New Space provides an informative venue for discussion of current trends and new ideas in the space industry. The aim is to promote communication among those who are creating innovative, low cost space missions, and to make these missions more visible and interesting to the space industry and the general public. You can find New Space on the web at http://www.newspace.com/ When you visit, be sure to look for the following recently added content:

• The Orbital Report On-Line (OReOL) - http://www.newspace.com/oreol Accurate worldwide reports on the most recent announcements, achievements and agreements within the space industry... This e-mail newsletter is published several times per month... subscriptions are free of charge.
• Community Air & Space Report - http://www.newspace.com/casr Keith Stein's report is not new, but you'll want to check out his excellent coverage of recent amateur rocket launches.
• "Minimum Cost Design" - http://www.newspace.com/schnitt This interactive web column by Arthur Schnitt focuses on the MCD criteria and its application to space launch vehicles.
• "Reality Check" - http://www.newspace.com/fleeter Another web column, this one by Rick Fleeter, takes a critical look at current space industry issues and concepts from the perspective of a seasoned veteran.
• Newsletter vol# 10.2 - http://www.newspace.com/nsnews The latest issue of our newsletter features "The Great Satellite Salvage", an article about activities in academia and industry to make space programs happen on the cheap by re-using old hardware. Also in this issue: a more technical article about part selection for small satellites, plus book reviews, fiction, opinion, and a cartoon.

[Ed. Note: Go to http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html for back issues and other information about Jonathan's Space Report.]

Shuttle and Mir

STS-84: Atlantis undocked from the Mir station at 0104 UTC on May 22. The Orbiter fired its engines to drop out of orbit at 1233 UTC on May 24, and landed at the Kennedy Space Center's runway 33 at 1327 UTC. Jerry Linenger returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, leaving Mike Foale as the NASA resident on Mir. The next Shuttle flight is STS-94, due for launch in July as a reflight of STS-83.

Recent Launches

A Russian military satellite was destroyed on May 20 shortly after launch from Baykonur. The Ukrainian built Zenit-2 launch vehicle failed 48 seconds after launch when its engines shut down at an altitude of 15 km and it impacted 28 km from the launch site. The satellite was probably a Tselina-2 signals intelligence satellite, and would have been named Kosmos-2344 after reaching orbit.

The Thor 2 comsat was launched on May 21. Thor 2 is a Hughes HS-376 class comsat for Telenor of Norway and will provide television services in Scandinavia. It will supplement the Thor 1 satellite, which bought in 1992 from British Satellite Broadcasting and was originally known as Marcopolo 2. Launch was by a Delta 7925, the second successful Delta mission since the January failure.

International Launch Services carried out the launch of Loral Skynet's Telstar 5 satellite from Baykonur on May 24. The Krunichev Proton-K rocket placed Telstar 5 and the Energiya Blok-DM-4 upper stage in parking orbit. Telstar 5 is a Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 class comsat. Loral Skynet is the successor to AT&T's Skynet satellite system.

Table of Recent Launches

Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.
                                                                          DES.

Apr  4 1647   DMSP 5D-2 S-14   Titan 23G      Vandenberg SLC4W Weather    12A
Apr  4 1920   Columbia/STS-83) Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A   Spaceship   13A
              MSL-1 Spacelab )
Apr  6 1604   Progress M-34    Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC1    Cargo       14A
Apr  9 0858   Kosmos-2340      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC16/2 EarlyWarn   15A
Apr 16 2309   Thaicom 3  )     Ariane 44LP    Kourou ELA2     Comsat      16A
              BSAT 1a    )                                                16B
Apr 17 1303   Kosmos-2341      Kosmos-3M      Plesetsk LC132/1 Navsat     17A
Apr 21 1159   Minisat-01 )     Pegasus XL     L-1011, Gando   Technology  18A
              Celestis   )                                    Burial      18B
Apr 25 0549   GOES 10          Atlas I        Canaveral LC36B Weather     19A
May  5 1455   Iridium SV004 )  Delta 7920     Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat     20E
              Iridium SV005 )                                  Comsat     20D
              Iridium SV006 )                                  Comsat     20C
              Iridium SV007 )                                  Comsat     20B
              Iridium SV008 )                                  Comsat     20A
May 11 1617   DFH-3            CZ-3A          Xichang LC2      Comsat     21A
May 14 0033   Kosmos-2342      Molniya-M      Plesetsk LC43/4  EarlyWarn  22A
May 15 0808   Atlantis STS-84  Shuttle        Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  23A
May 15 1210   Kosmos-2343      Soyuz-U        Baykonur LC31   Recon       24A
May 20 0707   -                Zenit-2        Baykonur LC45    Sigint     FTO
May 21 2239   Thor 2           Delta 7925     Canaveral LC17A Comsat      25A
May 24 1700   Telstar 5        Proton/DM-4    Baykonur        Comsat      26A

Current Shuttle Processing Status

Orbiters               Location   Mission    Launch Due
                                           
OV-102 Columbia        OPF Bay 1     STS-94  Jul  1
OV-103 Discovery       OPF Bay 2     STS-85  Aug  7
OV-104 Atlantis        OPF Bay 3     STS-84  
OV-105 Endeavour       VAB     

                                          
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks                       
                  
MLP1/RSRM-62/ET                VAB Bay 1      STS-94
MLP2/
MLP3/