Jonathan's Space Report
No. 659 ���������������������������������������2012 May 25 �Somerville, MA USA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Space Station
-------------

The undocking of Soyuz TMA-22 marked the start of ISS Expedition 31. The
current Ex 31 crew are commander Oleg Kononenko, flight engineer 5 Andre
Kuipers, and flight engineer 6 Don Pettit (Note that the flight engineer
numbers I gave in JSR 658 were incorrect).

At 0301 UTC on May 15 Soyuz TMA-04M (spacecraft 11F732A47 No. 705) was
launched from Baykonur on a Soyuz-FG rocket carrying Gennadiy Padalka,
Sergey Revin and Joe Acaba. It docked with the ISS' Poisk module on May
17 at 0436 UTC.

At 0744:38 UTC on May 22 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 vehicle from Cape
Canaveral carrying the Dragon COTS 2+ DEMO mission. The Dragon C2+
spacecraft was placed in a 297 x 346 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Dragon
consists of a pressurised cabin with cargo and an unpressurized trunk
section with solar panels, which deployed just after orbit insertion.
The robot cargo vehicle is designed to deliver cargo to the Station
and return cargo to Earth.

SpaceX are being secretive about the properties of the Dragon vehicle -
they have not released the mass of the spacecraft. The claimed capacity
of Falcon 9 to LEO is around 10 metric tons, but my guess is that
Dragon C2+ is more like 5 to 7 metric tons at stage 2 separation (comments
and information solicited).

A Celestis space burial capsule (with cremated human remains) is attached
to the Falcon 9 second stage, in a 268 x 333 km x 51.7 deg orbit.

On May 24 Dragon C2+ was in a 380 x 396 km orbit and made a 2.5 km flyby
of the Station at 1125 UTC; rendezvous and capture is expected on May
25. On May 25 the spacecraft entered the ISS 200-meter keep-out-sphere
at 1121 UTC. Approach was paused briefly to debug an issue with the
lidar, which was affected by unexpected reflections from the Kibo
Exposed Facility, but the 30-meter hold point was reached at 1313 UTC,
followed by the 10-meter point at 1347 UTC and capture by the station's
SSRMS robot arm at 1356 UTC. At 1552 UTC the SSRMS berthed the Dragon at
the nadir CBM port on the Harmony module, with berthing complete at 1602
UTC. Hatch opening on May 26 will represent the first delivery of cargo
to the Station by a commercial spacecraft.


CZ-4B launch
------------

China launched a three-stage Chang Zheng 4B rocket on May 10, orbiting
the Yaogan 14 military remote sensing satellite to a 473 x 479 km x 97.2
deg, 2:14pm sun-sunchronous orbit. It also deployed the Tiantuo 1
technology satellite for the National University of Defense Technology.
Tiantuo ('Space Pioneer') carries an imager, an atomic oxygen sensor,
and an AIS (maritime tracking) receiver. Tiantuo 1 is in a 468 x 471 km
x 97.2 deg orbit.

Ariane 5
--------

Arianespace launched an Ariane 5ECA on May 15, placing in orbit
two Lockheed Martin A2100 class satellites: JCSAT 13 for Sky Perfect JSAT,
and Vinasat 2 for VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecom). I believe that
JCSAT 13 has a Leros 1C apogee engine, while Vinasat 2 has the Japanese IHI BT-4
(can anyone confirm or refute this?).

On May 23 JCSAT 13 was in a 35731 x 35772 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting east over 125E;
Vinasat-2 was in a 35716 x 35761 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting east over 131E.
The ESC-A upper stage was in a 264 x 35665 km x 1.7 deg geostationary transfer orbit.


Kosmos-2480
-----------

A new Kobal't-M imaging spy satellite was launched on May 17 from
Plesetsk into a 186 x 255 km x 81.4 deg orbit - the second Kobal't-M to
this near polar inclination. The satellite was given the cover name
Kosmos-2480. At about 0750 UTC on May 20 the satellite's orbit was
raised to 218 x 248 km as it began its operational mission.

Shizuku
-------

Japan's JAXA space agency launched H-IIA flight F21 from Tanegashima on
May 17 into a 1:30am local time sun-synchronous orbit at 670 x 674 km x
98.2 deg. The main payloads are Shizuku, JAXA's first satellite in the
Global Change Observation Mission series, and Arirang-3 (Kompsat-3), a
South Korean imaging satellite. JAXA's 50 kg SDS-4 Small Demonstration
Satellite (kogata jissho eisei 4-gata) carries four technology
experiments including a space-based AIS (ship tracking) payload. A small
7 kg satellite built by the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Horyu-2,
will study spacecraft charging effects and test a camera payload for
Surrey Satellite. (My Japanese colleague K. Sato informs me that Horyu
is an imaginary 'Phoenix-Dragon' - Ho + Ryu - which serves as KIT's
emblem). The second stage will be monitored after payload deployment to
study improved propellant insulation.

