No 619 2009 Dec 17 Somerville, MA

Shuttle and Station

After Atlantis returned to Earth, remaining on the Station were commander Jeff Williams (NASA) and astronauts Frank De Winne (ESA/Belgium), Robert Thirsk (CSA/Canada), Roman Romanenko (FKA/Russia), and Maksim Suraev (FKA/Russia) Expedition 22 began at 1500 UTC on Nov 24; Williams assumed command from De Winne at 1812 UTC

On Dec 1 at 0356 UTC Romanenko, De Winne and Thirsk undocked from Station aboard Soyuz TMA-15, which had been docked to the Zarya nadir port since May 29 The deorbit engine was fired at 0626 UTC Soyuz TMA-15 landed at 0715:34 UTC

The MIM-2 Poisk module was launched to the Station using a Progress service module or 'priborno-agregatniy otsek' (PAO) as its propulsion unit The combination was called Progress M-MIM2 On Dec 8 at 0016 UTC, the Progress M-MIM2 PAO separated from the Poisk, leaving the latter's docking port available for use by visiting vehicles Three orbits later, at 0448 UTC, the PAO main engine fired for its deorbit burn and the PAO reentered over the Pacific at 0527 UTC [Although the PAO flew separately for three complete orbits, no new entry was added to the satellite catalog and it appears that no decay notice for 36086 (2009-060A) has been issued As orbits were issued for 36086 on Dec 12 and 13, it can be assumed that 36086 continues to refer to the Poisk module and that the PAO has so far been omitted from the catalog ]

WISE

NASA's Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WISE) astronomy satellite was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 14 aboard a two-stage Delta II into a 524 x 533 km x 97,5 deg orbit If all goes well, WISE will pop its telescope cover off in late December and begin an infrared all-sky survey at 3 4, 4 6, 12 and 22 microns For the time being, astronomers are still working with the 1983 IRAS survey, although the results from the Japanese Akari satellite which surveyed the sky at 10, 20, 60 and 170 microns are expected to be public soon WISE will catalog sources 100 times fainter than either previous satellite The spacecraft has a 40cm telescope cooled to 12K by a cryostat filled with solid hydrogen PI for the mission is Ned Wright of UCLA, whose work I've followed since my thesis days at Cambridge studying high-redshift cosmic dust, a subject Ned's the expert on The science team includes galaxy expert Pete Eisenhardt, who I only just discovered overlapped with me in Cambridge, and brown-dwarf-fan and instrument-builder-extraordinaire Amy Mainzer WISE will be returning key data on all these specialties - here's wishing the best of luck to the team!

IGS

Japan's latest Information Gathering Satellite, the Optical-3 vehicle, was launched on Nov 28 by H-IIA serial number 16 The IGS is an imaging spy satellite operated by the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center

Intelsat IS-15

IS-15 was launched by Land Launch Zenit-3SLB from Baykonur on Nov 30 The satellite is an Orbital Star-2 and will provide services to Russia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean region

The first two burns of the 3SLB put IS-15 in a 200 x 35907 km x 48 9 deg transfer orbit; a final third burn occurred at 0314 UTC By Dec 13 IS-15 was in a 35797 x 35791 km orbit at 63 2E

Eutelsat W7

Eutelsat W7 had reached a 10726 x 35609 km x 12 2 deg orbit by Nov 26; when next tracked, on Dec 16, the object was in a 35785 x 35787 km x 0 1 deg geostationary orbit at 50 1E

Several other Eutelsat satellites were relocated recently Hot Bird 2, launched in 1996 and renamed Eurobird 9 in 2007, was moved from 9E to 48E and renamed again to Eutelsat W48 Hot Bird 3, launched in 1997 and renamed Eurobird 4 earlier this year, was relocated to 75E as part of a deal with Asia Broadcast Satellite and re-renamed W75/ABS-1B There have been a large number of satellite on-orbit resales and renamings, and one of these days I may make a comprehensive table of them, but it will have to be a much less busy day than any I've had lately

