[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 727

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.org
Thu Jul 7 00:17:51 EDT 2016


Jonathan's Space Report 
No. 727                                                        2016 Jul 7 Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

On Jun 18 Expedition 47 crew members Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Tim
Peake transferred from the Rassvet module to Soyuz TMA-19, closing hatches
at 0235 UTC and undocking at 0552 UTC. Soyuz TMA-19M made its deorbit
burn at 0822 UTC and reentered for a safe landing in Kazakhstan at 0915 UTC.

At 0552 UTC Jun 18 Expedition 48 formally began with commander Jeff Williams
and flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.

The Nanoracks NRCSD-8 successfully completed ejecting its cubesats on
Jun 2. On Jun 14 the Canadarm-2 unberthed Cygnus OA-6 from the Unity
module at 1143 UTC and released it into orbit at 1330 UTC. Cygnus then
performed the SAFIRE-1 experiment igniting a significant fire inside an
experiment chamber in the Cygnus pressurized PCM module. Mounted on the
Cygnus service module was the first NRCSD-E external cubesat deployer
carrying 5 Lemur-2 satellites. On Jun 21 two pairs of Lemur-2 cubesats
were ejected (the deployment times have not been revealed). A third
deployer silo with a single Lemur-2 failed to open, and the cubesat
remained inside when then following day Cygnus made its deorbit burn and
reentered over the South Pacific at 1329 UTC Jun 22.

Progress MS-01 undocked from the Pirs module at 0536 UTC on Jul 1, backed off
to 180m, and redocked at 0605 UTC under TORU remote control. During redocking
there was an incorrect thruster firing that made the vehicle swing visibly
from side to side. The problem is reportedly under investigation but did not
affect Progress MS-01's final undocking, which happened at 0348 UTC Jul 3.
Progress MS-01 was deorbited and destroyed over the South Pacifc at 0750 UTC Jul 3.

Soyuz MS-01 was launched on Jul 7 into a 181 x 239 km orbit; it is
scheduled to dock with the ISS on Jul 9. The Soyuz MS is a new variant
of the ferry ship with upgraded onboard systems. Crew are Anatoliy
Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kate Rubins (NASA).


IS-31
-----

The Intelsat IS-31 satellite with the DirecTV Latin America 2 (DLA-2)
Ku-band payload was launched on an ILS Proton on Jun 9 into
supersynchronous transfer orbit. The Proton second stage suffered an
early shutdown of one of its 4 engines, leaving the vehicle 28m/s slow
at stage 3 separation. Fortunately the Briz-M stage was able to correct
the problem by adjusting its burn times and delivered the satellite to
the correct orbit.

Delta 4 Heavy
-------------

A Delta 4H was launched from Cape Canaveral on Jun 11 on the NROL-37
mission to carry a large signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellite, USA
268, to geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean.

There have been two main lineages of GEO SIGINT satellites operated by
the US National Reconnaissance Office: MERCURY (originally CANYON); and
RHYOLITE (later AQUACADE), which was replaced in the 1980s by ORION
(whose other rumoured codenames include MAGNUM and MENTOR). Launches of
the MERCURY series ended in 1998, at which time it was rumoured that its
capabilites would be merged into the ORION series. A number of observers
have suggested that the 2014 GEO SIGINT launch of USA 250 on an Atlas V
was a one-off mission not part of the ORION series, and that with an
increase in mass ORION has moved to using the RS-68A-powered Delta 4
Heavy rockets. 

It has further been suggested that the 2014 launch might be the NEMESIS
2 satellite mentioned in leaked FY2013 budget documents; however a close
reading of those documents shows that funding for the latter project was
cut off after FY2011, which to me implies that it was either launched by
then or cancelled (more likely given the sudden drop from
half-billion-dollar-level funding to zero). The documents also mention
SHARP, the SIGINT High Altitude Replenishment Program, funded at a high
level in FY2011-2013 and reportedly also since. It's possible the 2012
and 2016 launches may represent a new ORION/SHARP series, or that they
are beefed up ORION and the 2014 launch is a SHARP prototype. The
shorter fairing used for the 2014 launch suggests that it was not in
fact an ORION; the following list is based on that assumption but later
revision may be needed.

