Jonathan's Space Report No. 727 2016 Jul 7 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- On Jun 18 Expedition 47 crew members Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Tim Peake transferred from the Rassvet module to Soyuz TMA-19, closing hatches at 0235 UTC and undocking at 0552 UTC. Soyuz TMA-19M made its deorbit burn at 0822 UTC and reentered for a safe landing in Kazakhstan at 0915 UTC. At 0552 UTC Jun 18 Expedition 48 formally began with commander Jeff Williams and flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka. The Nanoracks NRCSD-8 successfully completed ejecting its cubesats on Jun 2. On Jun 14 the Canadarm-2 unberthed Cygnus OA-6 from the Unity module at 1143 UTC and released it into orbit at 1330 UTC. Cygnus then performed the SAFIRE-1 experiment igniting a significant fire inside an experiment chamber in the Cygnus pressurized PCM module. Mounted on the Cygnus service module was the first NRCSD-E external cubesat deployer carrying 5 Lemur-2 satellites. On Jun 21 two pairs of Lemur-2 cubesats were ejected (the deployment times have not been revealed). A third deployer silo with a single Lemur-2 failed to open, and the cubesat remained inside when then following day Cygnus made its deorbit burn and reentered over the South Pacific at 1329 UTC Jun 22. Progress MS-01 undocked from the Pirs module at 0536 UTC on Jul 1, backed off to 180m, and redocked at 0605 UTC under TORU remote control. During redocking there was an incorrect thruster firing that made the vehicle swing visibly from side to side. The problem is reportedly under investigation but did not affect Progress MS-01's final undocking, which happened at 0348 UTC Jul 3. Progress MS-01 was deorbited and destroyed over the South Pacifc at 0750 UTC Jul 3. Soyuz MS-01 was launched on Jul 7 into a 181 x 239 km orbit; it is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Jul 9. The Soyuz MS is a new variant of the ferry ship with upgraded onboard systems. Crew are Anatoliy Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kate Rubins (NASA). IS-31 ----- The Intelsat IS-31 satellite with the DirecTV Latin America 2 (DLA-2) Ku-band payload was launched on an ILS Proton on Jun 9 into supersynchronous transfer orbit. The Proton second stage suffered an early shutdown of one of its 4 engines, leaving the vehicle 28m/s slow at stage 3 separation. Fortunately the Briz-M stage was able to correct the problem by adjusting its burn times and delivered the satellite to the correct orbit. Delta 4 Heavy ------------- A Delta 4H was launched from Cape Canaveral on Jun 11 on the NROL-37 mission to carry a large signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellite, USA 268, to geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean. There have been two main lineages of GEO SIGINT satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office: MERCURY (originally CANYON); and RHYOLITE (later AQUACADE), which was replaced in the 1980s by ORION (whose other rumoured codenames include MAGNUM and MENTOR). Launches of the MERCURY series ended in 1998, at which time it was rumoured that its capabilites would be merged into the ORION series. A number of observers have suggested that the 2014 GEO SIGINT launch of USA 250 on an Atlas V was a one-off mission not part of the ORION series, and that with an increase in mass ORION has moved to using the RS-68A-powered Delta 4 Heavy rockets. It has further been suggested that the 2014 launch might be the NEMESIS 2 satellite mentioned in leaked FY2013 budget documents; however a close reading of those documents shows that funding for the latter project was cut off after FY2011, which to me implies that it was either launched by then or cancelled (more likely given the sudden drop from half-billion-dollar-level funding to zero). The documents also mention SHARP, the SIGINT High Altitude Replenishment Program, funded at a high level in FY2011-2013 and reportedly also since. It's possible the 2012 and 2016 launches may represent a new ORION/SHARP series, or that they are beefed up ORION and the 2014 launch is a SHARP prototype. The shorter fairing used for the 2014 launch suggests that it was not in fact an ORION; the following list is based on that assumption but later revision may be needed. Here, then, are the ORION series launches: Mission Official Launch Date Rocket Orbital Location (my guess) codename ORION 1 USA 8 1985 Jan 24 STS 51-C 70E (?