Jonathan's Space Report No. 629 2010 Jun 28 Somerville, MA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's been a banner month for the Ucyu Koku Kenkyu Kaihatsu Kikou (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA), with the succesful deployment of the first ever solar sail propulsion system by the recently launched Ikaros probe, and the return to Earth on Jun 13 of the Hayabusa probe after a seven year voyage to asteroid (25143) Itokawa and back. Ikaros ------- Ikaros deployed its 20-meter solar sail between May 28 and Jun 11. On May 28, four small tip masses were ejected from the four corners of the sail, and on Jun 14 the tiny DCAM-2 camera subsatellite was ejected to take pictures of the sail, as Ikaros coasted 9 million km from the Earth. The identical DCAM-1 was ejected on Jun 19. Hayabusa -------- The MUSES-C experimental space probe, named Hayabusa after launch, rode an M-V solid rocket to space from the Uchinoura Space Center on 2003 May 9. The M-V third stage reached a suborbital trajectory of around -185 x 500 km, and the KM-V2 kick stage then accelerated Hayabusa into an escape orbit which resulted in a solar orbit. The ion drive began operating and by Jan 2004 the solar orbit was 0.860 x 1.138 AU x 1.2 deg. A 3725 km Earth flyby on 2004 May 19 pumped up the orbit to 1.01 x 1.73 AU x 1.3 deg,a djusted by Jul 2005 to 0.95 x 1.70 AU x 1.6 deg, matching Itokawa. Hayabusa arrived at Itokawa on 2005 Sep 12, stationkeeping at 20 km. After maneuvering around the object, despite a reaction wheel failure on Sep 30, Hayabusa approached to only 70 metres from the surface on 2005 Nov 9 and then retreated; in a second descent that day, to 500 m, it released a small target marker, which failed to land on the asteroid. On Nov 12, during an approach to 55m, a small experiment cover was ejected followed by the MINERVA 'hopper' lander, but the lander floated away from the asteroid rather than touching down (although it may have impacted the surface by now). On Nov 19, Hayabusa successfully dropped a second target marker on the surface and then itself touched down, bouncing and then landing again, taking off after half an hour on the surface. During second landing on Nov 25, Hayabusa fired two sampling 'bullets' to kick up surface material into its sample collectors. During takeoff, however, the spacecraft malfunctioned and entered safemode, and it's not yet known if any material was really captured. It was recontacted on Dec 5 at a distance of 550 km from Itokwawa, with its propulsion system only partly working, and a year of uncertainty followed as JAXA attempted to regain control of the probe and find a way to propel it home. Hayabusa departed the Itokawa vicinity in Feb 2007 and, as contollers coaxed limited function out of its faltering ion drives, set course for Earth. By Apr 2010 it was in a 0.983 x 1.654 AU x 1.7 deg solar orbit at 24 million km from home, and began a series of course corrections to target it for landing. Hayabusa entered the Earth's gravitational sphere of influence on Jun 11, and passed lunar orbit on Jun 12, approaching Earth on a hyperbola with an estimated perigee of -64 km, eccentricity of 1.37 and inclination of 34.5 deg (based on Bill Gray's estimate of the orbit, since JAXA did not release the information). At 1051 UTC the conical Hayabusa return capsule separated from the main spacecraft. As they gained speed in their fall to Earth, the eastward motion of Hayabusa and capsule was initially slower than Earth's rotation and so their ground track headed west over the Pacific to around 60E 20N as their altitude dropped through 23000 km at 1300 UTC, and then, overtaking terrestrial spin, southeastward toward Australia. Nominal entry was at 200 km altitude at 1351 UTC, over about 125E 28S, travelling at 12.2 km/s at about -12 deg to the horizontal. The main spacecraft, with no heat shield, burnt up by 1352 UTC, as the reentry capsule decelarated and then descended by parachute. The capsule landed in the Woomera range area at around 1412 UTC. Congratulations JAXA! Shuttle and Station -------------------- Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi returned to Earth on Jun 2 aboard Soyuz TMA-17. They undocked from the Zvezda module at 0004 UTC and touched down in Kazakhstan at 0325 UTC. Aleksandr Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson officially began Expedition 24 upon TMA-17's undocking. Soyuz TMA-19 was launched into orbit on Jun 15 with Fyodor Yurchikhin, Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker; it docked with Zvezda at 2221 UTC on Jun 17. Falcon 9 -------- SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully reached its target orbit on its first launch on Jun 2. The Dragon Qualification Unit, attached to the Falcon 9 second stage, entered a 235 x 276 km x 34.5 deg orbit at 1853 UTC. A second stage restart planned for 1939 UTC did not occur although there may have been a small 5m/s orbit change at around 2025 UTC; venting of the second stage was observed over Australia. The Dragon QU is probably about 4000-5000 kg and is a simplified version of the Dragon cargo ship that will be used to send supplies to the Space Station on Falcon 9's next flight. The empty second stage is probably around 2000-3000 kg for a total orbit mass of the vehicle of about 6000-8000 kg. By late on Jun 26 the DQU/Falcon 9 was in a 138 x 140 km orbit skimming the atmosphere, and it reentered around 0h UTC on Jun 27. GPS IIF SV-1 ------------ The first Block IIF Global Positioning System satellite, SVN 62, was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 28. The satellite was built by Boeing/El Segundo and has a launch mass of 1630 kg including an unknown amount of stationkeeping propellant. The Block IIF satellites carry the L1M and L2M military GPS channels, the L2C civilian channel and a new L5 civilian channel as well as a nuclear explosion detection system (descendant of the Vela satellites, to monitor the test ban treaty) and the a classified instrument. The Delta rocket entered a low parking orbit, probably around 270 x 320 km x 37.5 deg, at 0312 UTC. At 0324 UTC it restarted to enter a transfer orbit of 252 x 20464 x 43.3 deg. At 0620 UTC the stage made a third burn to a 20437 x 20460 km x 55.0 deg orbit and then deployed the GPS satellite. (The ULA mission book, in a break with past practice for GPS launches, did not provide details on the intermediate orbits for this mission.) SERVIS-2 -------- Japan's SERVIS-2 satellite, which will test out new commercial satellite electronics and components, was launched by a Russian Rokot vehicle from Plesetsk on Jun 2 into an 1186 x 1210 km x 100.4 deg polar orbit. Beidou ------ China launched the 4th Beidou Navigation Satellite (di si ke beidou daohang weixing) on Jun 2 into a 205 x 35647 km x 20.5 deg geostationary transfer orbit. On Jun 8 it was in a 35773 x 35797 km x 1.8 deg GEO at 84.7E. STSAT-2B --------- South Korea's Naro-ho (KSLV-1) launch vehicle failed to reach orbit for the second time on Jun 10. The two-stage vehicle took off from Naro Space Center but broke apart 137s into flight during the burn of the Russian-built Angara-class first stage. It is not yet clear what caused the failure. The rocket carried the 100 kg STSAT-2B research satellite, a copy of the STSAT-2A lost in last year's launch. Kosmos-2462 ----------- Russia's Kosmos-2462 spy satellite continues in orbit two months into a probable three-month mission, with an orbit of 180 x 360 km decaying to circa 175 x 310 km and then being reboosted. So far reboost burns have happened on Apr 19, Apr 28, May 8, May 18, May 29, Jun 6 and Jun 26. Prisma and Picard ------------------ Sweden's PRISMA mission consists of two satellites, Mango and Tango, which are launched connected to one another. They will separate after one month in orbit to carry out formation flying experiments. PRISMA was launched by a Dnepr rocket from Russia's Yasniy missile base on Jun 15. Also deployed by the Dnepar was France's Picard solar physics satellite which measures small variations in total solar output and maps out the differential rotation of the Sun and makes an accurate measurement of the solar diameter. The BPA-1 (Blok