Jonathan's Space Report
No. 711 2015 Apr 15 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------

Expedition 43 continues under the command of Terry Virts, with FE-3
Anton Shkaplerov and FE-4 Samantha Cristoforetti joined by Gennadiy
Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly after the TMA-16M (flight
42S) docking.

Soyuz TMA-16M was launched on Mar 27, docking with the Poisk module
5h50m after launch. Soyuz TMA-15M is docked at Rassvet; Progress M-25M
is docked at Pirs and Progress M-26M at Zvezda.

The Dragon CRS-6 supply ship was launched on Apr 14. Its Falcon 9 launch
vehicle delivered it into a 206 x 357 km orbit. The Falcon 9's first
stage was flown down to the barge 'Just Read The Instructions' in the
Atlantic but, according to tweets by Elon Musk, valve stiction caused
control problems in the final burn and the stage crash-landed.

CRS-6 carries 16 cubesats: 14 3U-size Flock-1e for Planet Labs, one
Arkyd-3R for Planetary Resources (also a 3U) and a 1U cubesat,
Centennial-1, for Booz Allen Hamilton carrying an Air Force Research Lab
imaging experiment. The cubesats will be transferred to the Kibo module
after Dragon docking and ejected into orbit via the NanoRacks deployers and
the Kibo robot arm. CRS-6 also carries a number of mice aboard the Rodent
Research 2 package, and a 20 kg microgravity-qualified Lavazza espresso machine
(I'm a little surprised any Italian astronauts agreed to fly to ISS before
installation of this essential life support equipment. For the record, I'm a tea
drinker myself.)

Galileo
--------

The European Commission's GalileoSat-7 and 8 (ESA designation Galileo
FOC FM03 and FM04) were launched on Mar 27 by a Soyuz/Fregat. This time
the launch went perfectly and delivered the satellites to a 23500 x
23580 km x 55.1 deg orbit.

Arirang-3A
----------

South Korea's Arirang-3A (KOMPSAT-3A) imaging satellite was launched on
a Kosmotras Dnepr from a silo at the Yasniy missile base in Russia on
Mar 25 into a 522 x 540 km x 97.5 deg sun-synchronous orbit at 0130
local time descending node. The Dnepr third stage ended up in a 524 x
1440 km orbit.

IGS O-5
-------

The Information Gathering Satellite Optical-5 was launched on Mar 26 from Japan.
The spy satellite is operated by the Japanese government. It has been tracked
by hobbyist observers in a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit.

GPS IIF-9
---------

GPS flight IIF-9, space vehicle SVN71, nicknamed Deneb, was launched on Mar 25 by
a Delta 4 into a 12-hour-period orbit to join the navigation constellation.

IRNSS-1D
--------

The 4th Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System payload was launched on Mar 28.
The 1425 kg satellite joined its siblings IRNSS-1A and 1B in inclined synchronous orbit with an
orbit on Apr 12 of 35699 x 35870 km x 30.5 deg. IRNSS-1C is in equatorial GEO.


Beidou daohang weixing 17
--------------------------

The BDW 17 satellite, first in the Beidou-3 generation of Chinese navigation satellites,
was launched on Mar 30. For the first time the CZ-3C rocket used an additional, 4th, stage,
the Yuanzheng-1 (Expedition-1). The stage uses UDMH/N2O4 storable propellants like the
Briz-M or Fregat, but has even lower thrust - only 6.5 kN - and so will need yet longer
burn times.

The the CZ-3C third stage has been tracked in a 194 x 25307 km x 54.9
deg transfer orbit, and as of Apr 12 an object (40549) that is probably Beidou
is in a 35796 x 36781 km x 55.0 deg orbit drifting over 120E. The YZ-1
stage has not yet been tracked; its orbit is probably a little higher
than Beidou following a depletion burn. It's possible however that YZ-1
is 40549 and it's Beidou that hasn't been found yet.