-2014) ORION 2 USA 48 1989 Nov 23 STS-33R 90E (?-2013) ORION 3 USA 110 1995 May 14 Titan 401A/Centaur 127E ORION 4 USA 139 1998 May 9 Titan 401B/Centaur 45E (?-2009), 26W (2011-) ORION 5 USA 171 2003 Sep 9 Titan 401B/Centaur 95E (2008-9), 68E (2012-) ORION 6 USA 202 2009 Jan 18 Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68) 44E ORION 7 USA 223 2010 Nov 21 Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68) 95E ORION 8? USA 237 2012 Jun 29 Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68A) 53E SHARP 1? USA 250 2014 Apr 10 Atlas V 541 163W ORION 9? USA 268 2016 Jun 11 Delta-4 Heavy (RS-68A) 102E Beidou ------ Beidou Daohang Weixing 23 is the 7th geostationary satellite in the Beidou-2 generation. It was launched Jun 12. Falcon 9 --------- Falcon 9 vehicle 26 flew on Jun 15. The second stage made two burns to deliver a pair of Boeing BSS-702SP satellites to supersynchronous transfer orbits. This is the second matched pair of all-electric-propulsion payloads, which use ion engines to complete the trip to GEO. ABS-2A will supplement Asia Broadcast Satellite's ABS-2, and Eutelsat 117 West B (the former Satmex 9) will provide service for Eutelsat Americas, supplementing Satmex 8 (now renamed Eutelsat 117 West A). Ariane 5 -------- Ariane 5 vehicle L584 put two communications satellites in geotransfer orbit on Jun 18. BRISat is dedicated to banking services for the Indonesian bank PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. of Jakarta. Despite some claims to the contrary this is NOT the first satellite launched intended to be dedicated to banking, but the second; it follows the Russian Central Bank's Kupon satelite which operated for a few months in 1997-1998. It's unlikely Kupon ever entered operational service, though. Cartosat-2 ---------- India launched a Cartosat-2 series imaging satellite on Jun 22 into a 500 x 518 km orbit. The PSLV rocket then deployed a swarm of small satellites: Time (UTC) Satellite 0412:07 Cartosat-2C, 727 kg 0412:42 Sathyabamasat, 1.5 kg 2U cubesat for Sathyabama U. of Chennai with a greenhouse-gas IR spectrometer 0412:43 Swayam, 1 kg 1U cubesat from COEP (College of Engineering, Pune) with technology and amateur radio payloads. 0413:22 LAPAN-A3, a 120 kg imaging satellite for Indonesia's LAPAN space agency BIROS, a 130 kg infrared satellite to study fires, for Germany's DLR, which also carries the BEESAT-4 cubesat to be ejected later. 0414:00 M3MSat/earthView-7, an 85 kg AIS satellite for Canada's Dept of National Defense 0414:01 Skysat Gen2-1, a 110 kg imaging satellite for TerraBella's constellation 0414:20 Claire, a 25 kg University of Toronto satellite to study greenhouse gases. 0415:20 to 0421:30 Flock 2p-1 to 2p-12, 3U imaging cubesats for Planet (formerly PlanetLabs). The PS4 final stage then made two burns to lower its orbit to 447 x 480 km. MUOS 5 ------ The US Navy Multiple User Object System's Space Vehicle 3 was launched on Jun 24 as MUOS 5. The Atlas 5 rocket made three burns to 167 x 659 km x 28 deg, 191 x 32930 x 26 deg and then 3802 x 35786 km x 19 deg, and deployed MUOS which will use its Japanese BT-4 thruster to reach GEO over the Indian Ocean as an in-orbit spare for the system, whose 4 operational satellites are over the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Americas. CZ-7 ---- China inaugurated the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island on Jun 25 with the launch of the first Chang Zheng 7 rocket. The CZ-7 entered orbit with a YZ-1A upper stage, which made several burns to deploy small satellites and then was deorbited along with a subscale spacecraft reentry cabin to qualify systems for the next generation of Chinese human spaceflight missions. Four small satellites are ejected from the YZ-1A: the Aoxiang Zhixing is the first 12U cubesat, with a mass of 18 kg (33 kg including payload adapter). Ao Long 1 is an active space debris removal experiment; Tiange feixingqi 1 and 2, if I understand the Chinese press reports, are a pair of satellites testing data relay to each other, perhaps similar to NASA's recently-launched Nodes 1 and 2 (or, maybe just a pair of communications test satellites with less ambitious goals - I can't quite tell). Attached to the YZ-1A as a non-separable payload is the 'zai guijia zhu shiyan zhuangzhi', the In-Orbit Refeulling