Jonathan’s Space Report No. 583 2007 Aug 4
Erratum: ZX-6B launch date is Jul 5, not Jul 4.
Shuttle and Station
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Yurchikin, Kotov and Anderson continue the Expedition 15 mission on board the Station. Launch of Endeavour on mission STS-118 is scheduled for Aug 8.
The Progress M-59 cargo ship undocked from the Pirs module on Aug 1 at 1407 UTC and was deorbited over the Pacific at 1842 UTC. Progress M-60 remains docked to Zvezda. Progress M-61 was launched from Baykonur at 1733 UTC on Aug 2 and reached orbit at 1742 UTC; it is scheduled to dock with the Station at the Pirs module.
On Jul 23 Anderson and Yurchikin made a spacewalk from the Quest airlock using EMU suits 3008 and 3006. The spacewalk began a little before 1024 UTC and ended at 1805 UTC. A camera stand (‘video stanchion’) that was being stored on an FSE/FRAM (Flight Support Equipment/Flight Releasable Attach Mechanism) on the ESP-2 spares pallet was retrieved and installed on the truss. The FSE/FRAM was then removed from ESP-2 and jettisoned overboard at 1321 UTC; the empty VSSA FSE/FRAM is 96 kg in mass and 1.4 x 1.2 x 0.9m in size. The ESP-2 was launched on STS-114 and attaced to Quest on 2005 Aug 3; the VSSA FSE carried four VSSAs, all now installed on the truss on 2005 Nov 4, 2006 Aug 3, 2007 Jun 17 and 2007 Jul 23. The second jettison during the spacewalk was that of the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS); it was removed from the P6 truss and jettisoned overboard at 1437 UTC; the EAS is 2.4 x 1.1 x 1.7 meters in size and has a mass of 640 kg. It was launched on Discovery on 2001 Aug 10 during mission STS-105, and attached to P6 on 2001 Aug 16. Also during the spacewalk, the Node 1 nadir berthing port was cleaned in preparation for the installation of the PMA-3 docking adapter there later this summer.
Jens Wehrmann has kindly sent me a detailed description of the camera positions on the truss, listed below. Some stanchions carry the ETVCG external cameras, but some just carry WETA comm relays for wireless video (such as the spacewalk helmet cameras) as well as UHF and S-band comm relays. At CP2 is a stanchion carrying the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) which monitors electrical charging.
Location Stanchion Carrying: Previous
installed location:
CP1 S3 aft 2007 Jun 17 (for WETA) ESP-2
CP2 S1 outboard, zenith 2006 Aug 3 FPMU ESP-2
CP3 S1 outboard, nadir 2002 Oct 10 ETVCG S1 stbd keel pin
CP4 S1 inboard, zenith -
CP5 S1 inboard, nadir -
CP6 P1 inboard, zenith -
CP7 P1 inboard, nadir 2007 Jul 23 - ESP-2
CP8 P1 outboard, zenith 2002 Nov 28 WETA P1 port keel pin
CP9 P1 outboard, nadir 2005 Nov 7 ETVCG ESP-2
CP10 P3 aft -
CP11 (Node 2 nadir) -
CP12 Node 1 zenith 2002 Nov 26 WETA P1 stbd keel pin
CP13 Lab zenith, starboard 2002 Oct 12 ETVCG S1 port keel pin
CP14 (Node 3 stbd. forward) -
There is also a set of CETA lights for the spacewalk equipment carts, near but not at CP5, installed 2003 Apr 8. Thanks Jens!
Phoenix to Mars
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The first Mars Scout mission was launched at 1026 UTC on Aug 4. Phoenix is a Mars lander mission based on the hardware from the cancelled Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander and instruments developed for the failed Mars Polar Lander, and is intended to land in the Martian Arctic, Vastitas Borealis, at 68.4N 233.0E areocentric (68.6N 127.0W areographic) near the Scandia Colles hills.
Total Phoenix mass is 680 kg including a 350 kg lander; the remaining mass includes a cruise stage, aeroshell, backshell, parachute system and propellant – I haven’t managed to find a detailed mass breakdown. The lander carries a robotic arm, soil analysis instruments, meteorology instruments, and cameras.
Launch was by Boeing/ULA Delta 7925-9.5 from pad 17A at Cape Canaveral; the Delta second stage burned to a 166 x 167 km x 28.5 deg parking orbit at 0935 UTC, and again at 1140 UTC to a 163 x 5651 km x 28.5 deg intermediate orbit. The ATK solid PAM-D (Star 48) third stage fired at 1044 UTC and shut down at 1045 UTC; at 1050 UTC two ‘yo-yo’ weights on cables were deployed to despin the stage, and the stage separated from Phoenix. The PAM-D, the two weights, and Phoenix were then on a hyperbolic Earth escape orbit with a perigee of 195 km and an asymptotic specific energy of C3= 29.080 km^2/s^2. Phoenix will pass lunar orbit at 0445 UTC on Aug 5 and leave the Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence early on Aug 6, into a solar orbit of 0.975 x 1.668 AU with an ecliptic inclination of 3.4 deg. The probe is targeted for Mars arrival on 2008 May 25; the other three objects will fly past Mars.
Cataloging
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The miscreant catalog number 29676 has been assigned to 2005-049F, the MSG 2 SEVIRI baffle cover, which was previously listed with my auxiliary catalog number A05861 in my geosync objects list.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jun 7 1800 Kosmos-2427 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Imaging 22A
Jun 8 0234 COSMO-Skymed 1 Delta 7420 Vandenberg SLC2 Radar 23A
Jun 8 2338 Atlantis (STS-117) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 24A
Jun 10 2340 'Ofeq 7 Shavit Palmachim Imaging 25A
Jun 15 0214 TerraSAR-X Dnepr Baykonur LC109 Radar 26A
Jun 15 1511 USA 194) Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Sigint 27A
NRO? ) Sigint 27C
Jun 28 1502 Genesis 2 Dnepr Yasniy Tech 28A
Jun 29 1000 Kosmos-2428 Zenit-2M Baykonur LC45/1 Sigint 29A
Jul 2 1938 SAR-Lupe 2 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Radar 30A
Jul 5 1208 Zhongxing 6B Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Comms 31A
Jul 7 0116 DirecTV 10 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 32A
Aug 2 1733 Progress M-61 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 33A
Aug 4 0926 Phoenix Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Mars probe 34A
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