Jonathan’s Space Report 2018 Dec 9
Jonathan’s Space Report
No. 758 2018 Dec 9 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 57 continues aboard the ISS.
Ferry ship Soyuz MS-11 was launched at 1131 UTC Dec 3 and docked with the Poisk
module at 1733 UTC the same day. The MS-11 crew of Kononenko
(Roskosmos), Saint-Jacques (CSA) and McClain (NASA) joined astronauts
Gerst (ESA), Prokop’ev (Roskosmos), and Aunon-Chancellor (NASA) on the ISS.
Cargo ship Dragon CRS-16 was launched on Dec 5 from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex
40. The Falcon 9 first stage developed a hydraulic problem during descent
and began rolling just before the landing burn. It recovered control
just before touchdown and landed gently on the water a short distance
off the Cape Canaveral beach. The stage was towed back to port.
Meanwhile, the second stage reached orbit successfully and deployed
the Dragon. Stage 2 was deorbited south of Australia at about 1915 UTC.
CRS-16 carries two trunk payloads. GEDI is an instrument to measure
forest biomass and will be installed on the Kibo Exposed Facility at EFU
6. RRM-3 (Robotic Refuelling Mission) is a package to test three robotic
tools and the long term storage and transfer of cryogenic methane. It
will be installed on the Express Logistics Carrier ELC-1 Site 3.
CRS-16’s pressurized cabin contains 1598 kg of cargo including the
NRCSD-16 cubesat package and several cubesats. Cubesats thought to be
aboard include UNITE (U of Southern Indiana), Delphini 1 (Aarhus
University), CATSat (APL/DoD), and the 1x6U TechEdSat-8 (San Jose State
and NASA-Ames). TechEdSat-8 (TES-8) is an exciting mission which will
deploy a drag brake, perform a controlled gradual reentry and – if all
goes well – be recovered. Also in the cabin is Slingshot, a small
satellite deployer that will be installed in the hatch of the NG-10
Cygnus cargo ship, and the EHDC external HD camera assembly which will
be installed on ISS during a spacewalk.
CRS-16 arrived at the ISS on Dec 8; it was grappled by the Canadarm-2
at 1221 UTC and berthed at Harmony nadir at 1536 UTC.
It’s a pretty full house in the ISS parking lot now with two ferry ships
(Soyuz MS-09 at Rassvet, Soyuz MS-11 at Poisk) and four cargo ships:
Progress MS-09 at Pirs, Progress MS-10 at Zvezda aft, Cygnus NG-10 at
Unity nadir, and Dragon CRS-16 (or SpX-16) at Harmony nadir.
Insight
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Insight landed on Elysium Planitia, Mars, at about 4.5N 135.9E, at 1944:52 UTC Nov 26.
The MarCO cubesats relayed real-time data from the descent to Earth.
Shortly before entry the approaching probes passed close to the Martian moon Phobos.
UTC
Nov 22 1636 MarCO-A enter Mars space from 1.01 x 1.43 AU x 2.2 deg solar orbit
Nov 22 1637 MarCO-B enter Mars space from 1.01 x 1.43 AU x 2.2 deg solar orbit
Nov 22 1639 Insight enter Mars space from 1.01 x 1.44 AU x 2.3 deg solar orbit
Nov 26 1910 Insight closest approach to Phobos, 2250 km
1913 MarCO-A closest approach to Phobos, 4309 km
1914 MarCO-B closest approach to Phobos, 1935 km
1931 Insight Cruise Stage separates, 1100 km alt
1938 Insight entry, 128 km
1939? Cruise stage burns up
1942 Insight parachute deploy, 12 km
1942 Heat shield separation, 9 km
1943? Heat shield impact surface
1944 Backshell separation, 1 km
1944 Thrusters on
1944 Backshell/parachute impact surface
1944:52 Insight Landing
1945 MarCO-A periares, 1625 km
1947 MarCO-B periares, 1749 km
Nov 30 2251 MarCO-A depart Mars space, to 1.137 x 1.601 AU x 1.4 deg solar orbit
Nov 30 2255 MarCO-B depart Mars space, to 1.146 x 1.564 AU x 1.8 deg solar orbit
Hayabusa-2
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Contrary to my report in the last issue, Hayabusa-2 left its 20 km
home position on Nov 23 and is backing off to 100 km from Ryugu, to make
sure it doesn’t collide with the asteroid during `conjunction’ when
communications with Earth are impaired because the Sun is in the way.
