Jonathan's Space Report No. 764

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 764                                                        2019 Apr 30 Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
---------------------------

Correction to previous description of battery work: the new-but-failed battery
that was removed on Apr 3 was the one in channel 4A3 slot 5, not the one in slot 3.
On Apr 5 the SPDM moved NiH battery 0072 from AP005 on P4 IEA 4A slot 6 to slot 5.

On Apr 8 McClain and St-Jacques performed spacewalk EVA 54. The airlock was
depressurized by about 1125 UTC with hatch open at 1126 and the suits on battery
power at 1131. At  1229 the adapter plate removed from 4A slot 6 and placed on
top of the plate in slot 2 at 1240 UTC. This opens up slot 6 for one of the old
batteries.

The spacewalkers then carried out cabling to provide external wireless support and
backup power to Canadarm-2. The airlock was repressurized at 1800 UTC.

On Apr 11 the SPDM moved NiH battery 0069 from EP7 slot Y to the newly empty
slot 6 on P4 4A. Then, battery 0070 was moved from the Dextre EOTP to slot Y.

So the 4A side has the following right now:
     Slot 1  Li-ion 15?        Slot 2  Adapter 07 + Adapter 05
     Slot 3  Li-ion 17?        Slot 4  Adapter 06 + NiH 0071
     Slot 5  NiH 0072          Slot 6  NiH 0069

On Apr 17 the 10th Antares rocket took off from the Mid-Atlantic
Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, placing Cygnus NG-11 (the S.S.
Roger Chaffee) in low orbit at 2053 UTC and separating from the payload
at 2055 UTC. The Chaffee reached the ISS on Apr 19, with SSRMS
grapple at 0928 UTC and berthing on Unity nadir at about 1130 UTC.

The NG-11 mission carries a large number of nanosatellites hosted on a
variety of dispenser systems.

Four Planetary Systems Corp. CSD 3U deployers were attached to the
Antares second stage, and ejected their payloads, SASSI2 and 12
ThinSats, at 2059 UTC Apr 17.  Unusually, the payloads were not
cataloged by US space tracking, and were expected to have reentered by
around Apr 24.


SASSI-2 (Student Aerothermal Spectrometer Satellite of Illinois and Indiana,
correctly written as SASSI-superscript-2) is a 3U cubesat from the University
of Illinois to study the diffuse bow shock of a satellite in low orbit.

The ThinSats are a new design from NearSpaceLaunch for the Virginia Commercial
Space Flight Authority and carry student experiments. Twelve Thinsats were
deployed. Each is made of a number of Thinsat cases 0.01 x 0.11 x 0.11m in size
connected by solar panel ribbons 0.30m long 0.05m wide. The satellites are
launched folded up and deploy after ejection in an accordion-like fashion.
The twelve satellites include:
 Three Thinsat 3T (1B,1G,1K), consisting of three Thinsat cases connected by two ribbons.
 Overall mass 1 kg, size 0.01 x 0.1 x 1.3m. 

 Six Thinsat 6T (1C,1D,1F,1H,1J,1L), consisting of six Thinsat cases connect by five ribbons.
 Overall mass 2 kg, size 0.01 x 0.1 x 2.7m

 Three Thinsat D+4T (1A, 1E, 1I), consisting of five Thinsat cases (one of them a double-width
 0.03 x 0.11 x 0.11m case) connected by 4 ribbons. Overall mass 2 kg, size (0.01-0.03) x 0.1 x 2.2m. 

The JAXA J-SSOD No. 11 dispenser will be delivered to the Kibo module for later deployment.
It contains three 1U cubesats developed by Kyushu Tech students:
 Uguisu, for Kyushu Tech
 Raavana-1, for the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka;
 Nepalisat-1, for the Nepal Academy of Space Technology, Kathmandu.

The Nanoracks NRCSD-16 payload will also be delivered to the Kibo module for later deployment.
It includes:
  Aeternitas (1U, Old Dominion University, Virginia);
  Libertas (1U, University of Virginia);
  Ceres  (1U, Virginia Polytechnic);
  KRAKsat (1U, Kraksat team and Akademia Gorniczo-Hutnicza, Krakow, Poland) with
   a ferrofluid attitude control system experiment.
  Swiatowid (2U, SatRevolution, Wroclaw, Poland), with a 4m res Earth imager.
  IOD-1 GEMS, Orbital Microsystems (Boulder, Colorado and Harwell, UK; 3U from ClydeSpace),
   with a passive microwave weather sensor.
  EntrySat (2U from Institut superieur de l'aeronautique et de l'espace, Toulouse), to study
   the atmospheric reentry environment.

