| the orbit of MIR has been adjusted such that there is a launch
orportunity every two days - however - like the aborted attempt
over the weekend they are in the night. Previously man launch attempts
had to have about 2 hours of daylight in case of an aborted launch.
Rumors had it that the cold weather caused the delay of the TM-2
launch
Radio Moscow howerver had a very strange news artical on the Friday
(2400 utc) news.
the Cosmonauts are Praying for a successful launch, and something
to the affect of espical attention to non-standard procedures
unless the orbit of MIR is change, or a launch done on the
decending pass of MIR all likly window for the next week happen
on even days in the evening hours in Moscow
jb
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| I have a copy of the Soviet press kit for the ASTP mission which
gives a lot of info about launch requirements and the 2 hour window
of daylight is amongst them, along with the requirement for enough
light for the cosmonauts manually operate the spacecraft orientation
system in the event of an abort from first orbit situation.
Since the Soyuz TM is said to have vastly improved guidance over
the original Soyuz, maybe this is no longer a requirement.
gary
(Soyuz TM always makes me think 'trademark', sort of like Un*x)
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| Yes, the TM has advance guidance over the T series,it is now possible
to do a docking without being in the same plane as the space station
but the 2 hour requirement would be a safty requirement that should
have nothing to do with the type of craft, unless you dont want
its seen. It will be interesting to see if the launch is cover
live (or close to it as MIR and T15 were with apx 7 sec delay)
one other thing the Soviet Union has completed there first test
of the Soviet Space Shuttle on the launch pad at Tyuratam. US\
recon satellites showed the first Soviet orbit was mounted piggyback
to its heavy expendable launch vehicle for a series of fit test.
It is expected that the heavy expendable booster will be test
launch in 1987 and first man launch in 1988
jb
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| The requirement I mentioned with the basic Soyuz was to allow the
cosmonauts to manually position the spacecraft for reentry burn on the
first orbit, which requires they be above a sunlit area of the earth.
The Soviets like to be able to bring the Soyuz back down on the first
orbit in the event of a malfunction that requirement affects the launch
window.
They had to relax this for ASTP and would not have been able to
manually reeenter until the third orbit. BTW, the doc's imply that
they had a second craft ready for launch in the same launch window
in case of failure in the ASTP project.
If Soyuz TM guidance is sufficiently reliable that they no longer
insist upon a manual reentry window then that would remove that
restriction. They still prefer two hours a daylight in case of launch
abort however.
gary
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| Associated Press Sat 7-FEB-1987 19:29 Soviet-Space
Cosmonauts Link Up With MIR Space Station
MOSCOW (AP) - Two Soviet cosmonauts linked up successfully early
Sunday with the orbiting MIR space laboratory, Tass reported.
The official news agency said the docking of the SOYUZ TM-2 capsule
carrying Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin took place at 2:28 a.m.
Moscow time (6:28 p.m. Saturday EST).
Reports in the Soviet news media said the cosmonauts will perform
months of experiments in astrophysics, biology and medicine.
The cosmonauts blasted off early Friday from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Soviet Kazakhstan on the first manned flight in a
capsule of the new TM series. The TM capsule is said to have more
sophisticated docking controls, radios, computer equipment, and
emergency rescue equipment than its predecessors.
According to the Soviet media, a rocket will be sent soon to the
MIR space station carrying telescopes and other equipment for
astrophysical research.
There has been no official word on how long the flight by Romanenko
and Laveikin will last, but the Moscow media said the two cosmonauts
will be joined aboard the MIR in July, 1987, by a joint Soviet-Syrian
crew.
The MIR, launched last February, is intended to be a foundation in
the Soviet program to build permanently manned, orbiting laboratories.
It has been uninhabited since cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir
Solovev returned to Earth on July 16, 1986, after 125 days in space.
Mir is "peace" in the Russian language.
It was the first manned flight for a capsule of the SOYUZ TM
series. Tass quoted Romanenko as saying in a pre-flight interview that
the TM "is more sophisticated that the previous ones. It is more
reliable, and it facilitates control operations for the cosmonauts."
The first model of the TM, which replaces the SOYUZ T series, was
tested in May 1986 with an unmanned flight and an automatic linkup
with the MIR.
Press reports have said the TM has advanced docking controls,
radios, computer equipment and emergency rescue facilities.
Tass said tests on the TM-2 were planned during the first day
aloft, but Soviet media did not indicate Friday whether it was
performing as expected.
This mission is the second Soviet manned flight since the U.S.
space program was frozen after the January 28, 1986, explosion of the
Space Shuttle CHALLENGER, in which all seven astronauts were killed.
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