Orbit issue 80 (January 2009)

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Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 80 January 2009

2009—Anniversaries Galore

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

Happy New Year to You from Scotland in a year that promises to be the most prolific yet for anniversaries of important space events. This will certainly be reflected in commemorative issues which will ask you to dig deep at a time when finances may well be stretched because of the “credit crunch” so you may have to be selective in what you purchase.

COMMITTEE Chair :

Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1RX (E-mail: MMorris671@aol.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset BS23 4RE (E-mail : brian.lockyer@tesco.net)

We reflect the first of these anniversaries with our cover story which relates to Man’s first shot at the Moon, albeit an unsuccessful one, but it was followed later in 1959 by successful Moon landings by unmanned Soviet craft.

Compiler of Checklist / Hon Treasurer / Postal Packet Organiser Harvey Duncan,16, Begg Avenue, Falkirk, Scotland FK1 5DL (E-mail: duncan1975@btinternet.com)

Orbit : Editor

Jeff Dugdale, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Mosstodloch, Moray.

Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

Webmaster

Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Road, Walkington, Dublin 12 (E-mail: dclarke@utvinternet.com)

Remarkably within ten years a man was standing on the Moon himself with the July 1969 landing of Apollo XI, preceded by the dress rehearsals of Apollo IX and Apollo X in March and May respectively and followed by the anti-climactic second Moon landing of Apollo XII in November.

Postal Auction Organiser:

400 years ago Copernicus had made the first of his major discoveries and a series of articles in Orbit in the coming issues will give due recognition to these with a series by different contributors.

Overseas Representatives:

I trust you will enjoy our coverage of all these major space events. Meantime best wishes.

David Saunders, 42 Burnet Road, Bradwell, Great Yarmouth. NR31 8SL.

Australia: Charles Bromser, 37 Bridport Street, Melbourne 3205.

Germany:Jurgen P. Esders, An der Apostelkirche 10, 10783 Berlin Eire:Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Rd, Walkinstown. Dublin 12.

France: Jean-Louis Lafon, 23 Rue de Mercantour, 78310 Maurepas Netherlands: Bart Beimers, NJ Haismasrt 7, 9061 BV Gierkerk Russia: Mikhail Vorobyov, 31-12 Krupskaya Str, Kostroma United States: Dr Ben Ramkissoon, 3011 White Oak Lane, Oak Brook, Il 60521 USA

Life Members: UK - Harvey Duncan, George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Dr W.R. Withey, Paul Uppington, Jillian Wood. Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia.)

Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,) Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.)

Mohammed K.Safdar (Saudi Arabia)

ASSS website at URL:

www.asss.utvinternet.com/ ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Members in UK—£15 in Europe (EU and non-EU) - €30 Elsewhere - $45 equivalent Juniors (under 18) £6.50 ADVERTISING RATES We invite advertisers to use ORBIT to reach Astro -Philatelic enthusiasts worldwide. If readers have a commercial source they think they would like others to benefit from please let the firm know of us:. Rates are: Full page Display - £24 Half Page - £12 Quarter Page £6 One eighth of a page - £4.

Camera ready copy required with remittance by the above stated copy deadline for inclusion in our next edition.

Copy Deadline for the March 2009 issue is February 14th by which time all material intended for publication should be with the Editor.

© Copyright 2009 The Astro Space Stamp Society.

No article contained herein may be reproduced without prior permission of the Author and the Society.

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FROM ATOM TO NUCLEAR POWERED SPACECRAFT PART 3: ROCKETS and MISSILES : Part 3 by John Beenen

The Soviet Missiles continued R-36/ 8K67/ SS-9 Scarp, R-36M/ SS18 Satan (335. SS-18 Satan) The R36 consists of a whole family of solid fuel ICBMs and satellite launching rockets during the Cold War. A more modern version also is called, SS-18 Satan (Soviet codes 15A14 and 15A18).

The missile is able to transport four warheads and as such marks the first Soviet MIRV. With a load of 8,8 MT is also the heaviest. It could be launched directly from storage silos with a depth of about 40 m. The development was concentrated at the OKB586 (Yushnoye) at Dnjepropetrovsk and started in 1962.

Finally, in 1969, it became the R36M designed to destroy the American Minuteman silos, but this goal has always been denied by the Russians. An important designer of silos for such heavy rockets was Vladimir Stepanov. The missile also could carry biological weapons based on Anthrax 836. From 1975 the weapon became operational and was called SS-18 Satan by NATO. According the START-1 Treaty the Soviet number was decreased from 204 to 154 and their silos in Kazakhstan were deactivated. In agreement with the START-2 Treaty all these missiles were to be destroyed but this treaty never was ratified. Hence, in the middle of 2005 still 85 were operational.

It’s a difficulty that their factory today is located in the middle of the Ukraine. It is expected that the missile stock between 2007 and 2009 will be decreased further and that only some 40 of the most modern modification are to undergo a life extension programme and may then serve until 2014-2016. The missile is also used to launch small, mostly foreign satellites into orbit.

(336. Dnepr, Ukraïne 2005) Based on the SS-18 the factory in the Ukraine (Yuznoye) still is manufacturing a rocket named Dnepro.

GR-1 (8K713) en 2 Next to the R-series a number of other important missiles, with other codes, were developed such as the GR-1 (Global Rocket), the first missile produced by

Korolev which was able to carry a 1500 kg nuclear warhead to an altitude of 150 km. This warhead could hit anywhere in the United States and became difficult to intercept. The disadvantage in comparison to a classic ICBM was its low accuracy in the target area.

Finally the project was cancelled in favour of Yangel’s R36-O, probably because Korolev insisted on liquid propellants. Chelomei was also in the race but also his project, UR-200 was cancelled.

That we like to describe this rocket still is caused by the fact that the cancelling of this project determined the fate of the development of Korolev’s moon rocket N-1, for which he needed the GR-1. This, at least, is one of the reasons why the Soviets finally lost the moon race.

Korolev’s competitors called the GR-1 rocket mockingly the ‘Moskow-Leningrad ICBM’ because this was the only section the rocket ever covered.

UR-200/ 8K81, 8K83/ SS-10 (337 UR-200, Touva) The UR-200 was a more powerful execution of Chelomei’s UR-100 and was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead over a distance of 12.000 km, but was also able to launch satellites. The technical characteristics would be more or less the same as Korolev’s R-9A and Yangel’s R-16.

On October 13th 1964 Khrushchev disappeared from the stage and his successor, Leonid Breshnev disapproved all his projects.

A commission of experts lead by M.V.Keldysh reviewed all Chelomei’s projects and found the R-36 of Yangel sufficient: hence the end of Chelomei’s UR-200.

That was more than a problem as the UR-200, like Korolev’s GR-1, actually was part of a larger project, the UR-500 moon rocket, constructed from five clustered UR-200’s.

But the UR-200 was not completely cancelled and survived as the upper stages of the UR-500.

In the West the development of a UR-200 was completely unknown ; until after the parade of May 9 th 1965 their secret services thought that the GR1 of Korolev, the UR-200 of Chelomei and the R36O of Yangel were one design, the SS-10 Scrag.

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UR-100/ 8K84/ SS-11 Sego (338 UR-100, Touva) UR (Universal Rocket) is the na me for the rockets developed by the Chelomei bureau, OKB-52. He was constantly Korolev’s great rival. Originally his bureau was founded to develop complex cruise missiles for the Navy but through his good connections with the son of Khrushchev, Chelomei obtained entrance to the highest levels of influence to convince them that his ideas were the best: faster, cheaper, better! And doing this he came to be in charge of a series of other design bureaux.

He started with the design of the UR-100 as an alternative for the American Minuteman. The requirements were high: it should be launched from a silo and had to be operational for five years in fully tanked position (later even prolonged for 17 years). That was not simple with a fuel 20,000 times more aggressive than earlier fuels.

In the end the UR-100 became the most often built rocket in history without any knowledge of the Western secret services. With respect to this Chelomei can be considered as the father of the Soviet strategic weapons just as Korolev is that of Soviet space travel.

The development of the UR-100 started in 1963 and the construction of the silos in 1964, even before the rocket was operational. That was not easy as the whole project had to be carried out with enormous secrecy. 1130 silos had to be constructed for the UR-100 and 308 for the R36. At the height of its popularity it required 650.000 workers and cost one milliard roubles. The system stayed in place from 1966 until 1988.

The UR-100 was the first fast Soviet missile system and required only three minutes of preparation. Some modifications were made afterwards but none related to space travel.

RT-2/ 8K98/ SS-13 Savage RT-2PM/ 15Zh58/ SS-25 Sickle RT-2PM2/ SS-27, SS-29 Topol-M (339 SS-27) As some of its ancestors the RT-2 and its modifications are a whole family of ICBMs in place since 1969. It was the first Soviet three -stage ICBM and worked on solid propellants.

Principally it was developed by Korolev and after his death continued by Mishkin with Bureau TsKB-7 (Arsenal) in Leningrad as contractor for the production.

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The project occupied Korolev’s team to such an extent that they couldn’t work on their moon rocket N-1 so providing another cause for the failure of this project.

Although this development should have been the answer to the American Minuteman only 60 RT-2 were built instead of the Minuteman of which over 1000 were in use. Because of high corrosion the life time of the rocket was limited. The propellant was developed by Yakov F.Savchenko in Altaisk. After 1980 the missile was succeeded by the RT-12M and the R-23.

Temp-2S/ 15Zh42/ SS-16 Sinner (340. SS-16) The Temp-2S originates from 1977 and was the first operational mobile ICBM. Its deployment started in the deepest secrecy as under the terms of the SALT-2 Treaty this was not allowed.

The rocket was solid fuel propelled and a simultaneous development of Nadiradze’s NII-1 MOP and Yuzhnoye in the Ukraine.

In total seven regiments each with six mobile installations were formed, from which 36-40 were available at any time. The Americans, however, were not fooled and claimed already one year before SALT_2 that 50 to 100 Temp-2S launchers were operational at Plesetsk. This was ignored by the Carter government, but became a major example of the deceptions of the ’Evil Empire’ during the Reagan presidency.

From 1985 these missiles were part of the negotiations in the SALT-2 treaty and went in retirement from 1986.

RT-21M Pioneer/ SS-20 Saber (341. SS-20) The RT-21M, the ‘Pioneer’ in the West especially is known as the notorious SS-20.

In the beginning its range covered 600-5000 km finally increased to 7500 km.

Originally it had one nuclear warhead of 1 MT (1600 kg) but subsequent models could carry more warheads at one time (MIRV).

The missile replaced the R-12 (SS-4 Sandal) and the R -14 (SS-5 Skean), the missiles well-known from the Cuba Crisis. 654 missiles were built (and destroyed in 1991). In Europe the Pershing II and the Tomahawk

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cruise missiles made the defence.

obtained. In 1965 successful test flights were carried out but the rocket never became operational. Still, it became the base for the present Proton rocket in use for bringing many satellites into space.

(344. Proton, Russia 2004) Finally, a three or four stage Proton can carry a load of 21 tons.

RT-23/ 15Zh60/ SS-24 Scalpel (342. SS-24) The R-23 was the one and only ICBM ever to be launched from a train. The Soviets were very proud of that result as the Americans never succeeded in doing that. But its development by Yuznoye in the Ukraine lasted not less than 12 years. A regiment finally was made of 17 railway carriages, from which three were launch carriages, a command carriage, a generator and an autonomous working life support system, living quarters and a navigation support wagon. The train was designed to operate for up to two months without re-supply at distances of up to 1500 km from its logistic home base. In times of tension the train was parked in railway tunnels for both blast protection and to hide them from enemy reconnaissance satellites.

