Jonathan's Space Report
No.
773 2019 Dec 27
Somerville,
MA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International
Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 61
continues.
Progress MS-13 docked with the Pirs module at 1038 UTC Dec
9.
On Dec 12 Dextre was used to remove the HISUI payload from
Dragon
CRS-19's trunk and hand it to the JEM-RMS arm, which installed it
on
Kibo Exposed Facility EFU 8. On Dec 13 Dextre removed the new
Li-ion
battery from the trunk and stored it on the Dextre EOTP. On Aug 16,
the
flight support equipment (FSE) adapter from the BCDU removed
earlier
this year from ESP3 was moved from ESP3 to the EOTP, and the new
battery
replaced it there at ESP3 Site
6.
Starliner
---------
On Dec 20 ULA launched flight AV-080,
the first Atlas V N22, from Cape
Canaveral, The N22 has two solid boosters, a
dual engine Centaur with
two RL10-A4-1 engines (the first DEC to fly since
2004) and carries the
Boeing CST-100 Starliner spaceship, flying on its
Orbital Flight Test
(OFT) without a crew. The mission was to test launch and
landing and
to rendezvous and dock with ISS, delivering 272 kg of cargo
and
carrying an instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy (ATD) dubbed
'Rosie',
AV-080's Centaur reached its targeted 73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg
orbit.
Boeing Space's Starliner, vehicle SC3, separated at 1150 UTC.
Starliner
set its master event timer reading data from the launch vehicle,
but
apparently because of a software (interface) mistake the value was
read
into the Boeing vehicle from an incorrect location in the ULA
vehicle's
memory, resulting in an 11 hour offset. Starliner was meant to fire
its
Aerojet Rocketdyne OMAC thrusters at 1207 UTC to raise its orbit,
but
due to the software timing error this did not occur. After
comms
problems possibly related to a TDRS handover, a contingency RCS burn
was
finally commanded by the ground, possibly at around 1216 UTC,
which
raised perigee by an unknown (to me) amount. Further RCS burns
at
unknown times over the next half hour or so raised perigee further
and
placed Starliner in a 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
During the
period before the burn, the timer error meant that Starliner
was in an
incorrect software state and used up too much propellant
controlling its
attitude. This precluded the planned rendezvous with
ISS. Later on Dec 20
Starliner raised its orbit to around 250 km and
tested extension and
retraction of its docking apparatus as well as
other systems tests. SC3 then
returned on Dec 22, landing at about
106.420W 32.952N near the runway at
White Sands Space Harbor, New
Mexico.
The flight did demonstrate the
basic design of the vehicle including its
life support system and its ability
to safely return to Earth; I do not
expect the omitted rendezvous or the
software issues to create major
delays to the programme or to require a
further uncrewed test flight.
Starliner consists of the following
components, with very approximate guesstimated masses:
Height Dia Mass
Crew Module 2.2m 4.5m 8.3t? - about
6.4t dry without crew/cargo
Service Module 2.5m 4.5m 3.3t? (dry) -
Jettisoned during end of mission, after deorbit burn
SM propellant
- - 2.3t?
-----------------------------------
Total at Cen
sep 13.9t?
Ascent cover 0.3m 1.7m 0.1t? -
Jettisoned suborbital, before Centaur ignition
Aeroskirt 1.8m
4.5m 1.0t? - Jettisoned suborbital, 20s after Centaur ignition
-----------------------------------
Total at launch
15.0t?
The SM has 20 6kN OMAC thrusters for orbit adjust (plus 4 x 180 kN
abort engines and 28 RCS thrusters).
The CM includes a 750 kg base heat
shield, a 150 kg forward heat shield, and two 34 kg drogue chutes,
as well as
about 90 kg of hydrazine, all of which are jettisoned in the atmosphere prior to
landing.
Landing mass is about 7200 kg including crew and cargo. Starliner
is built in Boeing's facility
at the C3PF (former OPF3) at Kennedy Space
Center; spacecraft development is carried out there
(and possibly at the new
Boeing Space headquarters in Titusville) and mission control is at a
Boeing
control room in the mission control building at
NASA-JSC/Houston.
