[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 658
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.org
Mon May 7 01:40:13 EDT 2012
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 658 2012 May 7 Somerville, MA USA
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Space Station
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Soyuz TMA-22 undocked from the Poisk module at 0818 UTC on Apr 27,
with Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov and flight engineers
Anatoliy Ivanishin and Dan Burbank. The spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan
at 1145 UTC.
The undocking of Soyuz TMA-22 marked the start of ISS Expedition 31. The
current Ex 31 crew are commander Oleg Kononenko, flight engineer 4 Andre
Kuipers, and flight engineer 5 Don Pettit.
ATV 3 is docked at Zvezda. The Progress M-15M cargo ship was launched on
Apr 20 on ISS mission 47P into a 187 x 230 km orbit, soon adjusted to
245 x 305 km x 51.6 deg. Progress M-15M is spacecraft tail number 415.
It docked with the Pirs module at 1439 UTC on Apr 22,
Progress M-14M completed its free flight for the Radar-Progress experiment
and was deorbited over the Pacific on Apr 28.
YahSat
------
The second Astrium Eurostar E3000 satellite for Al Yah Satellite
Communications of Abu Dhabi was launched on Apr 23, aboard a Proton-M
from Baykonur. The satellite has a launch mass of around 6050 kg
including propellant. On Apr 25 the satellite was in a 3905 x 35740 km x 23.7
deg transfer orbit; by May 3 the satellite was in a 35785 x 35804 km x 0.0 deg
geosynchronous orbit drifting past 47 deg E.
RISAT
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India's Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1) was launched from the Satish Dhawan
Space Center on Sriharikota Island on Apr 26. The 1858 kg RISAT-1 carries
a C-band synthetic aperture radar payload mounted on an IRS-derived bus.
RISAT-2, launched in 2009, was a smaller Israeli-built radar payload.
The PSLV-XL rocket's first stage flew eastward to a roughly -5940 x 82
km x 46.6 deg suborbital path, avoiding overflight of Sri Lanka; the
second stage then flew southward toward polar orbit, with the third
stage reaching perhaps -1940? x 333? km x 96.1 deg and impacting the
southern Indian Ocea at 35.5S 74.5E. The fourth stage entered orbit and
deployed RISAT-1 to a 465 x 480 km x 97.6 deg initial orbit. RISAT-1's
onboard engines raised this orbit to 530 x 549 km x 97.6 deg by Apr 28,
putting the satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit with 05:51 local time
descending node.
Beidou
------
A Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B was launched from Xichang with a new large fairing
and dual satellite adapter, carrying two Beidou-2 satellites called
'shier ke Beidou er hao weixing' and 'shisan ke Beidou er hao weixing'
(Beidou-2 satellite 12 and 13) by CALT; they are also known as COMPASS MEO 3
and MEO 4.
The two satellites were inserted in 200 x 21550 km x 55.0 deg orbits and
will separately use their own apogee engines to make their orbits
circular. Four objects with identifiers 2012-018A,B,C,D have been
cataloged - the two Beidou, the CZ-3B third stage, and the
intersatellite adapter. On May 6, A and B were still in the transfer
orbit and no new elements for C and D are available since May 1. It's
possible that C and D were really the payloads and have been temporarily
lost after their move to the expected circular orbit.
AEHF 2
------
Atlas V flight AV-031 was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 4 into a
185 x 901 km x 27.5 deg parking orbit and then a 225 x 50031 km x 20.6 deg
transfer orbit. It deployed the 6200 kg AEHF SV-2 satellite. The US Air Force Advanced
EHF communications satellite provides strategic military communications at EHF
frequencies and is based on the Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale A2100 spacecraft bus
with a Japanese IHI BT-4 apogee thruster and an electric propulsion system.
The first AEHF had a failure in its main propulsion system but was able
to eventually reach orbit with its electric ion thrusters.
The AV-031 Centaur stage vented its remaining propellant; an initial set
of orbital data implying deorbit seems to have been incorrect. Orbit on
May 5 is reported to be 88 x 50406 km x 20.4 deg, with first perigee pass
around 1040 UTC on May 5.
Tianhui 1-02
-------------
On May 6 the satellite 'Tianhui yihao 02 xing' (Mapping-1 Sat 02)
was launched from Jiuquan space center by a Chang Zheng 2D launch
vehicle into a 490 x 506 km x 97.4 deg sun-synchronous orbit
with a 13:30 local time descending node. Its elder sibling TH 1-01
in an orbit with approximately the same local time.
The CZ-2D second stage was not cataloged and probably was deorbited
on the first Earth revolution.
TH 1-02, called Tianhui-1B by Western sources, carries
visibile-band mapping cameras with 5m resolution.
Deep Space
-----------
The Cassini spacecraft flew past Enceladus at 74 km on both Apr 13 and May 2.
On May 1, the Dawn spacecraft began to raise its 210 km low altitude orbit
around Vesta to begin its second high altitude mapping phase at around 680
km above the surface.
Suborbital Flights
------------------
The Minuteman missile launched on Feb 25 was mission GT203GM, not
GT206GM as I reported in JSR655, and carried a single Mk 21 reentry
vehicle from Vandenberg to Kwajalein.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 23 0434 Edoardo Amaldi Ariane 5ES-ATV Kourou ELA3 Cargo 10A
Mar 25 1210 Intelsat IS-22 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 11A
Mar 30 0549 Kosmos-2479 Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC81/24 EarlyWarn 12A
Mar 31 1027 Apstar 7 Chang Zheng 3B/E Xichang LC2 Comms 13A
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
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Mar 19 1405 REXUS 12 Imp. Orion ESRANGE Micrograv 82
Mar 22 0900 NASA 36.277UG Black Brant IX White Sands IR Astron 320?
Mar 27 0858 NASA 45.004UE Terrier Oriole Wallops Atm. Sci 375?
Mar 27 0859 NASA 46.002UE Terrier Malemute Wallops Atm. Sci 200?
Mar 27 0900 NASA 41.097UE Terrier Orion Wallops Atm. Sci 157?
Mar 27 0902 NASA 46.003UE Terrier Malemute Wallops Atm. Sci 254?
Mar 27 0903 NASA 41.098UE Terrier Orion Wallops Atm. Sci 169?
Mar 29 Target Unknown White Sands? Target 80?
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?
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | jcm at cfa.harvard.edu |
| |
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