Jonathan's Space Report No. 623 2010 Feb 13 Somerville, MA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial ---------- In an attempt to enter the 2010s, JSR updates are now available on Facebook - look for "Jonathan's Space Report" - and Twitter - follow "planet4589". Shuttle and Station -------------------- Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 0914 UTC on Feb 8. This is Shuttle mission STS-130, Station flight 20A. >From the top of Prospect Hill in Somerville, Massachusetts we got a great view of Endeavour rising above the horizon, vanishing at main engine cutoff as it arced over the Boston city skyline, and then intermittently reappearing again at least four times, for about 1 second out of every 5-10 or so. It's been suggested that this is the RCS jets firing but I've seen this on five launches now (never managed to time it properly though, and this was the last chance!) and it seems too periodic and inconsistent with the two known RCS burns (separation and the Photo DTO) - maybe it's the ET venting or tumbling? The separation RCS burn does show up on a five-second-exposure photo my colleague Nick Wright took, and seems fainter. At 0922 Endeavour entered a 58 x 229 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Then at 0951 the OMS engines ignited for a 1min33s, 43.3m/s burn to raise perigee out of the atmosphere. By 2010 UTC, after a further burn, Endeavour was in a 206 x 233 km x 51.7 deg orbit. It docked with the Station in a 301 x 348 km orbit at 0506 UTC on Feb 10. After a somewhat longer than normal waiting period for oscillations to damp down, the docking ring was retracted for a firm seal at 0555 UTC. The Expedition 22 crew currently consists of Jeff Williams, Maksim Suraev, Oleg Kotov, T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi. The visiting crew of Zamka, Virts, Patrick, Behnken, Robinson and Hire remain based aboard the Shuttle Orbiter. There is a full house at ISS now, as Soyuz TMA-16 is docked at Poisk; Soyuz TMA-17 is docked with the nadir port on Zarya, Progress M-03M is at the Pirs port, Progress M-04M is at the Zvezda aft port, Endeavour is at the PMA-2 port, while the reserve PMA-3 port is, as always, empty. STS-130 is the first human spaceflight launch of 2010. Last year there were nine such launches (four Soyuz, five Shuttle), the most since 1997. (1985 remains the recordholder with 11 launches.) On Feb 12 Behnken and Patrick began a spacewalk to support installation of the Tranquility module. The airlock hatch was opened at 0216 UTC; Node 3 was unberthed from the Shuttle at 0405 UTC and attached to the Unity module between 0556 and 0620 UTC. Behnken used spacesuit 3018, replacing the planned suit 3004 which had a power harness problem. Patrick used suit 3005; it developed a fan problem during the spacewalk so suit 3004 will be repaired and used by him during the forthcoming second and third spacewalks. On board the station, in addition to the Russian Orlan-MK suits nos. 4, 5 and 6, there are US SEMU suits 3009 (launched on STS-128), 3010 and 3018 (both launched on STS-129), 3004 and 3005 (both launched on the current mission.) Suits 3004 and 3018 are currently scheduled to be brought down on Endeavour. Solar Dynamics Observatory -------------------------- SDO was launched on Feb 11 aboard Atlas mission AV-021. The SDO payload was described in JSR 622. AV-021 entered a 175 x 3706 km x 28.7 deg parking orbit and then a 2480 x 35369 km x 28.6 deg transfer orbit. SDO separated from the Centaur and will now use its onboard R4D thruster to raise the orbital period from 11 hours to 24 hours. AV-021 vented its remaining propellant, leaving it in a slightly lower 2397 x 33517 km x 28.4 deg orbit. Intelsat IS-16 --------------- IS-16 is an Orbital Sciences Star-2.4 Ku-band satellite which will backup SKY's Latin America services. It was launched by a Khrunichev Proton-M on Feb 12. After intermediate orbits of -432 x 196 km x 51.5 deg, 189 x 194 km x 51.5 deg, 314 x 4989 km x 48.6 deg, and 509 x 37663 km x 46.1 deg, the Briz upper stage deployed the Intelsat in a 37515 x 38009 km x 0.1 deg supersynchronous orbit. Missile tests ------------- The DRDO (India's defense missile agency) launched the fourth Agni III missile from the IC4 pad on Inner Wheeler Island in Orissa on Feb 7. It flew south or southwest over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, splashing down in the southern hemisphere after a 3500 km range flight to orbital parameters of around -4070 x 350 km x (80 to 131) deg - the exact direction of the flight is not known. On Feb 12 the Missile Defense Agency tested the Airborne Laser against a Scud launched from a floating platform in the Pacific and a Black Brant IX launched from San Nicolas I. on the S Californian coast. Apogees of the targets were probably in the 100-200 km range. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Feb 3 0345 Progress M-04M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 03A Feb 8 0914 Endeavour (STS-130) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 04A Feb 11 1523 SDO Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Astronomy 05A Feb 12 0039 Intelsat IS-16 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 06A Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Feb 3 Kavoshgar-3 Kavoshgar Iran Bio 100? Feb 7 0520 Agni III RV Agni III Chandipur R&D flight 350 Feb 9 0901 NASA 41.084UE Terrier Orion Poker Flat Atmosphere 160? Feb 12 0444 ABL Target Scud MLP, Pacific O. Target 100? Feb 12 0530? MARTI Target Black Brant IX San Nicolas I Target 100? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'