Jonathan's Space Report No. 698 2014 Jun 17 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 40 is continuing with ISS in a 411 x 417 km x 51.7 deg orbit. On May 28 Soyuz TMA-13M was launched with Maksim Suraev, Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst; the spaceship docked with the Rassvet module at 0144 UTC May 29 and their crew joined commander Steve Swanson and FEs Arteme'v and Skvortsov already aboard. The hatch to Dragon CRS-3 was closed on May 17. Dragon was unberthed by the SSRMS Canadarm-2 at about 1200 UTC May 18 and released at 1326 UTC. The deorbit burn at 1812 to 1822 UTC was followed by trunk separation at about 1824 UTC, atmosphere entry at 1845 UTC and splashdown west of Baja California at 1905 UTC. Dragon's return cargo includes EMU 3015, launched on the last Shuttle mission in 2011 - it was only used for one spacewalk on its current flight - by Aki Hoshide on US EVA 18- and had a cooling malfunction. However, EMU 3015 has been used for 30 spacewalks during its 16 flights in space since 1996. Its core component, PLSS 1015, made 8 earlier flights as part of other EMUs). It has been reported by Aviation Week that some water leaked into the Dragon cabin after splashdown, but NASA says the cargo was not damaged. Progress M-21M undocked from Zvezda on Jun 9 at 1330 UTC and was deorbited the same day, with debris falling in the S Pacific around 1723 UTC. Progress M-23M remains docked to Pirs and Soyuz TMA-12M remains docked to Poisk. Cassini -------- Cassini flew past Titan at 1613 UTC on May 17 at a height of 2994 km. The flyby was designated T-101. The T-102 flyby will be at 1329 UTC Jun 18, at a height of 3659 km above Titan, following which Cassini will be in an 837000 x 2919000 km x 46.5 deg orbit around Saturn on course for the T-103 flyby on Jul 20. NROL-33 ------- Atlas flight AV-046 left the USA 252 payload in an 840 x 35745 km x 20.7 deg geostationary transfer orbit, according to hobbyist observers (satobs.org). It is expected to enter geostationary orbit and is thought to be a QUASAR communications and data relay satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office - either QUASAR 18 or 19, I'm not sure because of the difficulty of distinguising early QUASAR and JUMPSEAT satellites in the 1970s. Rodnik ------ On May 23 Russia launched three Strela-3M/Rodnik-S LEO messaging relay satellites into 1480 x 1510 km x 82.4 deg orbits; they were given the Kosmos codenames Kosmos-2496, 2497 and 2498. The Briz-M stage ended up in an 1151 x 1503 km orbit after its depletion burn. An additional object, 39765/2014-028E, is suspected to be an additional small military payload, which may be eventually given the cover name Kosmos-2499. It is probably built by the Reshetnev company and may have a mass of around 45 kg. ALOS-2 ------ Japan has launched the Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2, nicknamed Daichi-2, into a 629 x 635 km x 97.9 deg, noon/midnight sun-synchronous orbit. The 2120 kg Daichi-2 carries the PALSAR-2 radar imager. The second stage of the H-II rocket also deployed four small Japanese satellites: SOCRATES for the Japanese comms research lab NICT, with a laser communications experiment; UNIFORM-1 for Wakayama University, carrying a 10-12 micron IR microbolometer array for wildfire monitoring; RISING-2 (or Raijin-2?), a Tohoku University mission for studies of lightning with visible and mid-IR imagers and a VLF receiver; and SPROUT, a 7 kg Nihon University experiment to deploy a 1.5m inflatable triangular membrane. SOCRATES, UNIFORM and RISING-2 have masses of around 50 kg. Eutelsat 3B ------------ The Sea Launch project returned to flight with launch of Eutelsat 3B on May 26. Zenit-2S No. SL37 and upper stage Blok DM-SL No. 36L made up the Zenit-3SL launch vehicle which took off from the Sea Launch Odyssey platform in the Pacific at 154W 0N. Eutelsat 3B is an Airbus/Toulouse Eurostar 3000 satellite with C, Ku and Ka band comms payloads for the Paris-based company Eutelsat S.A. (Eutelsat was originally the European Telecom Satellite Organization, privatized in 2001; the Toulouse factory was formerly MATRA Espace (1968-89), Matra Marconi Space (1989-2000) and Astrium-F (2000-2013)). On Jun 16 the satellite had reached a checkout location at 1.7E, in a 35784 x 35788 km x 0.1 deg orbit. Glonass ------- Glonass-M satellite No. 55 was launched on Jun 14 into a 19125 x 19153 km x 64.8 km orbit to supplement the Russian navigation satellite constellation. The spacecraft is expected to be given the Kosmos-2500 designation. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. May 6 1349 Kosmos-2495 Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 25A May 15 2142 Ekpress AM-4R Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms F01 May 17 0003 GPS SVN 67 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Nav 26A May 22 1309 USA 252 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms? 27A May 23 0528 Kosmos-2496 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 28A Kosmos-2497 ) Comms 28B Kosmos-2498 ) Comms 28C Kosmos-2499? ) Tech? 28E May 24 0305 Daichi-2 ) H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Y1 Radar 29A Raijin-2 ) Science 29D UNIFORM-1 ) IR imaging 29B SOCRATES ) Laser Com 29C SPROUT ) Tech 29E May 26 2110 EUTELSAT 3B Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, Pacific Comms 30A May 28 1957 Soyuz TMA-13M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 31A Jun 14 1716 Glonass M55 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 32A (= Kosmos-2500?) Suborbital missions ------------------- Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- DLR and ESA launched two small REXUS rockets in May to study the upper atmosphere and demonstrate technology experiments. On May 24 NASA launched a University of Colorado experiment, CHESS/36.285UG, to measure the interstellar medium's UV absorption along the line of sight to Delta Sco. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km May 3 0800 NASA 36.235US Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 278 May 8 Topol' RV Topol' Plesetsk Exercise 1000? May 8 Shtil' RV Shtil' K-114, Barents Exercise 1000? May 8 Volna RV Volna K-223, Okhotsk Exercise 1000? May 20 1708 Topol'-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? May 21 0535 Aegis KV SM-3-IB Kauai AAMDTC Test 150? May 24 0735 NASA 36.285UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 300? May 28 1130 REXUS-16 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 87 May 29 1000 REXUS-15 Orion Kiruna Atmos/Tech 80 Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000? USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) Jun 2 USN Mk 4 RV? ) Trident II D-5 SSBN 736, Atlantic Test 1000? USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) USN Mk 4 RV? ) .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'