[Ed. Note: Go to http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html for back issues and other information about Jonathan's Space Report.]

Shuttle and Mir

The robot cargo ship Progress M-34 undocked from Mir at 1022 UTC on Jun 24 to perform a redocking test using recently developed remote-control procedures which are replacing the old automatic systems that Russia can no longer afford to buy from Ukraine. At around 0918 UTC on Jun 25, Mir commander Tsibliev was remotely commanding the approach of Progress to the Kvant (37KE) module when, for reasons that remain unclear, the Progress went off course and collided with a solar array on the Spektr module and then the module itself. A large hole was made in the solar panel, and one of Spektr's radiators was badly buckled. A small breach in Spektr's hull appears to have been made and the module began to depressurize. This was not a slow leak - apparently the crew heard a hissing sound and felt their ears pop. They closed the hatch on the core module transfer section that leads to Spektr. The Spektr module is now fully depressurized. It remains docked to Mir with its docking hatch open. The electrical connection between Spektr's solar panels and the main station was broken off, also cutting off the power supply from the solar panels on the Kristall module. The crew of Mir are Vasiliy Tsibliev, Aleksandr Lazutkin, and Mike Foale. (It has been noted that Tsibliev was also driving on the only previous documented orbital fender-bender, when he banged Soyuz TM-17 into Mir in Jan 1994).

The Progress M-34 cargo ship is at a safe distance and is under control. It will be deorbited on Jun 26. Many details of this incident are thanks to Igor Lissov of Videocosmos Inc/Novosti Kosmoavtiki.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the fire on Mir on February 23 was much more serious than earlier reported. It lasted 14 minutes and metre-long flames of burning lithium perchlorate in the Kvant module blocked the way to one of the two Soyuz spaceships.

OV-102 Columbia was moved to pad 39A on Jun 11 in preparation for launch on mission STS-94.

Erratum

Oops - I misspoke last issue. The 63.4 degree 'magic' inclination stops precession of the perigee around the orbit, not the precession of the orbit plane with respect to an inertial frame. In other words, if you have a really elliptical orbit and you launch so that the apogee is way up north and the perigee over the southern hemisphere, then if you wait a few months the orientation of the orbit will have rotated within the orbital plane so that the perigee is now at the equator, or eventually in the north... unless you use the magic inclination which locks in the direction of the orbit and keeps the apogee in the north (or wherever you put it). Have I confused you all properly now?

Recent Launches

China launched a satellite on Jun 10 using a CZ-3 (Long March 3) rocket from Xichang. The CZ-3 third stage and satellite entered a 206 x 35987 km x 28.4 deg orbit. The satellite later fired an apogee motor to enter geosynchronous orbit. The payload is the Feng Yun 2 geostationary weather satellite. (There's some confusion as to whether this was a CZ-3 or CZ-3A rocket but the Xinhua news report says it was a CZ-3.)

Seven more Iridium comsats were launched on Jun 18 by a Proton from Baykonur. The three-stage 8K82K Proton-K rocket placed the payload and fourth stage in a 170 x 170 km x 73 deg parking orbit. The Proton-K third stage may have reentered without being cataloged. The RKK Energiya Blok DM-5 fourth stage made an inital burn to 170 x 516 km x 73 deg, followed by a second burn to raise perigee and change inclination to a 504 x 523 km x 86.4 deg orbit. It then dispensed the seven Iridium satellites, and made a third burn to place itself on a suborbital trajectory (to avoid leaving space debris around). The seven satellites will use their own on-board propulsion to raise their orbits.

The Intelsat 802 comsat was launched on Jun 25 by an Ariane 44P rocket. It will replace the Intelsat 701 satellite at the standard Pacific Ocean Region slot of 174 deg E.

Galileo made a 415 km flyby of Callisto on Jun 25.

Table of Recent Launches

Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31    Recon      24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A  Comsat     25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton-K/DM-4  Baykonur LC81    Comsat     26A
Jun  3 2321   Inmarsat 3 F4)   Ariane 44L     Kourou ELA2      Comsat     27A
              Insat 2D     )                                   Comsat     27B
Jun  6 1757   Kosmos-2344      Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200   Recon?     28A
Jun 10 1201   FY-2B            Chang Zheng 3  Xichang          Weather    29A
Jun 18 1402   Iridium SV009 )  Proton-K/DM-5  Baykonur         Comsat     30
              Iridium SV010 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV011 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV012 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV013 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV014 )                                  Comsat     30
              Iridium SV016 )                                  Comsat     30
Jun 25 2344   Intelsat 802     Ariane 44P     Kourou ELA2      Comsat

Current Shuttle Processing Status

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        LC39A         STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-86  Sep 18
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-89  Jan 15

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM-62/ET-86/OV-102   LC39A          STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/RSRM-57                VAB Bay 3?     STS-85        