Here, then, are the ORION series launches:
  Mission    Official  Launch Date     Rocket                 Orbital Location
  (my guess) codename

  ORION 1    USA 8    1985 Jan 24      STS 51-C                70E (?-2014)
  ORION 2    USA 48   1989 Nov 23      STS-33R                 90E (?-2013)
  ORION 3    USA 110  1995 May 14      Titan 401A/Centaur     127E 
  ORION 4    USA 139  1998 May  9      Titan 401B/Centaur      45E (?-2009), 26W (2011-)
  ORION 5    USA 171  2003 Sep  9      Titan 401B/Centaur      95E (2008-9), 68E (2012-)
  ORION 6    USA 202  2009 Jan 18      Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68)   44E
  ORION 7    USA 223  2010 Nov 21      Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68)   95E
  ORION 8?   USA 237  2012 Jun 29      Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68A)  53E
  SHARP 1?   USA 250  2014 Apr 10      Atlas V 541            163W
  ORION 9?   USA 268  2016 Jun 11      Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68A) 102E


Beidou
------

Beidou Daohang Weixing 23 is the 7th geostationary satellite in the
Beidou-2 generation. It was launched Jun 12.

Falcon 9
---------

Falcon 9 vehicle 26 flew on Jun 15. The second stage made two burns to deliver a pair
of Boeing BSS-702SP satellites to supersynchronous transfer orbits. This is the second
matched pair of all-electric-propulsion payloads, which use ion engines to complete
the trip to GEO. ABS-2A will supplement Asia Broadcast Satellite's ABS-2, and Eutelsat
117 West B (the former Satmex 9) will provide service for Eutelsat Americas, supplementing
Satmex 8 (now renamed Eutelsat 117 West A).


Ariane 5
--------

Ariane 5 vehicle L584 put two communications satellites in geotransfer
orbit on Jun 18. BRISat is dedicated to banking services for the
Indonesian bank PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk.    of Jakarta.
Despite some claims to the contrary this is NOT the first satellite
launched intended to be dedicated to banking, but the second; it follows
the Russian Central Bank's Kupon satelite which operated for a few
months in 1997-1998. It's unlikely Kupon ever entered operational
service, though.

Cartosat-2
----------

India launched a Cartosat-2 series imaging satellite on Jun 22 into a
500 x 518 km orbit. The PSLV rocket then deployed a swarm of small
satellites:

         Time (UTC)      Satellite
         0412:07         Cartosat-2C, 727 kg
         0412:42         Sathyabamasat, 1.5 kg 2U cubesat for Sathyabama U. of Chennai
                                      with a greenhouse-gas IR spectrometer
         0412:43         Swayam, 1 kg 1U cubesat from COEP (College of Engineering, Pune)
                                      with technology and amateur radio payloads.
         0413:22         LAPAN-A3, a 120 kg imaging satellite for Indonesia's LAPAN space agency
                         BIROS, a 130 kg infrared satellite to study fires, for Germany's DLR,
                          which also carries the BEESAT-4 cubesat to be ejected later.
         0414:00         M3MSat/earthView-7, an 85 kg AIS satellite for Canada's Dept of National Defense
         0414:01         Skysat Gen2-1, a 110 kg imaging satellite for TerraBella's constellation
         0414:20         Claire, a 25 kg University of Toronto satellite to study greenhouse gases.
         0415:20 to 0421:30  Flock 2p-1 to 2p-12, 3U imaging cubesats for Planet (formerly PlanetLabs).

The PS4 final stage then made two burns to lower its orbit to 447 x 480 km.

MUOS 5
------

The US Navy Multiple User Object System's Space Vehicle 3 was launched on Jun 24 as MUOS 5.
The Atlas 5 rocket made three burns to 167 x 659 km x 28 deg, 191 x 32930 x 26 deg
and then 3802 x 35786 km x 19 deg, and deployed MUOS which will use its Japanese BT-4
thruster to reach GEO over the Indian Ocean as an in-orbit spare for the system,
whose 4 operational satellites are over the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean
and the Americas.

