Jonathan's Space Report No. 538 2004 Nov 18, Socorro, NM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 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 ----------------------- 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 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'