Jonathan's Space Report No. 773 2019 Dec 27 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 61 continues. Progress MS-13 docked with the Pirs module at 1038 UTC Dec 9. On Dec 12 Dextre was used to remove the HISUI payload from Dragon CRS-19's trunk and hand it to the JEM-RMS arm, which installed it on Kibo Exposed Facility EFU 8. On Dec 13 Dextre removed the new Li-ion battery from the trunk and stored it on the Dextre EOTP. On Aug 16, the flight support equipment (FSE) adapter from the BCDU removed earlier this year from ESP3 was moved from ESP3 to the EOTP, and the new battery replaced it there at ESP3 Site 6. Starliner --------- On Dec 20 ULA launched flight AV-080, the first Atlas V N22, from Cape Canaveral, The N22 has two solid boosters, a dual engine Centaur with two RL10-A4-1 engines (the first DEC to fly since 2004) and carries the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spaceship, flying on its Orbital Flight Test (OFT) without a crew. The mission was to test launch and landing and to rendezvous and dock with ISS, delivering 272 kg of cargo and carrying an instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy (ATD) dubbed 'Rosie', AV-080's Centaur reached its targeted 73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Boeing Space's Starliner, vehicle SC3, separated at 1150 UTC. Starliner set its master event timer reading data from the launch vehicle, but apparently because of a software (interface) mistake the value was read into the Boeing vehicle from an incorrect location in the ULA vehicle's memory, resulting in an 11 hour offset. Starliner was meant to fire its Aerojet Rocketdyne OMAC thrusters at 1207 UTC to raise its orbit, but due to the software timing error this did not occur. After comms problems possibly related to a TDRS handover, a contingency RCS burn was finally commanded by the ground, possibly at around 1216 UTC, which raised perigee by an unknown (to me) amount. Further RCS burns at unknown times over the next half hour or so raised perigee further and placed Starliner in a 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg orbit. During the period before the burn, the timer error meant that Starliner was in an incorrect software state and used up too much propellant controlling its attitude. This precluded the planned rendezvous with ISS. Later on Dec 20 Starliner raised its orbit to around 250 km and tested extension and retraction of its docking apparatus as well as other systems tests. SC3 then returned on Dec 22, landing at about 106.420W 32.952N near the runway at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico. The flight did demonstrate the basic design of the vehicle including its life support system and its ability to safely return to Earth; I do not expect the omitted rendezvous or the software issues to create major delays to the programme or to require a further uncrewed test flight. Starliner consists of the following components, with very approximate guesstimated masses: Height Dia Mass Crew Module 2.2m 4.5m 8.3t? - about 6.4t dry without crew/cargo Service Module 2.5m 4.5m 3.3t? (dry) - Jettisoned during end of mission, after deorbit burn SM propellant - - 2.3t? ----------------------------------- Total at Cen sep 13.9t? Ascent cover 0.3m 1.7m 0.1t? - Jettisoned suborbital, before Centaur ignition Aeroskirt 1.8m 4.5m 1.0t? - Jettisoned suborbital, 20s after Centaur ignition ----------------------------------- Total at launch 15.0t? The SM has 20 6kN OMAC thrusters for orbit adjust (plus 4 x 180 kN abort engines and 28 RCS thrusters). The CM includes a 750 kg base heat shield, a 150 kg forward heat shield, and two 34 kg drogue chutes, as well as about 90 kg of hydrazine, all of which are jettisoned in the atmosphere prior to landing. Landing mass is about 7200 kg including crew and cargo. Starliner is built in Boeing's facility at the C3PF (former OPF3) at Kennedy Space Center; spacecraft development is carried out there (and possibly at the new Boeing Space headquarters in Titusville) and mission control is at a Boeing control room in the mission control building at NASA-JSC/Houston. Here is the approximate timeline of the mission as far as I can estimate it for now: (times UTC, as always) - I expect a number of these details to change as better info becomes available. Dec 20 1136:43 Launch by Atlas V/N22 from SLC41 1141:12 Atlas