Jonathan's Space Report
No. 322 1997 May 18 Cambridge, MA
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I've been on travel, so this report is briefer than usual.
Thanks to David Portree, I've been able to greatly update and improve
my listing of spacewalks using the Orlan spacesuit:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/misc/orlan
Shuttle and Mir
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Atlantis was launched on schedule on May 15 at 0808 UTC. It docked with
the SO module on Mir on May 17 at 0233 UTC, and the crew are
transferring cargo between the Orbiter and the station.
The crew of STS-84 are: Charles Precourt (commander, NASA, US citizen);
Eileen Collins (pilot, NASA, US citizen); and mission specialists
Jean-Francois Clervoy (European Space Agency, French citizen);
Edward Lu (NASA, US citizen); Carlos Noriega (NASA, US citizen born
in Peru); Elena Kondakova (RKA, Russian citizen), and Mike Foale
(NASA, US/Brit dual citizen born in England).
Recent Launches
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The Chinese DFH-3 satellite launched on May 11 is reportedly also known
as Zhongxing 6 (Chinastar 6). Zhongxing 7 was an HS-376 launched last
year, and Zhongxing 5 is the former Spacenet 1. Zhongxing 1 to 4 are
probably the earlier DFH-2 and DFH-3 satellites, but I haven't seen an
explicit statement to this effect - does anyone have firm information on
Chinastars 1 to 4? On May 16, the new DFH-3 satellite was in a
34620 x 35990 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting 6 degrees per day at around
120 E longitude.
Kosmos-2342, launched on May 14, is an Oko-type early warning satellite,
the second in two months. It is built by NPO Lavochkin for the Russian
Federation Ministry of Defence. On May 15 it was in a 514 x 39377 km x
62.8 deg orbit.
Kosmos-2343, launched on May 15, is an advanced imaging reconnaissance
satellite. It is built by TsSKB-Progress. The initial orbit of the
satellite was 170 x 316 km x 64.8 deg.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 4 1647 DMSP 5D-2 S-14 Titan 23G Vandenberg SLC4W Weather 12A
Apr 4 1920 Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 13A
MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr 6 1604 Progress M-34 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 14A
Apr 9 0858 Kosmos-2340 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC16/2 EarlyWarn 15A
Apr 16 2309 Thaicom 3 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 16A
BSAT 1a ) 16B
Apr 17 1303 Kosmos-2341 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat 17A
Apr 21 1159 Minisat-01 ) Pegasus XL L-1011, Gando Technology 18A
Celestis ) Burial 18B
Apr 25 0549 GOES 10 Atlas I Canaveral LC36B Weather 19A
May 5 1455 Iridium SV004 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 20E
Iridium SV005 ) Comsat 20D
Iridium SV006 ) Comsat 20C
Iridium SV007 ) Comsat 20B
Iridium SV008 ) Comsat 20A
May 11 1617 DFH-3 CZ-3A Xichang LC2 Comsat 21A
May 14 0033 Kosmos-2342 Molniya-M Plesetsk LC43/4 EarlyWarn 22A
May 15 0808 Atlantis STS-84 Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 23A
May 15 1210 Kosmos-2343 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Recon 24A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 1 STS-94 Jul 1
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-85 Aug 7
OV-104 Atlantis Mir, LEO STS-84
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-86 Sep 25
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-62/ET VAB Bay 1 STS-94
ML2/
ML3/
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS6 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@urania.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
| |
| JSR: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html |
| Back issues: ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/jcm/space/news/news.* |
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