Jonathan’s Space Report No. 435 21 September 2000
Note: The JSR web page will be updated rarely or not at all until my return
from England in mid-October.
Shuttle and Stations
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Orbiter OV-104 Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch
Complex 39B on 2000 Sep 8 at 1245:47 UTC. The solid rocket boosters,
serial RSRM-75, were jettisoned at about 2 minutes after launch at an
altitude of around 50 km. The orbiter, still connected to the external
tank, flew up the east coast of the US.
At 1253 UTC the main engines shut down (MECO) and ten seconds later
external tank ET-103 separated. The Shuttle and ET-103 were then in a
72 x 328 km x 51.6 deg transfer orbit. (Thanks NASA PAO for giving the
figures this time!). ET-103 reentered over the Pacific after one
orbit; the Shuttle fired its OMS engines at apogee to circularize
its own orbit.
Atlantis docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the International Space
Station at 0551 UTC on Sep 10. The orbiter’s small RCS engines were used
to gently reboost the station’s orbit several times.
Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on Sep 11. The airlock in
the Tunnel Adapter was depressurized starting at 0441 UTC. The suits
went to battery power at 0447 UTC; hatch open was at 0453 UTC. They rode
the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables at around 0600 UTC.
The astronauts reached a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when
installing Zvezda’s magnetometer. They returned to the airlock at 1051
UTC and closed the hatch at 1054 UTC. The airlock was repressurized
at 1102 UTC giving a depress duration of 6 hours 21 minutes.
Two new objects, 2000-53B and C, were cataloged by Space Command around
the time of the EVA and presumably are associated with it. Is anyone
aware of any object jettisoned by the crew? It looked like the
magnetometer cover was carefully stowed away…
The Shuttle undocked from ISS at 0344 UTC on Sep 18 and made two
circuits of the station each lasting half an orbit, before separating
finally at 0534 UTC. Your bleary-eyed correspondent can report that the
two spacecraft were an incredible sight in the dawn Boston sky at 0950
UTC the same day, flying a few degrees apart and each about as bright as
Jupiter.
The payload bay doors were closed at 0414 UTC on Sep 20 and at 0650 UTC
the OMS engines ignited for a three minute burn lowering the orbit from
374 x 386 km x 51.6 deg to 22 x 380 km x 51.6 deg. After entry interface
at 0725 UTC, the orbiter glided to a landing on runway 15 at Kennedy
Space Center with main gear touchdown at 0756:48 UTC for
a mission duration of 283hr 11min.
Meanwhile, Discovery is on the pad ready for the next mission, STS-92.
It will launch in early October and dock with PMA-2, the docking port on
the +Y port of the Space Station’s Unity module. The mission will carry
the orbiter docking system, the Z1 truss, a Spacelab pallet with the
PMA-3 docking unit, and two adapter beams carrying electronic control
units for Z1. Both the Z1 and the PMA-3 will be attached to the Unity
node. Z1 was built by Boeing/Canoga Park and is 3.5 x 4.5 meters in
size; it will be docked to the +Z port on Unity. PMA-3, built by
Boeing/Huntington Beach, will be docked to the -Z port opposite it.
(PMA-1, and Zarya, are docked to the -Y port; Unity’s two remaining
ports will later be used for the Airlock and the Cupola observation
area).
German Stepanovich Titov, the fourth human in space, died on Sep 20.
He was the pilot of Vostok-2.
Current Launches
—————-
Ariane 506 (flight V130) was launched on Sep 14 from Kourou. The Ariane
5 launch vehicle is Europe’s largest rocket, with two strapon solid
boosters (EAP) and a liquid hydrogen engined core stage (EPC), with a
storable propellant upper stage (EPS). The EPC main stage entered a
marginal orbit with an apogee around 1000 km and reentered over the
Galapagos. The EPS upper stage separated from the EPC ten minutes after
launch and burned to place Astra 2B and GE 7 in geostationary transfer
orbit. This is the fourth success in a row for Ariane 5 following two
early test failures.
Astra 2B is an Astrium/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+ television broadcast
satellite owned by the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene de Satellites.
Its dry mass is around 1400 kg and it carries about 1900 kg of fuel at
launch. The satellite will be stationed at 28.2E and will replace the
German DFS Kopernikus system. It carries 28 Ku-band transponders. Astra
2B is the 18th Eurostar 2000 launched. By Sep 19 Astra 2B was in a
31153 x 35762 km x 0.3 deg orbit, approaching geosynchronous altitude.
Here is a list of Eurostar 2000 satellites. Some of the dry masses are
guesses. I believe all ES2000 satellites use the Primex R-4D liquid
apogee engine. Transponder numbers should be considered approximate,
since some sources do or do not include ‘spare’ transponders.
Variant Satellite Launch Flight Mass Transponders
(dry, kg) (full, kg)ES2000 Telecom 2A 1991 Dec 16 Ariane V48 1130 2275 10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000 Telecom 2B 1992 Apr 15 Ariane V50 1124 2275 10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000 Hispasat 1A 1992 Sep 10 Ariane V53 1013 2194 12 Ku 4 X
ES2000 Hispasat 1B 1993 Jul 22 Ariane V58 1050 2206 12 Ku 4 X
ES2000 Telstar 11 1994 Nov 29 Atlas AC-110 1150? 2361 34 Ku
ES2000 Telecom 2C 1995 Dec 6 Ariane V81 1120 2283 10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000 Telecom 2D 1996 Aug 8 Ariane V90 1085 2260 10 C 11 Ku 5 X
ES2000+ Hot Bird 2 1996 Nov 21 Atlas AC-124 1150 2910 20 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 3 1997 Sep 2 Ariane V99 1280 2915 20 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 4 1998 Feb 27 Ariane V106 1310 2885 20 Ku
ES2000 Nilesat 101 1998 Apr 28 Ariane V108 795 1840 12 Ku
ES2000 ST-1 1998 Aug 25 Ariane V109 1502 3255 14 C 16 Ku
ES2000+ Hot Bird 5 1998 Oct 9 Atlas AC-134 1250? 3000? 22 Ku
ES2000+ Afristar 1998 Oct 28 Ariane V113 1216 2739 L-band
ES2000+ Asiastar 2000 Mar 21 Ariane-5 V128 1220 2777 L-band
ES2000 Nilesat 102 2000 Aug 17 Ariane V131 813 1800 12 Ku
ES2000+ Eutelsat W1 2000 Sep 6 Ariane V132 1430 3250 28 Ku
ES2000+ Astra 2B 2000 Sep 14 Ariane-5 V130 1400? 3315 28 Ku
The SES Astra system includes Astra 1A (AS4000), Astra 1B (AS5000), and
Astra 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H and 2A (Hughes HS-601). Astra 2B is the
first SES satellite built by a European prime contractor.
The second communications satellite payload on Ariane V130 was GE 7, for
GE Americom. The satellite will provide cable TV distribution coverage
over the US and has 24 C-band transponders. Its mass is 912 kg and it
carries 1023 kg of fuel at launch. The satellite is an A2100A model
built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale, the first lightweight A2100 with a
mass about half that of earlier A2100 satellites. On Sep 19 GE 7 was in
a 35832 x 35869 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 146 deg W, having
entered the GEO altitude range around Sep 18.
GE 7 continues one of the longest series of commercial communications
satellites, which began with Americom’s RCA Satcom 1 in 1975 (Americom
was then owned by RCA). All the satellites were built by RCA
Astro Space/East Windsor and its successors (now LMMS/Sunnyvale).
RCA Satcom 1 1975 Dec 13 Satcom K2 1985 Nov 27
RCA Satcom 2 1976 Mar 26 Satcom K1 1986 Jan 12
RCA Satcom 3 1979 Dec 6 Satcom C1 1990 Nov 20
Satcom 3R 1981 Nov 20 Satcom C5 1991 May 30
Satcom 4 1982 Jan 16 Satcom C4 1992 Aug 31
Satcom 5 1982 Oct 28 Satcom C3 1992 Sep 10
Satcom 1R 1983 Apr 11 GE 1 1996 Sep 8
Satcom 2R 1983 Sep 8 GE 2 1997 Jan 30
GE 3 1997 Sep 4
GE 4 1999 Nov 13
(GE 5 and GE 6 have not yet been launched).
Here is a list of LMMS A2100 series satellites; some of the variant
designations may be incorrect and updates would be appreciated. Some of
the dry masses are guesses. I believe all A2100 satellites use the RO
Leros 1 liquid apogee engine. Transponder numbers should be considered
approximate, since some sources do or do not include ‘spare’ transponders.
Variant Satellite Launch Flight Mass Transponders
(dry, kg) (full, kg)
A2100 GE 1 1996 Sep 8 Atlas AC-123 1310? 2784 24 C 24 Ku
A2100 GE 2 1997 Jan 30 Ariane V93 1310 2649 24 C 24 Ku
A2100 GE 3 1997 Sep 4 Atlas AC-146 1400? 2845 24 C 24 Ku
A2100AX Echostar 3 1997 Oct 5 Atlas AC-135 1600? 3670 32 Ku
A2100AX Echostar 4 1998 May 7 Proton 393-02 1580 3470 32 Ku
A2100 Zhongwei 1 1998 May 30 CZ-3B-4 1500? 3200 18 C 20 Ku
A2100AX Nimiq 1999 May 20 Proton 396-02 1700? 3600 32 Ku
A2100 Telkom 1 1999 Aug 12 Ariane V118 1400? 2763 36 C
A2100 Koreasat 3 1999 Sep 4 Ariane V120 1332 2800 3 Ka 30 Ku
A2100 LMI 1 1999 Sep 27 Proton 398-02 1730 3740 28 C 16 Ku
A2100AX GE 4 1999 Nov 13 Ariane V123 1755 3903 24 C 28 Ku
A2100AXX Garuda 1 2000 Feb 12 Proton 399-02 1800? 4500 C, L-band
A2100A GE 7 2000 Sep 14 Ariane-5 V130 912 1935 24 C
The NOAA-L polar orbit weather satellite was launched Sep 21 from
Vandenberg; it will now be renamed NOAA 16. The satellite is an Advanced
Tiros N model built by Lockheed Martin and carries a suite of imaging
and sounding instruments. The two-stage Titan II launch vehicle, serial
23G-13, put NOAA-L in a suborbital trajectory of approximately -2500 x
800 km x 98.0 deg. The spacecraft’s Thiokol Star 37XFP solid motor fired
at apogee to circularize the sun-synchronous orbit at around 800 km. The
NOAA satellites form the POES (Polar Operational Environmental
Satellite) low orbit constellation which complements the GOES
geostationary constellation, and are the programmatic descendants of the
original Tiros 1 weather satellite launched in 1960. They are developed
by NASA-GSFC and operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). Mass of NOAA 16 after orbit insertion is about
1476 kg.
Table of Recent Launches
———————–
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.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
Aug 28 2008 Raduga-1 Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC81R Commsat 49A
Sep 1 0325 ZY-2 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 50A
Sep 5 0943 Sirius 2 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81L Commsat 51A
Sep 6 2233 Eutelsat W1 Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Commsat 52A
Sep 8 1245 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 53A
Sep 14 2254 Astra 2B ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Commsat 54A
GE 7 ) Commsat 54B
Sep 21 1022 NOAA 16 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W Weather 55A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 STS-92 2000 Oct ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-98 2001 Feb? ISS 5A
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-97 2000 Nov? ISS 4AMLP-1
MLP-2/
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104/OV-103 VAB Bay 3 STS-92
.————————————————————————-.
| 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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