Shizuku (`dewdrop', GCOM-W1) is a 1991 kg satellite carrying a microwave
scanning radiometer, AMSR-2.

In addition to the four payloads and the second stage, the upper payload
adapter and two side panels from the lower fairing were cataloged in orbit,
for a total of 8 objects.


Nimiq-6
--------

A Krunichev Proton-M was launched from Baykonur on May 17. The Briz-M
No. 99530 upper stage carries the Canadian Nimiq-6 television broadcast
satellite, a Loral 1300-series vehicle with 24 Ku-band transponders; it
was deployed to a 11985 x 35800 km x 10.2 deg transfer orbit. By May 23
Nimiq 6 was in a 35738 x 35751 km x 0.0 deg geostationary drift orbit,
drifting east over 139W.

Suborbital launches
-------------------

Russian carried out the second launch of a new generation ballistic missile
on May 23. The missile is thought to be a modification of the Topol' series,
and is possibly code-named 'Avangard'.



Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT ������Name �����������Launch Vehicle �Site �����������Mission ���INTL. �
�������������������������������������������������������������������������DES.
Apr �3 2312 ��NROL-25 �����������Delta 4M+(5,2) ���Vandenberg SLC6 ��Radar ����14A
Apr 12 2239 ��Kwangmyongsong-3 ��Unha-3 �����������Sohae ������������Tech �����F01
Apr 20 1250 ��Progress M-15M ����Soyuz-U ����������Baykonur LC31/6 ��Cargo ����15A
Apr 23 2218 ��Yahsat-1B ���������Proton-M/Briz-M ��Baykonur LC200/39 Comms ����16A
Apr 26 0017 ��RISAT-1 �����������PSLV-XL ����������Sriharikota ������Radar ����17A
Apr 29 2050 ��Beidou DW 12 ����) Chang Zheng 3B ���Xichang LC2 ������Nav ������18A
�������������Beidou DW 13 ����) ������������������������������������Nav ������18B
May �4 1842 ��AEHF 2 ������������Atlas V 531 ������Canaveral SLC41 ��Comms ����19A
May �6 0710 ��Tianhui 1-02 ������Chang Zheng 2D ���Jiuquan SLS2 �����Imaging ��20A
May 10 0706 ��Yaogan Weixing 14) Chang Zheng 4B ���Taiyuan ����������Imaging ��21A
�������������Tiantuo 1 �������) ������������������������������������Tech/Sci �21B
May 15 0301 ��Soyuz TMA-04M �����Soyuz-FG ���������Baykonur LC1/5 ���Spaceship 22A
May 15 2213 ��JCSAT 13 ��) ������Ariane 5ECA ������Kourou ELA3 ������Comms ����23A?
�������������Vinasat 2 �) ������������������������������������������Comms ����23B?
May 17 1405 ��Kosmos-2480 �������Soyuz-U ����������Plesetsk LC16 ����Imaging ��24A
May 17 1639 ��Shizuku ���) ������H-2A �������������Tanegashima Y1 ���Climate ��25A
�������������Arirang-3 �) ������������������������������������������Imaging ��25B
�������������SDS-4 �����) ������������������������������������������Tech �����25C?
�������������Horyu-2 ���) ������������������������������������������Tech �����25D
May 17 1912 ��Nimiq 6 �����������Proton-M/Briz-M ��Baykonur LC81/24 �Comms ����26A
May 22 0744 ��Dragon C2 �) ������Falcon 9 ���������Canaveral LC40 ���Cargo ����27A
�������������Celestis 11) ������������������������������������������Burial ���27B

Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches
----------------------------------

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


Apr �5 1418 ��SL-6 ������������SpaceLoft XL ������Spaceport America ��Tech ��������117
Apr 19 0237 ��Agni RV ���������Agni V ������������Chandipur ����������R&D ���������800
Apr 25 �������Shaheen RV ������Shaheen 1A ��������Somniani? ����������R&D ���������100?
May 10 0618 ��FTM-16/2A Target Terrier Orion �����Kauai ��������������Target ������100?
May 10 0620? �FTM-16/2A KV ����SM-3 Block IB �����USS Lake Erie ������Intercept ���100?
May 23 0615 ��RV ��������������Topol'-M2? ��������Plesetsk �����������R&D ��������1000?

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| �Jonathan McDowell ����������������| �phone : (617) 495-7176 �����������|
| �Somerville MA 02143 ��������������| �inter : planet4589 at gmail ������|
| �USA ������������������������������| ���������jcm@cfa.harvard.edu ������|


David Cottle

UBB Owner & Administrator