Jonathan's Space Report
No. 754 2018 Oct 8 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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During September Expedition 56 continued with astronauts Feustel,
Artem'ev, Arnold, Prokop'ev, Aunon-Chancellor and Gerst.
Japan's HTV-7 (Kounotori 7) cargo ship was launched on Sep 22. It
arrived at ISS on Sep 27; the Canadarm-2 grappled it at 1134 UTC and
berthed it at Harmony nadir at 1409 UTC. On Sep 28 the SSRMS moved the
Exposed Pallet (EP) from HTV-7 to the truss MBS POA location. The EP
carries a set of replacement batteries for the P4 truss; spacewalkers
will install them. Meanwhile, the J-SSOD-10 deployer was transferred
from HTV-7 to the Kibo module in preparation for deployment of three
cubesats. Express Rack 9B was installed in the Columbus module, Express
Rack 10B in Kibo, and the Life Support Rack in Destiny.
On Oct 4 at 0757 UTC, astronauts Artem'ev, Feustel and Arnold undocked from the Poisk
module in Soyuz MS-08. The spacecraft made its deorbit burn at 1051 UTC
and landed in Kazakhstan at 1145 UTC. With the undocking, Expedition 57 began under
the command of Alex Gerst.
On Oct 6, the JEM RMS extracted the J-SSOD-10 deployer from the Kibo airlock.
At 0800 UTC the deployer ejected three cubesats: RSP-00 for RymanSpace,
SPATIUM-I for Nanyang Tech U (Singapore), and STARS-Me for Shizuoka University.
STARS-Me will separate into two 1U pieces joined by a 14-metre tether, plus a small
`climber' robot that will move up and down the tether.
Beidou
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Two more Beidou-3 navigation satellites were launched on Sep 19.
Beidou 37 and 38, also known as Beidou-3 vehicles M13 and M14, were
placed in 22000 km circular orbits.
Ariane VA243
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On Sep 25 Arianespace successfully launched the 100th Ariane 5, placing
two communications satellites in geotransfer orbit.
The upper payload was Horizons 3e, for the Horizons joint venture
between Intelsat and Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT. The satellite uses
a Boeing 702MP bus with a launch mass of 6441 kg.
The lower payload was Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38, a Maxar SSL-1300
with a launch mass of 3500 kg.
Centispace-1-1S
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China's EXPACE, a commercial launch provider which is part of the
government CASIC missile company, launched the second Kuaizhou-1A
vehicle on Sep 29 carrying a small commercial communications/navigation
technology payload to orbit. Before launch the satellite was known as
Centispace-1-1S in English and as Weili kongjian yi hao xitong S1 shiyan
weixing (Micro-space 1 System S1 Test Satellite) in Chinese; after
launch it was renamed Xiangrikui 1 (`Sunflower One'). It is a 97 kg
payload built by the Shanghai microsatellite innovation center IMI-CAS
for Beijing Weilai Daohang Keji YG (Beijing Future Navigation Tech Co
Ltd). I am assuming Centispace is the English marketing name of the
company. The satellite was placed in a 1030 local time sun-sync orbit
and carries a GNSS receiver for orbit determination and a laser
intersatellite comms link.
The satellite separated from stage 4 in a 697 x 710 km orbit at about
0430 UTC; stage 4 made a 266 m/s depletion burn at 0453 UTC to a 265 x
820 km orbit.
SAOCOM-1A
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Argentina's CONAE space agency has its first radar imaging satellite in
orbit, SAOCOM-1A (Satelite Argentino de Observacion Con Microondas). The
3000 kg satellite has a 10 x 2.5m L-band synthetic aperture radar
antenna to study soil moisture, and was built by the Argentine company
INVAP SE.
