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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 659 draft 2012 May 16 Somerville, MA USA
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Space Station
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The undocking of Soyuz TMA-22 marked the start of ISS Expedition 31. The
current Ex 31 crew are commander Oleg Kononenko, flight engineer 5 Andre
Kuipers, and flight engineer 6 Don Pettit (Note that the flight engineer
numbers I gave in JSR 658 were incorrect).

At 0301 UTC on May 15 Soyuz TMA-04M (spacecraft 11F732A47 No. 705) was
launched from Baykonur on a Soyuz-FG rocket carrying Gennadiy Padalka,
Sergey Revin and Joe Acaba. It docked with the ISS' Poisk module on May
17 at 0436 UTC.

At 0744:38 UTC on May 22 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 vehicle from Cape Canaveral
carrying the Dragon COTS 2 DEMO mission. The Dragon C2 spacecraft was placed
in a 297 x 346 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Dragon consists of a pressurised
cabin with cargo and an unpressurized trunk section with solar panels,
which deployed just after orbit insertion. Dragon C2 is scheduled to rendezvous with the ISS.

SpaceX are being secretive about the properties of the Dragon vehicle -
they have not released the mass of the spacecraft. The claimed capacity
of Falcon 9 to LEO is around 10 metric tons, but my guess is that
Dragon C2 is more like 5 to 7 metric tons at stage 2 separation (comments
and information solicited).

A Celestis space burial capsule (with cremated human remains) is attached
to the Falcon 9 second stage.

CZ-4B launch
------------

China launched a three-stage Chang Zheng 4B rocket on May 10, orbiting
the Yaogan 14 military remote sensing satellite to a 473 x 479 km x 97.2
deg, 2:14pm sun-sunchronous orbit. It also deployed the Tiantuo 1
technology satellite for the National University of Defense Technology.
Tiantuo ('Space Pioneer') carries an imager, an atomic oxygen sensor,
and an AIS (maritime tracking) receiver. Tiantuo 1 is in a 468 x 471 km
x 97.2 deg orbit.

Ariane 5
--------

Arianespace launched an Ariane 5ECA on May 15, placing in orbit
two Lockheed Martin A2100 class satellites: JCSAT 13 for Sky Perfect JSAT,
and Vinasat 2 for VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecom). I believe that
JCSAT 13 has a Leros 1C apogee engine, while Vinasat 2 has the Japanese IHI BT-4
(can anyone confirm or refute this?).

Kosmos-2480
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A new Kobal't-M imaging spy satellite was launched on May 17 from Plesetsk
into a 186 x 255 km x 81.4 deg orbit - the second Kobal't-M to this near
polar inclination. The satellite was given the cover name Kosmos-2480.

Shizuku
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Japan's JAXA space agency launched H-IIA flight F21 from Tanegashima on
May 17 into a 1:30am local time sun-synchronous orbit at 670 x 674 km x
98.2 deg. The main payloads are Shizuku, JAXA's first satellite in the
Global Change Observation Mission series, and Arirang-3 (Kompsat-3), a
South Korean imaging satellite. JAXA's 50 kg SDS-4 Small Demonstration
Satellite (kogata jissho eisei 4-gata) carries four technology
experiments including a space-based AIS (ship tracking) payload. A small
7 kg satellite built by the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Horyu-2,
will study spacecraft charging effects and test a camera payload for
Surrey Satellite. (My Japanese colleague K. Sato informs me that Horyu
is an imaginary 'Phoenix-Dragon' - Ho + Ryu - which serves as KIT's
emblem). The second stage will be monitored after payload deployment to
study improved propellant insulation.

Shizuku (`dewdrop', GCOM-W1) is a 1991 kg satellite carrying a microwave
scanning radiometer, AMSR-2.

In addition to the four payloads and the second stage, the upper payload
adapter and two side panels from the lower fairing were cataloged in orbit,
for a total of 8 objects.

Nimiq-6
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A Krunichev Proton-M was launched from Baykonur on May 17. The Briz-M No. 99530
upper stage carries the Canadian Nimiq-6 television broadcast satellite,
a Loral 1300-series vehicle with 24 Ku-band transponders.

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 3 2312 NROL-25 Delta 4M+(5,2) Vandenberg SLC6 Radar 14A
Apr 12 2239 Kwangmyongsong-3 Unha-3 Sohae Tech F01
Apr 20 1250 Progress M-15M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31/6 Cargo 15A
Apr 23 2218 Yahsat-1B Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 16A
Apr 26 0017 RISAT-1 PSLV-XL Sriharikota Radar 17A
Apr 29 2050 Beidou DW 12 ) Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Nav 18A
Beidou DW 13 ) Nav 18B
May 4 1842 AEHF 2 Atlas V 531 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 19A
May 6 0710 Tianhui 1-02 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan SLS2 Imaging 20A
May 10 0706 Yaogan Weixing 14) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 21A
Tiantuo 1 ) Tech/Sci 21B
May 15 0301 Soyuz TMA-04M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 22A
May 15 2213 JCSAT 13 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 23A?
Vinasat 2 ) Comms 23B?
May 17 1405 Kosmos-2480 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Imaging 24A
May 17 1639 Shizuku ) H-2A Tanegashima Y1 Climate 25A
Arirang-3 ) Imaging 25
SDS-4 ) Tech 25
Horyu-2 ) Tech 25
May 17 1912 Nimiq 6 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 26A
May 22 0744 Dragon C2 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Cargo 27A
Celestis 11) Burial 27B

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km

Apr 5 1418 SL-6 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 117
Apr 19 0237 Agni RV Agni V Chandipur R&D 800
Apr 25 Shaheen RV Shaheen 1A Somniani? R&D 100?
May 10 0618 FTM-16/2A Target Terrier Orion Kauai Target 100?
May 10 0620? FTM-16/2A KV SM-3 Block IB USS Lake Erie Intercept 100?