[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 708
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.org
Tue Feb 3 23:37:13 EST 2015
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 708 2015 Feb 4 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 42 continues with commander Barry Wilmore, FE-1 Aleksandr
Samokutyaev, FE-2 Elena Serova, FE-3 Anton Shkaplerov, FE-4 Samantha
Cristoforetti, and FE-5 Terry Virts. Soyuz TMA-14M is docked at Poisk;
Soyuz TMA-15M is docked at Rassvet; Progress M-25M is docked at Pirs;
ATV-5 Georges Lemaitre is docked at Zvezda.
Dragon CRS-5 (SC7) was launched from Cape Canaveral on Jan 10 into a 206
x 353 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The 9700 kg spacecraft carries 1823 kg of
internal cargo and the 494 kg CATS lidar experiment from NASA-GSFC in
the trunk. Inside Dragon are two PlanetLabs Flock-1d' cubesats and the
AESP-14 1U cubesat from Brazil's space agency AEB and the ITA technical
institute. On Jan 12 Dragon was grappled by the SSRMS arm at 1054 UTC
and berthed on the Harmony module at 1354 UTC. The cubesats were
transferred internally to the Kibo module and will be deployed from the
Kibo airlock. CATS was grappled by the Dextre robot on 2015 Jan 22 and
unberthed from Dragon around 0700 UTC; it was then handed off to the
JEM-RMS at around 1030 UTC and installed on the Kibo Exposed Facility at
location EFU3 at about 1400 UTC.
The Falcon 9 first stage performed a flyback attempt to land around 360
km downrange at circa 78W 31N. The stage made a 'hard' landing on the
ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship). The first stage was destroyed
when hydraulic fluid depletion made it tip over ahd hit the deck
sideways, but the incident did not cause serious damage to the ship. The
ASDS has now been renamed "Just Read The Instructions" after the name of
an AI spaceship in the book 'The Player of Games' by the late science
fiction writer Iain M. Banks.
RRTV-SM
-------
China's Reentry Return Test Vehicle Service Module departed the
Earth-Moon L2 region on Jan 4 at 1500 UTC, arriving in a 200 x 5300 km
lunar orbit at 0700 UTC on Jan 11. Following two further lunar orbit
burns on Jan 12 and 13 it is now in a 200 x 200 km x 43.7 deg orbit
around the Moon.
Beagle 2
---------
The UK Mars probe Beagle 2 was never heard from after it entered the
Martian atmosphere on 2003 Dec 25. It has now been discovered on the
surface in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images at 90.4295E, 11.5265N
(position measured by Doug Ellison from the released image), apparently
intact and with at least one solar panel deployed.
MUOS 3
------
The US Navy MUOS 3 communications satellite was launched into
geotransfer orbit by an Atlas V 551 rocket on Jan 21. MUOS 3 has a mass
of around 6800 kg.
SMAP
----
The Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite, developed by JPL, was
launched into polar orbit on Jan 31. SMAP carries a 6-m L-band antenna
for synthetic aperture radar and radiometry measurements to map
microwave emissions from water molecules in the soil. The 944 kg
satellite was launched aboard a Boeing/ULA Delta II rocket along with
four cubesats: the 3U Cal Poly CP10 ExoCube, the 3U Michigan/JPL GRIFEX
technology satellite, and the second pair of 1.5U NSF/Montana State/U.
New Hampshire FIREBIRD space science satellites.
IGS R-Spare
-----------
The Radar Spare satellite (Reda Yobiki) in the Information Gathering Satellite (Joho Shushu Eisei)
series was launched on Feb 1 aboard an H-IIA 202 (flight F27) from Tanegashima.
The IGS satellites are operated by Japan's Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center.
