Jonathan’s Space Report No. 469 – 2001 Dec 11
Shuttle and Station
——————–
Progress M1-7 soft docked to the Zvezda module at 1943 UTC on Nov 28.
The docking probe was connected to Zvezda, but the vehicle was not
firmly latched, preventing hatch opening and raising fears that
vibration from a Shuttle docking could knock the spacecraft loose. A
rubber seal left over from the previous occupant of the docking port,
Progress M-45 was blocking the docking system and a spacewalk was
required to clear it out of the way before a final seal could be made.
This was very similar to the situation in April 1987 when astronauts had
to make a spacewalk to fix an almost identical problem with the docking
of the Kvant module to Mir.
Dezhurov and Tyurin depressurized the Pirs airlock on Dec 3; by 1306
UTC pressure passed 50 mbar. After a 5 minute leak check at 21 mbar,
the spacesuits went to battery power, the pressure was brought down even
lower to 14 mbar and the hatch was opened at 1320 UTC. Dezhurov and
Tyurin emerged at around 1327 UTC and by 1440 UTC were at the aft end of
Zvezda. They identified the debris fouling the docking port as the
rubber O-ring from the Progress M-45 docking system. At 1453 UTC the
debris was removed and a minute later ground controllers successfully
commanded the Progress M1-7 to complete a firm docking. Dezhurov and
Tyurin returned to Pirs at 1559 UTC, closing the hatch at 1606 and
repressurizing at 1609 for an EVA duration of 3hr3min (depress/repress),
2hr46min (hatch open/close, Russian rule) or 2hr 55min (NASA rule).
Note: NASA refers to the new Progress as `Progress 6′, a shorthand for
the fact that Progress M1-7 is space station flight 6P. However, the
real `Progress-6′ was launched to Salyut-6 in May 1979, so I recommend
that this nomenclature be avoided – use `Progress mission 6P’ or `ISS
6P’ if you must, but Progress M1-7 or Progress No. 256 (the factory
serial number) is better.
Space Shuttle mission STS-108 (ISS mission UF-1) was launched on Dec 5
at 2219:28 UTC. Endeavour reached an orbit of approximately 58 x 230 km
(according to the NASA PAO) at 2228 UTC. At 2259 UTC Endeavour fired
its OMS engines to raise perigee to 225 km. Mass after OMS-2 was
114692 kg. Endeavour docked with the Station at 2003 UTC on Dec 7;
problems aligning the vehicles delayed hard dock until 2051 UTC, and
the hatch was opened at 2243 UTC.
The Raffaello module was unberthed from Endeavour at 1701 UTC on Dec 8
and berthed to Unity at 1755 UTC.
STS-108 astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani carried out a spacewalk on
Dec 10 to install thermal blankets on the P6 solar array gimbal motor
bearings, which were distorting due to temperature changes. The
Shuttle’s airlock was depressurized at about 1747 UTC, hatch was open at
1749 UTC, and the astronauts emerged at 1803 and 1814 UTC. The blankets
were installed by 2010 UTC; after failing to engage a solar array latch,
the crew moved on to retrieve tools for the next mission and returned to
the airlock to close the hatch about 2157 UTC. The airlock was
repressurized at 2204 UTC, for a duration of 4hr17m (depress/repress),
4h08m (hatch open/close) or 4h11m (NASA rule).
Recent Launches
—————
Three Uragan (`Hurricane’) navigation satellites were launched on Dec 1
as Block 30 of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). The
satellites, Uragan 790, Uragan 789 and Uragan-M 711, were renamed
Kosmos-2380, Kosmos-2381 and Kosmos-2382 on orbit. One of the new trio
is the first Uragan-M improved model. The first Uragan satellite was
launched in 1982; the Uragans are the Russian analogs of the Navstar GPS
satellites. Thanks to Richard Langley for passing on Russian data.
The Proton-K launch vehicle reached orbit at 1813 UTC and the Blok DM
lower adapter separated from the payload complex. Reentry of the adapter
and the Proton final stage were observed in the USA and Europe. The DM
made its first burn from low parking orbit at about 1908 UTC, raising
apogee to 19000 km. The orbit was circularized at apogee at about 2200
UTC and the satellites were deplyed by 2228 UTC. On Dec 7 the satellites
were in 19100 x 19130 km x 64.8 deg orbits.
