[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 691
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.org
Sun Dec 15 14:27:04 EST 2013
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 691 2013 Dec 15, Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chang'e-3
---------
Chang'e-3 was in lunar polar orbit from Dec 6 to Dec 14. On Dec 10 at
1320 UTC the orbit was lowered from 100 x 100 to 15 x 100 km. At 1259:52
UTC Dec 14, near perilune, the descent engine was turned on to
decelerate the probe and fly it down to the surface. Chang'e-3 touched
down at 1311:18 UTC Dec 14, at 19.51W 44.12N, about 43 km south of
crater Laplace F in the Mare Imbrium. This was the first lunar soft
landing since the USSR's Luna-24 in 1976.
Note: The original planned landing site was in Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) but
the Chinese decided to land one orbit early, with the probe flying a little
further east over Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains). Unfortunately many of the media
reports appear to have missed that memo...
At 2035 UTC on Dec 14 the `Yutu hao' (`rabbit') rover drove down the
Chang'e-3 ramp onto the lunar surface. Yutu and Chang'e-3 are both solar
powered, but also carry small Pu-238 radioactive heater units to keep
systems from freezing during the 14-day lunar night (see Dwayne Day's
article at http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2401/1). Yutu has six
wheels and a mass of around 140 kg.
The CZ-3B third stage rocket was launched to a 311 x 352280 km x 29.6
deg orbit which passed close to the Moon at around 1100 UTC on Dec 6
and, according to tracking by astronomers, is currently in a 106000 x
662000 km x 35.8 deg orbit around the Earth-Moon system. See Bill Gray's
page at http://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/mpecs/che3.htm for details.
Lunar robotic landings
----------------------
Active on lunar surface
Luna-9 (E-6M No. 202) 1966 Feb 3 - 1966 Feb 6 Planitia Descensus
Surveyor 1 1966 Jun 2 - 1967 Jan 7 Flamsteed P Crater
Luna-13 (E-6M No. 205) 1966 Dec 24- 1966 Dec 28 Oceanus Procellarum
Surveyor 3 1967 Apr 20- 1967 May 4 Surveyor Crater, Oc. Proc.
Surveyor 5 1967 Sep 11- 1967 Dec 17 Mare Tranquillitatis
Surveyor 6 1967 Nov 10- 1967 Dec 14 Sinus Medii
Surveyor 7 1968 Jan 10- 1968 Feb 21 Tycho Crater
Luna-16 [Sample return] 1970 Sep 20 -1970 Sep 21 Mare Fecunditatis
Luna-17 1970 Nov 17- 1970 Nov 17 Mare Imbrium
Lunokhod-1 rover 1970 Nov 17- 1971 Oct?
Luna-20 [Sample return] 1972 Feb 21 -1972 Feb 22 Apollonius C Crater
Luna-21 1973 Jan 15 -1973 Jan 16? Le Monnier Crater
Lunokhod-2 rover 1973 Jan 16 -1973 Jun 3
Luna-23 1974 Nov 6 -1974 Nov 9 Mare Crisium
Luna-24 [Sample return] 1976 Aug 18 -1976 Aug 19 Mare Crisium
Chang'e-3 2013 Dec 14 - Mare Imbrium
Yutu rover 2013 Dec 14 -
Yutu is the sixth wheeled vehicle on the Moon following the two Lunokhods and the
three Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicles.
International Space Station
----------------------------
Expedition 38 continues with commander Oleg Kotov, and flight engineers
FE-2 Sergey Ryazanskiy, FE-3 Michael Hopkins, FE-4 Mikhail Tyurin, FE-5
Rick Mastracchio and FE-6 Koichi Wakata. Ferry ship Soyuz TMA-10M is at
Poisk and TMA-11M is at Rassvet. Cargo ship Progress M-20M is at the
Pirs module and Progress M-21M is at the Zvezda module.
A problem developed on Dec 11 with the Pump Module on ETCS Loop A, one
of the Station's two cooling loops. With only loop B operating, various
ISS systems had to be shut down to reduce the amount of heat being
generated. It seems likely - but not yet certain - that a series of
spacewalks will be needed to replace the module.
The newly failed Pump Module is serial number S/N 04 (PM-1), which was
launched on STS-121 in 2006 and stored on External Stowage Platform 2
until Aug 2010, when it was installed in the S1 truss to replace
another Pump Module, S/N 02, which had failed after 8 years in space.
The P1 truss hosts the Loop B PM (unknown serial number) which has been
operating since 2002. There are three spares on ISS:
PM S/N 02 (Loop A) - Launched 2002, failed 2010, returned to Earth 2011
PM S/N Unknown (Loop B) - Launched 2002, active
PM S/N 04 (Spare 1) - Launched 2006, in use 2010, failed on S1 truss 2013
PM S/N Unknown (Spare 2) - Launched 2009, stored on ESP-3
PM S/N 07 (Spare 3) - Launched 2009, stored on ELC-2
PM S/N 05 (Spare 4) - Launched 2009, stored on ELC-1
The pump modules have a mass of 354 kg. (If you can fill in the gaps
in the serial numbers, please contact me at planet4589 at gmail.com)
SES-8
-----
SpaceX carried out its first geostationary transfer launch on Dec 3.
Payload was the SES-8 satellite, a 3100-kg Orbital Star-2.4 for SES
World Skies. The second flight of the uprated Falcon 9 v1.1, and its
first from Cape Canaveral, appears to have been a complete success.
After reaching parking orbit the second stage reignited at 2308 UTC and
placed SES-8 in a 423 x 79977 km x 20.47 deg supersynchronous transfer
orbit. SpaceX does not appear to have released the parameters of the
parking orbit but it appears to have been around 300 x 400 km x 28.5
deg. [Note: this analysis is based on the tracking data which was
probably taken at high altitudes, so the perigee estimate may be
inaccurate]. Around 1545 UTC on Dec 5 SES-8 reached first apogee and raised
its orbit to 14401 x 80416 km x 6.2 deg, and then the next day to
35823 x 79932 km x 1.2 deg. Apogee was then lowered on Dec 11 and the
orbit is now 35681 x 45299 km x 0.5 deg, with a further apogee lowering
burn needed to reach GEO once the spacecraft is in the right spot.
Inmarsat 5F1
------------
Inmarsat PLC's first Inmarsat 5 satellite, carrying the Ka-band Global XPress
communications payload, was launched from Baykonur on Dec 8.
The Inmarsat 5 satellites, with 6090 kg launch mass, are BSS-702HP models
built by Boeing/El Segundo.
The Proton reached a -495 x 170 km orbit and the first Briz burn put
the stack in a 173 x 173 km parking orbit. Further burns
delivered I5-F1 to a 4306 x 64809 km x 26.7 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit
via intermediate orbits of 295 x 6000 km, 360 x 14847 km, and 475 x 65044 km.
The Briz-M stage and drop tank are being tracked, but there seems to be
no orbital data yet for the payload.
CBERS 3
-------
A new China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite was launched on Dec 9.
Zi Yuan 1 No. 3 was launched from Taiyuan Space Center.
Brazilian sources initially reported the launch was a success, but
it now appears that the CZ-4B rocket failed to reach orbit. A news
story on globo.com cited in nasaspaceflight.com reports that stage
3 cutoff was 11 seconds too early. I estimate an approximate
orbit of around -150 x 720 km x 98.5 deg, with impact in
the Antarctic around 0407 UTC; however, the uncertainties are
large and this estimate could be way off.
Suborbital launches
-------------------
On Dec 14 the Iranian Space Agency launched a Shahab-1 liquid propellant
missile from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Semnan province on a 120
km suborbital flight, carrying a 3 kg, 3 year old rhesus monkey (Macaca
mulatta) named Fargam. This was the fourth Iranian monkey in space, and
the second to return successfully following the Kavoshgar Pisgham
('Pioneer Probe') mission in January. The use of a liquid fuel missile
provides gentler acceleration than the small solid propellant sounding rockets
used for earlier experiments.
The Kavoshgar Pazhuhesh ('Research Probe') flight was the first 'Class
D' mission of the Kavoshgar series. The payload was developed by the
Institute of Astronautical Systems, which I believe is part of the
Aerospace Research Institute in Tehran. A new web site,
kavoshgar.ari.ac.ir, gives new details of this and earlier flights; I
summarize the program below. The M5 rocket used for the first flight is
a small vehicle, possibly similar to the Nazeat class sounding rocket
used for flights 2 and 3.
Kavoshgar flights (best current info)
-----------------
Date Payload Rocket Apogee/km Mission
2008 Feb 4 Kavoshgar 1 M5 10 Telemetry test? Failed?
2008 Nov 26 Kavoshgar 2 Nazeat-6? 40 Capsule B recovery test
2010 Feb 3 Kavoshgar 3 Nazeat-6? 55 Capsule B rec., with turtles,mice
2011 Mar 15 Kavoshgar 4 Fateh? K110 135 Capsule C recovery test
2011 Sep 7 Kavoshgar 5 Fateh? K110 120 Capsule C/Monkey, crashed on recovery
2012 Sep 8 Kavoshgar 6 Fateh? K110 120 Capsule C/Monkey, crashed on recovery
2013 Jan 28 Kavoshgar Pishgam Fateh? K110 120 Capsule C/Monkey, successful
2013 Dec 14 Kavoshgar Pazhuhesh Shahab-1 120 Capsule D/Monkey, successful
The Shahab-1 was based on the Soviet R-11 and was originally used in
1985 in Iranian missile attacks on Iraq during those two countries' long
war; it is several generations behind the latest Iranian military
missiles, the liquid fuel Shahab-3 and Ghadr missiles based on the North
Korean Nodong, and the domestically developed solid fuel Sejjil-2.