Here is the approximate timeline of the mission as far
as I can estimate it for now:
(times UTC, as always) - I expect a number of
these details to change as better info becomes
available.
Dec 20
1136:43 Launch by Atlas V/N22 from SLC41
1141:12 Atlas
cutoff
1141:18 Atlas separation
1141:24 Starliner ascent
cover jettisoned
1141:28 Centaur AV-080 main engine burn 1
1141:48 Starliner aeroskirt jettisoned
1148:37 AV-080 shutdown, reach
73 x 181 km x 51.6 deg orbit
1151:37 Starliner separates from
AV-080
1202 AV-080 propellant `blowdown'
1207:38 Planned
Starliner OMAC orbit insertion burn does not occur
Excessive
attitude control thruster use
1215? Commanded RCS burn performs
initial orbit insertion
Initial orbit UNKNOWN; burn start time
UNKNOWN
1234 AV-080 Centaur reentered and hits ocean SW of
Australia
1300? Further RCS burn(s); reach 180 x 221 km x 51.6 deg
orbt.
Burn start time UNKNOWN.
2200? OMAC burn 1, 20 m/s?, to approx 214 x 242 km x 51.6 deg orbit
2235? OMAC burn 2, 20 m/s?, to 241 x 265 km x 51.6 deg
orbit.
[Times of these burns are highly uncertain]
Dec 22
1223:47 Starliner OMAC deorbit, 150 m/s , 55 s burn; E of New Zealand
1224:42 Deorbit burn cutoff, orbit about -230 x 246 x 51.6
1225:59
Service Module jettison
1241:42 Entry interface, 120 km, 7.5 km/s over
equatorial Pacific
1242? Service Module destructive reentry over
equatorial Pacific
1253? Forward heat shield (FHS)
separation at 3 km alt.
1253:06 Main parachutes deploy
1254:00? Base Heat Shield sep
1254:40? Airbags inflate
1257 Base Heat Shield impact
1257:55 CM landing at White Sands
Space Harbor 106.420W 32.952N
1302:48 Forward heat shield
touchdown
Starliner SC1 was used for the pad abort test; SC2 will
fly the CFT crewed flight next year;
then SC3 will fly again on the PCM-1
mission to ISS. For that flight SC3 will have the name `Calypso',
chosen by
mission commander Suni Williams. SC2 has not yet been named; and it's not
clear
whether SC3 will retain the same name for later flights or if they'll
get new names under
each new
commander.
Glonass
-------
The Glonass M-59 navigation
satellite, Kosmos-2544, was launched from Plesetsk on Dec
11.
PSLV-C48
---------
India's PSLV-C48 flight launched
RISAT-2BR1, a 628 kg X-band synthetic aperture radar satellite.
Also aboard
were some secondary payloads:
- the 100-kg-class Izanagi (QPS-SAR-1), a
3.6m-dia-antenna radar satellite from QPS Labs of Fukuoka, Japan;
- the 22
kg 12U Cubesat 1HOPSAT from Hera Systems of San Jose;
- the 3U Duchifat 3
from Herzliya Science Center, Israel
- four SpireGlobal Lemur-2
satellites;
- a 3U satellite, Tyvak-0092 (possibly also called COMMTRAIL),
built by Tyvak for an unnamed Italian company
for search-and-rescue
applications;
- a 6U satellite, Tyvak-0129, or Pathfinder Demo Test 1, a
mission built by Tyvak for NASA-Ames to test
a Busek electrospray
thruster.
Beidou
-------
Beidou 52/53 were launched on Dec 16;
they are CAST-built medium orbit Beidou 3 satellites M19 and M20.
The
previous Beidou double launch, Beidou 50/51, were Shanghai-built satellites M21
and M22 in the Beidou-3
system, and not M19/20 as I wrote in JSR 772.
JCSAT
-----
On Dec 17 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape
Canaveral. The first stage landed on the OCISLY droneshop.
