Jonathan's Space Report No. 718 2015 Nov 12 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 45 continues under the command of Scott Kelly, with flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko, Sergey Volkov, Kimiya Yui, and Kjell Lindgren. Following US EVA-32 describedin JSR 717, Kelly and Lindgren performed spacewalk US EVA-33 on Nov 6. The airlock was depressurized around 1120 UTC and repressurized at 1910 UTC. The astronauts successfully reconfigured part of the station's cooling system on the P6 truss segment. The work went a bit slower than planned, though, and a backup radiator panel (the P6 TTCR) had to be redeployed because there wasn't enough time to fasten it down; this leaves it a bit more vulnerable to space debris than NASA would have liked. WF1190F ------- Work by Bill Gray of Project Pluto identified the mystery object WT1190F with other unidentifed observations dating back to 2009. Kudos to Bill - this is tricky work since every time the object flies near the Moon the uncertainties on its subsequent position increase (small errors are magnified). But we still don't know what it is. Bill's FAQ page at http://www.projectpluto.com/temp/wt1190f.htm discusses the object. His argument that probably such objects must be fairly recently launched since they are probably perturbed out of the Earth-Moon system on a few-year timescale makes sense - but there aren't any really good candidates for known metre-sized objects lost in translunar orbits in the years immediately preceding 2009. It seems unlikely that any of the Lagrange-bound pieces of the Herschel/Planck launch ended up remaining in orbit, and all of the pieces of the LRO/LCROSS mission seem to be accounted for. The third stage of the Stereo mission was predicted to reenter on its first orbit, and I don't think the two despin weights from the mission would have the right mass-to-area ratio. So I'm still open to the idea that it's an older (Apollo era?) object that either miraculously remained bound, or was recaptured like the Apollo 12 third stage was a few years ago. For objects that were gently pertubed out into heliocentric orbit, such recapture might not be that unlikely. Current prediction is that the object will reenter at 11 km/s over Sri Lanka at around 0620 UTC Nov 13. Dawn ---- On Nov 1, Dawn was in a 1100 x 1140 km x 90.9 deg orbit around Ceres, in the process of lowering its orbit from the 1440 x 1460 km x 91.3 deg HAMO orbit it was in until Oct 23. Thanks to Marc Rayman, the Dawn team and the JPL Horizons team for updating the orbital data. Zhongxing 2C ------------ The Zhongxing-2C communications satellite was launched from Xichang on Nov 3. It is thought to be a new military strategic communications payload in the Shentong-2 series. Yaogan 28 --------- Yaogan 28 was launched from Taiyuan on Nov 8. It is thought to be the second Jianbing-11 imaging reconnaissance satellite with an 0.8m resolution imager, and appears to be replacing the first Jianbing-11, codenamed Yaogan 14. Ariane 5 -------- Ariane 5 vehicle 581 placed Indian and Arab communications satellites in geotransfer orbit. GSAT-15 has a Ku-band payload for Indian domestic television broadcasting as well as a GAGAN navigation payload. Badr-7 (Arabsat-6B) has Ku and Ka-band communications payloads; it is an Airbus Eurostar 3000 satellite with a launch mass of 5800 kg. Super Strypi ------------ The USAF/Sandia Super Strypi launch vehicle took off from the Kauai Test Facility's Kokole Point pad at 0345 UTC on Nov 4, but went out of control during first stage burn and was destroyed. The University of Hawaii's Hiakasat and 12 cubesats were aboard. The vehicle had three solid stages (LEO-46, LEO-7 and LEO-1) developed by Aerojet. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg Oct 16 1616 Apstar 9 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 59A S40982 190 x 41767 x 27.2 Oct 16 2040 Turksat 4B Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 60A S40984 35717 x 35759 x 0.0 Oct 26 0710 Tianhui 1-03 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 61A S40988 490 x 500 x 97.4 1330LT SSO Oct 31 1613 GPS SVN 73 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Navigation 62A S41019 20426 x 20485 x 55.0 Nov 3 1625 Zhongxing 2C Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 63A S41021 195 x 35832 x 27.1 Nov 4 0345 Hiakasat ) Imaging F03 F01468 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 Argus ) Tech F03 F01469 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 PrintSat ) Super Strypi Kauai Tech F03 F01470 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 Techsat-1 ) Tech F03 F01471 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 STACEM ) Imaging F03 F01472 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 1 ) Tech F03 F01473 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 2 ) Tech F03 F01474 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 3 ) Tech F03 F01475 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 4 ) Tech F03 F01476 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 5 ) Tech F03 F01477 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 6 ) Tech F03 F01478 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 7 ) Tech F03 F01479 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 EDSN 8 ) Tech F03 F01480 -6378 x 30?x 94.7 Nov 8 0706 Yaogan 28 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 64A S41026 459 x 482 x 97.2 1414LT SSO Nov 10 2134 Badr 7 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 65A S41028 264 x 35717 x 4.0 GSAT-15 ) Comms 65B S41029 259 x 35751 x 4.0 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- The US Navy launched Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles from the submarine USS Kentucky on Nov 8 and 9. The missiles were launched from near San Clemente Island off the coast of California and flew to Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific. The first missile was launched just after local sunset and its expanding exhaust gases were illuminated by the sun, causing widespread UFO reports across the southwestern United States. The 2-dimensional projection on the sky of the missile's westward motion, as seen from the mostly southwest-facing southern California coast, fooled many observers into thinking the missile was flying north along the coast. California observers were also able to see the deployments of the MIRV reentry vehicles as the vehicle's final stage approached the horizon. On Oct 20 a US Navy missile defense test was carried out in the Hebrides Range in Scotland. The target Terrier Orion rocket launched from the island of South Uist was the first exoatmospheric rocket launch from UK territory since 1982. On Nov 9 India tested an Agni IV missile from its long range military missile test site near Chandipur. The IC4 complex is on Inner Wheeler Island, which has recently been renamed Abdul Kalam Island after Indian missile/space developer and former President Abdul Kalam (1931-2015). Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Oct 19 1409 O-STATES 2 S31/Orion Kiruna, Sweden Atmosphere 244 ESRANGE Area B, Sweden Oct 20 Aegis Target Terrier Orion South Uist, Hebrides Target 100? N Atlantic Oct 20 Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-71, Hebrides Range Interceptor 100? (N Atlantic) Oct 21 1245 GT216GM RV Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF04 Training 1300? Kwajalein, Marshall Is. Oct 28 1130 4 RVs Yars Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura, Kamchatka Oct 30 Topol RV Topol Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura, Kamchatka Oct 30 R-29RM RV x 4? Sineva K-117 Bryansk, Barents Sea Test 1000? Kura, Kamchatka Oct 30 R-29 RV x 4? Volna K-223 Podolsk,Sea of Okhotsk Test 1000? Chizha?, Kanin Penisula Oct 31 2300? Target B-611? Jiuquan, China Target 100? Korla Oct 31 2300? Interceptor DF-21? Korla/Urumqi, China Interceptor 100 Nov 1 0305 SRALT RV SRALT C-17, Pacific SE Wake I Target 300? Wake Island Nov 1 0307? THAAD KV THAAD Wake Island Interceptor 100? (Pacific) Nov 1 0310? eMBRM RV eMRBM C-17, Pacific SE Wake I Target 300? Wake Island Nov 1 0312? THAAD KV THAAD Wake Island Interceptor 100? (Pacific) Nov 8 0200 USN Mk 5 RV (x14?) Trident II SSBN 737, Pt Mugu Test 1000? Kwajalein? Nov 9 2000? USN Mk 5 RV (x14?) Trident II SSBN 737, Pt Mugu Test 1000? Kwajalein? Nov 9 0415 Agni RV Agni IV Abdul Kalam Island Test 600 Indian Ocean .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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