In 1988 six or seven regiments—a total of about 20 launchers had been deployed to Kostroma. They travelled around constantly or were parked at least 20 km from each other. The advantage over trucks was the fact that much higher loads could be transported.

Train versions also were considered for R012, RT-2 and RT-21 but no one came further than the design desk.

It was a three-stage rocket launched as a ‘cold launch’ which means that the rocket first was fired to an altitude over ten, twenty metres before the rocket engines were started. Under the definitions of START2 these rockets were to be destroyed by 2003.

UR-500/ 8K82/ PROTON (343 UR-200 en 500, Touva) Together with the UR-200 the original UR-500 was under development since 1961 and meant for a five-fold higher load.

As a propellant the rocket uses a combination of UDMH/nitrogen tetroxide. The first launch of a four -stage Proton was on March 10th 1967 meant for a manned Moon programme. The rocket launched from its base at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. As Kazakhstan is now an independent country at Plessezk (Plesetsk) in Russia a new launch platform wasconstructed for a new rocket, the Angara A-5.

To complete the development time of the Angara the Proton M was built, a huge commercial success by which many commercial satellites are launched and which is a huge competitor to the European Ariane 5 and the American launchers.

N-1/ 11A52 (345. Rocket N-1) Although this rocket, like the American Saturn, does not belong in a discussion of nuclear missiles, I should not like to leave it out for reasons of completeness.

The N-1 was the Soviet rocket by which they hoped to reach the Moon before the Americans. Its length was 105 m, the tallest Soviet launch vehicle. It consisted of five stages, three for immediate boost into orbit and two for the lunar portion. Fully loaded its weight was 2788 metric tons. In comparison to Saturn the N1 is somewhat larger overall, only slightly shorter, but much wider at the base.

All four tests, however, failed at even the first stage, generally because of the complexity of the plumbing to feed fuel and oxidizer into the clustered arrangement.

The first and second stage were to There also was a factor in that the Baikonur launch consist of four clustered two-stage complex could not be reached by heavy barge so for UR-200’s, the third stage to be a transport by rail all the stages had to be broken and remodified second stage UR-200. Also Yangel chose such assembled. Because of this, the complex and an option with his R-56 based upon clustered R-46’s. destructive vibrational modes (which ripped apart propellant lines and turbines) as well as the exhaust With 10.000 kg the required load (12.000 kg), probably plume fluid dynamic problems (causing vehicle roll, a nuclear warhead of 30 MT, however, could not be vacuum cavitation and other problems) were not 5

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discovered and worked out before the flight.

the US, Stinger and Patriot.

As a result of these technical difficulties, and then in turn due to lack of funding for full-up testing, the N1 never successfully completed a test flight.

(347. Exocet) The Exocet is a missile against ships and has proved to be successful for the Argentines against the UK in the Falklands War (1982). It damaged or even sunk several British ships them.

The development of such a rocket began in 1959 at the bureau of Korolev, OKB-1. The original design foresaw the transport of a 50 ton load for manned space stations and manned flights to Mars. In June 1961 Korolev received a conservative consent for the development of the N1. After President Kennedy had announced that the Americans would have an American on the Moon before the end of the sixties, the N1 project was speeded up considerably.

But then Korolev needed heavy engines made by Glushko and this marked the difference in opinion between them. As said earlier, Korolev preferred liquid propellants (LOx, kerosine) and Glusko solid fuels such as the far more toxic UDMH/nitrogen tetroxide, The gentlemen could not agree and Korolev asked Nikolai Kuznetsov of OKB-276, who, however, had little experience in developing rocket engines. In the meantime Chelomei worked on his version of the moon rocket, the UR-500 and was supported by Glushko.

After the overthrow of Khrushchev the complete moon programme was reconsidered, but both the projects of Korolev and Chelomei were continued until the moment that the Soviets realized that the moon race could not be won anymore.

Finally the residues of the N-1’s found their way as sheds and shelters at Baikonur. About 50 spare engines were sold to Aerojet General for 1,1 million dollars each. Later they re-appeared in the Japanese J-1 en J-2 rockets

The FIM-92 Stinger, is a rocket which can be fired from the shoulder by two persons and is a SAM-rocket aimed against air targets.

(348. Patriot) The MIM-104 Patriot (Phased Array Tracking to Intercept of Target) is a brother of the Arrow developed in cooperation between the US and Israel, and is a anti-rocketrocket (ABM). Its first version proved not to be extremely reliable against incoming Scud rockets in the first Gulf War. Without discussing all types some special versions will be discussed below, especially those from the countries, Peoples Republic of China, North-Korea and Iran.

People’s Republic of China (349. Long March 3, China 1986, WB 34) The ballistic missiles of the Peoples Republic of China are known as Dong-Feng, i.e. East wind. Next to it the Chinese possess cruise missiles against ships, in the West known as ‘Silkworm’. The rockets used in space travel are adjusted DongFeng rockets and bear the name ‘Long March’.

Missiles of Other States (346. Rocket Egypt, Egypt 1962, WB1) Next to the Americans and Russians other military powers possess missiles for the short, medium and long-range against ground targets, ships and airplanes, incoming missiles, troops and special targets such as underground bunkers and targets under water.

In total a hundred of other types of missiles have been developed varying from the most simple Palestine Qassam rocket, a steel tube filled with explosives, to the most complicated multi-stage missiles with a nuclear warhead. The UK and Germany possess the most. Also India, Pakistan, France, Israel and Iran have several missile systems. Known types are: the French Exocet, and the German missiles developed in cooperation with 6

MAO-8 is not a rocket but a space travel programme also called Don Fang Hong 08 (‘The East is Red’). The rocket for this project was the Long March 2C and started on Januray 26th 1978.

The first real Dong-Feng missile was the IRBM 3/3A also called CSS-2 (Chinese surface-to-surface). It was directed especially against American targets in the Philippines region, but after the Chinese-Russian border war in 1969 also against Soviet cities.

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It was preceded by the Dong-Feng 2, copy of the Soviet R-2 (SS-2 Sibling).

in essence a

The first real Chinese ICBM is the Dong-Feng 5/5A (CSS -4). The civil version is the earlier Long March 2C. The missile is comparable to the Soviet R-36M (SS-18). It can cover a distance of 7.000-15.000 km and as such is able to reach targets in Europe, Russia and North America.

China has also developed other missiles such as tactical SRBM’s M-9, M-11 and M-18 mainly meant for export and amongst others has been sold to Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.

The missile can be considered as a more modern version of the Scud.

North Korea This part is a shortened and freely translated version of an article by David C. Wright: ‘North Korea’s Missile

program: From a Physicist’s Notebook’ (www.epsusa.org/publications/newsletter/ nov2000/wright.htm)

North Korea during the early 1980s was able to obtain a 300-kilometre range Soviet Scud missile, which it copied and began to build domestically. It sold a large number of these missiles to Iran, which used them in its war with Iraq. In the late 1980s, North Korea developed and built a longer-range version of the Scud that could reach 500 kilometres.

In parallel with that programme, North Korea began to develop a larger missile – the Nodong – that is believed to have a range of 1.000 to 1.300 km, and which could transport a nuclear warhead (North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for perhaps two nuclear weapons but it is not known whether it has developed a working weapon).

North Korea flight-tested the Nodong missile only once (1993), but the Pakistani Ghauri missile, which has been flight-tested at least twice, is widely believed to be a Nodong missile or closely related to it. Intelligence reports say North Korea has begun building and deploying Nodong missiles on mobile launchers.

missile appears to have consisted of a Nodong missile as the first stage and a missile similar to a Scud as the second stage (in Iran Shahab-4). In addition, the missile carried a small solid-fuel third stage – a discovery that surprised the US intelligence community.

The launch is believed to have been an unsuccessful attempt to launch a small satellite, and was highly controversial since the missile flew over Japan. The launch was important for several reasons. First if used as a ballistic missile, this missile could deliver a small payload over a long distance. It might be able to carry a 300-kilogramme payload 6.000-6.500 km. Such a missile could reach parts of Alaska with a small biological warhead, and therefore is seen by some as proof of a long-range missile threat to US territory.

Second, the launch demonstrated North Korea’s ability to do multi-staging, crucial for developing long-range missiles.

On the other hand, the capabilities of such a missile must be kept in perspective. It would be highly inaccurate, with an expected inaccuracy possibly of tens of kilometres. Moreover with a payload of 8001000 kg, which might be required for a nuclear warhead, the range would be less than 3000 km.

North Korea is also believed to be developing an even longer-range missile, the Taepo Dong- 2 (Iran Shahab5) and a next one with mainly a more powerful first stage. In that case the second stage could be a Nodong missile and with a third stage the Western part of America could be in reach, especially once North Korea was able to make the body out of lightweight material such as aluminium alloys rather than steel.

A key question is how soon a Taepo Dong missile might be tested as the flight testing program is limited, as it is assumed. The design of the first two stages of the TD2 appears to be roughly similar to the Chinese DongFeng 4 missile which was given a third stage to build the Dong-Feng 5 ICBM. In the meantime North Korea made its seventh test flight in October 9th 2006 leading again to great excitation in Japan. Possibly the launching of the Taepo Dong 2 or 3?

The Nodong range is significant since it would allow North Korea to target all of Japan, and if sold abroad would allow Iran and Libya to target Israel. Press reports have claimed that Nodong development was partly funded by Iran. The Nodong in Iran is called Shahab-3.

Iran (351. Missile tests Iran 2006) The Iranian missile programme can be divided into three parts: Before the revolution (1977-1979), at the war with Iraq (19801 9 88 ) and after it (from 1989).

(350. Korea DPR 1998) - opposite In August 1998, North Korea launched its first multiple stage missile, the Taepo Dong 1. The

In cooperation with Israel (!)

July 1977 marks the start 7

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of the Iranian missile programme based upon the Israeli anti-ship missile, Gabriel.

As part of this cooperation the next year an assembly factory was build in Sirjan and a test facility in Rafsanjan but the Iranian revolution of 1979 ended it.

Forced by the war with Iraq a new missile programme was started leading to surface to air missiles (SAM) such as the Misagh-2 and the Sayyad-1. With the help of mainly the People’s Republic of China for the artillery different other missile systems were developed such as: Fajr-3, Naze’at, ZelZal, Oghab, Shahin-II. Samid and de solid fuel missiles: Tondar-69 (= China’s CSS-8), Fateh110.

(352. Iran, Missile Shahab-3) After the war the development was pointed to further development of the Scud-B missiles and the local variation Shahab1 was manufactured.

In cooperation with North Korea and based upon their Nodong missile the Shahab-3 was produced, also called Zelzal (Earthquake). Although the missile is relatively unreliable it may be able to reach Israel.

The Shahab-4 was to be developed together with The Soviets based upon their R-12 (SS-4 Sandal). Its range is 1800-2000 km and it can carry a payload of 1500 kg, enough for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies such a development and declares that their developments are only aimed to launch a small satellite in future (the IRSL-X-2 variation). It is obvious that their tests are already going on since the year 2002.

The Shahab-5 is an analogue of the Soviet R-14 (SS-5 Skean) and should also be identical to the North Korean Taep’o Dong-2. Based upon the available information the Shahab-6 is a further development. Although Iran declares that their missile potential is only meant for defensive and deterrent purposes in the Western world large concern exists about only the possibilities Iran has possessing such arms.

Israël Concerning the situation in the Middle East it is interesting to know what is within the nuclear arsenal of Israel. Since the Suez crisis in 1956 Israel was supported by the French to build up a nuclear knowledge by supply of a heavy water factory in Dimona which started in 1964. Also the UK helped Israel during the fifties and the sixties with apparatus and nuclear basic material such as plutonium and lithium-6 (for a hydrogen bomb).