IGS satellites
--------------------
Launch Initial orbit Status
km x km x deg LTDN
Radar-1 2003 Mar 28 483 x 491 x 97.3 1015 Reentered 2012 Jul 26
Radar-2 2003 Nov 29 -2500?x 422 x 97.3 1330 Failed to reach orbit
Radar-2 2007 Feb 24 485 x 490 x 97.3 1330 Reentered 2014 Apr 13
Radar-3 2011 Dec 12 510 x 515 x 97.5 1015 511 x 514 x 97.5 1030LTDN
Radar-4 2013 Jan 27 508 x 514 x 97.5 1330 511 x 514 x 97.5 1330LTDN
Radar-Spare 2015 Feb 1 490 x 510 x 97.5 1015 490 x 510 x 97.5 1015LTDN
Optical-1 2003 Mar 28 484 x 491 x 97.3 1015 Reentered 2014 Jul 18
Optical-2 2003 Nov 29 -2500?x 422 x 97.3 1330 Failed to reach orbit
Optical-2 2006 Sep 11 484 x 491 x 97.3 1330 460?x 460?x 97.4 Retired 2013?
Optical-3 Test 2007 Feb 24 486 x 488 x 97.3 1330 378 x 382 x 97.4 Retired 2011?
Optical-3 2009 Nov 28 586 x 588 x 97.8 1020 585 x 588 x 97.8 1030LTDN
Optical-4 2011 Sep 23 587 x 591 x 97.7 1330 586 x 587 x 97.7 1330LTDN
Demo Sat 2013 Jan 27 511 x 523 x 97.5 1330 425 x 428 x 97.1 Retired 2014?
Optical-2 and Demo Sat ('jissho eisei') have apparently not been
tracked by hobbyists since last summer. Optical-5 is scheduled for
launch in the near future.
(LTDN = Local time of the orbit descending node for a sun-synchronous orbit).
Inmarsat 5-F2
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The second satellite in the Inmarsat 5 series was launched on Feb 1 by Proton from Baykonur
into a supersynchronous geotransfer orbit. The 6070 kg spacecraft is a Boeing 702HP model
with Ka-band mobile broadband capacity for Inmarsat Global.
Fajr
----
Iran has launched its fourth satellite, its first successful orbital
launch since Feb 2012. Fajr (Aurora) is a 52 kg technology payload with a
cold-gas thruster developed by Iran Electronics Industries. There is
suggestive evidence (mostly based on satellite imagery of launch pad
damage revealed by the magazine Jane's Intelligence Review) that Iran
had two launch failures in 2012, as well as more speculative evidence of
further launch failures since then.
Erratum
-------
The FY satellites are operated by China's National Satellite Meteorological Centre
(Guojia weixing qixiang zhongxin), established in 1971.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
km km deg
Dec 3 0422 Hayabusa-2 ) H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Y1 Space probe 76A S40319 245 x -50912 x 29.9
Shin'en-2 ) Comms tech 76B S40320 245 x -50912 x 29.9
DESPATCH ) Art satellite 76C S40321 245 x -50912 x 29.9
PROCYON ) Space probe 76D S40322 245 x -50912 x 29.9
MASCOT ) 76 A08308 Attached to S40319
Minerva II-1a ) 76 A08305 Attached to S40319
Minerva II-1b ) 76 A08306 Attached to S40319
Minerva II-2 ) 76 A08307 Attached to S40319
SCI ) 76 A08309 Attached to S40319
DCAM-3 ) 76 A08310 Attached to S40319
Target Marker 1) 76 A08311 Attached to S40319
Target Marker 2) 76 A08312 Attached to S40319
Target Marker 3) 76 A08313 Attached to S40319
Target Marker 4) 76 A08314 Attached to S40319
Target Marker 5) 76 A08315 Attached to S40319
Dec 5 1205 Orion EFT-1 Delta 4H Canaveral SLC37B Spaceship test 77A S40329 -37 x 5809 x 28.8
Dec 6 2040 DirecTV-14 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 78B S40333 35778 x 35795 x 0.0 GEO 76W
GSAT-16 ) Comms 78A S40332 35777 x 35793 x 0.1 GEO 55E
Dec 7 0326 CBERS 4 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 79A S40336 742 x 751 x 98.5 1030LT SSO
