Jonathan's Space Report No. 699 2014 Jul 13 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 40 is continuing with ISS in a 412 x 420 km x 51.7 deg orbit. On Jul 13 the third Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo ship, SS Janice Voss, was launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island on an Antares 120 rocket. The 5000 kg Voss carries supplies for the ISS, as well as two Nanoracks bags containing a total of 29 3U cubesats - 1 Techedsat-4 exobrake technology test for NASA-Ames and San Jose State U, and 28 Flock-1b imaging satellites for PlanetLabs. They are intended to be deployed from the Kibo airlock over the coming months. The Voss is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Jul 16. Dnepr cluster ------------- On Jun 19, launch of a Dnepr rocket from the Yasniy missile base put a record 38 payloads in sun-synchronous orbits ranging from 550 to 610 km at perigee and 620 to 715 km at apogee. The largest payload, Deimos-2, is a 300 kg Earth imaging satellite with 0.75m resolution from Elecnor Deimos of Spain. It is in a 597 x 618 km x 98 deg orbit. Hodoyoshi-3 and Hodoyoshi-4 are 60 kg payloads built by AXELSPACE for the University of Tokyo. H-3 carries a 40-m resolution camera, a store-forward comm payload and a hydrogen peroxide propulsion system. H-4 carries a 5-m res Earth imaging camera, a comm payload and an ion thruster. Kazeosat-2 is a Surrey Satellite SSTL-150 Earth imaging satellite with a 6.5km resolution for Kazakhstan. Saudisat-4 is a 100 kg satellite from KACST, Saudi Arabia, with a technology payload including a graviational reference sensor (similar to the San Marco/TRIAD systems of the 1970s, I believe, with an isolated mass allowing drag effects to be isolated). TabletSat-Aurora is a 25 kg tech demo satellite from the Sputniks (Satellite Innovation Space Systems) company in Moscow. Tita (BugSat-1) is a technology demo of Satellogic SA (Argentina)'s 22 kg Earth observation satellite. Resolution of the imager is not known. AprizeSat-9 and 10 are technology development satellites for SpaceQuest, with AIS maritime location payloads. Perseus-M1 and Perseus-M2 are 6U cubesats carrying AIS maritime location payloads built by Canopus Systems, a California subsidiary of Russia's Dauria Aerospace. POPSAT-HIP1 is a 3U cubesat from Microspace Rapid in Singapore. QB50P1 and QB50P2 are 2U scientific satellites forming part of the European QB50 consortium project coordinated by the Von Karman Institute near Brussels and built by ISIS BV in Delft. PACE is a 2U cubesat from National Chen Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, with an attitude control experiment. DTUSAT-2 is payload for relaying data from transmitters attached to migrating birds. The 1U cubesat is from DTU in Copenhagen. DUCHIFAT-1 is a 1U cubesat from Herzilya Science Center, Israel, with a position reporting relay payload. NanoSatC-BR-1 is a 1U cubesat from INPE's Southern Center and UFSM, in Santa Maria, Brazil. PolyITAN 1 is a 1U cubesat from Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Unisat-6, from the Gauss Team in Rome, is a small satellite for dispensing other satellites. It ejected Tigrisat, Lemur, ANTELSAT and Aerocube. Tigris is a 3U cubesat built by students at the University of Roma La Sapienza, including a group of Iraqi students. The satellite was funded by the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology. (The Iraqi name for the satellite in Arabic is 'Tigris', the name used by the Italians is 'Tigrisat'.) Lemur 1 is a 3U technology development cubesat for NanoSatisfi Inc. of San Francisco with a 5 m resolution Earth imaging system. ANTELSAT is a 2U cubesat from ANTEL (Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones) of Uruguay and the University of the Republic in Montevideo. Aerocube 6 is a 1U cubesat from the Aerospace Corporation (El Segundo, California) which separated into two 0.5U halves around Jun 22. The satellites carry radiation dosimeters and are testing upgraded systems for the Aerocube series. BRITE-Toronto and BRITE-Montreal are Canadian astroseismology observatories with small telescopes for observation of oscillations of bright stars. It is believed that BRITE-Montreal failed to separate from the Dnepr final stage and remains in its deployer in a 608 x 1453 km x 97.9 deg orbit. (The Dnepr final stage continues propulsive burning while deploying its payloads, and always ends up in a higher apogee orbit.) Eleven Flock-1c satellites for PlanetLabs replenish their constellation of 3U satellites, each with 3-m-resolution Earth imaging payloads. 