Jonathan's Space Report No. 771 2019 Nov 17 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- The Canadarm-2 unberthed Japan's HTV 8 cargo ship at about 1230 UTC Nov 1 and released it into orbit at 1721 UTC. Burns at 1941 UTC Nov 2, 2112 UTC Nov 2 and 0141 UTC Nov 3 lowered the perigee to 250, 145 and about 12 km respectively. HTV 8 reentered over the south Pacific at about 0209 UTC Nov 3. The first launch in the CRS2 commercial cargo supply contract was carried out on Nov 2. Cygnus flight NG-12 was launched aboard the first Antares 230+. The new rocket has minor changes from the Antares 230, including a redesigned stage 1/2 interstage section. The Castor 30XL second stage motor and the Cygnus were inserted in a 187 x 257 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Cygnus NG-12 has been named the S.S. Alan Bean. Cygnus had a launch mass of 8011 kg and carried 3586 kg of pressurized cargo and 119 kg of external cargo. The latter consisted of the NanoRacks NRCSD-E external deployer with seven cubesats aboard. Inside Cygnus is the US Air Force STPSAT-4 satellite (for SSIKLOPS deploy, probably around 50 kg), five cubesats with the NanoRacks NRCSD-17 package to be deployed from the Kibo module, and two more unidentified cubesats. On Nov 4, NG-12 completed its rendezvous with the ISS. The Canadarm-2 grappled it at 0910 UTC and berthed it at Unity nadir at 1121 UTC. On Nov 7 at 2240 UTC, Progress MS-12 (docked at the Pirs module) fired its engines for 6min 46s to adjust the station's orbit, using about 67 kg of propellant. On Nov 15 astronauts Parmitano and Morgan carried out spacewalk US EVA-59 in suits 3004 and 3008, to begin repairs to the AMS-2 cooling system. AMS-2, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, is a particle physics experiment which was launched to ISS in 2011 and attached to the S3 truss segment. The astronauts removed a 9 kg debris shield, jettisoned at 1417 UTC, and a small Vertical Support Beam Cover (probably about 1 kg?), jettisoned at 1616 UTC. They also installed handrails and removed smaller internal components to gain access to cooling system. Quest was depressurized at 1133 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1136 UTC; the hatch was closed at 1814 UTC and the airlock was repressurized at 1818 UTC. X-37B ----- The OTV-5 mission of the X-37B spaceplane ended at 0751 UTC Oct 27 with landing at the SLF runway at Kennedy Space Center. The USAF announced that the mission was successful while "providing a ride for small satellites". No such satellites have been cataloged in the US satellite catalog, nor have they been identified in registration notification documents sent to the United Nations, in violation of UN Resolution 3235 (XXIX), Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space. Starlink -------- The second batch of 60 SpaceX Starlink satellites were launched on Nov 11. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle used first stage B1048 on its fourth flight; the stage landed on the OCISLY drone ship and the second stage was deorbited south of Australia, leaving the 60 payloads and four deployment rods in orbit. The new satellites have both Ka and Ku band antennae. This time the payloads were deployed in a 298 x 303 km x 53.0 deg orbit; the deployment rods seem to have been ejected in a retrograde direction and are in a 275 x 288 km orbit; I expect them to reenter in a few weeks. The serial numbers of the new payloads are Starlink 1007-1017, 1019-1065, 1067-1068. Hayabusa-2 ----------- The MINERVA-II container was released from Hayabusa-2 about 1 km above Ryugu at 1557 UTC on Oct 2. Rover 2 separated from the container and both objects (container and Rover) are believed to have drifted onto the surface by Oct 8. Measurements of the radio beacon on Rover 2 confirmed it to be on the surface. However I gather from the JAXA team at IAC2019 that, as expected, the earlier failure of the Rover 2 computer prevented any science data from being obtained. On Oct 14 Hayabusa-2 returned to its home point 20 km from Ryugu. On Nov 13 at 0105 UTC, it made a 0.1m/s departure burn to begin the trip back to Earth On Nov 18 Hayabusa-2 left Ryugu's gravitational sphere of influence and reentered a 0.96 x 1.41 AU x 5.9 deg heliocentric orbit. GaoFen 7 -------- The GaoFen 7 civilian high resolution imaging satellite was launched to sun-synchronous orbit on Nov 3. The launch also carried three small satellites: Huangpu-1 (50-100 kg class) developed by Lizheng (Shanghai) for the Dawan District Research Inst, Guangdong. Sudan Kexue Shiyan Weixing (Sudan science experiment satellite, 50-100 kg class?) developed by Shenzhen DFH HIT for Sudan. Dianfeng (Xiaoxiang-1 08), a 6U cubesat from Tianyi Research for remote sensing and tests of laser communications and a French solid iodine thruster. Beidou Daohang Weixing 49 ------------------------- China's BDW 49 navigation satellite was launched to geotransfer orbit on Nov 3. The satellite is the third inclined geosynchronous mission in the Beidou-3 system. It appears to have made its circularization burn on Nov 5 but no TLEs have been released for it in the new orbit as of Nov 16. Jilin-1 Gaofen 2A ----------------- On Nov 13 China's EXPACE launched KZ-1A no. Y11 with the Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A high resolution (0.8m) imaging payload aboard. The satellite entered a sun-synchronous orbit with 1000 local time descending node. Ningxia-1 --------- On Nov 13, China's CALT launched the third Chang Zheng 6. placing five Ningxia-1 satellites in orbit. The satellites are thought to be measuring terrestrial radio emissions, either for military signals intelligence or for a civilian equivalent (like the Hawkeye 360 satellites). KL-Alpha -------- On Nov 17, EXPACE launched Kuaizhou-1A no. Y7 with two `global multimedia' Ka-band communications satellites, KL-Alpha-A and KL-Alpha-B, built by Shanghai's IMICAS for an unnamed German company. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Oct 4 1851 GaoFen 10 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 66A S44622 612 x 622 x 97.8 0200LT SSO Oct 9 1017 MEV-1 ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Servicing 67 S44624? 11989 x 65080 x 13.4 Eutelsat 5WB ) Comms 67 S44625? 11982 x 64871 x 13.4 Oct 11 0200 ICON Pegasus XL L1011, Canaveral Science 68A S44628 569 x 569 x 27.0 Oct 17 0122 Palisade Electron Mahia LC1 Tech 69A S44634 1208 x 1225 x 87.9 Oct 17 1521 TJS 4 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Sigint? 70A S44637 195 x 34974 x 27.0 Nov 2 1359 S.S. Alan Bean Antares 230+ MARS LA0 Cargo 71A S44701 186 x 257 x 51.6 Nov 3 0322 Gao Fen 7 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 72A S44703 489 x 518 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Huangpu-1 ) Imaging? 72C S44706 485 x 505 x 97.5 Dianfeng ) Imaging 72D S44705 485 x 505 x 97.5 Sudan Kexue Shiyan ) Tech 72B S44704 487 x 504 x 97.5 Nov 4 1743 Beidou DW49 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Navigation 73A S44709 184 x 35822 x 28.5 Nov 11 1456 Starlink 1007 ) to ) 74A S44713 298 x 303 x 53.0 Starlink 1017 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms to Starlink 1019 ) 74BM S44772 298 x 303 x 53.0 to ) Starlink 1065 ) Starlink 1067 ) Starlink 1068 ) Nov 13 0340 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Imaging 75A S44777 532 x 546 x 97.5 1000LT SSO Nov 13 0635 Ningxia-1 01 ) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Sigint 76A S44779 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 02 ) Sigint 76B S44780 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 03 ) Sigint 76C S44781 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 04 ) Sigint 76D S44782 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 05 ) Sigint 76E S44783 886 x 898 x 45.0 Nov 17 1000 KL-Alpha-A ) Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Comms 77A S44785 1044 x 1058 x 88.9 KL-Alpha-B ) Comms 77B S44876 1045 x 1432 x 88.8 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Oct 1 2211 RV Bukgeukseong-3 Wonsan? Test 950 Sea of Japan Oct 2 0813 GT232GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300? Kwajalein Oct 7 1500 DUST Black Brant 9 White Sands Physics 338 White Sands Oct 17? RV Yars Plesetsk Op.Test 1000? Kura Oct 17? RV x 4? Sineva K-18, Barents Sea Op.Test 1000? Kura Oct 17? RV x 3? Volna K-44, Sea of Okhotsk Op.Test 1000? Chiza Oct 25 0000 SubTec-8 Terrier Imp.Mal. Wallops I. Tech 209 Atlantic Oct 27 0430 FORTIS 4 Black Brant 9 White Sands UV Astron 261 White Sands Oct 30 1457 RV x 6? Bulava K-549, White Sea Test 1000? Kura Oct 31 0735 RV DPRK MLRS Puckhong? Test 90 Sea of Japan Oct 31 0738 RV DPRK MLRS Puckhong? Test 90 Sea of Japan Nov 15 0935 TEXUS 56 VSB-30 Kiruna Micrograv 256 ESRANGE Nov 16 1402 RV Agni 2 Kalam Island Test 600? Indian O. .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'