WGS 3

The third Wideband Global Satcom was launched on Dec 6 on a Delta 4 into supersynchronous transfer orbit of around 439 x 66981 km x 24 0 deg The 5990 kg Boeing 702-class satellite is managed by the USAF and operated by Space Command/Schriever AFB; it carries US Army-led X-band and Ka-band communications payloads The satellite is also designated USA 211

Yaogan Weixing 7

China launched a Yaogan Weixing on Dec 9: 'yaogan weixing qihao', Remote-Sensing Satellite Number 7 appears to be similar to YW-2 and YW-4, which are thought to have been imaging satellites Orbit of YW-7 is 623 x 659 km x 97 8 deg

Yaogan Weixing 8

On Dec 15, another Yaogan launch, this time from the Taiyuan space center YW-8 ('yaogan weixing bahao') is in a 1192 x 1204 km x 100 5 deg sun-synchronous orbit, a new orbital regime for Chinese satellites It is probably a low resolution imaging satellite, either for civilian Earth resource studies or military weather forecasting - Western analysts have suspected that previous YW satellites had an at least partly military mission

The 50 kg amateur radio satellite Xi Wang 1 was also placed in orbit

Russian missile tests

Widespread reports of a strange spiral in the sky over Norway on Dec 9 were due to the Russian Navy's Bulava missile test It has been suggested that the third stage lost guidance and began to spiral during its rocket burn Jim Oberg has suggested that the spiral pattern could even have been a deliberate evasive maneuver in a test of technology to defeat US missile defense; I can't rule that out, but I feel it's unlikely Russian authorities finally confirmed the failed launch on Dec 10 The Russian Rocket Forces had more success than the Navy the next day, when Topol', the land-based sibling of Bulava, made a successful flight from Kapustin Yar to Sary Shagan

GLONASS

Three Uragan-M navigation satellites, Nos 730, 733, 734 were launched on Dec 14 to supplement the GLONASS navigation system As usual, they have been given code names in the Kosmos series, Kosmos-2456 to 2458 Launch was on a Proton with the now-rarely-used Blok DM-2 upper stage The satellites are in 19130 x 19140 km x 64 8 deg orbits

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches

Date UT Name
Nov 2 0151 SMOS ) Sensing 59A PROBA-2 ) Nov 10 1422 Poisk 60A Nov 12 0245 SJ-11-01 Nov 16 1928 Atlantis Nov 20 1044 Kosmos-2455 Nov 23 0655 Intelsat IS-14 Nov 24 1419 Eutelsat W7 Nov 28 0121 IGS O-3 Nov 30 2100 Intelsat IS-15 Dec 6 0147 WGS 3 Dec 9 0842 Yaogan Weixing 7 Dec 14 1038 Kosmos-2456 ) Kosmos-2457 ) Kosmos-2458 ) Dec 14 1409 WISE Dec 15 0231 Xi Wang 1 Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL DES Rokot Plesetsk Rem Tech 59B Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1/5 Station mod Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Tech 61A Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 62A Soyuz-U Plesetsk Sigint 63A Atlas V 431 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 64A Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 65A H-2A Tanegashima Imaging 66A Zenit-3SLB Baykonur LC45/1 Comms 67A Delta 4M+(5,4) Canaveral SLC37B Comms 68A Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging? 69A Proton-M/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 70A Navigation 70B Navigation 70C Delta 7320 Vandenberg SLC2W Astronomy 71A Yaogan Weixing 8) Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging? 72A ) Comms 72B

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches

Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Nov 1 Sineva RV ) Sineva? K-117, Barents Op Test 1000? x4? Nov 5 ARAV C Talos Castor Kauai Target 300? Nov 14 0230? NASA 36 252UH Black Brant IX White Sands XR Astron 300? Nov 22 1115 TEXUS 46 VSB-30 Esrange Micrograv 252 Nov 29 0900 TEXUS 47 VSB-30 Esrange Micrograv 264 Nov 30 0128 Manu Karere Atea-1 Gt Mercury I Test 120? Dec 9 0645? RV Bulava TK-208, White Sea Test 500? Dec 10 1135 RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Dec 16 Sejjil RV Sejjil 2 Iran Test 800?

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