[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 722

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.org
Wed Feb 17 22:45:16 EST 2016


Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 722                                                        2016 Feb 17  Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
---------------------------

Expedition 46 continues aboard ISS with Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov,
Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Tim Peake.

The AggieSat-4 satellite was ejected from the ISS on Jan 29 using the Kibo JRMS arm and the
SSIKLOPS deployer. The 55 kg AggieSat-4, developed by students at Texas A&M University, will
eject the 3U cubesat Bevo-2 (from students at U. Texas-Austin) and perform formation flying
experiments with it.

On Feb 3 astronauts Malenchenko and Volkov carried out spacewalk VKD-42 from the Pirs module.
The hatch was opened at 1255 UTC and closed at 1740 UTC. They retrieved the EXPOSE-R2
and SKK 2-M2 materials exposure experiments and installed SKK 3-M2 and two Vinoslivost panels.
They also jettisoned a small package consisting of a bag of towels attached to a commemorative
flash drive with videos about World War II to celebrate the 70th anniversary of 'Victory Day'.
The inert package will reenter in a few days or weeks.

Erratum: the Cygnus OA-4 cargo ship is berthed at the nadir port on Unity, not Harmony.

ASTRO-H
-------

Congratulations to my ISAS colleagues on the successful launch of the
ASTRO-H X-ray astronomy observatory on Feb 17. ASTRO-H rode H2A No. 30
from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center to a low Earth orbit. It carries
an array of five X-ray telescopes.

The SXT-1 soft-X-ray telescope operates in the 0.3-12 keV range and has the SXI
(Soft X-ray Imager) camera at its focus; this uses a conventional (but improved)
6.5-megapixel X-ray CCD imager similar to those used on Suzaku, Chandra and XMM.
SXT's angular resolution is about 100 arcseconds, compared to Chandra's
fraction of an arcsecond, so the pictures will be relatively blurry, although
SXT-1/SXI has better senstivity at higher energies than Chandra does.

The SXT-2 soft X-ray telescope has similar optics but at its focus is 
the SXS (Soft X-ray Spectrometer), which failed on its previous mission aboard
ASTRO-E-II/Suzaku. SXS is an X-ray calorimeter cooled to 50 milliKelvin to provide
super-high spectral resolution, and it's a technology that X-ray astronomers
have been trying to fly since the 1990s.

HXT-1 and HXT-2, two hard X-ray telescopes operating from 5 to 80 keV, have
a 12-metre focal length requiring their HXI cameras to be mounted on an extensible
optical bench which deploys after launch. The HXIs use a new technology, with a layer
of DSSD (double-sided silicon strip) and a layer of CdTe cross-strip detectors
to pick up different energy ranges.

Finally the SGD, or soft gamma-ray detector, picks up photons in the 40 to 600 keV
energy range. It doesn't have a focussing telescope and will only be able to
locate soft gamma ray emission to within half a degree or so.

JAXA/ISAS has named the satellite 'Hitomi' (eye-pupil), despite the fact
that another currently operating satellite from the nearby University of Tokyo
already has that name. 

IRNSS
-----

India launched its 5th navigation satellite on Jan 20. The PSLV-XL
delivered it to a subsynchronous transfer orbit. By early February it
was in an inclined synchronous orbit at 35697 x 35874 km x 28.1 deg.
IRNSS-R1C is in an near-equatorial orbit at 83E; the remainder are in
the 28 degree inclined orbits, with R1A and R1B over about 55E and R1D
and R1E over about 112E.

LISA Pathfinder
---------------

LISA Pathfinder is now in the vicinity of Sun-Earth L1. The propulsion module
was jettisoned at 1130 UTC Jan 22; it will probably end up in solar orbit.
LPF uncaged its test masses on Feb 16.

Intelsat 29e
------------

Arianespace placed the IS-29e communications satellite in a
low-inclination geotransfer orbit on Jan 27. IS-29e carries C, Ku and
Ka-band communications payload and is the first of Intelsat's new
broadband high-throughput 'Epic-NG' series, built by Boeing using the
BSS-702MP bus. Launch mass was 6552 kg.

Eutelsat 9B
-----------

International Launch Services and Khrunichev flew a Proton from Baykonur
on Jan 29 placing the Eutelsat 9B satellite in geotransfer. The European
communications operator Eutelsat will use the satellite's 66 Ku-band
transponders to increase performance at the 9 degrees East location. The
satellite also carries a European Space Agency  laser communications
package, EDRS-A, as part of the European Data Relay System. EDRS will
relay data from low-orbiting satellites, converting an optical
communications signal from the satellite to a Ka-band radio downlink.

Glonass-M
---------

Glonass-M No. 51 (Uragan-M 751, Kosmos-2514) was launched on Feb 7 from
Plesetsk to supplement the Russian navigation constellation.

