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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 596 draft 2008 Apr 26, Somerville, MA
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Shuttle and Station
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Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts Sergey Volkov,
Oleg Kononenko and Garrett Reisman continue the EO-17 expedition.
The Soyuz TMA-12 ferry craft is docked to the Pirs module, and
the Jules Verne cargo ship is at the Zvezda port.
GIOVE B
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The second European Galileo navigation system test satellite left the
launch pad on Apr 26 at 2216 UTC on a Soyuz-FG/Fregat.
The spacecraft was built for ESA and European Satellite Navigation Industries
by Astrium using a Thales Proteus spacecraft bus; the satellite
was integrated by Thales in its Rome factory (which I believe is
the former Selenia Spazio plant?). GIOVE B has a mass of 530 kg.
The Soyuz-FG placed Giove/Fregat in a suborbital path; the first
Fregat burn placed the stack in a 170 km parking orbit.
At 0201 UTC on Apr 27 Giove B reached a 23118 x 23246 km orbit inclined 56 deg.
PSLV
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The Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
flight C9 placed the Cartosat-2A imaging satlelite in a 620 x 661 km x
97.9 deg polar orbit on Apr 28, together with a cluster of small
satellites. The Indian Mini Satellite 1 is a small imaging satellite
with a mass of around 60 kg. The other payloads were nanosatellites with
masses from 1 to 7 kg: Cute-1.7/APD-II for the Tokyo Institute of
Technology; AAUSat-II for the University of Aalborg (Denmark); Can X-2
for UTIAS (the University of Toronto Institiute of Aerospace Studies);
Compass-1 for the Fachhochschule Aachen (Germany); Delfi-C3 for the
Technical University of Delft (Netherlands); SEEDS 2 for Nihon
University (Tokyo); and Can X-6, a collaboration between UTIAS and Com
Dev International. Can X-6 carries a payload for relaying identification
beacon data from shipping. Rubin-8-AIS remains attached to the PSLV
final stage and is also for locating ships.
AAUSat-II carries a gamma ray burst detector for the Danish National Space
Center.
Amos 3
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The Israeli Amos 3 communications satellite was launched on Apr 28
by Zenit-3SLB from Baykonur. The Blok DM-SLB made three burns to
a low parking orbit, a 180 x 39064 km x 48.8 deg transfer orbit,
and a 34225 x 39368 km x 0.7 deg near-geosynchronous orbit where it
deployed Amos 3. This deployment orbit is reported to be slightly
different from the target one; however, I am still counting the launch as
a success.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 9 0403 Jules Verne ATV Ariane 5ES Kourou ELA3 Cargo 08A
Mar 11 0628 Endeavour(STS-123) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 09A
Mar 13 1002 USA 200 Atlas V 411 Vandenberg SLC3E Sigint 10A
Mar 14 2318 AMC 14 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 11A
Mar 15 0610 GPS 48 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 12A
Mar 19 2248 DirecTV 11 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, POR Comms 13A
Mar 27 1715 SAR-Lupe 4 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Radar 14A
Apr 8 1116 Soyuz TMA-12 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 15A
Apr 14 2012 ICO G1 Atlas V 421 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 16A
Apr 16 1702? C/NOFS Pegasus XL L1011,KMR Science 17A
Apr 18 2217 Star One C2 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 18A?
Vinasat 1 ) Comms 18B?
Apr 25 1535 Tian Lian 1 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Comms 19A
Apr 26 2216 GIOVE B Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Navigation 20A?
Apr 28 0353 Cartosat 2A ) PSLV SDSC SLP Imaging 21A?
IMS 1 ) Imaging 21D?
Can X-2 ) Comms 21E?
Cute-1.7-APD-II ) Tech 21C?
Delfi-C3 ) Tech 21
AAUSat-II ) Astron 21
SEEDS 2 ) Tech 21
Compass 1 ) Tech 21J?
Can X-6 ) Comms 21B
Rubin-8-AIS ) Comms 21K
Apr 28 0500 AMOS 3 Zenit-3SLB Baykonur LC45 Comms 22A?
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org |
| USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
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