Jonathan's Space Report

No 772 2019 Dec 8 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 61 continues

On Nov 20 the J-SSOD No 12 deployer, delivered on HTV 8, was moved outside the Kibo airlock with the JEM RMS robot arm Three cubesats were ejected: RWASAT-1, built by the University of Tokyo in collaboration with Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry; NARSSCube-1 from the Egyptian Space Agency; and AQT-D from the University of Tokyo which is testing a water thruster

On Nov 22 Parmitano and Morgan carried out spacewalk EVA-60, the second in the series to repair the cooling system of the AMS-02 particle physics experiment The Quest airlock was depressurized from 1200 to 1835 UTC, and the hatch was opened at 1201 UTC and closed at 1833 UTC The astronauts made cuts in cooling pipes, depressurizing the old cooling system and preparing for installation of the new pump

On Nov 29 the Progress MS-12 cargo ship undocked from the Pirs module at 1025 UTC, performed a deorbit burn at 1339 UTC and entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific at 1411 UTC Its debris impacted the ocean at about 1419 UTC

On Dec 2 Parmitano and Morgan carried out spacewalk EVA-61 The airlock was depressurized from 1127 to 1733 UTC They carried the 158 kg Upgraded Tracker Thermal Pump Systme (UTTPS) to the AMS-02 experiment and installed it there, connecting fluid lines

On Dec 5 SpaceX launched Dragon CRS-19 on its way to the ISS The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the OCISLY droneship The second stage reportedly remained in orbit for several hours, possibly changing its inclination before deorbiting southwest of Australia Unfortunately no TLEs are available for it I suspect the stage's mission was to simulate a GEO 3-burn deployment mission In Dragon's trunk are: HISUI (Hyperspectral Imager Suite) for Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; to be installed at EFU 8 on the JEM Exposed Facility Mass about 600 kg; I believe it was developed by Japan Space Systems Li-Ion battery/Adapter Plate, to replaced one that failed after installation In the cabin are: RiTS (Robotic Tool Stowage), a box that can store both of the RELL leak locators, to be EVA-installed outside ISS Cubesats CIRiS (Utah State), CryoCube-1 (NASA KSC), QARMAN (Von Karman Inst,, Belgium), SORTIE (Astra LLC/UNMC), EdgeCube (Sonoma State U), MakerSat 1 (NW Nazarene U), and AztechSat-1 (UPAEP, Puebla, Mexico)

On Dec 6 Roskosmos launched Progress MS-13 from Baykonur Both cargo ships (Dragon and Progress) are scheduled to arrive at ISS in the next few days

On Dec 5 at 1840 UTC the S S Roger Chaffee (Cygnus NG-11) lowered its orbit from 462 x 469 km to 212 x 376 km; on Dec 6, probably about 1620 UTC, it was deorbited over the south Pacific with impact near 140W 45S at about 1655 UTC NG-11 arrived at ISS Apr 19 and left on Aug 6, spending time demonstrating extended operations

Beidou

China launched two more Beidou navigation satellites on Nov 23 Beidou 50 and 51 are satellites M19 and M20 in the Beidou-3 medium Earth orbit series Meanwhile, Beidou 49 has been found in its target inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO)

Kosmos-2542

Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1V on Nov 25 The Blok I second stage reached a 289 x 364 km x 97 9 deg orbit; the Volga third stage then fired to reach a 367 x 857 km x 97 9 deg orbit and deployed at least one payload It's not entirely clear if the two objects in the higher orbit are payload and Volga stage, or two payloads with the Volga having deorbited itself However Russian press statements imply only a single payload, with a mission to observe other satelites

Ariane VA250

Arianespace flight VA250 used launch vehicle Ariane 5 L5108 The payloads were TIBA-1, a 5600 kg AirbusDS Eurostar 3000 Ka-band satellite for the Egyptian Space Agency, and Inmarsat GX5, a 4007 kg Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000B2 Ka-band satellite for Inmarsat's Global Xpress fleet

Tiba is the Arabic name for the ancient city known in English as Thebes and in ancient Egyptian as Waset It's unclear why the satellite's name is always rendered in upper case in English transliteration

PSLV-C47/Cartosat-3

ISRO launched PSLV C47 from Sriharikota on Nov 27 to place the Cartosat-3 high resolution imaging satellite in sun-sync orbit Cartosat-3's main camera has a resolution of 0 25m The PS4 fourth stage also deployed the Meshbed 3U cubesat, an antenna test satellite for Analytical Space of Cambridge, MA, and a dozen Planet SuperDove imaging cubesats

GF-12

China launched the Shanghai-built Gao Fen 12 high resolution SAR radar satellite on Nov 27

Electron 10

Rocket Lab's tenth mission, dubbed 'Running Out Of Fingers', was launched from New Zealand on Dec 6 The main payload was the 75 kg ALE-2 for Astro Live Experiences (Tokyo), which plans to create artificial meteors for entertainment Several small PocketQube payloads were also put in orbit The PQ sats are smaller than a 1U cubesat; a 1P is 0 25 kg, 0 05m cube The PQ deployers were developed by Alba Orbital of Glasgow, and ejected:

