Jonathan's Space Report

No 768 2019 Aug 22 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 60 continues

On Aug 6, the Canadarm-2 unberthed the S S Roger Chaffee (Cygnus NG-11) from the Unity module at 1330 UTC and released it into orbit at 1615 UTC

On Aug 7 at 1300 UTC, cubesats Aerocube-10a and Aerocube-10b were deployed from the Nanoracks NRCSD-E deployer on Cygnus The satellites are nicknamed JimSat and DougSat respectively

Sometime probably on Aug 7 the Hypergiant SEOPS/Spaceflight Inc Slingshot deployer was also used to deploy four cubesats: RTFSat (3U), from Northwest Nazarene University, NARSScube-2 (1U) from Egypt, Quantum Radar 3 (3U) from Hypergiant, and the DARPA/Hypergiant ORCA 6U cubesat to test an intersatellite radio link Unfortunately the deployment time has not been made public

On Aug 19 the Dextre arm unberthed the IDA-3 docking adapter from Dragon CRS-18's trunk On Aug 21 at about 1100 UTC Dextre soft docked IDA-3 to the PMA-3 docking port Then, at 1219 UTC, the Quest airlock was depressurised and astronauts Hague and Morgan began spacewalk ISS EVA-55, with spacesuits 3006 and 3008 and SAFER backpack units 18 and 13 respectively The hatch was open at 1226 UTC and the astronauts went to battery power a minute later They connected cables to IDA-3 and activated it; IDA-3 was firmlymated to PMA3 between 1443 and 1500 UTC At 1614 UTC Dextre released the IDA and at 1641 UTC the astronauts removed its thermal cover (which was stuffed in a bag and returned to the airlock) Two `hemi reflectors' were installed and after some final connections the astronauts returned to the Quest airlock, with hatch close at 1855 UTC and repressurization at 1859 UTC

The PMA-3 port with its APAS adapter was designed for Shuttle dockings; the IDA-3 converts it to be suitable for Crew Dragon and Starliner dockings

On Aug 22 Roskosmos launched Soyuz MS-14 on a Soyuz-2-1a rocket This was the first launch of the comnbination and tested the interaction of the modern rocket's digital control system with the old-fashioned Soyuz spaceship's abort system Soyuz MS-14 was launched without a crew, but a humanoid robot Skybot F-850 'Fyodor' takes up one of the seats Soyuz MS-14 also carries 658 kg of cargo for ISS

Blagovest

On Aug 5 Russia launched a Proton-M with the Blagovest No 14L military communications satellite The Briz-M upper stage delivered it to geosynchronous orbit On Aug 20 it was drifting west over the Indian Ocean

Ariane

Arianespace flew an Ariane 5 on Aug 6 placing the EDRS-C and Intelsat IS-39 comms satellites in geotransfer orbit By Aug 20 both satellites were in near-GEO drift orbits EDRS-C (European Data Relay Satellite), to be located at 31E, has a laser communications payload It also carries a secondary Ka-band payload, Hylas 3, for Avanti Communications IS-39 will replace Intelsat 901 over the Indian Ocean

Amos 17

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Aug 6 No attempt was made to recover the B1047 first stage, which was on its third flight The second stage placed the AMOS 17 communications satellite in geotransfer orbit AMOS 17 is a Boeing 702MP satellite for Israel's Spacecom By Aug 19 it was on station in GEO at 13 8E

AEHF-5

ULA's Atlas V flight AV-083, using the powerful 551 model, was launched on Aug 8 Centaur AV-083 made three burns to a high perigee GTO to drop off the strategic US military communications satellite AEHF 5 After the second burn, a 12U cubesat called TDO was ejected into geotransfer orbit TDO, for the USAF Space and Missile Command, tests satellite and space debris tracking technologies

By Aug 21, AEHF 5 was in a 24870 x 35300 km orbit

Jielong-1

The Changzheng Houjian YG (China Long March Rocket Co), a commercialization subsidiary of the government CALT launch vehicle manufacturer, carried out its first orbital launch on Aug 17 The Jielong-1 (Smart Dragon 1) four-stage solid rocket put three satellites in sun-synchronous orbit

Qiancheng-1 01 xing is an imaging satellite for Qiancheng Exploration Tech Co (Beijing) Xingshidai-5 is a test satellite for Guoxing Aerospace (Chengdu), using a Weina MN10 bus Tianqi-2 is a satellite for Guodian Gaokeji (Beijing) for IoT data relay

Zhongxing-18

The Zhongxing-18 (Chinasat-18) C/Ku/Ka-band communications sat, using the enhanced DFH-4E bus, was launched by CZ-3B S/N Y58 on Aug 19 to geotransfer orbit However, it was announced that the payload was malfunctioning following its separation from the upper stage

Electron 8

The 8th Rocket Lab Electron launch from New Zealand placed the BlackSky Global 4 imaging satellite in orbit together with three 6U cubesats: the signals intelligence (spectrum monitoring) BRO-ONE for the Breton company Unseen Labs and two Pearl White technology cubesats for USAF Space Command On this flight, the kick stage does not appear to have been cataloged and may have been deorbited Although RocketLab videos describing Electron tout its ability to deorbit and not leave junk around, most and possibly all of the previous Electron flights have actually left their kick stages up