28 Flock-1 satellites were launched earlier this year, but according to Space-Track all but three have now reentered. PSLV cluster ------------- India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle put France's SPOT 7 imaging satellite in orbit on Jun 30. Small satellites from Canada, Germany and Singapore were ejected as well. CanX-4 and CanX-5 will perform a formation flying experiment. The Germany agency DLR's AISat-1 carries a ship tracking AIS payload, not to be confused with Norway's AISSat-1. VELOX-I N-Sat is a 3U cubesat from Nanyang Tech U. in Singapore, and will eject the tiny 0.25 kg VELOX-I P-Sat. OCO-2 ----- The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 was launched on Jul 2 into a 688 x 694 km x 98.2 deg 0135 LTDN orbit. It carries a near-IR spectrometer with three bands (two CO2 and one O2) to map global CO2 sources and sinks. It replaces OCO-1, lost in a launch failure in 2009. This was the first use of the semi-retired Delta II rocket since 2011. The Delta 2 second stage made two depletion burns, first to 604 x 3743 km and finally to 2375 x 10139 km. Gonets-M -------- Three Gonets-M low Earth orbit message relay satellites were placed in a 1480 x 1510 km x 82.5 deg orbit by a Rokot vehicle on Jul 3. The Briz-KM stage (serial number 72522 according to Rui Barbosa's www.zenite.nu/orbita) made a depletion burn to 1162 x 1505 km. Meteor-M -------- On Jul 8 at 1558 UTC Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1B with a Fregat upper stage. The Blok-I stage entered a 183 x 198 km orbit; the Fregat then maneuvered to 191 x 813 km and 818 x 828 km x 98.8 deg, where it deployed the Meteor-M No. 2 weather satellite in an 0900LTDN SSO. The Fregat then restarted at 1736 UTC to enter a 638 x 825 km orbit, ejected a payload adapter frame and the Relek (MKA-FKI) satellite which will study relativistic electrons in the magnetosphere. A further burn to 635 x 635 km was followed by deployment at 1828 to 1832 UTC of the TDS-1, SkySat-2, DX-1, AISSat-2, and UKube-1 satellites. A mass model of Canada's M3MSat was also ejected; the actual M3MSat was pulled from the launch following the Ukraine crisis. TDS-1 is a UK technology demonstration satellite built by Surrey Satellite. UKube-1 is a 3U cubesat from ClydeSpace, the first satellite to be built in Scotland. DX-1 is a technology satellite from the Russian private company Dauria Aerospace. SkySat-2 is Skybox Imaging's second Earth observing satellite. AISSAT-2 is a Norwegian-owned, Canadian-built AIS (ship tracking) satellite. At 1926 UTC the Fregat stage made a deorbit burn to 14 x 665 km and reentered over the S Pacific at about 2010 UTC. The Blok-I third stage reentered over southern Australia at 1142 UTC on Jul 10 in a widely observed fireball. O3b ---- The second quartet of O3b communications satellites was launched by Soyuz from the Centre Spatial Guyanais on Jul 10 into 7830 x 7840 km x 0.0 deg orbits. The Fregat stage was left in a 7657 x 7692 km orbit. O3B Networks Ltd, based in the UK Channel Islands, intends to provide space-based broadband service to the `other 3 billion' people without internet access. The 700 kg satellites are built by Thales Alenia/Roma. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. May 6 1349 Kosmos-2495 Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 25A May 15 2142 Ekpress AM-4R Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms F01 May 17 0003 GPS SVN 67 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Nav 26A May 22 1309 USA 252 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms? 27A May 23 0528 Kosmos-2496 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 28A Kosmos-2497 ) Comms 28B Kosmos-2498 ) Comms 28C Kosmos-2499 ) Tech? 28E May 24 0305 Daichi-2 ) H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Y1 Radar 29A Raijin-2 ) Science 29D UNIFORM-1 ) IR imaging 29B SOCRATES ) Laser Com 