Jonathan's Space Report No. 680 2013 Jun 12, Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station ---------------------------- Soyuz TMA-09M was launched on May 28 carrying Fyodor Yurchikin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano. Launched into a 194 x 227 km x 51.7 deg orbit, it manoeuvred several times and reached a 408 x 421 km orbit for final approach to ISS, docking with the Rassvet module at 0210 UTC May 29 after a 5 hr 39min flight, the fastest ascent to ISS to date (see discussion in JSR 677). On Jun 5 the fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATV 4, was launched from Kourou. The cargo ship was named `Albert Einstein' - not to be confused with the Einstein Observatory satellite launched in 1978. Launch mass was 19870 kg at separation from the upper stage. The Ariane 5ES rocket entered a -1242 x 141 km transfer orbit at 2200 UTC. The first EPS upper stage burn reached 137 x 260 km at 2209 UTC. The second burn at 2251 UTC raised perigee, and the EPS stage separated from ATV 4 'Albert Einstein' at 2256 UTC. The ATV will take ten days to complete the rendezvous with ISS. On Jun 10 Albert Einstein maneuvered to a 287 x 301 km orbit. Progress M-19M undocked from the Zvezda module at 1358 UTC on Jun 11, making room for ATV, and entered a 416 x 456 km orbit for Radar-Progress ionospheric experiments. Expedition 36 is underway. The crew are commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineers FE-2 Alexandr Misurkin, FE-3 Chris Cassidy, FE-4 Yurchikin, FE-5 Parmitano and FE-6 Nyberg. Ferry ship Soyuz TMA-08M is at Poisk and TMA-09M at Rassvet. Cargo ship Progress M-18M is at the Pirs module. Shenzhou 10 ----------- China's Shenzhou 10 spaceship was launched on Jun 11, carrying three astronauts. Shenzhou 10 Commander (zhiling zhang) is Maj-Gen. Nie Haisheng; Operator (caozuo shou) is Air Force Lt-Col. Zhang Xiaoguang, and Experiment Officer (shiyan yuan) is Air Force Major Wang Yaping. Shenzhou 10 reached a 198 x 310 km orbit, soon raised to 260 x 313 km on its way to a rendezvous with the Tiangong-1 spacelab. WGS 5 ----- A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket placed the WGS 5 satellite in supersynchronous geostationary transfer orbit on May 25. The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite provides communications for the US military, and is built by Boeing/El Segundo using the BSS702 bus. The Delta 4 reached a 185 x 6880 km x 25.6 deg parking orbit at 0047 UTC and then restarted to achieve a 439 x 66900 km x 24.0 deg orbit at 0058 UTC, deploying the satellite at 0107 UTC. (Orbit details from spaceflightnow.com). The satellite will probably raise perigee to an orbit of around 35000 x 67000 km, while lowering inclination, and then lower apogee to reach the target 35780 km equatorial geostationary orbit, but orbit data is not being made public. SES-6 ----- A Proton was launched from Baykonur on Jun 3 carrying the SES-6 satellite. The Briz-M stage made five burns from -496 x 171 km x 51.5 deg to 173 x 173 km x 51.5 deg, 295 x 6000 km x 51.0 deg, 360 x 14911 km x 50.8 deg, 475 x 65044 km x 50.5 deg, and finally to a 4461 x 65024 km x 26.4 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit. The payload separated at 0049 UTC on Jun 4. SES-6 is a Eurostar 3000 satellite with a mass of 6140 kg at launch. Procured by SES Satellite Leasing of the Isle of Man, it will be operated by SES World Skies of the Hague, also a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based SES conglomerate. Persona ------- Russia launched a Persona spy satellite on June 7. After insertion into an initial 186 x 679 km x 98.3 deg orbit it was given the cover name Kosmos-2486 (Kosmos-2485 was the Glonass launch in April). On Jun 11 the satellite maneuvered into a 714 x 732 km circular sun-synchronous orbit with 1031 local time descending node. GPS IIF ------- Thanks to Richard Langley for passing on info from Boeing