not physically connected,
which rules out most spacewalks.

    Triple Spacecraft Rendezvous History
    ------------------------------------
    Date         Spacecraft             Crew
    (Duration)

    1969 Oct 15  Soyuz 6                Shonin, Kubasov
                 Soyuz 7                Filipchenko, Volkov, Gorbatko
    (Unknown)    Soyuz 8                Shatalov, Yeliseev

    1984 Apr  8  Challenger             Crippen, Scobee, Hart, Van Hoften
                 MMU 2                  Nelson
    (42 min)     Solar Maximum Mission  None

    1984 Nov 12  Discovery              Hauck, Walker, Fisher, Allen
                 MMU 3                  Allen
    (Unknown)    Palapa B2              None

    1984 Nov 14  Discovery              Hauck, Walker, Fisher, Gardner
                 MMU 2                  Gardner
    (Unknown)    Westar 6               None

    1993 Jul  3  Mir/Soy TM-16/Prg M-17 Manakov, Poleshchuk
                 Soyuz TM-17            Tsibliev, Serebrov, Haignere
    (20 min)     Progress M-18          None

    1995 Jul  4  Mir                    None
                 Soyuz TM-21            Solov'yov, Balandin
    (29 min)     Atlantis               Gibson, Precourt, Baker, Harbaugh,
                                         Dunbar, Dezhurov, Strekalov, Thagard

The Atlantis crew will now spend a few days carrying out further medical
research in the Spacelab module. The module aboard Atlantis is probably
Long Module Unit 2, which has made four previous flights into space
(Spacelab D1, International Microgravity Lab 1, Spacelab J, and Spacelab
Life Sciences 2). There is one other Spacelab Long Module, Unit 1, which
has made six flights in space (Spacelabs 1 and 3,  Spacelab Life
Sciences 1, US Microgravity Lab 1, Spacelab D2, and International
Microgravity Lab 2). [Can anyone confirm that LM Unit 2 is indeed the
module currently in orbit?]

Mir
-----

After the free flight and redocking, the EO-19 crew of Solov'yov and
Budarin opened the Soyuz TM-21 hatch and were back aboard Mir by 1240
UTC on Jul 4. The Kristall module will be repositioned from the -X to
the -Z port on Jul 17. Progress M-28 will be launched on Jul 20 and dock
at the -X port on Jul 22. On Sep 1 the Soyuz TM-22 spaceship will be
launched with the EO-20 crew of Yuri Gidzenko (RKA/Russian Air Force), 
Sergei Avdeev (RKA/Energia) and Thomas Reiter (ESA). Progress M-28  will
undock on Sep 2 and TM-22 will replace it at -X on Sep 3. The EO-19 crew
will undock from Kvant on Sep 9 and land in Kazakhstan. At the end
of October, Atlantis will revisit Mir on the STS-74 mission, delivering
the Stikovochnoy Modul' (Docking Module) to be attached to the Kristall
port. This module, developed by RKK Energia and built by the Krunichev factory
is around 2m in diameter and 5 m long, recently arrived in the US for
prelaunch processing.  (From the pictures, it doesn't seem to be related
to the 37K Kvant or 77KS Kvant-2 class modules - if anyone can tell me 
about its design heritage or has any more details on this module, please
email me.)

Recent
Launches
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Kosmos-2314 was launched on Jun 28 from Plesetsk into an 89.6 min, 
166 x 339 km x 67.1 deg orbit. The satellite is a Yantar' class 
spy satellite built by TsSKB (Central Specialized Design Bureau)
of Samara, Russia and will operate for around two months obtaining
images for the Russian GRU intelligence agency.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010   Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A
Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1830?  Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk        Recon       31A

Reentries
---------

May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?
Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-71  
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-69  Jul 30
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   VAB Bay 1 STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3                        LC39A     STS-71

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 247
Date: Friday, 07 July, 1995 16:45

Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 247               1995 Jul 7                     Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Editorial
---------

Please note the slight change in URLs for the WWW and FTP locations
of this report. 

Shuttle
-------

After undocking from Mir on Jul 4, Atlantis spent several days on orbit,
carrying out medical research work with the Spacelab-Mir
module in the cargo bay. On Jul 5 Atlantis was in a 92.44 min, 390 x 398 km
x 51.65 deg orbit. The orbit of Mir was 92.47 min, 393 x 398 km. 

The payload bay doors were closed in preparation for the deorbit burn on
Jul 7 at 1211 UTC (scheduled), and at 1345 UTC the OMS engines ignited
for the 3h 32s deorbit burn. Atlantis reached the nominal entry
interface with the atmosphere at 1422. The landing gear was lowered at
1454:21 UTC, and main gear touchdown on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space
Center was at 1454:36 UTC. The drag chute was deployed at 1454:39, with
nose gear touchdown at 1454:44. Atlantis rolled down RW15, releasing the
chute at 1455:10 and coming to a stop at 1455:27.

The Atlantis flight duration (launch to main gear touchdown) was 9 days
19 h 22 min 15s. The Mir EO-18 crew spent 114 days, 8 h 43 min in space,
setting a US record for Norm Thagard. Career totals for the astronauts
of both crews:
 Gibson     868 h 18m (5 flights)
 Precourt   475 h 02m (2 flights)
 Baker      686 h 31m (3 flights)
 Harbaugh   578 h 22m (3 flights)
 Dunbar     996 h 37m (4 flights)
 Dezhurov  2744 h 43 m (1 flight)
 Strekalov 6430 h 21 m (5 flights)
 Thagard   3349 h 27 m (5 flights)

The previous US record was 2017h 16m (Carr, Gibson, Pogue)
and the previous career record for currently active US astronauts
was Story Musgrave's 858 h 6m, now surpassed by both Dunbar and Thagard.
Of course, the world record is held by Valeriy Polyakov with 16288 hr 34m.

As Atlantis sits on the runway at Kennedy Space Center, Discovery
and Endeavour are on pads 39B and 39A ready for the STS-70 and
STS-69 missions in July and August. Endeavour was rolled out to the
pad on Jul 6.

Obituary
--------

Georgiy Timofeevich Beregovoy died on 1995 Jun 30 at the age of 74.
Beregovoy, born in the Ukraine on 15 Apr 1921, was a World War II pilot
and later a test pilot. In 1964 he joined the Soviet Air Force cosmonaut
detachment as a late addition to the 1963 group which included 
younger pilots such as Shatalov and Filipchenko. Beregovoy trained on
a backup crew for the cancelled Voskhod-3 mission, and in 1968
flew into space to test-fly the Soyuz spaceship after the fatal
1967 accident which resulted in the death of Komarov. Beregovoy's
Soyuz-3 carried out a rendezvous with the automated Soyuz-2 but was
unable to dock with it. Beregovoy left flight status in 1969 but
remained attached to the cosmonaut training team until his retirement
in 1987. [Thanks to Jim Oberg for passing on news of Beregovoy's death.]

Recent
Launches
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--


Russian launched a Tsikada class navigation satellite on Jul 5 from Plesetsk
into a 104.7 min, 959 x 1004 km x 82.9 deg orbit. The Tsikada satellites
are built by PO Polyot of Omsk. Satellites of this
type have been named in the Kosmos, Tsikada, and Nadezhda at various times;
this one is probably Nadezhda, the subtype that carries a COSPAS/SARSAT
search and rescue transponder. It was launched into orbital plane 11.
Recent launches into each of the Tsikada system orbital planes are:

 Plane 11           Plane 12           Plane 13           Plane 14

 Nadezhda    (7/89) Kosmos-1861 (6/87) Kosmos-2123 (2/91) Nadezhda (2/90)
 Kosmos-2181 (3/92)  (+RS-10/RS-11)     (+RS-12/RS-13)    Nadezhda (7/94)
 Kosmos-2230 (1/93) Nadezhda    (3/91) Tsikada     (1/95)
 Nadezhda?   (7/95)

The Kosmos-2314 spy satellite raised its orbit from 164 x 328 km x 67.1 deg
to 168 x 350 km x 67.1 deg on Jul 3. Such orbit raising maneuvers
are carried out several times during the mission for satellites of this
class.


Ariane V75 was launched at 1623 UTC on Jul 7 from Kourou, and launched the
first European spy satellite, Helios 1A. Matra Marconi Space's 
2537 kg Helios 1A is based on the SPOT remote sensing satellite bus.
It was originally going to be a purely French satellite, but
Spain and Italy have joined the program. The Ariane 40 launch vehicle
also carried an ASAP (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads)
with two microsatellites, CERISE and UPMSAT 1. 
CERISE is a 50 kg satellite built by Alcatel Espace for the 
French civil space agency CNES and the Delegation General de l'Armament
(DGA) of the French defense ministry. CERISE is a technology precursor
for French electronic intelligence satellites and is based on 
Surrey Satellite Technology's UOSAT bus. UPMSAT 1 is a small 47
kg satellite for microgravity and telecommunications research
built by the Polytechnic University of Madrid. (Does anyone know
if this is also a UOSAT bus?)

The DC-X made its seventh flight on Jul 7.

Geostationary Satellite Movements
---------------------------------

1982-110B, The SBS 3 satellite, launched in 1982 and previously at
 74.0W, was moved out of geostationary orbit on about Jun 2.
1988-91B, TDRS 3 is on station at 84.8E.
1995-27A, UHF F5 was at 173.0W drifting 0.05 deg W per day on Jul 1.
1986-26B, Brasilsat 2 moved out of geostationary orbit at 65W 
 in early June and is now drifting W at 0.3 deg per day.
The current list of geostationary satellites is available at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/geo.log.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

May 14 1345   USA 110         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Sigint?     22A
May 17 0634   Intelsat 706    Ariane 44LP     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      23A
May 20 0333   Spektr          Proton          Baykonur LC81   Mir module  24A
May 23 0552   GOES 9          Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36B Weather     25A
May 24 2010   Kosmos-2312     Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC16   Early Warn  26A
May 31 1527   UHF F/O F5      Atlas Centaur   Canaveral LC36A Comsat      27A
Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1825   Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       31A
Jul  5 0310?  Nadezhda?       Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132? Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A?
              CERISE     )                                    Sigint      33B?
              UPMSAT 1   )                                    Technology  33C?

Reentries
---------

May 23        Progress M-27   Deorbited
May 31        Kosmos-2311     Landed?
Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered
Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-70  Jul 13
OV-104 Atlantis        KSC RW15      STS-71  
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug  3
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A     STS-69
ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103   LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3                        VAB       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 248
Date: Friday, 14 July, 1995 12:32

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 248               Quatorze juillet 1995 (Bastille)          Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
(sound of Marseillaise humming in background...)

Navette
-------

STS-70 was launched at 1341:55 UTC on Jul 13. A hold was called at T-31s
(just before transition to RSLS computer control) when one of the flight
controllers noticed that the signal monitored by range safety destruct
radio recievers on the External Tank was fluctuating, but within a
minute he had fixed the problem and the Shuttle was cleared to continue
counting down from the T-31s mark with no recycle required. This was the
shortest time between landing of the previous mission and launch of a
new one - only 6 days. The previous  record between landing and next
launch for Shuttle missions was STS-55 in 1993, which followed the
STS-56 landing by 9 days.

The Solid Rocket Boosters (RSRM-44) separated at around 1343:58, and the
three main engines (including the new Block I upgrade engine) continued
burning successfully until main engine cutoff (MECO) around 1350:30 UTC.
The external tank (ET-71) separated, leaving Discovery in a 67 x 291 km
x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS 2 circularization burn was carried out
at 1424 UTC, putting Discovery in a 90.6 min, 301 x 302 km x 28.5 deg orbit,
and the payload bay doors were due to be opened at
1509 UTC. The TDRS-G satellite payload was deployed at 1955 UTC.
At around 2009 the OMS engines were fired to separate from the vicinity
of TDRS, putting OV-103 in a 90.85 min, 299 x 333 km x 28.5 deg orbit.

Crew of STS-70 are Col. Tom Henricks, USAF (Commander); Kevin Kregel
(Pilot); and mission specialists  Maj. Nancy Currie, US Army, Dr. Donald
Thomas, and Dr. Mary Weber.

Atlantis was towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility (anyone
know which bay?) on Jul 7 following its landing at Kennedy Space Center.
Its next mission is STS-74.

Station Orbitale Mir
---

The EO-19 crew of Solov'yov and Budarin have settled in on the Mir
station and are awaiting the launch of a Progress M supply craft.

It turns out that RKK Energia's 316GK docking module planned for launch
on STS-74 is a lengthened Soyuz BO (Bitovoy Otsek - Habitable Module or
orbital module), with a central cylindrical section added and two
APAS-89 docking units added on each end. Thanks to David Anderman and
Maxim Tarasenko for clearing this up.

Erreur
---------

Of course, the 3h 32s deorbit burn of Atlantis (JSR 247) should have
read 3min 32s!

Lancements recents
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

A Titan 4 Centaur was launched from Cape Canaveral on Jul 10.
The rocket used was Titan 45K-19 with the Centaur TC-8 upper stage.
According to John Pike, the rocket had the large (86 foot) payload shroud.
It was observed to head towards a high inclination orbit and it may
be assumed to be another satellite like USA 103 last year, an advanced
signals intelligence satellite intended for a Molniya-like orbit.

The Galileo Probe separated from the Orbiter at 0530 UTC on Jul 13. It
will  remain powered down for the coast to Jupiter, and will be awakened
when its accelerometers detect braking due to entry in Jupiter's
atmosphere. The Galileo Orbiter will fire its engine for a deflection
maneuver on Jul 27.

The modified Tsikada class navigation satellite launched on Jul 5 from
LC 132 Pad 1 at Plesetsk was named Kosmos-2315.  According to Maxim
Tarasenko, it carries an additional Kurs transponder. The modified
satellite may possibly have the designation Nadezhda-M.

TDRS-G, attached to Inertial Upper Stage IUS-26, was deployed from
Space Shuttle Discovery on Jul 13 at 1955 UTC. The IUS SRM-1 solid
rocket motor burn was at 2055 UTC, placing the TDRS and IUS SRM-2
in transfer orbit. At around 0230 UTC on Jul 14 the SRM-2 ignited
to place TDRS-G, now renamed TDRS-7, in a geosynchronous drift orbit.

Satellites geostationnaires
---------------------------------

1995-23A (Intelsat 706) is drifting E from its previous 56W position.

Table de lancements 
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1825   Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       31A
Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE     )                                    Sigint      33B
              UPMSAT 1   )                                    Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B

Retours dans l'atmosphere
------------------------

Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered
Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC

Etat de preparation des Navettes
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-70  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug  3
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A     STS-69
ML2/                       LC39B     STS-70                                 
ML3/                       VAB       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




</PRE>
</BODY>

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 249
Date: Sunday, 23 July, 1995 17:39

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 249               1995 Jul 23                      Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

After deployment of TDRS 7, Discovery's crew spent the week carrying out
a variety of in-cabin experiments. The new Mission Control room in
Houston was used to control orbit operations. Meanwhile, the TDRS 7
tracking and data relay satellite deployed by Discovery  is in
geosynchronous orbit approaching its operational position over the
Pacific.

Discovery's payload bay doors were closed in preparation for landing
early on Jul 21, but both KSC landing opportunities were waved off due
to weather, and at 1233 UTC the bay doors were opened once more as the
STS-70 crew prepared for an extra day in orbit. 

On Jul 22 at 1100 UTC the OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) engines
ignited for a 2 minute 55 second deorbit burn, putting Discovery on
track for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft touched
down at 1202:00 UTC on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery will
be towed to Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1 and will be prepared for a
ferry flight to Palmdale in California where it will be refurbished at
the Rockwell plant.

One of the RSRM O-rings on the Atlantis STS-71 mission was found to be charred
when the SRM was disassembled; this may be an issue for the date of the
next launch, currently set for Aug 5. This mission, STS-69, will use
orbiter Endeavour and includes the Wake Shield Facility and Spartan
subsatellites as well as the IEH astronomy experiment.

Mir
---

Solov'yov and Budarin carried out their first EVA on Jul 14 at 0356 UTC.
Duration was five hours 34 min. The stuck Spektr solar array has now been
fixed. The Kristall module was redocked
on Jul 17 from the -X axis to the -Z axis. A second spacewalk was
carried out on Jul 19; Ron Baalke's Space Calendar reports that
Solov'yov had problems with his spacesuit and not all the planned work
was carried out, and another EVA was due to be carried out on Jul 21.

Progress M-28 was launched on Jul 20 at 0304 UTC. According to Vladimir
Agapov, the launch mass was 7125 kg. Progress M-28 separated
from the Blok-I third stage at 0313 UTC into a 191 x 258 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. The first two orbital corrections were carried out at 0647 and 0737.
On Jul 22 at 0440, Progress M-28 docked with the -X port on the Mir
orbital complex (info from Agapov).

Corrected durations for the EO-18 crew: 115 days 08 hr 43 m, giving
Dezhurov 2768:43, Strekalov 6454:21, Thagard 3373:27.



Geostationary Satellite Movements
---------------------------------

1995-35B, TDRS 7 was at 171W drifting 2.5 deg/d E on Jul 19.
1995-29A, DBS 3 is at 110.4W.
1995-27A, UHF F/O F5 is drifting west at 4.5 deg/d.
On Jul 17 it passed 99 deg E.
1995-25A, GOES 9 is at 90.8W.
1995-23A, Intelsat 706 is at 53.1W.
1995-03A, UHF F/O F4 is at 177.2W.
1989-20B, Meteosat 4 is at 9.2E.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1825   Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       31A
Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B
              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       

Reentries
---------

Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered
Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug  5
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A     STS-69
ML2/                       
ML3/                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space ReportNo. 250               1995 Jul 30          Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle-------
Damage to the O-rings in internal nozzle joints in the left hand SRB for STS-71 and another SRB for STS-70 have raised safety concerns. Launch of STS-69 has been postponed pending checks on the sealant in the nozzle joints. It appears the problem can be solved by improvements to the process of applying the sealant, and there will only be a brief delay (less than a month).

Mir---
The second EVA was carried out on Jul 19 at 0039 UT and lasted 3 hr 8min. Solov'yov remained in the airlock hatch due to spacesuit problems, while Budarin began work on installing the MIRAS infrared spectrometer experiment. The third EVA was at 0030 on 21 Jul, and lasted 5hr 35 min. Both cosmonauts completed the installation of MIRAS. (Info from C. van den Berg's MIRNEWS). Progress M-28 is docked at the -X port on Mir; Soyuz TM-21 is docked at the +X port on Kvant.

Recent Launches--------------
Three Uragan (Hurricane) navigation satellites were launched on Jul 24 and given the names Kosmos-2316, 2317, and 2318. Their GLONASS satellite numbers are 780, 781 and 785 respectively. They will form part of the GLONASS system, in orbital plane 2. On Jul 25 the orbit of Kosmos-2316 was 675.26 min, 19101 x 19134 kmx 64.8 deg. The other two satellites were in similar orbits. 

The Galileo Orbiter successfully completed the ODM maneuver on Jul 27. This was the first major firing of the main liquid propellant engine which will be used for orbit insertion. The Orbiter is now targeted for its flyby of Io, while the Probe is on a Jovian impact trajectory.

Geostationary Satellite Movements---------------------------------
1995-35B, TDRS 7 was at 150W on Jul 27, drifting E at 2.5 deg/d.1995-29A, DBS 3 appears to be moving from its initial location at 110W.1995-27A, UHF F/O F5, is on station at 72.6E as of Jul 28.1994-55A, Optus B3 may have moved from its station at 152.5E 1984-80A, Himawari 3 has moved out of geostationary orbit.

Table of Recent Launches------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.                                                                           DES.
Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1825   Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       31A
Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       36A
Jul 24 1552   Kosmos-2316 )   Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Navigation  37A              Kosmos-2317 )                                   Navigation  37B              Kosmos-2318 )                                   Navigation  37C

Reentries---------
Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered
Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Current Shuttle Processing Status____________________________________________
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due                                           OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug  5                                          ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                                         
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A     
STS-69ML2/                       
ML3/                       .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 251
Date: Saturday, 05 August, 1995 14:16

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 251               1995 Aug 5                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

STS-69 was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Aug 1
because of hurricane Erin. Only minor damage was done to facilities
at KSC. It is still hoped that STS-69 will launch by the end of the month.

For mission STS-69, the cargo bay of orbiter OV-105 Endeavour contains
three NASA-Goddard science payloads and the commercial Wake Shield Facility.

(1) the Spartan Flight Support Structure (an MPESS type pallet) with the
  free flyer Spartan 201 solar corona observatory, on its third flight.
  Spartan is managed by NASA-Goddard, and the main UV experiment is
  built by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Mass of the SFSS is
  1090 kg, not including the 1289 kg Spartan satellite.
(2) the Wake Shield Facility Carrier (1760 kg), with two GAS-can type
experiments and
 the WSF Free Flyer satellite. The WSF Free Flyer (1979 kg) generates an
ultra-hard vacuum 
 in its wake for production of semiconductors and other experiments. WSF is
built 
 and operated by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center in Houston.
(3) a Hitchhiker-M pallet (another MPESS) with the IEH-1 International EUV
 Hitchhiker (2209 kg). This includes a solar EUV telescope (SEH), and an
Italian-US 
 EUV telescope, UVSTAR, which will observe a variety of astronomical targets
in
the 
 500-1250A range.
 Prime target for this mission is Io plasma torus around Jupiter. 
 Comet 6P/D'Arrest, currently near perihelion, may also be observed.
 UVSTAR has two 0.3m telescopes. The pallet also carries the GLO-3 airglow
 experiment in a canister and the CONCAP materials processing experiment in
another
 canister. 
(4) a GAS Bridge Assembly or GBA (a third MPESS) with four standard GAS can
experiments,
 plus the CAPL Hitchhiker experiment to test a cooling system for EOS
satellites and the
 Thermal Energy Storage (TES) GAS can experiment to do research on solar
dynamic power 
 for the Space Station.
(5) Two GAS Beam Adapters (? to be confirmed) attached to the cargo bay wall,
 carrying equipment for EDFT-2. EDFT-2 (EVA Development Flight Test) is 
 the second in a series of spacewalks to develop hardware, experience and
procedures
 for Space Station operations. Astronauts Voss and Gernhardt will conduct the
 six hour spacewalk.
(6) Two ITEPC radiation dosimeters mounted on APC carriers on the payload bay
 wall.

This will be the first flight to both deploy and retrieve two free
flying satellites in the same mission. The RMS robot arm will be used to
deploy and retrieve both Spartan 201 and the WSF Free Flyer. Many of the
payloads on STS-69 involved reusable hardware; the GAS Bridge is on its
8th flight, the Hitchiker-M for IEH on its second, WSF on its second,
and Spartan 201 is on its third flight. The Spartan and SEH instruments
are modified sounding rocket payloads. This makes the overall payload
cost of a mission like STS-69 lower, and fits in to NASA's `faster, cheaper,
better' strategy. [Thanks to Gerry Daelemans of GSFC for information.]

Mir
---

The EO-19 mission continues with cosmonauts Solov'yov and Budarin aboard
the Mir complex. They will be relieved by the EO-20 crew aboard
Soyuz TM-22 in September.

Recent Launches
--------------

Lockheed Martin's Atlas Centaur AC-118, an Atlas IIA variant, was
successfully launched on Jul 31 from Cape Canaveral. It placed a DSCS
III Defense Satellite Communications System payload into geostationary
transfer orbit. DSCS III satellites are built by the part of Lockheed
Martin that used to be General Electric. They are used for US Department
of Defense communications. Attached to the DSCS is an IABS (Integrated
Apogee Boost System) liquid apogee engine which will place it in
geostationary orbit. This was the first use of the Atlas IIA rather than
the Atlas II for the DSCS missions (the IIA has more powerful Centaur
engines, among other differences). The DSCS III satellites have used
quite a variety of launch vehicles - 

 DSCS III satellites to date:
 Launch order   Launch Date    Launch Vehicle           Flight
   1            1982 Oct 30    Titan 34D/IUS            34D-1
   2,3          1985 Oct  3    Shuttle/IUS              51-J
   4            1989 Sep  4    Titan 34D/Transtage      34D-2
   5            1992 Feb 11    Atlas II Centaur/IABS    AC-101
   6            1992 Jul  2    Atlas II Centaur/IABS    AC-103
   7            1993 Jul 19    Atlas II Centaur/IABS    AC-104
   8            1993 Nov 28    Atlas II Centaur/IABS    AC-108
   9            1995 Jul 31    Atlas IIA Centaur/IABS   AC-118
It is believed that all the DSCS III satellites launched to date have
reached geostationary orbit.

The Interbol-1 (Prognoz-M2) satellite was launched from Plesetsk late on
Aug 2. The Molniya-M launch vehicle took off from complex 43 at 2359:11
UTC; the strapons and Blok-A core stage separated, and the Blok-I third
stage ignited at 0004:03 UTC on Aug 3. The Blok-I shut down at 0008, and
separated at 0008:07, leaving Prognoz-M2, the Blok 2BL-SM2 fourth stage,
and the attached BOZ interstage platform in a 240 x 827 km x 62.8 deg,
95.0 min parking orbit around the Earth.
 At 0100:30 UTC, as the combination reached apogee, the Blok 2BL stage
ignited, and 40 seconds later the BOZ platform was jettisoned. At
0104:15 UTC the fourth stage shut down and separated from the Prognoz
payload, leaving it in a highly elliptical orbit of 797 x 193000 km x
62.8 deg (prelaunch estimated parameters), with an orbital period of 3
days 20 hours. US tracking gave an orbit of 505 x 193064 x 63.8 deg, 3 days
19.5 hr.
 Prognoz-M2 (SO-M2 no. 512) is the Khvostovoy Zond ("Tail") satellite 
of Project Interbol, intended to investigate the Earth's geomagnetic
tail.  The 1250 kg probe carries a detachable 50 kg  subsatellite
provided by the Czech Republic.   The Magion-4 subsatellite, which
separated from Prognoz-M2 at around 0925 UTC on Aug 3, carries
instruments to measure electric and magnetic fields for comparison with
the Prognoz instruments. (The original plan was for Magion-4 to remain
attached for several days, it's not clear why it separated so early).

The first Prognoz (SO-M) solar-terrestrial observatory was launched in
1972. Earlier Prognoz flights were all launched from Baykonur in
Kazakhstan. (The scientific Prognoz satellites should not be confused
with the geostationary Prognoz early warning satellites which are also
built by the NPO Lavochkin company).
 The Tail probe carries the following science instruments:
  SKA-1, PROMICS-3, VDP, AMEI-2, CORAL, ALPHA3 (plasma ions)
  ELECTRON, (plasma electrons) 
  MONITOR-3 (solar wind ions with high time resolution)
  IFPE (ion and electron flux variations)
  MIF-M, FGS-1, FM-31 (magnetometers); OPERA (electric field)
  AKR-X (solar radio emission 0.1-1.5 MHz)
  RF-15-1 (solar X-rays 2-240 keV)
  SKA-2, DOK-2, SOSNA-2, RKA-2 (energetic particles)
Project Interbol will be completed with the launch of the
Auroral probe (SO-M2 no. 511) which also carries a Magion subsatellite.
This launch will occur in 1996 if funds become available.
[Some of the above information is from the Kelydsh institute
homepage, http://www.kiam1.rssi.ru. ]


The PAS 4 satellite was launched by an Ariane 4 on Aug 3 into 
geostationary transfer orbit. Panamsat of Greenwich, Connecticut
operates the PAS satellites for international commercial communications.
PAS 4 is a Hughes HS-601 satellite and was known as PanAmSat K3 during
construction. The satellite has a dry mass of 1671 kg and carried 1372 kg
of fuel at launch for a total mass of 3043 kg. The 3.5 x 2.8 x 3.6 metre
box shaped satellite has two solar panel arrays with a wingspan of 26.2m.
The shaped antennas cover Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia from
PAS 4's planned location of 69 deg E. PAS 4 has 16 C-band and 24 Ku-band
transponders.

 This launch was the sixth successful Ariane launch this year. Flight
V76 was an Ariane 42L model, using the H10+ upper stage rather than the
new H10-3 stage (according to the press kit). Orbital injection into 
geostationary transfer orbit was achieved with a single third stage burn
terminating 18 min 25 sec after launch, with PAS 4 separating at launch
plus 21 min 14 sec into a standard transfer orbit of  507 x 35735 km x
4.2 deg, 636.1 min. [Thanks to Arianespace for info.]


The next launch scheduled from Cape Canaveral is Korea Telecom's
Mugunghwa satellite, to be launched on a McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925
from LC17B. Check the Orbital Stop Press page,
http://hea-www..harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/latest.html, for updates
during the week.


Geostationary Satellite Movements
---------------------------------

1995-35B, TDRS 7 moved on station on Jul 31 and is now at 150.1W, in a 
 1436.21 min, 35787 x 35790 km x 0.0 deg orbit. 
1994-55A, Optus B3 has been moved to 156E, colocated with Optus A3. 
 Optus A3 will be moved to 152E when its traffic has been transferred.  
 (Thanks to Anthony Belo of Optus for info.) 
1990-91B, Galaxy 6 appears to be moving off station at 74W.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jun  8 0443   Kosmos-2313     Tsiklon-2       Baykonur LC90   Recon       28A
Jun 10 0024   DBS 3           Ariane 42P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      29A
Jun 22 1958   STEP 3          Pegasus XL/L1011 PAWA           Science     FTO
Jun 27 1932   Atlantis        Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   30A
Jun 28 1825   Kosmos-2314     Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43   Recon       31A
Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B
              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       36A
Jul 24 1552   Kosmos-2316 )   Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC??   Navigation  37A
              Kosmos-2317 )                                   Navigation  37B
              Kosmos-2318 )                                   Navigation  37C
Jul 31 2330   DSCS III F9     Atlas IIA Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat    38A
Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39E?
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
   
Reentries
---------

Jun  8        Kosmos-2258     Reentered
Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Jul 22        Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-69  Aug ?
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   VAB Bay 1 STS-69
ML2/                          
ML3/RSRM-50                VAB Bay 3 STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: jcm@urania.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Followup-To: sci.space.policy
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 252
Date: 13 Aug 1995 08:00:00 -0700
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Message-ID: <9508131505.AA19007@urania.harvard.edu>

Jonathan's Space Report

No. 252               1995 Aug 13                         Cambridge, MA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle
-------

Endeavour was rolled back out to launch pad 39A on Aug 8. Repairs
to the SRBs begin this weekend.


Recent Launches
--------------

Delta no. 228, launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug 5, suffered the first
significant partial failure of a Delta II vehicle (out of 42 launches).
The Delta 7925 model took off from Pad 17B, but it appears that one of
the Hercules GEM strapon solid boosters failed to separate, causing the
first stage to deliver less velocity than planned to the vehicle. The
second stage compensated by burning for 35 seconds longer than planned
on its first burn, which placed the rocket in parking orbit. The second
burn to raise apogee and lower inclination was successful, but the third
burn of the second stage shut down early when fuel ran out. The
satellite and third stage separated from the second stage, and the PAM-D
third stage ignited, placing the satellite in an orbit with an apogee of
only 30000 km instead of 35700 km. The last similar strapon separation
failure was in 1974 during launch of the Westar 1 satellite. Delta has
been a remarkably reliable vehicle; in the last 25 years it has failed
to reach orbit only 3 times in 150 launches, with an additional handful
of partial failures similar to Delta 228.

The payload of Delta 228 is Korea Telecom's Mugunghwa satellite
(informally known to the Western media as Koreasat 1). Mugunghwa is
a Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 3000 satellite, and has a Star 30
solid apogee motor which will be fired to raise the orbit; Mugunghwa
will need to use some of its hydrazine stationkeeping propellant 
to complete the orbit circularization and make up for the stage 1 
underperformance. Late on Aug 5, Mugunghwa was in a 1371 x 29388 km x 20.6
deg, 532.3 min orbit. The Delta second stage, which was unable to make
its fourth planned burn to depletion after separation since the
fuel was already depleted, is in a 938 x 1373 km x 26.7 deg,
108.5 min orbit. On Aug 10 Mugunghwa fired the Star 30 motor and
entered a 1074.1 min, 26911 x 29817 km x 0.2 deg equatorial orbit.

The Magion 4 satellite has been cataloged as 23646, 1995-39F.
Space Command elements place it in a 760 x 191760 km x 63.3 deg
orbit with a period of 5454.13 minutes.

The IABS apogee stage from the DSCS III Atlas launch has not yet
been cataloged by Space Command.

A Molniya-3 satellite was launched on Aug 9 from Plesetsk. The Russian
Molniya satellites are used for domestic communications from 12-hour
period elliptical orbits inclined at 63 degrees.

Panamsat's PAS 4 satellite raised its orbit to 1203 min, 26461 x 35729 km
x 0.4 deg with burns of its liquid apogee motor on Aug 5 and Aug 6.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                           DES.

Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B
              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       36A
Jul 24 1552   Kosmos-2316 )   Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC??   Navigation  37A
              Kosmos-2317 )                                   Navigation  37B
              Kosmos-2318 )                                   Navigation  37C
Jul 31 2330   DSCS III F9     Atlas IIA Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat    38A
Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa       Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
   
Reentries
---------

Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Jul 22        Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug ?
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A      STS-69
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1? STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50                VAB Bay 3  STS-73                       

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 253
Date: Saturday, 19 August, 1995 13:10

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 253                   1995 Aug 19                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

STS-69 SRB repairs are beginning. Columbia will soon be rolled to the
VAB and mated with the STS-73 stack.


Recent Launches
--------------

The first flight of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle, LLV-1, was a failure.
The vehicle was destroyed 2 minutes and 40 seconds after launch from
Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg AFB, California. The first stage
separated on time, but the rocket started oscillating toward the end of
first stage flight. Shortly after second stage ignition the vehicle was
destroyed on command. The rocket was at an altitude of 148 km.

The LLV-1 consists of a Castor 120 first stage, an Orbus 21D second
stage, and an OAM Orbit Adjust Module hydrazine third stage. The payload
was VITASAT, a comsat for the Volunteers In Technical Assistance (VITA)
of Arlington, Virginia.  The 136 kg satellite was built using CTA Inc.'s
GEMSTAR bus, and is used by both VITA and CTA (CTA refer to the
satellite as GemStar 1).

By Aug 18, Mugunghwa-ho (Koreasat 1) was in a 1120.0 min, 27961 x 30731
km x 0.2 deg orbit, a period increase of 45 minutes over the past week
(out of a required increase of 6 hours to reach geostationary orbit.)
The Series 3000 satellite has a dry mass of 652 kg, and at launch
carried 625 kg of solid apogee motor fuel and 187 kg of hydrazine 
propellant for for a total mass of 1464 kg.  (Thanks to Jeongjoo Park
for Koreasat information).

On Aug 14, PAS 4 was at 69.5 deg E drifting 0.3 deg E per day.

Space Command data indicate that Himawari 4, 1989-70A, moved into
geostationary orbit and was on station at 120.0E on Aug 9. Spacenet 2,
1984-114A, has left its 69.1W location and is slowly drifting west at
0.1 deg/day. TDRS 1 is at 138.7W. Galaxy 6 is back at 74.1W; its
apparent excursion to 75W in early Aug. may have been an error.

Erratum
-------

In my note on DSCS, the 28 Nov 1993 Atlas launch should have
been AC-106, not AC-108. Thanks to several readers for catching this.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B
              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       36A
Jul 24 1552   Kosmos-2316 )   Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC??   Navigation  37A
              Kosmos-2317 )                                   Navigation  37B
              Kosmos-2318 )                                   Navigation  37C
Jul 31 2330   DSCS III F9     Atlas IIA Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat    38A
Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
   
Reentries
---------

Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Jul 22        Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug ?
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A      STS-69
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1? STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50                VAB Bay 3  STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 254
Date: Wednesday, 30 August, 1995 22:23

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 254                  1995 Aug 30                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Launch date for Endeavour on mission STS-69 has been set for Aug 31.
Crew of Endeavour/STS-69 are David Walker (Commander), Ken Cockrell (Pilot),
James Voss (Payload Commander), James Newman (Mission Specialist),
and Michael Gernhardt (Mission Specialist). The flight will
see the deployment and retrieval of the Wake Shield Facility
microgravity processing satellite and the Spartan-201 ultraviolet
solar observatory, as well as a spacewalk by Voss and Gernhardt
to test new equipment and techniques, and operation of the
International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH-1) and the Capillary
Pumped Loop Hitchhiker/GAS Bridge Assembly experiment payloads
in the cargo bay.

Meanwhile, Columbia has been moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building
and mated with the STS-73 stack.

Mir
----

Can anyone forward me details of a reported EVA on Mir on Aug 18? (It's
mentioned on Ron Baalke's Space Calendar). I haven't been able to
confirm it.

Recent Launches
--------------

JCSAT 3 is a Hughes HS-601 model communications satellite
owned by JSAT (Japan Satellite Systems). JSAT was formed in
1993 by the merger of Japan Communications Satellite Co (JCSAT,
which operated the first two JCSAT satellites) and Satellite
Japan Corp (SAJAC). JCSAT 1 and 2 are HS-393 spin-stabilized
satellites launched in 1989-90 and still operating.

JCSAT 3 was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS on
1995 Aug 29. The Atlas first stage was serial 8205, with Centaur AC-117
as the second stage. Launch was from pad 36B at Cape Canaveral.
JCSAT 3 is the first Japanese digital TV broadcasting
satellite, and programming will be operated  by DMC (Digital
Multi-Channel Planning Co, Ltd), a partnership of JSAT, Itochu Corp,
Mitsui and Co, Ltd, Nissho Iwai Corp and Sumitomo Corp. The satellite
will also provide data and fax transmission services. The hybrid
3-axis stabilized payload has 28 Ku band and 12 C band transponders.

The Atlas IIAS launch vehicle placed JCSAT 3 in a supersynchronous
transfer orbit. The higher the apogee, the less velocity change
needed to change the orbital plane and reach geostationary orbit, and
the Atlas placed JCSAT in an orbit which was even more favorable
than anticipated. (I don't have the parameters yet). 

The `N-STAR a' satellite (yes, the lower case letter a is, perversely,
correct) is an FS-1300 class Space Systems/Loral satellite built for
Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) of Japan. N-STAR a was launched
1995 Aug 29 on the V77 flight of Ariane, using an Ariane 44P with an
H-10 III third stage and the 01 fairing. The launch profile used a
standard geostationary transfer orbit. N-STAR a is to replace the CS-3
satellite at 132E. The satellite was damaged during transportation from
California to Guiane, and several weeks were needed for repairs. The
N-STAR a satellite has a launch mass of 3410 kg, a dry mass of 1617 kg,
and a BOL mass of 2057 kg. The 3-axis stabilized satellite has a solar
panel span of 27.3m, and a bus size of 2.4 x 2.2 x 2.2 m. Height is 6.3
m including the payload mast. Mass of the third stage in orbit with the
VEB is 2065 kg at orbit insertion, or 1770 kg after fuel depletion (1240
kg H-10-3, 530 kg VEB). The payload includes 11 Ka-band and 8 Ku-band
transponders for telephone relay, 5 C-band transponders for
communications to remote islands,  and an S-band transponder for mobile
communications. (source: Av Week, Arianespace)

In a third success for Japan this week, a small TR-1A suborbital
sounding rocket was successfully launched from Tanegashima on Aug 25.

The IABS final stage of the DSCS III B7 launch has now been cataloged as
object 23648.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jul  5 0309   Kosmos-2315     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navigation  32A
Jul  7 1623   Helios 1A  )    Ariane 40       Kourou ELA2     Recon       33A
              CERISE        )                                 Sigint      33B
              UPM LBSAT 1   )                                 Technology  33C
Jul 10 1238   USA 112         Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC41  Sigint      34A
Jul 13 0530   Galileo Probe   -               Galileo, Solar orb.      89-84E
Jul 13 1342   Discovery       Space Shuttle   Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   35A
Jul 13 1955   TDRS 7          IUS             Discovery,LEO   Comsat      35B
Jul 20 0304   Progress M-28   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       36A
Jul 24 1552   Kosmos-2316 )   Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC??   Navigation  37A
              Kosmos-2317 )                                   Navigation  37B
              Kosmos-2318 )                                   Navigation  37C
Jul 31 2330   DSCS III B7     Atlas IIA Centaur Canaveral LC36A Comsat    38A
Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
Aug 29 0053   JCSAT 3         Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      43A
Aug 29 0641   N-STAR a        Ariane 44P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
   
Reentries
---------

Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Jul 22        Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-73  Sep 26
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Aug 31
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A      STS-69
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1? STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   VAB Bay 3  STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 255
Date: Tuesday, 05 September, 1995 13:53

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 255                      1995 Sep 5                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Launch date for Endeavour on mission STS-69 has been set for Sep 7
following a scrub on Aug 31 nine hours before launch because of a faulty
fuel cell. Endeavour is on pad 39A.

Meanwhile, Columbia has been moved to launch pad 39B (probably around
Aug 28) from the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Mir
----

The EO-20 crew were launched on Soyuz TM-22 from Baykonur on Sep 3 at
0900:23 UTC. They will spend 135 days in space. Crew commander is Yuriy
Pavlovich Gidzenko of the Russian Air Force. Flight engineer is Sergey
Vasil'evich Avdeev of RKK Energiya, and cosmonaut-researcher is Thomas
Reiter of the European Space Agency. Soyuz TM-22 docked with Mir's front
(-X) port at 1029:54 UT on Sep 5 and the hatch was opened at 1101:23.
The EO-19 crew, Anatoli Solov'yov and Nikolai Budarin, have been on the
station since June's STS-71 mission and will return to Earth in the
Soyuz TM-21 ferry. The Progress M-28 cargo ship probably undocked from
Mir on Sep 4.

Following up my query last week, I now confirm that there was no EVA from Mir
on Aug 18. Sorry about the confusion.

Recent Launches
--------------

The National Space Agency of Ukraine (NKAU) has launched its first
satellite, Sich. Sich is  based on the Okean remote sensing satellites
built by the Ukrainian company NPO Yuzhnoe for the USSR and subsequently
the Russian Space Agency.

Carried into orbit with Sich was the FASat Alfa microsatellite, with
imaging and communications experiments for the Chilean Air Force.
Reports indicate that FASat-Alfa failed to separate from the Sich main
payload. FASat-Alfa uses the Surrey Satellite Technology Uosat bus.

A Kosmos satellite was launched by Proton from Baykonur on  Aug 30 into
geostationary orbit. On Sep 1, Kosmos-2319 was at 89 deg E drifting 1
deg W per day.

JCSAT 3, launched on Aug 29, was placed in an initial orbit of
248 x 80682 km x 23.1 deg, with a period of 1681.65 min.
N-Star a was launched into a standard transfer orbit of 172 x 35775 km x
7.0 deg. On Aug 30 the orbit was raised to 7384 x 35755 km x 3.7 deg and
then again to 34090 x 35732 km x 0.1 deg.
The Mugunghwa-ho (Koreasat) satellite is now  in near-geostationary
orbit; on Aug 31 it was at 116.0E drifting 0.1 deg per day.
Optus B3 is now on station at 156.0E, replacing Optus A3
which is drifting west at 0.2 deg per day; Intelsat VA F13 is at 177.0W;
Brasilsat 2 is at 92.0W.

The Strategic Rocket Forces launched a Topol' ICBM from Plesetsk
at 0750 UT on Sep 5.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
Aug 29 0053   JCSAT 3         Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      43A
Aug 29 0641   N-STAR a        Ariane 44P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
Aug 30 1933?  Kosmos-2319     Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Comsat?     45A
Aug 31 0650   Sich-1          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 46A
              FASat-Alfa                                      Comsat      46A
Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship
   
Reentries
---------

Jul  7        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Jul 22        Discovery       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Sep 
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-69  Sep  7
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-48/ET-72/OV-105   LC39A      STS-69
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1? STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 256
Date: Tuesday, 12 September, 1995 17:44

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 256                    1995 Sep 12                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Orbiter OV-105 Endeavour was launched at 1509:00 UTC on 1995 Sep 7 from
pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The SRBs (RSRM-48) separated at about
1511:03, and the main engines shut down at 1517:33, with separation of
External Tank ET-72 a few seconds later. Endeavour was inserted into a
65 x 365 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS 2 orbit circularization
burn at 1551 UTC was successful, placing Endeavour in a 368 x 377 km x
28.5 deg orbit. Opening of the payload bay doors was planned for around
1630 UTC. Crew of STS-69 are David Walker, Kenneth Cockrell, James Voss,
James Newman and Michael Gernhardt.

The Spartan 201 satellite was grappled by the RMS arm at around 1500 UTC
on Sep 8 and unberthed at 1515 UTC. It was released into orbit at 1543 UTC.
Orbital parameters on Sep 9 were 368 x 376 km x 28.5 deg.
Spartan 201 is built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It
carries a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ultraviolet
telescope to study the Sun.


Endeavour made re-rendezvous with Spartan 201 on Sep 10 at around 1420 UTC.
However, Spartan appears to have entered safemode and was not in the
expected orientation. Walker and Cockrell flew the Orbiter around
Spartan until the RMS arm was aligned with the grapple fixture on
Spartan, and Gernhardt drove the RMS in to grapple Spartan at 1502 UTC.
The satellite was berthed on the SFSS (Spartan Flight Support Structure)
around 1516 UTC and latched at 1521 UTC. The RMS then released the
satellite by 1524. 

The OMS-3 and OMS-4 burns were scheduled on Sep 10 at 1836 UTC and 1922
UTC to raise the orbit for WSF operations to 396 x 404 km x 28.5 deg.


The RMS was then used to grapple the Wake Shield Facility to establish a
data connection; the RMS remained attached to WSF overnight, and then
was used to unberth it early in the morning. The crew used the RMS to
move WSF over the side of the Orbiter and expose it to the direction of
flight (ram direction), to scrub it clean with the flow of the thin
upper atmosphere impacting it at orbital speeds. WSF was then moved on
the other side of the orbiter for release with its instrument side
oriented to the orbital wake, protected from further contamination. The
Wake Shield Facility was deployed into its first free flight on Sep 11
at 1125 UTC.


Mir
----

The EO-20 crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev, and Reiter, callsign `Uran', are now
on board the Mir complex. On previous international flights to Mir, the
visiting astronaut has had the title "Kosmonavt-issledovatel'"
(Cosmonaut-researcher). On this mission Reiter has extra
responsibilities and instead has the title "Bortinzhener-2" (Flight
Engineer 2). Gidzenko is "Komandir" (Commander) and Avdeev is
"Bortinzhener" (Flight Engineer), the usual designations. [Thanks to
Ashot Bakunts].

Progress M-28 undocked from the front port of Mir at 0607 UTC
on Sep 4 and was deorbited over the Pacific later that day.
[C. vd Berg]

The EO-19 crew returned to Earth on Sep 11 in the Soyuz TM-21 spaceship.
Anatoli Solov'yov and Nikolai Budarin undocked from the Kvant rear port
on Mir  at 0330:44 UTC and landed at 50 deg 41'N 68 deg 15'E, 108 km
northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, at 0652:40 UTC. [Thanks Vladimir!]
Soyuz TM-21 had been used to ferry the EO-18 crew (including Norm
Thagard) into space in March; the EO-18 crew returned to Earth in June
aboard Atlantis, which had delivered the EO-19 crew to the station.
The EO-19 flight lasted for 75 days 11 hr 20 min 22 sec, relatively
short by Mir standards. Solov'yov has now spent 453 days in space
on his four flights, which puts him fifth in the world rankings.


Recent Launches
--------------

As reported in JSR 254, the JCSAT 3 satellite was launched on Aug 29 at
0053:01 UTC by a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS.  Further data have become
available: The AC-117 Centaur stage ignited
at 0058:17 and burned for 4min 26s, shutting down at 0102:44 UTC in a
155 x 395 km x 28.2 deg parking orbit. At 0116:45 UTC the AC-117 stage
reignited for 1min 47s; Centaur MECO2 (main engine cutoff 2) was at
0118:32 UTC. The Centaur then separated and inserted the Hughes HS-601
JCSAT payload into a 167 x 81423 km x 23.5 deg orbit. On Aug 30, Space
Command elements gave JCSAT 3 in a 260 x 80799 km x 23.2 deg orbit.
The Centaur stage has not yet been cataloged. JCSAT 3 is owned
by Japan Satellite Systems (Kabushiki-gaisha Nihon Sateraito Sisutemuzu).
Thanks to Peter Collins (Cape Canaveral Air Station) and Jun Takei (JSAT) for
information.

Obituary
--------

Reinhard Furrer, who flew on the Spacelab D-1 mission in 1985, 
died on Sep 9 at the age of 54. The Austrian-born physicist
was a payload specialist for the DFVLR (German space agency)
on the mission, aboard flight 61-A of Orbiter OV-099 Challenger.
He died in the crash of an antique Me-108 airplane at an air
show in Berlin. [Thanks to Andreas H"orstemeier for info.]

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
Aug 29 0053   JCSAT 3         Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      43A
Aug 29 0641   N-STAR a        Ariane 44P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
Aug 30 1933?  Kosmos-2319     Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Comsat?     45A
Aug 31 0650   Sich-1          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 46A
              FASat-Alfa                                      Comsat      46A
Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1643   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
                                                                             
 
  
Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Sep 26
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Oct 26
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-69  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1  STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 257
Date: Tuesday, 19 September, 1995 12:47

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 257                 1995 Sep 19                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The STS-69 mission was successfully completed on Sep 18.

The Wake Shield Facility carried out its free flight from Endeavour from
Sep 11 to Sep 14. The WSF satellite overheated and was placed in
safemode at 1200 UTC on Sep 12 but was reactivated at 0800 UT on Sep 13.
Four of the thin film high-vacuum manufacturing experiments were
completed during the flight.

By 1230 UTC on Sep 14 Endeavour completed its rendezvous with WSF and
began a series of experiments to study the contaminating effect of
thruster firings on the satellite. At around 1330 UTC the Orbiter began
the approach to WSF. It was grappled by the RMS arm at 1359 UTC on Sep
14 and was then reberthed on the carrier at 1518 UTC. The orbit was
lowered later that day to 338 x 346 km. WSF was unberthed again from
around 0700 to 1200 UTC and maneuvered around the cargo bay to measure
the electric field in the vicinity of the Orbiter.

On Sep 16 at around 0820 UTC Voss and Gernhardt began a 6h 46m spacewalk
to evaluate procedures and hardware for Space Station assembly. The
astronauts worked at the task board on the starboard side of Bay 3,
testing out foot restraints and assembling connectors; and flew at the
end of the robot arm in cold conditions to check modifications to the
spacesuit for cold weather conditions. The airlock was repressurized at
1502 UTC.

Endeavour returned to Earth on Sep 18 with a deorbit burn at 1035 UTC.
Main gear touchdown was at 1137:56 UTC on runway 33 at Kennedy Space
Center; wheels stop was at 1138:52. Mission duration from launch to main
gear touchdown was 10 days 20 hr 28 min 56 s. Total flight time for
OV-105 Endeavour over 9 flights is 2255h 21m.


The external tank for STS-74 was connected to the solid rocket
boosters on Sep 11. Examination of the STS-69 solid rocket boosters
confirms that the joint repair was successful; no erosion was seen.
The next Shuttle launch is mission STS-73 with orbiter Columbia,
due on Sep 28.

Mir
----

The EO-20/Euromir-95 crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter remain
aboard the Mir complex. Next major events are the launch of the Progress
M-29 supply ship and a spacewalk on Oct 20.

Recent Launches
--------------

Kosmos-2319 is now in geostationary orbit at 80 deg E. The slot has been
used by both military communications and early warning satellites;
Kosmos-2319 may be a Geizer communications satellite.

 Longitudes of Kosmos satellites operating in GEO:

  Al'tair data relay:
   Kosmos-1897  52.6E
   Kosmos-2054  15.9W
  Geizer military communications:
   Kosmos-1961  79.3E
   Kosmos-2085  70.8E
   Kosmos-2172  13.5W
   Kosmos-2291  79.9E
  Probable missile early warning satellites:
   Kosmos-1894  25.6W
   Kosmos-2133  79.9E
   Kosmos-2209  24.2W
   Kosmos-2224  11.5E
   Kosmos-2282  24.1W

JCSAT 3 has lowered its orbit to geostationary. On Sep 10 it was in a
35718 x 42951 km x 0.25 deg orbit; by Sep 14 it was in a 35704 x 35921
km x 0.1 deg orbit at 128.2 E drifting 0.4 deg W per day. On Sep 11,
N-Star a was at 132.0E; the Mugunghwa-ho (Koreasat) satellite is on
station at 116.0E.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
Aug 29 0053   JCSAT 3         Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      43A
Aug 29 0641   N-STAR a        Ariane 44P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
Aug 30 1933?  Kosmos-2319     Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur        Comsat?     45A
Aug 31 0650   Sich-1          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32   Rem.sensing 46A
              FASat-Alfa                                      Comsat      46A
Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1643   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
                                                                             
 
  
Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Sep 28
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Nov  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74          VAB Bay 1  STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 258
Date: Monday, 02 October, 1995 12:39

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 258                 1995 Oct  2                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Note
----

The second edition of my on-line version of the UN Registry of Space
Objects is now available at 
  http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/un/un.html
It contains the data given by member states to the UN about their
launchings; readers should beware that this data is often incomplete
and the document should not be used as a principal source of launch
information.

Shuttle
-------

Launch of Mission STS-73 on Sep 28 was scrubbed at 0800 UTC on Sep 28,
at T-3h, due to a hydrogen leak. Orbiter Columbia carries the Spacelab
Long Module, with transfer tunnel and tunnel airlock adapter. The module
being used is probably Long Module Flight Unit 1, last flown on the
IML-2 mission in 1994. This time the mission is designated US
Microgravity Lab 2. There is one other payload in the cargo bay, the
small Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment accelerometer attached to
an Adaptive Payload Carrier (I think) on the cargo bay wall. The next
launch attempt for STS-73 will be Oct 5.

Orbiter OV-103 Discovery has arrived in Palmdale aboard one of the
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (905 or 911, as usual I'd like someone to tell
me which!). It will remain there for about a year for refurbishment.

Mir
----

Launch of the Progress M-29 cargo ship is scheduled for Oct 8.

Recent Launches
--------------

The Telstar 402R satellite was launched on Sep 24. Telstar 402R is a
Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 7000 communications satellite built
for AT&T. It replaces the Telstar 402  satellite which exploded shortly
after orbit insertion in Sep 1994. Telstar 402R is a hybrid C/Ku band
comsat and will be stationed at 89 deg W for US domestic communications.
The satellite has successfully reached geostationary altitude and is
drifting towards its initial location.

The Russian Space Agency's Resurs-F2 recoverable remote sensing satellite
was launched on Sep 26. The satellite, built by KB Foton of Samara, Russia,
is based on the Vostok spacecraft. Vladimir Agapov reports that this
is the final Resurs-F mission. It is in a 230 x 233 km x 82.3 deg orbit.
The Resurs-F satellites carry cameras which are returned to Earth with their
film cassettes in a reentry vehicle at the end of the mission.

An advanced generation recon satellite, Kosmos-2320, was launched by
Soyuz from Baykonur on Sep 29 into a 179 x 284 km x 64.9 deg orbit.
It probably raised its perigee on Sep 30 but I don't have the orbital
data yet.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Aug  2 2359   Prognoz-M2  )   Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43/3 Science     39A
              Magion 4    )                                   Science     39F
Aug  3 2358   PAS 4           Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
Aug  5 1110   Mugunghwa-ho    Delta 7925      Canaveral LC17B Comsat      41A
Aug  9 0121   Molniya-3       Molniya-M       Plesetsk LC43   Comsat      42A
Aug 15 2230   Gemstar 1       LLV-1           Vandenberg SLC6 Comsat      FTO
Aug 29 0053   JCSAT 3         Atlas IIAS      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      43A
Aug 29 0641   N-STAR a        Ariane 44P      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
Aug 30 1933   Kosmos-2319     Proton-K/DM2    Baykonur LC200L Comsat?     45A
Aug 31 0650   Sich-1          Tsiklon-3       Plesetsk LC32-2 Rem.sensing 46A
              FASat-Alfa                                      Comsat      46A
Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1543   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
Sep 24 0006   Telstar 402R    Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
Sep 26 1120   Resurs-F        Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A
Sep 29 0425   Kosmos-2320     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       51A
                                                                         
Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Oct  5
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-74  Nov  1
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51                VAB Bay 1  STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 259
Date: Monday, 09 October, 1995 11:24

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 259                     1995 Oct  9                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next launch attempt for Columbia/STS-73 will be no earlier than Oct 14.
The
Oct 5 schedule was slipped a day due to Hurricane Opal and then scrubbed
on Oct 6 prior to the start of fuelling  because of problems with the
Orbiter landing gear. The Oct 7 attempt was scrubbed at the T-20min mark
due to failure of one of the Master Events Controller avionics boxes.

Meanwhile, Atlantis was rolled to the VAB on Oct 3 for connection to the
STS-74 stack.

Discovery was ferried to Palmdale by the NASA 905 SCA aircraft. It
arrived in Palmdale on Sep 28 after stopping at Fort Worth Naval Air Station 
and Salt Lake City. (Thanks to Ed Dietz for info). It will remain
at the Rockwell plant for refurbishment until its next mission in 1997.

Mir
----

The Progress M-29 cargo ship (factory serial number 229) was launched
successfully from pad 1 at Baykonur on Oct 8 at 1850:40 UTC. According
to V. Agapov, it was inserted into a 194 x 242 km x 51.7 deg orbit.
Progress M-29 will dock at the rear of the Kvant module; Soyuz TM-22
is docked to the front port of the Mir transfer module. The EO-20
crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter had been in space for 36 days
as of Oct 9.

Recent Launches
--------------

Kosmos-2321 was launched at 0323 UTC on Oct 6 from Plesetsk by a
Kosmos-3M launch vehicle into a 95.13 minute, 246 x 802 km x 82.9 deg
orbit. The spacecraft is probably a radar calibration satellite, which
are launched on Kosmos-3M rockets into low elliptical orbits, although
this particular orbit has not been used before. Another, less likely,
possibility is that it was a Parus navigation satellite intended for a 1000 km
circular orbit but which suffered an upper stage failure; Phil Clark has
also suggested this as an interpretation, and reports that the orbital
plane is the same as Kosmos-2266.

Kosmos-2320 raised its orbit to 239 x 300 km x 64.9 deg by Oct 1. The
orbit indicates it is a member of the Kosmos-1426 group of long-lived
recon satellites. The other member of the group in orbit is Kosmos-2305,
launched in Dec 1994 and currently in a 229 x 281 km x 64.9 deg orbit.
The other types of imaging recon satellite currently in use by the
Russian Ministry of Defence are the Yantar'-class vehicle, most recently
flown as Kosmos-2311 and Kosmos-2314, with two month lifetimes and lower
perigees,  and the new Kosmos-2290 class satellite launched on Zenit
vehicles. Kosmos-2290 flew for a year in Apr 1994-Apr 1995 and has not
yet been replaced.

AT&T's Telstar 402R reached geostationary altitude by Sep 27 and arrived
on station at 89.1W around Oct 3. Other recent geostationary launches:
JCSAT 3 is at 127.5E, N-Star a is at 131.9E. Kosmos-2319 is at 79.8E,
probably replacing Kosmos-2291 which has moved from its 80 deg E location and
is drifting west at 2 deg per day. PAS 4 is at 68.5E on station;
Space Command data released in September showing it drifting were erroneous.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1543   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
Sep 24 0006   Telstar 402R    Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
Sep 26 1120   Resurs-F        Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A
Sep 29 0425   Kosmos-2320     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       51A
Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  ?           52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       
                                                                         
Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Oct 14
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1     STS-74  Nov  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104   VAB Bay 1  STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 260
Date: Tuesday, 17 October, 1995 11:47

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 260                    1995 Oct 17                         Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next launch attempt for Columbia/STS-73 will be no earlier than Oct 20. 
A planned attempt on Oct 14 was postponed due to a crack discovered in an SSME
engine
under test at Stennis Space Center. Columbia's engines were inspected to check
they have no cracks. The Oct 15 attempt was called off because of bad weather.

Atlantis/STS-74 was rolled to pad 39A on Oct 12.

Mir
----

Progress M-29 docked with the Mir complex at 2032:40 UTC on Oct 10.
The cargo ship delivered supplies to the EO-20 crew of Gidzenko,
Avdeev and Reiter.

Recent Launches
--------------

It has been confirmed that Kosmos-2321 is a failed Parus navigation
satellite. Kosmos-2321 is in a 95.11 minute, 257 x 790 km x 82.9 deg
orbit. Its intended orbit was about 960 x 1010 km x 83.0 deg but
the second stage of the Kosmos-3M launch vehicle malfunctioned.

The first Luch-1 satellite was launched from Baykonur on Oct 11 at 1626
UTC (other reports giving the launch time as 1426 UTC are incorrect).
The satellite is a more powerful version of the earlier Luch (Al'tair)
series satellites, with a launch mass of 2400 kg. The Proton-K launch vehicle
used the new 11S861-01 (Blok DM-2M) upper stage. The Luch and Luch-1
satellites perform data relay  services for the Mir station and are the
equivalent of the TDRS system.

 Previous Al'tair/Luch satellites:

  Kosmos-1700  1985 Oct 25  Drifting
  Kosmos-1897  1987 Nov 26  53.3 deg E
  Kosmos-2054  1989 Dec 27  15.8 deg W
  Luch         1994 Dec 16  94.9 deg E
  Luch-1       1995 Oct 11  due at 77 deg E

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1543   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
Sep 24 0006   Telstar 402R    Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
Sep 26 1120   Resurs-F        Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A
Sep 29 0425   Kosmos-2320     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       51A
Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
                                                                         
Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC
Sep 29        ODERACS IIB     Reentered


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-73  Oct 20
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-74  Nov  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104   LC39A      STS-74
ML3/RSRM-50/ET-73/OV-102   LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 261
Date: Monday, 23 October, 1995 18:33

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 261                    1995 Oct 23                     Tucson,
AZ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Columbia was launched at 1353 UTC on Oct 20 on the STS-73 mission.
RSRM-50 SRB separation came at 1355:04, with main engine cutoff around
1401:30 and external tank ET-73 separating shortly afterwards. This left
orbiter 102 in an elliptical transfer orbit, with firing of the OMS
engines due around 1435 UTC. The OMS-2 burn was successful and left
Columbia in a 90.0 min, 267 x 278 km x 39.0 deg orbit.
 The US Microgravity Lab 2 mission uses a Spacelab laboratory module in
the cargo bay and an Extended Duration Orbiter pallet in the rear of the
bay. Columbia is scheduled to land on Nov 5 after a flight lasting 15
days 22 hours.


Mir
----

Astronauts Thomas Reiter and Sergey Avdeev carried out a 5h 11m
spacewalk on Oct 20 from 1155 to 1706 UTC (hatch open to hatch close).
They used the airlock on the Kvant-2 module.
Reiter was transferred to the end of the Spektr module using the Strela
crane and installed  experiments on the Spektr science platform.


Recent Launches
--------------

An Ariane 42L was successfully launched into geostationary transfer
orbit on Oct 19. It delivered to orbit the Astra 1E satellite, a Hughes
HS-601 comsat which will provide television broadcasting services for
the Luxembourg-registered company SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites).
On Oct 19 Astra 1E was in a 504 x 35845 km x 4.2 deg transfer orbit
with a period of 638.13 min.

The US Navy UHF F6 communications satellite, also an HS-601 model,
was launched on Oct 22 by a Lockheed Martin Atlas II from
Cape Canaveral.

On Oct 18 Luch-1 was drifting at 1.3deg W per day over 82.1 deg E.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1543   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
Sep 24 0006   Telstar 402R    Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
Sep 26 1120   Resurs-F        Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A
Sep 29 0425   Kosmos-2320     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       51A
Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6          Atlas II        Canaveral LC36  Comsat

Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC
Sep 29        ODERACS IIB     Reentered


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-73  Oct 20
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-74  Nov  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104   LC39A      STS-74
ML3/                       LC39B      STS-73                       

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
|  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                    |
|   Astrophysics                     |                                    |
|  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                    |
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 262
Date: Wednesday, 01 November, 1995 14:07

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 262                    1995 Nov 1                     Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Columbia is in orbit on the STS-73 mission. On Oct 27 its orbit
was 262 x 273 km x 39.0 deg. The mission is proceeding smoothly.


Mir
----

The crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter continue work aboard
the Mir complex, in a 392 x 395 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The last
major orbit raise for the complex was in May 1995 and it
will probably be reboosted by 10 km or so in about a month.


Recent Launches
--------------

The first launch attempt of the Conestoga 1620 launch vehicle ended in
failure on Oct 23. The vehicle was destroyed 45s into the first stage
burn, at an altitude of 11 km. The Conestoga uses a Castor 4B first
stage core with Castor 4A and Castor 4B strapons, and a Star 48V upper
stage. Payload was EER Systems' Meteor commercial microgravity
recoverable spacecraft.

The UHF Followon F6 spacecraft, designated USA 114, was launched by
Lockheed Martin Atlas II AC-119 into a 551.9 min, 320 x 31500 km x 27.0
deg subsynchronous transfer orbit on Oct 22. The AC-119 Centaur stage
was left in a lower 267 x 27483 km x 27.0 deg orbit, presumably a
propellant depletion burn was used to lower its apogee after separation.
On Oct 25 the UHF payload fired its liquid apogee motor, raising its
orbit to 7657 x 36612 km x 14.7 deg. It is to be stationed at 100 deg W,
replacing Leasat 3 and providing UHF and EHF communications for the
US Navy.

On Oct 23 the Astra 1E television satellite raised its orbit from 25659
x 35737 km x 0.3 deg to 33680 x 36070 km x 0.2 deg. On Oct 20
Kosmos-2291, which was replaced at 80E last month, was still drifting
west at 3 deg per day over 23E. On Oct 26 the Luch-1 spacecraft moved
into geostationary orbit at 76.6E, although the orbit remains inclined
at 3.0 deg.

Kosmos-2322 was launched by a Zenit-2 launch vehicle on 
Oct 31 into a 851 x 877 km x 71.0 deg orbit. It is a Tselina-2
electronic intelligence spacecraft.

The reentry vehicle of the Resurs-F2 spacecraft landed after a 30 day
flight at 0537 UTC on Oct 26, 90 km SW of Troitsk in the Chelyabinsk
region. On Sep 26 the Resurs-F2 was launched into a 180 x 247 km x 82.3
deg parking orbit, which was raised to a 230 x 234 km x 82.3 deg
operational orbit on Sep 27. A small burn between Oct 6 and Oct 10
raised the decaying orbit from 226 x 232 km to 224 x 238 km. A similar
trim burn was made on Oct 18. On Oct 23, a larger burn raised the orbit
from 220 x 235 km to 255 x 278 km, and on Oct 26 the maneuvering engine
and associated hardware were jettisoned prior to the deorbit burn.

The Kosmos-2305 imaging recon satellite raised its orbit slightly on Oct 8, 
from 89.7min, 229 x 281 km x 64.9 deg to 89.9 min, 238 x 297 km x
64.9 deg. The previous such maneuver was carried out in early August.
The orbit of its companion Kosmos-2320 spacecraft has decayed to only
89.6 min, 227 x 277 km and will probably be reboosted soon.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Sep  3 0900   Soyuz TM-22     Soyuz-U2        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   47A
Sep  7 1509   Endeavour       Shuttle         Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   48A
Sep  8 1543   Spartan-201                     OV-105, LEO     Astronomy   48B
Sep 11 1125   WSF 2                           OV-105, LEO     Micrograv.  48C
Sep 24 0006   Telstar 402R    Ariane 4        Kourou ELA2     Comsat      49A
Sep 26 1120   Resurs-F2       Soyuz-U         Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A
Sep 29 0425   Kosmos-2320     Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC31   Recon       51A
Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6           Atlas II       Canaveral LC36  Comsat      57A
Oct 23 2203   Meteor           Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0     Micrograv   FTO
Oct 31 2019   Kosmos-2322      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      58A


Reentries
---------

Sep  4        Progress M-28   Deorbited
Sep  6        Kosmos-2314     Deorbited
Sep 11        Soyuz TM-21     Landed in Kazakhstan
Sep 18        Endeavour       Landed at KSC
Sep 29        ODERACS IIB     Reentered
Oct 26        Resurs-F2       Landed 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-73  
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-74  Nov 11
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52                VAB        STS-72                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104   LC39A      STS-74
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


</PRE>
</BODY>


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 263
Date: Thursday, 09 November, 1995 14:48

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 263                      1995 Nov 9                     Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Columbia landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center on Nov 5 at 1145:21
UTC (main gear touchdown) after successfully completing the 15 d 21h 52m
US Microgravity Lab 2 (STS-73) mission.  Its next mission is STS-75, the
Tethered Satellite reflight. OV-102 has now made 18 flights for a total
flight time of 4016 hr 34 min, easily more than any of the other
Orbiters. Bowersox and Thornton now have more flight time than any
active NASA astronauts except Thagard and Dunbar.

The next launch is STS-74/Atlantis, scheduled for Nov 11. Atlantis will
dock with the Mir space station, delivering the 316GK docking module and
supplies. Below I give the cargo bay manifest for Atlantis (my best
guess, those in the know please send corrections!). The payload area is
divided into 13 bays from forward (airlock) to aft (tail end). '6P'
means a payload attached to the port side wall of Bay 6. Side wall
payloads usually use either a GAS Beam Adapter (GABA) mounting plate or
the smaller APC (Adaptive Payload Carrier) mounting plate. 

STS-74 Cargo Bay Payloads:

-       Remote Manipulator System No. 301
Bay 1   Airlock Tunnel Adapter
Bay 3   Orbiter Docking System
Bay 11  316GK Docking Module

Bay 1P  APC with ITEPC radiation counter
Bay 3S  APC with TCS-1 laser rendezvous unit
Bay 4S  APC with TCS-2 laser rendezvous unit
Bay 5S  GABA with GLO-4 Hitchhiker experiment and avionics
Bay 6P  GABA with PASDE canister and Hitchhiker avionics
Bay 6S  APC with VHF communications system
Bay 7S  GABA with PASDE canister
Bay 13P GABA with PASDE canister
Bay 13S APC with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera

The GLO-4 experiment measures emission from airglow and
Shuttle-atmosphere interactions. PASDE is a collection of three pairs of
photgrammetric cameras which will image Mir solar arrays as those arrays
wobble in response to station operations; the data will be used to study
the structural properties of the arrays. The four GABA payloads are
collectively known as the GPP (GLO / PASDE Payload), managed as a
Hitchhiker-G payload under the Shuttle Small Payloads Program.

The Atlantis crew will remove the Docking Module from the payload bay
using the RMS arm, and dock one end of it to the Orbiter Docking System.
Then they will rendezvous with the Mir complex and dock the other end
with the Kristall module. After the mission, they will undock the ODS
from the Docking Module, leaving the Docking Module attached to Kristall
where it will accommodate future  Shuttle visits. The Docking Module
is built by RKK Energia and is a stretched Soyuz orbital module with
two APAS-type androgynous docking units.

Crew of STS-74 is Ken Cameron, James Halsell, Chris Hadfield, Jerry Ross
and William McArthur. Hadfield is a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

Meanwhile, the external tank ET-75 for the STS-72 mission was due to be
mated to the RSRM-52 solid rocket motors in the VAB on Nov 9, but the
KSC Shuttle Status Reports always forget to tell us what's happening to the
other orbiters when a launch is imminent, so I don't know if that event
actually happened. Columbia has been towed back to Orbiter Processing
Facility Bay 2 and will be prepared for next year's STS-75 mission.

Mir
----

The crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter continue work aboard the Mir
complex. The next major event is the arrival of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis with the new Docking Module. Marcia Smith reports that the EVA
on Oct 20 probably began at 1150 UT, not 1155 UT as I reported, and thus
the duration was 5h 16m.

Recent Launches
--------------

McDonnell Douglas' Delta 229 was launched from Space Launch Complex 2 at
Vandenberg AFB on Nov 4, placing the Canadian Space Agency's Radarsat
remote sensing spacecraft in orbit. The Delta was a two-stage model
7920-10. RADARSAT's primary payload is a synthetic aperture C-band radar
for imaging the Earth's surface. The radar is 15m long and 1.5m wide.
The 2750 kg spacecraft was launched into a 783 x 787 km x 98.6 deg polar
orbit.

Attached to the Delta 229 second stage in orbit is SURFSAT, a small
Caltech/JPL package to test deep space communications and orbital VLBI
radio astronomy transponders. The Deep Space Network 32 GHz Ka-band
transponders will be used to study atmospheric transmission problems at
those frequencies and the VLBI Ku and X-band transponders will do tests
of the ground system for Japan's VSOP and Russia's proposed Radioastron.
The SURFSAT package is part of the Summer Undergraduate Research
Fellowship Satellite project, built by Caltech undergraduates. The
SURFSAT spacecraft is reported to be working well. After releasing
Radarsat, Delta/Surfsat maneuvered into a 934 x 1494 km x 100.6 deg
orbit.

A Lockheed Martin Titan 4 Centaur was launched on Nov 6 from Cape
Canaveral. It placed in orbit the Milstar DFS 2 satellite, which is
scheduled to provide secure military communications from geostationary
orbit. Titan core vehicle K-21 placed the Centaur TC-13 stage in orbit.
Three Centaur burns were used to successively reach low earth parking
orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, and geosynchronous orbit. The
payload separated and was given the designation USA 115. Thrusters on
the Milstar will position the satellite at its geostationary location.
The Milstar satellite is built by the part of Lockheed Martin that was
formerly Lockheed. It is the second Block 1 Milstar, with a Low Data
Rate payload with EHF (44.5 GHz) uplink and SHF (20 GHz) downlink and
four UHF AFSATCOM transponders. The satellite also has a 60 GHz
crosslink to enable it to communicate with Milstar DFS 1, launched in
Feb 1994. The next Milstar will be the first Block 2, with a Medium Data
Rate payload of three times higher bit rate. (Payload info from Jane's
Space Directory).

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6           Atlas II       Canaveral LC36  Comsat      57A
Oct 23 2203   Meteor           Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0     Micrograv   FTO
Oct 31 2019   Kosmos-2322      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      58A
Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A


Reentries
---------

Oct 26        Resurs-F2       Landed 
Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 29
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-74  Nov 11
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52                VAB        STS-72                       
ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104   LC39A      STS-74
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 264
Date: Friday, 17 November, 1995 14:23

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 264                        1995 Nov 17                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Mission STS-74 was launched at 12:30:43 UTC on 1995 Nov 12.
Atlantis left pad 39A on the second attempt; the Nov 11 attempt was
scrubbed at T-5min due to bad weather at the transatlantic abort sites.
On Nov 12, separation of the RSRM-51 solid rocket motors came at
12:32:47 (approx) and main engine cutoff (MECO) was at around 12:39:15,
followed by separation of external tank ET-74 a few seconds later.
The OMS-2 orbit circularization burn was successful at 1314 UTC
and the payload bay doors were opened at about 1400 UTC.
Atlantis was placed in a 300 x 339 km x 51.64 deg orbit with a
period of 90.92 min.

The RMS arm was used to grapple the 316GK Docking Module in the
payload bay at around 0546 UTC (scheduled) on Nov 14. The Docking
Module (DM) was due to be unberthed at 0621 UTC and moved over
the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) in the forward part of the payload bay.
At 0717 UT on Nov 14 the Docking Module was successfully connected
to the Orbiter Docking System as Atlantis fired thrusters to
slam the ODS into one of the DM's docking ports, docking the craft together.
At around 0900 UT the RMS arm released the DM, now connected to the ODS
by a tight seal.

Atlantis made an OMS burn at 0327 UTC on Nov 15 to begin the terminal
approach to Mir. It made rendezvous at a distance of 50m at 0528 UTC
(data from Bill Harwood). Atlantis remained at 50m until 0556 when it
resumed its approach, stopping again at 0618 at a distance of 10m. Final
approach from 10m began at 0622 and Atlantis docked with Mir at 0627:39
UTC on Nov 15. By 0636 the latches on the APDS docking system were
closed and the Docking Module was firmly attached to Kristall. The
hatches to Mir were opened at about 0900 UTC. Orbit of the Mir/Atlantis
complex is 391 x 394 km x 51.6 deg. Crew of the complex are: Yuriy
Gidzenko (Station commander, Russian Air Force),  Sergey Avdeev (Mir
Flight Engineer, RKK Energiya), Thomas Reiter (Mir Flight Engineer 2,
European Space Agency), Ken Cameron (Atlantis commander, NASA), James
Halsell (Atlantis pilot, NASA), Chris Hadfield (Mission specialist,
Canadian Space Agency), Jerry Ross (Mission Specialist, NASA), and
William McArthur  (Mission Specialist, NASA).


Recent Launches
--------------

The European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) is in
orbit! In 1983, the IRAS satellite made the first survey of the far
infrared sky. Its liquid-helium cooled telescope operated for less than
a year, but it is still generating Ph.D. theses at a rapid rate -
perhaps one of the most striking examples of a single mission having a
profound influence on astronomy. Unlike IRAS, ISO will carry out pointed
observations at specific targets of interest instead of scanning the
entire sky. ISO's instruments are much more sophisticated - IRAS
measured the brightness of sources at four wavelengths while ISO will
return images and high resolution spectra over the entire infrared range
from 2.5 microns to 200 microns. Mass of ISO is 2498 kg at launch, 2418
kg at beginning of observations, and 1515 kg dry. There are four
instruments, the LWS and SWS long and short wavelength spectrometers,
and the ISOCAM and ISOPHOT camera and photometer systems. The liquid
helium cooled 60 cm telescope may operate for as much as a year and a
half. ISO was launched by an Ariane 44P from Kourou on Nov 17 into an
elliptical transfer orbit with a period of  24 hours 8.8 minutes, and an
altitude of 570 x 71498 km x 5.2 deg. Its on-board propulsion system
will synchronize the orbit with a 23-hour 56 minute sidereal period, but
unlike a communications satellite the orbit will be elliptical with an
apogee of 70000 km, taking it far from the radiation belts. The cover of
the cryogenic dewar will be ejected on Nov 28 launch and performance
verification observations are planned to begin around Dec 10.
Astronomers with time scheduled on ISO (including your eager
correspondent!) will have to wait until early next year before regular
observations begin.

The V80 flight of Ariane used a standard 44P vehicle, with an H-10-III
upper stage, but with the No. 02 type payload fairing. Launch was at 0120
UTC on Nov 12, with second stage burn at 0123 and third stage burn at
0125. The third stage shut down at 0138 and ISO separated at 0140 UTC.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6           Atlas II       Canaveral LC36  Comsat      57A
Oct 23 2203   Meteor           Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0     Micrograv   FTO
Oct 31 2019   Kosmos-2322      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      58A
Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A

Reentries
---------

Oct 26        Resurs-F2       Landed 
Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 29
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-74  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75          VAB        STS-72                       
ML2/                       LC39A      STS-74
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 265
Date: Friday, 24 November, 1995 12:43

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 265                    1995 Nov 24                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The STS-74 second Mir docking mission is complete. Atlantis delivered
the Docking Module to the Mir complex as well as  transferring 324 kg of
equipment and 640 kg of supplies to the complex and picking up 370 kg of
NASA, Russian and European equipment for return to Earth.

Atlantis undocked from Mir on Nov 18 at 0816 UT. At 0832 UT, Atlantis
had backed away to 120 m and began a flyaround. After two loops around
Mir, Atlantis fired its engines for a separation burn at 1004 UT.
The 316GK docking module remains attached to the Mir complex.
Later on Nov 18 Atlantis lowered its orbit from 92.39 min, 388 x 395 km
x 51.6 deg to 91.39 min, 337 x 348 km x 51.6 deg for operations
with the GLO-4 experiment.

Atlantis landed on Nov 20. The payload bay doors were closed at about
1320 UTC. The OMS engines ignited for the deorbit burn at 1558 UTC and
fired for 3 min 52 sec. After entry interface at 1630, the spacecraft
header for Florida. The landing gear was lowered at 1701:09 and main
gear touchdown was at 1701:27 UT on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center.
The nose gear touched down at 1701:37 and Atlantis came to a stop at
1702:24. Mission duration was 8 days 4 hours 31 min.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, which will use orbiter OV-105
(Endeavour). The mission will retrieve the Japanese Space Flyer Unit
satellite and the crew will carry out two spacewalks.
The payload bay will contain:

 - An MPESS bridge carrying the SLA-1/GAS Hitchhiker-M payload, with 7 GAS
canisters. The canisters are: SLA-1 Shuttle Laser Altimeter canister;
ASC Altimeter Support Canister; G-342 (USAF Academy), to measure
dynamics of a vibrating beam;  G-459 (Soc. Japanese Aerospace
Companies), microgravity effects on protein crystals; G-740 (NASA-LeRC),
physics of fluids in microgravity, and GBP-1, a GAS ballast payload with
a particle collection device on top. The SLA-1 experiment is part of the
Mission to Planet Earth and will study the environmental and topographic
information obtainable from a laser altimeter for possible application
on later missions.

 - An MPESS type bridge, the Spartan Flight Support Structure,
carrying the Spartan 206 (OAST-Flyer) satellite which will be
released and retrieved.

 - A GAS beam adapter on the bay wall with two canisters carrying the
SSBUV atmospheric ozone spectrometer on its 8th mission.

 - probably a GAS beam or APC carrier on the bay wall to support
some kind of EVA hardware for the EDFT-3 spacewalks.


Mir
---

EO-20 crew Yuriy Gidzenko, Sergey Avdeev and Thomas Reiter remain aboard
the Mir complex. Its current configuration has the Kvant module docked
to the base block +X rear port, and three modules docked at the ports on
the transfer compartment: Spektr at -Y, Kvant-2 at +Y, and Kristall at
-Z, with the 316GK Docking Module attached to the end of Kristall. The
Progress M-29 cargo ferry is docked at the rear of Kvant (+X), while the
Soyuz TM-22 transport ship is docked at the front of Mir (-X). Launch of
the Progress M-30 cargo ferry is expected on December 15; Soyuz TM-23
will be launched on 21 Feb, the 77KSI Priroda module on Mar 10, the
Progress M-31 ferry on Apr 1, Progress M-32 on Jun 1, and Soyuz TM-24 on
Jul 6.

Shameless Plug
--------------

Readers of JSR may be interested to know that the latest issue of CSPACE
PRESS's magazine on the history of spaceflight, QUEST, contains an
article by me outlining the history of US reconnaissance satellite
programs, with a listing of all known US imaging recon sat flights,
as well as an article by Dwayne Day on the origins of the CORONA program.
The next issue will contain the second part of my article, covering
signals intelligence and early warning satellites. You can get QUEST
from CSPACE, PO Box 9331, Grand Rapids, MI 49509-0331, for $19.95
a year ($35.00 overseas air mail).

Meanwhile, following the flight of the final Resurs-F (JSR 258, 262) the
Russian magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki has published a remarkable article
by M. Tarasenko and V. Agapov on the Resurs-F program, including a
detailed and complete list of launches with spacecraft serial numbers
and launch pads, and a discussion of the different Resurs-F variants.
(Nov. Kos. 1995 No. 20, from Videocosmos, cosmos@space.accessnet.ru).

Recent Launches
--------------

The second Gals direct broadcast TV satellite was launched on Nov 17 by a
Proton from Baykonur. The Proton probably used the new DM2M (11S861-01)
upper stage. According to Ron Baalke's Space Calendar, the satellite has
been bought by the Land Group, a Chinese company. Gals satellites are
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki. On Nov 19, Gals 2 was at 88 deg E
drifting 1 deg W per day in a 1441.7 min, 35764 x 36026 km x 0.2 deg
orbit. (Does anyone have more details on the Land Group and their
purchase of Gals satellites?)

The Kosmos-2291 Geizer-class comsat has reached its new location at
14.7W, presumably backing up Kosmos-2172 at 13.3W. In October
Kosmos-2291 was replaced at 80E by the new Kosmos-2319 satellite and
began a slow drift to its new location. Geizer satellites relay
telecommunications for the Russian Ministry of Defence.

ESA's Infrared Space Observatory raised its perigee in a 111 min burn on
Nov 19. The orbit was altered from 500 x 71577 km x 5.2 deg to 1030 x
71606 km x 5.2 deg. A second burn to lower the apogee is expected on Nov
24. Initial checks of the ISOPHOT instrument were successful.

The US Navy's UHF F6 circularized its orbit on Oct 29 and by Nov 6 was
on station at 171W over the Pacific. The new SES European commercial
television satellite Astra 1E is now at 14.7E.

The European Meteorological Satellite Organization's Meteosat 4 weather
satellite appears to have been retired. It raised its orbit on Nov 8
out of the geostationary ring at 10 deg E to a storage orbit of 1482.9
min, 36618 x 36776 km x 1.5 deg.

Hughes Communications' Galaxy 3 satellite may also have been retired
(can anyone confirm this?) Orbital data from Space Command indicate it
moved 120 km up out of geostationary orbit into a 1442.4 min period
drift orbit around Oct 3; an orbit released on Oct 20 showing it still
on station is inconsistent with more recent data. In late October SBS 6
was moved from 95W to 74W, joining Galaxy 6.

Between Nov 13 and Nov 20 the Kosmos-2320 recon satellite raised its
orbit from 231 x 274 km to 239 x 300 km in a standard orbit maintenance
burn.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6           Atlas II       Canaveral LC36  Comsat      57A
Oct 23 2203   Meteor           Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0     Micrograv   FTO
Oct 31 2019   Kosmos-2322      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      58A
Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1430?  Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2M  Baykonur        Comsat      63A


Reentries
---------

Oct 26        Resurs-F2       Landed in Russia
Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75          VAB        STS-72                       
ML2/                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 266
Date: Sunday, 03 December, 1995 12:54

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 266                         1995 Dec 3                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, scheduled for January. Endeavour
was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Nov 30.

Interestingly, Space Command has not allocated a catalog number for the
putative 1995-61B, the Stikovochnoy Modul' (Russian Docking Module)
launched by Atlantis. This is a tricky issue - they continue to issue
separate orbital elements for rest of the various different modules
docked to Mir. But the SM never  flew independently, it was always
connected either to Atlantis or to Kristall. So should it get a
designation or not? 

Mir
---

Launch of the Progress M-30 cargo ferry is expected on December 15.

Recent Launches
--------------

Asiasat 2 was successfully launched by a Chang Zheng 2E rocket from the
Chinese spaceport at Xichang on Nov 28. The satellite will provide
communications services for the Hong Kong based company Asia Satellite
Telecommunications Co Ltd. It is a Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series
7000 comsat with 9 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders. The CZ-2E second
stage entered a 187 x 292 km x 28.0 deg parking orbit, and separated
from the Asiasat and its  kick motor. The Chinese EPKM (FG-46) kick
motor, never flown before, fired to place Asiasat in a standard 220 x
35039 km x 25.6 deg transfer orbit.  Previous CZ-2E launches used
American-built Thiokol perigee motors. The liquid apogee motor (anyone
know what type?) will be fired later to station Asiasat 2 at 100 deg E.

The SOHO satellite was launched at 0808 UTC on Dec 2 by Atlas Centaur
AC-121. SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, is a European
Space Agency science spacecraft developed in collaboration with NASA.
The Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS took off from Pad 36 at Cape Canaveral;
the Centaur second stage made an initial burn to enter low parking
orbit of 175 x 183 km x 28.8 deg and then a second burn at 0935 UTC to
insert SOHO onto an interplanetary trajectory towards the Earth-Sun L1
Lagrange point, 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction of the
Sun. The Centaur separated from SOHO at 1009 UTC; around 1045 UTC
diffuse emission (reported as a possible new comet!) was seen by
observers in the Northeastern US which may be associated with Centaur
venting. The Centaur was inserted in an orbit with an apogee of 1.15
million km, and is likely to end up in solar orbit after a couple of
revolutions because of perturbations.  (Thanks to Joel Runes for some
details in this report).

SOHO carries telescopes, spectrometers and coronagraphs to study the
atmosphere of the Sun, and particle detectors to study the composition
and state of the solar wind. Unlike earlier solar observatories,
however, SOHO also carries instruments to precisely measure
oscillations of the Sun, which can be used to study the interior
structure of the Sun - a technique called helioseismology. The 1850 kg
spacecraft was built by Matra Marconi Space.

ISO lowered its apogee on Nov 24 and is now in a 1437.16 min, 1036 x
70578 km x 5.2 deg orbit. The perigee burn was at 1310 UTC on Nov 19 and
the apogee burn was at 0245 on Nov 24. The cryostat cover was ejected at
1027 UTC on Nov 27 and the first light image (of the galaxy M51) was
taken on Nov 28. The LWS spectrometer has now detected its first spectral
lines.

The Meteosat 3 and Meteosat 4 weather satellites have now both been
removed from geostationary orbit.  Meteosat 4's orbit was raised
starting  at 2030 UTC on Nov 6. Meteosat 3's orbit  was raised in a
series of burns from Nov 21 at 2115 UTC to Nov 22 at 2135 UTC. (Thanks
to C. Groen-Nielsen, ESA). Thanks to several readers for confirming
that Galaxy 3 has been retired.

The Galileo Probe and Galileo Orbiter are approaching the planet
Jupiter - arrival day is Dec 7. The Orbiter entered
the Jovian magnetosphere on Nov 26.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Oct  6 0323   Kosmos-2321     Kosmos-3M       Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      52A
Oct  8 1851   Progress M-29   Soyuz-U         Baykonur LC1    Cargo       53A
Oct 11 1626   Luch-1          Proton-K/DM2M   Baykonur        Data Relay  54A
Oct 19 0038   Astra 1E        Ariane 42L      Kourou ELA2     Comsat      55A
Oct 20 1353   Columbia       ) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   56A
              Spacelab USML-2)
Oct 22 0800   UHF F6           Atlas II       Canaveral LC36  Comsat      57A
Oct 23 2203   Meteor           Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0     Micrograv   FTO
Oct 31 2019   Kosmos-2322      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      58A
Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1430?  Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2M  Baykonur        Comsat      63A
Nov 28 1130   Asiasat 2        Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      64A
Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36  Astronomy   

Reentries
---------

Oct 26        Resurs-F2       Landed in Russia
Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB           STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75          VAB        STS-72                       
ML2/                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 267
Date: Friday, 08 December, 1995 17:12

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 267                         1995 Dec 8                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Oops
----
Apologies to some of my Canadian readers, apparently an error in my mailing
list has been leaving a whole bunch of you off. I think it's fixed now.
(How many issues did you miss?) 

Galileo at Jupiter
------------------

The two Galileo space probes have reached Jupiter. NASA Ames Research
Center's Galileo Probe was released from the Galileo Orbiter in July;
it entered the atmosphere of Jupiter at 2204 UTC on Dec 7 at latitude
6.5 deg N, longitude 4.4 deg W in the NEB.  The probe on-board timer
was due to activate the probe at 1600 UTC after 5 months of
dormancy. At 2311 UTC confirmation was received on Earth that the
Orbiter was receiving data from the Probe. The parachute was deployed
at 2206 UTC and a few seconds later the deceleration module
(heatshield) was jettisoned.  The probe was due to continue
transmitting data until 2319 UTC.  Theoretical analysis indicates that
the probe parachute would melt at 2349 UTC and the internal probe
equipment, made of aluminium, would melt around 0030 UTC with the
probe's titanium structure surviving much deeper into the atmosphere,
disintegrating at around 0700 UTC on Dec 8.

Perijove for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Galileo Orbiter
spacecraft was at 2153 UTC on Dec 7 at distance of 214600 km from the
center of the giant planet. Closest approach to Europa was 30921 km at
1309 UTC Dec 7, and to Io was 1000 km at 1745 UTC. Galileo has now
entered orbit around Jupiter.  The S400 liquid apogee engine ignited
at 0027 UTC Dec 8 and completed its burn at 0116 UTC on Dec
8. Galileo's first orbit was planned to have a perijove of 2 Jupiter
radii and an apojove of 250 Jupiter radii. I don't have actual orbital
elements yet.


Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, scheduled for January 11. The
STS-72 stack with orbiter Endeavour was rolled out from VAB bay 3 to
pad 39B on Dec 6. Endeavour's cargo bay contains eight small carriers
mounted on the port and starboard bay walls in bays 1 to 4, containing
equipment related to the EDFT-3 spacewalk. If any reader has
information about this payload-bay mounted EDFT-3 equipment, please
let me know.

Mir
---

Launch of the Progress M-30 cargo ferry is expected on December 15.

Recent Launches
--------------

A Lockheed Martin Titan 4 launch vehicle (serial K-15) was sent into
orbit from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base on
Dec 5.  The payload is believed to have entered a sun-synchronous
polar orbit and is probably the latest Improved CRYSTAL imaging spy
satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Prime
contractor for the satellite is probably Lockheed. Within the NRO,
responsibility for imaging satellites is given to the CIA. The
satellite probably carries a large optical telescope with optical
and near infrared imaging array (CCD) sensors, as well as the ICMS
mapping system.

Here is the complete list of Titan 4 launches to date; thanks to
several correspondents for helping me refine this, but there may still
be errors - corrections are welcome.

  Serial Date      Model Pad   Upper stage and payload		  Notes

  Titan 4 launches from Cape Canaveral:
  K-1  1989 Jun 14 402   41    IUS/ USAF DSP 14 early warning
  K-4  1990 Jun  8 405   41    Navy Advanced PARCAE                (1)
  K-6  1990 Nov 12 402   41    IUS/ USAF DSP 15 early warning
  K-10 1994 Feb  7 401   40    Centaur TC-12/Milstar 1 comsat
  K-7  1994 May  3 401   41    Centaur TC-10/NRO Advanced JUMPSEAT (1)
  K-9  1994 Aug 27 401   41    Centaur TC-11/NRO Advanced VORTEX   (1)
  K-14 1994 Dec 22 402   40    IUS/ USAF DSP 17 early warning
  K-23 1995 May 14 401   40    Centaur TC-17/NRO Advanced ORION    (1)
  K-19 1995 Jul 10 401   41    Centaur TC-8/NRO Advanced JUMPSEAT  (1)
  K-21 1995 Nov  6 401   40    Centaur TC-13/Milstar 2 comsat
  
  Titan 4 launches from Vandenberg AFB:
  K-5  1991 Mar  8 403   4E    NRO LACROSSE 2                      (1)
  K-8  1991 Nov  7 403   4E    Navy Advanced PARCAE                (1)
  K-3  1992 Nov 28 404   4E    TPA/Improved CRYSTAL 2              (1,2)
  K-11 1993 Aug  2 403   4E    Navy Advanced PARCAE                (1,3)
  K-15 1995 Dec  5 404   4E    TPA/Improved CRYSTAL 3              (1)

  Notes:
  (1) Classified payload, true name unknown. 'Advanced X' indicates
  a new generation replacing the series which had codename X.
  PARCAE was a US Navy intelligence spacecraft. JUMPSEAT and
  VORTEX were USAF/NSA electronic and signals intelligence payloads.
  ORION was a CIA signals intelligence spacecraft. LACROSSE is
  a radar imaging satellite. Improved CRYSTAL is an optical and
  near infrared imaging satellite.
  All of these missions are classified and my analysis is based on guesses 
  from information in the open literature.
  (2) Titan model 404 may possibly carry the Titan Payload Adapter (TPA) 
  designed to support payloads originally built for Shuttle launch.
  (3) Launch failure.

Arianespace SA launched the V81 Ariane mission on Dec 6.  Launch was
at 2323 UT; at 2340 UT the H-10-III third stage shut down, entering
geostationary transfer orbit. At 2344 the Telecom 2C satellite
separated, followed by the Mini-SPELDA adapter plate, and at 2349 UT
the Insat 2C satellite was released. The satellites entered a 630.1
min, 224 x 35712 km x 6.8 deg transfer orbit.  V81 was the 11th flight
of Ariane in 1995, all of which have been successful.

Telecom 2C is a Matra Marconi Space comsat for France Telecom.
The spacecraft carries 10 C-band and 11 Ku-band transponders
for French domestic communications and communications with
the departements d'outremer. It also has 5 X-band transponders
for the Delegation Generale pour l'Armement, which operates
the military Syracuse communications network. The mass
of Telecom 2C is 1120 kg, with a fuel load of 1163 kg giving
a launch mass of 2283 kg. 
The spacecraft has an R-4D-12 liquid apogee engine which will
be used to place it in geostationary orbit at 3 degrees E.

Insat 2C is the Indian Space Research Organization's latest 
domestic communications, television and radio broadcast satellite.
It carries 22 C-band and 4 Ku-band transponders, as well as
an S-band transponder for mobile services. The spacecraft
and its internal LAM (Liquid Apogee Motor) were built
by ISRO with its Indian industrial partners.

Erratum: The Chinese EPKM perigee kick motor, designated SPTM-17, has
flown once before, on the first CZ-2E launch, but it did not place its
dummy payload in geostationary transfer orbit. The Asiasat 2 launch
was the first time the SPTM-17 was flown with a real payload.

The Asiasat 2 satellite carries a Leros-class dual mode liquid apogee
engine built by Royal Ordnance plc, England (I don't know which
particular model, though).  Asiasat 2 fired its engine last week to
enter a 5326 x 35031 km x 13.8 deg intermediate orbit, and again on
Dec 4 to enter a circular 1403.9 min, 34375 x 35932 km x 0.6 deg drift
orbit. On Dec 5 it was over 92 deg E drifiting 3 deg E per day.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1430?  Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2M  Baykonur        Comsat      63A
Nov 28 1130   Asiasat 2        Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      64A
Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36  Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116?         Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B


Reentries
---------

Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75/OV-105  LC39B      STS-72                       
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM                  VAB Bay 1? STS-75                                  
 


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 268
Date: Sunday, 17 December, 1995 17:09

<HEADER>
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 268                      1995 Dec 17                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, scheduled for January 11. 
The EDFT-3 spacewalk payload on Endeavour will allow the
astronauts to test prototype Space Station hardware, including
a special `umbilical' carrier which supports electrical cables
and fluid pipes, and the new portable work platform which
Space Station astronauts will use in their spacewalk assembly
tasks. The EDFT-3 payload consists of: (major acronym ahead
 warning!)
 Bay 1 Port:  PIT Utility Box, for Space Station Pre-Integrated
 Truss electronics; the two boxes will be connected up during the
 spacewalk to simulate truss on-orbit assembly.
 Bay 2 Port:  PIT Utility Box and PRUM (Portable Rigid Umbilical
 Mount), for slotting the RU across the payload bay, and CCA (Cable
 Caddy Assembly). Bay 2 Port carries a GAS Beam adapter plate
 (I still don't know the adapter plate types used for the other 
 EDFT-3 equipment.)
 Bay 3 Port:  Rigid Umbilical (RU)
 Bay 4 Port:  Rigid Umbilical (RU). The Space Station RU, in bays 3 and 4
Port,
 has two segments connected by a hinge. It will be unpacked and installed
 diagonally across the bay from bays 3P to 4S, and the astronauts will
 test its connector systems.
 Bay 1 Stbd:  ASEM Node Carrier, stowage for slidewire cable etc.
 Bay 2 Stbd:  PWP (Portable Work Platform), consisting of the
  TERA (Temporary Equipment Restraining Aid), which attaches equipment
  to the robot arm using a Flight Releasable Grapple Fixture; the
  APFR (Articulating Portable Foot Restraint), which goes on the
  end of the robot arm and provides the astronaut with a place to stand; and
  PFRWS (Portable Foot Restraint Workstation Stanchions) which
  attach to the APFR  and  provide handholds and tool holders 
  for an astronaut working in the APFR.
  Bay 2 also carries the CLAS Sensor 2 Task Plate which measures
  loads exerted by the crew.
 Bay 3 Stbd: CLAS Sensor 3 Task Plate, which is part of the 
 Crew Loads Assembly System for measuring the force needed to do
 certain tasks.
 Bay 4 Stbd: SURF Starboard Umbilical Receiver Fixture, for slotting
 the RU across the payload bay.
 
(Thanks to Kevin at KSC for some of this info.)

Mir
---

The EO-20 cosmonauts Gidzenko and Avdeev depressurized the Mir
transfer compartment for a 37 minute EVA to transfer the docking cone
from the -Z axis (Kristall) to the +Z port where Priroda will
dock. Hatch open was at 1915 UTC on Dec 8. (Info from Chris van den
Berg).

As predicted in JSR 262, Mir's orbit was raised on Dec 9 using the
Progress M-29 cargo ferry's engine.  The mean altitude was raised by
only 5 km, from 92.41 min, 390 x 395 km x 51.6 deg to 92.46 min, 390 x
399 km x 51.6 deg. Launch of the Progress M-30 cargo ferry is expected
on December 18 at 1431 UTC.

Recent Launches
--------------

Lockheed Martin launched AC-120, an Atlas IIA Centaur vehicle, on Dec
15. AC-120 carried the Hughes Galaxy IIIR satellite into geostationary
transfer orbit. Galaxy IIIR is an HS-601 class satellite.  It will
provide C band (24 transponders) video distribution in the US, and
Ku-band (24 transponders) direct broadcast TV to Latin America.
Galaxy 3R's initial orbit was 200 x 34348 km x 26.94 deg with
a period of 603.4 minutes.

The USA 116 recon satellite was inserted into a 156 x 976 km x 98.7 deg
orbit, according to ITAR-TASS quoting sources in the Russian Ministry
of Defense. It has since raised its perigee to around 250 km, according
to Russian sources. This is an excellent match to the 250 x 1000 km 
orbit of the earlier Improved CRYSTAL, USA 86.

The Galileo probe descended 160 km below the Jovian cloud tops on Dec 7,
surviving for 57 minutes after the beginning of entry. Flyby of the
Orbiter past Io was at 892 km, not 1000 km, according to the Dec 8 
Galileo status report. The line of sight from Jupiter to Earth passes
too close to the Sun at the moment for reliable data transmission,
and the remainder of the probe data will be relayed starting next
month.

The VKS (Russian Space Forces) launched a Proton-K vehicle with a
Blok-DM2 upper stage from Baykonur on Dec 14. The rocket inserted
three Uragan navigation satellites, nos. 776, 778 and 782, into 19000
km circular orbits at an inclination of 64.8 degrees. The Uragan
spacecraft, which form part of the GLONASS (Global'naya
Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema) navigation system, were given
the cover names Kosmos-2323, Kosmos-2324 and Kosmos-2325.
They are in GLONASS plane 2. (Source: VKS CSIC).

Erratum: the Gals and Luch-1 launches carried the Blok-DM2 upper
stage, not the DM2M.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1425   Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Comsat      63A
Nov 28 1130   Asiasat 2        Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      64A
Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B
Dec 14 0610   Kosmos-2323  )                                  Navsat      68A
              Kosmos-2324  )   Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Navsat      68B
              Kosmos-2325  )                                  Navsat      68C
Dec 15 0023   Galaxy IIIR      Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      69A

Reentries
---------

Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75/OV-105  LC39B      STS-72                       
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-53               VAB Bay 1  STS-75                                  
 


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 269
Date: Sunday, 24 December, 1995 14:47

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 269                      1995 Dec 24                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, still scheduled for January 11.  Crew of
Endeavour will be Brian Duffy, Brent Jett, Leroy Chiao, Winston Scott,
Koichi Wakata, and Daniel Barry. Wakata is an astronaut from Japan's
NASDA space agency, while the others are from NASA.

Mir
---

RKK Energiya's 7K-TGM transport craft 11F615A55 No. 230 was launched on
Dec 18 from pad 1 at Baykonur and named Progress M-30. Launch was at
1431:35 UTC and it entered an orbit of 89.61 min, 194 x 315 km x 51.6
deg. After correction burns at 1810 and 1904 UTC it was in a 89.90 min,
240 x 298 km x 51.6 deg orbit. (Times are from Vladimir Agapov; orbital
data is based on Space Command elements).

On Dec 19 at 0915:05 UTC, transport ship No. 229 (Progress M-29)
undocked from the rear port of Mir, on the Kvant module, into a 92.47
min, 391 x 400 km x 51.6 deg orbit. and at 1526 UTC it fired its engine
to reenter over the Pacific Ocean.  Half an hour later, at 1600 UTC,
Progress M-30 raised its orbit to 90.13 min, 248 x 312 km x 51.6 deg.
At 1615 UTC Progress M-29 burnt up over 48.5 deg S, 158.7 deg W.

Progress M-30 made two more manouvres at 1404 and 1447 UTC on Dec 20,
entering a 92.46 min, 390 x 399 km x 41.6 deg orbit and completing its
rendezvous with Mir. It docked to the vacant port at 1610:15 UTC on Dec
20, delivering cargo to the Mir crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter.
The Progress M (11F615A55) series of spacecraft consist of a cargo
module, a fuel section, and a service module. They are based on the
Soyuz (7K) spaceship design. 73 robot cargo ships in the Progress
and Progress M series have now been launched towards the DOS-5, 6 and 7
(Salyut-6, Salyut-7 and Mir) space stations; every single one
has successfully delivered its cargo, although several of the Progress M
ferries had to make more than one attempt at docking.

Recent Launches
--------------

Kosmos-2326 was launched on Dec 20. It is an electronic intelligence
ocean reconnaissance satellite built by KB Arsenal for the Russian
Defense Ministry, and uses a low thrust engine to maintain its 400 km
high, 65 degree orbit. Kosmos-2326 also carries a supplementary
scientific experiment from the Ioffe Institute in St Petersburg,
according to V. Agapov. The experiment is the Konus-A gamma ray
spectrometer, used to detect cosmic gamma ray bursts. Konus-A is a
successor to earlier Konus experiments carried on Venera probes in the
1970s and 1980s.

Launch of Delta 230 with the X-ray Timing Explorer satellite was
scrubbed on Dec 18 at 1501 UTC when the liquid oxygen valve on the first
stage failed to open and the main engine did not ignite. The vernier
engines ignited briefly but the solids were not commanded to ignite and
the vehicle remained safely on the pad.

The Russian spy satellite Kosmos-2305 may have completed its mission and
been deorbited  around 0h UTC on Dec 19. Two new objects were tracked in
orbit around that time. Orbit of Kosmos-2305 on Dec 18 was 89.77 min,
239 x 286 km x 64.9 deg. Kosmos-2305 was launched in Dec 1994; its
companion spacecraft Kosmos-2320 remains in a similar orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2 Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1425   Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Comsat      63A
Nov 28 1130   Asiasat 2        Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      64A
Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B
Dec 14 0610   Kosmos-2323  )                                  Navsat      68A
              Kosmos-2324  )   Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Navsat      68B
              Kosmos-2325  )                                  Navsat      68C
Dec 15 0023   Galaxy IIIR      Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      69A
Dec 18 1431   Progress M-30    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo ship  70A
Dec 20 0052   Kosmos-2326      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Eorsat/Sci  71A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75/OV-105  LC39B      STS-72                       
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-53               VAB Bay 1  STS-75                                  
 


Shuttle Processing Explanation (or,  what are all these acronyms
anyway?):

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM).  The
OV is prepared for flight in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which
consists of three bays (one of which is actually a separate building)
after which it is towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and
`mated to the stack' or joined to the ET and RSRM. First, the segments
of the RSRM are stacked up on a Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the
ET is connected to it. After the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is
moved underneath the ML and carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of
the two pads (A or B) at launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually
launched on a Space Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally
an OV is returned to the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale,
California for refit - an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP. 


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 270
Date: Tuesday, 02 January, 1996 19:51

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 270                       1995 Jan 2                    Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-72, still scheduled for January 11.  

Mir
---

The 20th main expedition to the Mir complex continues its work. On Jan 1
at 0000:00 UTC, the crew of Yuriy Gidzenko, Sergey Avdeev, and Thomas
Reiter had been in flight for 119 days 14 hours 59 min 38 sec
(remembering to put in that leap second at 1995 Dec 31d 23h 59m 60s!)
since the liftoff of their Soyuz TM-22 spaceship from pad 1 at Baykonur
on Sep 3.

Recent Launches
--------------

The Indian Space Research Organization's IRS-1C (Indian Remote Sensing
Satellite) satellite was launched from Baykonur on Dec 28. This was the
first Russian launch into a retrograde (99 degree) orbit using the
Molniya-M four stage rocket; earlier Russian retrograde launches used
the Vostok rocket which has now been retired.  The Molniya-M for this
flight used a fourth stage called the Blok 2BL, which fired to place
IRS-1C in a circular 101.1 min, 805 x 817 km x 98.6 deg sun-synchronous
orbit. The Blok-I third stage appears to have been suborbital, the first
time such a flight profile has been used. The IRS-1C is more advanced
than earlier Indian remote sensing satellites, with a 10-m resolution
panchromatic camera and a 20-m resolution multispectral camera.

Also launched with IRS-1C was the Skipper subsatellite, a joint project
between the US Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the Russian
Defense Ministry which will simulate ICBM reentry and test out
aerobraking techniques. According to my rather out of date information,
the payload is built by the Utah State University Space Dynamics Lab in
collaboration with the Moscow Aviation Institute and has a mass of 230
kg; it will maneuver to a low perigee and then deorbit over Kwajalein in
the Pacific in about a week. Anyone with more info on Skipper is encouraged
to get in touch.

Echostar 1, a Lockheed Martin Astro Space AS7000 series television
broadcast satellite, was successfully launched by a Chinese Chang Zheng
2E rocket on Dec 28 into low Earth orbit. An EPKM solid kick motor fired
to place the satellite in a 222 x 35081 km x 24.4 deg geostationary
transfer orbit, from where the satellite's liquid apogee engine would
further raise the orbit to a circular geostationary one. Echostar
carries 16 Ku-band transponders.

NASA-Goddard's X-Ray Timing Explorer satellite was launched on Dec 30
from pad 17A at Cape Canaveral. It entered a 565 x 583 km x 23.0 deg
orbit. The satellite carries  the PCA (Proportional Counter Array)
instrument with large collecting area but low spatial resolution, for
accurate timing and 2-60 keV spectral measurements of bright X-ray
sources. The HEXTE (High Energy X-ray Timing Experiment) will study
X-rays of higher energy (up to 200 keV) and the ASM (All Sky Monitor)
has a wide field of view to spot X-ray flare stars and burst sources in
the 2-10 keV range.. XTE was built by NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.

XTE's launch vehicle was a two stage McDonnell Douglas Delta 7920-10
model, Delta 230. Launch was at 1348 UTC on Dec 30; first the two liquid
vernier engines ignite, and immediately afterwards the main engine
ignited successfully, 2.5 seconds before liftoff. Six of the nine
Hercules GEM solid rocket motors (Nos. 1,2,3,7,8 and 9) ignited and the
vehicle left the pad. The six solids burnt out and separated as solids
4,5 and 6 ignited, at around T+1 min 5 sec. Solids 4,5 and 6 then burnt
out and separated at 2min 11 sec. The main RS-27 engine cutoff at 4min
20 sec and the first, Thor-derived, stage fell away at 4:29. The Delta
second stage ignited its AJ-10-118K liquid engine at 4:34 and the
10-foot payload shroud, having survived those upper-level winds, was
jettisoned at 4:40, at an altitude of 143 km. The first burn of the
second stage shut down at 1358 UTC, T+9:55, with Delta/XTE in a  157 x
613 km x 28.73 deg Earth orbit. The combination coasted toward apogee
for an hour, and at 1456 (T+1:08:18) the Delta reignited for a 1 min 31
sec burn to circularize the orbit at 565 x 583 km x 23.0 deg. Delta 230
separated from XTE at 1506 UTC. At 1526 UTC Delta 230 ignited for the
third time in an evasive maneuver to leave  the vicinity of XTE, and at
1534 UTC the AJ-10-118K was turned on for the fourth and last time in a
depletion burn intended to lower the orbit and get rid of residual
propellant, to avoid the possibility of  a later explosion (in the 1970s
exploding relic Delta stages were responsible for significant
contributions to the orbital debris population). It ended up in a 176 x
575 km x 25.0 deg orbit and should reenter rapidly.

Satellite catalog number 23658, which had been reserved for the
Fasat-Alfa Chilean subsatellite that failed to separate from Sich-1, has
now been assigned to the Centaur AC-117 stage from the JCSAT-3 launch,
which on Dec 17 was tracked in a 175 x 79168 km x 22.93 deg orbit.
Cataloged with Kosmos-2326 (1995-71A, 23748) is the rocket stage
(1995-71C, 23750) which reentered on the day of launch, implying the
existence of an object (1995-71B, 23749) for which no elements have yet
been released. This may be a misunderstanding based on the incorrect
assumption that the Konus-A experiment is intended to separate from the
main satellite, and the catalog number may be reassigned. The Goddard
OIG group has reported the decay of object 23453 (Kosmos-2305), as
suggested by me in JSR 269, although they confused the issue by
labelling it  Kosmos-398!

The Gals 2 satellite has been positioned at 70.9E over the Indian
Ocean. Asiasat 2 has reached geostationary position at 100.5E.
Telecom 2C fired its apogee engine between Dec 17 and 
Dec 21, immediately reaching its geostationary location at 1.0E.
Insat 2C arrived at its 92.5E position on Dec 19.
On Dec 24 Galaxy 3R raised its transfer orbit to 
1292.35 min, 30054 x 35793 km x 1.4 deg.
Another engine firing on Dec 26 completed the ascent to synchronous
altitude, placing it in a 1435.46 min, 35756 x 35792 km x 0.1 deg
orbit drifting E over 94.9W.

TDRS 1 left its 139.6W position in mid December to drift E.
The German television satellite DFS Kopernikus 1 left its 33E slot
on around Dec 14.
The US Navy UHF F6 completed its testing period at 171W and moved
during November-December to a new location at 105.3W.
Intelsat 503 has reached a new station at 157.0E.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Nov  4 1422   Radarsat )       Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Rem sensing 59A
              SURFSAT  )                                                  59B
Nov  6 0515   Milstar DFS 2   Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40  Comsat      60A
Nov 12 1230   Atlantis       ) Shuttle        Kennedy   LC39A Spaceship   61A
              Docking Module )
Nov 17 0120   ISO              Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Astronomy   62A
Nov 17 1425   Gals-2           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Comsat      63A
Nov 28 1130   Asiasat 2        Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      64A
Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B
Dec 14 0610   Kosmos-2323  )                                  Navsat      68A
              Kosmos-2324  )   Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Navsat      68B
              Kosmos-2325  )                                  Navsat      68C
Dec 15 0023   Galaxy IIIR      Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      69A
Dec 18 1431   Progress M-30    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo ship  70A
Dec 20 0052   Kosmos-2326      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Eorsat/Sci  71A
Dec 28 0645   IRS-1C     )     Molniya-M      Baykonur LC31   Rem.sensing 72A
              Skipper    )                                    Military    72B
Dec 28 1150   Echostar 1       Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      73A
Dec 30 1348   XTE              Delta 7920     Canaveral LC17A Astronomy   74A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-72  Jan 11
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-52/ET-75/OV-105  LC39B      STS-72                       
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-53               VAB Bay 1  STS-75                                  
 



..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 271-A                    1996 Jan 3                       Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

Special Edition - 1995 Launch Summary
--------------------------------------

As usual, this year's summary is in a different format from last year's.
There are four parts: Launch and orbital data; Manufacturer data; 
abbreviation list; and launch vehicle data. There may be some errors,
particularly in the manufacturer data - please let me know any you spot.
Because of the large size of the launch summary, I am sending the launch
vehicle data in a separate message (271-B). 

Erratum for JSR 270: OK, OK, the header should NOT have read '1995 Jan 2'.
So I'm in denial, y'all have a problem with that?

ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1995

PART 1 - List and current status

 Orbits are given for late Dec 1995: 
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)

INT'L   NAME            AGENCY  TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.                                   DATE

01A  Intelsat 704     INTELSAT  Comsat     Jan 10   35776 x 35796 x  0.1 66.0E
-    EXPRESS          DARA      Micrograv  Jan 15   Crashed in Ghana Jan 15
02A  Tsikada          MO RF     Navsat     Jan 24     962 x  1023 x 82.9
02B  Astrid           SSC       Science    Jan 24     963 x  1027 x 82.9
02C  FAISAT           FAI       Comsat     Jan 24     965 x  1023 x 82.9
-    Apstar 2         APT       Comsat     Jan 25   Destroyed in launch
03A  UHF F4           HCI/USN   Comsat     Jan 29   35773 x 35804 x  4.8
177.0W
04A  Discovery STS-63 NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Feb  3   Landed at KSC Feb 11
04A  Spacehab SH03    Spacehab  Lab        Feb  3   Attached to Discovery
04C  ODERACS IIA      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4     268 x   280 x 51.6
04D  ODERACS IIB      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4   Reentered Sep 29
04E  ODERACS IIC      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4   Reentered?
04F  ODERACS IID      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4   Reentered Mar 2
04G  ODERACS IIE      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4   Reentered Feb 27
04H  ODERACS IIF      NASA-JSC  Calibrat.  Feb  4   Reentered?
04B  Spartan 204      USAF      Tech/Astro Feb  7   Retrieved by Discovery Feb
9
05A  Progress M-26    RKA       Cargo      Feb 15  Deorbited over Pacific Mar
15
06A  Foton No. 10     RKA       Micrograv  Feb 16   Landed in Russia Mar 3
07A  Endeavour STS-67 NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Mar  2   Landed at Edwards Mar 18
07A  Astro 2          NASA-MSFC Astronomy  Mar  2   Attached to Endeavour
08A  Kosmos-2306      MO RF     Calibrat.  Mar  2     466 x   513 x 65.8
09A  Kosmos-2307      MO RF     Navsat     Mar  7   19110 x 19149 x 64.7
09B  Kosmos-2308      MO RF     Navsat     Mar  7   19108 x 19151 x 64.7
09C  Kosmos-2309      MO RF     Navsat     Mar  7   19094 x 19165 x 64.7
10A  Soyuz TM-21      RKA       Spaceship  Mar 14   Landed in Kazakhstan Sep
11
11A  SFU              NASDA     Science    Mar 18     471 x   483 x 28.5
11B  Himawari 5       NASDA     Weather    Mar 18   35784 x 35791 x  0.6
140.2E
12A  Kosmos-2310      MO RF     Navigation Mar 22     980 x  1010 x 82.9
13A  Intelsat 705     INTELSAT  Comsat     Mar 22   35776 x 35798 x  0.0 
50.1W
14A  Kosmos-2311      MO RF     Recon      Mar 22   Landed in Russia? May 31
15A  DMSP 24547       USAF      Weather    Mar 24     845 x   854 x 98.8
-    Gurwin 1         ISA       Technology Mar 28  Fell in Sea of Okhotsk Mar
28
-    UNAMSAT          UNAM      Comsat     Mar 28  Fell in Sea of Okhotsk Mar
28
-    EKA              NIITT     Technology Mar 28  Fell in Sea of Okhotsk Mar
28
16A  Brasilsat B2     EMBRATEL  Comsat     Mar 28   35782 x 35793 x  0.1 
65.1W
16B  Hot Bird 1       EUTELSAT  Comsat     Mar 28   35773 x 35798 x  0.0 
13.0E
17A  Orbcomm FM1      Orbcomm   Comsat     Apr  3     733 x   748 x 70.0
17B  Orbcomm FM2      Orbcomm   Comsat     Apr  3     734 x   748 x 70.0
17C  Microlab 1       OSC       Science    Apr  3     733 x   747 x 70.0
18A  'Ofeq-3          ISA       Rem.sens.  Apr  5     366 x   694 x143.4
19A  AMSC-1           AMSC      Comsat     Apr  7   35777 x 35796 x  0.0
101.1W
20A  Progress M-27    RKA       Cargo      Apr  9  Deorbited over Pacific May
23
86-17JE GFZ-1         GFZ       Geodesy    Apr 19     380 x   387 x 51.6
21A  ERS-2            ESA       Rem.sens.  Apr 21     783 x   784 x 98.6
22A  USA 110          NRO/NSA   Sigint     May 14   35787 x 35787 x  0.0 ??
23A  Intelsat 706     INTELSAT  Comsat     May 17   35776 x 35798 x  0.0 
53.1W
24A  Spektr           RKA       Lab        May 20  Docked to Mir Jun 1
25A  GOES 9           NOAA      Weather    May 23   35809 x 35911 x  0.2 
26A  Kosmos-2312      MO RF     Early Warn May 24     938 x 39416 x 63.2
27A  UHF F5           HCI/USN   Comsat     May 31   35774 x 35796 x  4.8 
72.3E
28A  Kosmos-2313      MO RF     Elint      Jun  8     410 x   419 x 65.0
29A  DBS 3            DirecTV   Comsat     Jun 10   35784 x 35789 x  0.0
101.0W
-    STEP M3          USAF      Technology Jun 22  Destroyed during launch 
30A  Atlantis STS-71  NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jun 27   Landed at KSC Jul 6
31A  Kosmos-2314      MO RF     Recon      Jun 28   Landed in Russia? Sep 6
32A  Kosmos-2315      MO RF     Navsat     Jul  5     970 x  1013 x 82.9
33A  Helios 1A        CNES/DGA  Recon      Jul  7     679 x   682 x 98.1
33B  CERISE           CNES/DGA  Sigint     Jul  7     666 x   675 x 98.1
33C  UPM/LBSAT 1      UPM       Technology Jul  7     663 x   676 x 98.1
34A  USA 112          NRO/NSA   Sigint     Jul 10    1000 x 39000 x 64 ??
89-84E Galileo Probe  NASA-ARC  Probe      Jul 13  Entry into Jupiter Dec 7
35A  Discovery STS-70 NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jul 13   Landed at KSC Jul 22
35B  TDRS 7           NASA-GSFC Comsat     Jul 13   35774 x 35795 x  0.3
149.8W
36A  Progress M-28    RKA       Cargo      Jul 20  Deorbited over Pacific Sep
4
37A  Kosmos-2316      MO RF     Navsat     Jul 24   19083 x 19176 x 64.8
37B  Kosmos-2317      MO RF     Navsat     Jul 24   19084 x 19174 x 64.8
37C  Kosmos-2318      MO RF     Navsat     Jul 24   19036 x 19223 x 64.8
38A  DSCS III B7      USAF      Comsat     Jul 31   35787 x 35787 x  0.0 ??
39A  Interbol-1       RKA       Science    Aug  2    4426 x188331 x 68.2
39F  Magion-4         Czech     Science    Aug  2    1409 x192523 x 63.1 (Aug)
40A  PAS 4            PAS       Comsat     Aug  3   35774 x 35798 x  0.0 
68.5E
41A  Mugunghwa-ho     KoreaTel  Comsat     Aug  5   35775 x 35801 x  0.0
116.0E
42A  Molniya-3        RKA?      Comsat     Aug  9     468 x 39875 x 62.9
-    Vitasat/Gemstar  VITA/CTA  Comsat     Aug 15  Destroyed during launch 
43A  JCSAT 3          JSAT      Comsat     Aug 29   35779 x 35794 x  0.0
128.1E
44A  N-Star a         NTT       Comsat     Aug 29   35782 x 35791 x  0.1
131.9E
45A  Kosmos-2319      MO RF     Comsat     Aug 30   35755 x 35818 x  1.3 
80.0E
46A  Sich 1           NKAU      Rem.sens.  Aug 31     631 x   668 x 82.5
46A  Fasat-Alfa       FACh      Comsat/RS  Aug 31  Failed to sep from Sich 1
47A  Soyuz TM-22      RKA       Spaceship  Sep  3  Docked to Mir Sep 5
48A  Endeavour STS-69 NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Sep  7  Landed at KSC Sep 18
48B  Spartan 201      NASA-GSFC Astronomy  Sep  8  Retrieved by Endeavour Sep
10
48C  WSF 2            SVEC      Micrograv. Sep 11  Retrieved by Endeavour Sep
14
49A  Telstar 402R     AT&T      Comsat     Sep 24   35770 x 35803 x  0.1 
89.0W
50A  Resurs F-2 N.10  RKA       Rem.sens.  Sep 26  Landed in Russia Oct 26
51A  Kosmos-2320      MO RF     Recon      Sep 29     235 x   372 x 64.9
52A  Kosmos-2321      MO RF     Navsat     Oct  6     256 x   754 x 82.9
53A  Progress M-29    RKA       Cargo      Oct  8  Deorbited over Pacific Dec
19
54A  Luch 1           RKA       Comsat     Oct 11   35753 x 35818 x  2.9 
77.1E
55A  Astra 1E         SES       Comsat     Oct 19   35766 x 35802 x  0.0 
19.2E
56A  Columbia STS-73  NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Oct 20  Landed at KSC Nov 5
56A  USML-2           NASA-MSFC Lab        Oct 20  Attached to Columbia
57A  UHF F6           HCI/USN   Comsat     Oct 22   35776 x 35797 x  5.0
105.3W
-    Meteor           EER       Micrograv  Oct 23  Destroyed during launch 
58A  Kosmos-2322      MO RF     Sigint     Oct 31     847 x   854 x 71.0
59A  Radarsat         CSA       Rem.sens.  Nov  4     790 x   792 x 98.6
59B  SURFSAT          NASA/JPL  Technology Nov  4     934 x  1494 x100.6
60A  Milstar DFS 2    USAF      Comsat     Nov  6   35787 x 35787 x 10.0 ??
61A  Atlantis STS-74  NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Nov 12  Landed at KSC Nov 20
61A  316GK SM         RKA       Lab        Nov 12  Docked to Mir Nov 15
62A  ISO              ESA       Astronomy  Nov 17    1110 x 70504 x  5.1
63A  Gals-2           Land      Comsat     Nov 17   35784 x 35788 x  0.2 
70.9E
64A  Asiasat 2        Asiasat   Comsat     Nov 28   35777 x 35798 x  0.4
100.5E
65A  SOHO             ESA       Astronomy  Dec  2  En route Earth-Sun L1 point
66A  USA 116          NRO/CIA   Recon      Dec  5     250 x   976 x 98.7 ?
67A  Telecom 2C       FT        Comsat     Dec  6   35777 x 35793 x  0.1  
1.1E
67B  Insat 2C         ISRO      Comsat     Dec  6   35755 x 35817 x  0.2 
92.5E
68A  Kosmos-2323      MO RF     Navsat     Dec 14   18677 x 19133 x 64.8
68B  Kosmos-2324      MO RF     Navsat     Dec 14   19133 x 19142 x 64.8
68C  Kosmos-2325      MO RF     Navsat     Dec 14   19112 x 19147 x 64.8
69A  Galaxy 3R        HCI       Comsat     Dec 15   35756 x 35792 x  0.1
70A  Progress M-30    RKA       Cargo      Dec 18  Docked to Mir Dec 20
71A  Kosmos-2326      MO RF     Elint/Astr Dec 20     406 x   415 x 65.0    
72A  IRS-1C           ISRO      Rem.sens.  Dec 28     805 x   817 x 98.6
72B  Skipper          BMDO/MO RF Technol.  Dec 28     804 x   813 x 98.6
73A  Echostar 1       Echostar  Comsat     Dec 28     222 x 35081 x 24.4
74A  XTE              NASA-GSFC Astronomy  Dec 30     565 x   583 x 23.0    


PART 2: Manufacturers/Designers.

For most of the Russian spacecraft, the company named is the
design bureau rather than the production factory.

Des.  Name            Manufacturer      Bus

01A  Intelsat 704     Loral     	FS-1300
-    EXPRESS          DASA
02A  Tsikada          Polyot    	Parus/Tsikada
02B  Astrid           SSC               Freja-C    
02C  FAISAT           FAI       
-    Apstar 2         Hughes    	HS-601
03A  UHF F4           Hughes    	HS-601
04A  Discovery STS-63 Rockwell  	OV-103
04A  Spacehab SH03    MDAC      	Spacehab
04C  ODERACS IIA      NASA-JSC      
04D  ODERACS IIB      NASA-JSC  
04E  ODERACS IIC      NASA-JSC  
04F  ODERACS IID      NASA-JSC  
04G  ODERACS IIE      NASA-JSC  
04H  ODERACS IIF      NASA-JSC  
04B  Spartan 204      NASA-GSFC 	Spartan
05A  Progress M-26    Energiya  	7K-TGM
06A  Foton No. 10     TsSKB     	Vostok/Foton
07A  Endeavour STS-67 Rockwell  	OV-105
07A  Astro 2                    	Spacelab PLT
08A  Kosmos-2306      Yuzhnoe?  
09A  Kosmos-2307      Polyot    	Uragan
09B  Kosmos-2308      Polyot    	Uragan
09C  Kosmos-2309      Polyot    	Uragan
10A  Soyuz TM-21      Energiya  	7K-STM
11A  SFU              Mitsubishi 
11B  Himawari 5       NEC               GMS
12A  Kosmos-2310      Polyot    	Parus/Tsikada
13A  Intelsat 705     Loral     	FS-1300
14A  Kosmos-2311      TsSKB     	Yantar'
15A  DMSP 24547       LMAS      	Block 5D
-    Gurwin 1         Technion
-    UNAMSAT          UNAM 
-    EKA              NIITT
16A  Brasilsat B2     Hughes    	HS-376W
16B  Hot Bird 1       Aerospatiale 	Spacebus 2000
17A  Orbcomm FM1      OSC               Microstar	
17B  Orbcomm FM2      OSC               Microstar
17C  Microlab 1       OSC               Microlab
18A  'Ofeq-3          IAI
19A  AMSC-1           Hughes            HS-601
20A  Progress M-27    Energiya          7K-TGM
86-17JE GFZ-1         Kayzer-Threde     GFZ
21A  ERS-2            Dornier           SPOT
22A  USA 110          Hughes?           Adv Orion
23A  Intelsat 706     Loral 		FS-1300
24A  Spektr           Salyut		77KS
25A  GOES 9           Loral		GOES-Next
26A  Kosmos-2312      Lavochkin		Oko
27A  UHF F5           Hughes		HS-601
28A  Kosmos-2313      Arsenal		EORSAT
29A  DBS 3            Hughes		HS-601
-    STEP M3          TRW/DSI		Eagle
30A  Atlantis STS-71  Rockwell		OV-104
31A  Kosmos-2314      TsSKB		Yantar'
32A  Kosmos-2315      Polyot		Parus/Tsikada
33A  Helios 1A        Aerospatiale	SPOT Mk 4
33B  CERISE           SST		Uosat
33C  UPM/LBSAT 1      UPM       
34A  USA 112          Boeing?		Adv JUMPSEAT
89-84E Galileo Probe  Hughes            Galileo Probe
35A  Discovery STS-70 Rockwell		OV-103
35B  TDRS 7           TRW		TDRS
36A  Progress M-28    Energiya		7K-TGM
37A  Kosmos-2316      Polyot		Uragan
37B  Kosmos-2317      Polyot		Uragan
37C  Kosmos-2318      Polyot		Uragan
38A  DSCS III B7      LMAS              DSCS III
39A  Interbol-1       Lavochkin         Prognoz
39F  Magion-4         Czech             Magion
40A  PAS 4            Hughes            HS-601
41A  Mugunghwa-ho     LMAS              AS3000
42A  Molniya-3        NPO-PM            Molniya-3
-    Vitasat/Gemstar  CTA               Gemstar
43A  JCSAT 3          Hughes		HS-601
44A  N-Star a         Loral		FS-1300
45A  Kosmos-2319      NPO-PM            Geizer
46A  Sich 1           Yuzhnoe           Okean
46A  Fasat-Alfa       SST               Uosat
47A  Soyuz TM-22      Energiya		7K-STM
48A  Endeavour STS-69 Rockwell		OV-105
48B  Spartan 201      NASA-GSFC		Spartan
48C  WSF 2            SII		WSF
49A  Telstar 402R     LMAS		AS7000
50A  Resurs F-2 N.10  TsSKB		Vostok/Resurs F-2
51A  Kosmos-2320      TsSKB		Advanced Recon
52A  Kosmos-2321      Polyot		Parus/Tsikada
53A  Progress M-29    Energiya		7K-TGM
54A  Luch 1           NPO-PM		Luch
55A  Astra 1E         Hughes		HS-601
56A  Columbia STS-73  Rockwell		OV-102
56A  USML-2           			Spacelab LM
57A  UHF F6           Hughes		HS-601
-    Meteor           EER      		Meteor
58A  Kosmos-2322      Yuzhnoe		Tselina
59A  Radarsat         Spar 		Radarsat
59B  SURFSAT          MDAC		Delta
60A  Milstar DFS 2    LMA		Milstar
61A  Atlantis STS-74  Rockwell		OV-104
61A  316GK SM         Energiya		316GK (Modified 7K-BO)
62A  ISO              Aerosp. 		ISO
63A  Gals-2           NPO-PM		Gals
64A  Asiasat 2        LMAS		AS7000
65A  SOHO             MMS		
66A  USA 116          LMA?		Improved CRYSTAL
67A  Telecom 2C       MMS		Eurostar
67B  Insat 2C         ISRO      	Insat 2
68A  Kosmos-2323      Polyot		Uragan
68B  Kosmos-2324      Polyot		Uragan
68C  Kosmos-2325      Polyot		Uragan
69A  Galaxy 3R        Hughes		HS-601
70A  Progress M-30    Energiya		7K-TGM
71A  Kosmos-2326      Arsenal		EORSAT
72A  IRS-1C           ISRO      	IRS
72B  Skipper          USU-SDL/Iskra		
73A  Echostar 1       LMAS		AS7000
74A  XTE              NASA-GSFC		XTE

PART 3 - Abbreviations for Organizations

Aerosp.  Aerospatiale
AMSC     American Mobile Satellite Corp.
APT      Asia Pacific Telecom Satellite Co.
Arsenal  KB Arsenal, St-Peterburg, Russia
Asiasat  Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co., Hong Kong
AT&T     AT&T Corp.
BMDO     Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, US DoD
Boeing   Boeing Aerospace
CIA      Central Intelligence Agency
CNES     Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France
CSA      Canadian Space Agency
CTA      CTA, Inc., Virginia
Czech    Czech Republic
DARA     Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten, Germany
DASA     Deutsche Aerospace
DGA      Delegation Generale de l'Armament, France
DirecTV  DirecTV Satellite Inc.
Dornier  Dornier Aerospace, Germany
Echostar Echostar Satellite Corp.
EER      EER Systems Inc.
EMBRATEL Embratel SA, Brazil
Energiya RKK Energiya, Kaliningrad, Russia
ESA      European Space Agency
EUTELSAT European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
FACh     Fueza Aerea de Chile (Chilean Air Force)
FAI      Final Analysis, Inc.
FT       France Telecom
GFZ      Geoforschungszentrum, Potsdam, Germany
HCI      Hughes Communications Inc.
Hughes   Hughes Aircraft Co.
IAI      Israeli Aircraft Industries
INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
ISA      Israeli Space Agency
Iskra    KB Iskra, Moscow Aviation Inst.
ISRO     Indian Space Research Organization
JPL      Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JSAT     Japan Satellite Systems
Kayser-T Kayser-Threde GmbH, Germany
KoreaTel Korea Telecom
Land     Land Group, China
Lavochkin NPO Lavochkin, Russia
LMA      Lockheed Martin Astronautics
LMAS     Lockheed Martin Astro Space
Loral    Space Systems/Loral
MDAC     McDonnell Douglas Astronautics
Mitsub.  Mitsubishi, Japan
MMS      Matra Marconi Space
MO RF    Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
NASA     United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA-ARC  Ames Research Center
NASA-GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA-JSC  Johnson Space Flight Center
NASA-MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center
NASDA    National Space Development Agency, Japan
NEC      Nippon Electric Corp, Japan
NIITT    NII-TT, Russia
NKAU     National Space Agency of Ukraine
NOAA     United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NPO-PM   NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Krasnoyarsk
NRO      National Reconnaissance Office, US DoD
NSA      National Security Agency, US DoD
NTT      Nippon Telephone and Telegraph
Orbcomm  Orbital Communications Corp.
OSC      Orbital Sciences Corp.
PAS      PanAmSat Inc.
Polyot   AKO Polyot, Omsk, Russia
RKA      Russian Space Agency (Moskva, Russia)
Rockwell Rockwell International Corp.
Salyut   KB Salyut, Russia
SES      Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
SII      Space Industries Inc. Houston, Texas
Spacehab Spacehab, Inc.
Spar     Spar Aerospace, Canada
SSC      Swedish Space Corp.
SST      Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd.
SVEC     Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, Houston, Texas
Technion Technion University, Israel
TRW      TRW Inc, Redondo Beach, California
TsSKB    Central Specialized Design Bureau, Samara, Russia
UNAM     Autonomous University of Mexico
UPM      Madrid Polytechnic University, Spain
USAF     United States Air Force
USN      United States Navy
USU-SDL  Utah State U. Space Dynamics Lab
VITA     Volunteers In Technical Assistance, Inc.
Yuzhnoe  KB Yuzhnoe, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 271-B                     1996 Jan 3                       Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

Special Edition - 1995 Launch Summary - Continued
-------------------------------------------------

PART 4 - Launch Vehicles

 Launch vehicles are listed by type, in order of number of
launches. For failures, the indication
'stage 2 failure' means that the failure occurred between
stage 1 separation and stage 2 separation, not necessarily
that the indicated stage was at fault.

 US vehicles:             Launched  Failures
 NASA Space Shuttle        7        0
 Lockheed Martin Titan     4        0
 Lockheed Martin  Atlas   12        0
 MDSSC Delta               3        1*
 OSC Pegasus               2        1
 Lockheed Martin LMLV      1        1
 EER Conestoga             1        1

 Russian vehicles:

 Krunichev Proton          7        0
 Energiya Soyuz           16        0
 Polyot Kosmos             5        1*
 NII-TT Start              1        1
 
 Other vehicles:
 Arianespace Ariane       11        0
 NASDA H-II                1        0
 China GWIC Long March     3        1
 Yuzhnoe Zenit             2        0
 Yuzhnoe Tsiklon           3        0
 ISAS/Nissan Mu            1        1*

 ------------------------------------
 Total                    79        8
 * Reached an orbit despite failure


Date               Type            Launch pad   Notes

Energiya Soyuz (and Molniya) (16)

 Feb 15            Soyuz-U          KB LC1
 Feb 16            Soyuz-U          PL LC43
 Mar 14            Soyuz-U2         KB LC1
 Mar 22            Soyuz-U          PL LC43
 Apr  9            Soyuz-U          KB LC1
 May 24            Molniya-M/2BL    PL LC16
 Jun 28            Soyuz-U          PL LC43
 Jul 20            Soyuz-U          KB LC1
 Aug  2            Molniya-M/2BL    PL LC43/3
 Aug  9            Molniya-M/L      PL LC43
 Sep  3            Soyuz-U2         KB LC1
 Sep 26            Soyuz-U          PL LC43/4
 Sep 29            Soyuz-U          KB LC31
 Oct  8            Soyuz-U          KB LC1
 Dec 18            Soyuz-U          KB LC1
 Dec 28            Molniya-M/2BL    KB LC31

Lockheed Martin Atlas: (12)
 Jan 10  AC-113    Atlas IIAS       CC LC36B
 Jan 29  AC-112    Atlas II         CC LC36A
 Mar 22  AC-115    Atlas IIAS       CC LC36B
 Mar 24  45E       Atlas E          V SLC3W
 Apr  7  AC-114    Atlas IIA        CC LC36A
 May 23  AC-77     Atlas I          CC LC36B
 May 31  AC-116    Atlas II         CC LC36A
 Jul 31  AC-118    Atlas IIA/IABS   CC LC36A
 Aug 29  AC-117    Atlas IIAS       CC LC36B
 Oct 22  AC-119    Atlas II         CC LC36A
 Dec  2  AC-121    Atlas IIAS       CC LC36B
 Dec 15  AC-120    Atlas IIA        CC LC36A

Arianespace Ariane (11)
 Mar 28  V71       Ariane 44LP/H10+? CSG ELA2
 Apr 21  V72       Ariane 40/H10+    CSG ELA2
 May 17  V73       Ariane 44LP/H10-3 CSG ELA2
 Jun 10  V74       Ariane 42P/H10-3  CSG ELA2
 Jul  7  V75       Ariane 40/H10-3   CSG ELA2
 Aug  3  V76       Ariane 42L/H10+   CSG ELA2
 Aug 29  V77       Ariane 44P/H10-3  CSG ELA2
 Sep 24  V78       Ariane 42L/H10+   CSG ELA2
 Oct 19  V79       Ariane 42L/H10-3  CSG ELA2
 Nov 17  V80       Ariane 44P/H10-3  CSG ELA2
 Dec  6  V81       Ariane 44L/H10-3  CSG ELA2

NASA Space Shuttle: (7)
 Feb  3  STS-63    STS              KSC LC39A
 Mar  2  STS-67    STS              KSC LC39B
 Jun 27  STS-71    STS              KSC LC39A
 Jul 13  STS-70    STS              KSC LC39B 
 Sep  7  STS-69    STS              KSC LC39A
 Oct 20  STS-73    STS              KSC LC39B
 Nov 12  STS-74    STS              KSC LC39A

Krunichev Proton-K (7)

 Mar  7            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC200
 May 20            Proton-K         KB LC81
 Jul 24            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC200L 
 Aug 30            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC200L
 Oct 11            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC81L
 Nov 17            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC200L
 Dec 14            Proton-K/DM-2    KB LC200L

Polyot Kosmos-3M (5)

 Jan 24  -         Kosmos-3M        PL LC132
 Mar  2            Kosmos-3M        PL LC132
 Mar 22            Kosmos-3M        PL LC132
 Jul  5            Kosmos-3M        PL LC132
 Oct  6            Kosmos-3M        PL LC132    Stage 2 failure

Lockheed Martin Titan: (4)
 May 14 K-23/TC-17 Titan 401 Centaur CC LC40
 Jul 10 K-19/TC-8  Titan 401 Centaur CC LC41
 Nov  6 K-21/TC-13 Titan 401 Centaur CC LC40
 Dec  5 K-15       Titan 404         V SLC4E

McDonnell Douglas Delta (3)
 Aug  9  D228      Delta 7925       CC LC17B     Stage 1 SRM failure
 Nov  4  D229      Delta 7920-10    V SLC2W  
 Dec 30  D230      Delta 7920-10    CC LC17A

Yuzhnoe Tsiklon (3)
 Jun  8            Tsiklon-2        KB LC90
 Aug 31            Tsiklon-3        PL LC32
 Dec 20            Tsiklon-2        KB LC90

China Great Wall `Chang Zheng' (Long March) (3)

 Jan 25            CZ-2E/Star 63    XSC        Stage 1 failure 
 Nov 28            CZ-2E/EPKM       XSC
 Dec 28            CZ-2E/EPKM       XSC

OSC Pegasus (2)
 Apr  3  1 F7      L-1011/Pegasus    V PAWA
 Jun 22  XL F2     L-1011/Pegasus XL V PAWA    Stage 3 failure

EER Conestoga: (1)
 Oct 23  No. 1     Conestoga 1620    WI LA0    Stage 1 failure
 
NII-TT Start (1)
 Mar 28            Start            PL LC158

Lockheed Martin LMLV (1)
 Aug 15  LMLV-1    LMLV-1           V SLC6       Stage 1 failure

Yuzhnoe Zenit-2 (1)
 Oct 31            Zenit-2          KB LC45L

Nissan Mu (1)
 Jan 15  M-3S-2-8  Mu-3S-II         KAG        Stage 2 failure

NASDA H-II (1)
 Mar 18  H-II-3    H-II             TNSC 

IAI Shaviyt (1)
 Apr  5  No. 3     Shaviyt           Palamchim


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs; rrnet
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 272
Date: Thursday, 11 January, 1996 17:54

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 272                       1996 Jan 11                   Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched on 1996 Jan 11,  at 0941:00 UTC,
beginning mission STS-72. Endeavour entered a 66 x 455 km x 28.5 deg
transfer orbit at main engine cutoff (0949:35), followed
by separation of the ET-75 external tank (0949:47). The OMS-2 apogee burn
at 1024:30 placed the OV-105 spacecraft in a 180 x 460 km orbit.
The NSR rendezvous burn tomorrow will place Endeavour on track
to meet up with the SFU satellite, currently in a 469 x 478 km
x 28.5 deg orbit. The Japanese National Space Development Agency's
Space Flyer Unit (SFU) was launched by an H-II rocket in Mar 1995.
A NASDA astronaut, Koichi Wakata, is a member of the STS-72 crew.

The STS-72 launch was unusual in that for the first time there
was no mission requirement for a transatlantic landing (TAL) 
abort site, since with a single engine failure the Orbiter could
have made it either to orbit or back to the Cape at all times
during the ascent. Two engine failures might have caused the
crew to go to the Banjul, Gambia, site since the weather
was bad at the mission's nominal TAL site at Ben Guerir,
Morocco.

Payloads on STS-72 include the Spartan 206 satellite (known
also as OAST Flyer) and the EDFT-3 spacewalk experiment.

Errata
-------

In JSR 271A, the Start launch fell on Russia, not the Sea of Okhotsk as
originally reported. NIITT should read MITT - Moscow Institute of
Thermal Technology. Gals-2 was procured and delivered on orbit to Land
by AO Informkosmos, so change owner to Informkosmos/Land. The UNAMSAT
was built by Moscow State University for UNAM. Molniya-3 is probably
owned by MSvyazi (Russian Federation Ministry of Communications).
Finally, it is more accurate to call the Foton and Resurs buses 'Zenit',
instead of 'Vostok', the design is ultimately derived from the
Vostok and Zenit spacecraft first built in 1960-63.

In JSR 271B, the Israeli Shaviyt was omitted from the summary table, and
an extra Zenit appeared mysteriously. The totals should have read 80
launches, not 79. The Soyuz launchers are from TsSKB/Progress, not
Energiya.

Recent Launches
--------------

IRS-1C raised its orbit on Jan 1 from 805 x 817 km to 816 x 818 km.

The Skipper satellite (JSR270) will investigate UV emission from a body
entering the Earth's atmosphere. It will dip in and out of the
atmosphere in a low perigee orbit. (Thanks to Gunter Krebs for info).
However, as of Jan 10 Skipper was still being recorded by Space Command
in its original 804 x 813 km orbit. (To be more precise, there are
three objects from the 1995-72 launch. Object A, identified as IRS,
raised its orbit. Objects B and C, which I am assuming are Skipper
and the 2BL rocket stage, are in the 804 x 813 km orbit. Space Command
has not as far as I know identified either object as Skipper. It is possible
that Skipper is actually a fourth, uncataloged object but at the moment
I find this unlikely.)



