Jonathan's Space Report No. 762 (Resend 1) 2019 Mar 9 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: First try had a stray unicode character which caused some mailers to send it to spam. Let's see if this version works; apologies if you already did receive JSR762. Spaceship Two ------------- Thanks to additional data from Mike Moses, here is a more detailed description of the recent flight. Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two VSS Unity made its second spaceflight on Feb 22. Takeoff of the White Knight Two carrier plane, VMS Eve, on flight WK2-265/N202VG-016 was at 1607:02 UTC from Mojave Air and Space Port. The mission ID for the flight was VF-01 (F is for full flight profile). VSS Unity carried three crew memors: David Mackay, VG Chief Pilot, who becomes the first Scottish-born astronaut Michael Massuci, VG pilot; Beth Moses, the first woman on a commercial human spaceflight launch. Beth is the Chief Trainer for VG (her full birth name, for the historical record, was Natalie Beth Stubbings). She also became, as far as I know, the first person to unstrap and float around the cabin on a suborbital spaceflight. The crew became the 569th, 570th, and 571st humans to fly in space (using my 80 km definition). WK2 flew north to Owens Lake, west to Overlook Mountain in the Sierra Nevada and then south to the drop point near Kelso Valley Airport at 118.22W 35.38N. At 1653:40, at an altitude of 13.4 km, WK2 dropped VSS Unity. Unity's hybrid RM2 rocket motor fired for 59 seconds starting at 1653:43 and boosted it to an apogee of 89.92 km; Unity then glided to touchdown on the Mojave runway RW12/30, with wheels stop at 1708:49 UTC, for a flight duration of 15 min 9s. Powered flights of VSS Unity to date: Date (Drop) Flight Mission Drop point Apogee Duration (Wheels stop) 2018 Apr 5 WK2-246/N202VG-012 VP-01 Unknown 26 km 2018 May 29 WK2-249/N202VG-013 VP-01-2 Unknown 35 km 2018 Jul 26 1644 WK2-252/N202VG-014 VP-02 Unknown 52 km 14:12? 2018 Dec 13 1559:39 WK2-261/N202VG-015 VP-03 118.22W 35.39N 82.72 km 14:06 2019 Feb 22 1653:40 WK2-264/N202VG-016 VF-01 118.22W 35.38N 89.92 km 15:09 International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 58 remains underway. At 0221 UTC Feb 26, the Progress MS-10 cargo ship docked to the Zvezda module fired its engines to boost the ISS orbit slightly and set up for the Soyuz MS-12 launch. The 0.9m/s burn lasted 451s. and used 139 kg of prop. This was the 3rd reboost by Progress MS-10. The Cygnus NG-10 freighter, the S.S. John Young, was deorbited over the Pacific Ocean and reentered at around 145W 40S over the "spacecraft graveyard" east of New Zealand at 0905 UTC Feb 25 after 100.0 days in space. On Mar 2 the first Crew Dragon, DM-1, was launched on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center. Falcon 9 stage 1 flew to a downrange landing on the OCISLY droneship. Stage 2 placed the Crew Dragon in a 194 x 358 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The Stage 2 is believed to have deorbited itself west of Australia at about 0839 UTC. Dragon made its first orbit adjust burns to 224 x 369 km and 235 x 351 km later in the morning. DM-1 docked at IDA-2/PMA-2 at 1051 UTC on Mar 3. The cabin carries the anthropomorphic test dummy `Ripley' and 180 kg of cargo. Stephen Clark of SpaceflightNow reports that NASA tell him the docking mass of DM-1 was 12055 kg. My guess is that the launch mass is roughly 1000 kg more than that, but as usual SpaceX are being coy about that for incomprehensible reasons. DM-1 undocked at 0732 UTC Mar 8 and manuevered to a 395 x 401 km orbit. At 1248 UTC the trunk was jettisoned into orbit. At 1253 Dragon began its deorbit burn; after a successful reentry, it splashed down at 1345 UTC in the Atlantic off Florida, at about 76.7W 30.5N. Beresheet --------- The Israeli lunar probe Beresheet made a perigee raising burn at 1129 UTC Feb 24, to 668 x 69021 km x 27.0 deg. A second burn at 1930 UTC on Feb 28 raised apogee to 127572 km, and a third one at 1311 UTC