NOOR 1A and 1B, 3P satellites with communications test payloads for Stara Space of Los Angeles, built by Alba Orbital SMOG-P, a 1P from Budapest Univ of Tech and Economics, mapping radio-frequency `pollution' from terrestrial emitters ATL-1, a 2P from ATL Ltd of Csapas, Hungary, also with a spectrum monitoring payload FossaSat, a 1P from Fossa Systems of Madrid TRSI-Sat, a 1P from Paul Kocyla of Aachen, formerly of STADOKO and now operating as 'TRSI Club' and 'My Radar'

The first stage performed a controlled reentry and impacted the ocean The second stage reached a 180 x 409 km orbit at 0827 UTC At apogee at 0908 UTC, the kick stage fired to a 398 x 415 km orbit and deployed ALE-2 It appears another small burn may have been done at 0916 UTC, with the PQs deployed to an orbit with a 50 km lower perigee at 0918 UTC

KZ-1A launches

On Dec 7 two Kuaizhou-1A rockets were launched from Taiyuan within 6 hours The first, KZ-1A Y2, placed the Jilin-1 GaoFen 2B imaging satellite in 1000LTDN sun-sync orbit for Chuangguang Satellite The second put six small satellites in 1600 LTDN sun-sync orbit: HEDE-2A/2B with AIS payloads for HEDE Aerospace's Tian Xingzhe (Skywalker) constellation; Tianyi-16 and 17 remote sensing satellites for Tianyi Research; and Tianqi-4A/4B with IoT relay payloads for Guodian Gaokeji YG

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

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

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 35674 x 35887 x 58 7 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 S44786 1045 x 1432 x 88 8 Nov 20 0850 RWASAT-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QV? 411 x 420 x 51 6 Nov 20 0910 NARSSCube-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QW? 411 x 420 x 51 6 Nov 20 0925 AQT-D ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QX? 411 x 420 x 51 6 Nov 23 0055 Beidou DW50 ) Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Navigation 78A S44793 21533 x 22193 x 55 0 Beidou DW51 ) Navigation 78B S44794 21533 x 22193 x 55 0 Nov 25 1752 Kosmos-2542? Soyuz-2-1V Plesetsk LC43/4 Tech 79A S44797 383 x 863 x 97 9 Nov 26 2123 TIBA-1 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 80A S44800 259 x 35753 x 5 0 Inmarsat GX5 ) Comms 80B S44801 256 x 35719 x 5 0 Nov 27 0358 Cartosat-3 ) PSLV-XL Sriharikota SLP Imaging 81A S44804 500 x 519 x 97 5 0930LT Meshbed ) Tech 81C S44806 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-1 ) Imaging 81L S44814 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-2 ) Imaging 81K S44813 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-3 ) Imaging 81J S44812 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-4 ) Imaging 81J S44811 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-5 ) Imaging 81Q S44818 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-6 ) Imaging 81P S44817 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-7 ) Imaging 81N S44816 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-8 ) Imaging 81M S44815 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-9 ) Imaging 81D S44807 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-10) Imaging 81E S44808 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-11) Imaging 81F S44809 500 x 517 x 97 5 Flock 4p-12) Imaging 81G S44810 500 x 517 x 97 5 Nov 27 2352 Gao Fen 12 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar 82A S44819 595 x 599 x 97 9 0700LT Dec 5 1729 Dragon CRS-19 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 83A S44821 203 x 378 x 51 7 Dec 6 0818 ALE-2 ) Electron Mahia LC1 Tech 84A S44824 397 x 415 x 97 0 NOOR 1A ) Com 84 NOOR 1B ) Com 84 SMOG-P ) Sigint 84 TRSI-Sat ) Tech 84 FossaSat-1) Tech 84 ATL-1 ) Sigint/Tech 84 Dec 6 0934 Progress MS-13 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 85A S44833 186 x 219 x 51 6 Dec 7 0255 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Imaging 86B S44837 531 x 544 x 97 5 Dec 7 0852 HEDE-2A ) Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Comms 87 S44839 495 x 511 x 97 4 HEDE-2B ) Comms 87 Tianqi-4A ) Comms 87 Tianqi-4B ) Comms 87 Tianyi-16 ) Imaging 87 Tianyi-17 ) Imaging 87

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Nov 15 0935 TEXUS 56 VSB-30 Kiruna Micrograv 256 ESRANGE Nov 16 1402 RV Agni 2 Kalam Island Test 600? Indian O Nov 22 1030? RV DF-41 Taiyuan Test 1000? Gobi Desert Nov 22 1519 SL-14 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Micrograv 92 White Sands? Nov 26 0743 ICI 5 Terrer Imp Malemute Svalbard Ionosphere 253 Arctic Nov 28 Topol-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Reentry test 1000? Balkhash Nov 28 0759 RV DPRK MLRS Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of Japan Nov 28 0759 RV DPRK MLRS Ryonpo Test 97 Sea of Japan Nov 30 1350 Agni 3 RV Agni 3 Kalam Island Test 500? Indian O

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