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B
Dec 14 0610   Kosmos-2323  )                                  Navsat      68A
              Kosmos-2324  )   Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Navsat      68B
              Kosmos-2325  )                                  Navsat      68C
Dec 15 0023   Galaxy IIIR      Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      69A
Dec 18 1431   Progress M-30    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo ship  70A
Dec 20 0052   Kosmos-2326      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Eorsat/Sci  71A
Dec 28 0645   IRS-1C     )     Molniya-M      Baykonur LC31   Rem.sensing 72A
              Skipper    )                                    Military    72B
Dec 28 1150   Echostar 1       Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      73A
Dec 30 1348   XTE              Delta 7920     Canaveral LC17A Astronomy   74A
Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Nov  5        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Nov 18        Molniya-1 (80-92A) Reentered
Nov 20        Atlantis        Landed at KSC
Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-72  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                      LC39B      STS-72              
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-53               VAB Bay 1  STS-75                                  
 



..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 273
Date: Saturday, 20 January, 1996 13:12

Jonathan's Space Report
No 273                         1996 Jan 20                   Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Shuttle mission STS-72 has been completed with two satellite retrievals
and two spacewalks. Endeavour completed its rendezvous with the Space
Flyer Unit satellite on Jan 13. The SFU successfully retracted its solar
panels, but failed to latch them, so the decision was made to jettison
them. The first panel was ejected at 0935 UTC and the second at 0947
UTC. At 1057 UTC the RMS 303 robot arm was used to grapple SFU, and it
was berthed in Endeavour's payload bay at 1139 UTC. SFU carried science
and technology experiments for Japan's National Space Development
Agency.

Endeavour then lowered its orbit to 302 x 311 km x 28.5 deg. The
OAST-Flyer (Spartan 206) satellite was released using the RMS arm at
1132 UTC on Jan 14. OAST-Flyer carries an experiment to measure
contamination caused by spacecraft outgassing, and a test of a
laser-fired explosive separation device to make sure the device doesn't
go off accidentally in sunlight. It also carried an amateur radio
experiment.

Astronauts Leroy Chiao and Daniel Barry carried out a spacewalk on Jan
15. The airlock was depressurized at 0525 UTC, and NASA declared the EVA
in progress at 0535 UTC. The hatch was opened at 0540 UTC. Chiao and
Barry  tested out Space Station equipment including a portable work
platform and a rigid umbilical truss for carrying electrical cables and
fluid lines. The astronauts returned to the airlock at 1130 UTC and
closed the hatch 3 minutes later, returning their suits to orbiter power
and repressurizing the airlock at 1144 UTC. NASA's official time for the
walk was 6h 9m 19s, while I would give it an extra ten minutes (counting
from depressurization rather than battery power). 

On Jan 15-16 the Shuttle carried out a series of rendezvous burns to
approach the OAST-Flyer Spartan, and on Jan 16 at 0947 UTC Wakata
grappled the satellite with the RMS arm.

The second spacewalk to test out Space Station tools and equipment was
performed by Chiao and Winston Scott. It started a little behind
schedule, with depressurization at 0534 UTC on Jan 17, and hatch opening
at 0554. The spacewalk ended at 1234 UTC, for a duration of 7 hours 0
min (depress to repress) or 6h 53m 41s (on-battery-power to repress, the
official NASA number). Scott tested out the thermal modifications
to the spacesuit by standing in shadow on the Spartan Flight Support
Structure while the Orbiter was turned to make the payload bay
as cold as possible.

Endeavour closed its payload bay doors early on Jan 20, firing its
braking rockets at 0641 UTC and reentered to a nighttime landing on
runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 0742 UTC on Jan 20.
The next Shuttle mission is STS-75, with orbiter Columbia and the
reflight of the 20 km long tethered satellite, which failed on
its first flight in 1992.

Errata
--------

I was wrong! Fred Cerkan informs me that STS-72 was not the
first flight with no TAL requirement - STS-1, the very
first mission, had no TAL requirement or TAL capability.

IRS-1C's panchromatic camera has a resolution of under 6 m, not
10m as I said earlier. Thanks to several readers for the correction.


Request for Info
----------------

Know anyone who worked for ABL in the 1960s? I'm trying to find
information on the MG-18 rocket, a version of the X-258 Altair II used
as an upper stage on Scout and Thor. Any info welcome.

Recent Launches
--------------

Ariane V82 was launched on Jan 12 from Kourou. It was an Ariane 44L
model with the H-10-III upper stage. V82 carried two communications
satellites, PAS 3R and Measat 1. PAS 3R is a Hughes HS-601 comsat with a
launch mass of 2918 kg, to provide C and Ku band communications and
television broadcasting services for the Atlantic Ocean region. It is
due to be stationed at 43 deg W, and carries 16 C-band and 16 Ku-band
transponders. PAS 3R replaces PAS 3, lost in a launch accident in 1994.
MEASAT 1 (Malaysia/East Asia Satellite) is another Hughes satellite,
this time the older HS-376 spin-stabilized model. Measat 1 is owned by
Binariang Sdn. Bhd., the Malaysian telecommunications agency, and will
provide C and Ku-band telecommunications services over Malaysia and the
rest of SE Asia.

Delta 231 was launched on Jan 14 from Cape Canaveral Air Station and
successfully rocketed to geostationary transfer orbit of 1357 x 35418 km
x 21.0 deg. Payload of Delta 231 was Koreasat 2, a Lockheed Martin Astro
Space AS3000 class comsat. Koreasat 1, launched last year, used up half
its stationkeeping fuel reaching geostationary orbit after a launch
malfunction left it in a lower than normal transfer orbit. The Koreasat
(Mugunghwa) satellites are owned by Korea Telecom. The McDonnell Douglas
launch vehicle was a 7925 model.

Kosmos-2327 was launched on Jan 16 from Plesetsk into a 947 x 1020 km x
83.0 deg orbit, characteristic of a navigation satellite in the Parus
series. It is in the same plane as the Parus satellite launched in Nov
1993 and named Kosmos-2266. The ground track is consistent with an
ontime launch at 1534 UTC. Launch vehicle was a Kosmos-3M from the Polyot
organization.

It has now been confirmed that the capsule found in Ghana last year
is the reentry vehicle from the German Express microgravity satellite
which failed to reach its planned orbit in Jan 1995. Negotiations are
underway for its return to Germany.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Dec  2 0808   SOHO             Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   65A
Dec  5 2118   USA 116          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      66A
Dec  6 2323   Telecom 2C   )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      67A
              Insat 2C     )                                  Comsat      67B
Dec 14 0610   Kosmos-2323  )                                  Navsat      68A
              Kosmos-2324  )   Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L Navsat      68B
              Kosmos-2325  )                                  Navsat      68C
Dec 15 0023   Galaxy IIIR      Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      69A
Dec 18 1431   Progress M-30    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo ship  70A
Dec 20 0052   Kosmos-2326      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Eorsat/Sci  71A
Dec 28 0645   IRS-1C     )     Molniya-M      Baykonur LC31   Rem.sensing 72A
              Skipper    )                                    Military    72B
Dec 28 1150   Echostar 1       Chang Zheng 2E Xichang         Comsat      73A
Dec 30 1348   XTE              Delta 7920     Canaveral LC17A Astronomy   74A
Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39    Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1534?  Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Navsat      04A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited
Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC RW15      STS-72
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/                       
ML3/RSRM-53               VAB Bay 1  STS-75                                  
 



..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: Wade Mark; armanini; mckibben; jshiggs
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 274
Date: Sunday, 04 February, 1996 16:32

Jonathan's Space Report
No 274                        1996 Feb 4                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-75/Columbia, featuring the reflight of
the Tethered Satellite System. The cargo includes the TSS-1R Spacelab
pallet and deployable TSS satellite with its 20 km tether; the TSS-1R
MPESS truss with electrodynamics instrumentation; and two more MPESS
cross-bay structures carrying the experiments for the USMP-3 (United
States Microgravity Payload) mission.

Crew of STS-75 are commander Lt-Col Andrew Allen, USMC/NASA, pilot
Lt-Col Dr. Scott Horowitz, USAF/NASA,  payload commander Dr. Franklin
Chang-Diaz, NASA, mission specialists Dr. Jeff Hoffmann, NASA,  Claude
Nicollier, ESA, and Lt-Col. Maurizio Cheli, Italian Air Force, ESA, and 
payload specialist Dr. Umberto Guidoni, ASI. (ASI is Agenzia Spaziale
Italiano; ESA is European Space Agency; NASA is National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.)  Allen, Horowitz and Hoffmann are from the US;
Chang-Diaz is a naturalized US citizen from Costa Rica; Cheli and
Guidoni are Italians and Nicollier is from Switzerland. This mission is
extremely unusual in that not only is the main payload flying for a
second time, but most of the crew are held over from that TSS-1 (STS-46)
mission. Allen, Chang-Diaz, Hoffmann, and Nicollier flew on STS-46 with
Loren Shriver, Marsha Ivins and Franco Malerba. Horowitz, Cheli and
Guidoni are making their first flights.

Recent Launches
--------------

A Gorizont broadcasting satellite was launched from Baykonur on Jan 25.
It used a Proton-K launch vehicle with a standard Blok-DM2 upper stage.
Gorizont satellites provide C and Ku band communications and are
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk. Mikhail Reshetnev,
founder of NPO-PM and one of the last of the surviving Chief Designers
of the early Soviet space program, died on Jan 29.

The first Atlas launch of the year came in the early hours of Feb 1. The
Indonesian satellite Palapa C-1, a Hughes HS-601 spacecraft, was
launched by a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS from Cape Canaveral. Centaur
AC-126 placed Palapa in a supersynchronous transfer orbit of 240 x 89462
km x 21.9 deg. The apogee will slowly be lowered to synchronous
altitude. Indonesia was the first developing country to purchase a
domestic satellite communications system; the HS-333 class Palapa A
satellites began linking the islands of the Indonesian archipelago in
1976. They were replaced by HS-376 class Palapa B satellites in the
1980s, starting with Palapa B-1 launched on Shuttle mission 7 (Sally
Ride's flight) in 1983.

The GOES 3 weather satellite arrived at 103W in January. It had been
drifting from 180W since early 1995.

Locations of recently launched geostationary satellites:
 Gals No. 2    71.0E 
 Asiasat 2    100.5E 
 Telecom 2C     1.2E 
 Insat 2C      92.4E 
 Galaxy 3R     95.0W 
 Echostar 1   119.2W 
 PAS 3R        42.8W+0.10W/d (Jan 31)
 Measat 1      91.6E 
 Koreasat 2   117.4E+0.9W/d (Feb 1)
 Gorizont      40.8E+1.0W/d (Feb 2)
 Palapa C1    Transfer orbit



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39    Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1534?  Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Navsat      04A
Jan 25 1000?  Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur	      Comsat      05A
Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited
Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC RW15      STS-72
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-46/             VAB            STS-76                       
ML3/RSRM-53/ET-76/OV-102 LC39B          STS-75                               
 
   


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report No. 275
Date: Monday, 12 February, 1996 19:05

Jonathan's Space Report
No 275                          1996 Feb 12                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Editorial
---------

I've finally moved into the 1990s and am putting the automatic
email distribution of JSR onto a Majordomo list rather than maintaining
the list by hand. To subscribe to JSR by email, send email to
majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, with any subject you like and with
the body of the message containing
 subscribe jsr 
To get off the list, try
 unsubscribe jsr
There are currently about 800 subscribers in 22 countries.

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-75/Columbia, due on Feb 22.


Mir
---

Yuriy Gidzenko and Thomas Reiter carried out a 3 hour 2 min spacewalk on
Feb 8, starting around 1307 UTC from the Kvant-2 airlock. The walk was
reportedly  shorter than planned due to a pressurization problem in the
suit of EO-20 mission commander Gidzenko. The astronauts recovered some
samples which had been exposed to space  on the exterior of the Spektr
module (the ESEF or European Space Exposure Facility) to study the
effects of radiation, vacuum and debris impacts. Launch of the EO-21
crew, Yuriy Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuriy Vladimirovich Usachyov
(callsign Skif-1 and Skif-2) will take place on Feb 21.


Recent Launches
--------------

Ariane V83 was launched on Feb 5 from Arianespace's South
American launch site, the Centre Spatiale Guyanais. It placed in
orbit the N-STAR b satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral
for the Japanese telecommunications company NTT. N-STAR b uses the
FS-1300 bus. N-STAR b entered a 127 x 37111 km x 6.9 deg
transfer orbit, raised by Feb 6 to 6723 x 35780 km x 3.6 deg, and
again by Feb 8 to 29236 x 35766 km x 0.5 deg.

Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) and Institute of Space
and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) have test-flown the new J-1 launch
vehicle in its two-stage version.  The first stage is the NASDA H-II SRB
(solid rocket strapon for the H-II), and the second stage is the M23
second stage from the ISAS Mu-3S-II launch vehicle. A three stage
orbital version of J-1 will also use the M3B third stage from Mu-3S-II.
J-1 (1F) was launched from Tanegashima's Osaki Range H-1/J-1 launch pad, 
previously used for the N and H-I launch vehicles, at 2300 UTC on Feb
11. The M23 stage of the J-1, with the HYFLEX payload attached, was
expected to reach an apogee of 110 km on its suborbital flight.

At 2304 UTC the HYFLEX payload separated from the M23 stage onto a
descending suborbital trajectory. HYFLEX is a lifting body developed by
NASDA and the NAL (National Aerospace Lab) to develop shuttle
technology. It has ceramic heat shield tiles and a gaseous nitrogen
reaction control system. After reentry (max Mach number of 15), it
splashed down by parachute 300 km NE of the Ogasawara Islands in the
Pacific (NASDA has a downrange station at Ogasawara). A flotation bag
attachment device failed and HYFLEX sank in the ocean.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39    Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1534?  Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Navsat      04A
Jan 25 1000?  Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur	      Comsat      05A
Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited
Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC RW15      STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77        VAB Bay 3      STS-76                       
ML3/RSRM-53/ET-76/OV-102 LC39B          STS-75                               
 
   


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 276
Date: Saturday, 17 February, 1996 17:28

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 276                      1996 Feb 17                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-75/Columbia, due on Feb 22.


Mir
---

Correction: The spacewalk on Feb 8 was cut short because
the astronauts didn't have powerful enough tools to release
a bolt on an antenna they were doing maintenance on. The
rumour about problems with Gidzenko's spacesuit is apparently
false, and I apologize for propagating it. (Source: C vd Berg).

Launch of the EO-21 crew, Yuriy Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuriy
Vladimirovich Usachyov (callsign Skif-1 and Skif-2) will take place on
Feb 21 aboard Soyuz TM-23.

Recent Launches
--------------

The Intelsat 708 satellite was launched by the first CZ-3B
(Chang Zheng/Long March 3B) on Feb 14. The launch vehicle
went off course shortly after leaving the pad and was destroyed
about 20s after liftoff.
This is the third failure in recent years for the Long March
rocket (the other failures used the older CZ-2E variant). Two
successful launches late last year had restored its reputation, but
after the latest failure insurers are likely to be wary.
Launch time was quoted as 03:01 local time.
AP reported that two soldiers were slightly injured in the blast.

The CZ-3B uses the stretched first stage from the CZ-3A, which
flew once in 1994, the strap-on motors from the CZ-2E, the usual
second stage common to the CZ-2/3 series, and the hydrogen/oxygen
high energy third stage from the CZ-3A. 

The NEAR space probe was launched on Feb 17 at 2043 UTC. The first of
NASA's Discovery planetary series, NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous)
is built by the Applied Physics Lab (APL) of Johns Hopkins University.
The Delta 7925-8 launches NEAR into solar orbit with perihelion of about
1.0 AU and aphelion of about 2.5 AU (anyone with accurate orbital
data, please send me the details). In Jun 1997 NEAR flies past minor
planet (253) Mathilde, and in Jul 1997 it makes a course correction for
an Earth flyby in Jan 1998. The Earth flyby, at an altitude of about 480
km, lowers aphelion to around 1.7 AU. In Jan 1999, NEAR makes rendezvous
with minor planet (433) Eros and enters orbit around it. The 805 kg
spacecraft carries a liquid propellant engine with a 100-lb thruster, a
multispectral imaging camera, an X/gamma-ray spectrometer to study
asteroid composition, a near infrared spectrograph, a magnetometer, a
laser rangefinder, and an X-band communications transponder used for
tracking. The Delta second stage placed NEAR in a 185 km parking orbit
at 2052 UTC; it ignited again at 2105 and burned for 3 minutes. At 2109
the PAM-D third stage solid motor ignited; at around 2111 the PAM-D
separated and NEAR began to deploy its solar panels. The Canberra tracking
station confirmed successful launch at around 2200 UTC.

Obituary
--------

Spaceflight journalist and analyst Joel Runes died of a heart attack on
Jan 11.  Joel was a frequent contributor of information to this
newsletter, and a nice guy whose friendship, analytical skills and
common sense were greatly valued. A former Goddard Space Flight Center
engineer, Joel lived in Florida and reported in detail on every launch
from the Cape.

Mikhail Reshetnev died on Jan 26, not Jan 29 (thanks, Maxim).

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39    Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1533   Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      04A
Jan 25 0956   Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat      05A
Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Dec  7        Galileo Probe   Entered Jovian atmosphere
Dec 11        Kosmos-398      Reentered over Pacific
Dec 18        Kosmos-2305     Deorbited
Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC RW15      STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77        VAB Bay 3      STS-76                       
ML3/RSRM-53/ET-76/OV-102 LC39B          STS-75                               
 
   


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 277
Date: Wednesday, 21 February, 1996 16:58

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 277                  1996 Feb 21                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Editorial
---------

I'll be away on travel until Mar 3, and won't be able to follow the
details of the Soyuz TM-23 flight and the forthcoming STS-75 flight. 
Normal service will resume after I return - in the meantime I solicit
help in recording times of events such as TM-23 docking and STS-75
tether deploy.

Shuttle
-------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-75/Columbia, due on Feb 22.


Mir
---

Launch of the EO-21 crew, Yuriy Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuriy
Vladimirovich Usachyov (callsign Skif-1 and Skif-2) took place on Feb
21. At 1300 UTC Soyuz TM-23 was in a 200 x 233 km x 51.6 deg orbit. It
was expected to dock with Mir on Feb 23. The new crew will replace
Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter who are due to return to Earth on Feb 29.

Recent Launches
--------------

A Raduga comsat built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki was launched using
a Proton rocket from Baykonur on Feb 19. The three-stage Proton-K
launch vehicle entered a 185 km circular orbit inclined at 51.6 deg
to the equator. The Raduga and the Blok-DM2 upper stage separated
from the Proton-K's third stage, and the Blok-DM2 ignited for its
first burn, placing the spacecraft in a 241 x 36502 km x 48.6 deg
transfer orbit. The Blok-DM2 should have restarted six hours later
at apogee to circularize the orbit at geostationary altitude, but
this did not occur, and the payload separated in transfer orbit.
This is the first failure of a Blok-DM2 stage since Feb 1988, when
three Glonass/Uragan satellites were stranded in low orbit.

Six small comsats were launched by a Tsiklon-3 rocket from Plesetsk
on Feb 19. Three of the satellites replenished the existing Strela military
network, while three were the new Gonets civilian variant.
The satellites were placed in 1400 km circular orbits with an inclination
of 82.6 deg.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39    Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1533   Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      04A
Jan 25 0956   Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat      05A
Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0100?  Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk        Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0830?  Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur        Spaceship   11A


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC RW15      STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77        VAB Bay 3      STS-76                       
ML3/RSRM-53/ET-76/OV-102 LC39B          STS-75                               
 
   


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 278
Date: Monday, 04 March, 1996 14:21

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 278                      1996 Mar  4                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Editorial: Thanks to Dave Ransom and Maxim Tarasenko for feeding me with
info while I was on vacation, and to Lee Bronstein and Dave Koster for
their hospitality on the West Coast. More snow here tomorrow, sigh.. :-)

Shuttle
-------

Columbia was launched at 2018:00 UTC on Feb 22 on mission STS-75. During
ascent, the crew reported a low thrust indication on one main engine 
but the ground was able to confirm that propulsion was operating OK.
After the OMS 2 burn, the ship entered a 298 x 303 km x 28.5 deg orbit.
The tethered satellite TSS-1 was deployed on Feb 25, with first motion
at 2045 UTC. At 2145 UTC the tether was at over 270m, and by around 
0100 UTC on Feb 26 the TSS satellite was at almost 22 km. At 0130 UTC on
Feb 26 the tether broke at the deployer end, and the TSS satellite plus
tether rapidly separated from Columbia. It entered a higher 316 x 413 km
x 28.5 deg orbit (Columbia's orbit at the time was 291 x 299 km) thus
demonstrating inadvertently the use of tethers for changing orbits
without using rocket fuel. At around 1740 UTC the astronauts began
retracting the remaining tether and stowing the deployer boom. By Mar 4
Columbia's orbit had decayed to 282 x 293 km as the astronauts continued
experiments with the USMP-3 materials processing payload.

Mir
---

Soyuz TM-23 docked with Mir at 1420:35 on Feb 23. The new crew
of Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov are working aboard the station.
The Mir complex is in a 390 x 398 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
On Feb 22 at 0726 UTC the Progress M-30 cargo ship undocked, and
it was deorbited over the Pacific at 1428 UTC. On Feb 29 the previous
crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter undocked from Mir in Soyuz TM-22,
and at 1042 UTC they landed in Kazakhstan after 179d 1h 42min in space.

Recent Launches
---------------

NASA's Polar satellite, to study the magnetosphere, was launched from
Vandenberg by McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925-10 into a 185 x 50494 km x
86.0 deg orbit on Feb 24. It is built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space and
is similar to the Wind satellite launched in 1994. Wind and Polar
are part of the Global Geospace Science project.

 Polar will raise its perigee over the next week. It carries two booms
and six long wire antennae. In the `equatorial' plane of the satellite
are a pair of antennae spanning 130 meters and, at right angles, another
pair of antennae spanning 100 meters. Along the spin axis of the
satellite are another pair of antennae with a span of 14 meters. These
antennae are used to study electric and magnetic fields for the PWI
(Polar  Plasma Wave Investigation) and EFI (Electric Field Instrument)
experiments. Two larger but shorter (6-m long) booms carry more PWI
instruments and the MFE (Magnetic Field Experiment). Other instruments
on the spacecraft body include the TIMAS (Toroidal Imaging Mass-Angle
Spectrograph) to study  fluxes of ions as a function of direction,  the
TIDE (Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment) and PSI (Plasma Source
Instrument) which study connections between the polar ionosphere and the
magnetotail,  the VIS (Visible Imaging System) and  UVI (Ultraviolet
Imager) which  measure auroral emissions. PIXIE (Polar Ionospheric X-ray
Imaging Experiment) studies X-rays produced by energetic electrons in
the upper atmosphere. CAMMICE (Charge and Mass Magnetospheric Ion
Composition Experiment)  studies the isotopic composition of energetic
ions. The CEPPAD (Comprehensive Energetic Particle Pitch Angle
Distribution) studies high energy protons and electrons.

The XTE satellite launched last December has been renamed RXTE - the
Bruno B. Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, or loosely the Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer. The All Sky Monitor experiment has been turned on again,
although one of the counters is still having problems.

Trip Report - What I Did On My Vacation
-----------

Stop one: UTC in San Jose. The Titan solid motor plant is  nestled in
the hills over Silicon Valley. United Technologies Corp's Chemical
Systems Division makes the solid boosters for Titan, but
Alliant/Hercules has the contract for the new boosters, so work on the
project is winding down now. The UTC/CSD Titan boosters have powered
Titan 3C, 3D, 3E, 34D and 4 since 1965 and provided the only experience
base on large solid motors prior to the Shuttle. UTC also built the
first stage of Scout, the solid motors used in Boeing's IUS upper stage,
and the Orbus solid motors used most famously in the Intelsat rescue
mission STS-49 in 1992. I was lucky to see several Titan segments up
fairly close, and the test stand where complete solid motors were fired
wrong end up.

Stop two: the JPL Archives. Lots of the details of the early Explorer
program were classified at the time, but are now available.  After the
Russian success of Sputnik over Vanguard, the JPL/Huntsville team
initiated Project Deal. The idea was that when you lose a round while
playing poker, you say 'Deal!' to begin another round hoping to win the
rematch. Filed under Deal in the archives are the engineering drawings
for payload RTV-7/Deal I, dated Dec 1957 and Jan 1958. This is actually
the payload which was named Explorer I after launch - America's first
satellite. Does anyone know who came up with the Explorer name and when
it was first used? Project Deal III was the Beacon satellite which
would have been Explorer VI if it had reached orbit. I haven't found
Deal II but suspect it is Explorer II and III, with Explorer IV and V
not having a Deal name. The plans for Deal III, already in embryo
prior to the Explorer I launch, include the first description I have
seen of an idea described by them as the 'kick in the apogee' - the origin
of the apogee kick motor used to raise perigee after orbit insertion.

Stop three: Vandenberg Air Force Base. Space Launch Complex 10 is
a fascinating site, currently in the care of Jay Pritchard who is
knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He has a Thor IRBM horizontal on
its launch transporter inside the complex, which is covered by a roll-off
shelter. The launch control center still has working consoles; it
was last used in 1980 but some of the equipment is still turned on.
Among other artifacts in Pritchard's embryonic museum are Minuteman
stages and a complete Agena D sealed in its transporter. SLC-10 was used
for weather satellite launches, RAF Thor missile tests, and training
crews for the Program 437 antisatellite weapon based on Johnston Island
in the Pacific. Space Launch Complex 6, on the former Point Arguello
Naval Missile Facility in South Vandenberg, is a gargantuan complex
built for Space Shuttle launches. Staring down from the gantry
used to launch the tiny (in comparison) Lockheed Launch Vehicle,
one can see light shining from the outside into the greenish
water at the bottom of the flame trench far below, an eerily beautiful
sight. Small pieces of burned solid propellant from the LLV-1 launch
can be picked up from the concrete apron around the pad. In contrast
to the hi-tech SLC-6, the jetty at which Shuttle SRBs would be towed
back from the ocean is overlooked by a quaint Coastguard house, a
white two-story mansion with red windowframes that looks like it should
be on Nantucket rather than be part of the Western Space and Missile
Center. While at Vandenberg, I also visited the base historian
Jeff Geiger and the Lompoc public library (the back issues of the local
newspaper contain satellite launch times unavailable elsewhere), and the
results of those enquires should lead to some more historical articles
in Quest and JBIS.

Stop four: .. well, the rest was fun but not relevant to this
newsletter. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Jan 11 0941   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 12 2310   Panamsat 3R  )   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A
              Measat 1     )                                  Comsat      02B
Jan 14 1111   Koreasat 2       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      03A
Jan 14 1132   OAST-Flyer                      OV105, LEO      Science     01B 
Jan 16 1533   Kosmos-2327      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      04A
Jan 25 0956   Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200  Comsat      05A
Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058   Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32   Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0832   Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   11A
Feb 22 2018   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   12A
Feb 24 1124   Polar            Delta          Vandenberg SLC2W Science    13A
Feb 26 0130   TSS-1                           OV-102,LEO      Science     12B

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Jan 20        Endeavour       Landed at KSC
Feb 22        Progress M-30   Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 29        Soyuz TM-22     Landed in Kazakhstan

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-75  Feb 22
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B          STS-76                       
ML3/RSRM-53/ET-76/OV-102 LEO            STS-75                               
 
   


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 279
Date: Monday, 11 March, 1996 15:06

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 279                      1996 Mar 11                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Columbia landed at 1358:21 UTC on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center,
bringing mission STS-75 to a close. Landing was delayed one day
because of bad weather at the Cape. The Tethered Satellite was 
in a 296 x 360 km x 28.5 deg orbit on Mar 11, still trailing its 19 km
long tether. (The 22 km figure I gave last week was an error).

NASA has announced that both of the `wiper' O-rings at the
case-to-nozzle joints of the SRBs on STS-75 were scorched by hot gas.
The wiper O-rings are NOT joint seals, but merely protect the actual
(primary and secondary) O-ring seals during assembly, according to NASA.
Wiper O-ring damage has been seen before, but this time each O-ring was
singed in two places instead of one. (Details are from Reuter; this
doesn't sound too terrible, but of course hot gas being where it
shouldn't in an SRB is a bit nervous making.) NASA has reportedly since
decided that the situation is well understood and the next mission,
STS-76, will proceed on schedule. It will feature another docking with
the Mir space station.


Recent Launches
---------------

The Pegasus XL launch vehicle has made its first successful flight. The
US Air Force REX-II satellite was launched into orbit aboard the third
XL  on Mar 9. REX-II is a Space Test Program satellite (flight P94-2)
built by CTA/SS (formerly DSI). The payload, sponsored by USAF Rome Lab,
will study ionospheric electron density irregularities that affect radio
communications. A secondary experiment will use GPS for on-orbit
attitude determination and control, a milestone in the integration of
satellite navigation techniques into the business of navigating and
controlling satellites themselves. The successful launch of REX-II is
good news for Orbital Sciences Corp. and for all small satellite
missions which are waiting for a ride to orbit, following the  failures
of the two previous Pegasus XL missions as well as of the  sole
Conestoga and LLV launches. The L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from
Vandenberg AFB at 0035 UTC on Mar 9 and  went to the drop zone 100 km W
of Monterey, California at an altitude of 12 km. Drop was at 0133 UTC on
Mar 9. The satellite is Space Command number 23814 with orbit 101.25
min, 803 x 832 km x 90.0 deg. The USAF reports that the satellite is
operating well.

Chinese sources now report that six people died and 57 were injured
during the crash of the Chang Zheng 3B (Long March 3B) launch vehicle
at Xichang on Feb 14. Other sources claim that more than a hundred
may have died. The rocket's inertial guidance unit failed two seconds after
takeoff. 

NASA's GGS Polar satellite has raised its perigee, but Space Command hasn't
released new orbital elements yet. According to the Lockheed Martin
mission ops page, the new orbit has a perigee of 11500 km. Orbit raising
burns were made on Feb 26, 0200 UTC on Feb 28, 1854 on Feb 28, 1140 on
Feb 29 and 0436 UTC on Mar 1.  The first Feb 28 burn was aborted after
18 minutes due to valve overheating, causing some of the later burns to
be rescheduled. Polar has extended its antennae: the U wires were
deployed to 65 meters and the V wires to 50 meters on Mar 10.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058   Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32   Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0832   Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   11A
Feb 22 2018   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   12A
Feb 24 1124   Polar            Delta          Vandenberg SLC2W Science    13A
Feb 26 0130   TSS-1                           OV-102,LEO      Science     12B
Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Feb 22        Progress M-30   Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 29        Soyuz TM-22     Landed in Kazakhstan
Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B          STS-76                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 280
Date: Saturday, 16 March, 1996 15:43

No. 280                         1996 Mar 16                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

Launch of OV-104 Atlantis on the third Mir docking mission, STS-76, is
scheduled for Mar 21. The cargo bay includes the Orbiter Docking System
and the Spacehab Flight Unit 2 module, which previously flew on the
SH-02 (STS-60) flight in 1994. On this mission, the Spacehab module is
carrying supplies for the Mir station. Also in the cargo bay are four
Passive Experiment Carriers on the sidewall  (possibly GAS Adapter
beams?) with the MEEP (Mir Environmental Effects Payload) experiments
which will be placed on the outside of the Mir Docking Module in the
course of a spacewalk by astronauts Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford. The
four MEEP experiments are the Polished Plate Micrometeoroid and Debris
experiment, the Orbital Debris Collector, and the Passive Optical Sample
Assembly I and II exposure experiments which will be used to qualify
materials for Space Station use. The Mir Docking Module is where Atlantis
docks to the Mir complex; the cylindrical module was brought to the station
on Atlantis' last flight in November, and is attached to the end of the
Kristall module.

Other sidewall mounted payloads on STS-76 are  the TRIS cosmic ray
Getaway Special canister on a GAS Beam and a small APC sidewall carrier
with the TCS laser ranger for rendezvous operations. Godwin and Clifford
will carry the SAFER backpack on their spacewalk in its first
operational use as a backup rescue device. SAFER was test flown on
STS-64.

STS-76 crew commander is Kevin Chilton; pilot is Rick Searfoss; payload
commander is Ron Sega, mission specialists are Linda Godwin, Rich
Clifford, and Shannon Lucid. Lucid will remain on the Mir station,
joining the EO-21 crew of Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov. She will
be the first woman to make five flights, and at 53 is the oldest woman
to fly in space. Of the 1978 group of women astronauts selected by NASA,
Lucid and Rhea Seddon remain active, and Anna Fisher recently returned
to active status after a several-year leave of absence (she hasn't flown
since 1985). Sally Ride left the group in 1987, and Kathy Sullivan left
in 1992 to become chief scientist at the NOAA weather agency. Judy
Resnik died in the 51-L accident in 1986.

Mir
---

Correction: I reported the landing of Soyuz TM-22 as being in Kazakhstan
(JSR 278). As Jim Oberg has pointed out, the correct spelling of this
country in the Latin alphabet is now deemed to be Kazakstan (no 'h'),
reflecting the modifications to the post-Soviet Kazak alphabet 
(Qazaqstan would be a more consistent transliteration, but the name of
the country and the people is to be spelt with K as a special case).
Jim also reports that the town formerly known as Leninsk, which lies
next to Kosmodrom Baykonur (Test Range NIIP-5), has now been officially
named Baykonur.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Intelsat 707 communications satellite was launched by an Arianespace
Ariane 44LP launch vehicle on Mar 14. It will be placed over the
Atlantic. The success of 707 follows the loss of the Intelsat 708
satellite which was destroyed in the explosion of a Chang Zheng 3B
rocket last month. Intelsat 707 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class
satellite. It was inserted into a 189 x 35772 km x 7.0 deg transfer orbit.

A Yantar'-class imaging recon satellite was launched on Mar 14 from
Plesetsk. Given the code name Kosmos-2331, it was placed in a 164 x 355
km orbit with an inclination of 67.1 degrees by a Soyuz-U launch
vehicle. This Russian Defense Ministry payload carries a US Department
of Defense secondary experiment launched as part of the Space Test
Program, the BINRAD package which will attempt to detect the presence of
beryllium at orbital altitudes. BINRAD was flown twice before on Russian
civilian Resurs-F remote sensing missions.

The Pegasus XL launch was carried out from 36 deg N, 123 deg W  which I
understand is in special use airspace W-283, San Francisco Warning Area,
rather than in W-532, Point Arguello Warning Area just south of there
(can pilots confirm?) The L-1011 aircraft is based in Bakersfield,
California, but for launches takes off from runway 30/12 at Vandenberg
AFB. The REX-II satellite launched on the Pegasus has now extended its
6-m long gravity gradient boom.

The FSW-1 (Jianbing-93) recovery capsule, stranded in orbit in 1993,
reentered over the ocean on Mar 12.

The ECS 1 (Eutelsat I F-1) satellite raised its orbit in February
and is now drifting. Koreasat 2 is now on station at 113.0 deg E.
The Telecom 1C satellite has moved from 3.0 deg E to 1.0 deg E.
Intelsat 501 moved back into the geostationary ring at 72.0E (Indian Ocean).

The Galileo orbit made a perijove raise burn at apojove on Mar 14,
changing its orbit from 185000 x 19000000 km to 670000 x 19000000 km
and targeting it for a close approach to Ganymede on Jun 27.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058   Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32   Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0832   Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   11A
Feb 22 2018   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   12A
Feb 24 1124   Polar            Delta          Vandenberg SLC2W Science    13A
Feb 26 0130   TSS-1                           OV-102,LEO      Science     12B
Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
Mar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou          Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1745?  Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk        Recon       16A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Feb 22        Progress M-30   Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 29        Soyuz TM-22     Landed in Kazakstan
Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B          STS-76                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Jonathan McDowell
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 281
Date: Friday, 22 March, 1996 15:14

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 281                        1996 Mar 22                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Shuttle
-------

OV-104 Atlantis has been launched on the third Mir docking mission,
STS-76. Liftoff was on Mar 22 at 0813:04 UTC. There was a leak in the
hydraulic system during ascent; it is not yet clear whether this will
affect mission duration, but at the moment it looks like there is no
problem. The RSRM-46 solid rocket motors separated 2 min after launch;
the main engine cutoff was at about 0821:34 and the  separation of
External Tank ET-77 came ten seconds later. This was the 76th Shuttle
launch. The OMS-2 burn placed Atlantis in a 157 x 292 km x 51.6 deg
orbit; the NC-1 burn later put it in a 226 x 294 km x 51.6 deg orbit. 
(Can anyone tell me when the burns happened?) Docking with the Mir
station is scheduled for 0234 UTC on Mar 24. The spacewalk is due for
Mar 27, and the undocking for Mar 29 with landing on Mar 31.

The MEEP PEC experiments, which will be transferred to the exterior
of Mir during the spacewalk, are mounted on ICAPC (Increased Capacity
Adaptive Payload Carriers), not GAS Beams as I suggested last week.
They are in bays 11 Port, 11 Starboard, 12 Port, and 12 Starboard.
The TRIS experiment is on bay 13 Starboard.

Mir
---

EO-21 astronauts Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov made a spacewalk
on Mar 15. They left the Kvant-2 airlock at 0104 UTC and installed
a second Strela crane on the Mir base block. The Strela is used to
move spacewalkers and their equipment from one side of the station
to another. The existing one wouldn't reach the Kristall module,
which the new one will allow. The spacewalkers also went to the Kvant
(37KE) module and did preparatory work for attaching a new solar
array. Duration of the space walk was 5h 51m.  (Info from C vd Berg).
Shannon Lucid will become one of the EO-21 crew when her Soyuz 
reentry couch is transferred from Atlantis after the docking.

In a classic display of leftover Soviet-era male chauvinism, Gagarin
Training Center deputy commander Gen. Glazkov reported that they
expected improved living conditions on Mir with NASA astronaut Lucid
aboard "because we know that women love to clean" (AP report). This from
the space agency which hailed Svetlana Savitskaya's 1984 first spacewalk
by a woman with "now Soviet space technology is advanced enough that
[even] a woman can make spacewalks". Excuse me?


Recent Launches
---------------

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched IRS-P3,
a remote sensing satellite, using its solid-propellant 4-stage Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV. Launch was from the Sriharikota
Island range; this was the third PSLV launch, and the second success.
Other IRS satellites have been launched with Russian rockets, most
recently in December. IRS-P3 is in an 802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg orbit.

  IRS satellites:

  IRS-1A  1988 Mar 17  Vostok, Baykonur       870 x 914 km x 99.0 deg
  IRS-1B  1991 Aug 29  Vostok, Baykonur       862 x 918 km x 99.2 deg
  IRS-1E  1993 Sep 20  PSLV-D1, Sriharikota    (Failed)
  IRS-P2  1994 Oct 15  PSLV-D2, Sriharikota   798 x 882 km x 98.7 deg
  IRS-1C  1995 Dec 28  Molniya-M, Baykonur    816 x 818 km x 98.6 deg
  IRS-P3  1996 Mar 21  PSLV-D3, Sriharikota   802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg

India's first satellite was Aryabhata, launched by a Soviet rocket in
1975. Its first domestic launch vehicle was the SLV-3, first flown
in 1979 and first flown successfully in 1980. IRS-P3 is the sixth
Indian launch to reach orbit.

The TSS-1 untethered satellite reentered (with its 20 km tether) at
2312 UTC on 19 Mar, according to Space Command. Late on Mar 19 it was
in a 193 x 210 km x 28.5 deg orbit, and reentry was over the Middle
East/Persian Gulf region.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058   Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32   Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0832   Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   11A
Feb 22 2018   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   12A
Feb 24 1124   Polar            Delta          Vandenberg SLC2W Science    13A
Feb 26 0130   TSS-1                           OV-102,LEO      Science     12B
Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
Mar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1740   Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon       16A
Mar 21 0500?  IRS-P3           PSLV           Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   18A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Feb 22        Progress M-30   Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 29        Soyuz TM-22     Landed in Kazakstan
Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 12        FSW-1 capsule   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 19        TSS-1           Reentered over Middle East

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-76  Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B          STS-76                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Major Domo
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Friday, 29 March, 1996 12:36

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 282                      1996 Mar 29                  Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Apologies to those on the email list for the spurious messages, you
shouldn't get any more of these. The list setup program, which  should
have configured the list to prevent other people sending to it, had a
bug in it, which has now been fixed. Thanks to all of you who did NOT
immediately send `er, what's going on?' followup messages to the whole
list - I've seen that sort of problem exponentiate rapidly on other
lists!

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

OV-104 Atlantis has been launched on the third Mir docking mission,
STS-76. Liftoff was on Mar 22 at 0813:04 UTC. Docking with the Mir
station was accomplished at 0234 UTC on Mar 24; the docking ring was
retracted for hard dock at 0247 UTC. The Atlantis crew  entered Mir a
few hours later, and by the following day Lucid's Soyuz reentry seat had
been transferred to Soyuz TM-23, allowing Lucid to become part of the
Mir EO-21 crew. As part of the STS-76 crew, Lucid was Mission Specialist
4; as part of EO-21, she will have the callsign Skif-3 and I'm guessing
that she is designated Bortinzhener-2 (Flight Engineer 2) rather than
Kosmonavt-Issledovatel' (Research Engineer), but I'm not sure. (Can
anyone help on this one? Maxim?)

On Mar 27 astronauts Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford made an EVA from the
airlock in the Tunnel Adapter between Atlantis's middeck cabin and the
Orbiter Docking System. Using the NASA times which refer to use of
battery power, the spacewalk began at 0636 UTC and ended at 1238 UTC; I
don't have the depressurization/repressurization times since I was too
busy looking at the comet. The astronauts moved the four Mir
Environmental Experiment Payloads from the rear of the Orbiter cargo bay
to the exterior of Mir's Docking Module, and removed a television camera
from the Docking Module exterior.

The Atlantis astronauts returned to the Shuttle and closed the
hatches at around 1300 UTC on Mar 28. They undocked at 0108 UTC
on Mar 29, and flew slowly around the complex,
separating at 0208 UTC. Landing is due for 1257 UTC on Mar 30, shortening
the mission by one day compared to the original plan. The Mir/Atlantis
complex is in a 390 x 397 km x 51.6 deg orbit.

The Great (?) Comet of 1996
---------------------------

Meanwhile, Comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake, which reached perigee of 15
million km on Mar 25, is easily visible to the naked eye even in the
partly cloudy, bright skies of Cambridge, MA. As seen from the darker
skies of Walden Pond on Mar 27, the  comet's tail stretched from Polaris
most of the way to the pointer stars of the Great Bear. This is the Real
Thing - if you've only seen it from an urban area, make sure to catch it
from a rural  dark site in the next few days. Brian Marsden of the IAU
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams says *he* doesn't consider
this a Great Comet in the historically used sense, and we should hang on
for Hale-Bopp next year, but *I'm* impressed nevertheless.

Obituary
--------

Former astronaut Col. Robert Overmyer, 59, was killed on Mar 22 in
Duluth, Minnesota, while  the prototype Cirrus Design VK30 small
airplane he was flying went into an unrecoverable spin. Overmyer was
selected as a USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory  astronaut in 1966, and
transferred to NASA in 1969.  He was pilot of STS-5/Columbia,  and
commander of mission 51-B/Challenger (Spacelab 3).

Recent Launches
---------------

A Rockwell Block IIA Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite
was launched on Mar 28. It will be placed in plane C. I don't have the
SVN number of the satellite yet; Navstar SVN 30, 33, 38 and 40 remained
to be launched in the Block IIA series. Launch was by a McDonnell
Douglas Delta 7925, which placed the satellite in a 192 x 20269 km x
34.9 deg transfer orbit. A solid Thiokol Star 37 apogee motor will
circularize the orbit at 20000 km.

Intelsat 707 reached its 1.0 deg E geostationary position on Mar 22.

The Skipper satellite, launched last December, reportedly failed one
day after deployment because the solar panels were wired to discharge
instead of charge. Skipper was to have tested ballistic missile
defense technologies in an aerobraking orbit, but remains instead in
its original 800 km circular track.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Feb  1 0115   Palapa C-1       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      06A
Feb  5 0719   N-STAR b         Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      07A
Feb 14 1901   Intelsat 708     Chang Zheng 3B Xichang         Comsat      FTO
Feb 17 2043   NEAR             Delta 7925-8   Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058   Gonets-D1  )                                                09A?
              Gonets-D1  )                                                09B?
              Gonets-D1  )     Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32   Comsats     09C?
              Kosmos-2328)                                                09D?
              Kosmos-2329)                                                09E?
              Kosmos-2330)                                                09F?
Feb 19 0832   Raduga           Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      10A
Feb 21 1234   Soyuz TM-23      Soyuz-U2       Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   11A
Feb 22 2018   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   12A
Feb 24 1124   Polar            Delta          Vandenberg SLC2W Science    13A
Feb 26 0130   TSS-1                           OV-102,LEO      Science     12B
Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
Mar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1740   Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon       16A
Mar 21 0453   IRS-P3           PSLV           Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   18A
Mar 28 0021   GPS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navigation  19A

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Feb 22        Progress M-30   Deorbited over Pacific
Feb 29        Soyuz TM-22     Landed in Kazakstan
Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 12        FSW-1 capsule   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 19        TSS-1           Reentered over Middle East

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-76  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/             VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B          STS-76                       
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: Wendy P. Roberts
To: jsr
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 283
Date: Wednesday, 10 April, 1996 17:05


Jonathan's Space Report
No. 283                       1996 Apr 9                   Cambridge,
MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The STS-76 mission was meant to be shortened by one day for a landing
on Mar 30, but in the event bad weather resulted in a waveoff and
Atlantis fired its OMS engines for the deorbit burn at 1223 UTC on Mar 31,
for touchdown on runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at
1328:57 UTC on Mar 31, giving a mission duration of 9 days 5 hr 15 min
and 53s.

Atlantis was placed atop one of NASA's two SCA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
for the trip back to Florida. The SCA took off from Edwards on Apr 6 but
five minutes later one of the Boeing 747's engines showed a fire warning
light and the plane returned to Edwards after an abortive 15 minute
flight. The engine has been replaced and another try will be made on Apr
11.

STS-76 Mission Specialist-4, Dr. Shannon Lucid, remains aboard the Mir
complex and is now Mir EO-21 Kosmonavt-Issledovatel'
(Cosmonaut-Researcher).

Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) was moved from the Orbiter
Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Apr 8,
and has been mated to the external tank for STS-77.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Inmarsat III F1 satellite was launched on Apr 3 by a Lockheed Martin
Atlas IIA Centaur rocket. The launch was carried out by Lockheed Martin
Commercial Launch Services. The satellite will provide mobile
communications services at L-band for the International Maritime
Satellite Organization.  The satellite is a Lockheed Martin Astro Space
AS4000 series satellite with a Matra Marconi Space communications
payload and a Star 37 solid apogee motor. The apogee motor was fired
prior to April 8, by which time the Inmarsat was being tracked in a
1414.5 minute, 35174 x 35549 km x 2.7 deg drift orbit.

LKEI (Lockheed Krunichev Energiya International) launched a Proton-K
rocket from Baykonur on Apr 8, carrying an RKK Energiya Blok-DM2 upper
stage and the Astra 1F satellite for SES (Societe Europeene des
Satellites, a company headquartered in Luxembourg). This is the first
commercial launch of a Western-built satellite by a Proton. The Astra 1F
is a Hughes HS-601 television broadcasting satellite.

The Navstar satellite launched on March 28 was GPS SVN 33. By Mar 30 it
had fired its Star 37 apogee motor and was in a 20252 x 20548 km x 54.8
deg orbit. It will be stationed in plane C, slot 2 with code PRN 03. SVN
33 is the satellite which was attacked with an axe by an anti-nuclear
activist a couple of years ago. SVN 10, launched in Sep 1984, was
boosted to a higher orbit and turned off on Mar 26.

Space Command has cataloged a number of fragments in elliptical
orbit with a period of 166 minutes which it has associated with
the 1966-77 launch, FTV 1352. The spacecraft was a second generation
MIDAS infrared early warning development satellite. It is possible that
the association is erroneous and the fragments are actually yet
more clumps of needles from the West Ford (1963-14) passive
communications experiment, which inserted millions of copper
dipoles into similar orbits.

France's Telecom 1C satellite, launched in 1988, has raised its orbit
and is probably retired. It had been stationed at 1.0 deg E.



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
Mar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1740   Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon       16A
Mar 21 0453   IRS-P3           PSLV           Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   18A
Mar 28 0021   GPS 33           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navigation  19A
Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      21A


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 12        FSW-1 capsule   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 13        ODERACS IIA     Reentered
Mar 19        TSS-1           Reentered over Middle East? (or Atlantic?)

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        Edwards       STS-76  
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-54/ET/OV-105  VAB Bay 1      STS-77
ML2/
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 284                  1996 Apr 18                  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle and Mir---------------
STS-76 Mission Specialist-4, Dr. Shannon Lucid, remains aboard the Mir complex. Despite the implication in some NASA reports during STS-76 that her title on the crew is Cosmonaut-researcher, (which most `guest cosmonauts' have had, and which is equivalent to Payload Specialist) more recent Mir EO-21 status reports indicate she has the (Mission Specialist equivalent) title of Flight Engineer-2 (Bortizhener-2), which ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter also held on his long duration mission. 

Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) was moved from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Apr 8,and was mated to the external tank for STS-77. The stack was rolled out to pad 39B on Apr 16. (Pad 39A is undergoing refurbishment and has not been used recently). Mission STS-77 will carry the Airlock Tunnel Adapter, the Spacehab Flight Unit 1 module (on mission SH-04), and three cross-bay MPESS structures. One will carry the Spartan 207 satellite, another carries the TEAMS payload, and the third is the GBA-9 GAS Bridge. Spartan 207 carries the IAE (Inflatable Antenna Experiment) payload. TEAMS is a Hitchhiker-M payload  carrying a zero-g refuelling experiment, a GPS navigation experiment, and the PAMS Passive Aerodynamically-Stabilized Magnetically-Damped Satellite. GBA-9 carries eleven Getaway Special (GAS) canisters: 
G-056  Caltech 
G-063  Lockheed Martin/Penn State 
G-142  DARA, German space agency 
G-144  DARA 
G-163  European Space Agency 
G-200  Utah State University 
G-490  British Sugar 
G-564  Canadian Space Agency 
G-565  Canadian Space Agency 
G-703  NASA-Lewis 
G-741  NASA-Lewis

G-056 is the GAMCIT gamma ray burst detector built by Caltech's SEDS student organization.

Recent Launches---------------

The launch of Astra 1F on Apr 8 demonstrated a new profile for RKK Energiya's Blok-DM2 upper stage. The Krunichev three-stage Proton-K launch vehicle entered a standard parking orbit of 213 x 219 km x 51.6 deg. The Blok-DM2/Astra 1F combination separated and the Blok-DM2 ignited to enter an elliptical orbit of 11970 x 35936 km x 6.95 deg. This probably involved two burns of the Blok-DM2, and we may soon see the SOZ ullage motor units cataloged in a 200 x 36000 km x 47 degree transfer orbit. Usually the second burn of the DM2 takes the payload all the way to geosynchronous orbit, since the Russian geosats do not have apogee motors of their own, but the heavy Astra 1F instead used its own liquid apogee engine to complete the ascent, first lowering inclination and raising perigee to 27160 x 35994 km x 0.9 deg, and then by Apr 11 to 30135 x 36147 km. By Apr 15, Astra 1F was in a 35757 x 35791 km x 0.1 deg orbit over 27.0 deg E, drifting 0.1 deg per day.

Table of Recent Launches------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.                                                                           DES.
Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
ar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1740   Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon       16A
Mar 21 0453   IRS-P3           PSLV           Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   18A
Mar 28 0021   GPS 33           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navigation  19A
Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      21A

Payloads no longer in orbit--------------------------
Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 12        FSW-1 capsule   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 13        ODERACS IIA     Reentered
Mar 19        TSS-1           Reentered over Middle East? (or Atlantic?)


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-77  May 16                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                                         
ML1/RSRM-47/ET-78/OV-105  LC39B       
STS-77ML2/                                  
STS-79ML3/RSRM-55            VAB Bay 3      STS-78.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Sunday, 28 April, 1996 11:18

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 285                       1996 Apr 28                 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The 77KSI (TsM-I) Priroda module was launched by Proton from Baykonur on
Apr 23. The 19500 kg Priroda is the final module for the Mir complex,
and was built by the Krunichev factory. 77KSI carries a set of remote
sensing experiments and some microgravity experiments:

 MSU-SK and MSU-E optical and infrared scanners
 OZON-M ozone profile detector
 ISTOK-1 infrared spectrometer
 MOS Imaging spectrometer, Germany
 ALISA LIDAR optical sounder, France
 IKAR-N, IKAR-D scanning and pointing microwave radiometers
 IKAR-P microwave radiometer
 TRAVERS Synthetic aperture radar operating at 9 and 23 cm
 MOMS-2P Stereoscopic imagers
 MIM  Microgravity Isolation Mount, Canada

On Apr 25 one of the two battery systems on Priroda failed. Priroda does
not carry solar panels. Fortunately, Priroda docked with Mir at 1243 UTC
on Apr 26. This is the first time one of the 77KS modules has docked on
the first attempt. On Apr 27, Priroda was due to be rotated from
the -X port to the +Z port. Kristall is at -Z, Kvant-2 at +Y, Spektr
at -Y, and Kvant at +X. The Soyuz TM-23 craft is docked to the +X port
of Kvant, and the Stikovochnoy Otsek (Docking Module) is attached
at the -Z port of Kristall. 

Recent Launches
---------------

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) was launched at 1227:40 UTC on Apr
24 from Vandenberg into an 896 x 906 km x 99 deg orbit. MSX is a
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization satellite which will study the
infrared, visible and ultraviolet signatures of ballistic missiles in
their midcourse phase (after the launch vehicle rocket plume has shut
down). The main experiment on MSX is the Spirit III cryogenic infrared
telescope, the first to use solid hydrogen instead of the liquid helium
that has been used by infrared astronomy satellites in the past. The
hydrogen will maintain the dewar at 8.5K. MSX will also perform civilian
scientific research, with atmospheric observations and astronomical
studies. The MSX spacecraft was built by Johns Hopkins University's
Applied Physics Lab.
 MSX instruments are:
  SPIRIT III,  0.34m Spatial IR Imaging Telescope, 2.5 -28 microns
  UVISI   UV and Visible Imagers and Spectrographic Imagers
  CIC     Contamination Instrumentation Complement
  (to study outgassing and contamination of optical surfaces)
  SBV     Space Based Visible camera, 0.15m telescope/CCD


Titan IV K-16 was launched from Cape Canaveral on Apr 24. It was a Titan
401 variant with a Centaur upper stage, and the payload is probably a
geostationary orbit signals  intelligence satellite.

Kosmos-2332 was launched on Apr 24. It entered a 303 x 1575 km  x 83 deg
orbit, characteristic of radar calibration satellites including Kosmos-1179,
Kosmos-1463 and Kosmos-2265. It is believed that these satellites are
spherical in shape and may be based on the Vostok/Zenit descent cabin
shell.

Telesat Mobile Inc. (TMI) of Canada's M-SAT satellite was launched by
Ariane on Apr 20. M-SAT uses the Hughes HS-601 design, but its prime
contractor was Spar Aerospace of Canada (a similar industrial
partnership was used for the Anik D satellites in the 1980s in which
Spar used the Hughes HS-376 design). The satellite is almost identical
to the AMSC-1 satellite launched last year for American Mobile Satellite
Corp., and carries L-band transponders for communications between mobile
users.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Mar  9 0133   REX-II           Pegasus XL     L1011/Vandenberg Technol.   14A
Mar 14 0711   Intelsat 707     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      15A
Mar 14 1740   Kosmos-2331      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon       16A
Mar 21 0453   IRS-P3           PSLV           Sriharikota     Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   18A
Mar 28 0021   GPS 33           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navigation  19A
Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur        Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A?

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Mar  9        Columbia        Landed at KSC
Mar 12        FSW-1 capsule   Reentered over Atlantic
Mar 13        ODERACS IIA     Reentered
Mar 19        TSS-1           Reentered over Middle East? (or Atlantic?)
Mar 31        Atlantis        Landed at Edwards AFB

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-77  May 16
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-47/ET-78/OV-105  LC39B       STS-77
ML2/                                  STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55            VAB Bay 3      STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Wednesday, 08 May, 1996 9:40

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 286                       1996 May 8                Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Progress M-31 cargo ship, spacecraft No. 231, was launched on May 5
It will deliver 1140 kg of fuel and 1700 kg of cargo to the Mir complex.
The Progress is a modified Soyuz with a fuel tank in place of the
descent module, and is built by RKK Energiya for the Russian Space
Agency.

The Progress docked at the -X port on Mir at 0854 UTC on May 7 according
to an AP report. On Apr 27 the Priroda (spacecraft No. 77KSI) module was
rotated from -X to +Z. The batteries used to power Priroda on its trip
to Mir have been removed from the module and will be placed in Progress
M-31 for disposal during reentry. Mir crew Yuriy Onufrienko, Yuriy
Usachyov and Shannon Lucid will remain on the station until August.

Endeavour remains on pad 39B as preparations for the launch of STS-77
continue. Launch is now set for May 19. Meanwhile, the external tank and
solid boosters for STS-78 have been connected.

New NASA Astronauts
-------------------

A new group of 35 NASA astronaut candidates has been selected. This
equals the 1978 group as the largest selection ever. There are ten
pilots and 25 mission specialists; eight of the mission specialists are
women. Three of the pilots are surnamed Kelly, two of them being twins -
Mark and Scott Kelly, both Navy lieutenants.  Half the pilots are
currently at the Navy test pilot base at Patuxent River, Maryland, which
has sent many people on to the astronaut office. The other traditional
source, the Air Force test pilot base at Edwards, generated only one
pilot and one mission specialist this time around. Of the civilians, one
comes from Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Pegasus rocket program, two from Los
Alamos, and two from Georgia Tech. The remainder are from NASA related
centers: three from JSC (Houston), two from Kennedy, two from Goddard,
and one each from Langley and JPL. This is a bit broader than some
earlier selections which tended to pick almost all the civilians from
JSC. All the new candidates were born in the USA except for GSFC's Dr.
Piers Sellers who was born in England.  None of the previous (1994)
group of astronauts has yet been selected for a mission.

Recent Launches
---------------

Lockheed Martin's Atlas I Centaur flight AC-78 was launched on Apr 30
from Cape Canaveral. AC-78's Centaur second stage made two burns, the
second changing the orbital plane to lower the inclination to the equator,
delivering its payload to a 581 x 605 km x 4.0 deg orbit.
This is probably the lowest inclination payload launched from Cape
Canaveral with the exception of geostationary missions.

The AC-78 payload was SAX, the Italian Space Agency's Satellite per
Astronomia a raggi X. SAX carries a set of 30 nested, gold coated
concentrators with detectors to study the spectrum of X-ray sources over
a wide energy range, from photon energies of 0.1 to 200 keV and an
approximately 1 degree field of view. Three Xenon gas scintillation
proportional counters (GSPCs) study the 1-10 keV range, while a fourth,
the LEGSPC, studies the 0.1-1 keV range. A High Pressure GSPC (HPGSPC)
coveres the hard X-ray range of 3-120 keV, while the PDS (Phoswich
Detector System) is sensitive up to 200 keV. All of these instruments
are in the focal plane of the X-ray concentrator telescope. They don't
have the collecting area of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, but they
have better spatial resolution since Rossi doesn't have an imaging
telescope. Previous missions like Einstein, ROSAT and Rossi don't cover
the full X-ray energy range (Einstein and ROSAT didn't have the hard
energies, Rossi and Asuka don't have the soft energies), and X-ray
sources are so variable that if you want to have the big picture you
need get the whole range simultaneously, so SAX fills an important
niche. An auxiliary coded mask telescope pointing out to the side uses
Dutch-built Wide Field Cameras to study a much larger 20 degree field 
of view for monitoring transient sources in the 2-30 keV range. The
Dutch NIVR space agency collaborates with ASI (Agenzia Spaziale
Italiano) on the SAX project, as well as  the European Space Agency's
ESTEC research center, also in Holland, which built the LEGSPC. SAX was
built by the Italian company Alenia.


The classified satellite launched on Apr 24 is probably an advanced
version of the VORTEX signals intelligence spacecraft. The launch
vehicle used powerful twin solid rocket motors built by UTC-CSD. These
separated two minutes into flight from the liquid-propellant Lockheed
Martin  (orig. Martin Marietta) Titan K-16 two-stage core vehicle. The
23-m payload shroud separated at about four minutes after launch. At
about nine minutes into flight the Lockheed Martin (orig. General
Dynamics) Centaur TC-15 upper stage ignited in the first of three burns
to geostationary orbit. The payload designation has now been
confirmed as USA 118.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur        Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A
Apr 30 0431   SAX              Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   27A
May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       28A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-77  May 19
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-47/ET-78/OV-105  LC39B       STS-77
ML2/RSRM-54            VAB Bay 1      STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79      VAB Bay 3      STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Thursday, 16 May, 1996 17:20

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 287                       1996 May  16              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of mission STS-77 is scheduled for May 19. Aboard the
Mir complex, the EO-21 crew continue work with the recently
docked Priroda and Progress M-31 spacecraft.

Erratum
-------------------

In last week's issue I should have noted that new astronaut 
Fernando Caldiero was born in Argentina.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Titan 4 rocket, serial number K-22, was launched from Space Launch
Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 12, and placed a
classified payload in orbit. Observers speculate that it is the fourth
advanced ocean surveillance triplet, replacing a payload that was lost
in an Aug 1993 launch failure. It may be in an orbit with an inclination
of 63 degrees.

A Kometa mapping and reconnaissance payload, which would have become
Kosmos-2333 if successful, was lost during the burn of the first stage
of its Soyuz-U launch vehicle two minutes after launch from Baykonur.
Initial reports suggest a payload fairing failure. The spacecraft was to
have spent 45 days in orbit, and would have carried out the SPIN-2
mapping project for US firms as well as imaging for the Russian Ministry
of Defense. The Soyuz-U vehicle is built by the TsSKB's Progress factory
in Samara and has an excellent reliability record by Western standards.

Ariane flight V86, a 44L model, was successfully launched on May 16. It
placed in orbit the first Israeli communications satellite, AMOS, as
well as a Hughes-built Palapa C comsat for Indonesia. AMOS  was built by
IAI (Israel Aircraft Industries). Two Ku-band beams serve the Middle
East and Eastern Europe. A second AMOS will be built for the Hungarian
Broadcasting Co. There are 9 transponders, and the mass of the satellite
was 996 kg at launch. It will be stationed at 4 deg W. PT Satelindo's
Palapa C-2 is a 2989 kg HS-601 C/Ku band hybrid comsat which will be
positioned at 108 deg E over Jakarta.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur        Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A
Apr 30 0431   SAX              Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   27A
May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       28A
May 12 2132   USA-119?         Titan 403?     Vandenberg SLC4E Recon?     29A
May 14        Kometa?          Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Recon       FTO
May 16 0156   Palapa C2   )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      30A?
              AMOS        )                                   Comsat      30B?


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------



Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39B         STS-77  May 19
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-47/ET-78/OV-105  LC39B       STS-77
ML2/RSRM-54            VAB Bay 1      STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79      VAB Bay 3      STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Tuesday, 28 May, 1996 15:55

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 288                     1996 May 28              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

OV-105 Endeavour (mission STS-77) was launched on May 19 at 1030 UTC.
The solid rocket boosters (RSRM-47) separated at 1032 UTC, and the main
engines shut down at 1038 UTC, with external tank ET-78 jettisoned
shortly afterwards, to place the Orbiter in an elliptical transfer
orbit. This was the first launch to use three of the improved Block I
engines. The two smaller OMS engines were fired at apogee at 1112 UTC,
circularizing the orbit. At 1214 UTC opening of the payload bay doors
was complete and Endeavour was declared 'Go for Orbit Ops' in a 280 x
290 km x 39.0 deg orbit.

On May 20 at 1129 UTC the Spartan 207 satellite was deployed from the
robot arm. Endeavour moved 120 m from the satellite, and at 1338 UTC the
Spartan began deploying the Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE). Three
28-m booms inflated to push the dish away from the satellite; the dish
then inflated to make a 14-m diameter parabolic antenna. The Spartan/IAE
was observed to tumble slowly. The IAE was jettisoned at 1458 UTC (?) on
May 20. A day later at 1453 UTC on May 21, Canadian astronaut Marc
Garneau used the RMS arm to retrieve Spartan 207 from orbit, together
with its cameras which had filmed the IAE deployment.

On May 22 at 1018 UTC the PAMS STU (Satellite Test Unit) was ejected
from the TEAMS MPESS bridge in the Shuttle's payload bay. PAMS-STU is
intended to test out a passive aerodynamic stabilization and magnetic
damping system. At around 1500 UTC Endeavour returned to PAMS-STU in the
first of three rendezvous operations with the small satellite. A second
rendezvous was conducted on May 25 and the third on May 27.

Meanwhile, aboard the Mir complex, the EO-21 commander Yuriy Onufrienko
and flight engineer 1 Yuriy Usachyov made a spacewalk on May 24 at on
May 20 at 2250 UTC. The cosmonauts removed the US/Russian Mir
Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA) from its location on the exterior of the
316GK Stikovochnoy Otsek (Docking Compartment) and carried it to the
other end of  the complex using the Strela-2 crane. The MCSA was
attached to the 37KE Kvant module, opposite another panel which was
added last year. The EVA concluded at 0410 UTC on May 21 after 5h 20m.
The second spacewalk began on May 24 at 2047 UTC. Onufrienko and
Usachyov completed the installation of the MCSA and connected it
electrically. The spacewalk was concluded on May 25 at 0230 UTC. The
MCSA panel was deployed from its initial folded configuration on  May
25. (Source: C. v.d.Berg's Mir News).

Columbia was transferred to the VAB on May 21 and was mated
to the external tank for STS-78 on May 22.

Recent Launches
---------------

Orbital Sciences Corp. has had another launch success, placing the DoD's
MSTI-3 satellite in orbit aboard a Pegasus. The Lockheed L-1011 carrier
aircraft took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base's runway 30/12 and
proceeded to the drop point at 36 deg 0 min N, 123 deg 0 min W over the
Pacific. The Pegasus rocket was released and a few seconds later ignited
the first of its three stages. It is the 'Pegasus Hybrid' version,
a standard Pegasus with modified fins to accommodate the L-1011 carrier
plane instead of the original B-52. 

MSTI 3 will test out new sensor technology for ballistic missile
defense. The satellite is built by Spectrum Astro Inc, and carries three
sensors: a mid wave IR camera, a short wave IR camera, and a visible
imaging spectrometer. Its goal is to study the IR emission from the
Earth to determine if tactical ballistic missiles can be spotted during
their coast phase against the bright Earth background. Initial checkout
of the satellite is reported to have gone well.

The Galaxy 9 comsat was launched on May 23 by a  McDonnell Douglas Delta
7925 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The Hughes HS-376 satellite will
provide communications for the Hughes Galaxy network.
It has 24 C-band transponders which will be
used for cable TV feeds.

The Russian Space Forces launched a Krunichev Proton-K rocket on
May 25 with an RKK Energiya Blok DM-2 upper stage. The vehicle placed
an NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki `Gorizont' communications satellite
in orbit, reportedly nicknamed `Prezidentskiy' since it will provide coverage
of the Russian presidential election campaign to Western Siberia and the
Ural region.

The initial orbit of the putative USA 119 payload, as derived by Rainer
Kracht from  amateur observations, was 312 x 622 km x 63.4 deg. The
payload was later found to have moved to a 1050 x 1150 km x 63.4 deg
orbit, characteristic of the US Navy ocean surveillance triplet
spacecraft. Four objects have been cataloged by Space Command, including
1996-29D = USA-122, but no orbital data have been officially released.

The Italian Satellite per Astronomia a raggi X has been renamed
BeppoSAX in honor of Guiseppe 'Beppo' Occhialini, a pioneer in Italian
gamma ray and cosmic ray astronomy.

The McDonnell Douglas/NASA DC-XA reusable vertical-landing rocket
made its first flight from White Sands on May 18, reaching an apogee of 240 m.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur LC81   Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A
Apr 30 0431   BeppoSAX         Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   27A
May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       28A
May 12 2132   USA-119          Titan 403?     Vandenberg SLC4E Recon?     29A
              USA-120?                                                    29B?
              USA-121?                                                    29C?
              USA-122                                                     29D
May 14        Kometa?          Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       FTO
May 16 0156   Palapa C2   )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      30A
              AMOS        )                                   Comsat      30B
May 17 0244   MSTI-3           Pegasus        L-1011,Pacific  Technology  31A
May 19 1030   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   32A
              Spartan 207                                     Technology  32B
              IAE                                             Technology  32C
              PAMS STU                                        Technology  32D
May 23 2310   Galaxy 9         Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      33A
May 25        Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      34A



Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

May 13        Kosmos-2293
May 22        IAE


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 3     STS-78  Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       On orbit      STS-77  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                    LC39B
ML2/RSRM-54             VAB Bay 1      STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79/OV102 VAB Bay 3      STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Wednesday, 05 June, 1996 16:19

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 289                     1996 Jun 5               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Endeavour landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 11:09:38 UTC
on May 29 (with wheels stop at 11:10:32), completing mission STS-77.
It has been returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility and is being
prepared for transfer to Palmdale in California for its first
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP).

Erratum: the PAMS STU deploy was at 0918 UTC on May 22.

On May 30, Columbia was moved to the launch pad in preparation
for mission STS-78.

Mir EO-21 commander and flight engineer-1 Onufrienko and Usachyov made
their 4th spacewalk from 1820 UTC to 2240 UTC on May 30 (C v.d. Berg's
MirNews). They installed the European MOMS-2 earth resources camera on
the Priroda module's science platform. Flight engineer-2 Shannon Lucid
remained inside the complex.

Recent Launches
---------------

The first launch of the new Ariane 5 rocket, mission V501, ended with
destruction of the rocket after 40 seconds of flight, at an altitude of
4000 m. The vehicle pitched over and then was destroyed by the range
safety officer. It is not yet known whether the problem was in the main
stage or the solid boosters.

Ariane 5 consists of two P230 Aerospatiale EAP (Etage Acceleration a
Poudre) solid strapon boosters, the Aerospatiale/SEP EPC (Etage
Principal Cryotechnique)  cryogenic main stage, and the Daimler-Benz EPS
(Etage 'a Propergols Stockables) storable liquid propellant upper stage
with an L9.7 Aestus engine. The design is completely different from the
Ariane 1 through 4 family which shared a common core stage with
evolutionary modifications. First flights of large launch vehicles
are very rare - Ariane 1 in 1979, Shuttle in 1981, Energiya in 1987,
H-2 in 1994. This is the only failure of a large core stage on initial
flight apart from the Russian N-1 moon rocket in 1969 and the first
launch failure of a major space science payload since Mariner 8 in 1971.
My best wishes and condolences to those of my friends working on the
Cluster project. For comparison, I list below the history of initial
launch attempts of new orbital rocket
designs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
   Orbital Launch Vehicle Core Stage First Flights
   -----------------------------------------------
   Stage Name   Vehicle       First         Notes    First orbital
                              suborbital             attempt
                              attempt
Large and Medium
----------------

   Thor         Thor, Delta   1957 Jan 25   F        1958 Aug 17   F
   R-7          Soyuz         1957 May 15   F        1957 Oct  4   S
   Atlas        Atlas         1957 Jun 11   F        1958 Dec 18   S
   Titan        Titan         1959 Feb  6            1964 Apr  8   S
   Saturn S-I   Saturn I      1961 Oct 27   S        1964 Jan 29   S
   R-36         Tsiklon       1963 Sep      ?        1965 Dec 16   S      
   Blue Streak  Europa        1964 Jun  5   S        1968 Nov 29   F
   UR-500       Proton                               1965 Jul 16   S
  (Titan/SRM    Titan 3C                             1965 Dec 21   S)
  (Saturn S-IB  Saturn IB     1966 Feb 26   S        1966 Jul  5   S)
  (LT Thor      Thor, Delta                          1966 Aug  9   S)
   Saturn S-IC  Saturn V                             1967 Nov  9   S	
   N-1 Blok-A   N-1                                  1969 Feb 21   F
   DF-5         Chang Zheng   1971 Sep?     ?        1973 Sep 18   F
   Ariane L144  Ariane                               1979 Dec 24   S
   OV/ET/SRB    Shuttle                              1981 Apr 12   S
   Zenit 11S771 Zenit-2                              1985 Apr 13   F
   Energiya     Energiya                             1987 May 15   S
  (Ariane L220  Ariane 4                             1988 Jun 15   S)
  (EELT Thor    Delta II                             1989 Feb 14   S)
  (Titan 4      Titan 4                              1989 Jun 14   S)
  (Atlas II     Atlas II                             1991 Dec  7   S)
   H-II         H-II                                 1994 Feb  3   S
   Ariane EPC   Ariane 5                             1996 Jun  4   F
   
Small
----

   Redstone     Juno I        1953 Aug 20   S        1958 Feb  1   S
   Jupiter      Juno II       1957 Mar  1   F        1958 Dec  6   S
   R-12         Kosmos 11K63  1957 Jun 22   S?       1961 Oct 27   F
   Vanguard     Vanguard      1957 Oct 23   S        1957 Dec  6   F
   Algol        Scout         1960 Apr 18   S        1960 Dec  4   F
   R-14         Kosmos-3M     1960 Jun  6   ?        1964 Aug 18   S
   L735         Lambda        1963 Aug 24   S        1966 Sep 26   F
   Emeraude     Diamant       1964 Jun 15   S        1965 Nov 26   S
   Black Arrow  Black Arrow   1969 Jun 28   F        1970 Sep  2   S
   M-10         Mu            1969 Aug 17   S        1970 Sep 25   F
   DF-3         Chang Zheng 1 1970 Jan 10?           1970 Apr 24   S
   SLV-3        SLV-3                                1979 Aug 10   F
   Jericho      Shaviyt       ?                      1988 Sep 19   S
   Topol'       Start         1982 Oct 27   S        1993 Mar 25   S
   TU-904       MX/Taurus     1983 Jun 17   S        1994 Mar 13   S
   Pegasus S1   Pegasus                              1990 Apr  5   S 
   PS1          PSLV                                 1993 Sep 20   S
   UR-100N      Rokot         1972?                  1994 Dec 26   S   

Notes: Suborbital attempt listed if prior to first orbital attempt. 
First orbital attempt is that of stage, may not be that of listed
vehicle (e.g. 11A511 Soyuz did not fly until 1966, but used R-7 core
stage which had Sputnik orbital flight in 1957).
F = Failed, S = Successful first stage.
Major upgrades to previously flown core designs in parentheses.
Castor 120 is considered a minor upgrade to TU-904; Amethyste a minor
upgrade to Emeraude, etc.
Energiya core stage worked OK but payload engine failed to place
payload in orbit. Relationship between UR-100N and 1960's UR-100 is unclear.
Have I missed
anything?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--



 The payload of mission 501 was a set of 4 identical space science
satellites called Cluster. The satellites would have been delivered to
geostationary transfer orbit of 280 x 36000 km x 10 deg to demonstrate
Ariane 5's suitability for commercial comsat missions. 

Cluster F1 and Cluster F2 were carried in a pair on top of a Speltra
support structure. They would separate from Speltra and then later from
each other; the Speltra would then  separate from the EPS stage
revealing the Cluster F3 and F4 pair it had encapsulated. F3 and F4
would then separate from EPS and finally from each other.

The four satellites would then have used their own propulsion to
maneuver to entirely different highly elliptical orbits to study the
magnetosphere. The Cluster satellites, built by Daimler-Benz Aerospace's
Dornier unit, have a dry mass of 600 kg and carry 600 kg of N2O2/MMH
fuel for their DASA S400 liquid propulsion system. The 400N engine would
have made five burns to enter a final orbit of 25000 x 140000 km and a
polar inclination. The satellites had four 50-m long booms to study
electric fields and plasma, and included ion spectrometers,
magnetometers, and particle imaging detectors.

Cluster, together with the successful SOHO satellite, was ESA's
first Cornerstone (CS1) mission under the Horizon 2000 program. Its
loss puts a big dent in the European space science program.


TSS-1R Investigation
--------------------

NASA's Tethered Satellite failure review board has reported its
findings. According to the board and to scientists familiar with the
project, the proximate cause of the TSS-1R tether snapping was because
of arcing from the tether to the deployer, burning through the Kevlar
which provided tether strength. This happened when there was a high
voltage (3500V) between the tether and the deployer. It is believed that
the arcing occurred because of  contamination in the system, and extreme
vulnerability of the system to a single small defect in the tether
insulation. Metal and  plastic debris was present in the deployer system
built by Martin-Marietta, and inside the tether (built by Cortland Cable
Co.) underneath the insulation. The latter must have arisen during the
manufacturing process; the former may have arisen at any time prior to
the TSS-1R launch since the deployer lower tether control mechanism was
not opened up following the first unsuccessful flight. One possibility
is that a piece of debris made a small hole in the insulation of the
tether as it unreeled while it was at a high voltage with no current
path to the science instruments (since the switch was in the open
position). The circuit was completed through gas in the deployer system
to the metal in the deployer, arcing and causing scorching on several of
the pulley systems as the bad spot on the tether moved through the
deployer. The arcing continued until the bad spot was travelling up the
deployer boom, at which point the tether broke. A spark test to verify
tether integrity was performed at the time of manufacture, but no repeat
test was performed after years of storage prior to the TSS-1R flight. Of
course NASA studiously avoids assigning any specific blame either to
managers at NASA-Marshall or to Martin Marietta and its subcontractors;
but it looks like an important issue is checking quality control after
long storage times, the same thing that fried the Galileo HGA (no
relubrication of the antenna pins) and a host of less serious setbacks
that ensued after the long launch delays of the 1980s. Another issue as
far as I can see is that it looks like the design could have been made
more likely to survive such an electrical failure by providing alternate
current paths to shut the system down when a short is detected.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur LC81   Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A
Apr 30 0431   BeppoSAX         Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   27A
May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       28A
May 12 2132   USA-119          Titan 403?     Vandenberg SLC4E Recon?     29A
              USA-120?                                                    29B?
              USA-121?                                                    29C?
              USA-122                                                     29D
May 14        Kometa?          Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       FTO
May 16 0156   Palapa C2   )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      30A
              AMOS        )                                   Comsat      30B
May 17 0244   MSTI-3           Pegasus        L-1011,Pacific  Technology  31A
May 19 1030   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   32A
May 20 1129   Spartan 207                                     Technology  32B
              IAE                                             Technology  32C
May 22 0918   PAMS STU                                        Technology  32D
May 23 2310   Galaxy 9         Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      33A
May 25        Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      34A
Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

May 13        Kosmos-2293          Reentered
May 22        IAE                  Reentered
May 29        Endeavour/Spartan    Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-78  Jun 20
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                    
ML2/RSRM-54             VAB Bay 1      STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79/OV102 LC39B          STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Sunday, 16 June, 1996 10:31

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 290                     1996 Jun 16               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of mission STS-78 is scheduled for Jun 20. A Spacelab Long Module
is in Columbia's cargo bay together with the EDO (Extended Duration
Orbiter) pallet with extra consumables to support the long 16-day
mission. Crew of STS-78 are Col. Terence `Tom' Henricks, Kevin Kregel,
Capt. Susan Helms, Dr. Charles Brady, M.D., Dr. Richard Linnehan,
D.Vet.M, Dr. Bob Thirsk, M.D., and Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier, Ph.D. Thirsk
is from the Canadian Space Agency and Favier is from the French CNES
space agency. The crew will carry out the Life and Microgravity Science
Spacelab (LMS) mission.

The Mir EO-21 crew's 5th EVA took place at 1656 UTC on Jun 6 and lasted 3 hr
34 min. Onufrienko and Usachyov installed experiments to study the space
environment on the outer surface of the station. EVA-6 took place on Jun
13, and involved the filming of the second part of a commercial for
Pepsi-Cola. It lasted 5 hr 42 min.

Errata
-------

I got the launch time of Galaxy 9 wrong - it should have been 0110 UTC
on May 24.

I missed two types of rocket from my launch vehicle list last week:
first, the Conestoga, which uses the Castor 4B as its core. As far as I
know, the Castor 4 series first flew on an Athena H reentry test vehicle
in 1971. The second one I missed was the NOTSnik Project Pilot air
launched vehicle, recently declassified, which was used in 1958 and used
a small HOTROC solid motor cluster as its first stage. Two of the 1958
Pilot launches may have reached orbit.

   HOTROC       Pilot         1958 Jul  4    F       1958 Jul 25   S?   
   Castor 4B    Conestoga     1971 Apr  3            1995 Oct 23   F

The LLV-1 (now LMLV-1) was deliberately omitted since it used the
Castor 120 core, which is part of the same rocket family as
the TU-904 used for Taurus, although a different variant.

Recent Launches
---------------

Ariane flight V87 was successfully launched on Jun 15. A member of the
original Ariane family, the Ariane 44P model rocket placed its H-10-III
third stage and the Intelsat 709 comsat in geostationary transfer orbit.
The success is good news for Arianespace after the failure of the first
Ariane 5 launch.

Intelsat 709 is an Intelsat VIIA satellite using the Space Systems/Loral
FS-1300 bus. The satellite has a mass of 1473 kg dry, or 3420 kg
including all its propellant. It has 26 C-band and 10 Ku-band
transponders and will be stationed at 18 deg W over the Atlantic to
provide transatlantic telephone, TV and data relay for the International
Telecommunications Satellite Organization.

Here are more details of the Ariane 5 flight from ESA:
1233:59 UTC: Vulcain main engine ignition
1234:06 UTC: EAP ignition, liftoff
1234:36 UTC: Altitude 3.5 km
1234:36 UTC: EAP solid booster nozzles swivel to limit
             Vulcain main engine swivels to limit
             Ariane 5 tilts sharply
1234:38 UTC: EPC structural failure
1234:38 UTC: Onboard destruct system fired 

ESA says: "The direction of inquiry is tending towards the launcher's
electrical and software system". The on board computer incorrectly
decided that the vehicle was off course and commanded a sharp
turn, which then did in fact send Ariane off course. An automatic
on board destruct system fired once the vehicle started to disintegrate.

The Clipper Graham (DC-XA) made its second flight at 1615 UTC on Jun 7.
The 62-second flight was successful. A third flight one day later
was also successful and proved the rapid turnaround concept.

Gorizont No. 44L, launched on May 25, is now on station at 53 degrees East.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

Apr  3 2301   Inmarsat III F1  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A194z Comsat     
20A
Apr  8 2309   Astra 1F         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81   Comsat      21A
Apr 20 2236   M-SAT 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      22A
Apr 23 1148   Priroda          Proton-K       Baykonur LC81   Spaceship   23A
Apr 24 1227   MSX              Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech.  24A 
Apr 24 1303   Kosmos-2332      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Radar cal   25A
Apr 24 2337   USA-118          Titan 401      Canaveral LC41  Sigint      26A
Apr 30 0431   BeppoSAX         Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Astronomy   27A
May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       28A
May 12 2132   USA-119          Titan 403?     Vandenberg SLC4E Recon?     29A
              USA-120?                                                    29B?
              USA-121?                                                    29C?
              USA-122                                                     29D
May 14 0855   Kometa           Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       FTO
May 16 0156   Palapa C2   )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      30A
              AMOS        )                                   Comsat      30B
May 17 0244   MSTI-3           Pegasus        L-1011,Pacific  Technology  31A
May 19 1030   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   32A
May 20 1129   Spartan 207                                     Technology  32B
              IAE                                             Technology  32C
May 22 0918   PAMS STU                                        Technology  32D
May 24 0110   Galaxy 9         Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      33A
May 25 0210?  Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      34A
Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )
Jun 15 0655   Intelsat 709     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat     


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

May 13        Kosmos-2293          Reentered
May 22        IAE                  Reentered
May 29        Endeavour/Spartan    Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-78  Jun 20
OV-103 Discovery       Palmdale      OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 1     STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                    
ML2/RSRM-54             VAB Bay 1      STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55/ET-79/OV102 LC39B          STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Tuesday, 02 July, 1996 13:54

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 291                      1996 Jul   2                Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Orbiter OV-102 Columbia was launched on 1996 Jun 20 at 1449:20 UTC on
mission STS-78, carrying the Life and Microgravity Science Spacelab
(LMS-1). Launch was from Mobile Launch Platform 3 at Complex 39B. The
solid rocket boosters, serial RSRM-55, separated at about 1451:24, with
main engine cutoff (MECO) at 1457 UTC. External tank ET-79 separated
from the Orbiter a few seconds later. The OMS engines were fired for
the OMS-2 burn to circularize the orbit about half an hour later,
and the payload bay doors were opened at around 1615 UTC.
Inital orbit was 272 x 285 km x 39.0 deg; by Jul 2 the orbit was
259 x 268 km x 39.0 deg. The medical and materials processing
experiments on Spacelab are proceeding well, and the mission
is scheduled to last a record 17 days.

Does anyone know which Spacelab Long Module flight unit is being used on
this flight? There are two. My guess is that it is Unit 2 (FOP), which was
first flown on Spacelab D-1 in 1985 and was probably last used on the
Spacelab Mir mission (STS-71).

Orbiter 104 Atlantis was moved to the VAB on Jun 24, and attached to the
external tank and solid rocket boosters. The stack was rolled out to pad
39A on Jul 1 in preparation for a Jul 31 launch on mission STS-79 to
Mir.

Discovery has returned to the Cape from its refurbishment in California.
It left Palmdale aboard the SCA (Boeing 747) on Jun 28. The SCA
refuelled at Altus AFB, Oklahoma and spent the night at Robins AFB, GA.
On Jun 29 it flew from Robins to KSC, and on Jun 30 it was towed to
Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2. Its next mission is STS-82, to
refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope.

Errata
-------

Apologies to Lt. Col. Helms (pilot, STS-78) for not having noted her
promotion in the last issue.

Recent Launches
---------------

Igor Lissov reports that another Soyuz-U launch vehicle failed to reach
orbit on Jun 20 after 50 seconds of flight. This is the second Soyuz-U
failure in a row, following the loss of a recon satellite on May 14.
Rumour has it that the payload shroud failed in both cases.

Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully launched the fourth Pegasus XL on
Jul 2. It placed into orbit NASA-Goddard's TOMS/Earth Probe ozone
monitoring satellite. The L-1011 Stargazer carrier airplane took off
from Vandenberg AFB and released the three stage Pegasus XL rocket over
the drop zone in the Pacific. Florida Today reports the launch as 0742
UTC; the TOMS web page reports 0748 UTC. Orbit is 345 x 954 km  x 97.4
deg, to be raised later to a circular 500 km. TOMS/EP was built by TRW
and is based on the STEP/Eagle small satellite bus. It carries a single
instrument, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. The 188 kg satellite
carries 73 kg of fuel for the orbit raising system. Earlier TOMS
instruments flew on Nimbus 7 (1978) and Meteor-3 No. 5 (1991), and
another will fly on the Japanese ADEOS mission. Pegasus XL launch delays
resulted in a two year gap in TOMS coverage following the failure of the
Meteor instrument in 1994.

Aviation Week reports that the May 12 Titan launch carried as a
secondary payload the Naval Research Laboratory's TiPS Tether Physics
and Survivability satellite. The 53 kg satellite consists of 2 end
masses connected by a 4 km tether. NRO (the National Reconnaissance
Office) provided funding for the TiPS project. Observers have seen the
TiPS payload in an 1019 x 1024 km x 63.4 deg orbit.

(The following paragraph is for satellite catalog fans only!) The status
of the different objects from the May 12 Titan launch is confused. As
best I can tell, the current official unclassified catalog states:
  Desig.    Name       SATCAT
  1996-29A  USA 119    23893
  1996-29B  USA 120    23907
  1996-29C  USA 121    23908
  1996-29D  USA 122    23862
  1996-29E  
  1996-29F
  1996-29G  Debris     23863
Possibly USA 122 is TiPS and USA 119 to 121 are the triplet satellites.
29E and 29F are then likely debris like 29G, each being a cover for one
of the triplets. However this leaves no object to be the dispenser/upper
stage. An alternative possibility is that USA 122 (or USA 119) is a
primary payload in a different orbit, 1996-29E is the dispenser/upper
stage (to get the name USA 123) and TiPS is 1996-29F and will get the
name USA 124. This is suggested by the use in the Satellite Situation
report of the name 'USA 119-124 debris' for 29G; however the weekly OIG
summary uses 'USA 119-122 debris', so '119-124' may just be a typo.


The Galileo probe successfully completed its flyby of Ganymede
on Jun 27.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

May  5 0704   Progress M-31    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       28A
May 12 2132   USA-119 )        Titan 403?     Vandenberg SLC4E Recon?     29A
              USA-120 )                                                   29B
              USA-121 )                                                   29C
              USA-122 )                                                   29D
              TiPS    )                                                   29?
May 14 0855   Kometa           Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       FTO
May 16 0156   Palapa C2   )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      30A
              AMOS        )                                   Comsat      30B
May 17 0244   MSTI-3           Pegasus        L-1011,Pacific  Technology  31A
May 19 1030   Endeavour        Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   32A
May 20 1129   Spartan 207                                     Technology  32B
              IAE                                             Technology  32C
May 22 0918   PAMS STU                                        Technology  32D
May 24 0110   Galaxy 9         Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Comsat      33A
May 25 0210?  Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      34A
Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )
Jun 15 0655   Intelsat 709     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      35A
Jun 20 1449   Columbia      )  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   36A
              Spacelab LMS 1)
Jun 20 1845   Kosmos           Soyuz-U        Plesetsk        Recon       FTO
Jul  2 0748   TOMS             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.  

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

May 13        Kosmos-2293          Reentered
May 22        IAE                  Reentered
May 29        Endeavour/Spartan    Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-78  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-77  
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                    
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104   LC39A          STS-79    
ML3/                       LC39B          STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: Wade Mark; jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Wednesday, 10 July, 1996 16:37

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 292                          1996 Jul 10               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia closed its payload bay doors at 0850 UTC on Jul 7, fired its
OMS engines for the deorbit burn at 1137 UTC, and landed at 1236:45 UTC on
runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. This was the longest Shuttle mission
to date, 16 days 21 hr 47 min 45 sec for liftoff to main gear touchdown.

Yet more errata - Helms was of course Payload Commander, not Pilot
as I said in last week's erratum; launch time was 1449:00 UTC
according to the MSFC report (my watch must have been wrong).

Atlantis was rolled back to the VAB on Jul 10 because of
Hurricane Bertha. It has not yet been decided whether to  replace the
solid boosters because of the discovery of hot gas damage in the SRB
field joints for the STS-78 launch. That could delay the launch of
STS-79 to Mir until September.

The Mir complex lowered its orbit on Jul 2 and Jul 4 to prepare for the
arrival of Soyuz TM-24 with the new Mir crew. Mir is now in a 376 x 390
km x 51.6 deg orbit; in June it had been in a 326 x 429 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. The ferry ship will be launched by a Soyuz-U rocket instead of
the uprated Soyuz-U2 usually used, and the Soyuz-U isn't powerful enough
to reach Mir's standard orbit. Apparently TM-23 also used the U model,
while earlier TM flights used the U2. (Thanks to Geoff Perry for information).

Recent Launches
---------------

China's Chang Zheng 3 (Long March 3) vehicle made a successful flight on
Jul 3 carrying a commercial US-built satellite. The Hughes HS-376 model
comsat, Apstar 1A, will provide communications relay services for  APT
(Asia Pacific Telecom) Satellite Co. of Hong Kong. The CZ-3 is an older
design than the CZ-3B rocket which failed earlier this year and the
CZ-2E model which was lost in 1995 carrying the HS-601 Apstar 2
satellite. Apstar 1A was delivered to a 225 x 42184 km x 26.93 deg
transfer orbit.


A Titan 4 rocket was launched on Jul 3 carrying a classified payload.
This Titan 4 was vehicle K-2 (45K-2), and the unidentified upper stage
motors are part of the payload. Observations indicate that the payload
may have entered an initial orbit of 293 x 318 km x 55.0 deg. It
may be a second generation Satellite Data System comsat payload, in
which case it will maneuver to an elliptical orbit.

Arianespace launched two communications satellites into
geostationary transfer orbit on Jul 9, Arabsat 2A and Turksat 1C.
The launch vehicle was the Ariane 44L variant, and was the 18th
successful launch in a row for the Ariane 4. There have been 88
launches of the Ariane 1 to 4 family of rockets, with 7 failures.

Arabsat 2A is the first of the Arabsat 2 series for the Arab Satellite
Communications Satellite Organization of the Arab League, based in Saudi
Arabia. The Aerospatiale Spacebus 3000 satellite has 22 Ku band and 12 C band
transponders.

Turksat 1C is also built by Aerospatiale and is a Spacebus 2000 model.
It will provide communications services for the Ministry of Posts and
Communications of the Republic of Turkey.

Thanks to Yoshiro Yamada for the Gorizont launch time.
TOMS was in a 340 x 943 km x 97.4 deg orbit on Jul 3.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.

May 25 0205   Gorizont         Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur        Comsat      34A
Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )
Jun 15 0655   Intelsat 709     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      35A
Jun 20 1449   Columbia      )  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   36A
              Spacelab LMS 1)
Jun 20 1845   Kosmos           Soyuz-U        Plesetsk        Recon       FTO
Jul  2 0748   TOMS             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125?         Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat  
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat

Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Jul  7        Columbia/LMS         Landed at KSC

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        VAB           STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/                       VAB            STS-80
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104   VAB            STS-79    
ML3/                       LC39B          STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Tuesday, 16 July, 1996 16:44

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 293                       1996 Jul 16               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

NASA has announced that the SRBs for STS-79 will be replaced,
delaying the mission until September, because of concerns about
hot gas in the field joints during STS-78. A new adhesive used
in the booster assembly is the leading suspect.

Currently Atlantis is attached to External Tank ET-80 and booster
integration set BI-82 (with the RSRM-54 solid booster pair) on Mobile
Launcher 2, while the left booster for BI-83 (RSRM-56)  is being stacked
on Mobile Launcher 1. BI-83 was originally to be the stack for STS-80.
The two Mobile Launchers are probably in VAB High Bays 1 and 3, but I
don't know which is in which.  Presumably the Orbiter will first be
destacked from the ET-80 (External Tank), then the ET will be moved from
BI-82 to BI-83, and the orbiter restacked on the new stack on Mobile
Launcher 1.  (I assume the ET-81 originally intended for the new BI-83
SRBs is not ready yet). Most likely, BI-82 (the suspect boosters) will
be disassembled, and the segments will be refurbished with a different
adhesive.


Recent Launches
---------------

A Navstar Block IIA Global Positioning System satellite, spacecraft
number 40 or IIA-26, was launched on Jul 16 by McDonnell Douglas Delta
7925 from Cape Canaveral into an elliptical 191 x 20354 km x 35.0 deg
transfer orbit. The Block IIA Navstar GPS satellites are built by
Rockwell; the satellite will use a Star 37 solid motor to circularize
its orbit at 20000 km altitude.  The remaining Block IIA satellites
awaiting launch are Navstar SVN 30 and Navstar SVN 38. 

The USA-125 satellite launched on Jul 3 into a 300 km orbit appears to
have maneuvered into a higher orbit around Jul 8. It may be a second
generation Satellite Data System payload which relays data from recon
satellites.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.


Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )
Jun 15 0655   Intelsat 709     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      35A
Jun 20 1449   Columbia      )  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   36A
              Spacelab LMS 1)
Jun 20 1845   Kosmos           Soyuz-U        Plesetsk        Recon       FTO
Jul  2 0748   TOMS             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125          Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat      40B
Jul 16 0050   Navstar SVN 40   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Navsat      41A


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Jul  7        Columbia/LMS         Landed at KSC

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        VAB           STS-79  Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-56                VAB            STS-80
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104   VAB            STS-79    
ML3/                       LC39B          STS-78

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Friday, 26 July, 1996 13:58

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 294                         1996 Jul 26               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis is in VAB High Bay 1. The new BI-83 solid booster stack is
being assembled on Mobile Launch Platform 1 in VAB High Bay 3. However,
a problem during assembly means that they're going to have to
disassemble one part of one of the SRBs and try again; no word yet on
whether this will be a delay. Around Aug 1, external tank ET-82,
originally intended for STS-80, will be connected to the BI-83 stack. 
Atlantis will be dismounted from BI-82/ET-80 about the same time, and
connected to the BI-83/ET-82 stack on around Aug 13. ET-80 will then be
disconnected from BI-82, the SRB stack will be disassembled, cleaned and
reassembled (possibly getting a new BI designation?), and according to a
story on Bill Harwood's page will be used for STS-81. Launch of Atlantis
is now planned for around Sep 12.

Launch to Mir of a Progress cargo ship (vehicle No. 232) was originally
planned for Jul 25, but was scrubbed due to a tank pressurization
problem at T-45s. Another launch attempt will be made Jul 26.

Recent Launches
---------------

Atlas II flight AC-125 was launched from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral
Air Station on Jul 25. Payload was an HS-601 comsat built by Hughes for
the US Navy, UHF Followon F7 (UHF F/O F7).  The UHF Followon comsats are
used for US Navy fleet communications. The Lockheed Martin Atlas II uses
a stretched Atlas first stage and a Centaur II liquid hydrogen/liquid
oxygen second stage. The Centaur makes two burns to deliver the HS-601
satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The early UHF F/O satellites
were launched on Atlas I, but with the addition of an EHF (extremely
high frequency) communications package they were moved to the Atlas II.

Navstar SVN 40's apogee motor fired successfully prior to Jul 21 and on
Jul 23 it was in a 723.65 min, 20275 x 20368 km x 55.0 deg drift orbit.
It has been assigned the telemetry number PRN 10 and will be placed in
position E3 to begin service on Aug 12. Meanwhile, Navstar 20, launched
in 1990, was  retired last May 21; it was the first of the Block II GPS
satellites to leave service.

The two comsats launched by Ariane on Jul 9 are reaching their final
orbits. Arabsat 2A was on station at 26.0 deg E on Jul 23. Turksat 1C
was at 31.3 deg E on Jul 22, drifting 0.1 degree per day.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.


Jun  4 1234   Cluster F1  )    Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3     Science     FTO
              Cluster F2  )
              Cluster F3  )
              Cluster F4  )
Jun 15 0655   Intelsat 709     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      35A
Jun 20 1449   Columbia      )  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   36A
              Spacelab LMS 1)
Jun 20 1845   Kosmos           Soyuz-U        Plesetsk        Recon       FTO
Jul  2 0748   TOMS             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125          Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat      40B
Jul 16 0050   Navstar SVN 40   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Navsat      41A
Jul 25 1242   UHF F7           Atlas 2        Canaveral LC36  Comsat


Payloads no longer in orbit
--------------------------

Jul  7        Columbia/LMS         Landed at KSC

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  Nov 11
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1     STS-79  Sep 12
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-56                VAB Bay 3      STS-79
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80/OV-104   VAB Bay 1      STS-79    
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Tuesday, 13 August, 1996 13:40

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 295                    1996 Aug 13               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Time to catch up after my vacation...
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The new cargo ship, Progress vehicle No. 232 (Progress M-32) was
successfully launched on Jul 31 by a Soyuz-U rocket. This was the first
successful launch of a Soyuz-U after two failures. Progress M-32  docked
with the Mir complex at the forward (-X) docking port at 2203 UTC on Aug
2. The old cargo ship, Progress M-31, undocked from the same port on Aug
1 at 1645 UTC and was deorbited over the south Pacific later that day.
Meanwhile, EO-22 crew commander Gennady Manakov has been taken ill and
removed from the Soyuz TM-24 crew due for launch this month (the exact
date is in question because of possible launch vehicle  problems). The
new crew is reportedly:

 Komandir (Commander)- Valeriy Korzun, RKA cosmonaut  (first flight)
 Bortinzhener (Flight Engineer)- Aleksandr Kaleri, RKA cosmonaut
   (flew on Soyuz TM-14 in 1992).
 Kosmonavt-issledovatel' (Researcher Cosmonaut) - Claudie Andre-Deshays,
   CNES (French Space Agency, first flight).
Currently aboard the station are the EO-21 crew of Yuriy Onufrienko,
Yuriy Usachyov and NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid. 

Note: A reader asked about the use of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
It's the precisely defined equivalent of the colloquial GMT (Greenwich
Mean Time), and is distinguished from other GMT type timescales
like TAI (atomic time), TT (Terrestrial dynamical time), etc. which
are different by under a minute. Since I don't often give times to
the closest second, you can just read `GMT' if you like.

The new external tank for STS-79, ET-81, has been connected to the solid
boosters; Atlantis was towed back from the Orbiter Processing Facility
to the Vehicle Assembly Building today (Aug 13) and will be added to the
new stack later today. The old stack will eventually be disassembled
for refurbishment.

Recent Launches
---------------

Another successful Ariane launch - Arianespace flight V90  placed two
European domestic comsats in orbit on Aug 8. Italsat F2 is a domestic
Ka-band comsat built by Alenia Spazio for the Italian Space Agency, and
is operated (and owned?) by Telecom Italia. The second satellite,
Telecom 2D, is a Matra Marconi Space Eurostar 2000 satellite, owned
jointly by France Telecom and the French Defense Ministry. V90 used an
Ariane 44L rocket, with 4 PAL strapon rockets, an L220 first stage, an
L33 second stage, and an H-10-3 third stage. The H-10-3 entered
geostationary transfer orbit, and then released Italsat F2 which was
mounted on a compartment called SMS (a nested bilingual acronym! SMS =
Stretched Mini SPELDA, SPELDA = Structure Portuese Enceinte de Lancement
Double Ariane, if I remember correctly. Way to go, ESA!). The SMS cover
was ejected followed by release of the Telecom 2D which was stored
underneath it. The two satellites entered a 260 x 36877 km x 5.3 deg
transfer orbit. Both have US-built R-4D liquid apogee engines to raise their
orbits to geostationary. Italsat F2 made its first burn on Aug 10,
raising perigee to 9200 km and lowering inclination to 2.4 deg.
Telecom 2D was still in its original orbit on Aug 11.

Note that Ariane flight V88 never happened; the press kit for the June launch
was V87, and for the July launch was V89. I assume that
the Ariane V501 flight has been retrospectively designated V88 (or V87)
- can anyone confirm?

The Atlas AC-125 launch was from pad 36A. The Progress M-23
launch was probably from pad 1.

NASA's DC-XA reusable suborbital rocket was destroyed  after a test
flight on Jul 31 when it toppled over after touchdown.

The Martians
------------

The McKay et al paper on alleged possible Martian fossil biota in
meteorite ALH84001 is available on the Web at

<URL:http://www.eurekalert.org/E-lert/current/public_releases/mars/Prerelease.ht
m>.
I am intruiged but skeptical.

Historical Note
---------------

Inspection of launch photographs indicates that the launch of 1963 Jan 16
from Vandenberg was a Thor Agena B and not a Thor Agena D as most
records indicate. Can anyone confirm?

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          
DES.


Jul  2 0748   TOMS             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125          Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat      40B
Jul 16 0050   Navstar SVN 40   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Navsat      41A
Jul 25 1242   UHF F7           Atlas 2        Canaveral LC36A Comsat      42A
Jul 31 2006   Progress M-23    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       43A
Aug  8 2249   Italsat F2  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      44A
              Telecom 2D  )                                   Comsat      44B



Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  Nov 11
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-79  Sep 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-56/ET-81          VAB Bay 3      STS-79 (new)
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80          VAB Bay 1      STS-79 (old)
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             |
|      ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*                |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


</PRE>
</BODY>

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: No Subject
Date: Monday, 19 August, 1996 12:51

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 296                       1996 Aug 19               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Soyuz TM-24 was launched at 1318:03 UTC on Aug 17 from Kosmodrom
Baykonur in Kazakstan.  It carries the EO-24 crew of Valeriy Korzun and
Aleksandr Kaleri of the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and Claudie
Andre-Deshays of the French space agency CNES. The crew callsign is
`Fregat'. They are scheduled to dock with the Mir station on Aug 19.
Aboard Mir are Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachyov and Shannon Lucid. 
This launch was the first Soyuz-U with a crew aboard since the recent
launch failures.

Onufrienko, Usachyov and Andre-Deshays will return to Earth in Soyuz
TM-23 on Sep 2, leaving Korzun, Kaleri and Lucid on the station. The
Progress M-32 cargo craft undocked from Mir on Aug 18 at 0934 UTC in
order to free up a docking port. It will remain in orbit and will redock
with Mir on Sep 3.

Atlantis is due to be rolled out to the pad on Aug 20. Meanwhile,
they have probably destacked the old external tank and SRBs,
but I haven't seen any report on this yet. Launch remains scheduled
for Sep 12.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Russian Military Space Forces (VKS) launched a Molniya-1T comsat
from 1-y GIK at Plesetsk on Aug 14 into an elliptical 12 hour orbit. The
spacecraft first entered a low parking orbit of 207 x 438 km x 62.8
degrees. The Blok-ML upper stage ignited over South America to raise the
orbit to 450 x 40800 km. The sun angle made the rocket plume widely
visible, causing a flurry of UFO reports in Chile where the
alien-invasion movie Independence Day has just opened.

There are two classes of Molniya satellite, the Molniya-1T used mainly
for Russian government communications and the Molniya-3 used for TV
signal relay across Russia. The last Molniya-1T was launched in Dec 1994
and the last Molniya-3 in Aug 1995. Since 1993 Molniya-3 satellites have
been launched once each year in August, so it's a little suprising that
this August's launch is a Molniya-1T. The Molniya satellites are
built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Krasnoyarsk. The first Molniya
satellite (built by the old OKB-1 Korolev bureau) was launched in 1964.

Japan's NASDA space agency launched the ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing
Satellite on Aug 17 using a large H-II launch vehicle. The third
Japanese amateur satellite, JAS-2, was also orbited. ADEOS will probably
be given a new name now it is on orbit. ADEOS has a set of instruments
including the Advanced Visible/Near IR Radiometer and the Ocean Color
and Temperature Scanner, the NASA TOMS ozone monitor and NSCAT wind
speed scatterometer, and an experiment to study greenhouse effect gases.
This was the fourth H-II launch.

   H-II launches from Tanegashima Space Center, Yoshinobu Launch Complex:
   Flight    Date      Payload           Upper Stage   Fairing Type
   H-II-1F  1994 Feb 3  VEP   Myojo      Dummy LAPS    4S
                        OREX  Ryusei
   H-II-2F  1994 Aug 28 ETS-6 Kiku-6     LAPS          4S
   H-II-3F  1995 Mar 17 SFU              None          4/5D
                        GMS-5 Himawari-5
   H-II-4F  1995 Aug 17 ADEOS            None          5S
                        JAS-2 

China launched a Chang Zheng 3 vehicle on Aug 18 from Xichang. The CZ-3
third stage entered parking orbit and coasted, and then reignited for a
second burn to geostationary transfer orbit. However, the engine shut
down prematurely during this second burn, leaving the payload in a low
orbit. The payload is Zhongxing 7, a Hughes HS-376 class comsat for the 
China Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Corporation. Launch
was at 1827 Beijing time which I believe to be 1027 UTC.

The Aug 18 planned launch of NASA's FAST satellite aboard a Pegasus was
postponed ten minutes before the expected drop time, and the L-1011
carrier plane returned to Vandenberg with the rocket still aboard.

Plesetsk History
----------------

There are officially two separate spaceports at Plesetsk in northern
Russia. Thanks to recent conversations with Igor Lissov and Maxim Tarasenko,
I've
understood the history of this a little better and though I would share
it with you all.

Orbital launches from Plesetsk began in 1966. Until 1993 the spaceport's
true name was NIIP-53 (53-y Nauchno-Issledovatelskiy Ispytatelnyy
Poligon, 53rd Scientific Research Test Range). Sometime in 1993 the name
was changed to GNIIP (Gosudarstvennyy Nauchno-Issledovatelskiy
Ispytatelnyy Poligon, State Scientific Research Test Range).

The NIIP-53/GNIIP base is run by the RVSN (Strategic Rocket Forces), but
 in 1982 operation of the orbital pads was transferred to the UNKS space
troops, and in 1989 the UNKS units at Plesetsk were designated the
1278-y GTsIPKS (1278-y Glavnyy Tsentr Ispytaniy i Primeneniya
Kosmicheskikh Sredtsv). In Aug 1992 the UNKS became the VKS (Military
Space Forces of the Russian Federation). 

Then, on 1994 Nov 11 the part of GNIIP operated by the VKS, including
the GTsIPKS headquarters and the orbital launch pads, was split off
into a separate spaceport, the 1-y GIK (1-y Gosudarstvennyy Ispytatelnyy
Kosmodrom, First State Test Spaceport). GNIIP remains in existence
alongside 1-y GIK, but is used by the RVSN for ballistic missile tests.
All space launches since Nov 1994 have been from 1-y GIK by the VKS,
with the exception of the 1995 Start launch which was from GNIIP and
was carried out by the RVSN. 

This situation (two spaceports right next to each other) is not
unprecedented. From 1959 to 1964 space launches were made from a Navy
base, NMFPA (Naval Missile Facility, Point Arguello) right next to the
USAF base VAFB (Vandenberg Air Force Base). In 1965 NMFPA became part of
Vandenberg AFB. Many histories list the earlier launches as being from
`Vandenberg', but this is technically not correct. (And while I'm on a
nitpick binge, PLEASE don't spell it Vandenburg with a U!). Similarly,
the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center (with pads 39A and 39B) is next
door to the USAF Cape Canaveral Air Station (with pads 17, 36, 40/41,
etc.). In the launch tables in this newsletter, I will continue to use
`Plesetsk' to refer to 1-y GIK, while future launches of the Start will
be labelled as being from `GNIIP'.

The Kazak spaceport Baykonur was designated NIIP-5 until 1989; since
then it has had another designation, possibly 5-y GIK but I'm not sure -
anyone who knows, please tell me. The Volgograd station at Kapustin
Yar was designated GTsP4.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  2 0748   TOMS-EP          Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125          Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat      40B
Jul 16 0050   Navstar SVN 40   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Navsat      41A
Jul 25 1242   UHF F7           Atlas 2        Canaveral LC36A Comsat      42A
Jul 31 2006   Progress M-23    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       43A
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 0129   ADEOS       )    H-II           Tanegashima Y   Rem.sens.   
              JAS-2       )                                   Comsat
Aug 17 1318   Soyuz TM-24      Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Spaceship
Aug 18 1027   Zhongxing 7      Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         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        VAB Bay 3     STS-79  Sep 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-56/ET-81/OV-104   VAB Bay 3      STS-79 (new)
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-80          VAB Bay 1      STS-79 (old)
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 297
Date: Thursday, 29 August, 1996 14:43

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 297 DRAFT                    1996 Aug 29               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Soyuz TM-24 docked with Mir's front port at 1450:21 UTC on Aug 19. Soyuz
TM-23 is docked at the rear. Aboard Mir are EO-22 commander Valeriy
Korzun, EO-22 flight engineer Aleksandr Kaleri, EO-21 commander Yuriy
Onufrienko, EO-21 flight engineer Yuriy Usachyov, EO-21
cosmonaut-researcher Shannon Lucid, and EO-22 cosmonaut-researcher
Claudie Andre-Deshays.  Mir is in a 375 x 390 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the
Progress M-32 cargo ship, flying separately, is in a 375 x 392 km x 51.6
deg orbit.

OV-104 Atlantis and the STS-79 stack were rolled out to  pad 39A on Aug
20 in preparation for launch no earlier than Sep 12, with Sep 14 the
current plan. Atlantis will dock with the Mir station.  Meanwhile, the
old STS-79 stack is disassembled; stacking for STS-80 is due to begin
soon but according to the latest Shuttle status report, managers are
still discussing which booster set to use.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST), a NASA-GSFC Small Explorer
(SMEX) mission, was launched on Aug 21 into an elliptical polar orbit by
an Orbital Sciences Corp.  Pegasus XL rocket. The L-1011 carrier plane
took off from Vandeberg at 0850 UTC and dropped the Pegasus at 0947 UTC.
The satellite was acquired in orbit by the Madrid ground station at 1118
UTC. FAST carries antennae to measure the electric field, magnetometers
to study the magnetic field, and electrostatic analysers and the TEAMS
time-of-flight/energy/angle mass spectrograph to study electrons and
ions. FAST will study particle acceleration processes with much higher
time resolution than previously attempted.
Orbit of FAST is 351 x 4165 km x 83.0 deg.

Errata: ADEOS launch time is 1996 Aug 17 at 0153 UTC; I mistyped
the name of Progress M-32 in the launch table.
I referred to the Korzun crew as EO-24 last week - oops! It is EO-22,
launched aboard Soyuz TM-24.

Zhongxing 7 was left in a 200 x 17227 km orbit at 27.2 deg inclination
when the CZ-3 third stage shut down 48 seconds too early.  The
HS-376 payload has a Star 30 solid apogee motor which could be fired
to raise the orbit, but it probably doesn't have enough fuel to make
it to geostationary.

ADEOS 1 has a problem with one of its 20N orbit adjust thrusters,
and the initial orbital adjustment is being made with the help
of smaller thrusters over the period Aug 24 to Sep 8.
Initial orbit was 799 x 820 km x 98.6 deg; on Aug 29 the
orbit was 800 x 810 km x 98.6 deg.

The Interbol-2 satellite was launched on Aug 29 from Plesetsk.
It is a Prognoz-M2 class satellite also known as Interbol Auroral
Probe. The Molniya-M rocket took off at 0522:00 UTC on Aug 29.
The four strapons that make up the first stage separated
at 0524, the second stage (Blok-A core) separated at 0526:52,
and the third stage shut down at approximately 0530:55 UTC.
At 0531:00 UTC the Blok-I third stage separated from the Blok-2BL fourth
stage carrying Interbol, leaving it in a 244 x 1192 km x 62.8 deg orbit.
One second later, the MU-SAT (MICROSATELITE) payload was  ejected.
MU-SAT is a small experimental payload from the Instituto Universitario
Aeronautico de Cordoba, Argentina. This is the second Argentine
satellite, following the amateur radio LUSAT.

At 0628 UTC (scheduled), the Blok-2BL stage began its burn and at 0631
UTC it separated, leaving the Interbol-2 (Prognoz-M2 article SO-M2 No.
513, built by NPO Lavochkin) in an elliptical orbit of 775 x 19210 km x
62.6 deg. Prognoz (SO-M) satellites are normally placed in much more
elliptical orbits with apogees around 200000 km, but this mission is
intended to study the aurora rather than the magnetosphere and solar
wind.

The S2-A Magion-5 subsatellite, built in the Czech Republic, was due to
separate from Interbol-2 to provide spatially resolved auroral
measurements. Confirmation of Magion-5 separation is still awaited.



Kosmodrom Baykonur
------------------

Sergey Voevodin reports that the designation of Baykonur is 
5-y Gosudarstvennyy Ispytatelnyy Kompleks
Ministerstva Oborony, 5th State Test Complex of the Ministry of Defence.
Its acronym is 5-y GIK or GIK-5, but note that here GIK stands for
Kompleks, not Kosmodrom as in the case of 1-y GIK at Plesetsk.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  2 0748   TOMS-EP          Pegasus XL     Vandenberg      Rem.sens.   37A
Jul  3 0031   USA 125          Titan 404      Canaveral LC40  Comsat?     38A
Jul  3 1047   Apstar 1A        Chang Zheng 3  Xichang         Comsat      39A
Jul  9 2224   Arabsat 2A  )    Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      40A
              Turksat 1C  )                                   Comsat      40B
Jul 16 0050   Navstar SVN 40   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Navsat      41A
Jul 25 1242   UHF F7           Atlas 2        Canaveral LC36A Comsat      42A
Jul 31 2006   Progress M-32    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       43A
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        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   
              Magion 5    )
              Microsat    ) 

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 14
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 298
Date: Wednesday, 11 September, 1996 14:48

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 298 (Corrected)               1996 Sep 11               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Erratum
-------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 299                     1996 Sep 11               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid is preparing to come home after the longest
space flight by a US citizen. Atlantis was launched on mission STS-79 at
0854:49 UTC on Sep 16. The replaced RSRM-56 solid rocket boosters
operated just fine and separated at 0857 UTC, although we'll have to
wait till they get towed home to know if there was any gas blowby. MECO
(Main Engine Cutoff) came at 0903 UTC, followed by external tank ET-81
separation with Atlantis in a 82 x 296 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The OMS 2
burn to raise orbit to 157 x 293 km was carried out at 0937 UTC, and the
payload bay doors were opened at 1015 UTC.

On Sep 19 Atlantis docked with the Mir complex. The crew reported 'tally
ho' (visual contact) at 0107 UTC, after the terminal burn at 0033 UTC.
By 0139 they were 3 km apart; twenty minutes later that distance had
dropped by a factor of ten. The crew closed in to 10 meters at 0303 UTC,
and carried out stationkeeping at that distance for a few minutes,
before closing in again for docking at 0313 UTC. The docking rings
retracted and brought the two vehicles together for `hard dock' at 0320
UTC. At 0540 the hatch was opened and Lucid, Korzun and Kaleri
were able to greet Blaha, Readdy, Wilcutt, Akers, Apt and Walz.

Aboard Atlantis in the payload bay are the Orbiter Docking System, the
modified Long Tunnel, and the Spacehab Double Module. The Spacehab has
supplies for the Mir station. Astronaut John Blaha will relieve Shannon
Lucid as NASA resident on the complex.

Recent Launches
---------------


The launch profile of  Inmarsat III F-2 satellite is still unclear.
Apparently it did not carry an apogee motor, and was placed directly in
geostationary orbit by the Blok-DM-1 upper stage. However, Space Command
have not yet tracked the stage. Inmarsat III F-2 is a Series 4000
satellite built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications (formerly Astro
Space). It will serve the Atlantic Ocean region; Inmarsat III F-1 is
operating over the Indian Ocean. The Inmarsat satellites  provide mobile
communications services at L-band, primarily for ships and aircraft.

A Navstar Block IIA GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation
satellite, SVN 30, was launched on Sep 12. The McDonnell Douglas Delta
7925 placed it in an elliptical transfer orbit, and the Star 37 apogee
motor fired to place it in a 12 hour orbit at 55 deg inclination. One
more GPS Block IIA satellite, SVN 38, remains to be launched. The Block
IIA satellites are built by Rockwell.

The first calibration reference sphere was ejected from the MSX
ballistic missile defence research satellite on Aug 24. Its
SPIRIT III solid-hydrogen cooled infrared telescope is operating
well.

Erratum: Kosmos-2333 was launched from GIK-5 Baykonur,
not GIK-1 Plesetsk. Sorry!

Erratum:
The Inmarsat III F-2 launch contract was directly with Krunichev and did not
involve International Launch Services. My apologies for the error.

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      55A
Sep 12 0849   Navstar 30       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      56A
Sep 16 0855   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   57A

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        Mir           STS-79  
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-79 (old)
ML3/RSRM-49                VAB Bay 3      STS-80

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 300
Date: Tuesday, 01 October, 1996 14:38

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 300                        1996 Oct 1               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Note: I have (finally!) updated the geostationary satellite list at 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/geo.log.
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis undocked from the Mir complex on Sep 23 at 2333 UTC. Valeriy
Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri and John Blaha remain on Mir. On Sep 26
Atlantis closed its payload bay doors, and at 1106 UTC fired its OMS
engines for a three minute long deorbit burn. After entry interface at
1142 UTC the spaceship flew across  Canada and the US for a landing at
the Kennedy Space Center's Runway 15 at 1213 UTC, completing Shannon
Lucid's record breaking 188 day 4 hr 0 min flight. Atlantis is now being
prepared for its next mission, STS-81.

Unexpected erosion was found in the nozzle of 360T056B, STS-79's right
hand SRB, but it is not clear what effect this will have on  the next
launch scheduled for Nov 8. Mission STS-80 will deploy and retrieve the
Orfeus astronomy satellite and the Wake Shield Facility materials
processing satellite. Mission specialists Tammy Jernigan and Thomas
Jones will carry out another EDFT spacewalk to test equipment for Space
Station. As well as commander Kenneth Cockrell and pilot Kent Rominger,
the mission will carry veteran Story Musgrave who will become the second
person after John Young to make six space flights. On STS-6, Musgrave
carried out the first Shuttle spacewalk. On Mission 51-F, he carried out
experiments on the Spacelab 2 mission, which included an `abort to
orbit' during launch when an engine shut down. On Missions STS-33 and
STS-44 Musgrave helped deploy military satellites, and on Mission STS-61
he made more spacewalks to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Musgrave
is 61 years old and will become the oldest space traveller ever, beating
the record set by 59-year-old Vance Brand in 1990. Dr. Musgrave has been a
NASA astronaut since 1967. He has a B.S. in mathematics, a B.A. in
chemistry, an MBA in operations analysis and computer programming, an
M.Sc. in  physiology, an M.A. in literature, and an M.D.. He is also a
private pilot with 17000 hours of flight time, and until 1989 combined
his job as a NASA astronaut in Houston with moonlighting as a surgeon at
Denver General Hospital and a professor of  physiology at the University
of Kentucky. Can you spell `overachiever', kids?

Recent Launches
---------------

Another successful Proton launch placed the second Ekspress comsat
in geosynchronous orbit. Ekspress replaces Gorizont as the Russian domestic
television satellite system. This satellite is probably designated
Ekspress No. 12 (Russian comsat builder Prikladnoi Mekhaniki usually starts
numbering its satellite series at 11 for reasons which escape me).
The Proton rocket is built by Krunichev, with a Blok-DM2 upper stage
designed by RKK Energiya.

Other Proton launches so far this year include two Gorizont
communications satellites, a Raduga comsat for the Russian government,
the Spektr space station module, and the commercial launches of Astra 1F
and Inmarsat III F2. Inmarsat has confirmed that the Inmarsat III F2
satellite did not carry an apogee motor. The Blok-DM upper stage
delivered F2 to geosynchronous orbit and separated 7 hours after launch.

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's MSX satellite
released an emissive reference sphere on Sep 12, its second subsatellite
release. The small spheres have not been cataloged by Space Command.

Obituary - IUE
--------------

The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) was shut down  at 1842 UT
on 1996 Sep 30.  Prior to the final orbit raising burn, IUE was in a
1437 min, 29992 x 41616 km orbit inclined 35.9 deg. (GSFC has not yet
released post-shutdown elements). IUE was probably the most successful
scientific satellite ever.

IUE was launched in January 1978 by Delta from Cape Canaveral. The
spacecraft was a joint project between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
the European Space Agency, and the UK Science Research Council. It was
controlled from both Goddard and Villafranca near Madrid. The satellite
carried a small telescope and four spectrographs (two prime and two
backup) which obtained ultraviolet spectra of astronomical objects.
Exceeding its nominal six month mission duration by almost a factor of
40, IUE remained an essential scientific tool right into the 1990s. Even
the success of the HST repair mission did not remove the need for IUE,
because there are many projects, such as monitoring time variability of
bright sources, for which you need a small telescope for a long time
instead of a large telescope for a short time (and you can't get HST for
a long time!). IUE results have affected every field of astronomy, and
in particular much of our current understanding of hot stars in this
galaxy and of the inner regions of quasars is due to work with IUE. 

IUE was the first common user astronomy satellite, where any astronomer
with a good idea could apply for observing time. Because its synchronous
orbit allowed real time commanding, it remains the only satellite which
astronomers were able to use like a ground based telescope, going to the
control center and making decisions on the fly - for instance, whether
to change the length of the next exposure if the previous one was over
or under exposed. Since many ultraviolet stars and quasars vary in
brightness, so you don't know how bright they will be on the day you
observe, this is really useful - as I can testify from personal
experience as an IUE observer. You can't do that with a low orbit
satellite like HST where observations must be scheduled weeks in
advance. (Besides, having real time authority over a geosynchronous
orbit spacecraft is probably the closest I'll ever get to sitting in
Captain Picard's chair :-)). IUE was a pleasure to use, and during the
1980s was crucial to the research of many astronomers including myself.
IUE will be missed.


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      55A
Sep 12 0849   Navstar 30       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      56A
Sep 16 0855   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   57A
Sep 26 1751   Ekspress         Proton-K       Baykonur        Comsat      58A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  Nov 8
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-81
ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80          VAB Bay 3      STS-80

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 301
Date: Tuesday, 15 October, 1996 16:31

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 301                    1996 Oct 15               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------


The next Shuttle launch is STS-80. The payload bay will include the
ORFEUS ultraviolet telescope on the ASTRO-SPAS free flying
satellite and the Wake Shield Facility, another free-flying satellite
which will grow crystals in vacuum and microgravity. Another
Space Station development spacewalk is planned.

Launch of the Progress M-33 cargo ship to Mir has been delayed
to early November. It will resupply Mir crewmembers Korzun, Kaleri
and Blaha.

Joel Powell points out that mission STS-79 used external tank ET-82,
not ET-81 as I said. Geoff Perry spotted my error on the undocking
time: Atlantis undocked from Mir at 0133 UTC on Sep 24.

Recent Launches
---------------

The world's launch pads have been quiet recently, so I'll take
the opportunity to talk about space history instead.

40 Years Ago: The Jupiter C and JPL Cluster Program
---------------------------------------------------

In 1953 the Redstone missile, developed by Werner Von Braun's Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) in Huntsville, Alabama, made its first
flight. Launches after Sep 1955 were designated Jupiter A, as they were
nominally in support of ABMA's Jupiter IRBM program. (Jupiter itself is
a significantly different rocket). Meanwhile, the Jet Propulsion Lab  in
Pasadena, California developed the JPL Cluster, a multi-stage clustered
rocket to be used as an upper stage velocity package. The Cluster
consisted of a Stage 2 Assembly with 11 small rocket motors known as
Scaled Sergeants or Baby Sergeants (they were  scaled down from the
design of JPL's Sergeant missile), a Stage 3 Assembly with three Scaled
Sergeants, and a Stage 4 assembly with a single Scaled Sergeant. The
Cluster was spin-stabilized and mounted on the Redstone's nose. The
initial tests of the Cluster had no Stage 4 and were known as Jupiter C,
with the first launch 40 years ago on 1956 Sep 20 achieving a world
altitude record of 1097 km.

The fourth Cluster launch on 1958 Feb 1 (UTC) placed the first US
satellite in orbit, Explorer 1. The orbital Jupiter C's were designated
Juno I. Unfortunately the available records at JPL for these launches
are patchy and I'm not certain of the Cluster unit serial number for the
historic Explorer I launch, but one diagram gives the designation
'RTV-7'. If anyone can fill in the missing Cluster designations, I'd
love to get them. The final Redstone/Cluster launch carried the Army's
Beacon balloon satellite, together with the first ever apogee motor, a
small 2 lb solid rocket. Unfortunately the Stage 2 Assembly failed and
Beacon did not reach orbit. Explorer II and V were also failures.

Following the final Juno I launch, the JPL Cluster was used as
an upper stage to the Jupiter rocket, the combination being
known as Juno II. Meanwhile, the Explorer name was used for
scientific satellites developed at NASA-Goddard and NASA-Langley.

Launch Date   Redstone No.   JPL Cluster No.    Payload
--------------------------------------------------------
1956 Sep 20   RS-27          Cluster 1    Dummy stage 4, Microlock beacon
1957 May 15   RS-34          Cluster 2    Scaled Jupiter nosecone
1957 Aug  8   RS-40          Cluster 5?   Scaled Jupiter nosecone
1958 Feb  1   RS-29          Cluster 7?   Explorer I
1958 Mar  5   RS-26          Cluster 6?   Explorer II
1958 Mar 26   RS-24          Cluster 4?   Explorer III
1958 Jul 26   RS-44          Cluster 8    Explorer IV
1958 Aug 24   RS-47          Cluster 9    Explorer V
1958 Oct 23   RS-49          Cluster 10?  Apogee motor/Beacon

The Juno II launches, carried out by ABMA under NASA auspices, were:

Launch Date   Jupiter No.    JPL Cluster No.    Payload
---------------------------------------------------------
1958 Dec  6   AM-11          Cluster 11   Pioneer III
1959 Mar  3   AM-14          Cluster 12   Pioneer IV
1959 Jul 16   AM-16          Cluster 14   NASA S-1
1959 Aug 15   AM-19B         Cluster 15   Beacon 2
1959 Oct 13   AM-19A         Cluster 13   NASA S-1A
1960 Mar 23   AM-19C         Cluster 16   NASA S-46
1960 Nov  3   AM-19D         Cluster 17   NASA S-30
1961 Feb 24   AM-19F         Cluster 19   NASA S-45
1961 Apr 27   AM-19E         Cluster 18   NASA S-15
1961 May 24   AM-19G         Cluster 20?  NASA S-45A

Cluster 14 and Cluster 15, used in the unsuccessful S-1 and Beacon 2
launch attempts, did not have an Assembly 4 stage.  S-1A was named
Explorer VII after the successful launch; S-30 became Explorer VIII, and
S-15 became Explorer XI. Pioneer IV entered solar orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

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      55A
Sep 12 0849   Navstar 30       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      56A
Sep 16 0855   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   57A
Sep 26 1751   Ekspress         Proton-K       Baykonur        Comsat      58A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-80  Nov 8
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-81
ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80/OV-102   VAB Bay 3      STS-80

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


</PRE>
</BODY>


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 302
Date: Tuesday, 29 October, 1996 14:19

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 302                          1996 Oct 29               Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia is now on pad 39B awaiting the STS-80 launch, still scheduled
for Nov 8 pending resolution of worries about the SRBs. Korzun, Kaleri
and Blaha remain on Mir awaiting the Progress M cargo launch which has
been delayed.

Recent Launches
---------------

A meteoroid travelling in solar orbit bounced off the Earth's atmosphere
above New Mexico at 0200 UTC on Oct 4. It apparently entered a marginal
Earth orbit and reentered over the Pacific and impacted in California
almost one orbit later. NORAD numbers and international designations
only get given to *artificial* satellites, and even then usually only
to ones which make a complete orbit, so this natural object won't
get in the satellite catalogs.

China has launched an FSW-2 class recoverable satellite using a Chang
Zheng 2D rocket from the Jiuquan space center. The satellite is in a 170
x 323 km orbit at 63.0 deg inclination with an orbital period of 89.45
minutes.  The CZ-2D second stage is in a similar orbit. The FSW carries
cameras for Earth photography, and will return a capsule to Earth.

A Molniya-3 comsat, built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki for the Russian
government, was launched into elliptical orbit on Oct 24 from Plesetsk.

Launch time of Kosmos-2334 was 1247 UTC not 1347 UTC as I said earlier;
there was a confusion about summer time.

Launch of a Pegasus XL with the Argentine satellite SAC-B and the US
HETE satellite is currently scheduled for Oct 30.

Transit Symposium
-----------------

On Oct 18, the Applied Physics Lab (APL) hosted a symposium on the
Transit or Navy Navigation Satellite (NNS) system. Transit was one of
the first operational satellite systems, and has provided 24-hour
service since 1964, initially for Polaris submarines and more recently
for civilian users. It is being superseded by the Navstar global
positioning system. Individual satellites were remarkable for their 
longevity, many operating for over 10 years. Users measure the changing
Doppler shift of the satellite's radio signal as it rises and sets,
combined with knowledge of its orbit, to derive their position.

The symposium participants recalled Transit's technical achievements
including early work on orbiting frequency standards, gravity gradient
stabilization, the use of radio-isotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), and
on-board electronics to store the orbital ephemeris. The TRIAD satellite
launched in 1972 to test improvements, used a remarkable device with a
proof mass  floating inside a cavity in the spacecraft to enable
automatic correction for atmospheric drag. Small rocket motors fired to
adjust the satellite's orbit to keep the floating mass in the middle of
the cavity. Designers had to take into account the self-gravity of the
TRIAD satellite itself!

Although the navigation data stops being updated at the end of this
year,  the satellites will continue transmitting with NNS becoming NIMS,
the Navy Ionospheric Monitoring System. Researchers monitor the
distortion of the Transit  radio signals by the ionosphere to derive
maps of electron density versus height and position. The O-16 and O-17
satellites were modified for auroral and ionospheric research and were
not part of the navigation system.

Here is a summary of the Transit launches:

Early Transit R&D sats:

 I-A   1959 Sep 17   Launch failure
 I-B   1960 Apr 13   
 II-A  1960 Jun 22
 III-A 1960 Nov 30   Launch failure
 III-B 1961 Feb 22   Launch failure
 IV-A  1961 Jun 29
 IV-B  1961 Nov 15   RTG power supply
TRAAC  1961 Nov 15   Gravity gradient test

Prototype Transit satellites:                Transit-based research sats:

 VA-1  1962 Dec 19 
 VA-2  1963 Apr  6   Launch failure
 VA-3  1963 Jun 16
 VBN-1 1963 Sep 28   RTG                     VE-1  1963 Sep 28
 VBN-2 1963 Dec  5   RTG                     VE-3  1963 Dec  5 
 VBN-3 1964 Apr 21   RTG; Launch failure     VE-2  1964 Apr 21
 VC    1964 Jun  4                           VE-4  1964 Oct  6

Operational Transits (`Oscars')

 O-1   1964 Oct  6      O-11 1977 Oct 28  
 O-2   1964 Dec 13      O-16 1983 Jun 27 Hilat experiment
 O-3   1965 Mar 11      O-24 1985 Aug  3
 O-4   1965 Jun 24      O-30 1985 Aug  3 
 O-5   1965 Aug 13      O-17 1986 Nov 14 Polar Bear expt.
 O-6   1965 Dec 22      O-27 1987 Sep 16
 O-7   1966 Jan 28      O-29 1987 Sep 16
 O-8   1966 Mar 26      O-23 1988 Apr 26
 O-9   1966 May 19      O-32 1988 Apr 26 
 O-10  1966 Aug 18      O-25 1988 Aug 25 
 O-12  1967 Apr 14      O-31 1988 Aug 25
 O-13  1967 May 18
 O-14  1967 Sep 25      Improved Transits and Nova
 O-18  1968 Mar  2    
 O-19  1970 Aug 27      TRIAD  1972 Sep  2  Nova 1  1981 May 15
 O-20  1973 Oct 30      TIP 2  1975 Oct 12  Nova 3  1984 Oct 12
                        TIP 3  1976 Sep  1  Nova 2  1988 Jun 16

 
Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  4 0901   Kosmos-2333      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      51A
Sep  5 1247   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      55A
Sep 12 0849   Navstar 30       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      56A
Sep 16 0855   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   57A
Sep 26 1751   Ekspress         Proton-K       Baykonur        Comsat      58A
Oct 20 0730?  FSW-2            Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan         Remote sen. 59A
Oct 24 1137   Molniya-3        Molniya-M      Plesetsk        Comsat      60A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-80  Nov 8
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-81
ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80/OV-102   LC39B          STS-80

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 303
Date: Thursday, 07 November, 1996 17:01

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 303                           1996 Nov 7              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of STS-80 has been delayed while NASA figures out how the
solid motor nozzle insulation got eroded on the last flight.

Recent Launches
---------------

The SAC-B and HETE satellites were launched on Nov 4, but failed to
separate from the launch vehicle final stage because the third stage
battery failed.  The satellites were launched by an Orbital Sciences
Corp. Pegasus XL rocket. The L-1011 carrier plane took off from Wallops
Island, Virginia and dropped the Pegasus about 160 km out over the
Atlantic Ocean. All three stages fired successfully and delivered the
vehicle to the correct 95.07 min, 487 x 555 km x 38.0 deg orbit.  SAC-B
is an experimental satellite for the Argentine space agency CONAE with
solar flare and gamma ray burst instruments. It also carries CUBIC, a
Penn State experiment to survey the X-ray sky. HETE is an MIT-led NASA
satellite to localize gamma ray bursts. HETE is carried inside the Dual
Payload Attach Fixture on which SAC-B is mounted, so it's trapped and
was unable to deploy its solar panels. The satellite is now defunct.
SAC-B was able to deploy its solar panels, but the tumbling spacecraft
was unable to remain in sunlight enough to recharge the batteries and it
appears that SAC-B too is now lost, having operated for about 10 hours.

Mars Global Surveyor, NASA's probe to map the Martian surface and the
first of three Mars probes due for launch this window, was launched at
1700 UTC on Nov 7. The McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 launch vehicle took
off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 17, with nine GEM solid motors
attached to the Thor-derived first stage. First stage separation was
four minutes into the flight, and the Delta second stage then ignited.
The second stage uses an AJ-10-118 engine and a structure derived from
the old Ablestar rockets used to launch the early Transits (see last
issue). The second stage cut off at 9 minutes into the flight, placing
MGS into a 185 x 185 km x 28.5 deg orbit. At 1741 UTC the second stage
ignited again for two minutes, and the vehicle entered a 173 x 4720 km x
28.5 deg orbit. The spin table on the second stage then began to rotate
at 60 rpm, spinning up the third stage and payload to stabilized them.
At 1744 the second stage separated and half a minute later the Thiokol
Star 48 solid motor on the PAM-D third stage ignited to enter an escape
trajectory. At 1752 the third stage deployed `yo-yo' masses on  long
wires to carry away the angular momentum and spin down the vehicle, and
then separated from the MGS probe which is now en route to Mars.
Meanwhile, the second stage was due to fire again to get rid of all
extra fuel and prevent it exploding later (this was a problem with
Delta stages in the 1970s).

MGS was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics/Denver and is operated by
the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena.  The MGS instruments are the Mars
Orbiter Camera, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, the Electron
Reflectometer, the Thermal Emission Spectrometer, the Mars Relay radio
system, and a magnetometer system. The Mars Relay system will be used to
relay data from future Mars landers to Earth. MGS also carries a
bipropellant liquid propulsion system, I believe related to the Cassini
design but using a British Leros 1b engine. MGS will reach Mars orbit in
Sep 1997 and use aerobraking to lower its initial elliptical orbit to a
450 km polar mapping orbit by Jan 1998.


Galileo made a close flyby of Callisto on Nov 4 at 1334 UTC at a distance
of 1118 km, and reached perijove on orbit 3 two days later. Next 
orbit it will fly by Europa, on Dec 19.

The FSW-2 Chinese recon satellite returned its recovery vehicle
safely to China on Nov 4.

Erratum: Delete the reference to APL satellite VE-4 in last issue's
table. Replace it with 5E-5, launched 1964 Dec 13.


 
Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  4 0901   Kosmos-2333      Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45L  Sigint      51A
Sep  5 1247   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      55A
Sep 12 0849   Navstar 30       Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      56A
Sep 16 0855   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   57A
Sep 26 1751   Ekspress         Proton-K       Baykonur        Comsat      58A
Oct 20 0730?  FSW-2            Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan         Remote sen. 59A
Oct 24 1137   Molniya-3        Molniya-M      Plesetsk        Comsat      60A
Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-80  Nov 
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-81
ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80/OV-102   LC39B          STS-80

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 304
Date: Saturday, 16 November, 1996 19:06

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 304                        1996 Nov 16              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of Shuttle mission STS-80 is now scheduled for Nov 19. The
orbiter Columbia carries the ORFEUS 2 ultraviolet spectrometer telescope
and the Wake Shield Facility subsatellite for making  crystals in
microgravity and high vacuum conditions. Also in the payload bay are a
series of experiments to test equipment needed for Space Station
construction, which will be used in two spacewalks during the mission.


Recent Launches
---------------

The Mars-96 spacecraft was launched on Nov 16 and is now on its way to
Mars. The last successful Mars mission was  Viking 2, which arrived at
the planet in August 1976. The NASA Mars Observer mission and the two
Soviet Fobos probes (targeted at the Martian moon Phobos) were all
failures. Now NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and the Russian Space Agency's
Mars-96 are both en route to the Red Planet, with NASA's Mars Pathfinder
due to follow next month.

The 8K82K Proton-K rocket, built by the Krunichev enterprise, took off
from pad 200L at Kosmodrom Baykonur in Kazakstan at 2048:53 UTC on Nov
16. The Proton-K is a three stage rocket. Ten minutes after launch, the
third stage separated from the payload which was at that point 145 km
high on a suborbital trajectory. The payload included a fourth stage,
the 11S824F Blok-D-2 built by RKK Energiya. The Blok-D-2 ignited at 2103
UTC and burnt out at 2105 UTC, placing itself and the attached space
vehicle in a 148 x 158 km x 51.5 deg parking orbit around the Earth. At
2157 UTC the Blok-D-2 ignited again; it cut off at 2205 UTC with the
orbit now approximately 200 x 314000 km x 51.8 deg, a very elliptical
orbit stretching almost to lunar distance. The Blok-D-2 then
separated from the Mars-96 space probe (Spacecraft M1 No. 520,
built by the Lavochkin Association). The M1 spacecraft bus is based
on the 1F spacecraft used for the Fobos missions, and includes an
ADU propulsion unit. The ADU is used both for solar orbit insertion
and for Mars orbit insertion. The ADU made its first burn just after
the Blok-D-2 separated, at 2207 UTC. At 2210 UTC the ADU shut down,
and Mars-96 was in solar orbit.

The Mars-96 space probe will arrive at Mars on 1997 Sep 12, around the
same time as Mars Global Surveyor. Four days before orbit insertion, it
will release two small landers which will descend to the planet's
surface. After Mars-96 enters Mars orbit, it will fire two penetrator
probes into the surface, and lower its orbital period to enter an
operational orbit of around 900 x 18200 km with a 12 hour orbital
period. The Mars-96 space probe is operated by IKI (the Russian Space
Research Institute) for the RKA (Russian Space Agency).


    JSR Extra: Dewey beats Truman!
    ------------------------------

It appears that the latest JSR was premature in passing
on the Russian announcement of a successful Mars-96 launch.
Apparently the ADU engine failed leaving Mars-96 in high
Earth orbit. Details will be in the next JSR - Apologies for
the error and condolences to those involved in the project.

  - Jonathan McDowell

Arianespace launched an Ariane 44L from Kourou on Nov 13. The rocket
placed two satellites in geostationary transfer orbit. Arabsat 2B is an
Aerospatiale Spacebus 3000 satellite which provides communications for
the Arab League. It joins Arabsat 2A which was launched in July. Measat
2 is a Hughes HS-376 satellite, launched for the Malyasian telecom
agency Binariang Sdn. Bhd. Measat 1 was launched in January.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct 20 0720   FSW-2            Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan         Remote sen. 59A
Oct 24 1137   Molniya-3        Molniya-M      Plesetsk        Comsat      60A
Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  62A
Nov 13 2240   Arabsat 2B )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      63A
              Measat 2   )                                    Comsat      63B
Nov 16 2048   Mars-96          Proton-K       Baykonur LC200L Mars probe

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-80  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58                VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/RSRM-54                VAB Bay 1      STS-81
ML3/RSRM-49/ET-80/OV-102   LC39B          STS-80

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 305
Date: Monday, 25 November, 1996 21:45

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 305                            1996 Nov 26              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------


The Space Shuttle Orbiter OV-102 Columbia was launched at
1955:50 UTC on Nov 19 from Kennedy Space Center. The SRBs
separated at 1957 UTC and main engine cutoff was at 2004 UTC.
The OMS 2 burn at around 2040 UTC placed Columbia in a circular
orbit.

Mission STS-80 carries the Orfeus astronomy satellite, the Wake Shield
Facility, and spacewalk equipment. A hold was called at 1952 UTC, T-31s
just prior to entering computer RSLS control because too much hydrogen
was in the aft compartment, but after a two minute pause permission was
given to continue.

The Orfeus satellite was deployed on Nov 20 at 0411 UTC. It carries an
ultraviolet telescope and spectrographs. Wake Shield Facility was
deployed on Nov 22  at 2038 UTC. OV-102, Orfeus and WSF are in a 91.6
min, 346 x 358 km x 28.5 deg orbit. Columbia retrieved
WSF at 0203 UTC on Nov 26 and berthed it in the payload bay at 0236 UTC.

The Progress M-33 cargo ship was successfully launched from Baykonur on
Nov 19 and docked with Mir on Nov 22 at 0101 UTC. Progress M-32 undocked
from Mir at 1944 UTC on Nov 20 and was deorbited over the Pacific at
2242 UTC.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Russian Mars-96 space probe mission failed to leave Earth orbit on
Nov 17. This failure is very sad news both for Mars
exploration and for the Russian space program.
  In last week's report I said that Mars-96 got into solar orbit,
based on announcements from the IKI web site which reported a successful
Blok-D-2 second burn and ADU solar orbit insertion burn. However it soon
emerged  that their claim of success was premature. The Blok-D-2 made a
successful first burn, entering a 160 km circular orbit. On the second
burn, possibly because of incorrect commands sent by the probe, it
burned for only a few seconds before shutting down, and the probe
remained in a lower perigee  Earth parking orbit of 145 x 171 km x 51.6
deg.  Mars-96 separated from the Blok-D-2 and fired its own ADU engine,
entering an elliptical 87 x 1500 km orbit. It made two revolutions of
the Earth in this orbit and reentered a few hours later, somewhere over
the South Pacific, at around 0132 UTC Nov 17. This piece, the M1 No. 520
probe with the two MAS landers and two Penetrator probes, was tracked by
Russian radars but missed by US Space Command.  The Blok-D-2 rocket
stage reentered over the South Pacific  at 31 S 96 W (US data) or 50.9 S
168 W (Russian data) a day later, at 0120 UTC Nov 18. The excitement on
Sunday about possible radioactive debris reentering over Australia or
Chile was apparently misplaced, since the payload had reentered the
previous day and Space Command was only tracking the rocket. [Some of
these details are thanks to Igor Lissov of Videocosmos]. There were four
small plutonium RTG batteries aboard the two MAS landers, with 15 g of
Pu-238 each. The two penetrator probes each carried five of the RTG
batteries. The RTGs were designed to survive reentry and the probability
of contamination is considered low. We don't know where the probe
reentered, since no-one (Russian or American) managed to determine a
precise orbit for it. Some estimates say it could be anywhere from the
south Pacific to the mid Atlantic.  Mass of Mars-96 was 6825 kg; mass of
the Blok-D-2 was 1900 kg with 12400 kg of fuel which was vented after
spacecraft separation.

