Jonathan's Space Report No. 782 2020 Aug 29 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Catalog of Artifical Space Objects ------------------------------------------- The first full release of my General Catalog of Artifical Space Objects (GCAT) is now available at https://planet4589.org/space/gcat International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 63 continues. Astronauts Hurley and Behnken returned to Earth aboard Dragon C206 Endeavour on Aug 2. Dragon undocked from IDA-2 at 2335 UTC Aug 1. At 0549 UTC Aug 2 a phasing burn of about 37m/s lowered perigee to circa 280 km. The trunk was jettisoned at 1752 UTC and Dragon began its 11 min 22 s, 70 m/s deorbit burn at 1756 UTC, lowering perigee further to about 42 km. The spacecraft nosecone was closed at 1810 UTC and the capsule reached entry interface at 1836 UTC. Descending on four main parachutes, Dragon splashed down in the Pensacola recovery zone in the Gulf of Mexico at 87.6W 29.8N at about 1847:48 UTC completing a flight lasting 63 days 23 hr 25 min 3s. The capsule was retrieved by the SpaceX ship Go Navigator at 1917 UTC. This was the first time since 1976 Oct 16 (Soyuz-23) that a space crew returned from orbit to a water landing (splashdown). Dragon's trunk was cataloged in a 279 x 407 km orbit the day after landing. The final HTV cargo ship, Kounotori 9, was unberthed from the ISS Harmony nadir port at 1351 UTC Aug 18 and released into orbit by Canadarm-2 at 1736 UTC. On Aug 20, after orbit lowering burns at 0040 and 0211 UTC it performed the deorbit burn at 0640 UTC Aug 20 and entered the atmosphere at about 0707 UTC over the Pacific. It burnt up on reentry. The EP-8 pallet, with discarded ISS batteries, was aboard. Mars 2020 --------- NASA's Mars 2020 mission was launched from Cape Canaveral by a ULA Atlas V 541, mission AV-088, on Jul 30. Launch was at 1150 UTC, with parking orbit insertion at 1201 UTC into a 167 x 250 km x 29.1 deg orbit. At 1235 UTC the Centaur stage restarted to accelerate the vehicle to an escape hyperbola with C3 = 14.49 km2/s2. The Mars 2020 spacecraft consists of the cruise stage (mass about 539 kg; 0.6m high 4.4m dia cylinder) and the entry vehicle. The entry vehicle is 4.5m dia with a backshell, parachute, and aeroshell (heat shield), containing the Perseverance Rover (1025 kg, 2.1m x 1.5m). The backshell is about 294 kg, the heat shield 382 kg, and the 21.5m diameter parachute is 55 kg. Perseverance is similar in design to Curiosity. Attached to the rover is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a 1.8 kg 1.2m-span technology-test rotorcraft, contained within the MHDS (Mars Helicopter Delivery System) cover, which will be jettisoned from the rover. The helicopter will make 90-second flights up to 5 metres altitude. Mars 2020 will reach Mars in Feb 2021. Ekspress -------- On Jul 30 Russia's Khrunichev launched a Proton-M carrying two Ekspress communications satellites for the Russian space communications company Kosmicheskaya Svyaz'. The Briz-M upper stage made five burns on an 18 hour trip to deploy the payloads in a low-inclination supersynchronous transfer orbit. The DTB propellant tank was left in an intermediate 416 x 23275 km x 49.5 deg orbit after the third burn. My guess for the various intermediate orbits is: Jul 30 2141 UTC 182 x 182 km x 51.6 deg Jul 30 2205 UTC 275 x 3000 km? x 50.3 deg Jul 31 0000 UTC 416 x 23275 km x 49.5 deg Jul 31 0641 UTC 450?x 54800?km x 47? deg Jul 31 1523 UTC 16689 x 54900 km x 0.6 deg The two Ekspress-1000N satellites were built by ISS Reshetnev (Zheleznogorsk) with C/Ku/L-band communications payloads by Thales Alenia. Ariane triple payload ---------------------- Arianespace's latest Ariane 5 launch placed three satellites in geotransfer orbit. Intelsat's Galaxy 30 is a Northrop Grummann GeoStar-2.4E with C, Ku, Ka, and L-band communications payloads. BSAT/Tokyo's BSAT-4b is a Maxar 1300 Ku-band broadcasting satellite. The thid payload is Mission Extension Vehicle 2 (MEV-2), built by Northrop Grumman for its subsidiary Space Logistics LLC. MEV-2 will dock with an Intelsat satellite to extend its life. Starlink -------- The 10th Starlink launch, V1.0-9, carried 57 Starlinks and two BlackSky Global imaging sats to orbit on Aug 7. The Falcon 9 first stage (B1051 on its 5th flight) landed on the OCISLY. Launch was at 0512 UTC