Jonathan's Space Report No. 725 2016 May 18 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 47 continues with commander Tim Kopra and flight engineers Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Peake, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams. Progress M-29M was deorbited on Apr 8, reentered around 1416 UTC over the S Pacific. Dragon CRS-8 arrived at the capture point 10m from the Harmony module at 1115 UTC Apr 10. The Canadarm-2 grappled it at 1123 UTC and berthed it on Harmony's nadir CBM port at 1357 UTC. At about 0600 UTC on Apr 16 the BEAM module was extracted from Dragon's trunk; BEAM was installed on the Tranquility module's aft port at 0937 UTC Apr 16. On Apr 27 the 50 kg Diwata-1 satellite, launched on Cygnus OA-6, was removed from the Kibo airlock by the JRMS arm and released into orbit. Diwata-1 is an Earth observation satellite developed by the Phillipines. CRS-8 was unberthed at 1102 UTC May 11 and released into space at 1319 UTC. After a deorbit burn at 1801 UTC it splashed down around 120.1W 31.4N, off the coast of California, at 1851 UTC. A series of Cubesat deploys from the Kibo module began on May 16 with MinXSS (U of Colorado), CADRE (U Michigan), STMSat-1 (St. Thomas More School), and Nodes 1 and 2 (NASA-Ames). MinXSS carries a miniature X-ray solar spectrometer to study the hard X-ray spectra of solar flares. On May 17 deployment began of the PlanetLabs Flock-2e series (launched on OA-4) and Flock-2e-Prime (launched on OA-6). Sentinel-1B ----------- On Apr 25 Arianespace flight VS14 launched a Soyuz ST-A from the ELS pad at CSG Sinnamary. The Fregat stage first burn reached an initial orbit of 695 x 700 km and deployed the Sentinel-1B radar imaging satellite for ESA. It then made a burn to 442 x 690 km and deployed three 1U cubesats: OUFTI-1 for the University of Liege, AAUSAT-4 for Aalborg University in Denmark, and E-St@r-II for the Politecnico di Torino. The ASAP-S adapter was ejected into the same orbit. Next, the Fregat stage made two more burns to reach 711 x 714 km and released the Microscope satellite. Operated by the French space agency CNES, Microscope uses the Myriade bus and contains drag-free test masses to test the Equivalence Principle. Finally, at 0118 UTC, Fregat made a deorbit burn and reentered over the S Atlantic. Signals from all three cubesats were being recieved as of May 4. Lomonosov --------- The Lomonosov (Mikhailo-Lomonosov-300) science satellite was orbited on Apr 28 from the new Vostochniy spaceport. The old GIK-2 (2nd State Test Cosmodrome) at Svobodniy was shut down in 2007; its reopening as Vostochniy marks a planned shift away from the Kazakhstan launch site of Baikonur. Lomonosov's main experiment, TUS, is an ultraviolet camera to observe the flashes from cosmic rays hitting the Earth's upper atmosphere. The Samara State Aerospace University's AIST-2D imaging satellite and its Kontakt-Nanosputnik (Samsat-218/D) cubesat were also deployed. However, the student-built Samsat-218/D failed to transmit properly. IRNSS-1G -------- Launch of the IRNSS-1G completes India's 7-satellite navigation constellation and marks the third Indian launch this year. SJ-10 ----- The Shi Jian-10 microgravity satellite's reentry vehicle separated from the service module on Apr 18 at 0815 UTC and landed in China at 0830 UTC. The service module remains in a 253 x 269 km orbit, recataloged as a new object. It adjusted its orbit on Apr 22 but as of May 18 had not made further maneuvers. JCSAT-14 -------- Sky Perfect JSAT's JCSAT 14 satellite, an SSL-1300 comms platform built by SSL-MDA, was launched by Falcon 9 on May 6 into geotransfer orbit. The Falcon 9 first stage landed downrange on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You. Each of the JCSAT series satellites has two names - essentially, a name that identifies the physical satellite and a name that marks the service it is providing at a specific orbital slot. Here is the JCSAT series: Satellite name Service name Launch Retired Location JCSAT 1 JCSAT 1 1989 Mar 6 1998 Aug 17 150E JCSAT 2 JCSAT 2 1990 Jan 1 2002 Aug 154E JCSAT 3 JCSAT 3 1995 Aug 29 2007 Feb 128E JCSAT 4 JCSAT R 1997 Feb 17 2009 Aug 150E, 124E, 150E, Now Intelsat IS-26 JCSAT 5 JCSAT 1B 1997 Dec 2 - 150E JCSAT 6 JCSAT 4A 1999 Feb 16 - 82E JCSAT 7 JCSAT-110 2000 Oct 6 - 110E (Also called Superbird 