Flight           Kick stage             Current orbit
-----------      ----------------       -----------------------
Electron 1       Failed to orbit        -
Electron 2       43164  2018-010B       488 x 529 km x 82
9 deg
Electron 3       43692  2018-088C       495 x 516 km x 85
0 deg
Electron 4       43851/53? 2018-104C/F? Unclear (more unid track objects than missing payloads)
Electron 5       44074  2019-016B       410 x 428 km x 39
5 deg
Electron 6       44427  2019-026C       494 x 510 km x 40
0 deg
Electron 7       44365/68? 2019-037A/D? Unclear (more unid track objects than missing payloads)
Electron 8       Deorbited?  Number of unid tracked objects same as number of payloads

GPS

The second GPS Block III satellite, nicknamed Magellan, was launched on Aug 22 aboard a Delta 4 from Cape Canaveral The Delta 4 second stage deorbited itself south of South Africa at the end of its first orbit

Chandrayaan-2

Chandrayaan-2 made its translunar injection burn at 2051 UTC Aug 13, raising apogee to 408,000 km Lunar orbit insertion occurred around 0330 UTC Aug 20 into a 114 x 18072 km x 87 8 deg orbit

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

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

Jul 11 0153 FalconEye 1 Vega CSG ZLV Imaging F05 -6175? x 75?x 98 5?
Jul 12 1230 Spektr-RG Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Astronomy 40A 500 x1240000 x 51 6
Jul 20 1628 Soyuz MS-13 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1/5 Spaceship 41A S44437 200 x 211 x 51 6 Jul 22 0913 Chandrayaan 2 GSLV-3 Satish Dhawan Lunar 42A S44441 133 x 45171 x 21 4 Jul 25 0500 CAS-7B ) Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Comms 43 S44443 280 x 299 x 42 7 Hangtian KKG Fazhang sat) Tech 43 Jul 25 2201 Dragon CRS-18 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 44A S44446 203 x 386 x 51 6 Jul 26 0357 Yaogan-30 05 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint 45A S44449 590 x 605 x 35 0 Yaogan-30 05 zu 02 xing ) Sigint 45B S44450 590 x 605 x 35 0 Yaogan-30 05 zu 03 xing ) Sigint 45C S44451 590 x 605 x 35 0 Jul 30 0557 Meridian-M No 18L Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Comms 46A S44453 985 x 39734 x 62 8 Jul 31 1210 Progress MS-12 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 47A S44455 185 x 218 x 51 6 Aug 5 2156 Kosmos-2539 Proton/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 48A S44457 35673 x 35851 x 0 0 Aug 6 1930 EDRS C ) Ariane 5 ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 49A S44475? 217 x 35528 x 4 5 Intelsat IS-39 ) Comms 49B S44476? 231 x 35801 x 4 5 Aug 6 2323 AMOS 17 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 50A S44479 215 x 35733 x 26 0 Aug 6 or 7? RTFSat ) Chaffee, LEO Tech 22G S44417 470 x 485 x 51 6 Quantum Radar 3 ) Tech 22F S44416 470 x 485 x 51 6 NARSScube-2 ) Tech 22H S44418 470 x 485 x 51 6 ORCA ) Tech 22E S44415 470 x 485 x 51 6 Aug 7 1300 Aerocube-10a ) Chaffee, LEO Tech 22D S44485 471 x 485 x 51 7 Aerocube-10b ) Tech 22C S44484 469 x 481 x 51 7 Aug 8 1013 AEHF 5 ) Atlas V 551 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 51A S44481 14366 x 35286 x 10 0 TDO ) Sp Surv 51B S44482 207 x 35259 x 26 4 Aug 17 0411 Qiancheng-1 01 ) Jielong-1 Jiuquan Imaging 52A S44486 532 x 559 x 97 6 Xingshidai-5 ) Tech 52 S44487? 529 x 559 x 97 6 Tianqi-2 ) Comms 52 S44488? 529 x 560 x 97 6 Aug 19 1203 Zhongxing-18 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 53A S44493 228 x 35879 x 28 4 Aug 19 1212 BlackSky Global 4) Electron Mahia Imaging 54 S44496? 531 x 558 x 45 0 Pearl White 1 ) Tech 54 S44497? 531 x 558 x 45 0 Pearl White 2 ) Tech 54 S44498? 531 x 558 x 45 0 BRO-ONE ) Sigint 54 S44499? 531 x 558 x 45 0 Aug 22 0338 Soyuz MS-14 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 55A S44504 194 x 226 x 51 6 Aug 22 1306 GPS III SV02 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Navigation 56A S44506 1199 x 20177 x 55 0

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Jul 15? MRBM Target eMRBM? C-17, Kauai? Target 300? Alaska Jul 15? Arrow 3 KV Arrow 3 Kodiak Interceptor 100? Intercept MRBM Jul 24 Shahab RV Shahab 3 Iran Test 250? Iran? Jul 26 Topol-E RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Reentry test 1000? Sary Shagan Jul 22? MRBM Target eMRBM? C-17, Kauai? Target 300? Alaska Jul 22? Arrow 3 KV Arrow 3 Kodiak Interceptor 100? Intercept MRBM Jul 27? MRBM Target eMRBM? C-17, Kauai? Target 300? Alaska Jul 27? Arrow 3 KV Arrow 3 Kodiak Interceptor 100? Intercept MRBM Aug 1? Warhead Burkan-3 Yemen Weapon 300? Dammam, S Arabia Aug 7 1510? RV DF-31/41? Taiyuan Test 1000? Xinjiang Aug 11 0607 SISTINE Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astronomy 259 White Sands Aug 12 0944 RockSat-X 9 Terrier Imp Mal Wallops Island Education 154 Atlantic

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