This is the draft of the NEXT issue of JSR. WARNING: Information on this page is up to date but not well checked, and may include wild rumours and downright nonsense. For the CURRENT issue of JSR, click here
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 632 draft 2010 Aug 24 Somerville, MA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shuttle and Station
-------------------
Soyuz TMA-18, Soyuz TMA-19, Progress M-05M, and Progress M-06M
are docked to the ISS.
On Aug 11 Wheelock and Caldwell-Dyson made a second spacewalk from the Quest
airlock to change out the S1 pump module. The old pump was removed from
the truss and carried to a storage point, the POA (Payload and ORU
Accommodation) unit on the Mobile Base System. The astronauts also prepared
the new pump module on the ESP-2 platform. The airlock was depressurized
at 1221 UTC with hatch open from 1226 to 1936 UTC, and repress at 1954 UTC.
A third spacewalk on Aug 17 completed the work, with pump module S/N 004
moved from ESP-2 and installed in the S1 truss. The Quest hatch was opened
at 1019 UTC and closed at 1737 UTC, with repressurization at 1740 UTC.
The failed pump module, S/N 002, is still stashed on the MBS POA and will
remain there for the time being. (If someone knows the serial numbers
for the PMs on P1 and ESP-3, please let me know.)
Progress M-06M undocked from Zvezda at 1121 UTC on Aug 31 to begin the free
flying part of its mission.
Tango
------
Sweden's Prisma Target satellite, Tango, separated from the main Prisma
satellite Mango on Aug 11 at 1751 UTC to begin formation flying experiments.
Note that the European Space Agency's Cluster FM8 satellite is also
called Tango. Prisma-Tango is in a 784 x 787 km x 98.3 deg orbit;
Cluster-Tango is in a 1856 x 130941 km x 129.6 deg orbit, close to
its dance partners Samba, Salsa and Rumba.
AEHF
----
The US Air Force's first Advanced EHF communications satellite was
launched on Aug 14. Lockheed Martin/ULA Atlas V launch vehicle AV-019
was a model 531 variant with three strapon solid motors; the first burn
of the Centaur upper stage reached a 167 x 1281 km x 27.8 deg orbit at
1121 UTC. Centaur restart at 1129 UTC pushed AEHF 1 into a 221 x 50179
km x 22.2 deg deployment orbit. A liquid-propellant apogee engine
(probably an AMPAC Leros 1b) will be used to raise the perigee, and then
AEHF 1's Hall-thruster electric propulsion system will be used over a
period of several months to put the satellite in geosynchronous orbit.
AEHF 1 is a Lockheed Martin A2100M satellite with a launch mass of
around 6200 kg. The AEHF constellation's SHF and EHF communications
payloads will replace the Milstar satellite system launched in the
1990s.
Tianhui
-------
The Tianhui yi hao weixing (Mapping Satellite 1) was launched
from Jiuquan on Aug 24. The satellite was built by the
Hangtian Dongfanghong Weixing YG (Spaceflight East Is Red Satellite Corp.)
and is for research, mapping and land resource surveys.
SJ-12
-----
China's Shi Jian 12 satellite, which was launched into a 600 km polar
orbit on Jun 15, carried out a close pass with the SJ-6/3A (Shijian
liuhao sanzu A xing) satellite on Aug 19. Igor Lissov has pointed out
that SJ-6/3A showed a very small orbital period increase following the pass,
indicating that the spacecraft may have come into physical contact.
Glonass
-------
Three Uragan-M satellites, probably Nos. 736 to 738, were launched from
Baykonur on Sep 2 to supplement the Glonass navigation constellation.
They will probably be given the cover names Kosmos-2464 to 2466. The
Proton-M launch vehicle placed the DM-2 upper stage in a 155 x 176 km
parking orbit; after two burns the payloads were deployed in a 19115 x
19140 km x 64.8 deg orbit.
Suborbital flights
------------------
The RAISE (Rapid Acquisition Imaging Spectropgraph) instrument was
launched from White Sands on Aug 23 as flight NASA 36.219US. RAISE was
developed by Don Hassler of SWRI and Glenn Laurent of U. Colorado to
take ultraviolet spectra of the Sun. On Aug 20, Iran launched Qiam-1,
thought to be a modified version of the Shahab-2 missile with a new
guidance system and no tail fins.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jul 10 1840 Echostar XV Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 34A
Jul 12 0352 Cartosat 2B ) PSLV-CA Sriharikota Imaging 35A
Alsat 2A ) Imaging 35D
AISSAT-1 ) Navigation 35C
TISat-1 ) Tech 35B
Studsat ) Tech 35G
Jul 31 2130 Beidou DW5 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Navigation 36A
Aug 4 2059 Nilesat 201 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou Comms 37A
RascomQAF-1R) Comms 37B
Aug 9 2249 Yaogan Weixing 10 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar 38A
Aug 14 1107 AEHF SV-1 Atlas V 531 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 39A
Aug 24 0710 Tianhui-1 Weixing Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 40A
Sep 2 0053 Kosmos-2464 ) Proton-M/DM2 Baykonur LC81/24 Navigation 41A
Kosmos-2465 ) Navigation 41B
Kosmos-2466 ) Navigation 41C
Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km
Jul 10 0732 RV x 6? MSBS M51 S614, Baie d'Audierne Test 1000?
Jul 11 0450 NASA 36.265UG Black Brant IX White Sands IR Astron 320?
Jul 30 1821 NASA 36.213NS Black Brant IX White Sands Solar EUV 246?
Aug 4 0915 NASA 12.073GT Black Brant X Wallops I. Test 693?
Aug 6 1515 RV x4? Sineva Tula, Barents Op Test 1000?
Aug 6 1515 RV x4? Sineva Tula, Barents Op Test 1000?
Aug 20 Shahab RV Qiam-1 ? Iran Test 100?
Aug 23 1757 NASA 36.219US Black Brant IX White Sands Solar UV 295
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@www.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: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'