Jonathan's Space Report No. 281 1996 Mar 22 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- OV-104 Atlantis has been launched on the third Mir docking mission, STS-76. Liftoff was on Mar 22 at 0813:04 UTC. There was a leak in the hydraulic system during ascent; it is not yet clear whether this will affect mission duration, but at the moment it looks like there is no problem. The RSRM-46 solid rocket motors separated 2 min after launch; the main engine cutoff was at about 0821:34 and the separation of External Tank ET-77 came ten seconds later. This was the 76th Shuttle launch. The OMS-2 burn placed Atlantis in a 157 x 292 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the NC-1 burn later put it in a 226 x 294 km x 51.6 deg orbit. (Can anyone tell me when the burns happened?) Docking with the Mir station is scheduled for 0234 UTC on Mar 24. The spacewalk is due for Mar 27, and the undocking for Mar 29 with landing on Mar 31. The MEEP PEC experiments, which will be transferred to the exterior of Mir during the spacewalk, are mounted on ICAPC (Increased Capacity Adaptive Payload Carriers), not GAS Beams as I suggested last week. They are in bays 11 Port, 11 Starboard, 12 Port, and 12 Starboard. The TRIS experiment is on bay 13 Starboard. Mir --- EO-21 astronauts Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov made a spacewalk on Mar 15. They left the Kvant-2 airlock at 0104 UTC and installed a second Strela crane on the Mir base block. The Strela is used to move spacewalkers and their equipment from one side of the station to another. The existing one wouldn't reach the Kristall module, which the new one will allow. The spacewalkers also went to the Kvant (37KE) module and did preparatory work for attaching a new solar array. Duration of the space walk was 5h 51m. (Info from C vd Berg). Shannon Lucid will become one of the EO-21 crew when her Soyuz reentry couch is transferred from Atlantis after the docking. In a classic display of leftover Soviet-era male chauvinism, Gagarin Training Center deputy commander Gen. Glazkov reported that they expected improved living conditions on Mir with NASA astronaut Lucid aboard "because we know that women love to clean" (AP report). This from the space agency which hailed Svetlana Savitskaya's 1984 first spacewalk by a woman with "now Soviet space technology is advanced enough that [even] a woman can make spacewalks". Excuse me? Recent Launches --------------- The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched IRS-P3, a remote sensing satellite, using its solid-propellant 4-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV. Launch was from the Sriharikota Island range; this was the third PSLV launch, and the second success. Other IRS satellites have been launched with Russian rockets, most recently in December. IRS-P3 is in an 802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg orbit. IRS satellites: IRS-1A 1988 Mar 17 Vostok, Baykonur 870 x 914 km x 99.0 deg IRS-1B 1991 Aug 29 Vostok, Baykonur 862 x 918 km x 99.2 deg IRS-1E 1993 Sep 20 PSLV-D1, Sriharikota (Failed) IRS-P2 1994 Oct 15 PSLV-D2, Sriharikota 798 x 882 km x 98.7 deg IRS-1C 1995 Dec 28 Molniya-M, Baykonur 816 x 818 km x 98.6 deg IRS-P3 1996 Mar 21 PSLV-D3, Sriharikota 802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg India's first satellite was Aryabhata, launched by a Soviet rocket in 1975. Its first domestic launch vehicle was the SLV-3, first flown in 1979 and first flown successfully in 1980. IRS-P3 is the sixth Indian launch to reach orbit. The TSS-1 untethered satellite reentered (with its 20 km tether) at 2312 UTC on 19 Mar, according to Space Command. Late on Mar 19 it was in a 193 x 210 km x 28.5 deg orbit, and reentry was over the Middle East/Persian Gulf region. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 1 0115 Palapa C-1 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 06A Feb 5 0719 N-STAR b Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 07A Feb 14 1901 Intelsat 708 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comsat FTO Feb 17 2043 NEAR Delta 7925-8 Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A Feb 19 0058 Gonets-D1 ) 09A? Gonets-D1 ) 09B? Gonets-D1 ) Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Comsats 09C? Kosmos-2328) 09D? Kosmos-2329) 09E? Kosmos-2330) 09F? Feb 19 0832 Raduga Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 10A Feb 21 1234 Soyuz TM-23 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 11A Feb 22 2018 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 12A Feb 24 1124 Polar Delta Vandenberg SLC2W Science 13A Feb 26 0130 TSS-1 OV-102,LEO Science 12B Mar 9 0133 REX-II Pegasus XL L1011/Vandenberg Technol. 14A Mar 14 0711 Intelsat 707 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 15A Mar 14 1740 Kosmos-2331 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon 16A Mar 21 0500? IRS-P3 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 17A Mar 22 0813 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 18A Payloads no longer in orbit -------------------------- Feb 22 Progress M-30 Deorbited over Pacific Feb 29 Soyuz TM-22 Landed in Kazakstan Mar 9 Columbia Landed at KSC Mar 12 FSW-1 capsule Reentered over Atlantic Mar 19 TSS-1 Reentered over Middle East Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-78 Jun 27 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis LEO STS-76 Mar 21 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-77 May 16 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-54/ VAB Bay 1 STS-77 ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B STS-76 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | 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.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'