Gonets/Kosmos
-------------

A Rokot launch vehicle placed three 225-kg Gonets-M message relay satellites
in a 1500 km polar orbit on Mar 31. Gonets-M is the civilian version of the
military Strela-3/Rodnik system. As with other recent Gonets and Strela launches,
an additional military payload was carried. For the first time, this payload
was ejected from the Briz-KM upper stage after its depletion burn, and so
ended up in a lower perigee orbit than the Gonets trio. The payload, Kosmos-2504,
began small orbit maneuvers on Apr 9.


Cassini
-------

The Cassini probe made a 2721 km flyby of Titan at 2252 UTC May 7. The probe is
now in a 188700 x 2428000 km x 0.4 deg equatorial Saturn orbit.

Dawn
----

Dawn entered the Ceres Hill sphere (where Ceres gravity wins out over the Sun's,
mumble mumble caveat equivocate...) on Jan 26 and flew past Ceres at a
distance of 38600 km on Feb 23. Slowing down as it arced out, it became
bound to Ceres on Mar 6 at a distance of 60000 km. Initial orbit was
38000 km pericereal height (or peridemeter as Marc Rayman would prefer)
at an inclination of 34 deg to the Ceres equator. Dawn reached an
apocereal height of 75850 km on Mar 19 and slowly reapproached Ceres as
the ion drive twisted the orbital inclination to a pure polar orbit of
15900 x 62900 km x 90.0 deg by Apr 13. The next predicted pericereal
pass is at 15970 km on Apr 18. The bright spots seen in early Dawn
images of Ceres remain mysterious at this writing.



Debunking PASCAL-B
-------------------

Following on from the previous issue's discussion of the Zwicky Pellets,
by popular demand (i.e. one guy who asked) this time I tackle the internet
story that goes 'we launched a manhole cover into solar orbit'.

On 1957 Aug 27 at 2235 UTC, at area U3d of the Nevada Test Site
(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Plumbob.html) the PASCAL-B
Pu-fission/HE device was detonated with a yield of 0.3 kT. The test was
carried out in an underground shaft sealed with a 900 kg, 1.2 m dia
0.1m thick steel cap. According to test scientist Bob Brownlee,
calculations showed that the cap left the silo travelling vertically at
about 60 km/s, much higher than Earth escape velocity. Although Brownlee
did not claim the cap would actually escape Earth, the story has been
exaggerated to claim the cap might be in solar orbit.

However, a simple calculation shows that even ignoring ablation, heat
transfer and gravity, the effects of atmospheric drag in the lower
atmosphere would slow the cap below escape velocity before it reached 2
km altitude (and then essentially stop it well within the atmosphere).
So, PASCAL-B did not reach space. I encourage readers with expertise in
ablation hydro or supernova shocks to perform the relevant calculations,
but I assume the cap was shredded and melted so that no macroscopic
debris fell back to the ground. The initial kinetic energy of the cap
was 3 terajoules. If you convert all that energy to thermal and share it
among 900 kg of Fe atoms (ignoring the fact that we heat the air too) I
get a temperature of about 20 million K. That's certainly an
overestimate but indicates that plenty of energy is available to
vaporise the material.



Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
km km deg

Mar 2 0125 Flock 1b-21 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 98-67FQ S40427 395 x 402 x 51.7
Flock 1b-22 ) Imaging 98-67FR S40428 395 x 402 x 51.7
Mar 2 0350 ABS-3A ) Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 10A S40424 358 x 63319 x 24.8
Eutel.115 West B ) Comms 10B S40425 360 x 63379 x 24.8
Mar 2 0845 Flock 1b-9 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 98-67FS S40429 392 x 407 x 51.6
Flock 1b-10 ) Imaging 98-67FT S40430 398 x 413 x 51.6
Mar 3 0300 Flock 1d'-1 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 98-67FU S40451 393 x 405 x 51.6
Flock 1d'-2 ) Imaging 98-67FV S40452 393 x 406 x 51.6
Mar 3 1050 Flock 1b-5 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 98-67FW S40453 394 x 407 x 51.6
Flock 1b-6 ) Imaging 98-67FX S40454 392 x 407 x 51.6
Mar 4 0120 TechEdSat-4 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Tech 98-67FY S40455 393 x 402 x 51.6
GEARRSat ) Comms 98-67FZ S40456 395 x 404 x 51.6
Mar 4 0830 MicroMAS ) ISS Kibo, LEO Sci 98-67GA S40457 393 x 406 x 51.6
LambdaSat ) Tech/Comms 98-67GB S40458 393 x 405 x 51.6
Mar 5 0145 Flock 1b-11 ) ISS Kibo, LEO Imaging 98-67GC S40459 395 x 405 x 51.6
Flock 1b-12 ) Imaging 98-67GD S40460 395 x 405 x 51.6
Mar 13 0244 MMS 1 ) Atlas V 421 Canaveral SLC41 Sci 11A S40482 559 x 70130 x 28.9
MMS 2 ) Sci 11B S40483 554 x 70159 x 28.9
MMS 3 ) Sci 11C S40484 554 x 70174 x 28.9
MMS 4 ) Sci 11D S40485 554 x 70190 x 28.9
Mar 18 2205 Ekspress AM-7 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 12A S40505 5406 x 35752 x 19.9
Mar 25 1836 GPS SVN 71 Delta 4M+(4,2) Canaveral SLC37 Nav 13A S40534 20466 x 20468 x 55.0
Mar 25 2208 Arirang-3A Dnepr Yasniy Sh370/13 Imaging 14A S40536 522 x 540 x 97.5 0130LT
Mar 26 0121 IGS Optical 5 H-IIA 202 Tanegashima Imaging 15A S40538 511 x 515 x 97.5 1015LT
Mar 27 1942 Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 16A S40540 198 x 213 x 51.6
Mar 27 2146 GalileoSat-7 ) Soyuz ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS Nav 17A S40544 23566 x 23606 x 55.1
GalileoSat-8 ) Nav 17B S40545 23564 x 23570 x 55.1
Mar 28 1149 IRNSS-1D PSLV-XL Sriharikota Nav 18A S40547 277 x 20569 x 19.2
Mar 30 1352 Beidou DW 17 Chang Zheng 3C/YZ1 Xichang LC2 Nav 19A S40549 35796 x 36781 x 55.0
Mar 31 1348 Gonets-M No. 21) Rokot Plesetsk LC133 Comms 20A S40552 1497 x 1508 x 82.5
Gonets-M No. 22) Comms 20B S40553 1496 x 1507 x 82.5
Gonets-M No. 23) Comms 20C S40554 1494 x 1506 x 82.5
Kosmos-2504 ) Experimental? 20D S40555 1172 x 1515 x 82.5
Apr 14 2010 Dragon CRS-6 Falcon 9 v1.1 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 21A S40588 205 x 360 x 51.6

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

The US Air Force Global Strike Command launched two Minuteman 3 ICBMs
from Vandenberg on a regular test of the system. Tests GT214GM and
GT215GM each carried a single reentry vehicle which splashed down in the
ocean near Guam. Minuteman tests usually aim their reentry vehicle at
Kwajalein Atoll although, since 2006, occasional flights to test the
missile's maximum range have used the Guam target area instead.


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

Mar 1 2133 RV Hwasong 6? Nampo, N Korea Test 134
Mar 1 2141 RV Hwasong 6? Nampo, N Korea Test 134
Mar 5 0144 WADIS 2 VS-30 Andoya Atm.Sci 126
Mar 9 RV Shaheen 3 Somniani? Test 500?
Mar 17 0915 REXUS 17 Imp. Orion Kiruna Micrograv 81
Mar 18 1330 REXUS 18 Imp. Orion Kiruna Micrograv 81
Mar 18 RV Rubezh Kapustin Yar Test 1000?
Mar 23 1036 Mk 12/21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Test 1300?
Mar 27 1054 Mk 12/21 RV? Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF04 Test 1300?

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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |