Friday, September 22, 2000

Kosmos 2333

 1996-051A


The only 1996 Zenit-2 launch was a successful Tselina-2 flight.


Kosmos-2333 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1996 Sep 4  0901:00  Launch by Zenit-2  KB LC45L 
 0903  T+2:23 St 1 MECO 
 0903  T+2:25 Stage 1 sep 
 0903  T+2:25 Stage 2 burn 
 0903  T+2:40 GO sep 
 0907  T+6:42 Stage 2 MECO 150? x 850? x 71.0 
  Sep motor cover perigee  
 0914? T+13m? Stage 2 VECO 
 0914?  Stage 2 sep motor covers 
 0914?  T+13m? Stage 2 sep

SBS-5

 1988-081B


The final HS-376 SBS satellite was launched for IBM Satellite Transponder Leasing Corp. aboard an Ariane 3.


SBS 5 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1988 Sep 8  2300  Launch by Ariane 3  CSG 
  T+0:07 PAP on 
  T+0:40 PAP sep 
1988 Sep 8  2302:21  Stage 1 MECO  
1988 Sep 8  2302:26  T+2:23 Stage 1 Sep 
 2302:29 T+2:26 St 2 MES 
 2303:50 T+3:47 Fairing 
1988 Sep 8  2304:32  Stage 2 MECO 
 2304:33 T+4:33 St 2 sep 
1988 Sep 8  2304:41  T+4:39 Stage 3 MES 
1988 Sep 8  2316:49  T+16:44 Stage 3 MECO 
1988 Sep 8  2318:38  T+18:36 Gstar sep from SYLDA  200 x 36101 x 7.0 
1988 Sep 8  2320:51  T+20:48 Sylda sep 
1988 Sep 8  2320:56  T+20:53 SBS 5 sep from H-10 
1988 Sep 8  2321:16  H-10 sep burn 
1988 Sep 9  0500?  Apo 1 
 1000? Peri 1 
 1600? Apo 2 over 80W 
 2100? Peri 2 
1988 Sep 10  0300?  Apo 3 over 115E 
 0800? Peri 3 
 1400? Apo 4 over 49W 
 1900? Peri 4 
1988 Sep 11  0000? Apo 5 over 153E 
 0600? Peri 5 
 1130? Apo 6 over 15W 
 1700? Peri 6 
 2200? Apo 7 over 150W 
1988 Sep 11   Star 30BP burn 
1988 Sep 11    1425.95 35031 x 36143 x 0.1 GEO 151.3W+2.5E 
1988 Sep 15    1423.33 35288 x 35783 x 0.1 GEO 138.1W+3.2E 
1988 Oct 3   mv in  1436.10 35786 x 35787 x 0.1 GEO 123.0W 
1988 Nov 22   1436.06 35780 x 35791 x 0.1 GEO 123.0W 
1990 Apr   STLC sold to Hughes HCI  
1991 Feb 22    1436.06 35777 x 35794 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W 
1992 Sep 2    1436.06 35780 x 35791 x 0.0 GEO 123.0W 
1994 Feb 1    1436.06 35781 x 35790 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W 
1995 Oct 12    1436.06 35779 x 35792 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W 
1997 May 16   To Panamsat Inc.  GEO 123W 
1999 Jun 14    1436.10 35782 x 35790 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W 
2000 Feb 21    1436.08 35778 x 35793 x 0.0 GEO 123.0W 

Thursday, September 21, 2000

Sich-1

 1995-046A


The Okean-Ukraina (Sich, `sickle') satellite was Ukraine's first spacecraft. It was an Okean-O1 class satellite built by KB Yuzhnoe and carried a side looking radar and a microwave radiometer. Sich-1 was launched on 1995 Aug 31 by Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk.


