[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 725

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.org
Wed May 18 00:32:31 EDT 2016


Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 725                                                       2016 May 18 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------

Expedition 47 continues with  commander Tim Kopra and flight engineers
Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Peake, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams.

Progress M-29M was deorbited on Apr 8, reentered around 1416 UTC over the S Pacific.

Dragon CRS-8 arrived at the capture point 10m from the Harmony module at
1115 UTC Apr 10. The Canadarm-2 grappled it at 1123 UTC and berthed it
on Harmony's nadir CBM port at 1357 UTC. At about 0600 UTC on Apr 16 the
BEAM module was extracted from Dragon's trunk; BEAM was installed on the
Tranquility module's aft port at 0937 UTC Apr 16.

On Apr 27 the 50 kg Diwata-1 satellite, launched on Cygnus OA-6, was removed from the Kibo
airlock by the JRMS arm and released into orbit. Diwata-1 is an Earth observation
satellite developed by the Phillipines.

CRS-8 was unberthed at 1102 UTC May 11 and released into space at 1319 UTC.
After a deorbit burn at 1801 UTC it splashed down around 120.1W 31.4N, off
the coast of California, at 1851 UTC.

A series of Cubesat deploys from the Kibo module began on May 16
with MinXSS (U of Colorado), CADRE (U Michigan), STMSat-1 (St. Thomas More School),
and Nodes 1 and 2 (NASA-Ames). MinXSS carries a miniature X-ray solar spectrometer
to study the hard X-ray spectra of solar flares. On May 17 deployment began
of the PlanetLabs Flock-2e series (launched on OA-4) and Flock-2e-Prime (launched
on OA-6).

Sentinel-1B
-----------

On Apr 25 Arianespace flight VS14 launched a Soyuz ST-A from the ELS pad
at CSG Sinnamary. The Fregat stage first burn reached an initial orbit
of 695 x 700 km and deployed the Sentinel-1B radar imaging satellite for
ESA. It then made a burn to 442 x 690 km and deployed three 1U cubesats:
OUFTI-1 for the University of Liege, AAUSAT-4 for Aalborg University in
Denmark, and E-St at r-II for the Politecnico di Torino. The ASAP-S adapter
was ejected into the same orbit. Next, the Fregat stage made two more
burns to reach 711 x 714 km and released the Microscope satellite.
Operated by the French space agency CNES, Microscope uses the Myriade
bus and contains drag-free test masses to test the Equivalence
Principle. Finally, at 0118 UTC, Fregat made a deorbit burn and reentered over
the S Atlantic.

Signals from all three cubesats were being recieved as of May 4.


Lomonosov
---------

The Lomonosov (Mikhailo-Lomonosov-300) science satellite was orbited on Apr 28
from the new Vostochniy spaceport.  The old GIK-2 (2nd State Test Cosmodrome)
at Svobodniy was shut down in 2007; its reopening as Vostochniy marks a planned shift
away from the Kazakhstan launch site of Baikonur.

Lomonosov's main experiment, TUS, is an ultraviolet camera to observe the flashes
from cosmic rays hitting the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The Samara State Aerospace University's AIST-2D imaging satellite and its Kontakt-Nanosputnik
(Samsat-218/D) cubesat were also deployed. However, the student-built Samsat-218/D
failed to transmit properly.

IRNSS-1G
--------

Launch of the IRNSS-1G completes India's 7-satellite navigation constellation and marks
the third Indian launch this year.

SJ-10
-----

The Shi Jian-10 microgravity satellite's reentry vehicle separated from
the service module on Apr 18 at 0815 UTC and landed in China at 0830 UTC.
The service module remains in a 253 x 269 km orbit, recataloged as a new object.
It adjusted its orbit on Apr 22 but as of May 18 had not made further maneuvers.

JCSAT-14
--------

Sky Perfect JSAT's JCSAT 14 satellite, an SSL-1300 comms platform built by SSL-MDA,
was launched by Falcon 9 on May 6 into geotransfer orbit. The Falcon 9
first stage landed downrange on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You.