Experimental Device. The YZ-1A would be deorbited over the Pacific after the experiment is completed; the stage has a design operation life of 48 hours. US tracking indicates the stage was deorbited on Jun 27 as expected. The primary payload is the DFFC (Duoyongtu Feichuan Fanhui Cang, multipurpose subscale spacecraft return capsule) flight test mission, which is to be recovered in China. There is also a ballast frame (pei zhong zhijia) which may be a dummy service module for the capsule. The capsule was deorbited on Jun 26 and landed in China at 0741 UTC. It seems possible that the YZ-1A stage performed the deorbit and then separated to fire again immediately, regain orbit and continue operations for another day, but the details of what actually happened are not clear. The objects from the launch, based on comparing the Space-Track identifications with the orbital data and the Chinese media reports, are: 42E CZ-7 second stage 203 x 378 x 40.8 42G,H,J,K Separation motor covers 199 x 570 x 40.5 42A YZ-1A upper stage 203 x 378 x 40.8 (initial orbit) 287 x 381 x 40.8 after burn 1 at apogee 1 40?x 290 x 40.8 Deorbit of DFFC 280 x 290 x 40.8 after reorbit? 40?x 290 x 40.8 Final deorbit of YZ-1 - DFFC reentry capsule Attached to YZ-1A until deorbit 42F Ao Long 1 202 x 379 x 40.8 42C Ao Long adapter? 200 x 379 x 40.8 42D "Reentry shroud" 200 x 377 x 40.8 (Ballast structure?) 42B Aoxiang zhixing 289 x 376 x 40.8 42L,M Tiange 1,2 280 x 290 x 40.8 Cassini ------- Cassini made the T-120 flyby of Titan at an altitude of 975 km on Jun 7 at 1407 UTC. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg 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 9867HV S41475 398 x 402 x 51.6 CADRE ) Science 9867HU S41474 398 x 402 x 51.6 May 16 1440 STMSat-1 ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867HW S41476 399 x 402 x 51.6 Nodes 1 ) Tech 9867HX S41477 398 x 403 x 51.6 Nodes 2 ) Tech 9867HY S41478 400 x 401 x 51.6 May 17 0845 Flock 2e'-1/0D05) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867HZ S41479 399 x 402 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-2/0C1B) Imaging 9867JB S41481 400 x 401 x 51.6 May 17 1200 Flock 2e'-3/0D06) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JA S41480 398 x 402 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-4/0C22) Imaging 9867JC S41482 399 x 402 x 51.6 May 17 2300 Flock 2e-1/0C37) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JD S41483 398 x 403 x 51.6 Flock 2e-2/0C78) Imaging 9867JE S41484 398 x 402 x 51.6 May 18 0215 Flock 2e-3/0C60) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JG S41486 399 x 402 x 51.6 Flock 2e-4/0C41) Imaging 9867JH S41487 398 x 403 x 51.6 May 18 0705 Lemur-2 Theresacondor ISS, LEO Met-RO 9867JF S41485 400 x 401 x 51.6 Lemur-2 Kane Met-RO 9867JJ S41488 399 x 401 x 51.6 May 18 1115 Lemur-2 Nick-Allain ISS, LEO Met-RO 9867JK S41489 399 x 401 x 51.6 Lemur-2 Jeff Met-RO 9867JL S41490 399 x 401 x 51.6 May 24 0848 GalileoSat-13 ) Soyuz ST-B CSG Navigation 30B S41549 23551 x 23566 x 57.4 GalileoSat-14 ) Navigation 30A S41550 23553 x 23616 x 57.4 May 27 2139 Thaicom 8 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 31A S41552 347 x 90190 x 21.2 May 29 0844 Kosmos-2516 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 32A S41554 19124 x 19152 x 64.8 May 30 0317 Ziyuan-3 02 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 33A S41556 484 x 499 x 97.5 1024LT SSO Fresco ) Imaging 33B S41557 481 x 499 x 97.5 1024LT SSO Batata ) Imaging 33C S41558 481 x 499 x 97.5 1024LT SSO May 30 1140 Flock 2e-5/0C43) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JN 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e-6/0C75) Imaging 9867JM 401 x 404 x 51.6 May 31 0045 Flock 2e-7/0C24) ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JP 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e-8/0C2B) Imaging 9867JQ 401 x 404 x 51.6 May 31 0400 Flock 2e'-5/0C59 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JR 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-6/0C46 Imaging 9867JS 401 x 404 x 51.6 May 31 0935 Flock 2e'-7/0C42 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JT 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-8/0C76 Imaging 9867JU 401 x 404 x 51.6 May 31 2355 Flock 2e-9/0C14 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JV 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e-10/0C82 