Jonathan's Space Report No. 734 2017 Jan 16 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual Summary -------------- Happy New Year! My annual study of space activity is now available at http://planet4589.org/space/papers/space16.pdf International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 50 continues under the command of NASA's Shane Kimbrough, with flight engineers Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Borisenko and Oleg Novitskiy (Roskosmos), Peggy Whitson (NASA) and Thomas Pesquet (ESA). Work to replace old NiH2 batteries on truss segment S4 with new Li-ion ones is now almost complete. The activity used the SSRMS Canadarm-2 and SPDM Dextre robot arms as well as spacewalking astronauts. Below I give the details of the replacement operations in excruciating detail for the historical record. Three more battery replacement trips using the Japanese HTV-7, 8 and 9 cargo ships are scheduled for the future. The EP (External Pallet) from HTV-6 (Kounotori-6) is attached to the Mobile Base System on the Truss carrying batteries for the IEAs (integrated electronics assemblies) for the 3A and 1A power channels on the S4 truss segment. On Dec 31, the SSRMS/SPDM arm moved NiH2 batteries 0043 and 0044 from the 3A IEA slots 5 and 6 to EP slots Z and Y. On Jan 1, NiH2 battery 0040 was moved from 3A IEA slot 1 to EP slot X. On Jan 1, Li-ion battery 0010 was moved from EP slot B to 3A IEA slot 5. On Jan 2, Li-ion battery 0008 was moved from EP slot A to 3A IEA slot 1. On Jan 2, NiH2 battery 0038 was moved from 3A IEA slot 3 to a temporary location (EOTP arm 3) on Dextre. On Jan 3, Li-ion battery 0006 was moved from EP slot C to 3A IEA slot 3. On Jan 6, astronauts Kimbrough and Whitson, in suits EMU 3008 and 3006, depressurized the Quest airlock at about 1220 UTC for US EVA-38. They moved: Adapter plate S/N 0005 from EP slot A to 3A IEA slot 6. NiH2 battery 0039 from 3A IEA slot 4 to on top of the adapter plate on slot 6. Adapter plate S/N 0006 from EP slot B to 3A IEA slot 4. NiH2 battery 0042 from 3A IEA slot 2 to on top of the adapter plate on slot 4. Adapter plate S/N 0007 from EP slot C to 3A IEA slot 2. Also, bundle 1 of the Node 3 axial shields were stored outside Quest. Robotics work with the SPDM Dextre arm continued between the two spacewalks, with the 1A power channel on S4: On Jan 9, Li-ion battery 0013 was moved from EP slot E to 1A IEA slot 5. NiH battery 0077 was moved from 1A IEA slot 1 to EP slot C. Li-ion battery 0011 was moved from EP slot D to 1A IEA slot 1. On Jan 10, NiH2 battery 0079 was moved froom 1A IEA slot 3 to SPDM Arm 1. On Jan 11, Li-ion battery 0012 was moved from EP slot F to 1A IEA slot 3. On Jan 12, NiH2 battery 0078 was moved from 1A IEA slot 2 to SPDM Arm 2. On Jan 13, astronauts Kimbrough and Pesquet, in suits 3008 and 3006, performed spacewalk US EVA-39 with depressurization about 1120 UTC and repressurization at 1720 UTC. They moved: Adapter plate 0003 from EP slot F to 1A IEA slot 6; NiH2 battery 0080 from 1A IEA slot 4 onto that adapter plate; Adapter plate 0004 from EP slot E to 1A IEA slot 4; Adapter plate 0008 from EP slot D to 1A IEA slot 2. They also moved bundle 2 of the Node 3 Axial shields (covers for a soon-to-be-empty docking port) from the airlock area to Node 3, replaced a camera light tilt assembly and adjusted a worksite interface. At the end of this spacewalk, the SPDM was holding three old NiH3 batteries: 0078 and 0079 on arms 1 and 2, and 0038 on the EOTP (ORU temporary platform). These were to be placed robotically in slots D, E and F on the EP. The EP will be returned to Kounoutori-6, which will eventually be destroyed on reentry over the South Pacific. On Jan 16 the J-SSOD6 (Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer 6) was