Jonathan's Space Report No. 378 draft 1998 Oct 31 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Mir --------------- STS-95 was launched on Oct 29 with Sen. John Glenn and the first Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque among the crew. The US Navy PANSAT student satellite was deployed on Oct 30 into a 550 x 561 x 28.5 deg orbit. Meanwhile, Endeavour has been moved to pad 39A in preparation for STS-88 with a Space Station module payload. Cargo ship Progress M-40 was launched from Baykonur on 1998 Oct 25. It docked with the Mir orbital station to provide supplies on Oct 27. It also carries the Znamya-2.5 solar illumination experiment. Visit to Kourou --------------- I had the opportunity to be present for the launch of Ariane V113 on Oct 28, and in this special report describe my visit to the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in Guyane francaise, S America. Pictures to accompany this report are at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/csg.html The small French town of Kourou is on the northern coast of the South American landmass, at the edge of the Amazonian forest. From the air, the approach to the region is over a dense mat of trees broken only by the occasional river. The person next to me on the plane remarked that the shape of the trees and their closeness to each other made it look like a forest of broccoli. On a sandy beach covered with palm trees sits a modern hotel where the penitentiary once stood (the notorious Devil's Island is visible a few miles offshore). We arrived the evening before launch after an hour-long bus ride from Cayenne airport, in time for a banquet of fresh seafood, baked plantain, and tropical juices as well as more traditionally French dishes. I didn't get to see too much of the town itself, but it has a population of around 17000 consisting mostly of recent immigrants from the rest of South America, the Caribbean and Europe, together with indigenous Amerinds and a village of the descendants of Africans who escaped slavery and developed their own communities. The next morning, a short bus ride to the west of town takes us to the Centre Technique, and the Jupiter launch control room where the representatives of the various agencies briefed us. The speakers used either French or English as they preferred, with headphones provided for all of us to give simultaneous translation for anyone who wasn't fluent in one or other language. Launcher V113 was an Ariane 44L model, and carried the most massive payload of any Ariane 4 to date, with 4.5 tonnes carried to orbit; it was also the first time Arianespace has carried out three launches in a single month. The V113 vehicle used the lightest stages available at the factory, and the fuel in the lower stages was kept at a lower temperature than usual to increase its density and allow a few extra kilograms to be loaded - they ended up with more than 230 tonnes in the L220 first stage. These measures allowed the record payload, and Arianespace president Jean-Marie Luton predicted that eventually we'll see a 5-tonne payload on Ariane 4. Two satellites were carried, Afristar and GE 5; both were delivered to geostationary orbit. The lower payload is the GE-5 satellite, with C and Ku band transponders to augment the GE Americom system. GE Americom contracted with Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Dornier Satellitensystem GmbH/Friedrichshafen to provide the satellite in orbit. They in turn contracted Alcatel/Cannes to provide the Spacebus 2000 satellite, originally built as a backup for Argentina's Nahuelsat. This allowed Dornier and Alcatel to deliver the satellite in a record twelve months. Dry mass of GE 5 is 769 kg; it carries 950 kg of propellant at launch. The upper payload was the first WorldSpace satellite, Afristar. Afristar will broadcast digital radio over Africa and the Middle East. Small handheld radios will be able to pick up the transmissions from its three L-band beams; the satellite can carry from 24 to 96 radio channels with on-board processing to allow variable bit rates from mono to CD audio quality transmission. Broadcasters send their programs up to the satellite with a small X-band ground station. It will be followed next year by Asiastar and Ameristar. Afristar is a Matra Marconi Space (Toulouse) Spacebus 2000, using a Marquardt R-4D apogee engine. Prime contractor for the combined satellite and comms payload is Alcatel. Dry mass of Afristar is 1205 kg; it carries 1534 kg of propellant at launch. The WorldSpace project is dominated by the personality of its CEO, Ethiopian-born Noah Samara, whose ebullient personality was very much in evidence at CSG during the V113 launch. There was a strong feeling that Afristar was not just yet one more `boring' comsat, but part of a crusade to empower the developing world by providing improved access to information. Samara's mantra is that `people are only as developed as the information