Jonathan's Space Report
No. 608 2009 Mar 18 Somerville, MA
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Shuttle and Station
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The Expedition 18 crew of Michael Fincke, Yuriy Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus
continue work on board ISS. Progress M-66 is docked to the Pirs module.
On Mar 10, Fincke and Lonchakov made a spacewalk from Pirs in Orlan-M suits
No. 27 and 26. Pirs was depressurized at 1553 UTC, the hatch was opened at 1622,
hatch closed at 2111, and Pirs repressurized at 2114 UTC.
The astronauts installed the Expose-R experiment and took photos to document
the condition of the Zvezda module.
On Mar 12, the crew had a close shave when a piece of space debris passed
near the ISS, and the astronauts were ordered to retreat to the Soyuz craft
to enable a quick getaway in the event of a collision. They remained there
for only 10 minutes, from 1635 to 1645.
The debris was 25090/1993-32D, which is probably a yo weight from the
PAM-D stage that launched GPS 37 (IIA-20) in 1993 May. The PAM-D is
spinning while it burns, to keep it stably pointing in the desired
direction. After the payload separates, there is a risk that residual
propellant will make the PAM-D accelerate again and collide with the
payload. To prevent this, a weight on the end of a cable - a 'yo weight'
- is unwound from one side of the PAM-D, changing the angular momentum
asymmetrically and putting the stage in a tumble. The yo weight cable is
usually about a meter long.
The PAM-D was inserted into a 188 x 20375 km x 34.9 deg orbit in 1993 Mar;
25090 was first cataloged in 1997 Nov by which time it had decayed to
a 214 x 18202 km x 34.8 deg orbit. The PAM-D itself reentered in 2001 Jan,
but the yo weight was in a 142 x 4269 km x 34.7 deg orbit on Mar 7, losing
about 8 km/day of apogee height as it passes through the upper atmosphere every
2 hours and 10 minutes. This rapid change makes predictions of its future
position difficult, which is why there was not enough warning to give time
to change the ISS orbit.
Ted Molczan reports that the closest approach was at 1639:41 UTC, over
the Atlantic at 1.2W 25.5S. Closest approach distance was probably less
than 2 km, but we don't know for sure.
Discovery was launched on Mar 15 on mission STS-119, with solid rocket
motor set RSRM-103 and external tank ET-127. The OMS-2 burn at 0022 UTC
on Mar 16 raised the orbit from 57 x 223 km to 156 x 223 km. Discovery
docked with the ISS at 2120 UTC on Mar 17.
The STS-119 payload bay contains the large S6 truss element with a set
of solar arrays. My estimate of the full payload bay contents is:
STS-119 cargo manifest
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Name Bay location Mass (kg,guess)
Orbiter Docking System 1-2 1800
with EMU 3017, 3006 suits 260?
APC/SPDU 3 port 17?
S6 3-13 14088
RMS 202 Sill 410
OBSS Sill 382?
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Cargo total 16957 kg
Kepler
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The Kepler space telescope was launched on Mar 7 into a hyperbolic
Earth escape trajectory. Kepler is a Schmidt-type telescope with a 1.4-meter
primary mirror, and will stare at one field in Cygnus, between
Deneb and Vega, monitoring stars to search for transiting planets.
The Delta 7925-10L rocket put Kepler in a 185 x 185 km x 28.5 deg
parking orbit at 0359 UTC; at 0443 second stage restart put it in a 174
x 2815 km x 28.5 deg intermediate orbit, quickly followed at 0445 by
third stage burn to escape trajectory. The second stage depletion burn
then put the empty stage in a 2246 x 7360 km x 28.55 deg disposal orbit.
Kepler will leave the Earth-Moon system quite slowly on a
185 x -1372000 km x 28.5 deg hyperbola, passing lunar orbit
at 0420 UTC on Mar 9, and leaving the sphere of influence at 2130 UTC on
Mar 13. By Apr 20 range will be 4.5 million km and Kepler will be
in a 0.967 x 1.041 AU x 0.5 deg heliocentric ecliptic orbit.
