Jonathan's Space Report

No 723 2016 Mar 16 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 46 transitioned to Expedition 47 on Mar 2

The Canadarm-2 unberthed the Cygnus OA-4 cargo ship, SS Deke Slayton II, from the Unity node on Feb 19 at 1040 UTC and released it into orbit at about 1227 UTC The Cygnus was deorbited over the S Pacific at about 1600 UTC Feb 20

The University of Texas BEVO-2 cubesat was apparently prematurely ejected from the TAMU AggieSat-4 payload shortly after the latter was deployed from ISS

On Mar 2 at 0102 UTC Volkov, Kornienko and Kelly, aboard Soyuz TMA-18M, undocked from the Poisk module, concluding Expedition 46 Tim Kopra then became commander of Expedition 47, with flight engineers Yuriy Malenchenko and Tim Peake

Soyuz TMA-18M made the deorbit burn at 0332 UTC and landed in Kazakhstan at 0426 UTC Soyuz commander Volkov had spent six months in space, while Kornienko and Kelly completed 340d 8h 21min in space, or about 0 93 years

ExoMars

The first ESA ExoMars mission was launched on Mar 14 aboard a Proton from Baykonur The main spacecraft on this mission is the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is intended to enter Mars orbit and study its atmosphere Attached to it is the Schiaparelli EDM The EDM is the EDL Demonstrator Module, where EDL is "Entry, Descent and Landing" EDM consists of an aeroshell containing the EDM Surface Platform (ESP, a triply-nested three-letter-acronym proving that ESA can compete with NASA in the TLA race) EDM will attempt to land on the surface as a technology demonstration, and carries a small meteorology payload The TGO carries a color and stereo camera, IR and UV spectrometers, a neutron detector, and a communications relay package to support future surface missions The combined spacecraft has a mass of 4332 kg TGO was built by Thales/Cannes (formerly GTC/Sud Aviation) and EDM by Thales/Torino (formerly Fiat)

At 0931 UTC Mar 14, Proton-M No 93560 was launched from area 200 at Baykonur into a suborbital trajectory The Briz-M upper stage, S/N 99560, separated at 0941 UTC and fired for 6 minutes to enter a 185 x 185 km x 51 5 deg parking orbit at 0947 UTC After completing one orbit, a second burn at 1110 UTC raised the orbit to 250 x 5800 km At the next perigee, at 1324 UTC, the orbit was raised to 696 x 21086 km and the Briz-M additional propellant tank was jettisoned On completing this orbit, the fourth burn began at 1948 UTC to propel the vehicle to escape velocity ExoMars TGO/EDM separated from the Briz-M at 2013 UTC in a hyperbolic Earth escape orbit (C3 = 13 78 km*2/s*2) It is scheduled to reach Mars on Oct 19

The EDM is scheduled to separate from TGO three days before Mars arrival and should enter the Martian atmosphere on a hyperbolic trajectory towards a landing site at 6 1W 1 9S in Meridiani Planum After entry a parachute slows the vehicle, the back cover and forward shield are jettisoned, and thrusters slow the ESP further The ESP underside consists of a crushable structure to absorb impact with the surface

Here is the mass breakdown of the ExoMars-2016 vehicle as best I can guess it - separate figures for the front and back shell don't seem to be publicly available

Schiaparelli EDM Surface Platform 280 kg SP hydrazine 46 kg Front Shield 200 kg? Back Cover 54 kg? Parachute system 20 kg?

EDM total 600 kg TGO spacecraft 1365 kg (including 41 kg separation assembly) TGO propellant 2367 kg

ExoMars-2016 launch total 4332 kg

As always, corrections from those with access to better data are welcome

Cassini

Cassini made the T-115, T-116 and T-117 Titan flybys at 0222 UTC Jan 16, 0101 UTC Feb 1, and 2350 UTC Feb 16 at altitudes of 3817, 1400 and 1018 km The encounters changed Cassini's orbit around Saturn from 94500 x 1920000 km x 1 4 deg to 307900 x 2772000 km x 22 0 deg