KMS-4
------

North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA, Kukga
uju gaebalkuk) carried out its second successful satellite launch on Feb
7 from the Sohae base. The satellite, Kwangmyongsong-4, entered a 500 km
polar orbit like the KMS-3-2 satellite launched in 2012. It appears both
satellite and launch vehicle are very similar to the 2012 mission. The
launch vehicle this time carries the name 'Kwangmyongsong' but appears
to be essentially identical to the Unha-3 launched in 2012. As of Feb 17, hobbyist
observers have not picked up any radio signals from it (there was some
early confusion due to signals from a European METOP satellite in a
similar orbit.)

NROL-45
-------

On Feb 10 ULA launched a Delta 4 with the USA 267 satellite for the US
National Reconnaissance Office. The launch was designated NRO L-45.
The USA 267 payload has been observed in a 1078 x 1085 km orbit
with a retrograde 123 degree inclination, characteristic of the TOPAZ
radar imaging satellites.

Sentinel-3A
-----------

A Eurockot/Krunichev Rokot (UR-100N missile with Briz-KM upper stage)
was launched from Plesetsk on Feb 16. The Briz-KM entered a 153 x 785 km
transfer orbit followed by an 802 x 806 km target orbit, deploying the
Sentinel-3A satellite. It then lowered perigee to 411 x 744 km to reduce
orbital lifetime.

ESA's Sentinel-3A is part of the European Union's Copernicus remote
sensing program, and carries an ocean color imaging payload and an
ocean-topography radar altimeter payload.



Erratum
-------

In the last issue the China launch statistics should have read 17 CZ2/3/4 launches, not 16.


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

Jan 15 1657   Belintersat-1       Chang Zheng 3B     Xichang LC3       Comms          01A   S41238    193 x 41730 x  26.4
Jan 17 1842   Jason-3             Falcon 9 v1.1      Vandenberg SLC4E  Climate        02A   S41240   1295 x  1320 x  66.0
Jan 20 0401   IRNSS-1E            PSLV-XL            Satish Dhawan SLP Nav            03A   S41241    288 x 20547 x  19.2
Jan 27 2320   Intelsat IS-29e     Ariane 5ECA        Kourou ELA3       Comms          04A   S41308    280 x 35525 x   0.6
Jan 29 1550   AggieSat-4                             ISS, LEO          Tech        98-067HP S41313    399 x   408 x  51.7
Jan 29 2220   Eutelsat 9B         Proton-M/Briz-M    Baykonur LC200/39 Comms          05A   S41310   4374 x 35663 x  12.1
Feb  1 0729   Beidou DW21         Chang Zheng 3C/YZ1 Xichang           Navigation     06A   S41315  21512 x 21981 x  55.0
Feb  3 1322   Fleshka             -                  ISS, LEO        Commemorative 98-067HR?S41326?   395 x   406 x  51.6
Feb  5 1338   GPS SVN 70          Atlas V 401        Canaveral SLC41   Navigation     07A   S41328  20438 x 20442 x  55.0 
Feb  7 0021   Glonass-M No. 51    Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat  Plesetsk LC43/4   Navigation     08A   S41330  19132 x 19158 x  64.8
Feb  7 0030   Kwangmyongsong-4    Kwangmyongsong     Sohae             Imaging        09A   S41332    465 x   501 x  97.5 0840LT SSO
Feb 10 1140   TOPAZ 4?            Delta 4M+(5,2)     Vandenberg SLC6   Radar          10A   S41334   1078 x  1085 x 123.0   
Feb 16 1757   Sentinel-3A         Rokot              Plesetsk LC133    Imaging/Alt    11A   S41335    802 x   806 x  98.6 1000LT SSO
Feb 17 0845   Hitomi     )        H2A 202            Tanegashima       X-ray Astron   12A   S41337    565 x   580 x  31.0
              Kinshachi-2)                                             Imaging        12B?  S41338    559 x   579 x  31.0
              Kinshachi-3)                                             Space Sci      12C?  S41339    558 x   578 x  31.0
              Horyu-4    )                                             Tech           12D?  S41340    557 x   578 x  31.0

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

Blue Origin reflew the second NS propulsion module to 101.7 km on Jan 22 and successfully
landed it. The crew capsule separated near apogee and was recovered by parachute. It's
not clear whether this was the same crew capsule as in earlier flights.


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

Dec 15        Shaheen RV       Shaheen IA          Somniani?,Pakistan    Test          100?      Arabian Sea
Dec 18 0652   FORTIS 3         Black Brant IX      White Sands           UV Astron     282       White Sands
Dec 24 1755   Topol'-E RV?     Topol'              Kapustin Yar          Reentry test 1000?      Sary Shagan
Jan 15 0300   S-310-44         S-310               Uchinoura             Ionosphere    161       Pacific Ocean
Jan 22        New Shepard CC   New Shepard         West Texas            Test          101       West Texas
Jan 23 0830   TEXUS 53         VSB-30              Kiruna                Micrograv     252       ESRANGE Zone B
Jan 28 2155?  MBRV?            eMBRM?             C-17, Pacific          Target        300?      E Pacific
Jan 28 2157   CE-II CTV-02+    GBI                 Vandenberg            Interceptor  1000?      E Pacific
Feb  2 2109   SPIDER/LEEWAVES  VS-30               Kiruna                Auroral       138       ESRANGE Zone B

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