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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'