they access.' Another of the leading figures in WorldSpace, chief engineer Pierre Madon, was feted for completing a notable career in aerospace which included a leading role in the first French rocket program Diamant and the Symphonie comsat of the 1970s, as well as a long career at Intelsat. CSG is operated by the French space agency CNES. The Ariane launch vehicle was developed by the European Space Agency, ESA, together with CNES, and is operated by the Arianespace company. Travelling further west from Jupiter on the old Route Nationale 1 coast road, we reach the CSG proper, with the entrance guarded by the French Foreign Legion. The launch pads are on the north side of the road, nearer the sea. We first pass the small clearing which marks the sounding rocket launch area ("aire de lancement fusee-sondes"). Here in 1968 was the first launch from CSG, a small Veronique rocket. The area has four launchers, three still in use for small weather rockets and amateur launches. A little further and we reach the now disused Diamant pad. Used between 1970 and 1975, CNES launched several small satellites from here using the Diamant B and Diamant B P.4 vehicles. The other old pad was the Aire de Lancement Europa, some distance to the west. A single orbital launch attempt from here by the Europa vehicle failed in 1971. However, by 1979 the pad had been rebuilt to become ELA 1, the first Ensemble de Lancement Ariane, marking the beginning of Europe's success in the commercial space launch services business with Ariane launches from 1979 to 1989, when the ELA1 pad was retired. Only a water tower marks the spot currently. Next to ELA1 is ELA2, which we didn't get too close to as it was occupied by our fully fuelled V113 launch vehicle. In the early afternoon, the enclosed gantry was rolled back from ELA2 to reveal the Ariane rocket on the pad, and fuelling of the cryogenic third stage began. We were able to observe the rocket from the roof of a nearby building - the third stage was enclosed in insulation, and no venting was visible. The pad is surprisingly close to the Ariane 4 assembly building, containing the V114 launcher now being assembled, and the nearby ESA and Arianespace offices. The remaining launch site is ELA3, which is spread over a large area between ELA2 and the Diamant area. The rocket and payload are assembled in two large buildings, BIL and BAF, and are then taken out to the pad on a mobile launch platform (Table de Lancement) which travels on a small railway. We saw the launch platform used for the Ariane 503 mission being returned by rail to the BAF building, while a second platform was under construction nearby. The BIL and BAF are to the south of the main road while the pad is to the north. The Ariane 5 pad itself, ZL3 (Zone de lancement) contains only the minimal equipment for launch, to simplify reconstruction if there is a launch accident. A simple umbilical tower is flanked by three large lightning towers which dominate the site's appearance, reminiscent of the N-1/Energiya pads at Baykonur. The main pad has a circular mount for the central core and mounts for the solid boosters on each side, above large flame trenches filled with water (the water suppresses reflection of sound energy from the launch which would otherwise increase the vibration levels inside the payload fairing). The trenches are similar to the ones I saw at Vandenberg's SLC-6 Shuttle pad. A large water tower and liquid hydrogen and helium storage facilities complete the picture. After our visits to the launch site were complete, and a brief trip back to Kourou, we set off again to the Jupiter control center where we watched the final countdown from the auditorium surrounding the launch control room proper. (We had the choice of going to the outdoor Toucan viewing point closer to the pad, but I decided it would be geekier to get as close to the launch controllers as I could). The launch commentary, with the cultivated and reassuring tones of former BBC man Martin Ransom lending a touch of class, punctuated the countdown as the display screens showed live TV from the pad beside the clocks and status displays, and the controllers pored over their consoles in front of us. At T-1 minute, the side doors of the auditorium were opened and we rushed out on the terrace to watch. We scanned the dark horizon and didn't know which direction to look, but then 'Allumage!' and a bright light appeared in the distance to our left. Slowly this new star rose into the sky - initially it was pretty much pointlike. It arced over our position and we began to see the trail of fire behind it. About half a minute later, the sound began to reach us as a dull roar which grew to a loud crackling sound. Separation of the strapon boosters was visible as a dramatic flare, and we were able to follow the rocket through first stage separation as it moved down the coast to our right. The disappearance of the first stage plume as