Dec 10 1933 Yaogan 25 ) Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Sigint 80A S40338 1089 x 1097 x 63.4
Yaogan 25 fu xing 1) Sigint 80B S40339 1091 x 1097 x 63.4
Yaogan 25 fu xing 2) Sigint 80C S40340 1090 x 1098 x 63.4
Dec 13 0319 USA 259 Atlas V 541 Vandenberg SLC3E Sigint 81A S40344 2157 x 38204 x 62.8
Dec 15 0016 Yamal 401 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 82 S40345 35786 x 35787 x 0.0 GEO 90E
Dec 18 1837 O3b FM9 ) Soyuz ST-B CSG ELS Comms 83D S40351 8062 x 8068 x 0.0
O3b FM10 ) Comms 83A S40349 8063 x 8068 x 0.0
O3b FM11 ) Comms 83B S40349 8062 x 8068 x 0.0
O3b FM12 ) Comms 83C S40350 8062 x 8068 x 0.0
Dec 19 0443 Kondor-E No. 2 Strela Baykonur LC175 Radar Imager 84A S40353 498 x 501 x 74.7
Dec 23 0557 IPM Angara A5 Plesetsk LC35/1 Vehicle test 85 S40355 36155 x 39089 x 0.3
Dec 25 0301 Lotos-S No. 802 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Sigint 86A S40358 900 x 910 x 67.1
Dec 26 1855 Resurs-P No. 2 Soyuz-2-1B Baykonur LC31/6 Imaging 87A S40360 330 x 471 x 97.3 1150LT
Dec 27 0322 Yaogan 26 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 88A S40362 485 x 491 x 97.4 1030LT
Dec 27 2137 Astra 2G Proton Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 89A S40364 35783 x 35789 x 0.1 GEO 21E
Dec 31 0102 Fengyun 2-08 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang LC2 Weather 90A S40367 35770 x 35800 x 2.3 GEO 100E
Jan 10 0947 Dragon CRS-5 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 01A S40370 400 x 408 x 51.7 ISS
Jan 21 0104 MUOS 3 Atlas V 551 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 02A S40374 5592 x 35788 x 16.7
Jan 31 1422 SMAP ) Delta 7320-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Atm.Science 03A S40376 660 x 686 x 98.1 0600LT
FIREBIRD IIA ) Space sci. 03B S40377 438 x 669 x 99.1 0600LT
FIREBIRD IIB ) Space sci. 03C S40378 438 x 669 x 99.1 0600LT
GRIFEX ) Tech 03D S40379 438 x 669 x 99.1 0600LT
ExoCube CP10 ) Atm.Science 03E S40380 437 x 670 x 99.1 0600LT
Feb 1 0121 IGS Radar Spare H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Radar Imager 04A S40381 490 x 511 x 97.5 1015LT
Feb 1 1231 Inmarsat 5F2 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 05A S40384 4366 x 64968 x 26.8
Feb 2 0850? Fajr Safir Semnan Imaging 06A S40387 224 x 469 x 55.5
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
The M-TeX (NASA 46.009/010) and MIST (NASA 41.111/112) sounding rocket
launches from Poker Flat, Alaska on Jan 26 involved chemical releases to study the upper atmosphere.
On Jan 28 a larger Oriole IV rocket carried the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Dec 2 0449 Agni RV Agni 4 Wheeler I. Test 300?
Dec 11 1911 NASA 36.295US Black Brant IX White Sands Solar X-ray 338
Dec 13 RVs ? DF-41? Taiyuan Test 1000?
Dec 16 Target Blue Sparrow?? F-15, Med. Sea ABM Target 100?
Dec 18 0400 CARE/LVM3-X GSLV-3 Srikarikota SLP Test flight 126
Dec 26 0802 RV x 4? Yars Plesetsk Test 1000?
Jan 26 0913 NASA 46.009UE Terrier Imp. Mal. Poker Flat Atmosphere 160?
Jan 26 0914 NASA 41.111UE Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Jan 26 0946 NASA 46.010UE Terrier Imp. Mal. Poker Flat Atmosphere 160?
Jan 26 0947 NASA 41.112UE Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Jan 28 1041 NASA 49.002UE Oriole IV Poker Flat Aurora 590?
Jan 31 0236 RV Agni V Chandipur Test 800
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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