The second stage
placed the JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 satellite in a subsynchronous transfer
orbit.
The satellite is jointly owned by Sky Perfect JSAT of Tokyo, which
operates its Ku-band payload,
and Kacific Broadband Satellite of Singapore,
which has a Ka-band payload aboard.
CSG/CHEOPS
----------
On
Dec 18 Arianespace launched a Soyuz ST-A/Fregat from the Centre Spatial Guyanais
to place several
satellites in sun-synchronous orbit.
The Soyuz third
stage reached a -3189 x 608 km x 92.0 deg suborbital trajectory; the Fregat
stage
then fired to reach a 625 x 649 km x 97.8 deg orbit and deployed CSG-1,
its primary payload, at 0917 UTC.
CSG-1, the first COSMO-Skymed Second
Generation satellite, is an X-band
radar satellite for the Italian Space
Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense built by Thales
Alenia/Torino.
Fregat's second burn reached a 443 x 622 km x 98.0 deg
orbit; the ASAP-S upper adapter (on which CSG-1 was
mounted) was jettisoned.
The third burn was to 445 x 829 km, followed by a fourth burn to 696 x 708
km
for the deploy of CHEOPS at 1119 UTC.
CHEOPS is ESA's Characterizing
Exoplanets Satellite. The 273 kg satellite has a 0.3m aperture
telescope and
will measure the radii of known super-Earth and mini-Neptune exoplanets using
transit photometry.
The PI is Willy Benz (U. Bern).
Fregat burn 5 and
6 went to 468 x 703 km and then to 509 x 527 km, following which three
cubesats
were deployed at 1305 UTC:
ANGELS is a 12U cubesat built by
Toulouse company Hemeria for the French space agency CNES.
It carries a new
version of the long-running ARGOS system which relays data from meteorological
buoys.
EyeSat is a 3U cubesat built by student interns at
CNES/Toulouse, and carries the IRIS space telescope
to study zodiacal
light.
OPS-SAT s a 3U cubesat built by TU Graz for ESA, with an advanced
flight computer to act as a testbed
for mission operations
software.
Fregat's final burn put it on a -112 x 522 km trajectory; it
reentered over the south Pacific at 1509
UTC.
CBERS-4A
--------
The final China-Brazil Earth Resources
Satellite, CBERS-4A, was launched by CZ-4B on Dec 20.
Chang Zheng 4B s/n
Y44 was launched from Taiyuan at 0322:29 UTC Dec 20.
At T+11m39s the third
stage finished its burn and entered a 615 x 635 km
sun-synchronous orbit
with an equator crossng at 10:30 local time.
At T+13:18 the primary
payload, the 1980 kg CBERS-4A China-Brazil Earth
resources satellite,
separated and became object 4489, 2019-093A.
The CBERS satellites are part of
the larger Chinese ZiYuan series,
and so this is probably also ZY-1 04A. It
was built by CAST/Beijing.
CBERS-4A was mounted on an adapter covering
the remaining
payloads. The adapter separated into orbit at T+13:53.
It is
probably 2.0m high 2.9m dia.
Next the Tianqin-1 satellite separated, at
T+14:28. Tianqin-1 is a small
(35 kg) technology development satellite for
China's
gravitational-wave-astronomy programme. The satellite was built
by
DFH Satellite Co. for Zhongshan Daxue (Sun Yat-sen University)
and
Huahzhong U. of Science and Technology. It also carries the
CAS-6A
amateur radio payload.
At T+15:05 three further satellites
separated:
Tianyan-02, Yuheng and Shuntian.
Tianyan-02 is also called
Xingshidai-8; it is a 6U cubesat built by
Weina Xingkong Keji (MinoSpace) for
Gouxing Yuhang Keji (ADA Space) of
Chengdu. It is also called "Kehuan shijie
hao AI weixing" (SciFi World
AI satellite) and is dedicated to the science
fiction community. SF
writers including Cixin Liu were invited to the launch.
The satellite
apparently has a low resolution Earth video
imager.
