Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Jonathan's Space Report No. 764

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 764                                                        2019 Apr 30 Somerville, MA
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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 McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
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|                                                                         |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
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