Jonathan's Space Report, No. 521

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 521 2004 Feb 27, Somerville, MA
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Astronauts Foale and Kaleri made a spacewalk on Feb 26. The Pirs docking
module on the International Space Station was depressurized to below 50
mbar by about 2055 UTC. After going to internal suit power at 2105 UTC,
the astronauts opened the hatch at 2117 UTC. The spacewalk installed
experiments on the exterior of Zvezda. The walk was cut short when the
sublimator of Kaleri's Orlan-M No. 23 suit malfunctioned and caused
water to condense inside the suit, probably due to a crimped fluid line.
This was the 8th use of suit M-23 since its launch aboard Zvezda in
2000; Foale's suit, Orlan-M No. 14, was launched aboard Pirs and this
was its 5th use. Although four of the Orlan suits on Mir were used as
many as 14 times, the longest time between launch and last use was 3yr
3months for Orlan-DMA No. 25 (14 uses 1993-1996). M-23 is now at 3yr
7months, a record service life for an EVA spacesuit. Two new suits
were recently delivered aboard the Progress M1-11 cargo ship.

The Pirs hatch was closed at 0112 UTC and repressurization of the
airlock began at 0115 UTC, giving a depressurized duration of 4h20m and
a hatch open/close duration of 3h55m. Kaleri seems to have had some
problem reading the airlock control panel due to the condensation on his
faceplate.


The US Air Force launched a DSP (Defense Support Program) early warning
satellite on a Lockheed Martin Titan 4B from Cape Canaveral on Feb 14.
Titan 4B-39 placed the IUS-10 upper stage in parking orbit; two IUS
solid motor burns put DSP-22 into geostationary drift orbit. The Titan
second stage remains in low orbit, the IUS SRM-1 motor in geostationary
transfer orbit, SRM-2 in geostationary drift orbit. The DSP satellite's
infrared telescope cover was presumably ejected a few days later, and the
satellite is being placed on station to observe missile launches. This
was the 24th and last use of the Boeing IUS upper stage since the first
IUS launch in 1982; a 25th stage, IUS-23, was never flown. The final DSP
will be launched on a Boeing Delta 4. DSP satellites are built by
Northrop Grumman's Redondo Beach operation (formerly TRW).

No official orbital data have been released for DSP-22, although the IUS
SRM-2 apogee burn was seen as a bright cloud by amateur astronomers at
several locations in the USA.

Russia launched a Molniya-M rocket from Plesetsk on Feb 18, with
President Vladimir Putin in attendance. The rocket entered low parking
orbit and then half an orbit later fired to put its payload in a 12-hour
ellliptical orbit. The payload was given the name Kosmos-2405. Novosti
Kosmonavtiki, normally reliable, reports that this launch is a
Molniya-1T military communications satellite; other sources indicate
that the payload is an Oko early warning satellite. The orbit has an
argument of perigee of 287 deg, similar to the Molniyas and the last two
Oko launches but different from pre-2002 Okos. Molniya-1T's normally
are not given Kosmos codenames, but this is not definitive proof; still,
I lean towards the Oko explanation pending further information.

The Molniya launch was part of the Bezopasnost'-2004 military exercise.
Also launched as part of the same exercise was a Topol' solid-fuel
ICBM from Plesetsk toward the Kura (Kamchatka) target range; a UR-100NU
(15A35) liquid-fuel ICBM from Baykonur; and an R-29RM Sineva submarine
missile launched from the K-18 Karelia sub in the Barents Sea. The
Sineva, a minor upgrade of the R-29RM Shtil', was destroyed 98 seconds
after launch.

ESA's SMART-1 lunar probe turned off its ion engine on Jan 30 for a
period of payload commissioning. Launched into geostationary transfer
orbit of 672 x 35828 km x 6.9 deg on Sep 27, its orbital period
surpassed 23 hours in late January putting it in the geosynchronous
region; the orbit is now 14312 x 59491 km x 6.9 deg with a period of 24h
53min. The probe is scheduled to reach lunar orbit in December 2004.

ESA's Mars Express probe is now in a 260 x 11607 km x 86.59 deg
orbit around Mars with perapsis around latitude 25 deg S.


Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.

DES.
Jan 11 0413 Estrela do Sul Zenit-3SL Odyssey Comms
01A
Jan 29 1158 Progress M1-11 Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo
02A
Feb 5 2346 AMC-10 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36A Comms
03A
Feb 14 1850 DSP 22 Titan 4B/IUS Canaveral SLC40 Early Warn
04A
Feb 18 0705 Kosmos-2405 Molniya-M Plesetsk Comms
05A

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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
|
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| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info