Jonathan's Space Report

No 750 2018 Jun 18 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

During May Expedition 55 continued with Anton Shkaplerov in command, Scott Tingle, Norishige Kanai, Oleg Artemev, Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel as flight engineers On Jun 1 Feustel took command as Soyuz MS-07 prepared to undock

Soyuz MS-07 undocked at 0916 UTC Jun 3 with Shkaplerov, Tingle and Kanai Feustel, Artemev and Arnold remained aboard ISS as Expedition 56 Soyuz MS-07 made its deorbit burn at 1147 UTC; the modules separated at 1214 UTC, the descent module began reentry at 1217 UTC and landed in Kazakhstan at 1239 UTC

Soyuz MS-09 was launched on Jun 6, carrying Sergey Prokop'ev (Roskosmos), Serena Aunon-Chancellor (NASA), and Alex Gerst (ESA) It docked with the Rassvet module at 1301 UTC Jun 8

Astronauts Arnold and Feustel made spacewalk US EVA-51 on Jun 14 They installed cameras and wireless comm equipment next to the PMA-2/IDA-2 docking port on the Harmony module that will be used by approaching Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles; replaced a camera on the CP3 truss position, and closed the telescope cover on the failed CATS atmosphere observatory experiment As a final task Feustel secured a a loose component on the solar array blanket box on the S4 truss (the box that one of the big solar panels unfurled from) In the process he dropped a large `wire tie' that floated off and is now cataloged as 43498, 1998-067NS

GF-6

A SAST/Shanghai Chang Zheng 2D launched a DFH CAST-2000 high resolution imaging satellite, Gao Fen 6, on Jun 2 Gao Fen 6 has a 2 metre resolution imager and a hyperspectral imager A secondary 6U cubesat payload for Wuhan University was deployed; Luojia-1 kexue shiyan weixing 01 xing (Luojia-1 science experiment satellite S/C 01) carries a low light level imager for studies of illumination on the Earth's night side

GF-6 is the 12th Gao Fen (`high resolution') satellite to be launched All are in sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) except for the geostationary GF-4

Gao Fen satellites

             Launch         Orbit (km x km x deg)  

Gao Fen 1-01 2013 Apr 26 628 x 653 x 97 9 SSO 1100 LT Gao Fen 2 2014 Aug 19 621 x 634 x 97 9 SSO 1100 LT Gao Fen 8 2015 Jun 26 483 x 490 x 97 4 SSO 1330 LT Gao Fen 9 2015 Sep 14 618 x 663 x 97 9 SSO 1100 LT Gao Fen 4 2015 Dec 28 35766 x 35808 x 0 0 GEO 105 8E Gao Fen 3 2016 Aug 9 750 x 752 x 98 4 SSO 0600 LT Gao Fen 10 2016 Aug 31 Failed to orbit (SSO 0200 LT) Gao Fen 1-02 2018 Mar 31 637 x 644 x 98 0 SSO 1030 LT Gao Fen 1-03 2018 Mar 31 636 x 645 x 98 0 SSO 1030 LT Gao Fen 1-04 2018 Mar 31 637 x 644 x 98 0 SSO 1030 LT Gao Fen 5 2018 May 8 699 x 702 x 98 1 SSO 0130 LT Gao Fen 6 2018 Jun 2 632 x 647 x 98 1 SSO 1030 LT

SES-12

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Jun 4 with a 5384 kg Ku/Ka-band television broadcast satellite, SES-12 SES-12 is an Airbus Eurostar 3000e with electric propulsion It was launched to a 210 x 58276 km x 25 9 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit By Jun 14 four perigee raising burns had changed the orbit to 1032 x 59868 km x 23 8 deg

FY-2-09

Fengyun erhao 09 xing, also called Fengyun erhao H xing (FY-2H), was launched on Jun 5 It is the last in the FY-2 series of Chinese spin-stabilized geostationary meteorological satellites On around Jun 7 the apogee motor was fired to circularize the orbit and was then ejected As of Jun 16 the satellite was on station at 94 0E in a 35775 x 35796 km x 2 3 deg orbit The apogee motor was in a 35482 x 36212 km x 2 4 deg orbit, crossing the geostationary region - which is an undesirable place to leave space junk

IGS R-6

Japan's Information Gathering Satellite Radar-6 (Joho shushu eisei Reda 6-goki) was launched from Tanegashima on Jun 12 into sun-synchronous orbit with descending node local time of 13:15

The IGS series is operated by Japan's Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center (Naikaku Eisei Joho Senta) and includes both optical and radar satellites

IGS satellites

                  Launch         Orbit (km x km x deg)  

IGS Optical-1 2003 Mar 28 Reentered 2014 Jul SSO 1020LT IGS Optical-2 2003 Nov 29 Failed to orbit SSO 1330LT IGS Optical-2 2006 Sep 11 Reentered 2016 Oct SSO 1330LT IGS Optical-3 Test 2007 Feb 24 Reentered 2013 Nov SSO 1330LT IGS Optical-3 2009 Nov 28 584 x 590 x 97 7 SSO 1030LT IGS Optical-4 2011 Sep 23 587 x 588 x 97 7 SSO 1315LT IGS Optical Demo 2013 Jan 27 425 x 429 x 97 2 SSO 1330LT IGS Optical-5 2015 Mar 26 510 x 516 x 97 5 SSO 1030LT IGS Optical-6 2018 Feb 27 485 x 499 x 97 2 SSO 2345LT

