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Jonathan's Space Report 

No. 141		1993 Jan 26
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Mission STS-55
--------------

Mission STS-55 is due for launch in February. The payload is
Spacelab D-2, a materials science laboratory. It will comprise
a Spacelab Long Module with the Materials Science Double Rack,
the Anthrorack, and the Advanced Fluid Physics Module;
and a truss in the payload bay to carry more experiments
outside the pressurized Long Module. The Spacelab mission is to
be operated by DARA (Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtgelegenheiten),
the German space agency and is the second German Spacelab
mission (Spacelab D-1 flew in 1985). The Spacelab payload will
be aboard OV-102 Columbia on its 14th flight. Crew are
Steven Nagel (Commander; 4th flight; commanded STS-37/GRO),  Tom
Henricks (Pilot; 2nd flight), Jerry Ross (Payload Commander; 4th
flight), Dr. Bernard Harris, MD (Mission Specialist, 1st flight),
Charles Precourt (Mission Specialist, 1st flight), Hans-Wilhelm Schlegel
(DARA Payload Specialist, 1st flight), and Dr. Ulrich Walter (DARA
Payload Specialist, 1st flight).


Mir
---

The Soyuz TM-16 spaceship was launched on Jan 24 at around 0600 UT. The
crew are Gennadiy Manakov and Aleksandr Polishchuk. The Soyuz carries
the APAS androgynous docking system instead of the usual probe system.
Most dockings use the 'probe and drogue system' where a probe on one
spacecraft is inserted into a socket on the other and latched. This has
the disadvantage that two spacecraft with the same `sex', e.g. both
probes, cannot dock with each other. NASA and NPO Energiya jointly
developed an 'androgynous' system for the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975;
each spacecraft has an identical system with three flanges sticking out,
and the flanges of one spacecraft fit between the flanges of the other.
After three solo test flights on Soyuz spaceships in 1974, the system
was first used for a docking in 1975 when it was carried on Soyuz-19 and
Apollo Docking Module 2 (the Apollo CSM 111 spaceship attached itself to
the Docking Module using the traditional probe/drogue system). Despite
the intention that it would replace the old system, it has not been used
for 17 years, since the Soyuz continued to use the old system and the
only American spaceships to have carried out a docking  in that period
are the Manned Maneuvering Units MMU 2 and 3, which used the
probe/drogue system. However, the Kristall module launched in May 1990
and attached to the Mir complex carries the APAS system, with the
intention that it be used for dockings with the Buran space shuttle. On
Jan 26 Manakov and Polishchuk successfully carried out a manual docking
with the Kristall module APAS port. This means there are now three
active ports on the complex - the Mir front port, occupied by Soyuz
TM-15 since Jul 1992; the Kvant rear port, occupied by Progress M-15
since Oct 1992; and the Kristall APAS port. Radio Moscow reports that an
unpiloted flight of the second Buran orbiter is still nominally
scheduled for the spring of 1994; the orbiter would carry out an
automatic docking with the Kristall module after which a crew would
enter it and possibly carry out a test flight in it. However it is clear
that funding for this mission has not been approved and I remain
doubtful that it will occur. Meanwhile, NASA orbiter OV-104 Atlantis is
at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California being reconfigured to
accept a docking module which would allow it to link up with the
Kristall module port in 1995, as part of a mission of an American
astronaut aboard the Mir station.

Mir complex current configuration:
(docking port numbers are my own arbitrary assignments;
they are in order of use.)

Mir port 1:       Soyuz TM-15
Mir port 2:       Kvant (port 1)
Mir port 3:       Kvant-2 (port 1)
Mir port 4:       Kristall (port 1)
Mir port 5:       (vacant)
Mir port 6:       (vacant)
Kvant port 1:	  Mir core module (port 2)
Kvant port 2:     Progress M-15
Kvant-2 port 1:   Mir core module (port 3)
Kvant-2 SPK port: SPK maneuvring unit
Kristall port 1:  Mir core module (port 4)
Kristall port 2:  Soyuz TM-16
					______
					\    /
			           ------|TM |------
				  |______|16 |______|
					 \   /
					 /   \
					 |   |
					 -----
                                         /___\ <-- APAS unit
                                         / 2 \
                                         \   /  <--Kristall docking
                                        -------    node
                                    |  /       \
                                    |  |       |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    |  |   |   |
                                    | /Kristall \
              ______  _____________ | \_       _/
|\_____  __  _|     \ |            \|___\_1___/__  _____/|
|PM15| \/  \|  Kvant ||    Mir          \/4-\ /  \/ |TM15|
| ___|_/\__/|_2     1||2            ____    1|\__/\_|___ |
|/            |     / |             ____/\3_/           \|
              ------  |____________/   _/---- \_
                 ||                   /   1     \
                 ||                   \_Kvant-2_/
                 ||                    |       |
                 ||                    |       |
                 ||                    |   |   |
         Sofora  ||                    |   |   |
                 ||               SPK  |       |
                [_]                  []|       |
              VDU                       \_____/
                                        |-----|
					Airlock                                        

(c) Jonathan McDowell 1993


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Launches
--------

Date		Name		Launch Vehicle	Site		Mission	   INTL.
									   DES.

Jan 12 1100?	Kosmos-2230	Kosmos R-14	Plesetsk	Navsat	   01A
Jan 13 0155?	Molniya-1	Molniya		Plesetsk	Comsat	   02A
Jan 13 1359	Endeavour	STS-54		Kennedy		Spaceship  03A
Jan 13 2012	TDRS 6		IUS		STS-54,LEO	Comsat     03B
Jan 19 1455?	Kosmos-2231	Soyuz		Plesetsk	Recon      04A
Jan 24 0600?	Soyuz TM-16	Soyuz		Baykonur	Spaceship  05A

Reentries
---------

Jan 10 0416	Kosmos-2229	Landed in Kazakhstan
Jan 18		Kosmos-2220	Landed in Kazakhstan?
Jan 19 1338	Endeavour	Landed at Kennedy Space Center

Current Shuttle Processing Status
____________________________________________

Orbiters               Location   Mission 
                                          
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 2     STS-55
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 3     STS-56
OV-104 Atlantis        Palmdale      OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour       OPF Bay 1     STS-57
                                          
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                                          
ML1/STS-56	       VAB Bay 1 
ML2/
ML3/STS-55/ET	       VAB Bay 3


 .-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
 |  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176                |
 |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for    |                                        |
 |   Astrophysics                     |                                        |
 |  60 Garden St, MS4                 |                                        |
 |  Cambridge MA 02138                |  inter : mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu      |
 |  USA                               |                                        |
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