removed from the airlock by the JAXA robot arm and its cubesats (described in the last JSR) were deployed. TJSW 2 ------ China's first launch of the year was Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 2 (Communications Technology Experiment Satellite 2). TJSW 2 was developed by the Shanghai team - in contrast to 2015's TJSW 1 which was reported to be from CAST/Beijing. The lack of public information about the TJSW satellites has led to the suspicion that they may really be for defense purposes, possibly for non-communications purposes such as signals intelligence or missile early warning. Nevertheless for the time being I am keeping them on the books as probable military communications satellites. TJSW 2 appears to have made the burn to circularize its orbit on Jan 6 at 0730 UTC over 114E, but there's been no TLE data for it since then. KZ-1A ----- China's second launch in January was the Kuaizhou-1A quick-response rocket. The earlier KZ-1 rocket was used for two low orbit imaging satellites which remained integrated with the upper stage; in the commercialized KZ-1A version the 4th stage separates from the payloads, and launch services are provided by EXPACE, the commercial arm of KZ-1A builder CASIC (which also builds the DF-21 missile that KZ-1/1A is based on). The main payload is Chang Guang Satellite Technology Ltd's "Jilin-1 linqiao shipin xing 03 xing", also called Jilin Linye 1 Weixing (Jilin Forestry 1 satellite). The 165 kg sat has a 1m resolution Earth imager. Two 2U cubesats were also carried: XY-S1 for the CASIC 9th Academy, and Caton-1 (or Kaidun-1) for Caton Technology Co. Ltd. Iridium Next ------------ On Jan 14 the first cluster of second generation communications satellites for Iridium Communications was launched, aboard the first SpaceX Falcon 9 to fly since the Amos-6 pad accident last year. The Falcon 9 placed all ten satellites in the correct orbit, and the first stage landed on the barge 'Just Read The Instructions'. The Falcon 9 second stage was expected to be deorbited over Antarctica. However, JSpOC is tracking 11 objects in orbit rather than the expected 10. It's possible the 11th is just a minor piece of debris, or there may have been an issue with stage 2 deorbit. The Iridium satellites carry communications payloads for global mobile communications coverage as well as Aireon ADS-B airplane data relay payloads and, on four of the 10 satellites, AIS ship tracking payloads for the Canadian company ExactEarth. SS-520 ------ On Jan 14 Japan attempted to launch a single cubesat into orbit with a launch vehicle massing less than 3 tonnes. The SS-520 sounding rocket was furnished with a 78 kg third stage which was intended to orbit a 3U, 3 kg cubesat, TRICOM-1. The mission was flight SS-520-4 (SS-520-1 and 2 were normal sounding rocket flights; 3 has not yet flown.) However, telemetry was lost 20 seconds into flight, during first stage burn. Following range safety rules, the command to ignite stage 2 was not sent and the vehicle flew a suborbital path to about 200 km altitude and then splashed down in the ocean. The record smallest successful orbital launch vehicle remains the 9.4-tonne Lambda 4S, also Japanese, which was retired in 1979. (For comparison, the Pegasus XL is 23 tonnes, not even counting the mass of the airliner that launches it!). Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg Dec 1 1451 Progress MS-04 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo F02 F01484 -4000?x 190 x 51.6 Dec 5 1351 Gokturk-1 Vega CSG ZLV Imaging 73A S41875 679 x 691 x 98.1 2230LT SSO Dec 7 0454 Resourcesat-2A PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan FLP Imaging 74A S41877 814 x 831 x 98.7 1030LT SSO Dec 7 2352 WGS SV-8 Delta 4M+(5,4) Canaveral SLC37B Comms 75A S41879 430 x 44207 x 27.0 Dec 9 1326 Kounotori 6 H-IIB Tanegashima Cargo 76A S41881 276 x 302 x 51.6 Dec 10 1611 Fengyun-4 01 Chang Zheng 3B/G2 Xichang LC3 Weather 77A S41882 184 x 35803 x 28.4 Dec 15 1337 CYGNSS A ) Pegasus XL Canaveral RW13 Weather 78D S41887 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS B ) Weather 78C S41886 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS C ) Weather 78H S41891 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS D ) Weather 78B S41885 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS E ) Weather 78A S41884 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS F ) Weather 78F S41889 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS G ) Weather 78G S41890 515 x 537 x 35.0 CYGNSS H ) Weather 78E S41888 515 x 537 x 35.0 Dec 18 1913 Echostar 19 Atlas V 431 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 79A S41893 164 x 65110 x 25.6 Dec 19 0855 Hagoromo Parent ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-67KR S41895 400 x 406 x 51.6 Hagoromo Child ) Dec 20 1100 Arase Epsilon Uchinoura Space Sci 80A S41896 228 x 32259 x 31.4 Dec 21 1922 Tan Weixing ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Atmos Sci 81A S41898 690 x 719 x 98.2 0138LT SSO Spark-01 ) Imaging 81B S41899 690 x 720 x 98.1 Spark-02 ) Imaging 81C S41900 690 x 726 x 98.1 CFDG ) Imaging 81D S41901 690 x 728 x 98.1 Dec 21 2030 JCSAT 15 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 82A S41903 35721 x 35774 x 0.1 GEO 135Edr Star One D1 ) Comms 82B S41904 35741 x 35777 x 0.1 GEO 86Wdr Dec 28 0323 Gaojing 1 ) Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 83A S41907 212 x 523 x 97.6 1030LT SSO Gaojing 2 ) Imaging 83B S41908 212 x 523 x 97.6 1030LT SSO BJ70-1 ) Comms 83C S41909 212 x 523 x 97.6 Jan 5 1518 Tongxin Jishu SW 2 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Sigint? 01A S41911 201 x 35801 x 27.5 Jan 9 0411 Linye 1 (Jilin-1S3) Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Imaging 02B S41914 513 x 545 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Caton-1 ) Comms 02A? S41913 530 x 546 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Xingyun Shiyan 1 ) Tech 02C? S41915 529 x 541 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Jan 14 1754 Iridium Next SV01 ) Falcon 9 v1.2 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 03A S41917 617 x 626 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV02 ) Comms 03B S41918 610 x 622 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV03 ) Comms 03C S41919 608 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV04 ) Comms 03D S41920 608 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV05 ) Comms 03E S41921 605 x 619 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV06 ) Comms 03F S41922 610 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV07 ) Comms 03G S41923 610 x 617 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV08 ) Comms 03H S41924 607 x 622 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV09 ) Comms 03J S41925 604 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV10 ) Comms 03K S41926 609 x 622 x 86.7 Jan 14 2333 TRICOM-1 SS-520 Uchinoura K Tech F01 F01486 -6340? x 200? x 30 Jan 16 0910 ITF-2 ) Tech 98-067 FREEDOM ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-067 WASEDA-SAT3 ) Tech 98-067 Jan 16 0920 EGG ISS, LEO Tech 98-067 Jan 16 1040 AOBA-Velox-III ISS, LEO Tech 98-067 Jan 16 1050 TuPOD ISS, LEO Tech 98-067 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Dec 15 FTM-27 Target ? Kauai? Target 200? Pacific Ocean Dec 16 A-235 test Nudol Plesetsk Test 100? - Dec 16 1615 NASA 12.080DR Zombie White Sands Test 80? White Sands Dec 26 0535 Agni RV Agni V Kalam Island Test 500? Indian Ocean .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'