Jonathan’s Space Report No. 589 2007 Dec 21
Shuttle and Station
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The next launch is Shuttle mission STS-122, Station flight 1E, carrying the European Columbus module to the Station. Launch will be no earlier than 2008 Jan.
Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani made a spacewalk, US EVA-13, on Dec 18. The Quest airlock was depressurized at about 0948 UTC and repressurized at 1646 UTC; the astronauts inspected the malfunctioning solar array rotation joint and beta gimbal assembly.
Kosmos-2434
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A Globus communications satellite built by NPO PM for the Russian Defense Ministry was launched on Dec 9 on a Proton-M/Briz-M and given the cover name Kosmos-2434. Previous Globus satellites were given the Raduga-1 cover name. The Briz-M probably entered an initial 173 x 173 km orbit; it then reached a 273 x 4991 km x 49 deg intermediate orbit, and next a 400 x 35815 km x 49 deg geostationary transfer orbit. By Dec 18 the payload was at 79.6E in a 35569 x 35956 km x 0.1 deg orbit. It’s not clear what happened to the Briz-M jettisonable propellant tank.
Cosmo 2
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The second Italian military radar satellite in the Cosmo-Skymed system was launched on Dec 9 by a Boeing Delta 7420-10. At second stage first cutoff the orbit was 185 x 645 km x 97.8 deg; a second burn at 0325 UTC put the satellite in a 620 x 637 km orbit.
Space Command is now calling the satellite Skymed 2, but the Boeing launch booklet referred to it as Cosmo.
Radarsat 2
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Canada’s Radarsat 2 satellite was launched on Dec 14 by a Russian Soyuz-FG/Fregat into a 790 x 798 km x 98 deg orbit. The Soyuz third stage was in a 169 x 206 km parking orbit and reentered later the same day; the Fregat stage was deorbited after releasing Radarsat.
Erratum:
——– In my discussion of the Delta 4 Heavy launch I inadvertently referred to the upper stage as a Centaur. Although it uses a similar RL-10 family rocket engine, the Delta 4 Second Stage is of course not a Centaur.
A source reports that the orbit of the Nanosat-2 satellite launched in Dec 2004 on the first Delta 4 Heavy was 105 x 196 km x 27 deg. Nanosat-2, which consisted of two small satellites which remained attached to each other, is believed to have reentered less than one hour after launch.
Yaogan 3
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As I reported previously, China’s new radar satellite Yaogan 3 was launched at 2248 UTC on Nov 11. The Yaogan 3 satellite originally reached a 456 x 612 km x 97.9 deg orbit and separated from the third stage at 2309 UTC on Nov 11. Although China announced that the rocket had a new restart capability on the third stage, I can’t tell if this was used. At first apogee about 2315 UTC on Nov 11, Yaogan used its own onboard engine to raise orbit to 613 x 623 km; on Nov 20 and 21 small adjustment burns trimmed the orbit to 627 x 629 km.
EPOXI
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The EPOXI (formerly Deep Impact) probe made a course correction on Nov 1 to set up for a Dec 31 Earth flyby, and an encounter with comet 103P/Hartley 2 on 2010 Oct 11, just before the comet reaches perihelion at 1.06AU on 2010 Oct 28.
EPOXI will pass 15566 km over Australia at 1930 UTC on Dec 31. The flyby will change its solar orbit from 0.98 x 1.64 AU x 0.7 deg to 0.91 x 1.09 AU x 4.2 deg.
NROL-24
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Atlas V mission AV-015 launched a classified satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The payload for launch NROL-24 has been given the cover name USA-198 and is thought to be an SDS (Satellite Data System) data relay satellite used to relay surveillance imagery and data from low altitude polar orbiting NRO spacecraft.
The Centaur entered a low parking orbit and then a deployment orbit of 261 x 16776 km x 60.0 deg (according to visual observations reported by independent sources). This compares with the 267 x 15379 km x 58.0 deg deployment orbit of the previous mission in the series, USA 179. The payload will use its own on-board propulsion to raise the orbit to around 1000 x 39400 km x 63 deg.
