Shuttle and Stations
--------------------
Progress M1-4 undocked from Zarya's nadir port at 1126 UTC on Feb 8.
According to Chris van den Berg, it was deorbited over the Pacific
and reentered at 1350 UTC the same day.
Atlantis rolled out to the pad on Jan 26 after further wiring checks.
Launch occurred on Feb 7 at 2313:02 UTC. The solid rocket boosters
separated at 2315 UTC and the main engines cut off at 2321 UTC, followed
10 seconds later by separation of the external tank. The Orbiter and the
ET were then in a 74 x 323 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the spacecraft was
easily visible from Harvard as it passed above the Boston skyline. At
2357 UTC the OMS engines fired for the OMS-2 burn which raised Atlantis'
orbit to 204 x 322 km x 51.6 deg while the ET fell back for impact in
the Pacific. Atlantis docked with Station at 1651 UTC on Feb 9. Docking
was at the PMA-3 port on Unity's nadir.
Crew of STS-98 are Ken Cockrell (commander), Mark Polansky (pilot),
Robert Curbeam, Marsha Ivins and Thomas Jones (mission specialists).
Polansky was a support crewmember on the Chandra/STS-93 mission and
those of us on the Chandra team congratulate him on his first
spaceflight.
Meanwhile, Discovery is now in the VAB and has been connected to
the external tank in preparation for mission STS-102.
On Feb 8, Mir was in a 275 x 296 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Perigee
has been decreasing at about 1 km/day.
Current Launches
----------------
GPS spacecraft SVN 54 (GPS Block IIR production no. SV 14) was launched
on Jan 30 by a Boeing Delta 7925. This is the 7th IIR to be launched.
The GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites provide navigation
signals using on-board atomic clocks; following Block I, II and IIA
constellations, launches of Block IIR replenishment satellites
began in Jan 1997.
Launch was at 0755 UTC; the Delta stage two, powerered by an Aerojet
AJ10-118K liquid N2O4/AZ-50 engine, entered a 175 x 390 km x 36.9 deg
parking orbit at 0806 UTC. It restarted at 0815 UTC to raise the orbit
to 189 x 1265 km x 37.2 deg (prelaunch estimate) and released the third
stage; most of the second stage depletion burn went into a plane change,
after which the second stage was in a 169 x 1277 km x 32.6 deg orbit.
The Thiokol Star 48B solid motor propelled the payload into a 160 x
20397 km x 39.1 deg transfer orbit and separated at 0820 UTC. On its
10th transfer orbit apogee, GPS SVN 54 fired its onboard Thiokol Star
37FM solid apogee motor and entered a 20104 x 20266 km x 55.0 deg orbit.
The orbit will be refined to an 11hr 58min period (half of the
geostationary period). The satellite will transmit navigation signals as
PRN 18 and will be placed in slot E4 of the GPS system. SVN 54 was built
by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale. The GPS program is managed by USAF SMC at
Los Angeles AFB, and the satellites are operated by 2 SOPS (the 2nd
Space Operations Squadron of USAF Space Command) at Schriever AFB,
Colorado.
Arianespace launched an Ariane 44L from Kourou just minutes before the
launch of STS-98 from Kennedy Space Center - it's very unusual for CSG
and KSC/CCAFS launches to be so close together because they often share
downrange tracking, although the high inclination Shuttle launch didn't
clash. The Ariane carried Skynet 4F, a communications satellite for the
UK Ministry of Defense, and Sicral, (Sistema Italiana de Communicazione
Riservente Allarmi) a communications satellite for the Italian defense
ministry's procurement division, the Segretariato Generale della
Difesa's Direzione Nazionale degli Armamenti. Sicral is built by Alenia
Aerospazio and derived from the Italsat series. Its mass is 2596 kg
full, 1253 kg dry and it carries a liquid apogee engine, possibly an
Astrium S400 although I haven't confirmed this yet. Skynet 4F is the
last of the venerable ECS (European Communications Satellite) class of
satellites and was built by Astrium/Stevenage. It carries a Thiokol Star
30 apogee motor and its mass is 1489 kg full, 830 kg dry - a dry mass
more than twice the first OTS. The OTS/ECS satellites were the first
European-developed operational communications satellites, after
groundwork laid by two experimental French/German Symphonie satellites
in the 1970s.