(technical note: the negative apogee I quote above is a formal, unphysical,
representation that preserves the usual equations for semi-major axis
and eccentricity; it corresponds to a C3 of 0.60 km^2/s^2).
Joining Kepler in orbit around the sun are the PAM-D (Star 48) third
stage motor, two despin weights, and the telescope dust cover which will
be ejected around Mar 27.
SpaceTrack has issued element sets for Kepler and the PAM-D (34380 and 34381)
showing the Delta disposal orbit - these are spurious, since the Delta (34382)
only moved to this orbit after separating from 34380 and 34381.
GOCE
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ESA's Gravity-Field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, GOCE,
was launched from Plesetsk on Mar 17. The 1200 kg satellite carries
a gravity gradiometer and flies in a low orbit of 272 x 290 km x 96.7 deg.
GOCE's orbit is low by modern standards, but in the past many satellites
were designed to fly for short periods at lower heights. The OGCh (FOBS)
missile tests used 125 x 160 km orbits but were up for only one circuit
of the Earth. The Vostok spaceships flew at around 160-200 km, and many
Soviet and US spy satellites operated in the 150-200 km range, Before
GOCE, the KH-9 HEXAGON and some models of the Yantar' spy satellite were
the only vehicles to fly at such a low altitude for many months. Of
course, many satellites have lower perigees, but much higher apogees.
OCO
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The OCO satellite reached an approximately -129 x 614 km orbit on Feb 24
- just 0.2 km/s short of orbital velocity, thanks to the extra mass of
the fairing which failed to separate. (Thanks to the Orbital folks for info).
Collision
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As of Mar 10, there were 454 Kosmos-2251 debris objects and 216 Iridium-33
debris objects in the catalog.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 2 1836 Omid Safir (Iran) Test 04A
Feb 6 1022 NOAA 19 Delta 7320-10C Vandenberg SLC2W Weather 05A
Feb 10 0549 Progress M-66 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Cargo 06A
Feb 11 0003 Ekspress AM-44 ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 07A
Ekspress MD-1 ) Comms 07B
Feb 12 2209 Hot Bird 10 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 08B
NSS 9 ) Comms 08A
Spirale A ) Early Warn 08C
Spirale B ) Early Warn 08D
Feb 24 0955 OCO Taurus Vandenberg 576E Sci F01
Feb 26 1830 Telstar 11N Zenit-3SLB Baykonur LC45 Comms 09A
Feb 28 0410 Raduga-1 Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 10A
Mar 7 0350 Kepler Delta 7920-10L Canaveral SLC17B Astronomy 11A
Mar 15 2343 Discovery STS-119 Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 12A
ITS S6 Module 12
Mar 17 1421 GOCE Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Science 13A
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Dec 23 0300 RV x 3? Bulava TK-208, Barents R&D 100?
Jan 10 2317 NASA 30.073UO Imp. Orion Poker Flat Ionosphere 98
Jan 26 0015 S-310-39 S-310 Andoya Atmosphere 140?
Jan 29 0949 NASA 36.242UE Black Brant IX Poker Flat Aurora 364
Jan 29 0951 NASA 21.139UE Black Brant VC Poker Flat Aurora 133
Feb 18 0952 NASA 41.076 Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Feb 18 1029 NASA 41.078 Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Feb 18 1059 NASA 41.079 Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Feb 18 1147 NASA 41.077 Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 130?
Feb? USN Mk 5 RV x 8? Trident D-5 SSBN, WTR Test 1000?
Feb 13 USN Mk 5 RV x 8? Trident D-5 SSBN 731, WTR Test 1000?
Feb 25 1045 NASA 36.226UG Black Brant IX White Sands IR Astron. 300?
Mar 12 1008 SSC REXUS 6 Imp. Orion Esrange Ionos./Tech 88
Mar 13 0600 SSC REXUS 5 Imp. Orion Esrange Atmos./Tech 87
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org |
| USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
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