The Nanoracks NRCSD-E mission 7 is attached to the Chaffee's service module.
Its payloads are:
  Aerocube-10a, a 1.5U cubesat from the Aerospace Corp containing
  29 small subsatellites (AC-10a Probe 01 to 29), each 0.016 kg and 0.1m in diameter,
  which will be ejected to serve as radar targets to study atmospheric density.
  AC-10a also has an optical beacon to serve as a target for AC-10b.

  Aerocube-10b, a 1.5U cubesat with a steam thruster, to carry out proximity
  manuevering near AC-10a.

  Seeker, a 3U cubesat from NASA JSC to serve as an inspector satellite maneuvering
  in the vicinity of the Chaffee.

  Kenobi, a 3U cubesat from NASA JSC which will remain attached to the NRCSD-E and
  will relay data from Seeker.

Finally, the SEOPS LLC Slingshot system will be attached to the Chaffee before it
departs ISS, and will deploy further cubesats whose identities have not yet been
revealed. These cubesats will be delivered to ISS on the next Dragon.


PSLV
-----

It has now been confirmed that the two NanoAvionics cubesats M6P and
BlueWalker-1 were ejected into the wrong orbit (435 x 514 km instead of
493 x 510 km), probably due to a deployment hang-up delaying the
ejection until after the final PSLV-PS4 burn.

Arabsat 6A
-----------

The Arabsat 6A communications satellite was launched by the first operational
Falcon Heavy on Apr 11. The two side cores landed back at Cape Canaveral
and the center core landed downrange on the OCISLY droneship. The second
stage carried on to parking orbit and then after a second burn
to highly elliptical supersynchronous transfer orbit of 324 x 90078 km x 23.0 deg
By Apr 26 the satellite was in a 36074 x 89938 km x 1.3 deg, ready to lower
apogee to GEO.

During the voyage back to port the core stage toppled over onto the deck
of the OCISLY and was partly destroyed.



B'reshit
--------

The SpaceIL lunar lander made several orbit circularization burns from Apr 4 to Apr 10.
On Apr 6 apogee was lowered from 10000 km to 750 km; on Apr 8 at 0548 UTC
the orbit was reduced to 211 x 467 km, and on Apr 10 about 1700 UTC to 16 x 200 km.
On Apr 11 at 1912 UTC B'reshit began its landing burn, but after failure
of an IMU the main engine cut off. It was restarted too late to save the landing,
with impact (possibly near 18E 32N) at 1923 UTC Apr 11.

Beidou
------

China launched a new Beidou 3 satellite on Apr 20 to geostationary transfer orbit.
It reportedly was planned to enter an inclined GEO at 55 degrees, with apogee
burn apparently on Apr 21, but as of Apr 30 the satellite had not been tracked
in its new orbit.

Tianhui-2 Group 1
-----------------

On Apr 29 China launched two new mapping satellites,  Tianhui-2 01 zu 01
xing and Tianhui-2 01 zu 02 xing, into a 0600 local time descending node
sun-synchronous orbit. The vehicle was launched at 2252 UTC and entered
orbit around 2305 UTC; After payload separation the third stage made a
perigee-lowering burn at 2311 UTC.

Hammaguir
---------

From 1952 to 1967, France's main space launch site was the CIEES (Centre
Interarmees d'Essais d'Engins Speciaux) B2 site at Hammaguir, Algeria.
(The older CIEES B0 and CIEES B1 were at Colomb-Bechar to the northeast,
and were used for small military missile tests). Until 2015, as far as I
can tell, no map of the CIEES B2 had been publicly available. The French
space agency CNES then released a 1965 map for the 2015 celebrations of
the anniversary of the first French satellite launch. Thanks to this,
which I just became aware of (courtesy of @syncloss on twitter),  it is
now possible to identify the locations of the launch pads at CIEES B2.

