Jonathan's Space Report No. 626 2010 Apr 20 Somerville, MA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station -------------------- Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the PMA-2 port on the Harmony node on Apr 8. Astronauts Mastracchio and Anderson made three spacewalks in suits EMU 3017 and 3008) from the Quest airlock on Apr 9, 11 and 13. During the spacewalks they replaced an ammonia tank assembly (ATA) on the S1 truss. The ammonia is used as a coolant fluid in the truss thermal control system. In EVA-1 the station robot arm (SSRMS) moved the new ATA from the LMC carrier in the Shuttle bay to the ESP-2, where the astronauts attached a temporary handle. Then the ATA was moved to the Mobile Base System (MBS) on the truss. During EVA-2 the astronauts removed the old ATA from S1 and handed it to the robot arm which temporarily placed it on one of the truss CETA carts. The SSRMS then picked up the the new ATA from the MBS, moved it to near S1 and handed it to the astronauts who bolted it to the truss. The old ATA was then moved from the CETA cart to the MBS. During EVA-3 the astronauts hooked up fluid lines to the newly installed ATA; then the SSRMS moved the old ATA to the Shuttle payload bay where Mastracchio and Anderson fixed it to the LMC for the trip home to Earth, where it will be refurbished. Some stubborn bolts made all of this take longer than expected and some other tasks were cancelled, notably the return to Earth of the MISSE-LWAPA adapter plate fixture attached to Columbis (the plate had held the MISSE 6 experiment which was returned to Earth on an earlier mission). The crew did retrieve the SEEDS experiment from the Kibo Exposed Facility and replace a gyro in S1, among other minor tasks. Spacewalk timing details: Quest Hatch Battery Hatch Quest depress open power closed repress EVA-1 Apr 9 0527 0530 0531 1156 1158 EVA-2 Apr 11 0525? 0528 0530 1253 1256 EVA-3 Apr 13 0605? 0612 0614 1235 1238 Meanwhile, the Leonardo module was moved from the payload bay to the zenith CBM port on the Harmony module between 0322 and 0424 UTC on Apr 8. Among the cargo transferred from Leonardo was the Crew Quarters 4 rack, the MELFI-3 freezer, the WORF (Window Orbital Research Facility) which will be placed over Destiny's window to host observation experiments, the MARES exercise device, and EXPRESS Rack 7. On Apr 15 at 2025 the SSRMS unberthed Leonardo from Harmony; it was left hanging overnight and then berthed back in Discovery's bay at 0708 UTC Apr 16. The hatches between Discovery and PMA-2/Harmony were closed at 1030 UTC on Apr 17 and the Shuttle undocked at 1252 UTC. It made a loop around the Station at about 160m distance and then departed at 1401 UTC. On Apr 20 Discovery fired its OMS engines at 1203 UTC to reduce its velocity by 92m/s, changing its orbit from 322 x 345 km to around 13 x 344 km. Orbiter OV-103 landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 1308:35 UTC after 15 days 2 hours 47 min 10s of flight of which 15 days 2 hours 20 min were in space (above 80 km). Leonardo has made 7 flights into space; its sibling MPLM (Multi-Purpose Logistics Module) Raffaello has made 3. The module is about 4400 kg empty but launch masses have ranged from 8300 to 12750 kg. Here's my best guess for the launch and landing masses of the MPLM (this does not include the ROEU umbilical which is attached to the payload bay sidewall to provide power while MPLM is in the bay and which I believe has a mass of 127 kg.) However, different sources give different masses, so don't take this table as definitive. (Figures for 2001-2006 are from Capararo et al 2007, IAC-07-B3.3.04). Mission Launch Mass up Mass down (kg) Leonardo Flight 1 2001 Mar 8 10213 6540 STS-102/5A.1 Discovery Leonardo Flight 2 2001 Aug 10 9467 7799 STS-105/7A.1 Discovery Leonardo Flight 3 2002 Jun 5 10753 9140 STS-111/UF-2 Endeavour Leonardo Flight 4 2006 Jul 4 9588 8124 STS-121/ULF-1.1 Discovery Leonardo Flight 5 2008 Nov 15 12748 6966 STS-126/ULF-2 Endeavour Leonardo Flight 6 2009 Aug 29 12601 8927 STS-128/17A Discovery Leonardo Flight 7 2010 Apr 5 12371 9242 STS-131/19A Discovery Leonardo Flight 8 2011? ? STS-133/ULF-5 Raffaello Flight 1 2001 Apr 19 8811 6763 STS-100/6A Endeavour Raffaello Flight 2 2001 Dec 5 9228 8693 STS-108/UF-1 Endeavour Raffaello Flight 3 2005 Jul 26 8301 9110 STS-114/LF-1 Discovery Leonardo will be converted to become the PMM (Permanent Multipurpose Module) and will be left on the station on its next flight. The remaining flights currently on the Shuttle manifest are: STS-132 with the Rassvet docking and cargo module STS-133 with the Leonardo PMM STS-134 with the AMS-02 particle physics experiment CryoSat-2 ---------- ESA's CryoSat-2 made it to orbit on Apr 8 aboard a Dnepr launch vehicle. Dnepr is a refurbished R-36MUTTKh missile; it was launched by MK Kosmotras from LC109/95, an underground silo at the Baykonur spaceport. The two main stages put the payload module on a suborbital trajectory; the final stage MIRV bus then performs the low-thrust orbit insertion burn, dragging the payload behind it ino a 710 x 726 km x 92.0 deg orbit. The final stage ended up in a higher orbit of 716 x 1119 km. CryoSat-2 will study the thickness of the polar ice caps. It replaces CryoSat-1, which inspected the polar ice cap rather too closely in 2005 when the Rokot launch vehicle malfunctioned and dumped it in the Arctic. The satellite carries a Ku-band radar. GSLV ---- The first flight of India's GSLV Mk II failed on Apr 15. The GSLV-D3's new CUS12 third stage engines did not operate and the vehicle tumbled after second stage separation, remaining in a suborbital -4400 x 137 km x 19 deg trajectory above the Bay of Bengal. The vehicle reentered 8 minutes after launch at 1105 UTC, probably over the Andaman Sea. The previous GSLV model used a Russian-built upper stage; this flight had the ISRO CUS12 using the Indian Cryogenic Engine. The ICE has a 69.5 kN LOX/LH2 main engine and two 2 kN vernier steering engines. The main engine reportedly ignited for one second but then the turbopump failed and the vehicle started falling back to Earth. Payload was GSAT-4, with a Ka-band communications system and a GPS-augmentation navigation transmitter. Kosmos-2462 ------------ A new Russian Defense Ministry satellite, Kosmos-2462, was launched on Apr 16 into a 169 x 327 km x 67.2 deg orbit. It is probably a Kobal't-M recoverable imaging spy satellite built by KB Arsenal. Suborbital flights ------------------ The US Air Force Research Lab and Australia's Defense Science and Technology Organization launched the HIFiRE-1 hypersonic test flight on Mar 22 from Woomera. Launch vehicle was a Terrier Mk 70/Improved Orion and planned apogee was 288 km. The flight follows a HIFiRE-0 precursor test last year. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Mar 1 2119 Kosmos-2459 ) Proton-M/DM-2 Baykonur Navigation 07A Kosmos-2460 ) Navigation 07C Kosmos-2461 ) Navigation 07B Mar 4 2357 GOES 15 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Weather 08A Mar 5 0455 Yaogan Weixing 9) Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Sigint? 09A YW-9 subsat 1 ) Sigint? 09B YW-9 subsat 2 ) Sigint? 09C Mar 20 1826 Echostar XIV Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 10A Apr 2 0404 Soyuz TMA-18 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 11A Apr 5 1021 Discovery (STS-131) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 12A Leonardo Module 12 Apr 8 1357 CryoSat-2 Dnepr Baykonur LC109/95 Science 13A Apr 15 1057 GSAT-4 GSLV Mk II Sriharikota Comms F01 Apr 16 1500 Kosmos-2462 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Imaging 14A Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Mar 2 0725 SSC REXUS 7 Improved Orion Esrange Aeron/Tech 83 Mar 4 0450 Sineva RV-1) Sineva K-114, Barents Op. Test 1000? Sineva RV-2) Sineva RV-3) Sineva RV-4) Mar 4 1015 SSC REXUS 8 Improved Orion Esrange Tech 88 Mar 22 HiFire-1 Terrier Orion Woomera Hypersonic 288? Mar 26 1343 SSC MAXUS 8 Castor 4B Esrange Micrograv 700 Mar 27 0014 RV Dhanush INS-P51, Chandipur Test 100? Mar 27 0018 RV Prithvi Chandipur Test 100? Mar 27 1409 NASA 12.067GT Terrier Malemute Wallops LA1 Test 270 Mar 27 1937 Agni RV Agni I Chandipur Test 300 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'