Yuheng and Shuntian were developed by the National
University
of Defense Technology in Changsha in collaboration with
the
Deya Innovation Research Institute of Foshan, in the Guangzhou
region. They
are prototype internet distribution satellites.
It is unclear how big these
sats are but I suspect they are 50-100 kg class.
At T+15:47 the final
four payloads separated:
ETRSS-1, FloripaSat, Weilai-1R and
Tianyan-01.
ETRSS-1 is a 70 kg remote sensing satellite and was built by
DFH
Satellite for the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute
in
Addis Ababa. It is Ethiopia's first satellite.
FloripaSat is a 1U
cubesat from the Universidade Federal de Santa
Catarina, in the Brazilian
city of Florianopolis.
Weilai-1R is also known as BDS-AGR-1 and Guozhi
henghao nianjing
zhongyuan jinshui 1, and is a 65 kg imaging satellite for
GZH-NHK BDS
AGR Co. Ltd (Guozhi heng Beidou hao nianjing Agricultural
Technology
Co.) of Zhengzhou in Henan province.
Tianyan-01 is also
called Yizheng 1. It was built by Weina/Minospace for
the Zhongxing kongjian
yaogan (jiangsu) weixing jishu fuwu YG (China
satellite space remote sensing
(Jiangsu) satellite technology services
co. ltd.), based in Yizheng, Jiangsu
province. The 72 kg satellite
carries a high resolution imager.
At
T+25 min the third stage restarted for a depletion burn which lowered
its
orbit to 447 x 620 km.
Elektro-L
---------
On Dec 24
Russia's Elektro-L No. 3 weather satellite was placed in geosynchronous
orbit
by a Proton-M with the now-rarely-used Energiya Blok DM-03 upper
stage.
Gonets
------
On Dec 26 Russia launched the last
Khrunichev Rokot vehicle, based on the
UR-100N missile with a Briz-KM upper
stage. The rocket put three Gonets-M
communications satellites in a 1500 km
orbit. A passive 17 kg Blits-M
laser reflector ball was also placed in
orbit.
Parker
------
The Parker Solar Probe passed 3008 km from
Venus on Dec 26 at 1815
UTC, its second Venus flyby. Parker was within
Venus' Hill sphere from
Dec 26 0605 to Dec 27 0626 UTC. Once back in solar
orbit its perhelion will be only
0.130 AU, compared to 0.166 AU before the
flyby. Perihelion 4 is on Jan 29.
Table of Recent Orbital
Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name
Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee
Apogee Incl Notes
Dec 5 1729 Dragon CRS-19 Falcon
9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 83A S44821 203 x 378 x 51.7
Dec 6
0800? Kosmos-2543? Kosmos-2542, LEO Inspector
79D S44835 368 x 858 x 97.9
Dec 6 0818 ALE-2 )
Electron Mahia LC1 Tech 84A S44824 397 x 415 x
97.0
NOOR 1A
) Com 84D S44827 348
x 403 x 97.0
NOOR 1B
) Com 84E S44828 348
x 403 x 97.0
SMOG-P
) Sigint 84J S44832 348
x 403 x 97.0
TRSI-Sat
) Tech 84G S44830 348
x 403 x 97.0
FossaSat-1) Tech 84F
S44829 348 x 403 x 97.0
ATL-1
) Sigint/Tech 84H S44831 348
x 403 x 97.0
Dec 6 0934 Progress MS-13 Soyuz-2-1A
Baykonur LC31 Cargo 85A S44833 186 x 219 x 51.6
Dec 7 0255
Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Imaging 86B
S44837 531 x 544 x 97.5
Dec 7 0852 HEDE-2A )
Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Comms 87 S44839 495 x 511 x
97.4
HEDE-2B
) Comms 87 495
x 511 x 97.4
Tianqi-4A
) Comms 87 495
x 511 x 97.4
Tianqi-4B
) Comms 87 495
x 511 x 97.4
Tianyi-16
) Imaging 87 495
x 511 x 97.4
Tianyi-17
) Imaging 87 495
x 511 x 97.4