The JASON/TIMED mission took off on Dec 7 at 1507 UTC. The Boeing Delta
7920-10C flew a complicated profile; the Delta second stage reached an
initial orbit of 215 x 1343 km x 66.2 deg at 1517 UTC. A second burn at
1559 UTC circularized at apogee to 1320 x 1330 km x 66.0 deg, and the
Jason 1 satellite was ejected at 1602 UTC. Five minutes later the DPAF
adapter separated to reveal the TIMED satellite inside it. Burn 3 at
1614 UTC put Delta/TIMED in a descending 636 x 1330 km x 71.3 deg orbit;
at perigee at 1706 UTC a fourth burn circularized at 627 x 640 km x 74.1
deg and TIMED was ejected six minutes later. A final depletion burn left
the Delta stage in a low perigee orbit.
Jason 1 is a joint mission between CNES (the French space agency) and
NASA/JPL, following on the Topex satellite which carried the Poseidon
sea surface altimeter. Jason carries Poseidon 2, as well as orbital
tracking experiments and a microwave radiometer which measures the
amount of water vapor, allowing path delay errors to be calibrated. The
satellite uses the Alcatel Proteus bus and has a dry mass of 472 kg plus
28 kg of hydrazine propellant.
The second payload, TIMED, is the first NASA Solar Terrestrial Probe,
operated by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to study the thermosphere,
mesosphere and lower ionosphere. TIMED was built in-house at APL and has
a mass of 587 kg; the project is managed at NASA-Goddard. It measures
solar and auroral energy input, atmospheric cooling rates, and
atmospheric composition, temperature and wind profiles.
Russia launched a Meteor-3M weather satellite on Dec 10 into a 996 x
1015 km x 99.7 deg orbit. The Meteor-3M No. 1, with a mass around 2500
kg, is an improved version of the Meteor-3 satellite first flown in
1984, and carries visible and IR sensors and NASA’s SAGE III instrument
which studies aerosols and the ozone layer. Four small subsatellites
were also carried into orbit: Badr B, Maroc-Tubsat, Kompas and
Reflektor. The Zenit final stage and four small separation motor covers
(which will be in higher apogee orbits) are expected to be in orbit too,
for a total of 10 objects; 5 have been cataloged so far and it will
probably take a while to sort them out.
Badr B is Pakistan’s second satellite. Built in collaboration with the
English company SIL, it has a mass of 70 kg and carries an Earth imager.
Maroc-Tubsat was built by the Technical University of Berlin for the
Centre Royal de Teledetection Spatiale, Morocco, and has a mass of 45
kg. It carries an imager and a store-forward communications test. The
Russian Kompas satellite, built by Makeev for the IZMIRAN geophysics
institute, is an 80 kg satellite with a magnetometer and other sensors
designed to attempt prediction of earthquakes. The satellite was
originally built for use on the Shtil’ rocket. Finally, the 8 kg
Reflektor was built by NII KP in Russia for space debris studies in a
joint experiment with the USAF’s AF Research Lab.
Four Trident I C-4 submarine-launched ballistic missiles flew a
suborbital trajectory down the Eastern Range on Dec 9 after launched
from the USS Ohio. Lockheed Martin reports that 221 Trident Is have been
launched, although I have only been able to find public records of 153.
Table of Recent Launches
———————–
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Nov 26 1824 Progress M1-7 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Cargo 51A
Nov 27 0035 DirecTV 4S Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 TV broadcast 52A
Dec 1 1804 Kosmos-2380 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Navsat 53A
Kosmos-2381 ) Navsat 53B
Kosmos-2382 ) Navsat 53C
Dec 5 2219 Endeavour ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 54A
Raffaello )
Dec 7 1507 Jason 1 ) Delta 7920-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Science 55A
TIMED ) Science 55B
Dec 10 1719 Meteor-3M ) Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Weather 56A
Badr B ) Imaging 56
Maroc-Tubsat) Imaging 56
Kompas ) Science 56
Reflektor ) Technology 56
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-109 2002 Feb 14 HST SM-3B
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1? Maintenance
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 2? STS-110 2002 Mar 21 ISS 8A
OV-105 Endeavour ISS STS-108 2001 Dec 7 ISS UF-1
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
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