On August 28, 1999, the Mir space station was abandoned for the second time since it was launched on February 19, 1986. The first time the station was left uncrewed was in September 1989. By far the world's longest-serving space station, Mir orbited the Earth for over 13 years and hosted 135 people.

The Mir crew, Commander Viktor Afanasyev, Sergei Avdeyev and French astronaut Jean-Paul Haignere safely returned to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

"With grief in our soul we're abandoning a piece of Russia, abandoning something we constructed in space, and it's unclear what we'll build next," Afanasyev said just before leaving Mir.

Russian space officials are seeking private investors to fund a new crewed flight. If they are not able to raise funds for another mission, a so-called "funeral team" will visit Mir for about a month to gradually reduce its orbit and completely shut the station down. It would later be deorbited to burn in the Earth's atmosphere and fall into the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: 23 September 1999 - by Gregory A. Smith

Launch Date - Flight - Vehicle

FEBRUARY ? 2000 - 1R - Russian

22 JAN 2000 - 2A.2 - US STS-101

FEB 2000 - 3A - US STS-92

MAR 2000 - 2R - Russian Soyuz
(Expedition 1 Crew)

MAR 2000 - 4A - US STS-97
APR 2000 - 5A - US STS-98
(Destiny Laboratory Module)

The Zvezda Service Module completed a critical leak test this past week. The test was conducted in a vacuum chamber at Baikonur Cosmodrome. The module will now undergo 30 days of final electrical testing. In addition to scheduling problems with the US Shuttle fleet, there are unofficial reports of issues with American software to be used in the module. An agreement was made last week to move the launch of the module from November 12 to the period between December 26 and January 16. The change in launch dates will also allow time to complete testing on the module. The final decision on a launch date for Zvezda will be made during a chief designer review meeting in late October. -- Excerpt from FRONTIER STATUS 10/08/99 - by Dale M. Gray - with permission

According to a Space.Com news article, a spokesman for one of the Russian companies working on the space station stated that ongoing problems with the Space Shuttle Fleet will delay the launch of the Zvezda module to February 2000. -- Space.Com News: Space Station - 13 October 1999

Zvezda will be launched atop a Proton rocket to serve as the early living quarters for the first permanent residents of the ISS and will take over control and propulsion capability for the expanding station from the Zarya module, which was launched last November. About nine days after its launch, the ISS will link up with Zvezda using Zarya's jet thrusters during a series of rendezvous maneuvers.

Updated: 13 October 1999 by Gregory A. Smith

NASA's chief Daniel Goldin, speaking at the Space Frontier Foundation Conference September 24, announced a new plan for NASA to turn operation of the Space Station over to private enterprise -- perhaps within the next decade.

After a period of five to ten years of operation, NASA would be willing to hand its portion of the station over to private industry. The move would free NASA to concentrate on exploring the solar system. NASA would retain a major presence on the station, but as a tenant. Under NASA's current plan, NASA retains control of the station while leasing up to 30 percent or more of the station to commercial ventures. - Excerpt from FRONTIER STATUS 09/24/99 - by Dale M. Gray
with permission
Frontier Status reports are weekly updates chronicling progress of the emerging space frontier. Frontier Status archives are hosted at www.cortesi.com/frontier

The International Space Station on-orbit assembly began with the successful completion of Space Shuttle Endeavour's mission to connect the first two elements of the station. Mission STS-88, also known as Assembly Flight 2A, completed its mission to connect the U.S. built "Unity" module to the Russian built "Zarya" (Sunrise) Control Module in December, 1998.

Zarya was successfully launched by the Russians on November 20, 1998, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, not far from where Yuri Gagarin became the first human to be launched into space over 37 years ago.

- by Gregory A. Smith

03 Mar 2000 - Mars Mapping Begins
15 Jan 2002 - Mars Relay Mission
01 Dec 2004 - End of Mission

Source: NASA HQ RELEASE: 99-117

The Mars Climate Orbiter was essentially a Mars weather satellite. Its main mission was to analyze the atmospheric composition and weather. The atmospheric sounding and imaging phase was scheduled to last for one Mars year (687 Earth days).

The spacecraft was also to act as a data link to relay information from its companion spacecraft (the Mars Polar Lander) back to Earth. JPL reports, however, that most if not all of the science from the Mars Polar Lander will be acquired by direct links to Earth and through the currently orbiting and operational Mars Global Surveyor.

In its role as a data relay the Mars Climate Orbiter was to have been operational for at least 5 years in order to support the '01 Mars mission, which is to arrive at Mars in January 2002, and other future missions.

