Jonathan’s Space Report No. 512 2003 Oct 22, Cambridge, MA
Shuttle and Station
——————–
The Soyuz TMA-3 spaceship was launched on Oct 18 at 0538 UTC on a
Soyuz-FG rocket from Baykonur, carrying the Expedition 8 crew of Mike
Foale and Aleksandr Kaleri and the EP-5 (Cervantes) mission crewmember
Pedro Duque. Soyuz TMA-3 is spacecraft 11F732 (7K-STMA) No. 213, and
will carry out International Space Station mission 7S. The Soyuz TMA-3
ascent crew are Commander Aleksandr Kaleri of the Russian Space Agency,
Flight Engineer-1 Pedro Duque of the European Space Agency, and Flight
Engineer-2 Mike Foale of NASA. Once they relieve the Ex-7 crew on the
station, the roles switch and Foale becomes ISS Commander with Kaleri
being ISS Flight Engineer. Duque is a ‘visiting crew’ member – he
constitutes the 5th Soyuz visiting crew, will carry out a set of
European Space Agency and Spanish experiments dubbed ‘Cervantes’, and
will return to Earth a week later with the Ex-7 crew of Malenchenko and
Lu aboard Soyuz TMA-2. Soyuz TMA-3 docked with the Pirs module at 0716
UTC on Oct 20.
Recent Launches
—————
The first Chinese astronaut has successfully completed his mission.
Shenzhou 5 was launched by Chang Zheng 2F on Oct 15 from Jiuquan space
center in Nei Monggol Zizhiqu (Inner Mongolia) province. The second
stage of the CZ-2F entered a 200 x 350 km x 42.4 deg orbit together with
SZ-5 and its pilot Yang Liwei. Yang was born on 1965 Jun 21 and was a
Lt-Col in the Peoples’ Liberation Army (he has been promoted to Col.
since his return). SZ-5 then separated from the second stage, with four
small retrorocket motors ejecting covers into orbit at the same time.
Yang and SZ-5 orbited the Earth for over 20 hours. The spacecraft
consists of three modules: the descent module, the propulsion module and
the orbital module. At the end of the mission, at 2136 UTC the orbital
module separated to remain in orbit, and the propulsion module fired at
2138 UTC to lower perigee into the atmosphere. The propulsion module
then separated at 2159 UTC and burnt up on reentry, leaving the descent
module with its heat shield exposed to the atmosphere, beginning a comms
blackout at 2204. SZ-5 landed at 2223 UTC in China’s Nei Monggol
Zizhiqu (Inner Mongolia) province, at Dorbod Xi near Siziwang 100 km N
of Hohhot. The recovery crew reached the capsule 10 minutes later and
Yang emerged safely, although there have been some rumours of problems
during the flight. The orbital module is continuing to carry out
experiments using large optical cameras thought to be for military
surveillance.
Note: As usual in Chinese culture, Yang is the astronaut’s family name
(“Lt-Col. Yang”) in contrast to English in which the family name is
placed after the personal name. Yang, from Liaoning province, is the
first individual to fly in space who was a Chinese citizen at the time
of launch. Wang Gunjin (Taylor Wang) was born in Shanghai but was a US
citizen at the time of his Shuttle flight. Two other US astronauts were
born in China: Shannon Wells Lucid (Shanghai) and William Anders (Hong
Kong).
China carried out another launch on Oct 21, this time using a Chang
Zheng 4B rocket from the southern Taiyuan launch center. It placed the
second China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS 2) in orbit. Xinhua
news reports confirm the Chinese name for the satellite is Zi Yuan 1 No.
2, or “second Resources-1 satellite”. The CX-1 (Chuangxin, “innovation”)
small communications satellite was carried as a secondary payload. CBERS
2 is in a 730 x 750 km x 98.5 deg orbit. One of the three objects,
currently cataloged as 28058/2003-49B, is in a slightly lower 685 x 759
km orbit; my guess is this is the third stage with a lower perigee
following a depletion burn (the CBERS-1 final stage did not carry out
such a burn but exploded some time later creating a lot of space
debris).
India has launched the IRS-P6 imaging satellite using a PSLV rocket from
Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota. The satellite is also known
as ResourceSat, and has a launch mass of 1360 kg. ISRO doesn’t seem to
have released any information on the physical size of the satellite. It
will replace IRS-1C and IRS-1D, and carries three cameras for remote
sensing, the highest resolution one being the 6-meter LISS-4 imager.
Launch of IRS-P6 was at 0452 UTC (some sources give 0454 UTC) on Oct 17
and it entered a 802 x 875 km x 98.7 deg orbit.
The IRS series of satellites included the original IRS-1 series
launched mostly on Russian rockets, and the IRS-P series launched
on Indian rockets.