On Nov 30 at a range of 75 km the probe made a burn of 3.8 mm/s to slightly
accelerate the retreat. On Dec 11 it will reach an aporyugon (yes, I just
made that word up) of 110 km. Another orbit manuever will be made on Dec 25
as Ryugu emerges from behind the Sun as seen from Earth.
OSIRIS-REx
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The OSIRIS-REx space probe has arrived at (101955) Bennu. It entered the asteroid’s 35-km
Hill sphere at around 0h UTC on Dec 1 and made a stationkeeping burn at range 20 km
at 1700 UTC Dec 3.
PSLV
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On Nov 29 India’s ISRO launched PSLV flight C43 and placed a cluster of small
satellites in orbit. The main payload was ISRO’s HySIS hyperspectral imaging
satellite, a 380 kg IMS-2 class craft. BlackSky’s 55 kg Global-1 imaging sat was the other
non-cubesat payload.
Also deployed were a series of cubesats:
Technology satellites – FACSAT (built by GOMSPACE for the Colombia Air Force Academy EMAVI)
– InnoSAT-2 (ATSB, Malaysia)
– HSAT-1 (Harris Corp, Palm Bay, Florida)
– 3Cat-1 (1U) (U. Poly. Catalunya, Barcelona)
Imaging satellies – Flock 3r, a set of 12 model 10 and 4 model 21 Dove satellites for Planet
Hyperspectral imagers – Reaktor Hello World (2U), for Reaktor Space Lab Ltd (Helsinki)
AIS/ADS-B/GPS-RO weather – four Lemur-2 for Spire
GPS-RO weather – CICERO-8 (6U), built by Tyvak for GeoOptics (Pasadena)
IoT data relay satellites – Centauri 1 for Fleet Space (Adelaide)
– Hiber 1 (6U) for Hiber (Delft, Netherlands)
– CASE for Kepler Communications (Toronto)
Rokot
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On Nov 30 Russia launched a Rokot vehicle into a 1485 x 1508 km orbit.
Three Rodnik military low orbit comm satellites,
given codenames Kosmos-2530 to 2532, were deployed at about 0410 UTC.
The Briz-KM upper stage lowered its orbit at 0424 UTC to 1176 x 1506 km.
A fifth object cataloged in this lower orbit is probably just a debris
object. It could be a small extra payload, but has not maneuvered to date.
SSO-A
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 was launched from Vandenberg on Dec 3 with Spaceflight Inc’s
SSO-A small satellite deployment mission.
After launch at 1834 UTC, the first stage landed on the droneship Just Read The
Instructions at 1842 UTC and the second stage entered orbit at 1844 UTC.
At 1847 UTC the UFF (Upper Free Flyer) spacecraft separated from the MPC
(Multi Payload Container) attached to stage 2. At some point after this
the MPC deployed 4 medium-sized payloads and the UFF deployed
a large number of payloads. Then the LFF (Lower Free Flyer) separated
from the UFF (I think; or possibly from the MPC) and deployed a cluster of
cubesats. Deployments continued over several hours. Stage 2, with the MPC
still attached, was deorbited at about 1945 UTC. Finally, UFF deployed a drag
sail. Regrettably, Spaceflight Inc have not released details of the deployment
timings or explained which payloads were deployed from which vehicle.
Larger payloads on SSO-A include:
Technology satellites: STPSat-5 built by Sierra Nevada for the USAF Space Test Program (110 kg?)
eXCITe-PTB1 built by NovaWurks for DARPA (155 kg?)
Eu:CROPIS for Germany’s DLR (250 kg) with pressurized greenhouses to study
food production in space
FalconSat-6 for the US Air Force Academy (181 kg ) to test an ion thruster
ESEO, an ESA sat with student experiments (120 kg)
Imaging satellites – SkySat C12 and C13 built by Maxar for Planet (110 kg each?)