The transaction ran through Norway and naturally was denied by the authorities. Only in March 2006 was this admitted officially.

It is probable that Israel carried out an underground nuclear bomb test in the Negev desert already in 1963.

In September 1979 the American Vela satellite observed a phenomenon in the ocean near South Africa. It is thought that this has been an Israeli-South African nuclear bomb test.

(353. Mordechai Vanunu) In 1969 the US Ministry of defence announced that Israel possibly had developed a nuclear weapon but it was only 1983 before this was confirmed by a former cooperator of the Negev Nuclear Research Center, Mordechai Vanunu. For disclosing of such secrets of state Mr.Vanunu was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. According to him Israel possesses about 100 to 200 nuclear weapons which can be delivered over a medium-range distance with the Jericho missile.

The Jericho 1 is a two-stage missile originally based on a French design.

It was tested in 1968 and be provided with a nuclear load. It can transport a payload of 500 kg over 500 km. The missile is designed to be operational within two hours, and four to eight missiles can be fired per hour.

(354. Jericho 2) Thee Jericho II can carry a payload of 1000 kg. over 1500 km. Its first test took place in 1989. The missile shows a resemblance with the American Pershing II. Both Jerichos can be launched from a mobile base.

Together with a third stage the Jericho II becomes the Shafit (comet) rocket, by which Israeli satellites, Ofek (Offeq, “Horizon”), are launched. The rocket can be easily translated into an ICBM missile for a range of 7000 km.

Moreover, Israel possesses three submarines of the Dolphin-class with American Harpoon missiles with a nuclear warhead or the larger Israeli SLCM Popeye Turbo missiles. In 2000 and in the neighbourhood of Sri Lanka these were tested. In the meantime different modifications are known.

Next to it Israel has an effective anti-missile shield in the form of the Arrow-missiles developed together with the Americans.

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It may be obvious that together with India and Pakistan Israel has not signed the NTP Treaty against the proliferation of nuclear arms.

India The nuclear position of India is relatively unknown. In 1974 India tested a small nuclear bomb (4-6 kT) in Pokhran in the Rajastan desert, the project ‘Smiling Buddha’. After a long period of silence on May 11th an 13th 1998 India suddenly tested two atomic bombs, three little bombs (low-yield device) and a hydrogen bomb (operation ‘Shakti’). It is estimated that India today has 75-110 nuclear warheads, partly operational, but this number will increase the coming years.

(355. July 18th 1981 Launch SLV-3 and satellite Rohini, India 1981, WB-9).

Since 1981 with the launch of the SLV-3 (Space Launch Vehicle) India has its own missile programme from which the SBRM, Prithvi I (Sanskrit for “Earth”) is the most interesting. This surface-to-surface missile is based on liquid propellants and is special as during the flight it can be chosen between six pre-programmed targets. The range, however, is just 150-200 km for a payload of 1000 kg. Its first test happened on February 25th 1988.

On January 27th 1996 India launched the Prithvi II with a somewhat wider range of 250 km but a lower payload of 500 kg. This missile also seems suitable for a nuclear load. The Danush is a modification from it in use at the Indian Navy. It was tested in April 2000 from a ship but the experiment failed partly. A two-stage Prithvi III was tested on September 21st 2001 and is able to cover a larger distance and to carry a higher payload. A problem of the Prithvis in the beginning was their low accuracy. Therefore a GPS system has been added, by which the accuracy raised considerably.

For the longer distance (2500 km) the Agni missile has been developed, a two-stage missile, of which three test launchings were carried out, before the Americans persuaded the Indians to stop. The IRBM Agni II, tested in April 1999, can cover 4000-5000 km. Also this missile should be suitable for a nuclear load. Possibly the missile is fully based upon solid propellants; a mobile version also should exist.

In September 1997 the PSLV (Polar Space Launch Vehicle) launched an Indian photo satellite in an orbit at an altitude of 800 km. And finally since 1994 the Surya (Sun) programme exists for the development of an ICBM suitable for distances over 5000 km. The Indian Navy is equipped with submarines with suitable missiles. Moreover, India has foreign cruise missiles at its disposal such as: SS-N-7 Starbright, Exocet, Styx,

Sea Eagle and the supersonic Sunburn. Their own SLBM suitable for a nuclear warhead is called, Sagarika (Ocean) and has allegedly been built with Russian cooperation, a fact which is denied by both parties. India also works on the possession of five submarines equipped with nuclear warheads.

Pakistan As there are large politicial and religious differences between India and Pakistan Pakistan felt seriously threatened by the nuclear developments in India and therefore had to develop their own ambitious nuclear power.

Although their interest was raised already in the Seventies it lasted until May 28th 1998 before Pakistan was able to detonate five nuclear bombs with a total power of 9 kT in their test area of Cahagai Hills in Balochistan.

With the help of the Chinese People’s Republic in the meantime the Pakistani produced their own plutonium in two factories. Estimations show that the amount produced should be sufficient for about 40 nuclear warheads. As said before the basic technology was partly stolen from the Dutch nuclear company Urenco.

(356. Abdul Khan) The father of the Pakistani nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan (b.1935) worked in The Netherlands at Urenco and took the collected knowledge with him to Pakistan. After that he started an enrichment factory for uranium which beca me operational in 1986. For the theft of the information he was convicted in 1983 in his absence but never was punished. In 2005 he was acquitted by the Pakistan President.

Pakistan also has a large programme development of ballistic missiles, called Hatf.

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In February 2000 the first surface-to-surface missile was tested, the Hatf-1A, which should have flown for 100 km. After that, different missions with different names were flown also. Some developments are still in the design stage. The Saheen-2 mission could have been a MIRV. During the development Pakistan was heavily supported by the People’s Republic of China and North Korea. The Shaheen-1 is based upon the Chinese M-11 and the Ghauri-1 the North Korean Nodong missile.

The Babur missile is the first cruise missile tested by Pakistan and called after a Mogul from the 14th century.

The missile shows a great deal of resemblance to the American Tomahawk probably as six Tomahawks fired by the Americans against the Taliban in Afghanistan landed in Pakistan and were copied. On August 11th 2005 the missile was tested successfully for the first time. A Babur-2 with a wider range is under development. The launching caused a large uproar in India as their Intelligence was accused to have missed this development.

France (357. Diamant B, France 1970, WB 45) Directly after WW II France occupied itself a great deal with the development of missiles. It started with the Eole (1951). The subsequent rocket was immediately used for the launch of cats into space (March 7th 1959). Also the Vesta was used for such purposes. Next were the Saphir (1965), the Diamant and the Ariane series. For military purposes France’s arsenal is relatively limited.

At the moment the cruise missile ASMP (air-sol moyenne portée, air-surface medium range), a MRBM is in use with the French Air Force. This nuclear rocket can carry a nuclear warhead of 150 to 300 kT over a distance of 300 km and is mainly mean as a warning before the outburst of a war.

The French missile against ships is the notorious Exocet, very well known by the British from their Falklands War experience.

Ground troops use a very good and very light (9kg) anti -tank missile (ATGM) of the type APILAS (Armorpiercing infantry light arm system). Another missile also is suitable against bunkers, the Eryx and also is in use with the Norwegian and Canadian Armies. The Hadès missile system, a SRBM was developed as the last non-nuclear warning against an eventual Soviet attack of Western Europe. It was deployed in July 1984 and showed a range of 250, later 480 km.

The missile was shot directly from a truck and not meant for use against cities or silos. After the rearrangement of the French military power and limitation of the Marine the last missile was dismantled at June 23rd 1997.

(358.

Rédoutable, France 1969, M1686) In the French submarine (type Rédoutable) an MSBS is used developed in 1985 for a range of 6000 km and at choice a nuclear warhead of 100 or 150 kT. And finally there is the Anglo-FrenchItalian ‘Storm Shadow’ or in France the ‘Scalp EG’ (General purpose) a long-distance air-to-surface missile, MBDA. The first successful mission was flown from a Mirage 2000N on May 25th 2000 from a base in England. A variation to be use at sea, ‘Scalp Naval’ is under development..

Britain: Blue Streak (359.

Blue Steak, Panama 1966, WB 108) In the second half of the Fifties in Britain a ballistic missile had been developed, the ‘Blue Steak’ together with its re-entry part the ‘Black Knight’, but the tests were not very successful. In 1954 based on the Wilson-Sandys Agreement between the USA and the UK it was decided that Britain should develop a MRBM with a range of 3700 km.

The project was finally cancelled not only because of the costs but also a it did not work as a deterrent. The missile was built to use very cold liquid propellant and it took 15 minutes to fill it up which was too long to be used in a direct response.

Moreover, no suitable location could be found far enough away from inhabited places for the necessary underground silos. Such a stable solid rock only could be found in Southern England but at that location too many people lived and thus, it was not politically acceptable. After that the British looked at the American Skybolt project before they decided to buy 58 American Polaris missiles.

As Britain ratified the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty in 1968 they have not run an independent programme since the failure of the Blue Streak missile. Today Britain possesses four Vanguard class submarines armed with nuclear-tipped Trident missiles. Each submarine carries 16 Trident II D-5 missiles which can 10

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carry up to twelve warheads, but the government decided in 1998 to limit this amount to 48 warheads.

The warheads are selectable from 0,3 kT, 5-10 kT or 100 kT. Argentina (360. Rocket Castor, Argentina 1992, WB 27) Although it is all war material costing far too much money which could have been spent for better purposes, the development of missile has delivered some interesting stories. That does not count for the large missiles only, for especially the development and use of the small arms sometimes presents interesting views.

The Condor is such a small one. Its development started in 1970 by a German company MBB, today Daimler Chrysler. Originally the missile was developed to gain experience with rock technology, but after the MalvinasFalkland War Argentina found it necessary to possess an own missile. What was the case? When the British noticed that the Argentines were very successful with their French Exocet missiles they tried to persuade the French to offer them their deactivation codes.

Thereafter the Exocets became useless for the Argentines and the Argentines’ own development was begun producing the Condor II. This missile could carry a conventional load of 450 kg over a distance of 900 km. The programme was carried out in close cooperation with Egypt and Iraq, but was ended by President Menem in 1990 after pressure of the United States.

The Condor II also became a useful missile for Libya and possibly some other states in the Middle East. A Condor III programme did not get off the ground with the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. n the course of the year Argentina had tested a series of other missiles such as: Centaure, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Orion and Castor.

Other Nuclear Weapons (Bunker Busters) Next to all sorts of missiles there exist nuclear bombs, however, which are not to be considered as atomic bombs. Such bombs are called ‘bunker busters’, bombs which by their shape and design can penetrate deep into the earth or water and can penetrate through thick layers of concrete.

This kind of bomb had already been developed during the WW II by the British designer Barnes Wallis. The first was ‘Tallboy’ weighing 5 tons and ‘Earthquake’, weighing ten tons, each made of hardened steel, aerodynamically formed and with a certain spin by

which they could, falling from high altitude, even surpass the sound barrier.

The ‘Grand Slam’ was their successor. The Grand Slam bombs did not work on weight only but actually were dropped just near the target to undermine it in the hope it would collapse. One of the first ordinary bunker buster bombs, a ‘Disney Bomb’ fell on February 10th 1945 on a German submarine port at IJmuiden in The Netherlands.

Also in the first Gulf War, the fight against terrorists in Tora Bora and in Afghanistan bunker busters were used which could handle six meters of concrete. ll these bombs were more or less conventional bombs.