IGS Radar-1 2003 Mar 28 Reentered 2012 Jul SSO 1020LT IGS Radar-2 2003 Nov 29 Failed to orbit SSO 1330LT IGS Radar-2 2007 Feb 24 Reentered 2014 Apr SSO 1330LT IGS Radar-3 2011 Dec 12 510 x 515 x 97 5 SSO 1030LT
IGS Radar-4 2013 Jan 27 511 x 515 x 97 5 SSO 1330LT IGS Radar Spare 2015 Feb 1 481 x 484 x 97,4 SSO 1015LT IGS Radar-5 2017 Mar 17 486 x 489 x 97 4 SSO 1015LT IGS Radar-6 2018 Jun 12 500 x 502 x 97 4 SSO 1315LT

Glonass M-56

Russia lanched another Glonass navigation satellite on Jun 16; it was given the cover name Kosmos-2527

Hayabusa-2

On Jun 18 Hayabusa-2 was under 180 km from asteroid Ryugu; it is making trajectory correction burns about every 2 days It is expected to be stationkeeping 20 km from Ryugu by the end of the month

TESS

On May 30 at 0130 UTC TESS made its final orbit insertion burn, changing the orbit from 99036 x 435600 km x 36 6 deg to 99037 x 366905 km x 36 6 deg, a P/2 lunar resonant orbit Instrument commissioning is underway and TESS should begin its search for extrasolar planets soon

LEO Vantage 1

Telesat's LEO Vantage 1 satellite was launched in January on PSLV-C40 into a 496 x 508 km orbit While I wasn't paying attention, it raised orbit slowly between Jan 21 and Apr 5 and is now in a 996 x 1004 km SSO

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 3 1606 Apstar 6C Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 41A S43450 239 x 41827 x 27 2 May 5 1105 Mars Insight) Atlas V 401 Vandenberg SLC3E Mars probe 42A S43457 115 x-110126x 63 4 MarCO-A ) Mars probe 42B S43458 115 x-110126x 63 4 MarCO-B ) Mars probe 42C S43459 115 x-110126x 63 4 May 8 1828 GaoFen 5 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 43A S43461 682 x 688 x 98 1 May 11 1030 1KUNS-PF ) ISS, LEO Tech 98-67NQ S43467 400 x 402 x 51 6 Batsu-CS1 ) Tech 98-67NR S43468 400 x 402 x 51 6 May 11 1040 UBAKUSAT ISS, LEO Tech 98-67NP S43466 400 x 402 x 51 6 May 11 2014 Bangabandhu 1 Falcon 9 FT5 Kennedy SLC39A Comms 44A S43463 296 x 35515 x 19 3 May 12? USA 287 EAGLE, high orbit Tech 36G S43465 35290?x 35290?x 0 1 May 20 2128 Queqiao ) Chang Zheng 4C Xichang Comms 45A S43470 159 x376347 x 29 0 Longjiang 1) Radio Astron 45B S43471 184 x400603 x 28 5 Longjiang 2) Radio Astron 45C S43472 184 x400603 x 28 5 May 21 0844 SS J R Thompson Antares 230 MARS LA0B Cargo 46A S43474 228 x 319 x 51 6 May 22 1948 GRACE-FO 1 ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Science 47A S43476 485 x 504 x 89 0 GRACE-FO 2 ) Science 47B S43477 485 x 504 x 89 0 Iridium 110 ) Comms 47F S43481 488 x 718 x 86 7 Iridium 147 ) Comms 47E S43480 489 x 714 x 86 7 Iridium 152 ) Comms 47D S43479 493 x 710 x 86 7 Iridium 161 ) Comms 47C S43478 489 x 714 x 86 7 Iridium 162 ) Comms 47G S43482 491 x 715 x 86 7 Jun 2 0413 Gao Fen 6 ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 48A S43484 635 x 646 x 98 0 Luojia-1 KSW 01 ) Imaging 48B S43485 635 x 647 x 98 0 Jun 4 0445 SES-12 Falcon 9 FT Canaveral SLC40 Comms 49A S43488 210 x 58276 x 25 9 Jun 5 1307 Fengyun 2 09 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang LC2 Weather 50A S43491 219 x 35906 x 24 6 Jun 6 1112 Soyuz MS-09 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 51A S43493 190 x 247 x 51 6 Jun 12 0420 IGS R-6 H-IIA Tanegashima Radar 52A S43495 500 x 502 x 97 4 Jun 16 2146 Kosmos-2527 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk Navigation 53A S43508 19116 x 19155 x 64 8

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

The suborbital launches table includes known flights above 80 km The new Boosted Zombie rocket tested on Jun 7 has a Terrier Mk 70 first stage and a Zombie (ATACMS derived) second stage; it is unclear how high it flew

On Jun 18 the University of Colorado's EVE payload was launched to calibrate the Solar Dynamics Observatory EVE instrument; this is the 7th launch in the series

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

May 8 Burkan RV Burkan 2H Yemen Weapon 100? Riyadh May 8 Burkan RV Burkan 2H Yemen Weapon 100? Riyadh May 13 0830 TEXUS 54 VSB-30 Esrange Microgravity 261 Esrange B zone May 14 0823 Mk 12 or 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF04 Test 1300? Kwajalein? May 22 RV x ? Bulava K-535, White Sea Test 1000? Kura May 22 RV x ? Bulava K-535, White Sea Test 1000? Kura May 22 RV x ? Bulava K-535, White Sea Test 1000? Kura May 22 RV x ? Bulava K-535, White Sea Test 1000? Kura May 29 1854 Hi-C 2 1 Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar EUV 290 White Sands May 31 0400 TEXUS 55 VSB-30 Esrange Microgravity 255 Esrange B zone Jun 3 0418 Agni RV Agni V Kalam Island Test 800 Indian O Jun 7 NASA 12 081BZ-DR Boosted Zombie White Sands Test 100? White Sands Jun 18 1900 EVE 7 Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar EUV 250? White Sands

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