[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 689

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.org
Tue Nov 19 23:25:03 EST 2013


Jonathan's Space Report
No. 689                                                      2013 Nov 20, Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
----------------------------

Expedition 38 began on Nov 10 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. Cargo ship Progress M-20M is at the Pirs module.

Soyuz TMA-11M was launched on Nov 7 carrying Mikhail Tyurin,
Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata, and docked with the Rassvet module
at 1027 UTC the same day.

Astronauts Kotov and Ryazanskiy made spacewalk VKD-36 from the Pirs
module on Nov 9.  They carried an (unlit, of course) Olympic torch for a
publicity event, which was carried out successfully. The maintenance
tasks that made up the rest of the spacewalk were more problematic. The
Yakor platform was removed from Zvezda's transfer compartment but could
not be attached to the VRM/URM-D articulating mount on side IV of the
main part of Zvezda, and was brought inside instead. A piece of
equipment called DPN was be removed from the VRM (it was installed on
the last EVA in August). On another URM-D experiment mount on side II of
Zvezda is the RK-21-8 Radiometria experiment installed on 2011 Feb 16.
This experiment was disconnected, but the astronauts had trouble stowing
its deployed panels. The Pirs airlock was depressurized at 1417 UTC and
the hatch opened at 1434 UTC; the hatch was reclosed at 2024 UTC and
Pirs was repressurized at 2027 UTC.

Soyuz TMA-09M undocked from the Zvezda module on Nov 10 at 2326 UTC
and landed in Kazakhstan at 0249 UTC Nov 11, carrying 
astronauts Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano.

On Nov 19 a J-SSOD cubesat deployer was retrieved from the Kibo module
airlock by the JEM RMS arm and moved to a deployment position; at 1218 UTC
it ejected three 1U cubesats - PicoDragon for Vietnam, and two
Ardusats for a demonstration of spaceborne Arduino processors for the
US company NanoSatisfi.

Kuaizhou 1
----------

China's Kuaizhou 1 satellite continues to operate in low orbit. KZ-1 was
launched on Sep 25 into a 275 x 293 km orbit, raised on Sep 27 to 299 x
306 km. The orbit decayed to 279 x 288 km and then was raised on Oct 17
to 288 x 321 km; after a further decay another reboost on Nov 1 restored
the orbit to 290 x 317 km. The third reboost on Nov 19 raised the  orbit
from 267 x 294 km to 287 x 322 km.

Mars Orbiter Mission
--------------------

India began its Mars Orbiter Mission with the launch of the Mars Orbiter
Spacecraft from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island north
of Chennai on Nov 5. The MOS was inserted in elliptical Earth orbit;
it will use its own propulsion to enter solar orbit.

ISRO officials seem to be using the name 'Mars Orbiter Spacecraft' for
the vehicle (as opposed to the mission), although the press kit uses
'Mars Orbiter Satellite'. Parts of the Indian press media are also using
the nickname 'Mangalyaan' but this is never used by ISRO, so I consider
this name incorrect, although the correct name is admittedly boring.
'Mars Orbiter Mission' (MOM) is also used widely for the spacecraft.

The third stage rocket reentered off the coast of Peru after half an orbit;
the fourth stage and MOM payload entered a 251 x 23892 km x 19.4 deg orbit
with first perigee over the South Pacific. On Nov 7 the orbit was raised
to 259 x 28726 km, and on Nov 8 to over 70000 km apogee.
A further burn on Nov 10 delivered only 35m/s, raising the
apogee less than planned. A makeup burn on Nov 11 fixed the problem, and
a burn on Nov 15 put the spacecraft in a 853 x 194683 km x 19.4 deg orbit.
Solar orbit insertion is scheduled for around Dec 1.

Raduga-1M
---------

A Russian Globus-1M (cover name Raduga-1M) military communications
satellite was sent toward geostationary orbit by a Proton launch on Nov
11. On Nov 17 the satellite was in a 35249 x 35599 km x 0.2 deg orbit
drifting eastward over 78E.


MAVEN
------

The Mars MAVEN mission was launched on Nov 18. It is designed to enter
Martian orbit and study the escape of gases from the upper Martian atmosphere.
It carries particles and fields instruments and an imaging ultraviolet
spectrometer.

MAVEN reached a 167 x 315 km x 26.7 deg parking orbit at 1841 UTC; the Centaur AV-038
stage restarted at 1909 UTC and inserted MAVEN into a 195 x -78200 km x 27.7 deg 
hyperbolic Earth orbit. MAVEN and the Centaur will leave the Earth-Moon system
on Nov 21 and enter a 0.97 x 1.47 AU x 2.1 deg heliocentric orbit which will take them
to the vicinity of Mars in Sep 2014.


ORS-3
------

The ORS-3 mission was launched by a Minotaur I from Wallops Island        
into a 497 x 507 km x 40.5 deg orbit carrying the STPSat-3 research
satellite and two CubeStack wafers which eject a total of 28 cubesats
(Deployment of the cubesats has not yet been confirmed).

STPSat-3 carries technology and space weather experiments, including an
important Total Solar Irradiance sensor, TCTE, to provide data lost when
the Glory launch failed. The ORS-3 Minotaur final stage carries an
experimental launch tracking system and a drag device to reduce the
amount of time it spends in orbit. The upper wafer carries four 6U
Cubesat dispensers for NRO missions, and the lower wafer carries eight
3U P-POD cubesat dispensers for various payloads including NASA's ELANA
IV cubesat cluster. The basic 1U Cubesat is a 0.1m cube; 3U Cubesats are
0.1 x 0.1 x 0.3m boxes. The 28 Cubesats on the launch total 48U of
volume.

Counting the final stage as a payload (since it carries active experiments)
this total of 30 payloads more than doubles the existing record for active
payloads on a single launch. The previous record was the 2007-012 Dnepr launch, 
with 14 payloads. The three Soviet Kol'tso radar calibration missions
1988-113, 1989-100, and 1990-104 (Kosmos-1985, 2053 and 2106) appear to have
each carried 36 subsatellites, but these were passive calibration targets.
The SDIO Delta 181 launch in 1988 had 15 payloads, but some were also
passive calibration objects.

The ELANA IV cluster consists of 10 of the 1U Cubesats and one 3U one -
  TJ3Sat, from Thomas Jefferson High School, Virginia
  DragonSat, from Drexel University, Penn. and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis
  COPPER, from Saint Louis University, Missouri
  ChargerSat 1, from U. Alabama-Huntsville
  SwampSat, from U. Florida-Gainesville
  Ho'oponopono 2, a 3U sat for radar calibration, from U. Hawaii-Manoa
  KySat-2 from Kentucky Space, Lexington, Kentucky
  CAPE 2, from U. Louisiana-Lafayette
  Trailblazer, from U. New Mexico-Albequerque
  Vermont Lunar Cubesat, from Vermont Technical College, testing equipment for
    a proposed future lunar mission
  PhoneSat-2.4, from NASA-Ames, with systems based on a Nexus/Android cellphone
Two further 1U satellites are packaged with ELANA IV:
  NPS-SCAT for the US Navy Postgraduate School, with a solar cell exposure experiment
  Black Knight 1, for the US Military Academy at West Point, New York
This accounts for 5 of the 8 P-POD deployers on the lower deck. The remaining
satellites are
  Firefly, a 3U science sat for the National Science Foundation
   built by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences in Maryland in collaboration
   with Siena College, that will study terrestrial gamma-ray flashes;
  Horus (STARE-B), a 3U Lawrence Livermore experiment for space debris monitoring;
  SENSE-A and SENSE-B 3U ionospheric monitoring satellites for the USAF Space and
     Missile Center
  8 Prometheus low orbit tactical communications satellites,
   each 1.5U, for the US Southern Command (SOCOM), developed by Los Alamos.
  ORSES, a 3U ORS Enabler Satellite, a tactical comms satellite for the USAF
   Operationally Responsive Space office and the US Space and Missile Defense Command.
  ORS Tech 1 and 2, 3U technology demo satellites for USAF ORS developed by APL.

All of the satellites on the launch are US satellites (led by
organizations from 13 different US states), so this also sets a record
for the number of satellites from a single country orbited on a single
launch. Both the absolute and single-country record may not stand long,
with launches planned later this year that will surpass the ORS-3
record.

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches 
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle        Site            Mission    INTL.  

