Jonathan's Space Report No. 695 2014 Mar 28 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Soyuz TMA-10M undocked from Poisk at 0002 UTC Mar 11, landing in Kazakhstan at 0324 UTC with astronauts Kotov, Hopkins and Ryazanskiy. The undocking marked the end of Expedition 38 and the beginning of Expedition 39, with Koichi Wakata becoming the first Japanese ISS commander. Russian Mikhail Tyurin and American Rich Mastracchio round out the crew. On Mar 25 Soyuz TMA-12M was launched into a 193 x 244 km orbit carrying Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov, Oleg Germanovich Artem'ev and Dr. Steve R. Swanson. The third planned rendezvous burn at 2348 UTC was cancelled, apparently due to a software problem, postponing the ship's rendezvous with ISS until Mar 27. The craft was in a 297 x 333 km x 51.7 deg orbit after the problem, and maneuvered to a 414 x 425 km orbit on Mar 26. Docking with Poisk came according to the revised plan, at 2353 UTC Mar 27. Mass of the ISS after docking was about 409 tonnes. Note: There have been two members of the Star City cosmonaut team called "Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov" - the one currently in orbit, born 1966 and active since 1997, and his father, born 1942, who was a trainee cosmonaut from 1965 to 1967 and left without making any spaceflights. Russian names, of course, do not use the American 'Junior' convention which would disambiguate father and son. MH370 ----- The search for the lost Malaysian airliner, flight MH370, has involved several satellites. It has been reported that US infrared assets (i.e. DSP and its relatives) did not see any infrared event that could be associated with an inflight explosion. Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organization analysis of Worldview-2 commercial satellite imagery led to candidate debris in the Indian Ocean on Mar 20; successive candidate debris fields have been seen in images from China's Gao Fen 1, France's Spot-6 and Thailand's Thaichote/THEOS satellite. As of Mar 27 none of these leads have panned out. One constraint on the plane's location was obtained by measuring the light-travel-time of two-way data communication between the Inmarsat 3F1 satellite in GEO at 64.5E and equipment aboard the plane - this gives a distance but not a direction, leading to a wide arc-shaped search locus. Additional analysis using the Doppler shift of the frequency gave the component of relative speed of satellite and plane along the line joining them; combining the information allowed analysts to narrow the search zone to an ocean region 2300 km southwest of Australia. Cassini ------- The Cassini probe, approaching periapsis 202 in orbit around Saturn, completed the T-99 Titan flyby on Mar 6, flying 1500 km from the surface at 1628 UTC. The flyby changed the orbit to 0.80 x 2.96 million km x 45.5 deg. Ekspress-AT1/2 --------------- Russia's Krunichev company launched a Proton rocket on Mar 15 carrying two satellites built by ISS Reshetnev of Krasnoyarsk for Kosmicheskaya Svyaz (Russan Satellite Communications Co.) The Ekspress-AT1 satellite has a mass of 1672 kg. AT2 is smaller at 1326 kg. The satellites carry Ku-band comm payloads and will be located at 56E and 140E. On Mar 27 AT1 was in a 35701 x 35903 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 70E; AT2 was in a 35564 x 35859 km x 0.1 deg orbit over 78E. Aist/SKRL --------- The objects from the Soyuz-2-1V launch of Dec 2013 (2013-078) have been reassigned: Object originally cataloged as 39490 (78A) is now 39493 (78D). It is the second stage rocket. Object originally cataloged as 39491 (78B) is unchanged. It is thought to be the SKRL-756-2 calsphere. Object originally cataloged as 39492 (78C) is unchanged. It is thought to be Aist-1. Object originally cataloged as 39493 (78D) no longer exists (last TLEs Jan 14). Its orbit of 601 x 625 km was similar to 78B and may have been a tracking error of some kind. The extra object was a mystery at the time, so its deletion makes things match what was expected. Object originally cataloged as 39494 (78E) is now 39490 (78A). Thought to be SKRL-756-1 calsphere. New object 39494 is the Briz-M stage from the Inmarsat 5 launch, previously untracked, and now discovered in a 2805 x 63785 km x 27.1 deg orbit. Ariane L571 ----------- Arianespace put two communications satellites in a 260 x 35690 km x 3.0 deg GTO on Mar 22. Both satellites are carrying out orbit raising burns on their way to geostationary orbit. Astra 5B is a 5724 kg Airbus Defense and Space Eurostar 3000L for SES and was in a 15373 x 35665 km x 0.8 deg orbit on Mar 27. Amazonas 4A is a 2938 kg Orbital GeoStar-2.4 for Hispasat of Spain, and was in a 27450 x 35715 km x 0.3 deg orbit on Mar 27. Glonass -------- Russia's Glonass-M No. 54 (Uragan-M No. 754) navigation satellite was launched from Plesetsk on Mar 24. It has been given the codename Kosmos-2491. The satellite was placed in a 19128 x 19153 km x 64.8 deg orbit by the Fregat upper stage. According to information on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum, the Fregat stages are using a new scheme of serial numbers; this one is No. 112-01 according to some reports. The '112' indicates that it is a Soyuz launch from Plesetsk for the civilian Roskosmos agency. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Jan 5 1048 GSAT-14 GSLV Sriharikota SLP Comms 01A Jan 6 2206 Thaicom 6 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 02A Jan 9 1807 Cygnus Orb-1 Antares 120 Wallops MARS 0A Cargo 03A Jan 24 0233 TDRS 12 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 04A Feb 5 1623 Progress M-22M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1/5 Cargo 05A Feb 6 2130 ABS 2 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 06A Athena-Fidus ) 06B Feb 11 0831 Flock1-1 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DG Flock1-2 ) Imaging 98-067DH Feb 11 1241 Flock1-3 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DJ Flock1-4 ) Imaging 98-067DK Feb 12 0830 Flock1-5 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DL Flock1-6 ) Imaging 98-067DM Feb 13 0820 Flock1-11 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DN Flock1-12 ) Imaging 98-067DP Feb 14 0415 Flock1-13 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DQ Flock1-14 ) Imaging 98-067DR Feb 14 1145 Flock1-15 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DS Flock1-16 ) Imaging 98-067DT Feb 14 2109 Turksat-4A Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 07A Feb 15 0700 Flock1-7 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DU Flock1-8 ) Imaging 98-067DV Feb 15 1055 Flock1-9 ) - ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DW Flock1-10 ) Imaging 98-067DX Feb 21 0159 GPS SVN 64 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Navigation 08A Feb 25 1700 Flock1-17 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067DY Flock1-18 ) Imaging 98-067DZ Feb 26 0420 Flock1-21 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EA Flock1-22 ) Imaging 98-067EB Feb 26 0735 Flock1-19 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EC Flock1-20 ) Imaging 98-067ED Feb 27 0150 Flock1-23 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EE Flock1-24 ) Imaging 98-067EF Feb 27 0740 Flock1-25 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EG Flock1-26 ) Imaging 98-067EH Feb 27 1837 GPM-C ) H-2A Tanegashima LP1 Climate 09C Ginrei ) Tech 09A STARS-2 ) Tech 09G Teikyosat-3 ) Bio 09E Yui ) Tech 09F OPUSat ) Tech 09D Invader ) Edu 09H Hayato-2 ) Tech 09B Feb 28 0420? Flock1-27 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EJ Flock1-28 ) Imaging 98-067EK Feb 28 0730 SkyCube 1 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-067EN Litsat 1 ) Tech 98-067EP LituanicaSat-1 ) Tech 98-067EQ Ardusat-2 ) Tech 98-067EL UAP-SAT ) Tech 98-067EM Mar 15 2308 Ekspress-AT1 ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 10A Ekspress-AT2 ) Comms 10B Mar 22 2204 Astra 5B ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 11A Amazonas 4A) Comms 11B Mar 23 2254 Glonass-M No. 54 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 12A Mar 25 2117 Soyuz TMA-12M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 13A Suborbital missions ------------------- NASA Flight 36.287, the Ground-to-Rocket Electrodynamics-Electrons Correlative Experiment led by M. Samara of SWRI, was launched from the Poker Flat range in Alaska on Mar 3. North Korea carried out short range missile tests between Feb 21 and at least Mar 16. Most of the launches were within the atmosphere, but Scud class launches on Feb 27 and Mar 2 were probably exoatmospheric. The missiles are assumed to have carried dummy reentry vehicles. Two larger Nodong (Rodong) missiles were launched on Mar 25. Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Dec 14 Kavoshgar Pazhuhesh Shahab-1 Semnan Bio 120 Dec 17 1236 GT210GM Minuteman III Vandenberg LF04 Op. test 1300? Dec 23 1128 Agni RV Agni 3 Chandipur Test 350 Dec 24 0700 Yars RV-1 ) Yars Plesetsk Test 1000? Yars RV-2 ) Yars RV-3 ) Yars RV-4 ) Dec 27 1730 Topol' RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Jan 3 Arrow KV Arrow 3 Palmachim Test 100? Jan 15 0909 FTX-18 target Terrier Orion Wallops Target 130? Jan 15 0909 FTX-18 target Terrier Orion Wallops Target 130? Jan 15 0909 FTX-18 target Terrier Orion Wallops Target 130? Jan 20 0522 Agni 4 RV Agni 4 Chandipur IC4 Test 900? Feb 27 0842? Hwasong RV Hwasong 5? Kittaeryong Training 80? Feb 27 0842? Hwasong RV Hwasong 5? Kittaeryong Training 80? Feb 27 0842? Hwasong RV Hwasong 5? Kittaeryong Training 80? Feb 27 0842? Hwasong RV Hwasong 5? Kittaeryong Training 80? Mar 2 2119? Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Kittaeryong Training 150? Mar 2 2119? Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Kittaeryong Training 150? Mar 3 1109 GREECE Black Brant IX Poker Flat Pad3 Aurora 335 Mar 4 1810 Topol' RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Mar 25 1735 Nodong RV Nodong 1? Sukchon Test 150? Mar 25 1742 Nodong RV Nodong 1? Sukchon Test 150? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'