CZ-7
----

China inaugurated the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island on Jun 25 with
the launch of the first Chang Zheng 7 rocket. The CZ-7 entered orbit
with a YZ-1A upper stage, which made several burns to deploy small satellites
and then was deorbited along with a subscale spacecraft reentry cabin to
qualify systems for the next generation of Chinese human spaceflight missions.

Four small satellites are ejected from the YZ-1A: the Aoxiang Zhixing is
the first 12U cubesat, with a mass of 18 kg (33 kg including payload
adapter). Ao Long 1 is an active space debris removal experiment; Tiange
feixingqi 1 and 2, if I understand the Chinese press reports, are a pair
of satellites testing data relay to each other, perhaps similar to
NASA's recently-launched Nodes 1 and 2 (or, maybe just a pair of
communications test satellites with less ambitious goals - I can't quite
tell). Attached to the YZ-1A as a non-separable payload is the 'zai
guijia zhu shiyan zhuangzhi', the In-Orbit Refeulling Experimental
Device. The YZ-1A would be deorbited over the Pacific after the
experiment is completed; the stage has a design operation life of 48
hours. US tracking indicates the stage was deorbited on Jun 27 as expected.

The primary payload is the DFFC (Duoyongtu Feichuan Fanhui Cang,
multipurpose subscale spacecraft return capsule) flight test mission,
which is to be recovered in China. There is also a ballast frame (pei
zhong zhijia) which may be a dummy service module for the capsule. 
The capsule was deorbited on Jun 26 and landed in China at 0741 UTC.
It seems possible that the YZ-1A stage performed the deorbit and then
separated to fire again immediately, regain orbit and continue operations
for another day, but the details of what actually happened are not clear.

The objects from the launch, based on comparing the Space-Track identifications
with the orbital data and the Chinese media reports, are:
  42E        CZ-7 second stage            203 x 378 x 40.8
  42G,H,J,K  Separation motor covers      199 x 570 x 40.5  

  42A        YZ-1A upper stage            203 x 378 x 40.8 (initial orbit)
                                          287 x 381 x 40.8  after burn 1 at apogee 1
                                           40?x 290 x 40.8 Deorbit of DFFC
                                          280 x 290 x 40.8  after reorbit?
                                           40?x 290 x 40.8 Final deorbit of YZ-1                                        

  -          DFFC reentry capsule         Attached to YZ-1A until deorbit
  42F        Ao Long 1                    202 x 379 x 40.8
  42C        Ao Long adapter?             200 x 379 x 40.8
  42D       "Reentry shroud"              200 x 377 x 40.8 (Ballast structure?)
  42B        Aoxiang zhixing              289 x 376 x 40.8
  42L,M      Tiange 1,2                   280 x 290 x 40.8  


Cassini
-------

Cassini made the T-120 flyby of Titan at an altitude of 975 km on Jun 7 at 1407 UTC.