Satellite Launch vehicle Date IRS-1A Vostok 8A92M 1988 Mar 17 IRS-1B Vostok 8A92M 1991 Aug 29 IRS-1C Molniya-M 1995 Dec 28 IRS-1D PSLV-C1 1997 Sep 29IRS-P1 (IRS-1E) PSLV-D1 1993 Sep 20 (failed) IRS-P2 PSLV-D2 1994 Oct 15 IRS-P3 PSLV-D3 1996 Mar 21 IRS-P4 Oceansat PSLV-C2 1999 May 26 IRS-P5 Cartosat To be launched IRS-P6 Resourcesat PSLV-C5 2003 Oct 17
The US Air Force launched the DMSP Block 5D-3 F-16 weather satellite on
Oct 18 after several years of delays. The Defense Meteorological
Satellite Program began launches in 1962, originally under National
Reconnaissance Office auspices, and in the late 1960s provided tactical
weather support to US forces in Vietnam. DMSP was later declassified
under Strategic Air Command oversight, and the system is now being
combined with the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
civil weather satellite system. According to one NOAA website, the
satellite is actually production number S-20; satellites S-16 to S-19
remain to be launched. (The “S” numbers are the production order, while
the “F” numbers are the launch order). The main instrument is the
Operational Linescan System (OLS) weather imager; it also carries
sensors SSMIS (microwave imager and sounder), SSULI ultraviolet limb
imager, SSUSI ultraviolet spectrographic imager and nadir airglow
photometer, SSI/ES-3 thermal plasma instrument, and the SSJ/5
precipitating particle spectrometer as well as the SSF laser threat
warning sensor. The last Titan 23G rocket, 23G-9, placed DMSP on a -2600
x 890 km x 98.6 deg transfer trajectory 6 min after launch; at 1631 UTC
the Star 37 solid motor on the DMSP fired to put it in an 850 x 856 km x
98.8 deg orbit.
The DMSP Block 5D series of satellites:
Satellite Launch Type Date Desig. S-1 F-1 5D-1 1976 Sep 11 1976-91A S-2 F-2 5D-1 1977 Jun 5 1977-44A S-3 F-3 5D-1 1978 May 1 1978-42A S-4 F-5 5D-1 1980 Jul 14 1980-F02 (Failed to orbit) S-5 F-4 5D-1 1979 Jun 6 1979-50AS-6 F-6 5D-2 1982 Dec 21 1982-118A S-7 F-7 5D-2 1983 Nov 18 1983-113A S-8 F-9 5D-2 1988 Feb 3 1988-06A S-9 F-8 5D-2 1987 Jun 20 1987-53A S-10 F-10 5D-2 1990 Dec 1 1990-105A S-11 F-12 5D-2 1994 Aug 29 1994-57A S-12 F-11 5D-2 1991 Nov 28 1991-82A S-13 F-13 5D-2 1995 Mar 24 1995-15A S-14 F-14 5D-2 1997 Apr 4 1997-12A
S-15 F-15 5D-3 1999 Dec 12 1999-67A S-16 5D-3 In storage S-17 5D-3 In storage S-18 5D-3 In storage S-19 5D-3 In storage S-20 F-16 5D-3 2003 Oct 18 2003-48A
US tracking of the objects from the 2003-42, 2003-43 and 2003-44
launches is still confused. For the 2003-43 and 44 launches, it appears
that the identifications are:
27946 2003-43A EPS 516 third stage rocket 27948 2003-43B e-Bird satellite 27949 2003-43C SMART-1 lunar probe 27950 2003-43D Sylda 5A adapter 27951 2003-43E Insat 3E satellite 27952 2003-43F ACU/ACY adapter 27953 2003-44A Blok DM-SL rocket 27954 2003-44B Galaxy-13/Horizons-1
However, the most recent elset from 27952 appears to be SMART-1, which
is slowly raising its perigee and apogee using electric propulsion and
on Oct 14 was tracked in a 1675 x 37337 km x 6.9 deg orbit, compared to
its initial 672 x 35829 km orbit.
Table of Recent Launches
———————–
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Sep 9 0429 USA 171 Titan 4B/Centaur Canaveral SLC40 Sigint 41A
Sep 16 PS2 KT-1 Taiyuan Test F01
Sep 27 0612 STSat-1 ) Astronomy 42A
UK-DMC ) Imaging 42
NigeriaSat-1 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Imaging 42
BILSAT-1 ) Imaging 42
Mozhaets-4 ) Comms? 42
Larets ) Calib? 42
Rubin-4-DSI ) Test 42
Sep 27 2314 Insat 3E ) Ariane 5G Kourou ELA3 Comms 43E
e-Bird ) Comms 43B
SMART-1 ) Lunar 43C
Oct 1 0403 Galaxy 13 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey Comms 44B
Oct 15 0100 Shenzhou 5 ) CZ-2F Jiuquan Spaceship 45A
SZ-5 OM ) Imaging? 45G
Oct 17 0452 IRS-P6 PSLV Sriharikota Imaging 46A
Oct 18 0538 Soyuz TMA-3 Soyuz-FG Baykonur Spaceship 47A
Oct 18 1617 DMSP F16 Titan 23G Vandenberg Weather 48A
Oct 21 0316 ZY-1 No. 2 ) CZ-4B Taiyuan Imaging 49A
CX-1 ) Comms 49B
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | 1 Fitchburg St C-205 | | | Somerville MA 02143 | | | and | | | Center for Astrophysics, | | | 60 Garden St, MS6 | | | Cambridge MA 02138 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org | | USA | jmcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back