SES-9

Falcon 9 rocket F9-022 was launched from Space Launch Complex 40 on Mar 4 The first stage flew to an apogee of around 160 km and descended 660 km downrange to crash on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" at about 73 8W 28 3N, in a technology test to develop experience for future landing attempts The second stage accelerated to reach a 160 x 531 km x 28 5 deg parking orbit at 2344 UTC and then reignited at 0002 UTC Mar 5 to reach a 334 x 40648 km x 28 0 deg transfer orbit

The SES-9 payload separated at 0006 UTC It is a Boeing 702HP satellite with a mass of about 5270 kg and a Ku-band communications payload for delivery of services to Asia and the Indian Ocean from 108 2E By Mar 14, SES-9 was in a 28569 x 41649 km x 0 5 deg orbit

Eutelsat 65 West A

Arianespace launched Ariane 5 vehicle L582, mission VA229 to a low inclination geotransfer with Eutelsat do Brasil's 65 West A payload, a Loral 1300 satellite By Mar 14, 65 West A was in a 35729 x 35759 km x 0 0 deg near-GEO over the Atlantic

Eutelsat keeps renaming its satellites every time they are moved; here is an update on its current fleet:

Current name Name at launch Actual location
Mar 2016

EUTELSAT 7A Eutelsat W3A 7 0E
EUTELSAT 7B EUTELSAT 3D 7 1E EUTELSAT 9A Eutelsat HB7A 9 0E EUTELSAT 9B EUTELSAT 9B/EDRS-A 9E, Moving EUTELSAT KA-SAT KA-Sat 9 0E
EUTELSAT 10A Eutelsat W2A 9 9E
EUTELSAT HOT BIRD 13B Hot Bird 8 12 9E
EUTELSAT HOT BIRD 13C Hot Bird 9 13 0E
EUTELSAT HOT BIRD 13D Hot Bird 10 13 0E
EUTELSAT 16A Eutelsat W3C 16 0E
EUTELSAT 16C SESAT 14 4E
EUTELSAT 21B EUTELSAT 21B 21 6E
Es'hail/EUTELSAT 25B EUTELSAT 25B 25 5E EUTELSAT 31A e-Bird 30 9E EUTELSAT 33B Eutelsat W5 80E, Moving EUTELSAT 33C Eurobird 33 0E EUTELSAT 33D Eutelsat HB6 33 1E EUTELSAT 36A Eutelsat W4 46E, Moving EUTELSAT 36B Eutelsat W7 35 9E
EUTELSAT 3B EUTELSAT 3B 3 1E
EUTELSAT 48A Eutelsat HB2 48 2E
EUTELSAT 48D Eutelsat W2M 48 1E
EUTELSAT 70B EUTELSAT 70B 70 5E
EUTELSAT 172A Americom 23 172 0E
EUTELSAT 117 West A Satmex 8 116 8W
EUTELSAT 115 West A Satmex 5 92 2W
EUTELSAT 115 West B EUTELSAT 115 West B 114 9W EUTELSAT 113 West A Satmex 6 113 0W EUTELSAT 65 West A EUTELSAT 65 West A Transfer orbit EUTELSAT 36 West A Atlantic Bird 1 36 0W
EUTELSAT 12 West B Atlantic Bird 2 12 6W
EUTELSAT 8 WEST B EUTELSAT 8 WEST B 8 0W EUTELSAT 7 West A Atlantic Bird 7 7 3W EUTELSAT 5 West A Stellat 5 5 0W

IRNSS

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System was augmented by launch of the 1F satellite on Mar 10 The initial insertion orbit was 270 x 20649 km x 17 9 deg; an initial perigee burn to raise apogee was followed by several apogee burns towards circular inclined synchronous orbit

Here are the current orbits of the 6 satellites in the fleet

IRNSS 1A 35695 x 35874 km x 28 1 deg 55E IRNSS 1B 35711 x 35860 km x 29 9 deg 55E IRNSS 1C 35697 x 35873 km x 3 9 deg 83E IRNSS 1D 35711 x 35866 km x 29 9 deg 111E IRNSS 1E 35696 x 35874 km x 28 1 deg 111E IRNSS 1F 33349 x 35750 km x 5 3 deg En route to synchronous

Resurs-P

Russia launched the third Resurs-P civil remote sensing satellite on Mar 13 The first two satellites in the series are still operating; Resurs-P No 1 made an orbit adjust burn on Feb 22 The Resurs-P No 3 spacecraft, however, failed to deploy one of its solar panels

