Jonathan's Space Report No. 735 2017 Feb 24 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 50 continues with the departure of two cargo ships and the arrival of two more. Japan's HTV 6 cargo ship separated from ISS on Jan 27 at 1546 UTC. However, its KITE tether experiment failed to deploy when commanded to do so on Jan 28. HTV 6 was deorbited on Feb 5 at 1442 UTC and entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific at 1506 UTC. On Jan 31 the Progress MS-03 cargo ship undocked at 1425 UTC and was deorbited at 1734 UTC with impact in the South Pacific at 1824 UTC. On Feb 19 Dragon CRS-10 was launched from Kennedy Space Center LC39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9; the first non-NASA launch operation ever from KSC and the first launch from KSC since 2011. NASA KSC abuts USAF Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on its northern side; previous Falcon 9 east coast launches were from SLC40 at Cape Canaveral. On this flight the Falcon 9 first stage, B1031, landed at Cape Canaveral's LZ1. CRS-10 carries three packages in its trunk for installation on ISS. The USAF Space Test Program's STP-H5 experiment suite includes a NASA lightning sensor and NRL ionosphere-study experiments. SAGE-III IP continues a long series of NASA ozone monitoring studies. SAGE-III NVP (Nadir Viewing Platform) is an adapter which will allow the IP to be installed sideways on the ISS ELC platform. On Feb 22 Dragon aborted its approach to the ISS at a distance of 1.2 km due to a navigation system error. Rendezvous was rescheduled for Feb 23 when Dragon was grappled by the SSRMS at 1044 UTC, then berthed on the Harmony module. On Feb 22 Progress MS-05 was launched from Baykonur on the final Soyuz-U-PVB rocket. Among other cargo it carried a new Orlan-MKS spacesuit. The ship docked with the Pirs module at 0830 UTC Feb 24. Soyuz-U first flew in 1973 and has been the main variant in use since 1976 when the Voskhod 11A57 was retired. The Molniya variant last flew in 2010; the -U was the last of the Soviet-era versions of the rocket still flying. Soyuz rocket variants still in service are Soyuz-FG, Soyuz-2-1a, Soyuz-2-1b, Soyuz-2-1v, and the French Guiana variants of 2-1a/b, called ST-A and ST-B. TuPOD ----- The TuPOD cubesat from the Italian group Gauss Srl ejected its two small 0.75kg Tubesats, TANCREDO-1 and OSNSAT, on Jan 19. One of the cubesats ejected with it exhibited rapid orbital decay and reentered on Feb 5; Space-Track identifies it as FREEDOM, which would imply the drag devices on EGG and Waseda-SAT3 have not been deployed. Falcon 9 -------- The 11th object cataloged with the Falcon 9 launch was a data error (probably cross-tagging of the other 10 objects). 41927 has been reassigned to a debris object from a 1964 Transit navigation satellite launch. SBIRS ----- Atlas AV-066 launched the third SBIRS GEO early warning sat into geotransfer orbit on Jan 21. SBIRS GEO uses an infrared telescope to detect missile launches. DSN 2 ----- The DSN Corporation is a Sky Perfect JSAT / NEC / NTT /Maeda consortium to provide an X-band military communications satellite for the Japanese Defense Ministry. DSN 2 (Kirameki 2) is their first satellite, based on the Mitsubishi Electric DS-2000 bus. Hispasat 36W-1 -------------- The Spanish Hispasat 36W-1 communications satellite (3220 kg at launch, 1700 kg dry) is the first SmallGEO bus, made by OHB of Bremen, Germany. It was launched to geotransfer orbit by a Soyuz ST-B/Fregat in the first GTO launch by a Soyuz from Kourou. Ariane 588 ---------- The VA235 flight placed two satellites in geotransfer orbit: SkyBrasil-1 for AT&T/DirectTV Latin America and Intelsat (which calls the satellite Intelsat-32e), and Telkom-3S for the Indonesian operator Telkom. PSLV-C37 -------- India's PSLV placed a record 104 payloads in orbit on Feb 15. The main payload was the 714 kg `Cartosat-2 series satellite', the fourth such imaging payload from ISRO. Two 10 kg INS-1 (Indian Nanosatellite) technology payloads were carried, as well as 25 QuadPack cubesat dispensers from the Dutch company ISISSpace. One of these ejected cubesats for SpacePharma (a Swiss/Israeli company), Ben Gurion University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Rashid Space Center (Dubai), and the Dutch research lab TNO. Another pair of QuadPacks carried 8 Lemur satellites for SpireGlobal. The remaining 22 QuadPacks hosted 88 Flock-3p imaging satellites for Planet (San Francisco). Space-Track has published identifications for 3 of the 104 satellites so far. Juno ----- NASA has decided that Juno's main engine, its reliability in question, will not be used to alter the probe's orbit around Jupiter. As of Feb 24 Juno remains in a 3750 x 7973000 km x 90.7 deg Jovian orbit with a 53 day orbital period. It will reach apojove on Mar 1; perijove 5 will be at 0850 UTC on Mar 27. Most of the critical science data is taken during perijove passes as the probe skims the Jovian cloudtops. Staying in the high orbit just means that the mission will take longer to complete. I suspect the longer intervals between perijoves will actually be somewhat welcome to those analysing the onslaught of data. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg 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 02A S41913 530 x 546 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Caton-1 ) Comms 02B? S41914 513 x 545 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Xingyun Shiyan 1 ) Tech 02C? S41915 529 x 541 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Jan 14 1754 Iridium Next SV102 ) Falcon 9 v1.2 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 03D S41920 608 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV103 ) Comms 03B S41918 610 x 622 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV104 ) Comms 03F S41922 610 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV105 ) Comms 03E S41921 605 x 619 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV106 ) Comms 03A S41917 617 x 626 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV108 ) Comms 03H S41924 607 x 622 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV109 ) Comms 03C S41919 608 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV111 ) Comms 03K S41926 609 x 622 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV112 ) Comms 03J S41925 604 x 621 x 86.7 Iridium Next SV114 ) Comms 03G S41923 610 x 617 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 98-067KS S41930 395 x 405 x 51.6 FREEDOM ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-067KU S41932 396 x 408 x 51.6 WASEDA-SAT3 ) Tech 98-067KW S41934 397 x 408 x 51.6 Jan 16 0920 EGG ISS, LEO Tech 98-067KV S41933 396 x 408 x 51.6 Jan 16 1040 AOBA-Velox-III ISS, LEO Tech 98-067KX S41935 396 x 409 x 51.6 Jan 16 1050 TuPOD ISS, LEO Tech 98-067KT S41936 398 x 407 x 51.6 Jan 19 2330? TANCREDO-1 ) ISS, LEO Comms? 98-067KY S41931 395 x 408 x 51.6 OSNSAT ) Comms? 98-067KZ S41939 394 x 408 x 51.6 Jan 21 0042 SBIRS GEO-3 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Early Warn 04A S41937 195 x 35847 x 23.3 Jan 24 0744 Kirameki-2 H-IIA 204 Tanegashima Comms 05A S41940 250?x 35860?x 22.0? Jan 28 0103 Hispasat 36W-1 Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS Comms 06A S41942 252 x 35754 x 5.4 Feb 14 2139 SkyBrasil-1) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 07B S41945 35662 x 35785 x 0.1 Telkom-3S ) Comms 07A S41944 35641 x 35810 x 0.0 Feb 15 0358 Cartosat-2 Series/4) PSLV-XL Sriharikota FLP Imaging 08A S41948 505 x 520 x 97.5 INS-1A ) Tech 08B S41949 496 x 508 x 97.5 INS-1B ) Imaging 08C S41950 496 x 507 x 97.5 BGUSat ) Tech 08 PEASSS ) Tech 08 Al-Farabi 1 ) Tech 08 Dido-2 ) Micrograv 08 Nayif-1 ) Tech 08 Lemur-2-Jopanbutra ) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-Spire-Minions) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-Satchmo ) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-RDeaton ) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-Smita-Sharad ) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-Mia-Grace ) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-NoguesCorreig) Com/Met-RO 08 Lemur-2-Tachikoma ) Com/Met-RO 08 Flock 3p (88 sats) ) Imaging 08 Feb 19 1439 Dragon CRS-10 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 09A S42053 204 x 359 x 51.6 Feb 22 0558 Progress MS-05 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 10A S42056 186 x 210 x 51.6 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- News reports in the UK and discussion on nasaspaceflight.com indicate that the Trident II D-5 submarine-launched missile has had two previously unreported failures, a US launch sometime in 2011 and a UK launch in June 2016. Meanwhile, four Tridents were successfully launched over the Pacific on Feb 14-16. Pakistan made the first test flight of its Ababeel missile, which appears to be a Shaheen-3 with a third stage and a new payload of multiple reentry vehicles. Iran made the second known test flight of the Khorramshahr, which is suspected to be a medium range missile based on the Soviet R-27, similar to North Korea's Hwasong-10/Musudan. The missile's reentry vehicle failed to survive reentry, according to US sources. North Korea flew a land-based variant of their solid-propellant Bukgueksong submarine missile. NASA carried out two science flights to open their 2017 campaign at the Poker Flat launch site in Alaska. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Jan 15 RV x10? Dong Feng 5C Taiyuan Test 1000? Taklimakan Desert Jan 16 RV Topol'-M Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura Jan 23 0230 MAIUS-1 VSB-30 Kiruna Physics 238 ESRANGE Jan 24 Ababeel RV Ababeel Somniani? Test 300? Arab.Sea Jan 27 1345 PolarNOx Black Brant 9 Poker Flat, Alaska Atmos.Sci 283 Poker Flat zone 4 Jan 29 RV Khorramshahr Semnan Test 300? Iran? Feb 4 0830 SFTM-1 Target ? Kauai Target 200? Pacific Fab 4 0833? SFTM-1 KV SM-3-IIA DDG-53, Pacific Intercept 150? SFTM-1 Feb 9 0739 RV x 3? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Test 1300? Kwajalein Feb 11 2255 RV Bukgueksong-2 North Pyongan Test 500? Sea of Japan Feb 14 1130 RV x 8? Trident D-5 Unknown sub, Cape Arguello Test 1000? Wake Island Feb 14 1420 RV x 8? Trident D-5 Unknown sub, Cape Arguello Test 1000? Wake Island Feb 15? RV x 8? Trident D-5 Unknown sub, Cape Arguello Test 1000? Wake Island Feb 16? RV x 8? Trident D-5 Unknown sub, Cape Arguello Test 1000? Wake Island Feb 22 1014 ISINGLASS-1 Black Brant 9 Poker Flat, Alaska Auroral 362 Poker Flat zone 4 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'