spokesperson Paula Shawa - the Boeing nickname for GPS IIF-1/SVN62 was, appropriately enough, Polaris. The Block IIF satellites are built by Boeing/El Segundo and have a launch mass of around 1630 kg (including an unknown amount of propellant); they are 2.5m high and have a solar panel span of about 18m. The IIF navigation payloads carry atomic clocks and broadcast L-band navigation signals in the L1M, L2M, L2C and L5 channels; they also carry sensors to detect nuclear explosions as part of an early warning system. The IIF system replaces earlier Block I, Block II, and IIA series built by Rockwell/Seal Beach (now part of Boeing) and Block IIR satellites built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge. Erratum -------- In JSR 679, the inclination of the intermediate Eutelsat 3D/Briz-M orbit should of course have read 18.0 deg, not 180 deg. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. May 1 1606 Zhongxing-11 Chang Zheng 3B/E Xichang Comms 20A May 7 0206 Proba-V ) Imaging 21A VNREDSAT-1 ) Vega Kourou ZLV Imaging 21B ESTCube-1 ) Tech 21C May 13 1258 Kunpeng-7 Unknown (DF-31?) Xichang Magnetosphere U01 May 14 1601 Eutelsat 3D Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 22A May 15 2138 GPS SVN 66 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Nav 23A May 25 0027 WGS 5 Delta 4M+(5,4) Canaveral SLC37B Comms 24A May 28 2031 Soyuz TMA-09M Soyuz-FG Baykonur Spaceship 25A Jun 3 0918 SES-6 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 26A Jun 5 2152 ATV-4 Ariane 5ES Kourou ELA3 Cargo 27A Jun 7 1837 Kosmos-2486 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 28A Jun 11 0938 Shenzhou 10 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 29A Suborbital launches ------------------- On May 22 the US Air Force launched a Minuteman 3 missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The reentry vehicle splashed down in Kwajalein Atoll. On Jun 6, flight NASA 40.030UG saw the launch of the CIBER near infrared telescope to its highest ever altitude, to minimize atmospheric emissions contaminating its observations of the cosmic extragalactic background light. The CIBER payload fell in the Atlantic as planned, and was not recovered. CIBER observes in the 0.8-2 micron band. The three earlier flights of CIBER were on Black Brant IX rockets from White Sands, with the payload being recovered from the desert. CIBER 1 NASA 36.226UG 2009 Feb 25 CIBER 2 NASA 36.265UG 2010 Jul 11 CIBER 3 NASA 36.277UG 2012 Mar 22 CIBER 4 NASA 40.030UG 2013 Jun 6 Also on Jun 6, the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces carried out a test launch of a new-generation Rubezh (`Frontier') missile from Kapustin Yar, most likely impacting the Balkash test range at Sary Shagan. The new missile is suspected to be a derivative of the existing Topol' solid fuel series of missiles; earlier launches were in Sep 2011 and May and Oct 2012. (Thanks to Andrey Krasil'nikov for providing the link to the Rubezh name on nasaspaceflight.com). Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km May 1 0738 NASA 41.100DR Terrier Imp. Orion Roi-Namur Ionosphere 189 May 7 0400 REXUS 14 Imp. Orion Kiruna Micrograv 81 May 7 0739 NASA 45.005UE Terrier Oriole Roi-Namur Atmosphere 350? May 7 0740 NASA 46.001UE Terrier Imp.Mal. Roi-Namur Atmosphere 350? May 9 0400 REXUS 13 Imp. Orion Kiruna Micrograv 83 May 9 0723 NASA 41.102DR Terrier Imp. Orion Roi-Namur Ionosphere 188 May 11 0500 FORTIS Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 280? May 13 1258 Kunpeng-7 Unknown (DF-31?) Xichang Magnetosphere 30000? May 17 0325 FTM-19 Target Talos-Castor? Kauai Target 300? May 17 0330? Aegis KV SM-3-1B USS Lake Erie Interceptor 150? May 22 1327 GT207GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF04 Op. Test 1300? Jun 6 0305 CIBER Black Brant XII Wallops IR Astron 577 Jun 6 1745 RV Rubezh Kapustin Yar R&D launch 1000? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'