Jonathan’s Space Report, No 430, 18 July 2000
No 430 2000 Jul 18, Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle and Stations
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The eighth civilian Salyut-class space station 17KSM No. 128-1, the
Zvezda module, was successfully launched on Jul 12 at 0456 UTC. The
three stage Krunichev Proton-K rocket reached orbit at 0505 UTC. This
was the fifth Proton launch in a month. Launch mass of Zvezda is 20295
kg according to Vladimir Agapov. Docking of Zvezda and the ISS
Unity/Zarya complex is due later this month. Zvezda’s initial orbit was
179 x 332 km x 51.6 deg. On Jul 14 the orbit was raised to 288 x 357 km.
ISS is in a 365 x 372 km orbit.
Zvezda is outwardly almost identical to the Mir core module launched in
1986, and the main structure is similar to all the civilian DOS orbital
stations launched since 1971 built by the Krunichev company and
developed and operated by Energiya.
DOS civilian space stations
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Prelaunch names Postlaunch Launch Notes
name dateDOS 1 17K No. 121 Salyut 1971 Apr 19 Soyuz-11 crew died on reentry
DOS 2 17K No. 122 – 1972 Jul 29 Launch failure
DOS 3 17K No. 123 Kosmos-557 1973 May 11 Failed at orbit insertion
DOS 4 17K No. 124 Salyut-4 1974 Dec 26 Set new duration record
DOS 5 17K No. 125 Salyut-6 1977 Sep 29 First use of Progress tankers
DOS 6 17K No. 125-2 Salyut-7 1982 Apr 19 Backup to Salyut-6
DOS 7 17K No. 127 Mir 1986 Feb 19 Multiple docking port node
DOS 8? 17KSM No. 128-1 Zvezda 2000 Jul 12 Space Station Service Module
The military Almaz space stations (Salyut-2, Salyut-3, Salyut-5), the TKS ferry
spaceship, and the FGB type modules share a similar design.
Deep Space One
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Deep Space 1 was launched into solar orbit in Oct 1998 with a perihelion
near that of the Earth and an aphelion half way to the orbit of Mars.
Managed by JPL, tt was the first of NASA’s New Millennium missions to
test advanced space technology, and featured experimental on-board
software, miniature sensors, and the first use of an ion engine for
extensive orbital changes. Although DS1 is the first craft to use ion
drive to reach a target orbit, there’s been very little information
available in the public domain about its trajectory. DS1 mission manager
Marc Rayman has been kind enough to rectify this by providing me with
orbital data, and I’ve extracted some highlights here. (The JSR catalog
of full heliocentric orbital elements for all the probes since Luna-1 is
still slowly taking shape, I hope to release it sometime next year).
The early tests of its ion engine in Nov 1998 – Jan 1999 increased the
aphelion by 6 million km. A second burn phase in Mar-Apr 1999 increased
perihelion by 4.8 million km, leaving DS1 in an orbit which flew past
minor planet (9969) Braille in Jul 1999 near aphelion. A third burn
phase in Jul-Oct 1999 raised perihelion by 10 million km more, and
lowered inclination to 0.2 deg. In the meantime, on Sep 18 DS1 had
successfuly completed its primary mission. The failure of DS1’s star
tracker soon afterwards left a follow-on mission in doubt – without the
star tracker, DS1 did not know which way it was pointing, which makes it
hard to steer. In a remarkable success for JPL, the DS1 team
reprogrammed the spacecraft to use images from its MICAS science camera
– with a field of view a hundred times smaller than the star tracker –
and reformat them into a data stream compatible with the navigation
system. They were helped by one of DS1’s advanced technology tests, an
autonomous navigation software package that used MICAS data, but its
processing is only the first step in a long chain of software, so it’s
darn impressive that they managed to make it work. They can only fire
the ion engine in directions where they can see an appropriately bright
guide star in the MICAS. Developing a way of navigating using as few
stars as possible was another challenge: only half a dozen will be
needed for its new target, comet 19P/Borrelly, which requires a much
bigger orbit change than the earlier burns. The trajectory can be
fine-tuned by changing the date on which one star is replaced by
another. After a massive effort, all was ready by June, with the ion
engine starting again on Jun 28. DS1 will encounter comet 19P/Borrelly
in Sep 2001.
——– DS1 Orbital Data ———————
Date Period Perihelion x Aphelion x Incl
1998 Nov 10 446.6d 0.990 x 1.287 AU x 0.37 deg
1999 Jan 22 459.5d 0.990 x 1.331 AU x 0.38 deg
1999 Apr 27 470.4d 1.022 x 1.336 AU x 0.26 deg
1999 Oct 27 492.6d 1.090 x 1.342 AU x 0.19 deg
2001 Feb (564.9d 1.287 x 1.378 AU x 0.20 deg) planned
2001 May (584.8d 1.291 x 1.436 AU x 0.21 deg) planned
Perihelia: Oct 1998, Feb 2000, May 2001.
——– Thanks to Marc Rayman, JPL ————
Current Launches
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Kosmos-2371 was launched from Baykonur on Jul 4 at 2344 UTC. The
spacecraft is a Geizer military communications relay. The Blok DM upper
stage inserted the Geizer into geosynchronous orbit at 0620 UTC on Jul
5. Geizer satellites are built by NPO PM using the KAUR-3 bus.
The Sirius 1 digital radio satellite was inserted into a 6166 x 47110 km
x 63.4 deg transfer orbit by its Proton-K/Blok DM3 launch vehicle. Its
onboard R4D liquid apogee engine made several burns to raise its orbit
to 24388 x 47097 km x 63.3 deg by July 8. This elliptical, inclined
orbit has a 24 hour period, and its looping orbit keeps the satellite
between longitude 60W and 140W, with apogee over the northern
hemisphere. The Sirius 1 satellite is a Space Systems/Loral LS-1300
satellite with a dry mass of 1570 kg.
