Jonathan's Space Report No. 601 2008 Oct 12, Somerville, MA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- Sergey Volkov, Oleg Kononenko, and Greg Chamitoff remain aboard the Station as Expedition 17. The Jules Verne ATV was deorbited over the Pacific on Sep 29, reentering at 1331 UTC. Progress M-65 and Soyuz TMA-12 are docked to the Station. Soyuz TMA-13 was launched at 0701 UTC on Oct 12 and reached orbit at 0710 UTC. Commander is Yuriy Lonchakov, flight engineer is Michael Fincke, and in the third seat is spaceflight participant (tourist) Richard Garriott. Garriott is the son of of Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott. Once they reach the Station, Garriott consitutes ISS visiting crew EP-15; Fincke is commander of Expedition 18, with Lonchakov as flight engineer. The TMA-13 callsign is 'Titan'. Shenzhou 7 ---------- The Shenzhou 7 spaceship was launched on Sep 25. The crew were Zhai Zhigang, commander ("zhilingzhang"), Liu Boming, orbital module astronaut ("guidaocang hangtianyuan") and Jing Haipeng, descent module monitor astronaut ("fanhuicang zhishou hangtianyuan" ). On the previous flight, Nie Haisheng's role was 'operator' - 'caozuoshou', with Fei Junlong as zhihuizhang ('commander'). (Thanks to contributor 'hesidu' on nasaspaceflight.com for these Chinese designations.) On Sep 27, China accomplished its first spacewalk. The SZ-7 orbital module (guidaocang, GC) was depressurized by about 0830 UTC. The hatch was opened at 0838 UTC with a residual pressure of 20 mbar. Zhai Zhigang, wearing a Chinese-made Feitian spacesuit, emerged at 0843 UTC and was fully outside by 0844 UTC. Meanwhile, Liu Boming, wearing a Russian suit, Orlan-M No. 42, remained partially inside the GC. He made a SEVA (Stand-Up EVA, i.e. partially emerging - a term from Gemini days) at 0848 for about 2 minutes and handed Zhai a Chinese flag to wave. Zhai translated along the GC retrieved a materials sample tray mounted on the module exterior, and returned to the hatch area at 0854 UTC. He went inside at 0858 UTC. The hatch was closed at 0859-0900 UTC and the GC was repressurized sometime around 0915 UTC, and the pressure was back up to 400 mbar by 0926 UTC. (Some of these time estimates are courtesy of Andrey Krasil'nikov's postings on nasaspaceflight.com). The descent module (fanhuicang, FC) stayed pressurized throughout, and the third crewmember, Jing Haipen, stayed there with no spacesuit on. I estimate that time in depressurized operations was around 45 min for Zhai and Liu; hatch open/close time was 22 min; time outside was 14 min for Zhai only. I find the depressurization time to be more interesting, so that's what I mainly track in my records. A 40 kg subsatellite was ejected from the nose of the SZ7 orbital module at 1127 UTC. It is probably object the designated 2008-47G by the US (47C-F seem to be the separation motor covers from the second stage, based on their orbital parameters). On Sep 28 it was in a 329 x 338 km orbit. The subsatellite was informally referred to as BanXing (companion satellite) by Chinese commentators, but does not seem to have an official name. On Sep 28, the GC orbital module was ejected at 0848 UTC, and at about 0851:16 UTC the propulsion module (tuijincang, TC) ignited for the deorbit burn over the South Atlantic at 7.5N 24.1W, at 330 km altitude. The burn was completed at about 0853:18 UTC (based on the graphics on Chinese TV coverage) over 13.6N 19.3W. I estimate that the delta-V was about 115 m/s, similar to Soyuz, and that the post-burn orbit was -50 x 330 km x 42.4 deg. At 0913 UTC the FC and the TC separated as reentry began, about 150 km over western Tibet. The TC probably burnt up at around 0918 UTC over the Gobi desert, and the FC deployed its main parachute