cutoff 1141:18 Atlas separation 1141:24 Starliner ascent cover jettisoned 1141:28 Centaur AV-080 main engine burn 1 1141:48 Starliner aeroskirt jettisoned 1148:37 AV-080 shutdown, reach 73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg orbit 1151:37 Starliner separates from AV-080 1202 AV-080 propellant `blowdown' 1207:38 Planned Starliner OMAC orbit insertion burn does not occur Excessive attitude control thruster use 1215? Commanded RCS burn performs initial orbit insertion Initial orbit UNKNOWN; burn start time UNKNOWN 1234 AV-080 Centaur reentered and hits ocean SW of Australia 1300? Further RCS burn(s); reach 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg orbt. Burn start time UNKNOWN. 2200? OMAC burn 1, 20 m/s?, to approx 214 x 242 km x 51.6 deg orbit 2235? OMAC burn 2, 20 m/s?, to 241 x 265 km x 51.6 deg orbit. [Times of these burns are highly uncertain] Dec 22 1223:47 Starliner OMAC deorbit, 150 m/s , 55 s burn; E of New Zealand 1224:42 Deorbit burn cutoff, orbit about -230 x 246 x 51.6 1225:59 Service Module jettison 1241:42 Entry interface, 120 km, 7.5 km/s over equatorial Pacific 1242? Service Module destructive reentry over equatorial Pacific 1253? Forward heat shield (FHS) separation at 3 km alt. 1253:06 Main parachutes deploy 1254:00? Base Heat Shield sep 1254:40? Airbags inflate 1257 Base Heat Shield impact 1257:55 CM landing at White Sands Space Harbor 106.420W 32.952N 1302:48 Forward heat shield touchdown Starliner SC1 was used for the pad abort test; SC2 will fly the CFT crewed flight next year; then SC3 will fly again on the PCM-1 mission to ISS. For that flight SC3 will have the name `Calypso', chosen by mission commander Suni Williams. SC2 has not yet been named; and it's not clear whether SC3 will retain the same name for later flights or if they'll get new names under each new commander. Glonass ------- The Glonass M-59 navigation satellite, Kosmos-2544, was launched from Plesetsk on Dec 11. PSLV-C48 --------- India's PSLV-C48 flight launched RISAT-2BR1, a 628 kg X-band synthetic aperture radar satellite. Also aboard were some secondary payloads: - the 100-kg-class Izanagi (QPS-SAR-1), a 3.6m-dia-antenna radar satellite from QPS Labs of Fukuoka, Japan; - the 22 kg 12U Cubesat 1HOPSAT from Hera Systems of San Jose; - the 3U Duchifat 3 from Herzliya Science Center, Israel - four SpireGlobal Lemur-2 satellites; - a 3U satellite, Tyvak-0092 (possibly also called COMMTRAIL), built by Tyvak for an unnamed Italian company for search-and-rescue applications; - a 6U satellite, Tyvak-0129, or Pathfinder Demo Test 1, a mission built by Tyvak for NASA-Ames to test a Busek electrospray thruster. Beidou ------- Beidou 52/53 were launched on Dec 16; they are CAST-built medium orbit Beidou 3 satellites M19 and M20. The previous Beidou double launch, Beidou 50/51, were Shanghai-built satellites M21 and M22 in the Beidou-3 system, and not M19/20 as I wrote in JSR 772. JCSAT ----- On Dec 17 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral. The first stage landed on the OCISLY droneshop. The second stage placed the JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 satellite in a subsynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite is jointly owned by Sky Perfect JSAT of Tokyo, which operates its Ku-band payload, and Kacific Broadband Satellite of Singapore, which has a Ka-band payload aboard. CSG/CHEOPS ---------- On Dec 18 Arianespace launched a Soyuz ST-A/Fregat from the Centre Spatial Guyanais to place several satellites in sun-synchronous orbit. The Soyuz third stage reached a -3189 x 608 km x 92.0 deg suborbital trajectory; the Fregat stage then fired to reach a 625 x 649 km x 97.8 deg orbit and deployed CSG-1, its primary payload, at 0917 UTC. CSG-1, the first COSMO-Skymed Second Generation satellite, is an X-band radar satellite for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense built by Thales Alenia/Torino. Fregat's second burn reached a 443 x 622 km x 98.0 deg orbit; the ASAP-S upper adapter (on which CSG-1 was mounted) was jettisoned. The third burn was to 445 x 829 km, followed by a fourth burn to 696 x 708 km for the deploy of CHEOPS at 1119 UTC. CHEOPS is ESA's Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite. The 273 kg satellite has a 0.3m aperture telescope and will measure the radii of known super-Earth and mini-Neptune exoplanets using transit