Bunker Busters with a nuclear load known as RNEP (Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator) are able to penetrate much deeper. Theoretically their fall out should be limited due to the depth but still a considerable amount of radio-active material is emitted which causes much soil pollution. It is striking that when such a bomb penetrates thick layers of soil, its effect is much more limited as the soil more or less absorbs the shock.

It is therefore that such bombs are not very popular in ordinary warfare. Bunkers can be constructed deeper into the earth, and fall out remains a problem especially in the neighbourhood of cities. Also conventional bunker busters are already very effective.

The development and use of such nuclear bombs further is limited by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (open for ratification since 24-09-96), and not signed by the United States, India, Pakistan and NorthKorea and some other states. Many fear that this could lead to a next arms race.

Conclusion (361.

Dollar as stamp) According to one of my internet sources, between 1945 and 1990 the United States built over 70.000 missiles/rockets, divided into about 65 classes.

Even, at this moment, after the agreement on many treaties, the US certainly possesses about 2000 nuclear warheads within the terms of the treaties and 500 outside it. The maximum, however, was about 30.000 in the year 1966. When we consider that also Russia has such an arsenal and that there are several countries with at least a reasonable stock, we must not entertain the possibility they should be used once.

Moreover, it is an exceptionally unpleasant thought when we think of all the money which has been spent

11

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and what could have been done with it for the sake of defense and national security (23 March 1983) www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/K/Korolev.html the world.

Korolev, Sergei Pavlovich (1907-1966) According to one source (www.ieer.org/) citing from a www.designation-systems.net/non-us/soviet-mw.html book: ‘Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of Russian Designations of Missiles www.designationU.S. Nuclear Weapons since 1940’ of Stephen I.Schwarz systems.net/usmilav/missiles.html Current designations from 1998, the total cost between 1946 and 1996 of of US unmanned military aerospace vehicles nuclear arms systems mounted to 5,5 billion dollars www.energia.ru/english/energia/launchers/rocket r9.html S.P.Korolev RSC Energia (5,5x1012), about 10% of the American budget. www.epsusa.org/publications/newsletter/nov2000/ The greater part of this amount is used for all additional wright.htm North Korea’s Missile program: From a systems around the weapons such as air planes, storage Physicist’s Notebook, David C.Wright. silos etc. An amount of 13 milliard (25%) had to be www.fas.org/nuke/guide/summary.htm Status of added when the national defence as a whole is nuclear powers and their nuclear capabilities considered also. For comparison reasons: In the same www.geocities.com/ History of the Snark missile; period about 1,4% was spent for the environment and Valentin Glushko e.a. just over 1% for science and space travel. The cost of www.globalsecurity.org/ Missiles (Iran) the Manhattan project only was calculated on 20 milliard www. h q. na sa . g ov /o f f ic e/pa o/ Ho st or y/ Sp u tn i k / siddiqi.html Korolev, Sputnik and The International dollar. (www.brook.edu/ 50 facts about US nuclear weapons). Geophysical Year, Asev A.Siddiqi www.lib.berkeley.edu/~lcushing/addpages/ Per year the United States spent over 200 milliard dollar PeaceSymbolArticle.html The origin of the Peace for nuclear armament over the said period (re- Symbol calculated after 1996 standards) or $ 35 per citizen of www.milparade.ru/aerospece/088.htm Pushing back the world. Fortunately these amounts are decreasing. the missile technology frontiers, Leonid Sternin, Boris But we still did not mention Russia, the UK, France and Katorgin other countries. That it serves the economy and labour www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons/ may be true, but that would also have been the case if Frontline: The Gulf War, Weapons www.redstone.army.mil/history/lance/summary.html the money had been spent otherwise.

Historical summary of the lance missile system In short, technically and militarily spoken the www.robsv.com/cape/c11v.html Snark missile development of all these missile systems certainly is www.russianspaceweb.com/rockets_icbm.html Longfascinating. In particular, when we remember that range Ballistic Missiles without such a development we should not have been www.russianspaceweb.com/rockets_pre2oth_cent.html able to start our hobby. On the other hand it is Origins of the Russian rocketry unacceptable that in view of all problems on Earth this www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/goose.html Goose (Bull cost such an amount of money, money that could have Goose) fact sheet www.thebulletin.org/ Israel nuclear forces been spent so much better. www.vredesmuseum.nl/ Geschiedenis van de th vredesbeweging in Nederland (Dutch), History of the Hoorn, February 24 2007 peace movement in The Netherlands www.wisconsinproject.org ballistic missile update www.wonderland.org.nz/Proton%208K82.htm Proton Literature 8K82 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://home.comcast.net/~rusaerog/boosters/R-77.html Russian Aerospace guide http://64.233.183.104/ Proton rocket http://jeff560.tripod.com/ Different pictures of mathematicians www.aeronautics.ru/ Air-to-air missiles: Israel www.aerospace.ru/ NPO energomash engines history www.astronautix.com/ www.brook.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/weapons.htm 50 facts about US nuclear weapons www.cdi.org/ Nuclear weapons database, Chinese nuclear delivery system w w w.cnn. com/SPE CIAL S/cold.w a r/e pisodes/2 2/ documents/starwars.speech/ Address for the nation on

In the next part of this series John Beenen examines the beginnings of the use of nuclear energy in missiles and rockets.

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Two Unusual Recovery Ship Covers The Lake Champlain PRS cover from Alan Shepard’s flight of May 5, 1961 is postmarked on May 23, 1961. I was informed that the later postmark was the day the ship returned to port.

The USS Randolph PRS cover from Gus Grissom’s flight of July 21, 1961 has a July 28 postmark, this being just

—from Harry Rose. Elgin, USA

one week after the pick-up.

We all know how expensive the proper dated covers are but the two covers below are somewhat related. The cost was also a fraction that the originals would cost. These were bought from a Space Auction and show how it pays to peruse al such events.

H.R. 10.10.08

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 28

By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

The A-1 Satellite This is the twenty-eighth in a series of articles about un -manned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the French A-1 satellite, also known as Asterix.

A-1 was successfully launched on 30 November 1965.

A-1 was the first French satellite, mainly for launch vehicle evaluation and engineering testing. In addition, an onboard sensor and transmitter were to provide ionospheric measurements, but due to antenna damage no data could be transmitted.

Shaped somewhat like a double cone with flattened points, the satellite was 0.5 m in diameter.

Four antennas extended radially out from the widest part of the body.

The A-1 satellite appears on a large number of postal items, especially stamps from France and several of its former colonies.

Many of the A-1 items have a common design, except for different country names and denominations. Nearly all the postage stamps showing A-1 were issued shortly after its launch, in the years 1965 to 1967. The last item known to show the A-1 satellite is a souvenir sheet issued by Upper Volta (Scott C184) in 1974.

The above designs as se-tenant pairs were also issued in various colours for French Territories, (including France of course) : T.A.A.F., French Polynesia, New Caledonia, St Pierre and Miquelon, , French Somalia Coast, Wallis and Futuna and Reunion.

An interesting dichotomy exists between the images of A-1, as seen in two different groups of items. Whereas many of the stamps, including the ones with a common design, show the A-1 satellite with a rather plain surface, a larger number of stamps show the satellite with wide light-and-dark stripes around the body of the spacecraft. The reference images found for A-1 appear to have these stripes as well. The stripe/no-stripe situation is parallel to that of San Marco (covered in the 26th article in this series). The first four San Marco satellites had black and white longitudinal sections painted on their surface. However these stripes were often not reproduced on postal items showing San Marco. Moreover, in cases where the stripes are shown, they are red and white.

A checklist of postal items identified as showing the A-1 satellite (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/A1.htm) as part of the Website developed by the authors for the un-manned satellites featured in this series of articles (http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/hillger/ satellites.htm). The Website includes images of stamps and other postal items depicting the A-1 satellite, as well as images of launch covers that feature this satellite. E-mail correspondence with the authors is welcome.

Don Hillger can be reached at hillger@cira.colostate.edu and Garry Toth at garry_toth@hotmail.com.

A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for Jan/Feb 2008 14

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Luna 1: Man’s First Shot at The Moon Although it did not achieve its objectives fifty years ago this month, Luna 1 was nevertheless one of a battery of stunning spaceflight achievements by the Soviet Union in the first few years of the space race, following on from...

Sputnik—first artificial satellite (4.10.57) Sputnik 2—first dog in space (3.12.57) Sputnik 3— study of Earth’s atmosphere (15.5.58) and of course followed by the rest of the Sputnik series some of which were undeclared and unmanned Vostok craft leading up to Gagarin’s launch in April 1961

Because the craft had reached escape velocity it was termed the “First Cosmic Rocket” and for a while called a new planet. The name “Luna 1” came as an afterthought, it being referred to as “Mechta” initially.

The tiny object now orbits between Earth and Mars, having become the first to achieve heliocentric orbit.

Luna 1 (aka “Mechta” (Dream) and “Lunik 1”) was only the Soviet’s fourth unmanned spacecraft, launched on January 2nd, 1959 and was planned to impact on the Moon, having become the first craft to reach escape or “second cosmic velocity” of 40,234 kph. It was finally successfully launched at the fourth attempt. Previous launches in September, October and December of 1958 had all failed within minutes of lift-off and had led to bitter arguments about the reasons for such failures, between Chief Designers Korolev and Glushko who believed in different launch and fuel systems.

Luna’s successor Luna 2, a little heavier but practically indistinguishable from Luna 1 in outline in stamp designs was launched nine months later and did succeed in hitting the Moon delivering pedants with Soviet symbols onto the surface East of the Sea of Serenity in mid-September. Luna 3 three weeks later on Oct 4, 1959 circumnavigated the Moon and sent back the first photographs of the far side which the Soviets were to publish with great kudos. It was to orbit the Moon at a considerable distance eleven times in the course of the next six months before decaying.

Weighing just over 360 kg the spherical craft with five antennae protruding from one half was launched by a three stage A1 rocket from Tyuratam. The craft was essentially a missile with no power systems on board.

There are over two dozen stamps showing Luna 1 either on its own or as part of the Luna series and reprinted here is Harvey Duncan’s check list as issued to members in March 2000.

A day into its flight, when the craft was over 100,000 km from earth a large cloud of sodium gas was deliberately expelled allowing astronomers to track it more easily as for a while it glowed orange rather like a comet.

The American craft Pioneer 4 did very much the same thing as Luna 1 two months later. (Pioneer 3 had failed in the same objectives in December 1958 and Pioneer 4 was a repeat mission).

A number of these are illustrated below and opposite.

Inside there we re telemetry systems and several scientific devices like a Geiger counter and micro meteorite detector, which provided scientists with their first information about radiation in trans-lunar space. It also provided the first sure information that the Moon had no magnetic field and of the solar wind streaming through space.

Three days after launch the ballistic Luna 1, by then misaligned with ground controllers unable to modify its direction, missed its target and along with the third stage of the rocket launcher passed within 6000 km of the Moon, eventually going into solar orbit.

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Year SG Nos

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Albania 1963—Reissued on 23.8.64 with “Riccione” overprint

Bulgaria 1963 (above centre ) and 1984 (right) show Luna 1 as one of several Moonshots.

17

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Shuttle Story : 1999 STS –96, -93, -103 2000 –99, -101, -106, -92, -97 First ISS Mission STS-96 was flown by Discovery and was the first shuttle flight to dock with the International Space Station. The shuttle carried the Spacehab module in the payload, filled with cargo for station outfitting. STS-96 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, May 27, 1999.

The Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) carried the Russian cargo crane, known as STRELA, which was mounted to the exterior of the Russian station segment, the SPACEHAB Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS) and a U.S. built crane called the ORU Transfer Device (OTD) Other payloads were the Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Equipment (STARSHINE), the Shuttle Vibration Forces Experiment (SVF) and the Orbiter Integrated Vehicle Health Monitoring - HEDS Technology Demonstration (IVHM HTD).

The STARSHINE satellite consisted of an inert, 19 inch (483 mm) hollow sphere covered by 1,000 evenly-distributed, flat, polished mirrors, each 1 inch in diameter. The payload consisted of the STARSHINE satellite, integrated with the Pallet Ejection System (PES), then mounted inside a lidless carrier. The HH equipment consisted of one HH Lightweight Avionics Plate (LAP), then mounted inside a lidless carrier. Additional HH equipment consists of one Hitchhiker Ejection System Electronics (HESE), one 5.0 cubic-foot (142 L) HH canister, and one Adapter Beam Assembly (ABA). The purpose of the mission was to train international student volunteer observers to visually track this optically reflective spacecraft during morning and evening twilight intervals for several months, calculate its orbit from shared observations, and derive atmospheric density from drag-induced changes in its orbit over time.

Flight

STS-96

Commander Pilot

Kent Rominger Rick Husband

MS MS MS MS MS

Ellen Ochoa Tamara Jernigan Daniel Barry Julie Payette Valery Tokarev

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

27.5.99 6.6.99

Dock with ISS Spacehab

The purpose of the Orbiter Integrated Vehicle H ea l th Mo n it or in g HE D S T ech no lo gy Demonstration (IVHM HTD) was to demonstrate competing modern, off-the-shelf sensing technologies in an operational environment to make informed design decisions for the eventual Orbiter upgrade IVHM. The objective of IVHM was to reduce planned ground processing, streamline problem troubleshooting (unplanned ground processing), enhance visibility into systems The Shuttle Vibration Forces (SVF) Experiment provided flight operation and improve overall vehicle safety. measurements of the vibratory forces acting between an aerospace payload and its mounting structure. The force transducers were Daniel T. Barry, who enjoys playing the popular incorporated into four custom brackets which replaced the existing computer game StarCraft, brought along a copy of brackets used to attach the 5 ft (1.5 m) standard canister to the side wall the game during the mission. The game now GAS adapter beam. The payload was activated automatically by the resides at Blizzard’s home office after having Orbiter Lift-off vibration and operated for approximately 100 seconds. orbited the Earth 153 times and travelling 3.5 million nautical miles.

Source: Wikipedia STS-96 was the second flight of the SVF experiment.

Julie Payette

The crew patch highlights the major themes of the ISS Program: Earth directed research, advancement of human space research and international cooperation. The first ISS modules Zarya and Unity are shown orbiting Earth. The triangular shape of the patch represents building on the knowledge and experience of earlier missions, whilst

the three vertical bars of the astronaut emblem point towards future endeavour. The five pointed star that tops the emblem is symbolic of the five space agencies participating in the development of the ISS, - NASA and those of Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

The red white and blue colours represent USA, Canada and Russia.

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Sweden

AXAF,

Chandra Mission STS-93 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Columbia, and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its primary payload was the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It would also be the last mission of Columbia until March 2002. During the interim, Columbia would be out of service for upgrading, and would not fly again until STS-109. The launch was originally scheduled for July 20 but the launch was aborted at T -7 seconds. The successful launch of the flight occurred 3 days later.

Five seconds after liftoff, an electrical short disabled one primary and one secondary controller on two of the three main engines. In this event, the engines automatically switched to their backup controllers. The short was later discovered to have been caused by poorly routed wiring which had rubbed on an exposed screw head. This wiring issue led to a program-wide inspection of the wiring in all orbiters. Concurrently, an oxidizer post, which had been intentionally plugged, came loose inside one of the main engine's main injector and impacted the engine nozzle inner surface rupturing a hydrogen cooling line allowing a small leak. To maintain a proper mixture ratio in the event of this leak, the engine's controller increased oxidizer flow resulting in a premature engine shutdown near the end of the projected burn due to low liquid oxygen level. Despite the premature shutdown, the vehicle safely achieved a slightly lower orbit and was able to complete the mission as planned. This incident brought on a maintenance practice change which required damaged oxidizer posts to be removed and replaced as opposed to being intentionally plugged, as was the practice beforehand.

The primary objective of the STS-93 mission was to deploy the Chandra Xray Observatory (formerly AXAF—the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility) with its Inertial Upper Stage booster. At its launch, Chandra was the most sophisticated X-ray observatory ever built. It was designed to observe Xrays from high energy regions of the universe, such as hot gas in the remnants of exploded stars.

Other payloads included the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local Exhaust (SIMPLEX), the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS), the Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research (GOSAMR) experiment, the Space Tissue Loss - B (STL-B) experiment, a Light Weight Flexible Solar Array Hinge (LFSAH), the Cell Culture Module (CCM), the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment - II (SAREX - II), EarthKAM, Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity (PGIM), the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), the Micro-Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS), and the Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC).

19

the third of NASA’s great observatories, was dubbed “Chandra” after American theoretical astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-95), born in Lahore, India, now in Pakistan and pictured left. He determined that a star with a mass more than 1.44 times that of our Sun cannot directly become a white dwarf, a limit now known as “the Chandrasekhar limit”.

The largely blue mission patch depicts AXAF separating from the shuttle. A spiral galaxy is shown in the background as a possible target for AXAF observation.

The two flags represent the international crew, consisting of astronauts from the USA and France.

Flight

STS-93

Commander Pilot

Eileen Collins Jeffrey Ashby

MS MS MS

Steven Hawley Catherine Coleman Michel Tognini

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

23.7.99 27.7.99

AXAF “Chandra” X-ray Observatory

The Shuttle Ionespheric Modification with Pulsed Local Exhaust (SIMPLEX) payload activity researched the source of Very High Frequency (VHF) radar echoes caused by the orbiter and its OMS engine firings. The Principal Investigator (PI) used the collected data to examine the effects of orbital kinetic energy on ionospheric irregularities and to understand the processes that take place with the venting of exhaust materials.

Columbia's landing at Kennedy Space Center

marked the twelfth night landing in the Shuttle program's history. Five had been at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the rest KSC. To date, there had been 19 consecutive landings at KSC and 25 of the last 26 had been there.

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STS-103 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission including four scheduled EVAs by the crew of Discovery, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on December 19, 1999.

NASA officials decided to move up part of the servicing mission that had been scheduled for June 2000 after three of the telescope's six gyroscopes failed. Three gyroscopes must be working to meet the telescope's very precise pointing requirements, and the telescope's flight rules dictated that NASA consider a "call-up" mission before a fourth gyroscope failed. Four new gyros were installed during the first servicing mission (STS-61) in December of 1993 and all six gyros were working during the second servicing mission (STS-82) in February 1997. Since then, a gyro failed in 1997, another in 1998 and a third in 1999. The Hubble team believed they understood the cause of the failures, although they could not be certain until the gyros were returned from space. Having fewer than three working gyroscopes would preclude science observations, although the telescope would remain safely in orbit until a servicing crew arrived.

Flight

STS-103

Commander Pilot MS MS MS MS MS

Curtis Brown Scott Kelly Steven Smith Michael Foale John Grunsfeld Claude Nicollier Jean-Franรงois Clervoy

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing

19.12.99 27.12.99

Servicing HST In addition to replacing all six gyroscopes the crew replaced a guidance Purpose / sensor, the spacecraft's computer and installed a voltage/temperature kit Main Payload for the spacecraft's batteries. A new transmitter, solid state recorder and thermal insulation blankets were also installed.

The repair mission also installed a new S-Band Single Access Transmitter (SSAT). Hubble has Hubble's gyros spin at a constant rate of 19,200 rpm on gas bearings. This two identical SSATs onboard and can operate wheel is mounted in a sealed cylinder, which floats in a thick fluid. with only one. The SSATs send data from Hubble Electricity is carried to the motor by thin wires (approximately the size of a through NASA's Tracking Data Relay Satellite human hair). It is believed that oxygen in the pressurized air used during System (TDRSS) to the ground. The new the assembly process caused the wires to corrode and break. The new transmitter replaced one that failed in 1998. gyros were assembled using nitrogen instead of oxygen. Each gyroscope is packaged in a Rate Sensor assembly. The Rate Sensors changed by the A spare solid state recorder was also installed to crew were packaged in pairs into an assembly called a Rate Sensor Unit allow efficient handling of high-volume data. Prior (RSU's). to the second servicing mission, Hubble used three 1970s style reel-to-reel tape recorders.

During the second servicing mission one of these mechanical recorders was replaced with a digital solid state recorder. During this mission a second mechanical recorder will be replaced by a second Solid State Recorder. The new recorder can hold approximately 10 times as much data as the old A voltage/temperature improvement kit (VIK) was also installed to protect unit (12 gigabytes instead of 1.2 gigabytes). spacecraft batteries from overcharging and overheating when the spacecraft goes into safe mode. The VIK modifies the charge cutoff Finally, the EVA crew will replace the telescopes voltage to a lower level to prevent battery overcharging and associated outer insulation that has degraded. The insulation overheating. is necessary to control the internal temperature on the Hubble. The New Outer Blanket Layer Below right 2008 USA issue for Edwin Hubble (NOBL) and Shell/Shield Replacement Fabric (SSRF) will help protect Hubble from the harsh environment of space.

The new computer which was installed was designed to reduce the burden of flight software maintenance and significantly lower costs. The new computer is 20 times faster and has six times the memory of the current DF-224 computer used on Hubble s 5.5 by 4 by 2 feet (1.68 by 1.22 by 0.61 m) in size.

STS-103 will also carry hundreds of thousands of student signatures as part of the Student Signatures in Space (S3) program. The unique project provides elementary schools w i t h s p ec i a l po st er s t o be autographed by students, then scanned onto disks and carried aboard.

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The deep blue mission patch shows the radar beams of the SRTM penetrating the cloudy surface of the globe as the instrument maps a notional grid over the Earth’s surface. A rainbow effect on the Earth’s horizon represents an orbital sunrise and also suggests a bright future for human beings venturing into space.

Mappa Mundi ?

Flight

STS-99 was an Endeavour mission, whose primary mission objective was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project spearheaded by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and NASA, with participation of the German Aerospace Center DLR. Its objective is to obtain the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of the Earth. SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that will flew onboard the space shuttle during its 11-day mission. This radar system gathered around 8 terabytes of data to produce unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's surface.

SRTM uses C-band and X-band - (IFSAR) to acquire topographic data of Earth's land mass (between 60°N and 56°S). It produces digital topographic map products which meet Interferometric Terrain Height Data (ITHD)-2 specifications. The result of the SRTM could be close to 1 trillion measurements of the Earth's topography. Besides contributing to the production of better maps, these measurements could lead to improved water drainage modelling, more realistic flight simulators, better locations for cell phone towers, and enhanced navigation safety.

The SRTM mast was deployed successfully to its full length, and the antenna was turned to its operation position. After a successful checkout of the radar systems, mapping began at 12:31 a.m., less than 12 hours after launch. Crewmembers, split into two shifts so they could work around the clock, began mapping an area from 60 degrees north to 56 degrees south.

Data was sent to Jet Propulsion Laboratory for analysis and early indications showed the data to be of excellent quality. Mapping proceeded fairly smoothly, but during an attitude-hold period for payload mapping during the second day of flight, it was determined that orbiter propellant usage had doubled from 0.07 to 0.15 % an hour. The increase was caused by a failure of the payload cold-gas thrust system that was used to offset the gravity gradient torque of the mast.