at 0924 UTC, with landing at 0937:40 UTC at 42.278N 111.355E in the Chinese province of Nei Monggol (Inner Mongolia), between Hohhot and Erenhot. The GC remains in a 329 x 336 km x 42.4 deg orbit, with designation 2008-47H. Falcon 1 -------- SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket has reached orbit on its fourth try. The successful launch from Omelek Island at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific carried a dummy 'mass simulator' satellite, nicknamed Ratsat, which remained attached to the Falcon 1 second stage. After a short restart burn, the stage is in a 621 x 643 km x 9.35 deg orbit. Hubble Space Telescope ---------------------- The primary science data formatter control unit on HST has failed, temporarily halting science operations. This has delayed the STS-125 servicing mission. AMC 14 ------ The AMC 14 satellite continues to slowly raise its orbit towards geostationary. It now has a period of over 20 hours, at 27379 x 36198 km x 15.8 deg. The satellite was stranded in transfer orbit in March. THEOS ----- Kosmotras launched a Dnepr vehicle from the Yasniy (Dombarovskiy) missile base on Oct 1, placing the THEOS satellite in sun-synchronous orbit. THEOS is owned by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA; Bangkok) of the Thai Ministry of Science and Technology. THEOS was built by EADS Astrium (I think Astrium/Toulouse?) using the same bus as Rocsat-2. THEOS is in a 672 x 692 km x 98.4 deg orbit; the plume shield is 645 x 688 km x 98.8 deg, and the third stage is in a 675 x 1172 km x 98.8 deg orbit. FORMOSAT-3 ---------- The Taiwan/US FORMOSAT-3 ionospheric research constellation was launched in April 2006 into initial orbits of 497 x 537 km x 72.0 deg. Based on a report at the 58th IAC in 2007, the individual satellites can now be identified; objects 2006-11A,B,C,D,E and F are satellites FORMOSAT-3 FM6, FM1, FM5, FM3, FM4 and FM2 respectively. Five of the satellites have reached their operational 750 x 850 km orbits, but FM3 is apparently stuck in an intermediate orbit due to solar array problems. Here are some details for those of you who love keeping their satellite catalogs up to date. The Rel.Long column gives the orbit ascending node relative to that of FM5; FM3 is drifting relative to the constellation because of its lower altitude. Catalog Satellite Current orbit, Orbit raise dates Rel.Long km x km x deg Start End 29047/11A FORMOSAT-3 FM6 763 x 839 x 72.0 2006 Dec 2007 Feb -60 29048/11B FORMOSAT-3 FM1 769 x 833 x 72.0 2007 Sep 2007 Nov -150 29049/11C FORMOSAT-3 FM5 774 x 828 x 72.0 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 0 29050/11D FORMOSAT-3 FM3 675 x 750 x 72.0 2007 Jun 2007 Aug (-160) 29051/11E FORMOSAT-3 FM4 752 x 850 x 72.0 2007 Mar 2007 May -90 29052/11F FORMOSAT-3 FM2 771 x 831 x 72.0 2006 Sep 2006 Dec -30 Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 6 0325 Huan Jing-1A ) Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Imaging 41A Huan Jing-1B ) Imaging 41B Sep 6 1851 GeoEye-1 Delta 7420 Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging 42A Sep 10 1950 Progress M-65 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1/5 Cargo 43A Sep 19 2148 Nimiq 4 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 44A Sep 24 1928 Galaxy 19 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey Comms 45A Sep 25 0849 Kosmos-2442) Proton-M/DM-2 Baykonur LC81/24 Nav 46A Kosmos-2443) Nav 46B Kosmos-2444) Nav 46C Sep 25 1310 Shenzhou 7 Chang Zheng 2F Jiquan Spaceship 47A Sep 27 1127 Subsatellite SZ7, LEO Tech 47G Sep 28 2315 Ratsat Falcon 1 Omelek Test 48A Oct 1 0637 THEOS Dnepr Yasniy Imaging 49A Oct 12 0701 Soyuz TMA-13 Soyuz-FG Baykonur Spaceship 50A .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'