Launch area                    Rockets

Blandine                30.8591N 3.0850W     Veronique, Vesta
Bacchus                 30.8497N 3.0691W     Centaure, Dragon, Belier, Antares
Brigitte (Agate pad)    30.7782N 3.0566W     Agate, Topaze, Rubis
Brigitte (Diamant pad)  30.7782N 3.0539W     Emeraude, Saphir, Diamant
Beatrice                30.7986N 3.0154W     Cora




Table of Recent Orbital Launches
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle        Site            Mission       INTL.   Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl   Notes

Apr  1 0357   EMISAT               ) PSLV-QL             Satish Dhawan SLP Sigint     18A   S44078   736 x   758 x 98.4 0930LT SSO
              BlueWalker 1         )                                       IoT Comms  18AD  S44105   434 x   515 x 97.5
              M6P                  )                                       IoT Comms  18AF  S44109   434 x   515 x 97.5
              Astrocast-0.2        )                                       IoT Comms  18F   S44083   494 x   510 x 97.5
              Danu Pathfinder 1    )                                       AIS Comms  18AB  S44103   490 x   507 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-JohanLoran   )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18G   S44084   494 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Beaudacious  )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18H   S44085   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Elham        )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18J   S44086   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Victor-Andrew)                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18K   S44087   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Flock 4a-1/ Dove 2218)                                       Imaging    18B   S44079   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-2/ Dove 2201)                                       Imaging    18C   S44080   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-3/ Dove 2206)                                       Imaging    18D   S44081   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-4/ Dove 2220)                                       Imaging    18E   S44082   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-5/ Dove 2227)                                       Imaging    18T   S44095   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-6/ Dove 220b)                                       Imaging    18S   S44094   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-7/ Dove 222d)                                       Imaging    18R   S44093   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-8/ Dove 2213)                                       Imaging    18Q   S44092   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-9/ Dove 2224)                                       Imaging    18W   S44098   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-10/Dove 2205)                                       Imaging    18V   S44097   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-11/Dove 2223)                                       Imaging    18U   S44096   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-12/Dove 2209)                                       Imaging    18AE  S44108   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-13/Dove 220c)                                       Imaging    18AA  S44102   492 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-14/Dove 222c)                                       Imaging    18Z   S44101   492 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-15/Dove 2207)                                       Imaging    18Y   S44100   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-16/Dove 222b)                                       Imaging    18X   S44099   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-17/Dove 2212)                                       Imaging    18L   S44088   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-18/Dove 2215)                                       Imaging    18M   S44089   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-19/Dove 2235)                                       Imaging    18N   S44090   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-20/Dove 2232)                                       Imaging    18P   S44091   493 x  510 x  97.5
              AISAT-1/PSLV-C45-PS4                                         Tech/Comms 18AC  S44104   435 x  515 x  97.5
Apr  4 1101   Progress MS-11         Soyuz-2-1A          Baykonur LC31     Cargo      19A   S44110   407 x  411 x  51.6  
Apr  4 1703   O3b FM17  )            Soyuz ST-B/Fregat   CSG ELS           Comms      20A   S44112  7809 x 7839 x   0.0
              O3b FM18  )                                                  Comms      20B   S44113  7818 x 7839 x   0.0
              O3b FM19  )                                                  Comms      20C   S44114  7830 x 7840 x   0.0
              O3b FM20  )                                                  Comms      20D   S44115  7839 x 7841 x   0.0
Apr  5 0156   SCI                            Hayabusa-2, Ryugu space       Weapon    14076  D00957   Ryugu impact
Apr  5 0214   DCAM-3                         Hayabusa-2, Ryugu space       Imaging   14076  D00958   Ryugu space
Apr 11 2235   Arabsat 6A             Falcon Heavy        Kennedy LC39A     Comms      21A   S44186   320 x89807 x  23.0
Apr 17 2046   S.S. Roger Chaffee )   Antares 230         MARS LA0B         Cargo      22A   S44188   285 x  380 x  51.6
              SASSI-2            )                                         Science    22C?  A09407   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1A         )                                         Tech       22D?  A09408   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1B         )                                         Tech       22E?  A09409   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1C         )                                         Tech       22F?  A09410   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1D         )                                         Tech       22G?  A09411   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1E         )                                         Tech       22H?  A09412   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1F         )                                         Tech       22J?  A09413   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1G         )                                         Tech       22K?  A09414   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1H         )                                         Tech       22L?  A09415   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1I         )                                         Tech       22M?  A09416   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1J         )                                         Tech       22N?  A09417   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1K         )                                         Tech       22P?  A09418   201 x  291 x  51.6
              ThinSat 1L         )                                         Tech       22Q?  A09419   201 x  291 x  51.6
Apr 20 1441   Beidou DW44                Chang Zheng 3B   Xichang          Navigation 23A   S44205   193 x35788 x  28.5
Apr 29 2252   Tianhui-2 01 zu 01 xing )  Chang Zheng 4B   Taiyuan          Imaging    24A   S44207   506 x  517 x  97.4 0600LT SSO
              Tianhui-2 01 zu 02 xing )                                    Imaging    24B   S44208   506 x  517 x  97.4 0600LT SSO