Traditionally, Mars-96 (the prelaunch name) would have been designated
Mars-8  after a successful launch. It is not yet clear whether this
designation will be applied. In the old days, a failure like this would
have been given a Kosmos cover name.

Eutelsat's Hot Bird 2 communications satellite was launched by a
Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas IIA from Cape Canaveral on Nov 21.
The Atlas IIA was flight AC-124. Its Centaur IIA upper stage placed Hot
Bird 2 in geostationary transfer orbit of 168 x 35784 km x 23.8 deg. 
Hot Bird 2 is a Matra Marconi Space Eurostar 2000 Plus class satellite,
and carries Ku band transponders for television broadcasts to Europe.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct 20 0720   FSW-2            Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan         Remote sen. 59A
Oct 24 1137   Molniya-3        Molniya-M      Plesetsk        Comsat      60A
Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  62A
Nov 13 2240   Arabsat 2B )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      63A
              Measat 2   )                                    Comsat      63B
Nov 16 2048   Mars-96          Proton-K       Baykonur LC200L Mars probe  64A
Nov 19 1955   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   65A
Nov 19 2320   Progress M-33    Soyuz-U        Baykonir LC1    Cargo ship  66A
Nov 20 0411   ORFEUS                          OV-102,LEO      Astronomy   65B
Nov 21 2047   Hot Bird 2       Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      67A
Nov 22 2038   WSF                             OV-102, LEO     Materials   65C

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-80  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/                VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-83           VAB Bay 1      STS-81
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 306
Date: Friday, 06 December, 1996 9:53

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 306                        1996 Dec  6              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

When is a spacewalk not a spacewalk? In the early days of spaceflight,
an EVA (extravehicular activity) had to be outside the spacecraft, and a
distinction was made between SEVA (standup EVA, where you didn't
entirely leave the vehicle) and a full EVA. Nowadays, NASA officially
counts EVAs from the time when astronauts are on battery power. I prefer
to ignore EVAs and instead log 'depress time', time spent working under
vacuum conditions (with a spacesuit on, of course), since this to me is
the dangerous and interesting thing. Like all the other definitions,
this one is a little fuzzy. What is the distinction between a spacesuit
and a spaceship? What is depressurized? Usually depressurization from
near full pressure (at least 10psi, US units) to vacuum (less than
0.1psi) is pretty fast, but sometimes Shuttle astronauts stick in the
airlock at around 5 psi for a while. So I try and log when they go down
from about 1 psi to zero. 

On 1996 Nov 29, STS-80 crewmembers Tamara Jernigan and Thomas Jones were
in Columbia's airlock. At 0209 UTC they depressurized, and by 0221 UTC
the airlock was fully depressurized. However, the astronauts were unable
to open the airlock due to a stuck handle. At 0307 UTC, the airlock was
partially repressurized to 4psi, and the airlock thermal cover was blown
off for inspection. After further fruitless attempts to open the hatch,
full repressurization began at 0348 and was complete at 0401, with the
astronauts still in their suits. Story Musgrave came in without a suit
and again tried to  free the hatch - this sounds scary, but interal
pressure in the airlock would have prevented a leak if he had succeeded.
NASA does not count this as an EVA, since at no time did the
astronauts go to battery power. But I log this as a depress phase,
with the astronauts getting 0h46min of depress time.

After thinking hard for a couple of days, NASA decided to cancel any
further attempts at spacewalks on this mission. There are cases where a
contingency EVA (emergency spacewalk) would be necessary, for instance
if the payload bay doors refused to close. They would try and force the
hatch open in that case. At this writing, the doors were closed and
opened again on Dec 5, closed on Dec 6 and due to open again, following
reentry attempts on Dec 5 and Dec 6 which were called off due to bad weather.

On Dec 3, Columbia began its re-rendezvous with the ORFEUS-SPAS
astronomy satellite. On Dec 4 at 0823 UTC, the astronauts retrieved the
ORFEUS-SPAS vehicle using the RMS arm.

Landing is now scheduled for Dec 7, making STS-80 the longest shuttle
mission so far at almost 18 days.

Aboard Mir, Valeriy Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri and John Blaha are
unloading the Progress M-33 transport ship. On Dec 2 Korzun and Kaleri
made a 5h 57min space walk to install a new solar panel. They opened the
Kvant-2 hatch at 1554 UTC (no stuck hatches here!). Blaha remained
aboard the station.

Recent Launches
---------------


Mars-96, continued: Jim Oberg reports that US Space Command now thinks
it detected the reentry of Mars-96 over the eastern Pacific and South
America, and eyewitness reports from the Atacama Desert indicate that
Mars-96 hit the ground somewhere in northern Chile or Bolivia, far from
the Blok-D-2 impact point the following day (where all the air searching
was done). At least three groups of witnesses in northern Chile,
including a former European Southern Observatory staff member, report
seeing a bright object breaking apart and changing colors at 0050 UTC on
Nov 17, consistent with the reentry time of Mars-96. Although this
evening coincided with the Leonid meteor shower, the time of night and
the speed and direction of the object rule out the possiblity of a large
Leonid-related meteorite. (Thanks to Jorge Ianisewski and Mike Keane for
passing on the eyewitness reports.)

NASA's Mars Pathfinder (MPF) space probe was successfully launched on
Dec 4 from Cape Canaveral. Pathfinder will land in Ares Vallis on 1997
Jul 4. The space probe consists of a cruise stage, an atmospheric entry
aeroshell, a lander, and the tiny Sojourner rover which will use an
x-ray spectrometer to study the composition of Martian rocks near the
landing site. The McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 rocket took off from
Launch Complex 17B, and the second stage and payload entered a 28 degree
inclination elliptical earth parking orbit. The second stage ignited
again an hour after launch to raise orbit, followed immediately by the
third stage which propelled MPF into solar orbit. After its depletion
burn, the second stage ended up in a 148 x 3119 km x 36.4 deg orbit. MPF
was originally part of the MESUR Mars Environmental Survey; that program
was abandoned and MPF became one of the Discovery series of planetary
missions (like the NEAR asteroid probe). The companion MGS probe
launched on Nov 7 is a Mars Surveyor, which is technically a separate
NASA program.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct 20 0720   FSW-2            Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan         Remote sen. 59A
Oct 24 1137   Molniya-3        Molniya-M      Plesetsk        Comsat      60A
Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  62A
Nov 13 2240   Arabsat 2B )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      63A
              Measat 2   )                                    Comsat      63B
Nov 16 2048   Mars-96          Proton-K       Baykonur LC200L Mars probe  64A
Nov 19 1955   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   65A
Nov 19 2320   Progress M-33    Soyuz-U        Baykonir LC1    Cargo ship  66A
Nov 20 0411   ORFEUS                          OV-102,LEO      Astronomy   65B
Nov 21 2047   Hot Bird 2       Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      67A
Nov 22 2038   WSF                             OV-102, LEO     Materials   65C
Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-80  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/                VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-83           VAB Bay 1      STS-81
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 307
Date: Monday, December 23, 1996 15:48

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 307                          1996 Dec  23              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Boeing North American (formerly Rockwell) Space Shuttle Orbiter
OV-102 Columbia landed at 1149 UTC Dec 7 on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space
Center, making STS-80 the longest shuttle mission so far at 17 days 15
hr 53 min.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-81/Atlantis, which will fly to Mir in
January. Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39B on Dec 10.

Kaleri and Korzun made their second spacewalk at 1352 UTC on Dec 9, with
hatch closure after 6h 36 min. 


Recent Launches
---------------

A Russian defense ministry US-P electronic ocean reconnaissance
satellite was launched from the GIK-5 Baykonur spaceport, Area 90, on
Dec 11. The launch vehicle was the 11K69 Tsiklon-2, built by the
Ukranian Yuzhnoe (Dnepropetrovsk) company. The satellite was named
Kosmos-2335 after launch into a 403 x 418 km x 65.0 deg orbit. Contrary
to some press reports, this satellite is not an optical imaging recon
satellite.

The third Inmarsat 3 satellite was launched by Lockheed Martin Atlas
AC-129 on Dec 17. Inmarsat 3 F3 is a Lockheed Martin Telecommunications
Series 4000 class communications satellite which provides L-band
communications for maritime and aviation users. It is owned by the
International Maritime Satellite Organization. The Atlas IIA's Centaur
second stage placed Inmarsat 3 F3 in a conventional (although
high-perigee) 1017 x 35820 km x 22.7 deg geostationary transfer orbit.
The solid motor was fired prior to Dec 20, placing the satellite in a
35652 x 35951 km x 3.4 deg geosynchronous drift orbit.

A large imaging recon satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office was
launched on Dec 20. Launch vehicle was a Lockheed Martin Titan 4, serial
K-13, and the payload may have been an Improved Crystal recon satellite.

Kosmos-2336, a navigation satellite for the Russian navy, was launched
by Kosmos-3M from Plesetsk on Dec 20. Orbit is 979 x 1012 km x 82.9 deg.
The satellite and launch vehicle are both built by AO Polyot of Omsk.

US Corporate Mergers
--------------------

I don't normally track this stuff in the newsletter, but it's gotten
so confusing lately I though readers might like a scorecard. 
The old North American Aviation (X-15, Apollo) which became Rockwell
(Shuttle Orbiter, GPS) is now Boeing North American. The old
Douglas (Thor) and McDonnell (Gemini), which became McDonnell Douglas 
(Skylab, Delta) has announced it will also merge with Boeing, creating
an aerospace company to rival Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin encompasses
a variety of companies from the pioneering days: Lockheed (Corona, Agena,
Hubble), Martin (Titan; later Martin Marietta - Viking, NOSS), Convair
(later General Dynamics; Atlas, Centaur), GE (Nimbus, Landsat), RCA
(Tiros, DMSP, Astro Space comsats) among others. 

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  62A
Nov 13 2240   Arabsat 2B )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      63A
              Measat 2   )                                    Comsat      63B
Nov 16 2048   Mars-96          Proton-K       Baykonur LC200L Mars probe  64A
Nov 19 1955   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   65A
Nov 19 2320   Progress M-33    Soyuz-U        Baykonir LC1    Cargo ship  66A
Nov 20 0411   ORFEUS                          OV-102,LEO      Astronomy   65B
Nov 21 2047   Hot Bird 2       Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      67A
Nov 22 2038   WSF                             OV-102, LEO     Materials   65C
Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A
Dec 11 1200   Kosmos-2335      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Recon       69A
Dec 17 2357   Inmarsat III F3  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      70A
Dec 20 0642?  Kosmos-2336      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk        Navsat      71A
Dec 20 1804   USA 128?         Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81           VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-83/OV-104    LC39B          STS-81
ML3/RSRM-59/                VAB Bay 1      STS-83

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 308
Date: Monday, December 30, 1996 16:46

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 308                           1996 Dec  30              Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-81/Atlantis, which will fly to Mir in
January. Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39B on Dec 10. Crew of STS-81
is: Commander: Michael Baker; Pilot: Brent Jett; Mission Specialists:
Jeff Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins, Jerry Linenger. Linenger will
replace John Blaha aboard Mir. The cargo bay will contain the Spacehab
Double Module on its second flight, as well as the Orbiter Docking
System.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Bion No. 11 life sciences satellites, with two monkeys aboard, was
launched from Plesetsk into a 217 x 378 km x 62.8 degree orbit on Dec
24. It carries newts, snails, Drosophila flies and other insects,
bacteria, and two macaque monkeys, Lapik and Multik. The recoverable
Bion spacecraft, built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara, is based on the
Zenit/Vostok spaceship in use since 1960. Launch vehicle was a Soyuz-U.
Here is a list of the Bion flights:

 Bion 1  (Kosmos-605)  1973 Oct 31  21.5d
 Bion 2  (Kosmos-690)  1974 Oct 22  20.5d
 Bion 3  (Kosmos-782)  1975 Nov 25  19.5d
 Bion 4  (Kosmos-936)  1977 Aug  3  18.6d
 Bion 5  (Kosmos-1129) 1979 Sep 25  18.5d
 Bion 6  (Kosmos-1514) 1983 Dec 14   5d
 Bion 7  (Kosmos-1667) 1985 Jul 10   7d
 Bion 8  (Kosmos-1887) 1987 Sep 29  13d
 Bion 9  (Kosmos-2044) 1989 Sep 15  14d
 Bion 10 (Kosmos-2229) 1992 Dec 29  12d
 Bion 11               1996 Dec 24  In orbit

Errata: Inmarsat III F3 launch time and WSF deploy times have been
corrected in the tables below; in both cases I demonstrated an
inability to perform simple addition. Sigh.

Geoff Perry informs me that Kosmos-2336 is replacing Kosmos-2173
in plane 4 of the Parus navigation satellite system.

An object in a  153 x 949 km x 97.9 deg orbit has been observed from the
USA 129 spy satellite launch (orbit by Ted Molczan based on observations
by Anthony Beresford and Rob McNaught). This is probably the Titan 4
second stage. It is reportedly brighter than expected; possibly a large
fairing adapter remains attached (the payload may originally have been
designed for Shuttle launch and might require  a long parallel adapter
to mimic the payload bay - just a speculation).

Next issue will contain the annual launch list. Meanwhile, here is
a listing of the USA designations issued this year for US military
satellites. Quotation marks indicate provisional names assigned
by me to classified payloads.

USA 117 GPS 33                                  1996-19A
USA 118 "Adv VORTEX 2"                          1996-26A
USA 119 "ANOSS 4"                               1996-29A
USA 120 "ANOSS 4-1"                             1996-29B
USA 121 "ANOSS 4-2"                             1996-29C
USA 122 "ANOSS 4-3"                             1996-29D
USA 123 TIPS                                    1996-29E
USA 124 TIPS                                    1996-29F
USA 125 "SDS B-4"                               1996-38A
USA 126 GPS 40                                  1996-41A
USA 127 UHF F/O F7                              1996-42A 
USA 128 GPS 30                                  1996-56A
USA 129 "Improved CRYSTAL 4?"                   1996-72A

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  4 1709   SAC-B/HETE       Pegasus XL     Wallops         Science     61A
Nov  7 1700   MGS              Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Mars probe  62A
Nov 13 2240   Arabsat 2B )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      63A
              Measat 2   )                                    Comsat      63B
Nov 16 2048   Mars-96          Proton-K       Baykonur LC200L Mars probe  64A
Nov 19 1955   Columbia         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   65A
Nov 19 2320   Progress M-33    Soyuz-U        Baykonir LC1    Cargo ship  66A
Nov 20 0411   ORFEUS                          OV-102,LEO      Astronomy   65B
Nov 21 2047   Hot Bird 2       Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36B Comsat      67A
Nov 23 0138   WSF                             OV-102, LEO     Materials   65C
Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A
Dec 11 1200   Kosmos-2335      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Recon       69A
Dec 18 0157   Inmarsat III F3  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      70A
Dec 20 0644   Kosmos-2336      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      71A
Dec 20 1804   USA 129          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      72A
Dec 24 1350   Bion No. 11      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43   Life sci    73A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81           VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/RSRM-54/ET-83/OV-104    LC39B          STS-81
ML3/RSRM-59/                VAB Bay 1      STS-83

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 309
Date: Friday, January 3, 1997 16:21

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 309                           1997 Jan  3   Cambridge,
MA
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-<
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Happy New Year!  Below is the list of attempted orbital launches for
1996. For a change, I am giving the annual launch list in exactly the
same format as the previous year. I have also updated the geostationary log
file
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/geo.log.

ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1996

PART 1 - List and current status

 Orbits are given for late Dec 1996:
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)


INT'L   NAME            AGENCY  TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.                                   DATE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
01A  Endeavour STS-72   NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jan 11 Landed at KSC Jan 20
01A  SLA-1/GAS          NASA-GSFC Research   Jan 11 Remained attached to
OV-105
02A  Panamsat 3R        Panamsat  Comsat     Jan 12 35779x  35796x  0.0  43.0W
02B  Measat 1           Binariang Comsat     Jan 12 35783x  35792x  0.0  91.4E
03A  Koreasat 2         KTel      Comsat     Jan 12 35782x  35792x  0.0 116.0E
01B  OAST-Flyer         NASA-GSFC Research   Jan 14 Recovered by OV-105 Jan 16
04A  Kosmos-2327        MO RF     Navsat     Jan 16   949x   1023x 83.0
05A  Gorizont No. 43    MSvyazi   Comsat     Jan 25 35777x  35801x  0.9  39.8E
06A  Palapa C-1         Satelindo Comsat     Feb  1 35777x  35798x  0.0 150.4E
07A  N-STAR b           NTT       Comsat     Feb  5 35715x  35876x  0.1 128.9E
-    Intelsat 708       Intelsat  Comsat     Feb 14 Destroyed on launch
08A  NEAR               NASA/APL  Probe      Feb 17 En route (253) Mathilde
09A  Gonets-D1 No. 1    NII TP    Comsat     Feb 19  1399x   1414x 82.6
09B  Gonets-D1 No. 2    NII TP    Comsat     Feb 19  1406x   1415x 82.6
09C  Gonets-D1 No. 3    NII TP    Comsat     Feb 19  1410x   1415x 82.6
09D  Kosmos-2328        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 19  1408x   1417x 82.6
09E  Kosmos-2329        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 19  1411x   1421x 82.6
09F  Kosmos-2330        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 19  1412x   1427x 82.6
10A  Raduga             MO RF     Comsat     Feb 19   259x  36582x 47.2 
11A  Soyuz TM-23        RKA       Spaceship  Feb 21 Landed in Kazakhstan Sep 2
12A  Columbia STS-75    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Feb 22 Landed at KSC Mar 9
13A  Polar              NASA-GSFC Research   Feb 24  5554x  50423x 86.3
12B  TSS                ASI       Research   Feb 26 Reentered Mar 19
14A  REX 2              USAF      Research   Mar  9   799x    835x 90.0
15A  Intelsat 707       Intelsat  Comsat     Mar 14 35774x  35797x  0.0   0.9W
16A  Kosmos-2331        MO RF     Recon      Mar 14 Deorbited Jun 11
17A  IRS-P3             ISRO      Earth Obs  Mar 21   818x    821x 98.8
18A  Atlantis STS-76    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Mar 22 Landed at Edwards Mar 31
18A  ODS                NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Mar 22 Remained attached to
OV-104
18A  Spacehab FU2       NASA-JSC  Lab        Mar 22 Remained attached to
OV-104
19A  GPS 33             USAF      Navsat     Mar 28 20106x  20257x 54.6
20A  Inmarsat III F1    Inmarsat  Comsat     Apr  3 35765x  35805x  2.2  64.1E
21A  Astra 1F           SES       Comsat     Apr  8 35778x  35793x  0.1  19.3E
22A  M-SAT 1            TMI       Comsat     Apr 20 35777x  35794x  0.0 106.5W
23A  Priroda            RKA       Spaceship  Apr 23 Docked with Mir Apr 26
24A  MSX                BMDO      Research   Apr 24   897x    907x 99.4
25A  Kosmos-2332        MO RF     Calibrat.  Apr 24   294x   1548x 82.9
26A  USA 118            NRO/USAF  Sigint     Apr 24 30000?x 40000?x 10?
27A  SAX                ASI       Astronomy  Apr 30   584x    601x  4.0
28A  Progress M-31      RKA       Cargo      May  5 Deorbited Aug 1, Pacific
29A  USA 119            NRO       Recon      May 12 Unknown orbit
29B  USA 120            NRO/USN   Recon      May 12  1058x   1157x 63.4
29C  USA 121            NRO/USN   Recon      May 12  1055x   1160x 63.4
29D  USA 122            NRO/USN   Recon      May 12  1060x   1156x 63.4
29E  USA 123/TIPS       NRO/USN   Research   May 12  1010x   1032x 63.4
29F  USA 124/TIPS       NRO/USN   Research   May 12  1010x   1032x 63.4
-    Kosmos             MO RF     Recon      May 14 Destroyed on launch
30A  Palapa C2          Satelindo Comsat     May 16 35780x  35790x  0.0 113.0E
30B  AMOS               IAI       Comsat     May 16 35770x  35802x  0.0   4.1W
31A  MSTI-3             BMDO      Research   May 17   420x    432x 97.1
32A  Endeavour STS-77   NASA-JSC  Spaceship  May 19 Landed KSC May 29
32A  Spacehab FU1       NASA-JSC  Lab        May 19 Remained attached to
OV-105
32A  TEAMS              NASA-GSFC Research   May 19 Remained attached to
OV-105
32A  GBA-9              NASA-GSFC Research   May 19 Remained attached to
OV-105
32B  Spartan 207        NASA-GSFC Research   May 20 Retrieved May 21
32C  IAE                NASA/JPL  Research   May 20 Reentered May 22
32D  PAMS STU           NASA-GSFC Research   May 22 Reentered Oct 26
33A  Galaxy 9           HCI       Comsat     May 23 35783x  35789x  0.0 123.0W
34A  Gorizont No. 44    MSvyazi   Comsat     May 25 35718x  35851x  1.1  53.2E
-    Cluster F1         ESA       Research   Jun  4 Destroyed on launch
-    Cluster F2         ESA       Research   Jun  4 Destroyed on launch
-    Cluster F3         ESA       Research   Jun  4 Destroyed on launch
-    Cluster F4         ESA       Research   Jun  4 Destroyed on launch
35A  Intelsat 709       Intelsat  Comsat     Jun 15 35779x  35795x  0.0  50.0W
36A  Columbia STS-78    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jun 20 Landed KSC Jul 7
36A  Spacelab LMS-1     NASA-MSFC Lab        Jun 20 Landed aboard STS-78
-    Kosmos             MO RF     Recon      Jun 20 Destroyed on launch
37A  TOMS-EP            NASA-GSFC Earth Obs  Jul  2   490x    510x 97.4
38A  USA 125            NRO       Comsat?    Jul  3 Unknown orbit
39A  Apstar 1A          APT       Comsat     Jul  3 35785x  35791x  0.0 133.9E
40A  Arabsat 2A         Arabsat   Comsat     Jul  9 35781x  35792x  0.0  26.0E
40B  Turksat 1C         Turkey    Comsat     Jul  9 35779x  35794x  0.0  42.0E
41A  GPS 40             USAF      Navsat     Jul 16 20127x  20237x 55.1
42A  UHF F/O F7         USN       Comsat     Jul 25 35784x  35791x  4.9  23.2W
43A  Progress M-32      RKA       Cargo      Jul 31 Deorbited Nov 20, Pacific
44A  Italsat F2         Telesp.   Comsat     Aug  8 35771x  35801x  0.0  13.2E
44B  Telecom 2D         FrTel     Comsat     Aug  8 35771x  35803x  0.2   4.9W
45A  Molniya-1T         MO RF     Comsat     Aug 14   645x  39701x 62.9
46A  ADEOS              NASDA     Earth Obs  Aug 17   799x    800x 98.6
46B  Fuji-Oscar 29      JARL      Comsat     Aug 17   801x   1323x 98.6
47A  Soyuz TM-24        RKA       Spaceship  Aug 17 Docked Mir Aug 19
48A  Zhongxing 7        CTBSC     Comsat     Aug 18 21674x  46499x 26.3
49A  FAST               NASA-GSFC Research   Aug 21   353x   4163x 83.0
50B  Interbol 2         RKA       Research   Aug 29   791x  19186x 62.8
50C  Magion 5           Czech     Research   Aug 29   804x  19176x 62.8
50A  Microsatelite      Cordoba   Research   Aug 29   239x   1093x 62.8
51A  Kosmos-2333        MO RF     Sigint     Sep  4   845x    855x 71.0
52A  Kosmos-2334        MO RF     Navsat     Sep  5   966x   1011x 82.9
52B  Mexico-Oscar 30    UNAM      Research   Sep  5   966x   1010x 82.9
53A  Inmarsat III F2    Inmarsat  Comsat     Sep  6 35766x  35807x  2.5  15.5W
54A  GE 1               Americom  Comsat     Sep  8 35780x  35793x  0.0 103.0W
55A  Echostar II        Echostar  Comsat     Sep 11 35776x  35795x  0.0 119.0W
56A  GPS 30             USAF      Navsat     Sep 12 20042x  20320x 54.7
57A  Atlantis STS-79    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Sep 16 Landed KSC Sep 26
57A  ODS                NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Sep 16 Remained attached to
OV-104
57A  Spacehab-DM        NASA-JSC  Lab        Sep 16 Remained attached to
OV-104
58A  Ekspress No. 12    Informk.  Comsat     Sep 26 35778x  35794x  0.1  80.0E
59A  FSW-2              China     Earth Obs  Oct 20 Landed in China Nov 4
60A  Molniya-3          MSvyazi   Comsat     Oct 24   648x  39709x 62.9
61A  SAC-B              CONAE     Astronomy  Nov  4   487x    555x 38.0
61A  HETE               NASA-GSFC Astronomy  Nov  4   487x    555x 38.0
62A  Mars Global Surv.  NASA/JPL  Mars probe Nov  7 En route Mars
63A  Arabsat 2B         Arabsat   Comsat     Nov 13 35785x  35788x  0.0  21.9E
63B  Measat 2           Binariang Comsat     Nov 13 35781x  35792x  0.0 148.0E
64A  Mars-96            RKA       Mars probe Nov 16 Reentered Nov 17, Bolivia
65A  Columbia STS-80    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Nov 19 Landed at KSC Dec 7
66A  Progress M-33      RKA       Cargo      Nov 19 Docked with Mir Nov 22
65B  ORFEUS             DLR       Astronomy  Nov 20 Retrieved Dec  4
67A  Hot Bird 2         Eutelsat  Comsat     Nov 21 35768x  35803x  0.0  13.0E
65C  WSF                NASA/SVEC Materials  Nov 23 Retrieved Nov 26
68A  Mars Pathfinder    NASA/JPL  Mars Probe Dec  4 En route Mars
69A  Kosmos-2335        MO RF     Recon      Dec 11   403x    418x 65.0
70A  Inmarsat III F3    Inmarsat  Comsat     Dec 18 35698x  35877x  2.6 157.6E
71A  Kosmos-2336        MO RF     Navsat     Dec 20   979x   1012x 82.9
72A  USA 129            NRO/CIA   Recon      Dec 20   153x    949x 97.9
73A  Bion No. 11        RKA       Life Sci   Dec 24   216x    375x 62.8


PART 2: Manufacturers/Designers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Des  Name               Manufacturer    Bus

01A  OV-105             Boeing NA       Shuttle
02A  Panamsat 3R        Hughes          HS-601
02B  Measat 1           Hughes          HS-376
03A  Koreasat 2         LMT             Series 3000
01B  Spartan 206        NASA-GSFC       Spartan
04A  Kosmos-2327        Polyot          Parus
05A  Gorizont No. 43    NPO PM          Gorizont
06A  Palapa C-1         Hughes          HS-601
07A  N-STAR b           Loral           FS-1300
-    Intelsat 708       Loral           FS-1300
08A  NEAR               APL             NEAR
09A  Gonets-D1          NPO PM          Strela-3
09B  Gonets-D1          NPO PM          Strela-3
09C  Gonets-D1          NPO PM          Strela-3
09D  Kosmos-2328        NPO PM          Strela-3
09E  Kosmos-2329        NPO PM          Strela-3
09F  Kosmos-2330        NPO PM          Strela-3
10A  Raduga             NPO PM          Raduga
11A  7K-STM No. 72      Energiya        7K-STM
12A  OV-102             Boeing NA       Shuttle
13A  Polar              LMT             GGS
12B  TSS                Alenia          TSS
14A  REX 2              CTA             DSI
15A  Intelsat 707       Loral           FS-1300
16A  Kosmos-2331        Progress        Yantar'
17A  IRS-P3             ISRO            IRS
18A  OV-104             Boeing NA       Shuttle
19A  GPS 33             Boeing NA       GPS
20A  Inmarsat III F1    LMT             Series 4000
21A  Astra 1F           Hughes          HS-601
22A  M-SAT 1            Hughes          HS-601
23A  77KSI No. 174-01   Krunichev       TKS/77KS
24A  MSX                APL             MSX
25A  Kosmos-2332        Progress        Zenit SA
26A  USA                TRW?            Adv. VORTEX?
27A  SAX                Alenia          SAX
28A  Progress No. 231   Energiya        7K-TGM
29A  USA 119            LMA?/NRL?       TLD
29B  USA 120            LMA?/NRL?       Adv NOSS
29C  USA 121            LMA?/NRL?       Adv NOSS
29D  USA 122            LMA?/NRL?       Adv NOSS
29E  USA 123/TIPS       NRL             TIPS
29F  USA 124/TIPS       NRL             TIPS
-    Kosmos             Progress        Yantar'/Kometa
30A  Palapa C-2         Hughes          HS-601
30B  AMOS               IAI             AMOS
31A  MSTI-3             SpectrumAstro   MSTI-3
32A  OV-105             Boeing NA       Shuttle
32B  Spartan 207        NASA-GSFC       Spartan
32C  IAE                JPL/L'Garde     IAE
32D  PAMS STU           NASA-GSFC       STU
33A  Galaxy 9           Hughes          HS-376
34A  Gorizont           NPO PM          Gorizont
-    Cluster F1         Dornier         Cluster
-    Cluster F2         Dornier         Cluster
-    Cluster F3         Dornier         Cluster
-    Cluster F4         Dornier         Cluster
35A  Intelsat 709       Loral           FS-1300
36A  OV-102             Boeing NA       Shuttle
36A  Spacelab                           Spacelab
-    Kosmos             Progress        Yantar'
37A  TOMS               TRW             STEP/Eagle
38A  USA 125            Hughes?         SDS II?
39A  Apstar 1A          Hughes          HS-376
40A  Arabsat 2A         Aerospatiale    Spacebus 3000
40B  Turksat 1C         Aerospatiale    Spacebus 2000
41A  GPS 40             Boeing NA       GPS
42A  UHF F7             Hughes          HS-601
43A  Progress No. 232   Energia         7K-TGM
44A  Italsat F2         Alenia          Italsat
44B  Telecom 2D         MMS             Eurostar 2000
45A  Molniya-1T         NPO PM          Molniya
46A  ADEOS              Mitsubishi      ADEOS
46B  JAS 2              JARL            Fuji
47A  7K-STM No. 73      Energiya        7K-STM
48A  Zhongxing 7        Hughes          HS-376
49A  FAST               NASA-GSFC       SMEX
50B  Interbol 2         Lavochkin       SO-M2
50C  Magion 5           Czech           Magion
50A  Microsatelite      Cordoba         Musat
51A  Kosmos-2333        Yuzhnoe         Tselina-2
52A  Kosmos-2334        Polyot          Parus
52B  UNAMSat            UNAM            AMSAT Microsat
53A  Inmarsat III F2    LMT             Series 4000
54A  GE 1               LMT             Series A2100
55A  Echostar II        LMT             Series 7000
56A  GPS 30             Boeing NA       GPS
57A  OV-104             Boeing NA       Shuttle
58A  Ekspress No. 12    NPO PM          Ekspress
59A  FSW-2              China           FSW
60A  Molniya-3          NPO PM          Molniya
61A  SAC-B              INVAP           SAC
61A  HETE               AeroAstro       HETE
62A  MGS                LMA             MGS
63A  Arabsat 2B         Aerospatiale    Spacebus 3000
63B  Measat 2           Hughes          HS-376
64A  Mars-96            Lavochkin       Fobos
65A  OV-102             Boeing NA       Shuttle
66A  Progress No. 233   Energiya        7K-TGM
65B  ORFEUS             MBB             ASTRO-SPAS
67A  Hot Bird 2         MMS             Eurostar 2000
65C  WSF                SII             WSF
68A  MPF                JPL             MPF
69A  Kosmos-2335        Arsenal         US-P
70A  Inmarsat III F3    LMT             Series 4000
71A  Kosmos-2336        Polyot          Parus
72A  USA 128?           Lockheed?       Improved CRYSTAL?
73A  Bion               Progress        Zenit

PART 3 - Abbreviations for Organizations

AeroAstro       AeroAstro, Inc.
Aerospatiale    Aerospatiale, Cannes, France
Arsenal         KB Arsenal
Alenia          Alenia Spazio, Italy
Americom        GE American Communications
APL             Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD.
APT             Asia Pacific Telecom, Hong Kong
Arabsat         Arab Satellite Communications Organization
ASI             Agenzia Spaziale Italiano
Binariang       Binariang Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia
BMDO            Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
Boeing-NA       Boeing North American (formerly Rockwell)
CIA             Central Intelligence Agency, USA
CONAE           Comisi'on Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Buenos Aires,
Cordoba         Instituto Universitario Aeronautico de Cordoba, Argentina
CTBSC           China Telecom and Broadcasting Satellite Corp
Czech           Czech Republic
Dornier         Dornier Satellitensysteme, Daimler-Benz Aerospace
Echostar        Echostar Communications Corp.
Energiya        RKK Energiya, Kaliningrad
FrTel           France Telecom
Hughes          Hughes Space and Communications, El Segundo
IAI             Israel Aircraft Industries
Informk.        AO Informkosmos
Inmarsat        International Maritime Satellite Organization
INVAP           INVAP S.E., Argentina
ISRO            Indian Space Research Organization
JARL            Japanese Amateur Radio League
JPL             Jet Propulsion Laboratory
KTel            Korea Telecom, S Korea
Lavochkin       NPO Lavochkin, Moskva
L'Garde         L'Garde, Inc.
LMA             Lockheed Martin Astronautics
LMT             Lockheed Martin Telecommunications (formerly Astro Space)
Loral           Space Systems/Loral
MBB             Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm GmBh.
MMS             Matra Marconi Space
MO RF           Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
MSvyazi         Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation
NASA            National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
NASA-GSFC       NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD.
NASA-JSC        NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston TX.
NASDA           National Space Development Agency, Japan
NII TP          NII Tochnikh Priborov, Moskva.
NPO PM          NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Krasnoyarsk-26.
NRL             Naval Research Lab
NRO             National Reconnaissance Office
NTT             Nippon Telephone and Telegraph
Panamsat        Panamsat Inc. Greenwich, Connecticut
Polyot          AKO Polyot, Omsk
Progress        TsSKB-Progress, Samara
RKA             Russian Space Agency
Satelindo       PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia
SES             Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
SII             Space Industries Inc, Houston, Texas
SVEC            Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, Houston, Texas
SpectrumAstro   Spectrum Astro, Inc
Telesp.         Nuova Telespazio, Italy
Turkey          Turkish Posts and Telecom Ministry
USAF            United States Air Force
USN             United States Navy
Yuzhnoe         KB Yuzhnoe, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine


PART 4 - Launch Vehicles
 
 Launch vehicles are listed by type, in order of number of
launches. The totals are similar to last year,
with a dramatic increase in the number of Deltas
and a continuing decline in the Soyuz launch rate.

US vehicles:            Launched        Failures
 NASA Space Shuttle     7               0
 Lockheed Martin Titan  4               0
 Lockheed Martin Atlas  7               0
 MDSSC Delta            10              0
 OSC Pegasus            5               1*
 
Russian vehicles:
 TsSKB-Progress Soyuz   12              2
 Krunichev Proton       8               2*
 Polyot Kosmos          4               0

Other vehicles:
 Arianespace Ariane     10              0
 Arianespace Ariane-5   1               1
 NASDA H-II             1               0
 China Long March       4               2 (1*)
 Yuzhnoe Tsiklon        2               0
 Yuzhnoe Zenit          1               0
 ISRO PSLV              1               0 
--------------------------------------------
Total                  77               8


*: Reached an orbit despite failure


TsSKB-Progress Soyuz (12)

 Feb 21                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Mar 14                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1 LC43/4
 May  5                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 May 14                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC31
 Jun 20                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1 LC16
 Jul 31                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Aug 14                 Molniya-M/ML    GIK-1 LC43/3
 Aug 17                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Aug 29                 Molniya-M/2BL   GIK-1 LC43/3
 Oct 24                 Molniya-M/ML    GIK-1 LC43/4
 Nov 19                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Dec 24                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1 LC43/4

McDonnell Douglas Delta (10)

 Jan 14 Delta 231       Delta 7925      CC LC17B
 Feb 17 Delta 232       Delta 7925-8    CC LC17B
 Feb 24 Delta 233       Delta 7925      V SLC2W
 Mar 28 Delta 234       Delta 7925      CC LC17A
 Apr 24 Delta 235       Delta 7920-10   V SLC2W
 May 24 Delta 236       Delta 7925      CC LC17B
 Jul 16 Delta 237       Delta 7925A     CC LC17A
 Sep 12 Delta 238       Delta 7925A     CC LC17A
 Nov  7 Delta 239       Delta 7925A     CC LC17A 
 Dec  4 Delta 240       Delta 7925A     CC LC17B

Arianespace Ariane (10)

 Jan 12 V82             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Feb  5 V83             Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Mar 14 V84             Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Apr 20 V85             Ariane 42P      CSG ELA2
 May 16 V86             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Jun 15 V87             Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Jul  9 V89             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Aug  8 V90             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Sep 11 V91             Ariane 42P      CSG ELA2
 Nov 13 V92             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2

Krunichev Proton (8)

 Jan 25                 Proton-K/DM2    GIK-5 LC200L
 Feb 19                 Proton-K/DM2    GIK-5 LC200L
 Apr  8 390-01/DM3 1L   Proton-AST/DM3  GIK-5 LC81L
 Apr 23                 Proton-K        GIK-5 LC81L
 May 25 DM2 100L        Proton-K/DM2    GIK-5 LC200L
 Sep  6                 Proton-K/DM1    GIK-5 LC81L
 Sep 26                 Proton-K/DM2M   GIK-5 LC200L
 Nov 16                 Proton-K/D2     GIK-5 LC200L

NASA Space Shuttle (7)

 Jan 11 STS-72          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Feb 22 STS-75          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Mar 22 STS-76          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 May 19 STS-77          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Jun 20 STS-78          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Sep 16 STS-79          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Nov 19 STS-80          Shuttle         KSC LC39B

Lockheed Martin Atlas (7)

 Feb  1 AC-126          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36B
 Apr  3 AC-122          Atlas IIA       CC LC36A
 Apr 30 AC-78           Atlas I         CC LC36B
 Jul 25 AC-125          Atlas II        CC LC36A
 Sep  8 AC-123          Atlas IIA       CC LC36B
 Nov 21 AC-124          Atlas IIA       CC LC36A
 Dec 17 AC-129          Atlas IIA       CC LC36A

Orbital Sciences Pegasus (5)

 Mar  9                 Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 May 17                 Pegasus         V RW30/12
 Jul  2                 Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 Aug 21                 Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 Nov  4                 Pegasus XL      WI

Lockheed Martin Titan (4)

 Apr 24 K-16            Titan 401       CC LC41
 May 12 K-22            Titan 403       V SLC4E
 Jul  3 K-2             Titan 404       CC LC40
 Dec 20 K-13            TItan 403       V SLC4E

Polyot Kosmos-3M (4)

 Jan 16                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132/1
 Apr 24                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132/1
 Sep  5                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132/1
 Dec 20                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132

Chinese Chang Zheng (4)

 Feb 14                 CZ-3B           Xichang LC2
 Jul  3                 CZ-3            Xichang LC1
 Aug 18                 CZ-3            Xichang LC1
 Oct 20                 CZ-2D           Jiuquan

Yuzhnoe Tsiklon (2)

 Feb 19                 Tsiklon-3       GIK-1 LC32/1
 Dec 11                 Tsiklon-2       GIK-5 LC90L

Arianespace Ariane 5 (1)

 Jun 4  V88             Ariane 5        CSG ELA3

Yuzhnoe Zenit-2 (1)

 Sep  4                 Zenit-2         GIK-5 LC45L

ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (1)

 Mar 21 PSLV-D3         PSLV            Sriharikota

NASDA H-II (1)

 Aug 17 4F              H-II            Tanegashima


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 310
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 11:47

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 310                         1997 Jan  12    Toronto, Ontario
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis was launched at 0928 UTC on Jan 12 from pad 39B. Solid rocket booster
came at 0930 UTC. The orbiter entered a 51.6 degree inclination
orbit around the Earth at 0936 UTC.

Atlantis will dock with the Mir orbital
station, and NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger will replace John Blaha.
Russian astronauts Valeriy Korzun and Aleksandr Kaleri will remain on
the station.
             
Recent Launches
---------------

The Bion No. 11 spacecraft landed near Kustanai on Jan 7.
One of the two monkeys, Multik, died a day later from
unspecified causes.

Geostationary Transfer Orbits
-----------------------------

Some recent comsat launches have used an extremely high apogee
transfer orbit with subsequent apogee lowering to reach their
final orbits. The following article is an attempt to put this
new orbital technique in context.

The first geostationary satellite was Syncom 3, launched in August 1964
into a 1113 x 38084 km x 16.80 deg, 694.5 min transfer orbit. A solid
motor was used to circularize the orbit at 36000 km. The perigee of
Syncom 3's transfer orbit was unusually high; between 1970 and 1990,
almost all geostationary satellites used transfer orbits with perigees
between 150 and 600 km, and apogees from 34000 to 41000 km. 

During the 1980s the use of liquid propellant apogee engines  (LAEs)
began to supersede the older solid rocket apogee motors (AKMs), but it
was not until the 1990s that the greater flexibility of the LAE was
fully exploited, most notably in Atlas Centaur launches. A number of
transfer orbit techniques are now in use.

To classify transfer orbits, I consider the first orbit entered by the
spacecraft with an apogee above 5000 km (i.e. the first burn after any
initial low parking orbit). Thus, the Astra 1F Proton launch in 1996
used a standard GTO of 220 x 36131 x 51.6 for its initial transfer
orbit, but the final stage made an extra burn leaving the payload in a
11970 x 35936 x 7.0 orbit. In similar Ariane missions, the final stage
would separate in the standard GTO orbit and the LAE first burn would
leave the payload in the 12000 km perigee orbit. I don't care whether
this extra burn is made by the launch vehicle or the payload, I am
focussing on the initial transfeer orbit which in this case is the 220
km perigee one. With this proviso, the different transfer orbits
in use can be usefully grouped as follows (names and arbitrary
dividing lines are my invention:)

(1) Standard GTO: 150-700 x 34000-41000. Still used by
almost all Ariane, H-II and Chang Zheng launches.

(2) High perigee GTO (HP-GTO): 700-4000 x 34000-41000. This
type of orbit was used by Syncom 3 and Early Bird and then abandoned
in favour of lower perigees. It appears to have been used
by some Titan 34D/Transtage classified missions beginning in 1984,
and came back into regular use with the first flight of the
Delta 7925 in 1991. All Delta 7925 geostationary missions
have had transfer orbit perigees between 700 and 3000 km.
Three Atlas launches have also used a high perigee GTO: Galaxy V (1992-13),
Inmarsat III F-1 (1996-20) and F-3 (1996-70).

(3) Low-GTO: Apogees below 30000 km. For these missions, a perigee
motor places the spacecraft in an orbit with an intermediate apogee
well below geostationary, and subsequent LAE burns are used to reach GEO.
Introduced by the LEASAT/SYNCOM IV spacecraft in 1984, they have
also been used by a Titan JCSAT launch and the UHF and Galaxy 
missions with HS-601 satellites: (UHF F/O F1 was also intended for this orbit
but failed).

1984-93		Leasat 2		316   15213  27.2   278.7   Low-GTO
1984-113	Leasat 1		317   15227  27.1   278.95  Low-GTO
1985-28		Leasat 3		317   15877  27.0   288.59  Low-GTO
1985-76		Leasat 4		374   15556  27.5   284.66  Low-GTO
1990-01		Titan/JCSAT		299   19294  26.79  340.91  Low-GTO
1990-02		STS/Leasat		320   15076  27.21  276.73  Low-GTO
1992-072     	Galaxy VII              199   29834   6.95  518.52  Low-GTO
1993-015        UHF F/O F1		215    9134  27.28  192.75  Failure
1993-039     	HS601-Galaxy 4H         211   27551   6.97  478.28  Low-GTO
1993-056  	UHF F/O F2		222   14928  27.00  273.39  Low-GTO
1994-035  	UHF F/O F3              225   15596  26.95  283.30  Low-GTO
1995-003  	UHF F/O F4		297   27437  26.74  477.79  Low-GTO
1995-027  	UHF F/O F5		290   26514  26.93  461.43  Low-GTO
1995-057  	UHF F/O F6		260   27482  26.97  477.94  Low-GTO
1996-042  	UHF F/O F7	        276   27198  26.88  473.21  Low-GTO

(4) Sub-GTO: Apogees between 30000 and 34000 km. A different compromise
between final stage and LAE fuel loading, I treat these missions as
different from the Low-GTO ones since only a small burn is needed to
reach final altitude, although it could be argued that 25000 km would be
a better dividing line. The only such mission launched to date is
DBS 3 in 1995, although two earlier non-GEO science satellites used
such orbits as their final mission orbits.

1978-87A	EXOS-B			230   30558  31.09  532.9   Sub-GTO
1990-065  	CRRES		  	332   33724  18.07  593.99  Sub-GTO
1995-029     	DBS 3                   237   32782   6.91  574.33  Sub-GTO

(5) High-GTO: super-synchronous transfer orbits with apogees between
41000 km and 50000 km. These orbits have the advantage that, since the
apogee velocity is lower, inclination changes take less fuel (the low
initial inclination of Ariane launches is presumably the reason that
standard GTO is fine for them). Apogee is then lowered after the plane
change. Some USAF classified launches in the CANYON and VORTEX programs
have used marginally high apogees around 41000 km, but their final
orbits were elliptical and no apogee lowering was required. Two
scientific satellites in near-geosynchronous orbits, IUE and SCATHA,
also used high apogees. The GOES weather satellites were the first
operational geostationary satellites to use such transfer orbits, with
apogees around 50000 km, starting with GOES 4 in 1980. Since then, three
commercial satellites (Eutelsat II F3 and two Apstars, on Atlas and
CZ-3) have used such orbits.

1978-12		IUE			173  46081  28.71  840.64  High-GTO
1979-06		SCATHA			185  43905  27.39  794.8   High-GTO
1980-74		GOES 4			167  49610  26.50  917.03  High-GTO
1981-49		GOES 5			167  49645  26.50  917.79  High-GTO
1983-41		GOES 6			263  48017  24.87  884.27  High-GTO
1991-083  	Eutelsat II F-3	  	854  41247  16.93  753.48  High-GTO 
1994-022  	GOES 8		  	113  42247  27.41  758.81  High-GTO
1995-025  	GOES 9		  	130  41709  27.12  748.07  High-GTO
1994-43		CZ3/Apstar		210  42039  26.62  756.52  High-GTO
1996-39		CZ3/Apstar		225  42184  26.93  759.84  High-GTO


(5) Super-GTO. The truly spectactular super-synchronous transfer orbits
used by some recent commercial satellites reach apogees previously only
explored
by deep space research probes. The first highly eccentric GTO mission was
the Intelsat 603 satellite, launched from LEO in May 1992 following its
repair by astronauts on mission STS-49. It reached an apogee of over 70000 km.
This was followed by the Orion 1 satellite in 1974, which reached a
record-breaking 120000 km, almost a third of the way to the Moon.
I also include the scientific ISO satellite in the list below.

1990-021  Intelsat 603                9169   71624   7.28 1677.60  Super-GTO
1994-079  Orion 1         	       379  120929  25.61 2878.61  Super-GTO
1995-043  JCSAT 3		       187   79154  22.95 1639.02  Super-GTO
1995-062  ISO                          537   72555   5.19 1475.07  Super-GTO
1996-006  Palapa C1		       253   89628  21.86 1928.33  Super-GTO
1996-054  GE 1			       196   56275  25.03 1068.17  Super-GTO


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A
Dec 11 1200   Kosmos-2335      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Recon       69A
Dec 18 0157   Inmarsat III F3  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      70A
Dec 20 0644   Kosmos-2336      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      71A
Dec 20 1804   USA 129          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      72A
Dec 24 1350   Bion No. 11      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43   Life sci    73A
Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-80  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-82  Feb 13
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-81  Jan 12
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81           VAB Bay 3      STS-82
ML2/                        LC39B          STS-81
ML3/RSRM-59/                VAB Bay 1      STS-83

..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 311
Date: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 10:07

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 311                           1997 Jan 22  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis docked with Mir at 0355 UTC on Jan 15. Jerry Linenger has
replaced John Blaha on the Mir crew. The Shuttle undocked from the SO
module on Mir at 0216 UTC on Jan 20, and backed off along the -RBAR
(i.e. toward the Earth) to a distance of 140m before beginning a
flyaround at 0231 UTC. Most of the flyaround was at a distance from Mir
of about 170m. The first 'orbit' around Mir was complete at 0315, and
the second was completed at 0402 UTC, when the Orbiter fired its
jets to separate from the vicinity of Mir. The return crew for
Atlantis comprised Mike Baker, Brent Jett, Marsha Ivins, Jeff Wisoff,
John Grunsfeld, and John Blaha.

Atlantis closed its payload bay doors early on Jan 22 and fired the OMS
engines for the deorbit burn at 1317 UTC. The spaceship touched down on
Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 1422 UTC, completing mission
STS-81. Atlantis will make its next trip to Mir in May.

The next Shuttle mission, STS-82 on Feb 11, will deliver new science
instruments to the Hubble Space Telescope. Discovery was rolled to the
pad on Jan 17; during the rollout, the steel surface plate of Mobile
Launch Platform 1 developed a 7 meter long crack, with a 'loud bang'.
NASA reports that the weight-bearing surface of the MLP, which supports
the fully fuelled Shuttle, is intact and there is apparently no big
problem. Mobile Launch Platform 1 was originally part of Apollo-Saturn
Launch Umbilical Tower 3 (LUT-3), first rolled out to pad 39A in March
1966 and first used for a launch for Apollo 10 in May 1969.

Recent Launches
---------------

A McDonnell Douglas Delta 7925 was destroyed shortly after launch from
Cape Canaveral on Jan 17. According to a Florida Today report, a solid
rocket booster may have failed just before the spectacular explosion.
This is the first Delta II rocket to fail to reach orbit, and the first
failure to orbit of any Delta since 1986. The payload was the first GPS
Block IIR spacecraft to be launched (actually the second production
vehicle), built by the former Lockheed Martin Astro Space in Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania. (now part of Lockheed Martin Missiles and
Space/Sunnyvale). Navstar GPS satellites carry atomic clocks to provide
precise navigational information; Boeing North American Block II and
Block IIA GPS satellites make up the current system, which Block IIR
will replace.

The Delta 7925 is a three stage rocket. The first stage is an Extra
Extended Long Tank Thor, a derivative of the 1950s Thor IRBM. The second
stage is a restartable liquid stage, usually denoted 'SSPS' for Second
Stage Propulsion System, and using the Aerojet AJ-10-118K engine. This
stage derives from the AJ-10-118E Improved Delta stage of the mid-1960's
which in turn came from the AJ-10-104 Ablestar stage. The third stage is
the PAM-D (Payload Assist Module-Delta) which uses the Thiokol Star 48
solid motor. In addition to the three main stages, there are nine
strap-on solid motors attached to the first stage. These Alliant
Techsystems GEM (Graphite Epoxy Motor) solids distinguish the Delta 7000
series from earlier models using Thiokol Castor solid boosters. The only
GEM failure to date occurred when a GEM failed to separate during the
Koreasat 1 launch, but it appears that one of the GEMs may have failed
on this latest launch.

AT&T's Telstar 401 communications satellite has failed in geostationary
orbit. Reason for the failure is unknown. The satellite was built
by Lockheed Martin Astro Space/East Windsor and is a Series 7000 model.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A
Dec 11 1200   Kosmos-2335      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Recon       69A
Dec 18 0157   Inmarsat III F3  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      70A
Dec 20 0644   Kosmos-2336      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      71A
Dec 20 1804   USA 129          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      72A
Dec 24 1350   Bion No. 11      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43   Life sci    73A
Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS IIR No. 2    Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       OPF LC39A     STS-82  Feb 11
OV-104 Atlantis        KSC RW33      STS-81 
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81/OV-103    LC39A          STS-82
ML2/                        LC39B          STS-81
ML3/RSRM-59/                VAB Bay 1      STS-83


Shuttle Processing Explanation (or,  what are all these acronyms
anyway?): 

 The Shuttle consists of an Orbiter (OV), an expendable External Tank
(ET), and a reusable pair of Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM).  It
is launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The OV is prepared for
flight in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) which consists of three
bays (one of which is actually a separate building) after which it is
towed to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and `mated to the stack' or
joined to the ET and RSRM. First, the segments of the RSRM are stacked
up on a Mobile Launch Platform (ML) and then the ET is connected to it.
After the OV is mated, a Crawler-Transporter is moved underneath the ML
and carries the ML/RSRM/ET/OV stack to one of the two pads (A or B) at
launch complex 39 (LC39) where it is eventually launched on a Space
Transportation System (STS) mission. Occasionally an OV is returned to
the Rockwell International plant in Palmdale, California for refit - an
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period or OMDP. 


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 312
Date: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 14:31PM

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 312                         1997 Feb 5  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Progress M-33 will undock from Mir's Kvant module +X port on Feb 6, and
Soyuz TM-24 will undock from the Mir -X port on Feb 7, redocking at the
Kvant +X port shortly afterwards (info from Vladimir Agapov). Launch of
RKK Energiya's 7K-STM spacecraft No. 74 is scheduled for Feb 10. This
spacecraft will be named Soyuz TM-25 once reaching orbit, and will carry
the Russian EO-23 and German DLR Mir-97 crews to Mir. EO-23 commander is
Vasiliy Vasilevich Tsibliev, and flight engineer is Aleksandr Ivanovich
Lazutkin. Mir-97 astronaut-researcher is Reinhold Ewald. Currently on
board the Mir station are EO-22 crew Valeriy Korzun and Aleksandr
Kaleri, and NASA-4 crewmember Jerry Linenger. After the return of Soyuz
TM-24 to Earth at the beginning of March, the crew will be Tsibliev,
Lazutkin and Linenger. Launch of Soyuz TM-25 will be carried out by an
11A511U (Soyuz-U) launch vehicle from the Baykonur spaceport (GIK-5) in
Kazakstan. Tsibliev was selected for the Russian Air Force astronaut
detachment in 1987 and first flew on Soyuz TM-17. Lazutkin joined NPO
Energiya's civilian astronaut team in 1991 and has not flown before.
Ewald was selected for the German astronaut team in 1990. and was backup
for the Soyuz TM-14 mission in 1992. Soyuz TM-25 will dock at Mir's -X
port on Feb 12. Soyuz TM-24 will undock from Kvant +X in March and land
in Kazakstan; Progress M-33 will remain in orbit probably until March
and then be deorbited over the Pacific.

Launch of Shuttle mission STS-82 is scheduled for Feb 11. OV-103
Discovery wil be launched from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center and will
rendezvous with and capture the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
Discovery's payload bay contains:
 
 RMS:         Remote Manipulator System No. 301
 Bay 1:       Airlock Tunnel Adapter
 Bay 2:       Orbiter Docking System 
 Bay 4-5:     SAC Second Axial Carrier
 Bay 6 Keel:  Camera
 Bay 7-8:     ORUC Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier
 Bay 10 Port: APC (Adaptive Payload Carrier) with MFR, Manipulator Foot
Restraint
 Bay 11:      FSS  Flight Support System
 Bay 13 Port: APC with PFR, Portable Foot Restraint

The Orbiter Docking System was added to Discovery after its last refit,
so that the Orbiter can support Mir and Space Station missions.
Astronauts will exit through the ODS airlock into the payload bay. A
Tool Stowage Assembly (TSA) is mounted on the outside of the ODS,
containing tools for the spacewalkers to use. The SAC is the same device
formerly called Solar Array Carrier which  flew on mission STS-61. On
this mission it carries gyros and other replacement components for HST,
as well as the NICMOS science instrument. The ORUC is a Spacelab Pallet
and carries the STIS science instrument and a replacement FGS 1 (Fine
Guidance Sensor 1). The Flight Support System is a docking ring for HST;
Discovery will capture HST with its manipulator arm and lower it onto
the FSS. FSS first flew on the Solar Max Repair Mission in 1984.

STIS, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, will replace both GHRS
(the Goddard High Res Spectrograph) and FOS (the Faint Object
Spectrograph). The big difference is that STIS has two-dimensional
detectors, giving you one axis of wavelength (spectrum) and another axis
of position. This means that you can get a background spectrum  at the
same time as your source spectrum, so you can study faint objects more
easily, and you can study how a spectrum changes across a spatially
extended object like a galaxy. STIS has three detectors, two
ultraviolet-sensitive microchannel plate arrays and one optical CCD
camera.

NICMOS, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, marks
HST's entry into infrared astronomy. The HST mirror has always been able
to collect near infrared light, it just didn't have any cameras which
could register those photons. NICMOS covers the 0.8 to 2.5 micron
spectral range; parts of this range are covered by the I, J, H and K
atmospheric windows in the optical but you need to go into space to get
an uninterrupted view of this crucial chunk of spectrum.

Crew of STS-82 are Ken Bowersox (Commander), Scott Horowitz (Pilot),
Mark Lee (Payload Commander )and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Steve
Hawley, Greg Harbaugh, and Steve Smith.

The first EVA will be carried out by Lee and Smith. They will replace
the GHRS spectrograph with STIS, and then replace FOS with NICMOS. EVA
2, by Harbaugh and Tanner, will involve replacing FGS 1 and adding new
electronics. EVA 3, by Lee and Smith, will replace a Data Interface Unit
(DIU-2), a data recorder, and a reaction wheel assembly (RWA-1).
Harbaugh and Tanner, on EVA 4, will replace the solar array drive
electronics  (SADE-2) and magnetometer (MSS) covers. After the
spacewalks are complete, Discovery will boost HST's orbit and then
release it. The existing imaging instruments (WFPC-2 and FOC) are not
affected by the servicing mission (we hope!) and will resume
observations withing a few weeks; the new instruments will take several
months to go into regular service.

Steve Hawley (1978 group )was former chief Scientist Astronaut, and flew
on the original STS-31R HST deployment mission. He had left the
astronaut corps, but returned specially for this STS-82 mission. 
Bowersox was part of the 1987 group of astronauts, and was pilot on the
first HST repair mission. This is his fourth flight and his second
command. Greg Harbaugh (1987 group) flew on the first Mir docking
mission and made a training EVA on mission STS-54. Mark Lee (1984 group)
test flew the SAFER backpack on STS-64; the other two spacewalkers are
new to the experience; Smith and Tanner were in the 1992 astronaut
group, as is pilot Horowitz.

Recent Launches
---------------

Ariane flight V93 was successfully launched from the Centre Spatiale
Guyanais on Jan 30. The third stage of the launch vehicle entered
geostationary transfer orbit, releasing two communications satellites.
GE 2 is the second Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space A2100 series
comsat and is owned by GE Americom. It has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band
transponders and will provide communications services in North America.
Nahuel 1A is a Dornier/Aerospatiale Spacebus 2000 class comsat for the
Argentine NAHUELSAT communications company, providing direct TV services
to all of Latin America with 18 Ku-band transponders. The two satellites
both carry liquid apogee engines which will be used to raise their
orbits to geosynchronous altitude over the next few weeks. V93 placed
the payloads in a 637.0 min, 241 x 36049 km x 7.5 deg orbit. By Feb 1 GE
2 had raised perigee to 3814 x 35818 km x 4.6 deg, and Nahuel was at
13893 x 35879 km x 1.9 deg. On Feb 5, Nahuel was in a  35491 x 35899 km
x 0.1 deg orbit over 73.6W, drifting 1 deg per day. GE 2 was in a 35741
x 35824 km x 0.1 deg orbit over 82.4W according to Space Command, but
those orbital elements may be a search orbit rather than an actual
observation.

I'm not sure if the GPS IIR payload lost on Jan 17 was production
vehicle Number 2 (SVN 42) or Number 3 (SVN 43); if anyone knows, please
email me.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0658   Mars Pathfinder  Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17B Mars probe  68A
Dec 11 1200   Kosmos-2335      Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90   Recon       69A
Dec 18 0157   Inmarsat III F3  Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36  Comsat      70A
Dec 20 0644   Kosmos-2336      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132  Navsat      71A
Dec 20 1804   USA 129          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      72A
Dec 24 1350   Bion No. 11      Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43   Life sci    73A
Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS IIR No. 2?   Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
Jan 30 2204   GE 2     )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat 
    02A	
              Nahuel 1A)                                      Comsat      02B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83  Apr 19
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-82  Feb 11
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-58/ET-81/OV-103    LC39A          STS-82
ML2/           
ML3/RSRM-59/ET-84           VAB Bay 1      STS-83


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 313
Date: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 13:57PM

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 313                         1997 Feb 12  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The crew swap on the Mir station is underway amid much reparking of
spaceships. The Progress M-33 robot cargo ship undocked from the +X axis
of Mir at 1213:56 UTC on Feb 6 and began independent orbital flight in a
 377 x 395 km x 51.65 deg orbit. On Feb 7 at 1628:01 the Mir crew of
Korzun, Kaleri and Linenger undocked the Soyuz TM-24 ferry from the
front docking port (-X), flew it around to the far side of the complex
and redocked at the +X port at 1651:27 UTC. The new ferry ship Soyuz
TM-25 was launched from Kazakstan on Feb 10 at 1409:30 UTC. The 11A511U
launch vehicle placed the spacecraft in a 51.6 degree orbit. On Feb 11
the orbit was 262 x 311 km x 51.65 deg, while Mir is in a 378 x 394 km x
51.65 deg orbit. Crew of Soyuz TM-25 are Vasiliy Tsibliev (callsign
'Sirius'), Aleksandr Lazutkin, and Reinhold Ewald. After several more
rendezvous burns, Soyuz TM-25 docked with Mir at the -X port on Feb 12
at 1551:13 UTC. (Thanks for detailed info from Chris van den Berg and
Vladimir Agapov).

Space Shuttle Orbiter OV-103 Discovery was launched on Feb 11 at 0855:17
 UTC on mission STS-82. It will rendezvous with the Hubble Space
Telescope on Feb 13, and astronauts will spacewalk to install the NICMOS
and STIS science instruments. After the OMS 2 burn Discovery was in a
350 x 579 km x 28.5 deg orbit; later on Feb 11 perigee was raised to 480
km and on Feb 12 it was in a 576 x 584 km orbit. HST is in a 589 x 598
km x 28.5 deg orbit. The Discovery astronauts have checked out operation
of the robot arm and are closing in on their target.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) has
launched the MUSES B satellite early on Feb 12. (1350 JST or 1358 JST
according to different reports). It has been renamed 'Haruka', which
means 'far-away'. Congratulations to the ISAS team!  Haruka is the space
segment of the VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Programme), and will unfurl
an 8-meter radiotelescope antenna to make joint observations with ground
based radio observatories, simulating a telescope larger than the Earth.
Haruka carries detectors operating at 1.6, 5 and 22 GHz, and will be
able to make radio images with very high spatial resolution,
permitting precise measurements of quasar jets and galactic maser
sources. MUSES B is the second Mu Space Engineering Satellite; the
first was the MUSES A (Hiten) probe which pioneered use of advanced orbital
dynamics and aerobraking.

This was the first launch of the Japanese ISAS agency's three stage
solid fuel M-V (Mu-5) rocket. M-V-1 was launched from the Kagoshima
Space Center (I don't know if the launch pad has a specific
designation). The M-14 first stage separated 25s after launch, followed
by the M-24 second stage at T+3min:33s.  The M-34 third stage continued
the ascent, separating at 5min 39sec after spinning up the payload
section. The KM-V1 solid kick motor ignited to raise apogee, and
separated 8 minutes after launch to leave Haruka in a 233 x 21527 km x
31.2 deg orbit. On-board RCS burns will raise the perigee over the next
week. The KM-V1 motor (1997-05B) is in a 230 x 21452 km x 31.3 deg
orbit. The M-34 stage may have reached orbit with a similar perigee and
a lower apogee, but it has not yet been cataloged by Space Command.
All four of the stages involved in this launch had never flown before,
so this was a crucial test for the ISAS launch vehicle group.

The Haruka satellite is also given the  English acronym HALCA (Highly
Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy). Each ISAS
satellite has had a prelaunch English name (like MUSES B) and a
postlaunch Japanese name (like Haruka). Unfortunately, starting with
ASTRO D, ISAS also began to assign  homophonic 'English equivalents' of
the Japanese name and use only these in English publications, thus ASTRO
D is widely known as ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and
Astrophysics) rather than Asuka, its Japanese equivalent. This is
presumably because ISAS scientists got quite reasonably fed up with
Americans completely mangling the Japanese names of their satellites.
However, I find the English homophones ugly, and HALCA in particular is
kind of dumb - so I plan to use the Haruka name. 

The GPS satellite lost on Jan 17 was SVN (Space Vehicle No.) 42, the
second GPS IIR production satellite. It would have used the identifier
PRN 12 if it had been successful. (Info from Richard Langley). Prior to
the accident, the schedule foresaw the next launch as SVN 38, the last
Block IIA satellite, followed by SVN 43 (GPS IIR No. 3).

Despite my comment last week, the GE 2 orbit I quoted was a true orbital
measurement, according to my sources. Ariane V93's final stage entered 
a 210 x 35800 km x 7.0 deg orbit before deploying the two satellites and
the Mini-Spelda adapter cover, and then performed an avoidance maneuver
to enter a 236 x 36066 km orbit. GE Americom's GE 2 is now on station at
82.4W and Nahuelsat's Nahuel 1A is stationary at 72.2W.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS 42           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
Jan 30 2204   GE 2     )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat 
    02A	
              Nahuel 1A)                                      Comsat      02B
Feb 10 1409   Soyuz TM-25      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   03A
Feb 11 0855   Discovery STS-82 Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   04A
Feb 12 0450   Haruka           M-V            Kagoshima       Astronomy   05A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-82  Feb 11
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/           
ML3/RSRM-59/ET-84           VAB Bay 1      STS-83


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 314
Date: Friday, February 21, 1997 16:53PM

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 314                     1997 Feb 21  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Discovery completed its rendezvous with Hubble on Feb 13. Steve Hawley
used the RMS arm to grapple HST at 0834 UTC and by shortly after 0900
UTC the telescope was docked to the FSS (Flight Support Structure) in
the aft part of the cargo bay. On Feb 14 astronauts Mark Lee and Steven
Smith carried out a spacewalk to install the STIS and NICMOS science
instruments. After depressurizing the airlock to 5 psi, the spacewalk
was postponed when escaping air caused the Hubble solar arrays to move.
Depressurization was completed at around 0430 UTC. First, the GHRS
spectrograph was removed from its axial bay on HST and parked on the
ORUC carrier. Then, the STIS spectrograph was removed from its ORUC
enclosure and placed inside HST. GHRS was placed in the empty enclosure
for return to Earth. Now it was the turn of the Faint Object
Spectrograph (FOS, my personal favorite HST instrument which has
generated loads of delicious data on the ultraviolet spectra and
continua of quasars) to be retired. It was removed from its axial bay
and parked, to be replaced by the NICMOS infrared camera/spectrograph
brought up in the SAC carrier (used to carry up new solar panels on
STS-61). Finally FOS was laid in the NICMOS enclosure on SAC for its
journey home to honorable retirement. According to Bill Harwood's web page,
the airlock close was at 1116 UTC, but I don't have the repressurization
time.

HST's science compartment has radial bays, accessed from the side, and
axial bays, accessed from the end. The radial bays contain three Fine
Guidance Sensors, FGS-1 to FGS-3 (FGS-1 was replaced on this
mission), and the WFPC-2 Wide Field and Planetary Camera, responsible
for the majority of the pretty pictures you see. The axial bays, whose
boundaries are rotated 45 degrees to the radial bays, contain the Faint
Object Camera (FOC), which takes ultraviolet pictures, the COSTAR device
which carries corrective lenses for FOC, and the new NICMOS and STIS.
COSTAR also provided spectacles for GHRS and FOS, but NICMOS and STIS
have their own corrective optics. FOS is the only one of the original
science (non-FGS) instruments still aboard. The High Speed Photometer
was replaced by COSTAR, and the original WFPC was replaced by WFPC-2.

   HST Instruments
Location      Launch    After STS-82   Carried up in        
--------      ------    ------------   -------------        
Radial +V2    FGS-1     FGS-1R         STS-82 ORUC FSIPE    
Radial -V3    FGS-2     FGS-2          STS-31R HST          
Radial -V2    FGS-3     FGS-3          STS-31R HST
Radial +V3    WFPC      WFPC-2         STS-61 ORUC SIPE
Axial +V3/+V2 FOC       FOC            STS-31R HST
Axial +V2/-V3 HSP       COSTAR         STS-61 ORUC SIPE
Axial -V3/-V2 GHRS      STIS           STS-82 ORUC SIPE
Axial -V2/+V3 FOS       NICMOS         STS-82 SAC SIPE

The spacewalkers have discovered potentially serious rips in Hubble's 
insulation, caused by degradation over the seven years the material
has been in orbit. An orbital debris puncture in an antenna
was also noticed.

Four more spacewalks have now been completed. EVA-2, by Greg Harbaugh
and Joe Tanner, replaced the Fine Guidance Sensor in a 7h 26m spacewalk.
EVA-3, by Lee and Smith, made a 7h 11m walk to install a new computer
and data recorder. EVA-4 was 6h 34m and saw installation of new
electronics and covers on the magnetometer sensors, plus initial repairs
to the insulation. EVA-5 involved more insulation repairs; the
astronauts then spent some time in the airlock awaiting word on whether
an extra gyro replacement would be needed, before finally cleaning up
the payload bay and repressurizing after a 5h 17m walk. (The times given
are NASA's EVA times from when the spacesuits go on battery power until
repressurization; I prefer to measure from depressurization to
repressurization, which gives times about 5 minutes longer in each
case).

The Hubble Space Telescope was released back into orbit at  0641 UTC on
Feb 19. Discovery landed on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at
0832 UTC on Feb 21.

Recent Launches
---------------

An 11K68 Tsiklon-3 rocket built by the Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk company
Yuzhnoe was launched from Plesetsk in Russia on Feb 14. The S5M third
stage fired twice to enter a circular 1400 km orbit and deployed six
small communications satellites built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of
Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The names of the satellites are not yet confirmed
but I am guessing that three are Kosmos military satellites in the
Strela-3 system for the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense (MO RF)
and three are development satellites for the Gonets civilian version of
Strela-3, which is probably officially owned by the Russian Space Agency
(RKA). The first satellite is in a 1413 x 1422 km x 82.6 deg orbit;
orbits for the others are similar.

JCSAT 4 was launched by a Lockheed Martin Astronautics/Denver Atlas IIAS
from Cape Canaveral on Feb 17. JCSAT 4 is a communications satellite
owned by Japan Satellite Systems Inc (JSAT, Kabushiki-gaisha Nihon
Sateraito Sisutemuzu). It is an HS-601 class satellite built by Hughes.
The Atlas IIAS AC-127 Centaur second stage entered a low parking orbit
and then reignited to place JCSAT-4 in a Super-GTO orbit of 221 x 94251
km x 23.5 deg. The HS-601's liquid apogee engine will change inclination
to equatorial, then lower the apogee and raise  perigee to achieve
geostationary orbit. By Feb 20, it was in a 14339 x 94291 km x 6.5 deg
orbit.

Galileo completed its orbit 6 Europa encounter  on Feb 20. It flew 587
km from Europa. Its next orbit will take it past Ganymede on Apr 5.
The Haruka satellite has now raised its perigee to 500 km.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS 42           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
Jan 30 2204   GE 2     )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat 
    02A	
              Nahuel 1A)                                      Comsat      02B
Feb 10 1409   Soyuz TM-25      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   03A
Feb 11 0855   Discovery STS-82 Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   04A
Feb 12 0450   Haruka           M-V            Kagoshima       Astronomy   05A
Feb 14 0347   Kosmos-2337      Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32/1 Comsat      06A
              Kosmos-2338                                     Comsat      06B
              Kosmos-2339                                     Comsat      06C
              Gonets-D1 No. 4                                 Comsat      06D
              Gonets-D1 No. 5                                 Comsat      06E
              Gonets-D1 No. 6                                 Comsat      06F
Feb 17 0142   JCSAT 4          Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      07A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       RW15 KSC      STS-82  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-60                 VAB Bay 3      STS-84
ML3/RSRM-59/ET-84           VAB Bay 1      STS-83


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: owner-jsr
To: jsr-outgoing
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 315
Date: Friday, March 7, 1997 17:12PM

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 315                     1997 Mar 7 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------


The Mir crew of Korzun, Kaleri, Ewald, Tsibliev, Lazutkin and Linenger
continued their mission on the complex in late February. On Feb 23 at
1935 UTC a fire broke out in a lithium perchlorate  cartridge in the
Kvant module used to generate extra oxygen on Mir, filling the complex
with smoke. Korzun and Kaleri used extinguishers to  fight the fire
which was extinguished after 90 seconds; the heavy smoke persisted for 
about five minutes and the crew wore gas masks for two and a half hours.
Now the crew are having difficulty generating sufficient oxygen
for the life support system. (Details from Chris van den Berg and NASA).

Korzun, Kaleri and Ewald undocked from Mir in the Soyuz TM-24 spaceship
at 0324 UTC on Mar 2 and landed at 0644 UTC near Arkaylk in Kazakstan.

The Progress M-33 cargo ship, which has been orbiting separately from
Mir since Feb 6, failed to redock with Mir on Mar 4. It will be
deorbited. Launch of Progress M-34 is scheduled for early April.

Recent Launches
---------------

The first Titan 4B was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral on Feb
23. The vehicle, K-24, is the first to use Alliant SRMU solid rocket
motors replacing the UTC solid motors which have propelled Titan 3 and 4
vehicles since 1965. K-24 carried a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage (serial
number not known yet). The two stage IUS solid upper stage was
due to place the payload in geostationary orbit.

The K-24 payload was Defense Support Program DSP F-18, a TRW-built
early warning satellite with an infrared telescope for detecting
missile launches.

The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization's first
Intelsat 8 satellite, Intelsat 801, was launched on Mar 1. The satellite
was launched by Arianespace's Ariane 44P rocket on mission V94. The
Intelsat 8 satellites are built by  Lockheed Martin/East Windsor and use
the Series 7000 spacecraft bus. The Series 7000 uses either the Royal
Ordnance Leros 1 or the TRW 454N  LAE for apogee propulsion,
I don't know what's on the Intelsat 8, though.

The first launch from Russia's far eastern Svobodniy cosmodrome (51.2 N
128.0 E) was a success. A Start-1 rocket placed the Zeya satellite in
sun-synchronous orbit. The Zeya (also known as Mozhaets) satellite was
designed by the students of the Mozhaiskiy military space engineering
academy and built at NPO-PM. The launch vehicle is the four-stage
Start-1, using a mobile launch platform at Svobodniy. It will be used
for navigation and geodesy.

The MSX satellite's solid hydrogen cooled IR telescope completed
operations on Feb 26.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS 42           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
Jan 30 2204   GE 2     )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat 
    02A	
              Nahuel 1A)                                      Comsat      02B
Feb 10 1409   Soyuz TM-25      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   03A
Feb 11 0855   Discovery STS-82 Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   04A
Feb 12 0450   Haruka           M-V            Kagoshima       Astronomy   05A
Feb 14 0347   Kosmos-2337      Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32/1 Comsat      06A
              Kosmos-2338                                     Comsat      06B
              Kosmos-2339                                     Comsat      06C
              Gonets-D1 No. 4                                 Comsat      06D
              Gonets-D1 No. 5                                 Comsat      06E
              Gonets-D1 No. 6                                 Comsat      06F
Feb 17 0142   JCSAT 4          Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      07A
Feb 23 2020   DSP F18          Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  08A
Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       RW15 KSC      STS-82  
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       Palmdale      OMDP
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-60                 VAB Bay 3      STS-84
ML3/RSRM-59/ET-84           VAB Bay 1      STS-83


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 27. March 1997 22:12
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 316

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 316                           1997 Mar 27 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
---------
Apologies for the delay in this report. I've been very busy at work
(for which see the AXAF article below).
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

After the failure of Progress M-33 to redock with Mir, it was deorbited
at 0235 UTC on Mar 12 and reentered at 0323 UTC over the Pacific Ocean.

The next Shuttle launch is STS-83, scheduled for launch Apr 3 using
OV-102 Columbia. It carries a Spacelab Long Module (probably the CD
module, Flight Unit 1, which last flew on STS-73/USML-2 - can anyone
confirm this?) and an Extended Duration Orbiter pallet. The Spacelab
payload is MSL-1 (Microgravity Science Laboratory 1). This is actually
the second payload called MSL-1 to fly on the Shuttle, as the STS-7
OSTA-2 payload was also called MSL-1. An MSL-2 flew on mission 61-C in
1986. The earlier MSL-1 and MSL-2 are nothing to do with the new ones.
Crew of STS-83 are James Halsell and Susan Still (Commander and Pilot),
Janice Voss (Payload Commander), Mike Gernhardt and Donald Thomas
(Mission Specialists), and Roger Crouch and Gregory Linteris (Payload
Specialists). Cady Coleman is backup to Thomas, who broke his ankle
during training, but it now looks like Thomas will be OK to fly.
Crouch is a NASA HQ employee, and was backup on IML-1. Linteris works
at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

OV-105 Endeavour returned to Kennedy Space Center on Mar 27 after its
refurbishment period at Boeing North American in California.
It was scheduled to take up the first Shuttle payload to Space
Station on STS-88, but the mission has now been postponed and
the manifest is being reworked.

AXAF
----

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility is NASA's next
observatory-class astronomy satellite. It is due for launch in Aug 1998
on Shuttle OV-102 Columbia. A two-stage IUS will place it in a highly
elliptical orbit, and an onboard liquid propulsion system will then
raise the orbit to 10000 x 140000 km x 28.5 deg. The telescope has a ten
meter focal length. Two cameras (ACIS, which contains ten X-ray CCD
imagers based on ASCA/SIS technology, and HRC, which has four
microchannel plate pairs similar to the ROSAT/HRI but much bigger)
will detect the X-rays, and two gratings may be placed in the beam
for high resolution spectroscopy. AXAF will make high spatial and
spectral resolution observations of X-ray sources such as quasars,
clusters of galaxies, supernova remnants, binary and active stars,
and even comets.

Prime contractor TRW, which is building the spacecraft in California,
has completed structural tests of the spacecraft bus and fit checks of
the telescope tube. Meanwhile in Alabama, scientists from NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
MIT, Penn State, Utrecht and MPE/Garching are calibrating the telescope
and its science instruments. In a recent press release we announced that
mirror tests show we can focus 70 percent of the X-rays from a point
source into an image half an arcsecond across, which is much better than
X-ray telescopes now on orbit. This is very exciting news, confirming
that we've constructed the mirrors correctly; next we test the mirrors
in combination with the flight cameras. The calibration tests began in
December and have been running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The
telescope is in a two-story-high vacuum chamber at NASA-MSFC, and
scientists from here are taking turns going down for a week or two to do
12-hour shifts overseeing the operations and data reduction. 

Recent Launches
---------------

The Tempo 2 direct broadcast satellite was launched by Lockheed Martin's
Atlas IIA AC-128 from Cape Canaveral on Mar 8. Tempo is owned by TCI
Satellite Entertainment Inc and is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class
spacecraft. The Centaur IIA second stage made two burns to place
Tempo 2 in a sub-synchronous 369.9 min, 256 x 21125 km x 25.0 deg
transfer orbit. It used its own engine to raise orbit to geosynchronous,
and on Mar 27 it was on station at 109.9W.

Based on info from Ron Pedersen, I understand that that the Intelsat 8
satellites (like Intelsat 801 launched on Mar 1) use the British Royal
Ordnance Leros 1 apogee engine.

Erratum: Igor Lissov reports that he believes earlier reports that the
Zeya satellite  is the same as the Mozhaets satellite are incorrect. So
I don't know for sure who built Zeya, although NPO-PM is probably
still the contractor and the Russian Defense Ministry is the owner.
It may be primarily for communications rather than navigation/geodesy.
Zeya is in a 424 x 467 km x 97.3 deg orbit. If anyone has any more
details on Zeya, please let me know.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 12 0928   Atlantis         Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B   Spaceship   01A
Jan 17 1628   GPS 42           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Navsat      FTO
Jan 30 2204   GE 2     )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      02A	
              Nahuel 1A)                                      Comsat      02B
Feb 10 1409   Soyuz TM-25      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Spaceship   03A
Feb 11 0855   Discovery STS-82 Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   04A
Feb 12 0450   Haruka           M-V            Kagoshima       Astronomy   05A
Feb 14 0347   Kosmos-2337      Tsiklon-3      Plesetsk LC32/1 Comsat      06A
              Kosmos-2338                                     Comsat      06B
              Kosmos-2339                                     Comsat      06C
              Gonets-D1 No. 4                                 Comsat      06D
              Gonets-D1 No. 5                                 Comsat      06E
              Gonets-D1 No. 6                                 Comsat      06F
Feb 17 0142   JCSAT 4          Atlas IIAS     Canaveral LC36B Comsat      07A
Feb 23 2020   DSP F18          Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40  Early Warn  08A
Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Jul 17
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       KSC SLF       STS-88  Postponed
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85           VAB Bay 3      STS-84
ML3/RSRM-59/ET-84/OV-102    LC39A          STS-83


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 04. April 1997 21:46
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 317

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 317                                    1997 Apr 4 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Shuttle mission STS-83 was launched from Kennedy Space Center at
approximately 1920:36 UTC on Apr 4. The orbiter is OV-102 Columbia;
solid rocket motors RSRM-59 separated two minutes after launch and the
external tank ET-84 was jettisoned at 1929 UTC, leaving Columbia in an
elliptical transfer orbit with an apogee near 300 km. The OMS 2 orbit
circularization burn was scheduled for 2000 UTC. Launch was delayed
for 20 minutes due to minor technical problems.

The Microgravity Science Lab 1 (MSL-1) mission carries the
following payloads in its cargo bay:
 Bay 1-2: Airlock Tunnel Adapter
 Bay 3-5: Spacelab Long Tunnel
 Bay 4 Starboard: CRYOFD
 Bay 6-10: Spacelab Long Module, Flight Unit 1
 Bay 11 keel: OARE
 Bay 12:  EDO Kit (Extended Duration Orbiter pallet)

The Long Module laboratory is a reusable space vehicle which has flown
in space seven times previously, almost always aboard orbiter OV-102
Columbia:

 Long Module 1 flights
 1983 Spacelab 1                        (Columbia)
 1985 Spacelab 3                        (Challenger)
 1991 Spacelab Life Sciences 1          (Columbia)
 1992 US Microgravity Lab 1             (Columbia)
 1993 Spacelab D-2                      (Columbia)
 1994 International Microgravity Lab 2  (Columbia)
 1995 US Microgravity Lab 2             (Columbia)
 1997 Microgravity Science Lab 1        (Columbia)

There is a second Long Module which has flown six times, on
every single orbiter in NASA's fleet:

 Long Module 2 flights
 1985 Spacelab D-1                       (Challenger)
 1992 International Microgravity Lab 1   (Discovery)
 1992 Spacelab J                         (Endeavour)
 1993 Spacelab Life Sciences 2           (Columbia)
 1995 Spacelab-Mir                       (Atlantis)
 1996 Life Science/Microgravity Spacelab (Columbia)
 1998, planned: Neurolab                 (Columbia)

On this MSL-1 mission, Long Module 1 carries a number of experiment
racks including a test flight of the International Standard Payload Rack
which is to be used on Space Station. On this mission the ISPR is called
EXPRESS, is installed in module Rack 7, and carries a plant growth
experiment and a fluid physics experiment. Rack 3 contains the TEMPUS
electromagnetic levitation facility and two acceleration monitoring
systems. Another set of racks comprises the Combustion Module (Rack 6,
Rack 8) which will be used for experiments in microgravity combustion
(setting fire to things in space). The Large Isothermal Furnace (Rack 9)
will conduct experiments with metallic liquids. The Drop Combustion
Experiment (Rack 10) has another fire experiment. Rack 12 is the
misleadingly named Middeck Glovebox, which used to fly on the orbiter
mid-deck but now is in the Long Module, and carries more materials
experiments.

The OARE Orbiter Acceleration Research Experiment is an instrument
attached to the bottom of the cargo bay, which has flown on many
previous Columbia missions. It measures the acceleration environment
of the Shuttle, which is particularly important on a microgravity
experiment mission.

The CRYOFD (Cryogenic Flexible Diode) payload is mounted on an adapter
beam on the payload bay wall. It consists of the Hitchhiker avionics box
and a Getaway Special type canister containing two experimental heat
pipes. Heat pipes are devices used to passively remove heat from
electronics on spacecraft.

Technical problems with the life support systems and thermal control
systems continue on board Mir. The carbon dioxide removal system failed
on  Apr 3. Launch of a supply craft, Progress M-34, with repair
equipment for the oxygen systems, is scheduled for Apr 6.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Defense Meteorological Satellite Program weather satellite for the US
Air Force was launched on Apr 4 from Vandenberg. The payload is probably
satellite 5D S-14 (Satellite no. 14) and will become 5D F-14 (Flight no.
14) now it is up. Earlier Block 5D satellites were launched on
refurbished Thor and Atlas ICBMs; this time was DMSP's first use of a  a
two-stage refurbished Titan II ICBM. The  Titan 23G-6 rocket separated
from the payload six minutes after launch and delivered the DMSP and its
integral Star 37 solid motor upper stage into a suborbital trajectory
over the Pacific. The Star 37 was due to fire at apogee to place DMSP in
an 800 km sun-synchronous orbit.

The Block 5D program is a classic example of the disease of designation
asymptotia. The Block 5A satellites introduced in 1970 were
significantly larger than their Block 4B precursors but were the same
basic shape. Block 5B and 5C were minor upgrades to the 5A design. Block
5D, however, was a completely and utterly different spacecraft and
should really have been called Block 6. Since then the design has been
upgraded to a 5D-2 variant (should have been at least Block 6B if not
Block 7) and the next launch will be a 5D-3. Thank goodness, a Block 6
is finally on the drawing boards, although at this point I wouldn't be
surprised if they decided to rename it 5D-3-B. By the way, for some
incomprehensible reason the Block 1 to Block 3 series weather satellites
of 1962-1965 are still classified.

  List of DMSP Block 5D launches
  ------------------------------

Flight  Satellite  Operational  Launch    Launch vehicle
                   Designation  Date
--------------------------------------------------------------
 F-1    S-1        12535          1976 Sep 11    Thor 172
 F-2    S-2        13536          1977 Jun  5    Thor 183
 F-3    S-3        14537          1978 May  1    Thor 143
 F-4    S-5        15539          1979 Jun  6    Thor 264
 F-5    S-4        16538          1980 Jul 14 *  Thor 304 

 F-6    S-6        17540          1982 Dec 21    Atlas 60E
 F-7    S-7        18541          1983 Nov 18    Atlas 58E
 F-8    S-9        19543/USA 26   1987 Jun 20    Atlas 59E
 F-9    S-8        20542/USA 29   1987 Jun 20    Atlas 54E
 F-10   S-10       21544/USA 68   1990 Dec  1    Atlas 61E
 F-11   S-12       22546/USA 73   1991 Nov 28    Atlas 53E
 F-12   S-11       23545/USA 106  1994 Aug 29    Atlas 20E
 F-13   S-13       24547/USA 109  1995 Mar 24    Atlas 45E
 F-14   S-14?      25548?/USA     1997 Apr  4    Titan 23G-6
--------------------------------------------------------------
 * Launch failure; last DMSP Block 5D-1

The Zeya satellite is an 87 kg small satellite possibly based on the
Strela-1M military comsat bus launched in octuplets during the 1970s and
1980s. It carries 20 laser reflectors for geodesy and GLONASS and GPS
navigation receivers (*not* transmitters) presumably for orbital
determination to support its geodesy mission. Zeya also carries the
RS-16 amateur radio payload with 29.4 MHz, 435 MHz and 145.8 MHz
antennae. Thanks to Eric Rosenberg and Vladimir Agapov for the info.
Peter Klanowski reports that Itar-Tass (Jan 23) says Zeya was "
developed by the Krasnoyarsk-26 applied mechanics research and
production association [i.e. NPO-PM - ed.] jointly with the  Mozhaisky
military space engineering academy on order from the military  space
forces in the interests of the Russian Defence Ministry."


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A
Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship
              MSL-1 Spacelab )

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-83  Apr  3
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Jul 17
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-86  Sep 18

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85           VAB Bay 3      STS-84
ML3/                        LC39A          STS-83



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 10. April 1997 19:21
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 318

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 318                                 1997 Apr 10 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-83 performed its OMS 2 orbit circularization burn at 2000 UTC on Apr
4, and Columbia opened its payload bay doors by 2109 UTC, beginning what
was intended as a marathon Spacelab research mission. However, one of
the orbiter's three fuel cells malfunctioned shortly after launch, and
flight rules require that all three must be operating. The fuel cells
combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water and electricity. At 1430 UTC
on Apr 6 the crew were ordered to begin a Minimum Duration Flight (MDF).
On Apr 8 the OMS engines ignited at 1730 UTC for the deorbit burn, and
Columbia landed on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 1833 UTC.

While this foreshortened mission must be counted as a failure, we should
remember that in 82 orbital flights this is only the second that has had
to be abandoned well short of its goal, the first being STS-2 in 1981.
(A third flight, STS-44, was cut short by three days of its planned ten,
but in that case the primary mission objectives had already been met).
Some observers have noted that NASA has been a lot readier in recent
years to grant waivers (exceptions) to flight rules `on the fly', I
think mainly because flight controllers feel they now have the
experience to know what they can safely get away with. The fact that
they didn't consider stretching the rules this time, despite the serious
consequences, is an encouraging sign that safety is still the top
priority.

Endeavour was moved temporarily to the VAB on Apr 8 in order to free up
a parking space for Columbia in the Orbiter Processing Facility.
Columbia is currently scheduled to make its next flight as STS-87 in
October, but there is a possibility that an STS-83R reflight could be
added to the schedule in July.

A Progress cargo ship, production no. 234, was launched from Baykonur on
Apr 6 at 1604 UTC and named Progress M-34. It carries supplies for the
Mir station and repair equipment for Mir's oxygen generators, as well as
replacement oxygen-generating 'candles' and a pair of new spacesuits for
a forthcoming spacewalk. Progress M-34 docked successfully with the
Kvant module on Mir at 1730 UTC on Apr 8. Tsibliev, Lazutkin and
Linenger have begun repairs to Mir.

Recent Launches
---------------

Kosmos-2340 was launched on an 8K78M Molniya-M rocket on Apr 9 from the
Military Space Forces' Plesetsk spaceport. It is an early warning
satellite of the Oko series, which operate in 12-hour elliptical orbits
inclined at 62.8 degrees. The satellite is built by the Lavochkin
company and the rocket is provided by TsSKB-Progress. 

I have confirmed that the DMSP satellite launched on  Apr 4 was
spacecraft serial number S-14. The launch date for F-9/S-8 was actually
1988 Feb 3, apologies for the typo. It has been suggested to me that the
perverse DMSP-5D-2 style of block naming was done to keep a low profile
for both security and bureaucratic reasons. I goofed also in mentioning
a possible DMSP Block 6 - the DMSP and civilian NOAA weather sat
programs are being merged into something called NPOESS instead.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A
Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0900?  Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk        EarlyWarn   15A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-87  Oct  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Jul 17
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 2     STS-86  Sep 18

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85           VAB Bay 3      STS-84
ML3/                        LC39A          STS-83



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 22. April 1997 16:50
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 319

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 319                                   1997 Apr 22 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
---------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

I have updated my edited version of the United Nations Registry of space objects,
available from my space home page http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/space.html.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

NASA has decided to go ahead with mission STS-83R, the MSL-1 reflight,
on July 1. The same crew will fly the mission. The solid rocket boosters
originally scheduled for STS-85 (BI-88/RSRM-62) are being stacked
instead for STS-83R on mobile launch platform 1 in the VAB's high bay 1.
Meanwhile, preparations continue for the launch of Atlantis on mission
STS-84 to Mir in May, and that orbiter has been connected to the
external tank and solid rocket boosters. Atlantis will deliver a
replacement oxygen generator to Mir. The Mir complex raised its orbit by
5 km on 15 Apr at 1200 UTC, using Progress M-34's engine. The Mir crew
continue to carry out repairs on their life support system.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace's Ariane 44LP rocket placed two communications satellites
into orbit on Apr 16. Thaicom 3 is an Aerospatiale Spacebus 3000
satellite with 25 C-band and 14 Ku-band transponders, owned by
Shinawatra Satellite Public Co. of Bangkok, Thailand. It will be used
for communications in Asia and direct TV coverage in Thailand. The
satellite has a mass of 2650 kg at launch, 1179 kg dry, with a 26.3m
solar panel wingspan. The second payload is BSAT-1a, a Ku-band direct TV
broadcasting satellite using the Hughes HS-376 bus. It is operated by
Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. of Tokyo, a consortium of Japanese
broadcasters including NHK, which will replace the earlier TSCJ
(Telecomms Sat Corp of Japan) as the DBS operating organization. BSAT-1a
is a successor to the BSE, BS-2a/b, BS-3a/b (Yuri) satellite series of
NASDA and the BS-2X, 3H, 3N series of NHK.

    Japanese BS series direct TV broadcasting satellites 
  -------------------------------------------------------
  Satellite       Launch       Rocket      Owner       Bus
  BSE (Yuri)      1978 Apr 7   Delta 2914  NASDA       Toshiba/GE Satcom
  BS-2a (Yuri-2a) 1984 Jan 23  N-2         NASDA/TSCJ  Toshiba/GE Satcom
  BS-2b (Yuri-2b) 1986 Feb 12  N-2         NASDA/TSCJ  Toshiba/GE Satcom
  BS-2X           1990 Feb 22* Ariane 44L  NHK         GE S-3000
  BS-3a (Yuri-3a) 1990 Aug 28  H-1         NASDA/TSCJ  GE S-3000
  BS-3H           1991 Apr 18* Atlas I     NHK         GE S-3000
  BS-3b (Yuri-3b) 1991 Aug 25  H-1         NASDA/TSCJ  GE S-3000
  BS-3N           1994 Jul  8  Ariane 44L  NHK/JSB     MMAS S-3000
  BSAT-1a         1997 Apr 16  Ariane 44LP BSAT        Hughes HS-376
  * Note: BS-2X and BS-3H failed to reach orbit.

Kosmos-2341 was launched on Apr 17. It is a navigation satellite built
by NPO-PM of Krasnoyarsk-26. The AO Polyot Kosmos-3M launch vehicle's
S3M upper stage made two burns to deliver the payload to a 977 x 1014 km
x 82.9 deg orbit. The FAISAT satellite originally scheduled for this
mission was removed prior to launch.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched a Pegasus XL rocket on Apr 21,
placing the Minisat-01 satellite in orbit for the Instituto
Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA), the Spanish space agency.
Minisat-01 is the first of a series of Minisat-0 technology
satellites, which will precede planned Minisat-1 observation
satellites and Minisat-2 comsats. Minisat-01 is a 209 kg satellite
built by the Spanish CASA company. It carries the EURD extreme
ultraviolet spectrograph to study the interstellar medium, the
LEGRI experiment to study gamma ray bursts, and the CPLM
experiment to study microaccelerations in liquids.

The Pegasus XL rocket was attached to OSC's L-1011 Stargazer launch
aircraft at Torrejon AFB, Madrid earlier this month. On Apr 19 the
L-1011 carried the Pegasus to Gando AFB on the eastern tip of the island
of Gran Canaria, at approximately 27.5N 15.2W. It took off again at 1100
UTC on Apr 21, flying to 11.9 km altitude over the drop zone at 27.0N
15.33W, over the Atlantic Ocean between Gran Canaria and the Western
Sahara coast. The Pegasus XL was released at 1159 UTC and five seconds
later the winged first stage ignited to begin the ascent to orbit. The
second stage burnt out at 1202 UTC and the vehicle coasted until 1207
UTC when the second stage separated and the third stage ignited for a
one minute burn. At 1209 UTC the third stage and Minisat-01 separated,
with Minisat in a 562 x 581 km orbit with an inclination of 151.0 degrees
(i.e. 29 degrees but going westward). This is an all-time record high
inclination orbit, beating the 1966 record of 144.7 deg set by the USAF
research satellite OV1-5. 

Some press reports said that this Pegasus launch was the first satellite
launch from Western Europe, a claim that suggests certain people need to
look at a map. It's true that the mission was staged via Madrid and some
operations were managed from there, but the takeoff was from Gando and I
understand that launch control was at Maspalomas on the southern tip of
Gran Canaria. It's also true that Gran Canaria is Spanish territory
(just as Kourou is French territory), but that doesn't make it part of
Europe. So I think it's more accurate to say that this was a launch from
Western Africa (and not the first, as the French launched from southern
Algeria in 1965-1967. The Italian launch site off the coast of East
Africa saw its first orbital launch in 1967).

The Pegasus third stage for this mission consistes of an Orion 38
rocket motor and the Celestis satellite. The Celestis is a set of
capsules containing the cremated ashes of 24 people, and inaugurates
a new form of burial provided by the U.S. company Celestis, Inc.
Celestis is in a 554 x 582 km x 151.0 deg orbit.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A
Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0900?  Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk        EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-83R Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3     STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 25

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-62                 VAB Bay 1      STS-83R
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85/OV-104    VAB Bay 3      STS-84
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 30. April 1997 23:04
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 320

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 320                                    1997 Apr 30 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
---------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk

As part of research for a paper on the history of solid rocket motors,
I have compiled a launch log of all solid motors used as launch vehicle
final stages and apogee motors. I'd be grateful to anyone who can
provide corrections or fill in omissions. The log is available at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/rockets/notes.html

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39A on Apr 24 in preparation for the
launch of STS-84 on May 15. STS-83R has been renamed STS-94; the
missions up to STS-93 were far enough along in planning that it would
have been inconvenient to change all their documentation. Columbia will
have the same crew and cargo as before, and will launch on Jul 1.

Vasiliy Tsibliev and Jerry Linenger donned their Orlan-DMA spacesuits
and made a 5 hour spacewalk on Apr 29. They left the airlock at 0510 UTC
and returned to Kvant-2 at 1008 UTC after 4h 57m. The astronauts
retrieved some sample collection experiments from the outside of the
complex. Flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin remained inside the Mir
complex.

Recent Launches
---------------

GOES K was launched from Cape Canaveral on Apr 25. The Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellite has been renamed GOES 10 now that it
is in orbit safely. Operated by NOAA, the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the GOES satellites provide those familiar
continent-wide views of the weather, operating in collaboration with
NOAA's low polar orbiting satellites which provide smaller-area
closeups. GOES K is the third of the 3-axis-stabilized GOES-Next series
of satellites, built by Space Systems/Loral. Earlier GOES versions were
spin-stabilized vehicles built by Hughes and by SS/Loral's precursor,
Ford Aerospace. GOES 10 will be used as an orbital spare. It was placed
in an initial 167 x 42131 km x 27.1 deg transfer orbit. By Apr 29 it had
maneuvered to a 10907 x 42227 km x 8.1 deg orbit on its way to
geosynchronous.

Launch vehicle for GOES K was the final Atlas I Centaur, serial AC-79.
The Atlas I (Roman numeral 1) Centaur per se first flew in Jul 1990, as
a renamed version of the Atlas G (letter G) Centaur to distinguish it
from the stretched Atlas II which was considered a significantly
different vehicle. The first Atlas Centaur, AC-1, an Atlas D/Centaur D
variant, was launched on a suborbital test flight in May 1962 but failed
less than a minute after launch. The second Centaur D, AC-2, reached
orbit in Nov 1963 as the first space flight of a high-energy fuel
(liquid hydrogen) rocket.

I have recently compiled a list of all Centaur launches, and all 
orbital objects associated with those launches. You can find it at:
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/misc/centaur.html

Thanks to the Canarians who wrote to me defending the status of their
islands as part of the European cultural and political spheres.
Nevertheless, I maintain that geographically it's not part of Europe, 
just as a satellite launch from Hawaii would not be from North America.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A
Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0900?  Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk        EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B
Apr 25 0549   GOES 10          Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Weather     19A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 25

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-62                 VAB Bay 1      STS-94
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85/OV-104    LC39A          STS-84
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 12. May 1997 19:05
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 321

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 321                                     1997 May 12 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The spacesuits used on the latest Mir spacewalk were, of course, the
new Orlan-M variant and not the old Orlan-DMA. I got confused about
the designations. 
 The original Orlan suit was built for the lunar program. The long
duration Orlan-D was the first to actually fly, on Salyut-6.
Salyut-7 started off with Orlan-D suits, but in 1985 new Orlan-DM suits were 
delivered. Mir started off with the DM model, and the new DMA model
arrived aboard Progress-37 or Progress-38 in 1988. Up to four suits
have been in service on the station at any one time. Orlan-DMA No. 11
was used on a total of 14 spacewalks from 1988 to 1991. The Orlan-DMA
suits are now being replaced by the Orlan-M. A first attempt at a chronology
of Orlan suit use is at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/misc/orlan

Launch of STS-84 is scheduled for May 15. Atlantis carries the
Orbiter Docking System and the Spacehab Double Module, and will
dock with the Mir complex. Mike Foale will replace Jerry Linenger
aboard the station.

Recent Launches
---------------

McDonnell Douglas launched a Delta 7920 rocket from Vandenberg on May 5,
the first Delta launch since January's failure. It carried five
satellites for Iridium LLC. The Delta successfully reached
transfer orbit, and the second stage later reignited to circularize
in a 625 x 643 km x 86.4 deg orbit from which it dispensed the five
payloads. After the depletion burn, the Delta stage was in a 595 x 949 km
x 86.7 deg orbit.

The Motorola Iridium satellites mark the first use of the Lockheed
Martin LM700 bus, and carry a communications payload built by Motorola's
Satcom division in Chandler, Arizona. They will provide global personal
telephone service. This first launch carried space vehicles 4 through 8
(presumably 1 to 3 were ground test vehicles). The satellites have a
mass of about 700 kg. The satellites carry intersatellite crosslinks at
Ka-band (23 GHz), L-band (1.6 GHz) links to and from the Iridium hand
sets, and Ka-band links to the gateway ground stations which connect to
the local public telephone networks. The master control facility  is in
the Virginia suburbs of Washington.

A Chinese DFH-3 (Zhongxing 6?) communications satellite was launched on
May 11 into a 207 x 35887 km x 28.46 deg transfer orbit by a  Chang
Zheng (Long March) 3A rocket.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  1 0107   Intelsat 801     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2     Comsat      09A
Mar  4 0200   Zeya             Start-1        Svobodniy LC5   Comsat      10A
Mar  8 0601   Tempo 2          Atlas IIA      Canaveral LC36A Comsat      11A
Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur        Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0900?  Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk        EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B
Apr 25 0549   GOES 10          Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Weather     19A
May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang         Comsat      21A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-84  May 15
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 25

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-62                 VAB Bay 1      STS-94
ML2/RSRM-60/ET-85/OV-104    LC39A          STS-84
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 19. May 1997 02:34
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 322

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 322                                    1997 May 18 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

I've been on travel, so this report is briefer than usual.
Thanks to David Portree, I've been able to greatly update and improve
my listing of spacewalks using the Orlan spacesuit:
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/misc/orlan

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis was launched on schedule on May 15 at 0808 UTC. It docked with
the SO module on Mir on May 17 at 0233 UTC, and the crew are
transferring cargo between the Orbiter and the station.
The crew of STS-84 are: Charles Precourt (commander, NASA, US citizen);
Eileen Collins (pilot, NASA, US citizen); and mission specialists
Jean-Francois Clervoy (European Space Agency, French citizen); 
Edward Lu (NASA, US citizen); Carlos Noriega (NASA, US citizen born
in Peru); Elena Kondakova (RKA, Russian citizen), and Mike Foale
(NASA, US/Brit dual citizen born in England).

Recent Launches
---------------

The Chinese DFH-3 satellite launched on May 11 is reportedly also known
as Zhongxing 6 (Chinastar 6). Zhongxing 7 was an HS-376 launched last
year, and Zhongxing 5 is the former Spacenet 1. Zhongxing 1 to 4 are
probably the earlier DFH-2 and DFH-3 satellites, but I haven't seen an
explicit statement to this effect - does anyone have firm information on
Chinastars 1 to 4?  On May 16, the new DFH-3 satellite was in a
34620 x 35990 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting 6 degrees per day at around
120 E longitude.

Kosmos-2342, launched on May 14, is an Oko-type early warning satellite,
the second in two months. It is built by NPO Lavochkin for the Russian
Federation Ministry of Defence. On May 15 it was in a 514 x 39377 km x
62.8 deg orbit.

Kosmos-2343, launched on May 15, is an advanced imaging reconnaissance
satellite. It is built by TsSKB-Progress. The initial orbit of the
satellite was 170 x 316 km x 64.8 deg.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0858   Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC16/2 EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B
Apr 25 0549   GOES 10          Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Weather     19A
May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       24A

      
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        Mir, LEO      STS-84  
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 25

                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
ML1/RSRM-62/ET                VAB Bay 1      STS-94
ML2/
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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 29. May 1997 23:38
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 323

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 323                                        1997 May 29 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-84: Atlantis undocked from the Mir station at 0104 UTC on May 22.
The Orbiter fired its engines to drop out of orbit at 1233 UTC on
May 24, and landed at the Kennedy Space Center's runway 33  at 1327 UTC.
Jerry Linenger returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, leaving Mike Foale
as the NASA resident on Mir. The next Shuttle flight is STS-94,
due for launch in July as a reflight of STS-83.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Russian military satellite was destroyed on May 20 shortly after
launch from Baykonur. The Ukrainian built Zenit-2 launch vehicle failed
48 seconds after launch when its engines shut down at an altitude of 15
km and it impacted 28 km from the launch site. The satellite was
probably a Tselina-2 signals intelligence satellite, and would have
been named Kosmos-2344 after reaching orbit.

The Thor 2 comsat was launched on May 21. Thor 2 is a Hughes HS-376
class comsat for Telenor of Norway and will provide television services
in Scandinavia. It will supplement the Thor 1 satellite, which  bought
in 1992 from British Satellite Broadcasting and was originally known as
Marcopolo 2. Launch was by a Delta 7925, the second successful Delta
mission since the January failure.

International Launch Services carried out the launch of Loral Skynet's
Telstar 5 satellite from Baykonur on May 24. The Krunichev Proton-K
rocket placed Telstar 5 and the Energiya Blok-DM-4 upper stage in
parking orbit. Telstar 5 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class comsat.
Loral Skynet is the successor to AT&T's Skynet satellite system.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0858   Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC16/2 EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B
Apr 25 0549   GOES 10          Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Weather     19A
May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Comsat      25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton/DM-4    Baykonur        Comsat      26A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB     

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM-62/ET                VAB Bay 1      STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 08. June 1997 21:27
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 324

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 324                                        1997 Jun 8 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

I've updated the geostationary launch list at 
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/geo.log


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

OV-102 Columbia is in the Vehicle Assembly Building and has been
connected to the external tank and solid boosters for flight STS-94, the
reflight of the Microgravity Science Lab. OV-103 Discovery is being
prepared for the STS-85 science flight; OV-104 Atlantis, just back from
the STS-84 Mir flight, is to be turned around for another Mir docking on
STS-86; and OV-105 Endeavour is beginning preparations for STS-89, the
Mir docking fight after that.

Meanwhile, Vasiliy Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin and Mike Foale
continue operations on the Mir complex. The next flight to Mir
is the Progress M-35 robot cargo tanker/supply ship.


Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane 44LP on Jun 3. It placed two
comsats into a 201 x 35745 km x 7.0 deg transfer orbit. Inmarsat III F-4
is a Series 4000 class comsat built by Lockheed Martin/East Windsor for
the International Maritime Satellite Organization. It will provide
L-band mobile communications services to ships and aircraft. Insat 2D is
a comsat for the Indian Space Research Organization. 

Kosmos-2344, launched on Jun 6, is a new 11F664 type Russian military
satellite in an unusual medium altitude orbit of 1509 x 2747 km x 63.4
deg.  This is rather high for an optical observation satellite, and it
may be doing electronic intelligence or radar imaging. The Proton-K
rocket has rarely been used to launch low orbit military Kosmos
satellites; the exceptions are Kosmos-1603 and Kosmos-1656 in 1984-85,
which were Tselina-2 SIGINT satellites launched on Proton because the
Zenit-2 rocket was not yet operational. On the new launch, the 8S812
third stage of the Proton-K entered a 135 x 148 km x 64.8 deg parking
orbit. The Blok DM-2M upper stage ignited for its first burn to enter a
transfer orbit of about 200 x 2490 km x 64.6 deg. Before this first
burn, a cylindrical adapter probably separated from it but reentered
before being cataloged. As the Blok DM-2M reached apogee, two SOZ liquid
ullage rockets fired to force DM-2M propellant to the bottom of the
tanks; the two SOZ were then jettisoned as the DM-2M reignited for its
second burn, entering a 1506 x 2744 km x 63.4 deg orbit. The DM-2M then
separated from the 11F664 payload (Kosmos-2344) and from one other
object, which may be either a payload adapter or a cover for the payload
instruments (lens cap, antenna cover, etc). The 63.4 deg inclination is
chosen so that cos i = sqrt(2/5), which  minimizes precession of the
orbital plane due to the non-spherical shape of the Earth. Molniya
comsats, Oko early warning satellites, and US elliptical orbit signals
intelligence satellites also use this inclination.

  SATCAT  INTL.DES.   Probable ID       Orbit
  24828   1997-28B    8S812 rocket       135 x  148 x 64.8
  Uncataloged         Blok DM-2M adapter 135?x  148?x 64.8
  24830   1997-28D    SOZ                181 x 2490 x 64.5
  24832   1997-28E    SOZ                201 x 2490 x 64.6
  24829   1997-28C    Blok DM-2M rocket 1506 x 2744 x 63.4
  24833   1997-28F    Adapter?          1508 x 2751 x 63.4
  24827   1997-28A    Kosmos-2344       1509 x 2747 x 63.4


The Kosmos-2343 recon satellite launched in May is in a 216 x 338 km x
64.9 deg orbit.

On June 4, Thor 2 was approaching its station at 0.6 deg West longitude
drifting 0.2 deg per day. Telstar 5 was on station at 97 deg West.



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Recon      24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Comsat     25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton-K/DM-4  Baykonur LC81    Comsat     26A
Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        VAB           STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM-62/ET-86/OV-102   VAB Bay 1      STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-57                VAB Bay 3?     STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 26. June 1997 04:21
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 325

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 325 Draft                               1997 Jun 25 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apologies for the delay in this issue.
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The robot cargo ship Progress M-34 undocked from Mir at 1022 UTC on Jun
24 to perform a redocking test using recently developed remote-control
procedures which are replacing the old automatic systems that Russia can
no longer afford to buy from Ukraine. At around 0918 UTC on Jun 25, Mir
commander Tsibliev was remotely commanding the approach of Progress to
the Kvant (37KE) module when, for reasons that remain unclear, the
Progress went off course and collided with a solar array on the Spektr
module and then the module itself. A large hole was made in the solar
panel, and one of Spektr's radiators was badly buckled.  A small breach
in Spektr's hull appears to have been made and the module began to
depressurize. This was not a slow leak - apparently the crew heard a
hissing sound and felt their ears pop. They closed the hatch on the core
module transfer section that leads to Spektr. The Spektr module is now
fully depressurized. It remains docked to Mir with its docking hatch
open. The electrical connection between Spektr's solar panels and the
main station was broken off, also cutting off the power supply from the
solar panels on the Kristall module. The crew of Mir are Vasiliy
Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin, and Mike Foale. (It has been noted that
Tsibliev was also driving on the only previous documented orbital
fender-bender, when he banged Soyuz TM-17 into Mir in Jan 1994).

The Progress M-34 cargo ship is at a safe distance and is under control.
It will be deorbited on Jun 26. Many details of this incident are thanks
to Igor Lissov of Videocosmos Inc/Novosti Kosmoavtiki.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the fire on Mir on February 23 was much
more serious than earlier reported. It lasted 14 minutes and metre-long
flames of burning lithium perchlorate in the Kvant module blocked
the way to one of the two Soyuz spaceships.

OV-102 Columbia was moved to pad 39A on Jun 11 in preparation for launch
on mission STS-94.

Erratum
-------

Oops - I misspoke last issue. The 63.4 degree 'magic' inclination stops
precession of the  perigee around the orbit, not the precession of the
orbit plane with respect to an inertial frame. In other words, if you
have a really elliptical orbit and you launch so that the apogee is way
up north and the perigee over the southern hemisphere, then if you wait
a few months the orientation of the orbit will have rotated within the
orbital plane so that the perigee is now at the equator, or eventually
in the north... unless you use the magic inclination which locks in the
direction of the orbit and keeps the apogee in the north (or wherever
you put it). Have I confused you all properly now?


Recent Launches
---------------

China launched a satellite on Jun 10 using a CZ-3 (Long March 3) rocket
from Xichang. The CZ-3 third stage and satellite entered a 206 x 35987
km x 28.4 deg orbit. The satellite later fired an apogee motor to enter
geosynchronous orbit. The payload is the Feng Yun 2 geostationary
weather satellite. (There's some confusion as to whether this was a CZ-3
or CZ-3A rocket but the Xinhua news report says it was a CZ-3.)

Seven more Iridium comsats were launched on Jun 18 by a Proton from
Baykonur. The three-stage 8K82K Proton-K rocket placed the payload and
fourth stage in a 170 x 170 km x 73 deg parking orbit. The Proton-K
third stage may have reentered without being cataloged. The RKK Energiya
Blok DM-5 fourth stage made an inital burn to 170 x 516 km x 73 deg,
followed by a second burn to raise perigee and change inclination to
a 504 x 523 km x 86.4 deg orbit. It then dispensed the seven Iridium
satellites, and made a third burn to place itself on a suborbital
trajectory (to avoid leaving space debris around). The seven satellites
will use their own on-board propulsion to raise their orbits.


The Intelsat 802 comsat was launched on Jun 25 by an Ariane 44P rocket.
It will replace the Intelsat 701 satellite at the standard Pacific Ocean
Region slot of 174 deg E.

Galileo made a 415 km flyby of Callisto on Jun 25.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Recon      24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Comsat     25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton-K/DM-4  Baykonur LC81    Comsat     26A
Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2B            Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM-62/ET-86/OV-102   LC39A          STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-57                VAB Bay 3?     STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 05. July 1997 21:35
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 326

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 326                                   1997 Jul 5 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Orbiter OV-102 Columbia was launched on mission STS-94 on Jul 1 at
1802:02 UTC. The RSRM-62 solid rocket motors separated at 1804 UTC.
The ET-86 external tank separated at 1811:13 UTC leaving
Columbia in an elliptical transfer orbit which was circularized
later by the OMS engines to a 300 km orbit inclined at 28.5 deg to
the equator.

Columbia's mission is MSL-1R, the reflight of the Microgravity Science
Laboratory. The MSL-1 mission was cut short earlier this year
when a fuel cell malfunctioned. This is the first time that a Shuttle crew
has been recycled to fly a mission again.

The collision on Mir happened at around 0910 UTC Jun 25 according to
Vladimir Agapov. The cosmonauts reported it to the ground no earlier
than 0917 UTC when they got into the radio communication zone. The
Spektr module hatch was closed by 0938 UTC.

Progress M-34 was deorbited over the Pacific at 0534 UTC on Jul 2.
The replacement cargo ship, Progress M-35, was launched on Jul 5.
It will deliver repair equipment to the Mir station.

Mars Pathfinder
---------------

The Mars Pathfinder (MPF) space probe landed on Mars at 1656 UTC on Jul 4.
Mars Pathfinder is part of NASA's Discovery program.
The spacecraft consists of:
 - a cruise stage, which separates prior to entry into the Martian
     atmosphere
 - an aeroshell, which protects the lander during atmospheric entry,
 - main parachute, 12.7m diameter
 - backshell with RAD Rocket Assisted Decelerator, which brakes the craft
   just before touchdown,
 - a set of airbags which inflate prior to touchdown,
 - the MPF lander itself,
 - the MFEX (MicroRover Flight Experiment), or Sojourner, a small 10 kg
   automated vehicle.
MPF was built by the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), which also controls
the mission. The lander has a camera and a meteorology experiment.
The rover has an X-ray spectrometer to study the composition of
rocks at the landing site.

MPF landed in the Ares Vallis region of Mars at 19 N 34 W, southeast of
the Tharsis volcanoes and of the Viking 1 landing site. The cruise stage
separated at 1622 UTC. The aeroshell entered the Martian atmosphere at
an altitude of 125 km at 1652 UTC. At 1654 UTC the parachute deployed,
and at 1655 UTC the aeroshell separated from the lander. The rockets
fired, the airbags inflated, and the MPF lander reached the surface at
about 1656 UTC, landing on its base petal. The light travel time from
Mars to Earth is 10 minutes and 40 seconds. At around 1706 UTC
transmissions from the surface were received at JPL. The airbags then
were slowly deflated, and at around 1800 UTC the side petals deployed to
orient the lander correctly. Confirmation of petal deployment was
received at 1836 UTC. The first pictures of the surface show an uneven
landscape with many rocks and large hills on the horizon. Controllers
plan to adjust the petals and airbags before deploying the rover, as the
petal on which the rover sits is tilted a little high. The rover is also
having problems communicating with the lander (and thus with Earth). 
Deployment of the Sojourner rover was planned for Jul 6 at the time of
writing.

Previous landings and impacts on Mars:

Mars-2    1971 Nov 27  44S 313W  Hellespontus Montes, Noachis province
Mars-3    1971 Dec  2  45S 158W  Sirenum Terra, Phaethontis province
Mars-6    1974 Mar 12  24S  25W  Margarifiter Terra, Margarifiter Sinus province
Viking 1  1976 Jul 20  22N  48W  Chryse Planitia, Lunae Palus province
Viking 2  1976 Sep  3  48N 226W  Utopia Planitia, Cebrenia province
MPF       1997 Jul  4  19N  34W  Ares Vallis, Oxia Palus province 


Recent Launches
---------------

The other NASA Discovery program probe launched so far is NEAR, the Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft. Built and operated by the Applied
Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University, NEAR was launched in Feb 1996.
On Jun 27 NEAR made a 1200 km flyby of minor planet (253) Mathilde, the
first C-type minor planet to be visited by a probe. On Jul 3 NEAR made a
major orbit maneuver to target it for  a Dec 1998 rendezvous with minor
planet (433) Eros.

The Midori (ADEOS) satellite failed on Jun 30 for unknown reasons. Space
debris collision was initially suggested but that seems unlikely since
a gradual power decline was observed before the failure.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Recon      24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Comsat     25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton-K/DM-4  Baykonur LC81    Comsat     26A
Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2B            Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     31A
Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       LC39A          STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-57/ET-87          VAB Bay 3?     STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


</PRE>
</BODY>
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 13. July 1997 22:33
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 327

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 327                                   1997 Jul 13 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia is on orbit for mission STS-94 (Microgravity Science Lab 1R).
Experiments continue with controlled investigations of fires
in microgravity. On Jul 13 the spacecraft was in a 296 x 301 km x 28.5 deg
orbit. Meanwhile, Discovery is scheduled to be rolled out to pad 39A
on Jul 14 in preparation for launch of STS-85.

Progress M-35 was launched on Jul 5 at 0411:54 UTC toward the Mir
station. It docked with the rear of the 37KE (Kvant) module at 0559:24
UTC on Jul 7 using the automatic Kurs system. (The Progress M-34 also
docked successfully using this system; it was only when they tried
testing the new manual system that things went wrong).

Carl Sagan Memorial Station
----------------------------

The Mars Pathfinder (MPF) space probe landed on Mars at 1656 UTC on Jul
4. It now appears that the lander made about 15 bounces before coming
to rest and rolled about 1 km.
On Jul 5, the lander was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
Early on Jul 6, the Sagan Station deployed the rover ramps. A few hours
later the Sojourner rover rolled down the ramps and it is now on the
Martian surface.

The new estimate of the landing site coordinates is 33.55 deg West,
19.33 deg N. I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere and had forgotten
it myself, but the Sagan Station site is actually within the ellipse of
Viking Site A-1, where Viking Lander 1 (since renamed Mutch Memorial
Station) was originally meant to land on July 4, 1976. When Viking 1
reached Mars orbit in Jun 1976 and started imaging site A-1, JPL decided
that the terrain was too rough, and delayed the landing while they
searched for a smoother site, eventually settling on the Chryse Planitia
site where Viking landed on 1976 Jul 20. Mars Pathfinder was able to
land on the rougher A-1 site because of its robust airbag landing
system, and indeed the rocky images from Sagan Memorial Station suggest
that it was a really good thing Viking didn't try landing there.

Oh, and Russell Eberst points out that I can't spell Margaritifer Sinus.
(see last week).

Recent Launches
---------------

Five more Iridium satellites were launched from Vandenberg on Jul 9. The
Delta launch vehicle placed the five Motorola-built communications
satellites in polar orbits. Their on-board propulsion systems will be
used to raise their orbits later from 640 km to 780 km. The satellites
from the previous two launches have now reached their operating orbits.
The three Iridium launches have places their satellites into orbital
planes 30 degrees apart.

  Iridium satellites in orbit:

 Satellite  Launch date   Orbit                RA of plane (Jul 12)
 SV004      May  5     771 x 783 km x 86.4 deg 120
 SV005      May  5     771 x 783 km x 86.4 deg 120
 SV006      May  5     774 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 120
 SV007      May  5     773 x 781 km x 86.4 deg 120
 SV008      May  5     776 x 779 km x 86.4 deg 120
 SV009      Jun 18     774 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV010      Jun 18     773 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV011      Jun 18     776 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV012      Jun 18     772 x 781 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV013      Jun 18     774 x 780 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV014      Jun 18     775 x 778 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV015      Jul  9     621 x 641 km x 86.4 deg 184
 SV016      Jun 18     775 x 779 km x 86.4 deg 150
 SV017      Jul  9     618 x 649 km x 86.4 deg 184
 SV018      Jul  9     627 x 642 km x 86.4 deg 184
 SV020      Jul  9     632 x 653 km x 86.4 deg 184
 SV021      Jul  9     626 x 643 km x 86.4 deg 184

The FY-2 (FengYun 2) weather satellite, launched by a CZ-3 rocket from
Xichang on Jun 10, is now on station at 104.1 deg E. (Some Western
publications call this satellite FY-2 1R to denote that it is a
replacement flight article for the first FY-2 which was destroyed in a
ground test, but I haven't seen that name used by Chinese news 
releases).

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2             Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30D
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30C
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30G
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30B
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30E
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30A
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30F
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     31A
Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E

 
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61                VAB Bay 1?     STS-86
MLP3/RSRM-57/ET-87/OV-103   VAB Bay 3?     STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 22. July 1997 23:22
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 328

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 328                                    1997 Jul 13 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia landed on KSC's Runway 33 at 1046:34 UTC on Jul 17 closing out
a successful mission STS-94. The deorbit burn was at 0944 UTC following
payload bay door closing at around 0700 UTC. Discovery is now at pad 39A
preparing for launch of STS-85.

Mir lost power and attitude control on Jul 16 when a cable was
accidentally disconnected, but the crew were able to use the Soyuz to
reorient the station and restore the situation. It now looks like a
spacewalk to reconnect the Spektr power cables will be delayed until the
next Soyuz launch; researcher Leopold Eyharts of France's CNES has been
bumped from the crew and will fly next year instead. The EO-24 crew will
now be just commander Anatoliy Yakovlevich Solov'yov of the Russian Air
Force and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov from RKK Energiya. Solov'yov
(no relation to flight director and former cosmonaut Vladimir Solov'yov
who's been much in the news lately) was commander of Soyuz TM-5, Soyuz
TM-9, and Soyuz TM-15, as well as a passenger on STS-71. He was
commander of Mir for the EO-6, EO-12 and EO-19 missions, and commander
of the Soviet-Bulgarian visiting crew on Soyuz TM-5. Vinogradov has
not flown previously.


Recent Launches
---------------

Iridium SV021 failed on orbit a few days after launch from
Vandenberg. The other four satellites from the recent launch
are operating correctly, but have not yet raised their orbits.

Erratum: the Thor II comsat launch was on May 20, not May 21 as
I had written in recent issues.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2             Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30D
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30C
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30G
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30B
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30E
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30A
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30F
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     31A
Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E

 
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61                VAB Bay 1?     STS-86
MLP3/RSRM-57/ET-87/OV-103   LC39A          STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 09. August 1997 22:01
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 329

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 329                               1997 Aug 8  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Soyuz TM-26 was launched at 1536 UTC on Aug 5 from Kazakstan. Crew are
Anatoliy Solov'yov and Pavel Vinogradov. On Aug 6 it was in a 241 x 279
km x 51.6 deg orbit compared with Mir's 386 x 392 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
The ship docked with Mir's Kvant module at 1702 UTC on Aug 7. The crew
took over manual control in the final phase, which is not uncommon.
Progress M-35 undocked from Mir at 1146 UTC on Aug 6 to clear the
docking port. Soyuz TM-25 remains at the front docking port.

Discovery (OV-103) was launched at 1441:00 UTC on Aug 7 from Kennedy
Space Center on mission STS-85. It entered a 289 x 300 km x 57.0 deg
orbit. Crew of Discovery are Curt Brown
(commander), Kent Rominger (pilot), Jan Davis (payload commander), Bob
Curbeam, Stephen Robinson and Bjarni Tryggvason (mission specialists).
Tryggvason is a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, and the first person
born in Iceland to fly in space. Discovery's payload bay contains the
following cargoes:
Bay 1-2: External Airlock
Bay 5:   MPESS (Multi Purpose Experiment Support Structure) with
         the MFD (Manipulator Flight Demonstration) payload from the
         Japanese space agency. This features tests of a 'robot hand' to go on 
         the end of the robot arm being developed for the Japanese
         space station module.
Bay 6 Port sidewall: A small carrier with the ITEPC radiation dose counter.
Bay 7:   MPESS with the TAS-01 payload (Technology Applications and Science)
         from NASA-Goddard's Hitchhiker-M program. 
         TAS-01 has a bunch of GAS cans with science
         experiments, including the second flight of the Shuttle Laser
         Altimeter and an instrument to measure the absolute bolometric flux
         of the Sun.
Bay  9:  ASTRO-SPAS, a free flying platform built by Germany's DASA, carrying
         the CRISTA-SPAS atmospheric science payload on its second mission.
        CRISTA-SPAS was deployed by the RMS arm at 2227 UTC on Aug 7.
Bay 11 Port sidewall: a small carrier with the ERPCL transmitter/receiver
         which communicates with SPAS during its flight.
Bay 12:  MPESS with the IEH-2 Hitchhiker payload from Goddard. The International
        Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker is a joint NASA-Italian astronomy
        payload. Its two main instruments are the UVSTAR ultraviolet spectrograph
        and the SEH solar extreme ultraviolet instrument.
        The MPESS also carries the GLO-5 and GLO-6 airglow studies
        and the Data-Chaser technology experiment.
        UVSTAR's main objective is to study the extreme UV emissions from the
        Io plasma torus around Jupiter.
Bay 13 Starboard sidewall: GABA (GAS Beam Adapter) with two GAS experiment
        cans, G-572 and G-745. G-572 has experiments from Bellermine College
        and Utah State, and G-745 has student experiments from Mayo High School.

Wendy Lawrence has been pulled off the STS-86 crew and replaced
by David Wolf, who will now be the person replacing Mike Foale on
Mir. Wolf, unlike Lawrence, is trained in the Orlan EVA suit and
so could support spacewalks to repair the Spektr module.


Recent Launches
---------------

A GPS satellite was launched on Jul 23. I understand this is IIR
satellite 3, or Navstar SVN 43. It is the second IIR satellite to be
launched, and the first to reach orbit successfully. The Delta second
stage entered a 196 x 1339 km x 37.7 deg orbit; the PAM-D third stage 
reached 187 x 20363 km x 39 deg and separated from the GPS. The GPS's
internal Thiokol Star 37 apogee motor fired by Jul 25 to place SVN 43 in
a 19876 x 20223 km x 54.9 deg operating orbit; on board thrusters
will make the final adjustments.

The Superbird C satellite was launched on Jul 28 by a Lockheed Martin
Atlas IIAS. The satellite is an HS-601 comsat built by Hughes for Space
Communications Co. of Japan. The Atlas used the supersynchronous
transfer orbit technique again, delivering Superbird into a 333 x 91062
km x 25.3 deg highly eccentric orbit. The onboard Marquardt R-4D-12
engine will be used to lower the apogee and raise perigee to reach a
circular geostationary orbit.

Orbital Sciences launched a Pegasus XL on Aug 1, placing the OrbView-2
satellite in orbit for their OrbImage subsidiary. Orbview-2, formerly
known as SeaStar, will provide oceanographic data under contract from
NASA. The L-1011 carrier plane took off from Vandenberg at around 1915
UTC and dropped the rocket over the Pacific at 2020 UTC. The satellite
carries the SeaWIFS imaging sensor. Initial orbit of Orbview-2
was 294 x 311 km x 98.3 deg.

The latest Iridium satellites have started to raise their orbits
from their initial 620 x 650 km ones.
         Jul 28       Aug  6
 SV015  695 x 705     773 x 780 x 86.4
 SV017  667 x 671     773 x 780 x 86.4
 SV018  665 x 673     773 x 779 x 86.4
 SV020  667 x 671     772 x 782 x 86.4
 SV021  627 x 645     626 x 656 x 86.3
This confirms that SV021 is the failed satellite, which has remained
in its initial orbit. The Delta second stage lowered its orbit
after dispensing the satellites and is in a 266 x 620 km orbit.

An Ariane 44P, flight V98, was launched on Aug 8 from Kourou carrying a
Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class satellite, PAS-6. PAS 6 is owned by
Panamsat (which recently merged with Hughes Galaxy) and will provide
direct broadcast services to South America. Launch mass is 3420 kg, dry
mass is 1285 kg,and payload includes 36 Ku-band transponders. The Ariane
placed its payload in a 181 x 37143 km x 7.1 deg transfer orbit.
PAS 5 will be launched later this month by a Proton from Baykonur.



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2             Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30D
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30C
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30G
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30B
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30E
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30A
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30F
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     31A
Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E
Jul 23 0343   GPS SVN 43        Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     35A
Jul 28 0115   Superbird C       Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     36A
Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61                VAB Bay 1?     STS-86
MLP3/RSRM-57/ET-87/OV-103   LC39A          STS-85                       



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 17. August 1997 23:15
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 330

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 330                               1997 Aug 17  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Mir crew handover was formally completed at some point around Aug
8-11. Mike Foale transferred to become a member of the new Mir EO-24
crew with Anatoliy Solov'yov and Pavel Vinogradov. The EO-23 crew of
Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Lazutkin handed over the station and on
Aug 14 entered their Soyuz TM-25  transport ship, closing the hatches at
0550 UTC. Soyuz TM-25 undocked from the Mir forward port on Aug 14 at
0855 UTC and at 1122 UTC fired the deorbit engine on the PAO
(priborno-agregatniy otsek, equipment-service module). The PAO and the
BO (bitovoy otsek, living module) separated from the SA (spuskaemiy
apparat, descent craft) a few minutes later. The PAO and BO burned up in
the atmosphere. The SA reentered, and landed in Kazakstan at 1217 UTC,
170 km SE of Dzezkazgan. The Soyuz landing rockets failed to fire on
touchdown, giving one of the roughest landings experienced by a
returning Mir crew.

The new EO-24 crew of Solov'yov, Vinogradov and Foale undocked from the
Kvant module in Soyuz TM-26 on Aug 15 at 1329 UTC, and redocked
with the forward Mir port at 1413 UTC.  The Progress M-35 cargo ship
remains in orbit and is expected to redock with the Mir station soon at
the Kvant port. A docking attempt was called off on Aug 17 because the
wrong instructions were sent to the Progress. Meanwhile, the crew
have repaired the Elektron oxygen generator. (Thanks to Chris van den
Berg, Igor Lissov and Vladimir Agapov for some of these details).

The CRISTA-SPAS satellite was recaptured by Discovery's RMS arm
at 1514 UTC on Aug 16. Landing is due for Aug 18.

Errata on Shuttle crewing: Wendy Lawrence is still on the STS-86 crew,
but has been pulled off the Mir EO-24 long-stay crew. She will fly on 
the Shuttle to Mir, but will come down again on the same mission. David
Wolf is an addition to the STS-86 crew and will replace Foale on the
EO-24 crew. Also, Tryggvason has the rank of Payload Specialist on
STS-85, not Mission Specialist as I suggested.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Proton-K launch vehicle took off from Baykonur on Aug 14 and entered a
164 x 190 km x 53.2 deg parking orbit. The Blok DM-2 upper stage then
fired to place the Kosmos-2345 payload in a 232 x 35292 km x 50.0 deg
transfer orbit. It is expected that the DM-2 will reignite to lower
inclination and enter a near-geosynchronous orbit. This launch profile
is unusual; a 51.6 degree parking orbit has been used for other Proton
geostationary launches, with a 47 degree transfer orbit. Igor Lissov
reports a rumour that the Proton was incorrectly targeted and would have
gone to the regular 51.6 degree orbit but for an error by the launch
crew. The payload is probably either an early warning satellite or a
military communications satellite.

Orbimage's OrbView-2 satellite began to raise its orbit on Aug 12.
The initial orbit was only 300 km in altitude, and a hydrazine
propulsion system raises it in stages to 700 km.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E
Jul 23 0343   GPS SVN 43        Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     35A
Jul 28 0115   Superbird C       Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     36A
Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         ?          41A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-85  On orbit
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB           STS-86  Sep 22
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104     VAB Bay 1?     STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 23. August 1997 19:46
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 331

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 331                                     1997 Aug 23  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Progress M-35 successfully redocked with Mir at 1253 UTC on Aug 18.
The Mir computer crashed just before the docking, and the station
drifted out of attitude, causing the Progress automatic docking
system to shut down; however, commander Solov'yov completed the
docking by manual remote control. The computer was repaired by Aug 19,
and the internal spacewalk was delayed only two days.

Solov'yov and Vinogradov began their internal spacewalk on Aug 22.
Vinogradov worked inside the Spektr module while Solov'yov helped
him from the transfer compartment (perekhodniy ostek), the central
node where all the big modules and the Soyuz transport craft are docked.
Foale spent the spacewalk in the descent craft of the Soyuz, with
the two hatches of the Soyuz habitation module between him and the
depressurized transfer node. 

Depressurization of the transfer node was begun at 0959 UTC, but when a
leak in Vinogradov's glove was found a repressurization was ordered, at
about 1030 UTC. He swapped the glove for a spare, and depressurization
began again at around 1045 UTC.  The hatch to Spektr was opened at 1114
UTC and Vinogradov entered the module at about 1138 UTC. By 1300 UTC the
cables had been connected to the hatch and Vinogradov began
unsuccessfully searching for the hull puncture. By 1400 UTC he was out
of the module and work to seal the hatch was underway. The hatch was
sealed at 1430 UTC and  repressurization of the transfer compartment
began; repressurization was well underway at the 1447 UTC communications
pass and was completed at 1503 UTC. Estimated times for the first
depressurization about 0h30min, and for the second about 3h 50min.
The formal time of the spacewalk according to NASA was 5h 04min 
(suits on battery power to completion of repress), although usually
NASA only counts to the beginning of repress which would make the time
about 4h 31m. 

Discovery completed mission STS-85, landing on RW33 at Kennedy Space
Center at 1108 UTC on Aug 19. Atlantis/STS-86 was rolled out to the
launch pad on Aug 18; it will go to Mir and trade Dave Wolf for Mike
Foale.


Recent Launches
---------------

China's Chang Zheng 3B launch vehicle made its first successful launch
on Aug 19 from Xichang. The previous attempt failed shortly after
takeoff causing numerous casualties. The CZ-3B ("Long March 3B") is
built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) near
Beijing, with the first two stages made by the Shanghai Bureau of
Astronautics. The powerful liquid-hydrogen third stage  made its fourth
successful flight (it is also used on the CZ-3A).

The CZ-2, CZ-3 and CZ-4 rockets all use a common two-stage core. There's
an older version of these core stages, built by CALT, and an upgraded
version, which is built by Shanghai for at least some of the variants.
The various Long March rockets are:

Variant  Prime         Configuration
         Contractor
 CZ-2C:  CALT          Old core
 CZ-2D:  Shanghai      New core
 CZ-2E:  CALT          New core with stretched stage 2, plus 4 liquid boosters
 CZ-3:   CALT          Old core with small LOX/LH2 stage
 CZ-3A:  CALT          New core with large LOX/LH2 stage
 CZ-3B:  CALT          New core with large LOX/LH2 stage and 4 liquid boosters
 CZ-4:   Shanghai      New core with conventional third stage

CALT's old original CZ-2 (1974), Shanghai's FB-1 (1973-1981), and CALT's
DF-5 ballistic missile are believed to have been similar to the CZ-2C.
The DF-31 ballistic missile may be similar to the CZ-2D. CALT's CZ-1
used to launch the first two Chinese satellites in 1970-71 was a smaller
rocket of a different design.

The CZ-3B placed in geostationary transfer orbit a Space Systems/Loral
FS-1300 communications satellite, Agila 2. Agila 2, also known as
Mabuhay, is owned by Mabuhay Phillipine Satellite Corp.

The fourth Iridium launch, on Aug 21, placed five more Motorola/Lockheed
cellphone satellites in orbit using a Boeing Delta 7920 launch vehicle
from Vandenberg AFB in California. This is the first Delta launch since
McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing. 

Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver) successfully launched the second
LMLV-1 Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle from Vandenberg's Space Launch
Complex 6 on Aug 23. (The first vehicle, built by Lockheed/Sunnyvale
prior to the Martin Marietta merger and at that time called LLV-1, was
destroyed in an Aug 1995 launch attempt). The LMLV is launched from the
pedestal originally build for one of the Shuttle's solid rocket
boosters. The LMLV carried NASA's Lewis remote sensing satellite which
features an imaging spectrometer (so-called `hyperspectral imager').
Lewis is built and operated by TRW under NASA HQ's Small Spacecraft
Technology Initiative (a companion satellite, Clark, is being built by
the bit of Orbital Sciences Corp. that used to be CTA). Unlike most NASA
satellites, there is no NASA center managing the program, although
Stennis Space Center is involved in the data distribution. The Lewis
satellite also carries an ultraviolet background astronomy experiment
from Berkeley. Initial orbit of Lewis is 289 x 306 km  x 97.6 deg. The
LMLV-1 uses a Thiokol/Utah Castor 120 first stage (a variant of the
Peacekeeper ICBM's TU-120 motor), an Orbus 21D second stage from UTC/San
Jose, and an Orbit Adjust Module with Olin/RRC thrusters. A hydrazine
propellant system will raise Lewis' orbit to its operational altitude.
Congratulations to the folks at LMA/Denver on getting the LMLV to orbit.

Kosmos-2345 is now in near-geostationary orbit. It is reported to
be heading for 24W and is therefore probably a Prognoz-class
early warning satellite built by the Lavochkin association.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E
Jul 23 0343   GPS SVN 43        Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     35A
Jul 28 0115   Superbird C       Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     36A
Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium 22)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium 23)                                      Comsat     43D
              Iridium 24)                                      Comsat     43C
              Iridium 25)                                      Comsat     43B
              Iridium 26)                                      Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-86  Sep 22
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104   LC39A       STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 29. August 1997 23:45
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 332

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 332                                1997 Aug 29  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Problems with Mir's primary and backup oxygen systems were quickly fixed
on Aug 25. Power from Spektr and Kristall's solar panels has resumed,
but they're having problems making the panels track the sun. The
spacewalk by Solov'yov and Foale to search for the Spektr punctures will
take place in early September.

The STS-86 mission is being prepared for launch in September,
and will dock with Mir. During a spacewalk, the MEEP exposure
experiments will be retrieved from the outside of Mir's
Docking Module. The payload bay of Atlantis contains:
 Bay 1: Tunnel adapter
 Bay 2-4: External Airlock and Orbiter Docking System
 Bay 5-7: Long Tunnel
 Bay 5S? : carriers for retrieved MEEP experiment
 Bay 8-9: Spacehab Double Module
 Bay 13S: GAS can
The ODS will be used to dock to Mir; supplies will be brought
up in the Spacehab module.

Recent Launches
---------------

NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) was launched on Aug 25. The
Advanced Composition Explorer is the last Delta-class Explorer space
science satellite, and will study the composition of cosmic rays and
high energy particles in interplanetary space. ACE will be stationed at
the Earth-Sun L1 libration point, 1.4 million km from Earth in the
direction of the Sun.

ACE was launched by a Boeing Delta 7920-8. The Delta second stage
entered a 185 km parking orbit and then reignited to place itself
and ACE in a 185 km x 1.4 million km elliptical orbit. At apogee,
ACE will fire an onboard propulsion system to station itself at L1.
The Delta rocket will probably be perturbed into solar orbit.
This is the first time a Delta second stage has been placed in such
a high orbit; previously escape missions have used the three stage
version of the Delta. 

The Delta-class Explorers have been:
ISEE 1    International Sun-Earth Explorer 1     1977 Oct 22-1987 Sep
IUE       International Ultraviolet Explorer     1978 Jan 26-1996 Sep
ISEE 3    International Sun-Earth Explorer 3
(ICE)     (aka International Cometary Explorer)  1978 Aug 12-1986
DE 1/2    Dynamics Explorer 1 and 2              1981 Aug  3-1991 Feb
SME       Solar Mesosphere Explorer              1981 Oct  6-1983 Jul
AMPTE-CCE Charge Composition Explorer            1984 Aug 16-1989 Jan 
COBE      Cosmic Background Explorer             1989 Nov 18-1997 May
EUVE      Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer           1992 Jun  7
RXTE      Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer            1995 Dec 30
ACE       Advanced Composition Explorer          1997 Aug 25

(Many earlier Explorer flights were also launched on Delta, but I  count
them in other subdivisions of the Explorer program, e.g. Atmosphere
Explorer and Interplanetary Monitoring Platform).


Another Panamsat comsat was launched on Aug 28 aboard an International
Launch Services/Krunichev Proton-K from Baykonur. An Energiya Blok DM-3
upper stage was used to deliver it to a standard geostationary
transfer orbit of 214 x 36018 km x 51.6 deg. (Actually the Proton
usually uses a slightly lower 46 degree transfer orbit inclination).
The PAS 5 satellite is a Hughes HS-601HP design, and is using a
Marquardt R-4D-12 liquid apogee engine to raise its orbit to
geostationary.

Orbital's Pegasus XL made another successful flight on Aug 29. This time
it launched the FORTE satellite for Los Alamos National Lab. FORTE will
study natural and artificial radio emissions from the ionosphere, as
part of a program to develop technology for monitoring nuclear test ban
treaties. Early reports are that FORTE is operating successfully in an
800 x 807 km x 70.0 deg orbit. FORTE stands for Fast On-orbit Recording
of Transient Events; it was built at Los Alamos.

The Lewis satellite's attitude control system malfunctioned on Aug 26,
leading to battery discharge and probable loss of the satellite,
although attempts to revive it are continuing.

Last issue I mentioned Olin Aerospace as proving propulsion for the
LMLV's Orbit Adjust Module. This company is now Primex Aerospace.

NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) is scheduled for
launch one year from now. The spacecraft, being built by TRW, will carry
imaging and spectroscopic X-ray detectors and be launched into a highly
elliptical orbit by Shuttle/IUS on 1998 Aug 27. The AXAF operations
control center will be in Cambridge, Massachusetts, together with the
AXAF Science Center (a joint venture led by the SAO and MIT X-ray
groups, who also developed the instruments together with Penn State,
Utrecht and MPE). As the launch date approaches, don't be surprised if
this newsletter gets a little sporadic :-)

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E
Jul 23 0343   GPS SVN 43        Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     35A
Jul 28 0115   Superbird C       Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     36A
Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium 22)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium 23)                                      Comsat     43D
              Iridium 24)                                      Comsat     43C
              Iridium 25)                                      Comsat     43B
              Iridium 26)                                      Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A
Aug 25 1439   ACE               Delta 7920    Canaveral LC17A Space sci.  45A
Aug 28 0033   PAS 5             Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     46A
Aug 29 1502   FORTE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg      Space sci.  47A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-86  Sep 22
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104   LC39A       STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 06. September 1997 02:09
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 333

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 333                                    1997 Sep 5  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Historical Space Archive
------------------------

Over the past year I have been digitizing an archive of historical
launch vehicle photos. Peter Hunter generously loaned me his photo
collection, which includes many previously unpublished photographs of
early United States launch vehicles, including some recently
declassified ones. I hope to continue adding to this archive over the
coming years, but it's now substantial enough to warrant making it
publicly available. You can explore this archive at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/lv.html. In the coming
months, I'm also planning to complete a list of all orbital
launches and a comprehensive Shuttle cargo history - stay tuned.


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

A Russian commission of enquiry has formally blamed EO-23 crewmembers
Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Lazutkin, as well as flight controllers,
for the Jun 25 accident in which the Progress M-34 cargo ship collided
with the Mir complex. A spacewalk by Solov'yov and Foale to locate the
punctures in Spektr is scheduled for Sep 6; the airlock is about to be
depressurized as I write this.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Chang Zheng 2C rocket built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle
Technology was orbited from the Taiyuan polar orbit launch site at 37.8N
111.5E on Sep 1 at 1400:15.7 UTC. It carries two dummy Iridium
satellites (Iridium Mass Frequency Simulators), in preparation for the
start of regular Iridium launches from Taiyuan. This is the first CZ-2C
from Taiyuan, earlier CZ-2C missions were from Jiuquan and previously
Taiyuan was used for the CZ-4. This version of the CZ-2C is believed to
have a somewhat lengthened second stage compared to the usual version.
As far I can tell, the Iridium MFS satellites were probably built by
Motorola/Chandler but are owned by China Aerospace Corp. Mass is about
650 kg per satellite. The satellites are inert, but are built to
reproduce the mass distribution and oscillation frequencies of a true
Iridium satellite during launch, to provide a realistic test of the
CZ-2C launch vehicle.

