Jonathan's Space Report No. 419 2000 Jan 28 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Stations -------------------- Mission STS-99 is scheduled for launch on Jan 31 carrying Space Radar Lab 3, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Orbiter Endeavour's payload bay contains: Bay 1-2: External Airlock Bay 3 Port: Portable Foot Restraint on GABA sidewall carrier Bay 6: Antenna Trunnion Structure Bay 8-9: Spacelab Pallet Bay 11: Antenna Trunnion Structure Mounted on the pallet and the two ATS devices is the large imaging radar payload consisting of the SIR-C C-band/L-band radars and the international X-SAR X-band radar, as well as the ADAM mast which will extend to 60m length carrying an 360 kg, 8-m long outboard radar for interferometric imaging. The outboard mast is a new development, the rest of the payload is similar to the configuration flown on SRL-1 and SRL-2 in 1994 (STS-59 and STS-68). Sponsors of the mission are NIMA (the National Imagery and Mapping Agency), NASA, DLR (Germany) and ASI (Italy); the mission is managed by JPL. Crew are Keven Kregel (CDR), Dom Gorie (Pilot), Janet Kavandi (MS, NASA), Janice Voss (MS, NASA), Mamoru Mohri (MS, NASDA-Japan), Gerhard Thiele (MS, ESA). Recent Launches --------------- The first launch of 2000 was Lockheed Martin Astronautics's Atlas AC-138. The Atlas IIA rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and placed a Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge DSCS III satellite in geostationary transfer orbit, attached to an IABS upper stage. The DSCS III, serial number B-8, is part of the US Air Force's Defense Satellite Communications System and will be parked over the Pacific. Mass is about 900 kg dry. AC-138 entered a 148 x 899 km x 29.3 deg parking orbit at 0113 UTC on Jan 21. At 0125 UTC the Centaur reignited for its second burn and delivered the payload to a 240 x 35253 km x 26.1 deg geostationary transfer orbit. On Jan 22 the IABS was scheduled to make its apogee burn. The IABS carries two Marquardt R-4D engines to place the DSCS in geostationary orbit. Arianespace launched an Ariane 4 (42L model) on Jan 25. Payload was the Hughes HS-601HP satellite Galaxy 10R, which will supplement Panamsat's Galaxy cable TV distribution constellation. Galaxy 10R,with a dry mass of 1987 kg, is a replacement for Galaxy 10, lost on the first Delta 3 launch failure. It carries Ku and C band transponders and will be parked at 127 deg W. The Ariane 4, flight V126, had two strap-on liquid boosters. The three stage vehicle flew from the ELA 2 pad on the coast of French Guiana directly to a 217 x 33232 km x 7.0 deg geostationary transfer orbit. Zhongxing-22, launched on Jan 25 by Chang Zheng 3A from Xichang, is a Chinese comsat. The CZ-3A is a three-stage launch vehicle with a liquid hydrogen upper stage; this was its fourth flight, although the CZ3B (with 5 flights) is basically the same vehicle with strapon boosters. The Zhongxing series of comsats has provided domestic Chinese communications since 1988 for the China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp, a division of the Chinese ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Early satellites were Chinese-built DFH-2A models, and later DFH-3 (Chinese-built but based on a German design). Zhongxing 5 and 7 where US-built satellites; the US government banned the delivery of Zhongxing 8, built by Loral and intended for launch last year. It's not clear what the significance of '22' in Zhongxing-22's name is. It's also not clear what kind of satellite Zhongxing-22 is; I'm guessing that it's a Chinese-built satellite, probably developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology in Beijing and probably derived from the DFH-3 (3-axis stablized) design which was of similar mass (launch mass of ZX-22 is 2300 kg). The DFH-3 has a liquid apogee engine probably derived from the MBB S400.It was reported in 1999 that the Feng Huo 1 (FH-1) satellite was to be launched by CZ-3A in early 2000; it is possible that ZX-22 is actually FH-1 by another name. Below I give the list of known Zhongxing satellites and their initial orbits (the final rocket stage from the ZX-2 launch was never tracked by Space Command). ZX-22 is the first domestic Chinese comsat to be placed in a slightly supersynchronous transfer orbit, although several CZ-3B flights with commercial Western payloads have used a similar transfer orbit. The high apogee supports the idea that ZX-22 has a liquid apogee engine rather than a solid motor. Satellite Type Launch Vehicle Initial orbit km x km x deg ZX-1 CAST DFH-2A 1988 Mar 7 CZ-3 182 x 35738 x 31.1 ZX-2 CAST DFH-2A 1988 Dec 22 CZ-3 ? ZX-3 CAST DFH-2A 1990 Feb 4 CZ-3 245 x 35523 x 30.7 ZX-4 CAST DFH-2A 1991 Dec 28 CZ-3 213 x 2455 x 31.0 (fail) ZX-5 LM 3000 Purchased 1993 Jun, was Spacenet 1 ZX-6 CAST DFH-3 1994 Nov 29 CZ-3A 246 x 36052 x 28.1 ZX-7 Hughes HS-376 1996 Aug 18 CZ-3 200 x 17329 x 27.2 (fail) ZX-6 (R) CAST DFH-3 1997 May 11 CZ-3A 211 x 35884 x 28.5 ZX-22 CAST? 2000 Jan 25 CZ-3A 493 x 42266 x 24.9 Jan 27 saw the first launch from the California