Jonathan's Space Report No. 371 1998 Sep 5 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've corrected some errors in the geo.log file I posted last week. Thanks to Tony Vitek for spotting the mistakes. Shuttle and Mir --------------- The Progress M-39 cargo ship redocked at the +X port of the 37KE (Kvant) module on the Mir complex. Soyuz TM-28 is docked at the -X port on the PKhO BB (Base block transfer compartment). Recent Launches --------------- * North Korean satellite? The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Choson Minjujuui In'min Konghwaguk, North Korea) launched a Taepo Dong 1 missile at 0307 UTC on Aug 31. North Korea now claims that a third stage on the missile placed a small satellite in orbit. US sources so far have reported the launching as a suborbital missile test, and have not tracked any satellite in orbit. However, it's possible that a small satellite could have been missed. The satellite is reportedly broadcasting Korean propaganda songs on 27 MHz. I'm provisionally assuming the Korean reports are correct despite the lack of confirmation from Space Command. It seems probable that a satellite launch was at least attempted, but we'll have to wait a few days before it's clear whether or not it did reach orbit. Launch site is given as Musudan-ri, Hamgyong Pukdo Province. My research indicates this is Cape Musudan at 40.52N 129.45E. ("-ri" is a small administrative district). The claimed orbit is 218 x 6978 km x 41 deg. The Taepo Dong 1 (TD-1) reportedly consists of a Nodong 2 first stage with a Scud-class second stage. The third (orbital) stage is probably a small solid motor. No name has been given to the satellite in the North Korean announcements. The figures in the North Korean press release are inconsistent. They say that launch was at 86 degrees azimuth, and the first stage fell 253 km downrange at 40.85N 139.67E, the second stage 1646 km downrange at 40.22N 149.12E. The claim for the first stage is clearly wrong, it's much more than 253 km from N Korea and practically on the beach in Japan. I have two scenarios: (1) The only error is that the first stage impact longitude should be 129.67E, not 139.67E. Then the range to the second stage impact point is correct, and the path is 86 degrees measuring east from south. The first stage impact point is then just of Cape Musu-dan and the launch site is unrelated to the cape, being at 126.2E 41.0N near Manpojin right on the Chinese border. This seems really unlikely, since the Korean statement about the location of the launching site is so detailed. (2) The launch site is at Cape Musu-dan, the azimuth is 86 deg measuring east from north (the conventional way), the ranges are correct but the latitudes and longitudes are all wrong. Then I derive a first stage impact point of 40.7N 133.0E, and a second stage impact point of 41.5N 152.1E. This seems much more likely, except that I can't explain why the Korean latitude and longitude figures would be so wrong. Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea (Tae han Min'guk, South Korea) has not yet got a satellite launch vehicle of its own, although it has several satellites launched by other nations' rockets: Korean name English name Launch date Launcher KAIST (Korea Advanced Inst. of Sci. and Tech:) Uribyol-1 KITSAT-OSCAR-23 1992 Aug 10 Ariane V52 Uribyol-2 KITSAT-OSCAR-25 1993 Sep 26 Ariane V59 Korea Telecom: Mugunghwa 1 Koreasat 1 1995 Aug 5 Delta 228 Mugunghwa 2 Koreasat 2 1996 Jan 14 Delta 231 (Uribyol means 'our star'; Mugunghwa is the national flower of Korea, the Sharon's rose.) In addition, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has a sounding rocket program using the single-stage solid fuel KSR-I sounding rocket and the KSR-II, which uses two stages each based on the KSR-I. There have been four launches to date from the Anhueng launch site in Ch'ungch'ong Namdo province, at 36.41N 126.10E. KSR-I-1 1993 Jun 4 Ozone, 39 km KSR-I-2 1993 Sep 1 Ozone, 49 km KSR-II-1 1997 Jul 9 Ozone/ionosphere/X-ray astron, 150 km? KSR-II-2 1998 Jun 11 Ozone/ionosphere/X-ray astron, 137 km Thanks to Kim Jhoon and Park Jeongjoo of KARI for their generous help in providing details of the South Korean space program. I would like to particularly encourage my readers in South Korea (or for that matter North Korea, in the unlikely event I have any there!) to pass on to me any corrections they may have to this report. * ETS-7 Meanwhile, the ETS-7 Orihime and Hikoboshi satellites have successfully redocked, following attitude control software problems which threatened the mission. This is very good news for NASDA, the Japanese applications space agency. * Astra 2A Astra 2A's Blok DM3 stage delivered the payload to a 7932 x 35991 km x 15.6 deg transfer orbit following a successful second burn on Aug 30. Astra 2A's on-board Marquardt R-4D bipropellant liquid apogee engine will be used for the rest of the journey to geostationary orbit. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 2 1624 Orbcomm FM13 ) Pegasus XL Wallops Comsat 46A Orbcomm FM14 ) Comsat 46B Orbcomm FM15 ) Comsat 46C Orbcomm FM16 ) Comsat 46D Orbcomm FM17 ) Comsat 46E Orbcomm FM18 ) Comsat 46F Orbcomm FM19 ) Comsat 46G Orbcomm FM20 ) Comsat 46H Aug 12 1130 MERCURY Titan 4A Canaveral SLC41 Sigint F02 Aug 13 0943 Soyuz TM-28 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 47A Aug 19 2301 Iridium SV03) CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 48A Iridium SV76) Comsat 48B Aug 25 2307 ST-1 Ariane 44P Kourou Comsat 49A Aug 27 0117 Galaxy X Delta III Canaveral SLC17B Comsat F03 Aug 30 0031 Astra 2A Proton Baykonur Comsat 50A Aug 31 0307 - Taepo Dong Musudan Test U01 Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Jan 21? OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-95 Oct 29 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Dec 3? MLP2/RSRM-68/ET-98 VAB Bay 1 STS-95 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'