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