Dec 11 0854 Kosmos-2544 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat
Plesetsk LC43/3 Nav 88A S44850 19125 x 19150 x 64.8
Dec 11 0955
RISAT-2BR1) PSLV-QL Satish Dhawan Radar 89A
S44852 564 x 574 x 37.0
Izanagi
) Radar 89 568
x 579 x 37.0
1HOPSAT
) Imaging 89 568
x 579 x 37.0
Duchifat-3) Tech
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Tyvak-0092) SaR
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Tyval-0129) Tech
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Lemur-2-Unnamed) AIS/Met
89 568 x 579 x 37.0
Dec 16 0722 Beidou DW 52 )
Chang Zheng 3B/YZ1 Xichang LC3 Nav 90A S44864 21528 x 22192 x
55.0
Beidou DW 53
) Nav 90B S44865 21528 x
22192 x 55.0
Dec 17 0010 JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 Falcon 9
Canaveral SLC40 Comms 91A S44868 272 x 20319 x 26.9
Dec 18 0854 CSG
1 ) Soyuz ST-A/Fregat CSG ELS Radar 92A
S44873 622 x 623 x 97.8
CHEOPS
) Astronomy 92B S44874
698 x 709 x 98.2
ANGELS
) Comms 92D?S44876
508 x 527 x 97.4
EyeSat
) Astronomy 92E?S44877
508 x 527 x 97.4
OPS-SAT
) Tech 92F?S44878
508 x 527 x 97.4
Dec 20 0322 CBERS-4A ) Chang Zheng
4B Taiyuan Imaging 93A S44879 615 x 635 x
98.0
ETRSS-1
) Imaging 93
Tianqin-1 ) Sci/Tech
93
BDSAGR-1
) Imaging 93
Yuheng ) Comms
93
Shuntian
) Comms 93
Yizheng 1 ) Imaging
93
Xingshidai 8
) Imaging 93
Dec 20 1136
Starliner OFT Atlas V N22 Canaveral LC41 Spaceship 94A
S44900 180 x 221 x 51.6
Dec 24 1203 Elektro-L No. 3
Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Weather 95A S44903 35372 x 35571 x
0.6
Dec 26 2312 Gonets-M No. 24 Rokot Plesetsk
LC133/3 Comms 96A S44905 1500 x 1508 x 82.5
Gonets-M No.
25 Comms 96B S44906 1500 x
1508 x 82.5
Gonets-M No.
26 Comms 96C S44907 1500 x
1508 x 82.5
Table of Recent Suborbital
Launches
-----------------------------------
On Dec 12 the US DoD's
Strategic Capabilities Office and Northrop
Grumman launched what was reported
to be a development test for a new
IRBM. The rocket flew from Vandenberg's
Test Pad 1 west to the Pacific,
apparently to a range of about 1200 km (and
not 3000 km which the US
defines as the lower end of IRBM range). Pictures
suggest it was a
single-stage Castor 4B with an MBRV-class reentry vehicle,
probably
surplus from the missile defense targets program. The Castor 4B
solid
motor is thought to no longer be in production; I conclude this was
likely largely a propaganda exercise rather than actually representing
a
new capability.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle
Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Nov 26 0743 ICI
5 Terrer Imp.Malemute Svalbard Ionosphere 253
Arctic
Nov 28 Topol-E RV Topol' Kapustin
Yar Reentry test 1000? Balkhash
Nov 28 0759 RV
DPRK MLRS Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of
Japan
Nov 28 0759 RV DPRK MLRS
Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of Japan
Nov 30 1350 Agni 3
RV Agni 3 Kalam Island Test 500?
Indian O.
Dec 10 0930 CHI Black Brant IX
Svalbard Ionosphere 360 Arctic
Dec 11 1753 New Shepard
NS12 New Shepard West Texas Test 105 West
Texas
Dec 12 1630 IRBM Test Castor 4B? Vandenberg
TP-01 Test 500?
Pacific
-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|
Jonathan McDowell | |
|
Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
|
USA | twitter: @planet4589
|
|
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