Updated: 8 October 1999 - by Chris Peterson

Reviews of the Mars Polar Lander software indicate that it does not have the mixed measurement systems problem that affected the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO). However, programmers are scrambling to rewrite code that would have used the MCO as a communications satellite to transfer MPL data to Earth. Instead, the Lander will send its scientific finding to Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)which is currently mapping Mars. While no information will be lost, the data stream will be slower. However, MGS is cannot be configured to relay commands back to the Lander and will not be available as an up-link until several days after the December 3 landing. The Lander is capable of transmitting directly to Earth on its 2 foot antenna dish, but direct transmission takes 15 times more power than transmission to satellites. The Lander will now receive its instructions directly from Earth through this same dish. Without the MCO or MGS transmission links, the Lander science teams will have to scale down experimentation. - Excerpt from FRONTIER STATUS 10/08/99 - by Dale M. Gray
with permission
Frontier Status reports are weekly updates chronicling progress of the emerging space frontier. Frontier Status archives are hosted at www.cortesi.com/frontier

The Mars Polar Lander was successfully launched on a Delta II launch vehicle from Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida on January 3, 1999.

Mars Polar Lander's interplanetary cruise to Mars will take 11 months. In December, 1999, the lander will enter the Martian atmosphere directly from the hyperbolic transfer orbit at 7 km/s. The Mars Polar Lander must decellerate from 7 km/sec to 2.4 meters/sec for a safe Martian touchdown. This will be accomplished by aerobraking with an ablative heatshield, a parachute deployment and a final rocket propulsion firing for a soft landing.

The target landing zone is close to Mars' south pole at 73 to 76 degrees south latitude. This high latitude region has "layered terrain" which should have water ice near the surface and might show evidence of past climatic variations.

The science payload on the Mars Polar Lander includes:

Deep Space 2 New Millennium Microprobes (see Deep Space 2)
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)
Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor (MVACS)
Stereo Surface Imager (SSI)
Robotic Arm & Camera
Meteorological Package (MET)
Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA)
Mars Microphone

The lander's primary mission is 90 days.

Updated: 27 September 1999 - by Gregory A. Smith

Piggybacked on the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft are two "Deep Space 2" (DS2) microprobes.

About the size of basketballs, the microprobes will separate from the Mars Polar Lander after 11 months in transit to Mars. The DS2 probes are designed for a "passive" atmospheric entry using only their heat shields. There are no parachutes or rockets to slow the probes prior to impacting the surface of Mars. The spacecraft are designed to survive an 80,000 G impact, penetrate the surface up to 3 feet, and gather subsurface data.

The DS2 probe mission's scientific objectives are to: 1) test for the presence of water ice below the surface and, if ice exists, attempt to resolve the mineral phases in which the ice is stored; 2) determine the thermal and physical properties and temperature gradient of the subsurface material; 3) measure the atmospheric pressure and temperature. The Deep Space 2 probes are designed to operate and transmit data until the batteries are depleted, which is expected to occur 1 to 3 days after impact.

Scientist hope these probes will help discover clues to Mars' past climate, including the apparent mystery of the "disappeared" surface water. Does the water that may have caused the erosional features we can see today now exist as permafrost? If so, what implications would that have for possible life forms? Information on soil temperature, ices, air pressure, and solar measurements will be relayed to earth via the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since September 1997.

The target area is located within the northern boundary of the martian polar layered terrain, near 76 degrees south latitude, 195 degrees west longitude. The landing area for both probes should be about 50 to 100 km from the Mars Polar Lander touchdown site. This area is considered to be an important reservoir of water, carbon dioxide and other volatiles on Mars.

Updated: 27 September 1999 - by Gregory A. Smith

"The STARDUST spacecraft continues to operate normally in cruise sequence SC009, cruising in the main asteroid belt about 2 AU from both the Earth and Sun."

- STARDUST Status Report - September 24, 1999

The primary goal of the Stardust mission is to collect dust and volatile samples of comet Wild 2, and samples of interstellar dust grains, and return the samples to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft will also send back images of the comet, counts of comet particles striking the spacecraft and conduct real-time analysis of the compositions of the particles and volatiles.

Stardust will use a unique substance called aerogel to capture and preserve the cometary and interstellar materials for return to Earth.

Stardust will be the first space mission ever to return extraterrestrial material from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Stardust is also the first U.S. mission dedicated solely to cometary research.

Updated: 27 September 1999 - by Gregory A. Smith