Jonathan's Space Report No. 148 1993 Mar 31 I'll be travelling for a couple of weeks so JSR will probably not appear for a while. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STS-55 and STS-56 ----------------- Analysis of the STS-55 launch pad abort is continuing. Contamination has been found in the failed main engine check valve. STS-56 has jumped the queue and is now due to launch on April 6 at 0532 UTC. STS-55 will follow, in late April, and STS-57 will fly in late May. Now that STS-57 has been mated to its tank and boosters, there are three complete Shuttle stacks at KSC. New Russian Launch Vehicle --------------------------- The first launch of the Start, a converted RS-12M (NATO designation SS-25) ICBM, was carried out from Plesetsk on Mar 25. It placed an test satellite in orbit, carrying a comsat made by NPO Kompleks. The orbit is 683 x 970 km inclined 75.8 degrees, similar to the orbits used for test launches of the Tsiklon rocket in 1977. The RS-12M was developed from the 1970's vintage RS-12 missile, known by NATO as SS-13. Both missiles were developed by the Nadiradize design bureau. This is the first time in many years that a Soviet military missile has been converted for space use; previous cases were the Korolev R-7 (1957, became Vostok/Soyuz launcher), the Yangel R-12 (1962, became original Kosmos launcher); the Yangel R-14 (1964, became current Kosmos launcher); and the Yangel R-36 (1966, used for military space projects; civilian modification Tsiklon introduced in 1977). The other Soviet launch vehicles (UR-500 Proton, N-1, Energiya, Zenit) were developed directly for space use. Atlas Failure ------------- General Dynamics' Atlas-Centaur AC-74 was launched at 2138 UTC on Mar 25. The Atlas lost some power during the booster burn, and the Centaur had to burn longer to make up and get into parking orbit. As a result, the second Centaur burn to transfer orbit ran out of fuel during the burn. The Hughes UHF Follow On (UFO) F1 satellite was left in a 219 x 9158 km x 27.3 deg orbit. The UFO F1 satellite is an HS-601 comsat built by Hughes, and currently owned by Hughes. It was to be delivered on-orbit to the US Navy to replace the Fltsatcom series of UHF communications satellites, hence the name. This is the third failure of the Atlas I class rocket in the last 4 launches; however, the Atlas II class rocket has not had any failures. Russian Launches ---------------- A geostationary satellite was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Mar 25. It hasn't reached its final position yet and I don't know what kind of satellite it is (the name Gorizont in the table below is just a guess). A signals intelligence satellite was launched by Zenit from Baykonur on Mar 26. Again, I don't know the correct name yet, but the orbit is one used by the latest generation of Kosmos electronic listening satellites. Launches -------- Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 25 0240? Gorizont? Proton Baykonur Comsat? 13A Mar 25 1330? Kosmos-2237? Start Plesetsk Comsat 14A Mar 25 2138 UFO 1 Atlas I Canaveral Comsat 15A Mar 26 0225? Kosmos-2238? Zenit Baykonur SIGINT 16A Mar 30 0309 Navstar GPS 31 Delta Canaveral Navsat 17A Reentries --------- Mar 11 Kosmos-1116 Reentered Mar 14 NSA B7 Reentered (1967-43B) Mar 16 DUVE Reentered Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia LC39A STS-55 OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-56 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-57 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/STS-56/ET/OV-103 LC39B ML2/STS-57/ET/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 ML3/STS-55/ET/OV-102 LC39A .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'