Jonathan’s Space Report No. 468 2001 Nov 28 Cambridge, MA
Shuttle and Station
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The sojourn of Expedition 3 – Culbertson, Dezhurov, and Tyurin – is
drawing to a close aboard the International Space Station. The
Expedition 4 crew of Yuriy Onufrikeno (Commander) and Daniel Bursch and
Carl Walz (Flight Engineers) is preparing to ride to Station aboard
Endeavour to replace them. The crew of mission STS-108 consists of Dom
Gorie (Commander), Mark E. Kelley (Pilot), Linda Godwin and Dan Tani
(Mission Specialists). STS-108 will fly the UF-1 Utilization Flight
mission, distinguished from earlier Station flights which were
considered assembly flights. In addition to the crew swap, UF-1 will
bring supplies to the Station, and Godwin and Tani will do a spacewalk
to add thermal blankets to the gimbals on the Station’s solar arrays.
In the cargo bay is the Raffaello (MPLM-2) logistics module with 4 RSP
and 8 RSR resupply racks. Earlier, the MELFI freezer had been scheduled
for this flight, but it isn’t mentioned in the press kit. Also in the
cargo bay are the MACH-1 and LMC experiment trusses flown under the
Goddard small payloads program. MACH-1 is an MPESS-type Hitchhiker
bridge carrying the CAPL-3 capillary thermal control experiment on top.
On its forward side is the Starshine-2 launch canister, the CAPL-3
avionics plate, the Hitchhiker avionics plate, and the SEM-15 canister.
On the aft side is the G-761 canister containing experiments from
Argentina, the PSRD synchrotron detector (a prototype for the AMS
antimatter experiment which will fly on Station later), the COLLIDE-2
and SEM-11 canisters. The SEM (Space Experiment Modules) are collections
of high school experiments.
LMC, the Lightweight MPESS Carrier (a nested acronym in the grand NASA
tradition) is a new cargo bay bridge – it is actually LMC S/N 2,
presumably S/N 1 was a ground test article – and carries four canisters
with materials science and technology experiments: SEM-12, G-785, G-064
and G-730. In addition, an adapter beam on the starboard sidewall carries
G-221 and G-775, with materials science and biology experiments.
Jonathan’s cargo manifest estimate:
(Masses are wild guesses this time around)
Mass/kg
Bay 1-2 Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock 1800
3 EMU spacesuits? 360?
Bay 3S Adapter beam with G-775/G-221 200?
Bay 5 MACH-1 MPESS 2500?
Starshine-2 39
Bay 7-12 MPLM FM2 (Raffaello) module 9000?
Bay 13 LMC S/N 2 1000?
Sill RMS arm No 303 410
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Total 15309?
A Progress robot cargo supply ship was launched on Nov 26. The vehicle
is Progress M1-7 (vehicle No. 256). Launch was by the uprated Soyuz-FG
rocket (a Soyuz-U with improved core packet engines). The Progress M-45
undocked from Zvezda’s rear port on Nov 22 and was deorbited over the
Pacific later the same day.
Progress M1-7 docked with Zvezda on Nov 28. However, following `soft
dock’ (initial capture), it appears that `hard dock’ (firm latching) was
not completed, raising fears that torques associated with next week’s
planned Shuttle docking could break the vehicle loose. The Russian Space
Agency is continuing to evaluate the situation.
Recent Launches
—————
The DirecTV-4S television broadcasting satellite was launched on Nov 27.
The Arianespace Ariane 44LP put the Boeing 601HP satellite in
geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite has a dry mass of 2100 kg
and a launch mass of 4300 kg.
DirecTV Inc. is currently owned by Hughes Electronics,
but a takeover by Echostar is in the works.
Table of Recent Launches
———————–
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Oct 5 2120 USA 161 Titan 4B Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 44A
Oct 6 1645 Raduga-1 Proton-K/DM2? Baykonur C telecom 45A
Oct 11 0232 USA 162 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36B Data relay? 46A
Oct 18 1851 QuickBird Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging 47A
Oct 21 0859 Soyuz TM-33 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 48A
Oct 22 0453 TES ) PSLV Sriharikota Imaging? 49A
BIRD ) Imaging 49C
PROBA ) Imaging/tech 49B
Oct 25 1134 Molniya-3 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/3 Comms 50A
Nov 26 1824 Progress M1-7 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Cargo 51A
Nov 27 0035 DirecTV 4S Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 TV broadcast 52A
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 LC39B STS-108 2001 Nov 29 ISS UF-1
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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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