29C SPROUT ) Tech 29E May 26 2110 EUTELSAT 3B Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, Pacific Comms 30A May 28 1957 Soyuz TMA-13M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 31A Jun 14 1716 Glonass M55 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 32A (= Kosmos-2500) Jun 19 1911 Deimos-2 ) Dnepr Yasniy Imaging 33D KazEOSat-2 ) Imaging 33A Saudisat-4 ) Tech 33G TabletSat-Aurora) Imaging 33H Tita ) Tech 33E AprizeSat-9 ) Com 33J AprizeSat-10 ) Com 33K Unisat-6 ) Tech 33C Tigris ) Tech 33AK Lemur-1 ) Tech 33AL ANTELSAT ) Tech 33AA Aerocube 6A ) Tech 33AM Aerocube 6B ) Tech 33AN BRITE-Toronto ) Astron 33L BRITE-Montreal ) Astron 33 Hodoyoshi-3 ) Imaging 33F Hodoyoshi-4 ) Imaging 33B Perseus-M 1 ) Com (AIS) 33AF Perseus-M 2 ) Com (AIS) 33AD POPSAT-HIP1 ) Imaging 33U QB50P1 ) Science 33R QB50P2 ) Science 33Y PACE ) Tech 33N? NanoSatC-Br 1 ) Science 33Q Duchifat-1 ) Tech 33P? PolyITAN 1 ) Imaging 33AJ DTUSat-2 ) Com 33W? Flock 1c-1 ) Imaging 33T Flock 1c-2 ) Imaging 33V Flock 1c-3 ) Imaging 33AH Flock 1c-4 ) Imaging 33X Flock 1c-5 ) Imaging 33AE Flock 1c-6 ) Imaging 33AC Flock 1c-7 ) Imaging 33S Flock 1c-8 ) Imaging 33AG Flock 1c-9 ) Imaging 33AB Flock 1c-10 ) Imaging 33M? Flock 1c-11 ) Imaging 33Z Jun 30 0422 SPOT-7 ) PSLV Sriharikota Imaging 34A AISat ) Com AIS 34B CanX-4 ) Tech 34C CanX-5 ) Tech 34D VELOX-I-NSat) Tech 34E VELOX-I-PSat) Tech 34 Jul 2 0956 OCO-2 Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Science 35A Jul 3 1243 Gonets-M No. 18 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/4 Comms 36A Gonets-M No. 19 ) Comms 36B Gonets-M No. 20 ) Comms 36C Jul 8 1558 Meteor-M No. 2 ) Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Weather 37A Relek ) Space sci 37B TDS-1 ) Tech 37 SkySat-2 ) Imaging 37 DX-1 ) Tech 37 AISSAT-2 ) Comms AIS 37 UKube-1 ) Tech 37 Jul 10 1855 O3b No. 3 ) Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS Comms 38D O3b No. 6 ) Comms 38C O3b No. 7 ) Comms 38B O3b No. 8 ) Comms 38A Jul 13 1652 SS Janice Voss Antares 120 Wallops MARS LA0 Cargo 39A Suborbital missions ------------------- The FTG-06B missile defense test on Jun 22 saw the intercept of a target launched by a Trident-I-based LV-2 missile launched from Kwajalaein Atoll, using an EKV CE-II interceptor launched on a GBI missile from Vandenberg AFB in California. A Terrier-Improved-Malemute rocket was launched from Wallops I on Jul 2 carrying the SubTec-6 payload. However the second stage tumbled during its burn, and the payload only reached 8 km altitude. The Angara-1.2PP rocket was launched from Plesetsk on Jul 9 on a suborbital flight to test components of the Angara satellite launch vehicle. According to Rui Barbosa's site www.zenite.nu/orbita the trajectory was -1008 x 189 km x 75.2 deg. A 1430 kg mass-size payload model (gabaritno-massovogo maketa PN) was sent to crash into the Kura test range in Kamchatka. Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km May 3 0800 NASA 36.235US Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 278 May 8 Topol' RV Topol' Plesetsk Exercise 1000? May 8 Shtil' RV Shtil' K-114, Barents Exercise 1000? May 8 Volna RV Volna K-223, Okhotsk Exercise 1000? May 20 1708 Topol'-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? May 21 0535 Aegis KV SM-3-IB Kauai AAMDTC Test 150? May 24 0735 NASA 36.285UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 300? May 28 1130 REXUS-16 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 87 May 29 1000 REXUS-15 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 80 Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000? USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000? USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) Jun 22 1849? FTG-06B Target LV-2 Kwajalein Target 1000? Jun 22 1855 FTG-06B GBI Vandenberg Interceptor 1000? Jun 26 1121 NASA 41.110UO Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops I Education 118 Jun 29 Hwasong 6 RV Hwasong 6 Kittaeryong Test 100? Jun 29 Hwasong 6 RV Hwasong 6 Kittaeryong Test 100? Jul 9 1200 Dummy satellite Angara-1.2PP Plesetsk LC35/1 Test 188 Jul 12 1620 Hwasong 6 RV? Hwasong 6? Chiha? Test 100? Jul 12 1620 Hwasong 6 RV? Hwasong 6? Chiha? Test 100? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'