Jonathan's Space Report
No. 409 1999 Oct 7 Cambridge, MA
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Recent Launches
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Lockheed Martin Intersputnik's LMI-1 satellite was launched on Sep 26 by
International Launch Services on a Krunichev Proton with an Energiya
Blok DM3 upper stage. LMI-1 will provide communications services to
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. LMI 1 is currently in a geostationary
drift orbit.
Analysis of the quoted velocites at separation for the various Athena 2
stages suggests that the object now being cataloged as 1999-51C is the
Orbus 21 ESBM stage, and 1999-51B is the OAM stage. Athena sources
confirm this (Space Command originally incorrectly cataloged the old 51B
- the object now called 51C - as the OAM, but seem to have corrected
things now). My sources also inform me that although the Lewis launch
vehicle in 1997 had "LM-1" incorrectly painted on the side, it is really
tail number "LM-2". I'll update the launch logs soon.
Russia launched another Zenit-class recoverable satellite from Plesetsk
on Sep 28 into a 220 x 231 km x 82.3 deg orbit. The satellite is probably
a Resurs F-1M remote sensing satellite. This is the second Resurs F-1M
flight; the first was in Nov 1997, following on from the
Resurs F-1 flights which ended in 1993.
The third GPS Block 2R satellite was launched on Oct 7. The spacecraft
is Block IIR SV06, or SVN 46 in the overall production numbering scheme.
This satellite replaced SVN 50, which was soaked during a storm at
pad 17 earlier this year and has been returned to the factory for
repairs.
The Mars Climate Orbiter fiasco was reportedly due to confusion between
metric and imperial units in a software interface between Lockheed
Martin/Denver and the JPL nav team coupled with the use of some new
software. After all these years on this side of the pond I still find
it hard to deal with the fact that US engineers still use imperial
units! Thruster impulse data should have been in Ns, but used lbf-s
instead, and noone caught the error. It may never be clear whether
MCO impacted Mars or remained in solar orbit, although I feel
the former is more likely.
A Minuteman 2 missile with an MSLS reentry section was launched from
silo LF03 at Vandenberg on Oct 3 at 0201 UTC. The IFT-3 flight used the
MSLS vehicle as a target for an EKV interceptor launched from Kwajalein.
The interceptor launch vehicle is the two-stage PLV, made up of a
Minuteman 2 second and third stage. Intercept was reported to be
successful.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 4 2234 Koreasat 3 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 46A
Sep 6 1636 Yamal 101 ) Proton-K/DM Baykonur Comsat 47A
Yamal 102 ) Comsat 47B
Sep 9 1800 Foton 12 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Micrograv 48A
Sep 22 1433 Globalstar 33) Soyuz-U/Ikar Baykonur LC1? Comsat 49A
Globalstar 50) Comsat 49B
Globalstar 55) Comsat 49C
Globalstar 58) Comsat 49D
Sep 23 0602 Echostar 5 Atlas 2AS Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 50A
Sep 24 1821 Ikonos Athena-2 Vandenberg SLC6 Imaging 51A
Sep 25 0629 Telstar 7 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 52A
Sep 26 2230 LMI-1 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 53A
Sep 28 1100? Resurs F-1M Soyuz-U Plesetsk Imaging 54A
Oct 7 1251 Navstar SVN 46 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navsat 55A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
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Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 1 STS-103 1999 Nov
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-101 2000
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 2 STS-99 1999 Dec?
MLP1/
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-71?/ET? VAB Bay 3 STS-99?
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Harvard-Smithsonian Center for | |
| Astrophysics | |
| 60 Garden St, MS6 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
| USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu |
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