Jonathan's Space Report No. 779 2020 Jun 14 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 63 continues. Cygnus NG-13 was deorbited over the Pacific on May 29, with reentry at 1930 UTC. Crew Dragon mission DM-2 (Demo-2) was launched on May 30 with capsule C206, named `Endeavour' after launch. DM-2 flew to orbit aboard a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center. The first stage landed on the OCISLY droneship and the second stage was deorbited in the ocean near Australia on the first orbit. DM-2 crew are NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (spacecraft commander) and Bob Behnken (joint operations commander). This is the first human spaceflight launched by SpaceX. Earlier spaceships called 'Endeavour' were the Apollo CSM 112 (for Apollo 15) and Space Shuttle Orbiter OV-105. Endeavour completed a rendezvous with the ISS and docked with International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA-2) at 1416 UTC May 31. The crew entered the ISS at 1722 UTC. IDA-2 is attached to PMA-2, which is on the end of the Harmony module. The Japanese HTV cargo ships carry an External Pallet (EP), used in recent missions to carry the replacement ISS batteries. The EP is 900 kg empty and 2.3 tonnes fully loaded. EP-8 was launched on HTV-8 in Sep 2019, and on Jan 21, following the battery replacement spacewalks in January, was stowed on the ISS truss; specifically, on LEE 201 on the Mobile Base System's Payload ORU Accomodations (MBS POA). It is full of old NiH batteries removed from the P6 truss during the spacewalks (batteries 0087, 0093, 0099, 0097, 0104, 0106, 0103 and 0102). EP-9 was launched on HTV-9 in May with a load of new Li-ion batteries (serial numbers currently unknown, please pass on the data if you have access to it). Early on Jun 1 Canadarm-2 removed EP-8 from the POA and handed it to the Japanese JRMS arm (which, unlike Canadarm and Dextre and rather surprisingly for JAXA, does not have its own cute name). Then, at 0359 UTC on Jun 1, Canadarm-2 removed EP-9 from Kounotori-9 and later installed it on the POA. Now the JRMS gave EP-8 back to Canadarm-2 which stashed EP-8 in the Kounoutori-9 cargo bay at 0248 UTC Jun 2. It will eventually share a fiery demise with the cargo ship. On Jun 3 the Kibo RMS removed the EFU Adapter from JEM-EF EFU 5 and returned it to the Kibo airlock. The EFU Adapter was carrying the SOLISS and HDTV-EF2 experiments; they were swapped for the iSIM-170 camera delivered by HTV-9. The adapter was reinstalled on June 11. Kupol ------ On May 22 the Russian Space Forces launched the fourth Kupol (EKS) missile early warning satellite on a Soyuz-2-1B. The Fregat upper stage made three burns to place the satellite in a high-perigee Molniya type orbit. Launcher One update --------------------- Virgin Orbit report that the first stage ignited correctly and flew stably until 9 seconds after drop (which I think is 4s after ignition?) when the engine prematurely shut down and the vehicle fell intact to the ocean. Sources confirm that Starshine 4 was the inert payload on Launcher One. An additional small payload, INTERNSAT, was intended to remain attached to the upper stage. OTV 6 ----- The X-37B OTV-6 released a subsatellite on around May 28. The satellite has been given the cover name USA 300. It is likely the US Air Force Academy satellite Falconsat-8 which we know was to be released from the vehicle, but this has not been confirmed. XJS G/H ------- On May 29 China's CALT launched a CZ-11 from Xichang for the first time. It carried two technology development payloads: XJS G (also known as Chuangxin 6-01), from the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, and XJS H, from the National University of Defense Technology. Gao Fen 9-02 ------------- On May 31 it was the Shanghai SAST team's turn, launching a CZ-2D from the Jiuquan space centre. The main payload was a high resolution imaging satellite, Gao Fen 9 hao 02 xing. Some Gao Fen satellites are civilian, but