followed by a bright flash like a firework as the separation occurred. Trooping back to our seats, we heard the report of second stage separation and settled down to watch the graphic of the long third stage burn. At T+20 min the Afristar satellite finally separated and a huge cheer went up, followed two minutes later by another cheer for GE 5. Afristar and GE 5 were placed in a 200 x 35788 km x 6.5 deg orbit. The launch team put on T-shirts celebrating the month's three launches (I thought the big boss Luton looked a little uncomfortable in such informal attire), and after the obligatory speeches (Walter Braun of GE Americom bravely and courteously giving his in French) a long night of partying began. The following day, most of the group went off to tour Devil's Island, but I stayed in Kourou to interview space center old-timers and soak up some beach time to brace myself for Friday's 4:30 am homeward wakeup call. Thanks to Arianespace for making my trip possible, and to Marie-Vincente Pasdeloup, Jean-Michel Desobeau, Yves Dejean, Martin Ransom, Pierre Madon and others for their helpful information. Recent Launches --------------- * Ariane 503 The Ariane 503 mission described last week was the first Ariane 5 launch carried out by Arianespace, and is numbered V112 in their system. For the first two Ariane 5 flights, CNES and ESA both owned the launch vehicle and carried out the launch. On V112, Arianespace owned the vehicle but ESA and CNES were the customers. * Meteosat 1 apogee motor The Meteosat 1 apogee motor has finally been cataloged by Space Command. The motor has been assigned international designation 1977-108D and catalog number 13907. Until around Oct 1, 13907 was assigned to a piece of debris from a 1967 explosion, 1967-01AB. This debris object was in an elliptical orbit of 292 x 17909 km x 24 deg on Sep 30, it's not clear where it is in the catalog now. The practice of reassigning previously used catalog numbers is really confusing, and I do wish Space Command wouldn't do it. It's not like they are going to run out of positive integers, after all... Meteosat 1 was launched on 1977 Nov 23 and ejected its apogee motor after reaching geostationary orbit some days later. There's some confusion as to what apogee motor was used - ESA bulletin 85 implies an Aerojet solid motor, probably an SVM-5; other sources which say it used an Italian SNIA/BPD solid motor derived from the one developed for the Europa program are probably incorrect. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 8 2113 Iridium SV77) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 51E Iridium SV79) Comsat 51D Iridium SV80) Comsat 51C Iridium SV81) Comsat 51B Iridium SV82) Comsat 51A Sep 9 2029 Globalstar FM5 ) Zenit-2 Baykonur Comsat F05 Globalstar FM7 ) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM9 ) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM10) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM11) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM12) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM13) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM16) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM17) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM18) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM20) Comsat F05 Globalstar FM21) Comsat F05 Sep 16 0631 PAS 7 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 52A Sep 23 0506 Orbcomm FM21 ) Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops I Comsat 53A Orbcomm FM22 ) Comsat 53B Orbcomm FM23 ) Comsat 53C Orbcomm FM24 ) Comsat 53D Orbcomm FM25 ) Comsat 53E Orbcomm FM26 ) Comsat 53F Orbcomm FM27 ) Comsat 53G Orbcomm FM28 ) Comsat 53H Sep 28 2341 Molniya-1T? Molniya-M Plesetsk Comsat 54A Oct 3 1004 STEX ) ARPA Taurus Vandenberg 576E Technol. 55A ATEX ) Oct 5 2251 Eutelsat W2 ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 56A Sirius 3 ) Comsat 56B Oct 9 2250 Hot Bird 5 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 57A Oct 20 0719 UHF F/O F9 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 58A Oct 21 1637 ARD ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Technol. Maqsat 3) Technol. 59A Oct 23 0002 SCD-2 Pegasus Canaveral RW02/20 Rem.Sens. 60A Oct 24 1208 Deep Space 1) Delta 7326 Canaveral SLC17A Probe 61A SEDSAT 1 ) Amateur 61B Oct 25 0414 Progress M-40 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 62A Oct 28 2216 Afristar ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Radio com 63A GE 5 ) Comsat 63B Oct 29 1919 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 64A Spacehab ) Laboratory 64A Oct 30 1845 PANSAT - Discovery, LEO Test sat 64B Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 OV-103 Discovery LEO STS-95 Oct 29 OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 ? OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-88 Dec 3 MLP2/ LC39B MLP3/RSRM-67/ET-97/OV-105 LC39A STS-88 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'