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

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   9867HV   S41475    398 x   402 x  51.6
              CADRE  )                                                 Science     9867HU   S41474    398 x   402 x  51.6
May 16 1440   STMSat-1 )                             ISS, LEO          Tech        9867HW   S41476    399 x   402 x  51.6
              Nodes 1  )                                               Tech        9867HX   S41477    398 x   403 x  51.6
              Nodes 2  )                                               Tech        9867HY   S41478    400 x   401 x  51.6
May 17 0845   Flock 2e'-1/0D05)                      ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867HZ   S41479    399 x   402 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-2/0C1B)                                        Imaging     9867JB   S41481    400 x   401 x  51.6
May 17 1200   Flock 2e'-3/0D06)                      ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JA   S41480    398 x   402 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-4/0C22)                                        Imaging     9867JC   S41482    399 x   402 x  51.6
May 17 2300   Flock 2e-1/0C37)                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JD   S41483    398 x   403 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-2/0C78)                                         Imaging     9867JE   S41484    398 x   402 x  51.6
May 18 0215   Flock 2e-3/0C60)                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JG   S41486    399 x   402 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-4/0C41)                                         Imaging     9867JH   S41487    398 x   403 x  51.6
May 18 0705   Lemur-2 Theresacondor                  ISS, LEO          Met-RO      9867JF   S41485    400 x   401 x  51.6
              Lemur-2 Kane                                             Met-RO      9867JJ   S41488    399 x   401 x  51.6
May 18 1115   Lemur-2 Nick-Allain                    ISS, LEO          Met-RO      9867JK   S41489    399 x   401 x  51.6
              Lemur-2 Jeff                                             Met-RO      9867JL   S41490    399 x   401 x  51.6
May 24 0848   GalileoSat-13 )     Soyuz ST-B         CSG               Navigation   30B     S41549  23551 x 23566 x  57.4
              GalileoSat-14 )                                          Navigation   30A     S41550  23553 x 23616 x  57.4
May 27 2139   Thaicom 8           Falcon 9 FT        Canaveral SLC40   Comms        31A     S41552    347 x 90190 x  21.2
May 29 0844   Kosmos-2516         Soyuz-2-1B         Plesetsk LC43/4   Navigation   32A     S41554  19124 x 19152 x  64.8
May 30 0317   Ziyuan-3 02  )      Chang Zheng 4B     Taiyuan           Imaging      33A     S41556    484 x   499 x  97.5 1024LT SSO
              Fresco       )                                           Imaging      33B     S41557    481 x   499 x  97.5 1024LT SSO
              Batata       )                                           Imaging      33C     S41558    481 x   499 x  97.5 1024LT SSO
May 30 1140   Flock 2e-5/0C43)                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JN             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-6/0C75)                                         Imaging     9867JM             401 x   404 x  51.6
May 31 0045   Flock 2e-7/0C24)                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JP             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-8/0C2B)                                         Imaging     9867JQ             401 x   404 x  51.6
May 31 0400   Flock 2e'-5/0C59                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JR             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-6/0C46                                         Imaging     9867JS             401 x   404 x  51.6
May 31 0935   Flock 2e'-7/0C42                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JT             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-8/0C76                                         Imaging     9867JU             401 x   404 x  51.6
May 31 2355   Flock 2e-9/0C14                        ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JV             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-10/0C82                                         Imaging     9867JW             401 x   404 x  51.6
Jun  1 0310   Flock 2e-11/0C13                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JY             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e-12/0C79                                         Imaging     9867JX             401 x   404 x  51.6
Jun  1 0625   Flock 2e'-9/0C19                       ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867JZ             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-10/0C65                                        Imaging     9867KA             401 x   404 x  51.6
Jun  2 0215   Flock 2e'-11/0C27                      ISS, LEO          Imaging     9867KB             401 x   404 x  51.6
              Flock 2e'-12/0C81                                        Imaging     9867KC             401 x   404 x  51.6
Jun  4 1400   Kosmos-2517          Rokot             Plesetsk LC133    Geodetic      34A    S41579    936 x   961 x  99.3 0600LT SSO
Jun  9 0710   Intelsat IS-31       Proton/Briz-M     Baykonur LC81/24  Comms         35A    S41581   3362 x 65039 x  29.5
Jun 11 1751   USA 268              Delta 4H          Canaveral SLC37   Sigint        36A    S41584  35612 x 36000 x   7.5 GEO 103E drift
Jun 12 1530   Beidou DW 23         Chang Zheng 3C    Xichang LC3       Navigation    37A    S41586    217 x 34574 x  19.3
Jun 15 1429   Eutelsat 117 West B) Falcon 9 FT       Canaveral SLC40   Comms         38A?   S41588    399 x 62761 x  24.7
              ABS-2A             )                                     Comms         38B?   S41589    395 x 62649 x  24.6
Jun 18 2138   Echostar 18  )       Ariane 5          Kourou ELA3       Comms         39B    S41592  33289 x 35796 x   0.1
              BRISat       )                                           Comms         39A    S41591  32931 x 35702 x   0.0
Jun 21        Lemur-2-Cubecheese )                SS Rick Husband, LEO AIS/MET-RO    19E    S41598    388 x   394 x  51.6
              Lemur-2-Bridgeman  )                                     AIS/MET-RO    19B    S41595    389 x   393 x  51.6
Jun 21        Lemur-2-Nate       )                                     AIS/MET-RO    19D    S41597    388 x   394 x  51.6
              Lemur-2-DrMuzz     )                                     AIS/MET-RO    19C    S41596    388 x   394 x  51.6
Jun 22 0355   Cartosat-2 Series )  PSLV              SDSC SLP          Imaging       40A    S41599    500 x   518 x  97.5 0930LT SSO
              Sathyabamasat     )                                      Atmos. Sci    40B    S41600    499 x   519 x  97.5
              Swayam            )                                      Tech          40J    S41607    499 x   518 x  97.5
              LAPAN-A3          )                                      Imaging       40E    S41603    500 x   517 x  97.5
              BIROS             )                                      Imaging       40F    S41604    500 x   516 x  97.5
              SkySat 2G-1       )                                      Imaging       40C    S41601    501 x   515  x 97.5
              M3MSat            )                                      AIS           40G    S41605    500 x   515  x 97.5
              Claire            )                                      Atmos.Sci     40D    S41602    500 x   511  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-1        )                                      Imaging       40U    S41617    499 x   513  x 97.5      
              Flock 2P-2        )                                      Imaging       40L    S41609    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-3        )                                      Imaging       40V    S41618    499 x   513  x 97.5      
              Flock 2P-4        )                                      Imaging       40N    S41611    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-5        )                                      Imaging       40T    S41616    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-6        )                                      Imaging       40H    S40606    500 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-7        )                                      Imaging       40S    S41615    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-8        )                                      Imaging       40Q    S41613    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-9        )                                      Imaging       40M    S41610    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-10       )                                      Imaging       40P    S41612    499 x   514  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-11       )                                      Imaging       40K    S41608    499 x   513  x 97.5
              Flock 2P-12       )                                      Imaging       40R    S41614    499 x   513  x 97.5
Jun 24 1430   MUOS 5                Atlas V 551      Canaveral SLC41   Comms         41A    S41622   3880 x 35670 x  19.1
Jun 25 1200   DFFC                ) Chang Zheng 7    Wenchang LC201    Reentry test  42     A08387    288 x   382 x  40.8
              Aoxiang zhixing     )                                    Tech          42B    S41625    289 x   376 x  40.8
              Aolong 1            )                                    Tech          42F    S41629    198 x   367 x  40.8
              Tiange feixingqi 1  )                                    Tech          42L    S41636    277 x   289 x  40.8
              Tiange feixingqi 2  )                                    Tech          42M    S41637    277 x   287 x  40.8
              ZGZ shiyan zhuangzhi)                                    Tech          42A    S41624    287 x   381 x  40.8
Jun 29 0321   Shi Jian 16-02        Chang Zheng 4B   Jiuquan           Sigint?       43A    S41634    596 x   616 x  75.0
Jul  7 0136   Soyuz MS-01           Soyuz-FG         Baykonur LC1      Spaceship     44A    S41639    181 x   239 x  51.7

