Jonathan's Space Report

No 697 2014 May 17 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 39 continued in early May with commander Koichi Wakata and flight engineers Tyurin, Mastracchio, Skvortsov, Artem'ev and Swanson On May 13 the Ex 39 crew of Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata transferred to Soyuz TMA-11M leaving the ISS under the control of Ex-40 commander Steve Swanson and FEs Arteme'v and Skvortsov ISS is in a 413 x 417 km x 51 7 deg orbit

Dragon CRS-3 completed its rendezvous with the ISS on Apr 20 and was grappled by the SSRMS robot arm at 1114 UTC The arm berthed Dragon on the Harmony module's nadir CBM port at 1402 UTC, with the process completed at 1406 UTC The SSRMS Canadarm-2 robot arm and the SPDM Dextre robot manipulator were used to remove two pieces of cargo from the unpressurized Dragon trunk HDEV, the high definition Earth viewing video package, was installed on the ESA Columbus module EPF-SDN attach point on Apr 30 OPALS, a laser communications package, was installed on Express Logistics Carrier 1 on the P3 truss segment on May 7

Soyuz TMA-11M undocked from the Rassvet module at 2236 UTC on May 13 and made the deorbit burn at 0105 UTC May 14 Landing in Kazakhstan came at 0158:30 UTC on May 14

Ekspress AM-4R

A Proton vehicle launched from Baykonur on May 15 had a third stage failure and reentered over China Debris was found north of Harbin, in Heilongjiang province The communications satellite payload, Ekspress AM-4R, had been built to replace a satellite lost in an earlier Proton failure; it used an Astrium Eurostar 3000 bus and was intended for the Russian domestic operator Kosmicheskaya Svyaz The payload section reentered without separating from the third stage; orbit achieved was around -1600 x 160 km

KazEOSat-1

The third launch of Europe's Vega light launch vehicle successfully placed the Kazakh DZZ-HR imaging satellite in a 737 x 741 km x 98 6 deg, 1014 LTDN sun-synchronous orbit on Apr 30 DZZ-HR was renamed KazEOSat-1 after launch; it was built by Airbus Defense and Space (Toulouse), is based on the Astrosat bus and has an imager with 1 metre resolution

Luch/Kazsat

All four objects from the Luch/Kazsat launch are now being tracked On May 15 Luch-5V was in a 35689 x 35739 km x 4 8 deg orbit drifting east over 94 1E at 0 9 deg/day; Kazsat-3 was in a 35884 x 35988 km x 0 2 deg orbit drifting west over 67 4E at 1 9 deg/day The Briz stage is in a 35593 x 40606 km x 1 1 deg orbit and the DTB tank is in a 364 x 35732 km x 47 8 deg orbit

Kicksat

A timer problem on Kicksat means that the deployment of the Sprite subsatellites was reset to May 16 Unfortunately, Kicksat was destroyed when it reentered on May 14 The last orbital data on May 13 showed it in a 159 x 174 km x 51 6 deg orbit

Kobal't-M and missing Kosmos satellites

A Kobal't-M spy satellite, serial number 564, was launched from Plesetsk on May 6 into a 176 x 284 km x 81 4 deg orbit It is the 9th launch of an 11F695M Kobal't-M film-return satellite and the first to use the Soyuz-2-1A rocket instead of the older Soyuz-U By May 17 the satellite was in a 207 x 248 km x 81 4 deg orbit

TASS reports that its cover name is Kosmos-2495, which suggests that we have missed three Kosmos series launches Bob Christy (zarya info) has discovered a so-far-unreleased UN registration document from Russia This document reports that the Dec 2013 Rokot launch, which placed three Rodnik/Strela class communications satellites in orbit as Kosmos-2488/2489/2490, also placed a fourth payload in orbit, Kosmos-2491 This fourth Russian Ministry of Defense payload was not previously announced It probably corresponds to the object tracked as 2013-076E, SSN 39497, which has a 0 4 sq m radar cross section Two previous Strela class launches on Rokot have carried small additional Yubilyeniy scientific payloads of similar RCS; it seems likely that the mystery payload is comparable, and may repreresent a Russian military small satellite testbed We may have to wait for further launches in the series for a pattern to become clear

The Glonass-M satellite launched in March 2014 is reported as Kosmos-2491 and Kosmos-2494 in different official Russian sources, suggesting a degree of administrative confusion within the Russian establishment The two other recently launched Russian Defense Ministry payloads are the two calibration satellites which the above-mentioned registration document calls SKRL 756 (same name for each satellite) My hypothesis is that these two satellites will be renamed Kosmos-2492 and Kosmos-2493 for official purposes We then have in the record the following sequences