Mar 7 boosted the orbit to 470 x 271500 km x 27.8 deg. OneWeb ------ The first six OneWeb satellites were launched on Feb 27. A Soyuz ST-B/Fregat took off from the Centre Spatial Guyanais at 2137 UTC Feb 27. The Blok I rocket delivered the upper composite to a marginally orbital trajectory at 2147 UTC; the stage probably reentered over the Arctic. Fregat burns at 2147 UTC and 2233 UTC placed the stack in a roughly 1000 km circular orbit. First, OneWeb satellites 6 and 11 were deployed; then, after a small orbit adjust, 7, 8, 10, and 12 were dispensed. Each satellite has a mass of 148 kg. Four satellite mass simulators were also carried; they remained attached to the 468 kg RUAG dispenser cylinder on the Fregat. Fregat made a series of small manuevers to simulate dispensing a full 32-satellite OneWeb stack and then made a deorbit burn at 0113 UTC Feb 28 and reentered over the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar at 0200 UTC. Fregat made two complete orbits, but did not get a catalog number. OneWeb arranged for schoolchildren in six schools around the world to give names to the satellites: OneWeb-0006 SherpaSat - named by students from Khairkola, Nepal after Pasang Lhamu Sherpa (1961-1993), the first woman to climb Everest. OneWeb-0007 ChinghizSat - named by students from Kotur-Suu, Kyrgyzstan after Chinghiz Aitmatov (1928-2008), Kyrgyz novelist and diplomat. OneWeb-0008 IcyerekezoSat - named by students from Nkombo Island, Rwanda aftger the Kinyarwanda word for 'vision'. OneWeb-0010 ChusigSat - named by students from Santa Cruz, Ecuador, after Eugenio Espejo (1747-1795), journalist, lawyer and activist; Espejo is thought to have had the Kichwa name Chusig, OneWeb-0011 LempiraSat - named by students from Siguatepeque, Honduras after Lempira (1499?-1537), leader of the Lenca people. OneWeb-0012 NanuqSat - named by students from Anchorage, Alaska after a divine polar bear from Inupiaq legend. Kosmos-482 ---------- There have been some media stories about the idea that the failed 1972 Soviet Venus probe Kosmos-482 might reenter this year. Not exactly. Let's unpack this. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the newly-formed IKI (Space Research Institute) and the Lavochkin company developed a series of Venus probes based on an evolution of Korolev's early Mars/Venera probe design. In the 1972 Venus window, the last two such probes were launched: V-71 No. 670 and V-71 No. 671, both on Molniya-M (8K78M) four-stage launch vehicles (basically Soyuz rockets with a fourth stage, in this case the Blok-NVL) Probe No. 670 was boosted to solar orbit and named Venera-8 ("Venus-8"). It was launched on 1972 Mar 27 and successfully landed on Venus on 1972 Jul 22, surviving for 50 minutes on the surface. Probe No. 671 didn't go so well. The lower 3 stages of the Molniya-M rocket put the stack in a 196 x 215 km Earth partking orbit. Then the Blok-NVL's BOZ ullage motor unit fired to give the upper stage a little kick and itself separated. The Blok-NVL main engine now ignited but shut down prematurely, 2 min into a 4 min burn. The Venera probe/Blok-NVL stack was now stranded in a 206 x 9800 km Earth orbit. US tracking found THREE objects in this orbit. One was labelled as Kosmos-482, one as the rocket stage, and one as debris. "Kosmos-482" and the "rocket stage" (1972-023A and B) had relatively rapid orbital decay and reentered in 1981 and 1983 respectively. The debris object, 1972-023E, came down more slowly. In Sep 2000 I noted this and discussed with a few experts the possiblity that, with its 1 sq m radar cross section, 23E (object 6073) might be the separated Venera descent sphere; I started labelling it as such in my online satellite catalog. Funnily enough, in June 2002 the NORAD satellite catalog starting labelling 6073 as the Venera descent sphere too. Probably just a coincidence. Recent optical observations by Ralf Vandebergh have cast some doubt on these identifications - he concludes it's more long&irregular than small&round. So it's possible