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

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

May 18 0045?  HiFire-5B        VS-30/Orion         Woomera               Hypersonic    278       Woomera Range
May 18 0702   FTX-21 Target    MRBM-T3             Kauai                 Target        300?      Pacific
May 25        Nudol'           Nudol'              Plesetsk              Test          100?      -
May 25        CTV-01a          SM-3-IB            DDG-70, Kauai          Test          100?      Pacific
May 26        CTV-02           SM-3-IB            DDG-70, Kauai          Test          100?      Pacific
Jun  1 1900   NASA 36.318UE    Black Brant 9       White Sands           Solar UV      290       White Sands
Jun 19 1436   New Shepard CC   New Shepard         West Texas            Test          101       West Texas
Jun 21 2058   RV               Hwasong 10          Kittaeryong?          Test          100?      Sea of Japan
Jun 21 2305   RV               Hwasong 10          Kittaeryong?          Test         1414       Sea of Japan
Jun 24 1006   RockOn/Rocksat-C Terrier Imp.Orion   Wallops I.            Education     119       Atlantic Ocean
Jun 30 0943   MaxiDusty        Imp. Malemute       Andoya                Atmos.Sci     115       ARR
Jul  1 0718   RV x 6?          M51               S616, Baie d'Audierne   Test         1000?      North Atlantic

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