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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|
Jonathan McDowell | |
|
Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
|
USA | twitter: @planet4589
|
|
|
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