[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 743
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.com
Mon Dec 25 02:57:31 EST 2017
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 743 2017 Dec 25 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 54 began at 0514 UTC Dec 14 when ferry ship Soyuz MS-05
undocked from the Rassvet module returning Ryazinskiy, Bresnik and
Nespoli to Earth, leaving Misurkin, Vande Hei, and Acaba aboard ISS.
Soyuz MS-05 landed in Kazakhstan at 0837 UTC Dec 14.
Cargo ship Cygnus OA-8E (SS Gene Cernan) was unberthed from Unity at
1752 UTC Dec 5 and released into orbit at 1311 UTC Dec 6. On Dec 6
it raised its orbit from 402 x 407 km to 447 x 456 km. It then deployed 14
cubesats on Dec 6 and 7, and lowered its orbit on Dec 8 to 384 x 396 km, below
the ISS. The ship remained in orbit for tests until it was deorbited
on Dec 18, with entry over the South Pacific at 1254 UTC.
The cubesats deployed include 8 Lemur-2 AIS/weather satellites for Spire Global,
the ISARA experiment from JPL to test using the back of a solar array
as a radio antenna, the Aerocube 7C and 7D satellites from Aerospace Corp.
to test proximity operations using cold gas thrusters as well as ground-space
laser communications, NRL's CHEFSat to space-qualify a new radio system,
and the Naval Postgraduate School's PropCube to study ionspheric propagation.
Also deployed was the 2U cubesat Asgardia-1, built by Near Space Ltd. (Indiana)
for Asgardia Space, an organization based in Vienna whose goal is to create
an independent space nation (I am skeptical of their chances).
Cargo ship Dragon CRS-13 was launched on Dec 15 at 1536 UTC. CRS-13 uses reused
capsule C108 and a new trunk (no. 15); it was launched on a Falcon 9
using reused stage 1 B1035 and new stage 2 no. 46. The second stage was
deorbited southwest of Australia at about 1630 UTC. CRS-13 arrived at
the ISS on Dec 17; it was grappled by the Canadarm-2 at 1057 UTC and
berthed on the Harmony nadir port at 1326 UTC.
The Dragon trunk carries the TSIS solar observatory and the SDS space
debris sensor. TSIS will be installed on ELC3; SDS will go on the
Columbus external payload location replacing RapidScat.
Ferry ship Soyuz MS-07 was launched on Dec 17 at 0721 UTC and docked with the
Rassvet module at 0839 UTC on Dec 29. Crew are Shkaplerov, Tingle and
Kanai. Soyuz MS-07 is vehicle no. 737, and ISS flight 53S.
Meteor-M launch failure
-----------------------
On Nov 28 Russia's Roskosmos launched a Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat from
Vostochniy, the second launch from that new spaceport (formerly
Svobodniy). The Soyuz reached its planned orbit of around 35 x 200 km
but then the Fregat upper stage fired in the wrong direction due to a
bug in its control algorithm. Its first burn should have put the stack
in an orbit of roughly 200 x 800 km, but instead reached about -470 x
202 km and drove the payload down into the atmosphere over the Atlantic
Ocean. Airliners flying near 50N 35W saw the reentry. Roskosmos
reported a likely crash site at 42N 38W.
The third stage continued on in the original orbit and plunged into the
ocean further south, near 15N 45W, off the north coast of S America.
The primary payload was the Meteor-M No. 2-1 weather satellite.
Secondary payloads lost on the launch were LEO Vantage 2
(Telesat/Canada, built by UTIAS/Toronto and SSLMDA); Baumanets-2 from
Bauman Technical University; the Astroscale IDEA-OSG-1 space debris
experiment, Corvus-BC-3 and 4 for AstroDigital, AISSAT-3 for Norway, the
SEAM and D-Star cubesas from KTH/Sweden and German Orbital Systems, and
ten Lemur-2 satellites from Spire Global.
Kosmos-2524
-----------
Russia launched a signals intelligence satellite on Dec 2 into an
elliptical orbit of 240 x 900 km. The satellite, Lotos-S1 No. 803
(codenamed Kosmos-2524), maneuvered at 0655 UTC on Dec 4 into a circular
900 x 909 km orbit.
