[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 690
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.org
Fri Dec 6 23:06:40 EST 2013
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 690 2013 Dec 6, Somerville, MA, USA
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Editorial
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The Cubesat Era has truly begun with the launch of 90 payloads
in the past month, most of them picosatellites with masses under 10 kg.
Let's hope my data entry skills can keep up!
International Space Station
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Expedition 38 continues with commander Oleg Kotov, and flight engineers
FE-2 Sergey Ryazanskiy, FE-3 Michael Hopkins, FE-4 Mikhail Tyurin, FE-5
Rick Mastracchio and FE-6 Koichi Wakata. Ferry ship Soyuz TMA-10M is at
Poisk and TMA-11M is at Rassvet. Cargo ship Progress M-20M is at the
Pirs module.
The last of the cubesats delivered by HTV-4, TechEdSat-3p, was
deployed from the Kibo module at 0758 UTC on Nov 20.
A new cargo ship, Progress M-21M, was launched on Nov 25. It made a 1.5 km
flyby of ISS at 2150 UTC on Nov 27 to test the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system,
and then a re-rendezvous on Nov 29. A glitch forced a switch to manual TORU
control for the last 60m to docking with the Zvezda module at 2230 UTC.
ORS-3
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Several of the ORS-3 cubesat operators have reported successful contact
with their satellites, suggesting that the deployments occurred as scheduled.
However, there is no orbital data for most of them yet.
Yaogan 19
---------
China launched a Yaogan satellite on Nov 20; it is thought to be an
imaging satellite similar to Yaogan 8. According to nasaspaceflight.com
the launch time was 0331 UTC. Orbit is 1201 x 1207 km x 100.5 deg; the
CZ-4C depletion burn left the final stage in a 991 x 1201 km orbit.
Shiyan 5
---------
A Chinese launch on Nov 25 put the Shiyan wu hao weixing (Experiment
Satellite No 5) into a 739 x 754 km x 97.8 deg orbit. The CZ-2D final
stage may have been deorbited on the first revolution.
Dnepr launch
-------------
A Dnepr rocket launched from an ICBM silo at Yasniy in Russia placed a
cluster of 24 satellites in orbit on Nov 21. Although this is fewer than
the ORS-3 launch the day before, the Unisat-5 satellite carries a
further eight tiny satellites within it, and one of those (PUCP-Sat)
carries a further nested satellite, Pocket-PUCP. Most of the
subsatellites were ejected from Unisat-5 between 0810 and 0825 UTC on
Nov 21. If all are dispensed successfully, the launch total will be a
record 33 satellites.
The primary payloads were
Dubaisat-2, a 300 kg imaging satellite
for the United Arab Emirates build by Satreci of South Korea.
SkySat-1, a 90 kg imaging satellite, the first for the US company Skybox.
STSat-3, a 170 kg payload for KAIST of South Korea, carrying the MIRIS
infrared astronomy experiment (an 8cm telescope operating at 0.9-2 microns
with a 4 degree field of view for spectroscopy of diffuse extended emission)
as well as earth imaging and technology payloads.
Aprizesat 7 and 8, 14 kg communications satellites for SpaceQuest.
Smaller payloads were
WNISAT-1, a 10 kg, 30cm cube for Weather News Inc. and Axelspace, to monitor
northern sea routes and atmospheric CO2.
Unisat-5, a 19 kg technology satellite for the University of Rome containing
deployers for Cubesats and PocketQubes (see below).
Lem, a 6 kg satellite using Toronto's GNB bus carrying the BRITE-PL astronomical photometry payload
for the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Cubesats deployed from the Dnepr final stage were
Dove-3, a 3U imaging satellite from PlanetLabs, San Francisco;
GOMX-1, a 6kg 2U cubesat test an ADS-B air traffic
control receiver, for GOMSpace, Aalborg, Denmark.
OPTOS, a 3U satellite from INTA of Spain;
Delfi-n3Xt, a 3U cubesat from Delft U. of Tech.;
Triton-1, a 3U test of an AIS receiver from ISIS b.v., Netherlands;
KHUSAT-1 and 2 3U cubesats from Kyung Hee U., Seoul, to join the CINEMA constellation;
Cubebug-2 'Manolito' (2U) from Argentina,
NEE-2 'Krysaor' from Ecuadorian Space Agency,
and ZACUBE-1 'Tshepiso' from South Africa's Cape Peninsula U. of Tech (CPUT);
VELOX-P2 from Singapore's Nanyang Tech U., UWE-3 from U. Wurzburg,
and First-MOVE from Tech. U. Munich;
FUNCUBE-1 for AMSAT-UK, and Hincube-1 from Narvik University College.