– KazSTSat (110 kg) built by Surrey for Ghalam LLP (Astana)
– Global-2 (55 kg) for BlackSky (Seattle)
– SeeMee, a 25 kg DARPA/Raytheon satellite to be ejected from eXITe-PTB1
Radar satellites – ICEYE-X2 (80 kg) for ICEYE (Helsinki)
Signals intelligence satellites – Hawk A,B,C built by UTIAS-SFL (Toronto) for HawkEye360 (Virginia)
for commercial transportation tracking (13 kg each)
Astronomy satellites – NEXTSat-1 for KAIST (S Korea) with an IR imaging spectrometer
Cubesats aboard are:
Astronomy: MinXSS 2 (U Colorado Boulder) for Solar x-ray data
CSIM-FD (U Colorado Boulder, 6U) for solar irradiance
Art: Orbital Reflector (Nevada Museum of Art, Trevor Paglen)
ENOCH (LA County Mus. of Art, Tavares Strachan)
Burial: Elysium Star 2 (1U; Elysium Space, San Francisco)
Communications technology:
Audacy Zero (Audacy/ClydeSpace)
BRIO (SpaceQuest/Myriota)
ICECAP (US Navy PEOSS/Space Micro)
BlackHawk (Viasat/Blue Canyon)
Other technology satellites: ITASAT 1 (6U) (ITA, San Jose dos Campos, Brazil)
KazSciSat (Ghalam LLP, Astana)
THEA (Aurora Insight/DC, SpaceQuest)
PW-Sat2 (Warsaw U. of Tech) with drag sail
RANGE A and B (Georgia Tech) for formation flying
MOVE II (TU Munchen)
Suomi-100 (1U) (Aalto U.)
Irvine02 (1U, Irvine Public School Foundation, Irvine, California)
WeissSat 1 (1U, Weiss School, Palm Beach, Florida)
Imaging satellites – Flock-3s: one model 10 and two model 21 Doves for Planet
Landmapper-BC4 (6U) for Astro Digital (San Jose/Mountain View)
Eaglet-1 (OHB Rome); also has AIS
SNUSAT 2 (Seoul Natl. U.) for disaster monitoring
Specialized imaging sats –
SeaHawk 1 (U North Carolina) for ocean color sensing
VisionCube (Korea Aerospace U) for TLE lightning imaging
Radar satellites – Denali (12U) for Capella Space
IoT data relay: Hiber 1 (6U) for Hiber (Delft)
SIRION Pathfinder 2 (Helios Wire/Vancouver, BC and Sirion/Gold Coast, Queensland)
Astrocast 0.1 for Astrocast SA (Lausanne)
Centauri 2 for Fleet Space (Adelaide)
SpaceBee 5, 6, 7 (Swarm Tech, Pasadena)
AIS/ADS-B maritime/aviation location:
RAAF M1 (Royal Australian AF, UNSW)
VESTA (Surrey/UKSA)
AISTECHSAT-2 (AISTech, Barcelona (6U)
Amateur radio: K2SAT (Korea AF Academy/KAIST)
KNACKSAT (King Mongkut Univ of Tech., Bangkok)
SNUGLITE (Seoul Natl. U.)
ExceedSat-1 (Exseed Space, Mumbai)
Fox-1Cliff (AMSAT-NA)
JY1-Sat (Jordan U of Sci and Tech, Al Ramtha)
The FUNCUBE-4 amateur radio payload is on the ESEO satellite.
Search and Rescue: Yukon, Kodiak (ORS 7A and B, 6U) (US Coast Guard/DHS/AFORS)
Probably communications: DoD Cubesat 1A, 1B (Unknown US Gov agency)
DoD Cubesat 2A, 2B, 2C (Unknown US Gov agency)
Ariane
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Ariane flight VA246, possibly vehicle L5104, was laucnhed on Dec 4
carrying Korea’s GEO-Kompsat-2A weather satellite and ISRO’s GSAT-11
large communications satellite.
Saudisat
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Two 425 kg Saudi technology satellites, Saudisat-5A and 5B, were the
primary payloads on a CZ-2D launched from Jiuquan to sun-synch
orbit on Dec 7. 10 small satellites were also deployed. There
is some confusion about which satellites were involved, but
it appears three are from Spacety/Tianyi Research (Changsha),
one is from MinoSpace/Weina Xingkong Keji ( Beijing) and
several are ‘Piao chong’ (‘Ladybird’) cubesats for IoT data relay
from CommSat/Jiutian Weixing Keji Fazhan YG (Beijing).
