Jonathan's Space Report No. 724 2016 Apr 8 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 47 continues with commander Tim Kopra and flight engineers Yuriy Malenchenko and Tim Peake. On Mar 18 Soyuz TMA-20M was launched carrying Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams. This is the last of the 11F732A47 Soyuz TMA-M series, which will be replaced by the improved Soyuz-MS variant. On Mar 23 Cygnus cargo ship OA-6, "SS Rick Husband", was launched aboard Atlas V flight AV-064 from Cape Canaveral. A mixture ratio problem on the Atlas caused an 5-seconds-early first stage cutoff, which required a full extra minute's burn on the Centaur upper stage to make the correct orbit. After deploying Cygnus, the Centaur's second burn was intended to deorbit the stage south of Australia, but because of insufficient remaining propellant the engine cutoff early, and reentry occurred downrange south of New Zealand. SS Rick Husband arrived at the ISS on schedule, and was grappled by the Canadarm-2 at 1051 UTC Mar 26. Progress M-29M undocked from the Zvezda module on Mar 30 at 1415 UTC and is performing attitude control experiments in a 373 x 401 km orbit. Progress MS-02 was launched from Baykonur on Mar 31 and docked with Zvezda on Apr 2 at 1758 UTC. Dragon CRS-8 was launched on Falcon 9 F9-023 from Cape Canaveral on Apr 8. It carries the Bigelow BEAM inflatable module experiment in its trunk. CRS-8 is scheduled to arrive at ISS on Apr 10. The F9-023 first stage performed boostback and reentry burns to successfully land on the ship "Of Course I Still Love You" at 78.50W 30.50N in the Atlantic. This was the second succesful reentry and landing of a Falcon 9 first stage, following the Dec 2015 landing of F9-021 at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX first stage reentries with landing experiments - summary Date Vehicle LaunchSite Target Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2013 Sep 29 F9-006 (1.1) V SLC4E Ocean No legs;Roll anomaly 2014 Apr 18 F9-009 (1.1) CC LC40 Ocean Controlled splash 2014 Jul 14 F9-010 (1.1) CC LC40 Ocean Controlled splash 2014 Sep 21 F9-012 (1.1) CC LC40 Ocean No legs, splash 2015 Jan 10 F9-014 (1.1) CC LC40 JRTI 78.11W 30.83N Crash on JRTI (hydraulic fluid) 2015 Feb 11 F9-015 (1.1) CC LC40 Ocean Controlled splash 2015 Apr 14 F9-017 (1.1) CC LC40 JRTI 78.11W 30.83N Touchdown but toppled 2015 Jun 28 F9-020 (1.1) CC LC40 OCISLY 78.11W 30.83N Destroyed during ascent 2015 Dec 21 F9-021 (FT) CC LC40 CC LZ1 Success 2016 Jan 17 F9-019 (1.1) V SLC4E JRTI 120.78W 32.13N Touchdown but toppled 2016 Mar 3 F9-022 (FT) CC LC40 OCISLY 73.82W 28.27N Too fast, crash 2016 Apr 8 F9-023 (FT) CC LC40 OCISLY 78.50W 30.50N Success Targets: JRTI = Just Read The Instructions OCISLY = Of Course I Still Love You LZ1 = Landing Zone 1, Cape Canaveral Bars-M ------ Russia launched a Bars-M cartography satellite on Mar 26, giving it the codename Kosmos-2515. Bars-M No. 2 joins the No. 1 satellite (Kosmos-2503) launched in 2015. S509356 ------- Asteroid surveys have spotted an unknown Earth satellite, provisionally designated S509356, in a 30000 x 152000 km x 48 deg orbit. Looking at my historical lists, it might be an object associated with the Vela launches, although it's surprising it's only being spotted now. The region beyond GEO is poorly tracked by satellite surveillance systems but in recent years coverage by asteroid searchers has been fairly good. Tiangong 1 ---------- On Mar 21 China announced the end of "data service" with the Tiangong 1 space laboratory. The 8500 kg lab is in a 377 x 394 km x 42.8 deg orbit; it had made reboost manuevers about twice a year, the most recent on 2015 Dec 16. Scott Tilley reported on the SeeSat list that regular radio transmissions from the spacecraft were not received during passes on Mar 31. If the spacecraft is now inactive, it will reenter the atmosphere sometime in the next few years. ExoMars -------- Optical observations of the ExoMars launch have revealed several debris objects in the vicinity of the Briz-M final stage shortly after payload separation. Roskosmos confirms that telemetry shows the separation burns were performed on schedule, and the stage's trajectory as measured by astronomers puts it on course to safely miss Mars by almost one million km. Meanwhile, ESA reports that the ExoMars TGO spacecraft itself is in good health and on course to Mars. Hitomi/ASTRO-H -------------- JAXA's Hitomi satellite (the ASTRO-H X-ray observatory, not to be confused with Tokyo University's homonymic Hitomi satellite) suffered a major anomaly on Mar 25 while observing the quasar Markarian 205. At 1910 UTC the satellite started tumbling and then at 0140 UTC Mar 26 the spacecraft partly disintegrated. US tracking found eleven debris objects in orbit. During the next scheduled pass at 0740 UTC, JAXA received only a short burst from the radio beacon and nothing more; three more such beacon detections were obtained up to Mar 28, when the spacecraft fell silent (A further radio signal on Mar 29 is now thought to be spurious). Ground-based optical observations showed that at least two of the debris objects, 2016-012A and 012L, were bright and tumbling several times a minute. 