Jonathan’s Space Report No. 587 2007 Oct 30
Shuttle and Station
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The Expedition 15 crew of Fyodor Yurchikin and Oleg Kotov, and visiting Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, undocked from the Station’s Zvezda port in Soyuz TMA-10 at 0714 UTC on Oct 21. Soyuz TMA-10 fired its deorbit engines at 0947 and, after a ballistic reentry, landed in Kazakhstan at 1036 UTC. The Expedition 16 crew of Peggy Whitson (Commander), Yuriy Malenchenko (Flight Engineer 1) and Clay Anderson (Flight Engineer 2) remained aboard the Station. Spaceship Soyuz TMA-11, docked at the Zarya port, serves as the emergency ferry ship for the Expedtion 16 crew. The Progress M-61 cargo ship is docked at the Pirs port.
Orbiter OV-103 Discovery took off from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Shuttle mission STS-120, Station flight 10A, at 1538 UTC on Oct 23. Discovery, commanded by astronaut Pam Melroy, docked with the PMA-2 port on the Destiny module at 1240 UTC on Oct 25. Here is my estimated cargo manifest for the mission:
STS-120 Cargo Manifest
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Bay Mass (kg) Orbiter Docking System 1-2 1800 EMU 3004 130? EMU 3003 130? SPDU 3P 100? Station Power Distribution Unit SASA FSE 4S 100? Fixture for return of S-band Antenna PDGF 5P 50? Power/Data Grapple Fixture for Node-2 MBSU 6S 238 Main Bus Switching Unit 122 MBSU adapter SPDU 7P 100? Station Power Distribution Unit Node-2 Harmony 8-12 14300 OBSS 203? Sill 450? RMS 301? Sill 410? ----------------------------------------- 17390 kg
At 1001 UTC on Oct 26 the Quest airlock was depressurized and the hatch opened, and astronauts Parazynski and Wheelock began the first STS-120 spacewalk in EMU suits 3004 and 3003 respectively. They removed an antenna from the Z1 truss and stowed it in the payload bay, prepared the P6 truss for separation from Z1, and supervised the installation of the Node-2 Harmony module. Harmony was unberthed from Discovery’s payload bay at 1340 UTC by the Station Canadarm-2, and installed on Node-1 Unity at 1538 UTC. The astronauts reentered Quest, closing the hatch at 1558 UTC and repressurizing the airlock at 1616 UTC.
On Oct 28 astronauts Parazynski and Tani, in suits 3004 and 3018, depressurized Quest at 0927 UTC, opening the hatch at 0932 UTC. At 1103 UTC the P6 truss was unberthed from Z1 and moved to a park position. The spacewalkers installed handrails and a grapple fixture on Harmony and inspected the malfunctioning Solar Array Rotary Joint (SARJ) on the S3/S4 truss. They closed the hatch at 1600 UTC and repressurized the airlock at 1605 UTC.
On Oct 29 two more radiators were deployed from the S1 truss at 0530 and 0550 UTC. The Shuttle RMS grappled P6 at 0704 UTC and the Station arm released it at 0832 UTC; then the Station arm on its MBS truck moved along the truss, and regrappled P6 at 1314 UTC, with the Shuttle RMS releasing it again at 1321 UTC; the following morning, the Station arm moved P6 to near the end of P5.
On Oct 30 at 0841 UTC the Quest was again depressurized for the third spacewalk, this time by Parazynski and Wheelock. The hatch was open at 0844 UTC and the astronauts supervised the mating of P6 to P5 which was completed at 1110 UTC. A radiator was deployed on P6 at 1253 UTC; Wheelock transferred a spare Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) from the Shuttle bay to the External Stowage Platform 3 (ESP3) on the Station at 1430 UTC. From 1441 to 1532 UTC the P6 solar array wing 2B was redeployed; array 4B on the other side of P6 was deployed starting at 1609 UTC but at 1624 UTC a tear developed in the solar array and the process was halted. The astronauts had reentered the airlock, closing the hatch at 1545 UTC and repressurizing at 1553 UTC.
