Jonathan’s Space Report, No 427, 2000 May 29
No 427
2000 May 29, Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle and Stations
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Orbiter OV-104 Atlantis reached the International Space Station at
around 0309 UTC on May 21, and docked with the PMA-2 docking adapter on
the Unity node at 0431 UTC.
On May 22 at around 0145 UTC the Atlantis cargo bay airlock was
depressurized. Mission specialists Jeff Williams and James Voss opened
the hatch on the Tunnel Adapter at around 0200 UTC and floated into the
cargo bay to carry out external maintenance work on ISS. They reattached
the US crane, attached the Russian Strela transfer boom, and replaced a
faulty antenna on the Unity node, as well as attaching EVA handrails to
the station exterior. They returned to the tunnel adapter and closed the
hatch around 0820 UTC (?), beginning repressurization of the airlock at
0832 UTC. [Anyone who has accurate times for the depress and hatch
open/close, please forward them].
On May 23 at 0003 UTC the Atlantis crew opened the first hatch to PMA-2
and entered the Station. The crew replaced a set of batteries in Zarya,
installed fans and ducting to improve airflow, and delivered supplies
and equipment. Three hour-long orbit raising burns by the RCS engines on
Atlantis, on May 24 at 0002 UTC, May 25 around 0116 UTC, and May 25 at
2336 UTC, put the ISS/Atlantis complex in a 372 x 380 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. On May 11 ISS had been in a 332 x 341 km orbit.
The STS-101 crew left the station on May 26, closing the PMA-2 hatch at
0808 UTC and undocking at 2303 UTC. Atlantis performed a 180 degree
flyaround of the station and departed the vicinity around 2344 UTC.
Atlantis closed its payload bay doors around 0230UTC on May 29 and fired
the OMS engines for deorbit at 0512 UTC. The vehicle landed on RW15 at
Kennedy Space Center at 0620 UTC. Atlantis will be turned around
for the next flight, STS-106, which will launch after the Zvezda
module is orbited this summer.
Current Launches
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Flight AC-201, the first Lockheed Martin Astronautics Atlas 3A, took
off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36B on May 24. The Atlas
III first stage is a major redesign for the vehicle, replacing the
venerable MA-5 engine system with an Energomash RD-180. The RD-180 is a
LOX/kerosene engine with 412 kN thrust and two combustion chambers. The
irony of the US’s first intercontinental missile being reequipped with
Russian engines has drawn a lot of comment. All previous Atlas models
used a MA-5A sustainer with one nozzle and MA-5A booster with two
nozzles, one on either side of the sustainer. The booster package with
the two booster nozzles was jettisoned early in flight, so Atlas was
described as a `stage-and-a-half’ vehicle. The new much simpler design
has no separating booster package. It retains the 3.05m diameter core
tank size and is stretched to a length of 29m. The Atlas III first stage
cutoff 3 min 2s after launch, and separated from the second stage 11s
later.
The Atlas 3A second stage is the Centaur IIIA, or Single Engine Centaur.
All previous Centaur stages have used a pair of Pratt and Whitney RL-10
LOX/LH2 engines, and the new design is similar in size and shape to its
twin-engine Centaur IIA predecessor. The Centaur IIIA uses an RL-10A-4-1B
engine which is basically the same as that used on Centaur IIA.
The Centaur made its first burn to a 188 x 486 km x 26.8 deg parking
orbit at 2322 UTC, and at 2336 UTC restarted to deliver its payload to a
230 x 45777 km x 19.9 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit.
AC-201’s payload was Eutelsat W4, an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B2 comsat for
the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat). Dry
mass of the satellite is 1285 kg. It carries 32 Ku-band transponders,
and antennae covering Russia and Africa. It will be stationed at 36 deg E.
This is the third of the high power Eutelsat W series to be launched
(W1 was destroyed in a ground accident).
There have been many different Atlas variants; here’s a recap.
They all have in common the basic Atlas design of a 3.05m diameter
thin-wall `balloon’ tank which needs to be kept pressurized
to stop it collapsing.
Atlas A, B, C ICBM development, 1957-1959
Atlas D Deployed ICBM, and space vehicle first stage.
Used for Mercury spacecraft and for Agena stage.
Atlas D (LV-3C) Atlas D with adapter for Centaur
Atlas E,F Deployed silo ICBM, refurbished for space use later.
Used 1960-1995.
Atlas SLV-3 Atlas D upgraded for space launch vehicle use
Atlas SLV-3A Upgraded stretched SLV-3 for later Atlas Agena
Atlas SLV-3C SLV-3 with adapter for Centaur
Atlas SLV-3D Improved SLV-3C introduced 1973
Atlas G Upgraded SLV-3D introduced 1984
Atlas H Special SLV-3 version replacing Atlas E/F for
classified USN launchesAtlas I Commercial version of Atlas G
Atlas II Stretch of Atlas I; used in II, IIA and IIAS variants
IIAS has four strapon solid boosters.
Atlas III New version with RD-180 main engine
The Atlas III stage will also be used in the Atlas 3B launch vehicle,
which will carry the Centaur IIIB/DEC and Centaur IIIB/SEC (dual and
single engine variant) upper stages. The planned `Atlas 5′ launch
vehicle, which will succeed both Atlas 3 and Titan 4, (there is no Atlas
4!) does not use an Atlas stage at all: it will have a 3.8 meter
diameter Common Core Booster which uses the same RD-180 engine as the
Atlas III, and I’ll count it as a new family of launch vehicle.
Deep Space
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The Galileo probe made its encounter G28 perijove pass of the Jupiter
system on May 30-31. Reported closest approach to Jupiter was 479000 km
at 0553 UTC on May 31; this is probably distance above cloud tops rather
than from Jupiter center (an extra 71000 km). The main event was a
Ganymede flyby at an altitude of 808 km at 1010 UTC on May 30. Galileo
is now apparently in a high eccentricity orbit which will bring it back
for its next perijove on Dec 28. If I’ve done my sums right, this
implies a record high apojove of 32 million kilometers in September,
well outside the orbit of Jupiter’s outermost know satellite Sinope.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.
DES.Apr 4 0501 Soyuz TM-30 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 18A
Apr 17 2106 Sesat Proton Baykonur LC200L Comsat 19A
Apr 19 0029 Galaxy IVR Ariane 42L Kourou ELA2 Comsat 20A
Apr 25 2008 Progress M1-2 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 21A
May 3 0707 GOES 11 Atlas 2A Canaveral SLC36A Weather 22A
May 3 1325 Kosmos-2370 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Imaging 23A
May 8 1601 DSP 20 Titan 4B Canaveral LC40 Early Warn 24A
May 11 0148 GPS SVN 51 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navsat 25A
May 16 0828 Simsat-1 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Test 26A
Simsat-2 ) 26B
May 19 1011 Atlantis Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 27A
May 24 2310 Eutelsat W4 Atlas 3A Canaveral SLC36B Comsat
28A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-92 2000 Sep? ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-106 2000 Aug? ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-97 2000 Nov? ISS 4A
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
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