Jonathan's Space Report No. 678 2013 Apr 27, Lisboa --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station ---------------------------- Expedition 35 continues with astronauts Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn, Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy. Ferry ship Soyuz TMA-07M is at Rassvet; Soyuz TMA-89M is at Poisk. Cargo ship Progress M-18M is at the Pirs module. On Apr 19 astronauts Vinogradov, in spacesuit Orlan MK-6, and Romanenko, in Orlan MK-4, began Russian ISS spacewalk VKD-32. The Pirs hatch was opened at 1403 UTC. The astronauts installed the Obstanovka ('Situation') experiment on the Zvezda module. First, two PVK mechanical adapter/processor boxes were attached to the station, MAD-1 and MAD-2. Then the astronauts went to the back of Zvezda and swapped out a laser retroreflector used in European ATV dockings, returning the old reflector to the Pirs airlock. After their trip to the back end of Zvezda where the rocket engines are, they wiped their suits down with towels in case of rocket fuel contamination, and then jettisoned the towels and the Obstanovka cable reel into space at 1719 UTC. Then they took two probe containers from Pirs and unpacked them to stick the ShKD-1 and ShKD-2 sensor complex booms onto their respective MAD adapters. The probe containers were then jettisoned at 1903 and 1906 UTC. After deploying the booms, the astronauts retrieved the Biorisk MSN-3-C2 exposure package and then moved over to the Poisk module to retrieve one of two panels from the Vinoslivost exposure experiment. Unfortunately at 2016 UTC Vinogradov lost hold of the Vinoslivost panel and it floated away. The astronauts returned to Pirs at 2028 UTC and closed the hatch at 2041 UTC, with repressurization of the airlock underway by 2044 UTC. Progress M-17M, which undocked from Zvezda on Apr 15, completed its Radar-Progress experiments and fired its engine to deorbit on Apr 21. The burn at 1407 UTC lasted 173s and reduced velocity by 90.0 m/s, lowering the orbit from 354 x 411 km to 63 x 394 km, with debris impacting the Pacific at around 1502 UTC. A new cargo ship, Progress M-19M, was launched on Apr 24 into a 184 x 213 km x 51.6 deg orbit, soon raised to 293 x 353 km x 51.6 deg as it began a two-day rendezvous with ISS. One of the vessel's rendezvous antennas did not deploy but it docked successfully with Zvezda's aft port at 1225 UTC on Apr 26. Bion ---- The Bion-M No. 1 life sciences satelite (spacecraft 12KSM no. 1) was launched Apr 19. Bion-M consists of a Vostok-type pressurized reentry sphere and a Yantar'-type service and propulsion module. The sphere carries mice, gerbils, geckos, and snails as well as the FRAGMENTER and BIOKONT-B microorganism containers, the OMEGAHAB aquarium with fish and algae, the FITO plant containers, some microgravity materials experiments and accelerometers to measure the microgravity level. The Aist-2 small satellite is attached to the service module's side, while on the front of the sphere is the PSO (Platforma Stredstv Otdeleniya, Separation Mechanism Platform) structure which carries a set of cubesat deployers. Launch from Baykonur into a 252 x 554 km x 65.0 deg orbit was followed by separation from the Soyuz-2-1A rocket's third stage. The OSSI-1 cubesat, developed by a Korean artist, was ejected from the PSO at 1613 UTC on Apr 19, and has been cataloged in a 258 x 549 km x 64.9 deg orbit. Bion then manuevered to a 557 x 581 km circular orbit and at about 0825 UTC on Apr 21 ejected other secondary payloads from its PSO - BEESAT-2 and 3, two 1U cubesats from the Technical Univ. of Berlin; SOMP, the Student Oxygen Measurement Payload from Technical Univ. of Dresden; and Dove-2, a 3U cubesat from Cosmogia Inc. of San Francisco. The 39 kg Aist-2 is developed by TsSKB-Progress and the Samara Aerospace University, It carries a magnetometer, acclerometers and a micrometeor experiment, and was the last of the secondary payloads to be deployed, at 1402 UTC on Apr 21. Antares ------- The Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares launch vehicle made its first flight on Apr 21. The rocket was an Antares 110 model, with a first stage using two Kuznetsov NK-33 engines refurbised and modified by Aerojet as the AJ26-62. The first stage core is built at Yuzhmash in the Ukraine, and the completed first stage is integrated by Orbital at its Wallops Island facility. The second stage is an ATK Castor 30A solid motor built mainly in Bacchus, Utah (the old Hercules). The Antares is launched from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority on part of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) at Wallops Island, Virginia. Pad 0A was built on the site of the old WFF Launch Area 0A used for the failed commercial Conestoga