Launch Internal military name Original public designation New pub des Dec 25 Rodnik-S (8?) Kosmos-2488 Kosmos-2488
Rodnik-S (9?) Kosmos-2489 Kosmos-2489 Rodnik-S (10?) Kosmos-2490 Kosmos-2490 [Yubilyeniy-class] [None] Kosmos-2491 Dec 28 SKRL-756 No 1 SKRL-756 Kosmos-2492?
SKRL-756 No 2 SKRL-756 Kosmos-2493?
Mar 23 Uragan-M No 754 Kosmos-2491, Glonass-M Kosmos-2494 May 6 Kobal't-M No 564 Kosmos-2495

The Kosmos series nomenclature was introduced in 1962 to obfuscate the missions of Soviet military satellites; analogous approaches were taken by the US I have had the impression for the past few years that the system is breaking down, with bulletins from organs such as TASS and Novosti sometimes issuing inconsistent names for the same satellite - probably reflecting a bureaucratic change which has decentralized control of such press releases in some way

I thank Bob Christy, Claude Lafleur, Geoff Richards and @cosmic_penguin for useful Twitter and email discussions on this issue

GPS 67

The sixth GPS Block IIF satellite, space vehicle number (SVN) 67, nicknamed Rigel, was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 17 For the first time on a GPS/Delta 4 flight, the profile had only two instead of three upper stage burns: the Delta 4 second stage skipped the low circular parking orbit phase and directly entered a 198 x 20387 km x 52 7 deg transfer orbit at 0018 UTC The second stage 2 burn at 0306 UTC led to the deployment of GPS SVN 67 in a 20460 x 20476 km x 55 0 deg orbit

Orbital ATK

Two major space companies, Orbital Sciences and ATK, have announced that they plan to merge Orbital Sciences was the first successful 'new space' company of the first wave (1980s) while ATK is the successor corporation to the largest and oldest solid rocket makers (Hercules and Thiokol) Between them they already include a lot of space history - here is a list of their ancestor company space/missile-related operating locations: (please send corrections)

Salt Lake City/Magna-Bacchus, Utah Hercules Powder Company 1912-1995 Alliant 1995-2001 ATK 2001-2014 Elkton, Maryland Thiokol Chemical Co 1929-1947 Thiokol Propulsion (Elkton) 1947-1982 (Star solid motors, TE series) Morton Thiokol Inc 1982-1989 Thiokol Corp 1989-1998 Cordant Technologies, Thiokol Prp 1998-2000 Alcoa Industrial, Thiokol Prp 2000-2001 ATK (Elkton) 2001-2014 Cumberland/Rocket Center, West Virginia Alleghany Ballistic Laboratories 1944-1945 (ABL, under NRDC and GWU) Alleghany Ballistic Laboratories 1945-1995 (ABL, under US Navy and Hercules Powder Co ) ATK Tactical Systems ABL 1995-2014? Huntsville, Alabama Thiokol Propulsion (HSV) 1949-2001 (TX series) ATK 2001-2014? Marshall, Texas Thiokol Longhorn Division 1952-1971 Brigham City/Promontory, Utah Thiokol Wasatch Division 1957-2001 (TU series, USAF Plant 78; Shuttle SRBs) ATK (Promontory) 2001-2014 Salt Lake City, Utah (I think this was a separate component?) Cordant Technologies, Thiokol Prp 1998-2000 Alcoa Industrial Group/Thiokol 2000-2001 Ronkonkoma, New York GASL Inc 1956-2000 Allied Aerospace/GASL Inc 2000-2003 (X-43) ATK GASL 2003-2014? Tullahoma, Tennessee MicroCraft Inc 1958-2001 MicroCraft Inc /Allied Aerosp 2001-2003 ATK Propulsion/Controls 2003-2011 MicroCraft Inc 2011- (independent again) Phoenix/Chandler, Arizona: Space Data Corp 1963-1988 (Sounding rockets) Orbital Sciences Corp 1988-2014 (Launch vehicles) Rockville/Germantown, Maryland: Fairchild-Hiller Space Systems 1964-1971 (Occasional satellites) Fairchild Space and Electronics 1971-1994 Orbital Sciences Corp 1994-2000? (Small satellites) Goleta, California AEC/Able Engineering 1975-2004 ATK/Able 2004-2014 Beltsville, Maryland Swales Aerospace 1978-2007 ATK Space Division 2007-2014 Washington/McLean, Virginia Defense Systems Inc (DSI) 1984?-1992 (Small satellites) CTA Space Systems Inc 1992-1997 Orbital Sciences Corp 1997-2000 Fairfax, Virginia: Orbital Sciences Corp 1986-1993 Gilbert, Arizona: Spectrum Astro 1988-2004 (Satellites) General Dynamics C4 Systems 2004-2010
Orbital Sciences Corp 2010-2014 Ogden, Utah Thiokol Corp 1989-1998 (headquarters only?) Minneapolis/Eden Praire, Minnesota Alliant Techsystems (ATK) 1990- Washington/Dulles, Virginia: Orbital Sciences Corp 1993-2014 (Satellites) Wallops Island, Virginia Orbital Sciences Corp 2011-2014 (Launch prep facilities)

