Jonathan's Space Report

Jul 12, 1989 (no. 19)

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


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