Jonathan's Space Report No. 704 2014 Oct 30 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: originally published with date "Oct 17" in error. International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 41 is underway with commander Max Suraev and flight engineers FE-1 Aleksandr Samokutyaev, FE-2 Elena Serova, FE-3 Barry 'Butch' Wilmore. FE-5 Reid Wiseman and FE-6 Alex Gerst. The Dragon CRS-4 cargo ship was unberthed at about 1202 UTC Oct 25 and released by the SSRMS at 1357 UTC. It made its deorbit burn at 1843 UTC and splashed down in the Pacific at 1938 UTC off Baja California (near 34N 123.5W according to Bob Christy's zarya.info, 30.7N 121.3W according to estimates by user Avron on nasaspaceflight.com based on maritime traffic; SpaceX have not revealed an accurate splashdown location). Progress M-24M undocked from Pirs at 0538 UTC Oct 27. Progress M-25M was launched at 0709 UTC on Oct 29 and docked with Pirs at 1308 UTC the same day. The Orbital Cygnus Orb-3 cargo ship was destroyed during launch from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A at Wallops Island, Virginia on Oct 28. The lower end of the Antares 130 vehicle exploded 14 seconds after launch at an altitude of about 100 metres, and the vehicle and payloads fell back to the pad, resulting in a large explosion. As well as ISS cargo, the Orb-3 mission was carrying 26 PlanetLabs Flock-1d 3U cubesats, the JPL/U-Texas RACE 3U cubesat, the Arkyd-3 3U cubesat from Planetary Resources, and also the GOMX-2 ship tracking 2U cubesat from GOMX of Aalborg, Denmark. All of the payloads were destroyed. The first stage of Antares 130 is built by Yuzhnoe (Ukraine) and derived from the Zenit tankage; the engines are Aerojet AJ-26 models, which are refurbished/modernized Kuznetsov NK-33s left over from the Soviet N-1 human lunar landing program. It is not yet clear what the cause of the failure was, although I note the rocket appeared to be flying normally until a large flash was seen near the base of the rocket, suggesting some kind of problem in the first stage propulsion system as a likely suspect (although a first stage tank structural or plumbing failure is also a possibility). Since there seems to be some confusion on this point, I recall to readers that although commercial space station cargo ships (the thing on top of the rocket) are something new, commercial space launch vehicles (the rocket itself) are not, and indeed have been the norm in the US civilian space program since the early 1990s when NASA transferred Atlas and Delta launches to the private sector and retired the Scout in favor of buying small satellite launches from Orbital's Pegasus. There have been no orbital NASA launches since then with the exception of the Shuttle. US and W European rocket reliability ------------------------------------ Satellite launch vehicles from US manufacturers and from Arianespace, currently in service, stats for orbital attempts since Jan 2000 until the Antares failure: (see JSR 669 for details of the scoring system) Vehicle Attempts Score 1st launch Score for 1st 10 launches -- since 2000 -- ESA/Arianespace Ariane 5 72 97.9 1996 78 ESA/Arianespace Vega 3 100.0 2012 - ULA/Boeing Delta 2 65 100.0 1989 100 ULA/Boeing Delta 4 27 97.6 2002 96 ULA/Lockheed M. Atlas 5 49 99.5 2002 93 SpaceX Falcon 9 13 98.8 2010 98 Orbital Pegasus 14 100.0 1990 74 Orbital Minotaur C/Taurus 5 40.0 1994 - Orbital Minotaur 1 11 100.0 2000 100 Orbital Minotaur 4 4 100.0 2010 - Orbital Antares 5 80.0 2013 - -------------------------------------------------------------------- All vehicles 268 97.6 91 Ekspress AM-6 -------------- The Russian Satellite Communication Company (Kosmicheskiya Svyaz)'s Ekspress AM-6 satellite was launched from Baykonur on Oct 21. US tracking confirms earlier rumours on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum that the final Briz-M burn was incomplete, leaving the satellite in an orbit with a 1373 min period - significantly below the planned orbit, but probably close enough for Ekspress AM-6 to reach its GEO destination using extra xenon propellant from its own electric propulsion system at the cost of operational lifetime. Ekspress AM-6 orbit is 1373.2 min, 31307 x 37784 km x 0.7 deg; the Briz-M's auxiliary SOZ thrusters disposed of the stage into a 1512.4 min, 34984 x 