Chang’e-4
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The long-awaited Chang’e-4 lunar farside landing mission was launched on
Dec 7 from Xichang into a 200 x 420000 km x 29.4 deg orbit. The vehicle
is similar in design to Chang’e-3 and carries a 140 kg lunar rover
similar to that mission’s Yutu. It is scheduled to enter lunar orbit on
Dec 11 at about 1500 UTC and land in the farside South Pole-Aitken
region on about Jan 4. The Queqiao satellite, in an Earth-Moon-L2 halo
orbit, will relay communications from the lander and rover to Earth.
The CZ-3B Y30 third stage, in a similar initial orbit of about 200 x
390000 km, will fly past the lunar surface at a height of 4840 km around
1138 UTC Dec 12 and end up in a 181000 x 735800 km x 23.6 deg orbit,
according to calculations by Bill Gray based on observations at
Haleakala.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Nov 15 2046 Es’hailsat-2 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 90A S43700 201 x 37688 x 25.0
Nov 16 1814 Progress MS-10 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Cargo 91A S43702 186 x 226 x 51.6 Docked to ISS
Nov 17 0901 S.S. John Young Antares 230 MARS LA0B Cargo 92A S43704 211 x 252 x 51.6
Nov 18 1807 Beidou DW42 ) Chang Zheng 3B/YZ1 Xichang Navigation 93A S43706 21523 x 22194 x 55.0
Beidou DW43 ) Navigation 93B S43707 21531 x 22194 x 55.0
Nov 19 2340 Shiyan 6 ) Unknown 94A S43710 488 x 504 x 97.4 0600LT SSO
Jiading-1 ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Comms 94B? S43711 489 x 504 x 97.4 0600LT SSO
Tianzhi 1 ) Tech 94C? S43712 488 x 504 x 97.4 0600LT SSO
Tianping-1A) Calib 94D? S43713 487 x 504 x 97.4 0600LT SSO
Tianping-1B) Calib 94E? S43714 489 x 504 x 97.4 0600LT SSO
Nov 21 0142 Mohammed VI-B Vega CSG ELV Imaging 95A S43717 601 x 606 x 98.0 1020LT SSO
Nov 29 0427 HySIS ) PSLV-CA Satish Dhawan Imaging 96A S43719 647 x 648 x 98.0 1000LT SSO
Global-1 ) Imaging 96B? S43720? 484 x 500 x 97.5 1000LT SSO
CICERO-8 ) Weather 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Hiber 1 ) Comms IoT 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
HSAT-1 ) Tech 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Centauri 1 ) Comms IoT 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
CASE ) Comms IoT 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
FACSAT ) Imaging 96D S43722 476 x 500 x 97.5
Reaktor Hello World) Comms 96K S43728 476 x 500 x 97.5
InnoSAT-2 ) Tech 96V S43738 476 x 500 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Orzulak ) Weather/AIS 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Vladimir ) Weather/AIS 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Kobyszcze ) Weather/AIS 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Duly ) Weather/AIS 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-1 ) Imaging 96AE S43747 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-2 ) Imaging 96AF S43748 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-3 ) Imaging 96R S43734 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-4 ) Imaging 96Q S43733 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-5 ) Imaging 96H S43726 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-6 ) Imaging 96Y S43741 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-7 ) Imaging 96Z S43742 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-8 ) Imaging 96J S43727 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-9 ) Imaging 96 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-10 ) Imaging 96E S43723 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-11 ) Imaging 96G S43725 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-12 ) Imaging 96F S43724 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-13 ) Imaging 96AH S43750 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-14 ) Imaging 96AG S43749 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-15 ) Imaging 96T S43736 476 x 500 x 97.5
Flock 3r-16 ) Imaging 96S S43735 476 x 500 x 97.5
Nov 30 0227 Kosmos-2530 ) Rokot Plesetsk LC133/3 Comms 97A S43751 1485 x 1508 x 82.5
Kosmos-2531 ) Comms 97B S43752 1485 x 1508 x 82.5
Kosmos-2532 ) Comms 97C S43753 1485 x 1508 x 82.5
Dec 3 1131 Soyuz MS-11 R-7 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 98A S43756 200 x 239 x 51.6
Dec 3 1834 SSO-A UFF ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Tech 99 S43758 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SSO-A LFF ) Tech 99 S43759? 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Eu:CROPIS ) Rem.Sensing 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SkySat C12 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SkySat C13 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
STPSat 5 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
KazSTSat ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
NEXTSat-1 ) IR Astron 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
eXCITe ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ICEYE-X2 ) Radar 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Global-2 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
FalconSat-6 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ESEO ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Hawk A ) Elint 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Hawk B ) Elint 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Hawk C ) Elint 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Flock 3s-1 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Flock 3s-2 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Flock 3s-3 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
