Jonathan's Space Report No. 548 2005 Jun 15, Somerville, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Space Station ------------- Discovery was rolled back out to the pad on Jun 15 with its new ET-121 external tank and RSRM-92 solid boosters. Launch is scheduled for July. NOAA 18 ------- A new NOAA POES (Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite) weather satellite was launched on May 20 at 1022 UTC. The 1442 kg NOAA-N satellite, built by Lockheed Martin using the Advanced Tiros-N bus, became NOAA 18 after reaching orbit. NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, is the US weather agency. Earlier NOAA satellites were launched by surplus Atlas E and Titan II missiles, but these have now been retired and so a Boeing Delta 7320 was used for this mission. The satellite entered a 846 x 866 km x 98.8 deg orbit. It carries weather imagers, microwave sensors, particle detectors, an infrared sounder, and the SARSAT-10 search and rescue transponder. DirecTV 8 --------- DirecTV 8 was launched on May 22 by International Launch Services aboard a Krunichev Proton-M/Briz-M from Baykonur. The satellite carries Ka-band and Ku-band communications payloads for US domestic television broadcasting. By June 2, DirecTV 8 was in a 35772 x 35792 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 102.9W towards its 101W location where it will join DirecTV 1/1R, 2, and 4S. DirecTV satellites launched so far: DirecTV 1 1993 Dec 18 Hughes HS-601 GEO 101.1W DirecTV 2 1994 Aug 3 Hughes HS-601 GEO 100.8W DirecTV 3 1995 Jun 10 Hughes HS-601 GEO 91.1W DirecTV 6 1997 Apr 7 Loral LS-1300 GEO 109.8W DirecTV 1R 1999 Nov 9 Hughes HS-601HP GEO 100.9W DirecTV 4S 2001 Nov 27 Boeing BSS-601HP GEO 101.1W DirecTV 5 2002 May 7 Loral LS-1300 GEO 72.5W DirecTV 7S 2004 May 4 Loral LS-1300 GEO 119.1W DirecTV 8 2005 May 22 Loral LS-1300 GEO 102.9W drifting DirecTV also owns the Spaceway 1 satellite launched in April, now in a 28255 x 43325 km x 0.2 deg orbit. It reached a 26062 x 45473 km orbit with 24 hr period on May 11 and since then has been making small maneuvers to decrease eccentricity, possibly using its XIPS-25 electric propulsion system. Foton ----- The second Foton-M satellite was launched on May 31. The Foton satellites, built by TsSKB-Progress in Samara, are modified versions of the Vostok/Zenit design and have a recoverable spherical pressurized module used for microgravity and life science experiments. A lot of the capacity on this flight is taken up with European Space Agency experiments, including an exterior 2 kg reentry capsule called Fotino which will separate during reentry on Jun 16 and land uprange. This is the first Foton launch from Baykonur and it entered a 258 x 291 km x 63.0 deg orbit. The first 12 Foton satellites were launched from Plesetsk into more eccentric 215 x 350-390 km x 62.8 deg orbits; they were followed by launch of Foton-M No. 1 from Plesetsk on 2002 Oct 15, which failed seconds after launch falling back on the pad and causing one fatality. HAMSAT ------ AMSAT-VU's HAMSAT has been assigned an international OSCAR amateur satellite number: it is VO-52 (VUSat-Oscar 52). (AMSAT-VU is the Indian branch of AMSAT, and VU is the international amateur callsign prefix for India.) Cassini ------- Cassini made another pass through the inner