Jonathan's Space Report No. 262 1995 Nov 1 Cambridge, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle ------- Columbia is in orbit on the STS-73 mission. On Oct 27 its orbit was 262 x 273 km x 39.0 deg. The mission is proceeding smoothly. Mir ---- The crew of Gidzenko, Avdeev and Reiter continue work aboard the Mir complex, in a 392 x 395 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The last major orbit raise for the complex was in May 1995 and it will probably be reboosted by 10 km or so in about a month. Recent Launches -------------- The first launch attempt of the Conestoga 1620 launch vehicle ended in failure on Oct 23. The vehicle was destroyed 45s into the first stage burn, at an altitude of 11 km. The Conestoga uses a Castor 4B first stage core with Castor 4A and Castor 4B strapons, and a Star 48V upper stage. Payload was EER Systems' Meteor commercial microgravity recoverable spacecraft. The UHF Followon F6 spacecraft, designated USA 114, was launched by Lockheed Martin Atlas II AC-119 into a 551.9 min, 320 x 31500 km x 27.0 deg subsynchronous transfer orbit on Oct 22. The AC-119 Centaur stage was left in a lower 267 x 27483 km x 27.0 deg orbit, presumably a propellant depletion burn was used to lower its apogee after separation. On Oct 25 the UHF payload fired its liquid apogee motor, raising its orbit to 7657 x 36612 km x 14.7 deg. It is to be stationed at 100 deg W, replacing Leasat 3 and providing UHF and EHF communications for the US Navy. On Oct 23 the Astra 1E television satellite raised its orbit from 25659 x 35737 km x 0.3 deg to 33680 x 36070 km x 0.2 deg. On Oct 20 Kosmos-2291, which was replaced at 80E last month, was still drifting west at 3 deg per day over 23E. On Oct 26 the Luch-1 spacecraft moved into geostationary orbit at 76.6E, although the orbit remains inclined at 3.0 deg. Kosmos-2322 was launched by a Zenit-2 launch vehicle on Oct 31 into a 851 x 877 km x 71.0 deg orbit. It is a Tselina-2 electronic intelligence spacecraft. The reentry vehicle of the Resurs-F2 spacecraft landed after a 30 day flight at 0537 UTC on Oct 26, 90 km SW of Troitsk in the Chelyabinsk region. On Sep 26 the Resurs-F2 was launched into a 180 x 247 km x 82.3 deg parking orbit, which was raised to a 230 x 234 km x 82.3 deg operational orbit on Sep 27. A small burn between Oct 6 and Oct 10 raised the decaying orbit from 226 x 232 km to 224 x 238 km. A similar trim burn was made on Oct 18. On Oct 23, a larger burn raised the orbit from 220 x 235 km to 255 x 278 km, and on Oct 26 the maneuvering engine and associated hardware were jettisoned prior to the deorbit burn. The Kosmos-2305 imaging recon satellite raised its orbit slightly on Oct 8, from 89.7min, 229 x 281 km x 64.9 deg to 89.9 min, 238 x 297 km x 64.9 deg. The previous such maneuver was carried out in early August. The orbit of its companion Kosmos-2320 spacecraft has decayed to only 89.6 min, 227 x 277 km and will probably be reboosted soon. Table of Recent Launches ------------------------ Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 3 0900 Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 47A Sep 7 1509 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 48A Sep 8 1543 Spartan-201 OV-105, LEO Astronomy 48B Sep 11 1125 WSF 2 OV-105, LEO Micrograv. 48C Sep 24 0006 Telstar 402R Ariane 4 Kourou ELA2 Comsat 49A Sep 26 1120 Resurs-F2 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43-4 Rem.sensing 50A Sep 29 0425 Kosmos-2320 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 51A Oct 6 0323 Kosmos-2321 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navsat 52A Oct 8 1851 Progress M-29 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 53A Oct 11 1626 Luch-1 Proton-K/DM2M Baykonur Data Relay 54A Oct 19 0038 Astra 1E Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 55A Oct 20 1353 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 56A Spacelab USML-2) Oct 22 0800 UHF F6 Atlas II Canaveral LC36 Comsat 57A Oct 23 2203 Meteor Conestoga 1620 Wallops LA0 Micrograv FTO Oct 31 2019 Kosmos-2322 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45L Sigint 58A Reentries --------- Sep 4 Progress M-28 Deorbited Sep 6 Kosmos-2314 Deorbited Sep 11 Soyuz TM-21 Landed in Kazakhstan Sep 18 Endeavour Landed at KSC Sep 29 ODERACS IIB Reentered Oct 26 Resurs-F2 Landed Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-73 OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-74 Nov 11 OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-72 Jan 11 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/RSRM-52 VAB STS-72 ML2/RSRM-51/ET-74/OV-104 LC39A STS-74 ML3/ .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'