Jonathan's Space Report No. 755 2018 Oct 18 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soyuz MS-10 launch abort --------------------------- Soyuz MS-10 (spacecraft 11F732A48 No. 740) was launched on Oct 11 at 0840:15 UTC from the Gagarin pad at Baykonur aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket (model 11A511U-FG S/N U15000-062), carrying astronauts Aleksey Nikolaevich Ovchinin (Roskosmos; Col. VVS, ret.) and Col. Tyler Nicklaus 'Nick' Hague (USAF, NASA). The solid escape motor tower (DU SAS) was jettisoned on schedule at T+1min 54s. The DU SAS is only part of the complex Soyuz escape system, though, as we'll see below. At T+1:58 the side boosters comprising stage 1, called Blok B, V, G and D, shut down and were ejected from stage 2, the Blok A core stage. At this point, 50 km up at the base of the mesosphere, one of the side boosters (specifically, Blok D) failed to rotate away from the core correctly and smashed into it, causing an emergency abort at T+2:03. A leading theory is that a propellant vent that normally pushes the Blok D away failed to operate. The Soyuz-FG rocket's core stage engines shut down, as is standard for a Russian rocket abort, and the remaining part of the SAS (sistema avariynovo spaseniya, System of Emergency Rescue) came into play. The RDG engines on the side of the fairing fired as the upper part of Soyuz (BO, Bitovoy Otsek, orbital module; SA, Spuskaemiy Apparat, descent craft; and GO, golovnoy obektatel', payload fairing) separated from the lower part (lower fairing and the PAO, priborno-agregatniy-otsek, instrument-service-module) which remained attached to the rocket stack (Blok A stage 2 plus Blok I stage 3). The RDG motors pulled the bisected Soyuz away from the disintegrating rocket. The rocket stack fell back towards Earth and its parts have been recovered for analysis. At T+2:40, according to a timeline reported by Anatoliy Zak at russianspaceweb.com, the SA descent craft was ejected out of the rear of the BO/GO assembly. The BO/GO and the SA then continued on a ballistic trajectory, reaching an apogee of 93 km (according to A. Krasil'nikov on the Novosti Kosmonavitiki forum) and falling back toward Kazakhstan. The SA, with the two astronauts aboard, deployed its parachutes and floated to a landing 20 km east of the city of Dzezhkazgan at 0859:56 UTC after a flight lasting 19 min 41s. Astronauts Ovchinin and Hague were retrieved safely. (At a postflight press conference NASA astronaut Reid Wiesman reported that the time from anomaly to landing was 34 minutes, which was obviously too long even taking the slow parachute descent into account. It's not clear what caused this incorrect report.) Earlier this year I published a paper (McDowell 2018, Acta Astronautica 151, p 668, 'The edge of space: Revisiting the Karman Line', http://planet4589.org/space/papers/Edge.pdf ) in which I showed that the Karman Line should really be at around 80 km, not 100 km. I therefore count a flight as a spaceflight if its apogee is above 80 km - and given the apogee of 93 km, Soyuz MS-10 meets this test and is the 332nd spaceflight in history and the 20th suborbital one. This makes Nick Hague the 565th astronaut (person above 80 km). Aleksey Ovchinin first flew in space on Soyuz TMA-20M and was the 553rd human to fly above 80 km. (Of course, if you prefer the 100 km boundary, then for you it's not a spaceflight and Hague didn't make it into space.) The Soyuz spaceship was introduced in 1966. There have been three previous accidents during the launch phase. - The second launch, Soyuz 7K-OK No. 1, suffered an accident on 1966 Dec 14 after a launch scrub. The DU SAS escape tower fired accidentally, destroying the launch vehicle and killing a pad worker. However, the escape tower worked in the sense that the Soyuz descent module was recovered safely 1.5 km away. This mission did not have a crew. - Soyuz 7K-T No. 39 was launched on 1975 Apr 5. Five minutes into flight the second stage (Blok-A) failed to separate cleanly from