Sich 1 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1995 Aug 31  0649:59 Launch by Tsiklon-3  PL 
  T+2:00 St 1 sep 
  T+3:31 GO sep  
  T+4:38 St 2 MECO 
  T+4:38 St 2 sep 
  T+5:20 S5M burn 1  
 0656  T+6:56 S5M MECO1 
 0729? T+39:20 BOZ burn 
  T+40:58? S5M burn 2  
 0731? T+41:07? S5M MECO2  
 0731?  T+41:37 S5M sep  97.64 623 x 667 x 82.5 
1995 Sep 2    97.73 631 x 668 x 82.5 

Payload:

  • SLR radar

  • Microwave radiometer

Wednesday, September 20, 2000

Kosmos 967

 1977-116A


Like Kosmos 959,Kosmos 967 was an ASAT target satellite.


Kosmos-967 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1977 Dec 13  1553  Launch by 11K65M  PL 
 1601? Stage 2 MECO-1 
 1656? Stage 2 MECO-2 
1977 Dec 15  104.8 963 x 1005 x 65.8 

Navstar 13

 1989-044A


The second Block II to be launched was SVN 13 (PRN 2, USA 38). It entered the B plane.


Navstar 13 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1989 Jun 10  2230:00  Launch by Delta 6925  CC LC17 
  T+0:56 SRM 1-3,7-9 out  
  T+1:01 SRM 4-6 on 
  T+1:02 SRM 1-3 sep 
  T+1:03 SRM 7-9 sep 
  T+1:57 SRM 4-6 off 
  T+2:02 SRM 4-6 sep 
  T+4:25 MECO 
  T+4:31 VECO  
  T+4:33 Stage 1 sep 
 2234  Stage 2 TIG (T+4:38) 
 2234  Fairing sep (T+4:50) 
 2241  SECO-1 (T+11:37)  166 x 200 x 35.66? 
  T+20:55 spinup 
 2250  T+20:58 Delta sep 
 2251 T+21:35 TES 
 2253 T+23:02 TECO  
 2254 T+24:55 Stage 3 sep  356.15 166 x 20365 x 37.5 
 2254 T+24:57 despin weights
 2335  T+1:05:00 SES-2 depletion  
 2336  T+1:06:20 SECO-2 depletion  
1989 Jun 12  0720?  Star 37XFP burn 
   718.1 20094 x 20278 x 54.6 
1989 Jun 13    718.15 20094 x 20278 x 54.6 
1989 Jun 17    714.23 19969 x 20209 x 54.6 
1989 Jun 29    715.88 19968 x 20292 x 54.6 
1989 Jun 30    717.52 19970 x 20371 x 54.6 
1989 Jul 9    717.94 19967 x 20394 x 54.6 
1989 Aug 10   In service 
1997 Feb 1   Operating in slot B3 

Missing Man: A Stunning Thriler of Murder and Betrayal at NASA

 https://welib.org/md5/132856df1a5cc2e8f7127b3709c97123

STS-63 (Discovery)

 1995-004A


Mission 20 for OV-103 saw the beginning of Phase I Space Station flights, with the first rendezvous by a Shuttle with the Mir station. The crew was commanded by veteran Jim Wetherbee; Eileen Collins became the first woman to fly as a pilot astronaut; Bernard Harris, a medical doctor, was the payload commander and EV1; Mike Foale was the second EV crewmember, while Janice Voss was Mission Specialist 3. For the first time, a Russian, Vladimir Titov, flew as Mission Specialist (Krikalyov had officially been a Payload Specialist - a rank essentially equivalent to `passenger', but the NASA astronauts were sufficiently embarrassed by Titov and Krikalyov's competence and extensive flight experience that they agreed the Mission Specialist rank was more appropriate).

After a one day delay due to IMU problems, a spectacular nighttime launch at the beginning of the five minute window ended with main engine cutoff easily visible to the naked eye from the Northeast US (the author saw it from Cambridge, Massachusetts). The six ODERACS-II satellites were deployed from a GAS canister mounted on a Hitchhiker-M carrier in the payload bay. On Feb 4 the RMS arm was used to grapple Spartan-204 and move it around the payload bay to obtain UV spectra of the Shuttle environment, characterizing spacecraft-atmospheric interactions.