Roughly speaking, one prefers solid fuel in ballistic missiles for
storability and rapid launch, but liquid fuel in human spaceflight
launchers for gentler acceleration and more controllable abort modes, so
it makes sense for retired large liquid fuel missiles to be transferred
to the research program as Iran masters the larger solids for military
use - just as liquid fuel Atlas and Thor missiles were recycled as space
launch vehicles when the solid fuel Minuteman took over the bulk of ICBM
duties.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
Nov 5 0908 Mars Orbiter Spacecraft PSLV-XL Sriharikota Mars probe 60A
Nov 7 0414 Soyuz TMA-11M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 61A
Nov 11 2346 Raduga-1M Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 62A
Nov 18 1828 MAVEN Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe 63A
Nov 19 1218 PicoDragon ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-067DA
Ardusat-1 ) Tech 98-067DB
Ardusat-X ) Tech 98-067DC
Nov 20 0115 STPSAT-3 ) Minotaur I Wallops I LA0B Tech 64A
ORS-3 ) Tech 64
TJ3Sat ) Tech 64
DragonSat ) Tech 64
COPPER ) Tech 64
ChargerSat 1 ) Tech 64
SwampSat ) Tech 64
Ho'oponopono 2 ) Radar cal 64
KySat-2 ) Tech 64
CAPE 2 ) Tech 64
Trailblazer ) Tech 64
Vermont Lunar Cubesat ) Tech 64
PhoneSat-2.4 ) Tech 64
NPS-SCAT ) Tech 64
Black Knight 1 ) Tech 64
Firefly ) Science 64
Horus/STARE-B ) Space Surv. 64
SENSE-A ) Ionospheric 64
SENSE-B ) Ionospheric 64N
ORSES ) Comms 64
ORS Tech 1 ) Tech 64
ORS Tech 2 ) Tech 64
Prometheus 1A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 1B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 2A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 2B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 3A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 3B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 4A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 4B? ) Comms 64
Nov 20 0331 Yaogan 19 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 65A
Nov 20 0758 TechEdSat-3p ISS, LEO Tech 98-067DD
Nov 21 0710 Dubaisat-2 ) Imaging 66D
SkySat-1 ) Dnepr Yasniy Imaging 66C
STSat-3 ) Astronomy 66G
AprizeSat-7 ) Comms 66A
AprizeSat-8 ) Comms 66K
WNISAT-1 ) Weather 66H
Lem ) Astronomy 66R
GOMX-1 ) Comms 66Q
Dove-3 ) Imaging 66P
Delfi-3nXt ) Tech 66N
Triton 1 ) Comms/AIS 66M
KHUSAT-1 ) Science 66J
KHUSAT-2 ) Science 66L
OPTOS ) Tech 66E
Manolito ) Tech 66AB
Krysaor ) Tech 66AA
UWE-3 ) Tech 66Z
VELOX-P2 ) Tech 66Y
First-MOVE ) Tech 66AG
FUNcube-1 ) Tech 66AE
HINCube-1 ) Tech 66B
Tshepiso ) Tech 66AF
BPA-3 ) Tech 66AJ
Unisat-5 ) Tech 66F
Dove-4 ) Imaging 66
ICUBE-1 ) Tech 66
PUCPSat-1 ) Tech 66
Pocket-PUCP ) Tech 66
HUMSAT-D ) Tech 66
QBScout-1 ) Tech 66
BeakerSat-1 ) Tech 66
$50SAT ) Tech 66
WREN ) Tech 66
Nov 22 1202 SWARM-1 ) Rokot Plesetsk Science 67A
SWARM-2 ) Science 67B
SWARM-3 ) Science 67C
Nov 25 0212 Shiyan 5 Weixing Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Tech/Sci? 68A
Nov 25 2053 Progress M-21M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Cargo 69A
Dec 1 1730 Chang'e-3 ) Chang Zheng 3BE Xichang Moon probe 70A
Yutu ) Rover
Dec 3 2241 SES-8 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 71A
Dec 6 0714 TOPAZ 3? ) Atlas V 501 Vandenberg SLC3E Radar 72A
Aerocube 5a ) Tech 72D
Aerocube 5b ) Tech 72E
SMDC-ONE 2.3) Comms 72N
SMDC-ONE 2.4) Comms 72L
Tacsat 6 ) Tech? 72M
ALICE ) Tech 72F
SNAP-3 ) Tech? 72G
FIREBIRD A ) Sci 72B
FIREBIRD B ) Sci 72C
MCubed-2 ) Tech/Imaging 72H
IPEX ) Tech 72K
CUNYSAT 1 ) Sci 72J
Dec 8 1212 Inmarsat 5 F1 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 73A
Dec 9 0326 ZY-1 No. 3 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging F03
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Nov 3 0925 NASA 36.294UH Black Brant IX White Sands X-ray Astron 280?
Nov 12 1615? SL-8 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 116
Nov 20 1140 NASA 36.296UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 277
Nov 27 0350 NASA 36.261UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 280?
Dec 14 Kavoshgar Pazhuhesh Shahab-1 Semnan Bio 120
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |
| Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
More information about the JSR
mailing list