SAOCOM-1A was launched on Oct 8 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg's
Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC-4E). The Falcon 9 first stage, B1048,
became the first to return for a Vandenberg landing, at Landing Zone 4
(LZ-4) on the old SLC-4W. The second stage ignited again for the deorbit
burn at about 0342 UTC over Poland, and reentered SE of Hawaii at about
0413 UTC.
Hayabusa-2
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JAXA felt it understood The problem with the lidar readings that
interrupted TD1-R1, so the descent to release the MINERVA II1 rovers
went ahead on schedule. Hayabusa-2 began its descent from the 20 km home
point at 0508 UTC Sep 20. By 0406 UTC Sep 21 it was only 50 metres above
Ryugu descending at 0.1m/s. The MINERVA II1 cover was ejected at 0406
UTC followed by Rover 1A and Rover 1B. All three objects then sailed
down the asteroid surface, while at about 0411 UTC Hayabusa-2 made a
divert burn to reverse its descent and return to the home position.
Both Rover 1A and Rover 1B successfully reached the surface, possibly
around 0425 UTC. They then began hopping around the asteroid while
taking pictures. The rovers are 1 kg discs, about 0.12m high 0.15m dia.
They contain an internal mechanism which can be made to spin; changes
in its angular momentum cause the rover to flip over and `hop' to
another position on the surface. Regular wheeled rovers would not
be practical in the low gravity, irregular-surfaced enviroment
of Ryugu, where the escape velocity is only about 1 km/hr.
On Oct 2-3 Hayabusa-2 again descended close to Ryugu; at 0157 UTC Oct 3
it ejected the German-French MASCOT lander at an altitude of 51 metres,
and then retreated to 3 km altitude. MASCOT landed on Ryugu at about
0217 UTC and transmitted from the surface until 1904 UTC. Hayabusa-2
then returned to its 20 km home position again.
RemoveDebris
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I've entered the RemDeb Net in the launch list on the assumption (estimation)
that it was ejected about one minute after DebrisSat-1.
The RemoveDebris project is led by Surrey Space Centre and operated by SSTL.
SJ-17
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David Todd of Seradata has pointed out that China's SJ-17 satellite made an unusual
manuever in GEO, increasing its inclination from 0 to 4 degrees in January and then
reversing the change in July. The satellite has moved back and forth through the
geostationary belt between East Africa and the mid-Pacific in a series of
rapid relocations, followed by a period of brief stays at a series of Indian Ocean
locations. Its history to date is detailed below.
Phase 1: 2016 Nov 3 to 11: SJ-17 arrived on station at 163E a week after launch.
Phase 2: 2016 Nov 11 to 2017 Apr 26 SJ-17 on station at 163E
Phase 3: 2017 Apr 26 to 2017 Oct 10 Westward scan 1, from 163E to 118E
Phase 4: 2017 Oct 10 to 2017 Jan 11 SJ-17 on station at 118E
Phase 5: 2017 Jan 11 to 2018 Jan 23 Begin eastward scan 1 118E to 152E
Phase 6: 2018 Jan 23 to 2018 Jan 26 Increase inclination to 4 deg
Phase 7: 2018 Jan 26 to 2018 Feb 9 Complete eastward scan 1, 152E to 178W
Phase 8: 2018 Feb 10 to 2018 Mar 19 Westward scan 2, 178W to 40E
Phase 9: 2018 Mar 20 to 2018 Apr 14 Eastward scan 2, 40E to 118E
Phase 10: 2018 Apr 15 to 2018 May 7 Westward relocate, 118E to 106E
Phase 11: 2018 May 7 to May 20 SJ-17 on station at 106E
Phase 12: 2018 May 20 to May 28 Westward relocate, 106E to 103.5E
Phase 13: 2018 May 28 to Jun 4 SJ-17 on station at 103.5E
Phase 14: 2018 Jun 4 to Jun 19 Westward relocate, 103.5E to 94.3E
Phase 15: 2018 Jun 19 to Jul 17 SJ-17 on station at 94.3E