STS-99

Commander Pilot

Kevin Kregel Dominic Gorie

MS MS MS MS

Janet Kavandi Janice Voss Gerhard Thiele Mamoru Mohri

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

11.2.00 22.2.00

SRTM Mapping Project

arresting the mast's motion and increasing the orbiter's speed.

Radar data gathering concluded at 6:54 a.m.

EST on the tenth day of flight after a final sweep across Australia. During 222 hours and 23 minutes of mapping, Endeavour’s radar images filled 332 high density tapes and covered 99.98 % of the planned mapping area - land between 60 degrees north latitude and 56 degrees south latitude - at least once and 94.6 % of it twice. Only about 80,000 square miles in scattered areas remained unimaged, As a result of this failure, orbiter propellant was being used at a highermost of them in North America and most already than-planned rate to maintain the attitude of the vehicle. Measures to well mapped by other methods. Data was reduce the expenditure were evaluated and based on the analysis, enough gathered to fill the equivalent of 20,000 CDs. propellant could be saved to complete the planned 9-day plus science mission. The first of a series of "flycast" manoeuvres during the mission was also made on the second day of flight. The flycast manoeuvre was Also aboard Endeavour was a student designed to reduce strain on the almost 200 foot (60 m) mast extending experiment called EarthKAM, which took 2,715 from Endeavour’s cargo bay when adjustments to Endeavour’s orbit were digital photos during the mission through an overhead flight-deck window. The NASAneeded. sponsored program lets middle school students select photo targets and receive the images via The orbiter, which flies tail-first during mapping operations, is moved to a the Internet. The pictures are used in classroom nose-first attitude with the mast extending upward. A brief reaction control projects on Earth science, geography, system pulse begins the manoeuvre. The mast deflects slightly backwards, mathematics and space science. then rebounds forward. As it reaches vertical, a stronger thrust is applied,

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ORBIT On the mission patch (left) the shuttle is depicted in orbital configuration prior to docking the ISS as it was then, comprising of the American Unity module and the Russia Zarya module.

The three stars represent the third mission to the ISS and the Russian and American flag appear in elongated form along the borders.

Below: Russian Zarya module

Atlantis flies 3rd ISS Mission The primary mission objectives for STS-101 was to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, perform a spacewalk and then reboost the station from 230 to 250 statute miles (370 to 402 km).

Detailed objectives included ISS ingress/safety to take air samples, monitor carbon dioxide, deploy portable, personal fans, measure air flow, rework/modify ISS ducting, replace air filters, and replace Zarya fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. Critical replacements, repairs and spares were also done to replace four suspect batteries on Zarya, replace failed or suspect electronics for Zarya's batteries, replace Radio Telemetry System memory unit, replace port early communications antenna, replace Radio Frequency Power Distribution Box and clear Space Vision System target.

The mission also included incremental assembly/upgrades such as assembly of Strela crane, installation of additional exterior handrails, set up of centre-line camera cable, installation of "Komparus" cable inserts and reseating the U.S. crane. Assembly parts, tools and equipment were also transferred to the station and equipment stowed for future missions.

Flight

STS-101

Commander Pilot

James Halsell Scott Horowitz

MS MS MS MS MS

James Voss Mary Weber Jeff Williams Susan Helms Yuri Usachev

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

19.5.00 29.5.00

ISS Servicing

The station was also re-supplied with water, a docking mechanism accessory kit, film and video tape for documentation, office supplies and personal items. Crew health maintenance items were also transferred including exercise equipment, medical support supplies, formaldehyde monitor kit and a passive dosimetry system.

Re-Entry Fears

This mission was almost similar to the Columbia disaster. A damaged tile seam caused a breach which allowed superheated gas to enter the left wing during re-entry. The gas did not penetrate deeply and the damage was repaired before the next flight. If it had penetrated deeply the Shuttle could have been destroyed during re-entry.

This mission was the first mission to fly with a glass cockpit.

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One of three Russian stamps issued on Cosmonautics Day (12th April) 2000 to mark International Cooperation in Space since the ASTP project, shows the ISS as it would become but not as it was then.

Compare with ISS configuration on mission patch on launch cover above.

Right : US Unity module

ORBIT The newly arrived Russian module Zvezda (“Star” - see photo below) is depicted above the “Malen” of Malenchenko in the crew patch (left) mated to Unity and Zarya (“Sunrise”) with a Progress vehicle docked at the rear of the Station. The Astronaut Office symbol provides a connection between Atlantis and the ISS

Atlantis flies 4th ISS Mission

Space Station assembly flight ISS-2A.2b utilized the SPACEHAB Double Module and the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) to bring supplies to the station. The mission also included two spacewalks.

Veteran Astronaut Terrence Wilcutt (Col., USMC) led the seven-man crew, commanding his second Shuttle flight and making his fourth trip into space. During the planned 11-day mission, Wilcutt and his crew mates spent a week inside the ISS unloading supplies from both a double SPACEHAB cargo module in the rear of Atlantis's cargo bay and from a Russian Progress M-1 resupply craft docked to the aft end of the Zvezda Service Module. Zvezda, which linked up to the ISS on July 26, served as the early living quarters for the station and is the cornerstone of the Russian contribution to the ISS. The goal of the flight was to prepare Zvezda for the arrival of the first residents, or Expedition, crew later in the fall of 2000 and the start of a permanent human presence on the new outpost. That crew, made up of Expedition Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, launched on October 31, 2000 in a Soyuz capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a fourmonth "shakedown" mission aboard the ISS. On flight day three, Dr. Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko (Col., Russian Air Force), who were both making their second flights into space, conducted a 6 hour and 14 minute space walk. The spacewalk's objective focused on routing and connecting nine power, data and communications cables between the Zvezda module and the other Russian-built module, Zarya, as well as installing the six-foot-long magnetometer. The magnetometer will serve as a three-dimensional compass designed to minimize Zvezda propellant usage by relaying information to the module's computers regarding its orientation relative to the Earth.

Lu and Malenchenko used tethers and handrails along the ISS to make their way to a point more than 100 feet above the cargo bay, the farthest any tethered spacewalker has ventured outside the shuttle. They completed this with the assistance of their crewmates Burbank and Mastracchio who deftly manoeuvred them around with the robotic arm.

This spacewalk celebrated the sixth spacewalk in support of the station assembly and the 50th spacewalk in space shuttle history. Also this was the second joint U.S.-Russian space walk outside a Space Shuttle, following on the work conducted by Astronaut Scott Parazynski and Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov outside Atlantis while docked to the Mir Space Station during the STS-86 mission in October 1997. Dan Burbank (Lt.

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Flight

STS-106

Commander Terrence Wilcut Pilot Scott Altman MS MS MS MS MS

Rick Mastracchio Daniel Burbank Edward Lu Boris Mokurov Yuri Malenchenko

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

8.9.00 20.9.00

ISS Servicing Spacehab

Cmdr, USCG), who was a spaceflight rookie, served as the space walk choreographer.

The crew transferred more than 6,000 pounds of material - including six 100 pound bags of water, all of the food for the first resident crew, office supplies, onboard environmental supplies, a vacuum cleaner and a computer and monitor - to the interior of the station.

The astronauts spent a total of 5 days, 9 hours and 21 minutes inside the station before closing the hatch on the orbiting outpost. Wilcutt and Altman commanded a series of four altitude boosts to place the station in an orbit of approximately 241 by 233 statute miles, raising the average altitude by 14 miles (23 km). After spending 7 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes linked to the station, Atlantis undocked at 11:46 p.m.

EDT as Wilcutt and Altman fired Atlantis' jets to move to a distance of about 450 feet for a double -loop flyaround.

ORBIT The mission patch symbolises the second mission to carry US-built elements to the ISS. In the foreground in grey is a profile of the Station as it was when shuttle arrived. The shuttle was bringing the Z1 truss and the PMA3 shown (in red) as additions to Unity module above “Wakata” at the bottom of the shuttle silhouette and right in illustration below.

Discovery flies 100th Shuttle Mission

STS-92 was an ISS assembly flight that brought the Z-1 Truss, Control Moment Gyros, Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) (mounted on a Spacelab pallet) and two DDCU (Heat pipes) to the space station.

ITS Z1 is an early exterior framework to allow the first U.S. solar arrays on flight 4A to be temporarily installed on Unity for early power. The Ku-band communication system supports early science capability and U.S. television on 6A. The CMGs (Control Moment Gyros) weigh about 600 lb (27 kg) and provide non-propulsive (electrically powered) attitude control when activated on 5A, and PMA-3 provides shuttle docking port for solar array installation on 4A, Lab installation on 5A. The mission included seven days docked with the ISS, four EVAs and two ingress opportunities.

Canada 1986 (right in se -tenant pair) depicts the shuttle’s robot arm, used in deploying the new US elements

Over the course of four scheduled spacewalks, two teams of space walkers and an experienced robot arm operator collaborated to install the Z1 (Z for zenith port) truss structure on top of the U.S. Unity connecting node on the growing station and to deliver the third Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA 3) to the ISS for the future berthing of new station components and to accommodate shuttle dockings.

The Z1 truss was the first permanent lattice-work structure for the ISS, very much like a girder, setting the stage for the future addition of the station's major trusses or backbones. The Z1 fixture also served as the platform on which the huge U.S. solar 24

Flight

STS-92

Commander Brian Duffy Pilot Pamela Melroy MS MS MS MS MS

Bill McArthur Leroy Chiao Jeff Wisoff Mike Lopez-Alegria Koichi Wakata

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

11.10.00 24.10.00

Delivery of US Elements to ISS

arrays were mounted on the next shuttle assembly flight, STS-97.

The Z1 contains four large gyroscopic devices, called Control Moment Gyroscope (CMGs), which are used to maneuver the ISS into the proper orientation on orbit once they were activated following the installation of the U.S. laboratory.

Germany 2000 (for Expo 2000 in Hannover) depicts a shuttle launch in top left quadrant of stamp.

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Launch day cover signed by crew (one of the few fully signed covers in your editor’s possession).

The mission patch depicts the result of this mission’s arrival, namely the delivery of a 47 foot integrated truss structure known as P6 which was to carry large solar arrays to provide the ISS with power.

Powerful Endeavour Mission During the 11-day mission, the primary objective was completed, which was to deliver and connect the first set of U.S.-provided solar arrays to the International Space Station. The astronauts completed three spacewalks, during which they prepared a docking port for arrival of the Destiny Laboratory Module, installed Floating Potential Probes to measure electrical potential surrounding the station, installed a camera cable outside the Unity Module, and transferred supplies, equipment and refuse between Endeavour and the station On Flight Day 3, Commander Brent Jett linked Endeavour to the ISS while 230 statute miles above northeast Kazakhstan.

The successful checkout of the Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) units, the Canadarm (RMS), the Orbiter Space Vision System (OSVS) and the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) were all completed nominally. Also, the ODS centreline camera was installed with no misalignment noted.

From inside Endeavour, Canadian Mission Specialist Marc Garneau used the Canadarm to remove the P6 truss from the payload bay, manoeuvring it into an overnight park position to warm its components. Mission Specialists Joseph Tanner and Carlos Noriega moved through Endeavour's docking tunnel and opened the hatch to the ISS docking port to leave supplies and computer hardware on the doorstep of the Station. On flight day 4, the Expedition 1 crew -- Commander William Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev -- entered the Unity Module for the first time and retrieved the items left for them.

At 9:36 a.m. EST on Friday, December 8, the crew paid the first visit to the Expedition 1 crew residing in the space station. Until then the shuttle and the station had kept one hatch closed to maintain respective atmospheric pressures, allowing the shuttle crew to conduct their spacewalks and mission goals. After a welcome ceremony and briefing, the eight spacefarers conducted structural tests of the station and its solar arrays, transferred equipment, supplies and refuse back and forth between the spacecraft, and checked out the television camera cable installed by Tanner and Noriega for the upcoming mission.