Sep  1 1916   Yaogan 17     )    Chang Zheng 4C   Jiuquan LC603     SIGINT      46A
              YW-17 subsat 1)                                       SIGINT      46B
              YW-17 subsat 2)                                       SIGINT      46C
Sep  7 0327   LADEE              Minotaur V       Wallops I. LA0B   Lunar probe 47A
Sep 11 2323   Gonets-M No. 14 )  Rokot            Plesetsk LC133/3  Comms       48A
              Gonets-M No. 16 )                                     Comms       48B
              Gonets-M No. 17 )                                     Comms       48C
Sep 14 0500   Hisaki             Epsilon          Uchinoura         Astronomy   49A
Sep 18 0810   AEHF 3             Atlas V 531      Canaveral SLC41   Comms       50A
Sep 18 1458   Cygnus Demo        Antares 110      Wallops I. LA0A   Cargo       51A
Sep 23 0307   Fengyun-3 3        Chang Zheng 4C   Taiyuan LC9       Weather     52A
Sep 25 0437   Kuaizhou-1         Kuaizhou         Jiuquan           Imaging?    53A
Sep 25 2058   Soyuz TMA-10M      Soyuz-FG         Baykonur LC1	    Spaceship   54A
Sep 29 1600   Cassiope   )       Falcon 9 v1.1    Vandenberg SLC4E  Comm/Sci    55A
              POPACS 1   )                                          Sci         55D
              POPACS 2   )                                          Sci         55E
              POPACS 3   )                                          Sci         55F
              DANDE      )                                          Sci         55C
              CUSat      )                                          Tech        55B
Sep 29 2138   Astra 2E           Proton-M/Briz-M  Baykonur LC200/39 Comms       56A
Oct 25 0350   Shi Jian 16        Chang Zheng 4B   Jiuquan           Tech?       57A
Oct 25 1808   Sirius FM6         Proton-M/Briz-M  Baykonur LC200/39 Comms       58A
Oct 29 0250   Yaogan 18          Chang Zheng 2C   Taiyuan           Radar?      59A
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 64
	      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

Suborbital launches
-------------------

The Wisconsin/Goddard X-ray Quantum Calorimeter payload made its sixth flight on Nov 3
from White Sands.


Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

Date UT     Payload/Flt Name  Launch Vehicle  Site                   Mission    Apogee/km

Sep  3 0616   Radar target     Silver Sparrow      F-15, Med. Sea    Target       150?
Sep  6 0520   Bulava RV        Bulava            K-550, White Sea    Test         100?
Sep 10        MBRV?            Unknown             Wake Island       Target       300?
Sep 10        MBRV?            eMRBM               C-17, Pacific     Target       300?
Sep 10        Aegis KV         SM-3              USS Decatur,Pacific Interceptor  150?
Sep 10        THAAD KV         THAAD               Meck Island       Interceptor  100?
Sep 10        THAAD KV         THAAD               Meck Island       Interceptor  100?
Sep 10 2110?  USN RV           Trident D-5       SSBN, Atlantic O.   Test        1000?
Sep 10 2110?  USN RV           Trident D-5       SSBN, Atlantic O.   Test        1000?
Sep 12        USN RV           Trident D-5       SSBN, Atlantic O.   Test        1000?
Sep 12        USN RV           Trident D-5       SSBN, Atlantic O.   Test        1000?
Sep 15 0920   Agni RV          Agni V              Wheeler I. IC4    Test         800?
Sep 19 0030   FTM-21 Target    ARAV-C++            Kauai             Target       300?
Sep 19 0032?  Aegis KV         SM-3-1B           USS Lake Erie       Interceptor  300?
Sep 19 0032?  Aegis KV         SM-3-1B           USS Lake Erie       Interceptor  300?
Sep 22 1001   Mk 21 RV?        Minuteman 3         Vandenberg LF10   Op. test    1300?
Sep 26 1033   Mk 21 RV?        Minuteman 3         Vandenberg LF09   Op. test    1300?
Oct  4 0533   FTM-22 Target    ARAV-ER             Kauai             Target       300?
Oct  4 0537?  Aegis KV         SM-3-1B           USS Lake Erie       Interceptor  150?
Oct  7 0345   Prithvi RV       Prithvi II          Chandipur         Op. test     100?
Oct  8 0650?  Prithvi RV       Prithvi II          Chandipur         Op. test     100?
Oct 10 1339   Exptl. RV        Topol'              Kapustin Yar      RV test     1000?
Oct 21 1800   NASA 36.290US    Black Brant IX      White Sands       Solar        278?
Oct 30        10 RVs??         R-36M2              Yasniy            Exercise    1000?
Oct 30        Topol' RV        Topol'              Plesetsk          Exercise    1000?
Oct 30        RV               Sineva?           K-117, Barents Sea  Exercise    1000?
Oct 30        RV               Volna             K-433, S.of Okhotsk Exercise    1000?
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 

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |  twitter: @planet4589              |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
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