Jonathan's Space Report No. 739 2017 Jul 2 Somerville, MA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 52 continues with commander Fyodor Yurchikin and flight engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer. The Dragon CRS-11 cargo ship was launched on Jun 3 and arrived at the ISS on Jun 5. It was grappled by the Canadarm-2 at 1352 UTC and berthed on the Harmony module at about 1610 UTC. In the CRS-11 trunk there are three experiments: the NICER X-ray astronomy payload, the ROSA flexible solar array, and a facility to support future Earth observing experiments called MUSES. Inside the Dragon are supplies, experiments, and the J-SSOD#7 cubesat deployer with five 1U cubesats. The Cygnus OA-7 cargo ship, SS John Glenn, was unberthed from the Unity module at 1105 UTC Jun 4 and released at 1310 UTC into orbit. On Jun 8 four SpireGlobal Lemur-2 satellites were ejected from the Nanoracks NRCSD-E deployer on the service module; the ejections were at 1753 UTC and 2103 UTC. OA-7 was deorbited on Jun 11, entering the atmosphere over the South Pacific at 1702 UTC. Australian sources have reported that the AFRL/DSTO Biarri Point cubesat was clandestinely deployed from the ISS on May 18. If this is true, it has not been assigned a public catalog number in the US satellite catalog. On Jun 3 the classified USA-276 spacecraft (launched by Falcon 9 on May 1) passed within 10 kilometers of the ISS. No public announcement of this close encounter was made, and it is unclear whether or not the US government alerted the other ISS partners of the close pass. On Jun 7-8 MUSES was moved from the Dragon trunk to ELC-4. The transfer of NICER from the Dragon trunk to ELC-2 Site 7 began on Jun 11, and took several days with stops to restore NICER power to prevent it getting too cold. By Jun 14 it was at ELC-2. Progress MS-06 was launched on Jun 14 carrying 2400 kg of supplies and four small satellites for later EVA deployment. It docked with the Zvezda module on Jun 16 at 1137 UTC. The ROSA solar array was unberthed from Dragon's trunk on Jun 17 and was deployed on the end of the SPDM/SSRMS. It remained deployed until Jun 26, and was extended and retracted several times. The final retraction was unsuccessful and ROSA was jettisoned into orbit at 2115 UTC Jun 26. Dragon was unberthed from the ISS at about 1800 UTC Jul 2 and is scheduled to be released early on Jul 3. SJ-18 ----- The 7600 kg Shi Jian 18 communications satellite was lost on Jul 2 when the second Chang Zheng 5 rocket failed to reach orbit. Problems during first stage burn made the rocket lose altitude from an apogee of around 170 km, and an apparently successful but truncated second stage burn was unable to prevent the vehicle falling back into the atmosphere. GSLV-3 ------ The first orbital launch of ISRO's GSLV Mk 3 launch vehicle was a success. GSLV Mk 3-D1 took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island on Jun 5. The design of the rocket is broadly similar to the Ariane 5, with two strapon boosters, a core stage, and an upper stage wich performs direct insertion to geotransfer orbit without first entering a parking orbit. The payload was the 3136 kg GSAT-19 communications satellite. Proton ------ After a year's gap, the Proton rocket is flying again. Echostar 21 was launched on Jun 8. The 6900 kg Loral LS-1300 satellite, with an 18-metre deployable dish antenna, provides S-band mobile communications for Echostar Mobile. HXMT ---- The long-awaited first Chinese astronomical satellite flew on Jun 15. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope, named Huiyan after launch, was placed in orbit with three small satellites. Milanesat is the third Nusat/Aleph-1 imaging payload from the Uruguayan/Argentine firm Satellogic. OVS-1A and OVS-1B are 50 kg imaging satellites from Zhuhai Orbital Control Engineering Ltd. ZX-9A ----- The China Satcom ZX-9A (Zhongxing-9A, Chinasat-9A, also known as Xinnuo-4, Chinastar-4) broadcasting satellite payload was launched on Jun 18 according to chinaspaceflight.com. The CZ-3B third stage reached parking orbit on its first burn and reignited as it crossed the equator to put the vehicle in geotransfer; however the second burn was incomplete and left the payload in an elliptical orbit with much lower apogee than planned. For statistical purposes (see JSR669) I score this launch with a weight of 0.40 (reached an orbit but not a usable one); however, the payload probably does have enough fuel to reach GEO, albeit with a much reduced operational lifetime. At of Jul 2, there had been no new orbital data for ZX-9A since Jun 19; probably it has raised its orbit but not yet been re-identified by US sensors. PSLV-C38 -------- The Cartosat 2E satellite was orbited by India's PSLV on Jun 23, together with 31 small secondary payloads. These included cubesat payloads for Finland, Slovakia and Austria and a small Latvian payload, Venta-1. The Italian amateur X-ray astronomy satellite Max Valier carries the MPE/Garching MicroROSI X-ray telescope. The VZLUSat cubesat from the Czech Republic also carries an X-ray astronomy experiment with a `lobster-eye' hard X-ray optic. Mike Rupprecht (DK3WN) at dk3wn.info is doing great work identifying which cubesat has which catalog number. The PSLV-C38 fourth stage (PS4) made a series of test burns in preparation for future launches to deploy secondary payloads in multiple orbits. After reaching an initial 510 x 518 km x 97.5 deg orbit at 0414 UTC and deploying the payloads, PS4 made a second burn at about 0457 UTC to 350 x 505 km x 97.5 deg; a third burn at about 0543 UTC to 334 x 348 km x 96.9 deg; and a fourth burn to change inclination at about 1830 UTC to 336 x 370 km x 94.6 deg. Napryazhenie ------------ On Jun 23 Russia launched a Defense Ministry satellite codenamed Kosmos-2519 into a 650 km polar orbit. It is believed that the satellite's real name is Napryazhenie No. 1, and is probably built by the Lavochkin company. It may be carrying a geodetic payload and a space surveillance (space debris monitoring) payload. Bulgariasat and Iridium ----------------------- East and West coast Falcon 9 launches on Jun 23 and 25 successfully put their payloads in orbit and saw the landing of their first stages on droneships. On Jun 23 Bulgariasat went to supersynchronous transfer orbit, and first stage B1029, on its second flight, landed on the Of Course I Still Love You. On Jun 25 ten Iridium communications satellites entered 625 km parking orbits and first stage B1036, on its first flight, landed on Just Read The Instructions. On Jul 2 launch of a further Falcon 9, with the Intelsat IS-35e satellite, was called off 10 seconds before ignition. AMC-9 ----- The AMC-9 satellite has failed in geostationary orbit. AMC 9, a Thales Alenia Spacebus 3000B3 model with a launch mass of 4100 kg, belongs to SES World Skies (formerly to SES Americom; AMC 9 is short for Americom-9). At about 0727 UTC on 2017 Jun 17, an event occurred to the satellite which made a significant change to its orbit. I estimate the prograde component of the velocity change was about 0.45m/s, causing its orbital period to increase and the satellite to drift off its 83.0W station at about 0.17 degree/day west. A larger in-plane nadir velocity change of about 13m/s increased the satellite's orbital eccentricity. On Jul 1, with AMC 9 drifting over 84.6W, SES reestablished contact with the satellite. On Jul 2, it was revealed that several debris objects had been observed in the vicinity of the satellite, suggesting partial disintegration of the spacecraft. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 18 0100 ZA-Aerosat ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067LU S42713 400 x 404 x 51.6 LINK ) Space sci 98067LV S42714 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 18 0415 CSUNSat 1 ISS, LEO Space sci 98067LW S42715 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 18 0415? Biarri-Point ISS,LEO Tech NONE NONE 398 x 408 x 51.6 May 18 0825 UPSat ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067LX S42716 400 x 404 x 51.6 SpaceCube) Space sci 98067LY S42717 400 x 404 x 51.6 Hoopoe ) Space sci 98067LZ S42718 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 18 1154 SES-15 Soyuz-ST-A CSG ELS Comms 26A S42709 300 x 31336 x 6.1 May 25 0420? It's A Test Electron RLLC 1 Test F02 F01490 -5000?x 100?x 83 May 25 0525 Challenger Sat ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067MA S42721 400 x 404 x 51.6 NJUST-1 ) Space sci 98067MB S42722 400 x 404 x 51.6 USNW-EC0 ) Space sci 98067MC S42723 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 25 0634 EKS No. 2 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Early Warn 27A S42719 1651 x 38512 x 63.8 May 25 0835 DUTHSat ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067MD S42724 400 x 404 x 51.6 Zidingxiang-1 ) Space sci 98067ME S42725 400 x 404 x 51.6 nSIGHT 1 ) Space sci 98067MF S42726 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 25 1155 QBITO ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067MG S42728 400 x 404 x 51.6 Aalto-2 ) Space sci 98067MH S42729 400 x 404 x 51.6 SUSat ) Space sci 98067MJ S42730 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 25 2340 SNUSAT 1b ISS, LEO Space sci 98067MK S42727 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 26 0400 i-INSPIRE 2 ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067ML S42731 400 x 404 x 51.6 PolyITAN-2-SAU ) Space sci 98067MM S42732 400 x 404 x 51.6 SNUSAT 1 ) Space sci 98067MN S42733 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 26 0855 Ex-Alta 1 ISS, LEO Tech 98067NP S42734 400 x 404 x 51.6 May 26 1215 Aoxiang 1 ) ISS, LEO Space sci 98067MN S42735 400 x 404 x 51.6 BeEagleSat ) Space sci 98067MN S42736 400 x 404 x 51.6 Atlantis Sat ) Space sci 98067MN S42737 400 x 404 x 51.6 Jun 1 0017 Michibiki 2 H-2A Tanegashima Navigation 28A S42738 7090 x 35991 x 38.8 Jun 1 2345 ViaSat 2 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 29A S42740 266 x 35686 x 6.0 EUTELSAT 172B ) Comms 29B S42741 262 x 35689 x 5.9 Jun 3 2107 Dragon CRS-11 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 30A S42744 204 x 360 x 51.6 Jun 5 1158 GSAT-19E GSLV-III Sriharikota SLP Comms 31A S42747 163 x 34592 x 21.5 Jun 8 0345 Echostar 21 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81 Comms 32A S42749 2217 x 35810 x 30.7 Jun 8 1753 Lemur-2-JennyBarna) Cygnus OA7,LEO Weather/AIS 19B S42752 477 x 491 x 51.6 Lemur-2-Angela ) Weather/AIS 19C S42753 477 x 491 x 51.6 Jun 8 2103 Lemur-2-Spirovision) Cygnus OA7,LEO Weather/AIS 19D S42754 477 x 491 x 51.6 Lemur-2-RobMoore ) Weather/AIS 19E S42755 477 x 491 x 51.6 Jun 14 0920 Progress MS-06 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 33A S42756 300 x 321 x 51.6 Jun 15 0300 Huiyan ) Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan X-ray Astron 34A S42758 536 x 546 x 43.0 OVS-1A ) Imaging 34D S42761 536 x 546 x 43.0 OVS-1B ) Imaging 34B S42759 536 x 546 x 43.0 Milanesat ) Imaging 34C S42760 536 x 546 x 43.0 Jun 18 1611 Zhongxing 9A Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Comms 35A S42763 193 x 16357 x 25.7 Jun 23 0359 Cartosat 2 Series ) PSLV XL Sriharikota FLP Imaging 36C S42767 503 x 521 x 97.5 CE-SAT-I ) Imaging 36 496 x 518 x 97.5 NIUSAT ) Imaging 36B S42766 497 x 516 x 97.5 CICERO-6 ) Weather 36J S42773? 497 x 516 x 97.5 Max Valier ) X-ray Astron 36P S42778 497 x 513 x 97.5 Venta-1 ) Comms (AIS) 36 497 x 517 x 97.5 TYVAK-53b ) Tech 36H S42772? 497 x 517 x 97.5 D-SAT ) Tech 36AG S42795? 497 x 509 x 97.5 Aalto-1 ) Tech 36AF S42794? 497 x 509 x 97.5 Pegasus (QB50-AT03) ) Science 36W S42785? 