Jonathan's Space Report
No.
765 2019 Jun 2
Somerville,
MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International
Space Station
---------------------------
On May 1-2 the Canadarm-2
and Dextre arms were used to replace a failed Main Bus Switching
Unit on the
ISS S0 truss. The failed MBSU supported the channel 3 solar arrays.
It was
exchanged with an MBSU on External Stowage Platform 2. This replacement unit was
originally
the channel 2 MBSU, which failed in 2017, was brought inside ISS,
repaired, and replaced on ESP-2.
There are 7 MBSUs on ISS:
Launch
order Launch year Current role
MBSU 1 2002 Failed, on
ELC-2 since 2013
MBSU 2 2002 Active as MBSU-3 since
2019
MBSU 3 2002 Failed, on ESP-2 since 2019
MBSU
4 2002 Active as MBSU-4 since 2002
MBSU 5
2005 Active as MBSU-2 since 2017
MBSU 6 2007
Active as MBSU-1 since 2012
MBSU 7 2013 Spare on ESP-2
since 2013
On May 4 SpaceX launched Dragon CRS-17 towards the
Station. The CRS-17 trunk carries
OCO-3, a carbon measuring experiment, and
STP-H6, with a set of USAF Space Test Program
experiments. STP-H6's
experiments include XCOM, an X-ray transmitter which will carry
out
communications experiments using the ISS NICER X-ray observatory as a receiver
-
giving a whole different meaning to "X-band".
Dragon arrived at ISS
on May 6, with SSRMS grapple at 1101 UTC and
berthing on Harmony nadir at
1422 UTC. On May 10-11 OCO-3 was installed
on site EFU3 of the Kibo Exposed
Facility, and STP-H6 was installed on
site 3 of Express Logistics Carrier
ELC-3. The CATS experiment, launched
in 2015, was removed from the Kibo EF
and installed in Dragon's trunk
for disposal; the SCAN testbed, launched in
2012, was similarly removed
from the ELC-3 and stowed in the trunk.
A
failed BCDU (battery charge-discharge unit), launched in 2006, was removed from
the P4 truss on Apr 3 and placed on ELC-1; on May 16 it was brought inside
the Kibo
airlock.
On May 29 astronauts Ovchinin and Kononenko made a
spacewalk, VKD-46, from the
Pirs module, using spacesuits Orlan MKS-4 and
MKS-5. For this spacewalk, to celebrate
the 85th birthday of the first
spacewalker on May 30, they wore backpacks decorated
with the slogans "Leonov
Number 1" and "Happy Birthday Aleksey Arkhipovich" (in Russian,
of
course).
They depressurized the airlock at about 1530 UTC and opened the
hatch at 1542 UTC.
They installed a commemorative portrait of Leonov on the
EVA ladder, retrieved
a decontamination towel left tied to a handrail by
Yuriy Lonchakov in Dec 2008;
retrieved a thermal sensor boom, 'Test' exposure
cassettes, the IMPAKT experiment
and Vinoslivost' panels, cleaned windows on
the airlock module,
and disassembled the Obstanovka experiment. Two
Obstanovka experiment boxes
and two mounting booms were jettisoned between
1945 and 2101 UTC.
The hatch was closed at 2143 UTC and the airlock was
repressurized at 2148 UTC.
Electron
--------
On May 5 Rocket
Lab launched Electron mission 6, nicknamed 'That's A Funny Looking
Cactus'.
The payload was USAF Space Test Program mission STP-27RD, consisting
of the 150 kg
Harbinger satellite and two cubesats.
Harbinger is a
small imaging radar satellite built by York Space Systems (Denver)
and will
carry out a mission for the US Army Space and Missile Defense
Command.
SPARC-1 (Space Plug-and-Play Architecture Cubesat) is a 6U
mission from
the USAF Research Lab and the Swedish defense agency FMV,
testing
advanced computing hardware in space.
The Falcon Orbital
Debris Experiment (Falcon-ODE) 1U cubesat from the USAF Academy, will
release
2cm and 4cm steel spheres to act as tracking
targets.
Beidou DW45
-----------
The 45th Beidou satellite
was Beidou-2 G8, a replenishment satellite for the older Beidou phase
2
system. It was launched to geotransfer orbit on May
17.
RISAT-2B
--------
India's RISAT-2B radar imaging satellite
was launched on May 22. It replaces the Israeli-built
RISAT-2, launched in
2009. Mass of RISAT-2B is 615 kg.
Yaogan-33
---------
The
launch of China's Yaogan-33 radar satellite on May 23 was a failure.
The
third stage burn was not performed successfully and the vehicle did
not reach
orbit.
Starlink
--------
SpaceX launched its first batch of
60 Starlink Ku-band internet
satellites on May 24. The Falcon 9 rocket
placed the satellites in a
434 x 442 km x 53.0 deg. Each one is about 200-250
kg (the press kit
says 227 kg, but this is suspiciously close to the metric
equivalent of
500 pounds, so it's possible they really mean 500+-50 lb = 227
+- 23
kg). The satellites are a flat panel with krypton-propellant
electric
thrusters and a single deployable solar panel.
Observers in
Europe saw the satellites as a spectacular string of mag 2
to 3 objects a few
hours after launch. As of May 30 it appears the
satellites are mostly in the
mag 4 to 7 range with frequent flares to
mag 2 and occasional brighter
flares, depending on illumination
conditions and satellite orientation. (For
the nonastronomers:
bigger mag is fainter, mag 1 = brightest stars in the sky
and
mag 6 = barely naked-eye visible at a dark site).
The brightness
of the satellites has raised concerns in the astronomical
community - a full
constellation of many thousand satellites could
interfere with observations
and, if they are brighter than mag 5 or so,
might dominate the naked-eye
night sky in dark locations. However, it is
likely to take some weeks before
we really understand how much of the
time the satellites are bright and
whether it's a real problem. SpaceX
have now stated that they will look at
ways to reduce the reflectivity
of later satellites.
In the meantime,
the 60 satellites launched so far are fascinating to
watch, if you live
somewhere less cloudy than Boston has been lately.
SpaceX report that 56
of the 60 satellites are working as expected,
and 4 have some problems but
are in communication with the ground.
In addtion, there are a further 4
debris objects which tumble with
large observed brightness
variations
Glonass
-------
Glonass-M No. 58 (Uragan-M No.
758) was launched on May 27, replenishing
the Russian navigation system. It
will probably get the official cover name Kosmos-2534.
Yamal-601
---------
Yamal-601, a communications satellite for
the Russian company Gazprom Space Systems built
by ISS Reshetnev, was
launched on May 30 by a Proton from Baykonur into geotransfer
orbit.
Hayabusa-2
----------
Hayabusa-2 ejected a second small
`target marker' onto the surface of Ryugu
at about 0219 UTC May 30, during
another descent to about 10 metres above
the asteroid.
WGS
10
------
The USAF Wideband Global Satcom 10 satellite, launched on
Mar 16 to a mildly
supersynchronous 462 x 44260 km x 27.0 deg transfer orbit,
is using an unusual ascent
path to GEO. By Mar 26 its orbit was
near-synchronous and equatorial but elliptical,
25876 x 45130 km x 0.2 deg.
Since then it has slowly circularized and by May 30
its orbit was 34716 x
36850 km. This is in contrast to the usual practice of getting
one end of the
ellipse to the GEO height quickly and only then adjusting the other.
The WGS
10 strategy may allow comms with a single ground station more
quickly.
SSO-A
-----
Three more SSO-A cubesats have been
identified: objects J, U and W are SPAWAR-CAL-O,
SPAWAR-CAL-R, and
SPAWAR-CAL-OR. They are 1U cubesats for the US Navy Space and
Naval Warfare
Systems Command (SPAWAR) used for calibration of space tracking systems
and
carry optical and radar reflectors.
Erratum
-------
IOD-1
GEMS is owned by Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd., although
built by
Orbital Microsystems and ClydeSpace. Catapult has a ground
station at
Goonhilly in Cornwall, site of the first transatlantic
satcom
link.
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
May 4 0648 Dragon CRS-17 Falcon 9
Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 25A S44222 204 x 382 x 51.6
May 5 0600
Harbinger ) Electron Mahia LC1 Radar 26E
S44229 484 x 512 x 40.0
SPARC-1
) Tech 26B S44226 493
x 511 x 40.0
AFOTEC-1
) Cal 26A S44225 496
x 511 x 40.0
May 17 1548 Beidou DW45 Chang Zheng 3C
Xichang LC2 Navigation 27A S44231 198 x35743 x 19.4
May 22 0000
RISAT-2B PSLV-CA Satish Dhawan FLP Radar 28A
S44233 550 x 558 x 37.0
May 22 2249 Yaogan 33 Chang
Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar F04 F01439 -6000?x 500?x 97.8?
May
24 0230 Starlink 01 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40
Comms 29A S44235 434 x 443 x 53.0
Starlink 02
) Comms .
... )
.
Starlink 60 )
Comms 29BM S44294 450 x 453 x 53.0
May 27 0623 Glonass-M No
58 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 30A S44299 19128
x19156 x 64.8
May 30 1742 Yamal-601 Proton-M/Briz-M
Baykonur Comms 31A S44307 6423 x35712 x 17.8
Table of
Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
Sandia
National Labs launched two Terrier Malemute rockets with technology payloads in
April,
according to T. Rummler from Sandia.
The Trident II test on May
9 sent its reentry vehicles into the South Atlantic Ocean off the
coast of
Namibia.
The University of Southern California's student rocket group RPL
flew a rocket called Traveler IV
to 103 km on Apr 21, a record apogee for a
student built rocket.
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
Apr 21 Traveler IV Traveler
Spaceport America Test 103 Spaceport America
Apr 23
HOT SHOT 2 Terrier Malemute Kauai Tech
320? Pacific
Apr 24 HOT SHOT 3 Terrier Malemute
Kauai Tech 320? Pacific
May 1 0942
GT230GM Minuteman III Vandenberg LF10 Op Test
1300? Kwajalein
May 2 1334? New Shepard NS-12 New Shepard West
Texas Test 105 West Texas
May 3 2045 Momo
TF-3 Momo Taiki Test 118
Pacific Ocean
May 9 0740 GT229GM Minuteman III Vandenberg
LF09 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein
May 9 DASO-29
Trident II D-5 USS Rhode Island, ETR Op Test 1000? S
Atlantic
May 10 SM-3 KV SM-3-IB USS Roosevelt,
Hebrides Test 150? Atlantic
May 23 Shaheen II RV
Shaheen II Somniani? Op Test 300? Arabian Sea
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|
Jonathan McDowell | |
|
Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
|
USA | twitter: @planet4589
|
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