The second stage of the CZ-2C entered a 215 x 638 km x 86.2 deg orbit 5
min after launch. The new Smart Dispenser (SD) stage with the two
satellites attached  separated 5 min later, and its solid motor ignited
at apogee 48 min after launch, to enter a 623 x 633 km x 86.3 deg orbit
from which the two mass simulators were dispensed at around 1450 UTC.
Another motor on the SD ignited four minutes later to deorbit the stage,
avoiding cluttering up Earth orbit with debris. The solid motor is
probably a Chinese motor built by CALT/Shaanxi.

Space Command has redesignated the objects in the launch since they
were first cataloged (actually, the designations seem to still be
somewhat in flux:)
 Originally       Now     Object
   48A           48C     CZ-2C stage 2 in transfer orbit
   48B,48F       48B,48A Dummy Iridium satellites in circular orbit
   48C           48F     Debris in transfer orbit
   48D,E         48D,E   Debris (launch adapter?) in transfer orbit, decaying fast.
The SD stage was deorbited before being cataloged, in keeping with
Iridium's policy of having as few objects adding to the orbital
debris population as possible. Twelve more Iridium satellites are
due to be launched this month, seven on a Proton and five on a Delta.

Meanwhile, sources report that the successful launch of a CZ-3B rocket
last month, which orbited the Agila 2 satellite, may have been marred by
a downrange accident. The first stage of the CZ-3B impacted in Hunan
province  1000 km downrange from Xichang, and allegedly caused property
damage in a village, although I understand that this has not been
acknowledged by China Great Wall Industry Corp or China Aerospace Corp.
There have also been rumours of casualties but those are denied by the
Chinese authorities.

Ariane flight V99, on Sep 2, launched two satellites into geostationary
transfer orbit. Hot Bird 3 is a high power television broadcasting
satellite for EUTELSAT, the European Telecommunications Satellite
Organization, and Meteosat 7 is a weather satellite for EUMETSAT
(European Meteorological Satellite Organization) built by Aerospatiale.
Hot Bird 3 is built by Matra Marconi Space (Toulouse) and is a Eurostar
2000+ satellite with a Marquardt R-4D apogee engine. Meteosat 7 is the
first Meteosat Transition Programme satellite (MTP-1), using the same
design as the Meteosat Operational Programme (MOP) satellites Meteosat 4
to 6.  It carries a three channel radiometer with 2.5km resolution.
Launch mass was 750 kg; it has a solid Mage 1 apogee motor. The first
Meteosat weather satellite was launched in 1977.

GE Americom's GE 3 communications satellite was launched on Sep 4 by a
Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS, flight AC-146. The satellite has C and Ku
band transponders for domestic communications relay and broadcasting. It
was built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications and is an A2100 series
satellite like its two precursors. The satellite was placed in a mildly
supersynchronous transfer orbit of 309 x 43913 km x 19.1 deg; its Royal
Ordnance Leros apogee engine will circularize the orbit.

The Cassini launch to Saturn, originally scheduled for Oct 6, will be
delayed because overpressurized air hoses at the launch pad blew away
some insulation on the Huygens Titan entry probe. They are still
expecting to launch within the window, which extends to Nov 4.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 1802   Columbia        ) Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  32A
              Spacelab MSL-1R )
Jul  5 0411   Progress M-35     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      33A
Jul  6 0600   Sojourner         -         Sagan Station, Mars  Rover
Jul  9 1304   Iridium SV015 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     34A
              Iridium SV017 )                                  Comsat     34B
              Iridium SV018 )                                  Comsat     34C
              Iridium SV020 )                                  Comsat     34D
              Iridium SV021 )                                  Comsat     34E
Jul 23 0343   GPS SVN 43        Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     35A
Jul 28 0115   Superbird C       Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     36A
Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium SV022)    Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium SV023)                                   Comsat     43D
              Iridium SV024                                    Comsat     43C
              Iridium SV025)                                   Comsat     43B
              Iridium SV026)                                   Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A
Aug 25 1439   ACE               Delta 7920    Canaveral LC17A Space sci.  45A
Aug 28 0033   PAS 5             Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     46A
Aug 29 1502   FORTE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg      Space sci.  47A
Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48B
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48F
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-86  Sep 22
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104   LC39A       STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 14. September 1997 22:27
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 334

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 334                                      1997 Sep 14   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Solov'yov and Foale failed to locate any punctures in Spektr during an
otherwise successful spacewalk on Sep 6. The hatch of the Kvant-2 module
was opened at 0107 UTC and closed at 0707 UTC. The spacewalkers probably
used the new Orlan-M spacesuits (one report claims Foale used the M and
Solov'yov the older DMA version). They used the Strela crane to transfer
from the Kvant-2 to Spektr, and Solovyov cut away insulation to inspect
the area around the radiator and solar panel mounting.

Recent Launches
---------------

Seven more Iridium satellites were launched on Sep 14. The Krunichev
Proton-K launch vehicle took off from Baykonur at 0136 UTC and its third
stage entered a 170 x 170 km x 72.6 deg orbit at around 0146 UTC (by
1100 UTC this had decayed to a 124 x 143 km orbit and reentry has
probably already occurred). The Energiya Blok DM-5 (17S40) upper stage
made two burns to a 516 x 516 km x 86.6 deg parking orbit where the
seven satellites were dispensed around 0304 UTC. The DM-5 then made a
third burn to deorbit itself. The satellites will use their own
propulsion systems to raise to their final orbits. This is the third use
of the DM-5 stage, following Kosmos-2344 and the previous Iridium Proton
launch. Unlike DM-1, DM-3 and DM-4, which are minor modifications of the
DM-2 stage used for different commercial launch profiles, DM-5 is
apparently a significant block upgrade to the DM-2, getting a new
ministry article designation (17S40 instead of 11S861). Source: Novosti
Kosmonavtiki. There are now 28 working Iridium satellites in  orbit,
plus one failed one and two dummy satellites.

On Sep 12, Meteosat 7 was over 10.0W drifting 0.15 deg east per day,
in a 35753 x 35794 km x 1.8 deg geosynch drift orbit.

On Sep 14, the most recent elements available for Eutelsat's Hot Bird 3
satellite at GSFC were dated Sep 6, at which time Hot Bird 3 was still
in its initial transfer orbit and no liquid apogee motor burns had
ocurred. Hot Bird 3 is a Eurostar 2000 class satellite. The Eurostar
satellites are made by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse [et je signale aux
lecteurs la-bas que je serai a Toulouse la mois prochaine;
recommendations  spatio-touristiques svp?]
The Eurostar satellites launched to date are:
 Inmarsat II F-1  1990 Oct 30  Eurostar 1000
 Inmarsat II F-2  1991 Mar  9  Eurostar 1000
 Inmarsat II F-3  1991 Dec 16  Eurostar 1000
 Telecom 2A       1991 Dec 16  Eurostar 2000
 Inmarsat II F-4  1992 Apr 15  Eurostar 1000
 Telecom 2B       1992 Apr 15  Eurostar 2000
 Hispasat 1A      1992 Sep 10  Eurostar 2000
 Hispasat 1B      1993 Jul 22  Eurostar 2000
 Orion 1          1994 Nov 29  Eurostar 2000
 Telecom 2C       1995 Dec  6  Eurostar 2000
 Hot Bird 2       1996 Nov 21  Eurostar 2000+
 Hot Bird 3       1997 Sep  2  Eurostar 2000+

The Hot Bird satellites provide high power TV broadcasting to supplement
Eutelsat's regular satellites, the Eutelsat 2 and forthcoming Eutelsat 3
series which are Spacebus class satellites built by Aerospatiale/Cannes.

Mars Global Surveyor entered polar orbit around Mars on Sep 12. The burn
began at 0015 UTC and ended at 0037 UTC. Orbit is  258 x 54021 km x 93.3
deg with a period of 44h59.5min. This orbit will be reduced by
aerobraking to a low, circular mapping orbit over the next few months.
MGS will be the first probe to enter a low orbit around Mars and is
the highest inclination satellite of Mars to date, beating Viking 2's
80 degree inclination.

The following is a catalog of objects in Martian orbit; the orbits are
contemporary with the active phase of the mission, and gravitational
perturbations will have greatly changed the orbits of some of the
earlier missions, possibly causing some of them to reenter. Where major
orbit maneuvers were made, starting date of later orbit is given (e.g.
Viking 2). I am confident that Mars Observer never achieved orbit
insertion, so it is not included. Corrections and updates are welcome.
Orbit heights are given relative to a reference spherical Mars of radius
3393 km.

                Objects In Martian Orbit

No. Object          Orbit insertion   Orbit km x km x deg  Deorbit date
-  Phobos                -               5836 x   6117 x  1.1
-  Deimos                -              20108 x  20146 x  2 
1  Mariner 9             1971 Nov 14     1394 x  17144 x 64
2  M-71 No. 171 (Mars-2) 1971 Nov 27     1380 x  25000 x 49
3  M-71 No. 172 (Mars-3) 1971 Dec  2     1530 x 214500 x 60
4  M-73 No. 53S (Mars-5) 1974 Feb 12     1769 x  32560 x 35
5  Viking Orbiter 1      1976 Jun 19     1514 x  50300 x 37.7
                         1976 Jun 21     1513 x  32625 x 37.9
                         1977 Mar 11      299 x  30750 x 39.2
                         1980 Jul 31      411 x  56275 x 37.9
6  Viking Lander 1       1976 Jul 20     1513 x  32625 x 38    1976 Jul 20
7  VO1 Bioshield Base    1976 Jul 20?    1513 x  32625 x 38
8  Viking Orbiter 2      1976 Aug  7     1502 x  35728 x 55.6
                         1976 Aug 25     1432 x  32042 x 55.6
                         1976 Aug 27     1502 x  32692 x 55.4
                         1976 Sep 30     1518 x  34933 x 75.1
                         1976 Dec 20      787 x  35463 x 80.1
                         1977 Oct 23      302 x  33080 x 80.3
9  Viking Lander 2       1976 Sep  3     1502 x  32692 x 55.4  1976 Sep  3
10 VO2 Bioshield Base    1978 Mar  3      302 x  33080 x 80.3
11 Fobos-2 (1F No. 102)  1989 Jan 29      867 x  81357 x  0.9
                         1989 Feb 18     6145 x   6409 x  1.3
12 Fobos-2 ADU           1989 Feb 18     6145 x   6409 x  1.3
13 Mars Global Surveyor  1997 Sep 12      258 x  54021 x 93.3

Notes: Objects 6 and 7 separated from 5; 9 and 10 separated from 8;
and 12 separated from 11. The Mars-2 and Mars-3 landers separated
from the orbiters prior to orbit insertion. The following objects
failed to reach Martian orbit:
F1 M-69 No. 521          1969 Mar 27   Impact on USSR
F2 M-69 No. 522          1969 Apr  2   Destroyed during launch
F3 Mariner 8             1971 May  9   Fell in Atlantic Ocean
F4 M-71 No. 170          1971 May 10   Failed to leave Earth orbit (Kosmos-419)
F5 M-73 No. 52S (Mars-4) 1974 Feb 10   Flew past Mars, in solar orbit
F6 1F No. 101 (Fobos-1)  1989 Jan 23   Flew past Mars, in solar orbit
F7 Mars Observer         1993 Aug 24   Flew past Mars, in solar orbit 
                                       (may have exploded 1993 Aug 21?)


The Delta stage from the ACE launch was very briefly in the L1 transfer
orbit of 175 x km x 1.5 million km x 28.7 deg, from which it would have
been perturbed into solar orbit. It then depleted its fuel with a
retrograde burn that placed it back in Earth orbit of 174 x 840904 km x
28.8 deg, from which it is expected to reenter after a few revs. (Thanks to
Boeing/Delta folks for the info).

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium SV022)    Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium SV023)                                   Comsat     43D
              Iridium SV024)                                   Comsat     43C
              Iridium SV025)                                   Comsat     43B
              Iridium SV026)                                   Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A
Aug 25 1439   ACE               Delta 7920    Canaveral LC17A Space sci.  45A
Aug 28 0033   PAS 5             Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     46A
Aug 29 1502   FORTE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg      Space sci.  47A
Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48B
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48F
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A
Sep 14 0136   Iridium SV027 )   Proton-K/DM5  Baykonur         Comsat     51
              Iridium SV028 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV029 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV030 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV031 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV032 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV033 )                                  Comsat     51

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-86  Sep 25
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104   LC39A       STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 24. September 1997 03:03
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 335

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 335                                    1997 Sep 23  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of STS-86 is due for Sep 25. The Mir crew moved briefly to the
Soyuz transport on Sep 15 during a close pass by the inert MSTI-2
satellite, which was an SDIO satellite which operated between May and
Sep 1994 testing infrared sensors for tracking missile launches. The
close pass was reportedly only 500 meters.

Recent Launches
---------------

Ariane V100 was launched on Sep 23 at 2358 UTC. The rocket was an Ariane
42L model with two PAL liquid strapons. The payload is Intelsat 803, a
series 7000 satellite built by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications/East
Windsor. It was placed in geostationary transfer orbit and separated
from the H-10-3 third stage on Sep 24 at 0018 UTC. 

Errata
-------

OK, OK, I forgot Mars-96 in the list of probes which were meant to
go into Mars orbit but did not. Also, it seems that I got the EVA
suit info the wrong way round: Foale used the old DMA suit and 
Solov'yov the new M suit.

Also, I omitted Telecom 2D (launch 1996 Aug 8) from the list of Eurostar
2000 satellites.

Proton Upper Stages
-------------------

A recent article in Novosti Kosmonavtiki clarifies (somewhat) the
nomenclature for the family of RKK Energiya's Blok-DM upper stages used
by the Proton rocket. There are separate naming schemes for the domestic
and commercial versions of the Blok-D, and in particular the Blok DM-2
(with hyphen) is different from the Blok DM2 (with no hyphen)!! So
here's a recap of  recent launches on the Proton:
 Domestic launches
1996-005  1996 Jan 25 0956:00  Proton-K/DM-2            Gorizont             
1996-010  1996 Feb 19 0819:00  Proton-K/DM-2            Raduga               
1996-023  1996 Apr 23 1148:50  Proton-K                 Priroda              
1996-034  1996 May 25 0205     Proton-K/DM-2            Gorizont             
1996-058  1996 Sep 26 1850:53  Proton-K/DM-2M           Ekspress 12          
1996-064  1996 Nov 16 2048:53  Proton-K/D-2             Mars-96              
1997-028  1997 Jun  6 1656:54  Proton-K/DM-5            Kosmos-2344          
1997-041  1997 Aug 14 2049:14  Proton-K/DM-2            Kosmos-2345          
 Commercial launches
1996-021  1996 Apr  8 2309:01  Proton-K/DM3    (ILS)    Hughes Astra 1F             
1996-053  1996 Sep  6 1737:39  Proton-K/DM1             LMT Inmarsat 3 F2        
1997-026  1997 May 24 1700:00  Proton-K/DM4    (ILS)    Loral Telstar 5            
1997-030  1997 Jun 18 1402:45  Proton-K/DM2             Motorola Iridium              
1997-046  1997 Aug 28 0033     Proton-K/DM3    (ILS)    Hughes PAS 5                
1997-051  1997 Sep 14 0136     Proton-K/DM2             Motorola Iridium

The various domestic types are:
D   (11S824) with 11D58 engine and guidance from payload
D-1 (11S824M) with 11D58M engine and guidance from payload
D-2 (11S824F) with 11D58M engine, guidance from payload, different adapter?
DM  (11S86) with 11D58M engine and internal guidance system
DM-2  (11S861), like DM but with improved guidance
DM-2M (11S861-01), like DM-2 but can carry heavier payloads
DM-5  (17S40), like DM-2 but for heavier payloads and with different payload
               adapter design.

The different commercial types are:
DM1  Variant of domestic DM-2 (11S861) with Saab payload adapter
DM2  Variant of domestic DM-5 (17S40)  with Iridium dispenser
DM3  Variant of domestic DM-2M (11S861-01) with Saab payload adapter
DM4  Probably similar to DM3

This is the best info we have right now, but I anticipate that we don't
have the full story yet.



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium SV022)    Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium SV023)                                   Comsat     43D
              Iridium SV024)                                   Comsat     43C
              Iridium SV025)                                   Comsat     43B
              Iridium SV026)                                   Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A
Aug 25 1439   ACE               Delta 7920    Canaveral LC17A Space sci.  45A
Aug 28 0033   PAS 5             Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     46A
Aug 29 1502   FORTE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg      Space sci.  47A
Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48B
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48F
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A
Sep 14 0136   Iridium SV027 )   Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Comsat     51
              Iridium SV028 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV029 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV030 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV031 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV032 )                                  Comsat     51
              Iridium SV033 )                                  Comsat     51
Sep 23 2358   Intelsat 803      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-86  Sep 25
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                       
MLP2/RSRM-61/ET/OV-104   LC39A       STS-86
MLP3/



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 01. October 1997 01:19
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 336

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 336                                     1997 Sep 30 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Atlantis was launched on Sep 26 at 0234 UTC on mission STS-86 to Mir.
The TI rendevous terminal initiation burn was carried out at
1732 UTC on Sep 27, and Atlantis docked with the SO (Docking Module)
on the Mir complex at 1958 UTC. The crew exchange was completed on
Sep 28, with David Wolf replacing Michael Foale on the Mir crew.
The crews are currently:
 Atlantis STS-86:
  Commander, Jim Wetherbee, USN, NASA
  Pilot,     Mike Bloomfield, USAF, NASA
  Mission Specialists: 
   (MS1)  Vladimir Titov, Russian Air Force; 
   (MS2)  Dr. Scott Parazynski, NASA;
   (MS3)  Gen. Jean-Loup Chretien, CNES/France;
   (MS4)  Wendy Lawrence, USN, NASA.
   (MS5)  Dr. Michael Foale, NASA; 

 Mir EO-24:
  Commander: (KE) Aleksandr Solov'yov, Russian Air Force
  Flight Engineers: (BI-1) Pavel Vinogradov, RKK Energiya; 
                    (BI-2) Dr. David Wolf, NASA.

Titov and Parazynski are scheduled to make a spacewalk on Oct 1.
Launch of the Progress M-36 cargo ship is expected on Oct 5.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Kosmos-3M (11K65M) rocket built by AO Polyot, Omsk, was launched on
Sep 23 at 1644 UTC. The two-stage 11K65M is based on Yangel's R-14 IRBM,
and is used to launch small payloads. The restartable S3 third stage
placed the Kosmos-2346 payload in a circular 1000 km orbit. The payload
is a navigation satellite also built by AO Polyot for the Russian Navy.
The first Soviet navigation satellite was called Tsiklon and was
launched in 1967; the current satellite is of similar design and is
probably one of the Parus series.

A small secondary payload was carried on the mission: FAISAT-2V,
a data messaging satellite built and operated by Final Analysis, Inc.
of Lanham, Maryland. Vladimir Agapov reports that FAISAT separated
from the Kosmos-2346 satellite on Sep 23 at 2204 UTC.

An 8K78M Molniya-M rocket built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara, with a
Blok-ML upper stage probably built by NPO Lavochkin of Khimki, was
launched on Sep 24 and placed in elliptical orbit a Molniya-1T
communications satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry. The 
Molniya-1T satellites are built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of the
former city Krasnoyarsk-26 (I forget its new name). The original
Molniya-1 satellite bus was developed by the Korolyov bureau and first
launched in 1964; the elliptical 12 hour orbit allowed it to spend long
times above the horizon in the Russian far north. The Molniya-1T
replaced the older Molniya-1 model at some point in the 1970s, but the
details of which satellites were Molniya-1 and which were Molniya-1T
have not yet been released by the Russians.

Five more Iridium satellites were launched on Sep 27. The new group
includes the SV019 satellite which was left out of an earlier launch.
The two stage Boeing Delta 7920-10C was launched from Space Launch
Complex 2 at Vandenberg AFB and deployed the satellites
in a 540 x 564 km x 86.7 deg parking orbit. The second stage then
restarted to enter a disposal orbit of 488 x 607 km x 86.9 deg.

Boeing is planning some new variants of the Delta II to launch NASA's
Med-Lite class payloads. The standard Delta 7920 has nine Alliant GEM
solid strapons, an extra-extended long tank Thor first stage, and a
Delta/AJ10-118K second stage. The Delta 7925 version adds a Star 48
(PAM-D) solid motor third stage. The new variants are the Delta 7320 and
7420, which are like the Delta 7920 but with only 3 or 4 solid strapons,
and the Delta 7326 and 7426, which add a Star 37FM solid third stage.
The small Star 37C,D and E motors were used as Delta third stages from
the late 1960s to early 1980s, when they were phased out in favour of
the much more powerful Star 48. The Star 37FM is an improved version of
the older Star 37 models.
  Stage      Impulse     Mass

  Star 37E   2910 kNs    1123 kg
  Star 37FM  3053 kNs    1148 kg
  Star 48    5700 kNs    2140 kg


The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the IRS-1D remote
sensing satellite on Sep 29 from Sriharikota range. IRS-1D was placed in
a 306 x 822 km x 98.6 deg orbit by the 4-stage PSLV (Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle). The intended orbit for IRS satellites is around 800 km
circular, possibly indicating a launch vehicle problem since earlier IRS
satellites did not have their own orbit-changing propulsion system.
We'll have to wait and see if it maneuvers to raise perigee. The 1200 kg
satellite is similar to IRS-1C and carries the 23-m resolution CCD-based
LISS sensor, a 6-m resolution black and white imager, and a low res wide
field sensor with an 800 km image width.

The CZ-3B launch of Aug 19, which placed Agila 2 in orbit, was apparently
not as successful as first thought. The initial transfer orbit was
170 x 44499 km x 24.63 deg, which is  higher apogee than the standard
GTO orbit. However, reportedly the intended apogee was several thousand
km higher still, and extra fuel had to be used to let the satellite
reach its final orbit.


Not So Recent Launches
----------------------

40 years ago, on 1957 Oct 4, the 8K71PS launch vehicle, a minor
modification of the experimental 8K71 ICBM, was launched from the NIIP-5
test range in Kazakstan (then the Kazakh SSR). Despite premature
shutdown of the Blok A core stage, the core stage and its satellite
payload, PS-1, reached orbit to become the first artificial earth
satellites. The PS-1 and the 8K71 (R-7) were developed by Sergei
Korolyov's design bureau at NII-88/Podlipki, now RKK Energiya.
 Here at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory we will be
celebrating the 40th anniversary of the optical satellite tracking
project which led to improved understanding of geodesy and atmospheric
density; our former director Fred Whipple will be giving his
reminiscences. We extend our best wishes to all veterans of the
Baker-Nunn, Moonwatch, and related programs around the world.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  1 2020   OrbView 2         Pegasus XL    Vandenberg       Remote sen.37A 
Aug  5 1536   Soyuz TM-26       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  38A
Aug  7 1441   Discovery         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  39A
Aug  7 2227   CRISTA-SPAS                     OV-103,LEO       Remote sen.39B
Aug  8 0646   PAS 6             Ariane 4      Kourou ELA2      Comsat     40A
Aug 14 2049   Kosmos-2345       Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur         Early Warn 41A
Aug 19 1750   Agila 2           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2      Comsat     42A
Aug 21 0038   Iridium SV022)    Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     43E
              Iridium SV023)                                   Comsat     43D
              Iridium SV024)                                   Comsat     43C
              Iridium SV025)                                   Comsat     43B
              Iridium SV026)                                   Comsat     43A
Aug 23 0651   Lewis             LMLV-1        Vandenberg SLC6 Remote sen. 44A
Aug 25 1439   ACE               Delta 7920    Canaveral LC17A Space sci.  45A
Aug 28 0033   PAS 5             Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     46A
Aug 29 1502   FORTE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg      Space sci.  47A
Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48B
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48F
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A
Sep 14 0136   Iridium SV027 )   Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV028 )                                  Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV029 )                                  Comsat     51A
              Iridium SV030 )                                  Comsat     51F
              Iridium SV031 )                                  Comsat     51G
              Iridium SV032 )                                  Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV033 )                                  Comsat     51C
Sep 23 1644   Kosmos-2346  )    Kosmos-3M     Plesetsk LC132   Navsat     52A
              FAISAT-2V    )                                   Comsat     52B
Sep 23 2358   Intelsat 803      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     53A
Sep 24 2132   Molniya-1T        Molniya-M     Plesetsk LC43/4  Comsat     54A
Sep 26 0234   Atlantis          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39     Spaceship  55A
Sep 27 0123   Iridium SV019 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     56A
              Iridium SV034 )                                             56E
              Iridium SV035 )                                             56D
              Iridium SV036 )                                             56C
              Iridium SV037 )                                             56B
Sep 29 0447   IRS-1D            PSLV          Sriharikota      Rem sens.  57A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Mir           STS-86  Sep 25
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89      VAB           STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64?           VAB           STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 07. October 1997 03:02
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 337

<HEADER>
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 337                               1997 Oct 6       Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Titov and Parazynski entered the Shuttle payload bay on Oct 1 while
Atlantis was docked to Mir. The airlock was depressurized at around 1725
UTC and the astronauts emerged from the hatch on the tunnel adapter at
around 1735 UTC. They retrieved the four MEEP exposure packages from
Mir's SO module and installed the Spektr solar array cap there. The
airlock was repressurized at 2231 UTC.

Atlantis undocked from Mir at 1728 UTC on Oct 3, leaving Dave Wolf
aboard the station and bringing Mike Foale home. The crew fired the
engines to deorbit at 2047 UTC on Oct 6 and landed at Kennedy Space
Center at 2155. 

The Progress 7K-TGM No. 237 cargo ship was launched from 5 GIK
(Baykonur) on Oct 5 and named Progress M-36. An attempt to undock
Progress M-35 from the Kvant module failed when some latches did not
open. (This is the first ever undocking failure that I am aware of; any
counterexamples, anyone? I guess the failure to jettison the KRT-10
radio antenna in 1979 may count, although that was more a separation
failure than an undocking... of course cataloging events that
failed to occur is always philosophically a little tricky!) Once
M-35 has been undocked, M-36 will link up at that port.

Recent Launches
---------------

Echostar 3 was launched by Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas 2AS on Oct
5. AC-135 was launched from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36. The
payload is a Lockheed Martin Telecommunications A2100 satellite, and was
the first to be built in LMT's new Sunnyvale, California factory instead
of the old RCA location at East Windsor, New Jersey. It will be used
by Echostar Communications Corp. This is the 4th A2100 series satellite,
following GE 1 to GE 3 for GE Americom.

News reports confirm that the Indian PSLV rocket entered the wrong
orbit. Apparently the liquid-propellant fourth stage, PS-4, may have had
a fuel leak causing a premature shutdown. The IRS-1D satellite does have
a small amount of fuel for precise orbit control which will be used to
raise the perigee, but this will shorten its operational life
considerably. Meanwhile, India's Insat 2D geostationary comsat has
failed on orbit after only a few months of life.

NASA's Lewis satellite reentered on Sep 28. Controllers were unable
to rescue the mission after it lost attitude a few days after launch.

Observers from the Kettering Group report speculation that Kosmos-2346,
which I had identified as a Parus military navigation satellite, may in fact
be a test flight of the Tsikada-M-UTTH nav/comms payload first
described by the Russians in 1994. I'm inclined to keep listing it
as a Parus until we get more definitive info.

The Mars Global Surveyor continues aerobraking. As of Oct 3 it
was in a 110 x 48770 km x 93.3 deg orbit around Mars.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48A
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48B
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A
Sep 14 0136   Iridium SV027 )   Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV028 )                                  Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV029 )                                  Comsat     51A
              Iridium SV030 )                                  Comsat     51F
              Iridium SV031 )                                  Comsat     51G
              Iridium SV032 )                                  Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV033 )                                  Comsat     51C
Sep 23 1644   Kosmos-2346  )    Kosmos-3M     Plesetsk LC132   Navsat     52A
              FAISAT-2V    )                                   Comsat     52B
Sep 23 2358   Intelsat 803      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     53A
Sep 24 2132   Molniya-1T        Molniya-M     Plesetsk LC43    Comsat     54A
Sep 26 0234   Atlantis          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39     Spaceship  55A
Sep 27 0123   Iridium SV019 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     56A
              Iridium SV034 )                                             56E
              Iridium SV035 )                                             56D
              Iridium SV036 )                                             56C
              Iridium SV037 )                                             56B
Sep 29 0447   IRS-1D            PSLV          Sriharikota      Rem sens.  57A
Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo   
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        KSC SLF       STS-86
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89      VAB           STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64?           VAB           STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 15. October 1997 06:19
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 338

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 338                                  1997 Oct 14 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will be on travel for the last half of October, so the next issue (338)
will probably not be out till early November. I've updated some
of the info on my space home page
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/space.html
including the geostationary satellite log.
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Mir crew have removed a clamp that was inadvertently left in
attaching Progress M-35 to Kvant, preventing its undocking. Progress
M-35 then successfully undocked at 1203 UTC on Oct 7 (info from Chris
van den Berg). PM-35 deorbited at 1641 UTC and fell in the Pacific at
1723 UTC (info from Vladimir Agapov). In response to last week's query,
Bart Hendrickx tells me that Soyuz-21 also had problems undocking, back
in 1976.

Progress M-36 docked with the Kvant module on Mir at 1707 UTC on Oct 8
using the Kurs automatic system.

Atlantis is being prepared for return to Palmdale for an Orbiter
Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) refurbishment. The next launch is
Columbia on mission STS-87.

Bob Cabana is stepping down as Chief of the Astronaut Office and will
command the first Station assembly flight. His replacement is Ken
Cockrell. Cabana was CAO for 3 years, following Gibson (2 years),
Brandenstein (5 1/2 years), Young (13 years) and Shepard (10 years).
Several other astronauts also served as acting chief at various times.

Recent Launches
---------------

IRS-1D as of Oct 8 was in a 550 x 820 km orbit, which ISRO announced
as the minimum altitude for useful operations. By Oct 14 it was
in a 736 x 825 km x 98.6 deg orbit.

The Foton No. 11 spacecraft was launched on Oct 9. Foton is a recoverable
microgravity science satellite based on the Zenit (Vostok) bus, built
by TsSKB-Progress of Samara, which also produces the Soyuz-U launch
vehicle used to place Foton in orbit. On Oct 12, Foton was in a
218 x 371 km x 62.8 deg orbit.

GE 3 is now on station at 87.0W. Intelsat 803 is at 27.5W; Echostar
3 is in a 35722 x 38633 km x 0.3 deg drift orbit.

The NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens Saturn probe was scheduled for launch on
Oct 15 at the time of writing. Launch vehicle is Titan 4B Centaur,
serial B-33.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  1 1400   Iridium MFS   )   CZ-2C         Taiyuan          Inert      48A
              Iridium MFS   )                                  Inert      48B
Sep  2 2221   Hot Bird 3  )     Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     49A
              Meteosat 7  )                                    Weather    49B
Sep  4 1203   GE-3              Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     50A
Sep 14 0136   Iridium SV027 )   Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur         Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV028 )                                  Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV029 )                                  Comsat     51A
              Iridium SV030 )                                  Comsat     51F
              Iridium SV031 )                                  Comsat     51G
              Iridium SV032 )                                  Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV033 )                                  Comsat     51C
Sep 23 1644   Kosmos-2346  )    Kosmos-3M     Plesetsk LC132   Navsat     52A
              FAISAT-2V    )                                   Comsat     52B
Sep 23 2358   Intelsat 803      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     53A
Sep 24 2132   Molniya-1T        Molniya-M     Plesetsk LC43    Comsat     54A
Sep 26 0234   Atlantis          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39     Spaceship  55A
Sep 27 0123   Iridium SV019 )   Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     56A
              Iridium SV034 )                                             56E
              Iridium SV035 )                                             56D
              Iridium SV036 )                                             56C
              Iridium SV037 )                                             56B
Sep 29 0447   IRS-1D            PSLV          Sriharikota      Rem sens.  57A
Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36   Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1800?  Foton No. 11      Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89      VAB Bay 3     STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64 MMM           VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 06. November 1997 00:12
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 339

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 339                                  1997 Nov 5 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Editorial
---------

Apologies for the gap in service; I've been travelling.  Of course, I
leave the office for two weeks and more stuff goes on than usually
happens in two months - so this issue is a big one. Note: I've recently
updated some of the info on my space home page
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/space.html including the
geostationary satellite log.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia is now on pad 39B ready for launch on mission STS-87,
scheduled for Nov 19.

Mir crew Solov'yov and Vinogradov carried out a 6h38min internal
spacewalk on Oct 20, during which they worked inside the depressurized
Mir base block transfer compartment and the damaged Spektr module to
connect new cables to the Spektr module, restoring the capability
to point the Spektr solar arrays. NASA astronaut David Wolf remained
inside the station.

During an EVA on Nov 3 the Mir crew removed an old solar panel from
Kvant. The solar panel was retracted on command, removed from the
Kvant module, and stowed on the exterior of the core module.
It will be replaced by a US/Russian cooperative solar array
currently stored folded up on the Docking Module.
The outer Kvant-2 hatch did not seal correctly after the EVA, but
the inner hatch is well sealed.

The Sputnik-40 1/3-scale model of PS-1 ("Sputnik" ) was also
hand-launched during the EVA into a 383 x 391 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The
model is also referred to as PS-2, but this is a bad idea since PS-2 was
the correct name of the second Soviet satellite, which carried the dog
Laika. Sputnik-40  (the French spelling Spoutnik-40 may also be
considered correct) was cataloged by US Space Command as object 24958,
previously reserved for the Intelsat 803 Ariane rocket which has
apparently still not been tracked. The model was built by high school
students in the republic of Kabardin-Balakarsk in the Russian
Federation, in the Caucasus near Chechnya.  The radio transmitter
payload was built by students on Reunion, a French territory in the
Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. If anyone
knows the exact time the Sputnik model was released, please let me know.

Recent Launches
---------------

The NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens Saturn probe was launched on Oct 15. Launch
vehicle was Titan 4B Centaur, serial B-33. The Titan took off at 0843
UTC, and separated from the Centaur at 0852 UTC. The first Centaur burn
placed the Centaur/Cassini combination in a 168 x 446 km x 28.7 deg
parking orbit at 0854 UTC. Centaur restarted at about 0913 UTC and shut
down again at 0919 UTC, now on an escape trajectory from the Earth. It
separated from Cassini at 0926 UTC and vented its remaining propellants
to move its path away from the space probe. I don't have any solar
orbital elements for Cassini yet. Cassini was built by JPL, with a
Propulsion Module System built by Lockheed Martin/Denver. The
ESA Huygens probe, which will land on Titan, was built by Aerospatiale
and CASA.

Mars Global Surveyor has raised its perigee to 170 km while controllers
study unexpected movements in its loose solar panel.
Meanwhile, JPL announced the end of the Mars Pathfinder mission;
last signal detected from the Sagan Memorial Station was on Oct 6.

Apstar 2R was launched on Oct 16. It is an SS/Loral FS-1300 comsat
for Asia Pacific Telecom and will provide telecom services for China.
Launch vehicle was a Chinese Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B, the third
to be launched. Apstar 2R is now on station at 76 deg E.

The third NRO Lacrosse radar imaging satellite was launched on Oct 24
into a 425 x 672 km x 57.0 deg orbit; the on board engine will
circularize the orbit later. It replaces the first Lacrosse in a 57
degree orbit. Launch vehicle was a Titan 4A, serial A-18 (formerly
K-18). The payload is publicly identified as USA 133; it reportedly
carries a large radar to  carry out reconnaissance missions even in the
presence of cloud cover. The satellite is probably built by Lockheed
Martin Astronautics/Denver.

DSCS III B-13 is an X-band (8/7 GHz) comsat for the US Department of
Defense, built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge (formerly GE Space; this
satellite, however, was the first DSCS to complete its testing at
Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale). Lockheed Martin/Denver's Atlas Centaur
AC-131 placed the satellite in transfer orbit, and the IABS-6 upper
stage (using twin Marquardt R-4D liquid apogee engines) circularized it
at geostationary altitude. Launch of AC-131 was on Oct 25. The AC-131
Centaur stage has an attached secondary payload, the USAF Academy's
Falcon Gold experiment to test out the usability of GPS navigation at
geostationary altitude. 

   DSCS III satellites:
   Satellite   Launch date      Launch vehicle
   A-1         1982 Oct 30      Titan 34D-1/IUS
   B-4         1985 Oct  3      STS-51J/IUS
   B-5         1985 Oct  3      STS-51J/IUS
   A-2         1989 Sep  4      Titan 34D/Transtage
   B-14        1992 Feb 11      Atlas II/IABS
   B-12        1992 Jul  2      Atlas II/IABS
   B-9         1993 Jul 19      Atlas II/IABS
   B-10        1993 Nov 28      Atlas II/IABS
   B-7         1995 Jul 31      Atlas IIA/IABS
   B-13        1997 Oct 25      Atlas IIA/IABS

The STEP M4 satellite, built by TRW/Chantilly and launched for the US
Air Force Space Test Program as flight P95-1, failed to communicate with
the ground after launch on Oct 22 and a spacecraft emergency was
declared. So far controllers have not been able to contact the
satellite. It appears that the solar panels failed to deploy. The launch
itself was another success for Orbital's Pegasus XL.  The 400 kg
research satellite carries the Orbiting Ozone and Aerosol Measurement
experiment, the Electromagnetic Propagation Experiment, and the Digital
Ion Drift Meter. The STEP program record has been rather mixed, with the last
three missions failing (and STEP M2 operating from a lower than planned orbit):
P90-5  STEP M0   1994 Mar 13      Taurus       539 x 559 km x 105.0 deg
P91-2  STEP M2   1994 May 19      Pegasus/HAPS 603 x 821 km x 82.0 deg
P90-1  STEP M1   1994 Jun 27      Pegasus XL   Failed to orbit
P92-2  STEP M3   1995 Jun 22      Pegasus XL   Failed to orbit
P95-1  STEP M4   1997 Oct 22      Pegasus XL   433 x 501 km x 45.0 deg

The MIRACL laser was used on Oct 17 to illuminate the MSTI-3 satellite
in an antisatellite experiment. The experiment was not intended to
damage the satellite, just to measure the illumination level; however, a
telemetry problem prevented MSTI-3's data from being returned. MSTI-3 is
a USAF (originally SDIO) satellite carrying experimental infrared
sensors.

The European Space Agency launched the Ariane 502 vehicle on Oct 30.
This was a crucial launch for the future of ESA and Arianespace,
following the failure of Ariane 501. The vehicle placed its payloads in
orbit, but  the EPC core stage shut down early and had a roll control
problem, making the orbit significantly lower than planned, at 534 x
26631 km x 7.8 deg. The EAP solid boosters and the EPS final stage
appear to have operated correctly. The main payload was MAQSAT-H, built
by Kayser-Threde of Munich as a dummy comsat with accelerometers to
measure the launch environment. The TEAMSAT experiment package, attached
to MAQSAT-H, was developed by ESTEC and carries several technology
experiments. TEAMSAT has ejected a subsatellite, the YES (Young
Engineers Satellite) which is a small satellites with several
experiments, (but a 20 km tether experiment will not be carried out due
to space debris concerns). MAQSAT-B, also built by Kayser-Threde, is a
smaller dummy satellite stored below the SPELTRA dual launch adapter and
which remains attached to the EPS stage. A dummy ballast mass replaced
the AMSAT amateur radio satellite which was pulled off the mission
because of a predicted rougher ride than originally specified; this
ballast probably is also attached to MAQSAT-B.

Brazil's first satellite launch attempt failed on Nov 2. The VLS rocket
was destroyed 65 seconds after launch.  VLS (Veiculo Laucadror de
Satelites) has an S43TM core stage with four similar S43 strapons; an
S40TM second stage; and an S44 third stage. The S43 stage which appears
to have failed was previously flown on the Sonda 4 sounding rocket and
the VLS-R1 test vehicle.

This was the first orbital launch attempt from the Centro Tecnico
Aeroespacial at Alcantara, Maranhao state, Brasil (02 deg 17' S, 44 deg 23' W), carried
out under the auspices of the Brazilian space agency INPE (Instituto
Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias). The payload was SCD-2A, Satelite de
Coleta de Dados (Data Collection Satellite), a 150 kg satellite which
was a refurbished prototype for SCD-1, launched by Pegasus in 1993. The
SCD satellites relay environmental data from remote stations in the
Amazon basin   to a ground station at Cuiaba. The satellite is an
octagonal cylinder, 1.0 m in diameter and 0.72 m high.

The Foton No. 11 microgravity spacecraft carried the first Kayser-Threde
Mirka reentry vehicle. It contains experiments to study reentry
technology and heat shield materials.  Both the Foton descent module and
Mirka were successfully recovered in Kazakstan on Oct 23.

Launch of the GPS SVN38 navigation satellite is scheduled for Nov 6.

Vacation Report
----------------

The Centre Spatial de Toulouse (CST) of CNES (Centre National d'Etudes
Spatiales) has been France's main space development and satellite
control center since the mid 1970s. Very roughly, CNES/Evry maps to
NASA-Marshall, CNES/Kourou to NASA-KSC, CNES/Paris to NASA HQ, and
CNES/Toulouse to NASA-Goddard (and to a lesser extent JSC, with some hopes
to be JPL as well). The operations control center at CST takes care of
the Telecom and TDF comsats and the Spot remote sensing satellites, and
also provides its services to commercial comsat clients for early
orbit operations and checkout, with multiple independent control rooms
available for dual-satellite launches. There's also a separate control center
for the COSPAS/SARSAT search and rescue system, which relays emergency
messages to the relevant rescue agencies. The digital SAR package on
NOAA's weather satellites is made by the folks at Toulouse. CST is
currently developing the Proteus minisatellite, which will be first used
for the international Jason altimetry project. Other divisions
at CST are responsible for Spot and Helios, for microgravity missions
and piloted flights, microsatellites and balloons. Thanks to my friends at
CNES for their remarkable hospitality.

Cite de l'Espace

I also visited the Cite de L'Espace, Toulouse's space tourist
attraction. It's sort of accessible by public transport, but for some
incomprehensible reason the bus line stops one km short of it. The main
attraction is a lifesize Ariane 5; you can walk underneath the main
engine and there is a small exhibition on Ariane propulsion systems
inside the dummy launch tower. An Ariane 1 in pieces illustrates the
different tanks and interstages making up a rocket. On display are full
size models of Sputnik, ERS 2, Soyuz, Starlette, Mage 2, Telecom 1,
Meteosat and Soho.  There's a nice display on COSPAS/SARSAT and a model
of the Columbus lab that you can walk in, and some fairly good  displays
on satellite components, plus some nice meteorites. A lot of the
material on display is from products of Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse,
which is not too surprising.


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36   Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1800?  Foton No. 11  )   Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A
              Mirka         )
Oct 15 0843   Cassini  )        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A
              Huygens  )                                      Titan probe 
Oct 16 1913   Apstar 2R         CZ-3B         Xichang         Comsat      62A
Oct 22 1315   STEP M4           Pegasus XL    Wallops I?       Technology 63A
Oct 24 0232   Lacrosse 3?       Titan 4A      Vandenberg SLC4E  Recon     64A
Oct 25 0046   DSCS III B-13 )   Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     65A
              Falcon Gold   )                                  Technology 65B
Oct 30 1343   Maqsat H )        Ariane 5      Kourou ELA3      Technology 66A
              Maqsat B )                                                  66B
Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C


Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89/OV-102 VAB Bay 3     STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64              VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 13. November 1997 01:38
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 340

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 340                                      1997 Nov 12  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Solov'yov and Vinogradov carried out another EVA on Nov 6, with hatch
open at 0012 UTC and close at 0629 UTC. The Kvant-2 interior compartment
was used as the airlock. The Russian MSB-SO solar array, which has been
stored on the outside of the SO module since its delivery to the station
by Atlantis on mission STS-74, has now been installed on the Kvant
module replacing the elderly MSB-4. (The new array is not, as I claimed
last week, the MCSA US/Russian array, which is already deployed on the
opposite side of Kvant. Thanks to Gabe Katell for pointing out this
goof). The Kvant-2 airlock hatch was thought to be sealed after the Nov
6 EVA, but it turns out that the ShSO (Airlock special compartment) of
Kvant 2 is still leaking. The PNO (Instrument-science compartment),
which is the next room in, can continue to be used as the airlock until
the outer lock is fixed. Jim Oberg points out that it's not clear how
long the depressurized activity on Nov 3 lasted. The ShSO was no longer
at vacuum as early as 0940 UTC, but at 0953 UTC and possibly as late as
around 1045 UTC (guessing from the fact that Chris van den Berg 
monitored radio from them in the inner airlock at 1109) the crew were
still operating at a pressure under 5 psi. and they were not able to
remove their suits until after 1100 UTC. So it depends on what pressure
level you consider to count as vacuum conditions. 

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying Atlantis has left Kennedy en route
to the Boeing North American plant at Palmdale, California for Atlantis'
Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) refit. OV-104 will not be making
any flights until 1999.



Recent Launches
---------------

The final Block IIA Navstar Global Positioning Satellite, SVN 38, was
orbited on Nov 5. The Block IIA GPS satellites were built by
Boeing/Seal Beach (former Rockwell), and launched on Boeing/Huntingdon
Beach (former McDonnell Douglas) Delta 7925 rockets. GPS SVN 38
fired its Thiokol Star 37 apogee motor on Nov 8 and is now in
a 19914 x 20626 km x 54.9 deg orbit. The PAM-D third stage remains
in the 187 x 20391 km x 35.0 deg transfer orbit, while in its
final depletion burn the Delta second stage orbit was raised
to 459 x 561 km x 35.2 deg.

The Ariane 502 launch anomaly seems to be really minor. Apparently
when the solid boosters separated there was a bit more roll torque
on the core stage than expected, and the centrifugal force pushed
the propellant away from the fuel gauge, fooling it into thinking
that the rocket was out of fuel a little early. Sounds like an easy
fix for the next mission, and the sort of thing that would be hard
to catch prior to an actual test flight.

The Lockheed Martin/USAF Titan 4A-17 was launched on Nov 8 into highly
elliptical orbit, carrying a classified signals intelligence satellite
for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), probably in conjuction
with the NSA (National Security Agency). It is believed that the
satellite is a TRUMPET, with a large deployable mesh antenna, designed
to monitor Soviet communications and missile tests (yes, *I* know the
Soviets no longer exist... but I'm sure NRO can find something useful to
listen into). One rumour was that the prime contractor for TRUMPET is
Boeing/Seattle, but that's not well established. Two earlier TRUMPET
satellites were launched in May 1994 and Jun 1995. The new satellite 
and Centaur TC-16 were launched into a 185 x 185 km x 55.0 deg parking
orbit. The Centaur restarted  to enter a 204 x 27890 km x 55.0 deg
transfer orbit, and made a third burn to an 1100 x 39059 km x 63.6 deg
operational orbit. This 'Molniya type' 12-hour, low precession, orbit 
is also used by the SDS communications satellites which relay data from
NRO imaging recon satellites. After spacecraft separation the Centaur
vented its remaining propellants, and as on previous TRUMPET missions
this caused some comet discovery reports to come in to the IAU Central
Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.

Meanwhile, the NRO's LACROSSE 3 classified radar imaging payload is now
in a 664 x 666 km x 55.0 deg operational orbit, according to amateur
observers. Its Lockheed/Sunnyvale Bus-1 propulsion system raised the
perigee from an initial 430 x 669 km orbit.

Five more Motorola Iridium satellites were launched by Boeing Delta 2 on
Nov 9 into a 625 x 642 km x 86.6 deg orbit. The Delta second stage then
lowered its perigee to 253 km.  Of the Iridium satellites launched
previously, all but three  are in a 777 x 777 km x 86.4  deg operational
orbit. Iridium SV011 is 15 km lower; Iridium SV021 and SV027 never left
their initial parking orbits.

Mars Global Surveyor resumed aerobraking on Nov 9. Orbit is now 135 x
45088 km  x 93 deg. It will continue aerobraking for a few months
and then pause again, before finally reaching its target sun-synchronous
orbit in 1999, a year later than planned thanks to the problem with its
solar panel.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36   Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1808   Foton No. 11  )   Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A
              Mirka         )
Oct 15 0843   Cassini  )        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A
              Huygens  )                                      Titan probe 
Oct 16 1913   Apstar 2R         CZ-3B         Xichang         Comsat      62A
Oct 22 1315   STEP M4           Pegasus XL    Wallops I?       Technology 63A
Oct 24 0232   Lacrosse 3?       Titan 4A      Vandenberg SLC4E  Recon     64A
Oct 25 0046   DSCS III B-13 )   Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     65A
              Falcon Gold   )                                  Technology 65B
Oct 30 1343   Maqsat H )        Ariane 5      Kourou ELA3      Technology 66A
              Maqsat B )                                                  66B
              YES      )                                                  66C
Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  5 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   Trumpet 3         Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2  Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis   En route Palmdale  OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89/OV-102 LC39B         STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64              VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 18. November 1997 00:53
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 341

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 341                                  1997 Nov 17 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia is awaiting a Nov 19 launch on the STS-87 science mission.
Cargo bay payloads are: (Bay locations are approximate only;
I will try and correct them later)
 NaSBE       GABA, Bay 2 Stbd
 EDFT-OTD    APC?, Bay 3 Port
 G-036       GABA, Bay 4 Port
 EDFT-ORU    GABA?, Bay 4 Stbd
 Spartan     MPESS, Bay 5
 TGDF        GABA, Bay 6 Port
 LHP         GABA, Bay 6 Stbd
 SOLSE       GABA, Bay 7 Stbd
 USMP-4 Fwd  MPESS, Bay 8? 
 USMP-4 Aft  MPESS, Bay 9?
 OARE        Bay 11 keel
 EDO         Bay 13

The MPESS is a large cross-bay device to carry the big
experiments. The GABA and APC are small carriers attached
to the payload bay side wall. 

The main payloads for STS-87 are Spartan 201 and USMP-4. Spartan 201 is
a small free flying solar observatory that sits on top of an MPESS
carrier. It will be deployed and recovered with the robot arm; this is
its fourth flight. USMP-4 is a US Microgravity Payload, with experiments
to process materials in free fall. It uses two MPESS carries on
which a variety of furnaces and processing equipment are installed.

The EDFT payloads are equipment for Space Station spacewalk practice;
the OTD is an experimental crane and the ORU is a dummy Orbital
Replacement Unit. 

The EDO in the rear of the bay is the Extended Duration Orbiter kit,
which provides extra power for long duration missions.

The G-036, NaSBE, TGDF, LHP and SOLSE experiments are small experiments
using GAS (Getaway Special) canisters. LHP is the Loop Heat Pipe, and
NaSBE is the Sodium Sulfur Battery Experiment. SOLSE and LORE are ozone
measuring devices. G-036 is a student experiment from El Paso Community
College to mix cement in space; it was originally going to fly on
STS-86. TGDF is Turbulent Gas Diffusion Flames, 
a basic physics experiment.

OARE flies on all Columbia missions, and measures accelerations
during flight.

During the spacewalk, a small satellite which is brought up inside the
Shuttle cabin will be taken out and released. AERCam Sprint is a remote
controlled free-flying TV camera attached to gas thrusters, in a padded 
sphere. It's a prototype to test out the ability to inspect the Space
Station exterior without actually sending astronauts outside.

Crew of STS-87 consists of commander Kevin Kregel, pilot Steven Lindsey,
mission specialists Winston Scott, Kalpana Chawla (a native of India), 
Takao Doi (from the Japanese NASDA space agency),  and payload
specialist Leonid Kadenyuk from the Ukrainian space agency.

Atlantis has arrived in Palmdale for its Orbiter Maintenance
Down Period. New cockpit displays will be installed,
and the airlock will be relocated to the payload bay docking
system area. 

The outer Kvant-2 EVA hatch on Mir is still leaking. A new outer hatch
seal will be delivered by the next Progress cargo ship. Meanwhile, the
inner airlock compartment is safely sealed and will continue to be used
for external spacewalks.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Krunichev Proton was launched from Baykonur on Nov 12 with an Energiya
Blok DM-2 upper stage and a geostationary payload, the first Kupon
comsat for the Russian banking system. Kupon is the first commercial
comsat made by the Lavochkin group, who usually make planetary probes
and early warning satellites; previous Russian comsats were made by NPO
Prikladnoi Mekhaniki. Kupon, owned by the Russian Federation Central
Bank (and possibly Global Information Systems of Moscow), relays
financial data for the Bankir network.

Ariane V102 successfully launched two communications satellites on Nov
12 at 2148 UTC. The Ariane 44L type rocket has four strapon PAL liquid
boosters made by Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The Aerospatiale L220 first
stage separates after 3 minutes; the Daimler-Benz L33 second stage then
fires for 2 more minutes, followed by the long 13 minute burn of
Aerospatiale's H-10-3 high energy liquid-hydrogen third stage, which
entered orbit at 2208 UTC along with the payload. Unlike Delta, Atlas
and Proton, the Ariane 4 flies directly to elliptical geostationary
transfer orbit without first entering a low parking orbit. The
Sirius 2 satellite was ejected at 2210 UTC, then at 2212 the top of the
SPELDA structure which encapsulates the lower payload. At 2214 the
Carkawarta-1 satellite was ejected from the lower part of SPELDA which
remains attached to the H-10-3.

V102's first payload was Sirius 2, a Spacebus 3000 Ku-band
communications and broadcast satellite for Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska
Satellit aktiebolaget), built by Aerospatiale/Cannes. NSAB's first
satellite was TELE-X, a Spacebus 300 launched in 1989. It was later
supplemented by  Sirius 1, a much smaller satellite already in orbit.
Sirius 1 was originally British Satellite Broadcasting's Marcopolo 1,
and was bought in orbit by NSAB in Dec 1993.

The second payload was Cakrawarta 1, formerly known as Indostar. This is
the first of a new type of small comsat, the StarBus, developed by CTA
Inc. of Rockville, Maryland, which has since been bought by Orbital
Sciences. Although press reports have described StarBus as a lightsat,
the launch and dry masses of Indostar are 1385 kg and 643 kg, very
similar to the venerable (but still in production) Hughes HS-376 class.
The satellite is owned by PT MediaCitra Indostar, which will use it for
television broadcasting in Indonesia. The satellite features an Primex
Aerospace liquid propulsion system (maybe! I've seen different
stories on this - can anyone confirm?) and, unusually, an S-band antenna -
most television broadcast satellites use 11GHz Ku-band, but apparently
the 2.5 GHz S-band frequencies give better transmission through the
rainy Indonesian skies.

Errata: Lacrosse 3 is in a 57.3 degree orbit; the second TRUMPET was
launched in Jul 1995.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1808   Foton No. 11  )   Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A
              Mirka         )
Oct 15 0843   Cassini  )        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A
              Huygens  )                                      Titan probe 
Oct 16 1913   Apstar 2R         CZ-3B         Xichang         Comsat      62A
Oct 22 1315   STEP M4           Pegasus XL    Wallops I        Technology 63A
Oct 24 0232   Lacrosse 3        Titan 4A      Vandenberg SLC4E  Recon     64A
Oct 25 0046   DSCS III B-13 )   Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     65A
              Falcon Gold   )                                  Technology 65B
Oct 30 1343   Maqsat H )        Ariane 5      Kourou ELA3      Technology 66A
              Maqsat B )                                                  66B
              YES      )                                                  66C
Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  5 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   Trumpet 3         Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A
Nov 12 1700   Kupon             Proton        Baykonur LC200   Comsat     70A
Nov 12 2148   Sirius 2     )    Ariane 44L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
              Cakrawarta 1 )                                   Comsat     71B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-87  Nov 19
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM63/ET-89/OV-102 LC39B         STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64              VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 27. November 1997 18:40
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 342

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 342                                       1997 Nov 27 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

OV-102 Columbia was launched on Nov 19 on the STS-87 science mission.
Solid rocket motors RSRM-63 separated two minutes after launch. The
orbiter rolled to a heads up position five minutes after launch, in a
test of communications via the TDRS comsat. Main engine cutoff and
separation of External Tank ET-89 came at T+8 minutes, leaving OV-102 in
an elliptical transfer orbit. It then entered a 300 km circular orbit at
28 deg inclination.

Cargo bay payloads are:
 NaSBE       GABA, Bay 2 Stbd      Sodium-Sulfur battery
 EDFT-OTD    APC?, Bay 3 Port      EVA crane
 Foot restraint    Bay 3 Stbd    
 G-036       GABA, Bay 4 Port      High school experiment
 EDFT-ORU    GABA?, Bay 4 Stbd     EVA dummy mass
 Spartan     MPESS, Bay 5          Solar observatory
 TGDF        GABA, Bay 6 Port      Physics of flames experiment
 LHP         GABA, Bay 6 Stbd      Heat pipe technology test
 SOLSE       GABA, Bay 7 Stbd      Ozone study
 USMP-4 Fwd  MPESS, Bay 8          Materials processing
 USMP-4 Aft  MPESS, Bay 9
 OARE        Bay 11 keel           Accelerations
 EDO         Bay 12-13             Extended duration kit

Spartan 201 was released a day late (because of a safemode event on the
SOHO satellite whose results it will calibrate), at 2105 UTC on Nov 21.
However the satellite did not start its automatic orientation maneuver
because the crew failed to send it the correct commands prior to release.
Mission specialist Chalwa moved the robot arm in to grapple it again
at about 2110 UTC. The grapple was unsuccessful and the Spartan was left
tumbling. At 2210 it was decided to move away from Spartan for the day.

Spartan was recaptured at around 0200 UTC on Nov 25. The capture was
made by hand, during a spacewalk by Takao Doi and Winston Scott. The
astronauts had difficulty berthing it so Chalwa grappled it with the RMS
arm and berthed it around 0330 UTC. The spacewalk started at 0002 UTC
Nov 25 and ended 0945 UTC; the tests of space station tools went well,
but the free-flying Sprint camera subsatellite was not deployed due to
lack of time.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Resurs-F1M satellite, built by the Progress Central Specialized
Design Bureau, was launched on Nov 18 by a Soyuz-U rocket (also
built by Progress). It is based on the Vostok/Zenit type bus used
since 1960 for spy satellites, civil recoverable satellites, and
the Vostok and Voskhod spaceships. On Nov 26 Resurs-F1M was in
a 208 x 243 km x 82.3 deg orbit.

Thanks to all the folks at Primex (formerly Olin and Rocket Research)
who sent me information on Cakrawarta 1. This is the first geostationary
satellite to use a Primex propulsion system for attitude control (with
twelve MR-103G thrusters) and stationkeeping (with four MR-501
electrothermal hydrazine thrusters); a Thiokol Star 30E solid motor was
used for the apogee burn. (Primex provided small propulsion systems
for many other spacecraft, including the Voyager probes.)

Last week I reported a rumour that the classified TRUMPET sigint
satellite (whose codename was leaked to the Baltimore Sun a couple years
ago) was built by Boeing/Seattle; however, for the record, Aviation Week
claims that Hughes/El Segundo is the prime contractor. 

Maxim Tarasenko reports that Global Info Systems, the owner of Kupon, is
in fact a subsidiary of the Russian central bank. The Kupon,
Sirius 2 and Cakrawarta satellites are currently drifting toward their
stations in the geostationary ring.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1808   Foton No. 11  )   Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A
              Mirka         )
Oct 15 0843   Cassini  )        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A
              Huygens  )                                      Titan probe 
Oct 16 1913   Apstar 2R         CZ-3B         Xichang         Comsat      62A
Oct 22 1315   STEP M4           Pegasus XL    Wallops I        Technology 63A
Oct 24 0232   Lacrosse 3        Titan 4A      Vandenberg SLC4E  Recon     64A
Oct 25 0046   DSCS III B-13 )   Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     65A
              Falcon Gold   )                                  Technology 65B
Oct 30 1343   Maqsat H-Teamsat) Ariane 5      Kourou ELA3      Technology 66A
              Maqsat B        )                                           66B
              YES             )                                           66C
Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  5 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   Trumpet 3         Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A
Nov 12 1700   Kupon             Proton        Baykonur LC200   Comsat     70A
Nov 12 2148   Sirius 2     )    Ariane 44L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
              Cakrawarta 1 )                                   Comsat     71B
Nov 18 1115   Resurs-F1M        Soyuz-U       Plesetk          Rem.sens.  72A
Nov 19 1946   Columbia          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  73A
Nov 21 2105   Spartan 201                     OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  73B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-87  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                    LC39B         STS-87                         
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM64              VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 05. December 1997 04:40
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 343

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 343                                      1997 Dec  4  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Errata
------

Several recent mistakes have been pointed out to me: the first STS-87
EVA ended 0745 UTC not 0945! Sorry about that. The GPS launch last month
was Nov 6 at 0030 UTC, not Nov 5. In JSR 334, I reported the Mars Global
Surveyor insertion burn time as 0015 UTC, should have been 0117 UTC. As
always, I will try and correct mistakes when folks bring them to my
attention.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-87/Columbia continues its flight with microgravity science research
on the USMP-4 payload. NASA has decided not to redeploy Spartan on this
mission. On Dec 2, Spartan was unberthed with the RMS arm and used while
attached to the arm for tests of an instrument called the Video Guidance
Sensor which will be used during space station dockings. During an EVA
on Dec 3, Doi and Scott carried out more tests of the Space Station
crane. They also deployed the AERCam/Sprint 'football' remote-controlled
camera for a free flight in the payload bay. The astronauts went to
battery power at 0909 UTC Dec 3, by which time the airlock was already
depressurized. Scott deployed the camera at 1215 UTC and recovered it at
1327 UTC. Airlock was repressurized at 1409 UTC. Landing is expected Dec
5.

Meanwhile, Endeavour is being prepared for a January launch
and will soon be connected to the external tank; and stacking
of solid boosters for Columbia's next flight has already begun.

Recent Launches
---------------

NASDA, Japan's applications space agency, launched an H-2 rocket from
Tanegashima Space Center on Nov 27 carrying TRMM and ETS-7. ETS-7
(Engineering Test Satellite 7) is also called Hikoboshi; a small target
satellite, Orihime, will separate and Hikoboshi will carry out
rendezvous and docking experiments with it. ETS-7 is built by Toshiba,
with the docking system developed by Mitsubishi. ETS-7 is having some
problems with its solar array drive, and orbit raising burns have been
delayed. Although Space Command is tracking an object 1997-74C in a
similar orbit which Goddard has identified as the ETS-7 target
satellite, it seems unlikely that the latter has actually separated from
ETS-7 at this point. Does anyone have definite info on the
identification of objects 1997-74C and 74D? I suspect it is more likely
that they are adapters connecting ETS-7 to the launch vehicle, or TRMM
sensor covers. TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) is a joint
NASDA/NASA project. Built by NASA-Goddard and part of NASA's Earth Probe
series, it will improve climate models and study El Nino. 

JCSAT-5 is a comsat for Japan Satellite Systems (JSAT) built by
Hughes/El Segundo using the HS-601 bus. It was launched on an
Arianespace Ariane 44P rocket on Dec 2 into geostationary transfer
orbit of 214 x 35758 km x 4.0 deg.

Usually dual payload launches on Ariane involve an adapter called
SPELDA which covers the lower satellite; on this mission a simpler
and smaller cylinder called Cyclade covered the lower payload,
a small space science satellite, Equator-S. (Cyclade was used once
before, on the May 1993 launch of the Arsene satellite).

Equator-S was built by Germany's MPE (Max-Planck-Institut fur
Extraterrestrische Physik) and is part of the International
Solar-Terrestrial physics Program. It will study particles and fields in
the equatorial magnetosphere. A Thiokol Star 13A solid motor will fire
to place Equator-S in an orbit with a 65000 km apogee.

Astra 1G, launched on Dec 2, is an HS-601HP comsat from Hughes for the
SES (Societe Europeene des Satellites, based in Luxembourg), which provides
television broadcasting in Europe.

Astra 1G was launched by International Launch Services on a Krunichev
Proton-K rocket with an RKK Energiya upper stage, Blok DM3 No. 2L After
six hours the second burn of the Blok DM3 placed Astra 1G in a 10211 x
35989 km x 12.3 deg transfer orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  5 1508   Progress M-36     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Cargo      58A
Oct  5 2101   Echostar III      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     59A
Oct  9 1808   Foton No. 11  )   Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Micrograv  60A
              Mirka         )
Oct 15 0843   Cassini  )        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40 Saturn probe 61A
              Huygens  )                                      Titan probe 
Oct 16 1913   Apstar 2R         CZ-3B         Xichang         Comsat      62A
Oct 22 1315   STEP M4           Pegasus XL    Wallops I        Technology 63A
Oct 24 0232   Lacrosse 3        Titan 4A      Vandenberg SLC4E  Recon     64A
Oct 25 0046   DSCS III B-13 )   Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     65A
              Falcon Gold   )                                  Technology 65B
Oct 30 1343   Maqsat H-Teamsat) Ariane 5      Kourou ELA3      Technology 66A
              Maqsat B        )                                           66B
              YES             )                                           66C
Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  6 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   Trumpet 3         Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A
Nov 12 1700   Kupon             Proton        Baykonur LC200   Comsat     70A
Nov 12 2148   Sirius 2     )    Ariane 44L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
              Cakrawarta 1 )                                   Comsat     71B
Nov 18 1115   Resurs-F1M        Soyuz-U       Plesetk          Rem.sens.  72A
Nov 19 1946   Columbia          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  73A
Nov 21 2105   Spartan 201                     OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  73B
Nov 27 2127   TRMM    )         H-2           Tanegashima      Rem.sens.  74A
              Hikoboshi  )                                     Technology 74B
              Orihime    )        
Dec  2 2252   JCSAT-5    )      Ariane 44P    Kourou           Comsat     75A
              Equator-S  )                                     Space sci  75B
Dec  2 2310   Astra 1G          Proton        Baykonur         Comsat     76A
Dec  3        AERCam/Sprint                   OV-102, LEO      Technology 

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-87  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90        VAB Bay 1     STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 21. December 1997 19:44
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 344

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 344                                       1997 Dec  21  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The last Shuttle mission of the year, STS-87, has been completed.
Columbia landed on Dec 5, with a deorbit burn at 1121 UTC, returning to
Earth the Spartan satellite and the USMP-4 microgravity science payload.
Touchdown was at 1220 UTC on KSC's runway 33. Launch of STS-89 has been
delayed a few days to Jan 22; Endeavour was rolled out to pad 39A on Dec
19. STS-89 will dock with the Mir station.

Progress M-36 undocked from Mir on Dec 17 at 0602 UTC and flew out to a
range of 700m. The Inspector satellite was deployed at 0735 to take
pictures of Mir, but its navigation system failed and it drifted away
from the station. X-Mir Inspector was built by Daimler-Benz
Aerospace/Bremen, Germany. Progress M-36 was deorbited at 1620 UTC on
Dec 19. Progress M-37 was launched from Baykonur the following day, and
will bring new supplies to the Mir station.

Erratum
-------

The Cyclade adapter system, Stefan Barensky tells me, was also used on the
first Ariane 4 launch in 1988.


Recent Launches
---------------

Two Iridium satellites were launched on Dec 8 from Taiyuan in China.
Iridium 42 and 44 were launched by a Chang Zheng 2C-3-SD rocket with a
'Smart Dispenser' upper stage. This rocket was test flown with two dummy
satellites earlier in the year. Five more Iridium satellites, built by
Motorola and Lockheed, were launched on a Boeing Delta 2 from Vandenberg
on Dec 20; I don't have their serial numbers yet.

The Galaxy 8I comsat was launched from Cape Canaveral by Lockheed
Martin's AC-149 Atlas 2AS. The Centaur stage entered a supersynchronous
transfer orbit of 280 x 50607 km with inclination of 26.8 deg.
Galaxy 8I is a Hughes HS-601HP satellite owned by Panamsat and
will be used by Galaxy Latin America broadcasting.

Kosmos-2347 was launched on Dec 9 by Tsiklon-2 from 5-GIK Baykonur. 
(SPACEWARN initially called this satellite Kosmos-2348 in error). The
satellite, developed by KB Arsenal, is a US-P class naval electronic
intelligence satellite and was launched into a 110 x 400 km transfer
orbit by the two-stage 11K69 Tsiklon-2 (built by the Ukranian Yuzhnoe
enterprise with Russian engines). Its own engine then fired to
circularize at 401 x 419 km x 65.0 deg.

Kosmos-2348 was launched Dec 15 by Soyuz-U from Plesetsk. It is a
Yantar'-class reconnaissance satellite (probably a Kobalt class vehicle)
in a 165 x 343 km x 67.1 deg orbit. The Kobalt satellites are believed
to be similar to the earlier Oktan (Yantar'-4K1) satellites, which
carried a Zhemchug camera system in a large recoverable OSA (Special
Apparatus Module) reentry vehicle, attached during the mission to a
service module with solar panels and a maneuvring engine. The Oktan
satellites also carried two small SpK film return capsules which were
recovered while the mission was still in progress. The Yantar' series
are built by the TsSKB-Progress enterprise in Samara, Russia.


JCSAT-5 is now in geosynchronous orbit. Jun Takei from JCSAT reports
that the five liquid apogee motor burns were carried out from Dec 4 to
Dec 8, and the solar panels and antenna have been deployed.

Av Week now has changed its mind and says that the TRUMPET satellite was
a Boeing/Kent Valley product, in agreement with my sources.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  6 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   TRUMPET 3?        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A
Nov 12 1700   Kupon             Proton        Baykonur LC200   Comsat     70A
Nov 12 2148   Sirius 2     )    Ariane 44L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
              Cakrawarta 1 )                                   Comsat     71B
Nov 18 1115   Resurs-F1M        Soyuz-U       Plesetk          Rem.sens.  72A
Nov 19 1946   Columbia          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  73A
Nov 21 2105   Spartan 201                     OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  73B
Nov 27 2127   TRMM    )         H-2           Tanegashima      Rem.sens.  74A
              Hikoboshi  )                                     Technology 74B
              Orihime    )        
Dec  2 2252   JCSAT-5    )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
              Equator-S  )                                     Space sci  75B
Dec  2 2310   Astra 1G          Proton        Baykonur         Comsat     76A
Dec  3 1215   AERCam/Sprint                   OV-102, LEO      Technology 
Dec  8 0716   Iridium 42 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan          Comsat     77A
              Iridium 44 )                                     Comsat     77B
Dec  8 2352   Galaxy 8I         Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     78A
Dec  9 0717   Kosmos-2347       Tsiklon-2     Baykonur LC90    Recon      79A
Dec 15 1540?  Kosmos-2348       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Recon      80A
Dec 17 0737   X-Mir Inspector                 Progress,LEO     Technology 58D
Dec 20 0845   Progress M-37     Soyuz-U       Baykonur         Cargo      81A
Dec 20 1316   Iridium  )        Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2  Comsat     82
              Iridium  )                                       Comsat     82
              Iridium  )                                       Comsat     82
              Iridium  )                                       Comsat     82
              Iridium  )                                       Comsat     82

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-87  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-89  Jan 22

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90/OV-105 LC39A         STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 31. December 1997 22:45
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 345

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 345                                       1997 Dec 31  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Progress M-37 (7K-TGM No. 236) was launched from Baykonur on Dec 20, and
brought new supplies to the Mir station. It docked at 1022 UTC
on Dec 22.

Recent Launches
---------------

Intelsat 804 was launched on Dec 22 by an Ariane 42L
rocket. The satellite, built for the International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, will
be placed in geostationary orbit by its liquid apogee engine.

Eight small 40 kg Orbcomm communications satellites were placed in low orbit
on Dec 23 by a Pegasus XL rocket with a HAPS hydrazine fourth stage.
The L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Wallops Island and
released the rocket over the Atlantic. Orbcomm is a subsidiary of
Orbital Sciences, who also make the Pegasus rocket.

Early Bird, Earth Watch Inc's 3-m commercial remote sensing satellite,
was launched on Dec 24 by an STT Kompleks Start-1 launch vehicle from the
Russian Svobodniy (2-GIK) launch site.

A Krunichev Proton-K launch from Baykonur on Dec 24 placed an Energiya
Blok DM3 upper stage in low perigee orbit with the Asiasat 3 payload
attached. An hour later the Blok DM3 ignited to enter a geosynchronous
transfer orbit, but 6 hr 20min after launch the second burn of the Blok
DM3 shut down after only one second, stranding Asiasat in elliptical
transfer orbit. Asiasat 3 was a Hughes HS-601 comsat for Hong Kong based
Asia Telecommunications.

The launch of Iridium 42 and 44 by a Chinese CZ-2C rocket on Dec 8
left the second stage and several pieces of debris in low transfer orbit.
However, another object, 1997-77H/25084, was cataloged in an orbit
similar in height to the Iridium payloads, but more elliptical. 
This object must be associated with the SD (Smart Dispenser) upper
stage; the SD itself is meant to deorbit after releasing the Iridiums,
to minimize space debris, but perhaps this last burn of the SD did
not go right and it ended up still in orbit. Alternatively, 77H may
be some kind of adapter that got released.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  2 1225   SCD-2A            VLS           Alcantara        Rem.sens.  FTO
Nov  3 0405   Sputnik-40                      Mir,LEO          Demo       58C
Nov  6 0030   GPS 38            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     67A
Nov  8 0205   TRUMPET 3?        Titan Centaur Canaveral LC41   Signal int 68A
Nov  9 0134   Iridium 38 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     69E
              Iridium 39 )                                     Comsat     69D
              Iridium 40 )                                     Comsat     69C
              Iridium 41 )                                     Comsat     69B
              Iridium 43 )                                     Comsat     69A
Nov 12 1700   Kupon             Proton        Baykonur LC200   Comsat     70A
Nov 12 2148   Sirius 2     )    Ariane 44L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
              Cakrawarta 1 )                                   Comsat     71B
Nov 18 1115   Resurs-F1M        Soyuz-U       Plesetk          Rem.sens.  72A
Nov 19 1946   Columbia          Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  73A
Nov 21 2105   Spartan 201                     OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  73B
Nov 27 2127   TRMM    )         H-2           Tanegashima      Rem.sens.  74A
              Hikoboshi  )                                     Technology 74B
              Orihime    )        
Dec  2 2252   JCSAT-5    )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
              Equator-S  )                                     Space sci  75B
Dec  2 2310   Astra 1G          Proton        Baykonur         Comsat     76A
Dec  3 1215   AERCam/Sprint                   OV-102, LEO      Technology 
Dec  8 0716   Iridium 42 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan          Comsat     77A
              Iridium 44 )                                     Comsat     77B
Dec  8 2352   Galaxy 8I         Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     78A
Dec  9 0717   Kosmos-2347       Tsiklon-2     Baykonur LC90    Recon      79A
Dec 15 1540?  Kosmos-2348       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Recon      80A
Dec 17 0737   X-Mir Inspector                 Progress,LEO     Technology 58D
Dec 20 0845   Progress M-37     Soyuz-U       Baykonur         Cargo      81A
Dec 20 1316   Iridium 45 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2  Comsat     82A
              Iridium 46 )                                     Comsat     82B
              Iridium 47 )                                     Comsat     82C
              Iridium 48 )                                     Comsat     82D
              Iridium 49 )                                     Comsat     82E
Dec 22 0016   Intelsat 804      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     83A
Dec 23 1911   Orbcomm A1 )      Pegasus XL/H  Wallops          Comsat     84A
              Orbcomm A2 )
              Orbcomm A3 )
              Orbcomm A4 )
              Orbcomm A5 )
              Orbcomm A6 )
              Orbcomm A7 )
              Orbcomm A8 )
Dec 24 1332   EarlyBird         Start-1       Svobodniy        Rem Sens.  85A
Dec 24 2319   Asiasat 3         Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     86A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-87  
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-89  Jan 22

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90/OV-105 LC39A         STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 11. January 1998 23:01
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 346

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 346                                        1998 Jan 11 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Solov'yov and Vinogradov made a 3h 6min spacewalk on Jan 9 to
recover some equipment and begin repairs to the leaking Kvant-2 airlock
hatch; they found a bolt on the hatch was not tight, causing a 10-mm
gap.

Launch of STS-89 to Mir is scheduled for Jan 22. Crew is Terrence
Wilcutt, Joe Edwards, James Reilly, Michael Anderson, Andy Thomas and
Bonnie Dunbar (all of NASA) and Salizhan Sharipov (Russian Air Force).
Thomas will replace David Wolf aboard Mir.


Recent Launches
---------------

Lunar Prospector was launched on Jan 7. The first Athena-2 launch
vehicle took off from LC46 at Spaceport Florida, the commercial
spaceport at the Cape Canaveral site. Lunar Prospector carries a gamma
ray spectrometer and other instruments (alpha particle spectrometer,
magnetometer, electron reflectometer, neutron spectrometer) to study the
composition of the lunar surface. It also carries a Celestis capsule
with some of the ashes  of lunar scientist Gene Shoemaker. LP is
a Lockheed Martin LM100 class satellite. The LM100 is a small
spin stablized bus; in its LP configuration it has a triangular structure 
(half an Iridium bus) surrounded by a cylindrical solar panel shell.

The first stage of Athena-2 is a Thiokol Castor 120 solid motor, derived
from the Peacekeeper ICBM first stage. The second stage is another
Castor 120, and the third stage is a UTC Orbus 21D solid motor. A fourth
stage, although not formally counted as such, is the lower-thrust Primex
OAM (Orbit Adjust Module) which performs final orbit insertion and trim
burns. The OAM entered orbit with the payload which then separated. The
payload consisted of the LP probe and its TLI stage, which fired its
Star 37  solid motor on the first orbit to place LP on a translunar
trajectory. LP fired its own hydrazine propulsion system and entered
a 71 x 8500 km x 89.7 deg lunar orbit on Jan 11.

A Boeing Delta 7925 launched the Skynet 4D communications satellite for the UK
Ministry of Defense on Jan 10. Skynet 4D is built by Matra Marconi
Space/Stevenage using the old ECS bus.

The 8 Orbcomm satellites launched in December, A1 to A8, were flight
models FM-5 to FM-12 respectively.

EarthWatch lost contact with the EarlyBird satellite on Dec 28.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  2 2252   JCSAT-5    )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
              Equator-S  )                                     Space sci  75B
Dec  2 2310   Astra 1G          Proton        Baykonur         Comsat     76A
Dec  3 1215   AERCam/Sprint                   OV-102, LEO      Technology 
Dec  8 0716   Iridium 42 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan          Comsat     77A
              Iridium 44 )                                     Comsat     77B
Dec  8 2352   Galaxy 8I         Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36B  Comsat     78A
Dec  9 0717   Kosmos-2347       Tsiklon-2     Baykonur LC90    Recon      79A
Dec 15 1540?  Kosmos-2348       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk         Recon      80A
Dec 17 0737   X-Mir Inspector                 Progress,LEO     Technology 58D
Dec 20 0845   Progress M-37     Soyuz-U       Baykonur         Cargo      81A
Dec 20 1316   Iridium 45 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2  Comsat     82A
              Iridium 46 )                                     Comsat     82B
              Iridium 47 )                                     Comsat     82C
              Iridium 48 )                                     Comsat     82D
              Iridium 49 )                                     Comsat     82E
Dec 22 0016   Intelsat 804      Ariane 42L    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     83A
Dec 23 1911   Orbcomm FM5 )     Pegasus XL/H  Wallops          Comsat     84F
              Orbcomm FM6 )                                    Comsat     84G
              Orbcomm FM7 )                                    Comsat     84H
              Orbcomm FM8 )                                    Comsat     84A
              Orbcomm FM9 )                                    Comsat     84E
              Orbcomm FM10)                                    Comsat     84B
              Orbcomm FM11)                                    Comsat     84C
              Orbcomm FM12)                                    Comsat     84D
Dec 24 1332   EarlyBird         Start-1       Svobodniy        Rem Sens.  85A
Dec 24 2319   Asiasat 3         Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur         Comsat     86A
Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      SP Florida LC46  Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17B  Comsat   

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr  2
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-89  Jan 22

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/RSRM64/ET-90/OV-105 LC39A         STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 16. January 1998 05:03
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 347

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 347 - Annual Launch Summary Issue              1998 Jan 15 Cambridge, MA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Below is the list of attempted orbital launches for 1997. 
As last year, it is in four sections: status of orbital payloads,
manufacturers of orbital payloads, list of acronyms, and statistics
of launch vehicles.

ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1997

PART 1 - List and current status

 Orbits are given for late Dec 1997:
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)


INT'L   NAME            AGENCY  TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.                                   DATE
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
01A  Atlantis STS-81    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jan 12 Landed at KSC Jan 22
01A  Spacehab-DM        NASA-JSC  Spacelab   Jan 12 Remained attached to
OV-104
F01  GPS 43             USAF      Navsat     Jan 17 Exploded on launch
02A  GE 2               Americom  Comsat     Jan 30 35772x  35801x  0.0
84.9W
02B  Nahuel 1A          Nahuelsat Comsat     Jan 30 35774x  35798x  0.0
71.8W
03A  Soyuz TM-25        RKA       Spaceship  Feb 10 Landed in Kazakstan Aug
14
04A  Discovery STS-82   NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Feb 11 Landed at KSC Feb 21
05A  Haruka             ISAS      Astronomy  Feb 12   569x  21415x 31.4
06A  Kosmos-2337        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 14  1413 x  1428x 82.6
06B  Kosmos-2338        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 14  1413 x  1422x 82.6
06C  Kosmos-2339        MO RF     Comsat     Feb 14  1413 x  1414x 82.6
06D  Gonets-D1 No 4     RKA       Comsat     Feb 14  1401 x  1414x 82.6
06E  Gonets-D1 No 5     RKA       Comsat     Feb 14  1408 x  1414x 82.6
06F  Gonets-D1 No 6     RKA       Comsat     Feb 14  1412 x  1415x 82.6
07A  JCSAT 4            JSAT      Comsat     Feb 17 35780 x 35793x  0.0
150.0E
08A  DSP F18            USAF      EarlyWarn  Feb 24 35780 x 35790x  0.0 (?)
09A  Intelsat 801       Intelsat  Comsat     Mar  1 35772 x 35798x  0.1
64.2E
10A  Zeya               MO RF     Comsat     Mar  4   460 x   472x 97.3
11A  Tempo 2            TCI       Comsat     Mar  8 35765 x 35805 x 0.1
118.7W
12A  DMSP F14           USAF      Weather    Apr  4   842 x   855 x98.9
13A  Columbia STS-83    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Apr  4 Landed at KSC Apr 8
13A  Spacelab MSL-1     NASA-MSFC Spacelab   Apr  4 Remained attached to
OV-102
14A  Progress M-34      RKA       Cargo      Apr  6 Deorbited Jul 2
15A  Kosmos-2340        MO RF     EarlyWarn  Apr  9   823 x 39522 x63.3
16A  Thaicom 3          Shinaw.   Comsat     Apr 16 35762 x 35810 x 0.1
78.5E
16B  BSAT 1A            BSAT      Comsat     Apr 16 35786 x 35787 x 0.0
110.0E
17A  Kosmos-2341        MO RF     Navsat     Apr 17   977 x  1014x 82.9
18A  Minisat 01         INTA      Technology Apr 21   561 x   580x151.0
18B  Celestis           Celestis  Burial     Apr 21   553 x   581x151.0
19A  GOES 10            NOAA      Weather    Apr 25 35759 x 35818x  0.0
105.7W
20A  Iridium 8          Iridium   Comsat     May  5   774 x   780x 86.4
20B  Iridium 7          Iridium   Comsat     May  5   774 x   780x 86.4
20C  Iridium 6          Iridium   Comsat     May  5   774 x   781x 86.4
20D  Iridium 5          Iridium   Comsat     May  5   770 x   784x 86.4
20E  Iridium 4          Iridium   Comsat     May  5   772 x   782x 86.4
21A  Zhongxing 6        Chinasat  Comsat     May 11 35776 x 35797x  0.0
125.0E
22A  Kosmos-2342        MO RF     EarlyWarn  May 14   925 x 39426x 63.0
23A  Atlantis STS-84    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  May 15 Landed at KSC May 24
23A  Spacehab DM        NASA-JSC  Spacelab   May 15 Remained attached to
OV-104
24A  Kosmos-2343        MO RF     Recon      May 15 Deorbited Sep 18
F02  Kosmos             MO RF     Sig Intel  May 20 Fell 27 km from launch
site
25A  Thor 2             Telenor   Comsat     May 21 35778x  35794x  0.0
0.8W
26A  Telstar 5          Loral/Sky Comsat     May 24 35773x  35799x  0.0
97.0W
27A  Inmarsat 3F4       Inmarsat  Comsat     Jun  3 35770x  35805x  0.0
54.0W
27B  Insat 2D           ISRO      Comsat     Jun  3 35713x  35859x  0.4
74.1E
28A  Kosmos-2344        MO RF     Recon      Jun  6  1502x   2739x 63.4
29A  Fengyun 2          CASC      Weather    Jun 10 35783x  35784x  0.8
104.6E
30A  Iridium 14         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   775x    780x 86.4
30B  Iridium 12         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   776x    778x 86.4
30C  Iridium 10         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   777x    777x 86.4
30D  Iridium  9         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   775x    779x 86.4
30E  Iridium 13         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   777x    778x 86.4
30F  Iridium 16         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   776x    778x 86.4
30G  Iridium 11         Iridium   Comsat     Jun 18   758x    763x 86.4
31A  Intelsat 802       Intelsat  Comsat     Jun 25 35779x  35792x  0.1
174.1E
32A  Columbia STS-94    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jul  1 Landed at KSC Jul 17
32A  Spacelab MSL-1R    NASA-MSFC Spacelab   Jul  1 Remained attached to
OV-102
33A  Progress M-35      RKA       Cargo      Jul  5 Deorbited over Pacific
Oct 8
34A  Iridium 15         Iridium   Comsat     Jul  9   775x    779x 86.4
34B  Iridium 17         Iridium   Comsat     Jul  9   775x    780x 86.4
34C  Iridium 18         Iridium   Comsat     Jul  9   764x    770 86.4
34D  Iridium 20         Iridium   Comsat     Jul  9   775x    779x 86.4
34E  Iridium 21         Iridium   Comsat     Jul  9   626x    645x 86.4
35A  GPS 43             USAF      Navsat     Jul 23 20131x  20237x 55.0
36A  Superbird C        SCC       Comsat     Jul 28 35780x  35793x  0.0
144.0E
37A  Orbview-2          Orbimage  Imaging    Aug  1   707x    708x 98.2
38A  Soyuz TM-26        RKA       Spaceship  Aug  5 Docked to Mir
39A  Discovery STS-85   NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Aug  7 Landed at KSC Aug 19
39B  CRISTA             DLR       Research   Aug  7 Recaptured Aug 16
40A  PAS 6              Panamsat  Comsat     Aug  8 35776x  35797x  0.1
43.2W
41A  Kosmos-2345        MO RF     EarlyWarn  Aug 14 35037 x 36534 x 1.1
26.0W
42A  Agila 2            Mabuhay   Comsat     Aug 19 35771x  35803x  0.0
146.0E
43A  Iridium 26         Iridium   Comsat     Aug 21   765x    770x 86.4
43B  Iridium 25         Iridium   Comsat     Aug 21   775x    779x 86.4
43C  Iridium 24         Iridium   Comsat     Aug 21   776x    779x 86.4
43D  Iridium 23         Iridium   Comsat     Aug 21   776x    779x 86.4
43E  Iridium 22         Iridium   Comsat     Aug 21   776x    779x 86.4
44A  Lewis              NASA      Imaging    Aug 23 Reentered Sep 28
45A  ACE                NASA/APL  Research   Aug 25 Earth-Sun L1 point
46A  PAS 5              Panamsat  Comsat     Aug 28 35769x  35803x  0.0
58.0W
47A  FORTE              USAF      Research   Aug 29   799x    833x 70.0
48A  Iridium MFS 1      CALT      Dummy      Sep  1   623x    631x 86.3
48B  Iridium MFS 2      CALT      Dummy      Sep  1   623x    632x 86.3
49A  Hot Bird 3         Eutelsat  Comsat     Sep  2 35762x  35806x  0.1
13.3E
49B  Meteosat 7         Eumetsat  Weather    Sep  2 35770x  35802x  1.6
10.2W
50A  GE 3               Americom  Comsat     Sep  4 35776x  35797x  0.0
87.1W
51A  Iridium 29         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   775x    780x 86.4
51B  Iridium 32         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   776x    779x 86.4
51C  Iridium 33         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   776x    779x 86.4
51D  Iridium 27         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   551x    558x 86.4
51E  Iridium 28         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   774x    780x 86.4
51F  Iridium 30         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   776x    778x 86.4
51G  Iridium 31         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 14   775x    779x 86.4
52A  Kosmos-2346        MO RF     Navsat     Sep 23   937x    997x 82.9
52B  FAISAT-2V          FAI       Comsat     Sep 23   937x    997x 82.9
53A  Intelsat 803       Intelsat  Comsat     Sep 23 35776x  35795x  0.0 21.4W
54A  Molniya-1T         MO RF     Comsat     Sep 24   580x  39771x 62.9
55A  Atlantis STS-86    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Sep 26 Landed at KSC Oct 6
55A  Spacehab-DM        NASA-JSC  Spacelab   Sep 26 Remained attached to
OV-104
56A  Iridium 19         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 27   775x    779x 86.4
56B  Iridium 37         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 27   776x    779x 86.4
56C  Iridium 36         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 27   776x    778x 86.4
56D  Iridium 35         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 27   776x    779x 86.4
56E  Iridium 34         Iridium   Comsat     Sep 27   776x    779x 86.4
57A  IRS-1D             ISRO      Imaging    Sep 29   737x    827x 98.6
58A  Progress M-36      RKA       Cargo      Oct  5 Deorbited over Pacific
Dec 19
59A  Echostar 3         Echostar  Comsat     Oct  5 35777x  35794x  0.0
61.4W
60A  Foton No. 11       RKA       Micrograv  Oct  9 Landed in Kazakstan Oct
23
60A  Mirka              DLR       Micrograv  Oct  9 Landed in Kazakstan Oct
23
61A  Cassini            NASA/JPL  Probe      Oct 15 En route Venus
61B  Huygens            ESA       Probe      Oct 15 Attached to Cassini
62A  Apstar 2R          APT       Comsat     Oct 16 35774x  35798x  0.0
76.5E
63A  STEP M4            USAF      Research   Oct 22   432x    500x 45.0
64A  LACROSSE 3?        NRO/CIA   Recon      Oct 24   666x    679x 57.0
65A  DSCS III B-13      USAF      Comsat     Oct 25 35770x  35800x  0.0 (?)
65B  Falcon Gold        USAF      Research   Oct 25   151x  34457x 26.2
66A  MAQSAT-H/TEAMSAT   ESA       Research   Oct 30   530x  26633x  7.9
66B  MAQSAT-B/EPS       ESA       Test       Oct 30   529x  26537x  7.9
66C  YES                ESA       Research   Oct 30   544x  26625x  7.9
F03  SCD-2A             INPE      Research   Nov  2 Destroyed during launch
58C  Sputnik-40         ACF/AFR   Amateur    Nov  3   369x    378x 51.6
67A  GPS 38             USAF      Navsat     Nov  5 19910x  20449x 54.9
68A  TRUMPET 3?         NRO/NSA?  Sig Intell Nov  8  1100x  39059x 63.6 (?)
69A  Iridium 43         Iridium   Comsat     Nov  9   776x    778x 86.4
69B  Iridium 41         Iridium   Comsat     Nov  9   775x    779x 86.4
69C  Iridium 40         Iridium   Comsat     Nov  9   767x    771x 86.4
69D  Iridium 39         Iridium   Comsat     Nov  9   775x    780x 86.4
69E  Iridium 38         Iridium   Comsat     Nov  9   768x    771x 86.4
70A  Kupon              TsBank RF Comsat     Nov 11 35778x  35792x  0.0
71A  Sirius 2           NSAB      Comsat     Nov 11 35781x  35791x  0.1
4.8E
71B  Cakrawarta 1       Indostar  Comsat     Nov 11 35756x  35859x  0.2
100.6E
72A  Resurs F-1M        RKA       Imaging    Nov 17 Landed in Kazakstan Dec
13
73A  Columbia STS-87    NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Nov 19 Landed at KSC Dec 5
73B  Spartan 201        NASA-GSFC Astronomy  Nov 21 Retrieved by OV-102 Nov
25
74A  TRMM               NASA-GSFC Research   Nov 27   344x    347x 35.0
74B  Hikoboshi          NASDA     Research   Nov 27   545x    548x 35.0
74C  Orihime            NASDA     Research   Nov 27 Attached to Hikoboshi
75A  JCSAT 5            JSAT      Comsat     Dec  2 35784x  35790x  0.1
139.4E
75B  Equator-S          MPE       Research   Dec  2   496x  67232x  4.0
76A  Astra 1G           SES       Comsat     Dec  2 35341x  36234x  0.1
23.9E
73   AERCam-Sprint      NASA-JSC  Support    Dec  3 Retrieved by OV-102 Dec 3
77A  Iridium 42         Iridium   Comsat     Dec  8   768x    770x 86.4
77B  Iridium 44         Iridium   Comsat     Dec  8   775x    779x 86.4
78A  Galaxy 8i          Panamsat  Comsat     Dec  8 35781x  35799x  0.0
79.2W
79A  Kosmos-2347        MO RF     Recon      Dec 15   403x    417x 65.0
80A  Kosmos-2348        MO RF     Recon      Dec 15   175x    361x 67.1
58D  X-Mir Inspector    DASA-B    Support    Dec 17   377x    387x 51.7
81A  Progress M-36      RKA       Cargo      Dec 20 Docked to Kvant
82A  Iridium 45         Iridium   Comsat     Dec 20   660x    676x 86.6
82B  Iridium 46         Iridium   Comsat     Dec 20   668x    671x 86.6
82C  Iridium 47         Iridium   Comsat     Dec 20   688x    694x 86.6
82D  Iridium 48         Iridium   Comsat     Dec 20   696x    702x 86.6
82E  Iridium 49         Iridium   Comsat     Dec 20   690x    696x 86.6
83A  Intelsat 804       Intelsat  Comsat     Dec 21 35767x  35805x  0.1
47.0E
84A  Orbcomm FM-5       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   815x    821x 45.0
84B  Orbcomm FM-6       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   814x    823x 45.0
84C  Orbcomm FM-7       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   815x    823x 45.0
84D  Orbcomm FM-8       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   815x    823x 45.0
84E  Orbcomm FM-9       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   817x    822x 45.0
84F  Orbcomm FM-10      Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   816x    826x 45.0
84G  Orbcomm FM-11      Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   816x    825x 45.0
84H  Orbcomm FM-12      Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec 23   817x    824x 45.0
85A  EarlyBird          EWatch    Imaging    Dec 24   479x    488x 97.3
86A  Asiasat 3          Asiasat   Comsat     Dec 31   370x  35987x 51.1


PART 2: Manufacturers/Designers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Des  Name               Manufacturer     Bus

01A  OV-104             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
01A  Spacehab-DM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
F01  GPS SVN 43         LM-VF            LM4000
02A  GE 3               LM-EW            A2100
02B  Nahuel 1A          Aerospatiale     Spacebus 2000
03A  7K-STM No. 74      Energiya         7K-TM
04A  OV-103             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
05A  MUSES B            NEC              MUSES B
06A  Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
06B  Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
06C  Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
06D  Gonets-D1 No. 4    PM               Strela-3
06E  Gonets-D1 No. 5    PM               Strela-3
06F  Gonets-D1 No. 6    PM               Strela-3
07A  JCSAT-4            Hughes           HS-601
08A  DSP 18             TRW              DSP Block 14
09A  Intelsat 801       LM-EW            LM7000
10A  Zeya No. 1         PM               Strela-1M
11A  Tempo 2            Loral            FS-1300
12A  DMSP S14           LM-EW            DMSP 5D-2
13A  OV-102             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
13A  Spacelab LM Unit 1 DASA-ERNO        Spacelab Long Module
14A  7K-TGM No. 234     Energiya         7K-TGM
15A  Oko                Lavochkin        Oko
16A  Thaicom 3          Aerospatiale     Spacebus 3000
16B  BSAT 1A            Hughes           HS-376
17A  Parus              Polyot           Parus
18A  Minisat 01         CASA             Minisat 0
18B  CPAC               Orbital-G        CPAC
19A  GOES K             Loral            GOES-I
20A  Iridium SV008      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
20B  Iridium SV007      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
20C  Iridium SV006      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
20D  Iridium SV005      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
20E  Iridium SV004      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
21A  DFH-3              CAST/DASA-MBB    DFH-3
22A  Oko                Lavochkin        Oko
23A  OV-104             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
23A  Spacehab-DM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
24A  (Yantar')          Progress         Yantar'-?
F02  Tselina-2          Yuzhnoe          Tselina-2
25A  Thor 2             Hughes           HS-376HP
26A  Telstar 5          Loral            FS-1300
27A  Inmarsat 3 F4      LM-EW            LM4000
27B  Insat 2D           ISRO             Insat 2
28A  (Arkon-1)          Lavochkin        Arkon-1
29A  FY-2               Shanghai-ARTI    FY-2
30A  Iridium SV014      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30B  Iridium SV012      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30C  Iridium SV010      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30D  Iridium SV009      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30E  Iridium SV013      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30F  Iridium SV016      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
30G  Iridium SV011      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
31A  Intelsat 802       LM-EW            LM7000
32A  OV-102             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
32A  Spacelab LM Unit 1 DASA-ERNO        Spacelab Long Module
33A  7K-TGM No. 235     Energiya         7K-TGM
34A  Iridium SV015      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
34B  Iridium SV017      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
34C  Iridium SV018      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
34D  Iridium SV020      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
34E  Iridium SV021      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
35A  GPS SVN43          LM-VF            LM4000
36A  Superbird C        Hughes           HS-601
37A  Orbview-2          Orbital-G        Pegastar
38A  7K-STM No. 75      Energiya         7K-STM
39A  OV-103             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
39B  ASTRO-SPAS         DASA-ERNO        ASTRO-SPAS
40A  PAS 6              Loral            FS-1300
41A  Oko?               Lavochkin        Oko?
42A  Agila 2            Loral            FS-1300
43A  Iridium SV026      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
43B  Iridium SV025      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
43C  Iridium SV024      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
43D  Iridium SV023      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
43E  Iridium SV022      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
44A  Lewis              TRW-C            Lewis
45A  ACE                APL              AMPTE-CCE
46A  PAS 5              Hughes           HS-601HP
47A  FORTE              LANL             FORTE
48A  Iridium MFS1       Motorola/LM-S    LM700
48B  Iridium MFS2       Motorola/LM-S    LM700
49A  Hot Bird 3         MMS-F            Eurostar 2000+
49B  MTP                Aerospatiale     Meteosat
50A  GE 3               LM-EW            A2100
51A  Iridium SV029      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51B  Iridium SV032      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51C  Iridium SV033      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51D  Iridium SV027      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51E  Iridium SV028      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51F  Iridium SV030      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
51G  Iridium SV031      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
52A  Parus              PM               Parus
52B  FAISAT 2V          Polyot/FAI       FAISAT
53A  Intelsat 803       LM-EW            LM7000
54A  Molniya-1T         PM               Molniya-1T
55A  OV-104             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
55A  Spacehab-DM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
56A  Iridium SV019      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
56B  Iridium SV037      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
56C  Iridium SV036      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
56D  Iridium SV035      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
56E  Iridium SV034      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
57A  IRS-1D             ISRO             IRS
58A  7K-TGM No. 235     Energiya         7K-TGM
59A  Echostar 3         LM-S             A2100
60A  Foton No. 11       Progress         Foton
60A  Mirka              Kayser-Threde    Mirka
61A  Cassini            JPL              Cassini
61B  Huygens            Aerospatiale     Huygens
62A  Apstar 2R          Loral            FS-1300
63A  STEP M4            TRW-C/Orbital-M  Eagle
64A  LACROSSE           LM-A             LACROSSE
65A  DSCS III B-13      LM-VF            DSCS III
65B  Falcon Gold        AF Academy       Falcon Gold
66A  MAQSAT-H           Kayser-Threde    MAQSAT
66B  MAQSAT-B           Kayser-Threde    MAQSAT
66C  YES                ESA-ESTEC        YES
F03  SCD-2A             INPE             SCD
58C  Spoutnik 40 Ans    AFR              PS Model
67A  GPS SVN 38         Boeing-SB        GPS Block IIA
68A  TRUMPET            Boeing-K         TRUMPET
69A  Iridium SV043      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
69B  Iridium SV041      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
69C  Iridium SV040      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
69D  Iridium SV039      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
69E  Iridium SV038      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
70A  Kupon              Lavochkin        Kupon
71A  Sirius 2           Aerospatiale     Spacebus 3000-B
71B  Indostar           Orbital-M        Starbus
72A  Resurs F-1M        Progress         Resurs F-1
73A  OV-102             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
73B  Spartan 201        NASA-GSFC        Spartan 200
74A  TRMM               NASA-GSFC        TRMM
74B  ETS-7              Toshiba          ETS-7
74   ETS-7 Target       Toshiba          ETS-7 Target
75A  JCSAT 5            Hughes           HS-601
75B  Equator-S          MPE              Equator-S
76A  Astra 1G           Hughes           HS-601HP
73   Sprint             NASA-JSC         AERCam/SAFER
77A  Iridium SV042      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
77B  Iridium SV044      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
78A  Galaxy 8i          Hughes           HS-601HP
79A  US-PM              Arsenal/Kometa   US-P
80A  Kobalt             Progress         Yantar'-4
58D  Inspector          DASA-ERNO        Inspector
81A  7K-TGM No. 237     Energiya         7K-TGM
82A  Iridium SV045      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
82B  Iridium SV046      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
82C  Iridium SV047      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
82D  Iridium SV048      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
82E  Iridium SV049      Motorola/LM-S    LM700
83A  Intelsat 804       LM-EW            LM7000
84E  Orbcomm FM-5       Orbital-G        Microstar
84F  Orbcomm FM-6       Orbital-G        Microstar
84G  Orbcomm FM-7       Orbital-G        Microstar
84H  Orbcomm FM-8       Orbital-G        Microstar
84A  Orbcomm FM-9       Orbital-G        Microstar
84B  Orbcomm FM-10      Orbital-G        Microstar
84C  Orbcomm FM-11      Orbital-G        Microstar
84D  Orbcomm FM-12      Orbital-G        Microstar
85A  EarlyBird          Orbital-M        EarlyBird
86A  Asiasat 3          Hughes           HS-601HP

PART 3 - Abbreviations for Organizations

ACF             Aero Club de France, Reunion chapter
Aerospatiale    Aerospatiale, Cannes, France
AF Academy      USAF Academy, Colorado Springs
AFR             Astronautical Federation of Russia, Kabardin-Balakarsk
chapter
Alenia          Alenia Spazio, Torino, Italy
Americom        GE American Communications
APL             Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD.
APT             Asia Pacific Telecom, Hong Kong
Arsenal         KB Arsenal, Sankt-Peterburg
Boeing-K        Boeing, Kent/Seattle
Boeing-NA       Boeing North American, Palmdale (formerly Rockwell)
Boeing-SB       Boeing North American, Seal Beach (formerly Rockwell)
BSAT            Broadcasting Satellite System Corp, Tokyo
CALT            China Academy of Launch Vehicle Tech., Beijing
CASA            CASA, Madrid
CASC            China Aerospace Corp.
CAST            China Acad. Space Tech., Beijing
Celestis        Celestis Inc., Florida
Chinasat        China Telecomms Broadcast Satellite Co., Beijing
CIA             Central Intelligence Agency, USA
DASA-ERNO       Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Bremen (formerly ERNO)
DASA-MBB        Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Munchen (formerly MBB)
DLR             Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Koln
Echostar        Echostar Communications Corp., Englewood
Energiya        RKK Energiya im. S.P. Korolyov, Kaliningrad-Korolyov
ESA             European Space Agency
ESA-ESTEC       European Space Tech. Centre, Noordwijk
EWatch          EarthWatch, Longmont
Eumetsat        European Meteorological Sat. Org.
Eutelsat        European Telecommunications Sat. Org.
FAI             Final Analysis Inc., Greenbelt
Hughes          Hughes Space and Communications, El Segundo
Indostar        PT Media Citra Indostar, Jakarta
Inmarsat        International Maritime Satellite Organization, London
INPE            Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Sao Jose dos Campos
INTA            Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial, Torrejon, Madrid
Intelsat        International Telecommunications Sat. Org., Washington DC.
Iridium         Iridium Inc., Washington DC.
ISAS            Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences, Tokyo
ISRO            Indian Space Research Organization
JPL             Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
JSAT            Japan Satellite Systems, Tokyo
Kayser-Threde   Kayser-Threde, Munchen
Kometa          TsNPO Kometa, Moskva
LANL            Los Alamos National Labs
Lavochkin       NPO Lavochkin, Moskva
LM-A            Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver (formerly Martin)
LM-EW           Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, East Windsor (formerly
RCA)
LM-S            Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale (formerly Lockheed)
LM-VF           Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge (formerly GE)
Loral           Space Systems/Loral, Palo Alto
Loral/Sky       Loral Skynet, Bedminster (was AT&T Skynet)
Mabuhay         Mabuhay Comms Corp, Manila.
MMS-F           Matra Marconi Space-France, Toulouse
MO RF           Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Motorola        Motorola Satellite, Chandler
MPE             Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching
Nahuelsat       Nahuelsat, Buenos Aires, Argentina
NASA            National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
NASA-GSFC       NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt.
NASA-JSC        NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.
NASA-MSFC       NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville
NASDA           National Space Development Agency, Japan
NEC             Nippon Electric Corp, Tokyo
NOAA            National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA
NRO             US National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly
NSA             US National Security Agency, Fort Meade
NSAB            Nordiska Satellit AB, Solna, Stockholm
Orbcomm         Orbital Communications Corp, Dulles
Orbimage        Orbital Imaging Corp., Dulles
Orbital-G       Orbital Sciences Corp., Germantown (formerly Fairchild)
Orbital-M       Orbital Sciences Corp., McLean (formerly DSI and CTA)
Panamsat        Panamsat Inc. Greenwich, Connecticut
PM              NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Zhelenogorsk
Polyot          AKO Polyot, Omsk
Progress        TsSKB-Progress, Samara
RKA             Russian Space Agency
SCC             Space Communications Corp, Tokyo
SES             Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
Shanghai-ARTI   Shanghai Aerospace Research Tech. Inst.
Shinaw.         Shinawatra Satellite, Bangkok
TCI             Telecommunications Inc., Englewood
Telenor         Telenor, Oslo
Toshiba         Toshiba Corp., Tokyo
TRW             TRW, Redondo Beach
TRW-C           TRW, Chantilly
TsBank RF       Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Moskva
USAF            United States Air Force
Yuzhnoe         KB Yuzhnoe, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine


PART 4 - Launch Vehicles
 
 Launch vehicles are listed by type, in order of number of
launches. The totals are similar to last year,
with an increase in the number of Chinese launches, while
the Russian totals have stabilized.

US vehicles:            Launched        Failures
 NASA Space Shuttle     8               0
 Lockheed Martin Titan  5               0
 Lockheed Martin Atlas  8               0
 Lockheed Martin Athena 1               0
 Boeing Delta           11              1
 OSC Pegasus            5               0
38 
Russian vehicles:
 TsSKB-Progress Soyuz   13              0
 Krunichev Proton       9               1*
 Polyot Kosmos          2               0
 Kompleks Start         2               0
26
Other vehicles:
 Arianespace Ariane     11              0
 Arianespace Ariane-5   1               0+
 NASDA H-II             1               0
 China Long March       6               0+
 Yuzhnoe Tsiklon        2               0
 Yuzhnoe Zenit          1               1
 ISRO PSLV              1               0+ 
 ISAS M-V               1               0
 INPE VLS               1               1
--------------------------------------------
Total                  89               4

*: Reached an orbit despite failure
+: One launch reached lower than planned orbit,
   but not enough to count as a failure.

TsSKB-Progress Soyuz (13)

 Feb 10                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Apr  6                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Apr  9                 Molniya-M/2BL   GIK-1 LC16-2
 May 14                 Molniya-M/2BL   GIK-1 LC43-4
 May 15                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC31
 Jul  5                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Aug  5                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Sep 24                 Molniya-M/ML    GIK-1 LC43-4
 Oct  5                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1
 Oct  9                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1
 Nov 18                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1
 Dec 15                 Soyuz-U         GIK-1
 Dec 20                 Soyuz-U         GIK-5 LC1

Boeing Delta (11)

 Jan 17 Delta 241       Delta 7925      CC LC17A
 May  5 Delta 242       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W
 May 20 Delta 243       Delta 7925      CC LC17A
 Jul  9 Delta 244       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W
 Jul 23 Delta 245       Delta 7925      CC LC17A
 Aug 21 Delta 246       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W
 Aug 25 Delta 247       Delta 7920-8    CC LC17A
 Sep 27 Delta 248       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W
 Nov  6 Delta 249       Delta 7925      CC LC17A
 Nov  9 Delta 250       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W
 Dec 20 Delta 251       Delta 7920-10C  V SLC2W

Arianespace Ariane (11)

 Jan 30 V93             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Mar  1 V94             Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Apr 16 V95             Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Jun  3 V97             Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Jun 25 V96             Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Aug  8 V98             Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Sep  2 V99             Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Sep 23 V100            Ariane 42L      CSG ELA2
 Nov 12 V102            Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Dec  2 V103            Ariane 44P      CSG ELA2
 Dec 22 V104            Ariane 42L      CSG ELA2

Krunichev Proton (9)

 May 24 380-02          Proton-K/DM4    GIK-5 LC81L
 Jun  6 380-01          Proton-K/DM5    GIK-5 LC200L
 Jun 18 390-02          Proton-K/DM2    GIK-5 LC200L
 Aug 14 381-01          Proton-K/DM-2   GIK-5 LC200L
 Aug 28 387-02          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Sep 14 391-01          Proton-K/DM2    GIK-5 LC81L
 Nov 12                 Proton-K/DM-2   GIK-5 LC200L
 Dec  2 382-02          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Dec 24 394-01          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L

NASA Space Shuttle (8)

 Jan 12 STS-81          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Feb 11 STS-82          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Apr  4 STS-83          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 May 15 STS-84          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Jul  1 STS-94          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Aug  7 STS-85          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Sep 26 STS-86          Shuttle         KSC LC39A
 Nov 19 STS-87          Shuttle         KSC LC39B

Lockheed Martin Atlas (8)

 Feb 17 AC-127          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36B
 Mar  8 AC-128          Atlas IIA       CC LC36A
 Apr 25 AC-79           Atlas I         CC LC36B
 Jul 28 AC-133          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36B
 Sep  4 AC-146          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36A
 Oct  5 AC-135          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36B
 Oct 25 AC-131          Atlas IIA       CC LC36A
 Dec  8 AC-149          Atlas IIAS      CC LC36B

Chinese Chang Zheng (6)

 May 11                 CZ-3A           Xichang LC2
 Jun 10                 CZ-3            Xichang LC1
 Aug 19                 CZ-3B           Xichang LC2
 Sep  1                 CZ-2C/SD        Taiyuan
 Oct 16                 CZ-3B           Xichang LC2
 Dec  8                 CZ-2C/SD        Taiyuan

Orbital Sciences Pegasus (5)

 Apr 21                 Pegasus XL      Gando
 Aug  1                 Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 Aug 29                 Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 Oct 22                 Pegasus XL      WI
 Dec 23                 Pegasus XL/HAPS WI

Lockheed Martin Titan (5)

 Feb 23 4B-24           Titan 402B/IUS  CC LC40
 Apr  4 23G-6           Titan 23G       V SLC4W
 Oct 15 4B-33           Titan 401B/Cen  CC LC40
 Oct 24 4A-18           Titan 403A      V SLC4E
 Nov  8 4A-17           Titan 401A/Cen  CC LC41

Polyot Kosmos-3M (2)

 Apr 17                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132/1
 Sep 23                 Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132

Yuzhnoe Tsiklon (2)

 Feb 14                 Tsiklon-3       GIK-1 LC32/1
 Dec  9                 Tsiklon-2       GIK-5 LC90L

Kompleks Start (2)

 Mar  4                 Start-1.2       GIK-2
 Dec 24                 Start-1         GIK-2

Arianespace Ariane 5 (1)

 Oct 30 V101            Ariane 5        CSG ELA3

Yuzhnoe Zenit-2 (1)

 May 20                 Zenit-2         GIK-5 LC45L

ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (1)

 Sep 29 PSLV-C1         PSLV            Sriharikota

NASDA H-II (1)

 Nov 27 5F              H-II            Tanegashima

Lockheed Martin Athena (1)

 Aug 23                 LMLV-1          V SLC6

ISAS M-V
 
 Feb 12                 M-V             Kagoshima

INPE VLS (1)
 
 Nov  2                 VLS             ALCA

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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.*       |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 24. January 1998 22:21
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 348

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 348                                              1998 Jan 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The annual launch log (JSR 347) is on the web at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/log.1997
and an updated geostationary log is at 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/geo.html
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Kvant-2 airlock hatch, partially repaired in a spacewalk on Jan 9,
is still leaking slightly. Solov'yov and Wolf made a 3-hour EVA on Jan
14 to inspect the station exterior.

Space Shuttle Endeavour took off on Jan 22 on mission STS-89.  Launch
was at 0248 UTC; Endeavour flew up the eastern seabord of the US into a
51 degree orbit, and I was easily able to see it, in the seconds prior
to main engine cutoff, from the street in downtown Cambridge. Crew is
Terrence Wilcutt, Joe Edwards, James Reilly, Michael Anderson, Andy
Thomas and Bonnie Dunbar (all of NASA) and Salizhan Sharipov (Russian
Air Force). Thomas will replace David Wolf aboard Mir, and will be the
final NASA long-stay visitor to Mir. Endeavour docked with the SO module
on Mir at 2014 UTC on Jan 24.

Endeavour's cargo bay contains:
 Bay 1    Tunnel Adapter
 Bay 3    Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
 Bay 4-7  Transfer Tunnel
 Bay 8-12 Spacehab Double Module
 Bay 13P  GABA carrier with G-141, G-145
 Bay 13S  GABA carrier with G-093, G-432

The four Getaway Special cans are G-141 and G-145, a pair of German 
materials processing experiments, G-093, a University of Michigan fluid
dynamics experiment, and G-432, a Chinese materials processing payload.
The orbiter middeck carries CEBAS, a German/US biological module for
aquatic organisms including fish and snails, and a locker containing a
dinosaur skull carried as part of a museum educational program. (As far
as I know, this is not the start of a regular `dinosaurs in space'
project, and so is unrelated to the forthcoming flights of Glenn and
Ryumin). The Spacehab carries supplies for Mir, and a test of an X-ray
crystallography detector for the Space Station.

Recent Launches
---------------

Israel launched a three-stage Shaviyt vehicle from Palamchim Air Force
Base on Jan 22, attempting to place the 'Ofeq-4 imaging satellite into
orbit. The failure seems to have occurred during second stage burn. The
Shaviyt vehicle launches west from Israel over the Mediterranean.

The NEAR asteroid rendezvous spacecraft flew past Earth on Jan 23
at 0723 UTC on Jan 23, 530 km above Iran. Sun glint from the
solar panels briefly made NEAR a naked eye object from the Western
hemisphere.

Lunar Prospector has now reached its final mapping orbit. After trim
burns it was in a 99 x 100 km circular orbit, but the uneven lunar
gravity field soon perturbed this to 80 x 120 km.

Errata
------

Maxim Tarasenko spotted two goofs in JSR347 - first, the launch on Dec
20 was Progress M-37 not Progress M-36; secondly, the Parus-class
satellite Kosmos-2346 (1997-52A) was made by AO Polyot, not NPO PM.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      SP Florida LC46  Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17B  Comsat     02A
Jan 22 1300   'Ofeq-4           Shaviyt       Palamchim        Imaging    F01
Jan 23 0248   Endeavour         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  03A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr  2
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-89  Jan 22

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/                    LC39A         STS-89



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 11. February 1998 00:06
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 349

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 349                                        1998 Feb 10 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Despite problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas
replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on Jan 25. Endeavour undocked
from Mir on Jan 29 at 1657 UTC and made one flyaround of the
station before its sep burn. Endeavour landed on Jan 31 at Kennedy
Space Center's runway 15 at 2235 UTC.

Shortly before Endeavour's undocking, Soyuz TM-27 was launched carrying
the new Mir crew. Commander is Talgat Musabaev from Kazakstan, and
flight engineer is Russian Nikolai Budarin. French astronaut Leopold
Eyharts is Soyuz TM-27 cosmonaut-researcher, and will stay aboard Mir
until returning with the Soyuz TM-26 crew of Anatoliy Solov'yov and
Pavel Vinogradov in February. After Soyuz TM-27 reached orbit and
Endeavour undocked, there were 13 humans in space on three separate
spacecraft, equalling the previous record.

Progress M-37 undocked from the Kvant module at 1253 UTC on Jan 30.
Soyuz TM-27 then docked at this port (+X) at 1754 UTC Jan 31.
After the departure of Soyuz TM-26 from the -X port on Mir, TM-27
will fly around to the -X port and Progress M-37 may attempt
to dock again at +X in a further test of the remote control TORU
system.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-90/Neurolab, using orbiter Columbia.

Recent Launches
---------------

A classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office was put
into elliptical 63 degree inclination orbit on Jan 29 by a Lockheed
Martin Atlas IIA Centaur rocket. This rocket, AC-109, was launched way
out of production sequence and it seems likely  launch of the payload is
several years late. Rumour has it that the satellite's name is
CAPRICORN. It may be a follow-on to the SDS communications data relay
satellites used to pass on spy satellite imaging data, and may also have
either infrared missile warning or signals intelligence secondary
payloads aboard. Another theory is that it may be the COBRA BRASS
payload for infrared early warning satellite technology development,
which was announced as due to fly this year.

Arianespace's first launch of the year was an Ariane 44LP model, 
placing two satellites in geostationary transfer orbit. The upper
payload was Brasilsat B-3, a communications satellite for Brazil's
EMBRATEL. The satellite is the third Hughes HS-376W, a spin-stabilized
satellite which is actually much larger than the old standard HS-376 and
which uses a liquid apogee engine instead of a solid motor. The lower
satellite was Inmarsat 3 F5, for the International Maritime
Communications Satellite Organization (based in London). Inmarsat 3 F5
is an LM Series 4000 satellite with a solid Thiokol Star 30 apogee
motor, built by Lockheed Martin/East Windsor.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s second Taurus rocket reached orbit on
Feb 10, making two successes on two attempts for Taurus. The first
Taurus flight was a hybrid using a refurbished Peacekeeper stage 1
as its first stage; this one is believed to be the first `true' 
Taurus, using a Castor 120 first stage. Castor 120 is Thiokol's civilian
version of the Peacekeeper stage. This Taurus also uses a new, larger,
payload fairing for its multiple satellite payload.

The primary payload on Taurus was the Geosat Follow-On (GFO), built by
Ball Aerospace for the US Navy Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command
using a modified Techstar bus with a mass of 365 kg. The original Geosat
was a larger research satellite launched in 1985 on an Atlas, and
provided sea surface height information (and thus information on the
shape of the Earth's gravity field) with a radio altimeter. Geosat it
turn was a successor to NASA's 1978 Seasat mission. GFO is a smaller
satellite which will be the first to directly provide tactical altimeter
information, downlinking to USN ships allowing them to avoid strong
head-on currents; GFO data may also have a role in anti-submarine
warfare. GFO carries a 13.5 GHz pulse radar altimeter, a radiometer for
spotting underwater currents and ice packs, GPS receiver for determining
its orbit, and hydrazine thrusters for fine orbit adjust. GFO's final
planned orbit is expected to be  800 x 800 km x 108 deg; its initial
orbit is 777 x 875 km x 108.0 deg.

Two Orbcomm low orbit comsats were also carried on the flight, stacked
beneath GFO. They join the eight satellites orbited on a  Pegasus in
December. The final stage of the Taurus carries the second CPAC
(Celestis Payload Attach Container) with the cremated remains of several
individuals.


Erratum for JSR 347: Tony Stroeve informs me that although the Lockheed
Martin LM700 bus is derived from the Lockheed Martin/Motorola Iridium
bus, the Iridium is not considered an LM700.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      SP Florida LC46  Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17B  Comsat     02A
Jan 22 1256   'Ofeq-4           Shaviyt       Palmachim        Imaging    F01
Jan 23 0248   Endeavour         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  03A
Jan 29 1633   Soyuz TM-27       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  04A
Jan 29 1837   CAPRICORN?        Atlas IIA     Canaveral LC36   Comsat?    05A
Feb  4 2329   Brasilsat B3   )  Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2      Comsat     06A
              Inmarsat 3 F5  )                                 Comsat     06B
Feb 10 1320   GFO         )     Taurus        Vandenberg 576E  Altimeter  07A
              Orbcomm     )                                    Comsat     07B
              Orbcomm     )                                    Comsat     07C
              Celestis-02 )                                    Burial     07D?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr  2
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Jul  9?

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/                                             
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/                   



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 24. February 1998 02:45
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 350

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 350                                        1998 Feb 22 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Anatoliy Solov'yov and Pavel Vinogradov of the Mir EO-24 crew
and Leopold Eyharts of the CNES Pegase mission undocked from the -X
port on Mir at 0552 UTC on Feb 19 aboard the Soyuz TM-26 ship.
Soyuz TM-26 fired its deorbit engines at 0816 UTC and the craft
landed in Kazakstan at 50 11N, 67 31E at 0910 UTC.

Solov'yov handed over command of Mir to the EO-25 commander, Talgat
Musabaev on Feb 18 or Feb 19 (can anyone tell me when the official   
transfer occurred?) On Feb 20, the Mir EO-25 crew, Talgat Musabaev and
Nikolai Budarin, together with Andy Thomas of the NASA-7 mission,
boarded their Soyuz TM-27 transport and undocked from the Kvant +X port
at 0848 UTC. They redocked with the -X port on Mir at 0932 UTC. This
frees up the Kvant port for a test redocking of the Progress M-37 cargo
ship, currently parked in orbit.

Recent Launches
---------------


Boeing/Huntingdon Beach (former McDonnell Douglas) carried out two Delta
launches within a week in mid-Feb, placing a total of 9 payloads in
orbit. The first four Globalstar satellites, built by Space
Systems/Loral, were launched on Feb 14. The Boeing Delta 7420 placed
them in  a 1400 km orbit. Most sources are    naming them Globalstar U1,
U2, L1 and L2; as far as I can tell these just denote that on this
particular launch they were the upper and lower pairs on the Delta
dispenser, so there will be a U1,U2,L1,L2 on every Delta Globalstar
launch and they don't really reflect unique names for  the satellites.
If anyone has the actual production or post-launch names for these
satellites, please let me know. 

The Globalstar launch was the first Delta 7420-10 variant, one of a
number of new cheaper Delta variants. The first digit in the Delta
indicates the first stage variety; 7 means the Delta II first stage with
Alliant GEM solid motors. The second digit indicates the number of solid
motors; the third digit gives the type of second stage; and the fourth
digit gives the type of third stage ( 0 means no third stage ). The
fairing designation is then given after a hyphen; -10 means the 10-foot
(3.1m) diameter fairing. Versions in use in 1998-99 are:

  Delta 7320     Delta II Lite with 3 strapons
  Delta 7326     Delta II Lite with 3 strapons and Star 37FM third stage
  Delta 7420     Delta II Lite with 4 strapons
  Delta 7425     Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and PAM-D (Star 48) stage
  Delta 7426     Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and Star 37FM
  Delta 7920     Delta II standard, LEO missions
  Delta 7925     Delta II with PAM-D third stage for GEO and escape missions
  -              Delta III with GEM LDXL strapons and LH2/LOX second stage

Boeing hasn't announced a corresponding designation for the Delta III
yet. For consistency with the existing 28-year-old tradition, I suggest
it should be  the Delta 8930, with the 8 indicating the change to the
LDXL strapons, 9 indicating the number of strapons, and 3 indicating a
new type of second stage. They'll need some designation like this as
soon as someone orders a slightly different kind of Delta 3, say one
with fewer strapons, and they could then denote the planned Delta 4
variants as 9020/9025, 9030, and 9240 in the same system. However, since
consistency of nomenclature has never been the space program's strong
point, I expect they'll ignore my suggestion and introduce an entirely
different scheme.


Five more Motorola/Lockheed Iridium satellites were launched on Feb 18
by a Boeing Delta 7920-10C from Vandenberg. The five satellites will
use their own on-board propulsion systems to reach their final orbits.

The two recently launched Orbcomm satellites are Orbcomm G1 and G2,  
production numbers FM3 and FM4. With Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm
launches now underway, the expected shift of commercial emphasis from
geostationary to low orbit constellations is now a fact.

Kosmos-2349, launched on Feb 17, is an imaging satellite for the Russian
Defense Ministry. On Feb 19, Kosmos-2349 was in a 212 x 276 km x 70.4
deg orbit. The satellite is built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara and is 
based on the Yantar' bus. It is probably a Kometa mapping satellite,  
using the 11F660 Yantar'-1KFT spacecraft. The last Kometa launch in May 1996
was a failure.


Japan's largest launch vehicle, the H-II, suffered its first failure
this week during launch of the Kakehashi satellite. The Japanese
applications space agency NASDA carried out the launch of  H-II No. 5F
on 1998 Feb 21. This was actually the 6th H-II launch, as H-II No. 6F
was launched last November with the TRMM and ETS-7 satellites. The
payload for the new flight was COMETS, or Communuications and
Broadcasting Experimental Test Satellite. COMETS, based on the ETS-6
bus, carries an experimental Ka-band communications payload and a
payload for inter-satellite data relay. The H-II was meant to deliver
COMETS and its attached LAPS transfer engine into geostationary transfer
orbit with 35000 km apogee, but orbital     tracking data indicate a
much lower 250 x 1883 km x 30.0 deg orbit. This was reportedly due to 
premature shutdown 44s into the H-II second stage's second burn. 
COMETS, renamed Kakehashi now it is in orbit, has successfully  deployed
its solar arrays and checked out its on-board systems. It may still be
possible to use the LAPS-derived UPS (Unified Propulsion System) apogee
engine to raise COMETS to some kind of useful orbit. This engine itself
failed the last time it was  used, on the ETS-6 flight in 1994.
Meanwhile, troubles with control of   the ETS-7 satellite continue, and
it is not clear when the rendezvous/docking experiments will take place.
NASDA have run into a lot of trouble recently, also suffering the
failure of ADEOS and problems in their engine development program.
However, their previous  record of success, and the fact that all 6 H-II
flights have at least reached orbit, suggests they have the expertise to
eventually overcome their current difficulties.

I now understand that the informal name change of the USAF operated pads
at Cape Canaveral from LC (Launch Complex) to SLC (Space Launch Complex)
was made official at some point during 1997, so I am adopting the change
in my launch listings. I'm guessing, however, that NASA KSC  retains the
honorable name of LC39 for their Shuttle pads. Vandenberg introduced
the SLC abbreviation for their orbital pads in July 1966.

Erratum:  Apogee motor for Inmarsat is Star 37FM, not Star 30.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

            
Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      Canaveral SLC46   Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     02A
Jan 22 1256   'Ofeq-4           Shaviyt       Palmachim         Imaging    F01
Jan 23 0248   Endeavour         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  03A
Jan 29 1633   Soyuz TM-27       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  04A
Jan 29 1837   CAPRICORN         Atlas IIA     Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat?    05A
Feb  4 2329   Brasilsat B3   )  Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     06A
              Inmarsat 3 F5  )                                  Comsat     06B
Feb 10 1320   GFO         )     Taurus        Vandenberg 576E   Altimeter  07A
              Orbcomm G1  )                                     Comsat     07B
              Orbcomm G2  )                                     Comsat     07C
              Celestis-02 )                                     Burial     07D
Feb 14 1434   Globalstar 1 )                                    Comsat     08A
              Globalstar 2 )    Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17A  Comsat     08B
              Globalstar 3 )                                    Comsat     08C
              Globalstar 4 )                                    Comsat     08D
Feb 17 1030?  Kosmos-2349       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31?    Recon      09A
Feb 18 1358   Iridium 50 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     10A
              Iridium 51 )                                      Comsat     10B
              Iridium 52 )                                      Comsat     10C
              Iridium 53 )                                      Comsat     10D
              Iridium 54 )                                      Comsat     10E
Feb 21 0755   Kakehashi         H-II          Tanegashima Y     Comsat     11A

                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr  2
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM65              VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 03. March 1998 02:09
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 351

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 351                                        1998 Mar 2 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Progress M-37 redocked with the Kvant module on the Mir complex
on Feb 23. Musabaev took official command of Mir in the early
hours (UTC) of Feb 19.

Launch of STS-90 is now due for Apr 16.

Recent Launches
---------------

The final fuel dump from the Japanese H-II second stage
was observed from Argentina as a mag -2 cometary object
at 0850 UTC on Feb 21. The name of the COMETS satellite, 
"Kakehashi" reportedly means "bridge" or "intermediary" (thanks
to Geoff Perry for forwarding tht info). Kakehashi's apogee motor
will be fired to place it in a higher orbit.

Orbital's L-1011 Stargazer launch plane took off from Vandenberg at 0605
UTC on Feb 26 and launched a Pegasus XL over the Pacific an hour later
over 36.0N 123.0W. The three stage Pegasus placed two satellites in a
535 x 580 km x 97.8 deg orbit.

The main payload for the Pegasus launch was SNOE, the Student Nitric
Oxide Explorer. This small satellite built by the University of Colorado
measures the NO density as a function of altitude. It's the first
satellite in the small STEDI (Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative)
program, or University Explorer (UNEX) series. (Technically, HETE was
also managed under the UNEX umbrella).

The secondary payload is T1, Bill Gates' first satellite.  This
demonstration payload is an Orbital-built Microstar bus (used for the
Orbcomm satellites), but with an experimental Boeing/Seattle Ka-band high
frequency, broadband, high throughput data communications payload.  It's
a pathfinder for the Teledesic LEO constellation which will build a
global space-based Internet.

The T1 satellite was cloaked in secrecy prior to launch, hidden behind a
cover story called BATSAT.  BATSAT was advertised as a small technology
satellite from the Texas Space Grant Consortium, intended to transmit
Ka-band and X-band signals to test out signal attenuation with the Jet
Propulsion Lab's Deep Space Network. It now seems possible that this
story was largely a fiction. 

Hot Bird 4 was launched on Feb 27. Hot Bird 4 is a high power television
satellite for EUTELSAT, the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization.
It was launched by Arianespace's Ariane 42P launch vehicle, with two
solid strapon motors. The Eurostar class satellite was built by
Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse.

On Feb 28, a Lockheed Martin/Denver Atlas IIAS rocket, AC-151, was
launched with the Intelsat 806 international telecommunications
satellite. The LM7000 class satellite, built by Lockheed Martin/East
Windsor, will provide communications to Europe and Latin America.
Transfer orbit for Intelsat 806 was 190 x 35656 km x 23.0 deg.

The Iridium folks have provided me with the correct names for the
Feb 18 Iridium launch. Upcoming launches include Iridium 51 and 61
on Long March, and 55, 57, 58, 59, 60 on Delta; Globalstar inform me
the prelaunch name for their payloads are simply FM1 to FM4, but
names based on the satellites' position in the constellation will
be assigned later. The initial Globalstar orbital heights were 1250
km; their on-board propulsion will raise the orbits later.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

            
Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      Canaveral SLC46   Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     02A
Jan 22 1256   'Ofeq-4           Shaviyt       Palmachim         Imaging    F01
Jan 23 0248   Endeavour         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  03A
Jan 29 1633   Soyuz TM-27       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  04A
Jan 29 1837   CAPRICORN         Atlas IIA     Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat?    05A
Feb  4 2329   Brasilsat B3   )  Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     06A
              Inmarsat 3 F5  )                                  Comsat     06B
Feb 10 1320   GFO         )     Taurus        Vandenberg 576E   Altimeter  07A
              Orbcomm G1  )                                     Comsat     07B
              Orbcomm G2  )                                     Comsat     07C
              Celestis-02 )                                     Burial     07D
Feb 14 1434   Globalstar FM1 )                                  Comsat     08A
              Globalstar FM2 )  Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17A  Comsat     08B
              Globalstar FM3 )                                  Comsat     08C
              Globalstar FM4 )                                  Comsat     08D
Feb 17 1030?  Kosmos-2349       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31?    Recon      09A
Feb 18 1358   Iridium 50 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     10A
              Iridium 52 )                                      Comsat     10C
              Iridium 53 )                                      Comsat     10D
              Iridium 54 )                                      Comsat     10E
              Iridium 56 )                                      Comsat     10B
Feb 21 0755   Kakehashi         H-II          Tanegashima Y     Comsat     11A
Feb 26 0707   SNOE        )     Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Science    12A
              Teledesic 1 )                                     Comsat     12B
Feb 27 2238   Hot Bird 4        Ariane 42P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     13A
Feb 28 0021   Intelsat 806      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral LC36    Comsat     14A
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr 16
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM65/ET           VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 12. March 1998 06:57
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 352

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 352                                        1998 Mar 11 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin entered the Kvant-2 module on Mar 3
and depressurized the inner (PNO) and outer (ShSO) airlock in 
preparation for a spacewalk. However, they were unable to open the outer
hatch, which was repaired by the previous crew. The airlock compartment
was eventually repressurized; duration in vacuum is not yet available.
Depress was probably earlier than 0130 UTC; repress was around 0245 UTC.

AXAF
----

NASA has named Eileen Collins to command Shuttle mission STS-93 which
will deploy the AXAF observatory. STS-93 will be the first space mission
to be commanded by a woman (not counting Vostok-6, the solo flight by
Tereshkova). Eileen Collins, who has made two flights as pilot, will be
STS-93 commander. This may not seem like a big deal to some of my
readers from around the world, but in a country where the first woman
president still seems quite a way off I think it's a significant thing
for kids to see a woman in a prominent command role. The USSR at one
point had plans for Svetlana Savitskaya to command a Soyuz mission, but
the flight was cancelled; that crew would have been all-female, one
suspects because the old guys in charge of the Soyuz program at that
time couldn't cope with the idea of a woman giving male cosmonauts
orders. Fortunately, NASA has gotten its act together a little better
than that for some years now, with the women mission specialists being
selected for missions on an equal basis. Kathy Sullivan was named
Payload Commander (in charge of the payload component of a mission) of
the 1992 flight of STS-45 and almost half of the Payload Commander slots
have been filled by women. The mission Commander slot, however, is a
role with much greater prestige and real authority. Collins was picked
as the first female pilot astronaut in 1990, making her the first to be
eligible for this command slot, and her selection for this mission is
consistent  with the careers of the rest of her astronaut class.

Steve Hawley, the former astronomer who deployed Hubble, is also on the
crew, together with pilot Jeff Ashby and mission specialists Cady
Coleman and Michel Tognini.


Launch of STS-93 is now scheduled for Dec 3.  Work on preparing
the payload for launch continues, with a recent successful end-to-end
test flowing data through the spacecraft and flight instruments
to the control center. I've started an STS-93 web page at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/axaf/sts93.html

Recent Launches
---------------

No launches yet this month.

Lunar Prospector continues in a 100 km lunar polar orbit. On Mar 5
NASA announced that LP has confirmed the presence of ice in the
lunar soil in the polar regions, greatly increasing the possibilities
for lunar colonization.


The five Iridium satellites launched on Feb 18 began raising their orbits
to operational altitude in early March.
Most of the Iridium constellation is in a 100.4 min, 774 x 780 km x 86.4
deg operational orbit to which the satellites maneuver after launch into
a much lower parking orbit. However, some satellites have been placed in  
a reserve orbit 10-15 km lower than the operational one. One satellite was
temporarily placed in a higher 785 x 790 km orbit. Of the 51 Iridium  
satellites launched to date, two failed and remained in parking orbit;
six are currently in the reserve orbit; four were still raising their orbits
from parking to operational as of March 9; and the remaining 39 satellites
are in the operational orbit. Details of orbital changes for individual
satellites are as follows:

1997 Jul:    SV021 failed, stayed in parking orbit.
1997 Sep  6: SV011 to reserve orbit since this date
1997 Sep 11: SV004 to reserve orbit for 19 days, now operational
1997 Sep:    SV027 failed, stayed in parking orbit
1997 Oct:    SV036 delayed 2 weeks in move from parking orbit
1997 Nov 22: SV040 deployed to reserve orbit until Jan 27  
1997 Nov 23: SV038 deployed to reserve orbit, remains there   
1997 Dec 11: SV020 to high reserve for 9 days, now operational
1997 Dec 20: SV018 to reserve orbit since this date
1997 Dec 23: SV042 to reserve orbit since this date
1997 Dec 27: SV026 to reserve orbit for 1 month, now operational
1998 Jan 11: SV005 to reserve orbit since this date
1998 Feb  3: SV048 to reserve orbit since this date
1998 Feb 21: SV024 drifting higher, probably will move to reserve


Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

            
Jan  7 0228   Lunar Prospector  Athena-2      Canaveral SLC46   Probe      01A
Jan 10 0032   Skynet 4D         Delta 7925    Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     02A
Jan 22 1256   'Ofeq-4           Shaviyt       Palmachim         Imaging    F01
Jan 23 0248   Endeavour         Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  03A
Jan 29 1633   Soyuz TM-27       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  04A
Jan 29 1837   CAPRICORN         Atlas IIA     Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat?    05A
Feb  4 2329   Brasilsat B3   )  Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     06A
              Inmarsat 3 F5  )                                  Comsat     06B
Feb 10 1320   GFO         )     Taurus        Vandenberg 576E   Altimeter  07A
              Orbcomm G1  )                                     Comsat     07B
              Orbcomm G2  )                                     Comsat     07C
              Celestis-02 )                                     Burial     07D
Feb 14 1434   Globalstar FM1 )                                  Comsat     08A
              Globalstar FM2 )  Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17A  Comsat     08B
              Globalstar FM3 )                                  Comsat     08C
              Globalstar FM4 )                                  Comsat     08D
Feb 17 1030?  Kosmos-2349       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31?    Recon      09A
Feb 18 1358   Iridium 50 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     10A
              Iridium 52 )                                      Comsat     10C
              Iridium 53 )                                      Comsat     10D
              Iridium 54 )                                      Comsat     10E
              Iridium 56 )                                      Comsat     10B
Feb 21 0755   Kakehashi         H-II          Tanegashima Y     Comsat     11A
Feb 26 0707   SNOE        )     Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Science    12A
              Teledesic 1 )                                     Comsat     12B
Feb 27 2238   Hot Bird 4        Ariane 42P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     13A
Feb 28 0021   Intelsat 806      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral SLC36B  Comsat     14A
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-90  Apr 16
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66              VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/RSRM65/ET           VAB Bay 3     STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 26. March 1998 05:24
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 353

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 353                                   1998 Mar 25 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------


RKK Energiya's automated cargo vehicle Progress 7K-TGM No. 240 was
launched on Mar 14 and named Progress M-38. Vehicle 240 is specially
modified to carry the second VDU  (Vynosnaya Dvigatel'naya Ustanovka,
External Engine Unit) propulsion unit. If vehicle 240 is similar to the
vehicle 209 (Progress M-14) which carried the first VDU in 1992, the
unit is mounted externally on a special structure between the cargo
module and the service module, replacing the OKD fuel section present on
normal Progress vehicles. The crew will spacewalk to extract the VDU
from Progress and place it on the end of a Sofora boom extending from
the Kvant module. The VDU is used to provide attitude control capability
for the station.

Launch mass of Progress M-38 was 7007 kg. By 0320 UTC on Mar 15 it had
successfully completed its first two orbital maneuvers. It replaced
Progress M-37 at the docking port on the Kvant module, with a successful
docking on Mar 16. Progress M-37 undocked on Mar 15 at 1916 UTC
and was deorbited at 2303 UTC over the Pacific.

Columbia was moved to the VAB on March 16 in preparation for STS-90.
On Mar 24 it was rolled out to pad 39B.

Recent Launches
---------------

NASA has begun drop testing of an X-38 test vehicle. The X-38 is a
project to develop a lifeboat (crew return vehicle) for the Space
Station. X-38 V-131 was dropped from a B-52 on Mar 12, flying 7 km over
Edwards AFB, and parachuted to the desert. Vehicle 131 is a subscale
test prototype, not a spaceworthy craft. Two other 130-series X-38's
will be drop tests prior to the space flight of the full-scale V-201 in
the year 2000.

Lockheed Martin Astronautics launched the last Atlas II, AC-132, from
Cape Canaveral on Mar 16. It placed a Hughes HS-601 satellite in orbit
for the US Navy. UHF Follow-On F8 is the first Block III UHF Follow-On
satellite, replacing the old FLTSATCOM satellites. It carries UHF, EHF
and Ka-band transponders, including a video broadcast payload. Future
Atlas launches will use the IIA and IIAS models, as well as the
forthcoming IIAR variant.

The French SPOT 4 remote sensing satellite was launched on Mar 24.  
Developed by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse for CNES, the 2755 kg
satellite provides 10-m resolution images with a wide field of view.
SPOT 4 also carries a wide field 'vegetation' imager and a laser
communications experiment. Launch was by an Arianespace Ariane 40
rocket, the base Ariane 4 model with no strap-on boosters. The
liquid hydrogen fuelled third stage of the Ariane 40 entered an 800 km
sun-synchronous orbit together with SPOT 4.

The Kakehashi satellite has begun orbit raising maneuvers.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Feb  4 2329   Brasilsat B3   )  Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     06A
              Inmarsat 3 F5  )                                  Comsat     06B
Feb 10 1320   GFO         )     Taurus        Vandenberg 576E   Altimeter  07A
              Orbcomm G1  )                                     Comsat     07B
              Orbcomm G2  )                                     Comsat     07C
              Celestis-02 )                                     Burial     07D
Feb 14 1434   Globalstar FM1 )                                  Comsat     08A
              Globalstar FM2 )  Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17A  Comsat     08B
              Globalstar FM3 )                                  Comsat     08C
              Globalstar FM4 )                                  Comsat     08D
Feb 17 1030?  Kosmos-2349       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31?    Recon      09A
Feb 18 1358   Iridium 50 )      Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     10A
              Iridium 52 )                                      Comsat     10C
              Iridium 53 )                                      Comsat     10D
              Iridium 54 )                                      Comsat     10E
              Iridium 56 )                                      Comsat     10B
Feb 21 0755   Kakehashi         H-II          Tanegashima Y     Comsat     11A
Feb 26 0707   SNOE        )     Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Science    12A
              Teledesic 1 )                                     Comsat     12B
Feb 27 2238   Hot Bird 4        Ariane 42P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     13A
Feb 28 0021   Intelsat 806      Atlas IIAS    Canaveral SLC36B  Comsat     14A
Mar 14 2246   Progress M-38     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      15A
Mar 16 2132   UHF F/O F8        Atlas II      Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat     16A
Mar 24 0146   SPOT 4            Ariane 40     Kourou ELA2       Imaging    17A

                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-90  Apr 16
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66              VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/RSRM65/ET-91/OV-102 LC39B         STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 05. April 1998 21:47
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 354

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 354                                         1998 Apr 5 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Columbia rolled out to pad 39B on Mar 23. Launch of mission
STS-90 (Neurolab) is planned for Apr 16. Columbia contains
the following cargo:
 Spacelab transfer tunnel
 Spacelab Long Module, with Neurolab experiments
 Extended Duration Orbiter pallet
 Two GAS beams with canisters G-197, G-467, G-772 and one
 other. 
The G-772 payload carries Colorado's COLLIDE experiment,
which will bang small particles into each other to simulate
the formation of planets and rings.

The Neurolab mission will carry out life science studies. It seems to be
managed by NASA-Johnson at Houston, unlike earlier Spacelab flights
which were NASA-Marshall/Huntsville's responsibility. 

Musabaev and Budarin carried out a spacewalk on Apr 1; the work ran
behind schedule and was not completed. The repaired EVA hatch was opened
at 1335 UTC and closed at 2015 UTC. The astronauts transferred to the
Spektr module and installed handrails near the damaged solar panel.
Splinting the panel will have to be done on the next spacewalk.

External Tank ET-96, the first aluminium-lithium Super Lightweight Tank,
has been mated to the solid rocket boosters for mission STS-91, which
will fly in May.

Recent Launches
---------------

Two more Motorola Iridium satellites were launched Mar 25 by a Chinese
CZ-2/SD launch vehicle from Taiyuan Space Center. The two stage CZ-2D
places the Smart Dispenser stage in transfer orbit; the SD then fires
at apogee and deploys the two satellites before moving to a lower orbit.

Five days later, a Boeing Delta 7920-10C placed a further quintet of
Iridium payloads in orbit from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg
Air Force Base. Seven more are waiting for launch on a Proton in
Kazakstan.

NASA's third Small Explorer, the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer
(TRACE), was successfully launched by an Orbital Pegasus XL on Apr 2.
The L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Vandenberg and dropped the
Pegasus over the Pacific Ocean. TRACE was placed in a 602 x 652 km x
97.8 deg sun-synchronous orbit. This makes 11 successful flights out of
the last 12 for Pegasus, which had a rocky early history. TRACE, a
project led by Lockheed's solar physics group, carries a 30-cm extreme
ultraviolet imaging telescope which will study the Sun. The telescope
mirrors were made by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. TRACE
has an 8.5 arcmin field of view and 1 arcsecond resolution.

