Jonathan's Space Report
No. 491 2002 Dec 2, Cambridge, MA
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Shuttle and Station
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Endeavour was launched at 0049 UTC on Nov 24 on Shuttle mission STS-113.
I observed MECO with the naked eye from the roof of the Harvard
Observatory as the Orbiter and ET arced over the Boston skyline.
STS-113 delivered the Expedition 6 crew and the P1 truss segment
to the International Space Station. Two Endeavour astronauts,
Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, carried out three spacewalks
from the Station's Quest airlock module.
The SRBs separated 2 min after launch. The OMS engines fired in the
now-standard OMS assist burn during the early part of the ascent; a
valve in the right OMS engine did not completely open during the burn,
and it was decided to use only the left OMS engine for later burns. The
main engines cut off 8 min after launch at 0058 UTC and the ET
separated, with both ET and orbiter in a 59 x 232 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
At 0127 UTC the ET and Endeavour reached apogee and Endeavour fired the
left OMS engine for 5 minutes to raise its perigee. The ET fell back
down for reentry over the Pacific.
Endeavour docked with the International Space Station on Nov 25 at 2159
UTC. The Orbiter RMS grappled the P1 truss in its cargo bay at 1501 UTC
on Nov 26 and unberthed it at 1522 UTC. The Station SSRMS grappled P1 at
1641 UTC and the Orbiter RMS released it at 1650 UTC, completing the
first robot arm handover of a station segment. The SSRMS moved P1 to
the end of the S0 truss and connected it between 1836 and 1848 UTC.
Lopez-Alegria and Herrington made the first spacewalk on Nov 26 from the
Quest airlock. Depressurization was around 1945 UTC, with hatch open at
1947 UTC and egress of Lopez-Alegria at 2000 UTC, with Herrington
following a few minutes later. The astronauts attached the P1/S0
umbilicals, removed the P1 drag links and the CETA-B cart's launch
restraints. They also installed more SPD disconnects on the ammonia
lines, and attached a TV camera to the truss. The astronauts reentered
the airlock between 0206 and 0216 UTC on Nov 27 and closed the hatch at
0229 UTC. Repressurization was at 0235 UTC for a duration of 6h50m
(depress/repress), 6h42m (hatch open/close), or 6h45m (by NASA rules).
EVA-2 began on Nov 28 with depressurization at about 1831 UTC and hatch
open around 1833 UTC. The astronauts went to EMU battery power at 1836
UTC and emerged from Quest at about 1845 UTC. They removed P1 keel pins
and installed TV cameras, and moved the CETA-2 cart from P1 to S1. Hatch
was closed at 0041 UTC with repress at 0046 UTC for a duration of about
6h15m (depress/repress), 6h08m (hatch open/close) or 6h10m (NASA rules).
On Nov 30 the Mobile Transporter was moved from worksite 4 on S0 to
worksite 7 at the end of P1. Motion began at 1621 UTC but the MT got
stuck a few meters short of its goal, foiling plans to use it as a base
for the SSRMS arm during the spacewalk. EVA-3 began with
depressurization at 1921 UTC and hatch open at 1924 UTC. The astronauts
went to battery power at 1925 UTC. Herrington deployed the P1 UHF
antenna which was blocking the MT's path and the MT finally reached its
destination at 0011 UTC. The astronauts returned to Quest at 0215 UTC,
closing the hatch at 0222 UTC and beginning repressurization at 0225 UTC
for a duration of 7h04m (depress/repress), 6h58m (hatch open/close), or
7h00m (NASA rules). During the spacewalk, the astronauts installed more
fixes to the Station's ammonia line connectors.
Recent Launches
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The Astra 1K satellite was launched on an International Launch
Services/Krunichev Proton-K with an Energiya Blok DM3 upper stage on Nov
25. The Proton-K entered a -744 x 183 km x 51.6 deg suborbital
trajectory and separated from the DM3. The DM3 made an orbit insertion
burn to reach a 175 km circular orbit at 2321 UTC. A further two burns
were planned, but the Blok DM3 failed to reignite and Astra 1K was
stranded in the parking orbit.