Big News! After two years of operation under the sponsorship of AeroAstro, LLC, the New Space Network web site has been purchased by Launchspace Magazine. The change, which takes affect July 1 may not be immediately apparent, but you can expect our web site to be gradually adapted to meet the needs of Launchspace. Some of the most popular sections of the New Space web site, such as the Company Directory (www.newspace.com/industry), Mike's Spacecraft Library (www.newspace.com/msl), and Keith Stein's Community, Air and Space Report (www.newspace.com/casr) will be expanded. The back issues of our newsletter will be archived online, but no new issues will be published. Instead we'll be merging our editorial efforts with Launchspace. Look for a new column by Dr. Rick Fleeter in each issue of the magazine. New Space Newsletter readers will get a letter in the mail explaining the reasons for this change. (You can also read this letter online at www.newspace.com/news/finalCover.html)

With all this going on, there wasn't a huge amount of new material last month, but several new columns did get posted to the New Space Journal, under Rick Fleeter's "Reality Check" (www.newspace.com/fleeter) and Arthur Schnitt's "Minimum Cost Design" (www.newspace.com/schnitt).

[Ed. Note: visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ for the complete calendar]

July 1997

* Jul ?? - Lewis LMLV-1 Launch
* Jul ?? - Mahuhay-1 CZ-3B Launch
  Jul 01 - STS-94 Launch, Columbia, MSL-1R
  Jul 01 - Asteroid 14 Irene at Opposition (9.5 Magnitude)
  Jul 01 - Asteroid 409 Aspasia at Opposition (10.7 Magnitude)
  Jul 01 - 150th Anniversary (1847), Hencke's Discovery of the Asteroid 6 Hebe
  Jul 02 - Asteroid 20 Massalia at Opposition (10.9 Magnitude)
  Jul 02 - Asteroid 44 Nysa at Opposition (10.6 Magnitude)
* Jul 03 - NEAR, Deep Space Maneuver (TCM-7)
  Jul 03 - 5th Anniversary (1992), SAMPEX Launch
  Jul 04 - Mars Pathfinder, Trajectory Correction Maneuver #5 (TCM-5)
  Jul 04 - Mars Pathfinder Lands on Mars
  Jul 04 - Comet Encke, Near-Earth Flyby (0.1901 AU)
  Jul 04 - Earth at Aphelion (1.017 AU From Sun)
  Jul 05 - Asteroid 51 Nemausa at Opposition (10.5 Magnitude)
  Jul 06 - Asteroid 3671 Dionysus Near-Earth Flyby (0.1144 AU)
  Jul 06 - 310th Anniversary (1687), Isaac Newton's Principia Published
* Jul 07 - Iridium-2 Delta 2 Launch
  Jul 08 - Asteroid 1988 XB Near-Earth Flyby (0.1080 AU)
* Jul 08 - 5th Anniversary (1992), Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Near-Jupiter Flyby (0.0008 AU), Comet Breakup
  Jul 10 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #30 (OTM-30)
  Jul 10 - Asteroid 532 Herculina at Opposition (9.4 Magnitude)
  Jul 10 - Alvan Clark's 165th Birthday (1832)
  Jul 10 - 35th Anniversary (1962), Telstar 1 Launch, First Active Real-Time Communications
           Satellite
  Jul 10 - 5th Anniversary (1992), Giotto Flyby of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup.
* Jul 12 - Asteroid 1997 BR Near-Earth Flyby (0.0801 AU)
  Jul 12 - Asteroid 2 Pallas at Opposition (9.6 Magnitude)
  Jul 12 - Asteroid 287 Nephtys at Opposition (11.0 Magnitude)
  Jul 13 - Langley Research Center's 80th Birthday (1917)
* Jul 15 - GPS-2R Navstar Delta 2 Launch
* Jul 16 - US Air Force Titan 4A Launch
  Jul 16 - Possible Mercury Occultation of SAO 98435 (8.6 Magnitude Star)

  Jul 16 - Possible Mars Occultation of SAO 138979 (8.5 Magnitude Star)
* Jul 18 - Seastar/Seawifs Pegasus XL Launch
  Jul 18 - Comet Helfenzrieder Perihelion
  Jul 19 - 30th Anniversary (1967), Explorer 35 Launch (Moon Orbiter)
  Jul 21 - Asteroid 9 Metis Occults PPM 118511 (9.1 Magnitude Star)
  Jul 21 - Neptune at Opposition
  Jul 22 - 25th Anniversary (1972), Venera 8 Venus Landing
* Jul 23 - NEAR, Deep Space Maneuver (TCM-8)
  Jul 23 - 25th Anniversary (1972), ERTS-1 Launch
  Jul 24 - 5th Anniversary (1992), Geotail Launch
* Jul 25 - Superbird-C Atlas 2AS Launch
  Jul 25 - Moon Occults Saturn
  Jul 25 - Possible Mercury Occultation of SAO 98906 (8.2 Magnitude Star)
  Jul 27 - Asteroid 444 Gyptis at Opposition (10.8 Magnitude)
  Jul 29 - Moon Occults Aldebaran, Visible from Southern USA
  Jul 29 - South Delta-Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
  Jul 29 - Uranus at Opposition
  Jul 29 - 15th Anniversary (1982), Burnup of Salyut 6 Space Station (USRR)
* Jul 30 - Early Bird Cosmos Launch (USA/Russia)
* Jul 30 - Panamsat-5 Proton-K Launch
  Jul 31 - 5th Anniversary (1992), STS-46 Launch (Atlantis), Eureca, Tethered
           Satellite

