Jonathan's Space Report No. 670 2012 Nov 18 Somerville, MA USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station ---------------------------- Expedition 33 continues with commander Suni Williams, FE-4 Yuriy Malenchenko and FE-6 Aki Hoshide joined on Oct 25 by Oleg Novitskiy, Yevgeniy Tarelkin and Kevin Ford. Soyuz TMA-06M (factory no. 707, ISS flight 32S), launched on Oct 23, docked with the Poisk module at 1229 UTC on Oct 25. Dragon CRS-1 returned to Earth on Oct 28. The SSRMS unberthed it from the Harmony module at 1119 UTC and released it at 1329 UTC. At 1422 UTC Dragon made a burn to lower its orbit and at 1828 UTC made a larger, 10 minute 40 second long deorbit burn. SpaceX have not reported the size (delta-V) or orbital parameters of either of these burns. The Dragon trunk was jettisoned at 1841 UTC and the capsule reached entry interface at 1902 UTC, with splashdown in the Pacific at around 123W 28N at 1922 UTC. The Progress M-17M cargo ship was launched on Oct 31 and docked with the Zvezda module after a 5 hour 52 min flight. On Nov 1 astronauts Williams and Hoshide began spacewalk US EVA-20 with depressurization at 1223 UTC and hatch open at 1228 UTC. They rerouted the ammonia cooling system on the P6 truss to allow controllers to investigate a leak in the system. One of the P6 radiators that was stowed before P6 relocation back in 2007 was redeployed to replace the isolated radiator. The airlock hatch was closed at 1903 UTC and the airlock was repressurized at 1907 UTC. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to land in Soyuz TMA-05M on Nov 19, marking the transition from Expedition 33 to Expedition 34. Beidou ------- A new Beidou navigation satellite, Beidou Daohang Weixing 16, was launched on Oct 25 into geostationary transfer orbit. US tracking data showed it in transfer orbit on Oct 26 and in GEO at 80.4E on Nov 1 and later. The transfer orbit had an unusually low perigee of around 150-160 km. Luch/Yamal ---------- Russia's Proton orbited a pair of communications satellites on Nov 2, both built by ISS Reshetnev. Luch-5B uses an Ekspress-1000A bus and is the second of a pair of data relay satellites and will provide communications support to the Station. Yamal-300K is an Ekspress-1000HTA with C and Ku band payload for Gazprom Space Systems, part of the massive Russian Gazprom energy company. The Briz-M upper stage reached a 388 x 35735 km x 48.7 deg transfer orbit and ejected the DTB drop tank, which is being tracked. Khrunichev reported that the stage then made a circularization burn and relesed the satellites in near-synchronous orbit. On Nov 17, over two weeks later, the US appears only to be tracking the drop tank and not the payloads. Ariane VA210 ------------ Ariane flight VA210 placed two communications satellites in orbit. The vehicle 566 core stage reached a -956 x 179 km x 7.0 deg path; the ESC-A upper stage raised velocity and lowered inclination to reach a 250 x 35750 km x 2.0 deg transfer orbit, deploying the EUTELSAT 21B satellite, a Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000C3 for Eutelsat SA of Paris and Star One C3, an Orbital Geostar-2.4E for Star One of Rio de Janeiro. The Star One satellites continue the old Brasilsat system, with Brasilsat B1-B4 renamed Star One B1-B4; AMC 12 is Star One C12; Star One C1 and C2 are Spacebus 3000 class satellites launched in 2007 and 2008. Meridian -------- The 6th Meridian military communications satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry was successfully placed in a 974 x 39740 km x 62.8 deg elliptical orbit on Nov 14. The previous Meridian flight failed to reach orbit. Orbital Launch Stats 2012 to Date --------------------------------- Total 65 attempts: Russia 21, China 15, US 14, France/ESA 8, India 2, Japan 2, Iran 1 + 1 fail, North Korea 1 fail Errata from JSR 669: of course, the Antares first stage has a Russian engine but is Ukrainian-built. Also, I mistyped astronaut Tarelkin's name (in my defense, it was wrong in the daily ISS On-Orbit Status). Suborbital launches -------------------- On Oct 24 (or possibly early Oct 25) the Missile Defense Agency's FTI-01 experiment involved coordinated launches of 5 exoatmospheric rockets in the Pacific. An Extended Long Range Air Launch Target was dropped from a C-17 aircraft north of Wake Island and launched towards the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein. The E-LRALT consists of two SR-19 motors, an Orbus 1A motor and a reentry vehicle. Next, a two-stage Terrier Oriole rocket in its ARAV-B target configuration was launched from Wake to Kwajalein; the USS Fitzgerald launched an SM-3 Block 1A missile which failed to intercept the ARAV-B. A THAAD interceptor launched from Kwajalein Atoll's Meck Island successfully intercepted the E-LRALT. A short range target missile, possibly a Scud, was launched from the Mobile Launch Platform ship; it was intercepted by a Patriot PAC-3 missile launched from Omelek, another of the Kwajalein islands. The PAC-3 interception was probably at low altitude so is not included in my list of space launches, and nor is some associated low altitude activity with cruise missiles and PAC-2. On Oct 19 Russia launched an R-29R missile from the K-433 submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk to the Chiza test range. The Nov 16 launch of REXUS 11 from ESRANGE reached 79 km, a few hundred meters below the line I use for the boundary of space, and so is not included in the list below. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Oct 4 1210 GPS SVN65 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Navsat 53A Oct 4 1437 RAIKO ) ISS Kibo, LEO Tech 98-067CN We Wish ) Tech 98-067CS Oct 4 1544 F-1 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Tech 98-067CR Niwaka ) Tech 98-067CP TechEdSat) Tech 98-067CQ Oct 8 0035 Dragon CRS-1 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 54A Orbcomm OG2-1) Comms 54B Oct 12 1815 Galileo IOV-3 ) Soyuz ST-B Kourou ELS Navsat 55A Galileo IOV-4 ) Navsat 55B Oct 14 0325 Shi Jian 9 A ) Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Tech 56A Shi Jian 9 B ) Tech 56B Oct 14 0837 Intelsat IS-23 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 57A Oct 23 1051 Soyuz TMA-06M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 58A Oct 25 1533 Beidou DW16 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Navsat 59A Oct 31 0741 Progress M-17M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 60A Nov 2 2104 Yamal-300K ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 61B? Luch-5B ) Comms 61C? Nov 10 2105 Star One C3 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 62A? Eutelsat 21B ) Comms 62B? Nov 14 1142 Meridian No. 16 Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Comms 63A Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Oct 4 0337 RV Prithvi 2 Chandipur Op.Test 100? Oct 5 0555 RV Dhanush Ship, Chandipur Op.Test 100? Oct 19? RV x 4? Volna K-433 sub, S. Okhotsk Op.Test 1000? Oct 19 0912 RV Topol Plesetsk Op.Test 1000? Oct 24 Sim RV E-LRALT C-17, near Wake I Target 300? Oct 24 ARAV-B Terrier Oriole Wake I Target 150? Oct 24 Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-62,near Kwajalein Interceptor 150? Oct 24 THAAD KV THAAD Meck Island Interceptor 100? Oct 24 Scud RV? Scud? MLP, NE of Kwajalein Target 150? Oct 24 1828 Advanced RV Topol'-M2? Kapustin Yar R&D 500? Nov 2 1755 NASA 36.255US Black Brant IX White Sands Solar X 310? Nov 14 1142 Mk 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'