Jonathan's Space Report
No. 670 2012 Nov 18 Somerville, MA USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
----------------------------

Expedition 33 continues with commander Suni Williams, FE-4 Yuriy
Malenchenko and FE-6 Aki Hoshide joined on Oct 25 by Oleg Novitskiy,
Yevgeniy Tarelkin and Kevin Ford. Soyuz TMA-06M (factory no. 707, ISS
flight 32S), launched on Oct 23, docked with the Poisk module at 1229
UTC on Oct 25.

Dragon CRS-1 returned to Earth on Oct 28. The SSRMS unberthed it from
the Harmony module at 1119 UTC and released it at 1329 UTC. At 1422 UTC
Dragon made a burn to lower its orbit and at 1828 UTC made a larger, 10
minute 40 second long deorbit burn. SpaceX have not reported the size
(delta-V) or orbital parameters of either of these burns. The Dragon
trunk was jettisoned at 1841 UTC and the capsule reached entry interface
at 1902 UTC, with splashdown in the Pacific at around 123W 28N at 1922
UTC.

The Progress M-17M cargo ship was launched on Oct 31 and docked with
the Zvezda module after a 5 hour 52 min flight.

On Nov 1 astronauts Williams and Hoshide began spacewalk US EVA-20 with
depressurization at 1223 UTC and hatch open at 1228 UTC. They rerouted
the ammonia cooling system on the P6 truss to allow controllers to
investigate a leak in the system. One of the P6 radiators that was
stowed before P6 relocation back in 2007 was redeployed to replace the
isolated radiator. The airlock hatch was closed at 1903 UTC and the
airlock was repressurized at 1907 UTC.

Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to land in Soyuz TMA-05M
on Nov 19, marking the transition from Expedition 33 to Expedition 34.


Beidou
-------

A new Beidou navigation satellite, Beidou Daohang Weixing 16, was launched on Oct 25 into
geostationary transfer orbit. US tracking data showed it in transfer orbit on Oct 26
and in GEO at 80.4E on Nov 1 and later. The transfer orbit had an unusually low
perigee of around 150-160 km.

Luch/Yamal
----------

Russia's Proton orbited a pair of communications satellites on Nov 2,
both built by ISS Reshetnev. Luch-5B uses an Ekspress-1000A bus and is
the second of a pair of data relay satellites and will provide
communications support to the Station. Yamal-300K is an Ekspress-1000HTA
with C and Ku band payload for Gazprom Space Systems, part of the
massive Russian Gazprom energy company.

The Briz-M upper stage reached a 388 x 35735 km x 48.7 deg transfer
orbit and ejected the DTB drop tank, which is being tracked. Khrunichev
reported that the stage then made a circularization burn and relesed the
satellites in near-synchronous orbit.

On Nov 17, over two weeks later, the US appears only to be tracking the drop tank and not
the payloads.

Ariane VA210
------------

Ariane flight VA210 placed two communications satellites in orbit. The
vehicle 566 core stage reached a -956 x 179 km x 7.0 deg path; the ESC-A
upper stage raised velocity and lowered inclination to reach a 250 x
35750 km x 2.0 deg transfer orbit, deploying the EUTELSAT 21B satellite,
a Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000C3 for Eutelsat SA of Paris and Star One
C3, an Orbital Geostar-2.4E for Star One of Rio de Janeiro.

The Star One satellites continue the old Brasilsat system, with
Brasilsat B1-B4 renamed Star One B1-B4; AMC 12 is Star One C12; Star One
C1 and C2 are Spacebus 3000 class satellites launched in 2007 and 2008.

Meridian
--------

The 6th Meridian military communications satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry
was successfully placed in a 974 x 39740 km x 62.8 deg elliptical orbit on Nov 14. The previous
Meridian flight failed to reach orbit.


