[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 633
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at www.planet4589.org
Wed Oct 20 01:50:05 EDT 2010
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 633 2010 Oct 19 Somerville, MA
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LVDB
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A new edition of my suborbital and orbital launch database is now online at
http://www.planet4589.org/space/lvdb/index.html
It contains 66136 launches.
Shuttle and Station
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Soyuz TMA-01M, Soyuz TMA-19, Progress M-05M, and Progress M-07M
are docked to the ISS. Discovery is on pad 39A preparing for the STS-133
mission. Soyuz TMA-01M was launched on Oct 7 carrying
Aleksandr Kaleri, Oleg Skripochka and Scott Kelly and docked with
the Poisk module at 0001 UTC on Oct 10.
The Expedition 24 crew Skvortsov, Kornienko and Caldwell-Dyson
transferred to Soyuz TMA-18 on Sep 24 and prepared to undock from the
Poisk module, but the latches failed to work correctly and the landing
was cancelled; the crew returned to the Station while troubleshooting
continued. Undocking the next day was successful at 0203 UTC Sep 25; the
deorbit burn at 0431 UTC put TMA-18 on a trajectory to intersect the
Earth's atmosphere. The spaceship landed in Kazakhstan at 0523 UTC.
Expedition 25 officially began on 2010 Sep 25 at 0203 UTC. The current
station crew are commander Doug Wheelock, FE-6 Shannon Walker, FE-5
Fyodor Yurchikin, FE-1 Aleksandr Kaleri, FE-2 Oleg Skripochka and FE-3
Scott Kelly.
USA 215
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Ted Molczan reported on SeeSat on Sep 22 that Bob Christy and Brad Young
have observed the USA 215 satellite, launched the previous day, in a
1057 x 1072 km x 123.0 deg orbit. By Oct 17 the satellite was in an 1102
x 1105 km x 123.0 deg orbit. The AV-025 Centaur stage has not been
cataloged and probably was deorbited shortly after deploying USA 215.
This retrograde orbit is unusual - some previous radar satellites have been
launched into 57 degree orbits, and this is the equivalent but going westward
instead of eastward. That costs extra fuel since you are fighting the Earth's
rotation instead of gaining from it. The altitude is also rather higher
than earlier surveillance satellites.
Chang'e-2
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China's second lunar probe was launched on Oct 1. On Oct 6 at around 0314 UTC it
entered a 119 x 8599 km lunar orbit (info from nasaspaceflight.com). By
Oct 9 it was in a 100 x 100 km orbit around the Moon.
Shi Jian 6 Group 4
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The fourth pair of SJ-6 satellites was launched on Oct 6 into a 588 x
604 km x 97.8 deg orbit. Shijian liuhao 4 zu A xing is a small satellite
built by CAST/Beijing. Its companion, Shijian liuhao 4 zu B xing, is a
larger satellite (perhaps 1000 kg) built by the Shanghai academy. The
satellites may have some kind of military surveillance role.
As noted by to Igor Lissov on nasaspaceflight.com, the B xing spent
form Oct 10 to 14 in a lower 566 x 604 km orbit to adjust its orbital
position relative to A, and then moved up again to match orbits with A.
Yaogan Weixing 11
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Yaogan Weixing shi yihao (YW-11) was launched from the Jiuquan space center
on Sep 22 into a 625 x 656 km x 98.0 deg sun-synchronous orbit.
Two 3.5 kg subsatellites build by Zhejiang University were also deployed.
The Xinhua news agency refers to them as two "Pixing 1A" satellites.
According to china.org.cn, the Zheda Pixing 1A (or ZDPS-1A) satellites
carry cameras for Earth imaging.
SBSS
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The first Space-Based Surveillance Satellite, SBSS, was launched on Sep
26 from Vandenberg into a 631 x 633 km x 97.8 deg orbit. This was also
the first four-stage Minotaur IV launch (a three stage Minotaur IV Lite
put HTV-2a on a suborbital flight path on Apr 22). SBSS will track
satellites and space debris, supplementing the ground-based tracking
network. It was developed following the success of the experimental SBV
sensor on the MSX satellite in the 1990s. The satellite was built by
Ball Aerospace, with overall mission development by Boeing/Huntington
Beach.
Kosmos-2469
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On Sep 30, Russia launched a new Oko early warning satellite into
elliptical orbit on a Molniya-M rocket. After an orbit raising
burn on Oct 11 the payload is in a 576 x 39616 km x 62.8 deg orbit.
Sirius XM-5
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International Launch Services put another digital radio satellite
in orbit for Sirius XM on Oct 14 aboard a Proton-M/Briz-M.
There are now four satellites in orbit from the original Sirius
system (Sirius 1-3 in inclined orbit and Sirius 5 in geostationary)
and five in the XM system (former XM Radio 1 to 4, now presumably to be
known as Sirius XM 1 to 4).
Globalstar-2
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The first six Globalstar-2 satellites were launched on Oct 19 by a
Russian Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat vehicle from Baykonur into a 912 x 924 km x
52.0 deg orbit. The Globalstar system provides mobile communications
from a low orbit constellation. 72 first-generation Globalstar
satellites, built by Loral, were launched between 1998 and 2007, and 44
of those are currently in the operational Globalstar orbit of 1411 x
1415 km x 52.0 deg. 48 of the new satellites are being built by
Thales/Roma.
Erratum
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The Jun 24 RockOn flight, NASA 41.088UO, was launched either at 1117 UTC
or 1217 UTC, not 1000 UTC as stated in an earlier JSR. (The NASA Blue Book
reports 1117 UTC, but the Wallops twitter feed seems to indicate 0817EDT=1217UTC.)
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 2 0053 Kosmos-2464 ) Proton-M/DM-2 Baykonur LC81/24 Navigation 41A
Kosmos-2465 ) Navigation 41B
Kosmos-2466 ) Navigation 41C
Sep 4 1614 Zhongxing 6A Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 42A
Sep 8 0330 Kosmos-2467 ) Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Comms 43A
Gonets-M ) Comms 43B
Kosmos-2468 ) Comms 43C
Sep 10 1022 Progress M-07M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Cargo 44A
Sep 11 1117 Michibiki H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Nav/Comm 45A
Sep 21 0403 USA 215 Atlas V 501 Vandenberg SLC3E Radar? 46A
Sep 22 0242 Yaogan Weixing 11) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging? 47A
Zheda Pixing 1A-1?) Tech 47B?
Zheda Pixing 1A-2?) Tech 47C?
Sep 26 0441 SBSS Minotaur IV Vandenberg SLC8 Tracking 48A
Sep 30 1701 Kosmos-2469 Molniya-M Plesetsk Early Warn 49A
Oct 1 1100 Chang'e 2 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Lunar probe 50A
Oct 6 0049 SJ-6/4A ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan ? 51A
SJ-6/4B ) ? 51B
Oct 7 2310 Soyuz TMA-01M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 52A
Oct 14 1853 Sirius XM-5 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Radio 53A
Oct 19 1710 Globalstar-2 FM2? ) Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms 54A
Globalstar-2 FM3? ) Comms 54B
Globalstar-2 FM4? ) Comms 54C
Globalstar-2 FM5? ) Comms 54D
Globalstar-2 FM6? ) Comms 54E
Globalstar-2 FM7? ) Comms 54F
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Sep 1 RV Scud? Point Mugu? Target 100?
Sep 17 1003 GT202GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Op test 1300?
Sep 21 1307 NASA 41.082NP Terrier Orion Wallops I. Tech 130?
Oct 7 0310 RV x 3? Bulava TK-208, White Sea R&D 1000?
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm at www.planet4589.org |
| USA | jcm at cfa.harvard.edu |
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