Imaging 9867JW 401 x 404 x 51.6 Jun 1 0310 Flock 2e-11/0C13 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JY 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e-12/0C79 Imaging 9867JX 401 x 404 x 51.6 Jun 1 0625 Flock 2e'-9/0C19 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867JZ 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-10/0C65 Imaging 9867KA 401 x 404 x 51.6 Jun 2 0215 Flock 2e'-11/0C27 ISS, LEO Imaging 9867KB 401 x 404 x 51.6 Flock 2e'-12/0C81 Imaging 9867KC 401 x 404 x 51.6 Jun 4 1400 Kosmos-2517 Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Geodetic 34A S41579 936 x 961 x 99.3 0600LT SSO Jun 9 0710 Intelsat IS-31 Proton/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 35A S41581 3362 x 65039 x 29.5 Jun 11 1751 USA 268 Delta 4H Canaveral SLC37 Sigint 36A S41584 35612 x 36000 x 7.5 GEO 103E drift Jun 12 1530 Beidou DW 23 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang LC3 Navigation 37A S41586 217 x 34574 x 19.3 Jun 15 1429 Eutelsat 117 West B) Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 38A? S41588 399 x 62761 x 24.7 ABS-2A ) Comms 38B? S41589 395 x 62649 x 24.6 Jun 18 2138 Echostar 18 ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Comms 39B S41592 33289 x 35796 x 0.1 BRISat ) Comms 39A S41591 32931 x 35702 x 0.0 Jun 21 Lemur-2-Cubecheese ) SS Rick Husband, LEO AIS/MET-RO 19E S41598 388 x 394 x 51.6 Lemur-2-Bridgeman ) AIS/MET-RO 19B S41595 389 x 393 x 51.6 Jun 21 Lemur-2-Nate ) AIS/MET-RO 19D S41597 388 x 394 x 51.6 Lemur-2-DrMuzz ) AIS/MET-RO 19C S41596 388 x 394 x 51.6 Jun 22 0355 Cartosat-2 Series ) PSLV SDSC SLP Imaging 40A S41599 500 x 518 x 97.5 0930LT SSO Sathyabamasat ) Atmos. Sci 40B S41600 499 x 519 x 97.5 Swayam ) Tech 40J S41607 499 x 518 x 97.5 LAPAN-A3 ) Imaging 40E S41603 500 x 517 x 97.5 BIROS ) Imaging 40F S41604 500 x 516 x 97.5 SkySat 2G-1 ) Imaging 40C S41601 501 x 515 x 97.5 M3MSat ) AIS 40G S41605 500 x 515 x 97.5 Claire ) Atmos.Sci 40D S41602 500 x 511 x 97.5 Flock 2P-1 ) Imaging 40U S41617 499 x 513 x 97.5 Flock 2P-2 ) Imaging 40L S41609 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-3 ) Imaging 40V S41618 499 x 513 x 97.5 Flock 2P-4 ) Imaging 40N S41611 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-5 ) Imaging 40T S41616 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-6 ) Imaging 40H S40606 500 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-7 ) Imaging 40S S41615 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-8 ) Imaging 40Q S41613 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-9 ) Imaging 40M S41610 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-10 ) Imaging 40P S41612 499 x 514 x 97.5 Flock 2P-11 ) Imaging 40K S41608 499 x 513 x 97.5 Flock 2P-12 ) Imaging 40R S41614 499 x 513 x 97.5 Jun 24 1430 MUOS 5 Atlas V 551 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 41A S41622 3880 x 35670 x 19.1 Jun 25 1200 DFFC ) Chang Zheng 7 Wenchang LC201 Reentry test 42 A08387 288 x 382 x 40.8 Aoxiang zhixing ) Tech 42B S41625 289 x 376 x 40.8 Aolong 1 ) Tech 42F S41629 198 x 367 x 40.8 Tiange feixingqi 1 ) Tech 42L S41636 277 x 289 x 40.8 Tiange feixingqi 2 ) Tech 42M S41637 277 x 287 x 40.8 ZGZ shiyan zhuangzhi) Tech 42A S41624 287 x 381 x 40.8 Jun 29 0321 Shi Jian 16-02 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Sigint? 43A S41634 596 x 616 x 75.0 Jul 7 0136 Soyuz MS-01 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 44A S41639 181 x 239 x 51.7 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target May 18 0045? HiFire-5B VS-30/Orion Woomera Hypersonic 278 Woomera Range May 18 0702 FTX-21 Target MRBM-T3 Kauai Target 300? Pacific May 25 Nudol' Nudol' Plesetsk Test 100? - May 25 CTV-01a SM-3-IB DDG-70, Kauai Test 100? Pacific May 26 CTV-02 SM-3-IB DDG-70, Kauai Test 100? Pacific Jun 1 1900 NASA 36.318UE Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar UV 290 White Sands Jun 19 1436 New Shepard CC New Shepard West Texas Test 101 West Texas Jun 21 2058 RV Hwasong 10 Kittaeryong? Test 100? Sea of Japan Jun 21 2305 RV Hwasong 10 Kittaeryong? Test 1414 Sea of Japan Jun 24 1006 RockOn/Rocksat-C Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops I. Education 119 Atlantic Ocean Jun 30 0943 MaxiDusty Imp. Malemute Andoya Atmos.Sci 115 ARR Jul 1 0718 RV x 6? M51 S616, Baie d'Audierne Test 1000? North Atlantic .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'