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[jamsat-news:604] * SpaceNews 04-Aug-97 *
- From: "John A. Magliacane" <kd2bd@kd2bd.org>
- Date: Sat, 02 Aug 97 10:07:19 -0700
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0804
* SpaceNews 04-Aug-97 *
BID: $SPC0804
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY AUGUST 4, 1997
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.
* MIR NEWS *
============
Claudio Ariotti, IK1SLD from Italy downloaded the following message from
Mike Foale in the Mir space station:
Stat : PR
Posted : 07/28/97 23:19
To : ALL
From : R0MIR
@ BBS :
BID :
Subject: Mir status
TNC froze again, this time the PMS. Waiting for a replacement with Mir
24, Anatoli and Pavel, docking on 7th. Crew is preparing for their
arrival, getting Progress loaded with trash, to be undocked before next
crew. Greenhousing, but not yet showing cotyledons. Mike.
NASA reports that Astronaut Wendy Lawrence (Cmdr, USN) has been replaced
by her backup, Dr. David Wolf, for the next long duration stay on the
Russian Mir space station. The change will enable Wolf to act as a
backup crew member for spacewalks planned over the next several months
to repair the damaged Spektr module on the Russian outpost. Lawrence
does not fit in the Orlan suit which Russian cosmonauts use for spacewalk
tasks and never underwent spacewalk training. Wolf fits in the Orlan suit.
Lawrence will continue training in the backup role according to normal
procedures, in the unlikely event that she is needed.
On 05-Aug-97, a Soyuz TM26 spacecraft carrying a two-man crew is expected
to be launched to Mir on a Soyuz U vehicle from Baykonur, Kazakhstan.
Docking is expected on 07-Aug-97.
* STS-85 NEWS *
===============
Space Shuttle DISCOVERY is set for lift-off from Kennedy Space Center
(KSC), Florida on 07-Aug-97 for an 11-day mission to release and retrieve
the US/German CRISTA-SPAS 2 platform used to study the atmosphere.
The nominal OMS-2 State Vector and Keplerian Elements for STS-85 follow.
The vector data comes from NASA. The Keplerian Elements were computed from
the vector.
This file may be read by VEC2TLE version 9648 to update your Keplerian
Elements text file.
Vector format = 10117
Satellite Name: STS-85
Catalog Number: 99985
Epoch MET: 0.02694288194
0/00:38:47.865 MET
EFG E: 9312888.2997 ft
F: 19528753.2625 ft
G: 3386153.5174 ft
Edot: -9779.3058815773 ft/s
Fdot: 8295.0387295085 ft/s
Gdot: -20910.457822872 ft/s
ndot/2 (drag): 0.00029652672 rev/day^2
nddt/6: 3.68109E-09 rev/day^3
Bstar: 8.58271E-05 1/Earth Radii
Elset #: 1
Rev @ Epoch: 1.47042961084
Scheduled Launch: 07-AUG-97 / 14:41 UTC
Note that 99985 is a temporary Catalog Number. A permanent Catalog Number
and International Designator will be assigned following the Launch of STS-85.
The following Keplerian elements were computed by VEC2TLE from this vector,
using a 1.0 drag multiplier:
STS-85
1 99985U 97219.63874844 .00029653 36811-8 85827-4 0 12
2 99985 57.0000 76.4760 0008548 266.7495 262.6168 15.92299149 11
Satellite: STS-85
Catalog number: 99985
Epoch time: 97219.63874844
Element set: 1
Inclination: 57.0000 deg
RA of node: 76.4760 deg
Eccentricity: 0.0008548
Arg of perigee: 266.7495 deg
Mean anomaly: 262.6168 deg
Mean motion: 15.92299149 rev/day
Decay rate: 2.96527e-04 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 1
Checksum: 354
VEC2TLE may be downloaded from: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sarex/orbit.html.
[Info via Ken Ernandes, N2WWD]
* PHASE 3D LAUNCH DELAY *
=========================
On Wednesday 16-Jul-97, a meeting was held in Marburg, Germany between Dr.
Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, the Phase 3-D Project Leader and AMSAT-DL President,
Werner Haas, DJ5KQ, AMSAT-DL Vice President, and officials of the European
Space Agency (ESA). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the launch
schedule for Ariane 502, on which the Phase 3-D spacecraft is to fly. At
this meeting, the ESA officials re-iterated their intent to launch A-502
at the end of September and said that the launch campaign for this flight
has already begun. They stated that, as part of this launch campaign the
Phase 3-D spacecraft must arrive in Kourou by 10-Aug-97.
Earlier, ESA had informed AMSAT that, following analysis of data from the
Ariane 501 flight, they had significantly increased their estimates for the
acceleration and vibration environments which spacecraft riding on Ariane
502 are expected to encounter. As a result of this new information, AMSAT
has been re-evaluating the structural capabilities of the Phase 3-D
spaceframe. As a part of this effort, an independent structural engineer
was brought in to review the spacecraft's design and construction. His
conclusions were recently presented to Dr. Meinzer and AMSAT-NA people.
His report stated that, in order to be confident of surviving these
increased launch environments, a number of modifications must be made to
the spacecraft. Since that report was presented, substantial effort has
been taking place at the Phase 3-D Integration Laboratory in Orlando,
Florida to manufacture and install the recommended structural parts
necessary to increase the spacecraft's vibration and acceleration
capability.
At the Marburg meeting, Dr. Meinzer made it clear to the ESA officials,
that this work, made necessary by ESA's new environmental information,
would prevent AMSAT from delivering the spacecraft to Kourou by the
specified 10-Aug-97 date. Thus, it was the conclusion of the meeting
that, as a result of these ESA specification changes, the Phase 3-D
schedule and that of ESA for Ariane 502 are not compatible. Therefore,
unless, something changes, which ESA does not presently contemplate,
Phase 3-D will not be able to be launched on Ariane 502. Furthermore,
in order to maintain the planned mass characteristics of the Ariane 502
vehicle, AMSAT must supply a mass simulator representing the Phase 3-D
spacecraft to be sent aloft on the flight. This must be in Kourou by
05-Sep-97.
Despite this very bad news, Dr. Meinzer and other AMSAT officials
expressed some degree of confidence the Phase 3-D may yet fly on Ariane
502. They based this on a number of activities taking place in the
preparation of the launch vehicle that they believe could cause a slip
in the currently published ESA schedule. The ESA officials attending
the Marburg meeting said that if a slip should occur, which they do not
currently contemplate, that results in the two schedules again becoming
compatible, efforts would be made to substitute the Phase 3-D spacecraft
for the mass simulator. Therefore, AMSAT is continuing in the work of
completing the necessary structural modifications to the spacecraft,
and conducting environmental testing.
AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, pointed out that revelations such
as the increased vibration and acceleration requirements now imposed
on the Phase 3-D spacecraft are not all that unusual in a development
program such as the Ariane 5. He is sure that the situation is as
unpleasent for ESA as it is for AMSAT, and is sure that ESA will be
working on ways to reduce the environments on future Ariane 5s, possibly
even on 502. It is NOT a matter of poor engineering, or bad faith, on
the part of ESA, but merely what sometimes happens when the state of
the art is being pushed.
[Info via the AMSAT-NA News Service and AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO]
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
===========================
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KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below:
WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
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