some, including the GF-9 series, are thought to be for military/intelligence use. A small secondary payload, HEAD-4, was also aboard. HEAD-4 is owned by HEAD Aerospace Tech Co Ltd (Beijing) and has AIS, ADS-B, and IoT relay communication spayloads. Haiyang 1D ---------- The HY-1D oceanographic satellite launched on June 10 carries ocean-color imagers and a coastal zone imager, like previous satellites in the HY-1 series. It was built by DFH satellite. Electron 12 ----------- Electron 12 was launched from New Zealand on Jun 13 and placed three small NRO satellites in orbit. Also aboard were two cubesats: RAAF M2 Pathfinder for the University of New South Wales and the Royal Australian Air Force, and Boston University's ANDESITE. ANDESITE consists of ANDESITE Mule, a 6U parent spacecraft, and ANDESITE Node 1 to Node 8, small magnetometer subsatellites to be ejected from it to study magnetospheric variation. Each Node is 0.20 x 0.10 x 0.025m in size with a mass of 0.38 kg. The mission of the three NRO satellites is unknown; likely either communications or signals intelligence. Starlink -------- SpaceX carried out the 8th Starlink launch on Jun 4. The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the droneship Just Read The Instructions; the second stage deployed 60 Starlinks in orbit. One of them (Starlink 1436) is VisorSat, with an experimental deployable cover for the nadir antennae. The 9th Starlink launch on Jun 13 carried only 58 Starlinks. Mounted on top of the Starlinks was an adapter carrying three SkySat satellites for Planet. The first stage landed on droneship Of Course I Still Love You. Parker Solar Probe ------------------ Parker passed through its 5th perihelion, 0.1296 AU from the Sun, at 0823 UTC Jun 7. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 5 1000 XZF-SC ) Chang Zheng 5B Wenchang LC101 Spaceship 27A S45599 162 x 377 x 41.1 RCS-FC-SC ) Reentry Test 27B S45600 163 x 372 x 41.1 May 12 0116 Xingyun-2 01 ) Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Comms 28A S45602 557 x 573 x 97.6 Xingyun-2 02 ) Comms 28B S45603 557 x 573 x 97.6 May 13 2325 Lynk NG-13, LEO Comms 11D S45604 476 x 486 x 51.6 May 17 1314 OTV 6 Atlas V 501 Canaveral SLC41 Spaceplane 29A S45606 389 x 390 x 45.0 May 20 1731 Kounotori 9 H-IIB Tanegashima Cargo 30A S45607 187 x 301 x 51.7 May 22 0731 Kosmos-2546 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk EarlyWarn 31A S45608 1654 x35807 x 63.8 May 25 1950 Starshine 4) Launcher One Mojave Test F04 F01554 -6362 x 9 x 67.0? INTERNSAT ) Test F04 F01555 -6362 x 9 x 67.0? May 28? USA 300 OTV 6, LEO Unknown 29B S45610 389 x 389 x 45.0 May 29 2013 XJS G ) Chang Zheng 11 Xichang LC4 Tech 32A S45611 467 x 486 x 35.0 XJS H ) Tech 32B S45612 467 x 486 x 35.0 May 30 1922 Endeavour Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 33A S45623 190 x 211 x 51.6 May 31 0853 Gao Fen 9-02) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 34A S45624 485 x 502 x 97.3 HEAD-4 ) Comms 34B S45625 487 x 503 x 97.3 Jun 4 0125 Starlink 1351 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 35A S45657- 291 x 365 x 53.0 Starlink 1370 ) 35BM S45716 Starlink 1392-1423) Starlink 1433-1458) Starlink 1460 ) Jun 10 1831 Haiyang-1 D Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 36A S45721 770 x 786 x 98.4 Jun 13 0512 USA 301 ) Sigint? 37A S45723 590 x 590 x 97.8 USA 302 ) Sigint? 37B S45724 590 x 590 x 97.8 USA 303 ) Electron Mahia LC1 Sigint? 37C S45725 590 x 590 x 97.8 ANDESITE ) Science 37D S45726 590 x 590 x 97.8 RAAF M2PF) Tech 37E S45727 590 x 590 x 97.8 Jun 13 0921 Starlink 1391 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 38A 212 x 367 x 53.0 Starlink 1459 ) Starlink 1461-1513) Starlink 1516-1517) Starlink 1521 ) Skysat 16 ) Skysat 17 ) Skysat 18 ) Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Apr 15 1500? Nudol' dummy KV? Nudol' Plesetsk Test 500? Laptev Sea Jun 12 M51 RV M51 S617, Baie d'Audierne Test 1200? Atlantic Ocean .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'