with a 170 x 400? km parking orbit insertion at 0521 UTC, restart at 0559 UTC to a 386 x 403 km x 53.0 deg orbit, deployment of Global-7 and Global-8 at 0613 and 0618 UTC, and release of the Starlink satellites at 0645 UTC. Stage 2 was later deorbited. Four deployment rods and one rideshare adapter were cataloged as debris objects. The 11th launch, V1.0-10, was on Aug 18. It carried 58 Starlinks and three SkySat satellites for Planet. Insertion was to a 216 x 360 km x 53.0 deg orbit. GaoFen 9 -------- Two more GaoFen 9 imaging satellites, No. 4 and No 5, were launched on Aug 6 and 23. Launched with GF9-4 is Tsinghua University's Gravity and Atmosphere Science Satellite (Zhongli yu Daqi Kexue Weixing). With GF9-5 were launched Tiantuo 5 from NUDT/Changsha and the Multipurpose Experiment Satellite (Duogongneng Shiyan Weixing, DGSW) from the Military Academy in Beijing. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Jul 10 0417 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02E ) Kuaizhou 11 Jiuquan Imaging F06 F01566 -4000?x 500?x 97? Centispace-1-2S ) Imaging F06 F01567 -4000?x 500?x 97? Jul 13 1340 DeMi ISS, LEO Tech 9867RP S45916 415 x 418 x 51.6 Jul 13 1655 TechEdSat 10 ISS, LEO Tech 9867RQ S45917 413 x 419 x 51.6 Jul 15 0749? Kosmos-2547? Kosmos-2543, LEO Weapon? 19079E S45915 504 x 784 x 97.9 Jul 15 1346 USA 305 ) Minotaur IV MARS LA0B Sigint? 46A S45873 569 x 580 x 54.0 USA 306 ) Sigint? 46B S45874 569 x 580 x 54.0 USA 307 ) Sigint? 46C S45875 572 x 579 x 54.0 USA 308 ) Sigint? 46D S45876 572 x 579 x 54.0 Jul 19 2158 Misabar Al'amal H-2A 202 Tanegashima Mars probe 47A S45918 242 x -72755 x 30.3 Jul 20 2130 ANASIS II Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 48A S45920 211 x 45454 x 27.4 Jul 23 0441 Tianwen-1 Chang Zheng 5 Wenchang LC101 Mars probe 49A S45935 664 x -79065 x 30.5 Jul 23 1426 Progress M-15 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 50A S45937 199 x 228 x 51.7 Jul 25 0313 Zi Yuan 3-03 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 51A S45939 485 x 499 x 97.5 Tianqi 10 ) Comms 51 S45940? 485 x 499 x 97.5 Longxia yan 1 ) X-ray Astro 51 S45941? 485 x 499 x 97.5 Jul 30 1150 Perseverance ) Atlas V 541 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe 52A S45983? 208 x -68003 x 27.6 Ingenuity ) Helicopter Jul 30 2125 Ekspress-80 ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 53A S45985? 16581 x 54811 x 0.6 Ekspress-103 ) 53B S45987? 16591 x 54803 x 0.6 Aug 6 0401 Gao Fen 9-04 ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 54A S45025 486 x 506 x 97.5 Zhongli yu Daqi Kexue W.) Science 54B S45026 483 x 505 x 97.5 Aug 7 0512 Starlink 1514 ) Starlink 1515 ) Starlink 1522-1527) Starlink 1529 ) Starlink 1530 ) S46027 Starlink 1532-1536) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 55A-BJ to 386 x 403 x 53.0 Starlink 1538-1544) S46083 Starlink 1548 ) Starlink 1549 ) Starlink 1551 ) Starlink 1552 ) Starlink 1554-1574) Starlink 1576-1584) Starlink 1591 ) Global-7 ) Imaging 55BP S46088 385 x 402 x 53.0 Global-8 ) Imaging 55BQ S46089 385 x 402 x 53.0 Aug 15 2204 Galaxy 30 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 56C S46114 254 x 35741 x 6.0 MEV-2 ) Servicing56B S46113 268 x 35756 x 6.0 BSAT-4b ) Comms 56A S46112 261 x 35783 x 6.0 Aug 18 1431 Starlink 1545 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 57A-BK S46117 290 x 356 x 53.0 Starlink 1585-1590 ) to Starlink 1592-1616 ) S46174 Starlink 1618-1643 ) Starlink 1667 ) Skysat C17 ) Imaging 57BQ S46179 250 x 359 x 53.0 Skysat C18 ) Imaging 57BR S46180 250 x 359 x 53.0 Skysat C19 ) Imaging 57BS S46235 236 x 353 x 53.0 Aug 23 0227 Gao Fen 9-05 ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 58A? S46232 485 x 505 x 97.5 Tiantuo 5 ) Comms 58B? S46233 485 x 505 x 97.5 DGSW ) Tech 58C? S46234 485 x 505 x 97.5 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Jun 12 M51 RV M51 S617, Baie d'Audierne Test 1200? Atlantic Ocean Aug 4 0721 Mk 12 RV) Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op. Test 1300? Kwajalein BOA Mk 12 RV) Mk 12 RV) Aug 12 Sparrow Target Silver Sparrow? F-15, Med. Sea Target 100? Israel (intercepted) Aug 25 DF-26 RV DF-26 Da Qaidam Test 500? S China Sea Aug 25 DF-21 RV DF-21D? Ningbo Test 500? S China Sea .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: https://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'