Jonathan's Space Report No. 689 2013 Nov 20, Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station ---------------------------- Expedition 38 began on Nov 10 with commander Oleg Kotov, and flight engineers FE-2 Sergey Ryazanskiy, FE-3 Michael Hopkins, FE-4 Mikhail Tyurin, FE-5 Rick Mastracchio and FE-6 Koichi Wakata. Ferry ship Soyuz TMA-10M is at Poisk. Cargo ship Progress M-20M is at the Pirs module. Soyuz TMA-11M was launched on Nov 7 carrying Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata, and docked with the Rassvet module at 1027 UTC the same day. Astronauts Kotov and Ryazanskiy made spacewalk VKD-36 from the Pirs module on Nov 9. They carried an (unlit, of course) Olympic torch for a publicity event, which was carried out successfully. The maintenance tasks that made up the rest of the spacewalk were more problematic. The Yakor platform was removed from Zvezda's transfer compartment but could not be attached to the VRM/URM-D articulating mount on side IV of the main part of Zvezda, and was brought inside instead. A piece of equipment called DPN was be removed from the VRM (it was installed on the last EVA in August). On another URM-D experiment mount on side II of Zvezda is the RK-21-8 Radiometria experiment installed on 2011 Feb 16. This experiment was disconnected, but the astronauts had trouble stowing its deployed panels. The Pirs airlock was depressurized at 1417 UTC and the hatch opened at 1434 UTC; the hatch was reclosed at 2024 UTC and Pirs was repressurized at 2027 UTC. Soyuz TMA-09M undocked from the Zvezda module on Nov 10 at 2326 UTC and landed in Kazakhstan at 0249 UTC Nov 11, carrying astronauts Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano. On Nov 19 a J-SSOD cubesat deployer was retrieved from the Kibo module airlock by the JEM RMS arm and moved to a deployment position; at 1218 UTC it ejected three 1U cubesats - PicoDragon for Vietnam, and two Ardusats for a demonstration of spaceborne Arduino processors for the US company NanoSatisfi. Kuaizhou 1 ---------- China's Kuaizhou 1 satellite continues to operate in low orbit. KZ-1 was launched on Sep 25 into a 275 x 293 km orbit, raised on Sep 27 to 299 x 306 km. The orbit decayed to 279 x 288 km and then was raised on Oct 17 to 288 x 321 km; after a further decay another reboost on Nov 1 restored the orbit to 290 x 317 km. The third reboost on Nov 19 raised the orbit from 267 x 294 km to 287 x 322 km. Mars Orbiter Mission -------------------- India began its Mars Orbiter Mission with the launch of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft from Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island north of Chennai on Nov 5. The MOS was inserted in elliptical Earth orbit; it will use its own propulsion to enter solar orbit. ISRO officials seem to be using the name 'Mars Orbiter Spacecraft' for the vehicle (as opposed to the mission), although the press kit uses 'Mars Orbiter Satellite'. Parts of the Indian press media are also using the nickname 'Mangalyaan' but this is never used by ISRO, so I consider this name incorrect, although the correct name is admittedly boring. 'Mars Orbiter Mission' (MOM) is also used widely for the spacecraft. The third stage rocket reentered off the coast of Peru after half an orbit; the fourth stage and MOM payload entered a 251 x 23892 km x 19.4 deg orbit with first perigee over the South Pacific. On Nov 7 the orbit was raised to 259 x 28726 km, and on Nov 8 to over 70000 km apogee. A further burn on Nov 10 delivered only 35m/s, raising the apogee less than planned. A makeup burn on Nov 11 fixed the problem, and a burn on Nov 15 put the spacecraft in a 853 x 194683 km x 19.4 deg orbit. Solar orbit insertion is scheduled for around Dec 1. Raduga-1M --------- A Russian Globus-1M (cover name Raduga-1M) military communications satellite was sent toward geostationary orbit by a Proton launch on Nov 11. On Nov 17 the satellite was in a 35249 x 35599 km x 0.2 deg orbit drifting eastward over 78E. MAVEN ------ The Mars MAVEN mission was launched on Nov 18. It is designed to enter Martian orbit and study the escape of gases from the upper Martian atmosphere. It carries particles and fields instruments and an imaging ultraviolet