Jonathan's Space Report No. 179 1994 Jan 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shuttle ------- Discovery has been moved to the VAB and mated to the external tank for mission STS-60. Launch is due for Feb 3. Mir --- Transport spaceship Soyuz TM-18 was launched on Jan 8 from Baykonur (planned launch time was 1008 UTC) carrying the EO-15 crew, callsign 'Derbent'. Crew commander is Viktor Afanas'ev of the Russian Air Force cosmonaut corps; flight engineer is Yuriy Usachyov of the NPO Energia cosmonaut corps; the third member of the crew is Dr. Valeriy Polyakov, head of the IMBP (Institute of Medical-Biological Problems) physician-cosmonaut team. Polyakov, a cosmonaut since 1972, has made one flight in space to date, a 240-day tour of duty as Medic-researcher ("vrach-issledotvatel'") on the EO-3 expedition in 1988-89. The only other IMBP team member to have flown is Oleg At'kov, who was Cosmonaut-researcher ("kosmonavt-issledovatel'") on the Soyuz T-10 (EO-3) expedition to Salyut-7 in 1984. I don't know what Poyakov's title on this mission is yet. Afanas'ev has also flown in space before, as commander of the EO-8 expedition to Mir in 1990-1991. The EO-14 crew of Vasiliy Tsibliev and Aleksandr Serebrov are preparing to return to Earth after a week-long handover period. Afanas'ev and Usachyov will stay on the station for six months, and will be replaced by a joint Russian-Kazakh crew. If all goes according to plan, Polyakov will stay on Mir until mid 1995, setting a new space endurance record. Launches -------- Two comsats were launched on Dec 18 by Ariane from Kourou in Guiane. DBS 1 is a Hughes HS-601 satellite owned by DirecTV, itself a Hughes subsidiary. The satellite has 16 Ku-band transponders and will beam a high power TV signal to small rooftop home receivers in the US. The satellite will be used by DirecTV and USSB (US Satellite Broadcasting). Thaicom 1, the other Ariane payload, is another Hughes satellite, of the older HS-376 type. It is owned by Shinawatra Computer Co, of Bangkok, and operated by them for the Thai Ministry of Transport and Communications. It is a hybrid comsat with 10 C-band and 2 Ku-band transponders. Date Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 2 1210 Kosmos-2266 Kosmos Plesetsk LC132 Navsat 70A Nov 5 0825 Kosmos-2267 Soyuz Baykonur LC1 Recon 71A Nov 18 1355 Rimsat/Gorizont Proton Baykonur LC81 Comsat 72A Nov 20 0117 Solidaridad 1 ) Ariane Kourou ELA2 Comsat 73A Meteosat 6 ) Weather 73B Nov 28 2340 DSCS III Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36 Comsat 74A Dec 2 0927 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39 Spaceship 75A Dec 8 0048 NATO IVB Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17 Comsat 76A Dec 16 0040 Telstar 401 Atlas Centaur Canaveral LC36 Comsat 77A Dec 18 0127 DBS 1 ) Ariane Kourou ELA2 Comsat 78A Thaicom 1 ) 78B Dec 22 Molniya-1T Molniya Plesetsk Comsat 79A Jan 8 Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz Baykonur Spaceship Reentries --------- Dec 16 Kosmos-2223 Deorbited Dec 18 Kosmos-2262 Landed Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-62 OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 STS-60 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-59 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-36? VAB Bay 1 STS-62 ML2/ ML3/RSRM-35?/ET-61/OV-103 VAB Bay 3 STS-60 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ,