[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 698
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.org
Tue Jun 17 19:58:36 EDT 2014
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 698 2014 Jun 17 Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 40 is continuing with ISS in a 411 x 417 km x 51.7 deg orbit.
On May 28 Soyuz TMA-13M was launched with Maksim Suraev, Reid Wiseman
and Alexander Gerst; the spaceship docked with the Rassvet module at
0144 UTC May 29 and their crew joined commander Steve Swanson and FEs
Arteme'v and Skvortsov already aboard.
The hatch to Dragon CRS-3 was closed on May 17. Dragon was unberthed by the SSRMS Canadarm-2
at about 1200 UTC May 18 and released at 1326 UTC. The deorbit burn at 1812 to 1822 UTC
was followed by trunk separation at about 1824 UTC, atmosphere entry at 1845 UTC
and splashdown west of Baja California at 1905 UTC.
Dragon's return cargo includes EMU 3015, launched on the last Shuttle
mission in 2011 - it was only used for one spacewalk on its current
flight - by Aki Hoshide on US EVA 18- and had a cooling malfunction.
However, EMU 3015 has been used for 30 spacewalks during its 16 flights
in space since 1996. Its core component, PLSS 1015, made 8 earlier
flights as part of other EMUs). It has been reported by Aviation Week
that some water leaked into the Dragon cabin after splashdown, but NASA says
the cargo was not damaged.
Progress M-21M undocked from Zvezda on Jun 9 at 1330 UTC and was deorbited the
same day, with debris falling in the S Pacific around 1723 UTC. Progress M-23M
remains docked to Pirs and Soyuz TMA-12M remains docked to Poisk.
Cassini
--------
Cassini flew past Titan at 1613 UTC on May 17 at a height of 2994 km.
The flyby was designated T-101. The T-102 flyby will be at 1329 UTC Jun
18, at a height of 3659 km above Titan, following which Cassini will be
in an 837000 x 2919000 km x 46.5 deg orbit around Saturn on course for
the T-103 flyby on Jul 20.
NROL-33
-------
Atlas flight AV-046 left the USA 252 payload in an 840 x 35745 km x 20.7 deg geostationary
transfer orbit, according to hobbyist observers (satobs.org). It is expected to
enter geostationary orbit and is thought to be a QUASAR communications and data relay
satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office - either QUASAR 18 or 19, I'm not sure
because of the difficulty of distinguising early QUASAR and JUMPSEAT satellites in the 1970s.
Rodnik
------
On May 23 Russia launched three Strela-3M/Rodnik-S LEO messaging relay
satellites into 1480 x 1510 km x 82.4 deg orbits; they were given the
Kosmos codenames Kosmos-2496, 2497 and 2498. The Briz-M stage ended up
in an 1151 x 1503 km orbit after its depletion burn. An additional
object, 39765/2014-028E, is suspected to be an additional small military
payload, which may be eventually given the cover name Kosmos-2499. It is probably
built by the Reshetnev company and may have a mass of around 45 kg.
ALOS-2
------
Japan has launched the Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2, nicknamed Daichi-2,
into a 629 x 635 km x 97.9 deg, noon/midnight sun-synchronous orbit. The 2120 kg Daichi-2
carries the PALSAR-2 radar imager.
The second stage of the H-II rocket also deployed four small Japanese
satellites: SOCRATES for the Japanese comms research lab NICT, with a
laser communications experiment; UNIFORM-1 for Wakayama University,
carrying a 10-12 micron IR microbolometer array for wildfire monitoring;
RISING-2 (or Raijin-2?), a Tohoku University mission for studies of
lightning with visible and mid-IR imagers and a VLF receiver; and
SPROUT, a 7 kg Nihon University experiment to deploy a 1.5m inflatable
triangular membrane. SOCRATES, UNIFORM and RISING-2 have masses of
around 50 kg.
Eutelsat 3B
------------
The Sea Launch project returned to flight with launch of Eutelsat 3B on May 26.
Zenit-2S No. SL37 and upper stage Blok DM-SL No. 36L made up the Zenit-3SL
launch vehicle which took off from the Sea Launch Odyssey platform in the Pacific
at 154W 0N.
Eutelsat 3B is an Airbus/Toulouse Eurostar 3000 satellite with C, Ku and
Ka band comms payloads for the Paris-based company Eutelsat S.A.
(Eutelsat was originally the European Telecom Satellite Organization, privatized in 2001;
the Toulouse factory was formerly MATRA Espace (1968-89), Matra Marconi Space (1989-2000)
and Astrium-F (2000-2013)). On Jun 16 the satellite had reached a checkout location
at 1.7E, in a 35784 x 35788 km x 0.1 deg orbit.
Glonass
-------
Glonass-M satellite No. 55 was launched on Jun 14 into a 19125 x 19153 km x 64.8 km
orbit to supplement the Russian navigation satellite constellation.
The spacecraft is expected to be given the Kosmos-2500 designation.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
May 6 1349 Kosmos-2495 Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 25A
May 15 2142 Ekpress AM-4R Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms F01
May 17 0003 GPS SVN 67 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Nav 26A
May 22 1309 USA 252 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms? 27A
May 23 0528 Kosmos-2496 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 28A
Kosmos-2497 ) Comms 28B
Kosmos-2498 ) Comms 28C
Kosmos-2499? ) Tech? 28E
May 24 0305 Daichi-2 ) H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Y1 Radar 29A
Raijin-2 ) Science 29D
UNIFORM-1 ) IR imaging 29B
SOCRATES ) Laser Com 29C
SPROUT ) Tech 29E
May 26 2110 EUTELSAT 3B Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, Pacific Comms 30A
May 28 1957 Soyuz TMA-13M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 31A
Jun 14 1716 Glonass M55 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 32A
(= Kosmos-2500?)
Suborbital missions
-------------------
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
DLR and ESA launched two small REXUS rockets in May to study the upper atmosphere
and demonstrate technology experiments. On May 24 NASA launched a University of Colorado
experiment, CHESS/36.285UG, to measure the interstellar medium's UV absorption along
the line of sight to Delta Sco.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
May 3 0800 NASA 36.235US Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 278
May 8 Topol' RV Topol' Plesetsk Exercise 1000?
May 8 Shtil' RV Shtil' K-114, Barents Exercise 1000?
May 8 Volna RV Volna K-223, Okhotsk Exercise 1000?
May 20 1708 Topol'-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000?
May 21 0535 Aegis KV SM-3-IB Kauai AAMDTC Test 150?
May 24 0735 NASA 36.285UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 300?
May 28 1130 REXUS-16 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 87
May 29 1000 REXUS-15 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 80
Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000?
USN Mk 4 RV? )
USN Mk 4 RV? )
USN Mk 4 RV? )
Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000?
USN Mk 4 RV? )
USN Mk 4 RV? )
USN Mk 4 RV? )
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 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