39549 km x 1.0 deg orbit. Chinese lunar mission ---------------------- On Oct 23 a Chang Zheng 3C/G2 launch vehicle took off from Xichang and placed a spacecraft in a 209 x 413000 km lunar transfer orbit. The spacecraft is called 'Chang'e wu hao feixing shiyan qi', or CE-5 Flight Test Device. The vehicle is a precursor to the planned Chang'e-5 mission and consists of a satellite bus similar to the Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter, topped with a reentry vehicle which appears to be a miniature Shenzhou landing module. The craft will make an 8-day flight to loop around the Moon and return to Earth. Calculations by user 'satwatcher' on the nasaspaceflight.com forum indicate that lunar closest approach was Oct 27 1903 UTC at a height of 11300 km. The vehicle is expected to land in China around 2230 UTC Oct 31. LuxSpace's 4M (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission) amateur radio payload is attached to the third stage of the CZ-3C. Following lunar flyby on Oct 27, the stage is in a 141090 x 416326 km x 54.2 deg orbit. SJ11-08 ------- The 8th and final satellite in the somewhat mysterious Shi Jian 11 series was launched by Chang Zheng 2C on Oct 27 as China's October launch surge continues. The satellite entered a 688 x 703 km SSO with 1315 local time descending node. It is believed to be a military surveillance satellite of some kind. Meridian -------- The Meridian No. 17L communications satellite (7th in the series) for the Russian Ministry of Defense was launched on a Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat from Plesetsk on Oct 30 into a 968 x 39750 km x 62.8 deg 'Molniya'-type orbit. GPS --- GPS satellite vehicle SVN 69, flight IIF-8, nicknamed Spica, was launched on Atlas V serial AV-050 from Cape Canaveral on Oct 29. It reached a 167 x 20281 km transfer orbit 17 minutes after launch; the Centaur restarted at 2040 UTC to place the GPS IIF-8 mission in a 20456 x 20464 km x 55.0 deg orbit. X-37B ----- X-37B flight vehicle 1 completed its second flight on Oct 17, landing at Vandenberg AFB at 1624 UTC after 674.9 days in space. Satellite Retrievals -------------------- In the last JSR I gave a list of spacecraft which landed back on Earth after spending long times in space. Here I give a table of spacecraft or parts of spacecraft which were brought back to Earth aboard other spacecraft - so, not needing reentry systems of their own. All the entries in this list were Shuttle retrievals, except for a few low-mass recovered experiments on Soyuz missions (only the longest-duration two are noted) and the leading entries are all parts of the Hubble Space Telescope. (As usual, I solicit corrections and additions to this list). Spacecraft Mass/kg Duration In space HST SICDH and battery units BMU1, BMU2 498 19.08 yr 1990-2009 HST WFPC-2 and COSTAR 571 15.48 yr 1993-2009 HST FOC, PCU, DBA1/2 380 11.88 yr 1990-2002 HST FGS-2, RSU-1, DF-2224 281 9.68 yr 1990-1999 ISS P6 Battery ORU 7-12 1020 9.48 yr 2000-2010 HST FGS-2R, RSU-1R/2R/3R 253 9.43 yr 1999-2009 ISS Pump Module S/N 02 354 8.78 yr 2002-2011 ISS P6 Battery ORU 1-6 1020 8.66 yr 2000-2009 HST SA-II array 308 8.27 yr 1993-2002 ISS RGA S0-1 20 8.03 yr 2002-2010 ISS S1 ATA 500? 7.53 yr 2002-2010 ISS S0 RGA S0-2/RPCM S0-1A-D 25? 7.43 yr 2002-2009 ISS Z1 CMG-3 281 7.36 yr 2000-2008 HST FOS,GHRS,RWA-1 671 6.83 yr 1990-1997 ISS ROKVISS 7 6.22 yr 2004-2011 (Soyuz TMA-1M) HST RSU-2R,3R, CoProc 84 6.07 yr 1993-1999 LDEF Satellite 9705 5.79 yr 1984-1990 ISS P1 NTA 484 5.24 yr 2002-2008 ISS Z1 SASA-3 103 5.08 yr 2002-2007 HST RWA-1R 45 5.08 yr 1997-2002 ISS Z1 CMG-1 281 4.83 yr 2000-2005 ISS TUS-RA ORU 153 4.27 yr 2002-2006 Solar Max MACS box 194 4.16 yr 1980-1984 ISS JAXA MPAC/SEED C3 9? 4.14 yr 2001-2005 (Soyuz TMA-6) EMU 3013 spacesuit 130 4.11 yr 2002-2006 ISS MISSE 1/2 100? 4.00 yr 2001-2005 Orlan DMA-18 spacesuit 77 3.91 yr 1992-1996 HST HSP,WFPC,SA I/-V2,RSU 2/3 785 3.64 yr 1990-1993 EMU 3011 spacesuit 130 3.18 yr 2002-2005 EMU 3015 spacesuit 130 2.86 yr 2011-2014 EMU 3005 spacesuit 130 2.71 yr 2002-2005 Surveyor 3 SMSS scoop 5? 