the third stage (Blok-I). The SAS system separated the BO/SA/GO from the stack, just as in the MS-10 failure. Soyuz reached an apogee of 192 km and the descent module landed in the Altai mountains after a 21 min flight; astronauts Lazarev and Makarov suffered minor injuries. - Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L was counting down to launch on 1983 Sep 26 when at T-20s a fire broke out in the first stage. The DU SAS fired and pulled the BO/SA/GO to a height of 1.4 km, as the Soyuz-U rocket toppled over and exploded. After a 5 minute flight astronauts Titov and Strekalov landed safely 2.5 km from the pad. This is the only time that the DU SAS tower itself was used. The common thread in all four accidents is that the escape systems returned the descent module to Earth safely in all cases. So, (valid) concerns about quality control in the Russian space program should be tempered by a certain degree of confidence in the safety of the Soyuz launch phase even in adverse circumstances. Mesonauts --------- At one point I guessed that the Soyuz MS-10 apogee was below 80 km, in which case I would not have counted Soyuz MS-10 as a spaceflight, and Nick Hague would *not* have qualified as an astronaut. He would them have become a `mesonaut' - a human who has flown in the mesosphere but not outside it. There have been 13 mesonauts, but 10 subsequently became astronauts. Here is the table: M Mesonaut Flight km Date Spaceflight 1 Joe Walker X-15 2-14-28 52 1961 Mar 30 X-15 3-14-24 1963 Jan 17 2 Robert White X-15 2-20-36 66 1961 Oct 11 X-15 3-7-14 1962 Jul 10 3 Neil Armstrong X-15 3-3-7 55 1962 Apr 5 Gemini 8 1966 Mar 4 Robert Rushworth X-15 3-19-30 68 1963 Jun 18 X-15 3-20-31 1963 Jun 27 5 Joe Engle X-15 1-46-73 53 1964 Apr 8 X-15 3-44-67 1965 Jun 29 6 Milton Thompson X-15 1-54-88 54 1965 May 25 === None === 7 Jack McKay X-15 2-40-72 65 1965 Jul 8 X-15 3-49-73 1965 Sep 28 8 Pete Knight X-15 2-46-83 58 1966 Jul 21 X-15 3-64-95 1967 Oct 17 9 William Dana X-15 3-54-80 54 1966 Aug 19 X-15 3-56-83 1966 Nov 1 10 Mike Adams X-15 1-71-121 51 1967 Apr 28 X-15 3-65-97 1967 Nov 15 11 Mike Melvill SS1 56L/14P 64 2004 May 13 SS1-60L/15P 2004 Jun 21 12 David Mackay SS2 PF2-14 52 2018 Jul 26 === None yet === 13 Mike Masucci SS2 PF2-14 52 2018 Jul 26 === None yet === Suborbital Spaceflights ----------------------- Here is a list of flights above 80 km by humans that did not achieve orbit. For air-drop flights the drop point and drop time are used for reporting launch site and duration. Date Spaceship Flight Crew Launch Site Apogee/km Duration/min:s 1. 1961 May 5 Mercury SC7 MR-3 A. Shepard Canaveral LC5 186 15:22 2. 1961 Jul 21 Mercury SC11 MR-4 V. Grissom Canaveral LC5 190 15:37 3. 1962 Jul 10 X-15-3 3-7-14 R. White Delamar Dry Lake 95.9 10:21 4. 1963 Jan 17 X-15-3 3-14-24 J. Walker Delamar Dry Lake 82.2 9:24 5. 1963 Jun 27 X-15-3 3-20-31 R. Rushworth Delamar Dry Lake 86.9 10:28 6. 1963 Jul 19 X-15-3 3-21-32 J. Walker Smith Ranch Lake 106.1 11:25 7. 1963 Aug 22 X-15-3 3-22-36 J. Walker Smith Ranch Lake 108.0 11:09 8. 1965 Jun 29 X-15-3 3-44-67 J. Engle Delamar Dry Lake 85.6 10:32 9. 1965 Aug 10 X-15-3 3-46-70 J. Engle Delamar Dry Lake 82.7 9:52 10. 1965 Sep 28 X-15-3 3-49-73 J. McKay Delamar Dry Lake 90.1 11:57 11. 1965 Oct 14 X-15-1 1-61-101 J. Engle Delamar Dry Lake 81.3 9:18 12. 1966 Nov 1 X-15-3 3-56-83 W. Dana Smith Ranch Lake 93.6 10:44 13. 1967 Oct 17 X-15-3 3-64-95 W. Knight Smith Ranch Lake 85.6 10:06 14. 1967 Nov 15 X-15-3 3-65-07 M. Adams Delamar Dry Lake 81.1 4:51 (Broke up) 15. 1968 Aug 21 X-15-1 1-79-139 W. Dana Railroad Valley 81.6 9:23 16. 1975 Apr 5 7K-T No. 39 Soyuz V. Lazarev Baykonur LC1 192 21:27 O. Makarov 17. 2004 Jun 21 Spaceship One 60L/15P M. Melvill Mojave 100.1 24:05 18. 2004 Sep 29 Spaceship One 65L/16P M. Melvill Mojave 102.9 24:11 19. 2004 Oct 4 Spaceship One 66L/17P B. Binnie Mojave 112.1 23:46 20. 