LKW
---
China launched a high resolution imaging satellite, Ludi Kancha Weixing
1 (LKW 1, Land Survey Satellite 1), into 500 km sun-sync orbit on Dec 3.
A second such satellite, LKW 2, was launched on Dec 23 into the same
orbit but phased 180 degrees away.
Shikisai/Tsubame
-----------------
Japan launched an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima on Dec 23 carrying two satellites
into different orbits. First, the Global Change Observation Mission - Core Satellite
(GCOM-C, named 'Shikisai') was inserted in 790 x 793 km sun-synchronous orbit.
Shikisai carries the SLGO (Second generation GLobal Land Imager) 250-metre-resolution
visible/IR camera to monitor changes in aerosols, cloud cover and vegetation.
Then the H-IIA second stage moved to a 461 x 795 km orbit and ejected a small adapter.
A further burn lowered apogee somewhat to 457 x 629 km, at which point the Super Low
Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS, named 'Tsubame') was deployed. SLATS will use its
own propulsion to lower its orbit further and test satellite control at low orbital
altitudes.
Note that Tsubame is also the name of a satellite launched by the Tokyo Institute
of Technology in Nov 2014. I deplore JAXA's habit of reusing existing satellite names
(they did it for Hitomi as well) - it will cause unnecessary confusion for historians
for the next thousand years or so.
Iridium
--------
Ten more Iridium communications satellites were launched on a Falcon 9
from Vandenberg on Dec 23. No attempt was made to recover the first
stage (B1036, on its second flight), although it is rumoured that an
attempt to recover half of the nose fairing was made. The launch came at
local sunset, so the rocket plume was illuminated and widely observed in
the southern California area. The second stage was deorbited after
deploying the payloads.
Launch of the Falcon 9 came 72 seconds after the H2A launch. This is a
new record for the shortest time between two orbital launch attempts,
breaking the 4m44s interval between Kosmos-385 and Peole in Dec 1970.
Alcomsat
--------
China launched a DFH-4 communications satellite for Algeria on Dec 10.
By Dec 24 the satellite was stationary over 24.8W.
Beijing's China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) has now launched
5-tonne GEO comsats for a variety of countries: Nigeria, Venezuela,
Pakistan, Bolivia, Laos, Belarus and Algeria.
GalileoSat
----------
Four European Union Galileo navigation satellites were placed in Plane A
by an Ariane 5ES on Dec 12. The Ariane 5ES uses the older EPS upper
stage, and the EPC core stage makes almost a whole orbit with
a high apogee, 42 x 3340 km x 55.4 deg! (Thanks to @DutchSpace
for passing on the data). It reentered over the east
Pacific at 2038 UTC after two hours in space. The EPS, meanwhile,
entered an elliptical orbit to coast to a 22900 km apogee where it
restarted to circularize to a 22900 x 22930 km x 57.0 deg orbit
for payload deployment.
The payloads are the FM 15 to 19 FOC satellites, GSAT0215 to 0219,
GalileoSat 19-22 (Galileo has a ridiculous number of parallel
designation systems). This is the first launch under the aegis of the
GSA (European GNSS Agency) which took over Galileo operations from ESA
in July. GSA's control centre is colocated with the German national
control center GSOC at Oberpfaffenhofen southwest of Munich.
None of the Galileo satellites have been registered with the UN, in
violation of UN Resolution 1721B and the UN Registration Convention. The
satellites were launched by France (via Arianespace) and operated until
now by ESA; both France and ESA have UN satellite registers, and the
fact that the EU does not (yet) have a register suggests to me that ESA
should be the effective `launching state' since they had effective
control of the satellites.