TRACE is in a sun-synchronous polar orbit around the Earth, chosen so
that its plane is at  right angles to the line joining Earth and Sun.
This means that TRACE can look at the Sun all the time without Earth
getting in the way. An orbital plane will normally stay fixed relative
to the stars, and so shift relative to the Sun during the Earth's motion
around it.  The combination of TRACE's orbital height and inclination
with the gravitational effects of the Earth's flattened poles cause its
orbit to shift by exactly the amount needed to compensate for Earth's
orbital motion, keeping TRACE's orbit perpendicular to the Earth-Sun
line. Orbital inclinations between about 95 and 110 degrees (depending
on orbital height) are needed for a sun-synch orbit.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar 14 2246   Progress M-38     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      15A
Mar 16 2132   UHF F/O F8        Atlas II      Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat     16A
Mar 24 0146   SPOT 4            Ariane 40     Kourou ELA2       Imaging    17A
Mar 25 1701   Iridium 51 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     18A
              Iridium 61 )                                      Comsat     18B
Mar 30 0602   Iridium 55        Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     19A
              Iridium 57                                        Comsat     19B
              Iridium 58                                        Comsat     19C
              Iridium 59                                        Comsat     19D
              Iridium 60                                        Comsat     19E
Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-90  Apr 16
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96        VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/RSRM65/ET-91/OV-102 LC39B         STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 11. April 1998 21:30
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 355

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 355                                   1998 Apr 5 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Mir astronauts Solov'yov and Budarin carried out a 4h15m spacewalk on
Apr 6 and splinted the dented Spektr solar panel. A problem with the
station's attitude control system caused the spacewalk to be cut short.
According to reports from Jim Oberg, the control center erroneously
commanded the station to stop controlling its orientation, and,
believing instead that fuel in the old VDU engine had run out, decided
to tell the crew to return inside. Andy Thomas remained on board the
station during the EVA.

Another spacewalk was carried out on Apr 11.  Hatch open was at 0955 UTC
and closed at 1620 UTC. The old VDU engine was installed in 1992,
attached to the Sofora boom sticking out from the Kvant module. Musabaev
and Budarin dismounted it and jettisoned it into space. Two more
spacewalks are planned to install the new VDU engine, currently mounted
on the exterior of the Progress supply ship.

STS-93/AXAF
-----------

AXAF is the third of NASA's Great Observatories, after the Space
Telescope (Hubble) and GRO (Compton). I expect to be giving regular
updates on the progress of the new observatory, now scheduled for launch
on Dec 3.

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility satellite is now
undergoing integration and test at prime contractor TRW/Redondo Beach. 
The AXAF satellite consists of a spacecraft module and a science 
instrument module (SIM) joined by a long tube called the Optical Bench
Assembly (OBA). The spacecraft module carries deployable solar panels,
the HRMA X-ray telescope, the ACA optical guide telescope,
and the IPS integral propulsion system. The IPS has four bipropellant
engine nozzles derived from TRW's DM-LAE apogee engine. AXAF will
be launched attached to an IUS solid rocket, and will completely
fill the Shuttle payload bay.

The HRMA (High Resolution Mirror Assembly) telescope consists of four
concentric grazing incidence mirrors. It's hard to persuade X-rays to
change their direction, so you can't use the usual `normal incidence'
reflective mirrors pointed at the sky, familiar in optical telescopes.
Instead, somewhat bizzarely, you point your mirror at right angles to
the incoming X-rays, and they glance off at `grazing incidence',
changing direction by only a degree or so. This is enough to let you
focus the X-rays into a picture. The resulting telescope mirror is
almost cylindrical, which lets you put progressively smaller mirrors one
inside the other.

The peer review of the first AXAF observing proposals was
carried out last week. The first year's observing was heavily 
oversubscribed, with over 700 proposals submitted. Results will be
announced next month.

Satellite Names
---------------

Since the late 1970s, NASA has made a practice of naming its
larger satellites, usually after a famous dead scientist. Other
space agencies have named their satellites after flowers, 
minerals, elementary particles, mythological characters, or
astronomical objects. I've tried to collect together a list
of these satellite names at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/misc/names.html
Corrections and additions are welcome.


Recent Launches
---------------

Seven more Iridium satellites were launched on Apr 7. A Krunichev
three-stage Proton-K launch vehicle placed the Iridium cluster and an
Energiya commercial Blok DM2 stage (related to the domestic 17S40 Blok
DM-5 variant) in low parking orbit. The DM2 then fired twice to enter
the deployment orbit and dispensed the seven satellites, which will use
their own propulsion units to reach operational altitude. The DM2 stage
then fired again to deorbit itself, to avoid creating space debris.

Iridium constellation status:  The constellation is now filling up the
last of the six orbital planes. In addition, two satellites (SV18 and
SV38) which had been in engineering orbit for several months raised
their altitude to the operational orbit in early April. The operational
orbit is 776 x 779 km x 86.4 deg, while the engineering orbit is 765 x
771 km x 86.4 deg.  A total of 45 satellites are in operational orbit, a
further 14 are on their way there from the initial deployment orbit, two
satellites are dead, and four are in engineering orbit, for a total of 
65 Iridiums launched to date.


Plane 1: Operational: [0]
         Raising orbits: SV62,63,64,65,66,67,68
Plane 2: Operational: [9] SV22,23,24,25,26,45,46,47,49 
         Engineering orbit: SV48 (since Feb)
Plane 3: Operational: [6] SV28,29,30,31,32,33          
         Raising orbits: SV55,57,58,59,60
         Failed in deployment orbit: SV27
Plane 4: Operational: [10] SV04,06,07,08,19,34,35,36,37,51 
         Raising orbits: SV61
         Engineering orbit: SV05 (since Jan)
Plane 5: Operational: [10] SV09,10,12,13,14,16,50,53,54,56   
         Raising orbits: SV52
         Engineering orbit: SV11 (since Sep)
Plane 6: Operational: [10] SV15,17,18,20,38,39,40,41,43,44 
         Engineering orbit: SV42 (since Dec)  
         Failed in deployment orbit: SV21


In my comments on sun-synchronous orbits last week, several folks
pointed out some loose statements on my part. When I suggested that
orbital planes 'normally' stay fixed, I meant when in orbit around a
perfect Newtonian point mass. Any inclined Earth satellite will have an
orbital plane precession due to the Earth's lack of spherical symmetry
(and to much smaller  degree due to GR effects). The upper inclination
limit of around 110 degrees corresponds to an upper altitude limit of
around a couple thousand km, reflecting the use of sun-synchronous
orbits in historical practice. Of course, sun-synchronous orbits at even
higher altitudes and inclinations are perfectly possible, they just
haven't tended to be used up to now.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar 14 2246   Progress M-38     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      15A
Mar 16 2132   UHF F/O F8        Atlas II      Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat     16A
Mar 24 0146   SPOT 4            Ariane 40     Kourou ELA2       Imaging    17A
Mar 25 1701   Iridium 51 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     18A
              Iridium 61 )                                      Comsat     18B
Mar 30 0602   Iridium 55        Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     19A
              Iridium 57                                        Comsat     19B
              Iridium 58                                        Comsat     19C
              Iridium 59                                        Comsat     19D
              Iridium 60                                        Comsat     19E
Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G


                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-90  Apr 16

OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Sep 17?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96        VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/RSRM65/ET-91/OV-102 LC39B         STS-90
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 19. April 1998 21:13
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 356

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 356                                      1998 Apr 19 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The current commander of Mir is of course Talgat Musabaev,
and not Anatoliy Solov'yov as I foolishly stated last week.
Musabaev and Budarin carried out another 6 hour spacewalk on Apr 17,
preparing for installation of the new VDU engine. Hatch open was
0740 UTC and hatch closed at 1412 UTC. Two truss structures
on the Kvant module were retracted and stored on the module
exterior; the new VDU was unlatched from its carrier in the
Progress cargo ship. It will be installed on the next EVA.

Space Shuttle OV-102 Columbia was launched into orbit on Apr 17
on an extended duration Spacelab long module mission using
Long Module Unit 2.
The STS-90 cargo bay sidewall canisters are:
 Bay 4P forward: G-744 Sierra College, ozone measurements
        aft:     G-772 Colorado, COLLIDE dust collision experiment
 Bay 4S forward: SVF   JPL Shuttle Vibration Forces experiment
        aft:     G-197 Lockheed Martin, Pulse Tube Refrigerator cryocooler
In addition, the OARE acceleration experiment is mounted on the
payload bay floor in bay 11.

STS-90/Neurolab experiments include tests on the astronauts' adaptation
to free fall, and studies on rat development and neurobiology. The life
sciences payload includes 132 rats (Rattus norvegii), four oyster
toadfish (Opsanus tau), freshwater snails (Biomphlaria glabrata),
swordtail fish (Xiphophorus helleri), and crickets (Acheta domesticus).
The Spacelab module includes the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit,
the BOTEX botany experiment incubator (used for the crickets), the CEBAS
aquatic enclosure, and various rat animal enclosures. It also includes
the VVIS centrifuge, the VCF visuo-motor coordination facility, and the
VEG virtual reality headset, all of which are used on the human
subjects. A special suit and cap to monitor astronauts while asleep is
also carried. Unfortunately, in contrast to earlier Spacelab flight
press kits, this mission's public release doesn't give details of the
layout of the Spacelab module racks.

Columbia was launched at 1819 UTC on Apr 17. The solid rocket boosters
(RSRM-65)  separated at 1821 UTC, and a few seconds later the OMS
engines ignited for a 1min 43s burn, the first OMS assist maneuver. This
adds extra thrust to that provided by the SSME main engines, and will be
needed for Space Station launches. The maneuver appears to have gone
fine. Transfer orbit insertion at main engine cutoff, 1827 UTC, was
followed by separation of external tank ET-91 and a second OMS burn at
1902 UTC to circularize the orbit at 257 x 286 km x 39.0 deg.

Meanwhile, the Shuttle launch schedule for the next year is
completely up in the air pending decisions on Space Station delays.

STS-93/AXAF
-----------

 NASA and the AXAF Science Center are sponsoring a contest to name the
Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), a 4-tonne X-ray telescope
to be launched on Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1998. The winner
will get a free trip to see the launch, and everyone who enters will get
a free AXAF poster. The winning entry can be the name of a place or a
thing symbolizing exploration of the universe, or a mythological or
fictional character, or a historical person (but not someone alive
today). Previous X-ray satellites have been named after physicists
Albert Einstein, Wilhelm Rontgen, and Bruno Rossi; the first X-ray
satellite, launched from Kenya, was named Uhuru after the Swahili word
for freedom. You can get details of the contest at

            http://asc.harvard.edu/contest.html

Entries are due by June 30 and the winner will be announced later
in the year.

Recent Launches
---------------

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar 14 2246   Progress M-38     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      15A
Mar 16 2132   UHF F/O F8        Atlas II      Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat     16A
Mar 24 0146   SPOT 4            Ariane 40     Kourou ELA2       Imaging    17A
Mar 25 1701   Iridium 51 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     18A
              Iridium 61 )                                      Comsat     18B
Mar 30 0602   Iridium 55        Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     19A
              Iridium 57                                        Comsat     19B
              Iridium 58                                        Comsat     19C
              Iridium 59                                        Comsat     19D
              Iridium 60                                        Comsat     19E
Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K      Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )

                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-90  Apr 17
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  ?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96        VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 25. April 1998 18:48
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 357

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 357                                        1998 Apr 25 Cambridge, MA 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A brief issue this week, as I have to catch a plane.
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Musabaev and Budarin, in a spacewalk on Apr 22, attached the new
VDU roll control engine to the end of the Sofora boom on the Kvant
module.

The STS-90/Neurolab mission continues in orbit, with the crew busy
dissecting rats. Other rats are learning how to float in zero-g. The
primary CO2 scrubber unit on Columbia failed on Apr 25 at 0345 UTC. If
it can't be repaired, the mission will have to be brought home early.

Recent Launches
---------------

Four more Space Systems/Loral Globalstar communications satellites were
launched on a Boeing Delta 7420 on Apr 24. The satellites join four
Globalstars already in orbit and will form part of a telephone
service constellation.

The Cassini probe will make a flyby of Venus on Apr 26.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar 14 2246   Progress M-38     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      15A
Mar 16 2132   UHF F/O F8        Atlas II      Canaveral SLC36A  Comsat     16A
Mar 24 0146   SPOT 4            Ariane 40     Kourou ELA2       Imaging    17A
Mar 25 1701   Iridium 51 )      CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     18A
              Iridium 61 )                                      Comsat     18B
Mar 30 0602   Iridium 55        Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     19A
              Iridium 57                                        Comsat     19B
              Iridium 58                                        Comsat     19C
              Iridium 59                                        Comsat     19D
              Iridium 60                                        Comsat     19E
Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K      Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )
Apr 24 2238   Globalstar FM5?)  Delta 7420    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     23A
              Globalstar FM6?)                                             23B
              Globalstar FM7?)                                             23C
              Globalstar FM8?)                                             23D

                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-90  Apr 17
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-91  May 28
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  ?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96        VAB Bay 1     STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 03. May 1998 19:10
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 358

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 358                                        1998 May  3 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The STS-90/Neurolab life sciences research mission continued after
repair of the CO2 scrubber problem reported last week. The research
mission was mostly carried out as planned, but an unexpectedly large
number of the baby rats died. Columbia landed at 1609 UTC on May 3, at
Kennedy Space Center's Runway 33. Mission duration was 15 days 21 h
49min 59 sec.

The human crew of STS-90 was Richard Searfoss (Commander), Scott Altman
(Pilot), Richard Linnehan (Payload Commander),  Kay Hire (Mission
Specialist 2), all of NASA; Dafydd Rhys Williams (Mission Specialist 3,
Canadian Space Agency); Jay Clark Buckey, Payload Specialist 1, from
Dartmouth Medical School, and James Pawelczyk, Payload Specialist 2,
from Penn State University.

Neurolab mission scientists are now studying the readaptation of 
both the rats and humans to gravity. The remaining rats will be
dissected soon after landing to study these changes; the human
crewmembers, in contrast, are being saved for a possible reflight
of the mission as early as August. 

Recent Launches
---------------

The former Asiasat 3 satellite, placed in  incorrect orbit last
December, is undergoing an unprecedented manuever. The Blok-DM3 upper
stage placed Asiasat 3 in a geostationary transfer orbit of  365 x 35989
km x 51.6 deg instead of a geostationary circular orbit at 35780 x 35800
km x 0 deg. The satellite has now become the property of Hughes Global
Services, and has been informally renamed HGS-1. The Hughes HS-601 class
satellite is now using its Marquardt R-4D-11-300  liquid propulsion
system  at perigee to raise its apogee to lunar distance, and use lunar
gravity to maneuver it toward a final orbit. Apogee was raised to 88000
km on Apr 16, 108000 km on Apr 18,  148000 km on Apr 23, 207000 km on
Apr 26, and 319785 km on Apr 30, according to Space Command tracking
data. Final translunar injection on May 7 will lead to HGS-1 making a
circumlunar pass on May 13 followed by a return to  geosynchronous
altitudes. The lunar flyby will be made with the satellite in
spin-stabilized mode, with the two main antennas deployed to give it
extra stability.

The Cassini probe made a flyby of Venus on Apr 26. This gravity assist
maneuver is the first in a series Cassini will make in the inner solar
system before heading out to Saturn. Cassini came to 284 km above the
surface of Venus at about 1345:41 UTC. 

Egypt's first satellite, Nilesat 101, was launched on Apr 28. An Ariane
44P launch vehicle placed it and Japan's BSAT 1b into geostationary
transfer orbit. Nilesat 101 is a Matra Marconi Space Eurostar 2000
communications satellite with 12 Ku-band transponders. BSAT 1b is a
Hughes HS-376 spin-stabilized satellite.

A Russian military satellite was launched into geostationary orbit on
Apr 29 using a Krunichev Proton-K rocket with an Energiya upper stage,
probably the Blok DM-2. The payload, Kosmos-2350, is either a Geizer
communications satellite built by NPO PM or an early warning satellite
built by  Lavochkin.

A Chinese CZ-2C with a Smart Dispenser upper stage placed two more
Motorola Iridium satellites in orbit on May 2. This was the fourth
launch of the CZ-2C from the new Taiyuan space center. The SD stage
placed the satellites in a 625 x 640 km orbit and then lowered itself to
a 200 km perigee orbit to ensure its rapid decay.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K      Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )
Apr 24 2238   Globalstar FM5)   Delta 7420    Canaveral LC17    Comsat     23A
              Globalstar FM6)                                              23B
              Globalstar FM7)                                              23C
              Globalstar FM8)                                              23D
Apr 28 2253   Nilesat 1  )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     24A
              BSAT 1B    )                                      Comsat     24B
Apr 29 0440?  Kosmos-2350       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat?    25A
May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        KSC RW33      STS-90  
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-91  Jun 2
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  ?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A       STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 12. May 1998 04:30
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 359

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 359                                         1998 May 11 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

I've updated the geostationary satellite log at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/geo.html


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-91; orbiter OV-103 Discovery will dock
with Mir to pick up Andrew Thomas, the final NASA resident on the
station, and allow an inspection visit by Russian Shuttle-Mir program
director Valeriy Ryumin.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Hughes HGS-1 satellite made its final translunar injection burn
at 0042 UTC on May 8. It is now on a free-return trajectory to the Moon
with an apogee of 413600 km, and will pass 8000 km from the Moon on May 13.

Meanwhile, Hughes Global Services has moved  the Leasat 5 satellite to
156E for use  by the Australian Defence Force. The Hughes HS-381 Leasat
satellites, which originally provided UHF services for the US Navy, have
been replaced by satellites in the HS-601 class UHF Follow-On series.

An 8K78M launch vehicle (built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara) with a 2BL
fourth stage was launched from Plesetsk on May 7. It placed an Oko-class
Russian military early warning satellite in elliptical twelve-hour
orbit. The satellite, built by NPO Lavochkin of Moscow, was given the
cover name Kosmos-2351 after launch.

A Krunichev Proton-K launch vehicle placed the Echostar 4 satellite in a
213 x 35703 km x 48.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit on May 7. It
appears that contrary to reports no second burn of the Blok DM3 stage
was intended. The satellite separated from the stage near apogee, 6h 40m
into the flight. On May 11, Echostar 4 was in a 12263 x 35747 km x 10.6
deg orbit after a burn of its Leros liquid apogee engine. Echostar 4 is
an A2100AX class comsat built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale for Echostar
Comms. Corp. of Littleton, Colorado. Launch services were provided by
International Launch Services (the Lockheed/Krunichev/Energiya joint
venture).

A classified NRO satellite was launched on May 9 from Cape Canaveral,
probably to geostationary orbit. The Lockheed Martin Astronautics Titan
4B rocket (serial B-25) has two SRMU solid boosters and a two-stage
Titan liquid rocket core (serial K-25). The second stage delivered
Centaur TC-18 and the payload to a suborbital trajectory. The TC-18
liquid hydrogen-fuelled upper stage made three rocket burns to deliver
the satellite to geostationary orbit. The satellite is believed to be a
follow-on to the ORION signals intelligence satellite. The first ORION
follow-on was launched in May 1995.

The correct flight model numbers of the recently launched Globalstar
satellites are FM-6,8,14 and 15.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg        Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K      Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )
Apr 24 2238   Globalstar FM6)   Delta 7420    Canaveral LC17    Comsat     23A
              Globalstar FM8)                                              23B
              Globalstar FM14)                                             23C
              Globalstar FM15)                                             23D
Apr 28 2253   Nilesat 1  )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     24A
              BSAT 1B    )                                      Comsat     24B
Apr 29 0437   Kosmos-2350       Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat?    25A
May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral LC40    Sigint     29A?

                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Dec 3
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-91  Jun 2
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  ?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A       STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 18. May 1998 04:10
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 360

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 360                              1998 May  17 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-91; orbiter OV-103 Discovery will dock
with Mir to pick up Andrew Thomas, the final NASA resident on the
station, and allow an inspection visit by Russian Shuttle-Mir program
director Valeriy Ryumin. Charles Precourt and Dominic Gorie will  be
commander and pilot, with payload commander Franklin Chang-Diaz and
mission specialists Wendy Lawrence and Janet Kavandi. Dr. Chang-Diaz, a
member of the 1980 group of astronauts, will be making his sixth space
flight, equalling the record set by John Young and Story Musgrave.
Ryumin has been involved in the design and development of all of the DOS
orbital stations from Salyut to Mir, and made three flights in the
Salyut-6 program in 1977-1980, becoming at that time the spaceflight
duration record holder.

Russia launched the Progress 7K-TGM (11F615A55) No. 238 cargo ship  from
Baykonur on May 14. Progress spacecraft 238 was renamed Progress M-39
after launch. It docked with Mir at 2351 UTC on May 16, bringing
supplies and scientific experiments to the station. Progress M-38
undocked May 15 at 1844 UTC, freeing up the docking port on the Kvant
module for the new cargo ship.

Recent Launches
---------------

The NOAA K weather satellite was launched on May 13 from Vandenberg, and
renamed NOAA 15 on reaching orbit. NOAA K is an Advanced Tiros N class
weather satellite built by Lockheed Martin/East Windsor for the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Polar Orbiting Environmental
Satellite (POES) program. NOAA K carries a new microwave sensor as well
as the usual complement of optical/near-infrared radiometers and imagers
and the SARSAT search and rescue package. It was the first NOAA launch
to use the Titan 23G launch vehicle, a refurbished ICBM. Titan 23G-12
took off from Space Launch Complex 4-West at Vandenberg and delivered
NOAA K into a suborbital trajectory 6 min later. A Thiokol (Cordant
Technologies) Star 37XFP solid motor on the satellite fired at apogee to
put NOAA K in orbit; this is a more powerful version of the Star 37S
orbit insertion motor used on earlier Tiros N satellites.

Another successful launch for the Boeing Delta 2 placed five
more Motorola Iridium satellites in orbit on May 17. This is the
final launch in the initial deployment of the Iridium constellation,
but launches of replacement satellites will continue.
I don't have the satellite numbers for the new launch yet;
the next free numbers are SV 70,72,73,74,75.

The Blok DM3 stage for the May 7 Proton launch did indeed make two burns
(see last week's issue). The second burn left Echostar in an 8318 x
35750 km x 15.3 deg orbit; the liquid apogee motor raised perigee to
12263 km a few days later. No element sets for the second burn transfer
orbit reached the Goddard web site at the time, but a Space Command
element set later reached the JPL archive sites.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg RW30/15 Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )
Apr 24 2238   Globalstar FM6)   Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17   Comsat     23A
              Globalstar FM8)                                              23B
              Globalstar FM14)                                             23C
              Globalstar FM15)                                             23D
Apr 28 2253   Nilesat 1  )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     24A
              BSAT 1B    )                                      Comsat     24B
Apr 29 0437   Kosmos-2350       Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur          Comsat?    25A
May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40   Sigint     29A
May 13 1552   NOAA 15           Titan 2       Vandenberg SLC4W  Weather    30A
May 14 2212   Progress M-39     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      31A
May 17 2116   Iridium   )       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W  Comsat     32A
              Iridium   )                                                  32B
              Iridium   )                                                  32C
              Iridium   )                                                  32D
              Iridium   )                                                  32E
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Dec 3
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-91  Jun 2
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  ?


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A       STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html                 |
| Back issues:  ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.*       |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 24. May 1998 22:26
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 361

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 361                               1998 May 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Launch of the Station seems to be slipping further, with a probable
delay of STS-88 to December according to news reports. This would push
STS-93 to January according to the AP report.

Progress M-39 remains docked to the Mir orbital complex, and the crew
are unloading it. STS-91 is on the pad, ready for the final US trip to
Mir. In addition to Andrew Thomas, much of the US scientific equipment
aboard Mir will also be brought home.

For mission STS-91, Discovery's payload bay has a new configuration.
Forward in the bay is the external airlock and docking system. Behind
this is the tunnel adapter, which on most earlier missions was between
the docking system and the main cabin. The tunnel adapter has a hatch
for spacewalks. Behind the tunnel adapter is the Spacehab tunnel,
followed by a single Spacehab module. The Spacehab module carries water,
food, and equipment for Mir. Further aft in the payload bay is the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). This particle physics experiment uses a new
cross-bay carrier, containing a large (3000 kg) magnet and scintillator
detectors which will be used in a search for antiprotons and antinuclei
in cosmic rays. A later version of AMS will be installed on the Space
Station.

Eight GAS canisters are also installed in the payload bay. Bay 6 port
has SEM-3, with high school experiments, and an inert canister
containing commemorative flags. Bay 6 starboard has G-648 (Canadian
space agency organic thin films experiment) and another canister of
flags. Bay 13 port has G-765 (Canadian space agency fluids experiment)
and SEM-5 (high school passive experiments). Bay 13 starboard has two
small size (2.5-cubic foot) containers, G-090 and G-743.

Recent Launches
---------------

HGS-1 completed its first lunar flyby on May 13, and returned to a
perigee of about 36000 km at about 0300 UTC on May 17. HGS has decided
to send the satellite on a second lunar flyby on Jun 6 to further
improve the orbit. Current orbit is 35646 km x 475763 km x 18.2 deg.

Galaxy 4H, a Hughes HS-601 satellite, failed on May 19, disrupting pager
services across the United States. A computer failure resulted in loss
of attitude control. Ku-band traffic is being transferred to Galaxy 3R,
while Galaxy 6 is being moved to the Galaxy 4H orbital position to
replace its C-band coverage.

Echostar 4 has reportedly had problems deploying its solar panels.


Orbits
-------

The following discussion is for technically oriented pedants only.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the exact definitions of
varous kinds of orbit: what is the difference between Low Earth Orbit
(LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)? There's no right answer, since these
names are arbitrary. I have my own definitions, which I give below. The
boundaries I use are motivated by the physical boundaries in the
atmosphere and by historical practice.

 My proposed definitions:

(1)  Atmospheric (ATM):     suborbital trajectory with apogee less than
80 km (mean height of the mesopause, and same as old USAF definition of
50 miles for astronaut wings)

(2)  Suborbital spaceflight (SO): suborbital trajectory with apogee more
than 80 km.

(3)  Transatmospheric orbit (TAO): orbital flight with perigee less than
80 km but  more than zero. Potentially used by aerobraking missions and
transatmospheric vehicles, also in some temporary phases of orbital
flight (e.g. STS pre OMS-2, some failures when no apogee restart)

(4)  LEO: Low Earth Orbit. Orbits with perigee above 80 km and apogee
less than L km. It's not clear what the value of L should be. A
histogram of apogee heights for objects currently in orbit shows a big
peak from 100 km to about 2500 km, followed by an almost empty region,
followed by a small peak at 19000 km (GLONASS and GPS) and another peak
at 36000 km (GEO). Why are there so few satellites in the 3000 - 19000
km range? It's because of the radiation belts. Of course polar orbit
satellites pass through the radiation belts even at low altitude (the
magnetosphere dips into the auroral circle). But at 3000 km and up you
pass through the belts at all latitudes. What is the lower level of the
radiation belts? I'm still researching this. However, if you look at the
apogee histogram in more detail, you see that the lower orbit satellites
have two broad peaks: one from 300 km to 1300km peaking at 800-1000 km;
and another at 1300-2200 km peaking at 1500 km. This analysis is
compromised by the fact that the histogram may be dominated by debris
objects from a small number of explosions; it would be better to plot
payloads only. Redoing the analysis with only international designations
"A" and "B" (e.g. 1997-04B, but not 1997-04F) gives a similar result
but with narrower peaks. In particular, there are very few payloads or
rocket stages with apogees in the 1100 to 1400 km or 1600 to 2000 km
ranges. I therefore suggest that the LEO/MEO boundary value L should be
set at either:

 apogee 1000 km, a round number definition which would exclude the large
   number of satellites in the 1000-1100 km range including Parus/Tsikada and
   Transit navsats. I think 1000 km is a little too low to exclude.
 apogee 1100 km, a strict definition of LEO
 apogee 1600 km, a definition including Globalstar and Strela/Gonets and older ESSA/NOAA
          polar satellites
 apogee 2000 km, a safe 'round number' definition including all LEO
          payloads and debris objects.
 period 120 minutes ( 2 hours ). Another 'round number'.
   This has an average height of 1680 km and a maximum apogee of 3280 km.

With the 2000 km or 2 hr definitions, MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) would be the relatively
unpopulated region between LEO and the geosynch corridor, which contains
the Glonass and GPS satellites and the old Midas early warning sats,
and not much else. I have decided to use the 2 hr definition, but I suspect
that the industry may end up using something toward the lower end, say
the 1100 km definition.

I consider several subcategories of LEO sorted by inclination. The physically
motivated one is LEO/S or SSO:  Sun Synchronous orbit, when the orbital plane
precesses to keep the same sun angle. This requires a period (hh:min) of 
  T =  3:47 * ( - cos i )** (3/7)  +/- 0:10, for i = 97.0 - 103.0 degrees.
It's probably good enough to use a less strict but simpler definition of SSO:
LEO/S  Sun Synch     T =  1:26 - 2:00, i = 95.0 - 104.0
One might also usefully define
LEO/R  Retrograde:   T =  1:26 - 2:00, i = 104.0 - 180.0
LEO/P  Polar:        T =  1:26 - 2:00, i =  85.0 -  95.0
LEO/E  Equatorial    T =  1:26 - 2:00, i =   0.0 -  20.0

Of course technically `retrograde' is anything with i more than 90.0 degrees,
but one is more likely to refer to orbits with i below 104 deg as polar or
sun-synchronous.

The next boundary of interest is between MEO and the 'geosynchronous
corridor'. To study the geosynchronous corridor, it's most helpful to
work in orbital period and consider drift rates. For a pure equatorial
orbit, non-Keplerian perturbations introduce drifts of order 0.05
degrees per day. These dominate Keplerian drift in longitude if the
period is roughly between 23h 55.5m and 23h 56.5 min. I call this
'geostationary orbit'. Satellites which are still operational but are
being moved from one slot to another usually are drifting at between 0.1
and 10 degrees per day. I find the 10 degree per day drift rate one
convenient boundary, corresponding to periods from 23h 17m to 24h 37m
(that's what I used to use in my geo.log file). An alternative criterion
is to make a period cut from 23h to 25h: 1 hour either side of the
geosynch period. 


MEO is then everything vaguely circular below 23 hours and above LEO.
Objects which are in elliptical orbits and with MEO-type orbital
periods, I call HEO (highly elliptical orbits). A special case of HEO is
the Molniya orbit, with inclination 63 degrees and period 12 hours,
giving zero perigee precession and an apogee stabilized in longitude
every other orbit. Another special case is geostationary transfer orbit
(GTO), subclasses of which I defined in JSR 310 back in Jan 1997
(included in the summary table below).

I now use personal definitions as follows:

                    Period (hh:mm)     Inc (deg)    Ecc

Three with the synchronous period:

GEO/S  Stationary      23:55.5 - 23:56.5  0.0 - 2.0   0.00 - 0.01
 (the good stuff, circular and equatorial)

GEO/I  Inclined GEO    23:55.5 - 23.56.5  0.0 - 2.0   0.01-0.05
                   and 23:55.5 - 23.56.5  2.0 - 20.0  0.00-0.05
 (still circular and somewhat equatorial)

GEO/T  Synchronous     23:55.5 - 23.56.5  0 - 20.0      0.05 - 0.85
                   and 23:55.5 - 23.56.5  20.0-180.0    0.00 - 0.85
 (synchronous but not circular equatorial)

The corresponding three cases with periods not equal to the magic one:

GEO/D  Drift GEO       23:00   - 25:00    0.0 - 2.0   0.00 - 0.05
GEO/ID Inc. Drift GEO  23:00   - 25:00    2.0 - 20.0  0.00 - 0.05
GEO/NS Near-Sync       23:00   - 25:00    0 - 180     0.05 - 0.85
                   and 23:00   - 25:00    20 - 180    0.00 - 0.85


Rather than High Earth Orbit (too easily confused with Highly Elliptical
Orbit) I use Deep Space Orbit (DSO), for anything circular above GEO,
and Deep Highly Eccentric Orbit (DHEO) for elliptical deep orbits.

Finally, I summarize the categories I am suggesting in the table below.
If you would like to propose alternative definitions, please forward
them to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbit Classification Summary 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A = apogee/km, P = perigee/km, T = period/hh:mm, i = inc/deg, e = eccentricity)

Main categories
ATM   Atmospheric   A < 80
SO    Suborbital    A >= 80, P < 0
TAO   Trans-Atm     A >= 80, P = 0 - 80
LEO   Low           T= 1:26   -  2:00 (P>80)
MEO   Medium        T= 2:00   - 23:00, e < 0.5
HEO   Highly Ellip  T= 4:03   - 23:00, e > 0.5 (implies A > 13000)
GEO   Near-Synch    T=23:00   - 25:00    
DSO   Deep Space    T>25:00, e < 0.5
DHEO Deep Eccentric T>25:00, e > 0.5
HCO   Heliocentric  
PCO   Planetocentric
SSE   Solar System Escape

Subcategories
LEO/S  Sun Synch      T =  1:26 - 2:00, i= 95.0 - 104.0
LEO/R  Retrograde:    T =  1:26 - 2:00, i= 104.0 - 180.0
LEO/P  Polar:         T =  1:26 - 2:00, i=  85.0 -  95.0
LEO/E  Equatorial     T =  1:26 - 2:00, i=   0.0 -  20.0
HEO/M:  Molniya orbit T = 11:30 - 12:30, i= 62.0 - 64.0,  e= 0.50 - 0.77
GEO/S  Stationary     T= 23:55.5 - 23:56.5,i= 0.0 - 2.0   0.00 - 0.01
GEO/I  Inclined GEO   T= 23:55.5 - 23.56.5,i= 0.0 - 20.0  0.00 - 0.05
GEO/T  Synchronous    T= 23:55.5 - 23.56.5,i= 0 - 180     0.00 - 0.85
GEO/D  Drift GEO      T=23:00   - 25:00  i=  0.0 - 2.0,   e= 0.00 - 0.05 
GEO/ID Inc. Drift GEO T=23:00   - 25:00  i=  0.0 - 20.0,  e= 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/NS Near-Sync      T=23:00   - 25:00  i=  0 - 180,     e= 0.00 - 0.85

GTO subclasses of HEO, from JSR 310
GTO/L  Low GTO        A = 13000 - 30000
GTO/S  Sub-GTO        A = 30000 - 41000
GTO    Std GTO        P = 150 - 700, A = 34000 - 41000, 
GTO/HP High Peri. GTO P = 700- 4000, A = 34000 - 41000, 
GTO/H  High GTO       A > 41000
(Super-GTO now superseded by GTO/H and DHEO as appropriate)

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 0242   TRACE             Pegasus XL    Vandenberg RW30/15 Solar obs. 20A
Apr  7 0213   Iridium 62        Proton-K/DM2  Baykonur          Comsat     21A
              Iridium 63                                        Comsat     21B
              Iridium 64                                        Comsat     21C
              Iridium 65                                        Comsat     21D
              Iridium 66                                        Comsat     21E
              Iridium 67                                        Comsat     21F
              Iridium 68                                        Comsat     21G
Apr 17 1819   Columbia   )      Shuttle       Kennedy LC39B     Spaceship  22A
              Neurolab   )
Apr 24 2238   Globalstar FM6)   Delta 7420    Canaveral SLC17A  Comsat     23A
              Globalstar FM8)                                              23B
              Globalstar FM14)                                             23C
              Globalstar FM15)                                             23D
Apr 28 2253   Nilesat 1  )      Ariane 44P    Kourou ELA2       Comsat     24A
              BSAT 1B    )                                      Comsat     24B
Apr 29 0437   Kosmos-2350       Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur          Comsat?    25A
May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40   Sigint     29A
May 13 1552   NOAA 15           Titan 2       Vandenberg SLC4W  Weather    30A
May 14 2212   Progress M-39     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      31A
May 17 2116   Iridium 70)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W  Comsat     32A
              Iridium 72)                                       Comsat     32B
              Iridium 73)                                       Comsat     32C
              Iridium 74)                                       Comsat     32D
              Iridium 75)                                       Comsat     32E
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan ?
OV-103 Discovery       LC39A         STS-91  Jun 2
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec 3


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A       STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 03. June 1998 00:38
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 362

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 362                                      1998 Jun 2 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Shuttle mission STS-91 was launched at 2206 UTC on Jun 2. This was the
first test of the super lightweight Al-Li external tank, which seems to
have worked fine. At 2215 UTC Discovery entered a temporary 74 x 324 km
x 51.6 deg orbit, with the OMS-2 burn due within the hour.

Discovery is scheduled to dock with the Mir space station, and pick up
astronaut Andy Thomas, ending the final US long duration flight to Mir.
It also carries a test flight of the AMS particle physics experiment.

The Shuttle schedule continues in flux. Although NASA will probably
announce an STS-88 target in December and a delay of STS-93 to January,
Russian delays in funding the ISS Service Module lead to me expect
STS-88 will continue to slip, which would mean STS-93 staying at its
current December date.

Recent Launches
---------------

China launched a Chang Zheng 3B launch vehicle from Xichang on May 30.
It orbited the Zhongwei 1 (Chinastar 1) satellite, an A2100 class comsat
built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale. Zhongwei 1 will serve China, India,
Korea and southeast Asia with 18 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders. It
is operated by the China Orient Telecommunications Satellite Co, part of
the Chinese telecoms ministry. Zhongwei 1 and the CZ-3B's final liquid
hydrogen upper stage were placed in an initial supersynchronous 216 x
85035 km x 24.4 deg  transfer orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40   Sigint     29A
May 13 1552   NOAA 15           Titan 2       Vandenberg SLC4W  Weather    30A
May 14 2212   Progress M-39     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      31A
May 17 2116   Iridium 70)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W  Comsat     32A
              Iridium 72)                                       Comsat     32B
              Iridium 73)                                       Comsat     32C
              Iridium 74)                                       Comsat     32D
              Iridium 75)                                       Comsat     32E
May 30 1000   Zhongwei 1        CZ-3B         Xichang           Comsat     33A
Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  
              Spacehab     )
                                                                         
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-91  
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 18. June 1998 06:31
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 363

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 363                               1998 Jun 18 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Discovery docked with the SO module on Mir at 1700 UTC on June 4. Andy
Thomas became part of the Discovery crew, Valeriy Ryumin carried out an
inspection tour of Mir, and NASA equipment was retrieved from the
station. Discovery undocked at 1601 UTC on Jun 8, ending NASA
participation in the Mir program. STS-91 landed on Runway 15 at Kennedy
Space Center at 1800 UTC on Jun 12. Discovery is now in Orbiter
Processing Bay 2 and will be turned around to perform the next Shuttle
mission, STS-95 in October.

The lack of Ku-band coverage meant that the AMS experiment was
only able to send back a small amount of data in real time, but 
reportedly AMS did detect cosmic-ray antiprotons as expected.

GRAB Declassified
------------------

On Jun 17 the National Reconnaissance Office and the Naval Research Lab
(NRO and NRL) declassified GRAB, the first signals intelligence satellite.
GRAB was first launched in June 1960, shortly before the first successful
flight of the CORONA imaging satellite. It carried receivers to
catalog and characterize Soviet air defence radars. It also carried
a scientific solar X-ray detector as a cover story - the satellite was
given the cover name SOLRAD. It was launched together with TRANSIT 2A.
Five  GRAB satellites were launched, not counting an inert dummy used
to prove the dual satellite launching technique. The declassification
did not reveal which the other satellites were, but my reconstruction is:

Dummy      1960 Apr 13 (with Transit 1B)
 GRAB 1    1960 Jun 22  (with Transit 2A)
 GRAB 2    1960 Nov 30 (with Transit 3A, failed to orbit)
 GRAB 3    1961 Jun 29 (with Transit 4A, second success)
 GRAB 4    1962 Jan 24 (with other NRL satellites, failed to orbit)
 GRAB 5    1962 Apr 26  (on a Scout, failed to orbit)
 
At the time,  the name GREB was used in open sources some of the time,
presumably just a misprint. GRAB stands for Galactic Radiation And Background,
while GREB supposedly stood for Galactic Radiation Experiment Background.
Neither  name makes much sense.

After mid-1962 , GRAB successor satellites were launched
under the auspices of the NRO, but these haven't been declassified yet.

The GRAB satellite was NRL's first satellite after the Vanguard program,
and it used the 20-inch Vanguard sphere as its structure. Thus, the
purely civilian Vanguard program quickly led to a military successor;
work on GRAB began around the time of the first successful Vanguard launch.
GRAB data was given by NRL to both Strategic Air Command (to help
bombers figure out how to avoid Soviet radars) and NSA.
See my 1997 JBIS paper (Vol 50, p 427) for more on NRL's early satellites.

While at NRL, I got to see the flight ICM (Interim Control Module for
Space Station). ICM has APAS type docking ports on each face. It is
launched in the Shuttle attached to a large cylindrical fairing at the
far end of wh ich are trunnions  which attach to the payload bay.
Apparently ICM and cylinder swing up out of the bay somehow and then ICM
is placed on the ODS  by the RMS arm?  The Shuttle/ICM then docks with
the Zarya tug. No word on when ICM will fly; that still depends on the
politics of persuading the Russian government to support completion of
the SM module. The ICM vehicle has some propulsion work still to do
and doesn't have its docking ports yet, but I understand things are
moving full steam ahead.

I also got to hear a talk by Milt Rosen, parent of the Viking and
Vanguard rockets, who seems in fine form and gave an engaging account
of the Vanguard program, emphasizing its successes in the end, seeding
NASA's space science program and leading to the Delta rocket. Likewise
Roger Easton, who talked about the early NRL and rival proposals which
led to the GPS navigation satellites.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Hughes HS-376HP spin-stabilized comsat, Thor III, was launched for
Telenor Satellite Services AS of Oslo by Boeing on Jun 11. The Delta
7925 launch vehicle placed Thor III in geostationary transfer orbit.
Delta's second stage entered a low circular orbit, then raised apogee to
about 1400 km, then in a third burn circularized at that altitude and
separated from the third stage, which  delivered the payload to a high
perigee transfer orbit. The Delta stage 2 then made a fourth burn to
lower perigee again so that it would reenter quickly. The Thor III
satellite will use a Thiokol Star 30 motor to circularize its orbit
at geostationary altitude.

The RVSN (Russian Strategic Rocket Forces) launched six Strela-3
military communications satellites on Jun 15 with a 11K68 Tsiklon-3
launch vehicle. The circularization burn by the S5M third stage seems to
have gone awry, leaving the satellites in a more elliptical orbit than
usual, 1300 x 1900 km. The RVSN is quoting this as the first multiple
launch by the Rocket Forces, which is  not quite true - RVSN's space
forces did multiple launches since the early 1960s, but those space
forces were later made an independent agency, the VKS. This is the first
multiple launch since the VKS was disbanded last year and launch
operations returned to the authority of the RVSN.

A Minuteman ICBM was probably launched on a  suborbital flight test from
Vandenberg's LF-26 silo to Kwajalein missile range on June 3. I haven't
had confirmation of the flight yet.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40   Sigint     29A
May 13 1552   NOAA 15           Titan 2       Vandenberg SLC4W  Weather    30A
May 14 2212   Progress M-39     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      31A
May 17 2116   Iridium 70)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W  Comsat     32A
              Iridium 72)                                       Comsat     32B
              Iridium 73)                                       Comsat     32C
              Iridium 74)                                       Comsat     32D
              Iridium 75)                                       Comsat     32E
May 30 1000   Zhongwei 1        CZ-3B         Xichang           Comsat     33A
Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 11 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A
Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32     Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
                                                                          
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 24. June 1998 23:43
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 364

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 364                               1998 Jun 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October.

On the Mir space station complex, the Progress M-39 cargo ship is docked
to the Kvant module, and the Soyuz TM-27 transport is docked to the PKhO
transfer module on the Mir base compartment. The EO-25 mission crew of
Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin are scheduled to be replaced in
August by EO-26 crew Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev.

Recent Launches
---------------

HGS-1, following a second lunar flyby on Jun 6, successfully reached
inclined geosynchronous orbit and is now drifting over the Pacific at
0.5 degree per day. On Jun 19 it was over 152W in a 35681 x 35963 km x
8.7 deg orbit. The Hughes team deserve to be congratulated on this
spectacular and innovative rescue mission.

Intelsat 805 was launched by an Atlas 2AS on Jun 18 into a standard
geostationary transfer orbit. Intelsat 805 is an LM7000 series satellite
built by Lockheed Martin/East Windsor. Launch mass is 3520 kg; the
satellite has 28 C-band and 3 Ku-band transponders, and will initially
serve the Atlantic Ocean region for INTELSAT.

Two Minuteman III missiles were launched from Vandenberg to Kwajalein
Atoll on Jun 24, one from silo LF-09 and the second from LF-10. Each
carried three re-entry vehicles.

Erratum: Thor 3 launch date was Jun 10, not Jun 11.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  2 0916   Iridium 69        CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     26A
              Iridium 71                                        Comsat     26B
May  7 0853   Kosmos-2351       Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Early Warn 27A
May  7 2345   Echostar 4        Proton-K/DM3  Baykonur          Comsat     28A
May  9 0138   USA 139           Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40   Sigint     29A
May 13 1552   NOAA 15           Titan 2       Vandenberg SLC4W  Weather    30A
May 14 2212   Progress M-39     Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Cargo      31A
May 17 2116   Iridium 70)       Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2W  Comsat     32A
              Iridium 72)                                       Comsat     32B
              Iridium 73)                                       Comsat     32C
              Iridium 74)                                       Comsat     32D
              Iridium 75)                                       Comsat     32E
May 30 1000   Zhongwei 1        CZ-3B         Xichang           Comsat     33A
Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 10 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A
Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32     Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
Jun 18 2248   Intelsat 805      Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36A   Comsat     37A
                                                                          
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown


MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
              
MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/
              


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 04. July 1998 04:45
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 365

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 365                                        1998 Jul 3 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October. Talgat Musabaev and
Nikolai Budarin are continuing work aboard the Mir complex.

AXAF
----

The STS-93 crew visited the AXAF Operations Control Center in Cambridge,
Mass. on Jun 25. STS-93 commander Eileen Collins drew attention to the
fact that AXAF deployment is scheduled for the first mission day, when
cremembers are still adjusting to free fall, and that the AXAF mission
will be the heaviest Shuttle launch weight ever, with a center of
gravity well to the rear of the payload bay. Pilot Jeff Ashby, a Navy
Gulf War veteran, will be on his first mission. Steve Hawley is the most
experienced crew member; he's the only astronomer aboard so many in the
audience felt a strong sense of identification with him. He will be the
mission flight engineer. Cady Coleman, whose MIT and UMass background
were critical in navigating the crew from Hanscom AFB to the control
center, will be in charge of AXAF/IUS deployment. She will be backed
up by Michel Tognini, a French astronaut who is a veteran of a 1992
Mir visit. Tognini is also prime EVA crewmember for the flight, in
case an emergency (`contingency') spacewalk were needed. This would
be particularly tricky since AXAF fills the whole payload bay, with
the delicate science instrument module pretty close to the airlock
door.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Planet-B probe to Mars was launched on Jul 3. The ISAS M-5 launch
vehicle took off from Kagoshima space center in Japan and placed
Planet-B in parking orbit. After lunar flybys, Planet-B will
be placed in solar orbit and reach Mars in Oct 1999. It carries
instruments to study the Martian ionosphere and plasma environment
from Mars orbit. I don't have many details of the launch yet, but
I hope to know more by next issue.

Kosmos-2358, launched on Jun 24, is a Yantar'-class spy satellite,
probably in the Kobal't series. It consists of an instrument-aggregate
module which has some design heritage in common with the Soyuz service
module, together with a large reentry vehicle containing the camera
system, and probably at least two small reentry capsules which return
film during the mission, expected to last about three months. The
Yantar' series are built by the TsSKB-Progress enterprise in Samara,
Russia, which also built the 11A511U "Soyuz-U" launch vehicle. The low
perigee, 67 degree inclination orbit used by Kosmos-2358 is
characteristic of the high resolution recoverable Yantar' satellites.

Kosmos-2359, launched on Jun 25, is another recon satellite launched by
Soyuz-U and built by TsSKB-Progress. It entered a 170 x 290 km x 64.9
deg initial orbit typical of the Kosmos-2031 class, thought to be a
further development of the Yantar' series with multiple small return
capsules and no main recoverable section. It will probably maneuver to a
205 x 320 km orbit on Jun 26.

A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched on Jul 1 into an
elliptical 62.8 degree orbit. The Molniya satellites are built by NPO
PM; the Molniya-M (8K78M) launch vehicle is built by TsSKB-Progress and
is similar to the Soyuz-U but with a 'Blok ML' fourth stage.

The SOHO solar observatory, orbiting the Earth-Sun L1 point, has been
lost due to an apparent gyroscope problem. No contact has been made with
the satellite since Jun 25. Attempts to resume contact with the
satellite continue, but it looks bad for the very successful SOHO
satellite.


Proton Launch Vehicle
---------------------

Issue 1998 No. 10 of the Russian magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki 
(published by Videocosmos, icosmos@dol.ru) contains a complete listing
of launches of the Proton launch vehicle, including such details as
launch times, pads, and even payload serial numbers.

Some teasing highlights from the
Proton launch list to give you a flavor:
 -  Kosmos-382, the orbital test of the lunar Soyuz, was L1-E No. 2K,
    launched at 1700:00 UTC 1970 Dec 2 from pad 81L by Proton No. 252-01
    with Blok D No. 26. 
 -  Kosmos-637, Russia's first 24-hour satellite, was a GVM (mass mockup) 
    of the 11F638 Raduga satellite, military name Gran', launched by Proton 
    282-01 from pad 81L.
 -  Satellite N-4 No. 3 (would have been Proton-3) launched by Proton 211
    in Mar 1966, failed to orbit due to second stage failure.
-   Kosmos-2291 is comsat Geizer No. 19L, launched by Proton 381-02.

If you haven't been following the details of the USSR space program
since its glory days, trust me that it's amazing to see this level of
detail about stuff we spent years guessing about. I'll be updating the
geostationary satellite log soon to reflect the correct names of the
Russian geostationary satellites.

For score counters, the following satellites are not fully identified in
the Proton list and may be presumed to be still classified: Kosmos-775;
Kosmos-1546, 1894, 1940, 2133, 2155, 2209, 2224, 2282,  2345, 2350 (all
thought to be early warning sats);  Raduga-1 satellites;  Luch-1, and
also Kosmos-1603, Kosmos-1656 (identified as Tselina-2 but no serial
nos.) In addition, serial numbers for the Kosmos-997/998 reentry tests
are not given.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 10 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A
Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32     Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
Jun 18 2248   Intelsat 805      Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36A   Comsat     37A
Jun 24 1830   Kosmos-2358       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk          Recon      38A
Jun 25 1400   Kosmos-2359       Soyuz-U       Baykonur          Recon      39A
Jul  1        Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Planet B          M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 
                                                                          
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 11. July 1998 13:02
To: 	jsr-outgoing@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 366

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 366                               1998 Jul 11 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October; best wishes to
all of the folks down at KSC, hoping their homes have escaped
the depredations of the Florida wildfires.

Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin are continuing work aboard the Mir
complex. Launch of the replacement crew of Padalka and Avdeev has
slipped a couple of weeks to mid-August. On Jun 30 Mir was in a 367 x
377 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the orbit will be slowly lowered over the next
year prior to Mir's  deliberate reentry.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Japanese Planet-B probe has been renamed Nozomi ("Hope"). Nozomi is
a project of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS),
Japan's scientific space agency.  The M-V-3 launch vehicle took off from
Kagoshima Space Center; the third stage and payload entered a 146 x 417
km x 31.1 deg parking orbit. The KM-V1 kick (fourth) stage then fired to
place Nozomi in a 359 x 401491 km x 28.6 deg deep orbit, from which it
will make lunar and Earth gravity assist passes to increase its energy
for solar orbit insertion and the cruise to Mars. M-V-3 was the second
M-V launch (M-V-2, carrying the Lunar A probe, has been delayed).
Thanks to T. Imachi for information on the kick stage.

On Jul 7 at 0315 UTC Russia carried out the first satellite launch from
a submarine. The Shtil'-1 launch vehicle is a converted R-29RM (RSM-54)
three stage liquid propellant submarine launched ballistic missile made
by the Makeev design bureau; the satellite payload is placed in the
standard Shtil'  reentry vehicle. The launch plaform was the  K-407
`Novomoskovsk', a 667BDRM Del'fin class submarine of the Russian
Northern Fleet's 3rd Flotilla,  from a range in the Barents Sea off the
coast of the Kol'skiy Peninsula, at approximately 35.3 deg E 69.3 deg N.
This is the first orbital launch of a rocket from the GRTs KB Makeev and
the first orbital launch carried out by the VMF (Voenno-Morskiy Flot,
the Russian Navy).

The Shtil'-1 launched the German 8 kg Tubsat-N `nanosatellite' and its
companion 3 kg Tubsat-N1. Tubsat-N entered a 400 x 776 km x 78.9 deg
orbit.  Both Tubsat-N and Tubsat-N1 carry a small store-forward
communications payload which will be used to keep track of transmitters
placed on vehicles, migrating animals, and marine buoys.  They are
owned, operated and built by the Technische Universitat Berlin (TUB).
TUB's earlier satellites were Tubsat-A, launched on an Ariane in Jul
1991, and Tubsat-B, launched on an 11K68 Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk in Jan
1994.  Thanks to Igor Lissov, Asif Siddiqi, Steve Zaloga and Veit
Zimmermann  for background info.

The 11K77 Zenit-2 launch vehicle returned to service on Jul 10 with the
launch of the Resurs-O1 No. 4 satellite from Baykonur. Resurs-O1, built
by VNII Elektromekhaniki and based on the Meteor weather satellites, is
a Russian civil remote sensing satellite analogous to the Landsats. The
satellite may also be designated Resurs-O2 No. 1 according to some
sources. As well as remote sensing equipment, the satellite carries the
Belgian LLMS (Little LEO Messaging System) communications payload for
the IRIS system. The satellite entered an 815 x 818 km x 98.8 deg
sun-synchronous orbit; the launch appears to have been fully successful.
This launch was critical in restoring confidence in the Zenit vehicle
prior to planned launches of Globalstar satellites from Baykonur and the
first Sea Launch flights using a three-stage Zenit. 

Four subsatellites were launched with Resurs-O1 No. 4.  They are
Fasat-Bravo, a 50 kg Microbus class test satellite built by Surrey
Satellite for the Chilean Air Force, Safir 2, a German space agency 60
kg relay satellite built by OHB System of Bremen, TMSAT, another Uosat
Microbus-class payload built by Surrey Satellite for the Thai
Microsatellite Co. of Bangkok and carrying a combined Earth observation
and data comms. payload, and Gurwin Techsat 1B, built by the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology  and replacing an earlier
Techsat which failed to orbit in 1995.

The Kosmos-2359 recon satellite manuevered to its operational orbit of
240 x 302 km x 64.9 deg on Jun 27.

The Orihime and Hikoboshi satellites undocked and redocked on Jul 7
in its FP-1 test of automated docking systems. Despite the claims of
the NASDA space agency that this is a first, automated Russian craft have
docked on many occasions since the Kosmos-186/188 docking in 1968.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 10 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A
Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32/1   Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
Jun 18 2248   Intelsat 805      Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36A   Comsat     37A
Jun 24 1830   Kosmos-2358       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk          Recon      38A
Jun 25 1400   Kosmos-2359       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31     Recon      39A
Jul  1        Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Nozomi            M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 41A
Jul  7 0315   Tubsat-N   )      Shtil'-1      K-407,Barents     Comsat     42A
              Tubsat-N1  )                                      Comsat     42B
Jul 10 0627?  Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Rem. Sens. 43A
              Fasat-Bravo      )
              TMSAT            )
              SAFIR-2          )
              Gurwin Techsat 1B)


Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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/~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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 28. July 1998 17:19
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 367

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 367                                    1998 Jul 26 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

NOTICE: Due to a systems change here at CFA, my personal email address
has changed to 
   jcm@cfa.harvard.edu
effective immediately - mail to the old address at urania.harvard.edu
will no longer work.

Alan Shepard
------------

The second human in space, Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., died Jul 22 (UTC)
in Monterey, California of leukemia at the age of 74. Shepard was the
pilot of Freedom Seven (Mercury Spacecraft 7), which was launched on the
MR-3 suborbital flight on 1961 May 5. Shepard was also the commander
of Apollo 14, the third lunar landing mission.

The first 20 humans in space (by the 80 km definition I choose to adopt)
were:
 Yuriy Alexeevich Gagarin          (1934-1968) 3KA No. 3 "Vostok"
 Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.        (1923-1998) Mercury SC7 "Freedom Seven"
 Virgil Ivan Grissom               (1926-1967) Mercury SC11 "Liberty Bell 7"
 German Stepanovich Titov          (1935-    ) 3KA No. 4 "Vostok-2"
 John Herschel Glenn, Jr.          (1921-    ) Mercury SC13 "Friendship Seven"
 Malcolm Scott Carpenter           (1925-    ) Mercury SC18 "Aurora Seven"
 Robert Michael White              (1924-    ) X-15-3 Flight 3-7-14
 Andriyan Grigorevich Nikolaev     (1929-    ) 3KA No. 5 "Vostok-3"
 Pavel Romanovich Popovich         (1930-    ) 3KA No. 6 "Vostok-4"
 Walter Marty Schirra, Jr          (1923-    ) Mercury SC16 "Sigma Seven"
 Joseph Albert Walker              (1921-1966) X-15-3 Flight 3-14-24
 Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr           (1927-    ) Mercury SC20 "Faith Seven"
 Valeriy Fyodorovich Bykovskiy     (1934-    ) 3KA No. 7 "Vostok-5"
 Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (1937-   )  3KA No. 8 "Vostok-6"
 Robert Aitken Rushworth           (1924-1993) X-15-3 Flight 3-20-31
 Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov     (1927-1967) 3KV No. 3 "Voskhod"
 Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov   (1926-   )  3KV No. 3 "Voskhod"
 Boris Borisovich Yegorov          (1937-1994) 3KV No. 3 "Voskhod"
 Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev           (1925-1970) 3KD No. 4 "Voskhod-2"
 Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov        (1934-    ) 3KD No. 4 "Voskhod-2"


Get Well, Bill
--------------

CBS space correspondent Bill Harwood was injured in a car crash on Jul
11. Bill's site  http://uttm.com/space/ is one of the best sources on
Shuttle news. Let's hope Bill makes a speedy recovery.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October. 


The EO-25 crew of Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin are continuing
work aboard the Mir complex. The EO-26 crew of Gennadiy Padalka and
Sergey Avdeev, together with Yuriy Baturin, will  be launched on Soyuz
TM-28 on Aug 13. Musabaev, Budarin and Baturin land in Soyuz TM-27 on
Aug 25. The EO-27 crew at launch on 1999 Feb 22 is Viktor Afanas'ev and
two cosmonaut-researchers, Jean-Pierre Haignere of France and Ivan Bella
of Slovakia. According to some reports, Haignere and Bella will land on
Mar 2 in Soyuz TM-28, with the long stay EO-28 crew becoming Afanas'ev
and Avdeev; however it seems likely that Haignere will in fact replace
Avdeev on the long-stay crew. Finally, on 1999 Jun 1 the crew will
depart Mir in Soyuz TM-29 and land, with the Mir complex being deorbited
a week later. This schedule, of course, is almost certain to change.

Recent Launches
---------------

In addition to the satellites mentioned in JSR 366, a fifth
microsatellite was launched along with Resurs-O1 No. 4 on Jul 10.  The
WESTPAC (formerly WPLTN-1) geodesy satellite is a copy of Potsdam's
GFZ-1 satellite, a sphere covered with laser retroreflectors, with a
slightly different `Fizeau' corner cube design. It is a target for the
Western Pacific Laser Tracking Network (WPLTN) and is a joint project of
Electro Optic Systems of Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia, and the
Russian Space Agency. Mass is around 24 kg and diameter around 0.24m.
The WPLTN is headquartered in Australia and Space Command has cataloged
the satellite as Australian. AUSLIG (Australian Surveying and Land
Information Group), part of the Australian Federal Govt., may be the
actual satellite owner.

China launched a Chang Zheng 3B on Jul 18 at 0920 UTC carrying the
Sinosat 1 communications satellite. The CZ-3B's liquid hydrogen upper
stage and the Sinosat were placed in a 609 x 35958 km x 19.0 deg
geostationary transfer orbit at 0945 UTC. The first two liquid apogee
burns were carried out on Jul 19 and 21. Sinosat is an Alcatel (formerly
Aerospatiale) Spacebus 3000 class satellite, built at the Cannes
facility. Launch mass was 2820 kg. Sinosat is owned temporarily by
EurasSpace, a joint venture between Daimler-Benz Aerospace  and the
China Aerospace Corp., and will be delivered after on-orbit testing to
Sino Satellite Communications Co. of Shanghai for communications
services in China. Thanks to Stefan Barensky for details.

Aleksandr Zheleznyakov reports that the Molniya-3 launch time was
0048 UT on Jul 1.

The Galileo Orbiter had a safemode event at around 1814 UTC on Jul 20
 during its inbound approach to the inner Jovian system, causing loss of
almost all the data from the Europa 16 encounter. Telemetry from the
spacecraft has now resumed. Galileo passed 1837 km from Europa's surface
at 0507 UTC on Jul 21, just after perijove at 632000 km radius, at 0019
UTC on Jul 21.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 10 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A
Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32/1   Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
Jun 18 2248   Intelsat 805      Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36A   Comsat     37A
Jun 24 1830   Kosmos-2358       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk          Recon      38A
Jun 25 1400   Kosmos-2359       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31     Recon      39A
Jul  1 0048   Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Nozomi            M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 41A
Jul  7 0315   Tubsat-N   )      Shtil'-1      K-407,Barents     Comsat     42A
              Tubsat-N1  )                                      Comsat     42B
Jul 10 0630   Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Rem. Sens. 43A
              Fasat-Bravo      )                                Exptl.     43B
              TMSAT            )                                Exptl.     43C
              Gurwin Techsat 1B)                                Exptl.     43D
              WESTPAC          )                                Geodesy    43E
              SAFIR-2          )                                Comsat     43F
Jul 18 0920   Sinosat           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2       Comsat     44A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Unknown



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 12. August 1998 23:22
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 368

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 368                                    1998 Aug 12 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, in October.  Although I am still
sceptical of the proposed launch dates for STS-88 and STS-93, things
seem stable enough at the moment that I've started listing them again
below.


Recent Launches
---------------

Titan 4A-20 exploded 42 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral on Aug
12. The vehicle was a Lockheed Martin Titan 4A-Centaur model, the last
4A and the last with the UTC/CSD solid rocket boosters to be launched;
all future Titan 4s will be Titan 4Bs and will have Alliant SRMU solid
rocket boosters. The payload is thought to have been a signals
intelligence satellite, one of the follow-ons to the VORTEX series. 
Earlier payloads in the series were launched in Aug 1994 and Apr 1996.
The Titan 4 seems to have pitched over 40s after launch, implying a
probable guidance failure. The vehicle would then have exploded due to
structural failure, as it is not designed to survive flying sideways. 

Kosmos-2360 was launched on Jul 28 by a Zenit-2 launch vehicle
from Baykonur. Kosmos-2360 is a Tselina-2 electronic intelligence
satellite built by the Yuzhnoe company in Dnepropetrovsk,
Ukraine. 

8 small Orbcomm communications satellites were launched on Aug 2. The
L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Wallops Island with a Pegasus
XL/HAPS rocket aboard. The rocket was launched 100 km E of the Virginia
coast (I have been unable to find out the latitude and longitude, if
anyone knows them please let me know). The Pegasus XL has three
solid stages which delivered the Orbcomm/HAPS stack to a suborbital
trajectory. The first burn of the HAPS hydrazine engine placed the stack
in an elliptical transfer orbit, and a second burn circularized the
orbit at apogee, followed shortly by deployment of the eight
disk-shaped payloads. Orbcomm is a subsdiary of Orbital Sciences Corp.,
which builds the Pegasus rocket.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  2 2206   Discovery    )    Shuttle       Kennedy LC39A     Spaceship  34A
              Spacehab     )
Jun 10 0035   Thor 3            Delta 7925    Canaveral LC17A   Comsat     35A


Jun 15 2258   Kosmos-2352  )    Tsiklon-3     Plesetsk LC32/1   Comsat     36A
              Kosmos-2353  )                                    Comsat     36B
              Kosmos-2354  )                                    Comsat     36C
              Kosmos-2355  )                                    Comsat     36D
              Kosmos-2356  )                                    Comsat     36E
              Kosmos-2357  )                                    Comsat     36F
Jun 18 2248   Intelsat 805      Atlas 2AS     Canaveral LC36A   Comsat     37A
Jun 24 1830   Kosmos-2358       Soyuz-U       Plesetsk          Recon      38A
Jun 25 1400   Kosmos-2359       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC31     Recon      39A
Jul  1 0048   Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Nozomi            M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 41A
Jul  7 0315   Tubsat-N   )      Shtil'-1      K-407,Barents     Comsat     42A
              Tubsat-N1  )                                      Comsat     42B
Jul 10 0630   Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Rem. Sens. 43A
              Fasat-Bravo      )                                Exptl.     43B
              TMSAT            )                                Exptl.     43C
              Gurwin Techsat 1B)                                Exptl.     43D
              WESTPAC          )                                Geodesy    43E
              SAFIR-2          )                                Comsat     43F
Jul 18 0920   Sinosat           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2       Comsat     44A
Jul 28 0915   Kosmos-2360       Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Sigint     45A
Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   USA               Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     FTO


Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan 28
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'






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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 22. August 1998 19:21
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 369

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 369                                  1998 Aug 22 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Web site updates
----------------

I've updated my edited version of the United Nations Registry
of Space Objects, at 
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/un/un.html
Member states of the UN are required to register space objects owned by
them; the accuracy and completeness of the information provided is
pretty spotty. The United States remains the state with the most errors
and omissions in its submissions; Mexico, Germany, Australia, and Brazil
are grossly overdue in updating their registrations. The US should be
registering INTELSAT's satellites, but does not; the United Kingdom
should be registering INMARSAT's satellites, but does not.  Since 1991,
when the US last failed to register one of its classified satellites,
there is no evidence of any state deliberately failing to register a
satellite to avoid detection - the omissions seem to be due to
sloppiness.

I've also updated the geostationary log at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/geo.html
including the addition of manufacturer's names and serial numbers for
Russian/Soviet geostationary satellites, as revealed in Novosti
Kosmonavtiki magazine. The full satellite catalog at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/satcat 
has also been updated and extensively revised.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Soyuz TM-28 was launched at 0943:10 UTC on Aug 13. The spacecraft,
production vehicle 7K-STM 11F732 No. 77, is built by RKK Energiya and
consists of a service module (priborno-agregatniy otsek), a descent
module (spuskaemiy apparat) and a hab module (bitovoy otsek). Crew on
this flight are air force officer Gennadiy Padalka, EO-26 crew
commander; RKK Energiya engineer Sergey Avdeev, flight engineer; and 
cosmonaut-researcher Yuriy Baturin, who is the former head of the
Russian Federation Defence Council. Soyuz TM-28 docked at 1056 UTC on
Aug 15 with the rear (Kvant) port of the Mir space station, which was
vacated at 0928UTC on Aug 12 by the Progress M-39 cargo ship. 
The EO-25 crew, Musabaev and Budarin, will land with Baturin on
Aug 25, leaving the EO-26 crew of Padalka and Avdeev on the station.

Recent Launches
---------------

It now appears that the advanced VORTEX-type satellites like the one
lost in the Titan 4A-20 explosion on Aug 12 are probably called MERCURY,
as suggested in COUNTDOWN magazine for Jan 1995. However, these code
names are usually changed as soon as they become public. The rumours
that the satellite was built by Hughes turn out to be pretty weak; TRW
or Lockheed Martin are more likely contractors. The communications
intelligence program has been operated since its first launch in 1968 by
the USAF program within the National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of
the National Security Agency. A first generation series, CANYON, was
based on the Agena vehicle. A later improvement in 1972 had a heavier
but similar payload which separated from the Agena. This was followed by
the more advanced CHALET (renamed VORTEX when the name CHALET appeared
in the New York Times) and then by the new satellites probably called
MERCURY. I have reconstructed the launch history based on unclassified
documents and media reports:

Flight  Codename   Launch date   Launch vehicle
No      at launch

--- First generation, Agena attached ---

1       CANYON    1968 Aug  6  Atlas Agena D
2       CANYON    1969 Apr 13  Atlas Agena D
3       CANYON    1970 Sep  1  Atlas Agena D
4       CANYON    1971 Dec  4  Atlas Agena D (failed to orbit)

--- Improved version, Agena separated ---

5       CANYON    1972 Dec 20  Atlas Agena D
6       CANYON    1975 Jun 18  Atlas Agena D
7       CANYON    1977 May 23  Atlas Agena D

--- Second generation, Titan launch ---

8       CHALET    1978 Jun 10  Titan 3C
9       VORTEX    1979 Oct  1  Titan 3C
10      VORTEX    1981 Oct 31  Titan 3C
11      VORTEX    1984 Jan 31  Titan 34D/Transtage
12      VORTEX    1988 Sep  2  Titan 34D/Transtage (upper stage failed)
13      VORTEX    1989 May 10  Titan 34D/Transtage

--- Third generation ---

14      MERCURY   1994 Aug 27  Titan 4A/Centaur
15      MERCURY   1996 Apr 24  Titan 4A/Centaur
16      MERCURY   1998 Aug 12  Titan 4A/Centaur  (failed to orbit)

Aviation Week reported that there were 15 payloads in the program
launched since the late 1970s, which is almost certainly wrong. They
also imply that the latest satellite is `the same' payload as the
earlier ones, but the larger Titan 4 payload shroud makes it almost
certain that the antenna is significantly larger than the CHALET/VORTEX
series, even if the basic satellite bus is the same.

In addition to the CANYON/CHALET/VORTEX/MERCURY program used for
communications intelligence, there was another geostationary signals
intelligence program led by the CIA program within the NRO. The Aviation
Week article suggests that those satellites are now called ORION, but that
name was `outed' some years ago and has probably been changed by now;
just as the MERCURY was referred to by analysts as `Advanced VORTEX'
when its true name was unknown, the latest satellites are probably best
referred to as `Advanced ORION' until their true codename is leaked.
Launch history of the CIA-originated geostationary sigint program (now
integrated with the rest of the NRO SIGINT series) is as follows:

--- First generation ---

1       RHYOLITE   1970 Jun 19  Atlas Agena D
2       RHYOLITE   1973 Mar  6  Atlas Agena D
3       AQUACADE   1977 Dec 11  Atlas Agena D
4       AQUACADE   1978 Apr  8  Atlas Agena D

--- Second generation ---

5       MAGNUM     1985 Jan 25  Shuttle/IUS
6       ORION      1989 Nov 23  Shuttle/IUS

--- Third generation? ---

7       ORION?     1995 May 14  Titan 4A/Centaur
8       ORION?     1998 May  9  Titan 4B/Centaur

The early satellites in this series were built by TRW, and the early
ones were compromised by spies in the mid-1970s. I don't know who builds
the ORION craft, but it may well still be TRW.

Meanwhile, salvage work on the Titan wreckage continues at the Cape,
but there's no word yet on the reason for the failure.


Another attempt to redock the Hikoboshi and Orihime satellites was
unsuccessful on Aug 13. Further attempts will be made, while for the
time being the two Japanese test satellites remain a few kilometers
apart.

Two more Iridium cellphone satellites were launched on Aug 19 from
Taiyuan in China. The CZ-2C two-stage launch vehicle placed the Smart
Dispenser bus in elliptical transfer orbit; the SD then fired to
circularize the orbit, deployed the satellites, and fired again to lower
its perigee and ensure rapid reentry. The new satellites, placed in
plane 2, include satellite production number 3, which was kept as a
ground test article until now.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 0048   Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Nozomi            M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 41A
Jul  7 0315   Tubsat-N   )      Shtil'-1      K-407,Barents     Comsat     42A
              Tubsat-N1  )                                      Comsat     42B
Jul 10 0630   Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Rem. Sens. 43A
              Fasat-Bravo      )                                Exptl.     43B
              TMSAT            )                                Exptl.     43C
              Gurwin Techsat 1B)                                Exptl.     43D
              WESTPAC          )                                Geodesy    43E
              SAFIR-2          )                                Comsat     43F
Jul 18 0920   Sinosat           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2       Comsat     44A
Jul 28 0915   Kosmos-2360       Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Sigint     45A
Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   MERCURY           Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     FTO
Aug 13 0943   Soyuz TM-28       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  47A
Aug 19 2301   Iridium SV03)     CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     48A
              Iridium SV76)                                     Comsat     48B


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan 21?
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3?



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 30. August 1998 18:26
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 370

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 370                                     1998 Aug 30 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu


Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Soyuz TM-27 undocked from Mir at 0205 UTC on Aug 25, with Talgat
Musabaev, Nikolai Budarin and Yuriy Baturin aboard. They landed on Aug
25 at 0523 UTC near Arkalyk in Kazakstan. Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey
Avdeev remain on the Mir complex.

Padalka and Avdeev boarded Soyuz TM-28 on Aug 27 and undocked 
from the Kvant port on the Mir complex, redocking at 0607 UTC
at the front (-X) port of the PKhO transfer module. This leaves
the Kvant port free for redocking of the Progress M-39 cargo ship,
which undocked earlier in the month to free up a parking space.

Recent Launches
---------------

The first Delta III launch vehicle was lost 75 seconds into flight, 16
km above Cape Canaveral, on Aug 27. Boeing Expendable Launch Systems
(formerly McDonnell Douglas) builds the Delta III at Huntington Beach,
California with final assembly in Pueblo, Colorado. The standard Delta
II model is widely regarded as one of the world's most reliable launch
vehicles. While I expect that the Delta team will recover from this
failure and eventually bring the new rocket up to the same standard, the
loss of the initial vehicle is certainly a major blow for Boeing and for
the US space launch industry; although it represents less money than the
recent Titan failure, it will probably have a wider impact. The Delta
III consists of:

 - Nine Alliant GEM-46 solid strapon motors, a scaled up version of the
   GEM-40 motors used on the Delta II 7925. The graphite-epoxy case
   motors use HTPB solid propellant. The motors are built in Alliant's
   Bacchus, Utah factory; Alliant was formerly known as Hercules Powder
   and built the upper stage for the first Delta back in 1960.
   Three of the GEM-46 motors have thrust vector control (TVC), in which
   movable nozzles are used to steer the rocket.

 - The Delta III First Stage, similar to the Delta II first stage, but
   with the fuel tank at the top reshaped to fit with the wider upper stage.
   It uses the same LOX/kerosene RS-27A main engine as the Delta II.

 - The Delta III Second Stage. This is an entirely new stage, and the
   first entirely new high energy upper stage developed in the US since
   the 1960s. It uses a Pratt and Whitney LOX/liquid hydrogen RL10B-2
   engine with a long extensible nozzle built by SEP of France. The 
   RL10B-2, with a world record specific impulse of over 462 seconds,
   is a new version of the venerable RL10 engine used in the 
   Lockheed Martin Astronautics Centaur, the other US high energy upper stage.
   The liquid hydrogen tank for the Delta III second stage is build by
   Mitsubishi of Japan, which also builds the liquid hydrogen stage of the
   Japanese H-II rocket. The Delta III second stage is 4.0m in diameter,
   much larger than the Delta II stage which still uses tankage derived
   in part from the 1960-vintage Ablestar. However, the appearance of the 
   new stage, with the narrower LOX tank held inside an interstage and 
   the large nozzle assembly, is still reminiscent of the traditional 
   Delta stage.

 - The 4.0 meter fairing, much larger than the old 10-foot Delta II fairing.
   Boeing also builds the large Titan IV fairings, so has lots of experience
   in this field.

Delta III has about twice the launch capacity of the Delta II. The
launch profile involves igniting the RS-27A main engine and six of the
GEM-46 solids at launch. At 80 seconds into flight the six solids 
separate and the remaining three GEM-46 solids ignite.  Initially it
appeared that the failure happened at exactly this time, raising the 
possibility that Alliant's new GEM-46 graphite-epoxy case motors were
implicated in the failure. However, latest info is that pitch and yaw
control gave problems as early as 50 seconds into flight, the hydraulic
fluid ran out on the three GEM-46 with TVC steering, the vehicle
disintegrated around 72 seconds and its self-destruct signal fired.
Range safety sent its own destruct signal at 75 seconds for good
measure. The accident investigation now focusses on the rocket's
guidance.

The planned launch profile included a first burn of the second stage
engine from T+4min to T+13 min, leaving Delta in a 157 x 1176 km parking
orbit. After a 9 minute coast, the stage would burn again to enter a 185
x 35719 km x 27.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit, separating from the
Galaxy 10 satellite payload.

Galaxy 10, the payload destroyed in this launch, was a Hughes HS-601HP
satellite built by Hughes/El Segundo for Panamsat. The satellite carried
24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders to provide US/Caribbean coverage,
and was to have replaced the aging SBS-5 satellite at 123 deg West.
Launch mass of Galaxy 10 was 3876 kg; I haven't been able to find its
dry mass. Replenishing the Galaxy/PAS constellation is a high priority
for Panamsat following the loss of Galaxy 4 and problems with Galaxy 7.
Galaxy 11 is scheduled to go up on the first launch of another rocket,
the Sea Launch Zenit-3SL, early next year, and there are several PAS
satellites awaiting launch over the next year on Proton and Ariane.

Arianespace is back in action, after several months downtime when their
customers were late getting payloads ready. An Ariane 44P launched the
Singapore-Taiwan-1 (ST-1) satellite on Aug 25. The Matra Marconi Space
Eurostar 2000 class satellite will provide communications for Singapore
Telecom and for Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan. On Aug 29, ST-1 was in a
24937 x 35735 km x 0.3 deg orbit, using its liquid apogee motor to
approach geostationary orbit.

Another International Launch Services commercial Proton, serial 383-01,
took off from Baykonur on Aug 30. It placed the Astra 2A satellite in a
220 x 36007 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit with the first burn of its Blok
DM3 upper  stage (a second burn is awaited at the time of writing). The
Astra 2A satellite is another Hughes HS-601 comsat, and is owned by
Societe Europeene de Satellites, based in Luxembourg. Luxembourg has not
registered any of the Astra satellites with the United Nations, in
violation of treaty requirements.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  1 0048   Molniya-3         Molniya-M     Plesetsk          Comsat     40A
Jul  3 1812   Nozomi            M-5           Kagoshima         Mars probe 41A
Jul  7 0315   Tubsat-N   )      Shtil'-1      K-407,Barents     Comsat     42A
              Tubsat-N1  )                                      Comsat     42B
Jul 10 0630   Resurs-O1 No. 4 ) Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Rem. Sens. 43A
              Fasat-Bravo      )                                Exptl.     43B
              TMSAT            )                                Exptl.     43C
              Gurwin Techsat 1B)                                Exptl.     43D
              WESTPAC          )                                Geodesy    43E
              SAFIR-2          )                                Comsat     43F
Jul 18 0920   Sinosat           CZ-3B         Xichang LC2       Comsat     44A
Jul 28 0915   Kosmos-2360       Zenit-2       Baykonur LC45     Sigint     45A
Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   MERCURY           Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     F02
Aug 13 0943   Soyuz TM-28       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  47A
Aug 19 2301   Iridium SV03)     CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     48A
              Iridium SV76)                                     Comsat     48B
Aug 25 2307   ST-1              Ariane 44P    Kourou            Comsat     49A
Aug 27 0117   Galaxy X          Delta III     Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     F03
Aug 30 0031   Astra 2A          Proton        Baykonur          Comsat     50A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan 21?
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3?



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 05. September 1998 21:48
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 371

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 371                                  1998 Sep 5 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

I've corrected some errors in the geo.log file I posted last week.
Thanks to Tony Vitek for spotting the mistakes.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Progress M-39 cargo ship redocked at the +X port of the
37KE (Kvant) module on the Mir complex. Soyuz TM-28 is docked
at the -X port on the PKhO BB (Base block transfer compartment).


Recent Launches
---------------

* North Korean satellite?

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Choson Minjujuui In'min
Konghwaguk, North Korea) launched a Taepo Dong 1 missile  at 0307 UTC on
Aug 31.  North Korea now claims that a third stage on the missile placed
a small satellite in orbit.  US sources so far have reported the
launching as a  suborbital missile test, and have not tracked any
satellite in orbit. However, it's possible that a small satellite could
have been missed. The satellite is reportedly broadcasting Korean
propaganda songs on 27 MHz.  I'm provisionally assuming the  Korean
reports are correct despite the lack of confirmation from Space Command.
It seems probable that a satellite launch was at least attempted, but
we'll have to wait a few days before it's clear whether or not it did
reach orbit.

Launch site is given as Musudan-ri, Hamgyong Pukdo Province. My research
indicates this is Cape Musudan at 40.52N 129.45E. ("-ri" is a small
administrative district). The claimed orbit is  218 x 6978 km x 41 deg.
The Taepo Dong 1 (TD-1) reportedly consists of a Nodong 2 first stage
with a Scud-class second stage. The third (orbital) stage is probably a
small solid motor.  No name has been given to the satellite in the North
Korean announcements.
    
The figures in the North Korean press release are inconsistent. They say
that launch was at 86 degrees azimuth, and the first stage fell 253 km
downrange at 40.85N 139.67E, the second stage 1646 km downrange at
40.22N 149.12E. The claim for the first stage is clearly wrong, it's
much more than 253 km from N Korea and practically on the beach in
Japan. I have two scenarios:

 (1) The only error is that the first stage impact longitude should
 be 129.67E, not 139.67E. Then the range to the second stage impact
 point is correct, and the path is 86 degrees measuring east from south.
 The first stage impact point is then just of Cape Musu-dan and the
 launch site is unrelated to the cape, being at 126.2E 41.0N
 near Manpojin right on the Chinese border. This seems really unlikely,
 since the Korean statement about the location of the launching site
 is so detailed.    
            
 (2) The launch site is at Cape Musu-dan, the azimuth is 86 deg
 measuring east from north (the conventional way), the ranges
 are correct but the latitudes and longitudes are all wrong. Then
 I derive a first stage impact point of 40.7N 133.0E, and a second
 stage impact point of 41.5N 152.1E. This seems much more likely,
 except that I can't explain why the Korean latitude and longitude
 figures would be so wrong. 

Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea (Tae han Min'guk, South Korea) has not
yet got a satellite launch vehicle of its own, although it has several
satellites launched by other nations' rockets:
  
  Korean name   English name     Launch date  Launcher

 KAIST (Korea Advanced Inst. of Sci. and Tech:) 
  Uribyol-1     KITSAT-OSCAR-23  1992 Aug 10  Ariane V52
  Uribyol-2     KITSAT-OSCAR-25  1993 Sep 26  Ariane V59
 Korea Telecom:
  Mugunghwa 1   Koreasat 1       1995 Aug  5  Delta 228
  Mugunghwa 2   Koreasat 2       1996 Jan 14  Delta 231

(Uribyol means 'our star'; Mugunghwa is the national flower
of Korea, the Sharon's rose.)

In addition, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has a
sounding rocket program using the single-stage solid fuel KSR-I sounding
rocket and the KSR-II, which uses two stages each based on the KSR-I.
There have been four launches to date from the Anhueng launch site in
Ch'ungch'ong Namdo province, at 36.41N 126.10E.

  KSR-I-1   1993 Jun  4    Ozone, 39 km
  KSR-I-2   1993 Sep  1    Ozone, 49 km
  KSR-II-1  1997 Jul  9    Ozone/ionosphere/X-ray astron, 150 km?
  KSR-II-2  1998 Jun 11    Ozone/ionosphere/X-ray astron, 137 km

Thanks to Kim Jhoon and Park Jeongjoo of KARI for their generous
help in providing details of the South Korean space program.
I would like to particularly encourage my readers in South Korea (or for
that matter North Korea, in the unlikely event I have any there!) to
pass on to me any corrections they may have to this report.


* ETS-7

Meanwhile, the ETS-7 Orihime and Hikoboshi satellites have successfully
redocked, following attitude control software problems which threatened
the mission. This is very good news for NASDA, the Japanese applications
space agency.

* Astra 2A

Astra 2A's Blok DM3 stage delivered the payload to a 7932 x 35991 km x
15.6 deg transfer orbit following a successful second burn on Aug 30.
Astra 2A's on-board Marquardt R-4D bipropellant liquid apogee engine
will be used for the rest of the journey to geostationary orbit.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------


Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   MERCURY           Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     F02
Aug 13 0943   Soyuz TM-28       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  47A
Aug 19 2301   Iridium SV03)     CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     48A
              Iridium SV76)                                     Comsat     48B
Aug 25 2307   ST-1              Ariane 44P    Kourou            Comsat     49A
Aug 27 0117   Galaxy X          Delta III     Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     F03
Aug 30 0031   Astra 2A          Proton        Baykonur          Comsat     50A
Aug 31 0307   -                 Taepo Dong    Musudan           Test       U01


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan 21?
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3?

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98         VAB Bay 1     STS-95


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 13. September 1998 19:31
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 372

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 372                                     1998 Sep 13 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev have completed one month in space,
continuing their mission on the Mir orbital station. They are scheduled
to make an internal spacewalk into the depressurized Spektr module on
Sep 15 to repair a solar panel steering motor.

Orbiter OV-103 Discovery will be  rolled to the Vehicle Assembly
Building's High Bay 1 on Sep 14 and connected to external tank ET-98 and
solid rocket booster pair RSRM-68, which have been assembled on Mobile
Launch Platform 2. Rollout of the assembled Space Shuttle vehicle to pad
39B is scheduled for Sep 21. Discovery will fly mission STS-95,
with the Spartan solar observatory and the Spacehab research module.

Meanwhile, launch of the first Space Station element, the Zarya FGB
module, is still scheduled for November, although Keith Cowing's NASA
Watch web site, http://www.reston.com/nasa/watch.html, rumours that a
further major launch delay is being considered. Apparently the Service
Module delivery date may slip to around July 1999, and RKA does not have
the funds to build enough Soyuz and Progress supply ships. No up to date
information is available from official sources, and since both US and
Russian administrations have other priorities right now, any decision is
unlikely until at least October.


John Holliman
-------------

John Holliman, CNN's space correspondent, was killed in a car accident
on Sep 12.

Recent Launches
---------------


* Kwangmyongsong 1: the mystery continues

The mystery of the North Korean launch continues. It now seems unlikely
that the satellite reached orbit. A Russian press report said that
Russian sources confirmed the satellite, but just repeated the North
Korean figures, so cannot be considered as an independent source.
Comments from US sources imply that a third stage burn was observed, but
that nothing was later spotted on radar, suggesting that the satellite
ended up falling into the Pacific instead of reaching orbit. I am
cataloging it as a failed orbital launch attempt for now.

The KCNA (North Korean news agency) informs me that the name of the
satellite is "Kwangmyongsong No 1", meaning "Bright Light Star". They
also confirm that there was a typo in the initial press release - the
impact site of the first stage was at 132deg 40'E, a much more
reasonable value, although still a few hundred km from the figure quoted
in Aviation Week as coming from the Japanese. A Korean colleague informs
me that Nodong (the previous N Korean missile) means 'Labour', as in
'Korean Labour Party'. and Taepo means `cannon'.

*Zenit fails again

The Zenit launch vehicle, built by Yuzhnoe of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine,
continued its mixed record with a failure in its first major commercial
launch.  Counting the North Korean launch, this makes four launch
failures in a single month - not a good time for the space launch
industry.

Twelve Globalstar communications satellites were lost when the Zenit
guidance system malfunctioned 4.5 minutes after launch and the second
stage and payloads impacted Siberia. The twelve satellites were stacked
in three tiers of four each inside the Zenit fairing. The second stage
engines shut down and the second stage and payloads impacted somewhere
in Siberia. The failure happened at T+272s, just before fairing
separation, and caused the stage 2 main engines to shut down.  In an
incredibly stupid move, the Yuzhnoe launch commentator was reading from
a prepared script instead of actually delivering live information,
initially leading Globalstar officials to believe the launch had
succeeded.

The Globalstar comsats are built by Alenia (Torino) and SS/Loral (Palo
Alto) for Globalstar Corp. Eight Globalstars are already in orbit.
Future Zenit launches for Globalstar are to be cancelled,  with Soyuz-U/Ikar
and Delta 7420 taking up the slack. Total constellation size will now be
44 satellites (36 prime plus eight spares). 

Here is a summary of the Globalstar satellites so far:
 Sat   Launched      Sat   Launched      Sat   Launched      Sat   Launched     
  FM1  1998 Feb 14   FM6   1998 Apr 24   FM11  1998 Sep  9  FM16  1998 Sep  9
  FM2  1998 Feb 14   FM7   1998 Sep  9   FM12  1998 Sep  9  FM17  1998 Sep  9
  FM3  1998 Feb 14   FM8   1998 Apr 24   FM13  1998 Sep  9  FM18  1998 Sep  9
  FM4  1998 Feb 14   FM9   1998 Sep  9   FM14  1998 Apr 24  FM19  Not launched
  FM5  1998 Sep  9   FM10  1998 Sep  9   FM15  1998 Apr 24  FM20  1998 Sep  9
                                                            FM21  1998 Sep  9

* Iridium launch

Boeing's Delta II made a successful flight on Sep 8, placing five
Iridium communications satellites in parking orbit after launch from
Vandenberg AFB. The problems with the new Delta III were determined not
to affect the Delta II. This variant was a two-stage Delta 7920-10C, 
which placed SV77,79-82 in a 520 km parking orbit. The Iridium
satellites will use their own on-board propulsion to raise their orbits.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------


Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   MERCURY           Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     F02
Aug 13 0943   Soyuz TM-28       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  47A
Aug 19 2301   Iridium SV03)     CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     48A
              Iridium SV76)                                     Comsat     48B
Aug 25 2307   ST-1              Ariane 44P    Kourou            Comsat     49A
Aug 27 0117   Galaxy X          Delta III     Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     F03
Aug 30 0031   Astra 2A          Proton        Baykonur          Comsat     50A
Aug 31 0307   Kwangmyongsong 1  Taepo Dong    Musudan           Test       F04
Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )   Zenit-2      Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )
              Globalstar FM9 )
              Globalstar FM10)
              Globalstar FM11)
              Globalstar FM12)
              Globalstar FM13)
              Globalstar FM16)
              Globalstar FM17)
              Globalstar FM18)
              Globalstar FM20)
              Globalstar FM21)

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan 21
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3?

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98         VAB Bay 1     STS-95


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 28. September 1998 01:29
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 373

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 373                                     1998 Sep 27 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev have completed one month in space,
continuing their mission on the Mir orbital station. On Sep 15 they put
on spacesuits, depressurized the PKhO compartment of the Mir core module
and entered Spektr at 2000 UTC. They reconnected some cables for the
solar panel steering mechanism and closed the hatch at 2030 UTC.
The PKhO was then repressurized.

Discovery has been connected to the external tank and boosters in
High Bay 1 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. It was rolled out
to pad 39B on Sep 21.

Recent Launches
---------------

* Ariane launches PAS 7

Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane 44LP rocket on Sep 16,
placing the PAS 7 satellite in orbit. PAS-7 was built by Space
Systems/Loral and is a FS-1300 class satellite with 14 C-band and 30
Ku-band transponders. It is owned by Panamsat, whose Galaxy 10 satellite
was destroyed in an Aug 27 launch failure.  The Ariane 44LP has two
solid PAP boosters and two liquid PAL boosters attached to the Ariane 4
first stage. The H-10-3 liquid hydrogen fuelled third stage completed
its burn 18 min after launch. The PAS 7 satellite separated 21 min after
launch into a supersynchronous 140 x 54755 x 7.0 deg transfer orbit - I
believe this is the first time that an Ariane launch has used the
supersynchronous technique. On Sep 18, PAS 7 was in a 10082 x 54599 km x
2.2 deg orbit after initial burns of its Marquardt R-4D liquid apogee
motor.

  PAS series satellites:
            Type             Launch v.  Launch date  1998 position
  PAS  1    GE Series 3000   Ariane 4   1988 Jun 15   Atlantic  44.9W
  PAS  2    Hughes HS-601    Ariane 4   1994 Jul  8   Pacific  169.0E
  PAS  3    Hughes HS-601    Ariane 4   1994 Dec  1   Launch failure
  PAS  4    Hughes HS-601    Ariane 4   1995 Aug  3   Indian    68.5E
  PAS  3R   Hughes HS-601    Ariane 4   1996 Jan 12   Indian    91.5E
  PAS  6    Loral FS-1300    Ariane 4   1996 Aug  8   Atlantic  43.2W
  PAS  5    Hughes HS-601HP  Proton     1997 Aug 28   Atlantic  58.0W
  PAS  7    Loral FS-1300    Ariane 4   1998 Sep 16   Indian    68.5E (planned)


* Orbital Sciences launches Orbcomms

Eight more Orbcomm satellites were launched on Sep 23. The Orbital
Sciences L-1011 Stargazer aircraft took off from Wallops Flight Facility
at 1610 UTC and flew to the drop point at around 37.0N 72.0W. 12 km over
the Atlantic Ocean (this guesstimate location is based on info courtesy
of Keith Stein). The Pegasus XL was dropped at 1706 UTC and the winged
first stage ignited its Alliant solid motor 5 seconds later. The three
solid Pegasus XL stages fired successfully to place the payload stack in
a 254 x 446 km x 45.0 km orbit. The Primex Aerospace HAPS-Lite hydrazine
upper stage then made a burn to increase apogee to around 800 km, and
the stack coasted for about 44 minutes until a second HAPS burn
circularized the orbit. The eight Orbcomm satellites were then deployed
over a 15 minute period into an 810 km near-circular orbit. Finally, the
HAPS stage made a final burn to deplete its fuel, lowering its perigee
by 100 km. The mission profile was similar to previous Orbcomm launches,
except that the Pegasus third stage apogee is significantly lower, with 
a correspondingly larger HAPS burn.

* Globalstar failure

In my description of the Zenit launch failure I said that Yuzhnoe 
officials provided incorrect information about the progress of the
mission to Globalstar. A more recent Globalstar statement implies that
both Yuzhnoe's and Globalstar's people simply misinterpreted the noisy
data available to them. This is by no means the first time that a launch
success has been announced and later retracted - it happened several
times in the early days of the space program, and more recently the
Landsat 6 satellite was even cataloged by Space Command for a while
before it was discovered to be in a submarine orbit. North Korea,
meanwhile, has not yet acknowledged that its satellite never reached
orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------


Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

                                                                    DES.

Aug  2 1624   Orbcomm FM13  )   Pegasus XL    Wallops           Comsat     46A
              Orbcomm FM14  )                                   Comsat     46B
              Orbcomm FM15  )                                   Comsat     46C
              Orbcomm FM16  )                                   Comsat     46D
              Orbcomm FM17  )                                   Comsat     46E
              Orbcomm FM18  )                                   Comsat     46F
              Orbcomm FM19  )                                   Comsat     46G
              Orbcomm FM20  )                                   Comsat     46H
Aug 12 1130   MERCURY           Titan 4A      Canaveral SLC41   Sigint     F02
Aug 13 0943   Soyuz TM-28       Soyuz-U       Baykonur LC1      Spaceship  47A
Aug 19 2301   Iridium SV03)     CZ-2C/SD      Taiyuan           Comsat     48A
              Iridium SV76)                                     Comsat     48B
Aug 25 2307   ST-1              Ariane 44P    Kourou            Comsat     49A
Aug 27 0117   Galaxy X          Delta III     Canaveral SLC17B  Comsat     F03
Aug 30 0031   Astra 2A          Proton        Baykonur          Comsat     50A
Aug 31 0307   Kwangmyongsong 1  Taepo Dong    Musudan           Test       F04
Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou            Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan   ? 
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3?

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103      LC39B     STS-95


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 06. October 1998 23:33
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 374

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 374 draft                              1998 Oct  5  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Editorial
---------

I have updated the satellite catalog 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/satcat.txt
and released a major new product - the master log of all orbital launches,
with as many launch times, launch vehicle serial numbers, pads, etc.
as I've been able to dig up. This is at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html
It includes a 1Mb text file about 180 columns wide, launchlog.txt.
Those of you who love this kind of dataset (you know who you are),
please feed back any errors you find.


Orbital Launch Sites
--------------------

As part of preparing the launch log, I've come up with a revised
list of orbital launch sites.

I apologize for the mixed use of (degrees minutes) and decimal degrees
in the latitudes and longitudes. The abbreviations on the left are my own.
Note that Baykonur and Plesetsk have changed their designations over the
years. I've counted San Marco as a mobile sea launch complex, since
that was its original design even though they never got around to moving
it.

--- Fixed Launch Sites ---

CC       Cape Canaveral, Florida                              28 27N 80 32W
KSC      Kennedy Space Center, Florida                        28 27N 80 32W
SPFL     Spaceport Florida, Cape Canaveral, Florida           28 28N 80 32W
PA       Point Arguello, California (later S Vandenberg)      34 37N 120 35W
V        Vandenberg AFB, California                           34 38N 120 32W
WI       Wallops Island, Virginia                             37 50N 75 29W

NIIP-5   5NIIP, Baykonur, Kazakstan                           45 38N 63 16E
GIK-5    5GIK, Kosmodrom Baykonur, Kazakstan                  45 38N 63 16E
NIIP-53  Plesetsk, Archangel'sk, Rossiya                      65 42N 40 21E
GIK-1    Plesetsk, Archangel'sk, Rossiya                      65 42N 40 21E
GNIIP    Plesetsk (Strategic Rocket Forces), Rossiya          65 42N 40 21E
GTsP-4   Kapustin Yar, Astrachan', Rossiya                    48 31N 45 48E
GIK-2    Svobodniy-18, Amurskaya, Rossiya                     51.7N 128.0E   

ALCA     Alcantara, Maranhao, Brasil                          02 17S 44 23W
CSG      Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, Guiane              05 12N 52 44W
HMG      Hammaguir, Algerie                                   30 54N 03 05W
JQ       Jiuquan, Nei Monggol Zizhiqu, Zhong Guo (China)      41.1N 100.3E
KASC     Kagoshima, Kyushu, Nihon (Japan)                     31 15N 131 04E
MUSU     Musudan, Hamgyong Namdo, Choson (N Korea)            40.5N 129.5E
PALB     Palmachim AFB, Israel                                31.9N  34.7E
SHAR     Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India                   13.8N  80.3E
TNSC     Tanegashima, Osumi-Shoto, Nihon (Japan)              30.4N 131.0E
TYSC     Taiyuan, Shanxi, Zhong Guo (China)                   37.8N 111.5E
WOO      Woomera, South Australia                             31 06S 136 48E
XSC      Xichang, Sichuan, Zhong Guo (China)                  28.1N 102.3E

--- Launch Takeoff Points for Air Drop Launch Vehicles ---

EAFB     Edwards AFB, California                              34.5N 117.5W
GAN      Gando AFB, Gran Canaria                              27.6N 15.2W
NOTS     Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake, California  35.4N 117.4W
V        Vandenberg AFB, California                           34 38N 120 32W
WI       Wallops Island, Virginia                             37 50N 75 29W
KSC      Kennedy Space Center, Florida                        28 27N 80 32W

--- Launch Sites for Mobile (Air, Sea) Launch Vehicles ---

BLA      Barents Sea Launch Area, Murmansk, Rossiya           35.3E 69.3N
DZGC     Drop Zone, Gran Canaria                              27.0N 15.3W
DZSB     Drop Zone, Point Mugu Santa Barbara Channel          34.0N 120.0W
DZWI     Drop Zone, Wallops Island                            37.0N 72.0W
MFWA     Drop Zone, Mayport, Florida, Warning Area            29N? 79W?
PAWA     Drop Zone, Point Arguello Warning Area               36.0N 123.0W
SMLC     San Marco Launch Complex, Indian Ocean, Kenya        02 56S 40 13E



Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, with orbiter OV-103 Discovery.


Errata
-------

The Orbcomm launch on Sep 23 was at 0506 UTC, not 1706 UTC
as I said in last week's text.

PAS 3R is over the Atlantic at 44W, not over the Indian Ocean;
I confused it with Measat 1 which was launched at the same time.

Recent Launches
---------------


* Kosmos-2361?

A satellite was launched on Sep 28 for the Russian Defence Ministry and
reported as a Kosmos satellite; it would then be Kosmos-2361.  Usually,
Kosmos satellites launched on the 8K78M launch vehicle are Oko-class
early warning satellites built by Lavochkin, but these are launched with
arguments of perigee around 312 degrees, and the new launch has an
argument of perigee of 280 degrees, a characteristic fingerprint of
Molniya communications satellites. The NASA OIG bulletin board is
reporting the satellite as a Molniya-1. It's possible that the satellite
is a failed Molniya-1, or that TASS messed up and gave out the wrong
name.

The 8K78M (Molniya-M) launch vehicle placed Kosmos-2361 and the Blok-L
fourth stage in low 208 x 384 km parking orbit from Plesetsk. The Blok-L
burn then delivered the payload to a 12-hour, 419 x 40708 km x 62.8 deg
elliptical orbit.


* Orbital Sciences launches STEX 

An Orbital Science ARPA Taurus rocket placed the STEX (Space Technology
EXperiments) satellite in orbit on Oct 3. The STEX satellite was built
by Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver) for the National Reconnaissance
Office. STEX's main experiments are provided by the Naval Research Lab,
including Hall Effect electric thrusters derived from Russian technology
and a 6 kilometer tether experiment, a follow-on to the earlier TIPS
satellite. STEX also carries experimental solar arrays and batteries.
STEX entered a 665 km orbit with an inclination of 85 degrees. It
has also been designated USA 140.

The ATEX advanced tether experiment consists of two end masses connected
with a 6 km polyethelyne tether. The upper end mass will be deployed
with the lower end mass remaining attached to STEX, for a series of
dynamics experiments. Later, the lower end mass will separate from
STEX and the ATEX end masses will form a free-flying pair as a distinct
satellite.

The ARPA Taurus rocket uses a TU-904 solid motor as its first stage; the
stage is the first stage of the Peacekeeper ICBM. The regular Taurus
uses a commercial variant of the stage, the Castor 120. The second and
third stages are Alliant  Orion 50 solid motors, like the first and
second stages of Orbital's winged Pegasus launch vehicle. The fourth
stage is an Orion 38, the same as the Pegasus third stage. This was the
third Taurus launch, and like the others was carried out from complex
576-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

  Taurus launches:

  1  ARPA Taurus  1994 Mar 13  STEP M0
  2  Taurus       1998 Feb 10  GFO/Orbcomm
  3  ARPA Taurus  1998 Oct  3  STEX/ATEX


* Ariane launches Eutelsat W2 and Sirius 3

On Oct 5 Ariane mission V111 launched two European comsats.
V111 used the Ariane 44LP version with two liquid and two solid
strapons. 

Eutelsat W2 is an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B2, with 32 Ku-band transponders.
It will be stationed at 16E, replacing Eutelsat II F2. It is owned by
the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat). W2
was originally intended for launch on Ariane 5, but after the loss of W1
in a ground accident Eutelsat didn't want to risk flying W2 on a test
mission.

Sirius 3 is a small comsat for NSAB, the Swedish `Nordiska Satellite'
consortium. NSAB aren't ready to use Sirius 3 yet, so they are leasing
it to Eutelsat's main rival, SES-Astra, for a year. It will be stationed
at 28E for Astra services and then moved to 5E to provide services
to Sweden. The Hughes HS-376HP satellite has 15 Ku-band transponders.
It carries a Thiokol Star 30 solid apogee motor.


Table of Recent Launches
 ------------------------


Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou            Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H
Sep 28 2341   Molniya-1T?       Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Early Warn 54A
Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jan  ?
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-96  May 13
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103      LC39B     STS-95


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 13. October 1998 01:52
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 375

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 375                                        1998 Oct  12 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-95, with orbiter OV-103 Discovery.
For mission STS-95, Discovery's payload bay carries a Spacehab
module and an assortment of research experiments managed by NASA-Goddard
(GSFC).

 Bay Sill RMS Arm 202 with ACVS
 Bay 1-2  External Airlock  
 Bay 3-4  Tunnel Adapter 001
 Bay 5-7  Spacehab Single Module (FU1)
 Bay 8S   GABA with CRYOTSU
 Bay 10   SFSS with Spartan 201
 Bay 11   UASE with HOST
 Bay 12   MPESS HH-M with IEH-3 and PANSAT
 Bay 13S  APC? with IVHM
 Bay 13P  GABA with G-467 and G-779

The external airlock (EAL) is installed in Discovery for use in Space
Station docking missions, but the ODS docking system is not installed on
this flight. The Tunnel Adapter has a hatch in case an emergency
spacewalk is needed, and provides a pressurized tunnel connecting the
EAL to the Spacehab module.

The Spacehab module is flight unit 1, which has flown on 3 previous
missions (SH-01/STS-57, SH-03/STS-63, SH-04/STS-77). On this flight it
contains microgravity experiments, including the Microgravity Glovebox,
the PCAM and APCF protein crystal growth units, the STES vapor diffusion
unit, the ASP advanced separation facility, and the BioDyn commercial
bioreactor. DSO 630 includes equipment to monitor John Glenn's heart
rate.

ACVS is the Autotrack Computer Vision System, a new camera
system mounted on the RMS manipulator arm.

CRYOTSU consists of an HH-G avionics box and a GAS canister
mounted on a GABA (GAS Beam Adapter) on the payload bay wall.
The joint USAF/GSFC experiment tests new thermal control technology.

The SFSS (Spartan Flight Support Structure) is an MPESS bridge
across the payload bay. It carries two canisters: SEM-4
which is full of high school experiments, and VGS (Video Guidance
System) which includes a camera and laser for rendezvous experiments.
Mounted on the SFSS is the Spartan-201 satellite which will be
deployed and then retrieved by the RMS arm. Spartan-201
is on its fifth flight, a repeat of the fourth mission to support
SOHO calibration. The fourth mission failed when the crew did not
activate the satellite correctly.  Spartan-201's main payload,
as on all its flights, is the UVCS and WLC telescope package
containing the SAO/Cambridge ultraviolet spectrometer and the
HAO/Boulder white light coronagraph. On this mission, secondary
experiments include the target for the VGS laser, and sample
plates to trap beryllium ions from the solar wind.

Behind SFSS in the bay is the UASE, UARS Airborne Support Equipment,
a carrier first used to deploy the UARS satellite in 1991. It has
been refurbished to carry the HOST (Hubble Orbital Systems Test)
experiments. HOST includes the NICMOS infrared camera's new cooling
system, an advanced computer and a solid state recorder; the systems
are being tested in orbit before being installed on the Hubble
Space Telescope on a servicing mission in 2000.

The last major payload in the bay is the HH-M carrier, another MPESS
bridge, configured to carry the IEH-3 International Extreme Ultraviolet
Hitchhiker mission. IEH-3 carries the UVSTAR, STAR-LITE, SEH and SOLCON
astronomical telescopes and the G-764 canister with an experiment
to simulate accretion of interplanetary dust. It also carries the
PANSAT canister which will eject a small satellite (PANSAT = Petite
Amateur Navy Satellite) developed by the US Navy Postgraduate School.
PANSAT is a 57 kg, 0.48m diameter UHF store-forward comsat. It appears
similar to the GLOMR/SECS satellites launched in 1985 and 1990.
Some documents indicate that canister G-238, a high school
experiment to study cockroaches in space (I'm serious!) is also 
on IEH-3, while others list a materials processing experiment called
CONCAP-IV. One payload probably bumped the other at a late date, but
I'm not sure which one is current.

At the rear of the bay, another GABA adapter carries two GAS canisters.
G-467 carries the European Space Agency's TPX II thermal control system
experiment, while  G-779 carries Bellarmine College's 'Hearts in Space'
experiment, with an artificial heart and circulation system to study
changes in heart size in microgravity. On the opposite site
of the bay, an IVHM (Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring) sensor
is mounted.

Editorial
---------

I've added a new `work in progress' web page giving details of the
French national space program, including previously unpublished
information on the French sounding rocket program courtesy of
CNES/Toulouse. Comments and corrections, as always, welcome.

  http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/nbook/programs/europe/cnes/

Errata
-------

A couple of launches got missed from my new launch log
because they were rockets with no payloads aboard (e.g. early
Centaur test flights). I've updated the launchlog.txt file
to fix these and some other minor errors.

The Ariane V111 launch was a 44L model, with four PAL liquid
strapons, and not a 44LP as I said last issue. The Ariane 44L
is the most powerful version of Ariane 4. There have been
10 flights of the 44L with the improved H-10-3 upper stage,
listed below:

1995 Dec  6 V81  Insat 2C/Telecom 2C  
1996 Jan 12 V82  Measat 1/PAS 3R      
1996 May 16 V86  Palapa C2/Amos 1     
1996 Jul  9 V89  Turksat 1C/Arab. 2A  
1996 Aug  8 V90  Italsat 2/Telecom 2D 
1996 Nov 13 V92  Arab. 2B/Measat 2    
1997 Jan 30 V93  Nahuel 1A/GE-2       
1997 Jun  3 V97  Inmarsat 3/Insat 2D  
1997 Nov 12 V102 Sirius 2/Cakrawarta  
1998 Oct  5 V111 Eutelsat W2/Sirius 3

The (French) spelling of the home region of the CSG launch site is 
Guyane, not Guiane. The line in the list of launch sites should
have read
CSG      Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, Guyane, France       05 14N 52 47W
where the revised position is that of the ELA2 pad.

Recent Launches
---------------

In a launch provided by International Launch Services, a Lockheed Martin
Astronautics Atlas IIA, serial AC-134, placed the Eutelsat Hot Bird 5
satellite in orbit on Oct 9. The second comsat launch for Eutelsat in a
few days, Hot Bird 5 is a Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+.
It provides high power broadcasting to Europe, Africa and the Middle
East. Launch mass of the satellite was 3000 kg. 

The Atlas IIA took off from Space Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral,
and the Atlas booster and sustainer delivered the Centaur IIA stage onto
a suborbital trajectory. The Centaur first burn placed the vehicle in a
low parking orbit, probably about 170 km, and the second burn raised
apogee to geostationary altitude. After separation from Hot Bird, the
Centaur made a final burn to deplete its propellant and prevent a later
explosion. Hot Bird 5 will use its Marquardt R-4D liquid apogee engine
to reach geostationary orbit, where it will replace Eutelsat II F-1.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H
Sep 28 2341   Molniya-1T?       Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     54A
Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     ?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103      LC39B     STS-95


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 21. October 1998 05:37
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 376

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 376                                      1998 Oct 21 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-95 is due to be launched on Oct 29. Meanwhile, Endeavour
has been moved to the VAB in preparation for STS-88.


STS-95 crew are:
 Curtis L. Brown, Jr., LtCol USAF, NASA,  Commander
 Steven W. Lindsey, LtCol USAF, NASA, Pilot,
 Stephen K. Robinson, Ph.D, NASA, Mission Specialist 1
 Scott E. Parazynski, MD, NASA, Mission Specialist 2
 Pedro F. Duque, ESA, Mission Specialist 3
 Chiaki Naito Mukai, MD, NASDA, Payload Specialist 1
 John H. Glenn, Jr., Col. USAF (Ret.), U.S. Senate (D-Oh.), Payload Specialist 2

Brown has flown on four missions (STS-47, 66, 77 and 85); 
Parazynski on two (STS-66 and 86), and Lindsey, Robinson Mukai and Glenn
each have made one flight.

Editorial
---------

I've added a new `work in progress' web page giving details of the
French national space program, including previously unpublished
information on the French sounding rocket program courtesy of
CNES/Toulouse. Comments and corrections, as always, welcome.

  http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/nbook/programs/europe/cnes/

Errata
-------

In the description of the Hot Bird 5 launch, it has been pointed out to
me that the Centaur post-separation depletion (letting the remaining
fuel out to lower the chance of an explosion which would cause space
debris ) does not involve ignition of the engines, just a venting of the
tanks. The parking orbit perigee was 150 km.

Thanks to Mark Kinnersley for spotting another typo in my
launch sites list: Plesetsk is at 62.7 deg North, not 65 deg N.


Recent Launches
---------------

* UHF F/O F-9

Atlas flight AC-130 placed the UHF F/O F9 satellite in orbit on Oct 20
using a Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver) Atlas IIA with a 14-ft
fairing. It took off  from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 36A.
The Atlas IIA first stage main (sustainer) engine is the Boeing
Rocketdyne RS-56SA, based on the RS-27 used in Delta. Wrapped around the
main engine section is a booster section with a similar RS-56BA engine
with two thrust chambers. The combination of the sustainer and booster
engines is called the MA-5A engine system. The booster engine cutoff
(BECO) was at T+2:45 (i.e. 2min 45s after launch), followed 3s later by
separation of the heavy booster package with its two engine nozzles. The
sustainer engine cutoff (SECO) was at T+4:35. Although the Atlas IIA
stage is much stretched compared to the original missile, this
`stage-and-a-half' design is  largely unchanged since the (Convair/San
Diego) Atlas B flights in 1958 (the booster section on the experimental
Atlas A series of 1957 wasn't designed to separate). It still uses the
trademark pressurized tank, with a lightweight thin wall which must be
kept under pressure to stop the whole stage collapsing. The new Atlas
III now under design will lose the booster section in favor of a single
engine, and the EELV Atlas will have a conventional rigid wall design.

After separation of the Atlas stage at T+4:37, the Centaur II second
stage takes over. Centaur is a liquid hydrogen fuelled stage using two
Pratt and Whitney RL10A-4-1 engines. At T+9:53 the Centaur shut down
putting the vehicle in a 168 x 1090 km x 28.9 deg elliptical parking
orbit. After coasting around the orbit, Centaur reignited at T+22:23 for
about one minute until its fuel was almost depleted. and then at T+27:03
separated from the payload.  The payload was delivered to an orbit of
approximately 286 x 25866 km x 27.0 deg, very close to that expected,
with an apogee 10000 km below geostationary. The remaining altitude is
to be made up by the Marquardt R-4D bipropellant liquid apogee motor on
the satellite payload.

The payload is UHF F/O F9, an HS-601 satellite built by
Hughes/El Segundo, and is a  Block III UHF Follow-On comsat for the US
Naval Space Command. Earlier UHF F/O satellites were launched by Atlas
II and Atlas I, which have now been retired. The satellite carries UHF
and EHF transponders for naval communications, and a Ka-band Global
Broadcast Service video relay package. Launch mass is 3200 kg, dropping
to around 1550 kg once geostationary orbit is reached. Dry mass of the
satellite is probably around 1200-1300 kg, but I haven't seen a figure
on this. UHF F/O F9 will be placed over the Atlantic Ocean.


* Fuyo-1

The Japanese Fuyo-1 (ERS-1) satellite failed on Oct 12 after six years
of operation.



Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H
Sep 28 2341   Molniya-1T?       Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     54A
Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A
Oct 20 0719   UHF F/O F9        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     ?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103      LC39B     STS-95
MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105      VAB3      STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 25. October 1998 04:56

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 377                                          1998 Oct 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-95 is due to be launched on Oct 29. Meanwhile, Endeavour has been
moved to pad 39A in preparation for STS-88 with a Space Station module
payload. At Mir, the crew are awaiting the launch of the next Progress
cargo ferry.

Erratum
-------

Oops! John Glenn is Col. USMC (Ret.), not USAF of course. Apologies to
the hundreds of Marines and their friends who emailed to remind me of
this.


Recent Launches
---------------

*Ariane 5 - fully successful flight

The third Ariane 5 test vehicle was launched on Oct 21 from the Ensemble
de Lancement Ariane No. 3 (ELA 3) at the Centre Spatial Guyanais,
Kourou. The Ariane 5, Europe's largest ever rocket, consists of two EAP
solid boosters, the EPC core stage powered by the LOX/LH2 Vulcain
engine, and the EPS (L9) upper stage with storable propellants.

Ariane 503 carries the ARD and Maqsat-3 payloads. Maqsat-3, built by
Kayser-Threde, is a dynamic model of Eutelsat W2, the payload originally
scheduled for the Ariane 503 mission. Mass is 2730 kg. Size is 2.0m
diameter, 2.5m long. The satellite is not instrumented except for a few
shock transducers and strain gauges to monitor the launcher environment.
Maqsat-3 will remain attached to the EPS stage in orbit. It is launched
inside the Speltra adapter.

The ARD (Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator) spacecraft, built by
Aerospatiale for ESA, will make a suborbital flight. It is launched
upsidedown on top of the Speltra and is jettisoned before the EPS upper
stage ignites. The ARD shell is an 80 percent scale model of the Apollo
Command Module. ARD carries GPS recievers, a SARSAT beacon, and a TDRS
relay system. It features an experimental heat shield 2.8m in diameter,
a recovery system with three 23-m parachutes, and 7 of DASA's 400N
hydrazine thruster systems for attitude control.

Launch was at 1637:21 UTC. At T+2:23, the EAP boosters separated at 72
km altitude. The nose fairing separated at T+3:13. The EPC engine cutoff
at T+9:53 and EPC separated from the EPS. At T+12:02, the ARD separated
from the EPS/Speltra/Maqsat-3. ARD and the EPC stage entered a 1 x 830
km orbit. This doesn't count as truly in orbit, since the low perigee
ensures reentry on the first revolution. ARD reached apogee of 830 km at
T+43:21 as it arced around the world to a landing at 153.35W, 3.69N in
the Pacific at T+1h43min (Thanks to Stefan Barensky for the position).

At T+12:43 the Speltra adapter cover separated revealing Maqsat-3. At
T+15:14 the EPS stage Aestus engine ignited; it burned until T+31:00. At
this point on a normal mission the satellite would separate from the
EPS, but to avoid extra space debris Maqsat did not do this. The
EPS/Maqsat-3 satellite is in a 1027 x 35863 km x 7.0 deg geostationary
transfer orbit.

Ariane 5 is now qualified for operational use. Meanwhile, an Ariane
4 is due for launch on Oct 28 on mission V113.

* Orbital's Pegasus launches SCD-2

Brasil's SCD-2 satellite was launched on Oct 23 by a Pegasus, mission
P-33. This flight used the old `standard' Pegasus in its L-1011
configuration, not the Pegasus XL which has been used for all recent
missions. Orbital's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft took off from the Cape
Canaveral Air Station's Skid Strip (Runway 02/20, 28.2N 80.6W) at 2305
UTC on Oct 22 and flew to the drop zone near Cape Canaveral (in the
Mayport, Florida, Warning Area) at 29.0N 78.3W.  This is the first
Pegasus launch staged from Cape Canaveral Air Station; the SCD-1 launch
in 1993 took off from the Shuttle Landing Facility (RW15/33) at the NASA
Kennedy Space Center next door and probably (can anyone confirm?) used
the same drop location.

The three stage Pegasus ignited 5 seconds after drop. The first  stage
carried a NASA experiment attached to its right wing, to study
hypersonic boundary layer separation. The third stage reached an orbit 
of 743 x 768 km x 25.0 deg with the SCD-2 satellite. This orbit is very
close to the planned one, which will be a relief for Orbital after
difficulties on the last mission, when a second stage problem led to a
low initial orbit that could only be corrected because of the presence
of a Primex hydrazine fourth stage not carried on the current mission.
The next Pegasus mission, an XL, will launch NASA's SWAS astronomy
satellite.

The 115 kg Satelite de Coleta de Dados (Data Collection Satellite)
relays data from environmental monitoring stations. It is owned and
operated by INPE, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias de
Brasil.  As well as the SCD-1 and SCD-2 satellites, INPE launched
an SCD-2A test satellite in Nov 1997 on the first, unsuccessful
flight of INPE's own VLS launch vehicle.


* Deep Space 1 on its way

NASA carried out its first launch in the New Millenium Program (NMP) on
Oct 24. Deep Space 1 was placed in solar orbit by a Boeing Delta 7326
rocket. Delta 7326 is a new variant of Delta II which uses three solid
Alliant GEM-40 strapons, the standard Delta II   first and second
stages, and a Thiokol Star 37FM solid motor as the third stage. This
third stage is smaller than the usual Delta II Star 48 third stage, but
much more powerful than the earlier Star 37E model used as Delta's third
stage in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ejected from the Delta second stage was the SEDSAT microsatellite, built
by the Huntsville, Alabama chapter of SEDS (the Students for the
Exploration and Development of Space). SEDSAT has two amateur radio
transponders and an earth imaging camera.

Delta entered a 185 km parking orbit, then fired again to enter a 174 x
2744 km x 28.5 deg orbit. The third stage separated and accelerated to
solar orbit with DS1, while the second stage burned again to a planned
556 x 1042 km x 31.5 deg orbit with SEDSAT. DS1's orbit is around
1.0 x 1.3 AU with an inclination to the ecliptic around zero,
but I haven't been able to find solar orbital elements or state vectors
to give an accurate orbit. (1 AU = mean Earth orbit radius = 149.6
million km).

The 475 kg Deep Space 1 probe was built by Spectrum Astro for JPL using
the SA-200HP bus. Its mission is to test new technology for  future
probes, and the main experiment is a xenon ion propulsion drive. DS1
will fly past the high inclination Mars-crossing minor planet 1992 KD,
which is about 2 to 5 km in diameter. 1992 KD's orbit  comes to within
1.33 AU of the Sun, just within the perihelion of Mars' orbit (1.38 AU).
 Although JPL is describing 1992 KD as a Near Earth Object (NEO) of the
subclass called Amor asteroids, the IAU Minor Planet Center's definition
of an Amor requires a perihelion of 1.30 AU or less, so officially it
doesn't quite count as an NEO.

An additional 2001 flyby of Comet 19P/Borrelly is also an option. That
comet has a similar perihelion distance and inclination but its orbit is
much more elliptical, so the flyby speed would be much higher. By that
time DS1's engine will have moved it to an orbit of around 1.12 x 1.42 AU.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H
Sep 28 2341   Molniya-1T?       Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     54A
Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A
Oct 20 0719   UHF F/O F9        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     58A
Oct 21 1637   ARD     )         Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Technol.  
              Maqsat 3)                                         Technol.   59A
Oct 23 0002   SCD-2             Pegasus        Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A
Oct 24 1208   Deep Space 1       Delta 7326    Canaveral SLC17A  Probe    61A?

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     ?
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98/OV-103      LC39B     STS-95
MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105      LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'





||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	Jonathan McDowell[SMTP:jcm@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 01. November 1998 01:58
To: 	WADE, Mark
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 378

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 378 (corrected)                                1998 Oct 31 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

STS-95 was launched on Oct 29 with Sen. John Glenn and the first
Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque among the crew. The US Navy PANSAT
student satellite was deployed on Oct 30 into a 550 x 561 x 28.5 deg
orbit.

Meanwhile, Endeavour has been moved to pad 39A in preparation for STS-88
with a Space Station module payload.

Cargo ship Progress M-40 was launched from Baykonur on 1998 Oct 25.
It docked with the Mir orbital station to provide supplies on Oct 27.
It also carries the Znamya-2.5 solar illumination experiment.


Distribution Note
-----------------

I've been having mailer problems again, apologies if you
get more than one copy of this week's issue.

Visit to Kourou
---------------

I had the opportunity to be present for the launch of Ariane V113 on Oct
28, and in this special report describe my visit to the Centre Spatial
Guyanais (CSG) in Guyane francaise, S America. Pictures to accompany
this report are at 
<A HREF="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/csg.html">
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/csg.html
</A>

The small French town of Kourou is on the northern coast of the South 
American landmass, at the edge of the Amazonian forest.  From the air,
the approach to the region is over a dense mat of trees broken only by
the occasional river. The person next to me on the plane remarked that
the shape of the trees and their closeness to each other made it look
like a forest of broccoli. On a sandy beach covered with palm trees sits
a modern hotel where the penitentiary once stood (the notorious Devil's
Island is visible a few miles offshore).  We arrived the evening before
launch after an hour-long bus ride from Cayenne airport, in time for a
banquet of fresh seafood, baked plantain, and tropical juices as well as
more traditionally French dishes. I didn't get to see too much of the
town itself, but it has a population of around 17000 consisting mostly
of recent immigrants from the rest of South America, the Caribbean and
Europe, together with indigenous Amerinds and a village of the
descendants of Africans who escaped slavery and developed their own
communities. The next morning, a short bus ride to the west of town
takes us to the Centre Technique, and the Jupiter launch control room
where the representatives of the various agencies  briefed us. The
speakers used either French or English as they preferred, with
headphones provided for all of us to give simultaneous translation
for anyone who wasn't fluent in one or other language.

Launcher V113 was an Ariane 44L model, and carried the most massive
payload of any Ariane 4 to date, with 4.9 tonnes carried to orbit; it
was also the first time Arianespace has carried out three launches in a
single month.  The V113 vehicle used the lightest stages available at
the factory, and the fuel in the lower stages was kept at a lower
temperature than usual to increase its density and allow a few extra
kilograms to be loaded - they ended up with more than 230 tonnes in the
L220 first stage. These measures allowed the record payload, and
Arianespace president Jean-Marie Luton predicted that eventually we'll
see a 5-tonne payload on Ariane 4.

Two satellites were carried, Afristar and GE 5; both were delivered to
geostationary orbit.  The lower payload is the GE-5 satellite, with C
and Ku band transponders to augment the GE Americom system. GE Americom
contracted with  Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Dornier Satellitensystem
GmbH/Friedrichshafen to provide the satellite in orbit. They in turn
contracted Alcatel/Cannes to provide the Spacebus 2000 satellite,
originally built as a backup for Argentina's Nahuelsat.  This allowed
Dornier and Alcatel to deliver the satellite in a record  twelve months.
Dry mass of GE 5 is 769 kg; it carries 950 kg of propellant at launch.

The upper payload was the first WorldSpace satellite, Afristar. Afristar
will  broadcast digital radio over Africa and the Middle East. Small
handheld radios will be able to pick up the transmissions from its three
L-band beams; the satellite can carry from 24 to 96 radio channels
with on-board processing to allow variable bit rates from mono
to CD audio quality transmission. Broadcasters send their programs
up to the satellite with a small X-band ground station.
It will be followed next year by Asiastar and Ameristar. Afristar is a
Matra Marconi Space (Toulouse) Eurostar 2000+, using a Marquardt R-4D
apogee engine. Prime contractor for the combined satellite and comms
payload is Alcatel. Dry mass of Afristar is 1205 kg; it carries 1534 kg
of propellant at launch. The WorldSpace project is dominated by the
personality of its CEO, Ethiopian-born Noah Samara, whose ebullient
personality was very much in evidence at CSG during the V113 launch.
There was a strong feeling that Afristar was not just yet one more
`boring' comsat, but part of a crusade to empower the developing world
by providing improved access to information. Samara's mantra is that
`people are only as developed as the information they access.' Another
of the leading figures in WorldSpace, chief engineer Pierre Madon, was
feted for completing a notable career in aerospace which included a
leading role in the first French rocket program Diamant and the
Symphonie comsat of the 1970s, as well as a long career at Intelsat.

CSG is operated by the French space agency CNES. The Ariane launch
vehicle was developed by the European Space Agency, ESA, together with
CNES, and is operated by the Arianespace company. Travelling further
west from Jupiter on the old Route Nationale 1 coast  road, we reach the
CSG proper, with the entrance guarded by the French Foreign Legion.  The
launch pads are on the north side of the road, nearer the sea. We first
pass the small clearing which marks the sounding rocket launch area
("aire de lancement fusee-sondes"). Here in 1968 was the first launch
from CSG, a small Veronique rocket. The area has four launchers, three
still in use for small weather rockets and amateur launches. A little
further and we reach the now disused Diamant pad. Used between 1970 and
1975, CNES launched several small satellites from here using the Diamant
B and Diamant B P.4 vehicles. The other old pad was the Aire de
Lancement Europa, some distance to the west. A single orbital launch
attempt from here by the Europa vehicle failed in 1971. However, by 1979
the pad had been rebuilt to become ELA 1, the first Ensemble de
Lancement Ariane, marking the beginning of Europe's success in the
commercial space launch services business with Ariane launches from 1979
to 1989, when the ELA1 pad was retired. Only a water tower marks the
spot currently. Next to ELA1 is ELA2, which we didn't get too close to
as it was occupied by our fully fuelled V113 launch vehicle. In the
early afternoon, the enclosed gantry was rolled back from ELA2 to reveal
the Ariane rocket on the pad, and fuelling of the cryogenic third stage
began. We were able to observe the rocket from the roof of a nearby
building - the third stage was enclosed in insulation, and no venting
was visible. The pad is surprisingly close to the Ariane 4 assembly
building, containing the V114 launcher now being assembled, and the
nearby ESA and Arianespace offices. 

The remaining launch site is ELA3, which is spread over a large area
between ELA2 and the Diamant area. The rocket and payload are assembled
in two large buildings, BIL and BAF, and are then taken out to the pad on
a mobile launch platform (Table de Lancement) which travels on a small
railway. We saw the launch platform used for the Ariane 503 mission
being returned by rail to the BAF building, while a second platform was
under construction nearby. The BIL and BAF are to the south of the main
road while the pad is to the north.

The Ariane 5 pad itself, ZL3 (Zone de lancement) contains only the minimal
equipment for launch, to simplify reconstruction if there is a launch
accident. A simple umbilical tower is flanked by three large lightning
towers which dominate the site's appearance, reminiscent of the
N-1/Energiya pads at Baykonur.  The main pad has  a circular mount for
the central core and mounts for the solid boosters on each side,  above
large flame trenches filled with water (the water suppresses reflection
of sound energy from the launch which would otherwise increase the
vibration levels inside the payload fairing). The trenches are similar
to the ones I saw at Vandenberg's SLC-6 Shuttle pad.  A large water
tower and liquid hydrogen and helium storage facilities complete the
picture.

After our visits to the launch site were complete, and a brief trip back
to  Kourou, we set off again to the Jupiter control center where we
watched the final countdown from the auditorium surrounding the launch
control room proper. (We had the choice of going to the outdoor Toucan
viewing point closer to the pad, but I decided it would be geekier to
get as close to the launch controllers as I could). The launch
commentary, with the cultivated and reassuring tones of former BBC man
Martin Ransom lending a touch of class, punctuated the countdown as the
display screens showed live TV from the pad beside the clocks and status
displays, and the  controllers pored over their consoles in front of us.

At T-1 minute, the side doors of the auditorium were opened and we
rushed out on the terrace to watch. We scanned the dark horizon and
didn't know which direction to look, but then 'Allumage!' and a bright
light appeared  in the distance to our left. Slowly this new star rose
into the sky - initially it was pretty much pointlike. It arced over our
position and we began to see the trail of fire behind it. About half a
minute later, the sound began to reach us as a dull roar which grew to a
loud crackling sound. Separation of the strapon boosters was visible as
a dramatic flare, and we were able to follow the rocket through first
stage separation as it moved down the coast to our right. The
disappearance of the first stage plume as followed by a bright flash
like a firework as the separation occurred. Trooping back to our seats,
we heard the report of second stage separation and settled down to watch
the graphic of the long third stage burn. At T+20 min the Afristar
satellite finally separated and a huge cheer went up, followed two
minutes later by another cheer for GE 5. Afristar and GE 5 were placed
in a 200 x 35788 km x 6.5 deg orbit. The launch team put on T-shirts
celebrating the month's three launches (I thought the big boss Luton
looked a little uncomfortable in such informal attire), and after the
obligatory speeches (Walter Braun of GE Americom bravely and courteously
giving his in French) a long night of partying began. The following day,
most of the group went off to tour Devil's Island, but I stayed in
Kourou to interview space center old-timers and soak up some beach time
to brace myself for Friday's 4:30 am homeward wakeup call.

Thanks to Arianespace for making my trip possible, and to Marie-Vincente
Pasdeloup, Jean-Michel Desobeau, Yves Dejean, Martin Ransom, Pierre
Madon and others for their helpful information.

Recent Launches
---------------

* Ariane 503

The Ariane 503 mission described last week was the first
Ariane 5 launch carried out by Arianespace, and is numbered
V112 in their system. For the first two Ariane 5 flights,
CNES and ESA both owned the launch vehicle and carried out
the launch. On V112, Arianespace owned the vehicle but ESA and
CNES were the customers.

* Meteosat 1 apogee motor

The Meteosat 1 apogee motor has finally been cataloged by Space Command.
The motor has been assigned international designation 1977-108D and
catalog number 13907. Until around Oct 1, 13907 was assigned to a piece
of debris from a 1967 explosion, 1967-01AB. This debris object was in an
elliptical orbit of 292 x 17909 km x 24 deg on Sep 30, it's not clear
where it is in the catalog now. The practice of reassigning  previously
used catalog numbers is really confusing, and I do wish Space Command
wouldn't do it. It's not like they are going to run out of positive
integers, after all...

Meteosat 1 was launched on 1977 Nov 23 and ejected its apogee motor
after reaching geostationary orbit some days later. There's some
confusion as to what apogee motor was used - ESA bulletin 85 implies
an Aerojet solid motor, probably an SVM-5; other sources which
say it used an Italian SNIA/BPD solid motor derived from the one
developed for the Europa program are probably incorrect.

* Deep Space 1

Marc Rayman from the DS1 team reports that Deep Space 1 was injected
into a 0.99 x 1.32 AU x 0.4 deg solar orbit, with a mass of 486.3 kg
(including 81.5 kg of Xe and 31.1 kg of hydrazine). He corrects me that
DS1 was built by both JPL and Spectrum Astro, rather than 'by Spectrum
Astro for JPL'.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  8 2113   Iridium SV77)     Delta 7920    Vandenberg SLC2   Comsat     51E
              Iridium SV79)                                     Comsat     51D
              Iridium SV80)                                     Comsat     51C
              Iridium SV81)                                     Comsat     51B
              Iridium SV82)                                     Comsat     51A
Sep  9 2029   Globalstar FM5 )  Zenit-2       Baykonur          Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM7 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM9 )                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM10)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM11)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM12)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM13)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM16)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM17)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM18)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM20)                                  Comsat     F05
              Globalstar FM21)                                  Comsat     F05
Sep 16 0631   PAS 7             Ariane 44LP   Kourou ELA2       Comsat     52A
Sep 23 0506   Orbcomm FM21 )    Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I       Comsat     53A
              Orbcomm FM22 )                                    Comsat     53B
              Orbcomm FM23 )                                    Comsat     53C
              Orbcomm FM24 )                                    Comsat     53D
              Orbcomm FM25 )                                    Comsat     53E
              Orbcomm FM26 )                                    Comsat     53F
              Orbcomm FM27 )                                    Comsat     53G
              Orbcomm FM28 )                                    Comsat     53H
Sep 28 2341   Molniya-1T?       Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     54A
Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A
Oct 20 0719   UHF F/O F9        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     58A
Oct 21 1637   ARD     )         Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Technol.  
              Maqsat 3)                                         Technol.   59A
Oct 23 0002   SCD-2             Pegasus        Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A
Oct 24 1208   Deep Space 1)     Delta 7326     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      61A
              SEDSAT 1    )                                     Amateur    61B
Oct 25 0414   Progress M-40     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      62A
Oct 28 2216   Afristar  )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Radio com  63A
              GE 5      )                                       Comsat     63B
Oct 29 1919   Discovery )       Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  64A
              Spacehab  )                                       Laboratory 64A
Oct 30 1845   PANSAT            -              Discovery, LEO   Test sat   64B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-95  Oct 29
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     ?
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/                          LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105      LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 10. November 1998 00:31
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 379

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 379                                       1998 Nov  9 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle, Mir and Station
------------------------

The Spartan 201 satellite was deployed from Discovery on Nov 1 and
retrieved on Nov 3. Spartan 201 is on its fifth mission to observe the
solar corona, and this time will be used to recalibrate the SOHO
satellite which recently resumed observations of the Sun.

Discovery landed at 1703:31 UTC Nov 7 on runway 33 at the Shuttle
Landing Facility.

On the Mir complex, crew Gennadiy Padalka and Sergey Avdeev are
unloading the Progress M-40 cargo ship docked at the rear
(+X, Kvant) docking port.

The launch of the Zarya module is scheduled for Nov 20 from complex 81L
at Baykonur (5-GIK) aboard a three-stage Proton-K (8K82K) launch
vehicle.

Errata
-------

The GE 5 satellite does not have C-band transponders; it
is a purely Ku-band satellite.

In recent editions of my geo.log file, the IDs for Turksat 1C
and Arabsat IIA were mistakenly exchanged. The files geo.log
and launchlog.txt have been corrected and updated.


Recent Launches
---------------

Panamsat's PAS 8 satellite was launched on Nov 4. An International
Launch Services Proton, built by Krunichev, placed the PAS 8 in orbit.
The Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage made two burns to deliver PAS 8 to a
6784 x 35941 km x 17.3 deg transfer orbit. PAS 8 is a Space
Systems/Loral FS-1300 satellite with 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band
transponders. It is due to be located over the Pacific after its R-4D
apogee engine raises the orbit to geostationary, and will provide
international communications services for Panamsat.

Boeing's Delta 2 launched five Iridium comsats into low earth orbit on
Nov 6. The new batch includes Iridium 2, one of three prototype
satellites now refurbished for flight. Launch of the Delta 7920 from
Vandenberg Air Force Base entered a 168 x 539 km x 86.4 deg parking
orbit, and then placed the five satellites in  a circular 516 x 530 km x
86.0 deg polar orbit, in plane 5 of the system. The second stage then
lowered its orbit to 243 x 512 km so that it will reenter quickly.

The ROSAT X-ray observatory ceased science observations in September
after accidentally pointing at the Sun again and burning out its
remaining camera. ROSAT was launched in June 1990 and operated
well beyond its original expected lifetime. Spacecraft controllers
in Germany are carrying out end-of-life tests with the satellite.

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A
Oct 20 0719   UHF F/O F9        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     58A
Oct 21 1637   ARD     )         Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Technol.  
              Maqsat 3)                                         Technol.   59A
Oct 23 0002   SCD-2             Pegasus        Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A
Oct 24 1208   Deep Space 1)     Delta 7326     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      61A
              SEDSAT 1    )                                     Amateur    61B
Oct 25 0414   Progress M-40     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      62A
Oct 28 2216   Afristar  )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Radio com  63A
              GE 5      )                                       Comsat     63B
Oct 29 1919   Discovery )       Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  64A
              Spacehab  )                                       Laboratory 64A
Oct 30 1845   PANSAT            -              Discovery, LEO   Test sat   64B
Nov  1 1703   Spartan 201       -              Discovery, LEO   Astronomy  64C
Nov  4 0512   PAS 8             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     65A
Nov  6 1337   Iridium  2)       Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     66A
              Iridium 83)                                       Comsat     66E
              Iridium 84)                                       Comsat     66D
              Iridium 85)                                       Comsat     66C
              Iridium 86)                                       Comsat     66B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Mar? 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  Oct 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-88  Dec  3

MLP2/                          LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105      LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 27. November 1998 00:05
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 380

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 380                                       1998 Nov 26 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Note: I've updated the launch log files at 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The International Space Station era has begun. The launch of the Zarya
module was successful on Nov 20 at 0640 UTC. Zarya is the first element
of the International Space Station. It was funded by the US and built by
Krunichev in Moscow, and will be controlled by RKA/Energiya in Korolev. 
Krunichev built it under a subcontract from Boeing for NASA, so I
imagine that formally NASA is the owner but RKA is the operator.
The Zarya derives its design from the TKS spaceship and the 77KS Mir
side modules. Zarya is the Funktional'no-Gruzovoy Blok (FGB), serial
77KM No 175-01. It includes a multiple docking adapter, a pressurised
cabin section, and a propulsion/instrument section with a rear docking
port. Zarya was launched by a three stage Proton-K (8K82K) rocket,
serial 395-01, from pad 81L at 5-GIK (the Baykonur cosmodrome). The
third stage and Zarya reached orbit 9 min after takeoff. Initial orbit
was 176 x 343 km x 51.6 deg. By Nov 25 it had maneuvered to a 383 x 396
km x 51.7 deg orbit, awaiting the launch of Shuttle mission STS-88 which
will dock the Unity node to it.

Launches of spacecraft in the TKS/77KS series:

TKS Mockup        1976 Dec 15  (with Kosmos-881/882)
TKS   No. 161-01  1977 Jul 17  Kosmos-929, TKS test flight
TKS Mockup        1977 Aug  5  (launch failure)
TKS Mockup        1978 Mar 30  (with Kosmos-997/998)
TKS Mockup        1979 May 22  (with Kosmos-1100/1101)
TKS   No. 163-01  1981 Apr 25  Kosmos-1267, TKS test docked with Salyut-6
TKS-M No. 164-01  1983 Mar  2  Kosmos-1443, TKS test docked with Salyut-7
TKS-M No. 165-01  1985 Sep 27  Kosmos-1686, module docked with Salyut-7
FSB   No. 166-01  1987 Mar 31  Propulsion unit for Kvant module
FSB   No. 162-01  1987 May 15  Propulsion unit for Skif-DM payload
TsM-D No. 171-01  1989 Nov 26  Kvant-2, docked with Mir
TsM-T No. 172-01  1990 May 31  Kristall, docked with Mir
TsM-O No. 173-01  1995 May 20  Spektr, docked with Mir
TsM-I No. 174-01  1996 Apr 23  Priroda, docked with Mir
FGB   No. 175-01  1998 Nov 20  Zarya, ISS first element
USM   No. 176-01  Under construction as ISS docking module


Meanwhile, Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour is on the launch pad ready for
mission STS-88 on Dec 3. Crew of STS-88 are: Commander - Col. Robert
Cabana, USMC, NASA chief astronaut Pilot - Maj. Frederick Sturckow,
USMC/NASA Mission Specialists: Col. Jerry Ross, USAF/NASA, Maj. Nancy
Currie, USA/NASA, Dr. James Newman, NASA, and Sergei Krikalyov, RKA. The
payload bay contains the following cargo:

Sill:     RMS arm No. 303
Bay 1-2:  Tunnel Adapter 002
Bay 3-4:  Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock  (Boeing/Palmdale)
Bay 7-13: Unity (Node 1)         (Boeing/Huntsville)
          PMA-1 docking adapter  (Boeing/Huntingdon Beach), 
          PMA-2 docking adapter  (Boeing/Huntingdon Beach)

Bay 2  Port: GABA adapter with SAC-A satellite
Bay 4  Port: Carrier with PFR spacewalk restraint
Bay 4  Stbd: Carrier with Cable Caddy for spacewalks
Bay 5? Stbd: Carrier with PFR spacewalk restraint
Bay 6  Port: GABA adapter with Mightysat
Bay 6? Stbd: Carrier with two TCS laser rendevous sensors
Bay 13 Port: GABA adapter with SEM-7 and G-093 canisters
Bay 13 Stbd: GABA adapter with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera

The PMA-1 and PMA-2 adapters are detachable from Unity, but launched
installed. Endeavour will unberth Unity from the bay using the RMS arm,
and dock PMA-2 to the Orbiter Docking System. After rendezvous, the
axial +Y port of Zarya will be attached to PMA-1. PMA-2 will be used as
ISS's main Shuttle docking port; it will be moved from Unity to the Lab
module when that is launched.

The SAC-A satellite is an Argentine payload which carries an
experimental remote sensing camera and a marine life science experiment
consisting of a GPS receiver which will track signals from a
GPS-equipped whale (yes, a whale). The 60 kg satellite was build by
INVAP of Bariloche for CONAE, the Argentine space agency. It will be
ejected from an HMDA canister in the payload bay.

Mightysat is a small satellite with a mass of about 70 kg, built by
Orbital Sciences/McLean.  It carries a suite of  technology experiments
for USAF Phillips Lab. Mightysat and SAC-A share a Hitchhiker avionics
box. SEM-7 is a canister with high school experiments; G-093 has a 
physics experiment for the U. of Michigan.

The ISS overview press kit shows a cargo bay view with the 'AMTEC/AWCS'
experiments where SEM-7/G-093 should be; in fact, AMTEC and AWCS are
technology experiments on the Mightysat payload, although it's not clear
if they are mounted on the subsatellite or remain attached to the
Shuttle. The new, "improved" (sic) STS press kits themselves have no
graphics of the payloads, so I'm not sure of the details of the EVA
equipment.


Mir
---

Padalka and Avdeev made a spacewalk from the  Kvant-2 airlock on the Mir
complex on Nov 10-11. Hatch open was Nov 10 1924 UTC and hatch closed
was Nov 11 0118 UTC according to C. van den Berg. They installed a
meteorite detector in  preparation for the Leonid shower, and
hand-launched the Spoutnik-41 amateur-radio minisatellite at around 1930
UTC (anyone have a better time?). Spoutnik-41 (Spoutnik is the French
spelling) is a scale model of the first satellite, PS-1, launched 41
years ago. It carries a small transmitter, and is also designated RS-18.
A similar model was launched last year. Sponsors of the satellite are
Aero Club de France, AMSAT-France, and the Astronautical Federation of
Russia.

On that occasion, two flight models were carried to Mir but only one was
launched. The second Spoutnik-40 flight model is still aboard Mir. The
recent Progress flight carried up yet a third satellite with an improved
electronics module. (There was earlier some confusion about whether the
RS-18 satellite was a new satellite or was the one stored on Mir since
last year; Bernard Pidoux confirms Spoutnik-41 is an entirely new
satellite, and the plan to just swap out the electronics module on the
other one was abandoned). The second Spoutnik-40 may still be deployed
next year. Four other objects from the EVA are being tracked by Space
Command.

STS-93/AXAF
-----------

The solid rocket boosters for mission STS-93 have been stacked
on mobile launch plaform MLP-1 in the VAB. The AXAF telescope
payload is still in California; launch of STS-93 is now expected
in March.

Recent Launches
---------------

The BONUM-1 satellite was successfully launched by a Boeing Delta 2 on
Nov 22. BONUM-1 is a Hughes HS-376HP communications satellite with a
Thiokol Star 30 solid apogee motor. The satellite will provide domestic
Russian communications for Media Most, a Moscow-based television and
media conglomerate, broadcasting 50 channels to western Russia from a
position at 36 deg E. Mass is 1426 kg at launch, around 630 kg dry.  The
HS-376HP is small by today's standards and carries just 8 Ku-band
transponders. The Delta 7925-9.5 launch vehicle  entered a 157 x 189 km
x 29.2 deg parking orbit ten minutes after launch. Two further burns of
the second stage raised the orbit to 159 x 1304 km and then 1228 x 1683
km x 26.7 deg. The Thiokol Star 48B solid third stage then boosted
BONUM-1 to a 1285 x 36703 km x 19.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit
while the second stage made a final depletion burn to lower its orbit to
274 x 1552 km x 25.6 deg, making sure it will reenter quickly.

