Jonathan’s Space Report No. 434 – 7 September 2000
Shuttle and Stations
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The STS-106 mission, Space Station logistics flight 2A.2b, is scheduled
for launch on Sep 8. It will dock with the International Space Station
and its crew will outfit the recently launched Zvezda module.
The press kit for the STS-106 mission is an improvement over recent
efforts; for the first time since the Boeing press kits were stopped,
it includes a decent payload bay diagram. (Admittedly the diagram
is actually for STS-101, but it’s a step in the right direction).
STS-106 uses orbiter 104 (Atlantis), external tank ET-103, and solid
rocket motor pair RSRM-75. Engines 2052, 2044 and 2047 and OMS pods LP03
and RP04 are installed on Atlantis. Three EMU spacesuits are being
flown.
The payload bay manifest is:
Bay Payload Mass (kg)
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Sill Remote Manipulator System RMS No. 202
1-2 External Airlock/Orbiter Docking System 1600?
3-4 Tunnel Adapter S/N 001 ?
4 Keel Yoke Device/Integrated Cargo Carrier 2054
5-8 Spacehab Long Tunnel ?
8-12 Spacehab Logistics Double Module 8200
13S Adapter Beam/SEM-8/G-782 300?
The Integrated Cargo Carrier has the SOAR experiment for GPS
attitude control, and equipment for the spacewalks.
The adapter beam in bay 13 starboard carries two GAS canisters,
SEM-8 and G-782, both with high school experiments.
(If anyone has weight values for the tunnel adapter and tunnel,
please pass them along).
Crew of STS-106 are Terrence Wilcutt, Col USMC, NASA (Commander), Scott
Altman, Cmdr USN, NASA (Pilot), Edward Lu, Ph.D., NASA (Mission
Specialist 1), Richard Mastracchio, NASA, (Mission Specialist 2), Daniel
Burbank, LtCmdr USCG, NASA (Mission Specialist 3), Yuri Malenchenko,
Col. VVS, RAKA (Mission Specialist 4), and Boris Morukov, M.D., IMBP
(Mission Specialist 5). Lu and Malenchenko will make a spacewalk from
Atlantis to connect cables between Zvezda and Zarya.
[RAKA: Rosaviakosmos, i.e. Russian Space Agency; IMBP: Institut
mediko-biologicheskikh problem, Moskva; VVS: Voenno-vosdushniye Sile,
i.e. Russian Air Force].
Current Launches
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Russia launched a Globus military communications satellite on Aug 28 on
a Proton-K with a Blok DM-2 (or DM-2M?) upper stage. Globus satellites
are usually given the public name Raduga-1, but, possibly due to
administrative error, this satellite was initially named Kosmos-2372 by
the RVSN press service. I am assuming for the time being that Raduga-1
is the official name. The Globus satellites replaced the older Gran’
(Raduga) series.
Another International Launch Services Proton flight on Sep 5 placed
Sirius Radio’s Sirius 2 in orbit. The Krunichev Proton-K was launched
from Baykonur into a low 144 x 168 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit. The
Energiya Blok DM3 stage then made two burns to deliver Sirius 2 to an
elliptical 6192 x 47057 km x 63.4 deg orbit. The satellite is a Space
Systems/Loral FS-1300 with a dry mass of 1570 kg and a launch mass of
3800 kg. Take care not to confuse this Sirius 2 with its namesake, the
geostationary Sirius 2 launched in Nov 1997 by Nordiska Satellit AB
which provides communications services to Scandinavia. Today’s Sirius 2
will provide digital radio broadcasts to mobile users in North America.
The Solidaridad 1 communications satellite, a Hughes HS-601 owned by
Mexico, failed on Aug 27 when its backup computer died; the prime had
already failed. The satellite was launched in 1993.
The Zi Yuan 2 remote sensing satellite was launched on Sep 1 by a three
stage Chang Zheng 4B rocket from the Taiyuan Space Center in China. Zi
Yuan 1, launched in 1999, was the first China-Brasil Earth Resource Satellite
(CBERS), a joint project between the Chinese Academy of Space Technology
and the Brazilian space agency INPE; ZY-2 appears to be a purely
Chinese mission, probably using the same bus. It is in a 474 x 493 km x 97.4
deg orbit, much lower than the ZY-1’s 773 km orbit, which may indicate
a heavier payload.
The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization’s Eutelsat W1
was launched on Sep 6 by Arianespace. The Ariane 44P, with four
solid strapons, put W1 in geostationary transfer orbit.
Eutelsat W1 will occupy the 10E orbital slot. The first Eutelsat W1
satellite, an Alcatel Spacebus 3000, was damaged in a fire in the Cannes
factory in 1998. Construction of a second Eutelsat “W1R”, another
Spacebus 3000, was begun as well as a ground spare, called Ressat, built
by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse (now part of the Astrium company) and
using a Eurostar 2000+ bus. The second Eutelsat W1 was reassigned to
become Eurobird, and will be launched to 28E, with Ressat becoming the
third and final Eutelsat W1. This satellite, the Eurostar 2000+, was the
one launched on Sep 6. Its mass is 1430 kg, with a further 1820 kg of
propellant at launch for its Primex R-4D liquid apogee engine. The
box-shaped 2.5 x 5.0 m satellite has two rectangular solar panel arrays
spanning 31.7m and two dishes, a European beam and a steerable beam. The
payload includes 28 Ku-band transponders.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.Jul 4 2344 Kosmos-2371 Proton-K/DM-2? Baykonur LC200L Commsat 36A
Jul 12 0456 Zvezda Proton-K Baykonur LC81L Station 37A
Jul 14 0521 Echostar VI Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36B Commsat 38A
Jul 15 1200 CHAMP ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Science 39A
MITA ) Science 39B
Rubin ) Tech 39C
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
Jul 19 2009 Mightysat 2.1 Minotaur Vandenberg CLF Tech 42A
Jul 28 2242 PAS 9 Zenit-3SL Odyssey, POR Commsat 43A
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
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery VAB Bay 3 STS-92 2000 Oct ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis LC39B STS-106 2000 Sep 8 ISS 2A.2b
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-97 2000 Nov? ISS 4AMLP-1
MLP-2/RSRM-75/ET-103/OV-104 LC39B STS-106
MLP-3/RSRM-76/ET-104/OV-103 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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