Galileo satellite launches -
FM GSAT Code Name SVID/Slot LV Site LaunchDate Peri Apo Inc COSPAR
Giove A GIOVE A E01,E51/- Soyuz-FG/Fregat KB LC31 2005 Dec 28 23314 x 23362 x 56.1 2005-51A
Giove B GIOVE B E16,E52/- Soyuz-FG/Fregat KB LC31 2008 Apr 26 23095 x 23237 x 55.9 2008-20A
Galileo IOV PFM, GSAT0101 GalileoSat-1 (Thijs) E11/B05 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2011 Oct 21 23215 x 23229 x 54.7 2011-60A
Galileo IOV FM2, GSAT0102 GalileoSat-2 (Natalia) E12/B06 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2011 Oct 21 23212 x 23232 x 54.7 2011-60B
Galileo IOV FM3, GSAT0103 GalileoSat-3 (David) E19/C04 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2012 Oct 12 23221 x 23223 x 55.3 2012-55A
Galileo IOV FM4, GSAT0104 GalileoSat-4 (Sif) E20/C05 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2012 Oct 12 23220 x 23224 x 55.3 2012-55B
Galileo FOC FM01, GSAT0201 261 GalileoSat-5 (Doresa) E18/X01 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2014 Aug 22 17022 x 26176 x 50.4 2014-50A
Galileo FOC FM02, GSAT0202 262 GalileoSat-6 (Milena) E14/X02 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2014 Aug 22 17021 x 26178 x 50.4 2014-50B
Galileo FOC FM03, GSAT0203 263 GalileoSat-7 (Adam) E26/B08 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Mar 27 23210 x 23234 x 55.8 2015-17A
Galileo FOC FM04, GSAT0204 264 GalileoSat-8 (Anastasia) E22/B03 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Mar 27 23214 x 23230 x 55.8 2015-17B
Galileo FOC FM05, GSAT0205 205 GalileoSat-9 (Alba) E24/A08 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Sep 11 23212 x 23232 x 56.7 2015-45A
Galileo FOC FM06, GSAT0206 206 GalileoSat-10 (Oriana) E30/A05 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Sep 11 23215 x 23230 x 56.7 2015-45B
Galileo FOC FM08, GSAT0208 268 GalileoSat-11 (Andriana) E08/C07 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Dec 17 23213 x 23231 x 54.9 2015-79B
Galileo FOC FM09, GSAT0209 269 GalileoSat-12 (Liene) E09/C02 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2015 Dec 17 23216 x 23229 x 54.9 2015-79A
Galileo FOC FM10, GSAT0210 26A GalileoSat-13 (Danielle) E01/A02 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2016 May 24 23209 x 23235 x 57.0 2016-30B
Galileo FOC FM11, GSAT0211 26B GalileoSat-14 (Alizee) E02/A06 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS 2016 May 24 23210 x 23234 x 57.0 2016-30A
Galileo FOC FM07, GSAT0207 267 GalileoSat-15 (Antonianni)E07/C06 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2016 Nov 17 23215 x 23230 x 54.6 2016-69A
Galileo FOC FM12, GSAT0212 26C GalileoSat-16 (Lisa) E03/C08 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2016 Nov 17 23216 x 23229 x 54.6 2016-69B
Galileo FOC FM13, GSAT0213 26D GalileoSat-17 (Kimberley) E04/C03 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2016 Nov 17 23218 x 23227 x 54.6 2016-69C
Galileo FOC FM14, GSAT0214 26E GalileoSat-18 (Tijmen) E05/C01 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2016 Nov 17 23220 x 23225 x 54.6 2016-69D
Galileo FOC FM15, GSAT0215 2C5 GalileoSat-19 (Nicole) E21/A03 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2017 Dec 12 22818 x 22923 x 57.0 2017-79A
Galileo FOC FM16, GSAT0216 2C6 GalileoSat-20 (Zofia) E25/A07 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2017 Dec 12 22906 x 23046 x 57.0 2017-79B
Galileo FOC FM17, GSAT0217 2C7 GalileoSat-21 (Alexandre) E27/A04 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2017 Dec 12 22905 x 23172 x 57.2 2017-79C
Galileo FOC FM18, GSAT0218 2C8 GalileoSat-22 (Irina) E31/A01 Ariane 5ES CSG ELA3 2017 Dec 12 22903 x 22911 x 56.9 2017-79D
Simorgh
-------
In JSR 740 I noted Iran's Simorgh launch and characterized it as
probably a successful suborbital test. I am now leaning towards it
being a failed orbital launch attempt, so I am redesignating the launch
as 2017-F04 (hence, the Meteor failure is 2017-F05). This is not
necessarily the final answer, though!
