Jonathan’s Space Report, No. 433 25 August 2000
No. 433 2000 Aug 25, Cambridge, MA
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Historical note: SAMOS and Program 206
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The CIA’s CORONA spy satellite program has been discussed extensively
since it was declassified in 1995. Two other early 1960s US Air Force
spy satellite programs, SAMOS (largely unsuccessful) and Program 206 or
KH-7 (highly successful), have not been talked about as much. Although
the programs as a whole are still classified, for some years now there’s
been a lot of individual pieces of declassified information available
which allows their story to be told. However, little of it has been
widely published. Since there are rumours that declassification of at
least some more of the 1960s programs will happen soon, I thought it
would be a good time to review what’s already known about SAMOS and KH-7
from the spaceflight history point of view; I deliberately avoid
speculating about detailed intelligence capabilities of the systems,
although 35-40 years later few people consider them to be highly
sensitive. My new review of the SAMOS (Program 101, 101A, 101B, 201) and
KH-7 (Program 206) missions can be found on the web at
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/book/programs/nro/usafnro.html
Shuttle and Stations
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Atlantis was rolled out to pad 39B on Aug 14. It will fly mission
STS-106 to the International Space Station. Payload configuration on
STS-106 is similar to that on Atlantis’ previous STS-101 flight,
including the docking system, tunnel adapter, long tunnel, Spacehab
Double Module, and the Spacehab Integrated Cargo Carrier. I’m not sure
yet if any sidewall payloads are in the cargo bay.
The Progress M1-3 cargo ship remains docked to the ISS, which currently
consists of the PMA-2, Unity, PMA-1, Zarya, and Zvezda modules. Fuel was
automatically transferred from M1-3 to Zvezda within a few days of the
Aug 8 docking.
The Progress M1-2 cargo ship remains docked to the Mir orbital complex,
which also continues orbiting unattended by a crew.
Current Launches
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The third Boeing Delta III launch was completed successfully on Aug 23
and the dummy DM-F3 satellite was placed in orbit. Launch from Cape
Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 17B was at 1105 UTC on Aug 23. The
second stage ignited at 1109 UTC at an altitude of 158 km and shut off
with depletion at 1118 UTC in an approximately 157 x 1363 km x 29.5 deg
parking orbit. The RL-10 fired again at 1126 UTC and at 1129 UTC shut
off to place the vehicle in geostationary transfer orbit. The DM-F3
payload separated at 1141 UTC. Space Command initially cataloged the
payload in a marginal 51 x 19841 km x 28.0 deg orbit but a second
element set shows it at a more reasonable 190 x 20655 km x 27.6 deg. The
intended orbit was a much higher 183 x 25778 km x 27.5 deg according to
the press kit. This would correspond to a 0.15 km/s underspeed, but a
Boeing press release on Aug 24 said that because of the fuel
temperature and atmospheric conditions on the day of launch, the actual
expected apogee was 23400 km with an error of 3000 km, so the mission
was just within target limits. Since the flight was to fuel depletion
instead of targeting a specific orbit, the final orbit achieved does
depend on atmospheric density, although it’s a bit surprising to me that
the press kit didn’t include any expected range on the orbit given the
huge uncertainties in this case – this led to rumours of a failure
circulating on the day after launch.
The DM-F3 dummy payload is a mass model of the Orion 3 HS-601 satellite
launched on the second Delta 3. The 4348 kg satellite is a 2.0m
diameter, 1.7m high cylinder with two circular end plates, painted with
black and white patterns; it will be used by US Air Force researchers
as a calibration target. The satellite was built by Boeing/Huntington
Beach.
The Delta model 8930 first stage is derived from Thor, and the lower
section LOX tank retains Thor’s 2.44-meter diameter. The upper,
kerosene, tank has been enlarged to 4.0m diameter giving the stage an
unusual hammerhead shape. The stage retains Delta II’s Boeing Rocketdyne
RS-27A main engine. Like the Delta II 7925, it has nine Alliant strapon
solid boosters, but each booster is the larger GEM-46 instead of the
Delta II’s GEM-40. The Delta 3 Second Stage is an all-new liquid
hydrogen fuel upper stage with a Pratt and Whitney RL-10B-2 engine; the
Aug 23 flight was the first complete and successful flight of the stage
in space (the first Delta 3 was destroyed early in flight, and the
second had an RL-10 failure early in the second burn). The Delta 3 stage
is 8.8m long and 4.0m diameter, with a dry mass of 2476 kg.
Two communications satellites were launched on an Ariane 44LP rocket
from Kourou on Aug 17. The Arianespace rocket placed the satellites
in a 277 x 35745 km x 3.0 deg low-inclination geostationary transfer orbit.
The upper satellite on flight V131 was Brasilsat B4, for the Brazilian
communications company Embratel. This is the fourth and last of the
Brasilsat B series which use a unique Hughes HS-376W bus, based on the
old HS-376 spin-stabilized design but with a larger diameter and using
the R-4D liquid apogee motor instead of a solid apogee motor. Dry
mass of B4 is 820 kg and launch mass is 1750 kg. B4 is a C-band
satellite replacing the 15-year-old Brasilsat A2.
The lower satellite on this launch was Nilestar 102, for the Egyptian
communications company Nilesat SA. The satellite has a dry mass of 813
kg, a launch mass of 1827 kg, and is a Eurostar 2000 class bus built by
Astrium SAS of Toulouse (formerly Matra). The satellite will join
Nilesat 101 in providing Ku-band broadcast services.
A classified satellite was launched on a US Air Force/Lockheed Martin
Titan 4 from Vandenberg on Aug 17. The satellite, a payload for the
National Reconnaissance Office, is believed to be an ONYX (formerly
LACROSSE) radar imaging spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin. The Titan
4B, vehicle B-28, was launched from Space Launch Complex 4-East. The
Titan second stage reached a 572 x 675 km x 68.0 deg orbit and separated
from the payload. Amateur observers report the payload has made two
small maneuvers since then and on Aug 23 was in a 681 x 695 km x 68.1
deg orbit.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.Jul 4 2344 Kosmos-2371 Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200? Commsat 36A
Jul 12 0456 Zvezda Proton-K Baykonur LC81L Station 37A
Jul 14 0521 Echostar VI Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36B Commsat 38A
Jul 15 1200 CHAMP ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Science 39A
MITA ) Science 39B
Rubin ) Imaging 39C
Jul 16 0917 GPS SVN 44 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navsat 40A
Jul 16 1239 Samba ) Soyuz-Fregat Baykonur LC31 Science 41A
Salsa ) Science 41B
Jul 19 2009 Mightysat 2.1 Minotaur Vandenberg CLF Tech 42A
Jul 28 2242 PAS 9 Zenit-3SL Odyssey, POR Commsat 43A
Aug 6 1827 Progress M1-3 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 44A
Aug 9 1113 Rumba ) Soyuz-Fregat Baykonur LC31 Science 45A
Tango ) Science 45B
Aug 17 2316 Brasilsat B-4 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Commsat 46A
Nilesat 102 ) Commsat 46B
Aug 17 2345 USA 152 Titan 4B Vandenberg SLC4E Recon 47A
Aug 23 1105 DM-F3 Delta 8930 Canaveral SLC17B Test 48A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 3 STS-92 2000 Oct ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-106 2000 Sep ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-97 2000 Nov? ISS 4AMLP-1
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103/OV-104 LC39B STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104 VAB Bay 3 STS-92
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS6 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
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