AISTechSat-2 ) Imaging/Com 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Hiber-2 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Landmapper-BC4) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
VESTA ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ORS-7A ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ORS-7B ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SIRION PF 2 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ITASAT-1 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Audacy Zero ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
BRIO ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Astrocast-0.1 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Centauri 2 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Eaglet 1 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Denali ) Radar 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ICE-Cap ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
K2SAT ) Imaging/Com 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
KazSciSat ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
MinXSS 2 ) Solar X 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Orbital Reflector) Art 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
RAAF M1 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SeaHawk ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SNUSAT 2 ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
THEA ) Sigint 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Blackhawk ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
ENOCH ) Art 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SNUGLITE ) Tech/Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
PW-Sat 2 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
VisionCube ) Atmos Sci 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
RANGE A ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
RANGE B ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
MOVE 2 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Suomi-100 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Elysium Star 2) Burial 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Exseedsat-1 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Fox-1Cliff ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
JY1SAT ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
KNACKSAT ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SpaceBEE 5 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SpaceBEE 6 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SpaceBEE 7 ) Comms 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
DoD Cube 1A ) Comms? 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
DoD Cube 1B ) Comms? 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
DoD Cube 2A ) Comms? 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
DoD Cube 2B ) Comms? 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
DoD Cube 2C ) Comms? 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
WeissSat 1 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
IRVINE02 ) Tech 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
SeeMe ) Imaging 99 574 x 590 x 97.8 1017LT SSO
Dec 4 2037 GSAT-11 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 100A? S43823 245 x 35741 x 3.5
Geo-Kompsat 2A ) Comms 100B? S43824 250 x 35742 x 3.5
Dec 5 1816 Dragon CRS-16 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 101A S43827 204 x 358 x 51.6
Dec 7 0412 SaudiSat-5A ) Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Tech 102A S43831 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
SaudiSat-5B ) Tech 102B S43832 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Tianyi X1 ) Imaging? 102C? S43833? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Tianyi X2 ) Imaging? 102D? S43834? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Tianyi X3 ) Imaging? 102E? S43835? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 1 ) Comms 102F? S43836? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 2 ) Comms 102G? S43837? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 3 ) Comms 102H? S43838? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 4 ) Comms 102J? S43839? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 5 ) Comms 102K? S43840? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Piao chong 6 ) Comms 102L? S43841? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Weina-1 03 ) Imaging 102M? S43842? 535 x 551 x 97.6 1030LT SSO
Dec 7 1823 Chang’e 4 ) Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Lunar probe 103A 200 x 420000x 29.4
Lunar rover ) Lunar rover 103
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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The suborbital launches table includes known flights above 80 km.
The KSLV-II TLV tested the second stage LOX/kero engine for South Korea’s future KSLV-II rocket.
The 730-kN KARI-75 engine burned for 151s.
Astra launched its second suborbital rocket from Kodiak on Nov 29, but it failed at low altitude
near the launch site.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Nov 7 0701 GT228GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg Op. Test 1300? Kwajalein?
Nov 28 0700 TLV KSLV-II TLV Naro R&D 209 near Jeju
Nov 30 RVs? Khorramshahr? Semnan? Test 500? Iranian desert?
Dec 7 1106 VISIONS-2 1 Black Brant X Svalbard Auroral 805 Svalbard
Dec 7 1108 VISIONS-2 2 Black Brant X Svalbard Auroral 600 Svalbard
Dec 8 0826 TRICE-2 High Black Brant XIIA Andoya Plasma 1042 Norwegian Sea
Dec 8 0828 TRICE-2 Low Black Brant XIIA Andoya Plasma 756 Norwegian Sea
.—————————–
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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