August 1997

  Aug ?? - Apstar-2R Long March Launch
  Aug ?? - Sinosat-1 Long March 3B Launch
* Aug ?? - Astra-1G Proton Launch

  Aug 01 - Terriers/Mublcom Pegasus XL Launch
  Aug 01 - Alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower Peak
  Aug 01 - 30th Anniversary (1967), Lunar Orbiter 5 Launch
  Aug 03 - Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation (27 Degrees)
  Aug 04 - Mars Pathfinder, End of Primary Mission
  Aug 04 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults SAO 104597 (7.5 Magnitude Star)
  Aug 04 - Asteroid 306 Unitas at Opposition (10.7 Magnitude)

  Aug 05 - Soyuz TM-26 Launch (Russia)
* Aug 05 - US Air Force Titan 4A Launch
  Aug 05 - Moon Occults Mercury
  Aug 05 - Asteroid 67 Asia at Opposition (10.0 Magnitude)
  Aug 06 - Southern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
  Aug 07 - STS-85 Launch, Discovery, CRISTA-SPAS 2
* Aug 07 - Panamsat-6 Ariane 4 Launch
  Aug 07 - Comet Gehrels 2 Perihelion (2.000 AU)
  Aug 08 - Galileo, Jupiter Magnetotail Exploration
  Aug 08 - Galileo,  Orbital Trim Maneuver #31 (OTM-31)
  Aug 08 - 20th Anniversary (1977), Burnup of Salyut 5 Space Station (USSR)
  Aug 09 - Jupiter at Opposition
  Aug 10 - 5th Anniversary (1992), TOPEX/Poseidon Launch
  Aug 10 - 5th Anniversary (1992), Kitsat A Launch, 1st Korean Satellite
  Aug 10 - 25th Anniversary (1972), Observation of Only Known Meteor Known to Enter and
           Leave Earth's Atmosphere (Utah, Canada)
  Aug 11 - 35th Anniversary (1962), Vostok 3 Launch
  Aug 11 - 120th Anniversary (1877), Asaph Hall's Discovery of Mars Moon Deimos
  Aug 12 - Perseids Meteor Shower Peak
  Aug 12 - Asteroid 19 Fortuna Occults PPM 206231 (8.9 Magnitude Star)
* Aug 12 - 20th Anniversary (1977), HEAO-1 Launch (X-Ray Astronomical Observatory)
  Aug 12 - 35th Anniversary (1962), Vostok 4 Launch
* Aug 13 - NEAR, Trajectory Correction Maneuver #9 (TCM-9)
  Aug 13 - 150th Anniversary (1847), Hind's Discovery of Asteroid 7 Iris
* Aug 14 - Iridium-3 Launch
  Aug 15 - Comet Haneda-Campos Perihelion (1.267 AU)
  Aug 15 - Possible Mars Occultation of SAO 158218 (8.6 Magnitude Star)

  Aug 16 - Possible Mars Occultation of SAO 158243 (9.2 Magnitude Star)
  Aug 17 - Comets-1 H-II Launch (Japan)
  Aug 17 - 120th Anniversary (1877), Asaph Hall's Discovery of Mars Moon Phobos
  Aug 19 - 15th Anniversary (1982), Soyuz T-7 Launch (USSR)
  Aug 20 - 20th Anniversary (1977), Voyager 2 Launch
  Aug 21 - ACE Delta-2 Launch
* Aug 21 - Forte Pegasus XL Launch
  Aug 21 - Moon Passes 0.008 Degress South of Saturn
  Aug 22 - Moon Occults Saturn
  Aug 22 - Asteroid 5 Astraea at Opposition (11.0 Magnitude)
  Aug 23 - Asteroid 19 Fortuna at Opposition (9.4 Magnitude)
  Aug 24 - Asteroid 138 Tolosa at Opposition (10.6 Magnitude)
  Aug 25 - Mars Global Surveyor, Trajectory Correction Maneuver #4 (TCM-4)
  Aug 25 - Northern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
* Aug 27 - GE-3 Atlas IIAS Launch (Maiden Launch of the Atlas IIAS)
  Aug 27 - 35th Anniversary (1962), Mariner 2 Launch (Venus Flyby Mission)
* Aug 28  - Progress M-37 Launch (Russia)
  Aug 28 - Asteroid 1986 PA Near-Earth Flyby (0.2061 AU)
* Aug 29 - Hot Bird-3/Indostar-1 Ariane 4 Launch
  Aug 30 - Comet Grigg-Skjellerup Perihelion (0.997 AU)
  Aug 30 - 5th Anniversary (1992), Discovery of 1992 QB1 by
           David Jewitt and Jane Luu, First Kuiper Belt Object