Jonathan's Space Report
No. 538 2004 Nov 18, Socorro, NM
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* Soyuz-2-1A
The first launch of the improved Soyuz-2-1A rocket was carried out on
Nov 8 from Russia's Plesetsk spaceport. The standard Soyuz-U or Soyuz-FG
rocket, made by TsSKB-Progress in Samara, consists of the 11S59 `packet'
made up of a central core (Blok A) surrounded by four almost-as-large
strapon boosters (Blok B, V, G, D), together with the 11S510 upper stage
also known as Blok I. The `packet' is the direct descendant of the
8K71 rocket used to launch Sputnik in 1957. The Soyuz-2-1A is very similar,
but carries improved digital avionics and uses 14D21 and 14D22 engines.
This launch carried a leftover Oblik spy satellite, carrying
launch vehicle monitoring equipment to record accelerations, vibrations
and temperatures, and presumably stripped of the normal camera
equipment. The Oblik was a derivative of the original Vostok/Zenit spy satellite
and was last launched on a civilian mapping mission ten years ago.
Prelaunch reports indicated that the rocket would reach orbit, but it
now appears that it only reached a suborbital path; no apogee and
perigee and no orbital inclination have been quoted for the mission,
which makes it hard for outside observers to judge independently
whether or not the launch was in fact successful.
According to a Roskosmos press release, "the launcher rocket
successfully delivered to orbit a mass-size mockup of a spacecraft,
which at 2138 [Moscow time] was sunk in the waters of the Pacific
Ocean". The phrasing suggests to me that the 11S510 final stage should
be in orbit, with the payload deorbited immediately after separation
using its own retrorocket engine. But it appears this was misleading;
another statement from the Progress rocket manufacturers in Samara
implied that the rocket only reached a suborbital trajectory, i.e.
reached an orbit with a negative perigee, with both 11S510 stage and
payload falling in the Pacific. This interpretation is supported by the
failure of US Space Command to catalog the launch. In my own system I
(provisionally) have designated the launch 2004-U01 (U for
'uncataloged') on the assumption that it was in orbit or near-orbit for
a brief time.
The 1838 UTC 'sinking' time must refer to the time of 11S510 engine
cutoff; actual impact would have been closer to 1900 UTC.
* Ekspress AM-1
The Ekspress AM-1 Russian domestic communications satellite, built by
Reshetnev (NPO PM) for Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, was launched on Oct 29 on a
Krunichev Proton-K with an Energiya DM-2M (11S861-01) upper stage. The
DM-2M delivered the satellite to geostationary orbit. The satellite's
comms payload was built by the Japanese companies NEC and Toshiba.
The Ekspress series has had three generations: Ekspress, Ekspress A,
Ekspress AM. (The satellites are often called Express in English; I use
the odd spelling to reflect a direct transliteration from the Russian.)
The Ekspress-AM uses an improved Ekspress-M or 727M bus, first used
on the Sesat satellite, while the earlier models use the KAUR-4 MSO-2500
bus.
Satellite Orbital slot Launched Status/Longitude
Ekspress No. 11 Ekspress-2 1994 Oct 13 Retired 2001 Nov
Ekspress No. 12 Ekspress-6 1996 Sep 26 Retired 2002 May
Ekspress A1 - 1999 Oct 27 Launch failure
Ekspress A2 Ekspress-6A 2000 Mar 12 80.1E
Ekspress A3 Ekspress-3A 2002 Jun 10 11.0W
Ekspress A1R Ekspress-A1R 2000 Jun 24 40.0E
Ekspress AM-22 Ekspress AM-22 2003 Dec 29 53.1E
Ekspress AM-11 Ekspress AM-11 2004 Apr 26 96.5E
Ekspress AM-1 Ekspress AM-1 2004 Oct 29 Drifting west from 90E
* Navstar SVN 61
Global Positioning Satellite SVN 61, or flight IIR-13, was launched on
Nov 6. The Delta II rocket entered a 174 x 393 km x 36.9 de g parking
orbit and then a 191 x 1270 km x 37.2 deg intermediate orbit, at which
point the solid PAM-D third stage separated and fired to put the GPS
payload in a 173 x 20371 km x 39.1 deg transfer orbit. The satellite's
apogee motor will fire to circularize the orbit. The GPS Block IIR
satellites are built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale.
* ZY-2C
The third ZY-2 satellite was launched on Nov 6. The satellite is
a low orbit digital imaging spacecraft used by the Chinese government,
probably for both civilian and military reconnaissance purposes.
Initial orbit is 472 x 483 km x 97.3 deg.
* SMART-1
The European SMART-1 probe made its third lunar resonance gravity assist
on Oct 12 and on Oct 26 was in a 173339 x 298835 km x 20.6 deg deep
Earth orbit. The continued gravitational effect of the Moon raised the
orbit until lunar capture on Nov 15. On Nov 11 the spacecraft finally
passed through the weak stability boundary region at the Earth-Moon L1
point, where small changes to the probe's path result in large
alterations to its final orbit, and where the orbit becomes better
described as Moon-centered rather than Earth-centered. The probe reached
perilune on Nov 15 at 1748 UTC and entered a 4962 x 51477 km orbit
around the Moon inclined at 81 degrees to the lunar equator. This is the
most loosely bound lunar orbit ever achieved, with its highest point
close to the Earth-Moon gravitational boundary - the US record-holder
Explorer 35 in 1967 had an apolune of only 7800 km, while the 1990s
Japanese probes Hagoromo and Hiten had apolunes of 22000 and 49400 km
respectively; the Apollo missions went directly to low orbits with
apolunes of only 300 km. SMART-1's ion engine was restarted at orbit
insertion to lower the orbital altitude and bind it more tightly the
Moon; final orbit will be reached in January.
* Helios 1B
The French spy satellite Helios 1B has been taken out of service. In
mid-October the orbit of the satellite was lowered from 679 x 681 km x
98.2 deg to 637 x 640 km x 98.2 deg, taking it out of the path of
Helios 1A and future successors.
* MicroLabSat
The two tiny RITE Target subsatellites released by the Japanese
MicroLabSat on 2003 Mar 14 (see JSR 509) have now been cataloged by
Space Command.
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 6 1053 'Ofeq-6 Shaviyt Palmachim Imaging F01
Sep 8 2314 SJ-6A ) CZ-4B Taiyuan Science 35A
SJ-6B ) Science 35B
Sep 20 1031 EDUSAT GSLV SDSC Comms 36A
Sep 23 1507 Kosmos-2408 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Comms 37A
Kosmos-2409 ) Comms 37B
Sep 24 1650 Kosmos-2410 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC16 Imaging 38A
Sep 27 0800 FSW 20 CZ-2D Jiuquan Imaging? 39A
Oct 14 0306 Soyuz TMA-5 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 40A
Oct 14 2123 AMC 15 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 41A
Oct 19 0120 FY-2C CZ-3A Xichang Weather 42A
Oct 29 2211 Ekspress AM-1 Proton-K/DM-2M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 43A
Nov 6 0310 ZY-2C CZ-4B Taiyuan Imaging 44A
Nov 6 0539 GPS SVN 61 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17B Navigation 45A
Nov 8 1830 Oblik Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk LC43/4 Test U01
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