Jonathan's Space Report
No. 729 2016 Aug 16 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 48 continues.
SpaceX's Dragon CRS-9 cargo ship was launched on Jul 18, carrying the
IDA-2 docking adapter and spacesuit EMU 3006. The Falcon 9 first stage
returned to Cape Canaveral for a landing at Landing Complex 1. The
second stage was deorbited south of Australia. CRS-9 arrived at the ISS
on Jul 20; it was grappled by the SSRMS at 1056 UTC and berthed at
Harmony nadir at 1403 UTC. The IDA-2 docking adapter will be installed
on the end of the old PMA-2 Shuttle docking port to convert it for use
with the planned upgraded, astronaut-carrying Dragon.
The Progress MS-03 cargo ship was launched Jul 16 and docked with the
Pirs module at 0020 UTC Jul 19. It carried 2405 kg of cargo (including
705 kg of ISS propellant) as well as 880 kg of its own onboard propellant.
On Aug 5 the NanoRacks External Payload Platform (NREP) was extracted
from the Kibo airlock by the JEM RMS arm and installed on position EFU4
on the Kibo Exposed Facility. NREP was launched in Aug 2015 and had been
stored inside ISS for a year; it supports small external payloads.
USA 269
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The NROL-61 mission was launched on Atlas AV-065 from Canaveral on Jul
28 and placed the USA 269 satellite in geostationary transfer orbit.
The satellite is thought to be an NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
data relay communications satellite in the QUASAR series, although there
is a chance that it instead has a signals intelligence payload. The
payload made orbital maneuvers to raise its perigee, and hobbyists have
now tracked the satellite in geostationary orbit at 92 deg E over the
Indian Ocean.
Tiantong-1
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China launched the first Tiantong-1 satellite on Aug 5. The satellite
was built by CAST and is operated by China Satcom; it supports a mobile
communications network operated by China Telecom. The satellite
has reached geostationary orbit and is drifting east over the Indian Ocean.
Gaofen 3
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China's Gaofen 3 satellite is a 1-meter-resolution C-band radar imaging
satellite placed in 750 km sun-synchronous orbit. Its primary user is
the National Satellite Oceanic Applications Center in Mudanjiang.
JCSAT-16
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SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Aug 14 carrying the JCSAT-16 satellite for
Sky Perfect JSAT, a Japanese satellite broadcasting company. The second
stage put JCSAT-16 in geostationary transfer orbit, while the first
stage completed a ballistic trajectory and landed on the droneship 'Of
Course I Still Love You' in the Atlantic. After its first orbit
raising burn, JCSAT-16 is in a 5581 x 35905 km x 10.8 deg orbit.
The Falcon 9 second stage is in an 82 x 34111 km geotransfer orbit; the
low perigee will cause it to reenter rapidly, with the apogee
decreasing by several hundred km per day.
Mozi
----
The QUESS (Quantum Experiment Scientific Satellite, liangzi kexue shiyan
weixing) was launched on Aug 15 and named 'Mozi hao' after the Chinese
philosopher Mo Zi (470-390BC), who is credited with the first mention of
a camera obscura. The Mozi satellite will perform communications
experiments using quantum entanglement.
Two small satellites were launched on the same vehicle: Lixing-1 (Drag
Star 1, also referred to as Qibo Daqi Kexue Shiyan Weixing or Upper
atmosphere scientific experimental satellite), which will study
atmospheric density after lowering its orbit to 100 to 150 km; and the
3Cat-2, a 6U cubesat from the Universita Politecnica de Catalunya in
Spain. 3Cat-2 carries the PYCARO altimeter which uses GPS signal
reflection off the Earth to measure altitude.
Mozi and Lixing were both developed by the Shanghai Engineering Center
for Microsatellites.
Chang'e-3
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On the Moon, the Chang'e-3 lander is reported to be still operating
after over 2.5 years. The Yutu rover entered its 33rd lunar night on Jul
28; there were reports that it had failed at that time, but research by
Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society has shown that this is not
correct, and Yutu is assumed to be still viable (although not mobile).
Cassini
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Cassini performed the T-121 flyby of Titan at 1000 UTC Jul 25, with a
closest approach of 976 km, and the T-122 flyby at 0832 UTC Aug 10, with
a closest approach of 1599 km. The next flyby will occur on Sep 27.
CZ-7
----
The second stage from the first Chang Zheng 7 launch reentered at 0440 UTC
on Jul 28. The entry was widely observed in the Western USA on a track
from southern California to Utah.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
km km deg
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 Docked ISS
Jul 16 2141 Progress MS-03 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Cargo 45A S41670 182 x 225 x 51.6 Docked ISS
Jul 18 0445 Dragon CRS-9 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 46A S41672 204 x 355 x 51.6
Jul 28 1237 USA 269 Atlas V 541 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 47A S41724 35576 x 35996 x 5.0
Aug 6 1622 Tiantong-1 01 xing Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Comms 48A S41725 35751 x 35903 x 5.0
Aug 9 2255 Gaofen 3 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar imager 49A S41727 750 x 751 x 98.4 0600LT SSO
Aug 14 0526 JCSAT-16 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 50A S41729 151 x 36183 x 20.9
Aug 15 1740 Mozi ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Science 51A S41731 488 x 584 x 97.4 0000LT SSO
Lixing-1 ) Atmosphere 51B? S41732? 483 x 503 x 97.4 0000LT SSO
3Cat-2 ) Altimeter 51C? S41733? 485 x 503 x 97.4 0000LT SSO
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jul 1 0718 RV x 6? M51 S616, Baie d'Audierne Test 1000? North Atlantic
Jul 16 0405 ROTEX-T Terrier Imp.Orion Kiruna Hypersonic 182 ESRANGE
Jul 18 2045 RV Hwasong-6? Eunyul, N Korea Test 100? Sea of Japan
Jul 18 2050? RV Hwasong-6? Eunyul, N Korea Test 100? Sea of Japan
Jul 18 2140 RV Hwasong-7? Eunyul, N Korea Test 200? Sea of Japan
Jul 27 1826 Hi-C Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar physics 250? White Sands
Aug 2 2253 RV Hwasong-7? Eunyul, N Korea Test 200? Sea of Japan
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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