D-SAT
-----
The 3U cubesat from D-Orbit of Lomazzo, Italy carried a small solid
motor to demonstrate a commercial satellite deorbiting system. The motor
was fired at 2018 UTC on Oct 2 (I missed this at the time!). The
satellite lost attitude during the burn and the net delta-V was about 65
m/s, mostly posigrade; the orbit was raised from 496 x 508 km to 506 x
686 km instead of being lowered to negative perigee. The expected
delta-V had been 180 m/s retrograde.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Oct 30 Kosmos-2523 Kosmos-2521, LEO Tech 37E S42986 555 x 664 x 97.9
Nov 5 1145 Beidou DW 24 ) Chang Zheng 3B/YZ1 Xichang LC3 Comms 69A S43001 21485 x 21614 x 55.0
Beidou DW 25 ) Comms 69B S43002 21541 x 22194 x 55.0
Nov 8 0142 Mohammed VI-A Vega CSG ZLV Imaging 70A S43005 620 x 673 x 98.0
Nov 12 1219 SS Gene Cernan Antares 230 MARS LA0B Cargo 71A S43006 200 x 299 x 51.6
Nov 14 1835 FY-3D ) Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Weather 72A S43010 798 x 812 x 98.7
HEAD-1 ) Imaging 72B S43011 798 x 809 x 98.7
Nov 18 0947 NOAA-20/JPSS-1 ) Delta 7920-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Weather 73A S43013 817 x 820 x 98.7
EagleSat ) Tech 73 S43016? 455 x 818 x 98.7
MakerSat-0 ) Tech 73 S43017? 454 x 818 x 97.7
RadFxSat ) Tech 73 S43018? 454 x 818 x 97.7
Buccaneer-RMM ) Tech 73B S43014 460 x 819 x 97.7
MiRaTa ) Tech 73C S43015 455 x 818 x 97.7
Nov 20 0805 EcAMSat ISS, LEO Sci 98-67NG S43019 399 x 407 x 51.6
Nov 20 1225 ASTERIA ISS, LEO Ast 98-67NH S43020 401 x 405 x 51.6
Nov 20 1702 Dellingr ISS, LEO Sci 98-67NJ S43021 401 x 405 x 51.6
Nov 21 0450 Jilin-1 Shipin 4 ) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Imaging 74A S43022 532 x 545 x 97.5
Jilin-1 Shipin 5 ) Imaging 74B S43023 532 x 545 x 97.5
Jilin-1 Shipin 6 ) Imaging 74C S43024 532 x 545 x 97.5
Nov 21 0825 TechEdSat-6 ISS, LEO Tech 98-67NJ S43026 398 x 406 x 51.6
Nov 21 1140 OSIRIS-3U ISS, LEO Sci 98-67NJ S43027 395 x 409 x 51.6
Nov 24 1810 Yaogan-30 02 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint 75A S43028 590 x 604 x 35.0
Yaogan-30 02 zu 02 xing ) Sigint 75B S43029 590 x 604 x 35.0
Yaogan-30 02 zu 03 xing ) Sigint 75C S43030 590 x 604 x 35.0
Nov 28 0541 Meteor-M No. 2-1 ) Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Vostochniy Weather F05 F01505 35?x 200?x 97.4
LEO Vantage 2 ) Comms F05 F01506 35?x 200?x 97.4
Baumanets 2 ) Tech F05 F01507 35?x 200?x 97.4
IDEA-OSG 1 ) Sci F05 F01508 35?x 200?x 97.4
Corvus-BC 3 ) Imaging F05 F01509 35?x 200?x 97.4
Corvus-BC 4 ) Imaging F05 F01510 35?x 200?x 97.4
AISSAT-3 ) AIS F05 F01511 35?x 200?x 97.4
SEAM ) Tech F05 F01522 35?x 200?x 97.4
D-Star One ) Tech F05 F01523 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-McGarvey ) AIS/Weather F05 F01512 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-BenYeoh ) AIS/Weather F05 F01513 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-Harvey ) AIS/Weather F05 F01514 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-Matthew ) AIS/Weather F05 F01515 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-MaxiMillie ) AIS/Weather F05 F01516 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-SMillie-Face) AIS/Weather F05 F01517 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-NRE-Metts ) AIS/Weather F05 F01518 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-CylonRaider ) AIS/Weather F05 F01519 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2-Ector ) AIS/Weather F05 F01520 35?x 200?x 97.4
Lemur-2 Craig ) AIS/Weather F05 F01521 35?x 200?x 97.4
Dec 2 1043 Kosmos-2524 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Sigint 76A S43032 245 x 900 x 67.1
Dec 3 0411 LKW-1 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan LC603 Imaging 77A S43034 478 x 592 x 97.5 1030LT SSO
Dec 6 1924 Lemur-2-YongLin SS Cernan, LEO AIS/Weather 71E? S43041? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Lemur-2-Kevin AIS/Weather 71F? S43042? 449 x 454 x 51.6
