From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 16:42:59 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: owner-jsr_at_head-cfa.harvard.edu
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 1:19 PM
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, No. 496
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 496 2003 Apr 6, Cambridge, MA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle and Station
--------------------
Expedition 6 crew Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin remain aboard the
International Space Station. The Progress M-47 cargo craft is docked to
the aft Zvezda port and the Soyuz TMA-1 transport ship is docked to the
Pirs module.
Soyuz TMA-2 will be launched in April or May carrying the new Expedition 7
crew of Yuriy Malenchenko and Edward Lu.
The investigation into the Columbia accident continues. One possible
scenario is that a piece of external tank foam which broke off 80
seconds after launch hit the underside of the leading edge and loosened
a carrier panel near RCC leading edge segment number 6, possibly
previously weakened by corrosion or some other problem. During an
attitude manuever on Jan 17 the panel separated (and was tracked on
radar). As Columbia reached entry interface on Feb 1, hot gas entered as
early as 1351:09 UTC, and began melting the aluminium wing structure.
Since the investigation continues, this reconstruction is obviously
highly speculative; analysis of the recently recovered onboard OEX
recorder will help reveal the actual sequence of events.
Recent Launches
---------------
The first two Japanese military surveillance satellites were launched on
Mar 28 aboard an H2A rocket (Stefan Barensky reports that a 2024 model
was used). The two Information Gathering Satellites include an optical
imager and a radar imager. The H2A second stage made a single burn to
enter a 485 x 491 km x 97.3 deg sun-synchronous orbit. The IGS-1a
Information Gathering Satellite separated, followed by the dual launch
adapter cone, the two half cylinders of the lower fairing, and then the
IGS-1b craft.
A GPS Block IIR navigation satellite, SVN 45, was launched on Mar 31 by
a Boeing Delta 7925-9.5. The Delta entered an initial parking orbit of
174 x 197 km x 36.8 deg. 1 hr 6 min after launch the third stage put the
GPS satellite in a transfer orbit; its Star 37 kick motor was fired on Apr 23
circularize the orbit at 20063 x 20433 km x 55.0 deg.
Russian Space Forces launched a Molniya-1T elliptical-orbit
communications satellite on Apr 2 from Plesetsk. The spacecraft has a
mass of around 1660 kg and is in an initial 624 x 40644 km x 62.9 km
orbit.
The Japanese USERS satellite raised its orbit slightly on Apr 4 from 487
x 498 km x 30.4 deg to 500 x 511 km. This may indicate that recovery is
imminent. The satellite is operated by the Institute for Unmanned Space
Experiment Free Flyers in Tokyo and was launched in Sep 2002; it was
meant to be recovered near the Ogasawara Islands after a six month
microgravity mission, but very little information has been made
available on its status.
Erratum
-------
DSCS III B-8 was launched 2000 Jan 21, not Jan 31.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 2 1259 Progress M-47 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 06A
Feb 15 0700 Intelsat 907 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comms 07A
Mar 11 0059 DSCS III A-3 Delta IVM Canaveral SLC37B Comms 08A
Mar 28 0127 IGS-1a ) H2A 2024 Tanegashima Imaging? 09A
IGS-1b ) Radar? 09B
Mar 31 2209 GPS SVN 45 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 10A
Apr 2 0153 Molniya-1T Molniya-M Plesetsk Comms 11A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
_________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-103 Discovery OPF Maintenance
OV-104 Atlantis VAB STS-114 Unknown ISS ULF1
OV-105 Endeavour OPF STS-115 Unknown ISS 12A
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS6 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm_at_cfa.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell_at_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_at_head-cfa.harvard.edu, (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Mon Apr 07 2003 - 17:01:05 PDT