Jonathan's Space Report

No 665 2012 Aug 21 Somerville, MA USA

International Space Station

On the ISS, Expedition 32 continues with astronauts Gennadiy Padalka, Sergey Revin, Joseph Acaba, Yuriy Malenchenko, Sunita Willams and Akihiko Hoshide

Japan's HTV-3 External Pallet (EP) was attached to Kibo's Exposed Facility (EF) on Aug 6 On Aug 7 the Canadian SSRMS/Dextre robotics system was used to move NASA's SCaN Testbed payload from the EP to the ELC-3 pallet on the truss On Aug 9 the Japanese JEM-RMS robot arm was used to move the MCE package from the EP to slot 8 in the EF Finally, on Aug 10, the JEM and SSRMS arms were used to move the empty EP back into the HTV cargo ship; it will be destroyed on reentry after HTV undocks

The old Progress M-15M cargo vehicle, after three weeks of independent flight involving Radar-Progress experiments using thruster burns to study the ionosphere, was deorbited over the Pacific on Aug 20

On Aug 20 astronauts Padalka and Malencheko carried out spacewalk VKD-31 from the Pirs module using spacesuits Orlan-MK No 5 and 6 At 1829 UTC they ejected the Sfera-53 passive air density calibration satellite into a 401 x 406 km x 51 6 deg orbit using a special handling device delivered aboard Progress M-15M According to Andrey Krasil'nikov, Sfera-53 was launched on Progress M-16M, and has a mass of 8 0 kg and a diameter of 0 53m

The Pirs airlock was depressurized at about 1518 UTC and its hatch was opened at 1537 UTC The astronauts transferred the GsTM-2 crane from Pirs to Zarya It and then GsTM-1 crane moved in February will therefore remain available after the old Pirs module, launched in 2001, is eventually discarded Next, the crew installed five more space debris shields on Zvezda The DPP debris shields were delivered in two bundles, packets 5 and 6, on Progress M-14M in January The astronauts also retrieved a Biorisk experiment canister but were unable to pack up an SKK exposure cassette The hatch was closed at 2128 UTC and the Pirs airlock was repressurized at 2133 UTC, for a duration of 5h 51m (hatch opened) or 6h15m (depressurized)

The 28 Zvezda space debris shields were delivered in six bundles, as follows:

Bundle Panels Launch Stored outside ISS: EVA Installed EVA 1 1-6 2002 Jun 5 STS-111 2002 Jun 9, PMA-1 111/1 2002 Aug 16 VKD-7 2 7-12 2006 Dec 10 STS-116 2006 Dec 16, PMA-3 116/3
2007 May 30, Zvez VKD-18 2007 Jun 6 VKD-19 3 13-18 2006 Dec 10 STS-116 2006 Dec 16, PMA-3 116/3
2007 May 30, Zvez VKD-18 2007 Jun 6 VKD-19 4 19-23 2006 Dec 10 STS-116 2006 Dec 16, PMA-3 116/3 2007 May 30 VKD-18 5 24-26 2012 Jan 25 M-14M - 2012 Aug 20 VKD-31 6 27-28 2012 Jan 25 M-14M - 2012 Aug 20 VKD-31

For example, Bundles 2 and 3 were stored outside ISS on the PMA-3 adapter from 2006 Dec 16 to 2007 May 30, then moved to another storage position on Zvezda, then finally installed on 2007 Jun 6 - thus featuring in three separate spacewalks

Mars and Vesta

Updated timeline data for MSL's entry: Entry Aug 6 0510:46 UTC (as expected); Parachute deploy 0515:05; heatshield sep 0515:25; landing 0517:57 Backshell sep was reported as 95 sec after heatshield sep

Departure of the Dawn probe from Vesta is underway, after a brief delay thanks to a problematic reaction wheel Dawn is expected to escape (4) Vesta and enter solar orbit on Sep 5, en route to (1) Ceres

IS-21

Energia Logistics Ltd (US) carried out the launch of a Zenit-3SL rocket from the Sea Launch Odyssey platform in the Pacific The Blok DM-SL No 34 stage made a single burn to a 255 x 35583 km x 0 1 deg geostationary transfer orbit, delivering a Boeing 702MP communications satellite The Intelsat IS-21 satellite will replace IS-9 and provide western hemisphere coverage

Suborbital launches

India's DRDO made two test launches of Agni missiles from Chandipur into the Bay of Bengal in July and August The Agni is based on the old SLV-3 satellite launch vehicle; the first stage has now made 30 launches since 1979

2012 Orbital launch summary to date

46 launches, including one fail-to-orbit (N Korea) and one fail-in-orbit (Russia):

Russia China USA Europe Japan India Iran N Korea 16 11 9 5 2 1 1 1

Table of Recent (orbital) Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL
DES Jul 5 2136 Echostar 17 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 35A Meteosat 10 ) Weather 35B Jul 9 1838 SES-5 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 36A Jul 15 0240 Soyuz TMA-05M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 37A Jul 21 0206 Kounotori 3 H-IIB Tanegashima LP2 Cargo 38A Jul 22 0641 Kanopus-V ) Imaging 39 BelKA-2 ) Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31/6 Imaging 39 TET-1 ) Tech 39D exactView-1) Comms/AIS 39C MKA-PN1 ) Science 39E Jul 25 1543 Tianlian-1 (03) Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Comms 40A Jul 28 0135 Gonets-M No 13) Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Comms 41B Gonets-M No 15) Comms 41D Kosmos-2481 ) Comms 41A MiR ) Sci 41C Aug 1 1935 Progress M-16M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 42A Aug 2 2054 Intelsat IS-20 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 43A Hylas 2 ) Comms 43B Aug 6 1931 Telkom-3 ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 44A Ekspress MD2) Comms 44B Aug 19 0655 Intelsat IS-21 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, Pacific Comms 45A Aug 20 1829 Sfera-53 - ISS, LEO Sci 98-067CM

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches

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

Jul 3 Shahab RV Shahab 1 ?, Iran Exercise 100? Jul 3 Shahab RV Shahab 2 ?, Iran Exercise 100? Jul 3 Shahab RV Shahab 3 ?, Iran Exercise 150? Jul 5 1850 NASA 36 284NS Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar 275? Jul 11 1850 NASA 36 272NS Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar 268 Jul 13 0436 Agni RV Agni I Chandipur Test 200? Jul 23 1101 NASA 39 011NR Black Brant 11 Wallops Reentry test 458 Jul 24 1917 NASA 36 263US Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar 324 Aug 7 0730 S-310-41 S-310 Uchinoura Reentry test 150 Aug 9 0316 Agni RV Agni II Chandipur Test 220?

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