Jonathan's Space Report Mar 19 1991 (no.68) ---------------------------------------------------- Launch of STS-37/Atlantis and the Gamma Ray Observatory remains due for early April. Atlantis is on pad LC39B. Viktor Afanas'ev and Musa Manarov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11/Progress M-6 complex. More spacewalks are planned in the next month. Manarov now holds the record for cumulative time spent in space. Kosmos-2136 was launched on Mar 6 by Soyuz from Plesetsk. It is in a reconaissance satellite type orbit, but seems to have unusually low drag as its orbit is decaying rather slowly. A classified Department of Defense satellite, USA-69 = 1991-17A was launched by a Titan IV rocket from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg AFB, California on Mar 8. Press reports claim that the satellite is a Lacrosse radar imaging satellite. ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 | |OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 | |OV-104 Atlantis LC39B | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML1/STS-37/ET/OV-104 LC39B | |ML2/STS-39/ET VAB Bay 3 | |ML3/STS-40 VAB Bay 1?| ----------------------------------- 10 years ago: 19 Mar 1981 The Progress-12 cargo craft undocked from the Salyut-6 space station and was deorbited over the Pacific. 20 years ago: 21 Mar 1971 The first of the NSA's JUMPSEAT electronic intelligence satellites was launched by a Titan IIIB/Agena D rocket from Vandenberg into highly elliptical orbit. 30 years ago: 24 Mar 1961. A Redstone rocket was flown on the Mercury-Redstone Booster Development (MR-BD) flight, a final test of the Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle prior to Alan Shepard's piloted flight. (c) 1991 Jonathan McDowell. Information in this report is obtained from public sources and does not reflect the official views of NASA. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (205)544-7724 | | Space Science Lab ES65 | uucp: | | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center | bitnet : | | Huntsville AL 35812 | inter : mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov | | USA | span : ssl::mcdowell | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'