Phase 16: 2018 Jul 18 to Jul 21 Westward relo and decrease inc to 0 deg
Phase 17: 2018 Jul 21 to Aug 13 SJ-17 on station at 80.5E
Phase 18: 2018 Aug 14 to Aug 31 Eastward relo to 94.1E
Phase 19: 2018 Aug 31 to now SJ-17 on station at 94.1E
Parker Solar Probe
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The Parker Solar Probe entered Venus' gravitational sphere at 2035 UTC
Oct 2. Parker flew 2428 km above the surface of Venus at 0846 UTC Oct
3 and departed the Venus gravitational sphere at 2056 UTC. Before
encounter, Parker was in a 0.208 x 1.014 AU x 5.6 deg solar orbit (31 x
152 million km). Now, it is in a 0.166 x 0.938 AU x 3.4 deg (25 x
140 million km). First perihelion will be on Nov 6 at 0329 UTC.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Sep 7 0315 Haiyang 1C Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Rem.Sensing 68A S43609 770 x 786 x 98.6 1020LT SSO
Sep 10 0445 Telstar 18V Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 69A S43611 250 x 18094 x 27.0
Sep 15 1302 ICESAT-2 ) Delta 7420-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Rem.Sensing 70A S43613 459 x 464 x 92.0
ELFIN ) Sci 70B? S43614 448 x 467 x 93.0
ELFIN-B ) Sci 70C? S43615 448 x 467 x 93.0
DAVE ) Tech 70D? S43616 447 x 468 x 93.0
SurfSat ) Tech 70E? S43617 448 x 467 x 93.0
Sep 16 1638 NovaSAR-S ) PSLV-CA Sriharikota FLP Imaging 71A S43619 574 x 592 x 97.8 2215LT SSO
SSTL S1-4 ) Imaging 71B S43620 574 x 619 x 97.7 2215LT SSO
Sep 16 2306 DebrisSat-1 RemDeb, LEO Tech 9867PM S43621 400 x 404 x 51.7
Sep 16 2308? RemDeb Net RemDeb, LEO Tech 9867PM A09713 Now attached to DebrisSat-1
Sep 19 1407 Beidou DW 37 ) Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 Xichang LC2 Navigation 72A S43622 21533 x 22193 x 55.0
Beidou DW 38 ) Navigation 72B S43623 21545 x 22197 x 55.0
Sep 22 1752 Kounotori 7 H-IIB Tanegashima Cargo 73A S43630 187 x 301 x 51.6
Sep 25 2238 Horizons 3e ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 74B S43633 280 x 35741 x 5.9
Azerspace-2/IS-38 ) Comms 74A S43632 246 x 35712 x 6.0
Sep 29 0413 Xiangrikui 1 Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Tech 75A S43636 696 x 710 x 98.2 1030LT SSO
Oct 6 0800 STARS-Me ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867PN S43638? 403 x 408 x 51.6
RSP-00 ) Tech 9867PP S43639? 403 x 408 x 51.6
SPATIUM-I) Tech 9867PQ S43640? 403 x 408 x 51.6
Oct 8 0221 SAOCOM-1A Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Radar 76A S43641 607 x 634 x 97.9 1800LT
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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The suborbital launches table includes known flights above 80 km.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Sep 5 0500 Hyperbola-1Z Shuang Quxian 1Z Jiuquan Test 108 Jiuquan
TFJR-1 )
CDGX-1 )
EREBUS )
Sep 7 1721 FOXSI Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar XR 304 White Sands
Sep 12 0837 JFTM-05 Target ? Kauai Target 150? Pacific
Sep 12 0840? JFTM-05 SM-3-IB JS Atago, Pacific Interceptor 150? Intercept
Sep 12 1433 ADEPT SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 114 Spaceport America, NM
Sep 17 1409 FOP-5?/Celestis SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Tech 114 Spaceport America, NM
Sep 27 1215 NAMMO Nucleus Nucleus Andoya U3 Test 107 Norwegian Sea
Oct 1 0000? Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah?,Iran Weapon 200? Syria
Oct 1 0000? Warhead Zulfiqar Kermanshah?,Iran Weapon 200? Syria
Oct 1 0000? Warhead Qiam-1 Kermanshah?,Iran Weapon 200? Syria
Oct 1 0000? Warhead Qiam-1 Kermanshah?,Iran Weapon 200? Syria
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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