I was wrong - I think the jury is open. The current fuss - e.g. https://www.space.com/failed-soviet-venus-spacecraft-falls-to-earth-soon.html - is about this third object, 1972-023E, SSN 6073. The suggestion that 23E will reenter soon seems to be based on the fact that it has a 200 km perigee. But it's had a 200 km perigee since 1972. At https://planet4589.org/space/misc/k482/k482.jpg is a plot showing the average height of the various objects from the launch versus time; and at https://planet4589.org/space/misc/k482/k482c.jpg is a plot showing the perigee (red), apogee (blue) and average height (green) of the 23E object (presumed descent capsule, only bit of Kosmos-482 still up there). Doesn't look like imminent reentry to me. (You'll notice an oscillation in the decay rate, which correlates nicely with the solar cycle.) One possibility to explain the optical observations is that we had 23A and 23E the wrong way round. But it's odd that 23E has the lower A/m. Another (slim) possibility is that the capsule deployed a bit of the Venus entry parachute, but not enough to affect the A/m. So to recap: Soviet Venus probe stuck in elliptical orbit. Payload separated from rocket stage after failure. Third object - still in orbit - speculated to be the 500 kg, 1.0m diam. entry sphere. But might not be. Reentry probably early-mid 2020s? If it *is* the entry sphere, it might well survive Earth atmosphere entry and hit the ground. In which case I expect it'll have the usual one-in-about-10000 chance of hitting someone. The vehicle is dense but inert and has no nuclear materials. No need for major concern. Erratum: -------- MySat-1 is not from Malaysia, I don't know where my brain was when I typed that. It's from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi. Apologies for the error. Note: ----- I don't normally run ads, but: The late and great Jacques Tiziou was a space journalist from the 1960s onwards, and is one of the few people who had a personal space archive that rivals mine. His son has a kickstarter to preserve the materials, which you may wish to take a look at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jjtiziou/space-junk-excavating-the-tiziou-space-history-mus Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Feb 1? SeeMe? EXCITE, LEO Imaging 99BS S43822 571 x 594 x 97.8 1017LT SSO Feb 5 Dousti Safir Semnan Imaging F02 F01533 -6000?x 10?x 55.0 Feb 5 2101 Saudi Geosat 1 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 07A S44034 242 x 35770 x 3.0 GSAT-31 ) Comms 07B S44035 245 x 35841 x 3.0 Feb 9 0000 Quantum Radar 1 ) Cygnus NG10,LEO Tech 18092C S44041 455 x 459 x 51.6 Quantum Radar 2 ) Tech 18092D S44042 457 x 457 x 51.6 Feb 13 1200 MySat-1 ) Cygnus NG10,LEO Tech 18092E S44044? 455 x 471 x 51.6 CHEFSAT-2 ) Tech 18092F S44045? 455 x 471 x 51.6 Feb 13 2245 Kicksat-2 Cygnus NG10,LEO Tech 18092G S44046 297 x 306 x 51.6 Feb 21 1647 EgyptSat-A Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Imaging 08A S44047 652 x 656 x 98.0 0950LT SSO Feb 22 0145 Nusantara Satu ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 09A S44048 226 x 69068 x 27.6 S5 ) Imaging 09D? Attached to Nusantara Satu Beresheet ) Lunar probe 09B S44049 242 x 68845 x 27.6 Feb 27 2137 OneWeb-0006 ) Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS Comms 10E S44061 984 x 1007 x 87.8 OneWeb-0007 ) Comms 10D S44060 984 x 1007 x 87.8 OneWeb-0008 ) Comms 10C S44059 985 x 1009 x 87.8 OneWeb-0010 ) Comms 10B S44058 986 x 1010 x 87.8 OneWeb-0011 ) Comms 10F S44062 987 x 1005 x 87.8 OneWeb-0012 ) Comms 10A S44057 985 x 1010 x 87.8 Mar 2 0749 Crew Dragon DM-1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 11A S44063 235 x 351 x 51.6 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Feb 6 0701 Mk 21 RV/FTU-1 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg Test 1300? Pacific Ocean Feb 6 0831 Yars RV Yars Plesetsk Test 1300? Kura Feb 22 1654 VSS Unity VF-01 Spaceship Two Kelso Valley Test 89.9 Mojave .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'