Jonathan's Space Report<br />No. 559 2005 Dec 29, Somerville, MA<br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Sender: owner-jsr@host.planet4589.org<br />Precedence: bulk<br />Reply-To: jcm@host.planet4589.org@host.planet4589.org<br /><br />After a month without orbital launches, Dec 21 saw three orbital<br />launches on a single day (as well as a suborbital Russian submarine<br />missile launch). By Dec 29 Russia had launched eight satellites within<br />eight days, repeating a familiar Russian operational pattern of a late<br />November launch gap followed by a flurry of activity at the end of<br />December before the new year holiday. <br /><br />Progress M-55<br />-------------<br /><br />The robot cargo spaceship Progress M No. 355 was launched as mission<br />Progress M-55, ISS flight 20P, on a Soyuz-U from Baykonur. The 7-tonne<br />craft docked with the Station's Pirs module at 1946 UTC on Dec 23. <br />The previous cargo craft, Progress M-54, will remain docked to the<br />Zvezda module until March. Soyuz TMA-7 is docked to Zarya.<br /><br />Gonets<br />------<br /><br /><br />A Gonets-D1M ('messenger') low orbit communications satellite was<br />launched on a light Kosmos-3M rocket on Dec 21 into a 1440 x 1450 km x<br />82.5 deg orbit. Gonets-D1M (or Gonets-M) is the civilian version of the<br />military Strela-3 low orbit communications constellation. The launch<br />also carried a military satellite called Rodnik, with cover name<br />Kosmos-2416. I don't know anything about Rodnik - the best guess is<br />that it is an upgrade of the Strela-3. The Strela-3, originally flown in<br />groups of six on the retired Tsiklon rocket, has been launched in pairs<br />on Kosmos-3M since 2002 to the same orbit, so it makes sense that this<br />is another pair of Strela-3 buses but with improved payloads.<br /><br /><br />Ariane 5<br />--------<br /><br />Arianespace continues its string of successes with the launch of Ariane<br />vehicle 525, a standard (5GS) model with the EPS upper stage. It put<br />the Insat-4A and MSG-2 satellites in orbit. The EPC core stage reached<br />a 44 x 1702 km x 6.5 deg transatmospheric orbit and reentered<br />over the Pacific. The EPS stage made a single burn to 620 x 35853 km x 3.9 deg<br />and released the two satellites and the Sylda adapter.<br /><br />Insat-4A is the first of a new series of Indian communications satellites.<br />Built at ISAC/Bangalore, it is a 3081 kg (full; 1385 kg dry) satellite<br />with Ku-band and C-band transponders. The Insat 4 series are slightly<br />heavier than the Insat 2 and Insat 3 satellites they are replacing,<br />but represent an enhancement rather than a new bus. Insat 4A made<br />three orbit raising burns and reached geostationary altitude over<br />the Indian Ocean at 0430 UTC on Dec 26, successfully deploying its solar arrays.<br /><br />MSG 2 (Meteosat Second Generation) is a spin-stabilized weather<br />satellite continuing the European Meteorological Satellite Organization<br />(EUMETSAT) series of Meteosat geostationary weather satellites; it will<br />become Meteosat 9 once operational. Launch mass is 2036 kg; dry mass is<br />around 1000 kg. After reaching geostationary drift orbit, two covers on<br />the SEVIRI telescope were ejected on Dec 29 over 30.4 deg E (at 0445 and<br />0500 UTC, according to Vladimir Agapov. Space Command has not cataloged<br />the two 1-meter covers ejected from MSG-1/Meteosat-8, so probably won't<br />see the ones from this launch either).<br /><br />Glonass<br />-------<br /><br />On Dec 25 Russia launched a Proton with the Block 34 launch of three<br />GLONASS navigation satellites; one Uragan, serial No. 798, and two<br />improved Uragan-M, serial number 713 and 714. They were given Kosmos<br />cover names. In recent years, GLONASS launches involved two of the old<br />Uragan and only one Uragan-M. <br /><br />Launch was by Proton serial number 410-12 according to the<br />federalspace.ru site; the satellites are in a 19110 x 19130 km x 64.8<br />deg orbit; the Proton third stage was tracked in a low parking orbit and<br />the Blok-DM2 fourth stage is in a 19072 x 19122 km x 64.9 deg orbit. Two<br />small ullage motors used to force fuel to the back of the tanks for the<br />DM2 second burn are thought to be in elliptical transfer orbit, but have<br />not yet been cataloged.