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------


Date UT       Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle      Site                  Mission    Apogee/km    Target

Apr  5 2214   AZURE 1           Black Brant XIA    Andoya                Auroral       320       Norwegian Sea
Apr  5 2216   AZURE 2           Black Brant XIA    Andoya                Auroral       320       Norwegian Sea
Apr 11 1651   CLASP 2           Black Brant IX     White Sands           Solar UV      274       White Sands

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Jonathan's Space Report No. 763

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 763                                                        2019 Apr  6  Somerville, MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
---------------------------

Soyuz MS-12 was launched on Mar 14 carrying Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina
Koch. It docked with the Rassvet module at 0101:43 UTC Mar 15, beginning ISS Expedition 59.

Progress MS-10 made a 0.7m/s burn to adjust the ISS orbit at 1422 UTC Mar 23.

The new Li-ion batteries delivered by HTV-7 last September on the External Pallet EP7 are finally being installed
in a mixture of robotic (SSRMS/Dextre SPDM) operations and manual work on spacewalks.
EP7 is stored on the POA location on the Mobile Base System.

Here is the chronology of activities (most of you will want to skip this bit!)
  Mar 19       SPDM move NiH battery 0070 from P4 truss IEA 4A slot 3 to Dextre's EOTP3 stowage point.
               SPDM move NiH battery 0073 from P4 4A slot 1 to EP7 slot X for disposal
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0006 from EP7 slot C to P4 4A slot 3
                      Unfortunately this battery failed on Mar 22.
  Mar 20       SPDM move NiH battery 0074 from P4 4A slot 5 to EP7 slot Z for disposal
               SPDM move NiH battery 0069 from P4 4A slot 6 to EP7 slot Y for disposal
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0010 from EP7 slot B to P4 4A slot 5
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0008 from EP7 slot A to P4 4A slot 1
  Mar 22 1155? Quest airlock depress, Anne McClain EV1 in EMU 3008, SAFER 13
                                      Nick Hague EV2 in EMU 3003, SAFER 15
         1158       Hatch open
         1351-1410  Hague move adapter plate 0005 from EP7 slot A to P4 4A slot 6
         1355-1452  McClain move adapter plate 0006 from EP7 slot B to P4 4A slot 4
         1430-1442  Move NiH battery 0072 from P4 4A slot 4 to adapter 0005 on slot 6
         1513-1526  Move NiH battery 0071 from P4 4A slot 2 to adapter 0006 on slot 4
         1623-1648  Move adapter plate 0007 from EP7 slot C to P4 4A slot 2
         1836       Hatch closed
         1840       Repressurized
  Mar 26       SPDM move NiH battery 0065 from P4 2A slot 1 to EP7 slot B for disposal
               SPDM move NiH battery 0066 from P4 2A slot 3 to EP7 slot A for disposal
  Mar 27       SPDM move NiH battery 0068 from P4 2A slot 5 to Dextre
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0003 from EP7 slot D to P4 2A slot 1
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0019 from EP7 slot E to P4 2A slot 5
               SPDM move Li-ion battery 0018 from EP7 slot F to P4 2A slot 3
  Mar 28       SPDM move NiH battery 0063 from P4 2A slot 6 to EP7 slot C? for disposal
               SPDM move NiH battery 0067 from P4 2A slot 4 to Dextre
  Mar 29 1137? Quest airlock depress, Nick Hague EV1 in EMU 3006, SAFER 13
                                      Christina Koch EV2 in EMU 3008, SAFER 15
         1139         Hatch open
         1310         Remove adapter plates 13 and 14 from EP7 slots E and F
         1330         Adapter plate 14 (F) installed on P4 2A slot 6
         1351         Adapter plate 13 (E) installed on P4 2A slot 4
         1419         NiH battery 0064 removed from P4 2A slot 2
         1455         NiH battery 0064 installed on adapter plate 13 in 2A slot 4.
         1514         Adapter plate 12 (D) removed from EP7 slot D
         1529         Adapter plate 12 (D) installed on P4 2A slot 2
         1821         Hatch closed
         1828         Airlock repressurized         
   Mar 30       SPDM move NiH battery 0067 from SPDM arm 1? to EP7 slot D?
                SPDM move NiH battery 0068 from SPDM arm 2? to EP7 slot E?
   I believe NiH battery 0070 is still on the SPDM EOTP.
   But I haven't seen any confirmation of this.

   On Apr 2, the spare BCDU (Battery Charge/Discharge Unit) which was
   launched as part of ELC-1's initial cargo in 2009
   was moved from ELC-1 to replace P4 IEA's 4A3 BCDU which is thought to have failed.
   On Apr 3, the new-but-failed Li-Ion battery 0006 was removed from P4 4A3 and returned
   to the EP7, possibly on slot F?

 With these changes, and a few more still to come, the 2A and 4A solar arrays on the
P4 truss are back in action using the new batteries.

The Progress MS-11 cargo ship was launched on Apr 4 and docked with the Pirs module
only 3h20 min after launch.


S5
--

The US Air Force Research Lab's S5 satellite appears to have separated from its
Nusantara Satu host satellite at about 1800 UTC on Mar 4. Part of the Beresheet probe's
adapter structure was jettisoned in the `GEO graveyard' first to allow S5 to emerge.

Orbits of the three GEO objects on Mar 8 were:
 44048  Nusantara Satu             35779 x 35791 km x 0.1 deg  GEO 145.9E
 44065  S5                         36053 x 36055 km x 0.1 deg  GEO 139.3E+3.3deg W/day
 44066  Beresheet adapter          36131 x 36170 km x 0.1 deg  GEO 133.2E+4.6deg W/day

ZX-6C
------

China launched the Zhongxing-6C satellite from Xichang on Mar 9. ZX-6C is a C-band
communications satellite using the DFH-4 bus. By Mar 19 the satellite was
on station in GEO at 129.9E.

WGS-10
------

The US Air Force communications satellite Wideband Global Satcom 10 was launched
on Mar 16 by a Delta 4 Medium from Cape Canaveral into a supersynchronous transfer
orbit. The Boeing-built spacecraft carries X- and Ka-band communications payloads
and has both bipropellant and electric propulsion systems.
  The orbital data for WGS satellites were declassified last year; it's nice to
see public TLE data flowing for the new satellite. By Mar 22 it was in
a 13246 x 45069 km x 5.3 deg orbit.

PRISMA
------

The Italian Space Agency's PRISMA imaging satellite was launched by an
Arianespace Vega on Mar 22. Its 0.21m aperture telescope has a
hyperspectral detector with high spectral resolution near infrared and
visible imaging.

Beresheet
---------

The SpaceIL Beresheet probe (I'm told "B'reshit" is a better
transliteration from the Hebrew) has made a further orbit raising burn
for translunar injection. The 60 second perigee burn at 1230 UTC Mar 19
raised apogee beyond the Moon to 405 000 km. It entered  an estimated
400 x 10000 km lunar orbit on Apr 4, with a 324m/s burn starting at 1418
UTC and lasting 350s.

Kicksat-2
---------

The Kicksat-2 cubesat, developed by Zac Manchester (Stanford U.) and
funded on Kickstarter, deployed at least some of its circa 104 Sprite
chipsats on Mar 19 at 0340 UTC, as the satellite orbited over the
eastern Pacific southwest of California. Cees Bassa detected radio
signals from some of the Sprites. There are no US satellite catalog
entries for them. Their area-to-mass ratio is rather high, so they are
strongly affected by drag, and Manchester reports that they are expected
to have reentered within a few days.


Microsat-R
----------

On Mar 27 India's Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) launched the first PDV Mk II
antisatellite interceptor from Kalam Island. After a three minute flight the missile collided
with the 740 kg Microsat-R satellite in LEO. Microsat-R was in a 260 x 282 km x 96.6 deg orbit
at the time, travelling north over the Bay of Bengal; PDV-II flew south from Orissa to intercept
it. PDV-II is reported to be a three stage vehicle - two solid boost stages and a kill vehicle
with liquid-propellant terminal guidance thrusters.

As of Mar 31 US authorities were reporting over 250 debris pieces detected. On Apr 5, 57 of them
were publicly cataloged, 13 showing apogees over 1000 km.

PSLV-C45
--------

India launched PSLV-C45 from Sriharikota on Apr 1. This was the first launch of
the PSLV-QL variant which has 4 strapon boosters, and the first time the PS4
upper stage carried solar panels to support long-term in-orbit attached payloads.

The main payload was EMISAT, a signals intelligence satellite for the Indian
defense research agency DRDO.

Cubesats on PSLV-C45 include: BlueWalker 1, a test IoT data relay
satellite for Avellan Space Technology and Science of Midland, Texas
built by NanoAvionics of Vilnius, whose own test satellite, M6P, is also
aboard; Astrocast 0.2 is another IoT test satellite for Astrocast of
Lausanne.  Danu Pathfinder 1 is the third in the AISTECHSAT series of
ship tracking  satellites from AistechSpace of Barcelona. Four Lemur-2
satellites for SpireGlobal are aboard, and twenty Planet cubesats
in the improved Flock 4 series.

Preliminary data suggest that (1) the final burn of the PS4 stage
may have been retrograde instead of posigrade, leading to an elliptical
rather than circular final orbit and (2) two of the satellite deployments
inadvertently occured only after this burn, leaving them in the PS4's
orbit rather than the higher target one.


R3D2
----

RocketLab launched the fifth Electron on Mar 28, carrying the DARPA R3D2
 (Radio-frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration) satellite.
R3D2 is a  150 kg Northrop Grumman satellite with a 2.3m diameter
deployable lightweight antenna.

TL2-01
------

China launched the first of its second-generation tracking and data relay satellites on Mar 31.
Tianlian-2 sat 01  (Tianlian erhao 01 xing) is a CAST DFH-4. The TL2 series will replace the four
TL1 sats already in orbit:

    Satellite             Launch date    Current GEO Location           Location History
    Tianlian-1 01 xing    2008 Apr 25    Indian O. Backup   80E          77E (2008-2013); 80E (2013-2019)
    Tianlian-1 02 xing    2011 Jul 11    Pacific           167E         177E (2011-2013); 167E (2013-2016)
                                                                        171E (2016) 177E (2016-Jan 2019) 167E (2019)
    Tianlian-1 03 xing    2012 Jul 25    Africa             17E          17E (2012-2016); 20E (2016); 10.5E (2016-Jan 2019); 17E (2019)
    Tianlian-1 04 xing    2016 Nov 22    Indian Ocean       77E          77E (2016-2019)
    Tianlian-2 01 xing    2019 Mar 31     TBD

As of Apr 6, geotransfer orbit TLEs for TL2-01 had stopped on Apr 1; this suggests it made an
apogee maneuver on that date but has not yet been located by US tracking in GEO. TL2-01's
apogee at 0800 UTC Apr 1 was at around 114E.


O3B
----

The final four satellites in the first-generation SES O3b constellation were launched
from French Guiana on Apr 4 on a Soyuz/Fregat to medium equatorial Earth orbit. The O3b satellites
provide broadband internet to developing countries.

Hayabusa-2
-----------

At 0400 UTC on Apr 4 Haybusa 2 began another descent from its 20 km home
point towards the surface of Ryugu. At an altitude of 500m, at 0156 UTC
Apr 5, it ejected the SCI (Small Carry-On Impactor), a 14 kg vehicle
with a 5 kg explosive shaped charge and a 2 kg copper mass. Hayabusa-2
then performed an avoidance burn to head off several km to the side of
the asteroid, over the horizon from the SCI location. Early in this
retreat, at 0214 UTC, it ejected the DCAM-3 camera package. At 0236 UTC
the SCI detonated, propelling the copper payload into the asteroid with
the intention of creating a new crater. DCAM-3 imaged this operation and
relayed the data to the main spacecraft. Hayabusa-2 will image Ryugu
from a safe distance and search for the resulting crater, before
returning to its 20 km home point on around Apr 20. The plan is to then
make a further descent to sample the freshly exposed material in the new
crater.


Erratum
-------
In JSR 760 I said that Progress MS-10 did a reboost on Dec 2; this should have read Dec 27
(with further reboosts Jan 18 and Feb 26).


Table of Recent Orbital Launches
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle        Site            Mission       INTL.   Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl   Notes

Feb  1?       SeeMe?                                     EXCITE, LEO     Imaging     99BS   S43822   571 x   594 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Feb  5        Dousti                 Safir               Semnan          Imaging      F02   F01533 -6000?x    10?x 55.0
Feb  5 2101   Saudi Geosat 1 )       Ariane 5ECA         Kourou ELA3       Comms      07A   S44034   242 x 35770 x  3.0
              GSAT-31        )                                             Comms      07B   S44035   245 x 35841 x  3.0
Feb  9 0000   Quantum Radar 1 )                        Cygnus NG10,LEO     Tech     18092C  S44041   455 x   459 x 51.6
              Quantum Radar 2 )                                            Tech     18092D  S44042   457 x   457 x 51.6
Feb 13 1200   MySat-1  )                               Cygnus NG10,LEO     Tech     18092E  S44044?  455 x   471 x 51.6 
              CHEFSAT-2 )                                            Tech     18092F  S44045?  455 x   471 x 51.6 
Feb 13 2245   Kicksat-2                                Cygnus NG10,LEO     Tech     18092G  S44046   297 x   306 x 51.6
Feb 21 1647   EgyptSat-A             Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat   Baykonur LC31     Imaging    08A   S44047   652 x   656 x 98.0 0950LT SSO
Feb 22 0145   Nusantara Satu  )      Falcon 9            Canaveral SLC40   Comms      09A   S44048 35779 x 35791 x  0.1
              Beresheet       )                                           Lunar probe 09B   S44049   242 x 68845 x 27.6
Feb 27 2137   OneWeb-0006 )          Soyuz ST-B/Fregat   CSG ELS           Comms      10E   S44061   984 x  1007 x 87.8
              OneWeb-0007 )                                                Comms      10D   S44060   984 x  1007 x 87.8
              OneWeb-0008 )                                                Comms      10C   S44059   985 x  1009 x 87.8
              OneWeb-0010 )                                                Comms      10B   S44058   986 x  1010 x 87.8
              OneWeb-0011 )                                                Comms      10F   S44062   987 x  1005 x 87.8
              OneWeb-0012 )                                                Comms      10A   S44057   985 x  1010 x 87.8
Mar  2 0749   Crew Dragon DM-1       Falcon 9            Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship   11A   S44063   235 x   351 x 51.6
Mar  4 1800?  S5                                       Nus.Satu, GEO       Imaging    09D? S44065? 36043 x 36055 x  1.0
Mar  9 1628   Zhongxing 6C           Chang Zheng 3B      Xichang LC3       Comms      12A   S44067   181 x 40603 x 24.6
Mar 14 1914   Soyuz MS-12            Soyuz-FG            Baykonur LC1     Spaceship   13A   S44069   406 x   411 x 51.6 Docked ISS
Mar 16 0026   WGS 10                 Delta 4M+(5,4)      Canaveral SLC37B  Comms      14A   S44071   462 x 44261 x 27.0
Mar 19 0340   Sprite (00,01)  ]                        Kicksat-2, LEO      Tech     18092H           251 x   261 x 51.6
              Sprite (02,03)  ]                                            Tech     18092J           251 x   261 x 51.6
              ....            ]                                                    [104 satellites]
              Sprite (206,207)]                                            Tech     18092DQ          251 x   261 x 51.6
Mar 22 0150   PRISMA                 Vega                CSG ELV           Imaging    15A   S44072   617 x   620 x 97.9 1030LT SSO
Mar 27 0939?  Linqgue 1A             OS-M1               Jiuquan           Tech       F03   F01537 -6300?x    10?x 98?
Mar 28 2327   R3D2                   Electron            Mahia             Tech       16A   S44073   421 x   438 x 39.5
Mar 31 1551   TianLian 2-01          Chang Zheng 3B      Xichang           Comms      17A   S44076   200 x 35817 x 27.1
Apr  1 0357   EMISAT               ) PSLV-QL             Satish Dhawan SLP Sigint     18A   S44078   736 x   758 x 98.4 0930LT SSO
              BlueWalker 1         )                                       IoT Comms  18AD  S44105   434 x   515 x 97.5
              M6P                  )                                       IoT Comms  18AF  S44109   434 x   515 x 97.5
              Astrocast-0.2        )                                       IoT Comms  18F   S44083   494 x   510 x 97.5
              Danu Pathfinder 1    )                                       AIS Comms  18AB  S44103   490 x   507 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-JohanLoran   )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18G   S44084   494 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Beaudacious  )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18H   S44085   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Elham        )                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18J   S44086   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Lemur-2-Victor-Andrew)                                   AIS/ADS-B/Met  18K   S44087   493 x   510 x 97.5
              Flock 4a-1/ Dove 2218)                                       Imaging    18B   S44079   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-2/ Dove 2201)                                       Imaging    18C   S44080   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-3/ Dove 2206)                                       Imaging    18D   S44081   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-4/ Dove 2220)                                       Imaging    18E   S44082   494 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-5/ Dove 2227)                                       Imaging    18T   S44095   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-6/ Dove 220b)                                       Imaging    18S   S44094   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-7/ Dove 222d)                                       Imaging    18R   S44093   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-8/ Dove 2213)                                       Imaging    18Q   S44092   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-9/ Dove 2224)                                       Imaging    18W   S44098   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-10/Dove 2205)                                       Imaging    18V   S44097   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-11/Dove 2223)                                       Imaging    18U   S44096   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-12/Dove 2209)                                       Imaging    18AE  S44108   494 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-13/Dove 220c)                                       Imaging    18AA  S44102   492 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-14/Dove 222c)                                       Imaging    18Z   S44101   492 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-15/Dove 2207)                                       Imaging    18Y   S44100   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-16/Dove 222b)                                       Imaging    18X   S44099   493 x  507 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-17/Dove 2212)                                       Imaging    18L   S44088   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-18/Dove 2215)                                       Imaging    18M   S44089   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-19/Dove 2235)                                       Imaging    18N   S44090   493 x  510 x  97.5
              Flock 4a-20/Dove 2232)                                       Imaging    18P   S44091   493 x  510 x  97.5
              AISAT-1/PSLV-C45-PS4                                         Tech/Comms 18AC  S44104   435 x  515 x  97.5
Apr  4 1101   Progress MS-11         Soyuz-2-1A          Baykonur LC31     Cargo      19A   S44110   407 x  411 x  51.6  
Apr  4 1703   O3b FM17  )            Soyuz ST-B/Fregat   CSG ELS           Comms      20A   S44112  7809 x 7839 x   0.0
              O3b FM18  )                                                  Comms      20B   S44113  7818 x 7839 x   0.0
              O3b FM19  )                                                  Comms      20C   S44114  7830 x 7840 x   0.0
              O3b FM20  )                                                  Comms      20D   S44115  7839 x 7841 x   0.0
Apr  5 0156   SCI                            Hayabusa-2, Ryugu space       Weapon    14076  D00957   Ryugu impact
Apr  5 0214   DCAM-3                         Hayabusa-2, Ryugu space       Imaging   14076  D00958   Ryugu space

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------


Date UT       Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle      Site                  Mission    Apogee/km    Target

Feb  6 0701   Mk 21 RV/FTU-1    Minuteman 3        Vandenberg            Test         1300?      Pacific Ocean
Feb  6 0831   Yars RV           Yars               Plesetsk              Test         1300?      Kura
Feb 22 1654   VSS Unity VF-01   Spaceship Two      Kelso Valley          Test           89.9     Mojave
Mar 11 0920   REXUS 25          Imp. Orion         Kiruna                Micrograv      82       ESRANGE
Mar 19 0940   REXUS 26          Imp. Orion         Kiruna                Micrograv      80       ESRANGE
Mar 25 1720?  FTG-11 Target     ICBM-T2?           Kwajalein             Target       1000?      Pacific Ocean
Mar 25 1730?  FTG-11 KV 1       GBI                Vandenberg LF23?      Interceptor  1000?      Intercept
Mar 25 1730?  FTG-11 KV 2       GBI                Vandenberg LF05?      Interceptor  1000?      Intercept
Mar 27 0540   Mission Shakhti   PDV-II             Kalam Island          ASAT          270?      Intercept
Apr  5 2214   AZURE 1           Black Brant XIA    Andoya                Auroral       320       Norwegian Sea
Apr  5 2214   AZURE 2           Black Brant XIA    Andoya                Auroral       320       Norwegian Sea


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|  Jonathan McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
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