2016-012A is probably the main spacecraft bus. It's possible that 2016-012L is the extensible optical bench with the HXI cameras, or part of the solar panels. JAXA hopes that as the tumbling eventually slows, the spacecraft will regain power and communications would again be possible. If the spacecraft attitude can be fixed, it's likely that at least the SXI CCD imagers would be able to operate. I wish my colleagues at JAXA the best of luck in this very difficult situation. SJ-10 ----- China's SJ-10 microgravity experiment satellite was launched on Apr 5 into low orbit. SJ-10 is based on the old FSW recoverable film-based spy satellites. The main experiment section will separate and return to Earth at the end of the mission. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg Feb 1 0729 Beidou DW21 Chang Zheng 3C/YZ1 Xichang Navigation 06A S41315 21512 x 21981 x 55.0 Feb 3 1322 Fleshka - ISS, LEO Commemorative 98-067HR?S41326? 395 x 406 x 51.6 Feb 5 1338 GPS SVN 70 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Navigation 07A S41328 20438 x 20442 x 55.0 Feb 7 0021 Glonass-M No. 51 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 08A S41330 19132 x 19158 x 64.8 Feb 7 0030 Kwangmyongsong-4 Kwangmyongsong Sohae Imaging 09A S41332 465 x 501 x 97.5 0840LT SSO Feb 10 1140 TOPAZ 4? Delta 4M+(5,2) Vandenberg SLC6 Radar 10A S41334 1078 x 1085 x 123.0 Feb 16 1757 Sentinel-3A Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Imaging/Alt 11A S41335 802 x 806 x 98.6 1000LT SSO Feb 17 0845 Hitomi ) H2A 202 Tanegashima X-ray Astron 12A S41337 565 x 580 x 31.0 Kinshachi-2) Space Sci 12B S41338 559 x 579 x 31.0 Kinshachi-3) Imaging 12C S41339 558 x 578 x 31.0 Horyu-4 ) Tech 12D S41340 557 x 578 x 31.0 Mar 4 2335 SES-9 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 13A S41380 28569 x 41649 x 0.5 Mar 9 0520 Eutelsat 65 West A Ariane 5 ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 14A S41832 35729 x 35759 x 0.0 GEO 44W drift Mar 10 1031 IRNSS-1F PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan SLP Navigation 15A S41384 33349 x 35750 x 5.3 Mar 13 1856 Resurs-P No. 3 Soyuz-2-1B Baykonur LC31 Imaging 16A S41386 279 x 452 x 97.3 1150LT SSO Mar 14 0931 ExoMars TGO ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Mars orbiter 17A S41388 750 x-71368 x 51.5 Schiaparelli ) Mars lander 17 A08532 750 x-71368 x 51.5 Mar 18 2126 Soyuz TMA-20M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 18A S41391 193 x 230 x 51.6 Mar 23 0305 SS Rick Husband Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Cargo 19A S41393 240 x 250 x 51.6 Mar 24 0942 Bars-M No. 2 Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk Mapping 20A S41394 332 x 540 x 97.6 1325LT SSO Mar 29 2011 Beidou DW 22 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang LC2 Navigation 21A S41434 195 x 35796 x 55.0 Mar 31 1623 Progress MS-02 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 22A S41436 261 x 267 x 51.6 Apr 5 1738 Shi Jian 10 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Microgravity 23A S41448 233 x 267 x 42.9 Apr 8 2043 Dragon CRS-8 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 24A S41452 209 x 353 x 51.7 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Mar 1 1450 MUSIC Terrier Imp.Mal. Wallops Island Tech 185 Atlantic Ocean Mar 7 1205 NASA 41.114NP Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops Island Tech 160? Atlantic Ocean Mar 8 Shahab RV Shahab-1 Qom Desert, Iran Test 100? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 8 Shahab RV Shahab-2 Qom Desert, Iran Test 120? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 8 Qiam RV Qiam Qom Desert, Iran Test 125? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 9 Ghadr RV Ghadr-F Semnan?, Iran Test 150? Makran, S Iran Mar 9 Ghadr RV Ghadr-H Semnan?, Iran Test 150? Makran, S Iran Mar 9 2020 Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Chiha?, N Korea Test 150? Sea of Japan Mar 9 2020 Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Chiha?, N Korea Test 150? Sea of Japan Mar 14 Trident RVs x ? Trident D-5 SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test 1000? S Atlantic Mar 15 Trident RVs x ? Trident D-5 SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test 1000? S Atlantic Mar 16 Trident RVs x ? Trident D-5 SSBN off Cape Canaveral Test 1000? S Atlantic Mar 17 2055 Nodong RV Nodong Sukcheon, N Korea Test 150? Sea of Japan .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'