Jonathan’s Space Report No.432 14 August 2000
Shuttle and Stations
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The Progress M1-3 robot cargo ship automatically docked with the
Unity/Zarya/Zvezda International Space Station complex on Aug 8 at 2013
UTC. Docking was to the rear Zvezda port.
Meanwhile, Atlantis has been connected to the STS-106 stack in the
Vehicle Assembly Building. The stack was then moved from high bay 3 to
high bay 2 to test out use of this newly refurbished bay; it will be
rolled out to the launch pad next month in preparation for launch to the
Space Station.
Current Launches
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Contrary to some rumours, the MITA satellite is operating well in orbit
after launch on Jul 15. CHAMP has also begun operations after some
minor problems with star sensors, possibly due to damage during fairing
separation. The MITA satellite is controlled by Telespazio’s Corcolle center
near Roma.
Rumba and Tango, the second pair of Cluster II magnetospheric research
satellites for the European Space Agency, were launched on Aug 9. Here’s
a rundown on the Cluster II maneuvers so far. Apogee raising burn times
are from the ESA web site; there are slight differences in the times
given on different pages of the site. Note that in the highly elliptical
post-burn-4 orbit, the velocity at apogee is very low, which is why it’s
feasible to change the inclination there by 35 degrees. Such large
inclination changes are very rare, except for launches to geostationary
orbit from Baykonur.
2000 Jul 16 1239 Salsa and Samba launched from Baykonur
1251 In 217 x 217 km x 64.8 deg parking orbit
1410 In 251 x 18050 km x 64.8 deg orbit, separate
from Fregat stage and from each other.
1630? Fregat at apogee, lowers perigee for deorbit
1920? Fregat reenters.
2000 Jul 17 1121 Salsa burn 1, 247 x 24390 km x 64.9
1121 Samba burn 1, 245 x 24311 km x 64.9
2000 Jul 18 0828 Salsa burn 2, 261 x 35417 km x 65.1
0833 Samba burn 2, 241 x 35007 km x 65.1
2000 Jul 19 0508 Salsa burn 3, 250 x 56677 km x 64.9
0515 Samba burn 3, 241 x 57010 km x 65.1
2000 Jul 19 2259 Salsa burn 4, 246 x 119523 km x 64.9
2325 Samba burn 4, 246 x 119523 km x 64.9 (?)
2000 Jul 20 2302 Salsa burn 5 16714 x 121090 km x 90.5 deg
2000 Jul 21 0004 Samba burn 5 16869 x 121098 km x 90.6 deg
2000 Aug 9 1113 Rumba and Tango launch from Baykonur
1126 R and T in 190 x 190 km x 64.8 deg orbit
1243 R and T separate from Fregat in 250? x 18050? km x 64.8 deg
1510 Fregat deorbit burn at apogee, in -157 x 17075 km orbit.
1731 Fregat reenters
2000 Aug 10 0853 Tango burn 1 240 x 23063 km x 64.9
2000 Aug 10 1329 Rumba burn 1, 237 x 23522 km x 64.9
2000 Aug 11 0340 Rumba burn 2, 240 x 33997 km x 64.9
0458 Tango burn 2, 240 x 33997 km x 64.9
2335 Rumba burn 3,
2000 Aug 12 0019 Tango burn 3,
2000 Aug 12 1630? Rumba burn 4
1636? Tango burn 4
2000 Aug 13 1655 Rumba burn 5, 17200 x 120600 km x 90 deg
1658 Tange burn 5. 17200 x 120600 km x 90 deg
By Aug 13 Rumba and Tango were in similar orbits to Salsa and Samba. On
Aug 26 they will begin stationkeeping, maintaining separations from a
few hundred to some thousands of kilometers in a tetrahedral constellation.
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 LC200 Comms 36A
Jul 12 0456 Zvezda Proton-K Baykonur LC81L Station 37A
Jul 14 0521 Echostar VI Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36B Comms 38A
Jul 15 1200 CHAMP ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Science 39A
MITA ) Science 39B
Rubin ) Imaging 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 Comms 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
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch DueOV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-92 2000 Oct ISS 3A
OV-104 Atlantis VAB Bay 2 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/OV-104 VAB Bay 2 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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