Cubesats to be deployed from Unisat-5 were
ICUBE-1 for Inst. of Space Technology, Islamabad.
PUCPSat-1 for Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima.
HUMSAT-D for University of Vigo, Spain.
Dove-4 (3U), Earth imaging satellite for PlanetLabs.
One of these may not yet have been deployed.
The flight saw the launch of the first PocketQubes, ejected
from Unisat-5.
The 1P size are 0.15 kg 5 x 5 x 5cm cubes; $50Sat, WREN and Pocket-PUCP.
$50Sat (Eagle-2, 50DollarSat) from Morehead State Univ.
WREN from StaDoKo (spinoff company of the Univ. Aachen).
Pocket-PUCP was further nested inside PUCPSat-1 and it is not clear if
it has been ejected yet.
2.5P PocketQubes deployed were
BeakerSat (Eagle-1) from Morehead State Univ.
QubeScout-S1 from U.Maryland/Baltimore County
NROL-39/GEMSAT
---------------
The NRO L-39 mission was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 6. The mission
appears to have carried the third TOPAZ radar satellite, which entered a
1075 x 1089 km, 123 degree retrograde orbit around 0732 UTC. The
satellite is being tracked by hobbyist observers. The Centaur AV-042
upper stage then made two orbit lowering burns to a 467 x 883 km x 120.5
deg orbit. Attached to AV-042 was GEMSAT, the second NPSCuL cubesat
launcher, which ejected 12 cubesats between around 1022 and 1038 UTC.
- FIREBIRD A and B, two 1.5U cubesats from the Montana Space Grant Consortium
to study electron microbursts in the magnetosphere.
- CUNYSAT, a 1U from the City University of New York's
Medgar Evers College, with a GPS ionospheric receiver.
- MCUBED-2, 1 1U from the University of Michigan with technology experiments.
including a low resolution imager.
- IPEX-CP8, a 1U built by Cal Poly to test systems and algorithms for JPL.
- ALICE, a 1U from the Air Force Institute of Technology carrying
technology experiments.
- SMDC-ONE C and D (Charlie and David), 3U communications satellites for the
US Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
- Aerocube 5a and 5b, 1.5U technology cubesats for the Aerospace Corporation.
- SNAP, a 3U cubesat for the SMDC Nanosatellite Program, with an unknown mission.
- Tacsat-6, a 3U cubesat for SMDC with an unknown mission, probably tactical
communications or imaging.
Chang'e-3
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China's most ambitious lunar mission began on Dec 1 with the launch
of the Chang'e-3 spacecraft from Xichang into a 210 x 389109 km x 28.5 deg
lunar transfer orbit. On Dec 6 at 0950 the spacecraft entered a 100 km
polar orbit around the Moon.
The heavy (3800 kg wet, 1200 kg at landing) spacecraft has a descent
engine and landing legs, and has a variety of lunar surface science
experiments. It also carries Yutu, a small 140 kg rover.
Landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for Dec 14 at 1535 UTC.
Mars Orbiter
------------
India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft made a perigee burn at 1919 UTC Nov 30
to accelerate to a hyperbolic Earth escape trajectory, and entered
an 0.98 x 1.45 AU solar orbit on Dec 3 on the way to Mars.
Cassini
-------
Cassini flew 1400 km from Titan on Dec 1 at 0041 UTC. The T-96 flyby
occurred at perigee 199 and led to a 1.12 x 2.64 million km x 51.3 deg
orbit around Saturn. The Titan encounter lowered the apoapsis; the
previous orbit was 1.15 x 3.80 million km x 49.7 deg.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
Nov 5 0908 Mars Orbiter Spacecraft PSLV-XL Sriharikota Mars probe 60A
Nov 7 0414 Soyuz TMA-11M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 61A
Nov 11 2346 Raduga-1M Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 62A
Nov 18 1828 MAVEN Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe 63A
Nov 19 1218 PicoDragon ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-067DA
Ardusat-1 ) Tech 98-067DB
Ardusat-X ) Tech 98-067DC
Nov 20 0115 STPSAT-3 ) Minotaur I Wallops I LA0B Tech 64A?