The highlight of the mission came on Feb 6. A leaky RCS thruster had raised concerns about contamination and as the day dawned it was still not clear whether Discovery would be allowed to make its close approach to 10 metres, or remain at the stationkeeping distance of 120m. The thruster was isolated, and after a joint decision by the Mission Controls in Houston and Kaliningrad the crew were given the go for the full approach. By 1830 Mir was sending back live TV of Discovery at the 120m distance. At 1840 the Shuttle began its slow approach to the Kristall module, reaching its minimum distance of 11m (from the top of the Spacehab module to the axial docking port on Kristall) at around 1929. Photos taken from the porthole in the Mir base module showed the Kristall module in the foreground with the Shuttle just beyond it; closeups revealed the astronauts visible through the cabin roof windows. After about five minutes stationkeeping at 11m the Shuttle backed out back to the 120m point, and stayed there until 2016 when it began a flyaround of the complex. Finally the Orbiter fired its RCS jets to move away, ending the historic rendezvous. The Discovery crew had verified the orbital dynamics of the Mir approach trajectory, had confirmed that the Shuttle could control its approach precisely without pluming Mir with its thrusters, and could position the appropriate point on the payload bay exactly in line with the docking port, and they had verified that all the communications links between the American and Russian spacecraft and mission control centers worked well with the craft in close proximity. All was now ready for the mission of Atlantis later in the year.

On Feb 7 the RMS arm again unberthed the Spartan-204 satellite, and at 1226 Titov released it from the arm for a free flight to make UV spectroscopic observations of the interstellar medium. The satellite was retrieved at 1133 on Feb 9 and berthed shortly afterwards. Mission Specialists Bernard Harris and Mike Foale depressurized the airlock at 1156 on Feb 9 and entered the payload bay from the hatch on the Tunnel Adapter. They carried out a 15-minute cold soak test of their modified spacesuits; earlier EVA crews had problems with getting their hands too cold while in shadow. Next, Harris practiced manually unberthing the Spartan and moving it around by hand, to gain experience for Space Station assembly tasks. A second such exercise by Foale was cancelled when the astronauts reported cold hands. The EVA ended after 4h 39m.

The payload bay doors were closed on Feb 11 and the OMS engines ignited to deorbit the spaceship. Discovery touched down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC after an 8 day mission.

STS-63
Date  Time  Event  Orbit 
1995 Feb 3  0522:04  Launch  
 0524:10 SRB sep 
 0530:36  MECO  
 0530:55  ET-68 sep  88.39 48 x 340 x 51.6 
 0604:14  OMS-2 2:36 77m/s   
   91.05 310 x 341 x 51.64 
   90.99 305 x 340 x 51.66 
 0711  PLBD open 
 1121   91.07 312 x 341 x 51.64 
 1420:15  HA OMS 3R 40s 10m/s 91.42 332 x 355 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 4  0457:06  ODERACS-II deploy  91.41 332 x 354 x 51.65  
  ODERACS II A (10 cm sphere) 
  ODERACS II D (13 cm dipole) 
  ODERACS II C (5 cm sphere) 
  ODERACS II F (4 cm dipole) 
  ODERACS II B (15 cm sphere) 
 0457:22  ODERACS II E (13 cm dipole) 
 0633  RMS grapple SPTN 
 0648:31  RMS unberth SPTN-204  91.40 332 x 354 x 51.65  
 1301   91.40 332 x 354 x 51.65 
 1318  RMS reberth SPTN 
  RMS ungrapple SPTN-204 
 1426:48  NC OMS-4L 24s 6m/s  91.62 332 x 375 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 5  1837:39 OMS-5L 50s 12m/s  92.06 368 x 382 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 6  0600   92.04 368 x 381 x 51.65 
 1424:03 NH OMS-6L 10s 3m/s 
 1540   92.17 371 x 390 x 51.65 