launch in 1995; it is next to Pad 0B, used for Minotaur launches. The main payload for the Antares A-ONE mission is the 3800 kg Cygnus Mass Simulator, built at Orbital's Dulles factory. The CMS carries instrumentation to measure the launch vehicle environment (vibration, acoustic and thermal). It separated from the second stage two minutes after orbit insertion. The CMS also carries ISIPOD deployers which ejected four secondary cubesat payloads before the Stage 2/CMS separation. Three of them are 1U cubesats from NASA's Ames Research Center, designed to demonstrate use of a commercial mobile phone as a spacecraft avionics/computer system. This follows a similar attempt by Surrey Satellite with the STRaND-1 satellite lauched on Feb 25, which ran into problems and seems to have stopped transmitting. The three cubesats, preciously, are named Alexander, Graham and Bell. The latter two are Phonesat 1.0 V1A and Phonesat 1.0 V1B, each built around a Nexus One Android-based smartphone. Alexander is Phonesat 2.0, based on a Nexus S phone and with an S-band radio, solar panels, GPS receiver, magnetorquers and reaction wheels. The final payload is a 6 kg 3U cubesat, Dove-1, a demonstration satellite for the San Francisco-based startup company Cosmogia Inc. which is headed by former NASA employees who had earlier been involved in developing the Phonesats. The satellite, like its sister Dove-2 launched on the Bion mission, will return on-board system health data and validate the design for future Dove satellites, which will carry remote sensing payloads. Dove-1 is expected to reenter on Apr 27. GaoFen 1 -------- China's first launch of the year carried the GF-1 (Gao fen, `high resolution') imaging satellite into a 630 x 653 km sun-synchronous orbit. Three piggyback satellites were also carried: Turksat-3USAT, a 3U cubesat from Istanbul Technical University; CubeBug-1 (also called Capitan Beto), a 2U cubesat from Argentina, and NEE-01 Pegaso, a 1U cubesat for the Ecuadorian space agency EXA. Glonass -------- A Soyuz-2-1B with a Fregat upper stage placed a single Glonass-M navigation satellite in a 19330 x 19640 km orbit on Apr 26. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Feb 1 0656 Intelsat IS-27 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, Pacific Comms F01 Feb 6 1604 Globalstar M078 ) Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31/6 Comms 05A Globalstar M093 ) Comms 05B Globalstar M094 ) Comms 05C Globalstar M095 ) Comms 05D Globalstar M096 ) Comms 05E Globalstar M097 ) Comms 05F Feb 7 2136 Amazonas 3 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 06A Azerspace ) Comms 06B Feb 11 1441 Progress M-18M Soyuz-U Baykonur Cargo 07A Feb 11 1802 Landsat 8 Atlas V 401 Vandenberg SLC3E Imaging 08A Feb 25 1231 SARAL ) Altimeter 09A Sapphire ) SpSur 09C NEOSSat ) PSLV-CA Sriharikota Astron/SpSur 09D UniBRITE ) Astronomy 09G TUGSAT-1 ) Astronomy 09F AAUSAT3 ) Ship nav 09B STRaND-1 ) Tech 09E Mar 1 1510 Dragon CRS-2 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 10A Mar 19 2121 SBIRS GEO-2 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Early Warn 11A Mar 26 1907 Satmex 8 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 12A Mar 28 2043 Soyuz TMA-08M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 13A Apr 15 1836 Anik G-1 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 14A Apr 19 1000 Bion-M No. 1 ) Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31/6 Life Sci 15A OSSI-1 ) 15B BEESAT-2 ) 15G BEESAT-3 ) 15E SOMP ) 15F Dove-2 ) 15C AIST-2 ) 15D Apr 21 2100 Cygnus Mass Sim ) Antares 110 Wallops MARS 0A Tech 16A Alexander ) Tech 16C Graham ) Tech 16E? Bell ) Tech 16D Dove-1 ) Tech 16B Apr 24 1012 Progress M-19M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1/5 Cargo 17A Apr 26 0413 Gao Fen 1 ) Imaging 18A NEE-01 Pegaso ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Tech Turksat-3USAT ) Tech CubeBug-1 ) Tech Apr 26 0523 Glonass-M No. 47 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk Nav 19A Suborbital launches ------------------- Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Feb 7 0821 NASA 49.001UE T-T Oriole N. Poker Flat Auroral 754 Feb 13 0910 ARAV-B Target Terrier Oriole Kauai Target 150? Feb 13 0915? FTM-20 KV Aegis SM-3 CG-20, Pacific Interceptor 150? Feb 15 NASA 41.104GT Terrier Imp Orion White Sands Tech 130? Feb (many) Julan RV? Scud An Nasriyah, Syria Weapon 80? Feb 25 0600? Arrow KV Arrow 3 Palmachim? Interceptor 100? Mar 11 0610? Shark Terrier Lynx Wallops I Target 300? Apr 4 2155 Kunpeng-1 Tianying-3E Hainan Ionosphere 191 Apr 7 0455 Agni RV Agni 2 Wheeler I. Op. Test 200? Apr 10 Haft-IV RV Shaheen 1 Somniani? Op. Test 100? Apr 12 0425 TEXUS 50 VSB-30 Kiruna Micrograv 261 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'