  Each of the JCSAT series satellites has two names - essentially, a name that
identifies the physical satellite and a name that marks the service it is providing
at a specific orbital slot. Here is the JCSAT series:

   Satellite name  Service name  Launch       Retired      Location

   JCSAT  1        JCSAT 1      1989 Mar  6  1998 Aug 17  150E
   JCSAT  2        JCSAT 2      1990 Jan  1  2002 Aug     154E
   JCSAT  3        JCSAT 3      1995 Aug 29  2007 Feb     128E
   JCSAT  4        JCSAT R      1997 Feb 17  2009 Aug     150E, 124E, 150E, Now Intelsat IS-26
   JCSAT  5        JCSAT 1B     1997 Dec  2  -            150E  
   JCSAT  6        JCSAT 4A     1999 Feb 16  -             82E
   JCSAT  7        JCSAT-110    2000 Oct  6  -            110E (Also called Superbird 5)
   JCSAT  8        JCSAT 2A     2002 Mar 29  -            154E
   JCSAT  9        JCSAT 5A     2006 Apr 12  -            132E
   JCSAT 10        JCSAT 3A     2006 Aug 11  -            128E
   JCSAT 11        -            2007 Sep  5  2007 Sep  5  Failed to orbit
   JCSAT 12        JCSAT RA     2009 Aug 21  -            128E
   JCSAT 13        JCSAT 4B     2012 May 15  -            124E
   JCSAT 14        JCSAT 2B     2016 May  6  -            En route 154E

Cassini
-------

On May 6 the Cassini probe carried out the T-119 flyby of Titan, passing
971 km from that world at 1656 UTC. The flyby changed Cassini's orbit
around Saturn from 442000 x 3310000 km x 28.8 deg for orbit 235 to
545000 x 3210000 km x 36.0 deg on orbit 236. The next Titan flyby is
T-120, at 1407 UTC Jun 7 following orbit 236 periapsis.


Simorgh
-------

The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative media outlet with sources in
the US defense establishment, reports that Iran's new Simorgh launch
vehicle failed in its initial launch attempt on Apr 19. However, Russian
sources quoted in the Kommersant newspaper suggest that it was a
successful suborbital test flight of the rocket.


Table of Recent Orbital Launches 
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle        Site            Mission       INTL.   Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl   Notes
                                                                                                      km      km   deg

Mar  4 2335   SES-9               Falcon 9 FT        Canaveral SLC40   Comms          13A   S41380  35785 x 35788 x   0.1 GEO 113.5E
Mar  9 0520   Eutelsat 65 West A  Ariane 5 ECA       Kourou ELA3       Comms          14A   S41382  35778 x 35796 x   0.1 GEO 65W
Mar 10 1031   IRNSS-1F            PSLV-XL            Satish Dhawan SLP Navigation     15A   S41384  35693 x 35876 x   5.0 GEO 32E
Mar 13 1856   Resurs-P No. 3      Soyuz-2-1B         Baykonur LC31     Imaging        16A   S41386    279 x   452 x  97.3 1150LT SSO
Mar 14 0931   ExoMars TGO   )     Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur LC200/39 Mars orbiter   17A   S41388    750 x-71368 x  51.5
              Schiaparelli  )                                          Mars lander    17    A08532    750 x-71368 x  51.5
Mar 18 2126   Soyuz TMA-20M       Soyuz-FG           Baykonur LC1      Spaceship      18A   S41391    193 x   230 x  51.6 Docked ISS
Mar 23 0305   SS Rick Husband     Atlas V 401        Canaveral SLC41   Cargo          19A   S41393    240 x   250 x  51.6 Docked ISS
Mar 24 0942   Bars-M No. 2        Soyuz-2-1A         Plesetsk          Mapping        20A   S41394    332 x   540 x  97.6 1325LT SSO
Mar 29 2011   Beidou DW 22        Chang Zheng 3A     Xichang LC2       Navigation     21A   S41434  35681 x 35887 x  55.0
Mar 31 1623   Progress MS-02      Soyuz-2-1A         Baykonur LC31     Cargo          22A   S41436    261 x   267 x  51.6
Apr  5 1738   Shi Jian 10         Chang Zheng 2D     Jiuquan           Microgravity   23E   S41455    233 x   267 x  42.9
Apr  8 2043   Dragon CRS-8        Falcon 9 FT        Canaveral SLC40   Cargo          24A   S41452    209 x   353 x  51.7 Docked ISS
Apr 25 2102   Sentinel-1B  )      Soyuz ST-A         CSG ELS           Radar imaging  25A   S41456    695 x   700 x  98.2 1800LT SSO
              Microscope   )                                           Physics        25B   S41457    711 x   714 x  98.2 1800LT SSO
              OUFTI-1      )                                           Tech           25C?  S41458    442 x   686 x  98.2
              AAUSAT-4     )                                           AIS            25D?  S41459    442 x   686 x  98.2
              ESt at r-II     )                                           Tech           25E?  S41460    442 x   686 x  98.2
Apr 27 1145   Diwata-1            -                  ISS Kibo, LEO     Imaging      9867HT  S41463    401 x   404 x  51.6
Apr 28 0201   Lomonosov  )        Soyuz-2-1A/Volga   Vostochniy PU1S   Astronomy      26A   S41464    471 x   486 x  97.3 2314LT SSO 
              AIST-2D    )                                             Imaging        26B   S41465    471 x   485 x  97.3 2314LT SSO 
              Kontakt-NS )                                             Tech           26C   S41466    471 x   485 x  97.3 2314LT SSO 
Apr 28 0720   IRNSS-1G            PSLV-XL            Satish Dhawan FLP Navigation     27A   S41469  35741 x 35821 x   5.1 GEO 129E
May  6 0521   JCSAT 14            Falcon 9 FT        Canaveral SLC40   Comms          28A   S41471  35758 x 35864 x   0.0 GEO 176E
May 15 0243   Yaogan 30           Chang Zheng 2D     Jiuquan           Imaging        29A   S41473    628 x   656 x  98.1 0900LT SSO
May 16 1005   MinXSS )                               ISS, LEO          Astronomy   9867HU?  S41474?
              CADRE  )                                                 Science     9867HV?  S41475?
May 16 1440   STMSat-1 )                             ISS, LEO          Tech        9867HW?
              Nodes 1  )                                               Tech        9867HX?
              Nodes 2  )                                               Tech        9867HY?
May 17 0845   Flock 2e'-1 )                          ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867HZ?
              Flock 2e'-2 )                                            Imaging     9867JA?
May 17 1200   Flock 2e-1 )                           ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JB?
              Flock 2e-2 )                                             Imaging     9867JC?
May 18 0218   Flock 2e'-3?)                          ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JD?
              Flock 2e'-4?)                                            Imaging     9867JE?