CHEFSat Tech 71G? S43043? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Aerocube 7B Tech 71H? S43044? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Aerocube 7C Tech 71J? S43045? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Dec 6 2240 Lemur-2-BrianDavie SS Cernan, LEO AIS/Weather 71K? S43046? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Lemur-2-RomaCoste AIS/Weather 71L? S43047? 449 x 454 x 51.6
PropCube Fauna Tech 71M? S43048? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Asgardia 1 Tech 71N? S43049? 449 x 454 x 51.6
ISARA Tech 71P? S43050? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Dec 7 0200 Lemur-2-RocketJonah SS Cernan, LEO AIS/Weather 71Q? S43051? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Lemur-2-Liu-Poh-Chun AIS/Weather 71R? S43052? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Lemur-2-McCullagh AIS/Weather 71S? S43053? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Lemur-2-Dunlop AIS/Weather 71T? S43054? 449 x 454 x 51.6
Dec 10 1640 Alcomsat 1 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Comms 78A S43039 180 x 41795 x 26.4
Dec 12 1836 GalileoSat 19 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Navigation 79A S43055 22818 x 22922 x 57.0
GalileoSat 20 ) Navigation 79B S43056 22906 x 23046 x 57.0
GalileoSat 21 ) Navigation 79C S43057 22905 x 23172 x 57.2
GalileoSat 22 ) Navigation 79D S43058 22903 x 22911 x 56.9
Dec 15 1536 Dragon CRS-13 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Cargo 80A S43060 204 x 356 x 51.6
Dec 17 0721 Soyuz MS-07 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 81A S43063 185 x 238 x 51.6
Dec 23 0126 Shikisai ) H2A 202 Tanegashima Imaging 82A S43065 790 x 793 x 98.7 1015LT SSO
Tsubame ) Tech 82B S43066 470 x 655 x 98.7
Dec 23 0127 Iridium SV116 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 83C S43072 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV130 Comms 83D S43073 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV131 Comms 83K S43079 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV134 Comms 83F S43075 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV135 Comms 83A S43070 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV137 Comms 83G S43076 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV138 Comms 83B S43071 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV141 Comms 83H S43077 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV151 Comms 83E S43074 609 x 626 x 86.7
Iridium SV153 Comms 83J S43078 609 x 626 x 86.7
Dec 23 0414 LKW-2 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 84A S43080 492 x 511 x 97.5 1033 LT SSO
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
Another Burkan-2H missile (modified derivative of Scud, probably from an Iranian Qiam) was launched on
Dec 19 by Al Ansar forces from the Dammaj Valley area south of Sa'dah in north Yemen to Riyadh.
Saudi reports again stated that it was intercepted by PAC-2 missiles.
The third New Shepard booster made its first flight on Dec 12, carrying the second New Shepard
Crew Capsule to an apogee of 99.3 km. The booster landed back at the launch site and the capsule
was recovered by parachute. As part of preparations for human crews on the vehicle, the capsule
carried a dummy with the outstandingly punny (and timely) moniker "Mannequin Skywalker".
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Nov 4 1707 RV/Warhead Burkan 2H Sa'dah? Weapon 150? Riyadh
Nov 28 1817 RV Hwasong-15 Pyongsong Test 4475 Sea of Japan
Nov 28 1823 RV Hyunmoo 2 Goeseong? Demo 150? Sea of Japan
Dec 12 1659 New Shepard CC2 New Shepard West Texas Test 99 West Texas
Dec 19 RV/Warhead Burkan 2H Sa'dah Weapon 150? Riyadh
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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