Saturnian system on Jun 8 with a 156400 km periapsis at 1037 UTC. On this pass, there were distant encounters with the small moons Calypso (Saturn XIV) and Pallene (Saturn XXIII). Cassini has already made a lot of close approaches to Saturnian moons, not all of which involved science observations. Here are Saturnian moon encounters to date within 120000 km (for non-science encounters, I calculated the approaches from JPL Horizons, and these may be off by 20000 km or more because of inconsistent trajectory data - best I can do right now. Horizons doesn't have any Pallene ephemeris data so I don't know how close that approach was, and for the same reason I don't have a time for the Polydeuces pass.) Encounter time UTC Moon Height above surface 1979 Sep 1 1452 Janus 2500 km Pioneer-11 1979 Sep 1 1620 Mimas 103000 km Pioneer-11 1980 Nov 12 0540 Titan 3915 km Voyager-1 1980 Nov 12 0621 Rhea 73216 km Voyager-1 1980 Nov 13 0142 Mimas 88231 km Voyager-1 1981 Aug 26 0345? Enceladus 86754 km Voyager-2 1981 Aug 26 0612? Tethys 92474 km Voyager-2 Cassini 2004 Jun 11 1903 Phoebe 2068 km 2004 Jun 30 2227 Calypso 52080 km 2004 Jul 1 0031 Mimas 76400 km 2004 Jul 1 0117 Pandora 89850 km 2004 Jul 1 0152 Janus 67800 km 2004 Jul 1 0358 Prometheus 107400 km 2004 Oct 26 1530 Titan 1174 km Ta 2004 Dec 13 1138 Titan 1200 km Tb 2004 Dec 15 0144 Dione 72500 km 2004 Dec 15 0501 Mimas 107500 km 2005 Jan 1 0137 Iapetus 123400 km 2005 Jan 14 1112 Titan 60000 km Tc 2005 Jan 16 0608 Mimas 108000 km 2005 Feb 15 0658 Titan 1577 km T3 2005 Feb 16 2304 Pandora 102600 km 2005 Feb 17 Polydeuces 6189 km 2005 Feb 17 0011 Epimetheus 73500 km 2005 Feb 17 0024 Atlas 6170 km 2005 Feb 17 0330 Enceladus 1176 km E03 2005 Mar 9 0434 Helene 74500 km 2005 Mar 9 0908 Enceladus 504 km E04 2005 Mar 9 1129 Atlas 73800 km 2005 Mar 9 1155 Tethys 82500 km 2005 Mar 29 1847 Tethys 109200 km 2005 Mar 29 2034 Enceladus 55600 km 2005 Mar 29 2202 Atlas 97400 km 2005 Mar 29 2325 Epimetheus 62100 km 2005 Mar 31 2005 Titan 2402 km T4 2005 Apr 15 0015 Epimetheus 46000 km 2005 Apr 15 0126 Mimas 82600 km 2005 Apr 15 0422 Calypso 70470 km 2005 Apr 16 1911 Titan 1025 km T5 (06TI) 2005 May 2 1920 Helene 114200 km 2005 May 2 2148 Tethys 51800 km 2005 May 2 2303 Epimetheus 118500 km 2005 May 21 0630 Atlas 99700 km 2005 May 21 0648 Prometheus 107400 km 2005 May 21 0815 Enceladus 102100 km 2005 Jun 8 1025 Calypso 97810 km 2005 Jun 8? Pallene Unknown Cassini has more flybys of Titan, Enceladus and Mimas lined up in the coming months. Table of Recent Launches ----------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Apr 11 1335 XSS-11 Minotaur Vandenberg SLC8 Tech 11A Apr 12 1200 Apstar 6 CZ-3B Xichang Comms 12A Apr 15 0046 Soyuz TMA-6 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 13A Apr 15 1726 DART Pegasus XL/HAPS Vandenberg Tech 14A Apr 26 0731 Spaceway 1 Zenit-3SL Odyssey Comms 15A Apr 30 0050 USA 182? Titan 4B Canaveral SLC40 Radar? 16A May 5 0445 Cartosat ) PSLV SDLC SLP Imaging 17A HAMSAT ) Comms 17B May 20 1022 NOAA 18 Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Weather 18A May 22 1759 DirecTV 8 Proton-M/Briz Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 19A May 31 1200 Foton-M No. 2 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Micrograv 20A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'