Jonathan's Space Report No. 423 2000 Apr 5 Cambridge, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Stations -------------------- The Soyuz TM-30 spacecraft was launched on Apr 4 with the EO-28 Mir crew. Commander is Sergey V. Zalyotin; flight engineer is Aleksandr Kaleri. The spacecraft, production vehicle 11F732 No. 204, is the first in the "200" series of Soyuz TM vehicles to fly. These vehicles were originally built to support the International Space Station and are externally similar to the standard Soyuz TM, with a cylindrical service module (PAO), curved-conical descent module (SA), and spheroidal living module (BO). Mounted on the BO is a standard Mir SSVP-type probe docking system. The 11A511U Soyuz-U launch vehicle, built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara, took off from the Gagarin pad at 5-GIK Baykonur at 0501:29 UTC. The four Blok B,V,G,D strapon liquid boosters separated at 0503 UTC. Two minutes into flight the escape tower separated and at 0504 UTC the nose fairing was jettisoned at an altitude of 85 km. The central stage (Blok A) of the Soyuz 'packet' continued on a suborbital trajectory, shutting down and separating at 0506 UTC. The third stage, the Blok-I (possibly designated 11S510) fired its KB Khivavtomatiki 11D55 LOX/kerosene main engine for a four minute burn, placing Soyuz TM-30 in a low Earth orbit. The antennae and solar panels were deployed shortly afterwards. Two Soyuz engine burns at 0837 and 0923 UTC placed the vehicle in a 257 x 259 km x 51.6 deg orbit. It is not yet clear how long the EO-28 crew will stay aboard Mir. Part of the EO-28 mission is financed by the private MirCorp company. The Mir complex is currently in a 329 x 333 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The Progress M1-1 cargo ship is docked to the +X docking port of the Kvant module. The -X docking port on the Mir base module transfer compartment is waiting for Soyuz TM-30. The Kvant-2, Priroda, Kristall and Spektr modules remain docked to the radial ports on the base module (Spektr remains depressurized following the 1997 collision with Progress M-34). The next Shuttle mission is STS-101, to the international space station. Crew are James Halsell, Scott Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey Williams, James Voss, Susan Helms, and Yuriy Usachev. Atlantis will carry the External Airlock/Orbiter Docking System, the Spacehab Long Tunnel, the Keel Yoke Device with the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) pallet, and the Spacehab Logistics Double Module. A GAS canister in bay 13 port contains the SEM-6 and MARS high school experiments. The ICC carries parts of the ISS Strela robot arm and a Shuttle GPS navigation experiment. Errata ------- A friend at Arianespace points out that I should have said that the Ariane 5 EPC stage impacts the Pacific *west* of the Galapagos, not *over* the Galapagos - so readers on those islands do not need to duck. The EPC stages are unusual in that they attain marginal orbits, with perigees within the atmosphere but with quite high apogees - I don't have definitive values but possibly around 1000 km. Most launch vehicle suborbital stages have much less velocity at cutoff. The Ariane 505 mission now makes three perfect launches in a row for Ariane 5, which following its earlier rocky start places it in a good position relative to the other new generation launch vehicles (e.g. Delta 3, Atlas 3) which have not yet successfully flown. Ariane 5 missions: (trajectories with ? are speculative) L Date Payload Adapter Fairing EPC trajectory 501 1996 Jun 4 Cluster Speltra Short Exploded over launch site 502 1997 Oct 30 Maqsat Speltra Long? -200?x 500? km x 7 deg 503 1998 Oct 21 ARD Speltra ? 1 x 844 km x 5.8 deg 504 1999 Dec 10 XMM None Long? 50?x 1500? km x 40.0 deg 505 2000 Mar 21 Insat/Asiastar Sylda 5 ? 45 x 1368 km x 7.7 deg MTI is a joint mission of Sandia Labs and Los Alamos, together with the Savannah River Technology Center. The orbit I gave for the Delta second stage from the IMAGE launch was the initial one; after the depletion burn the stage was left in a 193 x 1059 km x 91.3 deg orbit. Always Initialize Your Variables --------------------------------- The failure report for the Mars Polar Lander suggests that the most probable cause was a software error in the landing sequence: during final descent, the lander has rocket engines to slow it down: while ( not touched down ) { fire braking rockets } Unfortunately, the 'touched down' signal was not set to false at the beginning of this loop, and was probably set to true earlier in the descent when the shock of landing leg deployment was detected by the touchdown sensor. Euphemism Corner ---------------- ESA's public affairs continue to rival the experts at NASA for their use of euphemism in press releases; the latest release is entitled "Cluster II Flight Acceptance Review Report" instead of something more straightforward like "Propulsion Concerns Cause Possible Cluster II Delay". The abstract of the release just says ".. carry out a detailed examination of all aspects of the mission", which is certainly true, but if you read all the way through you discover that the DaimlerChrysler S400 propulsion system used on Cluster is apparently suspect, and shipment of the four spacecraft to the launch site is being delayed. The S400 class engine has heritage dating back to the Europa and Symphonie programs in the early 1970s, so I'm not too concerned about the fundamental design, but reading between the lines it sounds like there have been some minor problems on recent comsats using the system. Let's hope any delay is small. Cluster II is a group of four space science satellites replacing those lost on the first Ariane 5 launch. Current Launches ---------------- The NEAR-Shoemaker probe moved into a 100 x 200 km orbit around (433) Eros on Apr 2 at 0200 UTC. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 1 0647 Progress M1-1 Soyuz Baykonur LC1 Cargo 05A Feb 3 0926 Kosmos-2369 Zenit-2 Baykonur LC45 Sigint 06A Feb 3 2330 Hispasat 1C Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 07A Feb 7 0334 MEMS 1 ) - OPAL, LEO Tech. 04H MEMS 2 ) Tech. 04H Feb 8 2124 Globalstar 60) Delta 7420 Canaveral SLC17B Comsat 08A Globalstar 62) Comsat 08B Globalstar 63) Comsat 08C Globalstar 64) Comsat 08D Feb 8 2320 IRDT ) Soyuz/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Tech 09 Dummy satellite) Tech 09A Fregat ) Tech 09B Feb 10 0130 ASTRO E M-V Kagoshima Mu Astron. F01 Feb 11 0510 JAK OPAL, LEO Comsat 04L Feb 11 0510 STENSAT OPAL, LEO Comsat 04M Feb 11 1743 Endeavour ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 10A SRL-3 ) Feb 12 0910 Garuda 1 Proton/DM3 Baykonur LC81L Comsat 11A Feb 12 1343 Thelma ) OPAL, LEO Science 04J Louise ) Science 04K Feb 18 0104 Superbird 4 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 12A Mar 12 0407 Ekspress A2 Proton Baykonur Comsat 13A Mar 12 0929 MTI Taurus Vandenberg 576E Imaging 14A Mar 12 1449 ICO F-1 Zenit-3SL Sea Launch Comsat F02 Mar 20 1828 Dumsat Soyuz/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Tech 15A Mar 21 2328 Asiastar ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Comsat 16A Insat 3B ) Comsat 16B Mar 25 2034 IMAGE Delta 7326 Vandenberg SLC2W Science 17A Apr 4 0501 Soyuz TM-30 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 18A Current Shuttle Processing Status _________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-92 2000 Sep? ISS 3A OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-101 2000 Apr 24? ISS 2A.2a OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-97 2000 Nov? ISS 4A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | | | | JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'