Jonathan's Space Report Oct 16 1990 (no.56) ---------------------------------------------------- Atlantis has been rolled out to the pad for mission STS-38. Columbia has been rolled out for another tanking test. Discovery is on its way back to Florida. Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-10/Progress M-5 complex. They will make an EVA in a few days. A Chinese Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW, experimental recoverable satellite) was launched on Oct 5 by CZ-2C launch vehicle from Jiuquan. It will probably stay in orbit for 8 days. The flight is the first Chinese life sciences mission. Two Hughes communications satellites, SBS 6 and Galaxy VI, were launched on an Ariane 44L vehicle, flight V39, from Kourou on Oct 12. SBS has a complicated history. In 1980, Satellite Business Systems, a consortium of IBM, Aetna, and Comsat, launched its first satellite for Ku-band (14/12 GHz) business data relay services. In Jul 1984, Comsat left the consortium. In Jul 1985, Satellite Business Systems was sold to MCI; four satellites were now in orbit. Then, in (I think) 1987, the fleet was sold off. SBS 1 and 2 were sold to Comsat, SBS 3 remained with MCI, and SBS 4 was sold to IBM's Satellite Transponder Leasing Corp (STLC) together with the SBS 5 and 6 satellites still on the ground. Finally, in Apr 1990, Hughes Communications Inc (HCI) bought STLC from IBM. This leaves the fleet as follows: Satellite/type Launch Date Vehicle Owner Owner (at launch) (now) SBS 1 HS376 1980 Nov 15 Delta 153 SBS Comsat Corp SBS 2 HS376 1981 Sep 24 Delta 156 SBS Comsat Corp SBS 3 HS376 1982 Nov 11 STS 5 SBS MCI Comms. Corp SBS 4 HS376 1984 Aug 16 STS 41-D SBS Hughes HCI SBS 5 HS376 1988 Sep 8 Ariane V25 IBM STLC Hughes HCI SBS 6 HS393 1990 Oct 12 Ariane V39 Hughes HCI Hughes HCI There are no more SBS satellites to come. (It's possible I may have got some of this story wrong, and I welcome additions/corrections). ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia LC39B | |OV-103 Discovery Eglin AFB | |OV-104 Atlantis LC39A | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML3/STS-35/ET/OV102 LC39B | |ML1/STS-38/ET/OV104 LC39A | |ML2 VAB | ----------------------------------- (c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell