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 | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ,