Jonathan's Space Report
No.
771 2019 Nov 17
Somerville,
MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International
Space Station
---------------------------
The Canadarm-2 unberthed
Japan's HTV 8 cargo ship at about 1230 UTC Nov 1 and released
it into orbit
at 1721 UTC. Burns at 1941 UTC Nov 2, 2112 UTC Nov 2 and 0141 UTC Nov
3
lowered the perigee to 250, 145 and about 12 km respectively.
HTV 8
reentered over the south Pacific at about 0209 UTC Nov 3.
The first
launch in the CRS2 commercial cargo supply contract was carried out on Nov
2.
Cygnus flight NG-12 was launched aboard the first Antares 230+. The new
rocket has
minor changes from the Antares 230, including a redesigned stage
1/2 interstage section.
The Castor 30XL second stage motor and the Cygnus
were inserted in a 187 x 257 km x 51.6 deg
orbit. Cygnus NG-12 has been named
the S.S. Alan Bean.
Cygnus had a launch mass of 8011 kg and carried 3586
kg of pressurized cargo and 119 kg
of external cargo. The latter consisted of
the NanoRacks NRCSD-E external deployer with seven
cubesats aboard. Inside
Cygnus is the US Air Force STPSAT-4 satellite (for SSIKLOPS deploy,
probably
around 50 kg), five cubesats with the NanoRacks NRCSD-17 package to be deployed
from
the Kibo module, and two more unidentified cubesats.
On Nov 4,
NG-12 completed its rendezvous with the ISS. The Canadarm-2 grappled it at 0910
UTC
and berthed it at Unity nadir at 1121 UTC.
On Nov 7 at 2240 UTC,
Progress MS-12 (docked at the Pirs module) fired its engines for 6min 46s
to
adjust the station's orbit, using about 67 kg of propellant.
On Nov 15
astronauts Parmitano and Morgan carried out spacewalk US
EVA-59 in suits 3004
and 3008, to begin repairs to the AMS-2 cooling
system. AMS-2, the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer, is a particle physics
experiment which was launched to
ISS in 2011 and attached to the S3
truss segment. The astronauts removed a 9
kg debris shield, jettisoned
at 1417 UTC, and a small Vertical Support Beam
Cover (probably about 1
kg?), jettisoned at 1616 UTC. They also installed
handrails and removed
smaller internal components to gain access to cooling
system.
Quest was depressurized at 1133 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1136
UTC; the hatch was
closed at 1814 UTC and the airlock was repressurized at
1818 UTC.
X-37B
-----
The OTV-5 mission of the X-37B
spaceplane ended at 0751 UTC Oct 27 with landing at the SLF
runway at Kennedy
Space Center.
The USAF announced that the mission was successful while
"providing a ride for small satellites".
No such satellites have been
cataloged in the US satellite catalog, nor have they been identified
in
registration notification documents sent to the United Nations, in violation of
UN Resolution
3235 (XXIX), Convention on Registration of Objects Launched
into Outer Space.
Starlink
--------
The second batch of 60
SpaceX Starlink satellites were launched on Nov 11.
The Falcon 9 launch
vehicle used first stage B1048 on its fourth flight; the
stage landed on the
OCISLY drone ship and the second stage was deorbited
south of Australia,
leaving the 60 payloads and four deployment rods
in orbit. The new
satellites have both Ka and Ku band antennae.
This time the payloads were
deployed in a 298 x 303 km x 53.0 deg orbit;
the deployment rods seem to have
been ejected in a retrograde direction
and are in a 275 x 288 km orbit; I
expect them to reenter in a few weeks.
The serial numbers of the new
payloads are Starlink 1007-1017, 1019-1065,
1067-1068.
Hayabusa-2
-----------
The MINERVA-II container was
released from Hayabusa-2 about 1 km above
Ryugu at 1557 UTC on Oct 2. Rover 2
separated from the container and
both objects (container and Rover) are
believed to have drifted onto the
surface by Oct 8. Measurements of the radio
beacon on Rover 2 confirmed
it to be on the surface. However I gather from
the JAXA team at IAC2019
that, as expected, the earlier failure of the Rover
2 computer prevented
any science data from being obtained.
On Oct 14
Hayabusa-2 returned to its home point 20 km from Ryugu. On Nov 13
at 0105
UTC, it made a 0.1m/s departure burn to begin the trip back to Earth
On Nov
18 Hayabusa-2 left Ryugu's gravitational sphere of influence and
reentered a
0.96 x 1.41 AU x 5.9 deg heliocentric orbit.
GaoFen
7
--------
The GaoFen 7 civilian high resolution imaging satellite was
launched to sun-synchronous orbit
on Nov 3. The launch also carried three
small satellites:
Huangpu-1 (50-100 kg class) developed by Lizheng
(Shanghai) for the Dawan District Research Inst, Guangdong.
Sudan Kexue
Shiyan Weixing (Sudan science experiment satellite, 50-100 kg class?)
developed by Shenzhen DFH HIT for Sudan.
Dianfeng (Xiaoxiang-1 08), a 6U
cubesat from Tianyi Research for remote sensing and tests of laser
communications and a French solid iodine thruster.
Beidou Daohang Weixing
49
-------------------------
China's BDW 49 navigation satellite was
launched to geotransfer orbit on Nov 3.
The satellite is the third inclined
geosynchronous mission in the Beidou-3 system.
It appears to have made its
circularization burn on Nov 5 but no TLEs have
been released for it in the
new orbit as of Nov 16.
Jilin-1 Gaofen
2A
-----------------
On Nov 13 China's EXPACE launched KZ-1A no. Y11
with the Jilin-1 Gaofen
02A high resolution (0.8m) imaging payload aboard.
The satellite entered
a sun-synchronous orbit with 1000 local time descending
node.
Ningxia-1
---------
On Nov 13, China's CALT launched the
third Chang Zheng 6. placing five
Ningxia-1 satellites in orbit. The
satellites are thought to be
measuring terrestrial radio emissions, either
for military signals
intelligence or for a civilian equivalent (like the
Hawkeye 360
satellites).
KL-Alpha
--------
On Nov 17, EXPACE
launched Kuaizhou-1A no. Y7 with two `global
multimedia' Ka-band
communications satellites, KL-Alpha-A and
KL-Alpha-B, built by Shanghai's
IMICAS for an unnamed German company.
Table of Recent Orbital
Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT
Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Oct 4 1851 GaoFen
10 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 66A S44622
612 x 622 x 97.8 0200LT SSO
Oct 9 1017 MEV-1 )
Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Servicing 67 S44624? 11989 x 65080 x
13.4
Eutelsat 5WB
) Comms 67 S44625? 11982 x
64871 x 13.4
Oct 11 0200 ICON Pegasus XL
L1011, Canaveral Science 68A S44628 569 x 569 x 27.0
Oct 17 0122
Palisade Electron Mahia LC1 Tech 69A
S44634 1208 x 1225 x 87.9
Oct 17 1521 TJS 4 Chang
Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Sigint? 70A S44637 195 x 34974 x 27.0
Nov
2 1359 S.S. Alan Bean Antares 230+ MARS LA0
Cargo 71A S44701 186 x 257 x 51.6
Nov 3 0322 Gao Fen 7
) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 72A S44703 489 x 518
x 97.5 1030LT SSO
Huangpu-1
) Imaging? 72C S44706 485 x 505
x 97.5
Dianfeng
) Imaging 72D S44705 485 x 505
x 97.5
Sudan Kexue Shiyan
) Tech 72B S44704 487 x 504
x 97.5
Nov 4 1743 Beidou DW49 Chang Zheng 3B
Xichang Navigation 73A S44709 184 x 35822 x 28.5
Nov 11 1456
Starlink 1007 )
to
) 74A S44713 298 x
303 x 53.0
Starlink 1017 ) Falcon 9
Canaveral SLC40 Comms to
Starlink 1019
) 74BM S44772 298 x
303 x 53.0
to )
Starlink 1065
)
Starlink 1067 )
Starlink 1068 )
Nov
13 0340 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan
Imaging 75A S44777 532 x 546 x 97.5 1000LT SSO
Nov 13 0635
Ningxia-1 01 ) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Sigint 76A
S44779 886 x 898 x 45.0
Ningxia-1 02
) Sigint 76B S44780 886 x
898 x 45.0
Ningxia-1 03
) Sigint 76C S44781 886 x
898 x 45.0
Ningxia-1 04
) Sigint 76D S44782 886 x
898 x 45.0
Ningxia-1 05
) Sigint 76E S44783 886 x
898 x 45.0
Nov 17 1000 KL-Alpha-A ) Kuaizhou-1A
Jiuquan Comms 77A S44785 1044 x 1058 x 88.9
KL-Alpha-B ) Comms 77B
S44876 1045 x 1432 x 88.8
Table of Recent Suborbital
Launches
-----------------------------------
Date UT
Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
Apogee/km Target
Oct 1 2211 RV Bukgeukseong-3
Wonsan? Test 950 Sea of Japan
Oct 2 0813
GT232GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test
1300? Kwajalein
Oct 7 1500 DUST Black Brant 9
White Sands Physics 338 White Sands
Oct 17?
RV Yars Plesetsk Op.Test
1000? Kura
Oct 17? RV x 4? Sineva K-18,
Barents Sea Op.Test 1000? Kura
Oct 17? RV x 3?
Volna K-44, Sea of Okhotsk Op.Test 1000? Chiza
Oct 25
0000 SubTec-8 Terrier Imp.Mal. Wallops I. Tech
209 Atlantic
Oct 27 0430 FORTIS 4 Black Brant 9 White
Sands UV Astron 261 White Sands
Oct 30 1457 RV x
6? Bulava K-549, White Sea Test 1000?
Kura
Oct 31 0735 RV DPRK MLRS Puckhong?
Test 90 Sea of Japan
Oct 31 0738 RV DPRK
MLRS Puckhong? Test 90 Sea of Japan
Nov
15 0935 TEXUS 56 VSB-30 Kiruna
Micrograv 256 ESRANGE
Nov 16 1402 RV Agni
2 Kalam Island Test 600? Indian
O.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|
Jonathan McDowell | |
|
Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
|
USA | twitter: @planet4589
|
|
|
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html
|
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back
|
| Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr
|
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
_______________________________________________
JSR mailing
list
JSR@www.planet4589.org
http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr
To
unsubscribe, email jsr-leave@www.planet4589.org