Some observers speculated that the SBIRS HEO-2 infrared missile warning package and the TWINS-B magnetospheric research package might also be aboard, although I believe that next year’s NROL-28 mission is a more likely fit for these and for the third Interim Polar Adjunct communications package.
The first generation SDS satellites were launched by Titan 34B/Agena D rockets and deployed directly into 12-hour orbits. Here is a list of more recent SDS HEO (highly elliptical orbit) satellites:
SDS HEO Launches
Parking orbit Deployment orbit
1989-61B USA 40 401 x 502 x 57.0 532 x 8135 x 57.0
1992-86B USA 89 364 x 380 x 57.0 372 x 7300?x 56.9
1996-38A USA 125 292 x 300 x 54.9 383 x 14072 x 55.4
1998-05A USA 137 (CAPRICORN) 191 x 795 x 62.5 Unknown
2004-34A USA 179 (NROL-1/NEMESIS) 191 x 400 x 58.4 267 x 15379 x 58.0
2007-60A USA 198 (NROL-24/SCORPIUS) 209 x 262 x 60.0 261 x 16776 x 60.0
Another constellation of NRO spacecraft uses a similar final orbit and are thought to be primarily signals intelligence payloads associated with the code-name TRUMPET. There were three such launches in 1994-1997. A more recent launch may be related; USA 184 also carries the TWINS-A and SBIRS HEO-1 payloads. NROL-28 is likely to be similar to USA-184. Unlike the SDS launches, these flights deploy their payloads directly into the 12-hour orbit.
1994-26A USA 103 200 x 200?x 57 1323 x 39035 x 64.4
1995-34A USA 112 245 x 255 x 56.1 Unknown
1997-68A USA 136 (+IPA-1?) 185 x 185 x 55.0 1098 x 39012 x 63.6
2006-27A USA 184 (NROL-22) 193 x 2215 x 62.5 1111 x 37594 x 62.4
(+TWINS-A/SBIRS-HEO-1/IPA-2?)
2008? USA ? (NROL-28 + TWINS-B/SBIRS-HEO-2/IPA-3?)
GPS 57
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The Navstar Global Positioning System GPS space vehicle 57, the 18th GPS IIR and 5th upgraded IIR-M, was launched from Cape Canaveral at 2004 UTC on Dec 20. It reached a preliminary 174 x 203 km x 37.5 deg parking orbit at 2014 UTC and was delivered to elliptical transfer orbit at 2114 UTC.
Ariane L530
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Arianespace launched Ariane 5GS vehicle L530 (flight V180) on Dec 21. The EPC core stage reached a 30 x 1730 km x 7.3 deg orbit, reentering on the first perigee. The EPS upper stage reached geostationary transfer orbit and deployed two telecommunications satellites, RASCOM-QAF-1 and Horizons 2.
RASCOM-QAF-1 is a Thales (Cannes) Spacebus 4000B3 with a hybrid Ku/C-band payload for RascomStarQAF of Port Louis, Mauritius, a subsidiary of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM) based in Cote d’Ivoire. The mission and satellite control centers are in Cameroun and Libay; the satellite will provide voice, data and internet in Africa.
Horizons 2 is an Orbital Star 2 Ku-band satellite for Horizons Satellite Holdings LLC, a joint venture of Intelsat and the Japanese JSAT company.
Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Nov 1 0051 SAR-Lupe 3 ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132/1 Radar 53A
AIS ) 53B
Nov 11 0150 DSP 23 Delta 4H Canaveral SLC37B Early Warn 54A
Nov 11 2248 Yaogan 3 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar 55A
Nov 14 2206 Skynet 5B ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 56B
Star One C1 ) 56A
Nov 17 2239 Sirius 4 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 57A
Dec 9 0015 Kosmos-2434 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 58A
Dec 9 0231 Cosmo 2 Delta 7420-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Radar 59A
Dec 10 2205 USA 198 (NROL-24) Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Comms? 60A
Dec 14 1317 Radarsat-2 Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Radar 61A
Dec 20 2004 GPS 57 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Nav 62A?
Dec 21 2141 Rascom-QAF-1 ) Ariane 5GS Kourou ELA3 Comms 63A?
Horizons 2 ) Comms 63B?
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