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Jonathan's Space Report No. 516



 
 
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Old December 22nd 03, 04:13 PM
Jacques van Oene
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Default Jonathan's Space Report No. 516

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 516 2003 Dec 22, Cambridge,
MA
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Recent Launches
---------------

The first launch of NPO Mashinostroenie's Strela space rocket was
successful on Dec 5. The Strela is a UR-100NU ballistic missile with
avionics added to the MIRV bus to turn it into a third stage. Original
reports from the Russian Space Forces that this was a suborbital
training launch were incorrect. Launch from site 132 at Baykonur placed
the APB third stage and a dummy payload into low orbit. No name has been
released for the satellite; Space Command is calling it Gruzomaket
("payload mockup") which is a plausible name for it, so I'll adopt that.
Some Russian sources indicate the satellite is a mockup of Kondor-E, a
proposed commercial radar satellite. Its orbit is 452 x 461 km x 67.1
deg, while the APB stage entered a 389 x 457 km x 67.1 deg orbit after
venting its remaining propellant. Another space rocket based on the
UR-100NU is the Rokot, which uses a more sophisticated Briz third stage
and is marketed by Krunichev.

Let's review the currently active launch vehicles from the former Soviet
Union.
In the table below, I list refurbished missiles followed by specially-built
launch vehicles (still indicating the original missile design they are based
on).
"RV bus" denotes that the upper stage is a minimally modified post-boost
delivery
system used on the original ballistic missile.

Missile Space launcher Upper stages Marketed by

UR-100NU Rokot Briz-KM Krunichev, Eurockot
UR-100NU Strela RV bus NPO Mash
R-36M Dnepr RV bus Yuzhnoe, Kosmotras
R-29RM Shtil' RV bus KB Makeyev
RT-2PM Start-1 Start MITT, Pusk.Uslogi,
USC

(R-7) Soyuz-U/Soyuz-FG Blok-I, Blok-I/Fregat Energia, Starsem
(R-7) Molniya-M Blok-I/Blok-L Energia?
(R-14) Kosmos-3M S3 Polyot, OHB
(R-36) Tsiklon-3 S5M Yuzhnoe
- Zenit-2 - Yuzhnoe?
- Zenit-3SL Blok DM-SL Boeing Sea Launch
(UR-500) Proton-K,-M Briz-M Krunichev, ILS


Three Uragan navigation satellites in the GLONASS system were launched
from Baykonur at 1742 UTC on Dec 10. GLONASS is the Russian version of
GPS, and the satellites are built by the Polyot company in Omsk. This
was the first GLONASS launch to use the Proton-K with a Briz-M upper
stage (earlier flights used the Blok-DM class stage). The third Proton
stage flew a suborbital trajectory into the Pacific, while the Briz made
an extremely long first burn with cutoff 35 minutes after launch over
the Pacific near the equator, probably in an orbit approximately 290 x
3900 km x 51.6 deg. One orbit later the Briz fired again using the rest
of the propellant in its DTB torus tank, reaching a 291 x 19093 km x
53.1 deg transfer orbit. The DTB was jettisoned at 2038 UTC. At 2313 UTC
as the Briz core reached apogee over the western Atlantic it fired a
third time to circularize the orbit at 18930 x 19330 km x 65.1 deg and
the three Uragan satellites were deployed at 2325 UTC. Uragan satellites
794 and 795 were named Kosmos-2402 and Kosmos-2403, while uprated Uragan
satellite 701 was named Kosmos-2404.

The last UHF Follow-On communications satellite for the US Navy was
launched on Dec 18. Lockheed Martin's Atlas IIIB flight AC-203 with a
single-engine Centaur upper stage put the Boeing 601 satellite in a 185
x 1092 km x 28.1 deg parking orbit and then a 288 x 35905 km x 27.0 deg
geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite will enter geostationary
orbit and provide fleet communications.

Another Block IIR Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite was launched
on Dec 21 using a Boeing Delta 7925. The Delta second stage entered a
174 x 200 km x 36.8 deg parking orbit, fired again to a 187 x 1152 km x
37.2 km intermediate orbit, and then spun up the solid third stage which
fired to enter a 187 x 20368 km x 39.0 deg transfer orbit. The GPS
spacecraft, serial SVN 47, separated and will later use its solid
apogee motor to circularize its orbit and change its inclination to a
20100 x 20300 km x 55.0 deg operational orbit. This was the tenth Block
IIR (replenishment) launch and the 49th GPS launch since Navstar 1 in
1978.

Observers are gaining confidence that only two payloads were aboard the
USA 173 launch, confirming that the new generation naval signals
intelligence system uses a different design from the Titan-launched
triplets. The satellites are operated by the SIGINT (signals intelligence)
branch of the National Reconnaissance Office.

The Russian Kosmos-2399 military imaging satellite was destroyed in
orbit on Dec 9 after completing its mission. At least 21 debris pieces
were cataloged by US sensors; all have now reentered. On-orbit
destruction is common for the Don series of imaging satellites.

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility has been renamed the Spitzer
Space Telescope, after astronomer Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1914-1997), who
championed the idea of telescopes in space starting in 1946 and is
credited with being the driving force behind OAO and HST. The first
Spitzer Space Telescope images have been released, including a very
spiffy image of the galaxy M81. Congratulations to all my friends on the
Spitzer team for getting the mission off to a great start.

The Japanese Mars probe, Nozomi, flew past the planet on Dec 14 at a
height of 1000 km. Attempts to operate the spacecraft's main propulsion
system failed, and small thrusters were used to increase the flyby
distance by about 100 km to ensure a clean miss. The mission has now
been abandoned, and Nozomi will enter a new orbit around the Sun. The
flyby will have modified its orbit somewhat, but I don't have the new
parameters. Meanwhile, the UK's Beagle-2 lander was ejected from the
European Space Agency's Mars Express at 0831 UTC on Dec 19, on a
trajectory that will impact Mars on Dec 25. On Dec 20 Mars Express
tweaked its own orbit away from impact in preparation for orbit
insertion around Mars.

Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.

DES.
Nov 3 0720 JB-4? CZ-2D Jiuquan Micrograv
51C
Nov 14 1601 Zhongxing-20 CZ-3A Xichang Comms
52A
Nov 24 0622 Yamal-200 KA-1 ) Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur PL81/23 Comms
53A
Yamal-200 KA-2 ) Comms
53B
Nov 29 0433 IGS-2a ) H-IIA 2024 Tanegashima Imaging
F02
IGS-2b ) Radar
F02
Dec 2 1004 USA 173 ) Atlas IIAS Vandenberg SLC3E Sigint
54A
USA 173 P/L 2? ) Sigint
54C
Dec 5 0600 Gruzomaket Strela Baykonur PL132 Test
55A
Dec 10 1742 Kosmos-2402 ) Proton-K/Briz Baykonur PL81 Navigation
56A
Kosmos-2403 ) Navigation
56B
Kosmos-2404 ) Navigation
56C
Dec 18 0230 UHF F/O F11 Atlas IIIB Canaveral SLC36B Comms
57A
Dec 21 0805 GPS SVN 47 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation
58A


..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | |
| c/o | |
| Center for Astrophysics, | |
| 60 Garden St, MS6 | |
| Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : |
| USA |
|
|
|
| JSR:
http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html



--
-------------------

Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info


 




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