spectrometer. MAVEN reached a 167 x 315 km x 26.7 deg parking orbit at 1841 UTC; the Centaur AV-038 stage restarted at 1909 UTC and inserted MAVEN into a 195 x -78200 km x 27.7 deg hyperbolic Earth orbit. MAVEN and the Centaur will leave the Earth-Moon system on Nov 21 and enter a 0.97 x 1.47 AU x 2.1 deg heliocentric orbit which will take them to the vicinity of Mars in Sep 2014. ORS-3 ------ The ORS-3 mission was launched by a Minotaur I from Wallops Island into a 497 x 507 km x 40.5 deg orbit carrying the STPSat-3 research satellite and two CubeStack wafers which eject a total of 28 cubesats (Deployment of the cubesats has not yet been confirmed). STPSat-3 carries technology and space weather experiments, including an important Total Solar Irradiance sensor, TCTE, to provide data lost when the Glory launch failed. The ORS-3 Minotaur final stage carries an experimental launch tracking system and a drag device to reduce the amount of time it spends in orbit. The upper wafer carries four 6U Cubesat dispensers for NRO missions, and the lower wafer carries eight 3U P-POD cubesat dispensers for various payloads including NASA's ELANA IV cubesat cluster. The basic 1U Cubesat is a 0.1m cube; 3U Cubesats are 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.3m boxes. The 28 Cubesats on the launch total 48U of volume. Counting the final stage as a payload (since it carries active experiments) this total of 30 payloads more than doubles the existing record for active payloads on a single launch. The previous record was the 2007-012 Dnepr launch, with 14 payloads. The three Soviet Kol'tso radar calibration missions 1988-113, 1989-100, and 1990-104 (Kosmos-1985, 2053 and 2106) appear to have each carried 36 subsatellites, but these were passive calibration targets. The SDIO Delta 181 launch in 1988 had 15 payloads, but some were also passive calibration objects. The ELANA IV cluster consists of 10 of the 1U Cubesats and one 3U one - TJ3Sat, from Thomas Jefferson High School, Virginia DragonSat, from Drexel University, Penn. and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis COPPER, from Saint Louis University, Missouri ChargerSat 1, from U. Alabama-Huntsville SwampSat, from U. Florida-Gainesville Ho'oponopono 2, a 3U sat for radar calibration, from U. Hawaii-Manoa KySat-2 from Kentucky Space, Lexington, Kentucky CAPE 2, from U. Louisiana-Lafayette Trailblazer, from U. New Mexico-Albequerque Vermont Lunar Cubesat, from Vermont Technical College, testing equipment for a proposed future lunar mission PhoneSat-2.4, from NASA-Ames, with systems based on a Nexus/Android cellphone Two further 1U satellites are packaged with ELANA IV: NPS-SCAT for the US Navy Postgraduate School, with a solar cell exposure experiment Black Knight 1, for the US Military Academy at West Point, New York This accounts for 5 of the 8 P-POD deployers on the lower deck. The remaining satellites are Firefly, a 3U science sat for the National Science Foundation built by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences in Maryland in collaboration with Siena College, that will study terrestrial gamma-ray flashes; Horus (STARE-B), a 3U Lawrence Livermore experiment for space debris monitoring; SENSE-A and SENSE-B 3U ionospheric monitoring satellites for the USAF Space and Missile Center 8 Prometheus low orbit tactical communications satellites, each 1.5U, for the US Southern Command (SOCOM), developed by Los Alamos. ORSES, a 3U ORS Enabler Satellite, a tactical comms satellite for the USAF Operationally Responsive Space office and the US Space and Missile Defense Command. ORS Tech 1 and 2, 3U technology demo satellites for USAF ORS developed by APL. All of the satellites on the launch are US satellites (led by organizations from 13 different US states), so this also sets a record for the number of satellites from a single country orbited on a single launch. Both the absolute and single-country record may not stand long, with launches planned later this year that will surpass the ORS-3 record. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Sep 1 1916 Yaogan 17 ) Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan LC603 SIGINT 46A YW-17 subsat 1) SIGINT 46B YW-17 subsat 2) SIGINT 46C Sep 7 0327 LADEE Minotaur V Wallops I. LA0B Lunar probe 47A Sep 11 2323 Gonets-M No. 14 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 48A Gonets-M No. 16 ) Comms 48B Gonets-M No. 17 ) Comms 48C Sep 14 0500 Hisaki Epsilon Uchinoura Astronomy 49A Sep 18 0810 AEHF 3 Atlas V 531 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 50A Sep 18 1458 Cygnus Demo Antares 110 Wallops I. LA0A Cargo 51A Sep 23 0307 Fengyun-3 3 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan LC9 Weather 52A Sep 25 0437 Kuaizhou-1 Kuaizhou Jiuquan Imaging? 53A Sep 25 2058 Soyuz TMA-10M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 54A Sep 29 1600 Cassiope ) Falcon 9 v1.1 Vandenberg SLC4E Comm/Sci 55A POPACS 1 ) Sci 55D POPACS 2 ) Sci 55E POPACS 3 ) Sci 55F DANDE ) Sci 55C CUSat ) Tech 55B Sep 29 2138 Astra 2E Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 56A Oct 25 0350 Shi Jian 16 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Tech? 57A Oct 25 1808 Sirius FM6 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 58A Oct 29 0250 Yaogan 18 Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Radar? 59A Nov 5 0908 Mars Orbiter Spacecraft PSLV-XL Sriharikota Mars probe 60A Nov 7 0414 Soyuz TMA-11M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 61A Nov 11 2346 Raduga-1M Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 62A Nov 18 1828 MAVEN Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe 63A Nov 19 1218 PicoDragon ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-067DA? Ardusat-1 ) Tech 98-067DB? Ardusat-X ) Tech 98-067DC? Nov 20 0115 STPSAT-3 ) Minotaur I Wallops I LA0B Tech 64A? ORS-3 ) Tech 64 TJ3Sat ) Tech 64 DragonSat ) Tech 64 COPPER ) Tech 64 ChargerSat 1 ) Tech 64 SwampSat ) Tech 64 Ho'oponopono 2 ) Radar cal 64 KySat-2 ) Tech 64 CAPE 2 ) Tech 64 Trailblazer ) Tech 64 Vermont Lunar Cubesat ) Tech 64 PhoneSat-2.4 ) Tech 64 NPS-SCAT ) Tech 64 Black Knight 1 ) Tech 64 Firefly ) Science 64 Horus/STARE-B ) Space Surv. 64 SENSE-A ) Ionospheric 64 SENSE-B ) Ionospheric 64 ORSES ) Comms 64 ORS Tech 1 ) Tech 64 ORS Tech 2 ) Tech 64 Prometheus 1A? ) Comms 64 Prometheus 1B ?) Comms 64 Prometheus 2A? ) Comms 64 Prometheus 2B ?) Comms 64 Prometheus 3A? ) Comms 64 Prometheus 3B ?) Comms 64 Prometheus 4A? ) Comms 64 Prometheus 4B ?) Comms 64 Suborbital launches ------------------- The Wisconsin/Goddard X-ray Quantum Calorimeter payload made its sixth flight on Nov 3 from White Sands. Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Sep 3 0616 Radar target Silver Sparrow F-15, Med. Sea Target 150? Sep 6 0520 Bulava RV Bulava K-550, White Sea Test 100? Sep 10 MBRV? Unknown Wake Island Target 300? Sep 10 MBRV? eMRBM C-17, Pacific Target 300? Sep 10 Aegis KV SM-3 USS Decatur,Pacific Interceptor 150? Sep 10 THAAD KV THAAD Meck Island Interceptor 100? Sep 10 THAAD KV THAAD Meck Island Interceptor 100? Sep 10 2110? USN RV Trident D-5 SSBN, Atlantic O. Test 1000? Sep 10 2110? USN RV Trident D-5 SSBN, Atlantic O. Test 1000? Sep 12 USN RV Trident D-5 SSBN, Atlantic O. Test 1000? Sep 12 USN RV Trident D-5 SSBN, Atlantic O. Test 1000? Sep 15 0920 Agni RV Agni V Wheeler I. IC4 Test 800? Sep 19 0030 FTM-21 Target ARAV-C++ Kauai Target 300? Sep 19 0032? Aegis KV SM-3-1B USS Lake Erie Interceptor 300? Sep 19 0032? Aegis KV SM-3-1B USS Lake Erie Interceptor 300? Sep 22 1001 Mk 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op. test 1300? Sep 26 1033 Mk 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Op. test 1300? Oct 4 0533 FTM-22 Target ARAV-ER Kauai Target 300? Oct 4 0537? Aegis KV SM-3-1B USS Lake Erie Interceptor 150? Oct 7 0345 Prithvi RV Prithvi II Chandipur Op. test 100? Oct 8 0650? Prithvi RV Prithvi II Chandipur Op. test 100? Oct 10 1339 Exptl. RV Topol' Kapustin Yar RV test 1000? Oct 21 1800 NASA 36.290US Black Brant IX White Sands Solar 278? Oct 30 10 RVs?? R-36M2 Yasniy Exercise 1000? Oct 30 Topol' RV Topol' Plesetsk Exercise 1000? Oct 30 RV Sineva? K-117, Barents Sea Exercise 1000? Oct 30 RV Volna K-433, S.of Okhotsk Exercise 1000? Nov 3 0925 NASA 36.294UH Black Brant IX White Sands X-ray Astron 280? Nov 12 1615? SL-8 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 116 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'