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------

On Apr 26 the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a suborbital science
payload, Kunpeng-1B, from its Hainan sounding rocket station. This is a
small facility at 109 07E 19 31 N, on the other side of Hainan from the
new Wenchang Space Center. The TY-3F sounding rocket has a booster stage
added to the earlier single-stage Tianying design, to increase its
apogee (similar to the Terrier booster used to increase apogee of the
Black Brant in its Black Brant 9 configuration).


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

Mar  1 1450   MUSIC            Terrier Imp.Mal.    Wallops Island        Tech          185       Atlantic Ocean
Mar  7 1205   NASA 41.114NP    Terrier Imp.Orion   Wallops Island        Tech          160?      Atlantic Ocean
Mar  8        Shahab RV        Shahab-1            Qom Desert, Iran      Test          100?      Qom Desert, Iran
Mar  8        Shahab RV        Shahab-2            Qom Desert, Iran      Test          120?      Qom Desert, Iran
Mar  8        Qiam RV          Qiam                Qom Desert, Iran      Test          125?      Qom Desert, Iran
Mar  9        Ghadr RV         Ghadr-F             Semnan?, Iran         Test          150?      Makran, S Iran
Mar  9        Ghadr RV         Ghadr-H             Semnan?, Iran         Test          150?      Makran, S Iran
Mar  9 2020   Hwasong RV       Hwasong 6?          Chiha?, N Korea       Test          150?      Sea of Japan
Mar  9 2020   Hwasong RV       Hwasong 6?          Chiha?, N Korea       Test          150?      Sea of Japan
Mar 14        Trident RVs x ?  Trident D-5       SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test         1000?      S Atlantic
Mar 15        Trident RVs x ?  Trident D-5       SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test         1000?      S Atlantic
Mar 16        Trident RVs x ?  Trident D-5       SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test         1000?      S Atlantic
Mar 17 2055   Nodong RV        Nodong              Sukcheon, N Korea     Test          150?      Sea of Japan
Mar 31        K-4 RV           K-4            INS Arirant, Visakhapatnam Test          500?      Bay of Bengal?
Apr  2 1518   New Shepard M4   New Shepard         West Texas            Test          103       West Texas
Apr 12        DF-41 RVs?       DF-41?              Taiyuan?              Test         1000?      ?
Apr 19 0641   Yu-71 No. 3      UR-100NU            Yasniy                Test         1000?      Kura?
Apr 19 0933   Test payload     Simorgh             Semnan                Test          200?      S Iran
Apr 26 1700   Kunpeng-1B       Tianying-3F         Hainan                Ionosphere    316       S China Sea

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