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg

Jan 29 1550 AggieSat-4 ISS, LEO Tech 98-067HP S41313 399 x 408 x 51 7 Jan 29 1550? Bevo-2 AggieSat4,LEO Tech 98-067HQ S41314 399 x 408 x 51 7 Jan 29 2220 Eutelsat 9B Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 05A S41310 35776 x 35798 x 0 1 GEO 9E Feb 1 0729 Beidou DW21 Chang Zheng 3C/YZ1 Xichang Navigation 06A S41315 21512 x 21981 x 55 0 Feb 3 1322 Fleshka - ISS, LEO Commemorative 98-067HR?S41326? 395 x 406 x 51 6 Feb 5 1338 GPS SVN 70 Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Navigation 07A S41328 20438 x 20442 x 55 0 Feb 7 0021 Glonass-M No 51 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 08A S41330 19132 x 19158 x 64 8 Feb 7 0030 Kwangmyongsong-4 Kwangmyongsong Sohae Imaging 09A S41332 465 x 501 x 97 5 0840LT SSO Feb 10 1140 TOPAZ 4? Delta 4M+(5,2) Vandenberg SLC6 Radar 10A S41334 1078 x 1085 x 123 0
Feb 16 1757 Sentinel-3A Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Imaging/Alt 11A S41335 802 x 806 x 98 6 1000LT SSO Feb 17 0845 Hitomi ) H2A 202 Tanegashima X-ray Astron 12A S41337 565 x 580 x 31 0 Kinshachi-2) Space Sci 12B S41338 559 x 579 x 31 0 Kinshachi-3) Imaging 12C S41339 558 x 578 x 31 0 Horyu-4 ) Tech 12D S41340 557 x 578 x 31 0 Mar 4 2335 SES-9 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 13A S41380 28569 x 41649 x 0 5 Mar 9 0520 Eutelsat 65 West A Ariane 5 ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 14A S41832 35729 x 35759 x 0 0 GEO 44W drift Mar 10 1031 IRNSS-1F PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan SLP Navigation 15A S41384 33349 x 35750 x 5 3 Mar 13 1856 Resurs-P No 3 Soyuz-2-1B Baykonur LC31 Imaging 16A S41386 279 x 452 x 97 3 1150LT SSO Mar 14 0931 ExoMars TGO ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Mars orbiter 17A S41388 1000?x-71600?x 51 6 Schiaparelli ) Mars lander 17 A08532 1000?x-71600?x 51 6

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Jan 15 0300 S-310-44 S-310 Uchinoura, Japan Ionosphere 161 Pacific Ocean Jan 22 New Shepard CC New Shepard West Texas Test 101 West Texas Jan 23 0830 TEXUS 53 VSB-30 Kiruna, Sweden Micrograv 252 ESRANGE Zone B Jan 28 2155? MBRV? eMBRM? C-17, Pacific Target 300? E Pacific Jan 28 2157 CE-II CTV-02+ GBI Vandenberg LF23 Interceptor 1000? E Pacific Feb 2 2109 SPIDER/LEEWAVES VS-30 Kiruna, Sweden Auroral 138 ESRANGE Zone B Feb 21 0734 GT217GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Test 1300? Kwajalein Feb 22 0415 CHESS-2 Black Brant 9 White Sands UV Astron 309 White Sands Feb 26 0701 GT218GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Test 1300? Kwajalein Mar 1 1450 MUSIC Terrier Imp Mal Wallops Island Tech 185 Atlantic Ocean Mar 7 1205 NASA 41 114NP Terrier Imp Orion Wallops Island Tech 160? Atlantic Ocean Mar 8 Shahab RV Shahab-1 Qom Desert, Iran Test 100? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 8 Shahab RV Shahab-2 Qom Desert, Iran Test 120? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 8 Qiam RV Qiam Qom Desert, Iran Test 125? Qom Desert, Iran Mar 9 Ghadr RV Ghadr-F Semnan?, Iran Test 150? Makran, S Iran Mar 9 Ghadr RV Ghadr-H Semnan?, Iran Test 150? Makran, S Iran Mar 9 2020 Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Chiha?, N Korea Test 150? Sea of Japan Mar 9 2020 Hwasong RV Hwasong 6? Chiha?, N Korea Test 150? Sea of Japan

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