Jonathan's Space Report Dec 27 1990 (no.63) ---------------------------------------------------- Columbia returned to KSC on Dec 20 and will be stored in the VAB prior to processing for STS-40. Discovery is being prepared for the STS-39 mission. The STS-39 external tank was mated to the solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building this week. STS schedule: STS-39 February Discovery AFP-675 and IBSS STS-37 April Atlantis Gamma Ray Observatory STS-40 May Columbia Spacelab Life Sciences 1 Afans'ev and Manarov continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-11 complex. Kosmos-1631 reentered on Dec 8. It was a radar calibration satellite. The Pakistani amateur radio satellite BADR-A reentered on Dec 8. The Kosmos-2102 recon satellite reentered on Dec 12, completing its 2 month mission as predicted in issue 57. Kosmos-2109, 2110, and 2111 were launched on Dec 8 by a single Proton vehicle from Baykonur. They are GLONASS navigation satellites, the Soviet version of the American Navstar GPS system, in 20000 km high orbits at 65 degree inclination. Kosmos-2112 was launched on Dec 12 by the R-14 based Kosmos launch vehicle from Plesetsk. It is in a 700 km orbit at 74 degrees inclination, and believed to be a store-dump communications relay satellite used by the Soviet military or the KGB. ___________________________________ |Current STS status: | |Orbiters | | | |OV-102 Columbia VAB | |OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 | |OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2 | | | |ML/ET/SRB stacks | | | |ML2/STS-39/ET VAB Bay 1 | ----------------------------------- (c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell