Jonathan’s Space Report No. 451 28 Apr 2001
Note: apologies for technical difficulties which prevented
the distribution of JSR 451 last week. This is an updated version.
Shuttle and Station
——————–
The Expedition 2 crew of Usachev, Voss and Helms remain aboard the
International Space Station. Progress M-44 undocked from Zvezda’s aft
port on Apr 16 at 0848 UTC and was deorbited at 1323 UTC over the
Pacific. Soyuz TM-31 undocked from the Zarya nadir port Apr 18 at 1240
UTC and redocked with the Zvezda aft port at 1301 UTC, leaving clearance
for the Raffaello MPLM module to dock at the Unity nadir during STS-100.
(Don’t be confused by the graphic on Houston’s screen which as of Sunday
still showed Soyuz docked to Zarya.)
Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour was launched on mission STS-100 at
1840:42 UTC on Apr 19. It will carry out International Space Station
Flight 6A which will continue the outfitting of the Station. The SSRMS
robot arm is also called Canadarm-2; the first generation Canadarm (of
which there were five) is used on the Orbiter itself. RMS 302 was lost
with Challenger; RMS 201 seems to have been retired in 1995. This leaves
three active RMS shared between four orbiters.
Canadarm history
—————
Serial No. First Use Most recent use201 Columbia STS-2 1981 Discovery STS-63
202 Columbia STS-80 1990s Atlantis STS-98
301 Discovery 41-D 1984 Discovery STS-102
302 Challenger 41-C 1984 Lost with Challenger 51-L
303 Atlantis STS-37 1991 Endeavour STS-100
SSRMS Destiny ISS 6A 2001 –
Here is an improved estimate of what’s in the STS-100 payload
bay; corrections still welcome. Note that the MPLM mass given in the
Shuttle press kit is the empty mass without any cargo loaded.
The MPLM cargo is probably about 3400 kg.
(thanks to Bill Harwood for info).
STS-100 cargo: The JSR guess (revised)
Est. Mass (kg)
Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System 1800
and External Airlock
3 EMU spacesuits (S/N unknown) 360?
Bay 3 Stbd: Adapter Beam with 180?
DCSU switching unit
Bay 5?: Spacelab Pallet 1400
with SSRMS (Space Station Remote 1800
Manipulator System)
LDA
UHF Antenna 56?
Bay 6 Port?: Adapter Beam with IMAX Camera 238
Bay 8-12: Rafaello Module (MPLM-2) 4100
MPLM racks and cargo 3400?
Sill: Canadarm RMS 303 410
——
Total payload bay cargo 13744 kg
Endeavour reached an 80 x 317 km orbit at 1849 UTC; at 1924 UTC the OMS
engines fired to raise perigee. After a series of rendezvous burns, the
spaceship docked with the PMA-2 port on the ISS at 1359 UTC on Apr 21.
Launch mass of Endeavour was quoted in the press kit as 103504 kg but I
calculate it was much larger, probably 115652 kg at ET separation and
114740 kg after the OMS-2 burn.
Crew of STS-100 are Commander Kent Rominger (NASA), Pilot Jeff Ashby
(NASA), and Mission Specialists Chris Hadfield (Canadian Space Agency),
John Phillips (NASA), Scott Parazynski (NASA), Umberto Guidoni (ESA),
and Yuriy Lonchakov (RAKA).
Hadfield and Parazynski made a spacewalk on Apr 22 to begin installation
of the Canadarm-2. The airlock was depressurized at 1144 UTC; the hatch
was probably opened around the same time. The astronauts went to battery
power at 1145 UTC; the thermal cover was opened at 1152 UTC as Hadfield
emerged to become the first Canadian spacewalker. After a successful
spacewalk in which the UHF comm antenna was installed on Destiny and the
SSRMS initial setup was completed, they returned to the airlock, closing
the hatch at 1845 UTC and repressurizing 10 min later for a duration of
7h11m (depress/repress), 7h01m (hatch open/close) or 7h10m (NASA rule).
Unlike the RMS, the SSRMS has a `hand’ (“latching end effector” or LEE)
at each end and can `walk’ along the station from fixture to fixture.
The two LEE’s are LEE A and LEE B; LEE B was used to connect
to the PDGF fixture on Destiny. It was unberthed from the SLP (Spacelab
pallet) at 1114 UTC on Apr 23 and latched on to the PDGF at 1416 UTC.
During the second spacewalk on Apr 24, it started getting power through
the PDGF at 1455 UTC and Susan Helms aboard Destiny started to use the
arm’s LEE A to lift up the SLP from Destiny. The SLP was unberthed
from the Lab Cradle Assembly at 1825 UTC.
At 1458 UTC on Apr 23 the MPLM-2 Raffaello module was unberthed
from Endeavour using the Shuttle’s RMS and docked to the nadir
port on Unit at 1600 UTC. Over the next few days, the cargo racks
on the MPLM were transferred to Destiny. Raffaello was then
unberthed from Unity at 2003 UTC on Apr 27 and reberthed in
the rear of Endeavour’s bay at 2059 UTC.
The second spacewalk began with depressurization of the airlock at
around 1232 UTC on Apr 24. The hatch was probably open around the same
time, with the astronauts switching to battery power at 1234 UTC. They
removed a temporary communications antenna from Unity, connected up
power to the Canadarm-2, and moved the DCSU switching unit from a
sidewall carrier on the port side of Endeavour’s cargo bay to the ESP
(External Stowage Platform) on Destiny, next to the PFCS (Pump Flow
Control System) which was installed on the ESP on the previous mission.
The astronauts returned to the airlock at 2000 UTC, closed the hatch at
2003 UTC, and repressurized the airlock at 2014 UTC, for a duration of
7h42m (depress/repress), 7h31m (hatch open/close) or 7h40m (NASA rule).
Undocking of Endeavour has been delayed due to a series of computer
problems on the Station. After three days, failures in the Station’s
command and control computers are still unresolved and only one of the
three computers is up and running. The SLP remains attached to SSRMS LEE
A; it is still hoped to return it to the cargo bay before Endeavour
leaves.
Soyuz spacecraft 7K-STM No. 206 was launched from Baykonur on Apr 28 and
became Soyuz TM-32. The `taxi’ mission is ISS flight 2S according to
NASA, and flight EP-1 (Visting Crew 1) according to Energiya. The EP-1
crew deliver spacecraft 206 to Station and return in the old spacecraft
205 which has been at the Station since November, making sure the
long-stay crew have a Soyuz on hand which isn’t past its sell-by date.
The crew are Talgat Musabaev (Komandir, commander), Yuriy Baturin
(Bortinzhener, flight engineer) and Dennis Tito (Uchastnik poleta,
flight participant). Musabaev, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, was
originally selected as a Kazakh cosmonaut but is now a member of the
Russian astronaut corps; Baturin first flew as an adviser to former
president Yeltsin and is now also a regular member of the corps. Dennis
Tito is a business executive from Los Angeles who is flying as a
tourist. Soyuz TM-32 will dock with the Zarya nadir port on the
Station; this is near to the current position of Endeavour’s tail and
NASA wants to make sure the Orbiter is undocked before Soyuz arrives.
Commercial and Tourist Astronauts
——————————————————————————–
Charles Walker STS 41-D Discovery 1984 Aug McDonnell Douglas
Astronautics Corp. (MDAC)
Charles Walker STS 51-D Discovery 1985 Apr MDAC
Charles Walker STS 61-B Atlantis 1985 Nov MDAC
Robert Cenker STS 61-C Columbia 1986 Jan RCA Astro-Electronics Corp
Toyohiro Akiyama TBS Soyuz TM-11 1990 Dec Tokyo Broadcasting System
Helen Sharman Juno Soyuz TM-12 1991 May Project Juno
Dennis Tito ISS EP-1 Soyuz TM-32 2001 Apr Space flight participant
Other Passengers
Jake Garn STS 51-D Discovery 1985 Apr US Senate (R-Utah)
Bill Nelson STS 61-C Columbia 1986 Jan US House of Reps. (D-Fla.)
Christa McAuliffe STS 51-L Challenger 1986 Jan Teacher-In-Space
(launch failed to reach space)
Yuriy Baturin Mir EO-26 Soyuz TM-28 1998 Aug Russian Federation
John Glenn STS-95 Discovery 1998 Oct US Senate (D-Ohio)
Recent Launches
—————
India’s first GSLV launch was carried out successfully on Apr 18 from
the Sriharikota range. The GSLV (Geostationary Launch Vehicle) is a
derivative of ISRO’s earlier PSLV. It uses the solid first stage and
storable propellant second stage (with an Ariane-derived Vikas engine)
from PSLV. The four liquid strapons are a new design, derived from the
second stage and using the Vikas engine. The third stage was supplied by
Russia, and is the first Russian liquid hydrogen cryogenic upper stage
to fly (the Energiya core stage also used LH2). The Isaev KVD-1M
(11D56M) engine has a thrust of 74 kN. The Krunichev 12KRB upper stage
is 8.7m long, 2.8m diameter. The rocket underperformed slightly leaving
the 1500 kg GSAT-1 experimental communications satellite in a 166 x
31977 km x 19.3 deg geostationary transfer orbit. GSAT-1 has a 440N
ISRO liquid apogee motor, and S-band and C-band communications
transponders; it is similar to the Insat 2 satellites. By Apr 26 it was
in a 33804 x 35738 km x 1.0 deg near-geosynchronous orbit. More fuel
than planned was using during the orbit raising, and GSAT-1 was unable
to reach its final planned stationary position.
2001 Mars Odyssey is in a 0.982 x 1.384 AU x 3.05 deg solar orbit. It
escaped Earth’s nominal gravitational sphere of influence at around 1900
UTC on Apr 10 and will enter Mars orbit on Oct 24.
Space Command has cataloged the expected three objects from the Ekran
launch. 2001-13B is the Briz-M torus tank, and 2001-13C is the Briz-M
itself in synchronous orbit. 2001-13A, the Ekran, was expected to reach
its 99E location on around Apr 24.
The Russian Ministry of Defense’s Kosmos-2372 spy satellite reentered on
Apr 20 after a 7 month mission.
Not-so-recent launches
———————-
On 1961 Apr 12 the spacecraft Vostok-3A No. 3 was launched from the 5
NIIP test range carrying pilot-astronaut of the Soviet Union, Major of
the Soviet Military Air Forces Yuriy Alexeevich Gagarin. At around 0613
UTC the 8K72K launch vehicle passed the 80 km point (which I use as the
boundary of space) and at 0618 UTC the Blok-E third stage shut down and
separated leaving the Vostok spaceship in orbit. After one orbit, the
spaceship landed near Saratov at 0747 UTC. The pilot ejected at around
0743 UTC and landed nearby by parachute a few minutes later.
Thanks to the MIT crew who organized the Yuri’s Night 40th anniversary
celebrations here in Boston and congratulations to all those around the
world who celebrated with us.
2001 Apr 12 also marked the 20th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle
flight by John Young and Bob Crippen aboard OV-102 Columbia.
Erratum
——-
Looks like I goofed on the Proton-M launch time last issue: the reported
launch time was 0747 Moscow Time, but apparently this was summer time
and not standard time, and so corresponds to 0347 UTC not 0447 UTC. All
the times reported for the mission in JSR 450 should be amended
accordingly. The Ekran has been redesignated 2001-13A by Space Command.
Table of Recent Launches
———————–
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.Mar 8 1142 Discovery (STS-102) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 10A
Leonardo Module
Mar 8 2251 Eurobird ) Ariane 5G Kourou ELA3 Commsat 11A
BSAT-2a ) Commsat 11B
Mar 18 2233 XM-2 Rock Zenit-3SL Odyssey,Pacific Commsat 12A
Apr 7 0347 Ekran-M No. 18 Proton-M Baykonur LC81/24 Commsat 13A
Apr 7 1502 2001 Mars Odyssey Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 14A
Apr 18 1013 GSAT-1 GSLV Sriharikota Commsat 15A
Apr 19 1840 Endeavour ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 16A
Raffaello ) Module
Canadarm-2 )
Apr 28 0737 Soyuz TM-32 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 17A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-109 2001 Nov 19 HST SM-3B
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-105 2001 Jul 12 ISS 7A.1
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-104 2001 Jun 7 ISS 7A
OV-105 Endeavour ISS STS-100 2001 Apr 19 ISS 6A
.————————————————————————-.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
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| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
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