2.61 yr 1967-1969 (Apollo 12) EMU 3018 spacesuit 130 722 days 2006-2008 EMU 3009 spacesuit 130 691 days 2009-2011 EMU 3006 spacesuit 130 631 days 2006-2008 EMU 3008 spacesuit 130 631 days 2006-2008 ISS EuTeF 297 582 days 2008-2009 ISS SSRMS WRJ 167 426 days 2001-2002 EMU 3004 spacesuit 130 382 days 2008-2009 EMU 3011 spacesuit 130 377 days 2008-2009 EMU 3009 spacesuit 130 367 days 2001-2002 EMU 3009 spacesuit 130 356 days 2005-2006 EMU 3010 spacesuit 130 356 days 2005-2006 EURECA 1 Satellite 3741 335 days 1992-1993 EMU 3005 spacesuit 130 301 days 2008-2009 SFU Satellite 2736 308 days 1995-1996 Westar 6 Satellite 1202 287 days 1984 Palapa B2 Satellite 1202 287 days 1984 For convenience, the list of spacecraft that landed by themselves after long periods in space (from JSR 703) is repeated here with updated data: Hayabusa 7.1 years Stardust 6.9 years Genesis 3.1 years (crashed) X-37B FLT-3 675 d X-37B FLT-2 469 d HEXAGON 1218-4 270 d USERS 261 d HEXAGON 1216-4 260 d Salyut 5 KSI 249 d X-37B FLT-1 224 d Soyuz TMA-9 215 d Kosmos-2290 SpK-22 ca. 210 d? Soyuz TM-27 207 d UN Registration --------------- Congratulations to Norway which has registered its remaining satellites with the UN (except for the recently launched AISSat-2). Norway's registered satellites are the Thor 2,3, 5 and 6 communications satellites and the NCUBE-2 and AISSat-1 satellites in polar orbit. I plan to update the on-line table of registrations once the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs have made public recent outstanding filings by Russia and the USA. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Sep 4 0015 Chuangxin 1-04 ) Jiuquan Comms 51B Ling Qiao ) Comms 51A Sep 5 0929 Flock 1b-17 ) ISS, LEO Imaging 98-67FF Flock 1b-18 ) Imaging 98-67FE Sep 7 0500 Asiasat 6 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 52A Sep 8 0322 Yaogan 21 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 53A Tiantuo 2 ) Imaging 53B Sep 11 2205 Measat 3b ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 54A Optus 10 ) Comms 54B Sep 17 0010 CLIO Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Sigint? 55A Sep 21 0552 Dragon CRS-4 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 56A Sep 25 2025 Soyuz TMA-14M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 57A Sep 27 2028 Luch Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Data relay 58A Sep 28 0513 SJ-11 07 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Surveillance? 59A Oct 7 0516 Himawari-8 H-IIA Tanegashima Weather 60A Oct 15 2002 IRNSS-1C PSLV-XL Sriharikota FLP Navigation 61A Oct 16 2144 Intelsat IS-30 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 62A ARSAT-1 ) Comms 62B Oct 20 0631 Yaogan 21 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging? 63A Oct 21 1509 Ekspress AM-6 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 64A Oct 23 1800 CE-5 FTD ) Chang Zheng 3C/G2 Xichang Lunar probe 65A 4M ) Amateur radio 65B Oct 27 0659 SJ-11 08 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Surveillance? 66A Oct 28 2220 Cygnus ORB-3 ) Antares 130 Wallops MARS 0A Cargo F02 RACE ) Science F02 Arkyd-3 ) Tech F02 GOMX-2 ) Comms AIS F02 Flock-1d 1 to 26 ) Imaging F02 Oct 29 0709 Progress M-25M Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 67A Oct 29 1721 GPS SVN 69 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Navigation 68A Oct 30 0143 Meridian No. 17L Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/3 Comms 69A Suborbital missions ------------------- A solid propellant target missile was launched from Kauai on Oct 17 for the Missile Defense Agency. Based on an available launch image, Gunter Krebs suggests it is the MRBM-T3, with SR19 and SR73 solid motors. Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Sep 2 0202 EPL-ME VS-30/EPL Alcantara Test 130? Sep 9 Sparrow Target Blue Sparrow? F-15D, Med.Sea Target 100? Sep 10 RV Bulava K-551,White Sea Test 1000? Sep 11 0541 Agni RV Agni I Chandipur Op. Test 500? Sep 12 1300 USN RV Trident D-5 Sub, Pacific O. Test 1000? Sep 12 1300 USN RV Trident D-5 Sub, Pacific O. Test 1000? Sep 12 1300 USN RV Trident D-5 Sub, Pacific O. Test 1000? Sep 23 1445 Mk 12/21 RV? Minuteman III Vandenberg LF09 Op. Test 1300? Sep 30 VAULT 2.0 Black Brant IX White Sands Solar UV 290? Oct 7 1310 SR-10 Sounding Rocket Jiupeng Ionosphere 286 Oct 12 0427 MDA Target? Terrier Lynx Wallops I Target? 150? Oct 17 0708 FTX-20 MRBM-T3? Kauai Target 300? Oct 23 1333 SL-9 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Micrograv 124 .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'