Jonathan's Space Report
No. 136 1992 Dec 8
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Space Shuttle Discovery was launched at 1324 UTC on Dec 2 into a 369 x
379 km x 57 deg orbit. At 1918 UTC the DoD-1 satellite was deployed. On
Dec 3 the orbit was lowered to 317 x 331 km; on Dec 4 an attempt to
deploy the ODERACS satellites failed due to electrical problems. Landing
is scheduled for Dec 9.
STS-53 is the 15th flight of Discovery. This is the 8th Shuttle flight
in 1992, a record surpassed only by the 9 flights in 1985. More
impressive, however, is NASA's success at meeting target launch dates.
Since the delay to STS-39 in early 1991, there have been no major delays
to the manifested missions, and every countdown this year has resulted
in a launch, with the exception of the first STS-45 countdown which was
scrubbed due to bad weather, delaying the mission by one day. Although
we must expect scheduling problems in the future, up to and including
loss of another orbiter, it does seem that NASA has ridden up the
learning curve and can now operate this reusable piloted spacecraft
on a schedule whose reliability is at least comparable, say, with
unpiloted expendable rockets like Delta.
STS-53 Mission Specialist Mike Clifford is the first of the 1990
astronaut group to fly in space; the last of the 1987 group astronauts
made their first flight on STS-47. Things have improved a lot since the
days when astronauts had to wait over a decade for their first flight!
(See table below; group 5 was the first to feel the post-Apollo slump;
group 9 the first to be delayed by the Challenger accident. This table
ignores the effects of resignations prior to first flight).
NASA Group Time from selection to first flight (years)
Min Max Median
1/1959 2 (Shepard) 16 (Slayton) 3
2/1962 3 (Young) 4 (Armstrong) 3
3/1963 3 (Scott) 6 (Bean) 4
4/1965 7 (Schmitt) 8 (Gibson) 8
5/1966 4 (Haise) 19 (Lind) 7
6/1967 15 (Lenoir) 18 (England) 16
7/1969 12 (Crippen) 14 (Peterson) 13
8/1978 5 (Hauck,Ride,Thg.,Fab.) 7 (Covey) 6
9/1980 4 (Leestma) 9 (Richards) 5
10/1984 4 (Shepherd) 7 (Gutierrez) 5
11/1985 5 (Thout) 7 (Duffy) 6
12/1987 3 (Melnick,Akers) 5 (Brown,Davis,Jemison) 4
13/1990 2 (Clifford) - -
Robert 'Hoot' Gibson has been named the fourth Chief of the NASA
astronaut office, succeeding Alan Shepard (1964-1974),
John Young (1974-1987), and Dan Brandenstein (1987-1992).
A Gorizont C-band comsat was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Nov 27
for the Russian Ministry of Communications. A Molniya-3 elliptical
orbit TV relay satellite was launched from Plestesk on Dec 2. The
Molniya launch vehicle is a Soyuz with an additional Blok-L fourth
stage.
A Titan 4 launch vehicle, possibly a 404 variant, was orbited from Space
Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg AFB on Nov 28. The USA-86 payload is
most likely an Advanced Crystal imaging recon satellite, replacing
the KH-11/Crystal launched in 1987.
Arianespace carried out its seventh launch of the year on Dec 1, using
the Ariane 42P variant to place Space Communications Corp. of Japan's
Superbird A1 satellite into orbit. The Space Systems/Loral satellite
replaces Superbird A, which failed in orbit due to ground controller
error.
Launches:
Date Payload Rocket From
Nov 23 Mak-2 - Mir 1986-17GX
Nov 24 0420? Kosmos-2221 Tsiklon Plesetsk 1992- 80A
Nov 25 1100? Kosmos-2222 Molniya Plesetsk 81A
Nov 27 1325? Gorizont Proton/Blok-DM Baykonur 82A
Nov 28 2134 USA-86 Titan 4 Vandenberg 83A
Dec 1 2248 Superbird A1 Ariane 42P Kourou 84A
Dec 2 0155? Molniya-3 (43) Molniya Plesetsk 85A
Dec 2 1324 Discovery STS53 Shuttle Kennedy 86A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-55
OV-103 Discovery LEO STS-53
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour LC39B STS-54
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/
ML2/STS-54/ET/OV-105 LC39B
ML3/STS-55 VAB Bay 3
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS4 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
| USA | |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'