1636:43  TI OMS-7 burn 18s 5m/s  92.35 388 x 391 x 51.65 
 1816 Vbar arrival 
 1830  Rendezvous 120m from Mir 
 1840  Approach burn 
 1925  Stationkeep 11m from Mir 
 1935  Begin return to 120m 
 2002  Arrive at 100m point 
 2016  Begin flyaround  92.35 387 x 391 x 51.65 
 2113  End rendezvous  92.35 388 x 390 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 7  1100  RMS uncradle 
 1125RMS grapple SPTN-204 
 1156:32  RMS unberth SPTN-204 
 1227:36  RMS deploy SPTN-204  92.34 388 x 390 x 51.65 
 1230? RCS sep-1 
1995 Feb 8  0630   92.33 388 x 389 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 8  2226   92.32 387 x 388 x 51.65 
1995 Feb 9  0817  Rendezvous burn 
 0913  TI burn? 
  Rendezvous with SPTN-204 
 1133:20  RMS retrieve SPTN-204  92.31 383 x 391 x 51.65 
 1156:30  On EVA battery power (nom 4:39) 
 1156  EVA-1 depress (for 4:44) 
 1201  Harris, Foale egress 
 1210:27  SPTN-204 berthed 
 1227  RMS ungrapple SPTN  92.31 387 x 388 x 51.65 
 1250DTO 833 EMU Thermal Eval 
 1330Mass handling exercise 
 1410  Harris on MPESS near Spartan 
 1411  Foale on RMS grasp Spartan 
 1412  SPTN release, Harris raising Spartan manually 
 1415  Foale release SPTN 
 1430  Harris continues SPTN handling tests 
 1448  Harris passes SPTN to Foale
 1450  Foale passes SPTN to Harris 
 1451  Preparing to berth SPTN 
 1452 SPTN-204 manual reberth 
 1458  Further unberthing cancelled 
  Attitude to warm PLB 
 1530  Cleaning up PLB 
 1535  Foale retrv. Hasselblad camera from PLB 
 1609  Ingress 

 

1627  Hatch closed 
 1634:43  Repress? 4:39 (MR) 
 1640  EVA-1 repress  
1995 Feb 11  0806  PLBD closed  92.31 385 x 390 x 51.65 
 1044:04  OMS deorbit 4:14 137m/s  26 x 396 x 51.6  
 1119:10 Entry 
 1150:19  MGTD RW15 KSC 
 1150:33  NGTD 
 1151:39  Wheels stop 
 1945  Tow to OPF Bay 2 

Tuesday, September 19, 2000

STS-69 (Endeavour)

 1995-048A


The discovery of heat erosion on O-rings in the SRB nozzle joints for STS-71 and STS-70 delayed the STS-69 launch while repairs were made to the joints on the pad by the addition of new RTV sealant putty. After further delays the launch took place on Sep 7 despite a poor weather forecast, with high seas due to Hurricane Luis further east.

The payload bay carried the Wake Shield Facility and three MPESS class payloads, Spartan 201, IEH-1 and CAPL/GBA. Launch finally came on 1995 Sep 7. Spartan was deployed on Sep 8; OV-105 maneuvered away and then executed a re-rendezvous on Sep 10. The NCC burn used more prop than expected due to a rendezvous software bug, and the TI burn was off by almost 2 km, but the remainder of the rendezvous proceeded successfully. On arriving at Spartan, it was found in an unexpected orientation; it had entered safemode prior to recovery. Walker and Cockrell executed a slow flyaround to align the RMS with the grapple fixture on Spartan and Gernhardt activated the arm for a successful retrieval almost an hour later than planned. The 370 km orbit was then raised to 400 km for WSF operations. The RMS was moved to grapple WSF late on Sep 10, and left there overnight. The following morning WSF was unberthed and placed over the ram side of the Orbiter to be scrubbed clean. Next, it was moved to the wake side and deployed.