Perspektivnoy Avioniki-1) experiment for the Ukranian space agency stays attached to the Dnepr third stage; it is a technology development experiment for aircraft and spacecraft navigation developed by Khartron-Arkos, who make the Dnepr control system. Picard is in a 726 x 728 km x 98.3 deg orbit while PRISMA is in a 725 x 785 km orbit. The BPA-1 is in a 714 x 1268 km orbit; as usual the Dnepr third stage ends up in a more elliptical path as it separates from the payloads. Tandem-X --------- Another Dnepr launch, this time from Baykonur, put the Tandem-X radar satellite in a 496 x 511 km x 97.5 deg orbit for Germany's DLR. It's a duplicate of the TerraSAR-X satellite launched in 2007 and will work in coordination with its sibling. The Dnepr third stage is in a 499 x 1145 km orbit. SJ-12 ----- The SJ-12 (shijian shier hao weixing, Practice Satellite 12) was launched from Jiuquan space center on Jun 15 into a 575 x 597 km x 97.7 deg orbit; the CZ-2D final stage ended up in a 559 x 663 km x 97.7 deg orbit. The mission of SJ-12 is not known. Suborbital flights ------------------ The Missile Defense Agency tested a two stage version of the Ground Based Interceptor on Jun 6. The three-stage version has made eight flights between 2003 and 2010; both versions are made by Orbital Sciences. Air Force Global Strike Command carried out a routine training launch of a Minuteman III from Vandenberg on Jun 16; the single reentry vehicle made a suborbital flight to Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific. On Jun 8 and 9, four Trident II missiles, each probably carrying eight reentry vehicles, were launched down the Eastern Range from the submarine USS Maryland in another series of training launches. On Jun 24, a Terrier Orion launched the RockOn educational experiments from Wallops. Cassini ------- Cassini made a 2044 km flyby of Titan's north pole (T-69) on Jun 5, reducing orbit inclination around Saturn from 12 degrees to 2.0 deg. After apoapsis on Jun 11, it returned to Titan for the T-70 flyby on Jun 20 at 0127 UTC, making its closest ever pass at 880 km above the clouds to measure the dayside ionosphere. This pumped the inclination back up, and the orbit on Jun 21 was 119500 x 2207600 km x 19.1 deg. The next flyby is T-71 on Jul 7. Dawn ---- The Dawn space probe is approaching 2.0 AU from the Sun as it continues its ion-drive-propelled uphill climb towards asteroid (4) Vesta, which it will reach in Jul 2011. Dawn is currently in a 1.75 x 2.07 AU x 6.8 deg orbit around the Sun. As always, I encourage readers to keep up with Marc Rayman's entertaining Dawn Journal at dawn.jpl.nasa.gov. 'Ofeq-9 ------- Israel made its first satellite launch in three years on Jun 22 as a three stage Shaviyt ('Comet') rocket placed 'Ofeq-9 into a 343 x 588 km x 141.8 deg orbit; the AUS-51 solid third stage is in a 294 x 595 km orbit. The 'Ofeq satellites carry imaging reconnaissance payloads. This is the first launch with a solid-propellant upper stage so far this year (since the Naro-1 was lost before the upper stage ignited), continuing a welcome trend resulting in reducing the amount of orbital debris due to solid motor exhaust particles. Arabsat 5A/COMS --------------- Arianespace launched vehicle L552, an Ariane 5ECA, on flight V195 on Jun 26 from Kourou. The EPC stage flew a -1106 x 212 km x 7.2 deg trajectory, and the ESC-A stage then delivered two satellites to geostationary transfer orbit. The 4839 kg Arabsat 5A is an Astrium Eurostar E3000 for C and Ku band coverage of the Middle East and Africa for Arabsat, the Arab Satellite Communications Organization. The Chollian satellite is South Korea's Communications, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS-1), also a Eurostar E3000 but only 2461 kg mass at launch. In addition to C and Ku band communications systems, Chollian carries a multi-spectral meteorological imager with four 4km-resolution infrared and one 1 km-resolution visible channel, the GOCI 8-band ocean color imager for studies of clorophyll and turbidity in Korean peninsular waters, and an L-band/S-band data relay payload for meteorological