GPS 55
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GPS satellite SVN 55, the Block IIR(M)-17 launch, was orbited on Oct 17. This is the 4th IIR(M) launch. ULA (United Launch Alliance) launched the Boeing Delta 7925 into a 197 x 20368 km x 40.0 deg transfer orbit. The solid apogee motor was fired on Oct 19 to put the GPS satellite in a 20149 x 20213 km x 54.9 deg orbit.
Kosmos-2430
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An Oko early warning satellite was launched on Oct 23 from Plesetsk into a 521 x 39057 km x 62.8 deg orbit and named Kosmos-2430. The Oko satellites are built by NPO Lavochkin.
Chang’e-1
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China’s first deep space probe was launched on Oct 24. Chang’e-1 is designed to enter lunar orbit; its initial orbit was 221 x 50602 km x 31.0 deg, and by Oct 26 this had been raised to 594 x 71317 km.
Kosmos-2431/32/33
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Three Uragan-M navigation satellites, Nos. 718, 719 and 720, were launched to replenish the Glonass navigation system. A Krunichev Proton-K rocket with an Energiya DM-11S861 upper stage put the three satellites in 19120 x 19130 km 64 deg orbits. The satellites were given Kosmos cover names after deployment.
Globalstar
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Four more Globalstar satellites were launched by Soyuz-FG/Fregat on Oct 20. Globalstar FM 66, 67, 68 and 70 are the last of the first generation constellation. The satellites were inserted into 913 x 930 km x 52.0 deg orbits. The Soyuz third stage entered a 187 x 218 km orbit; the Fregat fourth stage made a first burn to around 200 x 930 km, a second burn to circularize the orbit and deploy the satellites, and a third burn to deorbit itself over the Pacific.
Ariane
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On Oct 5 at 2328 UTC, the EPS third stage of Ariane 5GS vehicle L526 reignited in the first in-orbit restart test of an Aestus engine. The test, which followed successful deployment of the Intelsat IS-11 and Optus D-2 satellites, sets ESA up for the launch of the Jules Verne ATV cargo ship in 2008. The burn lowered the orbit slightly from 590 x 35790 km to 358 x 33480 km.
Erratum – Dawn
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I said that Dawn’s asteroid orbit insertion would be done by the hydrazine engines rather than the ion engines, but this is wrong. Marc Rayman writes: Asteroid orbit insertion as well as transfers between science orbits and Vesta escape all will be accomplished with the ion propulsion system.
The hydrazine is principally for reaction wheel desaturation and safe mode entry (including rate control after launch vehicle separation). To extend reaction wheel life, we may also fly part of the mission using hydrazine for attitude control. We do have a budget of 10 m/s for a contingency orbit change maneuver with hydrazine, but the range of cases in which that would be needed is small.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Sep 2 1250 Insat 4CR GSLV SDSC Comms 37A Sep 5 2243 JCSAT 11 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms F03 Sep 11 1305 Kosmos-2429 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Navigation 38A Sep 14 0131 Kaguya H-IIA 2022 Tanegashima Moon probe 39A Sep 14 1100 Foton M-3 ) Soyuz-U Baykonur Micrograv 40A YES-2 ) Tech 40C Fotino ) Tech 40 MASS ) Tech 40 Sep 18 1835 WorldView 1 Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging 41A Sep 19 0326 CBERS-2B Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 42A Sep 27 1134 Dawn Delta 7925H Canaveral SLC17B Probe 43A Oct 5 2202 Intelsat IS-11 ) Ariane 5GS Kourou ELA3 Comms 44B Optus D-2 ) Comms 44A Oct 10 1322 Soyuz TMA-11 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 45A Oct 11 0022 WGS SV-1 Atlas V 421 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 46A Oct 17 1223 Navstar GPS 55 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 47A Oct 20 2012 Globalstar FM66) Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms 48 Globalstar FM67) Comms 48 Globalstar FM68) Comms 48 Globalstar FM70) Comms 48 Oct 23 0439 Kosmos-2430 Molniya Plesetsk LC16/2 Early Warn 49A Oct 23 1538 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 50A Harmony ) Module 50 Oct 24 1005 Chang'e-1 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Lunar probe 51A Oct 26 0735 Kosmos-2431 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 52A Kosmos-2432 ) Navigation 52B Kosmos-2433 ) Navigation 52C
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