[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 638

[Jonathan McDowell]

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 638 (revised)                   2011 Feb 25 Sagamihara, Japan / Somerville, MA
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Note: resending with minor corrections following a problem with the mailer configuration.

Shuttle and Station
-------------------

Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on Feb 24 on mission STS-133.
Discovery's  main cargo is Leonardo, the Permanent Multipurpose Module
(PMM), a cargo storage unit to be added to the station. The ELC-4
logistics carrier is also aboard.

Expedition 26 is now underway with crew commander Scott Kelly,  flight
engineer-2 Aleksandr Kaleri, flight engineer-3 Oleg Skripochka, flight
engineer-4 Dmitri Kondratev, flight engineer-5 Paolo Nespoli and flight
engineer-6 Cady Coleman aboard the Station. Soyuz TMA-01M is docked at
Poisk, and Soyuz TMA-20 at Rassvet.

Kounotori 2 arrived at the Station on Jan 27. It was grappled by the
SSRMS arm and berthed on the nadir port of the Harmony module at 1451 UTC. 
Progress M-09M was launched from Baykonur on Jan 28. According
to nasaspaceflight.com, the cargo ship carries Energia's 30 kg Kedr amateur
radio minisatellite. It docked with Pirs on Jan 30 at 0239 UTC.

Skripochka and Kondratev made another spacewalk, Russian EVA 28, on
Feb 16. Pirs airlock hatch open/close was 1330 UTC to 1821 UTC, with one small
piece of debris floating away at 1330 UTC and the Ferrozond foot restraint
jettisoned at 1654 UTC. The Molniya-Gamma and SVCh-Radiometria experiments
were installed on the Russian segment of the station, and two experimental
insulation panels were retrieved. The astronauts used spacesuits Orlan MK-4
and MK-5 respectively.

On Feb 16 the European Space Agency's second Automated Transfer Vehicle,
ATV 2 "Johannes Kepler" was launched by Ariane 5ES vehicle 544 from
Kourou. The core stage flew to a -1274 x 139 km x 51 deg orbit; first
EPS burn reached a 142 x 256 km orbit at 2208 UTC, followed by
circulazation at 268 x 271 km at 2250 UTC and ATV separation at 2254
UTC. The EPS third burn at 0015 UTC on Feb 17 was used to deorbit the
stage. The separated ATV has a mass of 19712 kg. ATV 2 docked with the
Station's Zvezda module on Feb 25. The Progress M-07M cargo ship had
undocked from Zvezda on Feb 20 at 1312 UTC and was deorbited over the
Pacific at 1612 UTC.


Geo-IK-2
--------

Russia's Geo-IK-2 No. 11 satellite, built by ISS Reshetnev, was stranded
in transfer orbit when the Rokot launch vehicle's Briz-KM upper stage
failed to restart for its second burn on Feb 1. The payload and rocket
are being tracked in 355 x 933 km  and 319 x 1053 km x 99.5 deg orbits.
The model 14F31 satellite is based on the Glonass-M bus and so probably has a mass
around 1400 kg.

RPP
---

The National Reconnaissance Office's Rapid Pathfinder Program technology
satellite was launched on Feb 6. No details are available; it presumably
ended up in a polar orbit between 500 and 1500 km.

Suborbital launches
-------------------

The Far-ultraviolet Imaging Rocket Experiment (FIRE) was launched from
the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska on Jan 28. The telescope,
developed by Jim Green's group at U Colorado/Boulder, imaged the nearby
galaxy M51 in the 900-1100A far ultraviolet band.

The Polar NOx payload was also launched from Poker Flat in early Feb,
but failed to return science data.


Table of Recent (orbital) Launches 
 ----------------------------------
Date UT       Name            Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    INTL.  
                                                                          DES.
Jan 18 0300   Nanosail-D2                          Fastsat, LEO     Tech       62L
Jan 20 1229   Elektro-L         Zenit-3SLBF        Baykonur LC45    Weather    01A
Jan 20 2110   USA 224           Delta 4H           Vandenberg SLC6  Imaging    02A
Jan 22 0537   Kounotori 2       H-IIB              Tanegashima Y2   Cargo      03A
Jan 28 0131   Progress M-09M    Soyuz-U            Baykonur         Cargo      04A
Feb  1 1400   Geo-IK-2 No. 11   Rokot              Plesetsk LC133/3 Geodetic   05A
Feb  6 1226   RPP (USA 225)     Minotaur I         Vandenberg SLC8  Tech       06A
Feb 16 2151   Johannes Kepler   Ariane 5ES         Kourou ELA3      Cargo      07A
Feb 24 2153   Discovery )       Space Shuttle      Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship  08A
              PMM       )                                        Station mod.  08

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

Date UT     Payload/Flt Name  Launch Vehicle  Site            Mission    Apogee/km

Jan 22 0610   Aegis Target     Terrier Oriole     Wallops I.          Target       100?
Jan 28 1049   NASA 36.257UG    Black Brant IX     Poker Flat          UV Astron    240?
Feb  5 0811   NASA 36.256UE    Black Brant IX     Poker Flat          Atmosphere   260?


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|  Jonathan McDowell                 |  phone : (617) 495-7176            |
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