ORS-3 ) Tech 64
TJ3Sat ) Tech 64
DragonSat ) Tech 64
COPPER ) Tech 64
ChargerSat 1 ) Tech 64
SwampSat ) Tech 64
Ho'oponopono 2 ) Radar cal 64
KySat-2 ) Tech 64
CAPE 2 ) Tech 64
Trailblazer ) Tech 64
Vermont Lunar Cubesat ) Tech 64
PhoneSat-2.4 ) Tech 64
NPS-SCAT ) Tech 64
Black Knight 1 ) Tech 64
Firefly ) Science 64
Horus/STARE-B ) Space Surv. 64
SENSE-A ) Ionospheric 64
SENSE-B ) Ionospheric 64
ORSES ) Comms 64
ORS Tech 1 ) Tech 64
ORS Tech 2 ) Tech 64
Prometheus 1A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 1B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 2A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 2B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 3A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 3B? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 4A? ) Comms 64
Prometheus 4B? ) Comms 64
Nov 20 0331 Yaogan 19 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 65A
Nov 20 0758 TechEdSat-3p ISS, LEO Tech 98-067DD
Nov 21 0710 Dubaisat-2 ) Imaging 66D
SkySat-1 ) Dnepr Yasniy Imaging 66C
STSat-3 ) Astronomy 66G
AprizeSat-7 ) Comms 66A
AprizeSat-8 ) Comms 66K
WNISAT-1 ) Weather 66H
Lem ) Astronomy 66R
GOMX-1 ) Comms 66Q
Dove-3 ) Imaging 66P
Delfi-3nXt ) Tech 66N
Triton 1 ) Comms/AIS 66M
KHUSAT-1 ) Science 66J
KHUSAT-2 ) Science 66L
OPTOS ) Tech 66E
Manolito ) Tech 66AB
Krysaor ) Tech 66AA
UWE-3 ) Tech 66
VELOX-P2 ) Tech 66
First-MOVE ) Tech 66
FUNcube-1 ) Tech 66
HINCube-1 ) Tech 66
Tshepiso ) Tech 66
BPA-3 ) Tech 66AJ
Unisat-5 ) Tech 66F
Dove-4 ) Imaging 66
ICUBE-1 ) Tech 66
PUCPSat-1 ) Tech 66
Pocket-PUCP ) Tech 66
HUMSAT-D ) Tech 66
QBScout-1 ) Tech 66
BeakerSat-1 ) Tech 66
$50SAT ) Tech 66
WREN ) Tech 66
Nov 22 1202 SWARM-1 ) Rokot Plesetsk Science 67A
SWARM-2 ) Science 67B
SWARM-3 ) Science 67C
Nov 25 0212 Shiyan 5 Weixing Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Tech/Sci? 68A
Nov 25 2053 Progress M-21M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Cargo 69A
Dec 1 1730 Chang'e-3 ) Chang Zheng 3BE Xichang Moon probe 70A
Yutu ) Rover
Dec 3 2241 SES-8 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 71A
Dec 6 0714 TOPAZ 3? ) Atlas V 501 Vandenberg SLC3E Radar 72A
Aerocube 5a ) Tech 72
Aerocube 5b ) Tech 72
SMDC-ONE C ) Comms 72
SMDC-ONE D ) Comms 72
Tacsat 6 ) Tech? 72
ALICE ) Tech 72
SNAP ) Tech? 72
FIREBIRD A ) Sci 72
FIREBIRD B ) Sci 72
MCubed-2 ) Tech/Imaging 72
IPEX ) Tech 72
CUNYSAT 1 ) Sci 72
Suborbital launches
-------------------
Congrats to Stefan McCandliss on the second flight of his ultraviolet FORTIS telescope,
launched on Nov 20 (flight 36.296UG) to get spectra of comet ISON. Boston University's
John Clarke launched his VeSpR payload on Nov 27 to study the Venus exosphere with
an ultraviolet telescope.
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Nov 3 0925 NASA 36.294UH Black Brant IX White Sands X-ray Astron 280?
Nov 12 1615? SL-8 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 116
Nov 20 1140 NASA 36.296UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 277
Nov 27 0350 NASA 36.261UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 280?
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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