On December 9, the two crews completed final transfers of supplies to the station and other items being returned to Earth. The Endeavour crew bade farewell to the Expedition 1 crew at 10:51 a.m. EST and closed the hatches between the spacecraft. After being docked together for 6 days, 23 hours and 13 minutes, Endeavour undocked from the station at 2:13 p.m. EST. Piloted by Michael Bloomfield, it then made an hour-long, tail-

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Flight

STS-97

Commander Pilot

Brent Jett Michael Bloomfield

PC MS MS

Joe Tanner Carlos Noriega Mark Garneau

KSC Launch Date KSC Landing Purpose / Main Payload

30.11.00 11.12.00

Solar Array Delivery to ISS

first circle of the station. The undocking took place 235 statute miles above the border of Kazakhstan and China. The final separation burn took place near the northeast coast of South America.

STS-97 was the 15th flight of Endeavour and the 101st Space Shuttle mission.

Below Taken from Endeavour on December 9, 2000 shortly after undocking. The new solar arrays are visible at the top.

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Above left: Zond 2 Left : Mariner 9 Above : Viking 1 Above : Mariner 4

Right : Viking 2

Below: Mars Observer Right: Mars Pathfinder

Above Soviet probes Mars 3, below from left Mars 2 and two stamps commemorating Mars 1

Left Soviet stamp marking Mars 1, 2 and 3 Right: Phobos probe

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Tartu Observatory: A Pace In The Past “Look, there it is!” Elina Aro, authorized guide of the city, stretches her right arm and points in front of her where behind the trees a yellow building with a big brown tower is hidden. We climb 68 metres up a hill in a park called Toomemagi and suddenly we are confronted with a centuries old edifice, we only know from a stamp: the Old Tartu Observatory.

The red-and-white coloured 5 Eesti stamp was issued by the Estonia Post in 1932.The inscription reads: Tartu Ulikool 1632-1932. By mistake collectors think – and I was with them till now - the Tartu Observatory was 300 years old.

But Ulikool means in Estonian language University, and the tower of the observatory was the main building in the ‘30’s. It then was 120 years old, built in 1808-1810.

It lies in the centre of the city of Tartu, on the site of the former bishop’s castle its architect being J.W. Krause. The builders followed the examples of the observatories of Gotha, Goettingen and Uppsala University. The tower of this neoclassical building was originally topped by a dome. In the western hall there was a meridian circle. In 1825 the tower was rebuilt to house the biggest telescope at that time in the world.

The dome was replaced by a revolving upper part that was surrounded by a 12-facet gallery. In the neighbourhood there is the astronomer’s house, which is connected to the observatory, and on the slope of the hill is a small telescope tower.

Nowadays the building is home to a science centre, which creates fun, hands-on science exhibits for kids. The observatory itself is closed. That is a pity but there has to be a photo taken, to prove I was there.

Opposite the old observatory there is a small yellow-brown pavilion smeared with graffiti, once used for Petzval astrograph.

By Bert van Eijck

initially used as an astrocamera. In 1927 it was detached from the Zeiss refractor and placed in the former pavilion of the zenith telescope.

The most famous director of the Tartu Observatory was astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (17931864), who started his scientific carrier here in 1814.

He was in charge from 1820 till 1839 and installed in 1824 what was then the most powerful telescope on Earth. This was the Fraunhofer refractor. Seven years before Struve started “The Publications of the Tartu Observatory” which appeared up to 1990, and was then the oldest periodical publication in astronomy of the world. Struve also published the general catalogue of binary stars and measured the length of the meridian curve in de Baltic countries. Struve left Tartu to become the first director of the later famous Pulkova Observatory in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In July 2005 UNESCO, the institute of the United Nations, added Struve’s Geodetic Arc, a string of survey triangulations stretching 2820 kilometer from Norway to the Black Sea, to its Cultural World Heritage List.

(see below for more information).

The Old Tartu Observatory has done its duty and was closed at the end of the ‘50’s.

About 20 kilometres from Tartu at the village of Toravere a new observatory was erected and named “Tartu Observatoorium”. It has several domes and came into function officially in 1964. The same year during an international conference held on the occasion of the opening, it was given a new name, that of F.G.W. Struve, the great astronomer who was present a t t h e beginning of the old observatory.

In 1975 the observa tions of the heavens started via the b i g g e s t telescope: the 1,5 meter reflector.

In 1995 the old name came

Petzval astrograph, named after the Austrian inventor, was 29

ORBIT

back, Tartu Observatory. Three years later the new 60cm Zeiss 600 telescope saw its first light.

Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, Ukraine.

About Tartu

Two Wildes

TARTU is the second town of Estonia, about 200 kilometer southeast of the capital Tallinn. It has 102,000 inhabitants of whom 20.000 students. Therefore it is called the intellectual capital. The border of Russia is nearby, as is the main road to St. Petersburg.

There is a remarkable statue near Tartu University and the park Toomemagi: Two Wildes. The hypothetical conversation between the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and the Estonian writer Eduard Wilde (1865-1933) depicted in the sculpture, could have taken place in 1892. The two actually never met. The building behind the two authors used to be a printing shop that was founded by yet another Wilde, Peter Ernst Wilde. Today the building house a cafĂŠ and an Irish pub. The sculpture was unveiled in 1999; in 2004 a copy of the statue was presented to the Irish city of Galway.

Ulikool, or the University was established in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustav Adolf. Tartu was already mentioned in 1030 as a fortress of the grand duke Yaroslav of Kiev.

The town was conquered and destroyed several times : in 1061 by the Estonians, in 1224 by the Germans, in 1798 during the Nordic Wars and in 1775 by a great fire.

In the centre you will find the Raekoja plats (Townhall Square) with the Townhall (Raekoda) from 1798. The University Building is from 1809. There is a lot to tell about Tartu, but the best thing to do is— go and see for yourself. Estonia is a member of the European Community, but it does not have yet the Euro.

Struve Arc The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2820 kilometres. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping.

It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause.

The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, for instance a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns or built obelisks.

The ten participating countries are: Belarus, Estonia,

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Shen Zhou 7 : First Commemorative Issues from Ling Fugen

Above cover (almost A4 size) produced by China National Philatelic Corporation including Chinese stamps and labels carrying the portraits of the latest three taikonauts who flew in space at the end of September.

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Mission commander Zhai Zhigang made history by becoming the first Chinese astronaut to walk in space. Accompanying him on the three day flight were Liu Boming and Jing Jaipeng.

ORBIT

Illustrated cover for SZ7 launch which is datemarked “2008.9” only.

The covers in this series for other events in the flight like the EVA and the landing bore the same postmark.

Above from Scotland on Sunday for 28.9.08 a cartoon making a topical illusion to the myth that the Great Wall of China is the only man made structure which can be seen from space and right an agency photo of Zhai Zhigan’s short space walk

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Haruki points out also that there is a Chinese space stamp collecting organisation with, he believes, the largest membership (of any such society) in the world.

A sample page of their bulletin is reproduced below right. We are happy to set right this sin of omission and to publicise these flourishing sister societies.

ASTEROIDS Some Bits and Pieces

2009 ASSS Air Mail Etiquette Designed by Alec Bartos

Ray Billings

Members will be sad to learn of the death in late September of last year of our long standing member Ray Billings of Abbey Meads, Swindon. Ray had battled against cancer very bravely in his final years—he was well into his 80’s—and wrote lengthy personal letters to your Editor about his adventures and his writing. He was a prolific amateur author and had published books about his war time experiences with the RAF. He also wrote a number of articles for Orbit in the 1990’s.

Chinese and Japan Sister Societies

Our Japan based member Haruki Ikuro has written to point out in response to your Editor’s widely published article “Astrophilately—a Universally Popular Theme” on p17 of the October 08 Orbit that he was unaware of space stamp societies in the Orient. He writes…

“In Japan we have a space stamp collecting society named as “JPS Space Stamp Unit” founded in June 1972, currently with 40 members. This unit issues a bulletin bi-monthly and the contents with colour illustrations are of a very high level : it has also compiled a worldwide space stamp catalogue written in Japanese”. A specimen page from a recent JPS bulletin is reproduced below left…….

The new Apollo XI 40th anniversary ASSS full colour airmail etiquette, reproduced below for GB members is the work of our Romanian member Alec Bartos whom you will recall has already designed a series of space stamps and hand-stamps for his own country: see Orbits for June and October 08.

Alec’s exclusive design for which we are very grateful incorporates one of the very few NASA images showing Armstrong and Aldrin together as they erect the flag taken from the lunar module. If you would like some pages of these etiquettes for your own use please contact Alec directly : alec.bartos@gmail.com

Scare US Item on the Market

Bert van Eijck draws our attention to this very scare US space philatelic item offered for sale in the December 19-21 2008 Beverley Hills Collectibles Sales by the long established Regency Superior firm of auctioneers.

Estimates are between $7500 and $10,000 and we will let you know what it raised in our next edition. The whole lot consists of “Essays of the first US space stamp issued in 1960 for Echo 1…..includes two preliminary sketches in red and blue pencil, a black photo essay for press publicity purposes (showing clouds), a note on an envelope from Mrs Louise Beck Fergus that reads : “Enclose is my original design and a copy of the change that was made (Postmaster) Summerfield and the final red white and blue painted design with clouds removed…..”

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UFO

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The Limits of Space Travel

Part 3: Encounters of the second kind An encounter of the second kind occurred on 2 November 1957 at Levelland (USA) It is especially interesting as it was observed one hour before the launch of the second Sputnik and the phenomenon was observed by fifteen persons. The first two were on night watch. Pedro Saucedo and his colleague Joe Salaz travelling at about 23.00 on a highway in the neighbourhood of Levelland, Texas.

Close enough to observe the phenomenon they heard a thundering noise, felt a strong wind and heat while the lights of their truck went out.

They saw a torpedo-shaped object with high speed going along. The object was at least 60 metres long and had a speed of 1000-1300 km/h. After its passing by the lights of the truck came on again on their own.

They continued their trip and reported the event to the local police. Shortly after, the object was seen by several people, also reporting that their engines stopped suddenly and after passing by started again.

The phenomenon was later investigated by experts such as Dr.Hynek, and suggested to be St.Elmo’s fire, but many witnesses refused to accept this ‘conclusion’.

Also Dr.Hynek admitted that ball lightning could never grow so large and furthermore meteorologists explained that during that night no thunderstorm activity was observed. Hence, the phenomenon never was explained sufficiently.

By John Beenen

tower of the Wright-Patterson base received a second signal and somewhat later the Godman base reported visual contact. It was decided to launch three P-51 airplanes to see what was going on. About half an hour later one pilot, Thomas F.Mantell, reported the sight of an enormous metal machine flying at a speed of 3000 km/h. He chased it to an altitude of 6000 m, : without an oxygen mask he shouldn’t have gone higher than 4500 m. Thereafter his colleagues lost contact and had to return to the base because of fuel shortage.

Shortly after Mantell appeared to have been crashed.

In itself it is strange that an experienced pilot as Mantell should have exceeded the safety precautions in such a way, but it has been accepted that he lost consciousness because of lack of oxygen. From further investigation the concerning object could have been a weather balloon or the planet Venus, but not everyone has supported this conclusion. Therefore some people have seen Mantell as the first victim of a UFO experience.