Deep Space 1, in solar orbit, successfully started its ion drive on Nov
24. An initial attempt failed after four minutes on Nov 10. This is the
first time ion propulsion has been used as the primary propulsion
on a spacecraft.

Below is a list of spacecraft thought to have tested electric propulsion
systems. I haven't done a proper study of this subject, so this list is
incomplete and may have errors - perhaps someone can come up with a
better one. It is intended to include ion thrusters, pulsed plasma
thrusters and Hall effect thrusters, but exclude  the lower efficiency
arcjets. The Russians report 15 flights of stationary Hall plasma
thrusters since 1971. The XIPS is an 8-cm ion thruster; NSTAR is a 30-cm
one. All systems prior to this year were used for experiments only, or
for fine orbit control and maintenance. What's new is that DS1 and STEX
will actually use their systems for major orbit changes.

1964 Jul 20  SERT (NASA)      30 minute test, suborbital
1964 Aug 29  661A Flight 21-2 (USAF) Suborbital
1964 Dec 21  661A Flight 21-3 (USAF) Suborbital
1965 Apr 3   SNAPSHOT (USAF)  (telemetry failed)
1965 Jul 18  3MV-4 No. 3      Test in solar orbit? (USSR)
1968 Aug 10  ATS 4            
1969 Aug 12  ATS 5 
1970 Feb  4  SERT-2 (NASA)    Two thrusters, operated until 1980
1972 Feb  2  Meteor           Plasma engine
1974 May 30  ATS 6            Cs ion engine test
1974 Jul  9  Meteor-Priroda 1 Plasma engine
1975 Oct 12  TIP 2            Pulsed plasma thruster
1976 Mar 15  LES-8/LES-9      Pulsed plasma thrusters
1976 Sep  1  TIP 3            Pulsed plasma thruster
1981 Feb 11  ETS-4 (NASDA)    Ion thruster
1981 May 15  Nova 1           Pulsed plasma thruster
1984 Oct 12  Nova 3           Pulsed plasma thruster
1987 Feb  1  Kosmos-1818      Plasma-1 SPT
1987 Jul 10  Kosmos-1867      Plasma-2 SPT
1988 Jun 16  Nova 2           Pulsed plasma thruster
1994 Jan 20  Gals 11          SPT-100 plasma thruster
1994 Aug 28  ETS-6 (NASDA)    Ion thrusters for NSSK
1995 Nov 17  Gals 12          SPT-100 plasma thruster
1997 Aug 28  PAS 5            HS-601 XIPS for NSSK
1997 Dec  8  Galaxy 8i        HS-601 XIPS for NSSK
1998 Aug 30  Astra 2A         HS-601 XIPS for NSSK
1998 Oct  3  STEX             TAL-D55 plasma thruster

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  3 1004   STEX   )          ARPA Taurus    Vandenberg 576E  Technol.   55A
              ATEX   )
Oct  5 2251   Eutelsat W2 )     Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     56A
              Sirius 3    )                                     Comsat     56B
Oct  9 2250   Hot Bird 5        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     57A
Oct 20 0719   UHF F/O F9        Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     58A
Oct 21 1637   ARD     )         Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Technol.  
              Maqsat 3)                                         Technol.   59A
Oct 23 0002   SCD-2             Pegasus        Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A
Oct 24 1208   Deep Space 1)     Delta 7326     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      61A
              SEDSAT 1    )                                     Amateur    61B
Oct 25 0414   Progress M-40     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      62A
Oct 28 2216   Afristar  )       Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Radio com  63A
              GE 5      )                                       Comsat     63B
Oct 29 1919   Discovery )       Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  64A
              Spacehab  )                                       Laboratory 64A
Oct 30 1845   PANSAT            -              Discovery, LEO   Test sat   64B
Nov  1 1703   Spartan 201       -              Discovery, LEO   Astronomy  64C
Nov  4 0512   PAS 8             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     65A
Nov  6 1337   Iridium  2)       Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     66A
              Iridium 83)                                       Comsat     66E
              Iridium 84)                                       Comsat     66D
              Iridium 85)                                       Comsat     66C
              Iridium 86)                                       Comsat     66B
Nov 10 1930?  Spoutnik-41       -              Mir, LEO         Amateur    62C
Nov 20 0640   Zarya             Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    67A
Nov 22 2354   BONUM-1           Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     68A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Mar 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-88  Dec  3

MLP1/RSRM-69                   VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105      LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 07. December 1998 04:31
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 381

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 381                                     1998 Dec 7 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

Launch of STS-88 was scrubbed at 0903 UTC on Dec 3 with an RSLS hold
at T-19 seconds. A problem with a hydraulic system sensor caused
a hold at T-4 min; the problem was resolved but the launch window
closed seconds before STS-88 would have lifted off.

Second try was the charm, with launch at 0835:34 UTC on Dec 4 placing
OV-105 Endeavour in a 75 x 313 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The RSRM-67 solid
boosters separated at 2 min into flight, with main engine cutoff after 8
minutes and separation of external tank ET-97 shortly after.
At 0919 UTC Endeavour fired its OMS engines to raise the orbit to
180 x 322 km x 51.6 deg.

On Dec 5 at 2225 UTC Nancy Currie unberthed Unity from the payload bay
using the RMS arm. By 2350 UTC Unity's PMA-2 port was docked to the
Orbiter Docking System. At this point OV-105 was in a 189 x 321 km x
51.6 deg orbit.  Next it was time for the rendezvous with
the FGB module. On Dec 6 at 2347 UTC Endeavour grappled Zarya
with the robot arm, and  at 0207 UTC on Dec 7 it was soft docked
to the PMA-1 port on Unity. After some minor glitches hard dock
was  completed at 0248 UTC. Unity and Zarya now form the core
of the future Station. Endeavour remains docked to the Station
pending spacewalks to attach exterior cables.


Erratum: STS-88 commander Cabana is of course "formerly NASA chief
astronaut", he stepped down in favor of Ken Cockrell in order to take
the STS-88 command chair.
Some corrections to the STS-88 payload bay manifest: there are a total
of four Portable Foot Restraints and two PFR handles stashed on opposite
sides of the bay in bay 5. The two TCS sensors are on separate carriers
in bays 6 and 7, so the manifest actually reads:

Sill:     RMS arm No. 303
Bay 1-2:  Tunnel Adapter 002
Bay 3-4:  Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock  (Boeing/Palmdale)
Bay 7-13: Unity (Node 1)         (Boeing/Huntsville)
          PMA-1 docking adapter  (Boeing/Huntingdon Beach), 
          PMA-2 docking adapter  (Boeing/Huntingdon Beach)

Bay 2  Port: GABA adapter with SAC-A satellite

Bay 4  Stbd: Carrier with Tool Stowage Assembly
Bay 5  Port: GABA adapter with two PFR spacewalk plaftorms and one 
                          PFR stanchion.
Bay 5  Stbd: GABA adapter with two more PFR spacewalk plaftorms and one 
                          PFR stanchion.
Bay 6  Port: GABA adapter with Mightysat
Bay 6  Stbd: APC carrier with TCS laser rendezvous sensor
Bay 7  Stbd: APC carrier with TCS laser rendezvous sensor
Bay 13 Port: GABA adapter with SEM-7 and G-093 canisters
Bay 13 Stbd: GABA adapter with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera

Recent Launches
---------------

The SWAS satellite was launched on Dec 6. SWAS, the Submillimeter Wave
Astronomy Satellite, is a Small Explorer mission and part of the Origins
program. The satellite has a 0.6m telescope with a 490 to 550 GHz
submillimeter receiver and an acousto-optical spectrometer. The
submillimeter band is rich in spectral lines from molecular clouds, and
SWAS will be used to study the cooling of molecular cloud cores, the
sites of star formation in our galaxy, by measuring lines from molecular
oxygen and water. Principal investigator for SWAS is Gary Melnick of the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Earlier SMEX
missions were SAMPEX, FAST, and TRACE.

The Orbital Sciences L-1011 Stargazer took off from Vandenberg AFB's
Runway 30/12 on Dec 3 carrying a Pegasus XL launch vehicle with the SWAS
astronomy satellite aboard. It reached the drop box at 36.0N 123.0W over
the Pacific; however, due to a software-related range problem the range
ordered the launch scrubbed and the L-1011 returned to base with
SWAS/Pegasus still attached. Nothing was wrong with the Pegasus or the
L-1011 and the launch was reset for Dec 4, but delayed due to weather.
On Dec 6, launch was successful.  The L-1011 took off at 2358 UTC on Dec
5 and reached the box at 36N 123W,  dropping the Pegasus at 0057 UTC on
Dec 6. SWAS reached orbit and separated from the third stage at 0109 UTC.

By my count Dec 3 was the fifth time a Pegasus has been scrubbed with
the carrier plane already in the air:
  1994 May 12  F-5  STEP 2 aborted T-27 seconds
  1994 Jun 23  F-6  STEP 1 aborted T-5 seconds
  1996 Aug 18  F-13 FAST   aborted T-11 minutes
  1996 Oct 30  F-14 SAC-B  aborted T-5 seconds
  1998 Dec  3  F-25 SWAS   aborted T-4 minutes

Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  1 1703   Spartan 201       -              Discovery, LEO   Astronomy  64C
Nov  4 0512   PAS 8             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     65A
Nov  6 1337   Iridium  2)       Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     66A
              Iridium 83)                                       Comsat     66E
              Iridium 84)                                       Comsat     66D
              Iridium 85)                                       Comsat     66C
              Iridium 86)                                       Comsat     66B
Nov 10 1930?  Spoutnik-41       -              Mir, LEO         Amateur    62C
Nov 20 0640   Zarya             Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    67A
Nov 22 2354   BONUM-1           Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     68A
Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Mar 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-88  

MLP1/RSRM-69                   VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Saturday, 12. December 1998 18:45
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 382

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 382                                      1998 Dec 12 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

Endeavour is docked to the International Space Station, consisting of
PMA-2, Unity, PMA-1  and Zarya. The vehicles are in a 386 x 401 km x
51.6 deg orbit.

Ross and Newman made the first spacewalk to connect up cables with
Zarya. Hatch open on the Tunnel Adapter was at 2210 UTC on Dec 7, and
the airlock was repressurized at 0532 UTC on Dec 8. The second EVA, to
install antennas, was from Dec 9 at 2033 UTC to Dec 10 at 0335 UTC. A
third EVA was planned for Dec 12.

Erratum: I keep misspelling the location of the organization
formerly known as McDonnell Douglas. It is Huntington Beach,
not Huntingdon Beach. The Huntington Beach unit built the
PMA-1 and PMA-2 docking adapters used on the Station.

AXAF
----

The external tank for mission STS-93 has now been connected to the solid
rocket boosters. The AXAF observatory is still in California, and will
probably be shipped to Florida in January for a launch in March/April.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace Flight V114 roared into orbit on Dec 6 carrying the Satmex 5
satellite. The Ariane 42L rocket entered a 211 x 21516 km x 7.0 deg
subsynchronous orbit from which the Hughes HS-601HP satellite will use
its apogee engine to raise perigee and then apogee to reach
geostationary orbit. Satmex 5 is operated by Satellites Mexicanos S.A. de
C.V, a company (partly owned by Loral) which has taken over from the
Mexican Telecoms Ministry which operated the Morelos satellites. Satmex
5 will replace Morelos 2. The V114 launch preceded the Pegasus/SWAS
launch less than 15 minutes. Satmex 5 mass was 4135 kg at launch; I
don't have a figure for the dry mass. It carries the XIPS ion engine
stationkeeping system.

The V114 launch preceded the Pegasus/SWAS launch by only 15 minutes.
Yet another Ariane launch is scheduled for Dec 21, carrying the PAS 6B
satellite.

Russia launched a Nadehzda navigation/search and rescue satellite on an
11K65M Kosmos-3M rocket from Plesetsk on Dec 10 into a 987 x 1045 km x 83
degree orbit. Attached to Nadezdha was the small Swedish Space
Corporation microsatellite Astrid-2. Astrid-2 was ejected at 1525 UTC.
Astrid-2 will measure the auroral electromagnetic fields and particle
environment. Mass is 30 kg.

The Mars Climate Orbiter was launched on a Boeing Delta 7425
on Dec 11. MCO is the second craft in the Mars Surveyor Program;
the first was Mars Global Surveyor, currently aerobraking in orbit
around Mars. MCO was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics/Denver
and is a 338 kg craft (with a further 291 kg of fuel at launch)
consisting of an equipment module and a 640N Leros bipropellant
orbit insertion engine. MCO carries the MARCI color imager
for mapping and weather studies, the PMIRR radiometer, and a UHF
communications system which will relay data from Mars Polar Lander,
scheduled for launch in January. MCO will enter a 160 x 38600 km
polar orbit around Mars on 1999 Sep 23, and then use aerobraking
to reach a 373 x 437 km x 92.9 deg sunsynchronous mapping orbit
by 1999 Nov 23.

The science mission will map the surface at high resolution, and
study the distribution of water vapor and ozone. It also
will study the transport of dust and water with latitude,
the motions of weather systems and dust storms, and
study the response to daily solar heating.

MCO's Delta launch vehicle took off from Space Launch Complex 17 at Cape
Canaveral and entered a 185 x 198 km x 28.4 deg parking orbit. A second
Delta stage 2 burn raised apogee to around 900 km when the third stage
took over for the solar orbit insertion burn. For the first time, a
small solid Thiokol Star 37FM motor was used as the Delta third stage.
An older Star 37E motor was used in the 1970s as the standard third
stage, but was replaced by the much bigger Star 48 in the 1980s.
The Star 37E and MCO are in solar orbit; the Delta stage 2 was
left in a 162 x 857 km x 23.9 deg Earth orbit.

Meanwhile, Deep Space 1 has completed a two week long burn of
its NSTAR ion engine.

The satellites I listed earlier as Iridium 2 and Iridium 3 are actually
Iridium 87 and Iridium 78 respectively. The names used by Space Command
are system identifiers which will be reused (i.e. there'll be another
Iridium 3 someday replacing this one, so it's not a unique name) and not
the spacecraft production numbers. I'll be posting a detailed
constellation status in a forthcoming issue.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  1 1703   Spartan 201       -              Discovery, LEO   Astronomy  64C
Nov  4 0512   PAS 8             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     65A
Nov  6 1337   Iridium 87)       Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     66A
              Iridium 83)                                       Comsat     66E
              Iridium 84)                                       Comsat     66D
              Iridium 85)                                       Comsat     66C
              Iridium 86)                                       Comsat     66B
Nov 10 1930?  Spoutnik-41       -              Mir, LEO         Amateur    62C
Nov 20 0640   Zarya             Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    67A
Nov 22 2354   BONUM-1           Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     68A
Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Mar 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-88  

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          LC39A     STS-88

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 29. December 1998 23:54
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 383

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 383                                       1998 Dec 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Travel followed by email problems caused me to get behind, so here's
a bumper winter solstice issue to catch up. Next week I expect to
publish the usual annual launch list.
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

On Dec 6 Endeavour was docked to the International Space Station,
consisting of PMA-2, Unity, PMA-1  and Zarya. The vehicles are in a 386
x 401 km x 51.6 deg orbit.

Ross and Newman made the first spacewalk to connect up cables with
Zarya. Hatch open on the Tunnel Adapter was at 2210 UTC on Dec 7, and
the airlock was repressurized at 0532 UTC on Dec 8. The second EVA, to
install antennas, was from Dec 9 at 2033 UTC to Dec 10 at 0335 UTC. A
third EVA began at 2033 UTC on Dec 12 and lasted 6h 59min, during which
a canvas tool bag was attached to the exterior of Unity to provide
tools for future spacewalkers. They also disconnected some docking cables,
so that Unity and Zarya can no longer undock.

Endeavour undocked from the ISS at 2030 UTC on Dec 13; the Unity module
has been cataloged by Space Command and given the international
designation 1998-67F. The SAC-A and Mightysat satellites were ejected
from the payload bay on Dec 14 and Dec 15. Deorbit burn was Dec 18 at
0248 UTC, and  Endeavour landed on Dec 18 at 0353:29 UTC, on runway 15
at Kennedy Space Center.

Errata:
 - Third stage for the Mars Climate Orbiter launch was the
usual Star 48, not the alternate Star 37FM as I claimed last
week. Apologies for the error.

 - I keep misspelling the location of the organization
formerly known as McDonnell Douglas. It is Huntington Beach,
not Huntingdon Beach. The Huntington Beach unit built the
PMA-1 and PMA-2 docking adapters used on the Station.

AXAF/Chandra
------------

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) has been renamed the
Chandra X-ray Observatory. Launch will be in April 1999. The CXO
name honors physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; see my short bio page
for him at 
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/axaf/chandra.html
The spacecraft will be operated from the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC)
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. CXO is currently at TRW's plant in
Los Angeles, and will be flown to Florida in January.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace launched the PAS 6B satellite on Dec 22. The Ariane 42L
rocket took off from the ELA2 pad at Kourou's Centre Spatial Guyanais
and its hydrogen-oxygen H-10-3 third stage placed the satellite in
transfer orbit after a 20 minute flight. Transfer orbit is 228 x 35717
km x 7.0 deg. PAS 6B is a Hughes HS-601HP satellite which will provide
direct TV broadcasting to South America. Mass is 3475 kg at launch. PAS
6B will replace PAS 6, a Loral satellite which had problems with its
solar arrays. The new satellite has 32 Ku-band transponders.

Two replacement Motorola Iridium satellites were launched by a Chinese
CZ-2 rocket on Dec 19. Their parking orbit is 623 x 656 km x 86.4 deg.
The satellites have been given operating numbers 11 and 20; I don't know
their production numbers.

A Parus navigation satellite was launched from GIK-1 Plesetsk on Dec 24
and given the name Kosmos-2361. Polyot's 11K65M Kosmos-3M launch vehicle
placed the craft and the Kosmos-3M second stage in transfer orbit; a
second burn of the S3M stage left Kosmos-2361 in a circular 969 x 1013
km x 82.9 deg orbit. Kosmos-2361 is in the same orbital plane as Kosmos-2233.
Recent Parus satellites include:

   Satellite       Plane (relative deg)

   Kosmos-2266     0
   Kosmos-2327     0
   Kosmos-2334     0
   Kosmos-2341     0
   Kosmos-2310     30
   Kosmos-2339     30
   Kosmos-2218     60
   Kosmos-2239     90
   Kosmos-2336     90
   Kosmos-2233     120
   Kosmos-2361     120
   Kosmos-2279     150

Japan's Nozomi Mars probe made a lunar flyby at an altitude of 2809 km
on Dec 18 at 0734 UTC followed by a 1003 km Earth flyby on Dec 20 at
0810 UTC. The perigee burn resulted in an escape orbit with too little
velocity, and a correction burn on Dec 21 had to use much more fuel than
planned to adjust the trajectory (a AP wire report of a `second swingby'
on Dec 21 is simply incorrect). Nozomi was launched in July; it made six
orbits in a 700 x 480000 km parking orbit before a lunar flyby on Sep 24
placed it in a large loop orbit with an apogee of  at least 1.6 million
km, which it reached on about Nov 10 before falling back to its second
lunar encounter on Dec 18. Meanwhile, NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter made
its first orbit correction at 2133 UTC on Dec 21 and is now on course
for Mars.

The NEAR space probe ran into trouble on Dec 20 at 2200 UTC when
controllers lost contact during an engine burn. A signal was picked up
early on Dec 22, and it appears that  a main engine malfunction was
followed by a software error putting the  craft into a tumble. NEAR made
a flyby of minor planet (433) Eros at 4100 km at 1843 UTC on Dec 23. The
Eros rendezvous may be delayed to May 2000. NEAR is a NASA Discovery
mission operated by APL. 

Lunar Prospector lowered its polar lunar orbit on Dec 19 from 77 x 122 km 
to 25 x 55 km. In October its orbital inclination was 85 deg, but
status reports haven't given this value recently.

Hammaguir Query
---------------

I'm trying to research the former French launch site CIEES-Hammaguir,
in Algeria. Does anyone have a map showing the locations of the
four pads at Hammaguir? If so, please contact me.

LEO Constellations
------------------

Here is an update on the Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm constellations.
 For Iridium, mappings of NORAD catalog numbers to satellites have been
confirmed by a Motorola source. Note that satellite 1997-43C (Iridium
SV024) is being tracked as catalog 25105, while satellite 1997-82B
(Iridium SV46) is being tracked as catalog 24905, although they were
initially cataloged the other way around. Orbital plane info is given as
longtiude of ascending node on about Dec 16, followed by plane number.
Tail ID is a telephony routing node identifier that is reused - thus
there is a new Iridium 11 to replace the one that failed earlier. SV
serial number is the production serial of the satellite and is the one
unique identifier for the satellite.
 For Globalstar and Orbcomm, I don't know which of the satellites
are currently in service.
 The Iridium satellites are made by Motorola/Chandler with a Lockheed
Martin/Sunnyvale spacecraft bus. The Globalstars are made by Loral/Palo
Alto and Alenia/Torino using an LS-400 bus. The Orbcomms are made by
Orbital/Germantown using the Microstar bus.

NORAD INTL.     Tail ID    Serial P/min   Height/km   Inc/deg Plane   Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iridium satellites

24796 1997-020E Iridium 4  SV004  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  262.5 4
24795 1997-020D Iridium 5  SV005  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  262.5 4
24794 1997-020C Iridium 6  SV006  100.40 774 x 780 x  86.40  262.5 4
24793 1997-020B Iridium 7  SV007  100.40 774 x 781 x  86.40  262.4 4
24792 1997-020A Iridium 8  SV008  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  262.5 4
24838 1997-030C Iridium 9  SV009  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
24839 1997-030D Iridium 10 SV010  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.0 5
24842 1997-030G Iridium 11 SV011  100.07 749 x 774 x  86.44  294.6 5 [Not in service]
24837 1997-030B Iridium 12 SV012  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  294.2 5
24840 1997-030E Iridium 13 SV013  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5 
24836 1997-030A Iridium 14 SV014  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.39  294.2 5 [Not in service]
24841 1997-030F Iridium 16 SV016  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
24869 1997-034A Iridium 15 SV015  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.40  325.8 6
24870 1997-034B Iridium 17 SV017  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.39  325.8 6
24872 1997-034D Iridium 18 SV018  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.39  325.8 6
24871 1997-034C Iridium 20 SV020  100.37 768 x 784 x  86.40  325.7 6 [Failed]
24873 1997-034E Iridium 21 SV021   97.38 626 x 640 x  86.39  310.4 6 [Failed in low orbit]
24907 1997-043E Iridium 22 SV022  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.3 2
25105 1997-043D Iridium 23 SV023  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2 
24905 1997-043C Iridium 24 SV024  100.40 769 x 785 x  86.40  199.3 2 [Should be 24905, failed]
24904 1997-043B Iridium 25 SV025  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
24903 1997-043A Iridium 26 SV026  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
24925 1997-048A Iridium    MFS 1   97.25 620 x 633 x  86.34  271.9 5 [Dummy satellite]
24926 1997-048B Iridium    MFS 2   97.26 620 x 634 x  86.34  272.0 5 [Dummy satellite]
24947 1997-051D Iridium 27 SV027   95.61 542 x 553 x  86.65  223.2 3 [Failed in low orbit]
24948 1997-051E Iridium 28 SV028  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
24944 1997-051A Iridium 29 SV029  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
24949 1997-051F Iridium 30 SV030  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  230.8 3
24950 1997-051G Iridium 31 SV031  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
24945 1997-051B Iridium 32 SV032  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
24946 1997-051C Iridium 33 SV033  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.40  230.9 3
24965 1997-056A Iridium 19 SV019  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  262.4 4
24969 1997-056E Iridium 34 SV034  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  262.5 4
24968 1997-056D Iridium 35 SV035  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  262.5 4 
24967 1997-056C Iridium 36 SV036  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  262.4 4
24966 1997-056B Iridium 37 SV037  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  262.6 4
25043 1997-069E Iridium 38 SV038  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.39  325.6 6
25042 1997-069D Iridium 39 SV039  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.39  325.8 6
25041 1997-069C Iridium 40 SV040  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.39  325.8 6
25040 1997-069B Iridium 41 SV041  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.39  325.8 6
25039 1997-069A Iridium 43 SV043  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.39  325.8 6
25077 1997-077A Iridium 42 SV042  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  325.8 6
25078 1997-077B Iridium 44 SV044  100.40 774 x 780 x  86.39  325.8 6 [Not in service]
25104 1997-082A Iridium 45 SV045  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
24905 1997-082B Iridium 46 SV046  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.41  199.4 2 [Should be 25105]
25106 1997-082C Iridium 47 SV047  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
25107 1997-082D Iridium 48 SV048  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  199.4 2
25108 1997-082E Iridium 49 SV049  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
25172 1998-010D Iridium 50 SV050  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
25169 1998-010A Iridium 52 SV052  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.1 5
25173 1998-010E Iridium 53 SV053  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
25171 1998-010C Iridium 54 SV054  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
25170 1998-010B Iridium 56 SV056  100.40 774 x 780 x  86.39  294.0 5
25262 1998-018A Iridium 51 SV051   99.90 751 x 756 x  86.45  262.5 4 [Not in service]
25263 1998-018B Iridium 61 SV061  100.40 774 x 780 x  86.40  262.5 4
25272 1998-019A Iridium 55 SV055  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  230.9 3
25273 1998-019B Iridium 57 SV057  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
25274 1998-019C Iridium 58 SV058  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
25275 1998-019D Iridium 59 SV059  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3
25276 1998-019E Iridium 60 SV060  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  230.9 3  
25285 1998-021A Iridium 62 SV062  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.40  167.9 1
25286 1998-021B Iridium 63 SV063  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  167.8 1
25287 1998-021C Iridium 64 SV064  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  167.6 1
25288 1998-021D Iridium 65 SV065  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.40  167.9 1
25289 1998-021E Iridium 66 SV066  100.40 773 x 782 x  86.40  167.8 1
25290 1998-021F Iridium 67 SV067  100.40 774 x 780 x  86.40  167.8 1
25291 1998-021G Iridium 68 SV068  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  167.8 1
25319 1998-026A Iridium 69 SV069  100.46 777 x 783 x  86.40  199.4 2 [Not in service]
25320 1998-026B Iridium 71 SV071  100.40 775 x 778 x  86.40  199.3 2 [Not in service]
25342 1998-032A Iridium 70 SV070  100.40 775 x 780 x  86.40  167.8 1
25343 1998-032B Iridium 72 SV072  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  167.8 1
25344 1998-032C Iridium 73 SV073  100.40 776 x 778 x  86.40  167.8 1
25345 1998-032D Iridium 74 SV074  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  167.8 1
25346 1998-032E Iridium 75 SV075   98.63 691 x 694 x  86.55  167.7 1 [Not in service]
25432 1998-048B Iridium 76 SV076  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
25431 1998-048A Iridium 3  SV078  100.40 776 x 779 x  86.40  199.4 2
25471 1998-051E Iridium 77 SV077   98.96 707 x 709 x  86.52  325.4 6 [Not in service]
25470 1998-051D Iridium 79 SV079   95.01 494 x 544 x  86.01  316.3 6 [Failed in low orbit]
25469 1998-051C Iridium 80 SV080  100.40 774 x 781 x  86.40  325.7 6
25468 1998-051B Iridium 81 SV081  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  325.7 6
25467 1998-051A Iridium 82 SV082   98.96 706 x 711 x  86.52  325.6 6 [Not in service]
25531 1998-066E Iridium 83 SV083  100.40 775 x 779 x  86.40  294.2 5
25530 1998-066D Iridium 84 SV084   98.85 701 x 705 x  86.52  294.1 5 [Raising orbit]
25529 1998-066C Iridium 85 SV085   95.12 512 x 536 x  86.02  291.1 5 [Parking orbit]
25528 1998-066B Iridium 86 SV086   98.86 701 x 706 x  86.52  293.9 5 [Raising orbit]
25527 1998-066A Iridium 2  SV087   95.14 512 x 538 x  85.40  289.1 5 [Parking orbit]
25577 1998-074A Iridium 11 SV088?  97.52 623 x 656 x  86.35  197.0 2 [Parking orbit]
25578 1998-074B Iridium 20 SV089?  97.50 623 x 654 x  86.35  197.2 2 [Parking orbit]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Globalstar satellites

25162 1998-008A Globalstar FM1   114.08   1411 x   1415 x  52.03   43.9 1
25163 1998-008B Globalstar FM2   114.08   1412 x   1414 x  52.01   43.8 1
25164 1998-008C Globalstar FM3   114.08   1404 x   1422 x  52.01   42.4 1
25165 1998-008D Globalstar FM4   114.10   1391 x   1437 x  52.00   43.6 1
25306 1998-023A Globalstar FM6   114.08   1411 x   1415 x  51.99   90.4 2
25307 1998-023B Globalstar FM8   114.03   1407 x   1415 x  52.00   88.9 2
25308 1998-023C Globalstar FM14  114.08   1411 x   1415 x  52.00   90.2 2
25309 1998-023D Globalstar FM15  114.08   1404 x   1423 x  52.03   88.0 2
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM5   -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM7   -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM9   -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM10  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM11  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM12  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM13  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM16  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM17  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM18  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM20  -        Failed to orbit
-     1998-F05  Globalstar FM21  -        Failed to orbit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbcomm satellites

23545 1995-017A Orbcomm F1   FM1    99.56    728 x    747 x  69.98  199.1  F
23546 1995-017B Orbcomm F2   FM2    99.56    728 x    747 x  69.98  198.5  F
25112 1997-084A Orbcomm A1   FM5   101.26    812 x    823 x  45.03  297.7  A
25113 1997-084B Orbcomm A2   FM6   101.26    813 x    822 x  45.03  300.7  A
25114 1997-084C Orbcomm A3   FM7   101.26    813 x    822 x  45.03  301.0  A
25115 1997-084D Orbcomm A4   FM8   101.26    813 x    823 x  45.02  300.5  A
25116 1997-084E Orbcomm A5   FM9   101.26    814 x    822 x  45.02  301.0  A
25117 1997-084F Orbcomm A6   FM10  101.26    812 x    823 x  45.02  301.2  A
25118 1997-084G Orbcomm A7   FM11  101.26    813 x    823 x  45.02  301.2  A
25119 1997-084H Orbcomm A8   FM12  101.26    812 x    823 x  45.02  301.2  A
25158 1998-007B Orbcomm G1   FM3   101.46    781 x    874 x 107.99  297.9  G
25159 1998-007C Orbcomm G2   FM4   101.45    783 x    871 x 107.99  298.1  G
25413 1998-046A Orbcomm B5   FM17  101.28    813 x    824 x  45.00   61.0  B
25414 1998-046B Orbcomm B6   FM18  101.28    810 x    827 x  45.00   59.7  B
25415 1998-046C Orbcomm B7   FM19  101.28    809 x    828 x  45.00   61.1  B
25416 1998-046D Orbcomm B8   FM20  101.28    811 x    826 x  45.00   61.2  B
25417 1998-046E Orbcomm B4   FM16  101.28    812 x    825 x  45.00   59.9  B
25418 1998-046F Orbcomm B3   FM15  101.28    812 x    825 x  45.01   60.0  B
25419 1998-046G Orbcomm B2   FM14  101.28    811 x    826 x  45.00   60.4  B
25420 1998-046H Orbcomm B1   FM13  101.27    813 x    824 x  45.00   60.4  B
25475 1998-053A Orbcomm C1   FM21  101.27    811 x    825 x  45.01  181.6  C
25476 1998-053B Orbcomm C2   FM22  101.27    814 x    823 x  45.02  178.0  C
25477 1998-053C Orbcomm C3   FM23  101.27    813 x    823 x  45.02  181.8  C
25478 1998-053D Orbcomm C4   FM24  101.27    814 x    822 x  45.01  181.7  C
25479 1998-053E Orbcomm C5   FM25  101.27    813 x    824 x  45.01  181.5  C
25480 1998-053F Orbcomm C6   FM26  101.27    811 x    825 x  45.01  181.5  C
25481 1998-053G Orbcomm C7   FM27  101.27    813 x    823 x  45.02  181.6  C
25482 1998-053H Orbcomm C8   FM28  101.27    813 x    824 x  45.03  181.7  C
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov  1 1703   Spartan 201       -              Discovery, LEO   Astronomy  64C
Nov  4 0512   PAS 8             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     65A
Nov  6 1337   Iridium 87)       Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     66A
              Iridium 83)                                       Comsat     66E
              Iridium 84)                                       Comsat     66D
              Iridium 85)                                       Comsat     66C
              Iridium 86)                                       Comsat     66B
Nov 10 1930?  Spoutnik-41       -              Mir, LEO         Amateur    62C
Nov 20 0640   Zarya             Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    67A
Nov 22 2354   BONUM-1           Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     68A
Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station    69F
              PMA-1      )
              PMA-2      )
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A
Dec 14 0431   SAC-A                            Endeavour,LEO    Science    69B
Dec 15 0209   Mightysat                        Endeavour,LEO    Technol.   69C
Dec 19 1130   Iridium 88?)      CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     74A
              Iridium 89?)                                      Comsat     74B
Dec 22 0108   PAS 6B            Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
Dec 24 2003   Kosmos-2361       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     76A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Apr 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 1999

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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            |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 01. January 1999 19:10
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 384 (Annual Launch Log)

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 384                                             1999 Jan 1 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Jonathan's Space Report - 1998 Launch Log Special Edition

Below is the list of attempted orbital launches for 1998. 
As last year, it is in four sections: status of orbital payloads,
manufacturers of orbital payloads, list of acronyms, and statistics
of launch vehicles. Corrections to jcm@cfa.harvard.edu please.

ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1998

PART 1 - List and current status

 Orbits are given for late Dec 1998:
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)


INT'L   NAME            AGENCY  TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.                                   DATE
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01A Lunar Prospector   NASA-ARC   Probe      Jan  7 In lunar orbit
02A Skynet 4D          UK MoD     Comsat     Jan 10 35685 x  35889 x 3.7  52.8E
F01 'Ofeq-4            ISA        Imaging    Jan 22 Fell in Mediterranean Sea
03A Endeavour STS-89   NASA-JSC   Spaceship  Jan 23 Landed at KSC Jan 31
03A Spacehab-DM        NASA-JSC   Spacelab   Jan 23 Remained attached to OV-105
04A Soyuz TM-27        RKA        Spaceship  Jan 29 Landed in Kazakstan Aug 25
05A CAPRICORN          NRO/CIA    Comsat?    Jan 29   200?x 39500?x 63.4
06A Brasilsat B-3      Embratel   Comsat     Feb  4 35774 x 35799 x  0.1  84.0W
06B Inmarsat 3 F5      Inmarsat   Comsat     Feb  4 35770 x 35800 x  2.3  25.0E
07A GFO                USN        Altimetry  Feb 10   774 x   877 x108.0 
07B Orbcomm G1         Orbcomm    Comsat     Feb 10   781 x   877 x108.0
07C Orbcomm G2         Orbcomm    Comsat     Feb 10   785 x   875 x108.0
07D Celestis-02        Celestis   Burial     Feb 10   782 x   884 x108.0
08A Globalstar FM1     Globalstar Comsat     Feb 14  1411 x  1415 x 52.0
08B Globalstar FM2     Globalstar Comsat     Feb 14  1412 x  1414 x 52.0
08C Globalstar FM3     Globalstar Comsat     Feb 14  1404 x  1422 x 52.0
08D Globalstar FM4     Globalstar Comsat     Feb 14  1391 x  1437 x 52.0
09A Kosmos-2349        MO RF      Imaging    Feb 17 Landed in Kazakstan Apr 2
10A Iridium 52         Iridium    Comsat     Feb 18   775 x   779 x 86.4
10B Iridium 56         Iridium    Comsat     Feb 18   774 x   780 x 86.4
10C Iridium 54         Iridium    Comsat     Feb 18   775 x   779 x 86.4
10D Iridium 50         Iridium    Comsat     Feb 18   775 x   779 x 86.4
10E Iridium 53         Iridium    Comsat     Feb 18   775 x   779 x 86.4
11A Kakehashi          NASDA      Comsat     Feb 21   467 x 17718 x 30.1
12A SNOE               NASA-GSFC  Science    Feb 26   527 x   577 x 97.7
12B T1                 Teledesic  Comsat     Feb 26   525 x   569 x 97.7
13A Hot Bird 4         Eutelsat   Comsat     Feb 27 35764 x 35807 x  0.2  13.0E
14A Intelsat 806       Intelsat   Comsat     Feb 28 35771 x 35802 x  0.0  40.5W
15A Progress M-38      RKA        Cargo      Mar 14 Deorbited over Pacific May 15
16A UHF F/O F-8        USN        Comsat     Mar 16 35768 x 35800 x  5.6 171.8E  
17A SPOT 4             CNES       Imaging    Mar 24   824 x   825 x 98.7
18A Iridium 51         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 25   751 x   756 x 86.4
18B Iridium 61         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 25   774 x   780 x 86.4
19A Iridium 55         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 30   775 x   790 x 86.4
19B Iridium 57         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 30   775 x   779 x 86.4
19C Iridium 58         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 30   775 x   779 x 86.4
19D Iridium 59         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 30   775 x   779 x 86.4
19E Iridium 60         Iridium    Comsat     Mar 30   775 x   779 x 86.4
20A TRACE              NASA-GSFC  Astronomy  Apr  2   596 x   640 x 97.8
21A Iridium 62         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   776 x   778 x 86.4
21B Iridium 63         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   775 x   779 x 86.4
21C Iridium 64         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   776 x   779 x 86.4
21D Iridium 65         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   776 x   778 x 86.4
21E Iridium 66         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   772 x   782 x 86.4
21F Iridium 67         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   774 x   780 x 86.4
21G Iridium 68         Iridium    Comsat     Apr  7   775 x   779 x 86.4
22A Columbia (STS-90)  NASA-JSC   Spaceship  Apr 17 Landed at KSC May 3
22A Neurolab           NASA-MSFC  Spacelab   Apr 17 Remained attached to OV-102
23A Globalstar FM6     Globalstar Comsat     Apr 24  1411 x  1415 x 52.0
23B Globalstar FM8     Globalstar Comsat     Apr 24  1407 x  1415 x 52.0
23C Globalstar FM14    Globalstar Comsat     Apr 24  1411 x  1415 x 52.0
23D Globalstar FM15    Globalstar Comsat     Apr 24  1404 x  1423 x 52.0
24A Nilestar 101       Nilesat    Comsat     Apr 28 35775 x 35797 x  0.0   7.0W
24B BSAT 1b            BSAT       Comsat     Apr 28 35786 x 35789 x  0.0 109.9E
25A Kosmos-2350        MO RF      Early Warn Apr 29 35513 x 36066 x  1.8  73.0E 
26A Iridium 69         Iridium    Comsat     May  2   777 x   783 x 86.4
26B Iridium 71         Iridium    Comsat     May  2   775 x   778 x 86.4
27A Kosmos-2351        MO RF      Early Warn May  7   739 x 39609 x 63.1
28A Echostar 4         Echostar   Comsat     May  7 35769 x 35802 x  0.0 148.0W
29A USA 139            NRO/CIA    Sigint     May  9 35780?x 35800?x  0?
30A NOAA 15            NOAA       Weather    May 13   807 x   824 x 98.7
31A Progress M-39      RKA        Cargo      May 14 Deorbited over Pacific Oct 29
32A Iridium 70         Iridium    Comsat     May 16   775 x   780 x 86.4
32B Iridium 72         Iridium    Comsat     May 16   776 x   779 x 86.4
32C Iridium 73         Iridium    Comsat     May 16   776 x   778 x 86.4
32D Iridium 74         Iridium    Comsat     May 16   775 x   779 x 86.4
32E Iridium 75         Iridium    Comsat     May 16   691 x   694 x 86.6
33A Zhongwei 1         ChinaOri   Comsat     May 30 35774 x 35794 x  0.0  87.6E
34A Discovery (STS-91) NASA-JSC   Spaceship  Jun  2 Landed at KSC Jun 12 
34A Spacehab-SM        NASA-JSC   Spacelab   Jun  2 Remained attached to OV-103
34A AMS                NASA-JSC?  Astronomy  Jun  2 Remained attached to OV-103
35A Thor III           Telenor    Comsat     Jun 10 35764 x 35811 x  0.0   0.8W
36A Kosmos-2352        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1311 x  1873 x 82.6
36B Kosmos-2353        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1300 x  1869 x 82.6
36C Kosmos-2354        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1307 x  1871 x 82.6
36D Kosmos-2355        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1303 x  1867 x 82.6
36E Kosmos-2356        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1298 x  1866 x 82.6
36F Kosmos-2357        MO RF      Comsat     Jun 15  1294 x  1862 x 82.6
37A Intelsat 805       Intelsat   Comsat     Jun 18 35776 x 35798 x  0.0  55.5W 
38A Kosmos-2358        MO RF      Recon      Jun 24 Landed Oct 22
39A Kosmos-2359        MO RF      Recon      Jun 25   237 x   288 x 64.9
40A Molniya-3          RKA        Comsat     Jul  1   645 x 39708 x 62.8
41A Nozomi             ISAS       Probe      Jul  3 En route to Mars
42A Tubsat-N           TUB        Technology Jul  7   399 x   763 x 78.9
42B Tubsat-N1          TUB        Technology Jul  7   397 x   747 x 78.9
42C Shtil'-1           TUB        Test       Jul  7   401 x   801 x 79.0
43A Resurs-O1          RKA        Imaging    Jul 10   816 x   818 x 98.8
43B Fasat-Bravo        FACH       Imaging    Jul 10   814 x   818 x 98.8
43C TM-SAT             TMSAT      Technology Jul 10   816 x   818 x 98.8
43D Gurwin Techsat 1B  Technion   Technology Jul 10   817 x   818 x 98.8
43E WESTPAC            WPLTN      Geodesy    Jul 10   816 x   818 x 98.8
43F SAFIR-2            DLR        Comsat     Jul 10   815 x   817 x 98.8
44A Sinosat            Sinosat    Comsat     Jul 18 35777 x 35798 x  0.0 110.5E
45A Kosmos-2360        MO RF      Sigint     Jul 28   844 x   856 x 71.0
46A Orbcomm B5         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   813 x   824 x 45.0
46B Orbcomm B6         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   810 x   827 x 45.0
46C Orbcomm B7         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   809 x   828 x 45.0
46D Orbcomm B8         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   811 x   826 x 45.0
46E Orbcomm B4         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   812 x   825 x 45.0
46F Orbcomm B3         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   812 x   825 x 45.0
46G Orbcomm B2         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   811 x   826 x 45.0
46H Orbcomm B1         Orbcomm    Comsat     Aug  2   813 x   824 x 45.0
F02 USA                NRO/NSA    Sigint     Aug 12 Exploded at launch
47A Soyuz TM-28        RKA        Spaceship  Aug 13 Docked to Mir complex
48A Iridium 78         Iridium    Comsat     Aug 19   776 x   779 x 86.4
48B Iridium 76         Iridium    Comsat     Aug 19   775 x   779 x 86.4
49A ST-1               SingT/ChuT Comsat     Aug 25 35776 x 35797 x  0.0  88.0E
F03 Galaxy X           Panamsat   Comsat     Aug 27 Exploded at launch
50A Astra 2A           SES        Comsat     Aug 30 35739 x 35833 x  0.0  28.3E
F04 Kwangmyongsong 1   DPRK       Test       Aug 31 Fell in Pacific?
51A Iridium 82         Iridium    Comsat     Sep  8   706 x   711 x 86.5
51B Iridium 81         Iridium    Comsat     Sep  8   775 x   779 x 86.4
51C Iridium 80         Iridium    Comsat     Sep  8   774 x   781 x 86.4
51D Iridium 79         Iridium    Comsat     Sep  8   494 x   544 x 86.0
51E Iridium 77         Iridium    Comsat     Sep  8   707 x   709 x 86.5
F05 Globalstar FM5     Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM7     Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM9     Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM10    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM11    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM12    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM13    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM16    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM17    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM18    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM20    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
F05 Globalstar FM21    Globalstar Comsat     Sep  9 Fell in Siberia
52A PAS 7              Panamsat   Comsat     Sep 16 35749 x 35821 x  0.0  68.7E
53A Orbcomm C1         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   811 x   825 x 45.0
53B Orbcomm C2         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   814 x   823 x 45.0
53C Orbcomm C3         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   813 x   823 x 45.0
53D Orbcomm C4         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   814 x   822 x 45.0
53E Orbcomm C5         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   813 x   824 x 45.0
53F Orbcomm C6         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   811 x   825 x 45.0
53G Orbcomm C7         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   813 x   823 x 45.0
53H Orbcomm C8         Orbcomm    Comsat     Sep 23   813 x   824 x 45.0
54A Molniya-1T         MO RF      Comsat     Sep 28   506 x 39840 x 62.9
55A STEX               NRO        Technology Oct  3   743 x   758 x 85.0
55A ATEX               NRO/NRL    Tether     Oct  3 Still attached to STEX?
56A Eutelsat W2        Eutelsat   Comsat     Oct  5 35779 x 35791 x  0.0  16.0E
56B Sirius 3           NSAB       Comsat     Oct  5 35768 x 35805 x  0.0  23.5E
57A Hot Bird 5         Eutelsat   Comsat     Oct  9 35766 x 35805 x  0.0  10.0E
58A UHF F/O F9         USN        Comsat     Oct 20 34816 x 36750 x  6.0 173.9W
59A Maqsat-3           ESA        Test       Oct 21   996 x 35511 x  7.2
60A SCD-2              INPE       Environtl. Oct 23   742 x   768 x 25.0
61A Deep Space 1       NASA/JPL   Probe      Oct 24 En route to 1992 KD
61B SEDSAT             SEDS-UAH   Comsat     Oct 24   546 x  1078 x 31.4
62A Progress M-40      RKA        Cargo      Oct 25 Docked to Mir complex
62C Spoutnik-41        ACF/AFR    Comsat     Oct 25   313 x   318 x 51.7
63A Afristar           Worldspace Comsat     Oct 28 35766 x 35804 x  0.0  21.0E
63B GE 5               Americom   Comsat     Oct 28 35498 x 35894 x  0.2  36.4W
64A Discovery (STS-95) NASA-JSC   Spaceship  Oct 29 Landed at KSC Nov 7
64A Spacehab-SM        NASA-JSC   Spacelab   Oct 29 Remained attached to OV-103
64B PANSAT             USN        Comsat     Oct 29   551 x   562 x 28.5
64C Spartan 201        NASA-GSFC  Astronomy  Oct 29 Retrieved by OV-103 Nov 3
65A PAS 8              Panamsat   Comsat     Nov  4 35599 x 36075 x  0.3 166.1E
66A Iridium 87         Iridium    Comsat     Nov  6   512 x   538 x 85.4
66B Iridium 86         Iridium    Comsat     Nov  6   701 x   706 x 86.5
66C Iridium 85         Iridium    Comsat     Nov  6   512 x   536 x 86.0
66D Iridium 84         Iridium    Comsat     Nov  6   701 x   705 x 86.5
66E Iridium 83         Iridium    Comsat     Nov  6   775 x   779 x 86.4
67A Zarya              NASA/RKA   Station    Nov 20   397 x   402 x 51.6
68A BONUM-1            BONUM      Comsat     Nov 22 35785 x 35787 x  0.1  35.9E
69A Endeavour (STS-88) NASA-JSC   Spaceship  Dec  4 Landed at KSC Dec 16
69F Unity              NASA-JSC   Station    Dec  4 Docked to PMA-1,PMA-2
69F PMA-1              NASA-JSC   Station    Dec  4 Docked to Unity,Zarya
69F PMA-2              NASA-JSC   Station    Dec  4 Docked to Unity
69B SAC-A              CONAE      Environtl. Dec  4   381 x   398 x 51.6
69C Mightysat 1        USAF       Technology Dec  4   381 x   395 x 51.6
70A Satmex 5           Satmex     Comsat     Dec  6 27669 x 35795 x  0.5
71A SWAS               NASA-GSFC  Astronomy  Dec  6   637 x   651 x 69.9
72A Nadezhda           MO RF      Navsat     Dec 10   976 x  1013 x 83.0
72B Astrid-2           SSC        Science    Dec 10   978 x  1013 x 83.0
73A Mars Climate Orb.  NASA/JPL   Probe      Dec 11 En route to Mars
74A Iridium 88?        Iridium    Comsat     Dec 19   623 x   656 x 86.4
74B Iridium 89?        Iridium    Comsat     Dec 19   623 x   654 x 86.4
75A PAS 6B             Panamsat   Comsat     Dec 22   445 x 35785 x  7.0
76A Kosmos-2361        MO RF      Navsat     Dec 24   969 x  1013 x 82.9
77A Kosmos-2362        MO RF      Navsat     Dec 30 19115 x 19134 x 64.8
77B Kosmos-2363        MO RF      Navsat     Dec 30 19122 x 19126 x 64.8
77C Kosmos-2364        MO RF      Navsat     Dec 30 19125 x 19127 x 64.8

PART 2: Manufacturers/Designers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I give the general type of bus, e.g. no distinction is made between
HS-601 and HS-601HP and so in. See the next section for the key to
my abbreviations for the manufacturers. The manufacturer of the
spacecraft is usually, but not always, the spacecraft prime contractor.

Des  Name               Manufacturer     Bus

01A Lunar Prospector   LM-S             LM-100
02A Skynet 4D          MMS/UK           ECS
F01 'Ofeq-4            IAI              'Ofeq
03A OV-105             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
03A Spacehab-DM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
04A 7K-STM No. 76      Energiya         7K-STM
05A SDS?               Hughes           SDS-C?
06A Brasilsat B3       Hughes           HS-376W
06B Inmarsat 3 F5      LM-EW            LM4000
07A GFO                Ball             Techstar
07B Orbcomm FM3        Orbital-G        Microstar
07C Orbcomm FM4        Orbital-G        Microstar
07D Celestis-02        Orbital-G        CPAC/Orion 38
08A Globalstar FM1     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
08B Globalstar FM2     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
08C Globalstar FM3     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
08D Globalstar FM4     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
09A Kometa No. 19      Progress         Yantar'-1KFT
10A Iridium 52         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
10B Iridium 56         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
10C Iridium 54         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
10D Iridium 50         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
10E Iridium 53         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
11A COMETS             Toshiba/NEC      ETS
12A SNOE               Colorado         SNOE
12B BATSAT             Orbital-G        Microstar
13A Hot Bird 4         MMS-F            Eurostar 2000
14A Intelsat 806       LM-EW            LM7000
15A 7K-TGM No. 240     Energiya         7K-TGM
16A UHF F/O F-8        Hughes           HS-601
17A SPOT 4             MMS-F            SPOT
18A Iridium 51         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
18B Iridium 61         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
19A Iridium 55         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
19B Iridium 57         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
19C Iridium 58         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
19D Iridium 59         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
19E Iridium 60         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
20A TRACE              NASA-GSFC        SMEX
21A Iridium 62         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21B Iridium 63         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21C Iridium 64         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21D Iridium 65         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21E Iridium 66         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21F Iridium 67         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
21G Iridium 68         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
22A OV-102             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
22A Spacelab LM 2      DASA-ERNO        Spacelab
23A Globalstar FM6     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
23B Globalstar FM8     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
23C Globalstar FM14    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
23D Globalstar FM15    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
24A Nilesat 101        MMS-F            Eurostar 2000
24B BSAT 1b            Hughes           HS-376
25A Prognoz            Lavochkin        Prognoz
26A Iridium 69         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
26B Iridium 71         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
27A Oko                Lavochkin        Oko
28A Echostar 4         LM-S             A2100       
29A USA 139            Hughes?          Adv. ORION
30A NOAA 15            LM-EW            ATN
31A 7K-TGM No. 238     Energiya         7K-TGM
32A Iridium 70         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
32B Iridium 72         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
32C Iridium 73         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
32D Iridium 74         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
32E Iridium 75         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
33A Zhongwei 1         LM-S             A2100
34A OV-103             Boeing-NA        Shuttle          
34A Spacehab-SM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
34A AMS                CALT             AMS
35A Thor III           Hughes           HS-376
36A Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
36B Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
36C Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
36D Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
36E Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
36F Strela-3           PM               Strela-3
37A Intelsat 805       LM-EW            LM7000
38A Kobal't            Progress         Yantar'-4K2?
39A Terilen            Progress         Yantar'-4KS1
40A Molniya-3 No. 61   PM               Molniya-3
41A Planet-B           NEC              Planet-B
42A Tubsat-N           TUB              Tubsat-N
42B Tubsat-N1          TUB              Tubsat-N
42C Instr. package     TUB              Shtil' final stage
43A Resurs-O1 No. 4    VNIIEM           Meteor
43B Fasat-Bravo        SSTL             Uosat
43C TM-SAT             SSTL             Uosat
43D Techsat 1B         Technion         Techsat
43E WESTPAC            RKA/EOS          GFZ
43F SAFIR-2            OHB              Safir
44A Sinosat            Alcatel          Spacebus 3000
45A Tselina-2          Yuzhnoe          Tselina-2
46A Orbcomm FM17       Orbital-G        Microstar
46B Orbcomm FM18       Orbital-G        Microstar
46C Orbcomm FM19       Orbital-G        Microstar
46D Orbcomm FM20       Orbital-G        Microstar
46E Orbcomm FM16       Orbital-G        Microstar
46F Orbcomm FM15       Orbital-G        Microstar
46G Orbcomm FM14       Orbital-G        Microstar
46H Orbcomm FM13       Orbital-G        Microstar
F02 MERCURY            TRW?             MERCURY
47A 7K-STM No. 77      Energiya         7K-STM
48A Iridium 78         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
48B Iridium 76         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
49A ST-1               MMS-F            Eurostar 2000
F03 Galaxy X           Hughes           HS-601
50A Astra 2A           Hughes           HS-601
F04 Kwangmyongsong 1   DPRK             DPRK
51A Iridium 82         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
51B Iridium 81         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
51C Iridium 80         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
51D Iridium 79         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
51E Iridium 77         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
F05 Globalstar FM5     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM7     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM9     Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM10    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM11    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM12    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM13    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM16    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM17    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM18    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM20    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
F05 Globalstar FM21    Loral/Alenia     LS-400
52A PAS 7              Loral            FS-1300
53A Orbcomm FM21       Orbital-G        Microstar
53B Orbcomm FM22       Orbital-G        Microstar
53C Orbcomm FM23       Orbital-G        Microstar
53D Orbcomm FM24       Orbital-G        Microstar
53E Orbcomm FM25       Orbital-G        Microstar
53F Orbcomm FM26       Orbital-G        Microstar
53G Orbcomm FM27       Orbital-G        Microstar
53H Orbcomm FM28       Orbital-G        Microstar
54A Molniya-1T         PM               Molniya-1T
55A STEX               LM-A             STEX
55A ATEX               NRL              ATEX
56A Eutelsat W2        Alcatel          Spacebus 3000
56B Sirius 3           Hughes           HS-376
57A Hot Bird 5         MMS-F            Eurostar 2000
58A UHF F/O F9         Hughes           HS-601
59A Maqsat-3           Kayser-Threde    Dummy Spacebus 3000
60A SCD-2              INPE             SCD
61A Deep Space 1       JPL/SA           SA-200
61B SEDSAT             SEDS-UAH         SEDSAT
62A 7K-TGM No. 239     Energiya         7K-TGM 
62C Spoutnik-41        AFR              Spoutnik-40
63A Afristar           MMS-F            Eurostar 2000
63B GE 5               Alcatel          Spacebus 2000
64A OV-103             Boeing-NA        Shuttle          
64A Spacehab-SM        Boeing-HB/Alenia Spacehab
64B PANSAT             USNA             PANSAT
64C Spartan 201        NASA-GSFC        Spartan 200
65A PAS 8              Loral            FS-1300
66A Iridium 87         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
66B Iridium 86         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
66C Iridium 85         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
66D Iridium 84         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
66E Iridium 83         LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
67A 77KSM No. 17501    Krunichev        77KS
68A BONUM-1            Hughes           HS-376
69A OV-105             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
69F Node 1             Boeing-HSV       ISS Node
69F PMA-1              Boeing-HB        ISS PMA
69F PMA-2              Boeing-HB        ISS PMA
69B SAC-A              INVAP            SAC
69C Mightysat 1        Orbital-M        Mightysat
70A Satmex 5           Hughes           HS-601
71A SWAS               NASA-GSFC        SMEX
72A Nadezhda           Polyot           Parus
72B Astrid-2           SSC              Astrid
73A Mars Climate Orb.  LM-A             Mars Surveyor
74A Iridium 88?        LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
74B Iridium 89?        LM-S/Motorola    Iridium
75A PAS 6B             Hughes           HS-601
76A Parus              Polyot           Parus
77A Uragan             Polyot           Uragan
77B Uragan             Polyot           Uragan
77C Uragan             Polyot           Uragan

PART 3 - Abbreviations for Organizations

ACF             Aero Club de France, Paris
AFR             Astronautical Federation of Russia
Alcatel         Alcatel, Cannes, France (was Aerospatiale)
Alenia          Alenia Spazio, Torino, Italy
Americom        GE American Communications
Ball            Ball Aerospace, Boulder
Boeing-NA       Boeing Palmdale (formerly Rockwell/North American)
Boeing-HB       Boeing Huntington Beach (formerly McDonnell Douglas)
Boeing-HSV      Boeing Huntsville
BONUM           BONUM, Media Most, Moskva
BSAT            Broadcasting Satellite System Corp, Tokyo
CALT            China Academy of Launch Vehicle Tech., Beijing
Celestis        Celestis Inc., Florida
ChinaOri        China Orient Telecomms. Satellite Co, Beijing 
                  (Min of Post. and Tel)
ChuT            Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan
CNES            Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse
Colorado        University of Colorado, Boulder
CONAE           Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Buenos Aires
CIA             Central Intelligence Agency, USA
DASA-ERNO       DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Bremen (formerly ERNO)
DLR             Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Koln
Dornier         DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH, 
                  Friedrichshafen
DPRK            Dem. People's Republic of Korea (Chongon)
Echostar        Echostar Communications Corp., Englewood
Embratel        Embratel, Brasil
Energiya        RKK Energiya im. S.P. Korolyov, Kaliningrad-Korolyov
EOS             Electro-Optical Systems, Queanbeyan, NSW
ESA             European Space Agency
Eutelsat        European Telecommunications Sat. Org.
FACH            Fuerza Aerea de Chile, Santiago
Globalstar      Globalstar Comms Corp., San Jose
Hughes          Hughes Space and Communications, El Segundo
IAI             Israel Aircraft Industries
Inmarsat        International Maritime Satellite Organization, London
INPE            Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Sao Jose dos Campos
Intelsat        International Telecommunications Sat. Org., Washington DC.
INVAP           INVAP SE, Bariloche, Argentina
Iridium         Iridium Inc., Washington DC.
ISA             Israeli Space Agency
ISAS            Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences, Tokyo
JPL             Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
Kayser-Threde   Kayser-Threde, Munchen
Lavochkin       NPO Lavochkin, Moskva
LM-A            Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver (formerly Martin)
LM-EW           Lockheed Martin Telecommunications, East Windsor (formerly RCA)
LM-S            Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale (formerly Lockheed)
Loral           Space Systems/Loral, Palo Alto
MMS-F           Matra Marconi Space-France, Toulouse
MMS-UK          Matra Marconi Space-UK, Stevenage
MO RF           Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Motorola        Motorola Satellite, Chandler
NASA            National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
NASA-ARC        NASA Ames Research Center
NASA-GSFC       NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt.
NASA-JSC        NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.
NASA-MSFC       NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville
NASDA           National Space Development Agency, Japan
NEC             Nippon Electric Corp, Tokyo
Nilesat         Nilesat, Egyptian Radio and TV Union, Cairo
NOAA            National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA
NRL             Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC
NRO             US National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly
NSA             US National Security Agency, Fort Meade
NSAB            Nordiska Satellit AB, Solna, Stockholm
OHB             OHB System GmbH, Bremen
Orbcomm         Orbital Communications Corp, Dulles
Orbital-G       Orbital Sciences Corp., Germantown (formerly Fairchild)
Orbital-M       Orbital Sciences Corp., McLean (formerly DSI and CTA)
Panamsat        Panamsat Inc. Greenwich, Connecticut
PM              NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Zhelenogorsk
Polyot          AKO Polyot, Omsk
Progress        TsSKB-Progress, Samara
RKA             Russian Space Agency
SA              Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, Arizona
Satmex          Satellites Mexicanos SA de SV, Mexico City
SEDS            Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.
SEDS-UAH        SEDS, Univ. Alabama-Huntsville chapter                
SES             Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
SingT           Singapore Telecom, Singapore
Sinosat         Sino Satellite Comms. Co., Shanghai
SSC             Swedish Space Corporation
SSTL            Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., Guildford.
Technion        Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa
Teledesic       Teledesic Corp.
Telenor         Telenor, Oslo
TMSAT           Thai Microsatellite Co, Bangkok
Toshiba         Toshiba Corp., Tokyo
TRW             TRW, Redondo Beach
TUB             Technische Universitat Berlin
UK MoD          United Kingdom Ministry of Defence
USAF            United States Air Force
USN             United States Navy
USNA            United States Naval Academy
VNIIEM          VNII Elektromekhaniki
Worldspace      Worldspace Inc, Washington DC
WPLTN           Western Pacific Laser Tracking Network
Yuzhnoe         KB Yuzhnoe, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine



PART 4 - Launch Vehicles
 
 Launch vehicles are listed by type, in order of number of
launches. There were 81 launches this year, compared to 89
in 1997 and 77 in 1996.
 Shuttle and Proton launches are down, with other launch totals similar
to last year. There were  no launches this year by Start, PSLV, or VLS,
but new launch vehicles included Shtil', Taepodong and Delta 3 (only
Shtil' reached orbit).

US vehicles:            Launched        Failures
 NASA Space Shuttle     5               0
 Lockheed Martin Titan  3               1
 Lockheed Martin Atlas  6               0
 Lockheed Martin Athena 1               0
 Boeing Delta 2         12              0 
 Boeing Delta 3         1               1
 Orbital Pegasus        6               0
 Orbital Taurus         2               0

Russian vehicles:
 TsSKB-Progress Soyuz   11              0
 Krunichev Proton       7               0
 Polyot Kosmos          2               0

Other vehicles:
 Arianespace Ariane     10              0
 Arianespace Ariane 5   1               0
 NASDA H-II             1               1*
 CALT Chang Zheng       6               0
 Yuzhnoe Tsiklon        1               0+
 Yuzhnoe Zenit          3               1
 Nissan M-V             1               0
 Makeev Shtil'          1               0
 IAI Shaviyt            1               1
 DPRK Taepodong         1               1
------------------------------------------
Total                  82               6


Boeing Delta 2
 Jan 10 D252            Delta 7925              CC LC17B             
 Feb 14 D253            Delta 7420-10C          CC LC17A             
 Feb 18 D254            Delta 7920-10C          V SLC2W              
 Mar 30 D255            Delta 7920-10C          V SLC2W              
 Apr 24 D256            Delta 7420-10C          CC LC17A             
 May 17 D257            Delta 7920-10C          V SLC2W              
 Jun 10 D258            Delta 7925-9.5          CC LC17A             
 Sep  8 D259            Delta 7920-10C          V SLC2W              
 Oct 24 D261            Delta 7326-9.5          CC SLC17A            
 Nov  6 D262            Delta 7920-10C          V SLC2W              
 Nov 22 D263            Delta 7925              CC SLC17B            
 Dec 11 D264            Delta 7425              CC SLC17             

TsSKB-Progress Soyuz
 Jan 29 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC1            
 Feb 17 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC31?          
 Mar 14 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC1            
 May  7 -               Molniya-2BL             GIK-1 LC16-2         
 May 14 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC1            
 Jun 24 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-1 LC43/3         
 Jun 25 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC31           
 Jul  1 -               Molniya-ML              GIK-1 LC43/3         
 Aug 13 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC1            
 Sep 28 -               Molniya-ML              GIK-1                
 Oct 25 -               Soyuz 11A511U           GIK-5 LC1            

Arianespace Ariane
 Feb  4 V105            Ariane 44LP             CSG ELA2             
 Feb 27 V106            Ariane 42P              CSG ELA2             
 Mar 24 V107            Ariane 40               CSG ELA2             
 Apr 28 V108            Ariane 44P              CSG ELA2             
 Aug 25 V109            Ariane 44P              CSG ELA2             
 Sep 16 V110            Ariane 44LP             CSG ELA2             
 Oct  5 V111            Ariane 44L              CSG ELA2             
 Oct 28 V113            Ariane 44L              CSG ELA2             
 Dec  6 V114            Ariane 42L              CSG ELA2             
 Dec 22 V115            Ariane 42L              CSG ELA2

Krunichev Proton
 Apr  7 391-02          Proton-K/DM2            GIK-5 LC81L          
 Apr 29 384-02          Proton-K/DM-2           GIK-5 LC200L         
 May  7 393-02          Proton-K/DM3            GIK-5 LC81L          
 Aug 30 383-01          Proton-K/DM3            GIK-5 LC81L          
 Nov  4 -               Proton-K/DM3            GIK-5 LC81L?         
 Nov 20 395-01          Proton-K                GIK-5 LC81L          
 Dec 30 -               Proton-K/DM-2           GIK-5 LC200L?

LMA Atlas
 Jan 29 AC-109          Atlas IIA               CC SLC36A            
 Feb 28 AC-151          Atlas IIAS              CC SLC36B            
 Mar 16 AC-132          Atlas II                CC SLC36A            
 Jun 18 AC-153          Atlas IIAS              CC SLC36A            
 Oct  9 AC-134          Atlas IIA               CC SLC36B            
 Oct 20 AC-130          Atlas IIA               CC SLC36A            

Orbital Pegasus
 Feb 26 F20             Pegasus XL              V    RW30    PAWA    
 Apr  2 F21             Pegasus XL              V    RW30/12 PAWA    
 Aug  2 F22             Pegasus XL/HAPS         WI           DZWI    
 Sep 23 F23             Pegasus XL/HAPS         WI           DZWI    
 Oct 23 F24/P-33        Pegasus H               CC RW02/22   MFWA    
 Dec  6 F-25            Pegasus XL              V    RW30/12 PAWA    

CALT Chang Zheng
 Mar 25 CZ2C-17         Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD   TYSC                 
 May  2 CZ2C-18         Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD   TYSC                 
 May 30 CZ3B-4          Chang Zheng 3B          XSC LC2              
 Jul 18 CZ3B-5          Chang Zheng 3B          XSC LC2              
 Aug 19 CZ2C-19         Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD   TYSC                 
 Dec 19 CZ2C-20         Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD   TYSC                 

NASA Space Shuttle
 Jan 23 STS-89          Space Shuttle           KSC LC39A            
 Apr 17 STS-90          Space Shuttle           KSC LC39B            
 Jun  2 STS-91          Space Shuttle           KSC LC39A            
 Oct 29 STS-95          Space Shuttle           KSC LC39B            
 Dec  4 STS-88          Space Shuttle           KSC LC39A            

LMA Titan
 May  9 4B-25 (K-25)    Titan 401B/Centaur      CC LC40              
 May 13 23G-12          Titan II SLV            V SLC4W              
 Aug 12 4A-20 (K-17)    Titan 401A/Centaur      CC LC41              

Yuzhnoe Zenit
 Jul 10 -               Zenit-2                 GIK-5 LC45L          
 Jul 28 -               Zenit-2                 GIK-5 LC45L          
 Sep  9 -               Zenit-2                 GIK-5 LC45L          

Orbital Taurus
 Feb 10 T2              Taurus                  V 576E               
 Oct  3 T3              ARPA Taurus             V 576E               

Polyot Kosmos-3M
 Dec 10 -               Kosmos 11K65M           GIK-1 LC132          
 Dec 24                 Kosmos 11K65M           GIK-1 LC132?

Arianespace Ariane 5
 Oct 21 V112 (503)      Ariane 5                CSG ELA3             

NASDA H-II
 Feb 21 H-II-5F         H-II                    TNSC Y                *

LMA Athena
 Jan  7 LM-004          Athena-2                SPFL LC46            

Yuzhnoe Tsiklon
 Jun 15 -               Tsiklon-3               GIK-1 LC32/1         *

Nissan M-V
 Jul  3 M-V-3           M-V                     KASC M-V             

Makeev Shtil'
 Jul  7 -               Shtil'                  BLA, K-407           

Boeing Delta 3
 Aug 27 D3-1            Delta III 8930          CC LC17B             

IAI Shaviyt
 Jan 22 4               Shaviyt 1               PALB                 

DPRK Taepodong
 Aug 31 -               Taepodong 1             MUSU                 


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 12. January 1999 23:37
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 385

Jonathan's Space Report: 10th anniversary year
No. 385 draft                                     1999 Jan 13 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The next Shuttle launch is STS-93, which will deploy the Chandra X-ray
Observatory. Columbia will be transferred to the Vehicle Assembly
Building in early February; Chandra flies from TRW's Redondo Beach plant
in California to Florida at the end of the month.

Recent Launches
---------------

A Krunichev Proton-K launch vehicle with an Energiya 11S861 DM-2 upper
stage placed three Uragan navigation satellites in orbit for the Russian
Ministry of Defence GLONASS system on Dec 30. The GLONASS satellites
operate in  19000 km circular orbits and are analogous to the US Navstar
GPS system; the Uragan spacecraft were designed by NPO PM of
Zheleznogorsk and built by Polyot of Omsk. The three satellites  are
Uragan Nos. 86, 84 and 79 (GLONASS numbers 786, 784 and 779), and are in
orbital plane 1, according to the KNITs web page.

NASA's Mars Polar Lander was launched on Jan 3 at 2021 UTC by a Boeing
Delta 7425 rocket. The first burn of the second stage placed it in a 157
x 245 km x 28.35 deg parking orbit. The second stage started again
around 2055 UTC and was follwed by the burn of the Star 48B third stage.
The third stage and MPL entered solar orbit, with third stage separation
at around 2102 UTC. The second stage was left in a 226 x 740 km x 25.8 deg
Earth orbit.

MPL is part of the Mars Surveyor program. It consists of a cruise stage
and a lander, built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics/Denver. Attached to
the cruise stage are two Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes, penetrator
probes which will slam into the Martian surface a few hundred km away
from the MPL landing site. DS2 is part of NASA's New Millenium Program.
Both MPL and DS2 are managed by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena.

The LP team tell me that the report of a drift in Lunar Prospector's
inclination to 85 deg was a typo, and the actual orbit inclination
remains close to 90.0 degrees. 

Following its propulsion problems, ISAS' Nozomi probe will remain in
solar orbit until Dec 2003, entering Mars orbit four years late.


Launch Logs
-----------

I've updated the various launch logs in 
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/

Several new launch times for early (1958-1962) Soviet satellites have
been added from recent Russian publications. Also, the Kosmos-2285
satellite launched in Aug 1994, which I flagged as an unusual mission in
JSR 206, is implicitly identified in a recent Russian book as Obzor No.
1, an experimental remote sensing satellite.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station    69F
              PMA-1      )
              PMA-2      )
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A
Dec 14 0431   SAC-A                            Endeavour,LEO    Science    69B
Dec 15 0209   Mightysat                        Endeavour,LEO    Technol.   69C
Dec 19 1130   Iridium 88?)      CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     74A
              Iridium 89?)                                      Comsat     74B
Dec 22 0108   PAS 6B            Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
Dec 24 2003   Kosmos-2361       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     76A
Dec 30 1835   Kosmos-2362  )    Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur         Navsat     77A
              Kosmos-2363  )                                    Navsat     77B
              Kosmos-2364  )                                    Navsat     77C
Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Apr 1999
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 1999

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 24. January 1999 20:18
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 386

Jonathan's Space Report: 10th anniversary year
No. 386                                          1999 Jan 24 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The next Shuttle launch is STS-93, which will deploy the Chandra X-ray
Observatory. Launch of Chandra has again been delayed, since faulty
circuit boards found on the Kompsat satellite are also used in Chandra's
command and telemetry unit. They'll have to replace at least some of the
boards. The delay could be either one month or several  months depending
on how many units are affected; we'll know in a week or so.

Columbia will be transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building in early
February; Chandra flies from TRW's Redondo Beach plant in California to
Florida at the beginning of February, with the replacement boards
to be installed at the Cape.

The Mir space station remains in orbit with Gennady Padalka and
Sergey Avdeev aboard. The transport ship Soyuz TM-28 and cargo
ship Progress M-40 are docked to the station. The International
Space Station remains dormant in orbit awaiting the STS-96 mission
sometime this summer.

Recent Launches
---------------

The only orbital launch so far this month has been the Mars Polar
Lander. The Cassini probe to Saturn entered safemode Jan 11 due to an
attitude determination problem, but returned safely to checking out its
instruments on Jan 16. Meanwhile, NEAR successfully made an engine burn
to put it back on course for rendezvous with Eros in 2000. Mars Polar
Lander has also made its first course correction in solar orbit.

The NRO's ATeX advanced tether experiment reportedly failed on Jan 16.
The ATeX lower end mass was meant to remain attached to the STEX parent
spacecraft, but with only 21m of tether deployed, it appears the tether
was so far off vertical that automatic safety systems jettisoned the
base to protect the remainder of the STEX satellite. Thus,the upper and
lower ATeX endmasses are in orbit as one object connected by a 21m
tether, and designated USA 141 (1998-55C). The main STEX satellite is in
orbit as a separate object, 1998-55A.

Readers may be amused by Howard Altman's recent 
<A HREF="http://www.citypaper.net/articles/123198/howcol.shtml">article</A>
in the Philadelphia City Paper, poking fun at JSR.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station    69F
              PMA-1      )
              PMA-2      )
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A
Dec 14 0431   SAC-A                            Endeavour,LEO    Science    69B
Dec 15 0209   Mightysat                        Endeavour,LEO    Technol.   69C
Dec 19 1130   Iridium 88?)      CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     74A
              Iridium 89?)                                      Comsat     74B
Dec 22 0108   PAS 6B            Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
Dec 24 2003   Kosmos-2361       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     76A
Dec 30 1835   Kosmos-2362  )    Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur         Navsat     77A
              Kosmos-2363  )                                    Navsat     77B
              Kosmos-2364  )                                    Navsat     77C
Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 1999

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 03. February 1999 01:48
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 387

Jonathan's Space Report: 10th anniversary edition!
No. 387                                          1999 Feb  1  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
---------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

The first issue of JSR was sent to an internal email distribution here
at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on 1989 Jan 30, ten
years ago - I assumed only a few of my friends would be interested. The
name was intended to emphasize the informal nature of my ramblings, in
contrast to some of the more pompous and expensive newsletters out
there. I was persuaded to distribute it more widely, and was surprised
and astonished to see it grow to an audience of thousands - over 2800 on
the direct email list as of today, and many more via the WWW and
republication in other forms. Let me take this opportunity to express my
thanks to all of you who have  been kind enough to send me information,
corrections and encouragement over the years. I hope you will continue
to find JSR a useful source of information!

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

We're still waiting to hear how long the delay to STS-93 will be.
Engineers have examining the suspect circuit boards on the Chandra
observatory. I understand they seem to be almost all fine; we will go
ahead and fly Chandra to Kennedy Space Center on Feb 4 and make fixes at
the Cape. Nevertheless, because the Space Station mission STS-96 wants
to fly in May, we will not be able to launch until well after that.
Stay tuned for an official announcement on a new launch date.

The Mir space station remains in orbit with Gennady Padalka and Sergey
Avdeev aboard. The first of several orbit-raising burns was made on Jan
27. The Progress M-40 cargo craft will undock on Feb 4 and deploy the
25-m diameter Znamya-2.5 reflector, which may be visible from as a flash
brighter than the full Moon in various locations around the world (for
example at around 0h UTC on Feb 5 in Southern Canada).  The reflector,
attached to the nose of Progress, will reflect a patch of sunlight about
6km wide on the surface. Znamya-2.5 is developed by the Space Regatta
Consortium (SRC), led by the RKK Energiya company which operates Mir.
Mir commander Padalka will use the TORU manual control system to point
the reflector at the Earth. An earlier experiment, Znamya-2, was
carried out in Feb 1993. Astronomers have expressed concern about the
potential that experiments like Znamya may interfere with  observations
of the night sky. Although Znamya-2.5 itself isn't really a big deal,
the fact that there is currently no international regulation controlling
the launching of bright satellites which could destroy sensitive
astronomical detectors (or, as some have suggested, replace the romantic
night sky with orbiting billboards for Coke and Microsoft...) has led
the International Astronomical Union to oppose the Znamya-2.5 experiment
on the grounds of the precedent it would set.  SRC's long term idea is
that Znamya could lead to a constellation of huge space mirrors to
illuminate Arctic cities, which raises a lot of environmental, political
and practical concerns. Nevertheless, Znamya-2.5 is also an important
test of the technology of deployable large structures and solar sails,
with many useful potential applications, and presumably Energiya's main
intention is that the publicity will generate Western contracts for
further, less controversial, experiments with deployable structures
which would use their expertise.

Recent Launches
---------------

Lockheed Martin's Athena-1 serial LM-6 launch vehicle took off from
Spaceport Florida's pad at Cape Canaveral Air Station on Jan 27 and
placed Taiwan's first satellite in orbit. ROCSAT (Republic of China
Satellite) was built by TRW for Taiwan's National Space Program Office.
The Castor 120 first stage and Orbus 21D second stage entered suborbital
trajectories (the Orbus 21D probably just missed orbiting) and the
Primex OAM third stage burned to enter transfer orbit. After a second
OAM burn to circularize at apogee, ROCSAT separated into a 588 x 601 km
x 35.0 deg orbit.

ROCSAT carries a Ka-band experimental communications payload,
an ocean color imager experiment to study plankton distribution
for fisheries management, and an instrument to measure thermal
plasma in the equatorial ionosphere. It also has a small
hydrazine orbit adjust engine. Mass of the satellite is 400 kg.

Athena launches to date: (LLV-1 and LMLV-1 were earlier names for Athena-1)
 
Date        Serial   Type     Site     Payload
1995 Aug 15 DLV      LLV-1    V SLC6   Gemstar   (failed)
1997 Aug 23 LM-001   LMLV-1   V SLC6   Lewis
1998 Jan  7 LM-004   Athena-2 CC SLC46 Lunar Prospector
1999 Jan 27 LM-006   Athena-1 CC SLC46 Rocsat 


The Galileo probe made another flyby of Europa at 0210 UTC on Feb 1, at
an altitude of 1495 km. Lunar Prospector lowered its orbit again on Jan
29, to only 25 x 35 km above the lunar surface. Mars Global Surveyor is
completing its aerobraking, with orbit now 113 x 551 km x 93.1 deg
around Mars.

Erratum
-------

The small PANSAT satellite launched on STS-88 was developed by the Naval
Postgrad School at Monterey, not by the Naval Academy as implied in my
annual launch list.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station    69F
              PMA-1      )
              PMA-2      )
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A
Dec 14 0431   SAC-A                            Endeavour,LEO    Science    69B
Dec 15 0209   Mightysat                        Endeavour,LEO    Technol.   69C
Dec 19 1130   Iridium 88?)      CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     74A
              Iridium 89?)                                      Comsat     74B
Dec 22 0108   PAS 6B            Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
Dec 24 2003   Kosmos-2361       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     76A
Dec 30 1835   Kosmos-2362  )    Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur         Navsat     77A
              Kosmos-2363  )                                    Navsat     77B
              Kosmos-2364  )                                    Navsat     77C
Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )
Jan 27 0034   ROCSAT-1          Athena-1       Canaveral SLC46  Science    02A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Aug 1999
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 1999

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 11. February 1999 01:26
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 388

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 388                                          1999 Feb  10  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The Chandra observatory was flown from California to KSC on Feb 4. We're
hoping for a launch on Jul 9.

The Mir space station remains in orbit with Gennady Padalka and Sergey
Avdeev aboard. Progress M-40 undocked on Feb 4 at 0959 UTC, but the
attempt to deploy the Znamya-2.5 reflector ran into trouble when it 
caught on an antenna. Two attempts failed to deploy the antenna, and the
experiment was abandoned. Progress M-40 fired its engines for the
deorbit burn at 1016 UTC on Feb 5 and reentered over the Pacific.

At 1123 UTC on Feb 8, Padalka and Avdeev undocked from Mir's -X port in
Soyuz TM-28, and redocked at the +X Kvant port at 1139 UTC, freeing up
the front port for the planned Soyuz TM-29 docking.


Recent Launches
---------------

The Stardust probe was launched from Cape Canaveral on Feb 7 at 2104
UTC. Launch vehicle was a Boeing Delta 7426. Four GEM-40 solid boosters
separated one minute after launch. First stage separation at 2108 UTC
was followed by the second stage's first burn, placing the stack in a
185 x 185 km x 28 deg parking orbit at 2114 UTC. The second stage
restarted at 2125 to change the orbit to approximately 178 x 7184 km x
28.5 deg (planned). This was followed by third stage burn at 2129 UTC
and spacecraft separation at 2131 UTC. After its depletion burn, the
Delta 266 second stage was left in a  294 x 6818 km x 22.5 deg orbit.
The Star 37FM third stage entered solar orbit and separated from the
Stardust probe. Stardust's orbit has a 2 year period. This is the second
Delta launch using the Star 37FM lightweight third stage; the first was
Deep Space 1.

Stardust was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics/Denver. The fourth
mission in the Discovery program,  Stardust will fly 100 km from comet
81P/Wild-2 in  Jan 2004 and recover cometary material using an aerogel
substance. The encounter will take place 1.9 AU from the Sun. Stardust
will also collect some material from the interplanetary medium. A return
capsule would land on a lake bed in Utah in Jan 2006. Stardust uses
Denver's Space Probe bus with a return vehicle, the Sample Reentry
Capsule (SRC). The SRC is passive, and the Stardust bus orients it for
entry before separating. The navigation    camera is a Voyager spare.
Probe mass is 340 kg full.

The Discovery missions are:
   NEAR               En route to rendezvous with (433) Eros
   Mars Pathfinder    Landed near Ares Vallis, Mars
   Lunar Prospector   In low lunar polar orbit
   Stardust           En route to 81P/Wild-2
   Genesis            Launch to L1 due 2001
   Contour            Launch 2002 to flyby several comets
Five more missions are currently under consideration for selection.

The first Soyuz-U/Ikar launch vehicle placed four Globalstar satellites
in orbit on Feb 9, with launch at 0354 UTC. The vehicle was a standard
Soyuz-U (11A511U) with an extra Ikar payload stage derived from the
Yantar' reconnaissance satellite's propulsion module. The Soyuz-U third
stage, Blok-I, ignitied at 4min 43s and separated at 8 min 48s into
flight in a 236 x 884 km x 52.0 deg  transfer orbit. The Ikar stage,
with a Melnikov 17D61 UDMH/N2O4 engine, burned at second apogee, at 0623
UTC, and dispensed the Globalstar satellite on top of the dispenser,
FM36, into 915 x 947 km x 52.0 deg orbit at 0727 UTC. The three
remaining satellites (FM 23,38,40) mounted around the side of the
dispenser were released at the same time, according to a Globalstar
source, (the Starsem web page describes a plan for a later deployment of
the three at 0904 UTC, which is presumably out of date) into a 903 x 946
km x 52.0 deg orbit. The Ikar stage has not yet been cataloged. The
Globalstar satellites will provide mobile communications at L-band. The
satellites were built by Loral and Alenia. This was the first launch
carried out by the Starsem organization, a joint venture including
Aerospatiale and TsSKB-Progress (the launch vehicle manufacturer). The
dispenser was built by Aerospatiale/Aquitaine (Bordeaux). 

 Thanks to Igor Lissov for confirmation of launch pads for
recent Russian flights.

Mars Global Surveyor made its aerobraking exit burn at 0811 UTC on Feb
4, raising periapsis out of the Martian atmosphere. It will enter its
final mapping orbit on Feb 18. Orbit is currently 384 x 406 km x 93.0
deg.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  4 0835   Endeavour  )      Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  69A
              Unity      )                                      Station    69F
              PMA-1      )
              PMA-2      )
Dec  6 0043   Satmex 5          Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     70A
Dec  6 0057   SWAS              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  71A
Dec 10 1157   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     72A
              Astrid-2  )	                                Science    72B
Dec 11 1845   Mars Climate Orb. Delta 7425     Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 73A
Dec 14 0431   SAC-A                            Endeavour,LEO    Science    69B
Dec 15 0209   Mightysat                        Endeavour,LEO    Technol.   69C
Dec 19 1130   Iridium 88?)      CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     74A
              Iridium 89?)                                      Comsat     74B
Dec 22 0108   PAS 6B            Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     75A
Dec 24 2003   Kosmos-2361       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     76A
Dec 30 1835   Kosmos-2362  )    Proton-K/DM2   Baykonur LC200L  Navsat     77A
              Kosmos-2363  )                                    Navsat     77B
              Kosmos-2364  )                                    Navsat     77C
Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )
Jan 27 0034   ROCSAT-1          Athena-1       Canaveral SLC46  Science    02A
Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar FM23 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     04B
              Globalstar FM36 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar FM38 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar FM40 )                                 Comsat     04D


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 389                                         1999 Feb  18  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The Mir space station remains in orbit with Gennady Padalka and Sergey
Avdeev aboard. 

Columbia is being stored in the VAB till April; Atlantis will
soon be moved to OPF Bay 3 for processing.


Recent Launches
---------------

International Launch Services delivered Loral Skynet's Telstar 6 to
orbit on a Krunichev Proton-K with an Energiya DM3 upper stage on Feb
15. Telstar 6 is an FS-1300 class satellite built by Space
Systems/Loral, and has a Marquardt R-4D liquid apogee engine and a mixed
C and Ku band communications payload. Launch mass of Telstar 6 is around
3700 kg. The Blok DM3 stage entered a 6638 x 35756 km x 17.4 deg orbit.
On Feb 18 Telstar 6 was in a 15037 x 35800 km x 7.9 deg transfer orbit
after the first R-4D burn.

Loral Skynet inherited AT&T's Telstar comsat line in 1997. The Telstar 3
series of the 1980s was the first of the current sequence of GEO
domestic comms satellites, named in honor of the two famous early 1960s
AT&T Telstar transatlantic relay satellites in MEO.

Satellite      Type                Launch date   Launch vehicle

  Telstar 1    Bell Labs Telstar   1962 Jul 10   Delta
  Telstar 2    Bell Labs Telstar   1963 May  7   Delta B
  Telstar 301  Hughes HS-376       1983 Jul 28   Delta 3920/PAM
  Telstar 302  Hughes HS-376       1984 Sep  1   STS/PAM
  Telstar 303  Hughes HS-376       1985 Jun 19   STS/PAM
  Telstar 401  GE AS7000           1993 Dec 16   Atlas IIAS
  Telstar 402  MM AS7000           1994 Sep  9   Ariane 42L
  Telstar 402R LMAS AS7000         1995 Sep 24   Ariane 42L
  Telstar 5    Loral FS-1300       1997 May 24   Proton-K/DM4
  Telstar 6    Loral FS-1300       1999 Feb 15   Proton-K/DM3

Another ILS launch on Feb 16 placed JCSAT-6 in orbit. A Lockheed Martin
Atlas 2AS, serial AC-152, took off from pad 36A at Cape Canaveral and
after two burns of the Centaur upper stage entered supersynchronous
transfer orbit of 258 x 96736 km x 24.1 deg. JCSAT-6 is a Hughes HS-601
satellite, also with an R-4D apogee engine, carrying a Ku-band relay
payload. It is operated by JSAT (Japan Satellite Systems, Inc., Tokyo)
and will provide communications and  data relay for Japan and the
Pacific Rim. Launch mass is 2900 kg, dry mass is 1230 kg.

Satellite      Type                Launch date   Launch vehicle

  JCSAT 1       Hughes HS-393      1989 Mar  6  Ariane 44LP
  JCSAT 2       Hughes HS-393      1990 Jan  1  Titan 3
  JCSAT 3       Hughes HS-601      1995 Aug 29  Atlas IIAS
  JCSAT 4       Hughes HS-601      1997 Feb 17  Atlas IIAS
  JCSAT 5       Hughes HS-601      1997 Dec  2  Ariane 44P
  JCSAT 6       Hughes HS-601      1999 Feb 16  Atlas IIAS


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )
Jan 27 0034   ROCSAT-1          Athena-1       Canaveral SLC46  Science    02A
Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar FM23 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     04B
              Globalstar FM36 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar FM38 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar FM40 )                                 Comsat     04D
Feb 15 0512   Telstar 6         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     05A
Feb 16 0145   JCSAT-6           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     06A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Aisle     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93?
MLP2/
MLP3/                          

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 390                                        1999 Mar  1  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: I've updated the launch log files at hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

Soyuz TM-29 was launched at 0418 UTC on Feb 20. The Soyuz-U (11A511U)
launch vehicle placed  spacecraft 7K-STM No. 78 (Soyuz TM-29) in orbit
nine minutes later. Crew commander is Viktor Afanas'ev of the Russian
Air Force, flight engineer is Jean-Pierre Haignere of the French space
agency CNES, and researcher-cosmonaut is Ivan Bella of Slovakia. Soyuz
TM-29 docked with Mir on Feb 22 at 0536 UTC. On Feb 27 EO-26 crew
commander Gennady Padalka and Ivan Bella entered Soyuz TM-28 and
undocked from the Kvant rear docking port at 2252 UTC, landing  in
Kazakstan at 0214 UTC on Feb 28. The new Mir crew, EO-27, is Viktor
Afanas'ev (Komandir), Sergey Avdeev (who was formerly on the EO-26
crew), (Bortinzhener) and Jean-Pierre Haignere (Bortinzhener-2). The
crew call sign is 'Derbent'.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-96, to the Space Station. STS-101,
scheduled for October, may be delayed if a new STS-103 Hubble servicing
mission is added to repair HST's flaky gyros.

Recent Launches
---------------

The much-delayed USAF Space Test Program P91-1 satellite, ARGOS, finally
got off the pad on Feb 23 on the 11th launch attempt. The Delta 7920
launch vehicle also placed two small subsatellites in orbit: Orsted for
Denmark and Sunsat for Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Orbit is
831 x 847 km x 98.7 deg. ARGOS carries an electric propulsion
experiment, ionospheric instruments, and a space dust experiment, as
well as NRL's USA hard X-ray astronomy detectors for X-ray binary star
timing observations. ARGOS was built by Boeing/Seal Beach (formerly
Rockwell). Orsted will map the Earth's magnetic field, and is managed
and operated by the Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut (Danish
Meteorological Institute) in Kobenhavn. The satellite's prime contractor
was CRI of Kobenhavn; mass is 62 kg. Sunsat was built by students at
Stellenbosch and carries a small imager and a message relay payload.

Arianespace completed its first 1999 launch with flight V116, delivering
Arabsat 3A and Skynet 4E to orbit on an Ariane 44L. Arabsat 3A is a
Spacebus 3000 built by Alcatel/Cannes for the Arab League. Launch mass
is 2708 kg and dry mass is 1200 kg; the satellite has 20 Ku-band
transponders and will be stationed at 26. It uses a DASA S400 liquid
apogee engine. Skynet 4E is a SHF/UHF military comsat for the UK
Ministry of Defense. It was built by Matra Marconi Space/Stevenage using
the old ECS bus. Launch mass is 1490 kg and dry mass is 759 kg; Skynet
4E has a Thiokol Star 30 solid apogee motor.

Russia launched a Krunichev Proton-K rocket from Baykonur on Feb 28,
carrying the Globus No. 14 (Raduga-1) Russian Defense Ministry comsat to
geostationary orbit.  The Globus series is an improved version of the
old Gran' (Raduga) satellite first launched in 1975; the satellites are
build by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki in Zheleznogorsk, near Krasnoyarsk.
The upper stage, which made two burns to place the Raduga-1 in
geosynchronous orbit, is probably an Energiya Blok DM-2 (11S861); the
first test flight of Krunichev's Briz-M upper stage is due soon, but I
don't think it was this flight.

The WIRE infrared astronomy satellite is due for launch on Mar 1.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan  3 2021   Mars Polar Lander) Delta 7425    Canaveral SLC17B Mars probe 01A
              MPL Cruise Stage )
              DS2 Microprobe 1 )
              DS2 Microprobe 2 )
Jan 27 0034   ROCSAT-1          Athena-1       Canaveral SLC46  Science    02A
Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar FM23 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     04B
              Globalstar FM36 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar FM38 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar FM40 )                                 Comsat     04D
Feb 15 0512   Telstar 6         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     05A
Feb 16 0145   JCSAT-6           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     06A
Feb 20 0418   Soyuz TM-29       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  07A
Feb 23 1030   ARGOS    )        Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Technol.   08A
              Orsted   )                                        Space Sci  08B
              Sunsat   )                                        Technol.   08C
Feb 26 2244   Arabsat 3A )      Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     09A
              Skynet 4E  )                                      Comsat     09B
Feb 28 0400?  Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur         Comsat     10A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70                   VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 391                                         1999 Mar 7 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Station
------------------------

The EO-27 crew of Afanas'ev, Avdeev and Haignere are aboard the Mir
complex. Paolo D'Angelo sent me some information about Ivan Bella, the
Slovak visitor to Mir last month, that I haven't seen elsewhere: Bella
is a Colonel in the Slovak Republic Army and was born 1964 May 21 at
Brezno. (sigh... I hate it that astronauts are now starting to be
younger than me...:-))

The ISS complex remains in automatic flight awaiting Shuttle mission
STS-96. Discovery will fly to the ISS and install some equipment.
After STS-96, it looks like Discovery may be recycled for an STS-103
Hubble repair mission in October.


Recent Launches
---------------

NASA's WIRE (Wide Field Infrared Explorer) astronomy satellite was
launched on Mar 5, but the mission ran into serious trouble shortly
after orbit injection. Some reports indicate the cover of WIRE's solid
hydrogen telescope was ejected prematurely, and a significant fraction
of the cryogen was vented, spinning up the satellite. The tumbling
satellite is continuing to lose power and cryogen; attempts to save the
mission are continuing, but the outlook doesn't seem encouraging - even
if they get it back, the duration of the mission will be shorter than
planned. WIRE was going to make an infrared photometry survey,
generating a large catalog of galaxies and quasars. I was really looking
forward to seeing the science from WIRE, and hope that NASA will decide
to fly a replacement if the current mission can't be saved.

The Orbital Sciences L-1011 Stargazer launch aircraft took off from
Vandenberg's runway 30/12 at 0155 UTC on Mar 2 carrying the WIRE
astronomy satellite. However, at the drop point at 123 W 36 N over the
Pacific, the planned 0256 UTC launch was cancelled at T-46 seconds
because of a problem with  the tail fin release mechanism, and the
L-1011 returned to Vandenberg with WIRE still attached. On the second
attempt on Mar 5, takeoff was again at 0155 UTC and launch at 0256 UTC 
this time went smoothly, with the three stage Pegasus XL rocket
delivering WIRE to a 539 x 587 km x 97.5 deg orbit.

WIRE was the fifth Small Explorer (SMEX) mission; SMEX missions
are managed by NASA-Goddard.
 SMEX missions:
 SMEX 1  SAMPEX   1992 Jul  3    Solar and Magnetospheric Particles Explorer
 SMEX 2  FAST     1996 Aug 21    Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer
 SMEX 3  TRACE    1998 Apr  2    Transition Region and Coronal Explorer
 SMEX 4  SWAS     1998 Dec  6    Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite
 SMEX 5  WIRE     1999 Mar  5    Wide Field Infrared Explorer


X-38 atmospheric test vehicle V-132 made its first flight at 1617 UTC on
Mar 5, dropped from carrier plane NB-52 No. 008 above Edwards AFB. V-132
glided under a parafoil to a landing on the lakebed after a 9 minute
flight. V-132 tests the rudders and flaps; the simpler V-131, which made
two drop tests earlier, tested the parafoil control system. They are
subscale models of the X-38 spacecraft. The first full scale X-38 will
be V-133, and the first space flight article will be V-201, which will
fly on a Shuttle mission next year.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar FM23 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     04B
              Globalstar FM36 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar FM38 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar FM40 )                                 Comsat     04D
Feb 15 0512   Telstar 6         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     05A
Feb 16 0145   JCSAT-6           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     06A
Feb 20 0418   Soyuz TM-29       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  07A
Feb 23 1030   ARGOS    )        Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Technol.   08A
              Orsted   )                                        Space Sci  08B
              Sunsat   )                                        Technol.   08C
Feb 26 2244   Arabsat 3A )      Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     09A
              Skynet 4E  )                                      Comsat     09B
Feb 28 0400   Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     10A
Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 ?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70                   VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'



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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 17. March 1999 01:20
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 392

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 392                                        1999 Mar 16 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

The EO-27 crew of Afanas'ev, Avdeev and Haignere are aboard the Mir
complex. Discovery is being prepared for the STS-96 mission to
the International Space Station.

Valeriy Illarionov died of cancer in Zvezdniy Gorodok on Mar 10.  A
former Soviet Air Force cosmonaut and support member for the
Apollo-Soyuz program, Illarionov never flew in space.

STS-103 is now definitely planned for October with the HST repair
mission. After that the Shuttle, Mir and ISS launch schedule remains
uncertain.

Recent Launches
---------------

Four Globalstar satellites were launched by Soyuz-Ikar on Mar 15. The
Soyuz-U's Blok-I third stage delivered the Ikar upper stage with
Globalstar dispenser to a 235 x 899 km x 52.0 deg transfer orbit. The
Ikar stage circularization burn placed the four satellites in a 897 x
950 km x 52.0 deg  parking orbit. Satellite M022 was separated first
from the top of the dispenser, followed by ejection of the other three
satellites from the sides. Satellite separation was at 0637 UTC
following launch at 0306 UTC. For a while the Ikar was in a similar
orbit to the Globalstars, but it made a depletion deorbit burn on Mar 16
and reentered. On the first Soyuz/Ikar launch on Feb 9, the Ikar deorbit
burn came soon after deployment and the Ikar was never cataloged by
Space Command. The Soyuz-U/Ikar is build by TsSKB-Progress of Samara
and marketed by the French Starsem company. The Globalstar satellites
are L-band low orbit mobile telephone comsats built by Loral and Alenia.

The WIRE infrared astronomy satellite lost all of its hydrogen cryogen
by Mar 8, so, sadly, the mission is a total loss. The spacecraft may be
used for engineering tests.

In Taiwanese documents written in Chinese, the ROCSAT (Republic Of China
Satellite) satellite, launched on Jan 27, is written using  the Chinese
name for China (often translated 'Middle Kingdom'). In the Wade-Giles
transliteration used in Taiwan this word is Chunghua (or Chunghwa), as
opposed to the mainland Pinyin transliteration in which the same word
would be Zhongguo. Since I prefer to use the name in the owner's
language, I've amended the listing accordingly.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 27 0034   Chunghua-1        Athena-1       Canaveral SLC46  Science    02A
Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar M023 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     04B
              Globalstar M036 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar M038 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar M040 )                                 Comsat     04D
Feb 15 0512   Telstar 6         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     05A
Feb 16 0145   JCSAT-6           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     06A
Feb 20 0418   Soyuz TM-29       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  07A
Feb 23 1030   ARGOS    )        Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Technol.   08A
              Orsted   )                                        Space Sci  08B
              Sunsat   )                                        Technol.   08C
Feb 26 2244   Arabsat 3A )      Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     09A
              Skynet 4E  )                                      Comsat     09B
Feb 28 0400   Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     10A
Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur         Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D



Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 ?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70                   VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'


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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 29. March 1999 23:29
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 393

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 393                                        1999 Mar 29 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

The EO-27 crew of Afanas'ev, Avdeev and Haignere are aboard the Mir
complex. Progress cargo ship No. 241 is being prepared for launch at
Baykonur and will become Progress M-41 after launch. Discovery is being
prepared for the STS-96 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Launch date now looks like May 24, as Boeing Delta has the range for May
20 for FUSE.

The cargo bay manifest of Discovery for STS-96 is:

Bay 1-2:     Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
Bay 1 Port:  Tool Stowage Assembly
Bay 1 Stbd:  Tool Stowage Assembly
Bay 3-4:     Tunnel Adapter S/N 001
Bay 5-7:     Spacehab Tunnel
Bay 5:       Keel Yoke Device (KYD) and
             Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
Bay 8-12:    Spacehab Logistics Double Module
Bay 13 Port: Adapter Beam (ABA) with IVHM
Bay 13 Stbd: Adapter Beam (ABA) with SVF/Starshine
Sill:        RMS Arm S/N 303

The Orbiter Docking System (ODS) and External Airlock (EAL), built by
Boeing/Palmdale, will be used to dock to the PMA-2  docking port on the
ISS. The EAL connects to the Tunnel Adapter (TA) which contains an
airlock hatch for EVAs. The TA in turn connects to the Spacehab Tunnel,
which I believe was built by Boeing/Huntington Beach (did I spell that
right for once?) and is similar to the Spacelab Tunnel hardware. The
Spacehab Tunnel in turn leads to the Spacehab Logistics Double Module. The
Spacehab-DM structure was built by Alenia/Torino and is owned by
Spacehab, Inc. It contains supplies and equipment for ISS.

The Keel Yoke Device props up the Spacehab, Inc. ICC (Integrated Cargo
Carrier) which sits above the Spacehab Tunnel. The ICC is a pallet which
carries two cranes: NASA's OTD (Orbital Replacement Unit Transfer
Device) and Russia's Strela. The cranes will be installed on ISS. It
also carries the SHOSS (Spacehab Oceaneering Space Systems) Box.
(Oceaneering Space Systems is a Houston company, I don't know what
the box is for).

The adapter beam in Bay 13 port carries the IVHM vehicle health
monitoring system, which is being checked out for operational use. The
Bay 13 Starboard adapter beam carries two experiments, SVF and
Starshine. SVF (Shuttle Vibration Forces) measures vibrations during
launch. Starshine, in the forward position on the beam, is a satellite
which will be ejected into orbit as a visual target to be used by
students for educational exercises.

STS-96 commander is Cmdr. Kent Rominger, USN, pilot is Lt Col Rick
Husband, USAF. Mission specialists are MS1 Dr. Tamara Jernigan (NASA),
MS2 Dr. Ellen Ochoa (NASA), MS3 Dr. Daniel Barry, MD (NASA), MS4 Julie
Payette (Canadian Space Agency), and MS5 Pol. Valeriy Tokarev, VVS
(Russian Space Agency). Jernigan and Barry will make a spacewalk.

Recent Launches
---------------

The first Boeing Sea Launch mission was a success. The Zenit-3SL launch
vehicle took off from the Sea Launch Odyssey mobile platform at 154.0W
0.0N on Mar 28.  DemoSat carries launch vehicle instrumentation and is a
dynamic model of an HS-702 satellite. Its mass is about 4500 kg. DemoSat
was built by Boeing Commercial Space/Kent. The first two stages of the
Zenit are built by Yuhznoe in the Ukraine. The third stage is a Blok
DM-SL, built by Energiya/Kaliningrad and based on the Blok DM series
used for Proton upper stages. Its first burn placed it in a 180 x 735 km
x 1.2 deg parking orbit 13 min after launch, followed by a second burn
47 min after launch to deliver DemoSat to a 638 x 36064 km x 1.2 deg
geostationary transfer orbit. Three hours later, a third DM-SL burn was
due to lower the rocket stage's orbit so that it will reenter quickly
(I haven't had confirmation on this burn yet).

Asiasat 3S was launched on Mar 21 by International Launch Services on a
Krunichev Proton-K with an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage. Asiasat, based
in Hong Kong, will operate the satellite as a replacement for Asiasat 3,
which was placed in the wrong orbit by a Proton launch in 1997.  Asiasat
3, renamed HGS-1, is currently in inclined geostationary drift orbit
awaiting customers, after completing a remarkable pair of trips around
the Moon last year. The new satellite, Asiasat 3S, is a copy of its
precursor. It is a Hughes HS-601HP with C and Ku band transponders. Mass
in transfer orbit is 3463 kg, down to 2500 kg at beginning of life. The
Blok DM3 placed Asiasat 3S in a 9677 x 35967 km x 13.1 deg transfer
orbit. Asiasat's Marquardt R4D apogee engine will be used to raise
perigee to geostationary altitude.

WIRE is now stable; although its primary mission was a failure,
it will be used for systems tests. 

Pedantic correction on last week's pedantic note: Chinese scholars tell
me that  Chunghua would be Zhonghua in Pinyin, not Zhongguo, and refers
to China and things Chinese in the abstract.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Feb  7 2104   Stardust          Delta 7426     Canaveral SLC17A Probe      03A
Feb  9 0354   Globalstar M023 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     04B
              Globalstar M036 )                                 Comsat     04A
              Globalstar M038 )                                 Comsat     04C
              Globalstar M040 )                                 Comsat     04D
Feb 15 0512   Telstar 6         Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     05A
Feb 16 0145   JCSAT-6           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     06A
Feb 20 0418   Soyuz TM-29       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  07A
Feb 23 1030   ARGOS    )        Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Technol.   08A
              Orsted   )                                        Space Sci  08B
              Sunsat   )                                        Technol.   08C
Feb 26 2244   Arabsat 3A )      Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     09A
              Skynet 4E  )                                      Comsat     09B
Feb 28 0400   Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     10A
Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D
Mar 21 0009   Asiasat 3S        Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     13A
Mar 28 0130   DemoSat           Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Test       14A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 24
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70                   VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 09. April 1999 02:14
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 394

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 394                                        1999 Apr 8   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

Progress M-41 was launched on Apr 2. The automatic cargo ship, based on
the Soyuz spaceship, docked with the Mir complex two days later. A
Soyuz-U (11A511U) launch vehicle placed it in a 51.6 degree parking
orbit, and the onboard engines were used to carry out the rendezvous
sequence.

The Spacehab/Oceaneering SHOSS box on STS-96 mentioned in the last
report is a refrigerator/freezer unit for the Space Station. STS-96 is
once again scheduled for May 20. STS-96's external tank, ET-100, has
been connected to the solid rocket boosters. The STS-101 flight to the
station has now apparently been delayed to Dec 2.

Tests of the solar panel deployment mechanism on the Chandra
X-ray Observatory went well, and fuelling of the spacecraft's
propulsion system is imminent.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace launched mission V117 on Apr 2, an Ariane 42P
vehicle carrying an Indian communications satellite.
ISRO's Insat 2E was placed in geostationary transfer orbit.
The Insat 2 series are built in India and carry a C and S band
communications package.

The Sea Launch Blok DM-SL made a small separation burn
after deploying DemoSat. The DM-SL doesn't make a large
lifetime reduction burn as I suggested last week.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D
Mar 21 0009   Asiasat 3S        Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     13A
Mar 28 0130   DemoSat           Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Test       14A
Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Jul  9
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 16

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100            VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 22. April 1999 00:28
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 395

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 395                                          1999 Apr 21 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

On the Mir orbital station, Viktor Afanas'ev and Jean-Pierre Haignere
made  a spacewalk on Apr 16 for 6h 19m during which Haignere launched 
by hand the Sputnik-99 amateur radio satellite. The satellite
was delivered by Progress M-41 in April; apparently the backup
Sputnik-40 is still stored on the station. The spacewalk began at 0437
UTC (0837 Moscow local time) and the hatch was closed at 1056 UTC.  The
satellite deployment was probably around 1030 UTC, but if anyone has an
accurate time please send it to me.

Sputnik-99 is at the center of a controversy over use of the amateur
radio band. The satellite was developed by AMSAT-F and AMSAT-R the
French  and Russian amateur radio satellite groups, with help from the
Russian Space Agency's flight control center, TsUP.  Apparently TsUP
made the mistake of arranging with a commercial company for messages to
be broadcast from the satellite including a trademarked advertising
slogan, a flagrant misuse of the amateur radio band. At the last moment
it was decided to launch the satellite without turning it on, avoiding
breaking ITU regulations but at the cost of losing the original amateur
radio mission. 

Space Command has given the satellite the designation 1999-21A, which
would be a big change to the way international designations (stricly the
province of the ICSU Committee on Space Research) are allocated.
Normally the '21' would refer to the 21st launch from the Earth's
surface in 1999. Sputnik-99 (called Sputnik Jr. 3 by Space Command, a
name they seem to have made up) was delivered to Mir by Progress M-41
Under the traditional scheme, the satellite would be
designated 1999-15C (3rd object cataloged from the Progress M-41 launch)
or 1986-17NG (yet another  object from the Mir launch). Other objects
released into space during the same spacewalk were designated 1986-17MZ
to 1986-17NF. It's perfectly reasonable for COSPAR to change the rules
and count launches 'from a space station' as a new launch, and although
I doubt that Space Command has the formal international authority to
make such a rule change on its own, in practice I suspect others will
follow along. It will be interesting to see if the new rule is applied
consistently, and not clear why the debris gets a 1986-17 label but
the payload gets the 1999-21 label.

Discovery was moved to the VAB on Apr 16. Columbia took its
parking spot in OPF bay 1. We don't know yet how the failure of the
IUS (see below) will affect the launch date for STS-93 (the Chandra
observatory uses the IUS to get to a highly elliptical orbit) but
we are crossing our fingers and hoping the situation will be resolved
speedily.

Recent Launches
---------------

Titan 4B-27 was launched on Apr 9 at 1701 UTC, the first Lockheed Martin
Titan 4 launch since last August's failure. The SRMU-8 solid motors and
K-32 two-stage liquid Titan core vehicle worked well, placing the DSP
F19 payload and its Boeing IUS-21 upper stage vehicle in a 188 x 718 km
x 28.6 deg parking orbit. The IUS is a two stage system; the first
stage, SRM-1, using a UTC Orbus 21 solid motor, burned at 1814 UTC and
increased apogee to geostationary altitude and separated. The SRM-2
stage was then meant to fire its Orbus 6E solid motor at 2334 UTC to
lower inclination and increase perigee, placing DSP in a circular
geosynchronous orbit. However, something went wrong: because the orbital
data is classified, it's not clear whether SRM-2 did not fire at all or
whether the burn was incomplete, but in any case DSP remained in an
orbit far from geosynchronous, and is reportedly tumbling out of
control. This is the first serious failure of the IUS since an April
1983 mission left the TDRS 1 satellite in a low orbit.  The Titan's
payload is a TRW Defense Support Program missile early warning satellite
with an infrared telescope to detect rocket launches. 

Eutelsat W3 was launched by Atlas from Canaveral on Apr 12. The W3
satellite is an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B2 model for the European
Telecommunications Satellite Organization. The Lockheed Martin Atlas
IIAS vehicle entered a 153 x 385 km x 27.4 deg parking orbit nine
minutes after launch. The second Centaur stage burn then delivered the
satellite to a 166 x 46076 km x 19.7 deg transfer orbit. W3 will be
stationed at 7E and carries 24 Ku-band transponders with a wide beam
covering Europe, N Africa and Asia, and a spot beam for digital TV to
Turkey.

Four more Globalstar satellites were launched by Soyuz-U/Ikar from
Baykonur on Apr 15. The third Soyuz-U/Ikar flight followed the same
profile as the last one, and delivered the four spacecraft to a 900 x
950 km x 52.0 deg parking orbit. The on-board propulsion systems will
raise the orbit of each satellite to the 1410 km operating altitude. The
Blok-I stage entered a 234 x 900 km transfer orbit; the 50KS Ikar stage 
deorbited itself after one day. The new satellites are M19, M42, M44 and
M45. Globalstar satellites, built by Alenia and Loral, are L-band
comsats which will provide satellite phone service. 20 Globalstar
satellites are now in orbit after two Delta and three Soyuz-U/Ikar
launches (12 more satellites were lost in a Zenit-2 failure).

The Landsat 7 remote sensing satellite was launched by Delta from
Vandenberg on Apr 15. NASA's new remote sensing satellite will be
operated by NASA/Goddard until Oct 2000, when operations will be
transferred to the US Geological Survey. Its single instrument is the
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), a scanning radiometer with visible
and infrared bands giving 30-meter resolution in the visible bands and
15-m resolution in black and white. Launch mass was 1969 kg. The 
spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge, using a design
derived from the Tiros-N/DMSP weather satellites. The Boeing Delta
7920-10 launch vehicle entered a 175 x 706 km x 98.2 deg initial orbit,
then 57 min after launch circularized the orbit to 668 x 698 km and
deployed Landsat 7. After the depletion burn, the Delta stage ended up
in a  184 x 710 km x 107.5 deg orbit.

Surrey Satellite's UoSAT-12 spacecraft was placed in orbit with the
first launch of Russia's Dnepr rocket. The Dnepr is a converted R-36M2
(15A18M) ballistic missile (NATO codename SS-18 mod 4), developed by the
Yuzhnoye (Pivdenne) organization in the Ukraine and marketed by MK
Kosmotras. The R-36M2 is a  two stage launch vehicle; both stages use
nitrogen tetroxide and  UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine). The
vehicle is 3.0m in diameter. A third stage, probably the S5M used on
Tsiklon-3, will usually be added, but it wasn't on this test mission
which doesn't involve the full Dnepr configuration. The Dnepr was
launched from a silo (sources tell me it is probably LC108) at GIK-5,
the Baykonur spaceport and delivered UoSAT-12
to a 638 x 652 km x 64.6 deg orbit. The final stage
appears to have made some kind of depletion burn and is being tracked in
a 599 x 1403 km x 64.6 deg orbit. UoSAT-12 is the first test of the
Minibus platform, at 325 kg a larger spacecraft than earlier 50 kg
Surrey UoSATs. It carries a  mobile radio experiment (MERLION), a GPS
receiver, and imaging cameras. 

Space Command have also cataloged SNAP-1, a 2.5 kg Surrey Nanosatellite
Applications Program test of micro-electromechanical systems which was
intended to be launched with UoSAT-12. However, Stefan Barensky informs
me that his sources indicate SNAP-1 was not actually aboard the launch
and is to be launched later in the year. I'll try and clarify this
situation next week.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D
Mar 21 0009   Asiasat 3S        Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     13A
Mar 28 0130   DemoSat           Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Test       14A
Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A
Apr  9 1701   DSP F19           Titan 4/IUS    Canaveral LC41   Early Warn 17A
Apr 12 2250   Eutelsat W3       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     18A
Apr 15 0046   Globalstar M019 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     19A
              Globalstar M042 )                                            19B
              Globalstar M044 )                                            19C
              Globalstar M045 )                                            19D
Apr 15 1832   Landsat 7         Delta 7920-10  Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    20A
Apr 16 1030?  Sputnik-99        -              Mir, LEO         Comsat     21A?
Apr 21 0500   UoSAT-12          Dnepr          Baykonur LC108   Test       22A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 2     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100/OV-103     VAB Bay 3 STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 396                                          1999 Apr 29 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Human spaceflight
-------------------

The next Shuttle launch, STS-96, is scheduled for May 20. Discovery and
the STS-96 stack have been rolled out to pad 39B. No news yet on how
long the delay to STS-93 will be because of the IUS-21 failure.

Viktor Afanas'ev and Jean-Pierre Haignere remain on board the Mir
complex. Orbit raising burns are underway with the Progress M-41 cargo
ship's engine.

Space Command have corrected the designation of Sputnik-99 to 1999-15C.

Recent Launches
---------------

* UoSAT-12

Surrey's UoSAT-12 satellite is undergoing orbital checkout. I have
confirmed that the SNAP-1 nanosatellite was not aboard the UoSAT-12
launch. The two objects in circular orbit are UoSAT-12 and part of the
Dnepr payload shroud; the object initially cataloged as 1999-22B/SNAP-1
(now 1999-21B) is actually UoSAT-12. The object in eccentric orbit,
1999-21C, is the Dnepr third stage. Although the R-36M2 is considered a
two-stage vehicle, it in fact has a third stage maneuvring bus for
dispensing multiple warheads (similar to the post-boost vehicle on
Minuteman 3),  and it is this bus which performed orbit insertion. The
two main R-36M2 stages were suborbital. The Dnepr was launched at
0459:03 UTC and the third stage  separated from the payload at 0513 UTC
on Apr 21.

* Ikonos-1

The Athena rocket has suffered its second launch failure. Ikonos-1 was
launched at 1822 UTC on Apr 27 on a Lockheed Martin  Athena-2, serial
LM-005, from Vandenberg AFB. The Athena-2 uses the old MOL/Shuttle pad
at SLC-6, and is launched from one of the SRB mount points.  Athena-2
has four stages: two Thiokol Castor 120s, one UTC Orbus 21, and one
Lockheed Martin/Primex OAM (Orbit Adjust Module). The OAM performs
transfer orbit insertion and an apogee burn. The flight was apparently
successful through Orbus 21 burn and the beginning of the first OAM
burn,  but tracking stations downrange did not pick up the spacecraft.
It was later determined from telemetry that the rocket nose fairing
failed to separate 4 minutes after launch, and the extra mass caused the
vehicle to reenter on the first partial orbit. The planned orbit after
the  first OAM burn was 220 x 689 km x 98.1 deg; the second OAM burn
would have placed Ikonos in a 680 x 690 km x 98.1 deg circular orbit.
Instead, the vehicle reentered over the South Pacific well before the
planned second burn.

Athena launches to date: (LLV-1 and LMLV-1 were earlier names for Athena-1)
Date        Serial   Type     Site     Payload
1995 Aug 15 DLV      LLV-1    V SLC6   Gemstar   (failed)
1997 Aug 23 LM-001   LMLV-1   V SLC6   Lewis
1998 Jan  7 LM-004   Athena-2 CC SLC46 Lunar Prospector
1999 Jan 27 LM-006   Athena-1 CC SLC46 Rocsat
1999 Apr 27 LM-005   Athena-2 V SLC6   Ikonos 1  (failed)

Space Imaging's Ikonos 1 used an LM-900 bus built by Lockheed
Martin/Sunnyvale. It carried a 1-m resolution panchromatic camera, the
first commercial imaging satellite with this high a resolution. A 4-m
resolution color imager was also aboard.

* ABRIXAS

A Kosmos-3M (11K65M) rocket was launched successfully on Apr 28, the
first orbital launch since 1988 from GTsP-4 (State Test Range 4) at
Kapustin Yar. The Kosmos-3M is built by Polyot of Omsk and marketed by
OHB-System (Bremen)'s Cosmos International. 

The Kosmos-3M (11K65M) launch vehicle consists of a first stage derived
from Yangel's R-14 (8K65) intermediate range missile, designated SS-5 by
NATO. The upper stage, developed in the early 1960s, has a restartable
engine. First launch of the 65S3 satellite launch vehicle was in August
1964; the modified 11K65M version flew in 1967, and Polyot took over
production in 1970. Kosmos-3M usually flies from Plesetsk (GIK-1), with 
occasional launches from GTsP-4 since 1973. I understand there used to
be two launch pads at area LC107, LC107/1 and LC107/2 - I don't know
which was used for this launch.

GTsP-4 was first used for satellite launches in October 1961, with the
first attempted launch of a small Kosmos satellite on the 63S1 (later
11K63) rocket derived from the smaller R-12 (SS-4) missile from the
Mayak-2 silo. In late 1964 launches switched to the LC86 complex's pads
1 and 4. 11K63 orbital launches from LC86 stopped in 1973 shortly after
11K65M launches from LC107 began.

Payload of the Kosmos-3M on this launch was the DLR (German space
agency) ABRIXAS satellite, built by OHB-System. Mass of ABRIXAS is 470
kg.  MPE/Garching and the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam developed
the scientific payload, a set of seven hard X-ray imaging telescopes
with an X-ray CCD detector which will carry out an all-sky survey in the
1-10 keV band with 30 arcsecond resolution. The last all-sky survey in
this band was carried out in the 1970s by HEAO-1, which had no optics
and therefore very poor spatial resolution. The new mission will
complement MPE's existing all sky survey with the ROSAT satellite,
carried out in the 0.1-2 keV soft band.  It'll be interesting to see
what kinds of objects turn up at the harder energies; it's possible that
there are whole classes of sources which are obscured at ROSAT energies
(the galaxy is much more transparent in the ABRIXAS band).
Congratulations to Gunter Hasinger and his team and best wishes for a
very successful survey.

ABRIXAS separated from the Kosmos-3M second stage one hour after launch
into a 544 x 603 km x 48.4 deg orbit. The 48.4 deg inclination was
familiar to Soviet space watchers in the early 1960s, used by Kosmos
satellites on 63S1 rockets from Kapustin Yar,  but this is the first
time it's been used since 1973. A secondary payload on the same launch
was Megsat-0, a small technology development satellite  built and owned
by MegSat, the space division of the Gruppo Meggiorin  companies based
in Brescia (Italy). The 0.4-meter box has a mass of 35 kg. It carries an
experimental high bit rate data transmission payload.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D
Mar 21 0009   Asiasat 3S        Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     13A
Mar 28 0130   DemoSat           Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Test       14A
Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A
Apr  9 1701   DSP F19           Titan 4/IUS    Canaveral LC41   Early Warn 17A
Apr 12 2250   Eutelsat W3       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     18A
Apr 15 0046   Globalstar M019 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     19A
              Globalstar M042 )                                            19B
              Globalstar M044 )                                            19C
              Globalstar M045 )                                            19D
Apr 15 1832   Landsat 7         Delta 7920-10  Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    20A
Apr 16 1030?  Sputnik-99        -              Mir, LEO         Comsat     15C
Apr 21 0459   UoSAT-12          Dnepr          Baykonur LC108   Test       21B
Apr 27 1822   Ikonos 1          Athena 2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    F01
Apr 28 2030   ABRIXAS  )        Kosmos-3M      Kap. Yar LC107?  Astronomy  22A
              Megsat-0 )                                        Technol.   22B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100/OV-103     LC39B     STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'




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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 07. May 1999 01:21
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 397

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 397                                        1999 May 6  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

Commander Viktor Afanas'ev, flight engineer Sergey Avdeev and flight
engineer-2 Jean-Pierre Haignere remain on board the Mir complex. (For
some reason I forgot to include Avdeev last week). The Soyuz TM-29
transport craft and the Progress M-41 cargo ship are docked to the
complex.

Launch of STS-96 is still due May 20. Launch of STS-93 is no
earlier than Jul 22.

Recent Launches
---------------

Four failures in a row: Ikonos/Athena, ABRIXAS, Titan/Milstar, Delta/Orion.

* Milstar

Another Titan 4 failure occurred on Apr 30: Milstar 2 F-1 went into the
wrong orbit. It appears the Centaur upper stage may have malfunctioned,
carrying out its three burns at the wrong time.

The third Milstar satellite was launched on Apr 30 from Cape Canaveral.
Launch vehicle was a Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver) Titan 4B,
serial B-32. The Alliant SRMU solid motors ignited at 1630 UTC to begin
the launch, and fell away two minutes later with the first stage of the
Titan 4 core vehicle (serial K-36) igniting. At 9 minutes into the
flight the second stage of the core vehicle fell away and the first burn
of the upper stage began. The upper stage on this mission is Centaur
TC-14.  Three burns of TC-14 were planned to place Milstar successively
in a 170 x 190 km parking orbit, a geostationary transfer orbit, and
finally geosynchronous orbit. Instead, at 1900 UTC, several hours before
the scheduled third burn, Milstar separated from TC-14 in a 740 x 5000
km orbit, probably inclined at about 28 degrees. It seems that TC-14
made three burns, but all during the first orbit instead of over a 6
hour period, possibly due to software problems of some kind. The two
Pratt and Whitney RL-10A-3-3A LOX/LH2 engines have a
thrust of about 73 kN. The RL-10 was developed for the Saturn I and
Atlas Centaur in the 1960s, and was used on the DC-X test vehicle. The
Delta III uses an RL10B-2 version.

Milstar-2 F1 is the first upgraded Milstar (Military Strategic and
Tactical Relay System) comsat. The two Milstar-1 satellites already
launched carried the LDR (Low Data Rate) payload which is inadequate for
modern needs; Milstar-2 carries an extra MDR (Medium Data Rate) payload
with a higher throughput. The payload includes EHF (44 GHz), SHF (20
GHz) and UHF communications transponders and satellite-to-satellite
crosslinks, with narrow beams to avoid jamming.  Milstar is built by
Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale and managed by the Milstar JPO at USAF Los
Angeles AFB.

 Centaur (Titan 4 model) flight history:
  TC-12 1994 Feb  7 Milstar-1 F1       Success
  TC-10 1994 May  3 NRO                Success
  TC-11 1994 Aug 27 NRO                Success
  TC-17 1995 May 14 NRO                Success
  TC-8  1995 Jul 10 NRO                Success
  TC-13 1995 Nov  6 Milstar-1 F2       Success
  TC-15 1996 Apr 24 NRO                Success
  TC-21 1997 Oct 15 Cassini/Huygens    Success
  TC-16 1997 Nov  8 NRO                Success
  TC-18 1998 May  9 NRO                Success
  TC-9  1998 Aug 12 NRO                No Test
  TC-14 1999 Apr 30 Milstar-2 F1 (*)   Failure

Note: TC-1 to TC-7 were a different Centaur model,  the Centaur D-1T.
The Titan 4/Centaur doesn't seem to have a model designation, but is
derived from the Centaur G-Prime design. TC-9 was destroyed during
launch, prior to separation from the core vehicle. It's not clear if any
of these Centaurs are the ones refurbished from the Shuttle/Centaur
program. A Centaur G' was prepared for flight in early 1986 on the
Shuttle, but launch was cancelled after the loss of OV-099 Challenger.

* Orion 3/Delta 3

Continuing the rash of upper stage failures, the second launch of Delta
3 also ran into trouble on May 5. The Delta second stage failed to
operate properly on its second burn. The engine ignited briefly, a spike
in pump pressure was recorded and the burn cutoff after only 1 second.
The Orion 3 payload ended up in the parking orbit of 162 x 1378 km x
29.5 deg, very close to the planned post SECO-1 (first burn) orbit. A
piece of debris is being tracked in a 171 x 1038 km x 29.4 deg orbit.
The Delta 3 uses an Pratt and Whitney  RL-10B-2 LH2/LOX engine in a stage
of a new design. The first Delta 3 launch failed shortly after
takeoff last year; at least this flight verified the basic operation
of the rocket.

Orion 3 is a Hughes HS-601HP satellite designed to serve the Asia-Pacific
region for Loral Orion. The satellite is owned by Hughes Space and Comms
International pending on-orbit delivery. It has 33 Ku-band and 10 C-band
transponders. 

* ABRIXAS

Sadly, the ABRIXAS satellite's battery has failed and contact with it
was lost on May 1. There is some hope that a period of solar
illumination next month will allow contact to be regained.

* DSP-19/IUS-21

The USAF reports that the two stages of IUS-21 failed to separate
correctly: at least one connector remained attached after the attempted
separation. The SRM-2 nozzle did not extend properly, possibly because
SRM-1 hit the nozzle during the incomplete separation. SRM-2 did fire,
but the vehicle tumbled during the burn. USAF have still not announced
the final orbit achieved.

* S5M 

25 new objects, 1989-100AR to 1989-100BR,  have been cataloged as
associated with the disintegration of the S5M upper stage of the
Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle used to  put Kosmos-2053 in orbit. Kosmos-2053
was launched by a Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk  in 1989 and is believed to be
a modernized version of the Romb satellite, built by NPO Yuzhnoe. The
satellites carry an array of small ESO (Calibration Spherical Object)
subsatellites which are released over a period of time to test Russian
radars. 36 such objects (the full normal complement) were released
between 1989 Dec 27 and 1991 Nov 1, getting designations 1989-100C to
1989-100AQ (note that 1989-100W was the same object as 1989-100Y).
Kosmos-2053 reentered in 1997; the S5M is in a 471 x 485 km x 73.5 deg
orbit.


* Jinx at Space Launch Complex 6

It has been pointed out to me that Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 6,
which was built on an old Native American burial ground, has never had
a success after many billions of dollars spent on the launch complex. 
 1960s: Built for USAF/NRO Manned Orbiting Laboratory, program cancelled
        before first launch.
 1980s: Refurbished for West Coast Shuttle launches, abandoned before
        first launch.
 1995:  First Athena launch, failed
 1997:  Athena launched Lewis satellite; satellite failed after
        orbit insertion
 1999:  Third Athena launch from SLC-6, failed again.

Joe Fanning tells me local legend has it that the tribe held a special
ceremony to curse the pad when it was first built. Coincidence? :-) 

Meanwhile, the status of US expendable launch vehicles is:
- Titan 4: three failures in three missions for different reasons:
    A-20/TC-9   - bad wiring in Lockheed Martin/Denver K-17 core stage
    B-27/IUS-21 - Boeing/Seattle IUS-21 bad separation of SRM-1 from SRM-2
    B-32/TC-14  - possible software problem in LM/Denver Centaur TC-14 stage
- Athena:
    LM-005: -  Dumped payload in ocean when fairing didn't separate
- Pegasus:
    M-22: - Minor (?) yaw anomaly on recent flight delayed next attempt
- Delta III: 
    D-268: - Boeing/Pueblo second stage, 
             problem on Pratt and Whitney RL-10B-2 engine
- Delta II:   Delta II in good shape?
- Atlas II:   In good shape except that upper stage uses RL-10 engine.

The Atlas II and the Delta II are the mainstay of commercial satellite
launches and the direct rivals to Ariane, so things are not quite as
bad as they might seem. However, if US companies can't launch the
existing vehicles safely, they will have to do some convincing to sell
flights on the upcoming replacements, Atlas V and Delta IV.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar  5 0256   WIRE              Pegasus XL     Vandenberg       Astronomy  11A
Mar 15 0306   Globalstar M022 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     12A
              Globalstar M041 )                                 Comsat     12B
              Globalstar M046 )                                 Comsat     12C
              Globalstar M037 )                                 Comsat     12D
Mar 21 0009   Asiasat 3S        Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     13A
Mar 28 0130   DemoSat           Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Test       14A
Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A
Apr  9 1701   DSP F19           Titan 4/IUS    Canaveral LC41   Early Warn 17A
Apr 12 2250   Eutelsat W3       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     18A
Apr 15 0046   Globalstar M019 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     19A
              Globalstar M042 )                                            19B
              Globalstar M044 )                                            19C
              Globalstar M045 )                                            19D
Apr 15 1832   Landsat 7         Delta 7920-10  Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    20A
Apr 16 1030?  Sputnik-99        -              Mir, LEO         Comsat     15C
Apr 21 0459   UoSAT-12          Dnepr          Baykonur LC109   Test       21B
Apr 27 1822   Ikonos 1          Athena 2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    F01
Apr 28 2030   ABRIXAS  )        Kosmos-3M      Kap. Yar LC107?  Astronomy  22A
              Megsat-0 )                                        Technol.   22B
Apr 30 1630   Milstar-2 F1      Titan 4/Cen    Canaveral LC40   Comsat     23A
May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral LC17B  Comsat     24A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-93  Unknown
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-96  May 20
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14?
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1 STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100/OV-103     LC39B     STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 18. May 1999 01:37
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 398

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 398                                       1999 May 17  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obituary
--------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Russian space historian Maxim Tarasenko (1962-1999) was killed in an
automobile accident last week. Maxim was author of the ground-breaking
book 'Military Aspects of Soviet Cosmonautics' and a regular contributor
to Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine. He was one of the first Russian
historians to present a detailed view of the newly declassified Soviet
space program. Maxim will be missed by all of us in the space history
community.

<P><IMG SRC="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back/MAXIM.JPG">(BBC, courtesy James Oberg)

Human spaceflight
-------------------

Viktor Afanas'ev, Sergey Avdeev and Jean-Pierre Haignere remain on board
the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-29 transport craft and the Progress M-41
cargo ship are docked to the complex.

Launch of STS-96 has been delayed to around May 27. Due to hail damage
they've rolled the stack back to the VAB to make repairs to the External
Tank. The STS-93 stack was rolled out of high bay 1 to make room for STS-96.
Launch of STS-93 is no earlier than Jul 22.

Recent Launches
---------------

China launched the FY-1C (Feng Yun) weather satellite from Taiyuan in
Shanxi on May 10 on the first Chang Zheng 4B launch vehicle. The CZ-4B
(Long March 4B) is an enhanced version of the CZ-4. FY-1C is in an 849 x
868 x 98.7 deg sun-synchronous orbit.

Previous FY launches:
  FY-1    1988 Sep 6   CZ-4    Taiyuan
  FY-1B   1990 Sep 3   CZ-4    Taiyuan
  FY-2    1997 Jun 10  CZ-3    Xichang

The Shi Jian 5 research satellite was also carried as a secondary
payload to study the radiation belts. FY-1 and SJ-5 are built by the
Shanghai Inst. for Satellite Engineering, and the CZ-4 launch vehicle is
developed by the Shanghai Bureau of Astronautics. The CZ-4B is a three
stage vehicle, with all of the stages using LOX/UDMH engines. The CZ-4A
had a four YF-20B engines in the first stage,  a YF-22B/YF-23B powered
second stage, and two YF-40 engines in the third stage. I'm not sure
what modifications were made to the CZ-4B stages, but I gather the
changes are modest.

Navstar spacecraft GPS SVN 50 (GPS-IIR production number SV-10),
awaiting launch by Delta nII from Cape Canaveral, was damaged in a
thunderstorm on May 8. Rain leaked into the clean-room on SLC-17A's
mobile launch tower. Launch will be delayed while they figure
out whether the satellite has been damaged.

I discussed Centaur stages in my last report; several sources inform me
that the Shuttle Centaur G' stages SC-1 and SC-2 are distinct from the
Titan Centaur flight articles. SC-3, the first Centaur G stage, was also
under early construction for the Magellan Venus probe but the tank was
not completed at the time Shuttle-Centaur was cancelled.
I've updated my launch list of Centaurs at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/misc/centaur.html
with a lot of new details.
Here's an overview of Centaur types:
 3.05-meter diameter standard Centaurs (9.1m):
  Centaur A     F-1 test flight, RL-10A-1 engines
  Centaur B     AC-2 test flight, first orbital model, RL-10A-3 engine
  Centaur C     AC-3 to AC-5 test flights, RL-10A-3 engine
  Centaur D     Single burn version with RL-10A-3-1, AC-6/7/10/11
  Centaur D     Operational version 1965-1967, with RL-10A-3-3 engine
  Centaur D-1A  Improved version 1967-1972 (RL-10A-3-3 engines)
  Centaur D-1AR Improved version 1973-1989 (later models with RL-10A-3-3A)
  Centaur D-1T  Titan 3E version 1974-1977
  Centaur I     Same as D-1AR  1990-1997

 3.05-meter diameter stretched Centaur (10m long)
  Centaur II    Stretched version for Atlas II  (RL-10A-3-3A)
  Centaur IIA   Stretched version for Atlas IIA/IIAS (RL-10A-4/RL-10A-4-1)
  Centaur (SEC) Single Engine Centaur for Atlas IIIA (planned, RL-10A-4-1)

 3.05-meter diameter stretched Centaur (11.7m long - 12.7 with nozzle ext).
 Single and dual engine versions (Atlas IIIB and V)
  Centaur III DEC:          2 x RL10A-4-2 engines
  Centaur III SEC:          1 x RL10A-4-2, 

 4.32-meter diameter fat Centaurs:
  Centaur G     Shuttle version, cancelled (RL-10A-3-3A engines)
  Centaur G'    Stretched Shuttle version, cancelled
  Centaur (Titan 4)  Same as G'?     1994+ (RL-10A-3-3A engines)
  Centaur (TC-23)    Derated RL-10A-4-1A engines


United Nations Registry
-----------------------

I've updated my edited version of the United Nations Registry
of Space Objects, at 
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/un/un.html 
and the list of satellites which have not been registered, at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/un/un_paper1.html 
Member states of the UN are required to register space objects owned by
them; the accuracy and completeness of the information provided is
pretty spotty. The United States remains the state with the most errors
and omissions in its submissions; Mexico and Brazil are grossly overdue
in updating their registrations. The US should be registering INTELSAT's
satellites, but does not; the United Kingdom should be registering
INMARSAT's satellites, but does not.  Since 1991, when the US last
failed to register one of its classified satellites, there is no
evidence of any state deliberately failing to register a satellite to
avoid detection - the omissions seem to be due to sloppiness.
I've also updated the launch logs  and the geostationary
object log on my web site.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A
Apr  9 1701   DSP F19           Titan 4/IUS    Canaveral LC41   Early Warn 17A
Apr 12 2250   Eutelsat W3       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     18A
Apr 15 0046   Globalstar M019 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     19A
              Globalstar M042 )                                            19B
              Globalstar M044 )                                            19C
              Globalstar M045 )                                            19D
Apr 15 1832   Landsat 7         Delta 7920-10  Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    20A
Apr 16 1030?  Sputnik-99        -              Mir, LEO         Comsat     15C
Apr 21 0459   UoSAT-12          Dnepr          Baykonur LC109   Test       21B
Apr 27 1822   Ikonos 1          Athena 2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    F01
Apr 28 2030   ABRIXAS  )        Kosmos-3M      Kap. Yar LC107?  Astronomy  22A
              Megsat-0 )                                        Technol.   22B
Apr 30 1630   Milstar-2 F1      Titan 4/Cen    Canaveral LC40   Comsat     23A
May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral LC17B  Comsat     24A
May 10 0133   Feng Yun 1C )     CZ-4B          Taiyuan          Imaging    25A
              Shi Jian 5  )                                     Research   25B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-93  NET Jul 22
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-96  May 27
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             Refurb area STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100/OV-103     VAB Bay 1   STS-96
MLP3/

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 24. May 1999 21:20
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 399

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 399                                        1999 May 24  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

NASA is preparing to launch mission STS-96 to the International Space
Station on May 27. Orbiter OV-103 Discovery will be crewed by  commander
Kent Rominger (Cdr. USN), pilot Rick Husband (Lt-Col USAF), and mission
specialists Dr. Tamara Jernigan, Dr Ellen Ochoa and Dr. Daniel Barry of
NASA, Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency, and Valeriy Tokarev
(Col. VVS) of the Russian Air Force.

Discovery will dock with PMA-2 at one end of the PMA-2/Unity/PMA-1/Zarya
stack. The crew will transfer equipment from the Spacehab Logistics
Double Module in the payload bay to the interior of the station. Tammy
Jernigan and Dan Barry will make a spacewalk to transfer equipment from
the payload bay to the exterior of the station. The ODS/EAL
docking/airlock truss carries two TSA (Tool Stowage Assembly) packets
with spacewalk tools. The Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), built by
Energiya and DASA-Bremen, carries parts of the Strela crane and the US
OTD crane as well as the SHOSS box which contains three bags of tools
and equipment to be stored on ISS's exterior (my statement in JSR 394
that the SHOSS unit was a refrigerator was a confusion with another
device being built by the SHOSS group for ISS).  

The STS-96 payload bay manifest (repeated from JSR 393) is:
Bay 1-2:     Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
Bay 3-4:     Tunnel Adapter S/N 001
Bay 5-7:     Spacehab Tunnel
Bay 5:       Keel Yoke Device (KYD) and
             Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
Bay 8-12:    Spacehab Logistics Double Module
Bay 13 Port: Adapter Beam (ABA) with IVHM
Bay 13 Stbd: Adapter Beam (ABA) with SVF/Starshine
Sill:        RMS Arm S/N 303

The STS-96 stack, on mobile launcher 2, has been rolled back out to pad
39B, and the hail damage to the external tank has been repaired. The
STS-93 stack is back in VAB high bay 1 on mobile launcher 1, and the
STS-99 stack is being assembled in high bay 3 on mobile launcher 3.

Viktor Afanas'ev, Sergey Avdeev and Jean-Pierre Haignere remain on board
the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-29 transport craft and the Progress M-41
cargo ship are docked to the complex.


Recent Launches
---------------

A classified NRO satellite was launched on May 22 by Lockheed Martin
Titan 4B flight B-12 from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4-East. This
is the first successful Titan launch in 4 attempts (although the last
two failures were upper stage problems, and this flight didn't have an
upper stage). The payload had been reported to be a radar imaging recon
satellite built by Lockheed Martin/Denver and previously codenamed
LACROSSE. However apparently the short 50' fairing was used instead of
the 66 foor fairing used by LACROSSE. Florida Today reports the 50' 
fairing hasn't been used before, but my notes indicate it was used for
an imaging Improved CRYSTAL satellite launched in Nov 1992 - can anyone
confirm or refute? If the launch was to a 66 deg or 57 deg orbit, the
payload was probably related to the ocean surveillance triplets, but if
the launch was to a 97 degree orbit then the payload was most likely an
Improved CRYSTAL derivative.

The Terriers and MUBLCOM satellites were launched on May 18 by an
Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL/HAPS vehicle. The L-1011 Stargazer
aircraft took off from Vandenberg's runway 30/12 at 0412 UTC on May 18
and headed to the drop box over the Pacific at 36.0N 123.0W. Stargazer
dropped the Pegasus at 0509 UTC and the first stage solid motor ignited
five seconds later. At 0518 UTC the third stage motor (cataloged as
1998-26C) burned out and separated, leaving the payload stack in a 405 x
548 km x 97.7 deg orbit. The PRIMEX HAPS-Lite stage then made the first
burn of its hydrazine engine and entered a 540 x 553 km x 97.7 deg
orbit. The box-shaped Terriers satellite was deployed at 0520 UTC. A
minute later the conical Payload Adapter Fitting (1998-26E) was jettisoned,
leaving the disk-shaped MUBLCOM satellite attached to HAPS. The second
HAPS burn at 0522 UTC raised apogee to 775 km, followed by a third,
apogee burn at 0610 UTC which circularized the orbit. MUBLCOM was
deployed to a 769 x 776 km x 97.7 deg orbit. The final HAPS burn then
placed the depleted HAPS stage (1998-26D) in a lower 388 x 722 km x 97.1
deg disposal orbit.

TERRIERS is part of NASA's Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative
(STEDI), which was a precursor program to the UNEX (University Explorer)
series now in preparation. STEDI was managed by USRA (the Universities
Space Research Association) for NASA, while UNEX will be more directly
managed by NASA-GSFC. TERRIERS will be operated by the space physics
group at Boston University for ionospheric studies, and carries TESS, a
set of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrographs to get electron density
and thermospheric emission profiles. The GISSMO instrument will measure
the solar EUV flux. The spacecraft was built by AeroAstro and based on
HETE.

TERRIERS was placed in the correct orbit, but it failed to orient its
solar panel to the Sun and ran out of battery power by May 20.
Controllers are optimistic that when its orbit precesses to a better sun
angle the satellite will revive and the mission can continue.

MUBLCOM (Multiple beam Beyond Line-of-sight Communications) is an
experimental satellite funded by DARPA and managed by the US Army's
Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) at Ft Monmouth, New Jersey.
It was built by Orbital using the Microstar (Orbcomm type) bus and
carries a payload testing hand-held radio satellite communications for
the armed forces.

Telesat Canada's Nimiq television broadcasting satellite was launched by
an International Launch Services Proton on May 21. The Krunichev
Proton-K with an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage placed the Lockheed
Martin/Sunnyvale A2100-class Nimiq satellite in a 7050 x 35790 x 15.9
deg transfer orbit. The A2100 will use its liquid apogee engine
(probably a Royal Ordnance Leros 1) to reach geostationary orbit.
Telesat Canada also operates the Anik Canadian domestic comsats, the
first of which was launched in 1972.

Erratum
-------

The CZ-4B rocket uses N2O4 (nitrogen tetroxide) and not LOX (liquid
oxygen) as its oxidizer.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  2 1128   Progress M-41     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      15A
Apr  2 2203   Insat 2E          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     16A
Apr  9 1701   DSP F19           Titan 4/IUS    Canaveral LC41   Early Warn 17A
Apr 12 2250   Eutelsat W3       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral LC36A  Comsat     18A
Apr 15 0046   Globalstar M019 ) Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     19A
              Globalstar M042 )                                            19B
              Globalstar M044 )                                            19C
              Globalstar M045 )                                            19D
Apr 15 1832   Landsat 7         Delta 7920-10  Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    20A
Apr 16 1030?  Sputnik-99        -              Mir, LEO         Comsat     15C
Apr 21 0459   UoSAT-12          Dnepr          Baykonur LC109   Test       21B
Apr 27 1822   Ikonos 1          Athena 2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    F01
Apr 28 2030   ABRIXAS  )        Kosmos-3M      Kap. Yar LC107?  Astronomy  22A
              Megsat-0 )                                        Technol.   22B
Apr 30 1630   Milstar-2 F1      Titan 4/Cen    Canaveral LC40   Comsat     23A
May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral LC17B  Comsat     24A
May 10 0133   Feng Yun 1C )     CZ-4B          Taiyuan          Imaging    25A
              Shi Jian 5  )                                     Research   25B
May 18 0509   TERRIERS    )     Pegasus XL/H   Vandenberg       Space sci  26A	
              MUBLCOM     )                                     Comsat     26B
May 20 2230   Nimiq 1           Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     27A
May 22 0936   USA 144?          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Unknown    28A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-93  NET Jul 22
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-96  May 27
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99             VAB Bay 1   STS-93
MLP2/RSRM-70/ET-100/OV-103     LC39B       STS-96
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 06. June 1999 20:56
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 400

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 400                                        1999 Jun 6  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Human spaceflight
-------------------

The first Shuttle mission of the year, STS-96, took off on May 27 at
1049 UTC. After solid rocket booster separation at 1051 UTC, main engine
cutoff at 1057 UTC, and separation of external tank ET-100, Discovery
was in a 74 x 320 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit. After the OMS-2 burn at
1132 UTC, the orbit was 324 x 341 km x 51.6 deg. Discovery docked with
the International Space Station's PMA-2 docking port at 0424 UTC on May
29. ISS was in a 379 x 385 km x 51.6 deg orbit. In its current
configuration, it consists of the PMA-2 docking port, NASA's Unity node,
the NASA-owned, Russian-built Zarya module, and the PMA-1 docking unit
connecting Unity and Zarya.