<br /><br />Giove-A<br />-------<br /><br />On Dec 28 a Starsem Soyuz-FG rocket with a Fregat upper stage delivered<br />the 602 kg Surrey-built GIOVE-A satellite to orbit. GIOVE-A, the Galileo<br />In-Orbit Validation Element, is Europe's first navigation test satellite<br />and is a precursor to the Galileo system which will be the European<br />equivalent of GPS. GIOVE-A is owned and developed by the European Space<br />Agency, but the operational GNSS (Galileo Navigation Satellite System)<br />itself is a European Union project. GIOVE-A carries two rubidium <br />atomic clocks and a large L-band phased array antenna.<br /><br />The Soyuz-FG entered a mildly suborbital trajectory and its upper<br />stage fell in the Pacific. The first Fregat burn reached a roughly 220<br />km circular orbit, probably at 52 deg inclination; the second burn was<br />to a transfer orbit around 220 x 23200 km; and the third burn put<br />GIOVE-A in its initial 23011 x 23258 km x 56.05 deg orbit.<br />Unfortunately the Starsem press kit does not give details of the Fregat<br />rocket burns, so the details here are guesswork. The quoted target orbit<br />is 23616 km circular, easily within reach of GIOVE-A's butane propulsion<br />system.<br /><br />The three modern navigation satellite systems are quite similar: the<br />United States GPS satellites are in a 20140 x 20220 km x 55.0 deg orbit,<br />the Russian GLONASS system is in a 19120 x 19140 km x 64.8 deg orbit,<br />and the initial GIOVE planned orbit is 23616 x 23616 x 56.0 deg. All of<br />them transmit at L-band (1.5-1.6 GHz). Contrast this with the first<br />generation navsat systems, which used Doppler beacons instead of atomic<br />clock signals - the now-retired US Navy Transits operated at 1000 x 1200<br />km x 90.0 deg and the Russian Tsiklon/Parus/Tsikada continue in a 970 x<br />1010 km x 83.0 deg orbit, both using much lower frequencies around 0.15<br />MHz. The higher orbits mean fewer satellites, but stronger signals.<br /><br /><br />AMC 23<br />-------<br /><br />SES Global's 5035-kg AMC-23 was launched on Dec 29 by an International<br />Launch Services/Krunichev Proton-M No. 535-13 with a Briz-M upper stage<br />(No. 88514). AMC-23 is an Alcatel Alenia/Cannes Spacebus 4000C3 satellite<br />which was originally built as Americom 13, then Worldsat 3, and is now<br />to provide Ku-band and C-band multimedia and telecom services over the<br />Pacific. The C-band payload will be partly used by the Japanese JSAT<br />system. SES, based in Luxembourg, bought the old RCA (later GE) Americom<br />system in 2001. The Briz-M delivered the satellite to a 6193 x 35615 km<br />x 18.5 deg transfer orbit, leaving its secondary propellant tank in<br />a 311 x 15526 km x 49.6 deg intermediate orbit. The Proton third<br />stage was suborbital on this launch. AMC-23 will use its Astrium S400<br />apogee engine to reach geostationary orbit.<br /><br /><br />Table of Recent Launches<br />-----------------------<br /><br />Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. <br /> DES.<br />Nov 8 1407 Inmarsat 4F-2 Zenit-3SL Odyssey, POR Comms 44A<br />Nov 9 0333 Venus Express Soyuz-Fregat Baykonur LC31/6 Space probe 45A<br />Nov 16 2346 Spaceway 2 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 46A<br /> Telkom 2 ) Comms 46B<br />Dec 21 1838 Progress M-55 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1/5 Cargo 47A<br />Dec 21 1934 Gonets-D1M ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Comms 48A<br /> Kosmos-2416 ) Comms 48B<br />Dec 21 2233 Insat 4A ) Ariane 5GS Kourou ELA3 Comms 49A<br /> MSG 2 ) Weather 49B<br />Dec 25 0507 Kosmos-2417 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81/23 Navigation 50A<br /> Kosmos-2418 ) Navigation 50B<br /> Kosmos-2419 ) Navigation 50C<br />Dec 28 0519 GIOVE A Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31/6 Navigation 51A <br />Dec 29 0228 AMC 23 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 52A<br /><br /><br />.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.<br />| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |<br />| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org |<br />| USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |<br />| |<br />| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |<br />| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |<br />| Subscribe/unsub: mail majordomo@host.planet4589.org, (un)subscribe jsr | <br />'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'