photometry. The PI is Willy Benz (U. Bern). Fregat burn 5 and 6 went to 468 x 703 km and then to 509 x 527 km, following which three cubesats were deployed at 1305 UTC: ANGELS is a 12U cubesat built by Toulouse company Hemeria for the French space agency CNES. It carries a new version of the long-running ARGOS system which relays data from meteorological buoys. EyeSat is a 3U cubesat built by student interns at CNES/Toulouse, and carries the IRIS space telescope to study zodiacal light. OPS-SAT s a 3U cubesat built by TU Graz for ESA, with an advanced flight computer to act as a testbed for mission operations software. Fregat's final burn put it on a -112 x 522 km trajectory; it reentered over the south Pacific at 1509 UTC. CBERS-4A -------- The final China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite, CBERS-4A, was launched by CZ-4B on Dec 20. Chang Zheng 4B s/n Y44 was launched from Taiyuan at 0322:29 UTC Dec 20. At T+11m39s the third stage finished its burn and entered a 615 x 635 km sun-synchronous orbit with an equator crossng at 10:30 local time. At T+13:18 the primary payload, the 1980 kg CBERS-4A China-Brazil Earth resources satellite, separated and became object 4489, 2019-093A. The CBERS satellites are part of the larger Chinese ZiYuan series, and so this is probably also ZY-1 04A. It was built by CAST/Beijing. CBERS-4A was mounted on an adapter covering the remaining payloads. The adapter separated into orbit at T+13:53. It is probably 2.0m high 2.9m dia. Next the Tianqin-1 satellite separated, at T+14:28. Tianqin-1 is a small (35 kg) technology development satellite for China's gravitational-wave-astronomy programme. The satellite was built by DFH Satellite Co. for Zhongshan Daxue (Sun Yat-sen University) and Huahzhong U. of Science and Technology. It also carries the CAS-6A amateur radio payload. At T+15:05 three further satellites separated: Tianyan-02, Yuheng and Shuntian. Tianyan-02 is also called Xingshidai-8; it is a 6U cubesat built by Weina Xingkong Keji (MinoSpace) for Gouxing Yuhang Keji (ADA Space) of Chengdu. It is also called "Kehuan shijie hao AI weixing" (SciFi World AI satellite) and is dedicated to the science fiction community. SF writers including Cixin Liu were invited to the launch. The satellite apparently has a low resolution Earth video imager. Yuheng and Shuntian were developed by the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha in collaboration with the Deya Innovation Research Institute of Foshan, in the Guangzhou region. They are prototype internet distribution satellites. It is unclear how big these sats are but I suspect they are 50-100 kg class. At T+15:47 the final four payloads separated: ETRSS-1, FloripaSat, Weilai-1R and Tianyan-01. ETRSS-1 is a 70 kg remote sensing satellite and was built by DFH Satellite for the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute in Addis Ababa. It is Ethiopia's first satellite. FloripaSat is a 1U cubesat from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, in the Brazilian city of Florianopolis. Weilai-1R is also known as BDS-AGR-1 and Guozhi henghao nianjing zhongyuan jinshui 1, and is a 65 kg imaging satellite for GZH-NHK BDS AGR Co. Ltd (Guozhi heng Beidou hao nianjing Agricultural Technology Co.) of Zhengzhou in Henan province. Tianyan-01 is also called Yizheng 1. It was built by Weina/Minospace for the Zhongxing kongjian yaogan (jiangsu) weixing jishu fuwu YG (China satellite space remote sensing (Jiangsu) satellite technology services co. ltd.), based in Yizheng, Jiangsu province. The 72 kg satellite carries a high resolution imager. At T+25 min the third stage restarted for a depletion burn which lowered its orbit to 447 x 620 km. Elektro-L --------- On Dec 24 Russia's Elektro-L No. 3 weather satellite was placed in geosynchronous orbit by a Proton-M with the now-rarely-used Energiya Blok DM-03 upper stage. Gonets ------ On Dec 26 Russia launched the last Khrunichev Rokot vehicle, based on the UR-100N missile with a Briz-KM upper stage. The rocket put three Gonets-M communications satellites in a 1500 km orbit. A passive 17 kg Blits-M laser reflector ball was also placed in orbit. Parker ------ The Parker Solar Probe passed 3008 km from Venus on Dec 26 at 1815 UTC, its second Venus flyby. Parker was within Venus' Hill sphere from Dec 26 0605 to Dec 27 0626 UTC. Once back in solar orbit its perhelion will be only 0.130 AU, compared to 0.166 AU before the flyby. Perihelion 4 is on Jan 29. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Dec 5 1729 Dragon CRS-19 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 83A S44821 203 x 378 x 51.7 Dec 6 0800? Kosmos-2543? Kosmos-2542, LEO Inspector 79D S44835 368 x 858 x 97.9 Dec 6 0818 ALE-2 ) Electron Mahia LC1 Tech 84A S44824 397 x 415 x 97.0 NOOR 1A ) Com 84D S44827 348 x 403 x 97.0 NOOR 1B ) Com 84E S44828 348 x 403 x 97.0 SMOG-P ) Sigint 84J S44832 348 x 403 x 97.0 TRSI-Sat ) Tech 84G S44830 348 x 403 x 97.0 FossaSat-1) Tech 84F S44829 348 x 403 x 97.0 ATL-1 ) Sigint/Tech 84H S44831 348 x 403 x 97.0 Dec 6 0934 Progress MS-13 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 85A S44833 186 x 219 x 51.6 Dec 7 0255 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Imaging 86B S44837 531 x 544 x 97.5 Dec 7 0852 HEDE-2A ) Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Comms 87 S44839 495 x 511 x 97.4 HEDE-2B ) Comms 87 495 x 511 x 97.4 Tianqi-4A ) Comms 87 495 x 511 x 97.4 Tianqi-4B ) Comms 87 495 x 511 x 97.4 Tianyi-16 ) Imaging 87 495 x 511 x 97.4 Tianyi-17 ) Imaging 87 495 x 511 x 97.4 Dec 11 0854 Kosmos-2544 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/3 Nav 88A S44850 19125 x 19150 x 64.8 Dec 11 0955 RISAT-2BR1) PSLV-QL Satish Dhawan Radar 89A S44852 564 x 574 x 37.0 Izanagi ) Radar 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 1HOPSAT ) Imaging 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Duchifat-3) Tech 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Tyvak-0092) SaR 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Tyval-0129) Tech 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met 89 568 x 579 x 37.0 Dec 16 0722 Beidou DW 52 ) Chang Zheng 3B/YZ1 Xichang LC3 Nav 90A S44864 21528 x 22192 x 55.0 Beidou DW 53 ) Nav 90B S44865 21528 x 22192 x 55.0 Dec 17 0010 JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 91A S44868 272 x 20319 x 26.9 Dec 18 0854 CSG 1 ) Soyuz ST-A/Fregat CSG ELS Radar 92A S44873 622 x 623 x 97.8 CHEOPS ) Astronomy 92B S44874 698 x 709 x 98.2 ANGELS ) Comms 92D?S44876 508 x 527 x 97.4 EyeSat ) Astronomy 92E?S44877 508 x 527 x 97.4 OPS-SAT ) Tech 92F?S44878 508 x 527 x 97.4 Dec 20 0322 CBERS-4A ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 93A S44879 615 x 635 x 98.0 ETRSS-1 ) Imaging 93 Tianqin-1 ) Sci/Tech 93 BDSAGR-1 ) Imaging 93 Yuheng ) Comms 93 Shuntian ) Comms 93 Yizheng 1 ) Imaging 93 Xingshidai 8 ) Imaging 93 Dec 20 1136 Starliner OFT Atlas V N22 Canaveral LC41 Spaceship 94A S44900 180 x 221 x 51.6 Dec 24 1203 Elektro-L No. 3 Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Weather 95A S44903 35372 x 35571 x 0.6 Dec 26 2312 Gonets-M No. 24 Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 96A S44905 1500 x 1508 x 82.5 Gonets-M No. 25 Comms 96B S44906 1500 x 1508 x 82.5 Gonets-M No. 26 Comms 96C S44907 1500 x 1508 x 82.5 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- On Dec 12 the US DoD's Strategic Capabilities Office and Northrop Grumman launched what was reported to be a development test for a new IRBM. The rocket flew from Vandenberg's Test Pad 1 west to the Pacific, apparently to a range of about 1200 km (and not 3000 km which the US defines as the lower end of IRBM range). Pictures suggest it was a single-stage Castor 4B with an MBRV-class reentry vehicle, probably surplus from the missile defense targets program. The Castor 4B solid motor is thought to no longer be in production; I conclude this was likely largely a propaganda exercise rather than actually representing a new capability. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Nov 26 0743 ICI 5 Terrer Imp.Malemute Svalbard Ionosphere 253 Arctic Nov 28 Topol-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Reentry test 1000? Balkhash Nov 28 0759 RV DPRK MLRS Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of Japan Nov 28 0759 RV DPRK MLRS Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of Japan Nov 30 1350 Agni 3 RV Agni 3 Kalam Island Test 500? Indian O. Dec 10 0930 CHI Black Brant IX Svalbard Ionosphere 360 Arctic Dec 11 1753 New Shepard NS12 New Shepard West Texas Test 105 West Texas Dec 12 1630 IRBM Test Castor 4B? Vandenberg TP-01 Test 500? Pacific .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: https://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'