2018 Oct 11 11F732A48 No. 740 Soyuz MS-10 A. Ovchinin Baykonur LC1 93 19:41 N. Hague International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 57 continues aboard the ISS with astronauts Gerst, Prokop'ev, and Aunon-Chancellor. They have plenty of supplies. I expect that the Soyuz-FG will be cleared for return to flight before they have to return to Earth, but NASA reports ISS can remain uncrewed if needed. As of Oct 12 RIA Novosti reported that Soyuz MS-11 could fly as early as Dec 5. The Ovchinin-Hague crew may be recycled for Soyuz MS-12 early next year. The October spacewalks for battery replacements will have to be replanned. They were meant to be done with Gerst and Hague; probably Gerst and Aunon-Chancellor will perform them. Yaogan 32 --------- On Oct 9 China's CALT launched a CZ-2C with the first YZ-1S simplified Yuanzheng-1 upper stage, placing two Yaogan 32 hao 01 zu (Yaogan 32 Group 1) payloads in a 0900 local time sun-synch orbit. It appears the second stage was suborbital, with the YZ-1S making a single orbit insertion burn at apogee. A dual-payload adapter was also left in orbit; the YS-1S then made a deorbit burn and reentered around 82E 35S in the southern Indian Ocean. Beidou ------ Two more Beidou-3 medium orbit navigation satellites were launched on Oct 15. They were Beidou-3 M15 and M16, also known as Beidou Daohang Weixing 39 and 40. AEHF ---- United Launch Alliance fired an Atlas V 551 from Cape Canaveral on Oct 17 carrying the AEHF 4 satellite. AV-073 took off at 0415 UTC, reached a 176 x 485 km x 28.1 deg parking orbit at 0426 UTC, a 202 x 22578 km x 25.9 deg transfer orbit at 0443 UTC, and after a third burn completed at 0745 UTC delivered AEHF 4 to a 8914 x 35300 km x 12.8 deg orbit at 0747 UTC. AEHF 4 was built by Lockheed Martin (using the A2100 bus) for the US Air Force. It carries a 20/44 GHz strategic secure communications payload. Hubble and Chandra gyro glitches -------------------------------- The Hubble Space Telescope is in safemode following failure of one of its gyros on Oct 5. A backup gyro failed to come online; the team are working the problem. If they can't get it working HST will spend the rest of its career observing in `one-gyro' mode; this adds some operational difficulties and will make some special kinds of observation (especially solar system objects) problematic, but won't impact most of its science program. On Oct 10, the Chandra X-ray Observatory also entered safemode due to three seconds of bad data from one of the gyroscopes. Chandra has had very few incidents during its so-far-19-year-long mission; it has now returned to normal pointing mode and is expected to resume science observations in the coming week or two following some ground-commanded onboard reconfiguration and tests. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes 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 SSO Oct 9 0234 Yaogan 32 01 zu ) Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S Jiuquan Sigint 77A S43642 689 x 705 x 98.3 2100LT SSO Yaogan 32 02 zu ) Sigint 77B S43643 689 x 704 x 98.3 2100LT SSO Oct 11 0840 Soyuz MS-10 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship F01 F01526 -6180?x 93 x 51.6 Oct 15 0423 Beidou DW 39 ) Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 Xichang Navigation 78A S43647 21537 x 22193 x 55.0 Beidou DW 40 ) Navigation 78B S43648 21530 x 22193 x 55.0 Oct 17 0415 AEHF 4 Atlas V 551 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 79A S43651 8194?x 35300 x 12.8 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- The suborbital launches table includes known flights above 80 km. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target 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 Oct 8 Ghauri RV Ghauri Somniani? Training 400? Arabian Sea? Oct 11 1100? RV DF-11? Jiuquan Test 500? Urumqi? Oct 11 RV x 4? Sineva? Sub, Barents Sea Exercise 1000? Kura Oct 11 RV x 4? Sineva? Sub, Barents Sea Exercise 1000? Kura Oct 11 RV x 4? Volna? Sub, Sea of Okhotsk Exercise 1000? Chiza Oct 11 RV x 4? Volna? Sub, Sea of Okhotsk Exercise 1000? Chiza .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'