5) JCSAT 8 JCSAT 2A 2002 Mar 29 - 154E JCSAT 9 JCSAT 5A 2006 Apr 12 - 132E JCSAT 10 JCSAT 3A 2006 Aug 11 - 128E JCSAT 11 - 2007 Sep 5 2007 Sep 5 Failed to orbit JCSAT 12 JCSAT RA 2009 Aug 21 - 128E JCSAT 13 JCSAT 4B 2012 May 15 - 124E JCSAT 14 JCSAT 2B 2016 May 6 - En route 154E Cassini ------- On May 6 the Cassini probe carried out the T-119 flyby of Titan, passing 971 km from that world at 1656 UTC. The flyby changed Cassini's orbit around Saturn from 442000 x 3310000 km x 28.8 deg for orbit 235 to 545000 x 3210000 km x 36.0 deg on orbit 236. The next Titan flyby is T-120, at 1407 UTC Jun 7 following orbit 236 periapsis. Simorgh ------- The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative media outlet with sources in the US defense establishment, reports that Iran's new Simorgh launch vehicle failed in its initial launch attempt on Apr 19. However, Russian sources quoted in the Kommersant newspaper suggest that it was a successful suborbital test flight of the rocket. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg Mar 4 2335 SES-9 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 13A S41380 35785 x 35788 x 0.1 GEO 113.5E Mar 9 0520 Eutelsat 65 West A Ariane 5 ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 14A S41382 35778 x 35796 x 0.1 GEO 65W Mar 10 1031 IRNSS-1F PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan SLP Navigation 15A S41384 35693 x 35876 x 5.0 GEO 32E 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 Docked ISS Mar 23 0305 SS Rick Husband Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Cargo 19A S41393 240 x 250 x 51.6 Docked ISS 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 35681 x 35887 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 23E S41455 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 Docked ISS Apr 25 2102 Sentinel-1B ) Soyuz ST-A CSG ELS Radar imaging 25A S41456 695 x 700 x 98.2 1800LT SSO Microscope ) Physics 25B S41457 711 x 714 x 98.2 1800LT SSO OUFTI-1 ) Tech 25C? S41458 442 x 686 x 98.2 AAUSAT-4 ) AIS 25D? S41459 442 x 686 x 98.2 ESt@r-II ) Tech 25E? S41460 442 x 686 x 98.2 Apr 27 1145 Diwata-1 - ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 9867HT S41463 401 x 404 x 51.6 Apr 28 0201 Lomonosov ) Soyuz-2-1A/Volga Vostochniy PU1S Astronomy 26A S41464 471 x 486 x 97.3 2314LT SSO AIST-2D ) Imaging 26B S41465 471 x 485 x 97.3 2314LT SSO Kontakt-NS ) Tech 26C S41466 471 x 485 x 97.3 2314LT SSO Apr 28 0720 IRNSS-1G PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan FLP Navigation 27A S41469 35741 x 35821 x 5.1 GEO 129E May 6 0521 JCSAT 14 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 28A S41471 35758 x 35864 x 0.0 GEO 176E May 15 0243 Yaogan 30 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 29A S41473 628 x 656 x 98.1 0900LT SSO May 16 1005 MinXSS ) ISS, LEO Astronomy 9867HU? S41474? CADRE ) Science 9867HV? S41475? May 16 1440 STMSat-1 ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867HW? Nodes 1 ) Tech 9867HX? Nodes 2 ) Tech 9867HY? May 17 0845 Flock 2e'-1 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867HZ? Flock 2e'-2 ) Imaging 9867JA? May 17 1200 Flock 2e-1 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JB? Flock 2e-2 ) Imaging 9867JC? May 18 0218 Flock 2e'-3?) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JD? Flock 2e'-4?) Imaging 9867JE? Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- On Apr 26 the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a suborbital science payload, Kunpeng-1B, from its Hainan sounding rocket station. This is a small facility at 109 07E 19 31 N, on the other side of Hainan from the new Wenchang Space Center. The TY-3F sounding rocket has a booster stage added to the earlier single-stage Tianying design, to increase its apogee (similar to the Terrier booster used to increase apogee of the Black Brant in its Black Brant 9 configuration). 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 Mar 31 K-4 RV K-4 INS Arirant, Visakhapatnam Test 500? Bay of Bengal? Apr 2 1518 New Shepard M4 New Shepard West Texas Test 103 West Texas Apr 12 DF-41 RVs? DF-41? Taiyuan? Test 1000? ? Apr 19 0641 Yu-71 No. 3 UR-100NU Yasniy Test 1000? Kura? Apr 19 0933 Test payload Simorgh Semnan Test 200? S Iran Apr 26 1700 Kunpeng-1B Tianying-3F Hainan Ionosphere 316 S China Sea .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'