Jonathan's Space Report No. 135 1992 Dec 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cosmonauts Solov'yov and Avdeev continue in orbit aboard the Mir/Kvant/Kvant-2/Kristall/Soyuz TM-15/Progress M-15 orbital complex. On Nov 23 they ejected a small satellite, Mak-2, from one of the airlocks into a 392 x 397 km orbit inclined 51.6 deg. The precursor Mak-1 satellite, which was deployed in June 1991 but failed, carried an experiment to study plasma in the upper atmosphere. I don't have any details on Mak-2 yet, it may be a replacement. If anyone knows the payload or the deployment time please let me know. Discovery is on Pad 39A awating launch on mission STS-53 on Dec 2. Recent speculations by Sean Sullivan and Philip Chien passed on to me by Bruce Watson suggests that the payload is to enter an elliptical 12-hour orbit. This implies it is probably the second satellite in a series of highly classified electronic intelligence satellites which I refer to as Advanced JUMPSEAT. These satellites apparently are replacing the JUMPSEAT satellites launched by Titan 34B Agena D from 1971 to 1983. The JUMPSEAT satellites, also known as AFP 711, were built by Hughes Aircraft, who also built the LEASAT comsats. The unclassified payload bay drawings for STS-53 suggest a shape and size similar to LEASAT for the Adv JUMPSEAT, so I speculate that the propulsion system is the same, namely a UTC Orbus 7S solid perigee motor and a Marquardt R4D liquid apogee motor. Here is the launch history of the JUMPSEAT series as I have reconstructed it, but there are still some uncertainties: Satellite Launch Date Orbit Jumpseat 1 T3B-36 1971 Mar 21 390x33800x63.2 1971-21A Jumpseat 2 T3B-37 1972 Feb 16 Agena failed - Jumpseat 3 T3B-38 1973 Aug 21 460x39296x63.3 1973-56A Jumpseat 4 T3B-50 1975 Mar 10 295x39337x63.5 1975-17A Jumpseat 5 T34B-2 1978 Feb 25 805x34272x63.5 1978-21A Jumpseat 6 T34B-8 1981 Apr 24 700x39300x63?? 1981-38A Jumpseat 7 T34B-9 1983 Jul 28 1028x39321x63.4 1983-78A Adv Jumpseat 1 STS-28 1989 Aug 8 Unknown 1989-61B I had earlier speculated that the Titan 2 launches in Sep 1988, Sep 1989 and Apr 1992 were the Advanced JUMPSEAT payloads, but I now believe this to be incorrect; they remain among the most mysterious US military payloads; the launch of the second one was omitted from US reports to the UN in an unusual contravention of the treaty on registration of space objects. Kosmos-2221 was launched by Tsiklon from Plesetsk on Nov 24. It is an electronic intelligence spacecraft in a 650x 663 km x 82.5 deg orbit. Kosmos-2222, launched on Nov 25, is an early warning satellite in an elliptical 597x 39758 km x 62.90 deg orbit. Launches: Date Payload Rocket From Nov 20 1540? Kosmos-2220 Soyuz Plesetsk 77A Nov 21 1345 MSTI-1 Scout Vandenberg 78A Nov 22 2354 Navstar GPS 32 Delta 7925 Canaveral 79A Nov 23 Mak-2 - Mir 1986-17GX Nov 24 0420? Kosmos-2221 Tsiklon Plesetsk 80A Nov 25 1100? Kosmos-2222 Molniya Plesetsk 81A Nov 27 1325? ? Proton/Blok-DM Baykonur 82A Reentries: Date Nov 19 Molniya-1 (54) Nov 20 Kosmos-2210 [Landed in Kazakhstan?] Nov 22 Resurs-500 [Landed in Kazakhstan] Current Shuttle Processing Status ____________________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-55 OV-103 Discovery LC39A STS-53 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour VAB Bay 1 STS-54 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/STS-53/ET/OV-103 LC39A ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105 VAB Bay 1 ML3/STS-55 VAB Bay 3 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | | | Astrophysics | | | 60 Garden St, MS4 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | USA | | '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'