Spaceport, a commercial pad on a leased site at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The CLF (Commercial Launch Facility) is near the SLC-6 complex on South Vandenberg. The launch was the debut of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur, which uses Minuteman and Pegasus/Taurus stages. The Minotaur is the space launch vehicle for the USAF Orbital/Suborbital Program which uses refurbished hardware for small missions; USAF refer to it with the acronym OSPSLV (Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle), which doesn't seem any quicker to type than Minotaur. The Minotaur first stage is the M55A1 (Minuteman 2 stage 1); the second stage is the Aerojet SR19 (Minuteman 2 stage 2). The third stage is the Alliant Orion 50XL (Pegasus stage 2) and the final stage is the Orion 38 (Pegasus stage 3). The first three stages burned for 3 min 20 s, after which the vehicle coasted to apogee and the fourth stage ignited at T+10 min 15s to enter a 746 x 810 km x 100.2 deg polar orbit. This is the first orbital launch to use Minuteman hardware. The US has previously used refurbished Thor, Atlas and Titan missiles as space launch vehicles. The Space Test Program P98-1 mission consists of a large collection of small satellites aboard the Minotaur launch. JAWSAT, the USAF's Joint AF Academy/Weber State Satellite, is a 64 kg satellite carrying a plasma experiment and a particle detector as well as a technology test. FALCONSAT is a 15 kg USAF Academy satellite, I don't know what its payload is (their web site describes four possible payloads but doesn't specify which one was selected for flight). OCSE is the Optical Calibration Sphere Experiment, a 3.5m diameter inflatable sphere built by L'Garde Inc. for calibrating the lasers at the AFRL Starfire Optical Range. Mass of OCSE plus container is 22 kg. The 0.48m long 0.41m diameter OCSE canister was ejected from the JAWSAT stack; 42 seconds later, with the canister clear of the other payloads, the canister door opened and 10 seconds after that inflation of the sphere began (At this writing, successful sphere inflation has not yet been confirmed). The canister remains attached to the inflated sphere. Once inflated, the sphere's material becomes rigidized - I've handled samples of this stuff, and you'd never believe it had been inflated, its consistency is something like hard PVC or maybe bamboo... light and striated but definitely solid. ASUSAT is a 5 kg Arizona State University satellite with an Earth imager and an amateur radio transponder. OPAL is Stanford University's 13 kg Orbiting Picosat Automated Launcher. which carries an acclerometer and a magnetometer and four even smaller satellites called `picosatellites'. The 0.5 kg STENSAT, built by an AMSAT-NA group, carries an amateur radio transponder. The 0.25 kg DARPA/Aerospace Corp. MEMS (Micro Electro-mechanical Systems) picosatellites, carry an intersatellite communications experiment and are connected by a 30-m tether. Santa Clara University's Artemis 0.6 kg picosatellite carries a VLF wave experiment. The picosatellites are still attached to OPAL and will be deployed later. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Dec 3 1623 Helios 1B ) Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Imaging 64A Clementine ) Sigint 64B Dec 3 1951 Mars Polar Lander MPL Cruise Stage Lander 01D? Dec 3 1951 Scott Probe ) MPL Cruise Stage Lander 01E? Amundsen Probe) Lander 01F? Dec 4 1853 Orbcomm FM30 ) Pegasus XL/HAPS Wallops Comsat 65A Orbcomm FM31 ) Comsat 65B Orbcomm FM32 ) Comsat 65C Orbcomm FM33 ) Comsat 65D Orbcomm FM34 ) Comsat 65E Orbcomm FM35 ) Comsat 65F Orbcomm FM36 ) Comsat 65G Dec 10 1432 XMM Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Astronomy 66A Dec 11 1940 SACI-2 VLS Alcantara Research F05 Dec 12 1738 DMSP 5D-3 F-15 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W Weather 67A Dec 18 1857 Terra Atlas 2AS Vandenberg SLC3E Rem.Sens. 68A Dec 20 0050 Discovery Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 69A Dec 21 0712 KOMPSAT ) Taurus Vandenberg 576E Imaging 70A ACRIMSAT ) Science 70B Celestis-03) Burial 70C Dec 22 0050 Galaxy 11 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 71A Dec 26 0800 Kosmos-2367 Tsiklon-2 Baykonur LC90 Recon 72A Dec 27 1913 Kosmos-2368 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC16 Early Warn 73A Jan 21 0103 DSCS III B-8 Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 01A Jan 25 0104 Galaxy 10R Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 02A Jan 25 1645 Zhongxing-22 CZ-3A Xichang LC2 Comsat 03A Jan 27 0303 JAWSAT ) Minotaur Vandenberg CLF Tech. 04E ASUSAT ) Img/Com 04A OPAL ) Tech. 04B OCSE ) Calib. 04C Falconsat ) Science? 04D Artemis ) Science STENSAT ) Comsat MEMS 1 ) Tech. MEMS 2 ) Tech. Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-92 2000? ISS 3A OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 2000 Mar 16 ISS 2A.2a OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-99 2000 Jan 31 SRTM MLP1/ MLP2/ LC39B MLP3/RSRM-71/ET-92/OV-105 LC39A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'