497 x 512 x 97.5 NUDTSat (QB50-CN06) ) Science 36 497 x 518 x 97.5 VZLUSat (QB50-CZ03) ) X-ray Astron 36AB S42790 497 x 511 x 97.5 COMPASS-2 (QB50-DE04) ) Science 36 497 x 515 x 97.5 UCLSat (QB50-GB03) ) Science 36AA S42789 497 x 512 x 97.5 InflateSail (QB50-GB06) ) Tech 36F S42770 491 x 518 x 97.5 URSA MAIOR (QB50-IT02) ) Science 36M S42776 497 x 515 x 97.5 LituanicaSat-2 (QB50-LT01) ) Science 36D S42768? 497 x 518 x 97.5 Red Diamond ) Comms 36Z S42788? 497 x 512 x 97.5 Green Diamond ) Comms 36 497 x 512 x 97.5 Blue Diamond ) Comms 36 S42796? 497 x 518 x 97.5 Lemur-2-ShainaJohl ) Weather/AIS 36 S42780? 497 x 513 x 97.5 Lemur-2-XueniTerence ) Weather/AIS 36 S42782? 497 x 513 x 97.5 Lemur-2-LucyBryce ) Weather/AIS 36 S42781? 497 x 513 x 97.5 Lemur-2-KungFoo ) Weather/AIS 36 S42784? 497 x 512 x 97.5 Lemur-2-McPeake ) Weather/AIS 36 497 x 513 x 97.5 Lemur-2-Sam-Amelia ) Weather/AIS 36 S42791? 497 x 511 x 97.5 Lemur-2-Lisasaurus ) Weather/AIS 36 497 x 512 x 97.5 Lemur-2-Lynsey-Symo ) Weather/AIS 36 S42793? 497 x 510 x 97.5 ROBUSAT 1B ) Tech 36AD S42792 497 x 511 x 97.5 skCUBE ) Tech 36 S42777? 497 x 514 x 97.5 SUCHAI ) Tech 36 S42787? 497 x 512 x 97.5 Jun 23 1804 Kosmos-2519 Soyuz-2-1V Plesetsk LC43/4 Geodesy? 37A S42798 654 x 669 x 98.0 Jun 23 1910 BulgariaSat-1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 38A S42801 212 x 65512 x 24.1 Jun 25 2025 Iridium SV 113 ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 39A S42803 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 115 ) Comms 39D S42806 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 117 ) Comms 39F S42808 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 118 ) Comms 39E S42807 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 120 ) Comms 39C S42805 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 121 ) Comms 39K S42812 609 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 123 ) Comms 39B S42804 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 124 ) Comms 39H S42810 608 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 126 ) Comms 39G S42809 607 x 625 x 86.7 Iridium SV 128 ) Comms 39J S42811 609 x 625 x 86.7 Jun 26 2115 ROSA ISS, LEO Tech 98-067MT S42813 410 x 407 x 51.6 Jun 28 2115 HellasSat 3/Inmarsat S EAN ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Comms 40A S42814 253 x 35750 x 2.9 GSAT-17 ) Comms 40B S42815 258 x 35817 x 3.0 Jul 2 1123 Shi Jian 18 Chang Zheng 5 Wenchang Comms F03 F01493 -5000?x 170 x 19.0? Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- 6 missiles were launched from Iran on Jun 18 to attack (so-called) Islamic State forces in Syria. Iranian reports say the launches were from both Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces although only confirmed launches from the Kermanshah air base. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target May 21 0759 RV Bukguekseong-2 Pukchang Test 560 Sea of Japan May 28 2039 RV Hwasong ER? Wonsan Test 150? Sea of Japan May 30 1910? FTG-15 Target ICBM-T2 Kwajalein Meck Target 1000? Pacific May 30 1928 FTG-15 GBI Vandenberg LF23 Interceptor 500? FTG-15 intercept Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah? Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah? Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah? Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kurdistan Prov.? Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 18 HE Warhead Zulfiqar Kurdistan Prov. Weapon 200? Deir-es-Zor,Syria Jun 22 0520 SFTM-02 Target Terrier Terrier Oriole Kauai Target 300? Pacific Jun 22 0523? SFTM-02 KV SM-3 Block IIA DDG-53, Pacific Interceptor 100? (Failed?) Jun 22 0930 NASA 41.121UO Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops I. Education 118 Atlantic Jun 23 0130? RV Hyunmoo-2C Anhueng Test 200? E China Sea? Jun 26 RV Bulava K-535, Barents Sea Test 1000? Kura Jun 27 0510 CHESS 3 Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 300? White Sands Jun 29 0825 NASA 46.015GT Terrier Imp.Malemute Wallops I. Test/Aeron. 189 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'