WSF also was safed with systems problems at around 1200 Sep 12 after a day of operations but was restarted at 0800 Sep 13. On Sep 14 Endeavour approached WSF again; at a distance of 80m it began an hour-long series of 14 firings of the RCS jets so that Wake Shield could measure the effect of the jet plumes. WSF was grappled at 1359 UT. Endeavour's orbit was lowered that evening and the next day WSF was unberthed again for CHAWS charging studies. On Sep 16, Voss and Gernhardt entered the payload bay for a spacewalk, EDFT-2, to test out Space Station assembly techniques. On the previous test spacewalk, thermal modifications for low temperature work had proved inadequate, but this time Gernhardt hung in shadow on the end of the RMS arm for almost an hour and felt no significant discomfort; the cooling system on his spacesuit could be disabled and glove heaters were added. Voss used the APFR restraint in bay 2 to work at connectors and cabling in the task board on bay 3.


STS-69 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1995 spring OPF/1 
1995 Jun 26?  Roll to VAB  VAB 
1995 Jun 29   Mate with ET  VAB/1 
1995 Jul 6   Roll to LC39A  LC39A 
1995 Aug 1  1645  Rollback (Hurricane Erin) VAB/1 
1995 Aug 8   Rollout to LC39A 
1995 Aug 31  0730  Scrub, electrical problem, T-8h 
1995 Sep 7  1509:00  Launch by Shuttle  LC39A 
 1511:02  RSRM-48 sep T+2:02.4 
 1517:30 MECO T+8:30.12 
 1517  ET sep  65 x 365 x 28.5 
 1550:54  OMS-2 3:07 90 m/s  368 x 377 x 28.5 
 1652  PLBD open 
 1932  RMS uncradle 
 2235RMS recradle 
1995 Sep 8  1439  RMS uncradle 

1500?  RMS grapple Spartan  92.02 369 x 377 x 28.5  
 1512:46  RMS unberth Spartan 
 1542:58  RMS deploy Spartan 
 1548:55  RCS SEP1 
 1620s  RCS SEP2 
 1924s  NC1 burn  92.01 369 x 377 x 28.5 
1995 Sep 9  1021 NC2 burn 
 1101NH burn had been scheduled 
 1750NC3 burn  91.99 367 x 376 x 28.5  
1995 Sep 10  0915 NC4 burn 
 1125NCC burn 
 1219 TI burn 

1420  Rendezvous Spartan 91.99 368 x 376 x 28.5  
 1502:22  RMS grapple Spartan 
 1521:17  RMS berth Spartan 
 1524  RMS ungrapple Spartan 
 1835:43  OMS-3L 34s 11m/s  92.00 368 x 376 x 28.5  
 1921:35  OMS-4R 29s 7m/s  92.57 396 x 404 x 28.5 
 2013  RMS grapple WSF 
1995 Sep 11  0550:53  RMS unberth WSF 
 1125:06  RMS release WSF 92.57 396 x 403 x 28.5  
1995 Sep 13  2335   92.57 395 x 405 x 28.5 
1995 Sep 14   
92.66 402 x 407 x 28.5  
 0709:18  NC-11 OMS 5L 10s 3m/s 105661 kg 
 0925NCC RCS 
 1016:55  TI OMS 6R 13s 3m/s 105566 kg 
 1040MC1 
 1107MC2 
 1117MC3 
 1127MC4 
 1230?  Rendezvous with WSF  92.54 393 x 404 x 28.5  
  14 thruster firings, 90 to 60m range 
 1315?  Begin WSF approach 
 1359:11  RMS grapple WSF 
 1516:28  RMS berth WSF 
 1520  RMS ungrapple WSF  92.58 396 x 404 x 28.5 
 1647:10 OMS-7L 63s 16m/s burn lower orbit 340 x 400 x 28.5 
 1732:21 OMS-8R 68s 17m/s burn circ orbit  91.36 337 x 345 x 28.5 
1995 Sep 15  0717  WSF unberth 
 1226  WSF reberth 
1995 Sep 16  0800  Begin airlock depress  91.38 338 x 346 x 28.5  
 0805? Depress (Green book dur) 
 0820  EVA-1 begin (Voss, Gernhardt) 
 0832  Hatch open 
 1451  Ingress 
 1502  Airlock repress (Off. time 6:46) 
 1522  AL repress complete 
1995 Sep 18  0759 Close payload bay doors  91.37 338 x 345 x 28.5 
 1035:13  OMS deorbit 10/19:26:13.0, 3:36 114m/s 30 x 341 x 28.5 
 1106:23  Entry interface 
 1137:56  Touchdown RW33 KSC (260:28:56) 
 1138:52  Wheels stop 
 1522  Tow to OPF/3 