On May 30 at 0256 UTC Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry entered the payload
bay of Discovery from the tunnel adapter hatch, and made a 7hr 55min
spacewalk, transferring equipment to the exterior of the station. On May
31 at 0115 UTC the hatch to Unity was opened and the crew began several
days of cargo transfers to the station. Battery units and communications
equipment were replaced and sound insulation was added to Zarya.
Discovery undocked from ISS at 2239 UTC on Jun 3 into a 385 x 399 km x
51.6 deg orbit, leaving the station without a crew aboard. At 0721 UTC
on Jun 5 the Starshine satellite was ejected into a 379 x 396 km x 51.6
deg orbit from a canister at the rear of Discovery's payload bay.  The
small Starshine satellite, built by NRL, will be observed by students as
part of an educational exercise. The payload bay doors were closed at
around 0215 UTC on Jun 6 and the deorbit burn was at 0454 UTC. Discovery
landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 0602 UTC.

It looks like the Mir space station might be abandoned in August, after
the current crew completes its mission. Energiya hasn't managed to find
funding to continue the program, although it wouldn't astonish me if the
decision to shut Mir down was reversed yet again. Mir was launched in
February 1986. If the Mir crew return without replacement before
permanent occupation of ISS begins next year, there will be no humans in
space for the first time since September 1989.


STS-93/Chandra
---------------

The Chandra spacecraft was connected to the IUS-27 upper stage on Jun 3,
in the Vertical Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. On the same
day, Columbia was towed from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the
Vehicle Assembly Building and then connected to its external tank and
solid rocket boosters to complete the STS-93 stack. The stack will be
rolled out to the launch pad on Jun 7 and prepared for a launch in late
July (the exact date is still being argued about).

Recent Launches
---------------

The NRO satellite launched on May 22 was placed in an initial 200 x 293
km x 63.4 deg orbit. It probably contains its own propulsion system to
raise the orbit. My best guess now is that the payload is an NRL Titan
Launch Dispenser which will deploy three ocean surveillance
subsatellites in an 1100 km orbit, or a Satellite Data Systems comsat
which will be placed by a kick motor into a Molniya-type elliptical
orbit.

India launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota on
May 26. PSLV-C2 launched the Oceansat (IRS-P4) satellite and two small
subsatellites, Korea's Kitsat-3 and Germany's DLR-Tubsat-C.  PSLV has a
solid stage 1 and stage 3 with a liquid stage 2 using an Ariane-derived
Vikas engine and a fourth stage with two small liquid engines.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) IRS-P4 is a 1036 kg remote
sensing satellite with an ocean color imager experiment. The 110 kg
Kitsat-3 is built by the Korea Advanced Inst. of Technology (KAIST)
(earlier Kitsats were built in collaboration with Surrey Satellite) and
carries a small earth imager. The 45 kg DLR-Tubsat-C was built by the
Technical University of Berlin for the German space agency DLR, and also
carries an imager.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     24A
May 10 0133   Feng Yun 1C )     CZ-4B          Taiyuan          Imaging    25A
              Shi Jian 5  )                                     Research   25B
May 18 0509   TERRIERS    )     Pegasus XL/H   Vandenberg       Space sci  26A	
              MUBLCOM     )                                     Comsat     26B
May 20 2230   Nimiq 1           Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     27A
May 22 0936   USA 144?          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Unknown    28A
May 26 0622   OceanSat 1  )     PSLV           Sriharikota      Imaging    29A
              Kitsat-3    )                                     Imaging    29B
              DLR-Tubsat-C)                                     Imaging    29C
May 27 1049   Discovery   )     Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  30A
              Spacehab-DM ) 
Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B

              
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        VAB Bay 1     STS-93  NET Jul 18
OV-103 Discovery       KSC RW15      STS-96  May 27
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99/OV-102      VAB Bay 1   STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 22. June 1999 23:56
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 401

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 401                                          1999 Jun 22  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

STS-93/Chandra
---------------

One month to launch!

(I assume it will not surprise readers if these newsletters become
even more irregular than usual for a while... we're just a *little*
busy here!)

The STS-93 stack was rolled out to pad 39B on Jun 7. The Chandra/IUS-27
vehicle was placed in the payload canister on Jun 19. It was to be
transferred to the pad on Jun 22, but problems with the pad service
structure have delayed the transfer to Jun 24. Launch is still scheduled
for Jul 20, but NASA Administrator Goldin has not yet approved the
launch; he's waiting for the failure report on IUS-21 earlier this year.

Recent Launches
---------------

Four Globalstar satellites were launched by Boeing Delta 7420-10 on Jun
10. The two-stage Delta deployed the satellites in an intermediate
orbit. The Globalstar satellites are built by Loral and Alenia, and will
provide L-band mobile personal communications. As of Jun 22 the
spacecraft were in 1410 km circular orbits at 52 deg inclination.

On Jun 11, two Iridium satellites were launched from Taiyuan, China on a
CALT Chang Zheng 2C with a Smart Dispenser upper stage. The satellites
replaced the failed Iridium 14 and Iridium 21. The Iridium satellites
are built by Motorola with a Lockheed Martin spacecraft bus; I don't
know the production numbers of these satellites.

A Krunichev/International Launch Services Proton-K took off from
Baykonur on Jun 18 and placed in orbit an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage
with the Astra 1H payload. The DM3 ignited to enter a 200x  35854 km x
51.6 deg transfer orbit. A second DM3 burn six hours after launch was
successful in placing Astra in a 7474 x 35842 km x 16.4 deg
deployment orbit.

Astra 1H is a Hughes HS-601HP satellite with 28 Ku-band transponders and
two higher frequency Ka-band transponders to support Astra's Return
Channel System for two-way bandwidth-on-demand services. The satellite
carries a Marquardt R-4D liquid bipropellant apogee motor and a XIPS ion
propulsion system for stationkeeping. The Astra satellites are owned by
the Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES) and registered by Luxembourg.

NASA's QuikScat satellite was launched on Jun 20. QuikScat, built by
Ball under a rapid delivery contract, carries the SeaWinds scatterometer
for remote sensing of ocean winds. QuikScat was launched on  Titan
23G-7, a two-stage refurbished ICBM. Titan 23G-7 took off from Space
Launch Complex 4-West at Vandenberg at 0215 UTC. The second stage burned
from 0217 UTC to 0220 UTC. The second stage then coasted to apogee with
QuikScat still attached. Some descriptions of the mission implied that
the second stage would separate early and an apogee motor would be used
to achieve orbit (the NASA press kit even includes a drawing of such a
motor), but I believe this represents confusion with earlier Titan 23G
missions such as Landsat. On this mission, the payload entered
elliptical orbit at the end of the Titan second stage burn, and the
Titan second stage vernier thrusters ignited at apogee to raise perigee,
leaving QuikScat in a 280 x 813 km x 98.7 deg parking orbit. The
QuikScat's own hydrazine propulsion system will then fire to raise the
perigee further over a period of weeks.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     24A
May 10 0133   Feng Yun 1C )     CZ-4B          Taiyuan          Imaging    25A
              Shi Jian 5  )                                     Research   25B
May 18 0509   TERRIERS    )     Pegasus XL/H   Vandenberg       Space sci  26A	
              MUBLCOM     )                                     Comsat     26B
May 20 2230   Nimiq 1           Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     27A
May 22 0936   USA 144?          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Unknown    28A
May 26 0622   OceanSat 1  )     PSLV           Sriharikota      Imaging    29A
              Kitsat-3    )                                     Imaging    29B
              DLR-Tubsat-C)                                     Imaging    29C
May 27 1049   Discovery   )     Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  30A
              Spacehab-DM ) 
Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B
Jun 10 1348   Globalstar 52)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     31A
              Globalstar 49)                                               31B
              Globalstar 25)                                               31C
              Globalstar 47)                                               31D
Jun 11 1715   Iridium 14A )     CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     32A
              Iridium 21A )                                     Comsat     32B
Jun 18 0149   Astra 1H          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     33A
Jun 20 0215   QuikScat          Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing  34A
              
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-93  Jul 20
OV-103 Discovery       KSC RW15      STS-96  May 27
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Oct 14
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99/OV-102      LC39B       STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 04. July 1999 21:22
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 402

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 402                                          1999 Jul 4   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've updated the launch logs on my web site again.

STS-93/Chandra
---------------

16 days to launch... Chandra is now in Columbia's payload bay at pad
39B. The operations control center in Cambridge is buzzing with
simulations and rehearsals.

It looks like I'll be at KSC for a few days starting Jul 18, if all goes
well. Any readers in that area who'd like to meet up, send me email or
meet me around 5:30pm Jul 19 in the lobby of the Cocoa Hilton.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) was launched on Jun
24. A Boeing Delta 7320 launch vehicle with a 3-m payload fairing was
used to place FUSE in a 754 x 769 km x 25.0 deg orbit. The Delta second
stage then made a depletion burn and was left in a 182 x 915 km x 19.1
deg orbit. FUSE carries four 0.35m far ultraviolet telescopes each with
an ultraviolet high resolution spectrograph. The detectors cover the far
ultraviolet band from the hydrogen ionization edge at 912A (Angstrom) to
1187A, just short of the Lyman alpha line at 1215A. For comparison,
Hubble starts operating just longward of this wavelength. The far UV
spectra will measure the abundance of deuterium in the universe, as well
as study helium absorption in the intergalactic medium, hot gas in the
galactic halo traced by lines like Oxygen VI at 1034A, and cold gas in
molecular clouds from molecular hydrogen lines. Checkout of FUSE
in orbit was proceeding well as of July 1.

The Cassini probe flew past Venus on Jun 24 at a distance of
600 km. Meanwhile, the inactive European Giotto probe skimmed past
Earth on Jul 1 at a distance of 200000 km. Giotto's been in
hibernation since its encounter with comet Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992.
Also on Jul 1, Galileo flew past Callisto again.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 0100   Orion 3           Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     24A
May 10 0133   Feng Yun 1C )     CZ-4B          Taiyuan          Imaging    25A
              Shi Jian 5  )                                     Research   25B
May 18 0509   TERRIERS    )     Pegasus XL/H   Vandenberg       Space sci  26A	
              MUBLCOM     )                                     Comsat     26B
May 20 2230   Nimiq 1           Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     27A
May 22 0936   USA 144?          Titan 4        Vandenberg SLC4E Unknown    28A
May 26 0622   OceanSat 1  )     PSLV           Sriharikota      Imaging    29A
              Kitsat-3    )                                     Imaging    29B
              DLR-Tubsat  )                                     Imaging    29C
May 27 1049   Discovery   )     Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  30A
              Spacehab-DM ) 
Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B
Jun 10 1348   Globalstar 52)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     31A
              Globalstar 49)                                               31B
              Globalstar 25)                                               31C
              Globalstar 47)                                               31D
Jun 11 1715   Iridium 14A )     CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     32A
              Iridium 21A )                                     Comsat     32B
Jun 18 0149   Astra 1H          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81    Comsat     33A
Jun 20 0215   QuikScat          Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing  34A
Jun 24 1544   FUSE              Delta 7320-10  Canaveral SLC17A Astronomy  35A

              
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-93  Jul 20
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 Oct 14
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99/OV-102      LC39B       STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 16. July 1999 01:35
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 403

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 403                                     1999 Jul 15   Cambridge, MA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu


STS-93/Chandra
---------------

4 days to launch... Chandra is now in Columbia's payload bay at pad
39B. We're looking forward to finally launching this thing just after
midnight on Monday night.
 
The Columbia crew will deploy Chandra in low orbit. The two IUS
solid motors will fire to place it in elliptical orbit, and then
Chandra's own liquid propulsion system will make several burns
to raise the orbit to 10000 km x 140000 km. We'll spend a few days
checking out the spacecraft and the instruments, and about 20 days
after launch we'll pop open the sunshade door and take a peek at
the quasar PKS 0637-752, a nice point source that we can focus up on.
Once everything's in focus and aligned, we'll take our official first
light image of the supernova remnant Cas A.  With the combined spatial
and spectral resolution of the ACIS imager, we can get information
on the physical conditions and chemical composition in different
parts of the supernova remnant, and compare detailed features with
those seen in optical and radio images.

Fortunately, my first duty scientist shift isn't till three
days after launch, so I get to go down and watch.
I'll be in the Cape Canaveral area for a few days starting Jul 18.
Any readers in that area who'd like to meet up, send me email or
meet me around 5:30pm Jul 19 in the lobby of the Cocoa Beach Hilton.

Pete Conrad
-----------

Charles Conrad, Jr., the third human to walk on another world,
died July 9 in California from injuries recieved in a motorcycle
accident.


Recent Launches
---------------

Krunichev's Proton-K launch vehicle suffered its first failure in six
years on Jul 5 (there have been upper stage failures since then, but not
failures of the Proton itself). The Proton was launched from Baykonur at
1332 UTC. At 4min 37 seconds into flight, one of the four second stage
engines failed catastrophically, and the second stage exploded. The
remainder of the vehicle survived the explosion but broke up about 45
seconds later. Debris landed near Karaganda. The Proton second
stage has four KB Khivavtomatiki RD-0210 engines, burning unsymmetrical
dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH) and nitrogen tetroxide.

This Proton-K carried a Russian Defense Ministry comsat. Gran' No.
45 was built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki and would have been named
Raduga if it had reached orbit (info from Aleksandr Zheleznyakov). The
Gran' series are the oldest Russian geostationary comsats, first
launched in 1975. Instead of the usual Energiya Blok-DM class stage,
this mission carried the Krunichev Briz-M upper stage on its first test
flight. T

AP reports the payload as a 'Raduga-1'. This is incorrect - the
Raduga-1 (Globus) series are different from the Raduga (Gran')
satellites.


 Year   Launches  Proton Failure   Upper Stage failure
 1992    8         0               0
 1993    6         1               0
 1994   13         0               0
 1995    7         0               0
 1996    8         0               2
 1997    9         0               1
 1998    7         0               0
 1999    6         1               0

A Molniya-3 comsat was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 8. The launch was
from one of the 3 active R-7 class pads at Plesetsk (LC16/pad 2,
LC43/pad 3, LC43/pad 4) and used the 8K78M launch vehicle, consisting of
the 11S59 core packet, the 11S510 Blok I third stage, and the Blok-ML
upper stage. The Blok ML and the payload were placed in a 62.8 degree
low parking orbit and then the ML fired to deliver the payload to a
12-hour operational orbit. The payload is the 52nd Molniya-3 to be
launched and is probably Molniya-3 11F637 No. 63, although the
satellites are not launched in production order. The Molniya-3 is built
by NPO PM of Zheleznogorsk, and provides communications and TV relay for
Russian military and civil agencies.

Four Loral/Alenia Globalstar satellites were launched on Jul 10 by a
Boeing Delta 7420-10. Globalstar satellites M032, M030 (on the upper
dispenser tier), M035 and M051 (on the lower dispenser tier) were placed
in orbit after the Delta stage 2's second burn. 28 Globalstar satellites
have now reached orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B
Jun 10 1348   Globalstar 52)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     31A
              Globalstar 49)                                               31B
              Globalstar 25)                                               31C
              Globalstar 47)                                               31D
Jun 11 1715   Iridium 14A )     CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     32A
              Iridium 21A )                                     Comsat     32B
Jun 18 0149   Astra 1H          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     33A
Jun 20 0215   QuikScat          Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing  34A
Jun 24 1544   FUSE              Delta 7320-10  Canaveral SLC17A Astronomy  35A
Jul  5 1332   Raduga            Proton-K/BrizM Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     F02
Jul  8 0846   Molniya-3         Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     36A
Jul 10 0845   Globalstar 32)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     37A
              Globalstar 30)                                    Comsat     37B
              Globalstar 35)                                    Comsat     37C
              Globalstar 51)                                    Comsat     37D

              
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LC39B         STS-93  Jul 20
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 Oct 14
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/RSRM-69/ET-99/OV-102      LC39B       STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'

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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 25. July 1999 23:08
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 404

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 404                                         1999 Jul 25   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


STS-93/Chandra
---------------

LAUNCH! Chandra is in transfer orbit and is sending data back
to Cambridge. A beautiful launch with some scary moments.
And a wonderful trip to the Cape, it was great to finally meet
so many of you that I've corresponded with.

I set out from my hotel in Cocoa Beach on Monday afternoon. 
South of the Cape itself, there's a thin peninsula with
the towns of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, and the Cape's
administrative HQ at Patrick AFB. Driving up A1A from Cocoa Beach,
you pass United Space Alliance's Shuttle Logistics Depot, in a
building which looks to me like a car dealership. Passing the
turnoff for Cape Canaveral Air Station, I drove on across the Banana
River to Merritt Island, and north on State Road 3, stopping off
at Space Shirts to get my required STS-93 t-shirts and patches.
At the gate to KSC, it's still many miles to Complex 39. The VAB
looms large, and seems to stay the same size for ages, but eventually
I arrive. It's an immense building. Yes, I knew this, but the reality
is impressive. Across the road from the VAB is the LC39 press site,
with the famous countdown clock you've all seen on TV. The clock sits
by the water's edge at the end of a grassy field, behind which 
are the viewing stand and the NASA newsroom. Next to the newsroom
are the buildings for CBS, ABC, etc. and the trucks for the smaller
local TV stations. TRW's hospitality tent was at the bottom of
the field next to the clock. 

The first launch attempt was on Jul 20, and controllers commanded
an RSLS hold at T-6 seconds, just moments before main engine ignition.
A data spike in hydrogen pressure data was the problem; if it had
really been an indication that there was lots of hydrogen leaking
into the engine compartment, there would be danger of explosion, so
the cutoff was a good idea. 

Second try was Jul 22. Everything looked good except for one weather
system which was moving south out of the area. Fine, we'd still get off
within the 46 minute window. Then we saw a lightning flash. As the hold
wore on, the storm continued. It was dry at the LC39 press site, but we
kept seeing flashes and hearing thunderclaps in the distance. It became
clear that the chances of going that night were not good. 

Jul 23 was the charm.
Launch was at 0431:00 UTC from LC39B at Kennedy Space Center. 5 seconds
after launch, a short in an electrical bus brought down a main engine
controller on two of the main engines. There are three buses, each
supplying two main engine controllers. There are six engine controllers,
two for each main engine, and the two controllers for each engine always
run off different buses. So after the short, there was still at least
one controller working on each engine. If there had been a similar short
in a second electrical bus, then one of the main engines would have had
no working controllers, which would have resulted in the engine shutting
down. That early in the ascent, we'd have had the first ever attempt at
an RTLS (Return To Launch Site) abort. So to hear comm traffic about bad
engine controllers as Columbia was still streaking over the countdown
clock was rather alarming.  Happily, the short was not repeated and the
remainder of the ascent seemed solid (but see below). 

The main thing that surprised me was the intense collimated exhaust from
the SRBs. In all of the photos I've seen, the exhaust is so overexposed
that there's no sign of this: in the middle of the broader bright smoke,
there were twin narrow columns of eyeball-searing, actinic,
magnesium-flare-like emission, as if a pair of cracks had opened in
spacetime to let a bit of the primordial fireball peek through. I don't
remember seeing this from the STS-37 daytime launch, but I was further
away for that one. The other thing was the noise. The loud rumble of the
SSME ignition reached us a few seconds after launch, and was then
overwhelmed by the remarkable crackling and popping noise that I assume
was the SRBs. The Ariane launch I saw last year had a similar quality to
it, and again I've never heard it sound like this on TV broadcasts. We
were just able to follow SRB separation through the haze, and the SSMEs
were visible until about 5 minutes into the flight.

Main engine cutoff (MECO) was at 0439 UTC, and the external tank
separated leaving Columbia in a 78 x 276 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit.
The engines cut off slightly early when the LOX supply ran out (about
1700 kg short), leaving Columbia short of speed by 5 meters/s.  NASA now
believes that engine no. 3 had a small hydrogen leak throughout the
ascent, causing the engine to run hot. The OMS-2 engine burn at 0512 UTC
circularized the orbit, about 10 km lower than planned.

At around 1000 UTC the IUS ASE tilt table was raised 29 degrees out of
the payload bay, and the Chandra lower antenna was tested. At 1142 UTC
the IUS ASE was raised to 58 degrees, the deployment angle.

Chandra/IUS-27 was deployed from Columbia at 1147 UTC Jul 23. At 1248
UTC the IUS-27 SRM-1 motor fired for 125s to enter a 226 x 13841 km x
28.5 deg orbit. The SRM-1 then separated (it appears that a second
object may also be being tracked in this orbit) and SRM-2 fired at 1251
UTC for 117 seconds. Chandra then deployed its solar arrays at 1322 UTC,
 and SRM-2 separated from Chandra at 1350 UTC. Chandra was placed in a
330 x 72030 km x 28.45 deg orbit. This was about 900 km lower than
planned, the IUS underperformed slightly, but Chandra's own IPS
propulsion system will make up most of the difference. The ACIS and HRC
cameras have been switched on and both are operating well, although we
won't open the lid to see the sky till mid-August.


Chandra Orbit data: (thanks to Ted Molczan for putting them
 in 2-line format)
Pre IPS-1 (actual)
1 25867U 99040  B 99204.57559028  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    08
2 25867  28.4528 196.2671 8423730 270.0155  14.5069  0.98883441    08
Post IPS-1 (expected)
1 25867U 99040  B 99206.05309028  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    06
2 25867  28.4448 196.0098 8237110 270.3411 180.5498  0.97397854    00
Post IPS-1 (Space Command)
1 25867U 99040B   99206.05347222 -.00000025  00000-0  00000+0 0    78
2 25867  28.4406 196.0256 8242614 270.3420 180.3395  0.97337724    32

At 0111 UTC on Jul 25 we fired the IPS engines for 5 minutes to raise
perigee to 1192 km. The IPS engineer was very happy! The burn went well
and the vehicle was extremely stable. We are waiting for DSN to measure
the new orbit. Further burns will raise orbit further to 10000 km x
140000 km. 

TRW's IPS propulsion system is a dual-mode system, with O2/hydrazine 
for the four main 450N  IPS engines, and mono hydrazine for the RCS
system. There's also a small momentum dumping hydrazine system that is
used throughout the mission for attitude control when the momentum
wheels get saturated. Any extra hydrazine left over when the O2 runs out
will be transferred to that system.

Chandra is the heaviest Shuttle payload yet. It's hard to do the bookkeeping,
because total cargo masses aren't easy to come by, they usually just release
'payload chargeable weight', and orbit insertion mass is harder to find than
the less interesting launch mass. But, for what it's worth, my best estimates
for the heaviest Shuttle flights are:
  - Launch mass of orbiter
     STS-93 (Chandra)   122534 kg
     STS51L (TDRS 2)    121530 kg (failed to orbit)
     STS-41D (PAM)      119576 kg
     STS-51A (PAM)      119454 kg
     STS-90  Neurolab   119003 kg

   Total cargo mass
     STS-93 (Chandra)    25700 kg approx?
     STS51L (TDRS 2)     23884 kg
     STS-41  (ULS)       22665 kg
     STS-43 (TDRS 5)     22373
     STS-54 (TDRS 6)     22244

   Mass of deployed payload:
     Chandra/IUS-27     19736 kg (planned)
     Magellan/IUS-18    18197 kg
     Ulysses/IUS-17     17510 kg
     USA-8/IUS-11       17400 kg? (estimate)
     USA-48/IUS-5       17400 kg? (estimate)
     Galileo/IUS-19     17383 kg
     TDRS-7/IUS-26      17107 kg
     TDRS-4/IUS-9       17073 kg
     TDRS-B/IUS-3       17071 kg (not deployed, launch failure)
     DSP-16/IUS-14      17050 kg
     TDRS-5/IUS-15      17044 kg
     TDRS-1/IUS-1       17030 kg
     TDRS-3/IUS-7       17016 kg
     TDRS-6/IUS-13      17008 kg
     DSCS/IUS-12        17000 kg? (estimate)

The IUS has been used on 15 Shuttle flights. The IUS itself is not
reusable, but the tilt table and airborne support equipment (ASE)
is; there have been three IUS ASEs  flown. ASE-1 made only two
flights, on STS-6 and on 51-L when it was destroyed. ASE-2 made 7
flights, and ASE-3, built to replace the lost ASE-1, has made 6 flights
if as I suspect it was used on the current mission (haven't managed to 
confirm this).  The previous flights of ASE-3 are believed to be 
STS-30 (Magellan), STS-33R, STS-43 (TDRS 5), STS-54 (TDRS 6) and STS-70 
(TDRS 7). 


There have been a number of other RSLS holds in the STS program:
 1984 Jun 26  41-D    RSLS abort T-6s
 1985 Jul 12  51-F    RSLS abort T-3s
 1985 Dec 18  61-C    RSLS hold  T-14s
 1993 Mar 22  STS-55  RSLS abort T-3s
 1993 Apr  6  STS-56  RSLS hold  T-11s
 1993 Jul 24  STS-51  RSLS hold  T-19s
 1993 Aug 12  STS-51  RSLS abort T-3s
 1994 Aug 18  STS-58  RSLS abort T-2s
 1998 Dec  3  STS-88  RSLS hold  T-19s
 1999 Jul 20  STS-93  RSLS hold  T-6s

Recent Launches
---------------

The Progress M-42 cargo ship was launched Jul 16. It is bringing
supplies to the crew of the Mir complex. Progress M-42 docked with
the Kvant port at 1753 UTC on Jul 18.  Progress M-41 undocked 
at 1120 UTC on Jul 17 and was deorbited over the Pacific later the
same day.  Viktor  Afanas'ev and Sergey Avdeev made a spacewalk on
Jul 23 at 1106 UTC for about 6 hours (no confirmed duration yet).
They installed a new antenna but failed to deploy it. Jean-Pierre
Haignere remained inside Mir during the EVA.

An Okean-O remote sensing satellite was launched by a Zenit-2 from
Baykonur on Jul 17. This is the first of a new generation of larger
Okean oceanographic satellites, with a mass of about 6500 kg. It was
placed in a sun-synchronous 661 x 662 km x 98.0 deg orbit. The satellite
carries a side-looking radar (RSL-BO), and a set of visible and infrared
 scanners and radiometers. It is built by the Ukranian Yuzhnoe company
and is a joint project of the Russian Aviation/Space Agency (RAKA) and
the Ukrainian National Space Agency (NKAU).

Four more Globalstar satellites were launched Jul 25 by a Boeing Delta 2.
The  Delta 2 second stage entered a 185 x 1361 km transfer orbit 11 minutes
after launch. At 61 min after launch the second stage restarted at apogee
and  deployed the four satellites in a 1367 km circular orbit. Meanwhile the
four Globalstars launched on Jul 10 are already in their 1410 x 1414 km x 52.0
deg operational orbits.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B
Jun 10 1348   Globalstar 52)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     31A
              Globalstar 49)                                               31B
              Globalstar 25)                                               31C
              Globalstar 47)                                               31D
Jun 11 1715   Iridium 14A )     CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     32A
              Iridium 21A )                                     Comsat     32B
Jun 18 0149   Astra 1H          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     33A
Jun 20 0215   QuikScat          Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing  34A
Jun 24 1544   FUSE              Delta 7320-10  Canaveral SLC17A Astronomy  35A
Jul  5 1332   Raduga            Proton-K/BrizM Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     F02
Jul  8 0846   Molniya-3         Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     36A
Jul 10 0845   Globalstar 32)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     37A
              Globalstar 30)                                    Comsat     37B
              Globalstar 35)                                    Comsat     37C
              Globalstar 51)                                    Comsat     37D
Jul 16 1636   Progress M-42     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      38A
Jul 17 0638   Okean-O           Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    R/Sensing  39A
Jul 23 0428   Columbia          Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  40A
Jul 23 1147   Chandra           IUS            OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  40B
Jul 25 0746   Globalstar 26)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17A Comsat     41A
              Globalstar 28)                                    Comsat     41B
              Globalstar 43)                                    Comsat     41C
              Globalstar 48)                                    Comsat     41D


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        LEO           STS-93  Jul 20
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 Oct 14
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/                          LC39B       STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?                  VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 05. August 1999 01:43
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 405

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 405                                           1999 Aug  4   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial
--------

I don't often editorialize like this, but I'll make an exception. Even
with the restoration of funding for the crucial SIRTF mission on Friday,
the proposed NASA budget cuts are a devastating blow to the US space
science program and to the morale of all of us who work on NASA
programs. The Discovery and Explorer programs are badly hit, US
participation in Solar B and FIRST/Planck would be cut,  and the GLAST
gamma ray telescope might face the axe. NASA's budget in real terms has
been cut repeatedly in recent years. The new cuts to space science are
especially harsh, given the major successful reforms of the NASA space
science program. We've  worked hard over the past decade to bring the US
public great results from our studies of the universe while cutting back
budgets. I frequently give talks to the general public and have been
aware of a growing enthusiasm for, interest in, and support for space
science over the past few years. I hope the US public will become aware
of the proposed cuts and persuade Congress to relent further.

STS-93/Chandra
---------------

Chandra continues to operate well in transfer orbit. Both the ACIS and
HRC cameras have survived launch and will be checked out over the next
few weeks. The IPS-3 burn to raise apogee to 140000 km  was carried out
at 2232 UTC on Jul 31. DSN tracking indicates the orbit is now 3482 x
139384 km x 28.5 deg. A further IPS-4 burn on Aug 4 raised perigee to 
around 5700 km, and another perigee raise burn is planned for Aug 7.

The Integral Propulsion System on Chandra uses four TR-308 bipropellant
thrusters for orbit changes. The thrusters use N2O4 (nitrogen tetroxide)
oxidizer and N2H4 (hydrazine) fuel. They have a thrust of 472N and a
specific impulse of 322.3s; the TR-308 is an upgrade of the TR-306 that
was used on three Lockheed Martin Series 5000 satellites. The same fuel
tanks also feed Marquardt 89N monopropellant hydrazine RCS thrusters. In
addition to the IPS, the MUPS (Momentum Unloading Propulsion System)
uses 0.9N hydrazine thrusters to unload momentum from the gyro systems
used to point Chandra. (Thanks to the TRW propulsion experts for the
info). Thrusters LAE-1 and LAE-3 were used for the first three burns;
LAE-2 and LAE-4 were used for IPS-4 and will be used for the remaining
burns.

Columbia landed at 0320 UTC on Jul 28 on runway 33 at KSC. Post flight
inspection confirms the presence of holes in the  cooling lines on the
nozzle of SSME 2019 (engine 3) which caused a hydrogen leak. A loose
repair pin in the engine broke free and may have caused the  failure.
Although the leak was small, this combined with the electrical short
makes two semi-serious failures in the main propulsion system during
ascent, and I can't remember a launch since 51-L when we've had that. 
Fortunately the two failures didn't add together, but it seems like we
lost enough redundancy to make me nervous.

Recent Launches
---------------

Deep Space 1 made a flyby of minor planet (9969) Braille at 0446 UTC on
Jul 29. Flyby distance was less than 25 km and possibly as little as 15
km. DS 1 failed to point its camera to image the target at closest
approach, but the navigation system was successful in bringing the
vehicle close to the asteroid, and longer range IR imaging was
successful. The NSTAR ion engine continues to operate well.

Lunar Prospector impacted the lunar surface at 0952 UTC on 1999 Jul 31.
Impact site was 42.1E, 87.7S near the lunar south pole. The orbit was
raised to a 230 km apogee before the deorbit burn over the lunar farside
at 0919 UTC.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  5 0721   Starshine         -              OV-103, LEO      Education  30B
Jun 10 1348   Globalstar 52)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     31A
              Globalstar 49)                                               31B
              Globalstar 25)                                               31C
              Globalstar 47)                                               31D
Jun 11 1715   Iridium 14A )     CZ-2C/SD       Taiyuan          Comsat     32A
              Iridium 21A )                                     Comsat     32B
Jun 18 0149   Astra 1H          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     33A
Jun 20 0215   QuikScat          Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W R/Sensing  34A
Jun 24 1544   FUSE              Delta 7320-10  Canaveral SLC17A Astronomy  35A
Jul  5 1332   Raduga            Proton-K/BrizM Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     F02
Jul  8 0846   Molniya-3         Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     36A
Jul 10 0845   Globalstar 32)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     37A
              Globalstar 30)                                    Comsat     37B
              Globalstar 35)                                    Comsat     37C
              Globalstar 51)                                    Comsat     37D
Jul 16 1636   Progress M-42     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      38A
Jul 17 0638   Okean-O           Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    R/Sensing  39A
Jul 23 0428   Columbia          Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  40A
Jul 23 1147   Chandra           IUS            OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  40B
Jul 25 0746   Globalstar 26)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17A Comsat     41A
              Globalstar 28)                                    Comsat     41B
              Globalstar 43)                                    Comsat     41C
              Globalstar 48)                                    Comsat     41D


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 Oct 14
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Sep 18

MLP1/                          LC39B       STS-93
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 24. August 1999 00:41
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 406

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 406                                           1999 Aug 23   Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chandra
---------------

The IPS-5 burn was carried out on Aug 7. We are now in our final orbit
and the spacecraft is working well. In fact, a lot of the experts are
heading back to the left coast and the flight controllers now seem
pretty bored with the whole thing... thanks TRW for building us a
nice bird.

Here  are some extracts from the latest press release: "Spontaneous
cheers and applause erupted from managers and controllers clustered
around consoles at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Operations Control
Center in Cambridge, Mass., today  [Aug 12] as data from the observatory
confirmed that its sunshade door is open. "

"Over the next week or two, the control team will do an initial
calibration and early focusing of the telescope and take the first
images with the observatory. NASA plans to unveil the first significant
image and report on the observatory's early status at a news media
briefing later this month. "

"Today's activities culminated a busy week for the observatory control
team during which they replaced pre-launch software aboard Chandra's
computers with software that will be used during the operational part of
the mission; opened the aft contamination cover which protected
Chandra's sensitive mirrors from contamination prior-to and during
launch; began characterizing the reflectivity of the mirrors (using
special x-ray sources constructed by Marshall and mounted to the inside
of the sunshade door); and continued activation and checkout of the
telescope's two primary science instruments."

NASA has announced that the first light images, including one of
supernova remnant Cas A, will be released at a press conference on
Thursday Aug 26. 

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

The Mir spacewalk on Jul 23 started at 1106 UTC and lasted 6h 7min.
The spacewalk on Jul 28 started at 0937 UTC and lasted 5h 22min.
During the second spacewalk, Afanas'ev and Avdeev erected an
experimental 6-meter antenna. At the end of the experiment the
antenna was jettisoned.

The next Shuttle mission is being delayed because of electrical
wiring problems discovered on Columbia, which caused the short
during the STS-93 launch. It's not clear yet whether the STS-99
radar mapper or the STS-103 Hubble repair will fly first.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace is back in the launch business, with Indonesia's Telkom 1
placed in geostationary transfer orbit on Aug 12. Launches had been
delayed because of problems with comsat manufacturing. The Ariane 42P
launch vehicle delivered its LOX/LH2 H-10-3 third stage and the Telkom 1
payload to a 221 x 35687 km x 7.0 deg GTO 21 min after launch. Telkom 1
is an A2100 series satellite build by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale. The
owner is PT Telkomunikasi of Indonesia. Telkom 1 is a successor to the
Palapa  series of satellites, the first of which was launched in 1976.
Mass of Telkom 1 is 2763 kg launch, 1700 kg in GEO; dry mass not
available.

Four more Globalstar comsats were launched on Aug 17 by a Boeing
Delta 2 rocket.


The Russian Strategic Rocket Forces launched a Soyuz-U rocket from
Plesetsk on Aug 18, placing a Yantar'-class spy satellite in orbit for
the Russian Defense Ministry. The satellite is in a 166 x 342 km x 67.1
deg orbit, and  is one of the low-perigee, high resolution series that
followed on from the Kobal't satellites launched since 1981.

Cassini flew past Earth at a distance of 1171 km at 0328 UTC Aug 18.
Before the swingby, Cassini was in an orbit passing near Venus, with a
perihelion of 0.7 AU, and stretching out the the middle of the asteroid
belt at 2.6 AU. Picking up speed from the Earth encounter, the probe's
perihelion has slightly increased to 0.86 AU but its aphelion is now 7.2
AU, between Jupiter and Saturn.

US Air Force Space Command launched two Minuteman 3 missiles from
Vandenberg to Kwajalein on Aug 20. The three stage missiles probably
reached an apogee of 1500 km or so. Flight GT170-1GM was launched from
silo LF-10 at 0845 UTC, and flight GT171GM was launched from LF-09 at
1127 UTC. These were the first Minuteman test flights since February.


Space History
-------------

For the record,  the results on launch pad locations from my trip
to KSC. These positions have low absolute accuracy (100m) but good relative
accuracy. I've never been able to distinguish LC1 to LC4 on maps, so I wanted
to establish more clearly where they were.
 LC1 80 32.23W 28 27.91N
 LC2 80 32.21W 28 27.93N
 LC3 80 32.17W 28 27.95N
 LC4 80 32.16W 28 27.99N
 LC5 80 34.42W 28 26.36N
 LC6 80 34.35W 28 26.42N
 LC26A 80 34.26W 28 26.67N
 LC26B 80 34.30W 28 26.62N

I'd still like to get pads LC9/10/31/32 recorded,  also not well located
on maps. These positions are WGS-84 as realized by cheapo $100 GPS set.
Pad 3 was the site of the first launch from Cape Canaveral almost 50
years ago. It was also the site of X-17 launches, used to develop
Polaris technology. Pad 4 was used for Redstone launches from 1953 to
1955. Pads 1 and 2 were used for tests of the Snark cruise missile. Pads
5,6, 26A, 26B were used for launches of Redstone and Jupiter class
rockets, including the Explorer satellites and the Mercury-Redstone.
There's been some discussion about which pad is 5 and which is 6, so
if anyone can confirm that LC5 is the southern one, further from the
Space Museum, I'd appreciate it.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  5 1332   Raduga            Proton-K/BrizM Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     F02
Jul  8 0846   Molniya-3         Molniya-M      Plesetsk         Comsat     36A
Jul 10 0845   Globalstar 32)    Delta 7420-10  Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     37A
              Globalstar 30)                                    Comsat     37B
              Globalstar 35)                                    Comsat     37C
              Globalstar 51)                                    Comsat     37D
Jul 16 1636   Progress M-42     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      38A
Jul 17 0638   Okean-O           Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    R/Sensing  39A
Jul 23 0428   Columbia          Shuttle        Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  40A
Jul 23 1147   Chandra           IUS            OV-102, LEO      Astronomy  40B
Jul 25 0746   Globalstar 26)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17A Comsat     41A
              Globalstar 28)                                    Comsat     41B
              Globalstar 43)                                    Comsat     41C
              Globalstar 48)                                    Comsat     41D
Aug 12 2252   Telkom 1          Ariane 42P     CSG ELA2         Comsat     42A
Aug 17 0437   Globalstar 24)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SCL17  Comsat     43A
              Globalstar 27)
              Globalstar 53)
              Globalstar 54)
Aug 18 1800   Kosmos-2365       Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/4  Recon      44A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 Nov?
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 Dec  2
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  Oct  7?

MLP1/                          
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 07. September 1999 22:07
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 407

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 407                                           1999 Sep 7  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Chandra
---------------

Chandra's first light image has been released:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/cas.jpg

It's been an amazing few weeks. We opened the sunshade door and  looked
at the quasar PKS 0637-75, an old favorite of mine, expecting it to be a
point source that would be good for focussing, but we could easily see
X-rays from the quasar radio jet sticking out to the side. Turns out we
were pretty well focussed anyway. Only a few radio jets have been seen
in the X-ray before now, so seeing one in this quasar suggest to me that
we'll be seeing a lot of them in other objects (specifically,
flat-spectrum radio quasars like this one, in which we know the jet is
pointing close to the line of sight). We looked at the supernova remnant
Cas A, and saw lots of detail including a possible neutron star compact
remnant in the center. After checking out the ACIS camera, we turned to
the HRC camera which has also been working  spectacularly. The HETG
grating has also been tested out, making a high resolution spectrum of
the bright star Capella. So far, so good! In fact better than good -
pretty much everything we've looked at so far has fascinating surprises.
Of course, there are the usual detailed issues with the processing
software, and lots of numbers to tweak from on-orbit measurements, so
although all in all things have been working remarkably well, there's
been no shortage of things for us to do. Orbital activation and checkout
will be completed later this month, at which point hopefully I start
working less than 16-hour days.

Shuttle and Mir
---------------

For the first time since Sep 1989 there are no humans in space. The Mir
EO-27 crew landed in Kazakhstan at 0035 UTC on Aug 28. Soyuz TM-29
undocked from Mir at 2117 UTC on Aug 27 with Afanas'ev, Avdeev and
Haignere aboard. The hatch between Mir and Soyuz was closed for
the last time at 1812 UTC.

The Shuttle fleet remains grounded while NASA continues checks
and repairs to the wiring in the Orbiters. Launches might
resume by late October.

Recent Launches
---------------

Arianespace launched Koreasat 3 for Korea Telecom on Sep 4 on an Ariane
42P rocket. The H-10-3 third stage placed Koreasat 3 in a 214 x  35756
km x 7.0 deg transfer orbit. Koreasat 3 is a Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale
A2100 class comsat with both Ka and Ku band transponders. Launch mass
was 2790 kg; it will be located at 116 deg E.

The first two Yamal comsats were launched by Krunichev's Proton on Sep
6. An Energiya DM-2M (11S861-01) upper stage placed the satellites in a
197 x  36311 km x  49.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit according to
Space Command data, but this seems to be an error since Energiya reports
that the DM-2M made two successful burns, which would have left the
satellites in circular 36000 km orbit. Stay tuned for clarification of
this issue. Yamal 101 reportedly ran into problems after it was
deployed.

RKK Energiya is building the Yamal 101 and 102 satellites for AO Gazcom
of Moscow, a joint venture of RKKE and  RAO Gazprom, the Russian natural
gas monopoly. The two Yamal-100 satellites each carry a communications
payload of 12 C-band transponders built by Space Systems/Loral, and will
support  internal communications for RAO Gazprom.  Satellite mass is
1360 kg. The satellite carries Fakel SPD-70 plasma thrusters for
inclination control.

Launch pad for Kosmos-2365 was PU3 at Plesetsk LC43 according to
Aleksandr Zheleznyakov. (Last week's issue had  a typo).

Kosmos-2366 was launched on Aug 26 by a two-stage 11K65M rocket from
Plesetsk into an 83 degree orbit. Kosmos-2366 is a Parus-class
navigation satellite built by Polyot of Omsk.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug 12 2252   Telkom 1          Ariane 42P     CSG ELA2         Comsat     42A
Aug 17 0437   Globalstar 24)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SCL17  Comsat     43A
              Globalstar 27)
              Globalstar 53)
              Globalstar 54)
Aug 18 1800   Kosmos-2365       Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/3  Recon      44A
Aug 26 1203   Kosmos-2366       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     45A
Sep  4 2234   Koreasat 3        Ariane 42P     CSG ELA2         Comsat     46A
Sep  6 1636   Yamal 101 )       Proton-K/DM    Baykonur         Comsat     47A
              Yamal 102 )                                       Comsat     47B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 3     OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 1999
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-101 2000
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  1999

MLP1/                          
MLP2/                          
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   STS-99

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 26. September 1999 19:35
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 408

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 408                                             1999 Sep 26 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Shuttle schedule's still on hold pending repairs to the Orbiters.
Columbia was flown to Palmdale, California for refurbishment on Sep 24-25.
It will remain there until mid-2000. The next mission will probably
be STS-103/Discovery, the HST servicing mission, currently expected
in late November.

Recent Launches
---------------

Mars Climate Orbiter began its Mars Orbit Insertion burn on Sep 23 at
0850UTC, but a navigation error meant that the closest approach to  the
surface of Mars was only 57 km, half the intended height. No signal was
received after MCO went behind the planet, and it is feared that the
spacecraft burnt up during the unintentional aerocapture maneuver.
Closest approach to the  planet was probably around 0900 UTC. I don't
know the latitude and longitude of closest approach, or the likely
impact site - if anyone has calculated these please pass the info on to
me. It's possible that MCO survived the aeropass and is in orbit around
Mars but defunct, with its antenna broken off; or that the friction took
so much energy from MCO that its debris impacted on Mars some way down
track from the entry point. Questions for the class: do we know the
current state of the Martian atmosphere at the entry point well enough
to model what happened to MCO? My immediate prejudice based on behaviour
of elliptical orbit low perigee Earth satellites is that the main part
of the MCO bus, even if damaged, should have survived the first pass and
remained in orbit, but probably in an orbit that would impact on the
next rev: about 50 km perigee, unknown apogee, and 90 degrees
inclination.  The location of the succeeding impact point depends
critically on that unknown apogee, which determines the orbital period
and therefore how much Mars rotated before the impact. I'm not competent
to do the relevant calculations, so we'll have to wait for more
definitive statements from JPL.

Foton 12 (spacecraft 34KS No. 12) was launched on Sep 9. The Foton
satellites, built by TsSKB Progress of Samara, Russia, are based on the
Zenit spy satellite bus, related to the old Vostok spaceship.  The
spacecraft consists of a spherical descent module, a service module with
solid-propellant deorbit motor, and a separable battery pack. Foton
missions carry materials processing experiments and life sciences
experiments. This flight carried a number of European experiments. The
11A511U (Soyuz-U) launch vehicle took off from Plesetsk at 1800 UTC on
Sep 9 and entered a 216 x 379 km x 62.8 deg orbit 9 minutes later. After
two weeks of microgravity, the battery pack and a small adapter
separated, with two retrorocket covers also being ejected into a higher
323 x 492 km orbit. The retrorocket fired and separated, with the
spacecraft's descent module landing in Russia at 52 28N 53 50E at
between 0918 UTC and 0929 UTC (reports differ) on Sep 24.

Four more Globalstar satellites were launched on Sep 22. A Starsem
Soyuz/Ikar rocket placed the four satellites in orbit. The 11A511U
Soyuz-U took off from area 1 at 5 GIK (Baykonur). The four strapons
separated 2 min after launch, and at 4 min after launch the Blok-A
central core (nominally stage 2) separated. The Blok I third stage 
fired until 9 min after launch, entering a 235 x 906 km x 51.9 deg
transfer orbit and separating from the Ikar upper stage and dispenser.
At apogee Ikar burned to deploy the four satellites (M033, M050, M055,
M058) in a 900 x 960 km x 51.9 deg parking orbit. Ikar later made a
deorbit burn and reentered on Sep 24. Globalstar satellite numbers which
have not yet been launched are M029, M031, M034, M039, M056, and M057. 
The Globalstar satellites use the Space Systems/Loral LS-400 bus,
built by SS-L/Palo Alto and Alenia/Roma. Globalstar will provide
handheld telephone service starting in the next few months.

Lockheed Martin launched an Atlas 2AS vehicle on Sep 23 carrying the
Echostar 5 satellite. The Centaur second stage delivered Echostar 5 to a
supersynchronous transfer orbit of 131 x 45526 km x 26.6 deg. This was
the first flight to use RL-10 engines since the Delta 3 failure in May.
Echostar 5 is a Ku-band satellite supplementing the Dish Network,
built by Space Systems/Loral using the FS-1300 bus.

The Lockheed Martin Athena has also returned to flight. Athena-2 flight
LM-007 took off from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg AFB on Sep 24
with Space Imaging Inc's Ikonos commercial imaging satellite. Ikonos
flight satellite number 2 has apparently been named simply 'Ikonos' on
orbit (satellite number 1 fell in the Pacific in a launch failure). If
the launch profile was similar to that planned for the first Ikonos
launch, the Orbus 21 third stage placed Ikonos and the OAM fourth stage
on a suborbital trajectory. The first OAM burn would then place the
stack in a 220 x 689 km x 98.2 deg transfer orbit 10 min after launch.
51 min after launch, the OAM fired again at apogee for 6 minutes,
placing Ikonos in a 678 x 682 km x 98.1 deg  sun-synchronous orbit with
a 10:30am descending node. It then separated from Ikonos and fired again
to lower its orbit for disposal. Space Command is tracking it in a 207 x
431 km x 98.2 deg orbit, but also cataloged a third object in a 137 x
630 km x 97.7 deg orbit. The orbit of this third object is very close to
the quoted post-disposal orbit for the OAM intended for the Ikonos 1
launch, so I'm wondering if this might actually be the OAM. The lower
inclination is odd if it's a piece that came off during the transfer
orbit, although I suppose it might be the Orbus 21 stage if that overperformed
and just reached orbit.

Ikonos spacecraft 2 carries a 1-meter resolution black-and-white camera and
a 4-meter resolution color camera, with a 13 km swath width. The spacecraft 
was built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale using the LM900 bus and carries
6 MR-103G 0.1N thrusters for attitude control. Mass is 726 kg.

Arianespace launched an Ariane 44LP with the Telstar 7 satellite
into supersynchronous transfer orbit of 129 x 59944 km x 7.0 deg
on Sep 25 (this orbit is from the Space Command data and the perigee
seems a bit low; the third stage is tracked in a 175 x 64273 km
orbit). It's unusual for an Ariane launch to use the high-apogee transfer
orbit technique. Telstar 7 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 satellite owned
by Loral Skynet. It has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders and
has a dry mass of 1537 kg (3790 kg fuelled). Telstar 7 will provide
communications for North America from 129 deg E.
This was a busy week for Space Systems/Loral, with 4 Globalstar and
two FS-1300 satellites orbited.

The Yamal 101 satellite was in a 1442.06 35504 x 36302 km x 0.0 deg
geosynchronous drift orbit ayt 63.1E drifting 1.5 deg W per day on Sep
24. The Yamal 102 satellite was in a 1438.99 min, 35581 x 36104 km x 0.0
deg orbit over 70E drifting 0.7 deg W per day on Sep 22. The early
orbital data showing the Yamals in transfer orbit was erroneous; Space
Command is not yet tracking the SOZ ullage motors.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug 12 2252   Telkom 1          Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     42A
Aug 17 0437   Globalstar 24)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     43A
              Globalstar 27)
              Globalstar 53)
              Globalstar 54)
Aug 18 1800   Kosmos-2365       Soyuz-U        Plesetsk LC43/3  Recon      44A
Aug 26 1203   Kosmos-2366       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk         Navsat     45A
Sep  4 2234   Koreasat 3        Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     46A
Sep  6 1636   Yamal 101 )       Proton-K/DM    Baykonur         Comsat     47A
              Yamal 102 )                                       Comsat     47B
Sep  9 1800   Foton 12          Soyuz-U        Plesetsk         Micrograv  48A
Sep 22 1433   Globalstar 33)    Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1?    Comsat     49A
              Globalstar 50)                                    Comsat     49B
              Globalstar 55)                                    Comsat     49C
              Globalstar 58)                                    Comsat     49D
Sep 23 0602   Echostar 5        Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     50A
Sep 24 1821   Ikonos            Athena-2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    51A
Sep 25 0629   Telstar 7         Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     52A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 1999 Nov
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  1999 Dec

MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   STS-99?


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 07. October 1999 21:15
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 409

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 409                                         1999 Oct 7  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recent Launches
---------------

Lockheed Martin Intersputnik's LMI-1 satellite was launched on Sep 26 by
International Launch Services on a Krunichev Proton with an Energiya
Blok DM3 upper stage. LMI-1 will provide communications services to 
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. LMI 1 is currently in a geostationary
drift orbit.

Analysis of the quoted velocites at separation for the various Athena 2
stages suggests that the object now being cataloged as 1999-51C is the
Orbus 21 ESBM stage, and 1999-51B is the OAM stage. Athena sources
confirm this (Space Command originally incorrectly cataloged the old 51B
- the object now called 51C - as the OAM, but seem to have corrected
things now). My sources also inform me that although the Lewis launch
vehicle in 1997 had "LM-1" incorrectly painted on the side, it is really
tail number "LM-2". I'll update the launch logs soon.    

Russia launched another Zenit-class recoverable satellite from Plesetsk
on Sep 28 into a 220 x 231 km x 82.3 deg orbit. The satellite is probably
a Resurs F-1M remote sensing satellite. This is the second Resurs F-1M
flight; the first was in Nov 1997, following on from the
Resurs F-1 flights which ended in 1993.

The third GPS Block 2R satellite was launched on Oct 7. The spacecraft
is Block IIR SV06, or SVN 46 in the overall production numbering scheme.
This satellite replaced SVN 50, which was soaked during a storm at
pad 17 earlier this year and has been returned to the factory for
repairs.

The Mars Climate Orbiter fiasco was reportedly due to confusion between
metric and imperial units in a software interface between Lockheed
Martin/Denver and the JPL nav team coupled with the use of some new
software. After all these years on this side of  the pond I still find
it hard to deal with the fact that US engineers still use imperial
units! Thruster impulse data should have been in Ns, but used lbf-s
instead, and noone caught the error. It may never be clear whether
MCO impacted Mars or remained in solar orbit, although I feel
the former is more likely.

A Minuteman 2 missile with an MSLS reentry section was launched from
silo LF03 at Vandenberg on Oct 3 at 0201 UTC. The IFT-3 flight used the
MSLS vehicle as a target for an EKV interceptor launched from Kwajalein.
The interceptor launch vehicle is the two-stage PLV, made up of a
Minuteman 2 second and third stage. Intercept was reported to be
successful.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  4 2234   Koreasat 3        Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     46A
Sep  6 1636   Yamal 101 )       Proton-K/DM    Baykonur         Comsat     47A
              Yamal 102 )                                       Comsat     47B
Sep  9 1800   Foton 12          Soyuz-U        Plesetsk         Micrograv  48A
Sep 22 1433   Globalstar 33)    Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1?    Comsat     49A
              Globalstar 50)                                    Comsat     49B
              Globalstar 55)                                    Comsat     49C
              Globalstar 58)                                    Comsat     49D
Sep 23 0602   Echostar 5        Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     50A
Sep 24 1821   Ikonos            Athena-2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    51A
Sep 25 0629   Telstar 7         Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     52A
Sep 26 2230   LMI-1             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     53A
Sep 28 1100?  Resurs F-1M       Soyuz-U        Plesetsk         Imaging    54A
Oct  7 1251   Navstar SVN 46    Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     55A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 1999 Nov
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  1999 Dec?

MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   STS-99?


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 28. October 1999 22:11
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 410

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 410                                           1999 Oct 28 Cambridge, MA
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Recent Launches
---------------


Boeing Sea Launch made its second successful Zenit-3SL flight from
the Odyssey launch platform in the Pacific Ocean at 154W 0N. This
was the first flight to carry a commercial payload, the Hughes
DirecTV 1R. The HS-601 satellite used its R-4D apogee engine to
enter geostationary orbit and is now in a 35742 x 35830 km x 0.0 deg
orbit over 81.6W.

China launched two Brazilian satellites, CBERS 1 and SACI 1 on Oct 14.
Zi Yuan 1 (CBERS 1) is the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite. I
believe CBERS 1 was actually built by CAST/Beijing, with INPE/Brasil
taking the lead for CBERS 2. Mass is 1450 kg. The satellite is in a 732
x 745 km x 98.6 deg sun-synchronous orbit and is controlled from both
Chinese and Brazilian ground stations. This was the second launch
of the Shanghai group's CZ-4B rocket, which has an improved third
stage and larger fairing compared to the earlier CZ-4A.

SACI-1 is INPE's 60 kg experimental scientific satellite. It carries a
magnetometer, particle detectors and an atmospheric experiment. INPE
reportedly lost contact with the satellite in mid-October and its
current status is unknown.

Four more Globalstar satellites were launched on Oct 18. The Soyuz-U
rocket placed the Ikar stage and the dispenser with satellites in
elliptical transfer orbit. Ikar made a burn at apogee and the satellites
were released; a second Ikar burn, with the dispenser still attached,
was meant to deorbit the stage a day later, but Space Command data
showed it in orbit on Oct 20. Thanks to Aleksandr Zheleznyakov for the
correct launch time. Globalstar has now begun limited service with
its satellite telephone system.

Loral Orion's Orion 2 satellite was launched on Oct 19 by Ariane 44LP.
Arianespace's fourth launch in a little over two months placed the
FS-1300 class comsat in supersynchronous transfer orbit with a 60000 km
apogee. The Orion satellites are used for international communications
and complement the Telstar domestic series operated by Loral Skynet.

The Resurs F-1M satellite was recovered on Oct 22 after completing
its 3-week remote sensing mission.

The Russian Ekspress-A1 communications satellite was launched on Oct 27
but the Proton-K launch vehicle failed early in flight, during second
stage burn. This is the second failure of the 8K82K Proton-K  this year.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  4 2234   Koreasat 3        Ariane 42P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     46A
Sep  6 1636   Yamal 101 )       Proton-K/DM    Baykonur         Comsat     47A
              Yamal 102 )                                       Comsat     47B
Sep  9 1800   Foton 12          Soyuz-U        Plesetsk         Micrograv  48A
Sep 22 1433   Globalstar 33)    Soyuz-U/Ikar   Baykonur LC1     Comsat     49A
              Globalstar 50)                                    Comsat     49B
              Globalstar 55)                                    Comsat     49C
              Globalstar 58)                                    Comsat     49D
Sep 23 0602   Echostar 5        Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     50A
Sep 24 1821   Ikonos            Athena-2       Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    51A
Sep 25 0629   Telstar 7         Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     52A
Sep 26 2230   LMI-1             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur         Comsat     53A
Sep 28 1100?  Resurs F-1M       Soyuz-U        Plesetsk         Imaging    54A
Oct  7 1251   Navstar SVN 46    Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     55A
Oct 10 0328   DirecTV 1R        Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Comsat     56A
Oct 14 0315   Zi Yuan 1 )       Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    57A
              SACI 1    )                                       Science    57B
Oct 18 1322   Globalstar 31)    Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     58A
              Globalstar 56)                                    Comsat     58B
              Globalstar 57)                                    Comsat     58C
              Globalstar 59)                                    Comsat     58D
Oct 19 0622   Orion 2           Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     59A
Oct 27 1616   Ekspress-A1       Proton-K       Baykonur         Comsat     F03

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-103 1999 Dec
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  2000 Jan

MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 16. November 1999 20:30
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 411

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 411  draft                                      1999 Nov 16 Cambridge, MA
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Web Site Updated
-----------------

My web site, http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/space.html
has undergone a significant update.

A major new feature is the index of geostationary launches In addition
to my usual list of current orbital postions, I've added a historical
listing of which longitudes the various satellites have ever been
stationed at, an estimate of the time each satellite first entered the
near-geostationary region (which I define to be orbital periods between
23 and 25 hours), and an estimate of the time the satellite ceased
operating. I hope readers who have geostationary satellites of their own
will help me correct and improve this listing, which is at 
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/logs/geo.date

Recent Launches
---------------

Plans are to launch Discovery on STS-103 in early December.
Discovery has been mated to external tank ET-101 and solid boosters
RSRM-73, and was rolled out from VAB bay 1 to the pad on Nov 13.

GE 4 was launched by Ariane on Nov 13. The GE 4 satellite will provide C
and Ku-band communications services for GE Americom, replacing the older
Spacenet 4 satellite. It is an A2100AX type spacecraft built by Lockheed
Martin/Sunnyvale. Arianespace used an Ariane 44LP rocket to place GE 4
in geostationary transfer orbit.

Below I list all the satellites in GE Americom (formerly RCA Americom)'s
fleet. The early satellites were built by RCA/GE/Lockheed Martin's
East Windsor operation; the A2100s were built by LM/Sunnyvale; and
GE 5 was built by Alcatel/Cannes.

  Historical list of GE Americom satellites
              Type         Launch        Retired
RCA Satcom 1  Satcom      1975 Dec 13   1984 Jun
RCA Satcom 2  Satcom      1976 Mar 26   1985 Jan
RCA Satcom 3  Satcom      1979 Dec  7   Launch failure, in GTO
RCA Satcom 3R Satcom      1981 Nov 20   1991 Apr
RCA Satcom 4  Satcom      1982 Jan 16   1991 Dec
RCA Satcom 5  Adv.Satcom  1982 Oct 27   1991 Apr?; at 105W (Alascom Aurora 1)
RCA Satcom 1R Adv.Satcom  1983 Apr 11   1992 Dec
RCA Satcom 2R Adv.Satcom  1983 Sep  8   1995 Mar

Satcom K-2    Series 4000 1985 Nov 27   At 81W
Satcom K-1    Series 4000 1986 Jan 12   1997 Jul
Satcom K-3    Series 5000 cancelled, became Astra 1B
Satcom K-4    Series 5000 cancelled, became Intelsat K
Satcom C-1    Series 3000 1990 Nov 20   At 137W
Satcom C-5    Series 3000 1991 May 29   At 139W (Alascom Aurora 2)
Satcom C-4    Series 3000 1992 Aug 31   At 135W
Satcom C-3    Series 3000 1992 Sep 10   At 131W
Satcom C-2    Series 3000 not launched, status unknown

GE 1          A2100       1996 Sep  8   At 103W
GE 2          A2100       1997 Jan 30   At 85W
GE 3          A2100       1997 Sep  4   At 87W
GE 5        Spacebus 2000 1998 Oct 28   At 79W
GE 4          A2100AX     1999 Nov 13   -


NASDA's H-2 rocket failed four minutes after launch from Tanegashima on
Nov 15. The H-2 jettisoned its two large solid boosters 1.5 min after
launch, but toward the end of the burn of the large first stage
something went wrong - details so far unknown - and the rocket was lost.
This H-2 carried the 5S type fairing and a new second stage with the
LE-5B engine being developed for the H-2A program, but the accident
happened before second stage ignition. 

The payload was the Multi-functional Transportation Satellite, with a
communications and air traffic control payload for the Japanese
transportation ministry and a meteorological payload for the Japanese
Meteorological Agency. MTSAT was built by Space Systems/Loral and based
on their FS-1300 series comsat bus. MTSAT had a mass of 1223 kg dry,
2900 kg at launch. The spacecraft was a follow-on to the GMS (Himawari)
weather satellite series.

The AP report on the launch failure includes Japan's repeated erroneous
claim that it was the first nation to dock two satellites under remote
control. In fact, the ETS-7 experiment last year came 30 years after
the first remote control docking by the USSR's Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  7 1251   Navstar SVN 46    Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     55A
Oct 10 0328   DirecTV 1R        Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Comsat     56A
Oct 14 0315   Zi Yuan 1 )       Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    57A
              SACI 1    )                                       Science    57B
Oct 18 1322   Globalstar 31)    Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     58A
              Globalstar 56)                                    Comsat     58B
              Globalstar 57)                                    Comsat     58C
              Globalstar 59)                                    Comsat     58D
Oct 19 0622   Orion 2           Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     59A
Oct 27 1616   Ekspress-A1       Proton-K       Baykonur         Comsat     F03
Nov 13 2255   GE 4              Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     60A
Nov 15 0729   MTSAT             H-2            Tanegashima      Comsat     F04

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-103 1999 Dec  6
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  2000 Jan 13

MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM-73/ET-101/OV-103     LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 28. November 1999 22:34
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 412

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 412                                           1999 Nov 28 Cambridge, MA
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Recent Launches
---------------

China launched its Shenzhou spaceship on Nov 19 on a test flight without
astronauts aboard. Further test flights are expected before its first
piloted flight. Shenzhou ("Divine Ship") was launched by the new CZ-2F
vehicle, an improved version of the CZ-2E, from a new pad at China's
oldest space launch site, Jiuquan in the Gobi desert. Shenzhou's reentry
vehicle was recovered after a 21 hour flight at 1941 UTC on Nov 20 in
Inner Mongolia. Shenzhou's orbit was 197 x 323 km x 42.6 deg. Two
debris objects were tracked after the launch, possibly launch adapters
or fairings. 

The spacecraft's design is analogous to the 7K Soyuz, with a propulsion
module, a descent module and an orbital module. The descent module
appears to be identical to the Soyuz-TM descent module and reports
indicate that actual Soyuz flight hardware purchased from Russia may
have been used, albeit with Chinese developed avionics. The remainder of
the spacecraft is a fully Chinese design. Details of the propulsion
module are not available. The orbital module is cylindrical and somewhat
similar in shape and appearance to the US Unity Node on the Space
Station.

During Nov 21 the orbital module separated, and then at around 1850 UTC
the propulsion module fired its engine for the deorbit burn, separating
from the descent module and burning up in the atmosphere. The orbital
module was left in a 205 x 332 km orbit.

Starsem launched a Soyuz-U/Ikar from Baykonur on Nov 22 with four
more Globalstar satellites. This was the first launch from Baykonur
since the recent Proton failure. The Loral Globalstar satellites
were deployed in the usual 900 x 942 km x 52.0 deg parking orbit.
The Ikar stage ignited again to deorbit itself on Nov 23.
The Blok I third stage is in a 230 x 876 km x 52.0 deg orbit.

Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services launched a Lockheed
Martin Astronautics Atlas 2A, serial AC-136, from Cape Canaveral on Nov 23.
The Centaur entered low circular parking orbit on its first burn, and
then reignited to place the UHF F/O F10 satellite in subsynchronous
transfer orbit. On Nov 28 the satellite was in a 26527 x 36665 km x 7.2
deg orbit after the first burns of its R-4D liquid apogee engine.

UHF Followon F10 is a Hughes HS-601 satellite with UHF and EHF
communications payloads and the Global Broadcast Service TV payload,
and will provide communications services for the US Navy.

Galileo made a 300 km flyby of Io on Nov 26 at 0400 UTC. Galileo is
probably now in a 407000 x 6200000 km x 1.3 deg orbit around Jupiter,
although the orbital element data on the Galileo web site has not been
updated for the post-Europa-mission phase.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  7 1251   Navstar SVN 46    Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     55A
Oct 10 0328   DirecTV 1R        Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Comsat     56A
Oct 14 0315   Zi Yuan 1 )       Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    57A
              SACI 1    )                                       Science    57B
Oct 18 1322   Globalstar 31)    Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     58A
              Globalstar 56)                                    Comsat     58B
              Globalstar 57)                                    Comsat     58C
              Globalstar 59)                                    Comsat     58D
Oct 19 0622   Orion 2           Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     59A
Oct 27 1616   Ekspress-A1       Proton-K       Baykonur         Comsat     F03
Nov 13 2255   GE 4              Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     60A
Nov 15 0729   MTSAT             H-2            Tanegashima      Comsat     F04
Nov 19 2230   Shenzhou          Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan          Spaceship  61A
Nov 22 1620   Globalstar 29 )   Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     62A
              Globalstar 34 )                                   Comsat     62B
              Globalstar 39 )                                   Comsat     62C
              Globalstar 61 )                                   Comsat     62D
Nov 23 0406   UHF F/O F10       Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     63A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-103 1999 Dec  9
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-99  2000 Jan 13

MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM-73/ET-101/OV-103     LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?              VAB Bay 3   


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 06. December 1999 01:52
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 413

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 413                                           1999 Dec 5 Cambridge, MA
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Recent Launches
---------------

The Mars Polar Lander spacecraft reached Mars on Dec 3. The lander
separated from the cruise stage at 1951 UTC and the two Deep Space 2
penetrators, Scott and Amundsen,  were scheduled to separate about 20   
seconds later. Nothing has been heard from any of the three spacecraft,
and it now seems possible that all perished during atmospheric entry and
landing. Landing was expected at 2001 UTC at 76.1S 195.3W, with the
penetrators landing a few km from each other at 75.0S 196.5W at the same
time.

Unless one of the probes is heard from, a prospect that fades with each
passing day, this is a further hard blow for the JPL team. The lack of
telemetry during descent will make it very hard to settle on a detailed
cause of failure, and Mars landings are never easy (it's only been done
successfully three times - Viking 1 and 2, and Mars Pathfinder). It is
not even clear if MPL and the DS2 penetrators separated from the cruise
stage successfully. The next Mars Surveyor launch is currently scheduled
for March 2001.   

The French Helios 1B spy satellite was launched from Kourou on Dec 3
into sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft is based on the Matra Marconi
Space Spot 4 bus. Mass is 2544 kg. The small Surrey Satellite/Alcatel
Space Clementine electronic intelligence technology satellite was also
deployed from the third stage of the Ariane launch vehicle.  Clementine
is a followon to the Cerise satellite launched in 1995. The launch
vehicle was an Ariane 40, with no strapon boosters, using the small type
02 fairing for the first time since 1996. Helios 1B will be operated by
the CNES space agency and the DGA (Delegation Generale de l'Armament).

The Orbital Sciences L-1011 Stargazer launch aircraft took off from one
of the runways (anyone know which?) at Wallops Flight Facility at about
1751 UTC on Dec 4 and headed out over the Atlantic to launch a Pegasus
XL rocket. The drop point was probably in the vicinity of 37.0 deg N,
72.0 deg W. The Pegasus placed seven Orbcomm satellites in orbit. The
Pegasus third stage entered a 407 x 726 km x 45.0 deg orbit. Two burns
by the HAPS fourth stage led to deployment of the Orbcomms in an 820 x
840 km x 45.0 deg operational orbit. After a third depletion burn the
HAPS stage was left in a 372 x 827 km x 41.0 deg orbit. Earlier Orbcomm
launches had a stack of eight satellites; it isn't clear why only seven
were flown on this mission.


The Oldest Spacecraft
---------------------

I'm often asked how many active satellites are in orbit - this is a
really hard number to derive, but I've recently tried to count them and
my best guess is that there are currently between 650 and 800 working
Earth satellites (including anything that can still communicate with Earth,
even if it is not fully operational) and 18 spacecraft beyond Earth orbit.
The oldest spacecraft definitely working are TRW's Pioneer 6, 7 and 8
interplanetary probes; Pioneer 6 is 34 years old. The oldest Earth
satellite is probably the Hughes HS-306 satellite ATS 3, in
geostationary orbit since 1967. However, the 1966 ITT/US Army Secor
geodetic satellite EGRS 7 was reported in 1980 to be still transmitting,
so it's just possible it's still around. NATO IIA, a Ford (now Loral)
satellite from 1970, is in the stable geostationary location at 105W, 
and it's not possible to tell whether it is still under control. Here I 
give a list of the oldest satellites not definitely known to be defunct.
I'd be very interested in hearing of definite death dates for any of
these, or any active ones I've missed.

  Satellite   Year of Launch    Type       Operator   Status

 (EGRS 7      1966          ITT Secor      US Army    Last report 1980)
  ATS 3       1967          Hughes HS-306  NASA       Still working 1990s
 (NATO IIA    1970          Ford Skynet    NATO/USAF  At 105W, status unknown)
 (DSCS II F-1 1971          TRW DSCS 2     USAF       At 100-110W since 1979)
  IMP 8       1973          GSFC IMP       NASA       Still OK 1998
  Skynet IIB  1974          Marconi Skynet UK MoD     Still OK 1994
  LES 8       1976          Lincon Labs    USAF       Still OK 1992
  LES 9       1976          Lincon Labs    USAF       Still OK 1992
  Marisat 103 1976          Hughes HS-333  INMARSAT   Active
  GOES 2      1977          Ford SMS       NOAA       Active
  FLTSATCOM 1 1978          TRW FLTSAT     USN        Active
  GOES 3      1978          Ford SMS       NOAA       Active
  
 From the 1980s: FLTSATCOM 4, Comstar D-4, Landsat 4, Intelsat 505, Aurora 1,
  DSCS III A-1, TDRS 1, Oscar 10, Hilat, Landsat 5, UoSAT 2, Spacenet 1, SBS 4,
  ERBS, Marecs 2, NATO 3D, Brasilsat 1, Intelsat 510, Anik C1, Gstar 1, 
  Intelsat 511, DSCS III B-4, DSCS III B-5, Morelos 2, Aussat K2, Satcom K2,
  Mir, Brasilsat 2, Polar Bear, Fltsatcom 7, Kosmos-1809,  USA 21, GOES 7,
  Kvant, Aussat K3, Eutelsat I F4, DSP 5R, Spacenet 3R, IRS 1A, NSS 513,
  PAS 1, Eutelsat I F-5, Gstar 3, SBS 5, NOAA 11, TDRS 3, USA 33, Astra 1A,
  Zhongxing 2, Intelsat 515, GPS 14, Akebono, TDRS 4, USA 37, GPS 13, DSP 14,
  Nadezhda (1989-50A), USA 40, TVSAT 2, GPS 16, Sirius 1, DSCS II F-15,
  DSCS III A-2, Himawari 4, FLTSATCOM 8, GPS 19, Intelsat 602, Kvant 2, USA 48,
  GPS 17.
  
 In addition, the operating interplanetary spacecraft are:
  Pioneers 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11; Voyager 1 and 2; ICE; Galileo, Ulysses,
  SOHO, NEAR, MGS, ACE, Cassini, Deep Space 1 and Stardust; and possibly
  Sakigake.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov 13 2255   GE 4              Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     60A
Nov 15 0729   MTSAT             H-2            Tanegashima      Comsat     F04
Nov 19 2230   Shenzhou          Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan  LC3     Spaceship  61A
Nov 22 1620   Globalstar 29 )   Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     62A
              Globalstar 34 )                                   Comsat     62B
              Globalstar 39 )                                   Comsat     62C
              Globalstar 61 )                                   Comsat     62D
Nov 23 0406   UHF F/O F10       Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     63A
Dec  3 1622   Helios 1B  )      Ariane 40      Kourou ELA2      Imaging    64A
              Clementine )                                      Sigint     64B
Dec  3 1951   Mars Polar Lander                MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01D?
Dec  3 1951   Scott Probe   )                  MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01E?
              Amundsen Probe)                                   Lander     01F?
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

     

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-103 1999 Dec 11
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-99  2000 Jan 13

MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM-73/ET-101/OV-103     LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?/OV-105       VAB Bay 1


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 12. December 1999 23:27
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 414

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 414                                            1999 Dec 12 Cambridge, MA
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The European Space Agency's XMM satellite is in orbit. The fourth Ariane
5 launch (and the first commercial flight) took off on schedule from
Kourou on Dec 10 at 1432 UTC. The initial version of the Ariane 5 EPS
upper stage can only make a single burn, so mission 504 flew an unusual
direct ascent trajectory to its highly elliptical orbit. The EPC main
stage separated at 1442 UTC in a high energy suborbital trajectory with
a  velocity of around 7.8 km/s, and impact near the Galapagos Islands (I
don't know what the apogee was). The EPS upper stage ignited and made a
long 16 minute burn to accelerate the vehicle to over 9 km/s and 1880 km
altitude. XMM separated from the EPS upper stage at 1501 UTC, and is in
an 838 x 112473 km x 40.0 deg transfer orbit, very close to the planned
one. The first apogee burn will be on Dec 11.  Space Command have
cataloged the spacecraft as  1999-66A (although the listing calls it
MMX!)

This mission, Ariane 504 or flight V119, was the second fully successful
flight for Ariane 5, which is a completely new launch vehicle (Ariane 4
is basically an upgraded version of Ariane 1, 2 and 3). The first Ariane
5 flight ended in disaster, with the Cluster science payload ending up
in the mangrove swamp next to the launch pad. The second flight had a
relatively minor roll problem which left the experimental payload in an
orbit which was thousands of kilometers lower than planned. The third
flight placed the ARD capsule on its planned suborbital trajectory and
put a dummy satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. The first two
test missions were carried out under the auspices of  the European Space
Agency (ESA); Ariane 503 was owned and launched by the commercial
Arianespace launch provider, but counted as a test mission, while XMM is
Arianespace's first commercial contract to fly on Ariane 5, albeit with
ESA as the customer. The success of flight V119 will bolster confidence
that the early problems with the vehicle are behind it, and 2000 should
see a ramp up of commercial geostationary comsat launches on Ariane 5.

The Ariane 5 vehicle consists of two EAP (Etage d'Acceleration a Poudre)
solid boosters, the EPC (Etage Principal Cryogenique) main stage which
features the LH2/LOX high energy 1145 kN Snecma Vulcain engine, and the
EPS (Etage a Propergols Stockables) upper stage with the 29 kN Aestus
engine burning hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. The large nose fairing
covers EPS and the payload. The only other launch vehicles with a
liquid hydrogen first stage are the Shuttle and Japan's H-2.

XMM (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission), built by DaimlerChrysler Dornier
Satellitensystem, is a large X-ray  observatory which will complement
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. XMM has larger collecting area but
poorer spatial resolution, so it will be better at getting detailed
spectra of bright and moderately faint X-ray sources, while Chandra will
be better at detecting the very faintest X-ray sources and at
distinguishing spectral details in different parts of a source (for
instance, separating a pulsar from a supernova remnant or a quasar from
a cluster of galaxies). The claim on the ESA web site that XMM "will see
infinitely more than any previous X-ray satellite" 
(http://www.estec.esa.nl/spdwww/xmm/factsheet.html) is an embarrassingly
ridiculous misstatement, but I certainly expect XMM to make many
important discoveries and be one of the most important space science
missions of the coming decade.

XMM has three similar X-ray telescopes. One of the telescopes images
directly onto the EPIC-pn CCD camera; the other two have Reflection
Grating Spectrometers (RGS) which split the light, sending images
to the EPIC-MOS cameras and dispersed spectra to the RFC-MOS cameras.
XMM also carries an 0.30-meter aperture optical/ultraviolet telescope,
the Optical Monitor, which will allow simultaneous measurements
of the optical and ultraviolet light from the source being studied
with the X-ray telescopes.

XMM's hydrazine propulsion system has eight 22N thrusters which will be
used to raise the perigee to around 7000 km. Dry mass of XMM is 3234 kg,
and it carries 530 kg of hydrazine fuel at launch. Control of the XMM
spacecraft will be from ESOC/Darmstadt, while the instruments will be
controlled from the VILSPA/Madrid station. The instruments will not be
fully activated until early next year, when XMM is in its final orbit
and VILSPA is ready for operation, so it will be a while before we know
whether the telescope is working correctly. The Leicester University
X-ray group will support the scientific analysis of data from XMM.
There's a strong heritage of world-class X-ray astronomy in Europe, with
the British groups at Leicester and Mullard Space Science Lab flying
early sounding rockets and the Ariel 5 satellite in the 1970s and the
Birmingham group (TTM/Kvant), the Utrecht group and the ESA team at
ESTEC in Holland, the German groups at MPE/Garching (ROSAT) and now
AIP/Potsdam, and a number of institutes (Milano, Bologna, Palermo, Roma)
in Italy (BeppoSAX), as well as a bunch of places that don't do hardware
but are very strong in data analysis and theory, like Andy Fabian's team
in Cambridge. Oh, and let's not forget the Danes and Toulouse and
Southampton and  ... I'm sure whoever else I left out will remind me in
no uncertain terms. The point is that while in many fields of space
exploration Europe plays second rank to the US, in X-ray astronomy it's
- in my opinion - an equal partner. 


Brazil ran into more bad luck on Dec 11 when the second launch of its
VLS-1 rocket met a similar fate to the first one. Three minutes after
launch the second stage failed to ignite and the vehicle went off
course. It was destroyed by range safety command. On the previous
mission, the strapons on the first stage failed, so at least on this
flight the Brazilian team were able to test the first stage
successfully. VLS-1 mission V02 carried a research satellite, SACI-2.

A USAF weather satellite in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
(DMSP)  was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 12. The first Block 5D-3
model, satellite F-15 was placed in a suborbital trajectory by a
two-stage Titan 23G, a refurbished Titan II ICBM. The Star 37S kick
motor on the satellite fired  13 min after launch for orbit insertion.
DMSP 5D F-15 is now in an 837 x 851 km x 98.9 deg orbit. The spacecraft,
built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge, is similar in design to the
civilian NOAA weather satellites.

The Orbcomm Pegasus launch took off from Runway 22 at Wallops at 1756
UTC on Dec 3, and drop was at 1853 UTC. Thanks to Justin Ray of
www.spaceflightnow.com (an excellent site) for the info; apparently the
new Orbcomm satellites are slightly more massive that the earlier ones -
probably around 45 kg.

The Oldest Spacecraft - Errata
-------------------------------

 Pioneer 11 shouldn't have been in the list, it's been silent since
1995, and I omitted Nozomi which should have been there. I am informed
TVSAT 2 was switched off on 1999 Oct 5, and that NOAA 10 (and possibly
NOAA 9) is still alive. Thanks to all those who caught the errors. 

The surviving Marisat is actually Marisat 102, launched Oct 1976, and is
qowned by Comsat General Corp, not INMARSAT (at one time INMARSAT used to
lease the C and L band capacity). It is the oldest commercial satellite
still in operation, and is a Hughes HS-356  (basically the same design
as the HS-333 used for Anik A and Westar).
  
The IMP 8 and LES-9 satellites are confirmed to be still working, and
there is a report that Navy Navigation Satellite O-2 (sometimes
incorrectly referred to as Transit 5B-5), which was launched in 1964,
may still be transmitting. A number of spacecraft, like Giotto, are
believed to be still workable but are currently dormant.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov 13 2255   GE 4              Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     60A
Nov 15 0729   MTSAT             H-2            Tanegashima      Comsat     F04
Nov 19 2230   Shenzhou          Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan          Spaceship  61A
Nov 22 1620   Globalstar 29 )   Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     62A
              Globalstar 34 )                                   Comsat     62B
              Globalstar 39 )                                   Comsat     62C
              Globalstar 61 )                                   Comsat     62D
Nov 23 0406   UHF F/O F10       Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     63A
Dec  3 1622   Helios 1B  )      Ariane 40      Kourou ELA2      Imaging    64A
              Clementine )                                      Sigint     64B
Dec  3 1951   Mars Polar Lander                MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01D?
Dec  3 1951   Scott Probe   )                  MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01E?
              Amundsen Probe)                                   Lander     01F?
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
Dec 10 1432   XMM               Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Astronomy  66A
Dec 11 1830   SACI-2            VLS            Alcantara        Research   F05
Dec 12 1738   DMSP 5D-3 F-15    Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    67A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       LC39B         STS-103 1999 Dec 11  HST SM-3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16  ISS
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-99  2000 Jan 13  SRTM

MLP1/
MLP2/RSRM-73/ET-101/OV-103     LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET?/OV-105       VAB Bay 1


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 20. December 1999 02:58
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 415

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 415                                            1999 Dec 20 Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle
-------

Space Shuttle OV-103 Discovery was launched at 0050 UTC on Dec 20 on
Hubble servicing mission SM-3A. At 0058 UTC the external tank ET-101
separated leaving the Orbiter in a 56 x 587 km x 28.5 deg transfer
orbit. The OMS 2 burn at 0134 UTC raised the orbit to 313 x 582 km.
Hubble is in a 591 x 610 km x 28.5 deg orbit, and Discovery will
rendezvous with it on Tuesday.

Discovery's payload bay contains:
 Bay 1-2: External airlock/ODS
 Bay 7-8: ORU Carrier (Spacelab pallet)
 Bay 11:  Flight Servicing System (FSS)
 Bay 8 port?: APC carrier with foot restraint
 Bay 12 port?: APC carrier with HST foot retstraint

The ORU Carrier contains the COPE protective enclosure with the three
RSU gyros, the new solid state recorder, and the S-band transmitter; the
LOPE enclosure with an HST-486 computer and the voltage improvement kit;
the ASIPE enclosure with the spare HST-486 and spare RSU; the FSIPE
enclosure with the replacement FGS-2 fine guidance sensor; and the NPE
enclosure with the New Outer Blanket Layer insulation.

The FSS contains the BAPS (Berthing and Positioning System) used to dock
with the aft end of the Hubble Space Telescope. Discovery will
rendezvous with HST, grapple it with the RMS manipulator arm, and  berth
it on the BAPS. Astronauts will then make at least three spacewalks to
change out the equipment on HST. Finally, Discovery will release the
telescope back into orbit.

Crew of STS-103 are Curt Brown (Commander), Scott Kelly (Pilot), Steven
Smith (Payload Commander),  John Grunsfeld, Michael Foale, Claude
Nicollier, and Jean-Francois Clervoy (Mission Specialists). Nicollier
and Clervoy are European Space Agency astronauts.

Recent Launches
---------------

NASA's Terra satellite (formerly Earth Observing System EOS AM-1) was
launched from SLC-3E at Vandenberg on Dec 18 by a Lockheed Martin
Astronautics Atlas 2AS, mission AC-141. This was the first Centaur
launched from Vandenberg and the first Atlas to use the new extended
length 4.3-m payload fairing. Terra is the first spacecraft in the EOS
program, and was built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge, who also built
the earlier Nimbus series of spacecraft. The spacecraft was placed in a
654 x 684 km x 98.2 deg orbit. The Centaur stage then made a depletion
burn and was left in a 355 x 654 km x 98.3 deg orbit. The 4854 kg Terra
carries multispectral imagers, a radiation budget instrument,  a
detector to measure CO and methane pollution,  and an instrument to
study cloud top and vegetation properties,

Space Launch Complex 3-East was originally Launch Complex 1-2 at the
Naval Missile Facility, Point Arguello. It was used starting in 1961 for
MIDAS and SAMOS launches, and in 1966-68 for SV-5D lifting body launches
and an Atlas Burner 2 launch. In 1978 it was reactivated for Atlas E and
F launches of Navstar GPS satellites, and from 1983 to 1987 was used for
Atlas H launches of the classified Navy triplet ocean surveillance
satellites. 

XMM has safely reached its final orbit. It will be put in safemode on
Dec 20 until early January to avoid any Y2K problems caused by ground
systems. Instrument checkout will begin in early January.

 XMM Orbit raising burns:
 Sep     Dec 10 1501 UTC   826 x 113946 km x 38.9
 DV-1A   Dec 11 1220 UTC  2531 x 114042 km x 38.9 (estimate)
 DV-1B   Dec 11 1413 UTC  4897 x 114002 km x 38.9
 DV-2    Dec 13 1225 UTC  6480 x 113990 km x 39.9
 DV-3    Dec 15 1210 UTC  7359 x 113975 km x 38.9
 DV-4    Dec 16 1130 UTC  7365 x 113774 km x 38.9 (estimate)

The DMSP 5D-3 satellite was built by Lockheed Martin/East Windsor (the
former RCA), not at Valley Forge (former GE). Apologies for the error,
I got confused between it and the Terra launch.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Nov 13 2255   GE 4              Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     60A
Nov 15 0729   MTSAT             H-2            Tanegashima      Comsat     F04
Nov 19 2230   Shenzhou          Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan          Spaceship  61A
Nov 22 1620   Globalstar 29 )   Soyuz-Ikar     Baykonur LC1     Comsat     62A
              Globalstar 34 )                                   Comsat     62B
              Globalstar 39 )                                   Comsat     62C
              Globalstar 61 )                                   Comsat     62D
Nov 23 0406   UHF F/O F10       Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     63A
Dec  3 1622   Helios 1B  )      Ariane 40      Kourou ELA2      Imaging    64A
              Clementine )                                      Sigint     64B
Dec  3 1951   Mars Polar Lander                MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01D?
Dec  3 1951   Scott Probe   )                  MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01E?
              Amundsen Probe)                                   Lander     01F?
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
Dec 10 1432   XMM               Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Astronomy  66A
Dec 11 1830   SACI-2            VLS            Alcantara        Research   F05
Dec 12 1738   DMSP 5D-3 F-15    Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    67A
Dec 18 1857   Terra             Atlas 2AS      Vandenberg SLC3E Rem.Sens.  68A
Dec 20 0050   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  69A?


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       LEO           STS-103 1999 Dec 20  HST SM-3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16  ISS
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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 29. December 1999 18:43
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 416

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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

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                 |
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'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 04. January 2000 20:07
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 417

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 417                                        2000 Jan 4  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAPPY J2000.0!  The astronomical fundamental reference epoch, J2000.0 TT,
occurred just before noon GMT on Jan 1 (1158:55.8 UTC 2000 Jan 1).
All modern astronomical timescales and coordinate systems use J2000.0 as 
their reference point. 

I have added a list of all the world's launch pads and their locations
at
 http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/data/Sites
Corrections and comments are solicited. The file has been updated
since the initial version I put up in late December, so if you
got an earlier copy you should download it again.

Some errata: I am glad to report the Rokot launch vehicle at
Plesetsk was not damaged in the December accident, and neither
was the payload. Only the fairing was ejected and written off.
Krunichev will therefore most likely be able to launch the
vehicle by February.  (Source: A. Zak on space.com)
 Also, Galaxy 11 still uses a Marquardt R-4D bipropellant
engine for its major apogee burns, the XIPS ion engine will
be used for final adjustments. The R-4D has been used
for most geostationary  satellites with liquid engines,
although the German S400 and the British Leros are also
fairly widely used. A new high power R-4D-15 model was
recently introduced.
 Thirdly, the old computer removed from HST was not a 286
processor, merely a processor that was comparable  in power
to a 286. Thanks to Phil Chien for correcting me on that one.
 Finally, launch times of the last to Kosmos flights were 0800 UTC
(Kosmos-2367) and 1912 UTC (Kosmos-2368). (Thanks to Neville
Kidger for passing on the TASS info).

Launch of STS-99 is now scheduled for no earlier than Jan 31,
more probably sometime in February.
 
Below is the list of attempted orbital launches for 1999.
It is in four sections: status of orbital payloads,
manufacturers of orbital payloads, list of acronyms, and statistics
of launch vehicles.

ORBITAL PAYLOADS 1999

PART 1 - List and current status

 Orbits are given for late Dec 1999:
 perigee (km) x apogee (km) x inclination (deg)


INT'L   NAME            AGENCY  TYPE      LAUNCH     ORBIT OR STATUS
DESIGN.                                   DATE
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01A  Mars Polar Lander  NASA/JPL  Probe      Jan  3 Impacted Mars Dec 3
01   Scott Probe        NASA/JPL  Probe      Jan  3 Impacted Mars Dec 3
01   Amundsen Probe     NASA/JPL  Probe      Jan  3 Impacted Mars Dec 3
02A  ROCSAT 1           NSPO      Imaging    Jan 27   606 x    653 x 35.0
03A  Stardust           NASA/JPL  Probe      Feb  7 In solar orbit
04A  Globalstar FM36   Globalstar Comsat     Feb  9  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
04B  Globalstar FM23   Globalstar Comsat     Feb  9  1413 x   1414 x 52.0
04C  Globalstar FM38   Globalstar Comsat     Feb  9  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
04D  Globalstar FM40   Globalstar Comsat     Feb  9  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
05A  Telstar 6          Loral/Sky Comsat     Feb 15 35781 x  35792 x  0.0  93W
06A  JCSAT 6            JSAT      Comsat     Feb 16 35777 x  35798 x  0.0 124E
07A  Soyuz TM-29        RAKA      Spaceship  Feb 20 Landed in Kazakstan Aug 28
08A  ARGOS              USAF      Science    Feb 23   825 x    839 x 98.8
08B  Sunsat             Stellen   Imaging    Feb 23   644 x    863 x 96.5
08C  Orsted             DMI       Science    Feb 23   644 x    865 x 96.5
09A  Arabsat 3A         Arabsat   Comsat     Feb 26 35755 x  35814 x  0.0  26E
09B  Skynet 4E          UK MoD    Comsat     Feb 26 35774 x  35799 x  3.3  53E
10A  Raduga-1           MO RF     Comsat     Feb 28 35778 x  35794 x  1.2  35E
11A  WIRE               NASA/JPL  Astronomy  Mar  5   537 x    582 x 97.5 
12A  Globalstar FM22   Globalstar Comsat     Mar 15  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
12B  Globalstar FM41   Globalstar Comsat     Mar 15  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
12C  Globalstar FM46   Globalstar Comsat     Mar 15  1412 x   1415 x 52.0
12D  Globalstar FM37   Globalstar Comsat     Mar 15  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
13A  Asiasat 3S         Asiasat   Comsat     Mar 22 35780 x  35795 x  0.1 105E
14A  DemoSat            Boeing-SL Test       Mar 28   658 x  36045 x  1.4
15A  Progress M-41      RAKA      Cargo      Apr  2 Deorbited over Pacific Jul 17
15C  Sputnik-99         RAKA      Comsat     Apr  2 Reentered Jul 29
16A  Insat 2E           ISRO      Comsat     Apr  2 35770 x  35797 x  0.0  83E
17A  DSP F19            USAF      Early Warn Apr  9   720?x  35800?x 28.0?  
18A  Eutelsat W3        Eutelsat  Comsat     Apr 12 35774 x  35797 x  0.0   7E
19A  Globalstar FM19   Globalstar Comsat     Apr 15  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
19B  Globalstar FM42   Globalstar Comsat     Apr 15  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
19C  Globalstar FM44   Globalstar Comsat     Apr 15  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
19D  Globalstar FM45   Globalstar Comsat     Apr 15  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
20A  Landsat 7          NASA GSFC Imaging    Apr 15   701 x    703 x 98.2
21A  Uosat 12           SSTL      Imaging    Apr 21   628 x    670 x 64.6
F01  Ikonos 1           SpaceIm   Imaging    Apr 27 Failed to orbit
22A  ABRIXAS            DLR       Astronomy  Apr 28   550 x    599 x 48.5
22B  Megsat-0           MegSat    Comsat     Apr 28   544 x    597 x 48.5
23A  Milstar DFS 3      USAF      Comsat     Apr 30  1097 x   5149 x 28.2
24A  Orion 3            Loral/Ori Comsat     May  5   421 x   1310 x 29.1
25A  Feng Yun 1C        CASC      Imaging    May 10   847 x    869 x 98.8
25B  Shi Jian 5         CASC      Science    May 10   843 x    869 x 98.8
26A  TERRIERS           NASA/BU   Science    May 18   537 x    552 x 97.8
26B  MUBLCOM            CECOM     Comsat     May 18   770 x    775 x 97.7
27A  Nimiq              Telesat   Comsat     May 20 35785 x  35787 x  0.0
28A  USA 144            NRO       Imaging    May 22  2700?x   3100?x 63.5
29A  Oceansat           ISRO      Imaging    May 26   716 x    738 x 98.4
29B  KITSAT             KAIST     Imaging    May 26   716 x    738 x 98.4
29C  DLR-TUBSAT         DLR       Tech       May 26   722 x    723 x 98.3
30A  Discovery STS-96   NASA-JSC  Spaceship  May 27 Landed at KSC Jun 6
30B  Starshine          NASA-GSFC Science    May 27   311 x    324 x 51.6
31A  Globalstar M052   Globalstar Comsat     Jun 10  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
31B  Globalstar M049   Globalstar Comsat     Jun 10  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
31C  Globalstar M025   Globalstar Comsat     Jun 10  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
31D  Globalstar M047   Globalstar Comsat     Jun 10  1413 x   1413 x 52.0
32A  Iridium 14A        Iridium   Comsat     Jun 11   703 x    714 x 86.5
32B  Iridium 20A        Iridium   Comsat     Jun 11   706 x    711 x 86.5
33A  Astra 1H           SES       Comsat     Jun 18 35744 x  35825 x  0.2  19E
34A  QuikScat           NASA-GSFC Rem.Sens   Jun 20   804 x    806 x 98.6
35A  FUSE               NASA-GSFC Astronomy  Jun 24   753 x    769 x 25.0
F02  Raduga             MO RF     Comsat     Jul  5 Failed to orbit
36A  Molniya-3          KSvyaz    Comsat     Jul  8   523 x  39830 x 63.0
37A  Globalstar M032   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 10  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
37B  Globalstar M030   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 10  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
37C  Globalstar M035   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 10  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
37D  Globalstar M051   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 10  1412 x   1415 x 52.0
38A  Progress M-42      RAKA      Cargo      Jul 16 Docked to Mir
39A  Okean-O No. 1      RAKA      Imaging    Jul 17   660 x    663 x 98.0
40A  Columbia           NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Jul 23 Landed at KSC Jul 28
40B  Chandra            NASA-MSFC Astronomy  Jul 23 10157 x 138672 x 29.0
41A  Globalstar M026   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 25  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
41B  Globalstar M028   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 25  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
41C  Globalstar M043   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 25  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
41D  Globalstar M048   Globalstar Comsat     Jul 25  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
42A  Telkom 1           Telkom    Comsat     Aug 12 35781 x  35794 x  0.1  108E
43A  Globalstar M024   Globalstar Comsat     Aug 17  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
43B  Globalstar M027   Globalstar Comsat     Aug 17  1412 x   1415 x 52.0
43C  Globalstar M053   Globalstar Comsat     Aug 17  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
43D  Globalstar M054   Globalstar Comsat     Aug 17  1413 x   1414 x 52.0
44A  Kosmos-2365        MO RF     Imaging    Aug 18 Landed in Russia Dec 15
45A  Kosmos-2366        MO RF     Navsat     Aug 26   960 x   1010 x 82.9
46A  Mugunghwa 3        KoreaTel  Comsat     Sep  4 35786 x  35789 x  0.0  112E
47A  Yamal 101          Gazkom    Comsat     Sep  6 35497 x  36303 x  0.2
47B  Yamal 102          Gazkom    Comsat     Sep  6 35733 x  35830 x  0.0   90E
48A  Foton No. 12       RAKA      Micrograv  Sep  9 Landed in Russia Sep 24.
49A  Globalstar M033   Globalstar Comsat     Sep 22  1392 x   1416 x 52.0
49B  Globalstar M050   Globalstar Comsat     Sep 22  1412 x   1415 x 52.0
49C  Globalstar M055   Globalstar Comsat     Sep 22  1401 x   1415 x 52.0
49D  Globalstar M058   Globalstar Comsat     Sep 22  1413 x   1413 x 52.0
50A  Echostar 5         Echostar  Comsat     Sep 23 35772 x  35801 x  0.1  110W
51A  Ikonos             SpaceIm   Imaging    Sep 24   678 x    679 x 98.2
52A  Telstar 7          Loral     Comsat     Sep 25 35776 x  35797 x  0.0  129W
53A  LMI 1              LMI       Comsat     Sep 27 35783 x  35789 x  0.1   75E
54A  Resurs F-1M        RAKA      Imaging    Sep 28 Landed in Russia? Oct 22
55A  GPS 46             USAF      Navsat     Oct  7 20091 x  20073 x 53.0
56A  DirecTV-1R         DirecTV   Comsat     Oct 10 35785 x  35787 x  0.0  101W
57A  Zi Yuan 1          CASC      Imaging    Oct 14   773 x    774 x 98.6
57B  SACI 1             INPE      Science    Oct 14   733 x    744 x 98.6
58A  Globalstar M031   Globalstar Comsat     Oct 18  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
58B  Globalstar M056   Globalstar Comsat     Oct 18  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
58C  Globalstar M057   Globalstar Comsat     Oct 18   896 x    949 x 52.0
58D  Globalstar M059   Globalstar Comsat     Oct 18   896 x    948 x 52.0
59A  Orion 2            Loral/Ori Comsat     Oct 19 35767 x  35793 x  0.1   15W
F03  Ekspress A No. 1   KSvyaz    Comsat     Oct 27 Failed to orbit
60A  GE 4               Americom  Comsat     Nov 13 35759 x  35801 x  0.0  101W
F04  MTSAT              NASDA     Com/Img    Nov 15 Failed to orbit
61A  Shenzhou           CASC      Spaceship  Nov 19 Landed Inner Mongolia Nov 20
62A  Globalstar M029   Globalstar Comsat     Nov 22   897 x    941 x 52.0
62B  Globalstar M034   Globalstar Comsat     Nov 22  1412 x   1414 x 52.0
62C  Globalstar M039   Globalstar Comsat     Nov 22   900 x    942 x 52.0
62D  Globalstar M061   Globalstar Comsat     Nov 22  1411 x   1415 x 52.0
63A  UHF F/O F10        USN       Comsat     Nov 23 35945 x  36626 x  6.0  170W
64A  Helios 1B          DGA       Imaging    Dec  3   679 x    681 x 98.1
64B  Clementine         DGA       Sigint     Dec  3   646 x    664 x 98.1
65A  Orbcomm FM30       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65B  Orbcomm FM31       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65C  Orbcomm FM32       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65D  Orbcomm FM33       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65E  Orbcomm FM34       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65F  Orbcomm FM35       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
65G  Orbcomm FM36       Orbcomm   Comsat     Dec  4   824 x    834 x 45.0
66A  XMM                ESA       Astronomy  Dec 10  7417 x 113678 x 38.8
67A  DMSP 5D-3 F-15     USAF      Imaging    Dec 12   837 x    851 x 98.9
F05  SACI-2             INPE      Science    Dec 12 Failed to orbit
68A  Terra              NASA-GSFC Imaging    Dec 18   654 x    684 x 98.2
69A  Discovery STS-103  NASA-JSC  Spaceship  Dec 19 Landed at KSC Dec 28
70A  KOMPSAT            KAIST     Imaging    Dec 21   690 x    722 x 98.3
70B  ACRIMSAT           NASA/JPL  Astronomy  Dec 21   683 x    724 x 98.3
70C  Celestis 3         Celestis  Burial     Dec 21   683 x    723 x 98.3
71A  Galaxy 11          Panamsat  Comsat     Dec 22   278 x  38900 x  5.4
72A  Kosmos-2367        MO RF     Sigint     Dec 26   404 x    418 x 65.0
73A  Kosmos-2368        MO RF     Early Warn Dec 27   551 x  39138 x 62.9

PART 2: Manufacturers/Designers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Des  Name               Manufacturer     Bus

01A  MPL                LMA              Mars Surveyor
01   DS2 Probe          JPL/LMA          DS2
01   DS2 Probe          JPL/LMA          DS2
02A  ROCSAT             TRW              ROCSAT
03A  Stardust           LMA              Space Probe
04A  Globalstar         Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
04B  Globalstar         Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
04C  Globalstar         Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
04D  Globalstar         Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
05A  Telstar 6          Loral            FS-1300
06A  JCSAT 6            Hughes           HS-601
07A  Soyuz TM-29        Energiya         Soyuz
08A  ARGOS              Boeing-SB        -
08B  Sunsat             Stellen          -
08C  Orsted             CRI              -
09A  Arabsat 3A         Alcatel          Spacebus 3000
09B  Skynet 4E          MMS-S            ECS
10A  Raduga-1           PM               Globus
11A  WIRE               NASA-GSFC        SMEX
12A  Globalstar FM22    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
12B  Globalstar FM41    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
12C  Globalstar FM46    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
12D  Globalstar FM37    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
13A  Asiasat 3S         Hughes           HS-601
14A  DemoSat            Boeing-K         HS-702 dynamic model
15A  Progress M-41      Energiya         Soyuz
15C  Sputnik-99         AMSAT-R          PS 
16A  Insat 2E           ISRO             Insat 2
17A  DSP F19            TRW              DSP
18A  Eutelsat W3        Alcatel          Spacebus 3000B2
19A  Globalstar FM19    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
19B  Globalstar FM42    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
19C  Globalstar FM44    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
19D  Globalstar FM45    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
20A  Landsat 7          LM-VF            Tiros-N
21A  Uosat 12           SSTL             Minibus
F01  Ikonos 1           LM-S             LM-900
22A  ABRIXAS            OHB              ABRIXAS
22B  Megsat-0           MegSat           -
23A  Milstar DFS 3      LM-S             Milstar
24A  Orion 3            Hughes           HS-601
25A  Feng Yun 1C        SISE             FY-1
25B  Shi Jian 5         SISE             SJ-5
26A  TERRIERS           AeroAstro        HETE
26B  MUBLCOM            Orbital-G        Microstar
27A  Nimiq              LM-S             A2100AX
28A  USA 144            LM-S?            Unknown
29A  IRS-P4             ISRO             IRS
29B  KITSAT             KAIST            -
29C  DLR-TUBSAT         TUB              TUBSAT
30A  Discovery STS-96   Boeing-NA        Shuttle
30B  Starshine          NASA-GSFC        -
31A  Globalstar M052    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
31B  Globalstar M049    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
31C  Globalstar M025    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
31D  Globalstar M047    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
32A  Iridium 14A        Motorola/LM-S    Iridium
32B  Iridium 20A        Motorola/LM-S    Iridium
33A  Astra 1H           Hughes           HS-601
34A  QuikScat           Ball             BCP2000
35A  FUSE               Orbital-G        FUSE
F02  Gran'              PM               Raduga
36A  Molniya-3          PM               Molniya-3
37A  Globalstar M032    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
37B  Globalstar M030    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
37C  Globalstar M035    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
37D  Globalstar M051    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
38A  Progress M-42      Energiya         Soyuz
39A  Okean-O No. 1      Yuzhnoe          Okean-O
40A  Columbia           Boeing-NA        Shuttle
40B  AXAF               TRW              AXAF
41A  Globalstar M026    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
41B  Globalstar M028    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
41C  Globalstar M043    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
41D  Globalstar M048    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
42A  Telkom 1           LM-S             A2100
43A  Globalstar M024    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
43B  Globalstar M027    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
43C  Globalstar M053    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
43D  Globalstar M054    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
44A  Kobalt             Progress         Yantar'-4K
45A  Parus              Polyot           Tsiklon
46A  Mugunghwa 3        LM-S             A2100
47A  Yamal 101          Energiya         Yamal
47B  Yamal 102          Energiya         Yamal
48A  Foton No. 12       Progress         Zenit/Foton
49A  Globalstar M033    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
49B  Globalstar M050    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
49C  Globalstar M055    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
49D  Globalstar M058    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
50A  Echostar 5         Loral            FS-1300
51A  Ikonos             LM-S             LM-900
52A  Telstar 7          Loral            FS-1300
53A  LMI 1              LM-S             A2100
54A  Resurs F-1M        Progress         Zenit/Resurs
55A  GPS 46             Boeing-SB        GPS IIR
56A  DirecTV-1R         Hughes           HS-601
57A  Zi Yuan 1          CAST             CBERS
57B  SACI 1             INPE             SACI
58A  Globalstar M031    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
58B  Globalstar M056    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
58C  Globalstar M057    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
58D  Globalstar M059    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
59A  Orion 2            Loral            FS-1300
F03  Ekspress A No. 1   PM               Ekspress
60A  GE 4               LM-S             A2100
F04  MTSAT              Loral            FS-1300
61A  Shenzhou           CALT             Shenzhou
62A  Globalstar M029    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
62B  Globalstar M034    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
62C  Globalstar M039    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
62D  Globalstar M061    Alcatel/Loral    LS-400
63A  UHF F/O F10        Hughes           HS-601
64A  Helios 1B          MMS-F            Spot
64B  Clementine         Alcatel/SSTL     Uosat
65A  Orbcomm FM30       Orbital-G        Microstar
65B  Orbcomm FM31       Orbital-G        Microstar
65C  Orbcomm FM32       Orbital-G        Microstar
65D  Orbcomm FM33       Orbital-G        Microstar
65E  Orbcomm FM34       Orbital-G        Microstar
65F  Orbcomm FM35       Orbital-G        Microstar
65G  Orbcomm FM36       Orbital-G        Microstar
66A  XMM                Dornier          XMM
67A  DMSP 5D-3 F-15     LM-EW            Tiros-N
F05  SACI-2             INPE             SACI
68A  EOS AM-1           LM-VF            EOS
69A  OV-103             Boeing-NA        Shuttle
70A  KOMPSAT            KAIST            STEP
70B  ACRIMSAT           Orbital-G        Leostar
70C  Celestis 3         Orbital-G?       CPAC
71A  Galaxy 11          Hughes           HS-702
72A  US-P               Arsenal          US-P
73A  Oko                Lavochkin        Oko

PART 3 - Abbreviations for Organizations

AeroAstro       AeroAstro Inc.
Alcatel         Alcatel, Cannes
Americom        GE American Communications
AMSAT-R         AMSAT-Russia
Arabsat         Arab Satellite Communications Organization, Riyadh
Arsenal         KB Arsenal, Sankt-Peterburg
Ball            Ball Aerospace, Boulder
Boeing-K        Boeing, Kent/Seattle
Boeing-NA       Boeing Reusable Space Systems, Palmdale 
Boeing-SB       Boeing, Seal Beach 
Boeing-SL       Boeing Sea Launch, Seattle
BU              Boston University
CALT            China Academy of Launch Vehicle Tech., Beijing
CASC            China Aerospace Corp.
CAST            China Acad. Space Tech., Beijing
CECOM           US Army Communications/Electronics Command, Ft Monmouth
Celestis        Celestis Inc., Florida
CRI             CRI, Kobenhaven
DGA             Delegation Generale de l'Armament, Paris
DirecTV         DirecTV Inc.
DLR             Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Koln
DMI             Danish Meteorological Institute
Dornier         DaimlerChrysler Dornier, Friedrichshafen
Echostar        Echostar Communications Corp., Englewood
Energiya        RKK Energiya im. S.P. Korolyov, Kaliningrad-Korolyov
ESA             European Space Agency
Eutelsat        European Telecommunications Sat. Org.
Gazkom          AO Gazcom, Moskva
Globalstar      Globalstar, San Jose
Hughes          Hughes Space and Communications, El Segundo
INPE            Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Sao Jose dos Campos
Iridium         Iridium Inc., Washington DC.
ISRO            Indian Space Research Organization
JPL             Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena 
JSAT            Japan Satellite Systems, Tokyo
KAIST           Korea Advanced Institute for Space Technology
KoreaTel        Korea Telecom, Seoul
KSvyaz          AO Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, Moskva?
Lavochkin       NPO Lavochkin, Moskva
LMA             Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver 
LMI             Lockheed Martin Intersputnik, Moskva
LM-EW           Lockheed Martin, East Windsor
LM-S            Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale 
LM-VF           Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge 
Loral           Space Systems/Loral, Palo Alto
Loral/Sky       Loral Skynet, Bedminster
Loral/Ori       Loral Orion Inc.
Megsat          MegSat, Gruppo Meggiorin, Brescia
MMS-S           Matra Marconi Space-UK, Stevenage
MMS-F           Matra Marconi Space-France, Toulouse
MO RF           Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Motorola        Motorola Satellite, Chandler
NASA            National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
NASA-GSFC       NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt.  
NASA-JSC        NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.
NASA-MSFC       NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville.
NASDA           National Space Development Agency, Japan
NRO             US National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly
NSPO            National Space Program Office, Taiwan
OHB             OHB System, Bremen
Orbcomm         Orbital Communications Corp, Dulles
Orbital-G       Orbital Sciences Corp., Germantown 
Panamsat        Panamsat Inc.
PM              NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, Zhelenogorsk
Polyot          AKO Polyot, Omsk
Progress        TsSKB-Progress, Samara
RAKA            Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos)
SES             Societe Europeene des Satellites, Luxembourg
SISE            Shanghai Inst. of Satellite Engineering
SpaceIm         Space Imaging, Thornton.
SSTL            Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., Guildford
Stellen         Stellenbosch University, Cape Town
Telesat         Telesat Canada
Telkom          PT Telkom, Jakarta
TRW             TRW, Redondo Beach
UK MoD          United Kingdom Ministry of Defense
USAF            United States Air Force
USN             United States Navy
Yuzhnoe         KB Yuzhnoe (Pivdenne?), Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

PART 4 - Launch Vehicles

 Launch vehicles are listed by type, in order of number of
launches.

US vehicles:            Launched        Failures
 Boeing Delta           11              1*
 Lockheed Martin Atlas  5               0   
 Lockheed Martin Titan  5               2*
 NASA Space Shuttle     3               0
 Lockheed Martin Athena 3               1
 OSC Pegasus            3               0
 OSC Taurus             1               0

Russian vehicles:
 TsSKB-Progress Soyuz   14              0
 Krunichev Proton       9               2
 Polyot Kosmos          2               0  

Other vehicles:
 Arianespace Ariane     9               0
 China Long March       4               0
 Yuzhnoe Zenit          3               0
 Yuzhnoe Tsiklon/Dnepr  2               0
 Arianespace Ariane-5   1               0
 ISRO PSLV              1               0
 NASDA H-II             1               1
 AEB VLS                1               1
--------------------------------------------
Total                  78               8

*: Reached an orbit despite failure

TsSKB-Progress Soyuz (14)

 Feb  9 ST01/058        Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Feb 20 662             Soyuz-U        GIK-5 LC1
 Mar 15 ST02/059?       Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Apr  2 -               Soyuz-U        GIK-5 LC1
 Apr 15 ST03/060        Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Jul  8 -               Molniya-M      GIK-1 LC43/3
 Jul 16 667             Soyuz-U        GIK-5 LC1
 Aug 18 -               Soyuz-U        GIK-1 LC43/3
 Sep  9 -               Soyuz-U        GIK-1 LC43/4
 Sep 22 ST04/061        Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Sep 28 -               Soyuz-U        GIK-1 LC43/4
 Oct 18 ST05            Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Nov 22 ST06            Soyuz-U/Ikar   GIK-5 LC1
 Dec 27 -               Molniya-M      GIK-1

Boeing Delta (11)

 Jan  3 D265            Delta 7425     CC SLC17B
 Feb  7 D266            Delta 7426     CC SLC17A
 Feb 23 D267            Delta 7920     V SLC2W
 Apr 15 D268            Delta 7920     V SLC2W
 May  5 D269            Delta 8930     CC SLC17B
 Jun 10 D270            Delta 7420     CC SLC17B
 Jun 24 D271            Delta 7320     CC SLC17A
 Jul 10 D272            Delta 7420     CC SLC17B
 Jul 25 D273            Delta 7420     CC SLC17A
 Aug 17 D274            Delta 7420     CC SLC17B
 Oct  7 D275            Delta 7925     CC SLC17A


Arianespace Ariane (9)

 Feb 26 V116            Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2
 Apr  2 V117            Ariane 42P      CSG ELA2
 Aug 12 V118            Ariane 42P      CSG ELA2
 Sep  4 V120            Ariane 42P      CSG ELA2
 Sep 25 V121            Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Oct 19 V122            Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Nov 13 V123            Ariane 44LP     CSG ELA2
 Dec  3 V124            Ariane 40       CSG ELA2
 Dec 22 V125            Ariane 44L      CSG ELA2

Krunichev Proton (9)

 Feb 15 396-01          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Feb 28 387-01          Proton-K/DM-2   GIK-5 LC81L
 Mar 22 ?               Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 May 20 396-02          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Jun 18 397-02          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Jul  5 389-01          Proton-K/Briz-M GIK-5 LC81P
 Sep  6 388-02          Proton-K/DM-2M  GIK-5 LC81L
 Sep 27 398-02          Proton-K/DM3    GIK-5 LC81L
 Oct 27 386-02          Proton-K/DM-2   GIK-5 LC200L

Lockheed Martin Atlas (5)
 
 Feb 16 AC-152          Atlas IIAS      CC SLC36A
 Apr 12 AC-154          Atlas IIAS      CC SLC36A
 Sep 23 AC-155          Atlas IIAS      CC SLC36A
 Nov 23 AC-136          Atlas IIA       CC SLC36B
 Dec 18 AC-141          Atlas IIAS      V SLC3E

Lockheed Martin Titan (5)

 Apr  9 4B-27/45K-32    Titan 402B/IUS  CC SLC41
 Apr 30 4B-32/45K-26    Titan 401B/Cen  CC SLC40
 May 22 4B-12           Titan 404B      V SLC4E
 Jun 20 23G-7           Titan 23G       V SLC4W
 Dec 12 23G-8           Titan 23G       V SLC4W

CALT Chang Zheng (4)

 May 10 CZ4B-1          CZ-4B           TYSC LC1
 Jun 11 CZ2C-21         CZ-2C/SD        TYSC LC1
 Oct 14 CZ4B-2          CZ-4B           TYSC LC1
 Nov 19 CZ2F-1          CZ-2F           JQ LA4

NASA Shuttle (3)
 May 27 STS-96          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Jul 23 STS-93          Shuttle         KSC LC39B
 Dec 19 STS-103         Shuttle         KSC LC39B

Yuzhnoe Zenit (3)

 Mar 28 -               Zenit-3SL       Odyssey
 Jul 17 17L             Zenit-2         GIK-5 LC45L
 Oct 10 -               Zenit-3SL       Odyssey


Lockheed Martin Athena (3)
 
 Jan 27 LM-6            Athena-1        CC SLC46
 Apr 27 LM-5            Athena-2        V SLC6
 Sep 24 LM-7            Athena-2        V SLC6

Orbital Pegasus (3)
 Mar  5 M-22            Pegasus XL      V RW30/12
 May 18 -               Pegasus XL/HAPS V RW30/12
 Dec  4 -               Pegasus XL/HAPS WI RW22

Polyot Kosmos (2)
 
 Apr 28 65036413        Kosmos-3M       GTsMP-4 LC107
 Aug 26 -               Kosmos-3M       GIK-1 LC132/1

Yuzhnoe Tsiklon/Dnepr (2)

 Apr 21 -               Dnepr           GIK-5 LC109
 Dec 26 -               Tsiklon-2       GIK-5 LC90

Arianespace Ariane 5 (1)
 
 Dec 10 V119/504        Ariane 5        CSG ELA3

NASDA H-II (1)
 
 Nov 15 H-II-8F         H-II            TNSC Y

Orbital Taurus (1)
 
 Dec 21 T4              Taurus          V 576E

ISRO PSLV (1)
 
 May 26 C2              PSLV            SHAR PSLV

AEB VLS (1)
  
 Dec 12 V02             VLS-1           CLA



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 19. January 2000 23:50
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 418

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 418                                           2000 Jan 19 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obituary
--------

Geoff Perry, the world renowned founder of the Kettering Group, died
suddenly in Cornwall on Jan 18 at the age of 72. Geoff, formerly a
physics teacher at Kettering Grammar School, taught his students to
track short wave radio signals from Soviet satellites, and eventually
established a world-wide network of experts who figured out what was
going on in the Soviet space program. He and his team came to public
prominence in 1966 with their independent discovery of the Plesetsk
launch site. I'm glad that Geoff lived long enough to see the
declassification of the former Soviet missions and discover that the
`answers in the back of the book' agreed for the most part with his own
sleuthing, but I'll miss his insight and comprehensive knowledge. 

Errata
------

Some errata: I am glad to report the Rokot launch vehicle at
Plesetsk was not damaged in the December accident, and neither
was the payload. Only the fairing was ejected and written off.
Krunichev will therefore most likely be able to launch the
vehicle this spring. However, the new plan is to launch two
dummy satellites and use the uprated Briz-KM upper stage; see below.

In JSR417 I listed KOMPSAT as a KAIST (Korea Adv. Inst of Space Tech.)
project, which was a mistake - I got it right in JSR 416, it is a KARI
(Korea Aerospace Research Inst.) mission. KARI, in Taejon, also
flies Korea's sounding rockets and will develop the Korean satellite
launch vehicle.


Galileo
-------
Galileo safely completed the Europa-26 encounter on Jan 3.
At 1800 UTC on Jan 3 Galileo passed 343 km from Europa;
at 0333 on Jan 4 it flew 343000 km from Jupiter's cloud tops;
at 0656 on Jan 4 it flew 214000 km from Io. The Galileo
Europa Mission ends on Jan 31, to be followed by the Galileo
Millenium Mission which is likely to be approved in the next
few weeks.


Rokot
-----
In penance for spreading the incorrect Rokot rumour, and since we're
short on launches this week, I'll present some details of the Rokot
launch vehicle.

The first ICBM designed by the Chelomei bureau (the ancestor of the
Krunichev company), the UR-100 rocket (article 8K84) was first tested on
1965 Apr 19. The UR series of Universal Rockets also included the larger
UR-200 missile, tested in 1963 but then cancelled, and the UR-500 which
became today's Proton space launch vehicle. The UR-100 was 1.6m in
diameter; its replacement UR-100N (article 15A30) was a larger 2.5m
diameter rocket which could fit in the same silo. The UR-100N was test 
flown for the first time on 1973 Apr 9 (although some sources suggest 
1972). As part of a general upgrade of Soviet missiles, the UR-100NUTTKh
version (the UTTKh abbreviation means `tactical-technical upgrade') was
test-flown starting on 1977 Oct 26. The UR-100N and UR-100NUTTKh rockets
have now made about 145 flights with only 3 failures. They are
known to NATO as the SS-19 (the original UR-100 was the SS-11)

The hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide fuelled  UR-100NUTTKh has two main
stages and a post-boost stage all using engines from KB Khivavtomatiki;
four RD-0233 on stage 1, one RD-0235 (and four small RD-0236 verniers) 
on stage 2, and one RD-0237 on the post-boost stage.

The Rokot launch vehicle is based on refurbished UR-100NUTTKh missiles
with a Briz upper stage replacing the post-boost stage.  Rokot (which
means `roar') is marketed in the West by EUROCKOT Launch Services, a
joint venture between DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Krunichev. (They put
a 'c' in 'Rockot', probably to make it sound more like 'rocket'). The
original 14S12 Briz-K is conical in shape, probably matching the size of
the old post-boost stage. It uses the KB KhimMash S5.92 engine that was
flown on the Fobos probes' ADU stage and will also be part of the new
Fregat upper stage from Lavochkin. The S5.92 has a thrust of 20kN.
Future launches of Rokot will use the 14S45 Briz-KM which is a
repackaged Briz-K, cylindrical in shape and with a larger payload
adapter and fairing. A 14S43 Briz-M has also been developed which is a
Briz-KM with an extra torus fuel tank, for use as a Proton upper stage,
but its first chance at a test flight was lost when the Proton carrier
vehicle crashed last summer.

There have been three test flights of the Rokot so far. The first two  
were deliberate suborbital flights of which few details are available;
the apogee was around 900 km, and the Briz stage was fired several
times, but it's not clear what the maximum velocity reached was, and so
I don't know how close the flights were to reaching orbit. The third
flight was an orbital test flight which placed a small 70 kg test
satellite (Radio-ROSTO) in a 1881 x 2163 km x 65 deg orbit. The Briz  
stage disintegrated a few hours later generating dozens of pieces of
cataloged orbital debris; I'm guessing this problem has been fixed
in the new Briz-KM, probably with a depletion burn.

As far as I am aware, all launches so far of the UR-100 and UR-100N
series rockets have been from the Baykonur spaceport. The forthcoming
test launch of Rokot will be from complex 133 at Plesetsk, where
Krunichev has taken over an old Kosmos pad. The new pad verification
test launch is now expected to carry a pair of dummy satellites;
space.com suggests they will be simulated Iridium satellites, since the
bankrupt Iridium still has the first commercial booking of Rokot later
this year (A similar pair of dummy Iridium payloads was used on the
first test launch of the Chinese CZ-2C/SD).

The UR-100NUTTKh second stage places the payload stack in a -2727 x 256
km suborbital trajectory. The first Briz-KM burn 5 min after launch
will put the stack in a 200 x 700 km transfer orbit, and the second Briz
burn 64 min after launch circularizes the orbit at apogee.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  3 1623   Helios 1B  )      Ariane 40      Kourou ELA2      Imaging    64A
              Clementine )                                      Sigint     64B
Dec  3 1951   Mars Polar Lander                MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01D?
Dec  3 1951   Scott Probe   )                  MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01E?
              Amundsen Probe)                                   Lander     01F?
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
Dec 10 1432   XMM               Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Astronomy  66A
Dec 11 1940   SACI-2            VLS            Alcantara        Research   F05
Dec 12 1738   DMSP 5D-3 F-15    Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    67A
Dec 18 1857   Terra             Atlas 2AS      Vandenberg SLC3E Rem.Sens.  68A
Dec 20 0050   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  69A
Dec 21 0712   KOMPSAT    )      Taurus         Vandenberg 576E  Imaging    70A
              ACRIMSAT   )                                      Science    70B
              Celestis-03)                                      Burial     70C
Dec 22 0050   Galaxy 11         Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
Dec 26 0800   Kosmos-2367       Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90    Recon      72A
Dec 27 1913   Kosmos-2368       Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC16    Early Warn 73A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay  1    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 31? SRTM


MLP1/
MLP2/                          LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71/ET-92/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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 28. January 2000 03:08
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 419

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 419                                        2000 Jan 28  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Mission STS-99 is scheduled for launch on Jan 31 carrying Space Radar
Lab 3, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Orbiter Endeavour's payload
bay contains:
 Bay 1-2:    External Airlock
 Bay 3 Port: Portable Foot Restraint on GABA sidewall carrier
 Bay 6:      Antenna Trunnion Structure
 Bay 8-9:    Spacelab Pallet
 Bay 11:     Antenna Trunnion Structure

Mounted on the pallet and the two ATS devices is the large imaging radar
payload consisting of the SIR-C C-band/L-band radars and the
international X-SAR X-band radar, as well as the ADAM mast which will
extend to 60m length carrying an 360 kg, 8-m long outboard radar for
interferometric imaging. The outboard mast is a new development,
the rest of the payload is similar to the configuration flown on
SRL-1 and SRL-2 in 1994 (STS-59 and STS-68). 

Sponsors of the mission are NIMA (the National Imagery and Mapping
Agency), NASA, DLR (Germany) and ASI (Italy); the mission is managed by
JPL. Crew are Keven Kregel (CDR), Dom Gorie (Pilot), Janet Kavandi (MS,
NASA), Janice Voss (MS, NASA), Mamoru Mohri (MS, NASDA-Japan), Gerhard
Thiele (MS, ESA).

Recent Launches
---------------


The first launch of 2000 was Lockheed Martin Astronautics's Atlas
AC-138. The Atlas IIA rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and placed a
Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge DSCS III satellite in geostationary
transfer orbit, attached to an IABS upper stage. The DSCS III, serial
number B-8, is part of the US Air Force's Defense Satellite
Communications System and will be parked over the Pacific. Mass is about
900 kg dry.

AC-138 entered a 148 x 899 km x 29.3 deg parking orbit at 0113 UTC
on Jan 21. At 0125 UTC the Centaur reignited for its second burn and
delivered the payload to a 240 x 35253 km x 26.1 deg geostationary
transfer orbit. On Jan 22 the IABS was scheduled to make its apogee burn.
The IABS carries two Marquardt R-4D engines to place the DSCS in
geostationary orbit.

Arianespace launched an Ariane 4 (42L model) on Jan 25. Payload was the
Hughes HS-601HP satellite Galaxy 10R, which will supplement Panamsat's
Galaxy cable TV distribution constellation. Galaxy 10R,with a dry mass
of 1987 kg, is a replacement for Galaxy 10, lost on the first Delta 3
launch failure. It carries Ku and C band transponders and will be parked
at 127 deg W.

The Ariane 4, flight V126, had two strap-on liquid boosters. The three
stage vehicle flew from the ELA 2 pad on the coast of French Guiana
directly to a 217 x 33232 km x 7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit.


Zhongxing-22, launched on Jan 25 by Chang Zheng 3A from Xichang, is a
Chinese comsat. The CZ-3A is a three-stage launch vehicle with a liquid
hydrogen upper stage; this was its fourth flight, although the CZ3B
(with 5 flights) is basically the same vehicle with strapon boosters.
The Zhongxing series of comsats has provided domestic Chinese
communications since 1988 for the China Telecommunications Broadcast
Satellite Corp, a division of the Chinese ministry of Posts and 
Telecommunications. Early satellites were Chinese-built DFH-2A models,
and later DFH-3 (Chinese-built but based on a German design). Zhongxing
5 and 7 where US-built satellites; the US government banned the delivery
of Zhongxing 8, built by Loral and intended for launch last year. It's
not clear what the significance of '22' in Zhongxing-22's name is. It's
also not clear what kind of satellite Zhongxing-22 is; I'm guessing that
it's a Chinese-built satellite, probably developed by the Chinese
Academy of Space Technology in Beijing and probably derived from the
DFH-3 (3-axis stablized) design which was of similar mass (launch mass
of ZX-22 is 2300 kg).  The DFH-3 has a liquid apogee engine probably
derived from the MBB S400.It was reported in 1999 that the Feng Huo 1
(FH-1) satellite was to be launched by CZ-3A in early 2000; it is
possible that ZX-22 is actually FH-1 by another name. 

Below I give the list of known Zhongxing satellites and their initial
orbits (the final rocket stage from the ZX-2 launch was never tracked by
Space Command). ZX-22 is the first domestic Chinese comsat to be placed
in a slightly supersynchronous transfer orbit, although several CZ-3B
flights with commercial Western payloads have used a similar transfer orbit.
The high apogee supports the idea that ZX-22 has a liquid apogee engine
rather than a solid motor.

  Satellite  Type          Launch        Vehicle  Initial orbit km x km x deg
  ZX-1       CAST DFH-2A   1988 Mar  7   CZ-3     182 x 35738 x 31.1
  ZX-2       CAST DFH-2A   1988 Dec 22   CZ-3     ?
  ZX-3       CAST DFH-2A   1990 Feb  4   CZ-3     245 x 35523 x 30.7
  ZX-4       CAST DFH-2A   1991 Dec 28   CZ-3     213 x  2455 x 31.0 (fail)
  ZX-5       LM 3000       Purchased 1993 Jun, was Spacenet 1
  ZX-6       CAST DFH-3    1994 Nov 29   CZ-3A    246 x 36052 x 28.1
  ZX-7       Hughes HS-376 1996 Aug 18   CZ-3     200 x 17329 x 27.2 (fail)
  ZX-6 (R)   CAST DFH-3    1997 May 11   CZ-3A    211 x 35884 x 28.5 
  ZX-22      CAST?         2000 Jan 25   CZ-3A    493 x 42266 x 24.9 


Jan 27 saw the first launch from the California Spaceport, a commercial
pad on a leased site at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The CLF (Commercial
Launch Facility) is near the SLC-6 complex on South Vandenberg. The
launch was the debut of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur, which uses
Minuteman and Pegasus/Taurus stages. The Minotaur is the space launch vehicle
for the USAF Orbital/Suborbital Program which uses refurbished hardware
for small missions; USAF refer to it with the acronym OSPSLV
(Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle), which doesn't seem
any quicker to type than Minotaur. 

The Minotaur first stage is the M55A1 (Minuteman 2 stage 1); the second
stage is the Aerojet SR19 (Minuteman 2 stage 2). The third stage is the
Alliant Orion 50XL (Pegasus stage 2) and the final stage is the Orion 38
(Pegasus stage 3). The first three stages burned for 3 min 20 s, after
which the vehicle coasted to apogee and the fourth stage ignited at T+10
min 15s to enter a 746 x 810 km x 100.2 deg polar orbit. This is the
first orbital launch to use Minuteman hardware. The US has previously
used refurbished Thor, Atlas and Titan missiles as space launch vehicles.

The Space Test Program P98-1 mission consists of a large collection of
small satellites aboard the Minotaur launch.  JAWSAT, the USAF's Joint
AF Academy/Weber State Satellite, is a 64 kg satellite carrying a plasma
experiment and a particle detector as well as a technology test.

FALCONSAT is a 15 kg USAF Academy satellite, I don't know what its
payload is (their web site describes four possible payloads but
doesn't specify which one was selected for flight).

OCSE is the Optical Calibration Sphere Experiment, a 3.5m diameter
inflatable sphere built by L'Garde Inc. for calibrating the lasers at
the AFRL Starfire Optical Range. Mass of OCSE plus container is 22 kg.
The 0.48m long 0.41m diameter OCSE canister was ejected from the JAWSAT
stack; 42 seconds later, with the canister clear of the other payloads,
the canister door opened and 10 seconds after that inflation of the
sphere began (At this writing, successful sphere inflation has not yet
been confirmed). The canister remains attached to the inflated sphere.
Once inflated, the sphere's material becomes rigidized - I've handled
samples of this stuff, and you'd never believe it had been inflated, its
consistency is something like hard PVC or maybe bamboo... light and
striated but definitely solid.

ASUSAT is a 5 kg Arizona State University satellite with an Earth imager
and an amateur radio transponder. 

OPAL is Stanford University's  13 kg Orbiting Picosat Automated
Launcher. which carries an acclerometer and a magnetometer and four even
smaller satellites called `picosatellites'. The 0.5 kg STENSAT, built by
an AMSAT-NA group, carries an amateur radio transponder. The 0.25 kg
DARPA/Aerospace Corp. MEMS (Micro Electro-mechanical Systems)
picosatellites, carry an intersatellite communications experiment  and
are connected by a 30-m tether. Santa Clara University's Artemis 0.6 kg
picosatellite carries a VLF wave experiment. The picosatellites are
still attached to OPAL and will be deployed later.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Dec  3 1623   Helios 1B  )      Ariane 40      Kourou ELA2      Imaging    64A
              Clementine )                                      Sigint     64B
Dec  3 1951   Mars Polar Lander                MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01D?
Dec  3 1951   Scott Probe   )                  MPL Cruise Stage Lander     01E?
              Amundsen Probe)                                   Lander     01F?
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
Dec 10 1432   XMM               Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Astronomy  66A
Dec 11 1940   SACI-2            VLS            Alcantara        Research   F05
Dec 12 1738   DMSP 5D-3 F-15    Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    67A
Dec 18 1857   Terra             Atlas 2AS      Vandenberg SLC3E Rem.Sens.  68A
Dec 20 0050   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  69A
Dec 21 0712   KOMPSAT    )      Taurus         Vandenberg 576E  Imaging    70A
              ACRIMSAT   )                                      Science    70B
              Celestis-03)                                      Burial     70C
Dec 22 0050   Galaxy 11         Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     71A
Dec 26 0800   Kosmos-2367       Tsiklon-2      Baykonur LC90    Recon      72A
Dec 27 1913   Kosmos-2368       Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC16    Early Warn 73A
Jan 21 0103   DSCS III B-8      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     01A
Jan 25 0104   Galaxy 10R        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     02A
Jan 25 1645   Zhongxing-22      CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     03A
Jan 27 0303   JAWSAT    )       Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech.      04E
              ASUSAT    )                                       Img/Com    04A
              OPAL      )                                       Tech.      04B
              OCSE      )                                       Calib.     04C
              Falconsat )                                       Science?   04D
              Artemis   )                                       Science
              STENSAT   )                                       Comsat
              MEMS 1    )                                       Tech.
              MEMS 2    )                                       Tech.

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay  1    STS-92  2000?        ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Mar 16  ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-99  2000 Jan 31  SRTM


MLP1/
MLP2/                          LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71/ET-92/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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 10. February 2000 02:23
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 420

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 420                                            2000 Feb  10  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

STS-99 is due for launch Feb 11.

The first Progress M1 enhanced cargo ferry was launched from Baykonur on
Feb 1. Spacecraft 11F615A55 No. 250 took off from area 1 at 5-GIK
(Baykonur) at 0647 UTC. 

The original Progress, 7K-TG or 11F615A15 (the A15 mod of the 11F615
Soyuz class vehicle) was first launched in 1978. The 11F615 Soyuz,
developed as a lunar spaceship in the 1960s and used as a space station
crew transport since the 1970s, had a propulsion module
(priborno-agregatniy ostek, PAO), a descent vehicle (spuskaemiy apparat,
SA), and a habitation module (bitovoy otsek, BO). The Progress was very
similar but replaced the BO with an externally simpler cargo module
(gruzovoy otsek, GO) and replaced the recoverable SA with a
non-recoverable fuel module (Otsek komlonyemntov dozapravki, OKD) used
for refuelling the space station. 43 Progress vehicles were launched to
the DOS-5 (Salyut-6), DOS-6 (Salyut-7), and DOS-7 (Mir) space stations.

The first 7K-TGM or 11F615A55 (the A55 mod of Soyuz),  Progress M, was
launched in 1989 and had improved onboard systems. 42 Progress M
vehicles have been launched to Mir.

The Progress M1 (probably 7K-TGM1) modification of the A55 variant was
developed for the International Space Station. This vehicle, however,
was assigned to Mir. It docked with the unoccupied Mir complex on Feb 3
at 0802:20 UTC and began raising Mir's orbit on Feb 5, with further
burns planned through Feb 9.

Progress M-42 undocked on Feb 2 at 0311:52 UTC and was deorbited over
the Pacific later the same day at 0610:40 UTC with an 8 minute burn.
The spacecraft had been docked to the Kvant module since 1999 Jul 18.


Recent Launches
---------------

The European Space Agency's X-ray observatory, now renamed XMM-Newton,
has released its first light images (http://xmm.esa.int). 
Warmest congratulations to my European colleagues on the succesful
beginning of what I hope will be a long and productive science career
for XMM-Newton - and fingers crossed for my friends at Goddard and in Japan
for the launch of the third and final member of the new generation
of X-ray observatories, Astro E, due in a few minutes as I type this.

Hispasat 1C was launched on Feb 3 by an Atlas IIAS from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station. The satellite is an Alcatel/Cannes Spacebus 3000 and
joins the Spanish domestic satcom fleet. It was placed in a 222 x 45730
km x 18.7 deg transfer orbit.

Kosmos-2369 was launched by Zenit-2 from Baykonur on Feb 3.
The satellite is a Tselina-2 signals intelligence vehicle built
by KB Yuzhnoe and is in an 845 x 853 km x 71.0 deg orbit.

Four Loral Globalstar communications satellites were launched by a
Boeing Delta 7420 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb 8. I
don't have the flight model numbers for these satellites yet. The Delta
rocket entered a 185 x 914 km x 51.9 deg transfer orbit 11 min after
launch; at 1 hour after launch a second burn circularized the orbit at
916 km.


The first test flight of the Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle on Feb 8
appears to have been a success. The Fregat upper stage is derived from
Lavochkin's Fobos/Mars-96 ADU propulsion unit. It uses the same liquid
engine as Rokot's Briz upper stage. The three-stage 11A511U Soyuz-U
rocket placed Fregat and its payload in a suborbital trajectory. A first
Fregat burn to transfer orbit was followed by a second burn at apogee to
circularize the orbit. Fregat then deployed a 1-tonne dummy mass. The
dummy satellite was placed in a 581 x 606 km x 64.8 deg orbit. After
several hours, Fregat made a third burn to lower perigee, followed by a
fourth at perigee to deorbit. It then separated the attached IRDT
(Inflatable Reentry and Descent Technology) payload, a joint project
between ESA, the German DASA and the Russian Lavochkin company. IRDT was
built by DASA-Bremen and Lavochkin. IRDT separated, and both Fregat and
IRDT deployed inflatable heat shields for reentry. According to the ESA
web site they landed in Russia 8 hours after launch with an impact
velocity of about 47 kph. No report yet on how well the payloads
survived; a Russian report indicates the landing was in the Orenburg
recovery zone but that the landers have not yet been found. IRDT was 110
kg and had a shield 0.8m in size packed, inflating to 3.6m dia. on use.
Fregat itself had a 4-m diameter shield.

A press release from China confirms that Zhongxing-22 was a DFH-3
satellite built by the China Academy of Space Technology.

The FalconSat-1 satellite launched on Jan 27 carries  the CHAWS-LD
(Charging Hazards and Wake Studies-Long Duration) experiment to measure
spacecraft charging effects in LEO. The satellite was developed and is
operated by USAFA (the US Air Force Academy) and also provides USAFA
cadets with space operations experience and training. The USAFA flew an
earlier experiment, Falcon Gold, as an attached payload on a Centaur
upper stage in Oct-Nov 1997, and is also involved in the main JAWSAT
payload on the Jan 27 launch. Mass of FalconSat-1 is 52 kg, not
15 kg as I claimed last issue. The ASUSat 1 satellite failed
after 15 hours on orbit because of power supply problems.

The Artemis team of women undergrads at Santa Clara University has three
picosatellites, not just one, aboard the OPAL deployer. They are called
JAK, Thelma, and Louise. (JAK is the initials of the infant son of
Artemis' advisor). JAK has a mass of about 0.2 kg, the other two around
0.5 kg. Size around 0.1-0.2m each. There are a total of 
six picosats (three Artemis, STENSAT, and two Aerospace Corp.
picosats).

The first two picosats, the tethered DARPA/aerospace corp pair,
were deployed on Feb 7 at 0334:16 UTC. Thanks to James Cutler of
Stanford for this info. OPAL is having some transmitter problems
which delayed the initial picosat release.



Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 21 0103   DSCS III B-8      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     01A
Jan 25 0104   Galaxy 10R        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     02A
Jan 25 1645   Zhongxing-22      CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     03A
Jan 27 0303   JAWSAT    )       Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech.      04A
              OCS       )                                       Calib.     04B
              OPAL      )                                       Tech.      04C
              FalconSat I)                                      Tech.      04D
              ASUSAT    )                                       Img/Com    04E
              JAK       )                                       Science    04B
              Thelma    )                                       Science    04B
              Louise    )                                       Science    04B
              STENSAT   )                                       Comsat     04B
Feb  1 0647   Progress M1-1     Soyuz          Baykonur LC1     Cargo      05A
Feb  3 0926   Kosmos-2369       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     06A
Feb  3 2330   Hispasat 1C       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral SLC36  Comsat     07A
Feb  7 0334   MEMS 1    )       -              OPAL, LEO        Tech.      04H	
              MEMS 2    )                                       Tech.      04H
Feb  8 2124   Globalstar  )     Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17  Comsat     08A
              Globalstar  )                                     Comsat     08B
              Globalstar  )                                     Comsat     08C
              Globalstar  )                                     Comsat     08D
Feb  8 2320   IRDT           )  Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       09
              Dummy satellite)                                  Tech       09A
	      Fregat         )                                  Tech       09B


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay  1    STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Apr 25  ISS 2A.2
OV-105 Endeavour       LC39A         STS-99  2000 Feb 11  SRTM


MLP1/
MLP2/                          LC39B
MLP3/RSRM-71/ET-92/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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 29. February 2000 20:27
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 421

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 421                                           2000 Feb  29  Cambridge, MA
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Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Endeavour was launched at 1743:40 UTC on Feb 11 on mission STS-99. The
RSRM-71  solid rocket boosters separated at 1745 UTC, and the OMS
engines were fired in an OMS Assist maneuver from 1746 to 1747 UTC. 
Main engine cutoff was at 1752 UTC followed by separation of the
External Tank, ET-92. The Orbiter and ET were then in a low perigee
orbit. At 1819 UTC a 2 minute OMS-2 firing placed Endeavour in circular
orbit, while the ET coasted to reentry over the Pacific. 

The 61-meter SRTM mast was deployed successfully at 2327 UTC on Feb 12.
A failed thruster on the end of the mast concerned managers but did not
affect the mission significantly. After some problems stowing the mast
on Feb 21, Endeavour prepared for return on Feb 22. Deorbit burn was at
2225 UTC and OV-105 landed on runway 33 at KSC at 2322 UTC. Endeavour
was towed to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2 and will be prepared for
the STS-97 mission.

STS-99 mapped the land surface of the Earth between latitudes 60N and 54S
for NIMA (US National Imagery and Mapping Agency), NASA, DLR (the
German space agency) and ASI (the Italian space agency). Some of
the NIMA data will remain secret for use by the US Dept. of Defense.

Erratum: I'm informed that the Progress OKD actually stands for
Otsek komponentov dozapravki, which makes more sense - I was working
from a bad xerox, I guess.

Compton
-------

One of NASA's Great Observatories, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory,
may end its mission prematurely. GRO's BATSE experiment is more
sensitive than any other current or funded gamma ray burst detector and
the astronomical community was hoping for up to another decade of
operations, but NASA management are worried that a single gyro failure
(following one which failed in November) might eventually mean the
15-tonne satellite would reenter out of control. NASA-Goddard engineers
developed a plan to deorbit it safely even if another gyro is lost, but
some fear that Goddard management may recommend that GRO be brought down
anyway, as soon as this June. This would be a big blow to the gamma ray
astronomy community.

Recent Launches
---------------

The ASTRO-E X-ray astronomy satellite was launched on Feb 10. However,
the first stage of the M-V launch vehicle (serial M-V-4) went off
course. An anomalous vibration was detected 25 seconds after launch. At
41 seconds ceramic heat shields in  the first stage nozzle apparently
broke and fell off, and thrust vector control on the nozzle was lost.

Stage 1 separated at 1 min 15 s; stage 2 separated at 3 min 38 s. The
third stage burn completed at 5 min 21s. Last signals from M-V-4 were
received at 20 min after launch; the payload probably separated from the
third stage at 23 min.

Although the upper stages were able to fire and make some correction to
the trajectory, ASTRO-E ended up with a perigee of only 80 km and an
apogee of 410 km. It may have reentered on the first orbit at around
0230-0300UTC somewhere between East Africa and Tibet or western China
(depending on the altitude at injection); Space Command don't seemed to have
cataloged any objects from the launch.

I estimated possible TLE sets for the launch; very rough and in particular
the argument of perigee is unknown. (Non-TLE aficionados should just
ignore this...)

80 km injection altitude:
1F01226U 00F01    00041.06620000 2.39843756 +00000-0 +00000-0 0    10
2F01226  31.3000 203.0000 0250000  90.0000   0.0000 16.10400000     0

250 km injection altitude:
1F01226U 00F01    00041.06620000 2.41406256 +00000-0 +00000-0 0    10
2F01226  31.3000 203.0000 0250000   0.0000  90.0000 16.10400000     0


The four Globalstar satellites launched on Feb 8 complete the Globalstar
constellation. On Feb 11 the satellites were in a 912 x 932 km x 52.0
deg orbit.


In Russia, the search is still going on for the Fregat stage. The
separate IRDT demonstrator was found and survived reentry well. The
shield deployed to 2.5m diameter on reentry, but failed to extend to its
4m drag chute mode during final descent. Fregat's shield was actually
14m in diameter at full extent.

The Proton returned to flight on Feb 12 with the launch of the Garuda 1
communications satellite for the ACES consortium which involves PSN of
Indonesia, PLDT of the Phillipines, Lockheed Martin, and the Thai
company Jasmine. The satellite is a Lockheed Martin A2100AXX and has two
large 12-m diameter L-band antennas for cellphone relay. The Proton
placed Garuda and the Blok DM3 on a suborbital trajectory. The first DM
burn put the stack in a 200 km orbit; burn 2 was to geostationary
transfer orbit and burn 3 raised the orbit to 6233 x 35946 km x 16 deg.

The NEAR space probe entered orbit around (433) Eros on Feb 14.
Orbit insertion was at 1534 UTC into an approx. 323 x 370 km orbit
(relative to the center of Eros) with a period of about 27 days.
NEAR is controlled from APL in Maryland.

The JAK and STENSAT picosats were ejected from OPAL on Feb 11.
Thelma and Louise were ejected on Feb 12. Unfortunately no
data was received from the picosats.