Orbital spun off two related companies: New York/Fort Lee, New Jersey Orbcomm - Orbital spinoff 1993
Washington-Dulles, Virginia Orbimage - 1992-2006 GeoEye Inc 2006-2011 (absorbed in DigitalGlobe/Herndon)

Errata

My discussion of the ISEE 3 spacecraft in JSR696 was based on the contemporary report in Spaceflight magazine My colleagues at the National Air and Space Museum have retrieved the original document, which turns out to be a 'declaration of intent' to transfer the title to the Smithsonian at a future date - such transfer not having in fact occurred So it appears that ISEE 3 is still the property of NASA

In JSR 696, the PhoneSat-2 5 cubesat, a 1U experiment from NASA-Ames which was ejected from the Falcon 9 second stage, was briefly mentioned in the text but inadvertently omitted from the launch table

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL

Apr 3 1446 DMSP 5D-3 F-19 Atlas V 401 Vandenberg SLC3E Weather 15A Apr 3 2102 Sentinel-1A Soyuz-2-1A CSG ELS Radar 16A Apr 4 1144 IRNSS-1B PSLV-XL Sriharikota FLP Navigation 17A Apr 9 1526 Progress M-23M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 18A Apr 9 1906 'Ofeq-10 Shaviyt Palmachim Radar 19A Apr 10 1745 USA 250 Atlas V 541 Canaveral SLC41 Sigint 20A Apr 16 1620 Egyptsat-2 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31 Imaging 21A Apr 18 1925 Dragon CRS-3 ) Falcon 9 v1 1 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 22A SporeSat ) Bio 22B TSat ) Tech 22C All-Star ) Sci 22D PhoneSat-2 5 ) Tech 22E Kicksat ) Tech 22F Sprite (00,01) ) Tech 22F to )
Sprite (206,207) ) Tech 22 Apr 28 0425 Luch-5V ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 23A Kazsat-3 ) Comms 23B Apr 30 0138 KazEOSat-1 Vega Kourou ELV Imaging 24A May 6 1349 Kosmos-2495 Soyuz-2-1A Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 25A May 15 2142 Ekpress AM-4R Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms F01 May 17 0003 GPS SVN 67 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Nav 26A

Suborbital missions

A sounding rocket launched from Kapustin Yar on Mar 26 failed and landed near a village in an unplanned area of western Kazakhstan; launches within Kazakhstan have been suspended pending the accident investigation The MN-300/MR-30 sounding rocket system has a nominal apogee of 300 km, and given the range achieved probably attained a comparable height this time despite the failure

India's DRDO carried out a ballistic missile intercept test on Apr 27 The two-stage target, launched from a ship, may be based on the Prithvi-3/Dhanush missile

Russia carried out a large scale military exercise on May 8, including the launch of a Topol' missile from Plesetsk to Kura, an R-29RM Shtil' missile from the Northern Fleet submarine K-114 Tula in the Barents Sea, also to Kura, and an R-29R Volna missile from the Pacific Fleet submarine K-223 Podolsk in the Sea of Okhotsk to the Chiza test range According to Pavel Podvig (russianforces org) a 53T6 endoatmospheric ABM interceptor was also launched from Sary Shagan against an unidentified target missile

NASA launched the University of Arizona HYPE (Hydrogen Polarimetric Explorer) suborbital payload from White Sands on May 3 to measure the polarized line profile of ultraviolet Lyman-alpha emission from the interplanetary medium

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches

Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km

Mar 26 2225 MR-30 MN-300 Kapustin Yar Met/Ionos? 300? Apr 14 0640 Yars RV x 4? Yars Plesetsk Test 1000? Apr 27 0337 SLTGT-02 Prithvi 3? INS, Bay of Bengal Target 150? Apr 27 0340? PDV Prithvi 2? Chandipur Interceptor 120 May 3 0800 NASA 36 235US Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 278 May 8 Topol' RV Topol' Plesetsk Exercise 1000? May 8 Shtil' RV Shtil' K-114, Barents Exercise 1000? May 8 Volna RV Volna K-223, Okhotsk Exercise 1000?

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