(302) An im p or ta n t observation took place on 24 April 1964 at Soccoro in New Mexico. Lonnie Zamora, a policeman, was pursuing a car which had made a speed infringement, when he suddenly saw a blue light and heard a roaring noise. Because he was afraid that something was happening at the dynamite depot nearby, he stepped out of his car and saw some distance in front of him a kind of rocket in the shape of a car on his head and two persons in white suits.. On the ‘rocket’ was a strange red sign. After both figures went in again, a short explosion followed and the ‘rocket’ lifted vertically and flew away some 10-15 m above the ground.

(303) A while after a second policeman arrived, M.S.Chavez. Together they investigated the impressions of the rocket and the still smouldering bushes. Also Dr.Hynek investigated the spot. It transpired by chance (!) that the ‘rocket’ had just landed on a spot owned by the local major who was able to use a little more tourism in his area.

(301) But in this category many more cases have been reported but not all with the same positive outcome.

On 7 January 1948 a patrol of the traffic police at Louisville, close to Fort Knox, USA reported the observation of a strange object. Shortly after the traffic

An other incident dates from 1952 when in Norway on Spitzbergen the wreck of a dish-like craft was found, of which the cockpit was partially destroyed.

After investigation the craft showed to contain a plutonium core. A commission of investigation classified it as an accident with an experimental Soviet airplane.

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A couple of years later the chairman of the committee declared that it really had been a craft from extraterrestrial origin as the materials used where unknown to the commission. But a further couple of years later this explanation was not taken seriously anymore.

(303) On 20 May 1967 Steven Michalak, a mechanic from Falcon Lake, Ontario, Canada, saw two reddish objects passing by with great speed. One of them landed in a white glowing halo.

Michalak observed the object for a quarter of an hour and saw that a door opened, from which a bright white light was glowing.

Coming closer to the object he heard human voices. As he was convinced that it was a new experimental American airplane he called for them, but received no answer. He touched the apparatus and noticed immediately burning of his hand and hat. At that moment the machine started up and flew away.

uranium from which an age of not over 100,000 years could be concluded. Also the purity of the alloy puts question marks to its origin.

During digging activities in 1965 in Merivjalja in Estonia at a depth of 6.5 metres a stone-hard object was met composing mainly from iron and titanium.

After thorough investigation the conclusion was drawn that it had to be manufactured by a technical process.

By means of a divining-rod it was established that the diameter of the object was about 15-20 m and it was surrounded by a particularly strong magnetic field.

However, recovery proved to be very difficult because of problems identical with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun: a couple of co-operators died after a short time or became seriously ill, in the surroundings strange phenomena were observed such as the sudden shift of objects, cars included, and strange sounds were heard. Thereafter, further work was suspended.

Close encounters of the third kind

Even worse was the fate of Inacio de Souza in Crixas in Brazil. On 13 August also in 1967 he detected a strange aeroplane on the airstrip near his remote farm. Beside the craft three persons were standing. Because he was afraid that they should attack him, he took his rifle and shot at the closest figure. At the same moment he was hit by a green ray, from which he fell to the ground. The craft left with great speed. After that also he was seized by dizziness, had itching everywhere and suffered from great fatigue.

Doctors found a large burned spot of a diameter of 15 cm at his shoulder and finally diagnosed incurable leukaemia. De Sousa passed away at 11 October caused by an overdose of radio-active radiation.

Encounters of the third and fourth kind are the subject of the most intense scrutiny. We may accept as a fact that our present intelligence is not the best which the creation has to offer. Together with the obvious possibility that elsewhere in the universe higher forms of life exist, it is not completely out of the question that these creatures cross the galaxies and occasionally also encounter our underdeveloped planet. Though, it may be possible that sometimes inexplicable meetings could take place, particularly as all these meetings speak of non-intervention with affairs on Earth and that hardly any traces may remain. In short, we are in the middle of the ‘Fermi Paradox’ as discussed in the first chapter.

But, at present about 2% of all Americans think that they may have had contact with an alien from outside our world, which is most unlikely. If this were to have been the case more traces of those entities and wrecks of their means of transport must have been found. It is striking that especially in the United States the fascination for UFO’s is that great. In the Soviet Union and later in Russia the interest in such phenomena is also extensive. Among other countries which may enjoy themselves in the observation of UFO’s are Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Belgium. But from the third world countries hardly any reports are forthcoming.

Also from the Soviet Union and Estonia some other cases of encounters of the second kind have been reported especially strange objects in the soil. Close to the river Vaksja in the Soviet Republic of Komi in 1976 workers found a silver-like piece of metal as large as a fist. The material was intensively investigated in a laboratory by which it appeared to be composed of rare earth metals such as cerium, lanthanium and neodymium an alloy not existing on Earth in this composition. Further the metal had a high content of

(401) The next story comes from France: On 10 September 1954 at 22.30 the dog belonging to Marius DeWilde at Quarouble close to Valenciennes started to whine. Marius went out to see what happened. There, in a corner of his garden stood two figures not more than a metere high with

Michalak’s clothes were set on fire and he felt a strong pain in his belly. Because of the pain a couple of days after he consulted a doctor who established severe burnings indeed, but of a very special shape. Days after Michalak lost weight, and a strong decrease of white blood corpuscles was observed. He also suffered from diarrhoea, felt sick and was dizzy and fainting, all phenomena of a strong exposure to radioactive radiation.

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broad shoulders and dressed in a sort of diving-suits.

When he came closer he was hit by a kind of dazzling light ray, after which he could not move nor yell. In the distance on the railway behind his house he just could see the opened door of an object which left with a whistling sound and with much steam. After that, sharp imprints were found in the sleepers under the rails which could be made only by a very heavy object.

Moreover, the area was affected by heat.

Also an interesting story is that of Linda Taylor from Southport, Lancashire, on 10 January 1982. She drove with her mother in a car when this suddenly slowed down and finally stopped completely. Above them they saw a bright light. Behind drove an old black car which nearly collided, but did not touch them. After the objects were gone, the car acted as normal. An hour later Ms Taylor found that her legs were full of red and black spots which disappeared after some time.

The UFO also was observed above a gas station close by, but disappeared quickly.

The story is therefore interesting because it tells of an old black car from the 30’s. Especially in the United States many persons, who claim to have seen a UFO, also claim to have been visited by somewhat stiffly moving gentlemen in old-fashioned black dresses, the so-called MIB’s (Men in Black). These men seem to know everything about them and advise them not to report the observation threatening with accidents or other troubles. Invariably these men drive a black Cadillac from the 30-ies.

As all such observations originate in the USA they probably date from a collective anxiety influenced by science-fiction literature and film and conspiracy theories caused by the Cold War. An other interesting story is that of the Kelly Family.

They lived with eleven persons in a very remote farm in Hopkinsville in Kentucky. On 21 August 1955 they claim to have seen a UFO descending in their neighbourhood, but first they thought of a falling star.

When the dog barked, some men decided to go outside to have a look and saw two strange, little phosphorescent men with very long arms dressed in metal coloured suits. As the family was of the kind of shooting first and then thinking, they shot immediately on both entities which fell down, but seem not to have been hurt. They disappeared immediately. The men also went inside and closed everything. Some minutes after the creatures returned looking angry through their windows. The farmers opened a window and started shooting again. They saw a light behind the trees and shot at it, but heard their shots ricocheting on metal.

Because they saw that their shots had no effect, they became afraid and barricaded their house from the inside. They were able to observe the creatures for a further two hours. When it became silent again they left their house carefully and warned the local sheriff.

The next day the local press was also present and for a while they were a tourist attraction. But if I lived in that desolation in the bush I also should have liked some fun.

Some further stories from the Soviet Union. Besides extraterrestrial entities inhabitants of the steppes of Siberia sometimes are being startled by Yeti-like observations as on 18 September 1984 when members of an expedition saw a radiant bright light.

Some days later on the terrain of the camp a pile of stones was found forming the constellation of Cepheus.

And the same night they noticed a human-like figure bending over these stones.

In the neighbourhood of Saratov a farmer’s wife and her son reported also a yeti-like figure and three weeks later the teacher of a kindergarten and a milk maid saw as many as three of these creatures. Far away in the Soviet Union such stories turn up regularly.

Concerning contacts with extraterrestrial creatures many swindlers and jokers have been active. The art painter Budd Hopkins saw that it would pay bread and got a flourishing practice as hypnotherapeutist. His book ‘Missing Time’ from 1981 was a bestseller. Among other stories, he was responsible for the stories of Kathy Davis and Linda Napolitano (see below). Also the Harvard professor, John Mack, contributed much to myth formation with his book from 1984: ‘ Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens’.

I further mention David Jacobs who in 1975 even graduated in the history of the UFO phenomenon, issued as a book entitled: ‘ The UFO Controversy in America’.

Among other conclusions he demonstrated that millions of Americans claimed to be abducted by extraterrestrial creatures and he was the ‘inventor’ of the phrase ‘Missing Time’, the feeling that one thinks there is some entity in your sleeping room or waking up as paralyzed.

He considered this as a ‘proof’ for an extraterrestrial abduction. But his nearly obsessive interest especially in the sexual behaviour of these entities in contact with humans comes close to the morbid.

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But just as his predecessors these ‘experts’, when not swindlers, or at least persons who use the credulity of people for their own profit, can be considered as charlatans.

In his next part John Studies claims of Abduction !!

ASTEROIDS Some Bits and Pieces

A Personal Story of the Space Age 1948-1989 New Book from Tim Furniss

New Member seeks to Purchase Mercury Items

The inspiring story of a 12-year old British space enthusiast, whose interest in space was fired by Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961 and whose ambition was to become a spaceflight journalist.

See above for contact details

Tim purchased his first copy of Flight International in 1962, when the magazine featured a Space Special issue and he continued to read it every week. His ambition was to meet astronauts, visit spaceports, to see launches and to get a job in space. He witnessed Apollo, Shuttle and other launches from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre and also met and interviewed many astronauts and cosmonauts.

Tim became Flight International’s spaceflight correspondent in 1984 after being one of the first journalists to visit the Soviet Union’s Star City training centre. In1988, Tim was the first British journalist to witness a manned launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the remote steppes of Kazakhstan. When he stood on the launch pad from where Gagarin was launched - while also meeting with veteran cosmonauts Gherman Titov and Alexei Leonov -Tim had come full circle, remembering that day in 1961 with gratitude to God. Tim is also an author, broadcaster, lecturer and theatrical presenter of his personal space story. One Small Steppe is a personal, inspiring, amusing, moving and feel-good read, accompanied by a popular history of the international space age to 1989, including Tim’s reporting and travelling for Flight International.

A second book, The Rural Spaceman is in preparation, covering 1990-99 and again, will include personal stories and a continued popular history of the international space age.

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New Issue depicts History of Telecommunications

As spotted by Bert van Eijck (issued on 1.8.08) at least one of these (bottom left “The Satellite” as yet unidentified) might be of interest to you.

ORBIT

How The Romans were Responsible for An Important Aspect of Shuttle Design !!!???

The following text came into your Editor’s email box from a friend of a friend - you’ll know the kind of stuff that circulates on the web—and is reproduced unexpurgated below as a curio with no claim for its veracity. Any comments ?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did they use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/ procedure/process and wonder, 'What horse's arse came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' arses.)

Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

Great Britain 1984 showing Bath Mail coach of 1784

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5

Signed STS-2 launch cover referring to the shuttle as a workhorse !

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's arse. And you thought being a horse's arse wasn't important? Ancient horse's arses control almost everything ... and current horse’s arses are controlling everything else!

A long set from Italy 1937 shows various aspects and personalities of the Roman Empire

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Exploration of the Moon — from Imagination to Reality

De la Terre à La Lune (1865) A Trip to the Moon (1902)

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