Jonathan's Space Report No. 520 2004 Feb 11, Somerville, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Progress No. 248 (M-48) cargo ship was undocked from Zvezda at 0835:56 on Jan 28 and deorbited at 1311 UTC over the Pacific, completing the ISS 12P mission. The new cargo ship, Progress No. 260 (Progress M1-11) was launched from Baykonur on Jan 29 at 1158:08 on ISS mission 13P and docked with the Zvezda module on the Space Station at 1313:11 UTC on Jan 31. The new Progress carries cargo including experiments for the ESA/Netherlands DELTA mission and two new Orlan spacesuits, serials M-25 and M-26. It also carries a replacement flexhose for the Destiny lab window (culprit in last month's air leak) and equipment to be installed on Zvezda to support docking by the new European ATV cargo ship Jules Verne. Opportunity began roving on Mars at 0950 UTC on Jan 31. (Parachute and heat shield separation time for Opportunity was of course 0452-0453 UTC on Jan 25, not 0504 UTC as I said in JSR 519.) Opportunity has now peeped over the crater rim and seen its parachute and backshell lying on the Meridiani plains beyond. Spirit's file system was reformatted on Feb 4 and it has now resumed its exploration of the Gusev region. Location of the MER landings: (Areocentric) (IAU Areographic) Spirit 14.57S 175.47E 14.93S 184.53W Opportunity 1.95S 354.47E 1.98S 5.53W (While one JPL release gave the Spirit location to 0.0001 deg, their superimposed image is significantly off the later known location of the lander. Anyone who has more accurate coords, please forward them - I'd like to catalog the separate positions of the heat shields and backshells, which are about 0.01 deg away from the landers). SES Americom's AMC-10 satellite was launched on Feb 5 by a Lockheed Martin/ILS Atlas IIAS from Cape Canaveral. The satellite is a Lockheed Martin A2100 with a launch mass of 2315 kg and 907 kg dry (Thanks to David Legangneux for the mass data). After launch at 2346 UTC, Centaur AC-165 reached a 185 x 185 km orbit at 2355 UTC. The second Centaur burn at 0009 UTC on Feb 6 put the satellite in geostationary transfer orbit. AMC-10 will replace Satcom C-4. The AMC (Americom) series of satellites descends from the original RCA Americom system first launched in 1975 as one of the earliest private telecom satellite networks. Cutting Space Science? ---------------------------------- Although the President's 2005 budget request to Congress includes an overall small increase for NASA to pay for new human space exploration, some aspects of space science and astronomy are under the axe. The detailed status of the NASA space science budget remains unclear, but the overall picture is not encouraging, with immediate cuts to some programs and a forecast of a long term continuing (inflation-adjusted) decrease for overall science to pay for the new human exploration intiative. The total extrasolar astronomy budget (Origins and SEU themes) has remained stable this year, but there have been major reallocations with no consultation with the science peer-review community. Although some programs such as the JWST infrared telescope and the search for extrasolar planets have managed to argue that they are part of `exploration' and for now survive unscathed or even boosted (until the real costs of the CEV program require further cuts) some of the most scientifically successful parts of NASA, including the Explorer program and the Structure/Evolution of the Universe theme (SEU) appear to be facing a bleak long-term future. Cuts are being made to the Explorer program previously extolled as a flagship example of a federal program (recent Explorer missions included WMAP, which determined the age of the Universe). MIDEX and SMEX missions are to be delayed and cut back. (One colleague commented that the idea that the Explorers don't do exploration was 'positively Orwellian'). Money is also being taken from the budget of the Constellation X mission, highly rated by the National Academy of Sciences; the mission will be postponed for an unknown amount of time. The Beyond Einstein probes, previously expected to start getting funding this year, are to be indefinitely delayed. Editorial (last one for a while I hope) --------- While the Station program was over budget and slipping, and the Mars probes were failing, missions like the Explorers and Chandra were a bright spot for NASA. Now our hard work and success are to be rewarded with significant cutbacks. Let me say it clearly: I support the idea of an enhanced human exploration program, but I strongly oppose paying for it at the cost of losing the successors to Chandra and WMAP, and the chance of a partial replacement for Hubble (which JWST is not). I believe there is strong public support for basic research, there are clear technological and educational benefits to understanding the extreme physics these missions study, and the US national interest would be best served by protecting the relatively small amount of money in the successful and productive program to study the deep universe, even at the cost of slight stretchout of the ambitious exploration program. At the very least, the space community should be aware that these decisions are being made rather than passing over them in silence - it's such a small part of the budget that analyses in magazines like AvWeek didn't mention it. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 11 0413 Estrela do Sul Zenit-3SL Odyssey Comms 01A Jan 29 1158 Progress M1-11 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 02A Feb 5 2346 AMC-10 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36A Comms 03A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'