Jonathan's Space Report No. 535 2004 Sep 24, Mumbai ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * EDUSAT The Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched the GSLV-F-01 rocket carrying the EDUSAT satellite on Sep 20 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota. The satellite reached a 162 x 35814 km x 19.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit. EDUSAT (GSAT-3) is a 820 kg satellite carrying 1130 kg of propellant and a 440N ISRO-built liquid apogee motor used on the larger INSAT 2/3 satellites; the satellite is 2.4 x 1.6m across at launch with a 10.9m span across the deployed solar panels. The launch is good news for ISRO, following a tragic explosion at the launch site in February in which six workers died. * SJ-6 China launched a pair of scientific satellites on Sep 8. Shi Jian 6A and Shi Jian 6B were carried on a single Chang Zheng 4B rocket from the Taiyuan space center. The satellites were inserted into a 590 x 602 km x 97.7 deg orbit, together with a small adapter. A fourth object in a lower, more eccentric 529 x 637 km orbit is probably the CZ-4B third stage rocket. * NROL-1 Reports from observers indicate that the Centaur AC-167 rocket is in a lower apogee orbit than anticipated, around 255 x 15370 km x 57.4 deg. A prelaunch announcement that the Centaur would deliver the payload to an 'ascent trajectory' suggests to me that this is the intended transfer orbit (rather than a failure) and the USA 179 payload will probably use (or has already used) an onboard engine to reach a final orbit which I still expect to have an apogee of around 39000 km. * 'Ofeq Noah Brosch informs me that, according to Israeli media, in the Sep 6 Israeli launch failure the third stage failed to separate from the second stage, preventing third stage burn. * Strela-3 Kosmos-2408 and 2409, two Strela-3 military communications satellites, were launched by a Kosmos-3M from Plesetsk on Sep 23. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Aug 3 0616 MESSENGER Delta 7925H Canaveral SLC17B Probe 30A Aug 4 2232 Amazonas Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 31A Aug 11 0503 Progress M-50 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 32A Aug 29 0750 JB-4? CZ-2C Jiuquan Imaging 33A Aug 31 2317 USA 179 (NROL-1) Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36A Comms? 34A Sep 6 1053 'Ofeq-6 Shaviyt Palmachim Imaging F01 Sep 8 2314 SJ-6A ) CZ-4B Taiyuan Science 35A SJ-6B ) Science 35B Sep 20 1031 EDUSAT GSLV SDSC Comms 36A Sep 23 1507 Kosmos-2408 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Comms 37A Kosmos-2409 ) Comms 37B .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'