data. According to my Korean colleague D-W Kim: "[Chollian] is composed of 3 letters, Chun - Li - An. (The combined word sounds chollian, by a rule in Korean language.) Chun = thousand (or very large/long etc.);li = a unit of length (10 li is about 4 km); An = view or vision. So the word means "an ability to see out to very long distance (= 1000 li)". Based on Dong-Woo's comments, maybe "FarView" would be a fair translation, (cf US imaging satellites like OrbView, WorldView etc.) with "Thousand-Li View" as a more literal rendering. Badr ---- Russia's International Launch Services carried the Badr-5 (Arabsat 5B) communications satellite into a 5764 x 35769 km x 19.0 deg orbit on a Khrunichev Proton-M/Briz-M on Jun 3. Badr 5 is an Astrium Eurostar 3000 satellite with a launch mass of 5420 kg. By Jun 25 Badr-5 was in a 35777 x 35797 km x 0.1 deg orbit at 34.5E; it will be stationed at 26E with Badr-4 and Badr-6. Rex --- I regret to announce the death of Rex Hall, former president of the British Interplanetary Society and the world expert on the biographies of Soviet cosmonauts. I met Rex when I was a teenage proto-space-historian and he was always a wonderful mentor and colleague. --- NOTE: The JSR server suffered a disk crash earlier this month. I have now almost completely restored the site, although the JSR email subscription list is out of date. I have transitioned the list to mailman. Updates to the web page will be sparse for the next few weeks while I am on travel. Congratulations to the Leicester University X-ray astronomy team on the 50th anniversary of their first rocket launches: http://www.planet4589.org/space/misc/lux.html I look forward to seeing some of you in Leicester next week. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. May 14 1820 Atlantis (STS-132) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 19A May 20 2158 Akatsuki ) H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Venus Probe 20D Ikaros ) Solar sail 20E Unitec-1 ) Tech 20F Negai* ) Tech/imaging 20A Waseda-Sat 2) Imaging 20B KSAT ) Science 20C May 21 2201 Astra 3B ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 21A ComsatBw-2) Comms 21B May 28 0300 GPS SVN 62 (IIF SV-1) Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Navigation 22A Jun 2 0159 SERVIS 2 Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Tech 23A Jun 2 1553 Beidou DW4 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Navigation 24A Jun 3 2200 Arabsat 5B Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 25A Jun 4 1845 Dragon Qual Unit Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Test 26A Jun 10 0801 STSAT-2B Naro-1 Naro Tech F02 Jun 15 0139 SJ-12 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Science? 27A Jun 15 1442 Prisma-Mango ) Dnepr Yasniy Tech 28B Prisma-Tango ) Tech 28B Picard ) Solar phys 28A BPA-1 ) Navigation 28C Jun 15 2135 Soyuz TMA-19 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 29A Jun 21 0214 Tandem-X Dnepr Baykonur LC109 Radar 30A Jun 22 1900? 'Ofeq-9 Shaviyt-1 Palmachim Imaging 31A Jun 26 2141 Arabsat 5A ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 32A Chollian ) Comms/Weather 32B Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km May 3 0947 NASA 36.248DR Black Brant IX San Nicholas I Target 150? May 3 1832 NASA 36.258UE Black Brant IX White Sands Solar EUV 280? May 4 1241 SpaceLoft SL-4 SpaceLoft XL SW Regional Micrograv 113? May 5 1150 SR VII Sounding Rocket Jiu Peng Ionosphere 287 May 17 0348 Agni RV Agni A2 Wheeler I Training 300? May 21 0900 NASA 36.270UG Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 325? Jun 6 2225 BVT-1? GBI Vandenberg Test 300? Jun 8 USN RV x 8? Trident II SSBN 738, ETR Op Test 1000? Jun 8 USN RV x 8? Trident II SSBN 738, ETR Op Test 1000? Jun 9 USN RV x 8? Trident II SSBN 738, ETR Op Test 1000? Jun 9 USN RV x 8? Trident II SSBN 738, ETR Op Test 1000? Jun 16 1001 GT200-GM1? Minuteman III Vandenberg Op Test 1300? Jun 24 1000 NASA 41.088UO Terrier Orion Wallops LA2 Education 120? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@www.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'