Jonathan's Space Report
No. 488 2002 Oct 8, Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle and Station
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The Expedition 5 crew remain aboard the Station. Peggy Whitson,
Flight Engineer 2 on the Ex-5 crew, has been appointed ISS Science
Officer (SO).
Cargo ship Progress M1-9, Station mission 9P, was launched on Sep 25
using a Soyuz-FG rocket. The Soyuz-FG is a Soyuz-U with improved first
stage engines. Progress M1-9 (Progress No. 258) docked with Zvezda at
1700 UTC on Sep 29. Progress M-46 undocked from Zvezda at 1358 UTC on
Sep 24 and remained in orbit to carry out photography of the Earth.
Space Shuttle mission STS-112, Station mission 9A, was launched on Oct
7. Atlantis took off from Kennedy Space Center to a 58 x 227 km x 51.6
deg orbit. The OMS-2 burn at 2028 UTC raised the perigee to 158 km.
Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the Station and deliver the S1
truss segment.
Meanwhile, Endeavour has been connected to the external tank and
solid boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building, for launch next
month on mission STS-113.
Nobel Prize for Riccardo Giacconi
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Riccardo Giacconi, one of the pioneers of X-ray astronomy, has been
awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics (together with neutrino
observers Ray Davis and Masatoshi Koshiba). Congratulations, Riccardo!
Giacconi, in collaboration with the late Bruno Rossi (namesake of the
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer), discovered the first extra-solar X-ray
source Sco X-1 in 1962. His group at American Science and Engineering,
Inc. (AS&E) later formed the nucleus of the high energy astrophysics
group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (of which I am
now a member) and together with colleagues Harvey Tananbaum and Leon van
Speybroeck was responsible for pushing the concept that led eventually
to the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Riccardo left the group in 1982 to
lead the Space Telescope Science Institute through the launch of HST,
and more recently has directed the European Southern Observatory.
The first AS&E sounding rocket to search for X-ray sources was Nike Asp
flight AA8.243 from Eglin AFB in Florida on 1960 Jun 27. Although it
reached an apogee of 170 km, it failed to return useful data. A second
flight, Aerobee 150 flight AB3.351 on 1961 Oct 25 from White Sands in
New Mexico, also was unsuccessful. But the team persevered and the third
flight, Aerobee 150 flight AB3.352, launched from White Sands at 0659
UTC on 1962 Jun 19 to an apogee of 224 km, discovered the X-rays from
the bright binary source we now call Sco X-1, as well as the diffuse
X-ray background, inaugurating the modern discipline of X-ray astronomy
(Giacconi, R., Gursky, H., Paolini, F and Rossi, B, Phys.Rev.Lett 9, 11,
439 (1962)).
Recent Launches
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I am now confident that the KT-1 launch on Sep 15 did indeed
occur. The second stage failed; one report says that KT-1
is a 4-stage rocket.
The KT-1 launch was planned for mid September and was to
carry a 50 kg microsatellite developed by HTSTL (Hangtian-Tsinghua
Satellite Technology Ltd.) of Beijing as a technology successor to the
Tsinghua-1 satellite which was built in collaboration with England's
Surrey Satellite. It is therefore probably similar to the other
Uosat-derived satellites. I'm listing it below as HTSTL-1, but I don't
know its real name (Tsinghua-2 is another plausible designator).
A Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS orbited Spain's Hispasat 1D on Sep 18.
AC-159 entered a 151 x 374 km x 27.4 deg parking orbit and then
made a second burn to 189 x 45450 km x 20.9 deg. The Hispasat 1D
is an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B2 satellite and has 28 Ku-band transponders.
A Kosmos-3M (11K65M) rocket built by Polyot/Omsk orbited a
Russian Nadezhda-M navigation satellite on Sep 26.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Aug 21 2205 Hot Bird 6 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 38A
Aug 22 0515 Echostar VIII Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur LC81/23 Comms 39A
Aug 28 2245 Atlantic Bird 1 ) Ariane 5G Kourou ELA3 Comms 40A
MSG 1 ) Weather 40B
Sep 6 0644 Intelsat 906 Ariane 44L Kourou ELA2 Comms 41A
Sep 10 0820 Kodama) H2A 2024 Tanegashima Comms 42B
USERS) Micrograv 42A
Sep 12 1025 METSAT PSLV Sriharikota Weather 43A
Sep 15 1030 HTSTL-1? KT-1 Taiyuan Technology F01
Sep 18 2204 Hispasat 1D Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36A Comms 44A
Sep 25 1658 Progress M1-9 Soyuz-FG Baykonur Cargo 45A
Sep 26 1427 Nadezhda-M Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Navigation 46A
Oct 7 1946 Atlantis ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 47A
S1 ) Station module
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF STS-107 2003 Jan 16 Spacehab
OV-103 Discovery VAB Maintenance
OV-104 Atlantis LEO STS-112 2002 Oct 7 ISS 9A
OV-105 Endeavour VAB STS-113 2002 Nov 10 ISS 11A
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
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