Superbird 4 was launched on Feb 18. The Hughes HS-601HP satellite will
provide services for Space Communications Corp of Japan. Mass is 1657 kg
dry; it carries 23 Ku-band and 6 Ka-band transponders, a Marquardt R4D
apogee engine and a XIPS ion propulsion stationkeeping system. It was
launched by an Arianespace Ariane 44LP rocket with two liquid and two
solid strapon boosters.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jan 21 0103   DSCS III B-8      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     01A
Jan 25 0104   Galaxy 10R        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     02A
Jan 25 1645   Zhongxing-22      CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     03A
Jan 27 0303   JAWSAT    )       Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech.      04A
              OCS       )                                       Calib.     04B
              OPAL      )                                       Tech.      04C
              FalconSat I)                                      Tech.      04D
              ASUSAT    )                                       Img/Com    04E
Feb  1 0647   Progress M1-1     Soyuz          Baykonur LC1     Cargo      05A
Feb  3 0926   Kosmos-2369       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     06A
Feb  3 2330   Hispasat 1C       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     07A
Feb  7 0334   MEMS 1    )       -              OPAL, LEO        Tech.      04H	
              MEMS 2    )                                       Tech.      04H
Feb  8 2124   Globalstar 60)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     08A
              Globalstar 62)                                    Comsat     08B
              Globalstar 63)                                    Comsat     08C
              Globalstar 64)                                    Comsat     08D
Feb  8 2320   IRDT           )  Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       09
              Dummy satellite)                                  Tech       09A
	      Fregat         )                                  Tech       09B
Feb 10 0130   ASTRO E           M-V            Kagoshima Mu     Astron.    F01
Feb 11 0510   JAK                              OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04L
Feb 11 0510   STENSAT                          OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04M
Feb 11 1743   Endeavour     )   Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  10A
              SRL-3         )
Feb 12 0910   Garuda 1          Proton/DM3     Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     11A
Feb 12 1343   Thelma    )                      OPAL, LEO        Science    04J
              Louise    )                                       Science    04K
Feb 18 0104   Superbird 4       Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     12A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-101 2000 Apr 23  ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 28. March 2000 20:35
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 422

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 422                                       2000 Mar 28 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The next Shuttle mission is STS-101, to the international space station.
Crew are James Halsell, Scott Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey
Williams, James Voss, Susan Helms, and Yuriy Usachev. Atlantis will
carry the External Airlock/Orbiter Docking System, the Spacehab Long
Tunnel, the Keel Yoke Device with the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
pallet, and the Spacehab Logistics Double Module. A GAS canister
in bay 13 port contains the SEM-6 and MARS high school experiments.
The ICC carries parts of the ISS Strela robot arm and a Shuttle
GPS navigation experiment.

The launch of Soyuz TM-30 with the EO-28 Mir crew is scheduled
for Apr 4. Commander is Sergey V. Zalyotin; flight engineer is
Aleksandr Kaleri.

Recent Launches
---------------

The Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI), USAF Space Test Program mission
P97-3, was launched by Orbital Sciences Taurus on Mar 12. MTI is a
Sandia Labs mission to test out a multispectral imager for treaty
monitoring applications. The mission used a Taurus 1110 rocket with a
63-inch fairing and a Peacekeeper first stage. The satellite is in a 577
x 613 km x 97.4 deg orbit.

The first ICO Global Communications satellite was lost when its
Zenit-3SL launch vehicle failed on Mar 12. ICO F-1 was a 2750 kg Hughes
HS-601M satellite and would have entered a 10300 km x 45 deg circular
orbit.  ICO's satellites carry multiple spot beams for mobile
communications. The Zenit-3SL vehicle took of from Boeing Sea Launch's
Odyssey platform in the Pacific at 154W 0N. The Zenit second stage shut
down prematurely due to a valve commanding mistake in the prelaunch
sequence, and the satellite fell in the South Pacific, possibly south of
Pitcairn. The fact that the error has been discovered quickly and seems
to be a simple software mistake means the downtime for Sea Launch may be
relatively short.

The second Ekspress A Russian communications satellite was successfully
launched on Mar 12 by a Krunichev Proton-K from Baykonur. Ekspress A No.
2 will be assigned to the Ekspress 6A slot at 80E, providing
communications for GO Kosmicheskaya Svyaz. The first Ekspress A was lost
in a launch failure last year. The Ekspress A is built by NPO PM,
with a communications payload from Alcatel. The Proton-K used an
Energiya Blok DM-2M upper stage.


USAF Space Command launched a Peacekeeper missile from silo LF-05 at
Vandenberg at 0940 UTC on Mar 8. Operational test mission GT29PA was
scheduled to carry 8 reentry vehicles to the Kwajalein Atoll target
area. These suborbital flights reach apogees of around 1000 km. The
Peacekeeper's first stage is similar to the first stage of the Taurus
and Athena space launch vehicles.

The second test launch of the Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle succeeded
on Mar 20. The Fregat upper stage placed a dummy satellite, Dumsat,
into orbit. Dumsat, built by Aerospatiale Matra, is a mass model
of a pair of Cluster II scientific satellites. Dumsat remained
attached to the Fregat stage, in a 244 x 18016 km x 64.6 deg orbit.
The Soyuz third stage flew a suborbital trajectory.


The first fully commercial Ariane 5 flight successfully placed two
comsats, Asiastar and Insat 3B, in geostationary transfer orbit on Mar
21. Worldspace's second digital radio satellite is Asiastar, a Matra
Marconi Space Eurostar 2000+ satellite with a dry mass of 1220 kg.
Asiastar joins Afristar in orbit with a mission of providing radio
broadcasting to and by communities in the developing world. Insat 3B was
accelerated to replace the lost Insat 2D and carries a pure telecom
payload of C, Ku and S band transponders, unlike earlier Insats which
also had weather instruments. The satellite was built by ISRO, the
Indian Space Research Organization, and has a dry mass of 970 kg.
Ariane 5's EPS upper stage was left in a 699 x 35445 km x 7.0 deg
orbit. The EPC core stage reentered over the Galapagos Islands after
completing most of one orbit.


NASA's IMAGE satellite was launched on Mar 25. IMAGE, the Imager for
Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration, is a MIDEX (mid-sized
Explorer mission) and was developed by NASA-Goddard and the SWRI
(Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas). The
spin-stabilized spacecraft is a Lockheed Martin LM100. It carries a set
of neutral atom imagers and ultraviolet imagers, and antennae to study
radio wavelength emissions from the magnetospheric plasma. The RPI radio
plasma imager has four long wire antennae which will be deployed to a
span of half a kilometer. 

IMAGE was launched by a Boeing Delta 7326 from Space Launch Complex
2-West at Vandenberg AFB. The 7326 uses three strapon GEM-40 boosters, 
a long tank Delta II Thor first stage, a Delta II second stage with an
Aerojet AJ-10-118K engine, and a Thiokol Star 37FM third stage solid
motor. The Delta second stage made a single burn to a 185 x 1076 km x
93.9 deg orbit and separated from the Star 37 whose burn left IMAGE in a
987 x 45993 km x 89.9 deg final orbit.



Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Feb  1 0647   Progress M1-1     Soyuz          Baykonur LC1     Cargo      05A
Feb  3 0926   Kosmos-2369       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     06A
Feb  3 2330   Hispasat 1C       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     07A
Feb  7 0334   MEMS 1    )       -              OPAL, LEO        Tech.      04H	
              MEMS 2    )                                       Tech.      04H
Feb  8 2124   Globalstar 60)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     08A
              Globalstar 62)                                    Comsat     08B
              Globalstar 63)                                    Comsat     08C
              Globalstar 64)                                    Comsat     08D
Feb  8 2320   IRDT           )  Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       09
              Dummy satellite)                                  Tech       09A
	      Fregat         )                                  Tech       09B
Feb 10 0130   ASTRO E           M-V            Kagoshima Mu     Astron.    F01
Feb 11 0510   JAK                              OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04L
Feb 11 0510   STENSAT                          OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04M
Feb 11 1743   Endeavour     )   Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  10A
              SRL-3         )
Feb 12 0910   Garuda 1          Proton/DM3     Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     11A
Feb 12 1343   Thelma    )                      OPAL, LEO        Science    04J
              Louise    )                                       Science    04K
Feb 18 0104   Superbird 4       Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     12A
Mar 12 0407   Ekspress A2       Proton         Baykonur         Comsat     13A
Mar 12 0929   MTI               Taurus         Vandenberg 576E  Imaging    14A
Mar 12 1449   ICO F-1           Zenit-3SL      Sea Launch       Comsat     F02
Mar 20 1828   Dumsat            Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       15A
Mar 21 2328   Asiastar )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Comsat     16A
              Insat 3B )                                        Comsat     16B
Mar 25 2034   IMAGE             Delta 7326     Vandenberg SLC2W Science    17A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-101 2000 Apr 18? ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 05. April 2000 23:09
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 423

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 423                                       2000 Apr  5 Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The Soyuz TM-30 spacecraft was launched on Apr 4 with the EO-28 Mir
crew. Commander is Sergey V. Zalyotin; flight engineer is Aleksandr
Kaleri. The spacecraft, production vehicle 11F732 No. 204, is the first
in the "200" series of Soyuz TM vehicles to fly. These vehicles were
originally built to support the International Space Station and are
externally similar to the standard Soyuz TM, with a cylindrical service
module (PAO), curved-conical descent module (SA), and  spheroidal living
module (BO). Mounted on the BO is a standard Mir SSVP-type probe docking
system.

The 11A511U Soyuz-U launch vehicle, built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara,
took off from the Gagarin pad at 5-GIK Baykonur at 0501:29 UTC. The four
Blok B,V,G,D strapon liquid boosters separated at 0503 UTC. Two minutes
into flight the escape tower separated and at 0504 UTC the nose fairing
was jettisoned at an altitude of 85 km. The central stage (Blok A) of
the Soyuz 'packet' continued on a suborbital trajectory, shutting down
and separating at 0506 UTC. The third stage, the Blok-I (possibly
designated 11S510) fired its KB Khivavtomatiki 11D55 LOX/kerosene main
engine for a four minute burn, placing Soyuz TM-30 in a low Earth orbit.
The antennae and solar panels were deployed shortly afterwards. Two
Soyuz engine burns at 0837 and 0923 UTC placed the vehicle in a 257 x
259 km x 51.6 deg orbit. It is not yet clear how long the EO-28 crew
will stay aboard Mir. Part of the EO-28 mission is financed by the
private MirCorp company.

The Mir complex is currently in a 329 x 333 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
The Progress M1-1 cargo ship is docked to the +X docking port of the
Kvant module. The -X docking port on the Mir base module transfer
compartment is waiting for Soyuz TM-30. The Kvant-2, Priroda,
Kristall and Spektr modules remain docked to the radial ports
on the base module (Spektr remains depressurized following the
1997 collision with Progress M-34).

The next Shuttle mission is STS-101, to the international space station.
Crew are James Halsell, Scott Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey
Williams, James Voss, Susan Helms, and Yuriy Usachev. Atlantis will
carry the External Airlock/Orbiter Docking System, the Spacehab Long
Tunnel, the Keel Yoke Device with the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
pallet, and the Spacehab Logistics Double Module. A GAS canister
in bay 13 port contains the SEM-6 and MARS high school experiments.
The ICC carries parts of the ISS Strela robot arm and a Shuttle
GPS navigation experiment.


Errata
-------

A friend at Arianespace points out that I should have said that the
Ariane 5 EPC stage impacts the Pacific *west* of the Galapagos, not
*over* the Galapagos - so readers on those islands do not need to duck.
The EPC stages are unusual in that they attain marginal orbits, with
perigees within the atmosphere but with quite high apogees - I don't
have definitive values but possibly around 1000 km. Most launch vehicle
suborbital stages have much less velocity at cutoff. The Ariane 505
mission now makes three perfect launches in a row for Ariane 5, which
following its earlier rocky start places it in a good position relative
to the other new generation launch vehicles (e.g. Delta 3, Atlas 3)
which have not yet successfully flown.

 Ariane 5 missions: (trajectories with ? are speculative)
 
L   Date         Payload        Adapter  Fairing     EPC trajectory   

501 1996 Jun  4  Cluster        Speltra  Short       Exploded over launch site
502 1997 Oct 30  Maqsat         Speltra  Long?     -200?x  500? km x  7 deg
503 1998 Oct 21  ARD            Speltra  ?            1 x  844  km x  5.8 deg
504 1999 Dec 10  XMM            None     Long?       50?x 1500? km x 40.0 deg
505 2000 Mar 21  Insat/Asiastar Sylda 5  ?           45 x 1368  km x  7.7 deg

MTI is a joint mission of Sandia Labs and Los Alamos, together with the
Savannah River Technology Center.

The orbit I gave for the Delta second stage from the IMAGE launch was
the initial one; after the depletion burn the stage was left in a
193 x 1059 km x 91.3 deg orbit.

Always Initialize Your Variables
---------------------------------

The failure report for the Mars Polar Lander suggests that the most probable
cause was a software error in the landing sequence: during final descent,
the lander has rocket engines to slow it down:
  while ( not touched down ) { fire braking rockets }
Unfortunately, the 'touched down'  signal was not set to false at the
beginning of this loop, and was probably set to true earlier in the descent
when the shock of landing leg deployment was detected by the touchdown sensor.


Euphemism Corner
----------------

ESA's public affairs continue to rival the experts at NASA for their use
of  euphemism in press releases; the latest release is entitled "Cluster
II Flight Acceptance Review Report" instead of something more
straightforward  like "Propulsion Concerns Cause Possible Cluster II
Delay". The abstract of the release just says ".. carry out a detailed
examination of all aspects of the mission", which is certainly true, but
if you read all the way through you discover that the DaimlerChrysler
S400 propulsion system used on Cluster is apparently suspect, and
shipment of the four spacecraft to the launch site is being delayed. The
S400 class engine has heritage dating back to the Europa and Symphonie
programs  in the early 1970s, so I'm not too concerned about the
fundamental design, but reading between the lines  it sounds like there
have been some minor problems on recent comsats using the system. Let's
hope any delay is small. Cluster II is a group of four space science
satellites replacing those lost on the first Ariane 5 launch.

Current Launches
----------------

The NEAR-Shoemaker probe moved into a 100 x 200 km orbit around (433) Eros
on Apr 2 at 0200 UTC.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Feb  1 0647   Progress M1-1     Soyuz          Baykonur LC1     Cargo      05A
Feb  3 0926   Kosmos-2369       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     06A
Feb  3 2330   Hispasat 1C       Atlas IIAS     Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     07A
Feb  7 0334   MEMS 1    )       -              OPAL, LEO        Tech.      04H	
              MEMS 2    )                                       Tech.      04H
Feb  8 2124   Globalstar 60)    Delta 7420     Canaveral SLC17B Comsat     08A
              Globalstar 62)                                    Comsat     08B
              Globalstar 63)                                    Comsat     08C
              Globalstar 64)                                    Comsat     08D
Feb  8 2320   IRDT           )  Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       09
              Dummy satellite)                                  Tech       09A
	      Fregat         )                                  Tech       09B
Feb 10 0130   ASTRO E           M-V            Kagoshima Mu     Astron.    F01
Feb 11 0510   JAK                              OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04L
Feb 11 0510   STENSAT                          OPAL, LEO        Comsat     04M
Feb 11 1743   Endeavour     )   Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  10A
              SRL-3         )
Feb 12 0910   Garuda 1          Proton/DM3     Baykonur LC81L   Comsat     11A
Feb 12 1343   Thelma    )                      OPAL, LEO        Science    04J
              Louise    )                                       Science    04K
Feb 18 0104   Superbird 4       Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Comsat     12A
Mar 12 0407   Ekspress A2       Proton         Baykonur         Comsat     13A
Mar 12 0929   MTI               Taurus         Vandenberg 576E  Imaging    14A
Mar 12 1449   ICO F-1           Zenit-3SL      Sea Launch       Comsat     F02
Mar 20 1828   Dumsat            Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       15A
Mar 21 2328   Asiastar )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Comsat     16A
              Insat 3B )                                        Comsat     16B
Mar 25 2034   IMAGE             Delta 7326     Vandenberg SLC2W Science    17A
Apr  4 0501   Soyuz TM-30       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  18A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-101 2000 Apr 24? ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 02. May 2000 01:13
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 424

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 424                                           2000 May 1  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Soyuz TM-30 docked with Mir's forward (-X) port on Apr 6 at 0631 UTC.
Zalyotin and Kaleri have reactivated Mir and are settling in for a stay
of uncertain duration. Progress M1-2, cargo ship 11F615A55 No. 252, was
launched on Apr 25 and docked with the rear Kvant port on Mir at 2128
UTC on Apr 27. Progress M1-1 undocked from that port at 1633 UTC on Apr
26 and was deorbited over the Pacific at 1927 UTC on Apr 26. Mir's orbit
was raised on Apr 29 in the first of a series of three burns.

The next Shuttle mission is STS-101, to the international space station.
Launch is postponed to mid-May following weather delays.

Errata
-------

Contrary to the suggestion in the table in JSR 423, all Ariane 5
missions so far used the "short" fairing. The "long" fairing will
probably first be used for the ENVISAT mission. Thanks to my European
correspondents for setting me straight.

The delay to the Cluster launch, which is also delaying other European
satellites, is actually a seal problem in attitude control thrusters.
Indications are that the problem is minor and slips will be a few weeks
only.

Current Launches
----------------

A Krunichev Proton-K successfully launched Eutelsat's Sesat 
(Siberia-Europe Satellite) on Apr 17.  Sesat is an MSS-2500-GSO
(Gals/Ekspress) comsat built by NPO PM of Krasnoyarsk, with an Alcatel
Espace telecoms payload with 18 Ku-band transponders. The Energiya Blok
DM-2M upper stage made two burns to deliver Sesat to geosynchronous
altitude. The satellite has 8 Fakel SPD-100 plasma thrusters for
stationkeeping. Eutelsat grew out of the European Communication Satellites
(ECS) launched starting in 1983; they have since developed their
Hot Bird fleet of European television broadcast satellites, but the venture
into broadcasting to Siberia is a new step for them. The combination
of a Russian-built spacecraft bus and European communications payload 
follows the trend set by the similar Ekspress A series.

Arianespace launched an Ariane 42L from Kourou on Apr 19. Flight V129
placed the Galaxy IVR comsat into orbit for Panamsat. Galaxy IVR is a
Hughes HS-601HP model with a dry mass of 1895 kg.  It carries 28 Ku-band
and 28 C-band transponders.  After insertion in a standard 219 x 32007
km x 7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit, Galaxy IVR's R-4D apogee
engine raised orbit to  35765 x 35792 km x 0.1 deg by Apr 27 and was
over 67W by late April; final destination is 99W. The Galaxy satellites
provide US domestic telecom services; the original Galaxy IVH failed in
May 1998, putting pagers out of action across the USA. Over fifty HS-601
class satellites have now been launched, and most are still operating.
The Ariane 42L vehicle has two strap-on liquid boosters; the flight was
the 51st launch of the uprated H10-3 high energy upper stage and the
124th launch of the three-stage Ariane 1/2/3/4 class vehicle.

NEAR-Shoemaker has now entered its operational 50-km-radius polar orbit
around minor planet (433) Eros.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Mar 12 0407   Ekspress A2       Proton         Baykonur         Comsat     13A
Mar 12 0929   MTI               Taurus         Vandenberg 576E  Imaging    14A
Mar 12 1449   ICO F-1           Zenit-3SL      Sea Launch       Comsat     F02
Mar 20 1828   Dumsat            Soyuz/Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Tech       15A
Mar 21 2328   Asiastar )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Comsat     16A
              Insat 3B )                                        Comsat     16B
Mar 25 2034   IMAGE             Delta 7326     Vandenberg SLC2W Science    17A
Apr  4 0501   Soyuz TM-30       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  18A
Apr 17 2106   Sesat             Proton         Baykonur LC200L  Comsat     19A
Apr 19 0029   Galaxy IVR        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     20A
Apr 25 2008   Progress M-2      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      21A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-101 2000 May?    ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 16. May 2000 00:42
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 425

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 425                                           2000 May 15  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Zalyotin and Kaleri continue their Mir mission with the Soyuz TM-30
transport and the Progress M1-2 cargo ship. On May 12 they left the
station for a spacewalk. The Kvant-2 airlock hatch was opened at 1044
UTC and closed at 1536 UTC. The astronauts inspected the station and
discovered burnt wiring on the Kvant solar array.

Launch of STS-101 is scheduled for May 18.


 Compton Observatory
-------------------

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is to be deorbited on June 3. NASA
decided to end the mission because they were worried that if another
gyroscope is lost, the heavy 14 tonne spacecraft might eventually
reenter out of control. Although engineers came up with a way to control
the descent without gyroscopes, NASA felt the risk was still too large.
However, a number of scientists find the decision perverse and are
urging NASA to keep the vehicle operating for now in view of the loss to
science if one of the Great Observatories is abandoned. In my opinion,
the decision to deorbit Compton is wrong (or at the very least, NASA has
not presented Compton's users with a convincingly argued rationale), and
the risks of keeping it in orbit are small, but it is unlikely that the
NASA administrator will override Goddard Space Flight Center's director
Al Diaz and Office of Space Science chief Ed Weiler,  who made the
decision. 

The following is extracted from a letter passed on to me by a gamma-ray
astronomer - I agree with most of the points it makes, so I quote it here.

"Safety is clearly and correctly a very high priority in everything that
 NASA does.  However, it is important to have a realistic safety policy
 that is applied uniformly to all missions.  The question is: Does
 continuing operation of CGRO present unacceptable risk?  The risk of
 continuing to fly CGRO was inconsistently described at the press
 conference on March 24, 2000.   According to the NASA officials at the
 press conference the decision was based upon a casualty risk of 1/1000
 if another gyroscope failed, yet in response to a reporter's question
 those same officials confirmed a risk estimate of 1 in 4 million for a
 controlled reentry using zero gyroscopes."

 "The scientific case for continuation of the mission is beyond question.
 The NASA Senior Review made a strong case for continuing the CGRO
 Mission.  The end of CGRO operations would affect virtually every
 sub-discipline of astrophysics. The study of gamma-ray bursts and
 high-energy emission from solar flares during the solar maximum period
 will be particularly hard-hit.  With the damage suffered by the HESSI
 satellite during tests, loss of CGRO leaves the US with no capability
 for observing high-energy radiation from solar flares during the maximum
 of solar activity.   The loss of CGRO will also be detrimental for many
 of the scientific objectives of presently operating and upcoming
 high-energy astrophysics missions, because it provides
 targets-of-opportunity, all-sky monitoring and coordinated observations
 over a very broad high-energy range.  These missions include: ASCA,
 BeppoSAX, Chandra, INTEGRAL, HETE-2, Rossi XTE, SWIFT, and XMM-Newton. There is no
 spacecraft planned for the next several years that can accomplish these
 objectives. "

On May 14, Compton was in a 482 x 487 km x 28.5 deg orbit. The
observatory was launched in April 1991 on mission STS-37. Launch mass
was 15622 kg (Shuttle Operational Data Book; the press kit gives 15713
kg); different sources give the hydrazine load as 1822 kg or 1920 kg, so
the dry mass is at most 13800 kg. 

Current Launches
----------------

GOES L was launched on May 3 by Atlas Centaur AC-137. The satellite is a
US civilian geostationary weather satellite in the Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellite series. It is the first GOES launch
on the Atlas 2 class vehicle (the old Atlas 1 has now been phased out).
GOES L will be renamed GOES 11 after it reaches geostationary orbit.
GOES L was built by SS/Loral and is based on the FS-1300 bus. It has one
solar panel array and  a counter-boom with a solar sail. As well as an
imaging radiometer, the satellite carries an X-ray detector to monitor
solar activity.

Kosmos-2370 was launched on May 3. It is a 17F117 Neman-class
advanced imaging reconnaissance satellite derived from the
TsSKB-Progress Yantar'-4KS2 design. The Neman relays digital imagery to
earth via geostationary comsats and is the Russian equivalent of the
KH-11. Neman was first launched in Feb 1986 (Kosmos-1731). The last
Neman satellite, Kosmos-2359, reentered in Jul 1999 after 1 year in
orbit. The Soyuz-U launcher placed it in a 183 x 277 km x 64.8 deg
initial orbit; it raised altitude to 240 x 300 km about 24
hr after launch.

Titan 4 B-29 was launched from Canaveral on May 8. The Titan 4B placed
the TRW-built DSP 20 satellite in orbit with a Boeing Inertial Upper
Stage, serial IUS-22. DSP 20 is an early warning satellite for the US
Air Force; the two-stage IUS-22 solid rocket delivered DSP 20 to
geostationary orbit. DSP 19 launched last year but was put in the wrong
orbit when its IUS stage failed. This is the first fully successful
Titan 4 mission from Cape Canaveral in four tries, a relief for Lockheed
Martin Astronautics.

  Recent Titan 4 Launches
  
  Date           Titan          Upper Stage              Payload
  1997 Feb 23    4B-24          IUS-4                    DSP 18
  1997 Oct 15    4B-33          Centaur TC-21            Cassini/Huygens
  1997 Oct 24    4A-18          None                     USA 133
  1997 Nov  8    4A-17          Centaur TC-16            USA 136
  1998 May  9    4B-25          Centaur TC-18            USA 139
  1998 Aug 12    4A-20 (failed) Centaur TC-9             MERCURY ?
  1999 Apr  9    4B-27          IUS-21        (failed)   DSP 19
  1999 Apr 30    4B-32          Centaur TC-14 (failed)   Milstar
  1999 May 22    4B-12          None                     USA 144
  2000 May  8    4B-29          IUS-22                   DSP 20


Another Navstar Block IIR GPS navigation satellite, GPS IIR-4 or SVN 51,
was launched  on May 11. The Boeing Delta II rocket placed GPS space
vehicle number 51 in an elliptical transfer orbit. The GPS Block IIR
satellites are built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale and based on the
Series 4000  comsat bus. The Thiokol Star 37 apogee motor will be used
to circularize the orbit at 20000 km.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 0501   Soyuz TM-30       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  18A
Apr 17 2106   Sesat             Proton         Baykonur LC200L  Comsat     19A
Apr 19 0029   Galaxy IVR        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     20A
Apr 25 2008   Progress M1-2     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      21A
May  3 0707   GOES 11           Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Weather    22A
May  3 1325   Kosmos-2370       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Imaging    23A
May  8 1601   DSP 20            Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40   Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148   GPS SVN 51        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     25A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39A         STS-101 2000 May 18  ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 21. May 2000 14:33
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 426


Jonathan's Space Report
No. 426                                         2000 May 21, Bonn
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Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Space Shuttle OV-104 Atlantis was launched at 1011:10 UTC on May 19,
starting mission STS-101. This was the first launch with the new
electronic cockpit displays and other upgrades, and it seems to have
gone almost flawlessly. The solid boosters separated at 1013 UTC and the
main engines cutoff at 1019 UTC. The external tank, ET-102 then
separated, with both orbiter and ET-102 in a low perigee orbit. The NASA
PAO claimed it had reached an orbit with a 320 km perigee, but this was
clearly an error - probably the planned post OMS-2 orbit. I'm trying to
find out the actual transfer orbit but the PAO folks don't seem to know
it; it was probably around 52 x 320 km. 

One disadvantage of the increased computerization: in the old days you
could hear the capcom read up the maneuver pads with the engine firing
data, and the astronauts repeat it back. Now they just say "use the
stuff we loaded into your computer" and the rest of us never get to see
the numbers...
  
At 1054 UTC the OMS engines fired to raise perigee to 159 x 329 km x 51.6
deg. Atlantis docked with the International Space Station at 0431 UTC
on May 21.


Current Launches
----------------

The Rokot launch vehicle was flown from Plesetsk on May 16. The
two-stage modified UR-100NUTTKh ICBM, developed by Krunichev, delivered
a Briz-KM upper stage to a suborbital trajectory. The first Briz burn
was to an approximately 200 x 550 km transfer orbit; the second burn
circularized at apogee. It placed two 660 kg dummy satellites in orbits
similar to the parking orbit that was used for the defunct Iridium
program. Simsat-1 is in a 543 x 558 km x 86.3 deg orbit; Simsat-2 is in
a 520 x 544 km x 86.4 deg orbit. The Briz-KM stage made a third burn to
lower its perigee to a 178 x 556 km x 86.4 deg disposal orbit.

Rokot (`roar' or `rumble') is called Rockot by its Western marketers,
EUROCKOT Launch Services GmbH, a joint venture between Krunichev and
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. This was its first flight from Plesetsk,
using a launch pad originally used for Kosmos rockets.

Last week I identified the Kosmos-2370 Neman-class satellite launched
May 3 as a Yantar'-4KS2 design. In fact, this designation is
speculative; Phil Clark proposed it as the most probable identification.
It would be more correct to say that the 17F117 Neman is based on the
Yantar' bus and is a descendant of the Yantar'-4KS1 design.



Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 0501   Soyuz TM-30       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  18A
Apr 17 2106   Sesat             Proton         Baykonur LC200L  Comsat     19A
Apr 19 0029   Galaxy IVR        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     20A
Apr 25 2008   Progress M1-2     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      21A
May  3 0707   GOES 11           Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Weather    22A
May  3 1325   Kosmos-2370       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Imaging    23A
May  8 1601   DSP 20            Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40   Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148   GPS SVN 51        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     25A
May 16 0828   Simsat-1 )        Rokot          Plesetsk LC133   Test       26A
              Simsat-2 )                                                   26B
May 19 1011   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy  LC39A   Spaceship  27A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LEO           STS-101 2000 May 19  ISS 2A.2a
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A



.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 30. May 2000 02:29
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 427

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No 427                                              2000 May 29, Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Orbiter OV-104 Atlantis reached the International Space Station at
around 0309 UTC on May 21, and docked with the PMA-2 docking adapter on
the Unity node at 0431 UTC.

On May 22 at around 0145 UTC the Atlantis cargo bay airlock was
depressurized. Mission specialists Jeff Williams and James Voss opened
the hatch on the Tunnel Adapter at around 0200 UTC and floated into the
cargo bay to carry out external maintenance work on ISS. They reattached
the US crane, attached the Russian Strela transfer boom, and replaced a
faulty antenna on the Unity node, as well as attaching EVA handrails to
the station exterior. They returned to the tunnel adapter and closed the
hatch around 0820 UTC (?), beginning repressurization of the airlock at
0832 UTC. [Anyone who has accurate times for the depress and hatch
open/close, please forward them].

On May 23 at 0003 UTC the Atlantis crew opened the first hatch to PMA-2
and entered the  Station. The crew replaced a set of batteries in Zarya,
installed fans and ducting to improve airflow, and delivered supplies
and equipment. Three hour-long orbit raising burns by the RCS engines on
Atlantis, on May 24 at 0002 UTC, May 25 around 0116 UTC, and May 25 at
2336 UTC, put the ISS/Atlantis complex in a 372 x 380 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. On May 11 ISS had been in a 332 x 341 km orbit.

The STS-101 crew left the station on May 26, closing the PMA-2 hatch at 
0808 UTC and undocking at 2303 UTC. Atlantis performed a 180 degree
flyaround of the station and departed the vicinity around 2344 UTC.

Atlantis closed its payload bay doors around 0230UTC on May 29 and fired
the OMS engines for deorbit at 0512 UTC.  The vehicle landed on RW15 at
Kennedy Space Center at 0620 UTC. Atlantis will be turned around
for the next flight, STS-106, which will launch after the Zvezda
module is orbited this summer.

Current Launches
----------------

Flight AC-201, the first Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas 3A, took 
off from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 36B on May 24. The Atlas
III first stage is a major redesign for the vehicle, replacing the
venerable MA-5 engine system with an Energomash RD-180. The RD-180 is a
LOX/kerosene engine with 412 kN thrust and two combustion chambers. The
irony of the US's first intercontinental missile being reequipped with
Russian engines has drawn a lot of comment. All previous Atlas models
used a MA-5A sustainer with one nozzle and MA-5A booster with two
nozzles, one on either side of the sustainer. The booster package with
the two booster nozzles was jettisoned early in flight, so Atlas was
described as a `stage-and-a-half' vehicle. The new much simpler design
has no separating booster package. It retains the 3.05m diameter core
tank size and is stretched to a length of 29m. The Atlas III first stage
cutoff 3 min 2s after launch, and separated from the second stage 11s
later.

The Atlas 3A second stage is the Centaur IIIA, or Single Engine Centaur.
All previous Centaur stages have used a pair of Pratt and Whitney RL-10
LOX/LH2 engines, and the new design is similar in size and shape to its
twin-engine Centaur IIA predecessor. The Centaur IIIA uses an RL-10A-4-1B
engine which is basically the same as that used on Centaur IIA.

The Centaur made its first burn to a 188 x 486 km x 26.8 deg parking
orbit at 2322 UTC, and at 2336 UTC restarted to deliver its payload to a
230 x 45777 km x 19.9 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit.

AC-201's payload was Eutelsat W4, an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B2 comsat for
the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat). Dry
mass of the satellite is 1285 kg. It carries 32 Ku-band transponders,
and antennae covering Russia and Africa. It will be stationed at 36 deg E.
This is the third of the high power Eutelsat W series to be launched
(W1 was destroyed in a ground accident).

There have been many different Atlas variants; here's a recap.
They all have in common the basic Atlas design of a 3.05m diameter
thin-wall `balloon' tank which needs to be kept pressurized
to stop it collapsing.

 Atlas A, B, C   ICBM development, 1957-1959
 Atlas D         Deployed ICBM, and space vehicle first stage.
                 Used for Mercury spacecraft and for Agena stage.
 Atlas D (LV-3C) Atlas D with adapter for Centaur
 Atlas E,F       Deployed silo ICBM, refurbished for space use later.
		 Used 1960-1995.
 Atlas SLV-3     Atlas D upgraded for space launch vehicle use
 Atlas SLV-3A    Upgraded stretched SLV-3 for later Atlas Agena
 Atlas SLV-3C    SLV-3 with adapter for Centaur
 Atlas SLV-3D    Improved SLV-3C introduced 1973
 Atlas G         Upgraded SLV-3D introduced 1984
 Atlas H         Special SLV-3 version replacing Atlas E/F for
                 classified USN launches

 Atlas I         Commercial version of Atlas G
 Atlas II        Stretch of Atlas I; used in II, IIA and IIAS variants
                 IIAS has four strapon solid boosters.
 Atlas III       New version with RD-180 main engine

The Atlas III stage will also be used in the Atlas 3B launch vehicle,
which will carry the Centaur IIIB/DEC and Centaur IIIB/SEC (dual and
single engine variant) upper stages. The planned `Atlas 5' launch
vehicle, which will succeed both Atlas 3 and Titan 4, (there is no Atlas
4!) does not use an Atlas stage at all: it will have a 3.8 meter
diameter Common Core Booster which uses the same RD-180 engine as the
Atlas III, and I'll count it as a new family of launch vehicle.


Deep Space
----------

The Galileo probe made its encounter G28 perijove pass of the Jupiter
system on May 30-31. Reported closest approach to Jupiter was 479000 km
at 0553 UTC on May 31; this is probably distance above cloud tops rather
than from Jupiter center (an extra 71000 km).  The main event was a
Ganymede flyby at an altitude of 808 km at 1010 UTC on May 30. Galileo
is now apparently in a high eccentricity orbit which will bring it back
for its next perijove on Dec 28. If I've done my sums right, this
implies a record high apojove of 32 million kilometers in September,
well outside the orbit of Jupiter's outermost know satellite Sinope.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 0501   Soyuz TM-30       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  18A
Apr 17 2106   Sesat             Proton         Baykonur LC200L  Comsat     19A
Apr 19 0029   Galaxy IVR        Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     20A
Apr 25 2008   Progress M1-2     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      21A
May  3 0707   GOES 11           Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Weather    22A
May  3 1325   Kosmos-2370       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Imaging    23A
May  8 1601   DSP 20            Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40   Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148   GPS SVN 51        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     25A
May 16 0828   Simsat-1 )        Rokot          Plesetsk LC133   Test       26A
              Simsat-2 )                                                   26B
May 19 1011   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy  LC39A   Spaceship  27A
May 24 2310   Eutelsat W4       Atlas 3A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     28A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A    
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-106 2000 Aug?    ISS 2A.2b 
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A    

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 13. June 2000 23:30
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 428

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No 428                                              2000 Jun 10, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: I've updated the geostationary satellite and master launch list
files at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log


Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The ISS (International Space Station) is operating in automated mode in
a 369 x 378 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The PMA-2/Unity/PMA-1/Zarya stack
awaits the launch of the Zvezda module next month. Zvezda will dock
to the rear port on Zarya.

The Mir EO-28 crew, Sergey Zalyotin and Aleksandr Kaleri, continue to
operate the Mir complex in a 360 x 378 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The orbital
plane of Mir is currently around 120 deg away from that of ISS. Soyuz
TM-30 and Progress M1-2 are docked to the station. The EO-28 crew are
scheduled to return to Earth in Soyuz TM-30 around Jun 16.

The next few planned Shuttle launches all depend on the Zvezda launch.
If all goes well, STS-106/Atlantis will carry the ISS 2A.2b payload
consisting of the Spacehab Logistics Double Module and the Integrated
Cargo Carrier. STS-92/Discovery will carry the ISS 3A payload carrying
the ITS Z1 space station truss, the PMA-3 docking adapter and a Spacelab
Pallet with the Control Moment Gyro package. STS-97/Endeavour will carry
the ITS P6 truss and solar arrays.

Current Launches
----------------

The first successful Proton/Briz-M launch flew on Jun 6 carrying the
Gorizont No. 45L payload. The three-stage Proton-K, with a first test of
upgraded engines to be used on the Zvezda space station module launch,
was flown on a suborbital trajectory. 9 minutes after launch it
separated from the payload assembly with the model 14S43 Briz-M stage.
Earlier 4-stage Proton vehicles used the Energiya Blok-DM family of
stages; the new stage is built by Krunichev, who also build the Proton-K
core vehicle. A first flight of Proton/Briz-M failed early in launch
last year, before the Briz-M got a chance to ignite. 

Briz-M ignition probably occurred around 12 minutes after launch after a
short coast. A 5 min first burn put Briz-M/Gorizont in a 200 km parking
orbit probably inclined at around 51.6 deg. One hour later a second
Briz-M burn raised apogee to 6000 km, possibly changing inclination
slightly as well. At second perigee around 4hr after launch the third
Briz-M burn put the stack in a 369 x  34988 km x  48.8 deg transfer
orbit. The Briz-M then jettisoned its empty toroidal supplementary fuel
tank and coasted to apogee. About 10 hr after launch a fourth Briz-M
burn placed Gorizont No. 45L in near-geostationary orbit. US Space
Command have cataloged the torus tank but neither the Briz-M nor the
Gorizont have yet been cataloged.

The payload, Gorizont ("Horizon") No. 45L, is expected to be the final
launch of this series of television broadcasting satellite. It carries 6
C-band transponders as well as one L-band and one Ku-band transponder.
The previous Gorizont was launched in 1996; the new Ekspress satellites
are replacing the system. The satellites are built by NPO Prikladnoi
Mekhaniki of Zheleznogorsk for GP Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, the Russian
comsat operator.

Orbital Sciences launched its first Pegasus of the year on Jun 7.
The L-1011 Stargazer OCA carrier airplane took off from RW30/12 at
Vandenberg at 1221 UTC on Jun 7 and flew to the drop box at 36.0N 123.0W
over the Pacific. The L-1011 dropped the Pegasus XL rocket at
1319 UTC and five seconds later the first, winged, stage ignited.
Third stage separation at 1334 UTC placed the TSX-5 payload in a 403 x 1704 km
x 69.0 deg orbit. 

TSX-5 is the fifth in the STEP (Space Test Experiments Program) series
of satellites. The name was changed to TSX (Tri-Service Experiments),
probably in an attempt to overcome the jinx that led to  three out of
the first five missions failing.

The STEP satellites use the Orbital LEOStar bus developed by
DSI/McLean and TRW/Chantilly, both now part of Orbital.
The M1 and M4 satellites carried the optional hydrazine propulsion module.
STEP M2 was placed in a lower than planned orbit due to a fourth
stage problem. M1 and M3 failed to orbit; M4's solar panels
failed to deploy.

 Mission   Main expt  STP Name  Launch       Life  
 STEP M0   TAOS       P90-5     1994 Mar 13  >5 yr
 STEP M2   SIDEX      P91-2     1994 May 19  3 yr?
 STEP M1   -          P90-1     1994 Jun 27  0
 STEP M3   -          P92-2     1995 Jun 22  0
 STEP M4   -          P95-1     1997 Oct 22  0
 TSX 5     STRV-2     P95-2     2000 Jun  7  Operating

TSX-5's main section is the STRV-2 experiment module, which is sponsored
by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in collaboration with the
UK Ministry of Defense's DERA organization at Farnborough, to test
infrared sensors and a laser communications payload.  STRV-2 will
attempt to take infrared images of UK military aircraft at perigee, and
then downlink data via laser. The mission will be controlled from
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. STRV-2 also carries vibration isolation and
debris impact sensors. It is a followon to the STRV-1 microsatellites
launched piggyback on Ariane in Jun 1994.

The secondary payload on TSX-5 is the S97-1 CEASE device. The Compact
Environmental Anomaly Sensor, developed by AFRL (USAF Research Lab),
is a prototype sensor package to provide warning of spacecraft
charging and radiation events.


Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
-----------------------------

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has been destroyed. NASA decided to
end the mission because of concerns that further gyro failures might
make it difficult to carry out a controlled deorbit. In early May, GRO
was in its 482 x 487 km x 28.5 deg operational orbit (its last orbital
reboost was in Apr 1997). The first descent burn at 0151 UTC on May 31
lowered it to a 362 x 474 km orbit. A second burn at 0236 UTC on Jun 1
put it down at 237 x 471 km. Burn 3, at 0356 to 0417 UTC on Jun 4,
lowered perigee to only 148 km. One orbit later, the final burn from
0522 to 0552 UTC on Jun 4 put GRO in its final 28 x 470 km orbit. At
0609 on the descent to perigee the spacecraft began tumbling and runaway
heating was detected; loss of contact came at 0610 UTC with impact of
debris in the Pacific southeast of Hawaii at 0618 UTC.

GRO, built by TRW/Redondo Beach and launched on Space Shuttle Atlantis
in Apr 1991, was the second of the Great Observatories program which
also includes Hubble, Chandra, and SIRTF. GRO really marked the maturity
of gamma ray astronomy as a discipline and its discoveries about gamma
ray bursts, gamma ray quasars, and galactic gamma ray sources are of
lasting importance. At this week's American Astronomical Society meeting
in Rochester, the model of GRO at the TRW booth was quickly adorned with
a wreath. Alas, our plans to sneak in overnight and replace the model
with a tank of tropical fish and charred metal parts foundered due to
insufficient energy on the part of the conspirators.


Errata
-------

Apologies to Energomash for a typo. The RD-180 engine is rated at 4152
kN thrust, not 412 kN!. However, Av Week's report quotes a 3570 kN
thrust during the ascent.

Apojove of Galileo's current orbit is only 20.7 million km, lower than I
had estimated last issue (I think I must have got Kepler's Third the
wrong way up :-)). This puts it inside the orbits of the outermost
Jovian moons. It's still the largest orbit Galileo has made around
Jupiter. Apojove will be on Sep 8.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  3 0707   GOES 11           Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Weather    22A
May  3 1325   Kosmos-2370       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Imaging    23A
May  8 1601   DSP 20            Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40   Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148   GPS SVN 51        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     25A
May 16 0828   Simsat-1 )        Rokot          Plesetsk LC133   Test       26A
              Simsat-2 )                                                   26B
May 19 1011   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy  LC39A   Spaceship  27A
May 24 2310   Eutelsat W4       Atlas 3A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     28A
Jun  6 0259   Gorizont          Proton/Briz-M  Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     29A
Jun  7 1319   TSX 5             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg RW30/22 Science  30A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Sep?    ISS 3A    
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-106 2000 Aug?    ISS 2A.2b 
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A    

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 04. July 2000 19:15
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 429

Jonathan's Space Report

No 429                                             2000 Jul 4, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Soyuz TM-30 landed on Jun 16 at 0044 UTC. Zalyotin and Kaleri closed the
hatch to Mir at 1817 UTC on Jun 15 and undocked at 0124 UT on Jun 16.
The deorbit burn was at 0352 UTC; a few minutes later the orbital module
and service module were jettisoned, with the central descent module
reentering for a landing at 0044 UTC near Arkalyk in Kazakstan. The Mir
complex remains operational in automated mode.

Current Launches
----------------

An Ekspress A communications satellite was launched on Jun 24. The
Krunichev Proton-K launch vehicle flew a standard profile to place the
Energiya Blok DM-2M upper stage in a low parking orbit at 51.6 deg
inclination. Two Blok DM burns then delivered Ekspress A No. 3 to
geostationary orbit; on Jul 3 it was in a drift orbit of 35965 x 36081
km x 0.2 deg. Ekspress A No. 3 will use the on-orbit name Ekspress 3A.

China launched its second Fengyun-2 weather satellite on  Jun 25 using a
Chang Zheng 3 three-stage launch vehicle. The CZ-3 third stage and the
FY-2 satellite were placed in geostationary transfer orbit. The CZ-3
took off from Xichang at 1150 UTC; the third stage placed it in a
parking orbit at 1201 UTC and reignited for a second burn to transfer
orbit with spacecraft separation at 1213 UTC. FY-2 is around 1400 kg and
is spin-stabilized, similar to the older generation GOES satellites and
the Himawari and Meteosat satellites. It carries a solid apogee motor
which is ejected after use; this appears to have fired early on Jun 26. 
The first FY-2 was retired in April after a three year mission. By July
3, the new FY-2 was in a 35791 x 35804 km x 1.1 deg orbit drifting over
the Pacific.

A Nadezhda navigation/search and rescue satellite was launched from
Plesetsk on Jun 28. It was placed in a 684 x 708 km x 98.1 deg orbit,
the first ever sun-synchronous launch from the northern Plesetsk launch
site. Previous Nadezhdas went into 970 x 1000 km x 83 deg orbits.  The
Kosmos-3M rocket appears to have launched southbound into a suborbital
trajectory with an apogee of around 700 km.  A second stage 2 engine
burn around half an hour after launch circularized the orbit.

The Nadezhda satellite, built by AKO Polyot of Omsk, is an 800 kg
cylinder with a gravity gradient boom for stabilization and derives from
the Tsiklon navigation-communications satellite of the early 1970s,
which was the Soviet analog to the US Navy's Transit. The system was
developed by the NPO PM organization in Krasnoyarsk but later
transferred to Polyot.

The 11F617 Tsiklon satellite flew from 1967 to 1978. Its successor the
11F627 Tsiklon-B (or Parus) began flight tests in 1974 and is still in
service.  An advanced version used also for civilian navigation, the
11F643 Tsikada,  first flew in 1976. The 11F643N modification of
Tsikada, referred to as Nadezhda, made 3 flights from 1982 to 1984
carrying French-developed COSPAS search and rescue packages.These were
followed by the operational 17F118 Nadezhda satellites, of which six
have now been launched.


After Nadezhda was placed in orbit it ejected two subsatellites,
Tsinghua and SNAP-1, built by Surrey Satellite (SSTL) of England.
Tsinghua is owned by Tsinghua University of Beijing and carries imager
and communications payloads. The 50 kg, 0.69 x 0.36 x 0.36m box-shaped 
satellite is a standard SSTL microsat bus. Earlier SSTL microsats
deployed a 6-meter gravity gradient boom for stabilization; although
Tsinghua and its precursor UoSat-12 also carry such a boom, it isn't
deployed as these new satellites have momentum wheels for 3-axis
stabilization.

The SNAP-1 Surrey Nanosatellite Applications Platform is a 6 kg
satellite with imager and propulsion and will test rendezvous techniques
by formation flying with Tsinghua.

The first Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite was launched on Jun
30 by International Launch Services for NASA-Goddard. TDRS H, to be
named TDRS 8 in orbit, is a Hughes HS-601 class comsat with a dry mass
of around 1600 kg.  It features an S-band phased array antenna and two
Ku/Ka band reflectors 4.6 meters in diameter. TDRS H was launched into a
subsynchronous transfer orbit of  237 x 27666 km x 27.0 deg by Lockheed
Martin's Atlas Centaur AC-139, a two-stage Atlas IIA variant. AC-139
took off from Space Launch Complex 36A at 1255 UTC on Jun 30, entered a
167 x 577 km x 28.3 deg parking orbit at 1305 UTC, and made the Centaur
second burn to transfer orbit at 1321 UTC. TDRS H carries a
Primex/Marquardt R4D liquid apogee engine which will be used for orbit
raising. The previous TDRS satellites were built by TRW and launched from
the Space Shuttle with the Boeing Inertial Upper Stage (IUS).

  TDRS missions
  -------------

TDRS 1    Challenger STS-6/IUS-1    Apr 1983
TDRS B    Challenger STS 51L/IUS-3  Jan 1986 (launch failure)
TDRS 3    Discovery  STS-26/IUS-7   Sep 1988 
TDRS 4    Discovery  STS-29/IUS-9   Mar 1989
TDRS 5    Atlantis   STS-43/IUS-15  Aug 1991
TDRS 6    Endeavour  STS-54/IUS-13  Jan 1993
TDRS 7    Discovery  STS-70/IUS-26  Jul 1995
TDRS 8    Atlas AC-139              Jun 2000

Another in the current busy round of Krunichev Proton launches was
completed successfully on Jun 30. Its payload was an Energiya Blok DM3
commercial upper stage and the Sirius CD Radio satellite Sirius 1. This
satellite is not to be confused with  Nordiska Satellit AB's Sirius 1,
an HS-376 satellite launched in 1989 as Marcopolo 1 but purchased and
renamed by NSAB in Dec 1993 (I wish satellite operators would use
original names, you can bet this will be an endless source of
confusion!)

The new Sirius 1 is a Digital Audio Radio Satellite, and will be used
for transmission of S-band radio broadcasts direct to receivers in cars
in the United States. Sirius 1 is a Loral LS-1300 class satellite; dry
mass is probably around 1500-1600 kg. The Sirius satellites are launched
to inclined elliptical orbits, and the Proton used a new launch profile.
The third stage entered a 170 km parking orbit inclined at 64.8 deg
(the usual comsat parking orbit has a 51.6 deg inclination but the 64.8
deg is also used by GLONASS navigation satellites). The first
DM burn was to an orbit of approximately 170 x 6200 km; the second
burn, 2 hours after launch, left Sirius 1 in a 6166 x 47110 km x 63.4 deg
orbit. Quoted final orbit is 24000 x 47000 km, so presumably the satellite
apogee engine will be used to raise perigee.

Errata
-------

I am reliably informed that the change of name of STEP 5 to TSX 5  was
not prompted by any chagrin over the program's record. The IR imager in
TSX-5's STRV-2 payload was developed by DERA at Farnborough, but the
rest of STRV-2 was built in the US.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  3 0707   GOES 11           Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Weather    22A
May  3 1325   Kosmos-2370       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Imaging    23A
May  8 1601   DSP 20            Titan 4B       Canaveral LC40   Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148   GPS SVN 51        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     25A
May 16 0828   Simsat-1 )        Rokot          Plesetsk LC133   Test       26A
              Simsat-2 )                                                   26B
May 19 1011   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy  LC39A   Spaceship  27A
May 24 2310   Eutelsat W4       Atlas 3A       Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     28A
Jun  6 0259   Gorizont          Proton/Briz-M  Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     29A
Jun  7 1319   TSX 5             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg RW30/22 Science  30A
Jun 24 0028   Ekspress A No. 3  Proton/DM-2M   Baykonur LC200?  Comsat     31A
Jun 25 1150   Fengyun-2         CZ-3           Xichang LC1      Weather    32A  
Jun 28 1037   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Navsat     33A
              Tsinghua  )                                       Tech       33B
              SNAP 1    )                                       Tech       33C
Jun 30 1255   TDRS 8            Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36  Comsat     34A
Jun 30 2208   Sirius 1          Proton/DM3     Baykonur LC81R   Comsat     35A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due

OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A    
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-106 2000 Sep     ISS 2A.2b 
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A    


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 18. July 2000 23:18
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 430

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No 430                                           2000 Jul 18, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The eighth civilian Salyut-class space station 17KSM No. 128-1, the
Zvezda  module, was successfully launched on Jul 12 at 0456 UTC. The
three stage Krunichev Proton-K rocket reached orbit at 0505 UTC. This
was the fifth Proton launch in a month. Launch mass of Zvezda is 20295
kg according to Vladimir Agapov. Docking of Zvezda and the ISS
Unity/Zarya complex is due later this month. Zvezda's initial orbit was
179 x 332 km x 51.6 deg. On Jul 14 the orbit was raised to 288 x 357 km.
ISS is in a 365 x 372 km orbit.
  
Zvezda is outwardly almost identical to the Mir core module launched in   
1986, and the main structure is similar to all the civilian DOS orbital
stations launched since 1971 built by the Krunichev company and
developed and operated by Energiya.
  
     DOS civilian space stations
     --------------------------
  Prelaunch names        Postlaunch   Launch       Notes
                         name         date

  DOS 1   17K No. 121    Salyut      1971 Apr 19   Soyuz-11 crew died on reentry
  DOS 2   17K No. 122    -           1972 Jul 29   Launch failure
  DOS 3   17K No. 123    Kosmos-557  1973 May 11   Failed at orbit insertion
  DOS 4   17K No. 124    Salyut-4    1974 Dec 26   Set new duration record
  DOS 5   17K No. 125    Salyut-6    1977 Sep 29   First use of Progress tankers
  DOS 6   17K No. 125-2  Salyut-7    1982 Apr 19   Backup to Salyut-6
  DOS 7   17K No. 127    Mir         1986 Feb 19   Multiple docking port node
  DOS 8? 17KSM No. 128-1 Zvezda      2000 Jul 12   Space Station Service Module


The military Almaz space stations (Salyut-2, Salyut-3, Salyut-5), the TKS ferry
spaceship, and the FGB type modules share a similar design.


Deep Space One
--------------

Deep Space 1 was launched into solar orbit in Oct 1998 with a perihelion
near that of the Earth and an aphelion half way to the orbit of Mars.
Managed by JPL, tt was the first of NASA's New Millennium missions to   
test advanced space technology, and featured experimental on-board  
software, miniature sensors, and the first use of an ion engine for
extensive orbital changes. Although DS1 is the first craft to use ion
drive to reach a target orbit, there's been very little information     
available in the public domain about its trajectory. DS1 mission manager
Marc Rayman has been kind enough to rectify this by providing me with 
orbital data, and I've extracted some highlights here. (The JSR catalog
of full heliocentric orbital elements for all the probes since Luna-1 is
still slowly taking shape, I hope to release it sometime next year).    

The early tests  of its ion engine in Nov 1998 - Jan 1999 increased the
aphelion by 6 million km.  A second burn phase in Mar-Apr 1999 increased
perihelion by 4.8 million km, leaving DS1 in an orbit which flew past
minor planet (9969) Braille in Jul 1999 near aphelion. A third burn
phase in Jul-Oct 1999 raised perihelion by 10 million km more, and
lowered inclination to 0.2 deg. In the meantime, on Sep 18 DS1 had
successfuly completed its primary mission. The failure of DS1's star
tracker soon afterwards left a follow-on mission in doubt - without the
star tracker, DS1 did not know which way it was pointing, which makes it
hard to steer. In a remarkable success for JPL, the DS1 team
reprogrammed the spacecraft to use images from its MICAS science camera
- with a field of view a hundred times smaller than the star tracker -
and reformat them into a data stream compatible with the navigation
system. They were helped by one of DS1's advanced technology tests, an
autonomous navigation software package that used MICAS data, but its
processing is only the first step in a long chain of software, so it's
darn impressive that they managed to make it work. They can only fire
the ion engine in directions where they can see an appropriately bright
guide star in the MICAS. Developing a way of navigating using as few
stars as possible was another challenge: only half a dozen will be  
needed for its new target, comet 19P/Borrelly, which requires a much
bigger orbit change than the earlier burns. The trajectory can be
fine-tuned by changing the date on which one star is replaced by
another. After a massive effort, all was ready by June, with the ion
engine starting again on Jun 28. DS1 will encounter comet 19P/Borrelly
in Sep 2001.

 --------  DS1 Orbital Data ---------------------

 Date          Period Perihelion x Aphelion x Incl
 1998 Nov 10   446.6d 0.990 x 1.287 AU x 0.37 deg
 1999 Jan 22   459.5d 0.990 x 1.331 AU x 0.38 deg
 1999 Apr 27   470.4d 1.022 x 1.336 AU x 0.26 deg
 1999 Oct 27   492.6d 1.090 x 1.342 AU x 0.19 deg
 2001 Feb     (564.9d 1.287 x 1.378 AU x 0.20 deg) planned
 2001 May     (584.8d 1.291 x 1.436 AU x 0.21 deg) planned

 Perihelia: Oct 1998, Feb 2000, May 2001.

 -------- Thanks to Marc Rayman, JPL ------------

Current Launches
----------------

Kosmos-2371 was launched from Baykonur on Jul 4 at 2344 UTC. The
spacecraft is a Geizer military communications relay.  The Blok DM upper
stage inserted the Geizer into geosynchronous orbit at 0620 UTC on Jul
5. Geizer satellites are built by NPO PM using the KAUR-3 bus.


The Sirius 1 digital radio satellite was inserted into a 6166 x 47110 km
x 63.4 deg transfer orbit by its Proton-K/Blok DM3 launch vehicle. Its  
onboard R4D liquid apogee engine made several burns to raise its orbit
to 24388 x 47097 km x 63.3 deg by July 8. This elliptical, inclined  
orbit has a 24 hour period, and its looping orbit keeps the satellite
between longitude 60W and 140W, with apogee over the northern
hemisphere. The Sirius 1 satellite is a Space Systems/Loral LS-1300 
satellite with a dry mass of 1570 kg.

Echostar Communication Corp's Echostar VI comsat was launched by   
International Launch Services on Jul 14 using a Lockheed Martin Atlas
IIAS rocket. Flight AC-161 reached a 155 x 436 km x 28.3 deg parking   
orbit, and then reignited the Centaur to deliver Echostar to a 166 x
38191 km x 26.6 deg transfer orbit. Echostar VI is a Space Systems/Loral
LS-1300 satellite with a dry mass of 1493 kg.

Germany's CHAMP minisatellite was launched on Jul 15 from Plesetsk by a
Polyot Kosmos-3M rocket into a 421 x 476 km x 87.3 deg orbit.  This was
the second recent Kosmos-3M launch to a new inclination: before last
week's sun-synchronous launch the highest inclination achieved from
Plesetsk was 83 degrees. CHAMP is a geophysics research satellite
operated by GFZ, the Potsdam geophysics center to study the magnetic
field and the gravitational field. The satellite has a mass of 550 kg.

Along with CHAMP were launched MITA, an Italian Space Agency
experimental microsatellite built by Carlo Gavazzi Space of Milano,  and
Rubin, a microsatellite to measure launch vehicle parameters developed
by OHB and students of the Hochschule Bremen. MITA has a mass of 170 kg
and carries the NINA particle detector and an experimental attitude
control system.  The Rubin payload remains attached to the payload
adapter on the Kosmos-3M final stage. Rubin is also called BIRD-Rubin in
some references, but confusingly is not related to the BIRD
microsatellite originally slated for this launch. Thanks to Christian
Stelter, Carlo Cicone and Eduard Muller for information.

The first two European Space Agency Cluster II satellites, Samba (FM7)  
and Salsa (FM6) were launched on Jul 16. The remaining pair,  Rumba     
(FM5) and Tango (FM8) will be launched next month. The Soyuz-U launch
vehicle took off from Area 31 (Pad 6); third stage separation delivered
the Upper Composite consisting of the Fregat upper stage and two
Clusters to a suborbital trajectory. Fregat's first burn was to a 200 km
circular orbit with a 64.8 deg inclination. A second burn placed the
Clusters in a 250 x 18072 km x 64.7 deg transfer orbit. FM7 was ejected
first, followed by FM6 ten seconds later. The Soyuz launch vehicle is
built by TsSKB-Progress, with the Fregat upper stage developed by
Lavochkin, and the Soyuz-Fregat launch services provided by the French  
company Starsem.

The Cluster satellites are built by Astrium/Friedrichshafen (former
Dornier). Both satellites carry Astrium (former MBB) S400 liquid engines
which will be used to enter a much higher polar orbit. The remaining two
satellites will rendezvous with them for formation flying to sample  
magnetospheric properties. Each satellite will deploy four 50-meter wire
antennas and has a dry mass of 550 kg. The first perigee burns were made
on Jul 17 and Jul 18 to 240 x 35300 km; the satellites will first go to
a  18000 x 121000 km x 65 deg orbit and then change inclination at
apogee (where the velocity is low, so it's cheap to make a big change)
to a 90 deg polar orbit.

A Navstar GPS navigation satellite was launched on Jul 16 at 0917 UTC by
Boeing Delta 7925 from Cape Canaveral. I believe this to be satellite
SVN 44, although Space Command has cataloged it as Navstar 48. The GPS
IIR series are built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale and have a dry mass of
980 kg. The Delta second stage entered a 151 x 337 km x 36.9 deg parking
orbit at 0928 UTC. It fired again to raise apogee; after depletion stage
2 was in a 195 x 1322 km x 37.6 deg orbit. The PAM-D third stage then   
fired and placed the GPS satellite in a 209 x 20445 km x 38.9 deg
transfer orbit. The GPS will fire its Thiokol Star 37XFP solid kick
motor to circularize at apogee on Jul 18.

An Orbital Sciences Minotaur was being prepared for launch
from Vandenberg as I write this; details next issue.

Errata
-------

The Soyuz TM-30 descent times I gave were incorrect (multiple time  
zone conversion errors). Actual times: Jun 15 2124 UTC, undocking.
2352 UTC, deorbit burn. Jun 16 0044 UTC, landing.

The Nadezhda launch from Plesetsk was northbound, not southbound;
a bug in my groundtrack code led me astray. The launch flew north  
and west from Plesetsk over the Arctic.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jun  6 0259   Gorizont          Proton-K/Briz-M Baykonur LC81P   Comsat    29A
Jun  7 1319   TSX 5             Pegasus XL     Vandenberg RW30/22 Science  30A
Jun 24 0028   Ekspress A No. 3  Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200?  Comsat     31A
Jun 25 1150   Fengyun-2         CZ-3           Xichang LC1      Weather    32A
Jun 28 1037   Nadezhda  )       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Navsat     33A
              Tsinghua  )                                       Tech       33B
              SNAP 1    )                                       Tech       33C
Jun 30 1255   TDRS 8            Atlas 2A       Canaveral SLC36A Comsat     34A
Jun 30 2208   Sirius 1          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81P   Comsat     35A
Jul  4 2344   Kosmos-2371       Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200?  Comsat     36A
Jul 12 0456   Zvezda            Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    37A
Jul 14 0521   Echostar VI       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36B Comsat     38A
Jul 15 1200   CHAMP   )         Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Science    39
              MITA    )                                         Science    39
              Rubin   )                                         Imaging    39
Jul 16 0917   GPS SVN 44        Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     40A
Jul 16 1239   Samba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    41A
              Salsa   )                                         Science    41B

 
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-106 2000 Sep     ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103         VAB Bay 1  STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104         VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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            |
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 07. August 2000 02:31
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 431

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No 431                                              2000 Aug 6,  Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The Zarya/Unity stack docked with the Zvezda module at 0045 UTC on Jul 26,
forming the basic core of the International Space Station. Progress-M1
vehicle No. 251 (Progress M1-3) was launched on Aug 6 and will dock with
Zvezda's rear port.

Current Launches
----------------

An Orbital Sciences Minotaur was launched from Vandenberg on Jul 19. The
payload was Mightysat 2.1, also known as Sindri. The 125 kg satellite is
a Spectrum Astro SA-200B platform The Minotaur placed it in a 547 x 581
km x 97.8 deg orbit. The satellite carries a hyperspectral imager for
earth imaging and spectroscopy, as well as satellite technology
experiments such as advanced solar arrays. An Aerospace Corp./DARPA
picosatellite experiment, consisting of two small boxes connected by a
deployable tether, is attached to Mightysat and may be deployed later. A
similar picosat was deployed on the previous Minotaur launch in January.

A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL was launched from the Odyssey platform at 154W 0N
in the Pacific on Jul 28. 14 minutes after launch it entered an
intermediate parking orbit (parameters unknown); a second burn of the
Blok DM-SL upper stage put the PAS-9 payload in geostationary transfer
orbit. PAS 9 is a Hughes HS-601HP communications satellite for Panamsat,
and will replace PAS 5 at 58W.

The first two Cluster satellites have reached their operational orbits.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  4 2344   Kosmos-2371       Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200?  Comms      36A
Jul 12 0456   Zvezda            Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    37A
Jul 14 0521   Echostar VI       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36B Comms      38A
Jul 15 1200   CHAMP   )         Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Science    39A
              MITA    )                                         Science    39B
              Rubin   )                                         Imaging    39C
Jul 16 0917   GPS SVN 44        Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     40A
Jul 16 1239   Samba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    41A
              Salsa   )                                         Science    41B
Jul 19 2009   Mightysat 2.1     Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech       42A
Jul 28 2242   PAS 9             Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Comms      43A 
Aug  6 1827   Progress M1-3     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-106 2000 Sep     ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103         VAB Bay 1  STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104         VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 14. August 2000 21:08
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 432

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 432                                            2000 Aug 14, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The Progress M1-3 robot cargo ship automatically docked with the
Unity/Zarya/Zvezda International Space Station complex on Aug 8 at 2013
UTC. Docking was to the rear Zvezda port.

Meanwhile, Atlantis has been connected to the STS-106 stack in the
Vehicle Assembly Building. The stack was then moved from high bay 3 to
high bay 2 to test out use of this newly refurbished bay; it will be
rolled out to the launch pad next month in preparation for launch to the
Space Station.


Current Launches
----------------

Contrary to some rumours, the MITA satellite is operating well in orbit
after launch on Jul 15. CHAMP has also begun operations after some
minor problems with star sensors, possibly due to damage during fairing
separation. The MITA satellite is controlled by Telespazio's Corcolle center
near Roma.

Rumba and Tango, the second pair of Cluster II magnetospheric research
satellites for the European Space Agency, were launched on Aug 9. Here's
a rundown on the Cluster II maneuvers so far. Apogee raising burn times
are from the ESA web site; there are slight differences in the times
given on different pages of the site. Note that in the highly elliptical
post-burn-4 orbit, the velocity at apogee is very low, which is why it's
feasible to change the inclination there by 35 degrees. Such large
inclination changes are very rare, except for launches to geostationary
orbit from Baykonur.

2000 Jul 16 1239 Salsa and Samba launched from Baykonur
            1251 In 217 x 217 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit
            1410 In 251 x 18050 km x 64.8 deg orbit, separate
                 from Fregat stage and from each other.
            1630? Fregat at apogee, lowers perigee for deorbit
            1920? Fregat reenters.
2000 Jul 17 1121  Salsa burn 1,      247 x 24390 km x 64.9
            1121  Samba burn 1,      245 x 24311 km x 64.9
2000 Jul 18 0828  Salsa burn 2,      261 x 35417 km x 65.1
            0833  Samba burn 2,      241 x 35007 km x 65.1
2000 Jul 19 0508  Salsa burn 3,      250 x 56677 km x 64.9
            0515  Samba burn 3,      241 x 57010 km x 65.1
2000 Jul 19 2259  Salsa burn 4,      246 x 119523 km x 64.9
            2325  Samba burn 4,      246 x 119523 km x 64.9 (?)
2000 Jul 20 2302  Salsa burn 5       16714 x 121090 km x 90.5 deg
2000 Jul 21 0004  Samba burn 5       16869 x 121098 km x 90.6 deg
2000 Aug  9 1113  Rumba and Tango launch from Baykonur
            1126  R and T in 190 x 190 km x 64.8 deg orbit
            1243  R and T separate from Fregat in 250? x 18050? km x 64.8 deg
            1510  Fregat deorbit burn at apogee, in -157 x 17075 km orbit.
            1731  Fregat reenters
2000 Aug 10 0853  Tango burn 1       240 x 23063 km x 64.9 
2000 Aug 10 1329  Rumba burn 1,      237 x 23522 km x 64.9
2000 Aug 11 0340  Rumba burn 2,      240 x 33997 km x 64.9
            0458  Tango burn 2,      240 x 33997 km x 64.9
            2335  Rumba burn 3,
2000 Aug 12 0019  Tango burn 3,
2000 Aug 12 1630? Rumba burn 4
            1636? Tango burn 4
2000 Aug 13 1655  Rumba burn 5,     17200 x 120600 km x 90 deg
            1658  Tange burn 5.     17200 x 120600 km x 90 deg

By Aug 13 Rumba and Tango were in similar orbits to Salsa and Samba. On
Aug 26 they will begin stationkeeping, maintaining separations from a
few hundred to some thousands of kilometers in a tetrahedral constellation.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  4 2344   Kosmos-2371       Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200   Comms      36A
Jul 12 0456   Zvezda            Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    37A
Jul 14 0521   Echostar VI       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36B Comms      38A
Jul 15 1200   CHAMP   )         Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Science    39A
              MITA    )                                         Science    39B
              Rubin   )                                         Imaging    39C
Jul 16 0917   GPS SVN 44        Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     40A
Jul 16 1239   Samba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    41A
              Salsa   )                                         Science    41B
Jul 19 2009   Mightysat 2.1     Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech       42A
Jul 28 2242   PAS 9             Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Comms      43A
Aug  6 1827   Progress M1-3     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      44A
Aug  9 1113   Rumba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    45A
              Tango   )                                         Science    45B

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 2     STS-106 2000 Sep     ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103/OV-104  VAB Bay 2  STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104         VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Friday, 25. August 2000 23:29
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 433

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 433                                            2000 Aug 25, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Historical note: SAMOS and Program 206
---------------------------------------

The CIA's CORONA spy satellite program has been discussed extensively
since it was declassified in 1995. Two other early 1960s US Air Force 
spy satellite programs, SAMOS (largely unsuccessful) and  Program 206 or
KH-7 (highly successful), have not been talked about as much. Although
the programs as a whole are still classified, for some years now there's
been a lot of individual pieces of declassified information available
which  allows their story to be told. However, little of it has been
widely published. Since there are rumours that declassification of at
least some more of the 1960s programs will happen soon, I thought it
would be a good time to review what's already known about SAMOS and KH-7
from the spaceflight history point of view; I deliberately avoid   
speculating about detailed intelligence capabilities of the systems,  
although 35-40 years later few people consider them to be highly
sensitive. My new review of the SAMOS (Program 101, 101A, 101B, 201) and
KH-7 (Program 206) missions can be found on the web at

<A HREF="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/programs/nro/usafnro.html">
  http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/programs/nro/usafnro.html
</A>

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39B on Aug 14. It will fly mission
STS-106 to the International Space Station. Payload configuration on
STS-106 is similar to that on Atlantis' previous STS-101 flight,
including the docking system, tunnel adapter, long tunnel, Spacehab
Double Module, and the Spacehab Integrated Cargo Carrier. I'm not sure
yet if any sidewall payloads are  in the cargo bay.

The Progress M1-3 cargo ship remains docked to the ISS, which currently
consists of the PMA-2, Unity, PMA-1, Zarya, and Zvezda modules. Fuel was
automatically transferred from M1-3 to Zvezda within a few days of the
Aug 8 docking.

The Progress M1-2 cargo ship remains docked to the Mir orbital complex,
which also continues orbiting unattended by a crew.


Current Launches
----------------

The third Boeing Delta III launch was completed successfully on Aug 23
and the dummy DM-F3 satellite was placed in orbit.   Launch from Cape
Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 17B was at 1105 UTC on Aug 23. The
second stage ignited at 1109 UTC at an altitude  of 158 km and shut off
with depletion at 1118 UTC in an approximately 157 x 1363 km x 29.5 deg
parking orbit. The RL-10 fired again at 1126 UTC and at 1129 UTC shut
off to place the vehicle in geostationary transfer orbit. The DM-F3
payload separated at 1141 UTC.   Space Command initially cataloged the
payload in a marginal 51 x 19841 km x 28.0 deg orbit but a second
element set shows it at a more reasonable 190 x 20655 km x 27.6 deg. The
intended orbit was a much higher 183 x 25778 km x 27.5 deg according to
the press kit. This would correspond to a 0.15 km/s underspeed, but a
Boeing press release on Aug 24 said that because of the  fuel
temperature and atmospheric conditions on the day of launch, the actual
expected apogee was 23400 km with an error of 3000 km, so the mission
was just within target limits.  Since the flight was to fuel depletion
instead of targeting a specific orbit, the final orbit achieved does
depend on atmospheric density, although it's a bit surprising to me that
the press kit didn't include any expected range on the orbit given the
huge uncertainties in this case - this led to rumours of a failure
circulating on the day after launch. 

The DM-F3 dummy payload is a mass model of the Orion 3 HS-601 satellite
launched on the second Delta 3. The 4348 kg satellite is a 2.0m
diameter, 1.7m high cylinder with two circular end plates, painted with
black and   white patterns; it will be used by US Air Force researchers
as a calibration target. The satellite was built by Boeing/Huntington
Beach.

The Delta model 8930  first stage is derived from Thor, and the lower
section LOX tank retains Thor's 2.44-meter diameter. The upper,
kerosene, tank has been enlarged to 4.0m diameter giving the stage an
unusual hammerhead shape. The stage retains Delta II's Boeing Rocketdyne
RS-27A main engine. Like the Delta II 7925, it has nine Alliant strapon
solid boosters, but each booster is the larger GEM-46 instead of the
Delta II's GEM-40. The Delta 3 Second Stage is an all-new liquid
hydrogen fuel upper stage with a Pratt and Whitney RL-10B-2 engine; the
Aug 23 flight was the first complete and successful flight of the stage
in space (the first Delta 3 was destroyed early in flight, and the   
second had an RL-10 failure early in the second burn). The Delta 3 stage
is 8.8m long and 4.0m diameter, with a dry mass of 2476 kg.


Two communications satellites were launched on an Ariane 44LP rocket
from Kourou on Aug 17.  The Arianespace rocket placed the satellites
in a 277 x 35745 km x 3.0 deg low-inclination geostationary transfer orbit.

The upper satellite on flight V131 was Brasilsat B4, for the Brazilian
communications company Embratel. This is the fourth and last of the
Brasilsat B series which use a unique Hughes HS-376W bus, based on the
old HS-376 spin-stabilized design but with a larger diameter and using
the R-4D liquid apogee motor instead of a solid apogee motor. Dry
mass of B4 is 820 kg and launch mass is 1750 kg. B4 is a C-band
satellite replacing the 15-year-old Brasilsat A2.

The lower satellite on this launch was Nilestar 102, for the Egyptian
communications company Nilesat SA. The satellite has a dry mass of 813
kg, a launch mass of 1827 kg, and is a Eurostar 2000 class bus built by
Astrium SAS of Toulouse (formerly Matra). The satellite will join
Nilesat 101 in providing Ku-band broadcast services.


A classified satellite was launched on a US Air Force/Lockheed Martin 
Titan 4 from Vandenberg on Aug 17. The satellite, a payload for the
National Reconnaissance Office, is believed to be an ONYX (formerly
LACROSSE) radar imaging spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin. The Titan
4B, vehicle B-28, was launched from Space Launch Complex 4-East. The   
Titan second stage reached a 572 x 675 km x 68.0 deg orbit and separated
from the payload. Amateur observers report the payload has made two
small maneuvers since then and on Aug 23 was in a 681 x 695 km x 68.1
deg orbit.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  4 2344   Kosmos-2371       Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200?  Commsat    36A
Jul 12 0456   Zvezda            Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    37A
Jul 14 0521   Echostar VI       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36B Commsat    38A
Jul 15 1200   CHAMP   )         Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Science    39A
              MITA    )                                         Science    39B
              Rubin   )                                         Imaging    39C
Jul 16 0917   GPS SVN 44        Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     40A
Jul 16 1239   Samba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    41A
              Salsa   )                                         Science    41B
Jul 19 2009   Mightysat 2.1     Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech       42A
Jul 28 2242   PAS 9             Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Commsat    43A
Aug  6 1827   Progress M1-3     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      44A
Aug  9 1113   Rumba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    45A
              Tango   )                                         Science    45B
Aug 17 2316   Brasilsat B-4 )   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    46A
              Nilesat 102   )                                   Commsat    46B
Aug 17 2345   USA 152           Titan 4B       Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      47A
Aug 23 1105   DM-F3             Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Test       48A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-106 2000 Sep     ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103/OV-104  LC39B      STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104         VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 07. September 2000 20:16
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 434

Jonathan's Space Report
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Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 434                                           2000 Sep 7, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The STS-106 mission, Space Station logistics flight 2A.2b, is scheduled
for launch on Sep 8. It will dock with the International Space Station
and its crew will outfit the recently launched Zvezda module.

The press kit for the STS-106 mission is an improvement over recent
efforts; for the first time since the Boeing press kits were stopped,
it includes a decent payload bay diagram. (Admittedly the diagram
is actually for STS-101, but it's a step in the right direction).

STS-106 uses orbiter 104 (Atlantis), external tank ET-103, and solid
rocket motor pair RSRM-75. Engines 2052, 2044 and 2047 and OMS pods LP03
and RP04 are installed on Atlantis. Three EMU spacesuits are being
flown.

The payload bay manifest is:
  Bay  Payload                                     Mass (kg)
  ----------------------------------------------------------
 Sill Remote Manipulator System RMS No. 202
 1-2  External Airlock/Orbiter Docking System       1600?
 3-4  Tunnel Adapter S/N 001                            ?
 4    Keel Yoke Device/Integrated Cargo Carrier     2054
 5-8  Spacehab Long Tunnel                              ?
 8-12 Spacehab Logistics Double Module              8200
 13S  Adapter Beam/SEM-8/G-782                       300?

The Integrated Cargo Carrier has the SOAR experiment for GPS
attitude control, and equipment for the spacewalks.
The adapter beam in bay 13 starboard carries two GAS canisters,
SEM-8 and G-782, both with high school experiments.

(If anyone has weight values for the tunnel adapter and tunnel,
please pass them along).

Crew of STS-106 are Terrence Wilcutt, Col USMC, NASA (Commander), Scott
Altman, Cmdr USN, NASA (Pilot),  Edward Lu, Ph.D., NASA (Mission
Specialist 1), Richard Mastracchio, NASA, (Mission Specialist 2), Daniel
Burbank, LtCmdr USCG, NASA (Mission Specialist 3), Yuri Malenchenko,
Col. VVS, RAKA (Mission Specialist 4), and Boris Morukov, M.D., IMBP
(Mission Specialist 5). Lu and Malenchenko will make a spacewalk from
Atlantis to connect cables between Zvezda and Zarya.

[RAKA: Rosaviakosmos, i.e. Russian Space Agency; IMBP:  Institut
mediko-biologicheskikh problem, Moskva; VVS: Voenno-vosdushniye Sile,
i.e. Russian Air Force].

Current Launches
----------------

Russia launched a Globus military communications satellite on Aug 28 on
a Proton-K with a Blok DM-2 (or DM-2M?) upper stage. Globus satellites
are usually given the public name Raduga-1, but, possibly due to
administrative error, this satellite was initially named Kosmos-2372 by
the RVSN press service. I am assuming for the time being that Raduga-1
is the official name. The Globus satellites replaced the older Gran'
(Raduga) series.

Another International Launch Services Proton flight on Sep 5  placed
Sirius Radio's Sirius 2 in orbit. The Krunichev Proton-K was launched
from Baykonur into a low 144 x 168 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit. The
Energiya Blok DM3 stage then made two burns to deliver Sirius 2 to an
elliptical 6192 x 47057 km x 63.4 deg orbit. The satellite is a Space
Systems/Loral FS-1300 with a dry mass of 1570 kg and a launch mass of
3800 kg. Take care not to confuse this Sirius 2 with its namesake, the
geostationary Sirius 2 launched in Nov 1997 by Nordiska Satellit AB
which provides communications services to Scandinavia. Today's Sirius 2
will provide digital radio broadcasts to mobile users in North America.

The Solidaridad 1 communications satellite, a Hughes HS-601 owned by
Mexico, failed on Aug 27 when its backup computer died; the prime had
already failed. The satellite was launched in 1993.

The Zi Yuan 2 remote sensing satellite was launched on Sep 1 by a three
stage Chang Zheng 4B rocket from the Taiyuan Space Center in China. Zi
Yuan 1, launched in 1999, was the first China-Brasil Earth Resource Satellite
(CBERS), a joint project between the Chinese Academy of Space Technology
and the Brazilian space agency INPE; ZY-2 appears to be a purely 
Chinese mission, probably using the same bus. It is in a 474 x 493 km x 97.4
deg orbit, much lower than the ZY-1's 773 km orbit, which may indicate
a heavier payload.

The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization's Eutelsat W1
was launched on Sep 6 by Arianespace. The Ariane 44P, with four
solid strapons, put W1 in geostationary transfer orbit.

Eutelsat W1 will occupy the 10E orbital slot. The first Eutelsat W1
satellite, an Alcatel Spacebus 3000, was damaged in a fire in the Cannes
factory in 1998. Construction of a second Eutelsat "W1R", another
Spacebus 3000, was begun as well as a ground spare, called Ressat, built
by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse (now part of the Astrium company) and
using a Eurostar 2000+ bus. The second Eutelsat W1 was reassigned to
become Eurobird, and will be launched to 28E, with Ressat becoming the
third and final Eutelsat W1. This satellite, the Eurostar 2000+, was the
one launched on Sep 6. Its mass is 1430 kg, with a further 1820 kg of
propellant at launch for its Primex R-4D liquid apogee engine. The
box-shaped 2.5 x 5.0 m satellite has two rectangular solar panel arrays
spanning 31.7m and two dishes, a European beam and a steerable beam. The
payload includes 28 Ku-band transponders.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Jul  4 2344   Kosmos-2371       Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200L  Commsat    36A
Jul 12 0456   Zvezda            Proton-K       Baykonur LC81L   Station    37A
Jul 14 0521   Echostar VI       Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36B Commsat    38A
Jul 15 1200   CHAMP   )         Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Science    39A
              MITA    )                                         Science    39B
              Rubin   )                                         Tech       39C
Jul 16 0917   GPS SVN 44        Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Navsat     40A
Jul 16 1239   Samba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    41A
              Salsa   )                                         Science    41B
Jul 19 2009   Mightysat 2.1     Minotaur       Vandenberg CLF   Tech       42A
Jul 28 2242   PAS 9             Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Commsat    43A
Aug  6 1827   Progress M1-3     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      44A
Aug  9 1113   Rumba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    45A
              Tango   )                                         Science    45B
Aug 17 2316   Brasilsat B-4 )   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    46A
              Nilesat 102   )                                   Commsat    46B
Aug 17 2345   USA 152           Titan 4B       Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      47A
Aug 23 1105   DM-F3             Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Test       48A
Aug 28 2008   Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC81R   Commsat    49A
Sep  1 0325   ZY-2              Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    50A
Sep  5 0943   Sirius 2          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    51A
Sep  6 2233   Eutelsat W1       Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        LC39B         STS-106 2000 Sep 8   ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103/OV-104  LC39B      STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104/OV-103  VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 21. September 2000 22:56
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 435

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 435                                             2000 Sep 21, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: The JSR web page will be updated rarely or not at all until my return
from England in mid-October.

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Orbiter OV-104 Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch
Complex 39B on 2000 Sep 8 at 1245:47 UTC. The solid rocket boosters,
serial RSRM-75, were jettisoned at about 2 minutes after launch at an
altitude of around 50 km. The orbiter, still connected to the external
tank, flew up the east coast of the US.

At 1253 UTC the main engines shut down (MECO) and ten seconds later
external tank ET-103 separated. The Shuttle and ET-103 were then in a 
72 x 328 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit. (Thanks NASA PAO for giving the
figures this time!). ET-103 reentered over the Pacific after one
orbit; the Shuttle fired its OMS engines at apogee to circularize
its own orbit.

Atlantis docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the International Space
Station at 0551 UTC on Sep 10. The orbiter's small RCS engines were used
to gently reboost the station's orbit several times.

Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on Sep 11. The airlock in
the Tunnel Adapter  was depressurized starting at 0441 UTC. The suits
went to battery power at 0447 UTC; hatch open was at 0453 UTC. They rode
the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables at around 0600 UTC.
The astronauts reached a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when
installing Zvezda's magnetometer. They returned to the airlock at 1051
UTC and closed the hatch at 1054 UTC. The airlock was repressurized
at 1102 UTC giving a depress duration of 6 hours 21 minutes.

Two new objects, 2000-53B and C, were cataloged by Space Command around
the time of the EVA and presumably are associated with it. Is anyone
aware of any object jettisoned by the crew? It looked like the
magnetometer cover was carefully stowed away...

The Shuttle undocked from ISS at 0344 UTC on Sep 18 and made two
circuits of the station each lasting half an orbit, before separating
finally at 0534 UTC. Your bleary-eyed correspondent can report that the
two spacecraft were an incredible sight in the dawn Boston sky at 0950
UTC the same day, flying a few degrees apart and each about as bright as
Jupiter.

The payload bay doors were closed at 0414 UTC on Sep 20 and at 0650 UTC
the OMS engines ignited for a three minute burn lowering the orbit from
374 x 386 km x 51.6 deg to 22 x 380 km x 51.6 deg. After entry interface
at 0725 UTC, the orbiter glided to a landing on runway 15 at Kennedy
Space Center with main gear touchdown at 0756:48 UTC for
a mission duration of 283hr 11min.

Meanwhile, Discovery is on the pad ready for the next mission, STS-92.
It will launch in early October and dock with PMA-2, the docking port on
the +Y port of the Space Station's Unity module. The mission will carry
the orbiter docking system, the Z1 truss, a Spacelab pallet with the
PMA-3 docking unit, and two adapter beams carrying electronic control
units for Z1. Both the Z1 and the PMA-3 will be attached to the Unity
node. Z1 was built by Boeing/Canoga Park and is 3.5 x 4.5 meters in
size; it will be docked to the +Z port on Unity. PMA-3, built by
Boeing/Huntington Beach, will be docked to the -Z port opposite it.
(PMA-1, and Zarya, are docked to the -Y port; Unity's two remaining
ports will later be used for the Airlock and the Cupola observation
area).

German Stepanovich Titov, the fourth human in space, died on Sep 20.
He was the pilot of Vostok-2. 

Current Launches
----------------

Ariane 506 (flight V130) was launched on Sep 14 from Kourou. The Ariane
5 launch vehicle is Europe's largest rocket, with two strapon solid
boosters (EAP) and a liquid hydrogen engined core stage (EPC), with a
storable propellant upper stage (EPS). The EPC main stage entered a
marginal orbit with an apogee around 1000 km and reentered over the
Galapagos. The EPS upper stage separated from the EPC ten minutes after
launch and burned to place Astra 2B and GE 7 in geostationary transfer
orbit. This is the fourth success in a row for Ariane 5 following two
early test failures.

Astra 2B is an Astrium/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+ television broadcast
satellite owned by the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene de Satellites.
Its dry mass is around 1400 kg and it carries about 1900 kg of fuel at
launch. The satellite will be stationed at 28.2E and will replace the
German DFS Kopernikus system. It carries 28 Ku-band transponders. Astra
2B is the 18th Eurostar 2000 launched. By Sep 19 Astra 2B was in a 
31153 x 35762 km x 0.3 deg orbit, approaching geosynchronous altitude.

Here is a list of Eurostar 2000 satellites. Some of the dry masses are
guesses. I believe all ES2000 satellites use the Primex R-4D liquid
apogee engine. Transponder numbers should be considered approximate,
since some sources do or do not include 'spare' transponders.

Variant  Satellite   Launch       Flight              Mass      Transponders
                                              (dry, kg) (full, kg)

ES2000  Telecom 2A   1991 Dec 16  Ariane V48      1130   2275   10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000  Telecom 2B   1992 Apr 15  Ariane V50      1124   2275   10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000  Hispasat 1A  1992 Sep 10  Ariane V53      1013   2194        12 Ku 4 X
ES2000  Hispasat 1B  1993 Jul 22  Ariane V58      1050   2206        12 Ku 4 X
ES2000  Telstar 11   1994 Nov 29  Atlas AC-110    1150?  2361        34 Ku
ES2000  Telecom 2C   1995 Dec  6  Ariane V81      1120   2283   10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000  Telecom 2D   1996 Aug  8  Ariane V90      1085   2260   10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000+ Hot Bird 2   1996 Nov 21  Atlas AC-124    1150   2910        20 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 3   1997 Sep  2  Ariane V99      1280   2915        20 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 4   1998 Feb 27  Ariane V106     1310   2885        20 Ku
ES2000  Nilesat 101  1998 Apr 28  Ariane V108      795   1840        12 Ku
ES2000  ST-1         1998 Aug 25  Ariane V109     1502   3255   14 C 16 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 5   1998 Oct  9  Atlas AC-134    1250?  3000?       22 Ku
ES2000+ Afristar     1998 Oct 28  Ariane V113     1216   2739     L-band
ES2000+ Asiastar     2000 Mar 21  Ariane-5 V128   1220   2777     L-band
ES2000  Nilesat 102  2000 Aug 17  Ariane V131      813   1800        12 Ku
ES2000+ Eutelsat W1  2000 Sep  6  Ariane V132     1430   3250        28 Ku
ES2000+ Astra 2B     2000 Sep 14  Ariane-5 V130   1400?  3315        28 Ku

The SES Astra system includes Astra 1A (AS4000), Astra 1B (AS5000), and
Astra 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H and 2A (Hughes HS-601). Astra 2B is the
first SES satellite built by a European prime contractor.

The second communications satellite payload on Ariane V130 was GE 7, for
GE Americom. The satellite will provide cable TV distribution coverage
over the US and has 24 C-band transponders. Its mass is 912 kg and it
carries 1023 kg of fuel at launch. The satellite is an A2100A model
built by  Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale, the first lightweight A2100 with a
mass about half that of earlier A2100 satellites.  On Sep 19 GE 7 was in
a  35832 x 35869 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 146 deg W, having
entered the GEO altitude range around Sep 18. 

GE 7 continues one of the longest series of commercial communications
satellites, which began with Americom's RCA Satcom 1 in 1975 (Americom
was then owned by RCA). All the satellites were built by RCA
Astro Space/East Windsor and its successors (now LMMS/Sunnyvale).

 RCA Satcom 1   1975 Dec 13       Satcom K2  1985 Nov 27 
 RCA Satcom 2   1976 Mar 26       Satcom K1  1986 Jan 12
 RCA Satcom 3   1979 Dec  6       Satcom C1  1990 Nov 20
 Satcom 3R      1981 Nov 20       Satcom C5  1991 May 30
 Satcom 4       1982 Jan 16       Satcom C4  1992 Aug 31
 Satcom 5       1982 Oct 28       Satcom C3  1992 Sep 10
 Satcom 1R      1983 Apr 11       GE 1       1996 Sep  8
 Satcom 2R      1983 Sep  8       GE 2       1997 Jan 30
                                  GE 3       1997 Sep  4
                                  GE 4       1999 Nov 13
(GE 5 and GE 6 have not yet been launched).
                           

Here is a list of LMMS A2100 series satellites; some of the variant
designations may be incorrect and updates would be appreciated. Some of
the dry masses are guesses. I believe all A2100 satellites use the RO
Leros 1 liquid apogee engine. Transponder numbers should be considered
approximate, since some sources do or do not include 'spare' transponders.

Variant  Satellite   Launch       Flight              Mass      Transponders
                                              (dry, kg) (full, kg)
A2100    GE 1        1996 Sep  8  Atlas AC-123    1310?  2784     24 C 24 Ku
A2100    GE 2        1997 Jan 30  Ariane V93      1310   2649     24 C 24 Ku
A2100    GE 3        1997 Sep  4  Atlas AC-146    1400?  2845     24 C 24 Ku
A2100AX  Echostar 3  1997 Oct  5  Atlas AC-135    1600?  3670          32 Ku
A2100AX  Echostar 4  1998 May  7  Proton 393-02   1580   3470          32 Ku
A2100    Zhongwei 1  1998 May 30  CZ-3B-4         1500?  3200     18 C 20 Ku
A2100AX  Nimiq       1999 May 20  Proton 396-02   1700?  3600          32 Ku
A2100    Telkom 1    1999 Aug 12  Ariane V118     1400?  2763     36 C
A2100    Koreasat 3  1999 Sep  4  Ariane V120     1332   2800     3 Ka 30 Ku
A2100    LMI 1       1999 Sep 27  Proton 398-02   1730   3740     28 C 16 Ku
A2100AX  GE 4        1999 Nov 13  Ariane V123     1755   3903     24 C 28 Ku
A2100AXX Garuda 1    2000 Feb 12  Proton 399-02   1800?  4500     C, L-band
A2100A   GE 7        2000 Sep 14  Ariane-5 V130    912   1935     24 C


The NOAA-L polar orbit weather satellite was launched Sep 21 from
Vandenberg; it will now be renamed NOAA 16. The satellite is an Advanced
Tiros N model built by Lockheed Martin and carries a suite of imaging
and sounding instruments. The two-stage Titan II launch vehicle, serial
23G-13, put NOAA-L in a suborbital trajectory of approximately -2500 x
800 km x 98.0 deg. The spacecraft's Thiokol Star 37XFP solid motor fired
at apogee to circularize the sun-synchronous orbit at around 800 km. The
NOAA satellites form the POES (Polar Operational Environmental
Satellite) low orbit constellation which complements the GOES
geostationary constellation, and are the programmatic descendants of the
original Tiros 1 weather satellite launched in 1960. They are developed
by NASA-GSFC and operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). Mass of NOAA 16 after orbit insertion is about
1476 kg.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Aug  6 1827   Progress M1-3     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      44A
Aug  9 1113   Rumba   )         Soyuz-Fregat   Baykonur LC31    Science    45A
              Tango   )                                         Science    45B
Aug 17 2316   Brasilsat B-4 )   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    46A
              Nilesat 102   )                                   Commsat    46B
Aug 17 2345   USA 152           Titan 4B       Vandenberg SLC4E Recon      47A
Aug 23 1105   DM-F3             Delta 8930     Canaveral SLC17B Test       48A
Aug 28 2008   Raduga-1          Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC81R   Commsat    49A
Sep  1 0325   ZY-2              Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    50A
Sep  5 0943   Sirius 2          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    51A
Sep  6 2233   Eutelsat W1       Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    52A
Sep  8 1245   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  53A
Sep 14 2254   Astra 2B )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Commsat    54A
              GE 7     )                                        Commsat    54B
Sep 21 1022   NOAA 16           Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    55A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       VAB Bay 3     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Feb?    ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A

MLP-1 
MLP-2/                       
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104/OV-103  VAB Bay 3  STS-92

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 17. October 2000 21:57
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 436

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 436                                             2000 Oct 17, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Orbiter OV-103 Discovery was launched at 2317 UTC on Oct 11 on mission
STS-92 (Space Station Flight ISS-3A). Crew are Commander Col. Brian
Duffy (USAF/NASA), Pilot Lt-Col. Pam Melroy (USAF/NASA), and Mission
Specialists Dr. Leroy Chiao (NASA), Col. William McArthur (US
Army/NASA), Dr. Jeff Wisoff (NASA), Cmdr. Michael Lopez-Alegria
(USN/NASA), and Koichi Wakata (NASDA, Japan). The RSRM-76 solid rocket
boosters separated at 2319 UTC and main engine cutoff (MECO) came at
2325 UTC. External tank ET-104 separated into a 74 x 323 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. At apogee at 0001 UTC on Oct 12, Discovery's OMS engines fired to
raise perigee to a 158 x 322 km x 51.6 deg orbit; ET-104 reentered over
the Pacific around 0030 UTC. At Oct 12 on 0301 UTC the NC1 burn raised
the orbit to 180 x 349 km; NC3 on Oct 12 to 311 x 375 km; and the TI
burn at 1409 UTC on Oct 13 to 375 x 381 km x 51.6 deg. Discovery's
rendezvous with the International Space Station came at 1539 UTC on Oct
13, with docking at 1745 UTC. The spaceship docked with PMA-2, the
docking port on the +Y port of the Space Station's Unity module.
Hatch was open to PMA-2 at 2030 UTC the same day.

 STS-92 Cargo Manifest
                                                        Mass (kg)
Bay 1-2:     Orbiter Docking System                     1800
             3 EMU spacesuits (S/N unknown)              360?
Bay 5 Port:  Adapter Beam with DDCU-HP control unit      300? (guess)
Bay 5 Stbd:  Adapter Beam with DDCU-HP control unit      300?
Bay 7-8:     Spacelab Pallet MD003 with PMA-3           1400 (PLT)
                                                        1156 (PMA)
Bay 10-12:   ISS Z1                                     8765
Bay 13       Adapter Beam with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera     300? (guess)
Sill:        Canadarm RMS 301?                           410

                              Total payload bay cargo: 14791 kg (est)

Z1 is the first segment of the space station truss. Z1 was built by
Boeing/Canoga Park and is 3.5 x 4.5 meters in size; it will be docked to
the +Z port on Unity. Z1 carries the control moment gyros, the S-band
antenna, and the Ku-band antenna.

PMA-3, built by Boeing/Huntington Beach, will be docked to the -Z port
opposite Z1. PMA-3 is installed on a Spacelab pallet for launch. 
One document I have seen identifies this as pallet MD003; I suspect
it might be the same as pallet F003 which flew on Spacelab 2, MAPS, and TSS,
but I'd love to get confirmation of this.

On Oct 14 at 1615 UTC the Z1 segment was unberthed from the payload bay
and at around 1820 UTC it was docked to the zenith port on the Unity
module. On Oct 15 at 1420 UTC the ODS airlock was depressurized,
beginning a spacewalk by Bill McArthur and Leroy Chiao. The hatch was 
probably unsealed at around 1425 UTC. The spacesuits went to battery
power at 1427 UTC, and the thermal cover on the airlock was opened at
1430 UTC. McArthur exited the airlock about 1446 UTC. The astronauts
connected cables between Z1 and Unity, relocated the SASA S-band antenna
on Z1, and deployed Z1's SGANT Ku-band antenna. They then took the port
ETSD (EVA stowage) box from the Spacelab pallet and installed it on Z1.
The astronauts were back in the airlock around 2040 UTC and closed the
hatch at about 2050 UTC. Repressurization began at 2055 UTC for a
depress duration of about 6h 35min, a hatch open/close duration of 6h 25
min, and a NASA (battery power to repress) duration of 6h 28 min.

The second spacewalk was on Oct 16, with Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria.
The airlock was depressurized about 1410 UTC, with the hatch and thermal
cover opened prior to 1413 UTC. The suits went to battery power at 1415 UTC
and Wisoff left the airlock at 1421 UTC. Wakata used the RMS arm to unberth
the PMA-3 docking unit from the SLP pallet at 1614 UTC, and docked it
to Unity at 1740 UTC. Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria first unbolted PMA-3
from the SLP and then guided Wakata through the delicate alignment
process as PMA-3 was removed from the bay and attached to the Station.
By 2109 UTC the astronauts were back in the airlock and at 2110 UTC
the thermal cover was closed, with hatch seal at 2115 UTC. Repressurization
began at 2122 UTC for a duration of 7h 12 min (depress/repress), 7h 03min
(hatch unseal/seal), or 7h 07min (NASA).

A third EVA was underway on Oct 17.

Meanwhile, on Oct 16 Russia launched the Progress 7K-TGM No. 243 cargo
ship as Progress M-43. The ship will dock with Mir and raise its
orbit, delaying reentry to preserve the option of a new MirCorp-financed
flight next year.


Current Launches
----------------

HETE-2 astronomical satellite
-----------------------------

The HETE-2 gamma ray burst satellite was succesfully launched by a
Pegasus over the Pacific near Kwajalein. This was the first orbital
launch from USAKA (US Army Kwajalein Atoll) in the Pacific Ocean.
Kwajalein, a circular lagoon, is the aim point for Western Range ICBM
launches; the US Air Force fires ICBMs at Kwaj and the US Army sits on
Kwaj and fires back with experimental anti-missiles. The main launch
site is on Meck Island on the north side of the atoll.

The Orbital Sciences Corp. L-1011 Stargazer aircraft took off from
Bucholz Army Airfield (PKWA) Runway 06/24 (at 08 42.9N 167 43.6E) on
Kwajalein Island at the southeast end of the atoll at 0440 UTC on Oct 9.
The Stargazer flew to the drop zone at 7.65N 167.7E and at 0538 UTC
dropped the Pegasus launch vehicle at an altitude of 11.9 km. The model
used was the Standard Pegasus rather than the newer XL model (strictly,
it was a Hybrid Pegasus with some XL components). Five seconds after
drop the first, winged, stage ignited and after 10 minutes the third
stage cutoff to leave HETE-2 in orbit at 0550 UTC.

The second High Energy Transient Explorer was built to replace the first
HETE, which failed to operate because of a Pegasus adapter failure
during launch in Nov 1996. The satellite was built by MIT using leftover
parts from HETE.  MIT operates the satellite; the program is managed by
NASA GSFC as an Explorer mission of opportunity. HETE's main instrument
is FREGATE, the French Gamma Telescope, a hard X-ray spectrometer
operating in the 6 to 400 keV energy range. This gamma ray burst
detector, together with a Wide Field X-ray Monitor hard X-ray coded mask
telescope, is used to trigger searches with the two Soft X-ray Imagers
which have 33-arcsecond spatial resolution. This will let astronomers
get precise locations for gamma-ray bursts,  allowing detailed followup
with optical instruments. The satellite is in a 595 x 636 km x 2.0 deg
equatorial orbit, and sends data to a network of small ground terminals
spaced around the equator. 

Kosmos-2372 military imaging satellite:
--------------------------------------

Kosmos-2372 was launched from Baykonur's Area 45 on Sep 25 by a
two-stage 11K77 Zenit-2. According to a report by Anatoly Zak, the new
spacecraft's real code name is Yenisey (which is the name of one of the
great rivers in Russia). Observers speculate that Yenisey is an improved
version of the Orlets spy satellite launched as Kosmos-2290 in 1994. On
Oct 16 Kosmos-2372 was in a 201 x 313 km x 64.8 deg orbit.

Kosmos-2373 military/civilian mapping satellite
-----------------------------------------------

Kosmos-2373 was launched on Sep 29 into a 193 x 267 km x 70.4 deg orbit.
The satellite is the 20th Kometa (Yantar'-1KFT) mapping payload using
the Yantar' bus with a Zenit-type recovery sphere. It is announced as a
dual civil-military geodetic mission. After a day it raised its orbit to
211 x 285 km x 70.4 deg. The first Kometa was launched in Feb 1981 as
Kosmos-1246; the previous flight was Kosmos-2349 in Feb 1998.

Dnepr multiple small satellite launch
-------------------------------------

The second Dnepr launch vehicle made a successful flight on Sep 26 from
Baykonur, placing five small satellites in a 640 x 644 km x 64.6 deg
orbit. The Dnepr is a refurbished R-36M2 (15A18 or 15A18M) ballistic
missile with two main stages and a post-boost stage used to target
reentry vehicles. The satellites are Tiungsat-1, Megsat-1,
Unisat, and Saudisat 1A/1B.

Malaysia's Tiungsat-1 is a 50 kg Surrey Uosat-class earth imaging
satellite with 80-meter resolution, built by Surrey Satellite and
Astronautic Technology SB for the BKSA (Bahagian Kajian Sains Angkasa,
the Space Science Studies Div. under the Ministry of Science, Technology
and Environment). 

Megsat-1 is a 50 kg research satellite  owned and built by MegSat Space
Division, part of the Gruppo Meggiorin companies in Brescia, Italy.
(Megsat-0 was launched in Apr 1999).

Unisat is a 10 kg experimental satellite  developed by the GAUSS (Gruppo
di Astrodinamica dell' Universita degli Studi "la Sapienza") in Roma.
Unisat was financed by ASI and MURST (Ministero dell'Universtia e della
Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica). It carries NiMH batteries, a
magnetometer, and a payload consisting of a space debris sensor and a
camera. 

Saudisat 1A and 1B are 10 kg satellites developed by the Saudi Institute
for Space Research at KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Tech),
Riyadh, carrying simple amateur store-forward communications payloads.

GE-1A communications satellite
------------------------------

GE Americom's GE-1A satellite was launched by International Launch
Services/Krunichev Proton-K on Oct 1. The Proton entered a 200 km
parking orbit, and the Blok DM3 upper stage made two burns to deliver
GE-1A to a 7394 x 35823 km x 15.9 deg transfer orbit. The satellite is a
Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale A2100AX model Ku-band  communications
satellite which will provide broadcast services for eastern Asia. Dry
mass is 1601 kg. By Oct 16 the satellite was on station at 108E.

N-SAT/Superbird communications satellite
------------------------------------------

Arianespace launched mission V133, an Ariane 42L model, on Oct 6.
Payload was another A2100AX satellite, N-SAT-110, also known as
Superbird 5. N-SAT-110 is jointly owned by SCC (Space Communications
Corp of Tokyo) and JSat (Japan Satellite Systems); SCC controls the
vehicle on orbit. Dry mass is 1669 kg; the satellite carries 24 Ku-band
transponders. By Oct 15 N-SAT-110 was in a 35610 x 35752 km x 0.1 deg
orbit drifting past 109E.

GLONASS navigation satellites
------------------------------

Three Uragan ("Hurricane") navigation satellites for the GLONASS system
were launched on Oct 13. Uragan spacecraft No. 83, No. 87 and No. 88
were launched on a Krunichev Proton-K with a Blok DM-2 upper stage into
a  160 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit. The Blok DM-2 made two burns to a 
19120 x 19120 km x 64.8 deg orbit and deployed the three satellites
about four hours after launch. The satellites will probably be named
Kosmos-2374 to Kosmos-2376, but I don't have confirmation of this yet.
The Uragan satellites, built by AKO Polyot of Omsk, are analogs
of the USAF Navstar Global Positioning System.

Erratum
-------

I said last issue that GE 5 had not been launched, even though I was
present to see it go up! Oops. It is an Alcatel Spacebus 2000. Thanks to
Thierry Vallee for catching me on that one. Also, David Gendre points
out that ST-1 is an Astrium Eurostar 2000+.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  1 0325   ZY-2              Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    50A
Sep  5 0943   Sirius 2          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    51A
Sep  6 2233   Eutelsat W1       Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    52A
Sep  8 1245   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  53A
Sep 14 2254   Astra 2B )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Commsat    54A
              GE 7     )                                        Commsat    54B
Sep 21 1022   NOAA 16           Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    55A
Sep 25 1010   Kosmos-2372       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Imaging    56A
Sep 26 1005   Tiungsat-1  )     Dnepr          Baykonur LC109   Imaging    57A
              MegSat-1    )                                     Science    57B
              UniSat      )                                     Science    57C
              SaudiSat 1A )                                     Commsat    57D
              SaudiSat 1B )                                     Commsat    57E
Sep 29 0930   Kosmos-2373       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Imaging    58A
Oct  1 2200   GE-1A             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    59A
Oct  6 2300   N-SAT-110         Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    60A
Oct  9 0538   HETE-2            Pegasus        Kwajalein RW06/24 Astronomy 61A
Oct 11 2317   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  62A
Oct 13 1412   Kosmos-2374 )     Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur         Navsat     63A
              Kosmos-2375 )                                     Navsat     63B
              Kosmos-2376 )                                     Navsat     63C
Oct 16 2127   Progress M-43     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      64A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       ISS PMA-2     STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Feb?    ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 30. October 2000 01:38
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 437

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 437                                        2000 Oct 30, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The STS-92 crew closed the hatches to the Space Station at around 1330
UTC on Oct 20.  Discovery undocked from PMA-2 at 1508 UTC the same day
and separated from the vicinity of ISS at around 1550 UTC. Deorbit
attempts were waved off on Oct 22 and Oct 23; the deorbit burn finally
came at 1951:55 UTC on Oct 24, lowering the orbit from 378 x 389 km x
51.6 deg to 40 x 387 km x 51.6 deg. Discovery landed on Runway 22 at
Edwards AFB, California, at 2059 UTC on Oct 24 - the first Edwards
landing for a Space Shuttle since 1996.

The PMA-2/Unity/PMA-3/Z1/PMA-3/Zarya/Zvezda/Progress M1-3 complex 
remains in orbit in automatic mode. The Expedition 1 crew of
Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalyov will be launched from Baykonur
next week to begin occupation of the station. 

Current mass of the station is at least 71000 kg: my estimate,
based on somewhat uncertain figures, is:

         Unity          9800 kg
         3 PMAs         3900 kg
         Truss (Z1)     8800 kg
         Zarya         21000 kg
         Zvezda        21600 kg
         Progress M1-3  5400 kg
                      +  500 kg fuel?
         -------------------------------
                       71000 kg

Status of the docking ports: There are three types of docking ports. The
CBM (Common Berthing Mechanism) is used on the US side for permanent
attachments. The APAS system is used on the US side for Shuttle dockings
(each PMA Pressurized Mating Adapter has an APAS). The Russian SSVP
type ports are the old-style probe/drogue used for Soyuz, Progress and
other Russian modules.

    Port            Current status

    Unity +Y CBM    PMA-2, available for STS
    Unity -Y CBM    PMA-1, docked to Zarya
    Unity +Z CBM    Z1 Truss
    Unity -Z CBM    PMA-3, available for STS
    Unity +X CBM    empty (for Airlock)
    Unity -X CBM    empty (for Cupola)
    Zarya +Y APAS   Docked to PMA-1
    Zarya -Y SSVP   Docked to Zvezda
    Zarya +Z SSVP   empty, in reserve
    Zarya -Z SSVP   empty, available for Soyuz/Progress
    Zvezda +Y SSVP  Docked to Zarya
    Zvezda -Y SSVP  Docked to Progress M1-3; to be used for Soyuz
    Zvezda +Z SSVP  empty
    Zvezda -Z SSVP  empty, available for Soyuz/Progress
    
 ISS Configuration schematic:

  
            Z1                                               ^ Z
             |             |       |                         | 
 - PMA-2 - UNITY - PMA-1 - ZARYA - ZVEZDA - PM1-3       Y <--| 
             |             |       |
           PMA-3
             |

 Mir Configuration schematic:

                  Spektr Priroda                              ^ Z
                        \|                                    |
   PM43 - Kvant - Mir core -                            X <---|
                         |\                                    \
                  Kristall Kvant-2                              _| Y
                         |
                         SO
                         |


     Mir -X SSVP:      empty, available for Soyuz
     Mir +X SSVP:      Kvant
     Mir +Z SSVP:      Priroda
     Mir -Z SSVP:      Kristall
     Mir +Y SSVP:      Kvant-2
     Mir -Y SSVP:      Spektr
     Kristall -Z SSVP: SO
     SO -Z APAS:       empty, available for STS (in principle)
     Kvant -X SSVP:    Mir
     Kvant +X SSVP:    Progress M-43



Progress M-43 docked with Mir at 2116 UTC on Oct 20, presumably at the
Kvant docking port. To save fuel, a long 4-day rendezvous profile was
used instead of the usual 2-day one.  Progress M1-2 undocked from Mir on
Oct 15 and was deorbited over the Pacific later the same day.
On Oct 29 Mir was in a 329 x 356 km x 51.6 deg orbit, after an apogee
raising burn by Progress M-43.

Current Launches
----------------

A US Air Force Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) payload,
DSCS III B-11, was launched on Oct 20 by a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The DSCS III satellites were
built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge.  Centaur AC-140 entered a 148 x
898 km x 29.3 deg parking orbit and then a 218 x 35232 km x 26.0 deg
transfer orbit. DSCS III B-11 separated with its attached IABS-8 apogee
stage. The IABS-8 stage, with two Primex R4D liquid apogee engines,
circularized the orbit at geostationary altitude on Oct 21 and separated
from the DSCS.

The first Boeing GEM satellite, Thuraya 1, was launched on Oct 21. Built
by Boeing/El Segundo (formerly Hughes), it is based on the HS-702 design
but features a large 12-m diameter truss antenna for L-band mobile
telephone service. Launch mass of Thuraya is 5108 kg; dry mass is
probably around 3000 kg. The satellite will be delivered after on orbit
testing to Etisalat, the Emirates Telecom Corp of Abu Dhabi, and its
Thuraya Satellite subsidiary.

Thuraya was launched at 0552 UTC on Oct 21 by a Boeing Sea Launch
Zenit-3SL from the Odyssey platform in the Pacific Ocean at 154W 0N. The
two-stage Yuzhnoe Zenit core delivered Thuraya and its Energiya Blok
DM-SL upper stage to a -2212 x 182 km suborbital trajectory. The first
DM-SL burn placed the stack in a 180 x 200 km x 6.3 deg parking orbit at
0604 UTC; a second burn at 0733 UTC  put Thuraya in a 210 x 35891 km x
6.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit. A later depletion burn lowered the
DM-SL stage perigee to 180 km, as burns by Thuraya's liquid engine raised
it towards GEO.

Another International Launch Services Proton-K/Blok DM3 launch from
Baykonur orbited GE Americom's GE 6 satellite. The  Lockheed Martin
A2100 series satellite has a mass of 3552 kg at launch and 1900 kg dry. 
It will provied broadcast and data services in North America from 72W.
The DM3 upper stage made two burns and placed the GE 6 in a 5850 x 35726
km x 18.7 deg intermediate transfer orbit at 0441 UTC on Oct 22.

Arianespace launched flight V134, an Ariane 44LP model, on Oct 29.
The vehicle placed Europe*Star FM1 in geostationary transfer orbit.
The satellite is a Loral FS-1300 model with a launch mass of 4167 kg
and a dry mass of 1717 kg; the satellite has two cruciform solar
arrays.

13 small objects have recently been cataloged associated with the
Kosmos-2306 calibration satellite, launched in 1995. The objects may be
calibration target subsatellites used to test Russian radars and study
atmospheric density. The first six targets were released in Apr 1997; it
is thought that five more targets remain to be released. Kosmos-2306 is
in a 198 x 208 km x 65.8 deg orbit, with reentry expected soon.

NASA's Wind probe made its 32nd lunar flyby on Aug 19,  with a closest
approach of 7600 km to the surface.  This placed it on a 2 million km
apogee orbit, adjusted on Aug 26 to an approximately 567000 x 1620000 km
 x 21.8 deg `Distant Prograde Orbit', reaching apogee on Sep 29.


Erratum
-------

Phil Clark points out that strictly, Kosmos-2373 is the 20th
Yantar'-1KFT mission, but that the Yantar'-1KFT was only called Kometa
starting with the 7th flight, so I should have said "the 20th in the
Siluet/Kometa series".

A Russian source informs me that the Dnepr rocket  launched on Sep 26
was the 15A18 model. Both the 15A18 (R-36MUTTKh) and 15A18M (R-36M2)
ICBMs are thought to be being refurbished for use as Dnepr vehicles.


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Sep  1 0325   ZY-2              Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan          Imaging    50A
Sep  5 0943   Sirius 2          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    51A
Sep  6 2233   Eutelsat W1       Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    52A
Sep  8 1245   Atlantis          Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39B    Spaceship  53A
Sep 14 2254   Astra 2B )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Commsat    54A
              GE 7     )                                        Commsat    54B
Sep 21 1022   NOAA 16           Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    55A
Sep 25 1010   Kosmos-2372       Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Imaging    56A
Sep 26 1005   Tiungsat-1  )     Dnepr          Baykonur LC109   Imaging    57A
              MegSat-1    )                                     Science    57B
              UniSat      )                                     Science    57C
              SaudiSat 1A )                                     Commsat    57D
              SaudiSat 1B )                                     Commsat    57E
Sep 29 0930   Kosmos-2373       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Imaging    58A
Oct  1 2200   GE-1A             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    59A
Oct  6 2300   N-SAT-110         Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    60A
Oct  9 0538   HETE-2            Pegasus        Kwajalein RW06/24 Astronomy 61A
Oct 11 2317   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  62A
Oct 13 1412   Kosmos-2374 )     Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur         Navsat     63A
              Kosmos-2375 )                                     Navsat     63B
              Kosmos-2376 )                                     Navsat     63C
Oct 16 2127   Progress M-43     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      64A
Oct 20 0039   DSCS III B11      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Commsat    65A
Oct 20?       K-2306 subsat 7 )                Kosmos-2306, LEO Calib   95-08N
              K-2306 subsat 8 )                                 Calib   95-08P
              K-2306 subsat 9 )                                 Calib   95-08Q
              K-2306 subsat 10)                                 Calib   95-08R
              K-2306 subsat 11)                                 Calib   95-08S
              K-2306 subsat 12)                                 Calib   95-08T
              K-2306 subsat 13)                                 Calib   95-08U
              K-2306 subsat 14)                                 Calib   95-08V
              K-2306 subsat 15)                                 Calib   95-08W
              K-2306 subsat 16)                                 Calib   95-08X
              K-2306 subsat 17)                                 Calib   95-08Y
              K-2306 subsat 18)                                 Calib   95-08Z
              K-2306 subsat 19)                                 Calib   95-08AA
Oct 21 0552   Thuraya 1         Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Commsat    66A
Oct 21 2200   GE 6              Proton-K/DM-3  Baykonur         Commsat    67A
Oct 29 0559   Europe*Star FM1   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    68A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       Edwards       STS-92  2000 Oct     ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Feb?    ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-97  2000 Nov?    ISS 4A


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Monday, 06. November 2000 05:18
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 438

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 438                                           2000 Nov  6, Honolulu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The Expedition One crew was launched on a Soyuz transport ship to the
International Space Station at 0753 UTC on Oct 31. Soyuz TM-31 flew from
Pad 5, Area 1 at 5 GIK Baykonur. Soyuz TM-31 commander (komandir) is
Yuriy Gidzenko; Flight engineer-1  (bortinzhener) is Sergey Krikalyov;
Flight engineer-2 is Bill Shepherd of NASA. The astronauts are using
Gidzenko's callsign "Uran". 

The Progress M1-3 cargo ship undocked from Zvezda's rear port at 0405
UTC Nov 1 and was deorbited over the Pacific at 0705 UTC.

Soyuz TM-31 docked at Zvezda's rear port at 0921 UTC on Nov 2. The hatch
to Zvezda was opened at 1023 UTC. Once aboard ISS, Shepherd became the
ISS Commander; I gather the Russians will continue to be referred to as
'Soyuz Commander' and 'Flight Engineer' rather than giving Gidzenko an
ISS-specific role title. NASA Administrator Goldin has approved 'Station
Alpha' as the ISS callsign for the duration of the first expedition.

Space Command appears to have cataloged the vehicle as "Soyuz TMA-1",
but the Energiya web site calls it Soyuz TM-31. The first Soyuz TMA will
not fly till next year; this vehicle is a standard Soyuz TM,
probably 11F732 No. 205, and the TMA-1 name is simply incorrect.

In last week's report I inadvertently omitted descriptions of the last two
STS-92 spacewalks. EVA-3, by Chiao and McArthur, was on Oct 17 with
depress around 1425 UTC, on battery at 1430 UTC, and hatch open possibly
around 1432 UTC (the thermal cover was opened at 1433). McArthur emerged
at 1439 UTC. At 1606 the port DDCU, DDCU-HP 4B, was unberthed from its
sidewall carrier and taken up to Z1 for installation by 1615. DDCU-HP 3B
was installed by 1648 UTC. Next, Z1's cables were attached to Unity. An
ETSD spacewalk toolbox was then taken from the Spacelab pallet to Z1,
and the Z1 keel pin was relocated. The astronauts were back inside at
2113, with hatch close at 2114 and repress at 2118. Duration was about
6h53min (depress/repress), 6h42min (hatch open/close), or 6h48m (NASA
scheme).

The final EVA, by Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria,  began with depressurization
 around 1450 UTC on Oct 18. The hatch was opened early,  probably around
1455 UTC, and the astronauts then went onto battery power at 1500 UTC.
The thermal cover was opened at 1507 UTC and the astronauts emerged at
that point. They tested a latch on Z1, removed a grapple fixture, and
deployed a cable tray for the ammonia cooling system. The main tasks
complete, it was time for the most spectacular moment of the mission -
tests of the SAFER spacesuit backpack propulsion units.  Wisoff and
Lopez-Alegria took turns with semi-free flights, still attached to
Discovery by a long, slack tether but otherwise floating free. Wisoff
flew first, starting at 1855 UTC and flying from Lopez-Alegria on the
RMS near Zarya to the payload bay. By 1939 he was back on the RMS, with
a flight duration of under 46 min. Lopez-Alegria then flew from 1949 to
2016, a duration of 27 min. The astronauts entered the airlock at 2145,
closed the hatch at 2149, and repressurized the airlock at 2156.
Duration was about 7h06m (depress/repress), 6h54m (hatch open/close), or
6h56m (NASA scheme).


Current Launches
----------------

China's first experimental navigation technology satellite,  Beidou,
was launched on Oct 30 by CZ-3A from
Xichang into a 195 x 41889 km x 25.0 deg orbit. According to Chinese
space expert Chen Lan, Beidou was developed by CAST/Beijing.
Launch was at 0002 Beijing time Oct 31 which corresponds to 1602 UTC on
Oct 30. Richard Langley informs me that "Beidou" is the Chinese for
"Northern Dipper", equivalent to "Ursa Major".

X-38 test vehicle V-131R was drop-tested over Edwards AFB on Nov 2.
The first space flight by X-38 vehicle V-201 is now scheduled for 2002.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Oct  1 2200   GE-1A             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    59A
Oct  6 2300   N-SAT-110         Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    60A
Oct  9 0538   HETE-2            Pegasus        Kwajalein RW06/24 Astronomy 61A
Oct 11 2317   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  62A
Oct 13 1412   Kosmos-2374 )     Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur         Navsat     63A
              Kosmos-2375 )                                     Navsat     63B
              Kosmos-2376 )                                     Navsat     63C
Oct 16 2127   Progress M-43     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      64A
Oct 20 0039   DSCS III B11      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Commsat    65A
Oct 20?       K-2306 subsat 7 )                Kosmos-2306, LEO Calib   95-08N
              K-2306 subsat 8 )                                 Calib   95-08P
              K-2306 subsat 9 )                                 Calib   95-08Q
              K-2306 subsat 10)                                 Calib   95-08R
              K-2306 subsat 11)                                 Calib   95-08S
              K-2306 subsat 12)                                 Calib   95-08T
              K-2306 subsat 13)                                 Calib   95-08U
              K-2306 subsat 14)                                 Calib   95-08V
              K-2306 subsat 15)                                 Calib   95-08W
              K-2306 subsat 16)                                 Calib   95-08X
              K-2306 subsat 17)                                 Calib   95-08Y
              K-2306 subsat 18)                                 Calib   95-08Z
              K-2306 subsat 19)                                 Calib   95-08AA
Oct 21 0552   Thuraya 1         Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Commsat    66A
Oct 21 2200   GE 6              Proton-K/DM-3  Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    67A
Oct 29 0559   Europe*Star FM1   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    68A
Oct 30 1602   Beidou            Chang Zheng 3A Xichang LC1      Navsat     69A
Oct 31 0753   Soyuz TM-31       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  70A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1?    STS-102 2001 Feb 15  ISS 5A.1
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Jan 18  ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-97  2000 Nov 30  ISS 4A


.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Sunday, 26. November 2000 22:38
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 439

Jonathan's Space Report
Sender: owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: jmcdowell@head-cfa.harvard.edu

No. 439                                           2000 Nov 26, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Pedants' Millenium
----------------------

As I'm sure you're all aware, the new century and the new millenium are
only a few weeks away. In the spirit of true pedantry, I note that 
Millenium Eve, by the Julian calendar in use at the last millenium -
i.e.,  prid. Kal. Ian. A.D. 2001 (O.S.), or 31 Dec 2000 (O.S.) in modern
notation, - occurs on Saturday 2001 Jan 13 (N.S.) on the modern
Gregorian calendar. Any readers in the Boston area are invited to my
Millenium Eve party on that date, email for details. To all the other
pedants out there, very best wishes for the coming new century.

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The Expedition One crew remains aboard Space Station Alpha. The Progress
M1-4 cargo ship was launched at 0132:36 UTC on Nov 16. The vehicle is
probably spacecraft Progress M1 No. 253.  Progress M1-4 made rendezvous
with the Station on Nov 18. After problems with the automatic system,
Gidzenko took over manual control with the remote TORU system at 0302
UTC. After one failed attempt when M1-4 got to only 5m from docking at
0309 UTC, docking was  successfully achieved at 0348 UTC at Zarya's
nadir port. The problem with the TORU system is that the TV camera on
the Progress, which Gidzenko uses to steer the vehicle with, is not that
great and tends to ice up quickly when the Progress is in shadow.

Issue 9/2000 of Novosti Kosmonavtiki, which just arrived here, has an
interesting article on the history of the Zvezda Service Module which
reports that the main hull of the Service Module was built as early as
1985, when it was thought that the vehicle - DOS-7K No. 8 - would form
the core of a Mir-2 space station. Zvezda's forward section is the PKhO
(Perekhodniy Otsek, transfer compartment) with three passive SSVP-M
G8000 docking ports, one on the axis (docked to Zarya), one zenith and
one nadir, plus a side airlock hatch for spacewalks.  Behind PKhO is the
RO (Rabochiy Otsek, working compartment) with 2.9m and 4.1m diameter
sections. The small section carries the two large solar arrays. Further
back is the AO (Agregatniy Otsek, equipment module) with the main ODU
twin S5.79 engines. Inside the AO is is the smaller cylinder of the PK,
(Promezhutochnaya kamera), the tunnel leading to the SSVP G4000 aft
passive docking port used for Soyuz and Progress.

The next Shuttle launch, STS-97, will carry the P6 truss element to the
Station. P6 consists of a solar array wing, an Integrated Electronics
Assembly (IEA) section with a thermal radiator for the solar wing, and
the Long Spacer (LS) truss segment with two thermal radiators for the
Destiny module (which will follow on a later flight). P6 will be
installed on the +Z end of the Z1 truss; later in assembly it will be
moved to the end of the port truss.

Current Launches
----------------

Arianespace launched an Ariane 5, vehicle 507, flight V135, on Nov 16 at
0107 UTC. The PAS 1R, STRV 1c/1d, and AMSAT Phase 3D satellites were
placed in orbit. The EPS stage entered geostationary transfer orbit at
0134 UTC, followed by separation of the PAS 1R main payload. The two
small STRV cubes were then ejected from the ASAP-5 secondary payload
structure at 0141 UTC. At 0149 UTC the SBS cylindrical adapter which
connected PAS-1R to AMSAT was jettisoned; 50 seconds later AMSAT
separated from the EPS.  I believe the ASAP-5 remains attached to the
EPS, but Space Command has cataloged an object they identify as the
ASAP.

PAS 1R will be stationed over the Atlantic. It is a large Boeing Model
702 satellite with a dry mass of about 3000 kg (launch mass 4793 kg) and
a solar panel span of 45m. It carries 36 C and 48 Ku-band transponders.
PAS 1R is operated by Panamsat, whose fleet includes the former Hughes
Galaxy system. Meanwhile, the Model 601 Galaxy 7 satellite failed on Nov
22, the third such satellite to fall victim to a design flaw in the
on-board computers.

STRV-1c and 1d are small satellites built by the DERA (former Royal
Aircraft Establishment), Farnborough, England. Mass around 95 kg each.
STRV-1c performs accelerated life testing of new components
and materials in the high radiation environment of GTO.
STRV-1d carries an NRL Space Test Program experiment (S97-2),
a camera, and technology and computer experiments.

The long-delayed Phase 3D amateur radio satellite, built by AMSAT-DL
(Germany), was renamed AMSAT-Oscar-40 (AO-40) once launched. It carries
an MBB S400 liquid engine (actually the backup engine for the Galileo
Jupiter probe) and a variety of amateur radio payloads in L, S, C, X, V,
U and K bands, as well as an ammonia arcjet thruster and a laser
communications experiment. The satellite is the largest amateur
satellite yet and the first to feature deployable solar panels. Mass is
397 kg dry.

Just a few days later Arianespace launched an Ariane 44L with Anik F1,
a new Telesat Canada communications satellite. Anik F1 is a Boeing model 702
satellite. Launch mass is 4852 kg and dry mass is 2950 kg; it carries
36 C-band and 48 Ku-band transponders. Telesat Canada became the first
domestic comsat operator with the launch of Anik A1 in 1972.

Navstar GPS SVN41, the sixth Block IIR navigation satellite, was launched
on Nov 10 into transfer orbit by a Boeing Delta 7925. The Delta stage
2 entered a 153 x 418 km x 37 deg parking orbit followed by a 172 x 1144 km
second orbit; the PAM-D solid upper stage then fired to give SVN 41 a
20457 km apogee. The GPS Block 2R satellites are built by Lockheed Martin
and use a Thiokol Star 37FM solid kick motor. The kick motor was fired
prior to Nov 13 to enter a circular 20000 km orbit.

Another Delta launch on Nov 21 was a model 7320-10 from the West Coast
pad, complex 2-West at Vandenberg. The main payload was the Earth Orbiter 1
satellite for NASA's New Millenium Program. Complementing the New Millenium's
Deep Space series, EO-1 is a NASA-Goddard satellite which demonstrates
technology for the next generation Landsat. It flies in formation with
Landsat-7 for comparisons, using a hydrazine thruster to adjust its orbit.
The satellite uses a MIDEX-derived bus built by Swales Aerospace; dry
mass is 566 kg. The main instruments are ALI (Advanced Land Imager) and
the Hyperion 220-band imaging spectrometer.

The second main payload launched with EO-1 is SAC-C, the Satelite de
Aplicaciones Cientificas C developed by the Argentine space agency CONAE
and built by the Argentine company INVAP. The 467 kg satellite carries
a battery of earth observing instruments and will focus on Argentine
forestry and agriculture studies. SAC-C carries a NASA experiment which
uses the distortion of GPS signals observed near the horizon to
derive atmospheric conditions.

The Delta took off from SLC-2W at 1824 UTC on Nov 21. At 1835 the Delta second
stage completed its first burn and entered a 185 x 713 km x 98.2 deg
transfer orbit. At 1920 UTC the orbit was circularized and EO-1 separated
at 1925 UTC into a 682 x 729 km x 98.2 deg orbit. The DPAF dual payload
support structure, derived from Ariane's SPELDA, was then ejected
to reveal SAC-C. After a further Delta burn SAC-C was ejected at 1955 UTC
into a 687 x 707 km x 98.3 deg. A fourth burn put the Delta second
stage in a 697 x 1800 km x 95.4 deg; the small 6 kg Munin nanosatellite
was then ejected from the side of the stage. Munin was built by Swedish
students in collaboration with the Swedish Insitute for Space Physics (IRF)
and carries a particle detector, a spectrometer, and an auroral camera.

A Kosmos-3M launch failed on Nov 20, with the loss of the QuickBird 1
satellite. This is a heavy blow to EarthWatch Inc. whose other satellite,
EarlyBird, failed after a few days in orbit in Dec 1997. EarthWatch's
rival, SpaceImaging, lost one satellite too but its second Ikonos is
operating in orbit. 

QuickBird1 was a 1-m resolution imaging satellite using a Ball
Aerospace BCP-2000 bus. The Kosmos-3M second stage placed QuickBird 1
in a 81 x 614 km x 65.8 deg orbit but apparently failed to restart
at apogee, and reentered at the next perigee over S America. Launch was
around 2300 UTC.

Kosmos-2306 reentered on Oct 30; all the objects released from it
reentered by Oct 29.

Kosmos-2373, the Kometa mapping satellite, landed on Nov 14.
Deorbit burn was probably around 2230 UTC; the Vostok/Zenit-style
sphere landed near Orenburg in Russia at 2253 UTC.

The Chinese Beidou 1 navigation satellite has entered geostationary orbit,
possibly at around 0500 UTC on Nov 6, and is now on station at 140 deg E.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.
Oct  1 2200   GE-1A             Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    59A
Oct  6 2300   N-SAT-110         Ariane 42L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    60A
Oct  9 0538   HETE-2            Pegasus        Kwajalein RW06/24 Astronomy 61A
Oct 11 2317   Discovery         Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  62A
Oct 13 1412   Kosmos-2374 )     Proton-K/DM-2  Baykonur         Navsat     63A
              Kosmos-2375 )                                     Navsat     63B
              Kosmos-2376 )                                     Navsat     63C
Oct 16 2127   Progress M-43     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      64A
Oct 20 0039   DSCS III B11      Atlas IIA      Canaveral SLC36A Commsat    65A
Oct 20?       K-2306 subsat 7 )                Kosmos-2306, LEO Calib   95-08N
              K-2306 subsat 8 )                                 Calib   95-08P
              K-2306 subsat 9 )                                 Calib   95-08Q
              K-2306 subsat 10)                                 Calib   95-08R
              K-2306 subsat 11)                                 Calib   95-08S
              K-2306 subsat 12)                                 Calib   95-08T
              K-2306 subsat 13)                                 Calib   95-08U
              K-2306 subsat 14)                                 Calib   95-08V
              K-2306 subsat 15)                                 Calib   95-08W
              K-2306 subsat 16)                                 Calib   95-08X
              K-2306 subsat 17)                                 Calib   95-08Y
              K-2306 subsat 18)                                 Calib   95-08Z
              K-2306 subsat 19)                                 Calib   95-08AA
Oct 21 0552   Thuraya 1         Zenit-3SL      Odyssey, POR     Commsat    66A
Oct 21 2200   GE 6              Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    67A
Oct 29 0559   Europe*Star FM1   Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2      Commsat    68A
Oct 30 1602   Beidou            Chang Zheng 3A Xichang LC1      Navsat     69A
Oct 31 0753   Soyuz TM-31       Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Spaceship  70A
Nov 10 1714   GPS SVN 41        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     71A
Nov 16 0107   PAS 1R   )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Commsat    72A
              AMSAT-Oscar-40)                                   Commsat    72B
              STRV-1c  )                                        Tech       72C
              STRV-1d  )                                        Tech       72D
Nov 16 0132   Progress M1-4     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      73A
Nov 20 2300   QuickBird 1       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Imaging    74A
Nov 21 1824   EO-1  )           Delta 7320     Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    75A
              SAC-C )                                           Imaging    75B
              Munin )                                           Science    75C
Nov 21 2356   Anik F-1          Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    76A

Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-102 2001 Feb 15  ISS 5A.1
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Jan 18  ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB Bay 1     STS-97  2000 Nov 30  ISS 4A

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Thursday, 07. December 2000 01:56
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 440

Jonathan's Space Report

No. 440 draft                                      2000 Dec 6, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

Endeavour was launched at 0306 UTC on Dec 1 on mission STS-97
to the International Space Station. The external tank and the Orbiter
entered a 74 x 325 km orbit at 0314 UTC. Endeavour's OMS burn raised
its perigee to 205 km at around 0347 UTC; the ET reentered over the Pacific.
Endeavour docked with the Station's PMA-3 docking port at 1959 UTC on Dec 2.
Astronauts will install the P6 solar panel truss during a series
of spacewalks.

The crew of STS-97 are: Commander - Brent Jett, Cmdr USN; Pilot -
Michael Bloomfield, LtCol USAF; Mission Specialists - Joseph Tanner,
NASA, Dr. Marc Garneau, CSA, and Carlos Noriega, LtCol USMC.

The payload bay of Endeavour for STS-97 contains:

                                               Est. Mass (kg)
Bay 1-2:     Orbiter Docking System                     1800
             3 EMU spacesuits (S/N unknown)              360?
             FPPU experiment (in airlock)                 23
Unknown      APCU Assembly Power Converter Unit           35
Unknown      APCU Assembly Power Converter Unit           35
Bay 3-6:     ITS P6 Long Spacer                         4000?
                   TCS radiator (aft)                    500?
                   TCS radiator (starboard)              500?
Bay 8-11:    ITS P6 Integrated Equipment Assembly       7200?
                   PV  radiator P6                       500?
Bay 12-13:   ITS P6 Photovoltaic Array/Beta Gimbal Asy. 1000?
                   Solar array wing 2B                  1070
                   Solar array wing 4B                  1070
Bay 13S      IMAX Cargo Bay Camera                       238
Sill:        Canadarm RMS 303                            410
                                                      ------
                      Total payload bay cargo          18740 kg

The main cargo is P6, which is made up of the LS (Long Spacer),
PV-1 IEA (Integrated Equipment Assembly) and the PVAA (Photovoltaic
Array). The LS carries two Thermal Control Systems with radiators
to eject waste heat from the Station; these radiators will be moved
to truss segments S4 and S6 later in assembly. The PVAA has
solar array wings SAW-2B and SAW-4B, which were deployed to a span
of 73 meters.

The FPPU (Floating Potential Probe Experiment) will be installed
on P6 to measure charge buildup as the arrays pass through
the ionospheric plasma. P6 has devices to bleed off excess charge,
and FPPU will see how well they are doing. 

I'm still trying to confirm details of the Boeing Rocketdyne APCUs. They
are  technically counted as orbiter support equipment rather than
payloads by NASA, but I count anything mounted in the payload bay as a
payload. There don't seem to be any photos online of Endeavour in the
OPF and NASA PAO's don't have any documentation describing the APCUs.
Thanks are due to Bill Harwood (of CBS and SpaceflightNow.com) for
confirmation of the existence of these extra payload elements. As far as
I can tell, the APCUs are boxes which provide Orbiter power to the
Station; they first flew on STS-91 (providing simulated ISS power to the
AMS experiment) and are probably attached to APCs (Adaptive Payload
Carriers) somewhere in the bay - I suspect near the front at the ODS,
but if anyone knows for sure please let me know.

Readers should note that the STS-97 press kit contains wildly incorrect
weight information for the Long Spacer and the PVA. I've had to guess
at the subcomponent masses.

The first STS-97 spacewalk began with airlock depress and hatch open at
1831 UTC on Dec 3. The suits went to battery power at 1835 UTC and Joe
Tanner and Carlos Noriega left the airlock around 1845 UTC. Around 1932
UTC the RMS arm berthed P6 on the Z1 truss, and the astronauts
manually latched it in place by 1940 UTC. There were some problems
releasing latches on the solar array wings, but the first solar
array began to deploy at 0123 UTC on Dec 4. This was the
"starboard" (+X) array, wing SAW-2B. The  port (-X) array, SAW-4B,
was left undeployed. The astronauts closed the hatch at 0202 UTC on
Dec 4 and repressurized at 0209 UTC for an EVA-1 duration of 7:38
(depress), 7:31 (hatch open/close), or 7:34 (NASA rule). The P6 PVR
radiator was deployed on the +Y side of the IEA at 0414 UTC on Dec 4.
The SAW-4B wing was deployed starting at 0052 UTC on Dec 5.

The second spacewalk began on Dec 5 with depress at 1718 UTC, hatch open
around 1719 UTC and battery power at 1721 UTC. Repress was at 2358 UTC.
Duration was 6:40 (depress), 6:35 (hatch open/close), or 6:37 (NASA rule).
The astronauts connected up P6 to the station, inspected the tension
wires on wing 2B, and relocated the S-band antenna to the top of P6.
They unlatched the aft TCS radiator, which was deployed sometime
early on Dec 6.


Progress M1-4 undocked from ISS's Zarya nadir port at 1623 UTC on Dec 1.
The vehicle remains in orbit.



Current Launches
----------------

The Israeli commercial imaging satellite EROS A1 was launched
by a Start-1 (modified Topol' ICBM) rocket 
from the Russian Far Eastern spaceport 2-GIK at Svobodniy
on Dec 6. EROS A1 is owned by ImageSat (an Israeli-led
company registered in the Netherlands Antilles) and built by
IAI using the Ofeq-3 design. Earlier Israeli-built satellites
were launched by the Shaviyt rocket from Palmachim south
of Tel Aviv. EROS A1 is in a 491 x 506 km x 97.3 deg
sun-synchronous orbit together with the DS 5th stage.
The fourth stage of Start-1 also normally reaches orbit,
but has not yet been cataloged in this case.

The third Sirius digital radio broadcast satellite was launched on
Nov 30. International Launch Services launched a Krunichev Proton-K
with an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage from Baykonur. The Sirius
satellite is a Loral FS-1300 series vehicle and will enter
an elliptical 63 degree orbit.

The QuickBird satellite launched on Nov 20 was 3.0m high and 1.6m x 1.6m
in cross-section with a 5.2m solar array span; mass was 931 kg full
and 899 kg dry (the satellite had four 4.4N hydrazine thrusters).
QuickBird 1 was the second use of the Ball Aerospace BCP-2000 satellite;
NASA's QuikScat, launched in Jun 1999, continues to operate. QuickBird 2
is under construction. Visual observations from Uruguay of reentering
debris suggest that QB-1 reentered at around 0015 UTC on Nov 21.
The last Kosmos-3M failure, in 1995, had a similar profile and
was attributed to contamination in the oxidizer lines for the 
second stage main engine.


A classified National Reconnaissance Office payload was launched
on Dec 7 by a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS from Cape Canaveral.
The Centaur placed the payload in a 176 x 831 km parking
orbit and then in a 270 x 37490 km x 26.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit;
it is probably either a data relay satellite which transfers
spy satellite imagery to the ground, or a signals intelligence
satellite. 



Errata
------

NASA's EO-1 is actually called Earth Observing 1; its original "Earth Orbiter 1"
name was changed some time ago.

The P6 IEA is the Integrated Equipment Assembly, not Integrated Electronics Assembly.

I can't spell "millennium". 
 
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.
Nov 10 1714   GPS SVN 41        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     71A
Nov 16 0107   PAS 1R   )        Ariane 5       Kourou ELA3      Commsat    72A
              AMSAT-Oscar-40)                                   Commsat    72B
              STRV-1c  )                                        Tech       72C
              STRV-1d  )                                        Tech       72D
Nov 16 0132   Progress M1-4     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      73A
Nov 20 2300   QuickBird 1       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Imaging    74A
Nov 21 1824   EO-1  )           Delta 7320     Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    75A
              SAC-C )                                           Imaging    75B
              Munin )                                           Science    75C
Nov 21 2356   Anik F-1          Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    76A
Nov 30 1959   Sirius 3          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    77A
Dec  1 0306   Endeavour)        Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39     Spaceship  78A
              ITS P6   )                                       Station seg.
Dec  6 1232   EROS A1           Start-1        Svobodniy        Imaging    79A   
Dec  7 0247   USA 155?          Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Commsat?   80A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-102 2001 Feb 15  ISS 5A.1
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 1     STS-98  2001 Jan 18  ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       LEO           STS-97  2000 Dec  1  ISS 4A

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'   
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From: 	owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu[SMTP:owner-jsr@head-cfa.harvard.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, 19. December 2000 16:31
Subject: 	Jonathan's Space Report, No. 441

Jonathan's Space Report

No. 441                                           2000 Dec 19, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuttle and Stations
--------------------

The STS-97 mission has been completed successfully, and Station Alpha
has a new set of solar panels. The Station was observed by several
dozen of us from the roof of the Harvard Observatory as it passed
over at 0006 UTC on Dec 16, an impressive sight at about mag -1. 

Astronauts Noriega and Tanner on Dec 7 performed EVA-3 to fix the
tension in the SAW-2B solar array on the Station. Airlock depress was at
1609 UTC, hatch open at 1610 UTC and battery power at 1613 UTC. The
astronauts left the airlock a few  minutes later, probably about 1620
UTC. After fixing the solar array they installed the FPPU device to
measure plasma conditions near the top of P6 and performed a few other
minor tasks. They returned to the airlock at around 2110 UTC, closing
the hatch at 2119 and repressurizing at 2122 for a duration of 5:14
(depress), 5:09 (Hatch open/close) or 5:10 (NASA rule).

The Endeavour crew then entered the station at 1436 UTC on Dec 8,
delivering supplies to Alpha's Expedition One crew. Hatches
were closed again at 1551 UTC Dec 9, and Endeavour undocked at 1913 UTC
the same day. After one flyaround of the station, Endeavour fired
its engines to depart the vicinity at 2017 UTC Dec 9.

The deorbit burn was at 2158 UTC on Dec 11, changing the
orbit from 351 x 365 km to 27 x 365 km, with landing
at Runway 15 of Kennedy Space Center at 2303 UTC.

The next Shuttle flight is STS-98. Orbiter 104 Atlantis will deliver the
Destiny lab module to the Station. Atlantis has been mated to external
tank ET-106 and solid boosters RSRM-77. The stack is on Mobile Launch
Platform MLP-2 in high bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Rollout
of STS-98 to the pad is being delayed because some wiring in the SRBs
needs repair. During the STS-97 launch, the SRB separation system had
problems  when one explosive separation cartridge failed to fire; a
backup system  saved the mission.



Current Launches
----------------

No new launches since Dec 6; an Ariane 5G is scheduled for Dec 20.
(the "5G" designation is used for the generic Ariane 5 to distinguish
it from the uprated versions which will be introduced soon).

The UTC launch dates for EROS A1 and USA 155 are Dec 5 and Dec 6
respectively; sorry about the typo last issue.

Object 26614, originally cataloged as 2000-72G from the Ariane-5 PAS-1R
launch, has been recataloged as 1978-26HU; I assume 72G turned out
to be spurious or unconfirmed. 72F, cataloged as "Ariane 5 deb (SYLDA)"
is actually the conical ACU 1663SP adapter that separated PAS 1R from
AMSAT's SBS adapter.

 
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.
Nov 10 1714   GPS SVN 41        Delta 7925     Canaveral SLC17A Navsat     71A
Nov 16 0107   PAS 1R   )        Ariane 5G      Kourou ELA3      Commsat    72A
              AMSAT-Oscar-40)                                   Commsat    72B
              STRV-1c  )                                        Tech       72C
              STRV-1d  )                                        Tech       72D
Nov 16 0132   Progress M1-4     Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1     Cargo      73A
Nov 20 2300   QuickBird 1       Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132   Imaging    74A
Nov 21 1824   EO-1  )           Delta 7320     Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging    75A
              SAC-C )                                           Imaging    75B
              Munin )                                           Science    75C
Nov 21 2356   Anik F-1          Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Commsat    76A
Nov 30 1959   Sirius 3          Proton-K/DM3   Baykonur LC81L   Commsat    77A
Dec  1 0306   Endeavour)        Space Shuttle  Kennedy LC39     Spaceship  78A
              ITS P6   )                                       Station seg.
Dec  5 1232   EROS A1           Start-1        Svobodniy        Imaging    79A   
Dec  6 0247   USA 155           Atlas 2AS      Canaveral SLC36A Commsat?   80A


Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
 
Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due   
 
OV-102 Columbia        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 1     STS-102 2001 Mar  1  ISS 5A.1
OV-104 Atlantis        VAB Bay 3     STS-98  2001 Jan 18  ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 2     STS-100 2001 Apr 19  ISS 6A

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  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 |   
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'   
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