USAF Space Command/US Strategic Command is reporting two objects in low
orbit, which it is calling "Astra 1K" and "Block DM-SL R/B". In fact,
the upper stage is not a Block DM-SL (Sea Launch variant), it is a Block
DM-2M in its commercial DM3 variant. Based on the Space Command data,
Astra 1K maneuvered from a 156 x 171 km orbit to a 146 x 299 km orbit at
about 2200 UTC on Nov 26 (according to analysis by B. Gimle); then
another orbit raise to 218 x 307 km. A further burn at 1332 UTC on Nov
27 put it in a 217 x 362 km orbit, and by Dec 1 the orbit was 257 x 308
km. This will keep the satellite in orbit for a few more days while its
owners develop a plan to use onboard propulsion to deorbit the satellite
in a safe way over an empty bit of ocean. The 2500 kg Blok DM reentered
over the Washington/Oregon area at 1415 UTC on Nov 28; its fuel was
vented on the day of launch.
Astra 1K is an Alcatel Spacebus 3000B3S satellite (SB4000 bus but with
older SB 3000B3 avionics). Launch mass was 5250 kg; it has 52 Ku-band
and 2 Ka-band channels. The craft uses an Astrium S400 liquid apogee
engine. Astra 1K was to replace Astra 1B, and provide extra capacity for
eastern Europe. It also carries Ka-band capacity to back up Astra 1H.
The Ku-band 10.7-11.7 GHz payload provides pan-European coverage. Beams
were designed to cover UK/Ireland, continental Europe, and European
CIS. The Astra satellites are operated by SES, based in Luxembourg.
Three small payloads, AlSAT-1, Mozhaets, and Rubin-3-DSI, were launched
at 0607 UTC on Nov 28 by a Kosmos-3M rocket from pad 132/1 at
Plesetsk. They were placed in a northbound marginally suborbital
transfer trajectory of about -60 x 805 km x 98 deg at 0614 UTC and then
coasted up to about 700 km where the Kosmos-3M second stage reignited to
circularize the orbit at 681 x 742 km x 98.2 deg. The AlSAT-1 and
Mozhaets satellites separated from the second stage at 0641 UTC;
Rubin-3-DSI remains attached to the second stage. This is the second
sun-synchronous launch by the Kosmos-3M. According to M. Meerman of
SSTL, the trajectory involves a dog-leg to avoid flying towards Alaska
while still using their standard first stage drop zone, and an earlier
than usual fairing separation which causes higher heating loads than a
normal launch.
AlSAT-1 is a 90 kg Earth observation satellite built by Surrey
Satellite for the CNTS (Centre National des Techniques Spatiales) in
Algiers. It is the first satellite in an international Disaster
Monitoring Constellation which will provide space imaging support to
disaster relief agencies. It carries a 32-m resolution 3-band imager,
a 100 mN resistojet thruster for small orbit corrections, and a GPS
receiver. The SSTL Microsat-100 class satellite is a 0.60m cube
with a 6m gravity gradient boom. As well as gravity gradient
stabilization, it uses a momentum wheel to improve stability for
imaging.
The 64 kg Mozhaets, a successor to the Zeya and Radio-ROSTO satellites,
is built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki of Zheleznogorsk with a payload
developed by students of the Mozhaisky military academy in
Sankt-Peterburg. It may be based on the Strela-1M small communications
satellite bus. It includes a GLONASS/GPS receiver, a particle detector,
and an amateur radio payload. Rubin-3-DSI, with a mass of 45 kg, was
built by PO Polyot of Omsk (builders of the Kosmos-3M) and OHB System of
Bremen. It measures the launch vehicle environment and performance (Some
of this information was taken from the web site
www.cosmoworld.ru/spaceencyclopedia/hotnews; thanks to Audrey Nice of
SSTL for info on AlSAT).
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Oct 7 1946 Atlantis ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 47A
S1 ) Station module
Oct 15 1820 Foton-M Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43/3 Micrograv F02
Oct 17 0441 Integral Proton-K Baykonur LC81/23 Astronomy 48A
Oct 27 0317 ZY-2 CZ-4B Taiyuan Imaging 49A
Oct 30 0311 Soyuz TMA-1 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 50A
Nov 20 2239 Eutelsat W5 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Comms 51A
Nov 24 0049 Endeavour ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 52A
P1 ) Station module
Nov 25 2304 Astra 1K Proton-K Baykonur LC81/23 Comms 53A
Nov 28 0607 AlSAT-1 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Imaging 54A
Mozhaets ) Technology 54B
Rubin-3-DSI ) Technology 54C
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 OPF Maintenance
OV-104 Atlantis OPF STS-114 2003 Mar 1 ISS ULF1
OV-105 Endeavour LEO/ISS STS-113 2002 Nov 24 ISS 11A
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
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| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
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