Jonathan's Space Report No. 495 2003 Mar 11, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- Expedition 6 crew Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin remain aboard the International Space Station. The Progress M-47 cargo craft is docked to the aft Zvezda port and the Soyuz TMA-1 transport ship is docked to the Pirs module. Soyuz TMA-2 will be launched in April carrying the new Expedition 7 crew of Yuriy Malenchenko and Edward Lu. I am pleased to see that the NASA Orbital Information Group has reinstated the STS-107 orbital data for public access. Recent Launches --------------- Boeing launched the second Delta IV rocket on Mar 11. This launch used the simple Delta IVM variant with a CBC first stage and the 4-meter second stage, as opposed to the first launch which had additional solid boosters. Launch was at 0059 UTC on Mar 11; the first burn of the second stage ended at 0113 UTC and put it in a 186 x 402 km x 29.2 deg parking orbit. The second burn started at 0125 UTC and lasted 4 minutes putting DSCS III A-3 and its IABS (Integrated Apogee Boost Subsystem) apogee stage into a 234 x 35780 km x 25.5 deg. The IABS will fire its twin R-4D bipropellant engines on Mar 13 to circularize the orbit, and separate from DSCS after a final burn around Mar 15. The payload of the Delta IVM was a US Air Force communications satellite, DSCS III A-3, carrying X-band and UHF transponders operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency. The Defense Satellite Communications System started with the Philco-Ford IDSCS (Initial or Interim DSCS) launched in clusters into sub-synchronous orbits in the 1960s. The IDSCS satellites are poorly documented (we don't know how long each one operated for, and there's some confusion about the nomenclature of the satellites). The phase II DSCS satellites, built by TRW, were launched starting in 1971, and the phase III DSCS built by GE/Valley Forge replaced them starting in 1982. DSCS phase II had six different sub-variants (A through F), while DSCS III had only two variants (A and B, apparently also known as Engineering Development Model and Production Model versions). A-3 is one of the first production models, in storage for decades and enhanced for this launch by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale (the corporate inheritors of the GE space group). Below I present the most detailed launch log yet published for the DSCS program. Launch mass of DSCS is 1244 kg; dry mass around 900 kg. Launch mass of IABS is about 1488 kg; dry mass is 270 kg. DSCS satellites - history Sat. OPS Rocket Upper Stage Launch Retired or USA (if known) I-1 9311 Titan IIIC-11 Transtage-11 1966 Jun 16 1970s? I-2 9312 I-3 9313 I-4 9314 I-5 9315 I-6 9316 I-7 9317 I-? (9321) Titan IIIC-12 Transtage-12 1966 Aug 26 Launch failure I-? (9322) I-? (9323) I-? (9324) I-? (9325) I-? (9326) I-? (9327) I-? (9328) I-8 9321 Titan IIIC-13 Transtage-13 1967 Jan 18 1970s? I-9 9322 I-10 9323 I-11 9324 I-12 9325 I-13 9326 I-14 9327 I-15 9328 I-16 9331 Titan IIIC-14 Transtage-14 1967 Jul 1 1970s? I-17 9332 I-18 9333 I-19 9334 I-20 9341 Titan IIIC-16 Transtage-16 1968 Jun 13 1970s? I-21 9342 I-22 9343 I-23 9344 I-24 9345 I-25 9346 I-26 9347 I-27 9348 (Note: IDCSP 13/OPS 9326 was still operating in mid 1978 and appears to have been the last Phase I satellite working.) II A-1 9431 Titan 23C-3 Transtage-21 1971 Nov 3 1973 Jun II A-2 9432 Titan 23C-3 Transtage-21 1971 Nov 3 1980? II B-3 9433 Titan 23C-8 Transtage-26 1973 Dec 13 1982? II B-4 9434 Titan 23C-8 Transtage-26 1973 Dec 13 1993 Dec 17 II B-5 9435 Titan 23C-7 Transtage-25 1975 May 20 Launch failure II B-6 9436 Titan 23C-7 Transtage-25 1975 May 20 Launch failure II C-7 9437 Titan 23C-14 Transtage-32 1977 May 12 1981 Dec 20 II C-8 9438 Titan 23C-14 Transtage-32 1977 May 12 1990 Feb II C-9 9439 Titan 23C-17 Transtage-35 1978 Mar 25 Launch failure II C-10 9440 Titan 23C-17 Transtage-35 1978 Mar 25 Launch failure II C-11 9441 Titan 23C-18 Transtage-36 1978 Dec 14 1993 Dec 13 II C-12 9442 Titan 23C-18 Transtage-36 1978 Dec 14 1993 Dec 13 II D-13 9443 Titan 23C-19 Transtage-37 1979 Nov 21 1994 Jul 19 II D-14 9444 Titan 23C-19 Transtage-37 1979 Nov 21 1995 Jun 19 II F-16 9445? Titan 34D-1 IUS-2 1982 Oct 30 1997 May 23 II E-15 9446? Titan 34D-2 Transtage D-2 1989 Sep 4 Status unknown III A-1 - Titan 34D-1 IUS-2 1982 Oct 30 III B-4 U11 Shuttle 51J IUS-12 1985 Oct 3 III B-5 U12 Shuttle 51J IUS-12 1985 Oct 3 III A-2 U43 Titan 34D-2 Transtage D-2 1989 Sep 4 III B-14 U78 Atlas II AC-101 IABS-1 1992 Feb 11 III B-12 U82 Atlas II AC-103 IABS-2 1992 Jul 2 III B-9 U93 Atlas II AC-104 IABS-3 1993 Jul 19 III B-10 U97 Atlas II AC-106 IABS-4 1993 Nov 28 III B-7 U113 Atlas IIA AC-118 IABS-5 1995 Jul 31 III B-13 U135 Atlas IIA AC-131 IABS-6 1997 Oct 25 III B-8 U148 Atlas IIA AC-138 IABS-7 2000 Jan 31 III B-11 U153 Atlas IIA AC-140 IABS-8 2000 Oct 20 III A-3 Delta IVM (2) IABS-9 2003 Mar 11 III B-6 Delta IVM (?) IABS-10 Awaiting launch Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 6 1419 Coriolis Titan II Vandenberg SLC4W Environment 01A Jan 13 0045 ICESAT ) Delta 7320-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Environment 02A CHIPSat ) Astronomy 02B Jan 16 1539 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39 Spaceship 03A Spacehab ) Lab Jan 25 2013 SORCE Pegasus XL Canaveral RW30/12 Solar obs 04A Jan 29 1806 GPS SVN 56 ) Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17 Navigation 05A XSS-10 ) Technology 05B Feb 2 1259 Progress M-47 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 06A Feb 15 0700 Intelsat 907 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comms 07A Mar 11 0059 DSCS III A-3 Delta IVM Canaveral SLC37B Comms 08A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-103 Discovery OPF Maintenance OV-104 Atlantis VAB STS-114 Unknown ISS ULF1 OV-105 Endeavour OPF STS-115 Unknown ISS 12A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'