Sakura 2A

 1983-006A


The CS 2 series was developed for NASDA and NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph) and built by Mitsubishi and Ford. CS 2A (Sakura 2A) provided telephone and television relay via C-band and Ka-band. It was operated by TCSJ (Telcommunications Satellite Corp. of Japan).


Sakura 2A 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1983 Feb 4  0837  Launch by N-2  TNSC 
  T+0:00 SOB 1-6 on 
  T+0:40 SOB 7-9 on 
  T+1:25 SOB 1-9 sep 
  T+4:32 Stage 1 MECO 
  T+4:40 Stage 1 sep 
  T+4:46 Stage 2 burn  
 0842 T+5:00 Fairing sep 
 0848 T+11:07? SECO  165? x 165? x 30.1 
 0905? SES-2 
 0905? SECO-2  165 x 1277 x 30.1 
 0905? Stage 2 sep   
 0906? Stage 3 burn  
 0906?  Stage 3 burnout  
 0908?  Stage 3 sep  650.83 241 x 36756 x 28.4 
 1400?  Apo 1 
 2000? Peri 1 
1983 Feb 5 
 0030? Apo 2 
 0700? Peri 2 
 1200? Apo 3 
 1730? Peri 3 
 2305? Apo 4 180E, Star 27 burn over 177.7E 
1983 Feb 6    1444.74 35146 x 36765 x 0.3 GEO 175.2E-2.1W/d 
1983 Feb 7    1444.80 35145 x 36765 x 0.3 GEO 173.9E-2.1W 
1983 Feb 25   mv in  1436.07 35784 x 35787 x 0.1 GEO 131.9E 
1984 Aug 12    1436.10 35782 x 35790 x 0.1 GEO 132.0E 
1986 Oct    GEO 132.0E 
1988 May 3    1436.14 35783 x 35791 x 0.8 GEO 132.0E 
1988 Jun   end of ops
1988 Jun 29   mv out 
1988 Jul 5    1436.29 35789 x 35791 x 0.9 GEO 131.2E+0.05W 
1988 Sep 19   mv in  1436.06 35778 x 35793 x 1.0 GEO 128.3E 
1990 Feb 4    1436.05 35784 x 35786 x 2.4 GEO 128.2E 
1990 Dec 2  1436.25 35787 x 35791 x 3.1 GEO 127.9E 
1990 Dec 4   Orbit raise 
1990 Dec 14    1448.64 36005 x 36057 x 3.3 
1995 Aug 19    1448.53 35966 x 36093 x 7.0  

Growing Like a Weed : A For Better or for Worse Collection

 https://welib.org/md5/b82a95b1a5abe7fc52ff300a64b68a71

Monday, September 18, 2000

Aquacade 4

 1978-038A


The final Program 472 satellite was launched in April 1978 using the last Atlas SLV-3A Agena D vehicle.


 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1978 Apr 8  0045:01  Launch by Atlas Agena D  CC 
 0047 Atlas BECO 
 0047 Atlas booster sep 
 0048 Atlas SECO 
 0051 Atlas sep 
 0051 Agena burn 1 
 0051? Fairing 
 0054? Agena MECO-1  178 x 180 x 28.5 ?  
 0138? Agena MES-2 
 0139? Agena MECO-2  178 x 33700? x 28.2  
 0140? Agena sep 
 0730?  LAM-1  
   GEO 115E 

Back in orbit : John Glenn's return to space

 https://welib.org/md5/eaab70e2be2b69934442324fcc2a8d39

May 13,2026

  https://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.855.txt