Orbital Launch Stats 2012 to Date
---------------------------------

Total 65 attempts:
Russia 21, China 15, US 14, France/ESA 8, India 2, Japan 2, Iran 1 + 1 fail, North Korea 1 fail

Errata from JSR 669: of course, the Antares first stage has a Russian engine but is Ukrainian-built.
Also, I mistyped astronaut Tarelkin's name (in my defense, it was wrong in the daily
ISS On-Orbit Status).

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

On Oct 24 (or possibly early Oct 25) the Missile Defense Agency's FTI-01
experiment involved coordinated launches of 5 exoatmospheric rockets in
the Pacific. An Extended Long Range Air Launch Target was dropped from a
C-17 aircraft north of Wake Island and launched towards the Reagan Test
Site at Kwajalein. The E-LRALT consists of two SR-19 motors, an Orbus
1A motor and a reentry vehicle. Next, a two-stage Terrier Oriole rocket in its
ARAV-B target configuration was launched from Wake to Kwajalein; the USS Fitzgerald
launched an SM-3 Block 1A missile which failed to intercept the ARAV-B. A THAAD
interceptor launched from Kwajalein Atoll's Meck Island successfully intercepted
the E-LRALT. A short range target missile, possibly a Scud, was launched from the Mobile
Launch Platform ship; it was intercepted by a Patriot PAC-3 missile launched from Omelek,
another of the Kwajalein islands. The PAC-3 interception was probably at low altitude
so is not included in my list of space launches, and nor is some associated
low altitude activity with cruise missiles and PAC-2.

On Oct 19 Russia launched an R-29R missile from the K-433 submarine in
the Sea of Okhotsk to the Chiza test range.

The Nov 16 launch of REXUS 11 from ESRANGE reached 79 km, a few hundred meters
below the line I use for the boundary of space, and so is not included in the list
below.


Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Oct 4 1210 GPS SVN65 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37B Navsat 53A
Oct 4 1437 RAIKO ) ISS Kibo, LEO Tech 98-067CN
We Wish ) Tech 98-067CS
Oct 4 1544 F-1 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Tech 98-067CR
Niwaka ) Tech 98-067CP
TechEdSat) Tech 98-067CQ
Oct 8 0035 Dragon CRS-1 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 54A
Orbcomm OG2-1) Comms 54B
Oct 12 1815 Galileo IOV-3 ) Soyuz ST-B Kourou ELS Navsat 55A
Galileo IOV-4 ) Navsat 55B
Oct 14 0325 Shi Jian 9 A ) Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Tech 56A
Shi Jian 9 B ) Tech 56B
Oct 14 0837 Intelsat IS-23 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 57A
Oct 23 1051 Soyuz TMA-06M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 58A
Oct 25 1533 Beidou DW16 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Navsat 59A
Oct 31 0741 Progress M-17M Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 60A
Nov 2 2104 Yamal-300K ) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 61B?
Luch-5B ) Comms 61C?
Nov 10 2105 Star One C3 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 62A?
Eutelsat 21B ) Comms 62B?
Nov 14 1142 Meridian No. 16 Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Comms 63A

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

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


Oct 4 0337 RV Prithvi 2 Chandipur Op.Test 100?
Oct 5 0555 RV Dhanush Ship, Chandipur Op.Test 100?
Oct 19? RV x 4? Volna K-433 sub, S. Okhotsk Op.Test 1000?
Oct 19 0912 RV Topol Plesetsk Op.Test 1000?
Oct 24 Sim RV E-LRALT C-17, near Wake I Target 300?
Oct 24 ARAV-B Terrier Oriole Wake I Target 150?
Oct 24 Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-62,near Kwajalein Interceptor 150?
Oct 24 THAAD KV THAAD Meck Island Interceptor 100?
Oct 24 Scud RV? Scud? MLP, NE of Kwajalein Target 150?
Oct 24 1828 Advanced RV Topol'-M2? Kapustin Yar R&D 500?
Nov 2 1755 NASA 36.255US Black Brant IX White Sands Solar X 310?
Nov 14 1142 Mk 21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300?

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