History of OTS/ECS satellites
Name Launch date Operator Dry mass Apogee motor type
1 OTS 1 1977 Sep 13 ESA 390 kg Aerojet SVM-7 (Launch failed)
2 OTS 2 1978 May 11 ESA 390 Aerojet SVM-7
3 Marecs 1 1981 Dec 20 ESA 400? TE-M-700-5
4 Marecs B 1982 Sep 9 ESA 400? TE-M-700-9 (Launch failed)
5 ECS 1 1983 Jun 16 Eutelsat 500 Mage 2
6 ECS 2 1984 Aug 4 Eutelsat 500 Mage 2
7 Telecom 1A 1984 Aug 4 France Tel 653 Mage 2
8 Marecs 2 1984 Nov 10 ESA 400? Mage 2
9 Telecom 1B 1985 May 8 France Tel 701 Mage 2
10 ECS 3 1985 Sep 12 Eutelsat 500 Mage 2 (Launch failed)
11 ECS 4 1987 Sep 16 Eutelsat 700? Mage 2
12 Telecom 1C 1988 Mar 11 France Tel 704 Mage 2
13 ECS 5 1988 Jul 21 Eutelsat 700 Mage 2
14 Skynet 4B 1988 Dec 11 UK MoD 655 TE-M-700-19
15 Skynet 4A 1990 Jan 1 UK MoD 655 TE-M-700-19
16 Skynet 4C 1990 Aug 30 UK MoD 655 TE-M-700-19
17 NATO 4A 1991 Jan 8 NATO 731 TE-M-700-19
18 NATO 4B 1993 Dec 8 NATO 731 TE-M-700-19
19 Skynet 4D 1998 Jan 10 UK MoD 760 TE-M-700-19
20 Skynet 4E 1999 Feb 26 UK MoD 760 TE-M-700-19
21 Skynet 4F 2001 Feb 7 UK MoD 830 TE-M-700-19
The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, launched in 1992, was switched off on
Feb 2. NASA decided to terminate funding for the mission, even though
the spacecraft was still operating well. EUVE was launched on 1992 June
7 into a 514 km x 528 km x 28.4 deg orbit. It carried three sky survey
scanner EUV telescopes and a deep survey telescope with a 1.4m focal
length and a 2-degree field of view. The sky survey was completed in Jan
1993 and since then EUVE has been used by guest astronomers for
observations of specific targets. Most EUV observations are of nearby
stars and the interstellar medium, since hydrogen absorption makes the
galaxy almost opaque at EUV (0.01-0.09 micron) wavelengths, but a few
extragalactic objects do shine through. The EUVE project was led by
Berkeley, and in 1997 the Center for EUV Astrophysics at Berkeley took
over operational control of the satellite. It is now in a 424 x 433 km x
28.4 deg orbit and will probably reenter next year. The final
observations were made on Jan 26. After end-of-life tests of the
never-used backup high voltage supplies and checking the remaining
battery capacity, EUVE was stabilized pointing away from the Sun and
sent into safehold at 2359 UTC on Jan 31. The transmitters were
commanded off on Feb 2.
History of NASA's Delta-class Explorers
---------------------------------------
Launch End of ops Current orbit
Int'l Sun-Earth Explorer 1 ISEE-1 1977 Oct 22 1987 Sep 26 Reentered 1987
Int'l Ultraviolet Explorer IUE 1978 Jan 26 1996 Sep 30 29474 x 42211 x 38
Int'l Sun-Earth Explorer 3 ISEE-3 1978 Aug 12 1997 May 5 Solar orbit
Dynamics Explorer 1 DE-1 1981 Aug 3 1991 Feb 28 581 x 23192 x 88
Dynamics Explorer 2 DE-2 1981 Aug 3 1983 Feb 19 Reentered 1983
Solar Mesosphere Explorer SME 1981 Oct 6 1986 Dec Reentered 1991
Charge Composition Explorer AMPTE-CCE 1984 Aug 16 1989 Jan 1102 x 49679 x 3
Cosmic Background Explorer COBE 1989 Nov 18 1997 May 1 873 x 887 x 99
Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer EUVE 1992 Jun 7 2001 Feb 2 424 x 433 x 28
X-ray Timing Explorer RXTE 1995 Dec 30 Operational 540 x 555 x 23
Advanced Composition Explorer ACE 1997 Aug 25 Operational Earth-Sun L1
Far UV Spectroscopic Explorer FUSE 1999 Jun 24 Operational 751 x 766 x 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: I include FUSE since it was originally planned as a Delta Explorer,
and although later descoped it does not fit in other Explorer subcategories.
ISEE-1 was the first Delta-launched Explorer following the ending
of the numbered Explorers.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jan 9 1700 Shenzhou 2 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 01A
Jan 10 2209 Turksat 2A Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Commsat 02A
Jan 24 0428 Progress M1-5 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 03A
Jan 30 0755 Navstar GPS 54 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navsat 04A
Feb 7 2306 Sicral ) Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Commsat 05A
Skynet 4F ) Commsat 05B
Feb 7 2313 Atlantis (STS-98))Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 06A
Destiny ) Module
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 1 STS-102 2001 Mar 8 ISS 5A.1
OV-104 Atlantis LEO STS-98 2001 Feb 7 ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-100 2001 Apr 19 ISS 6A
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
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