Echostar Communication Corp’s Echostar VI comsat was launched by
International Launch Services on Jul 14 using a Lockheed Martin Atlas
IIAS rocket. Flight AC-161 reached a 155 x 436 km x 28.3 deg parking
orbit, and then reignited the Centaur to deliver Echostar to a 166 x
38191 km x 26.6 deg transfer orbit. Echostar VI is a Space Systems/Loral
LS-1300 satellite with a dry mass of 1493 kg.
Germany’s CHAMP minisatellite was launched on Jul 15 from Plesetsk by a
Polyot Kosmos-3M rocket into a 421 x 476 km x 87.3 deg orbit. This was
the second recent Kosmos-3M launch to a new inclination: before last
week’s sun-synchronous launch the highest inclination achieved from
Plesetsk was 83 degrees. CHAMP is a geophysics research satellite
operated by GFZ, the Potsdam geophysics center to study the magnetic
field and the gravitational field. The satellite has a mass of 550 kg.
Along with CHAMP were launched MITA, an Italian Space Agency
experimental microsatellite built by Carlo Gavazzi Space of Milano, and
Rubin, a microsatellite to measure launch vehicle parameters developed
by OHB and students of the Hochschule Bremen. MITA has a mass of 170 kg
and carries the NINA particle detector and an experimental attitude
control system. The Rubin payload remains attached to the payload
adapter on the Kosmos-3M final stage. Rubin is also called BIRD-Rubin in
some references, but confusingly is not related to the BIRD
microsatellite originally slated for this launch. Thanks to Christian
Stelter, Carlo Cicone and Eduard Muller for information.
The first two European Space Agency Cluster II satellites, Samba (FM7)
and Salsa (FM6) were launched on Jul 16. The remaining pair, Rumba
(FM5) and Tango (FM8) will be launched next month. The Soyuz-U launch
vehicle took off from Area 31 (Pad 6); third stage separation delivered
the Upper Composite consisting of the Fregat upper stage and two
Clusters to a suborbital trajectory. Fregat’s first burn was to a 200 km
circular orbit with a 64.8 deg inclination. A second burn placed the
Clusters in a 250 x 18072 km x 64.7 deg transfer orbit. FM7 was ejected
first, followed by FM6 ten seconds later. The Soyuz launch vehicle is
built by TsSKB-Progress, with the Fregat upper stage developed by
Lavochkin, and the Soyuz-Fregat launch services provided by the French
company Starsem.
The Cluster satellites are built by Astrium/Friedrichshafen (former
Dornier). Both satellites carry Astrium (former MBB) S400 liquid engines
which will be used to enter a much higher polar orbit. The remaining two
satellites will rendezvous with them for formation flying to sample
magnetospheric properties. Each satellite will deploy four 50-meter wire
antennas and has a dry mass of 550 kg. The first perigee burns were made
on Jul 17 and Jul 18 to 240 x 35300 km; the satellites will first go to
a 18000 x 121000 km x 65 deg orbit and then change inclination at
apogee (where the velocity is low, so it’s cheap to make a big change)
to a 90 deg polar orbit.
A Navstar GPS navigation satellite was launched on Jul 16 at 0917 UTC by
Boeing Delta 7925 from Cape Canaveral. I believe this to be satellite
SVN 44, although Space Command has cataloged it as Navstar 48. The GPS
IIR series are built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale and have a dry mass of
980 kg. The Delta second stage entered a 151 x 337 km x 36.9 deg parking
orbit at 0928 UTC. It fired again to raise apogee; after depletion stage
2 was in a 195 x 1322 km x 37.6 deg orbit. The PAM-D third stage then
fired and placed the GPS satellite in a 209 x 20445 km x 38.9 deg
transfer orbit. The GPS will fire its Thiokol Star 37XFP solid kick
motor to circularize at apogee on Jul 18.
An Orbital Sciences Minotaur was being prepared for launch
from Vandenberg as I write this; details next issue.
Errata
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The Soyuz TM-30 descent times I gave were incorrect (multiple time
zone conversion errors). Actual times: Jun 15 2124 UTC, undocking.
2352 UTC, deorbit burn. Jun 16 0044 UTC, landing.
The Nadezhda launch from Plesetsk was northbound, not southbound;
a bug in my groundtrack code led me astray. The launch flew north
and west from Plesetsk over the Arctic.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.Jun 6 0259 Gorizont Proton-K/Briz-M Baykonur LC81P Comsat 29A
Jun 7 1319 TSX 5 Pegasus XL Vandenberg RW30/22 Science 30A
Jun 24 0028 Ekspress A No. 3 Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200? Comsat 31A
Jun 25 1150 Fengyun-2 CZ-3 Xichang LC1 Weather 32A
Jun 28 1037 Nadezhda ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navsat 33A
Tsinghua ) Tech 33B
SNAP 1 ) Tech 33C
Jun 30 1255 TDRS 8 Atlas 2A Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 34A
Jun 30 2208 Sirius 1 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81P Comsat 35A
Jul 4 2344 Kosmos-2371 Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200? Comsat 36A
Jul 12 0456 Zvezda Proton-K Baykonur LC81L Station 37A
Jul 14 0521 Echostar VI Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 38A
Jul 15 1200 CHAMP ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Science 39
MITA ) Science 39
Rubin ) Imaging 39
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
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 Oct ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 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 VAB Bay 1 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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