Jonathan's Space Report, No. 588

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 588 2007 Nov 24, Somerville, MA
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Shuttle and Station
-------------------

Astronauts Parazynski and Wheelock made a spacewalk out to the port end
of the Station truss to repair the SAW-4B solar array on Nov 3. The
Quest airlock was depressurized at 1000 UTC with hatch opening at 1002
UTC. By 1203 UTC Parazynski was moved to the vicinity of the solar array
tear, standing on the end of the OBSS boom, which was grappled by the
Canadarm-2 sitting at worksite 8 on the truss. He installed five
'cuff-link' straps to strengthen the solar array and prevent further
tearing; the array was then fully extended by 1523 UTC, ensuring an
adequate electrical power supply for the Station in the near term,
pending repairs to the starboard truss' Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ).
The airlock hatch was closed at 1712 UTC and repressurization was at
1722 UTC. On this spacewalk, Wheelock used spacesuit EMU 3003 as before,
but due to problems with Parazynski's EMU 3004, he used EMU 3006
instead.

EMU 3006 was also used by Yuri Malenchenko for EVA-5, which was delayed
until after Discovery's departure. Quest was depressurized at about 0952 UTC
on Nov 9, with hatch open at 0953 UTC. Malenchenko, together with ISS
Commander Peggy Whitson in EMU 3018, disconnected cables from the PMA-3
docking adapter to prepare it for unberthing, and electrically
activated the power-data grapple fixture (PDGF) on the Harmony module.
They returned to the airlock and closed the hatch at 1646 UTC, with
repressurization at 1649 UTC.

Discovery undocked from the Station at 1032 UTC on Nov 5. After a
flyaround, they departed with a second sep burn at 1214 UTC. The deorbit
burn was at 1658 UTC on Nov 7, with landing at Kennedy Space Center
runway 33 at 1801 UTC to complete the mission.

Whitson and Malenchenko remain aboard the station with astronaut Dan
Tani as the current Expedition 16 crew. On Nov 12 the PMA-2 docking
port was unbolted from the Destiny module and attached to the end of
Harmony. On Nov 14, the PMA-2/Harmony combination was detached from the
side of the Unity module and installed on the end of Destiny. On Nov 20
Tani and Whitson made a spacewalk to connect a cooling loop from the
truss to Destiny, and make connections between Destiny and Harmony. On
Nov 24 they made another spacewalk (in progress at this writing) to
connect a second cooling loop, and inspect the truss rotary joint. At
the end of these operations, PMA-2 is again ready to serve as a Shuttle
docking port, and Harmony lies between PMA-2 and Destiny ready to have
its side docking ports used for further modules, the first of which will
be Europe's Columbus.

SAR-Lupe 3
----------

Germany's third SAR-Lupe radar satellite was launched on Nov 1
at 0051 UTC; it separated from the Russian Kosmos-3M final stage rocket
at 0120 UTC into a 465 x 493 km x 98.2 deg orbit. The final stage
carries a small Automatic Identification System package for OHB/Bremen,
to test a system for monitoring of shipping traffic.

Chang'e-1
---------

China's Chang'e-1 moon probe increased its Earth orbital apogee to
120000 km on Oct 29 at 1001 UTC, and again to 380000 km at 0915 UTC on
Oct 31. It entered a 210 x 8600 km lunar orbit at 0337 UTC on Nov 5. The
orbit inclination is polar, but I haven't seen a precise number for it.


DSP 23
------

The second Delta 4 Heavy launch on Nov 11 put the DSP (Defense Support
Program) Flight 23 early warning satellite in orbit. DSP satellites,
built by Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, feature an infrared
telescope for detection of missile launches. The Delta entered
a 217 x 1576 km x 29 deg orbit at SECO-1 12 min after launch; an hour later
the second Delta second stage burn went to 919 x 36325 km x 26.6 deg
(these are prelaunch estimates of the orbit); a third burn at
0800 UTC put the satellite in circular geosynchronous orbit.

The first Delta 4H launch in Dec 2004, with a demonstration satellite,
suffered from early cutoff of the Common Booster Core stages, and the
SECO-1 orbit was lower than planned (the apogee was around 105 km; I
still have not seen a value for the perigee achieved - I hope readers
will let me know if they have relevant data) and two nanosatellites
reentered immediately. The Delta 4H recovered and put the demonstration
satellite in a near-synchronous orbit with a 10 degree inclination,
running out of fuel in the process; this delayed further Delta 4H launches.
On the new launch on Nov 11 Boeing reports indicate that everything went well,
and independent observers have seen the Centaur in a geosynchronous orbit
with a 3 degree inclination, as expected.

Yaogan 3
--------

China launched the Yaogan 3 radar satellite on Nov 11 using a new
variant of the Chang Zheng (Long March) rocket. The CZ-4C is like the
CZ-4B but includes a restart capability in the upper stage. It also has
a new interstage adapter between the first and second stages. Yaogan 1
is in a 628 x 628 km x 97.8 deg orbit, and Yaogan 2 is in a 629 x 656
km x 97.9 deg orbit; the Yaogan 1 CZ-4B third stage was placed in a 451
x 619 km x 97.8 deg orbit. Yaogan 3 is in a 613 x 623 km orbit, and the
third stage is in a 456 x 612 km x 97.9 deg orbit.

Rosetta
--------

Europe's Rosetta probe flew past Earth at 2057 UTC on Nov 13, 5301 km
above 63 46S 74 35W. The close flyby, with an eccentricity of 3.6,
changes Rosetta's ecliptic solar orbit from 0.78 x 1.59 AU x 1.9 deg to
0.91 x 2.26 AU x 7.7 deg, setting it on course for a flyby of minor
planet (2867) Steins in Sep 2008.

Ariane
------

Ariane 5ECA vehicle L538, on flight V179, placed two communications
satellites in geostationary transfer orbit on Nov 14. The EPC stage
reached a -1065 x 168 km suborbital trajectory, with the ESC-A upper
stage continuing to GTO in a single burn. The upper satellite is Skynet
5B, an Astrium Eurostar E3000 satellite owned by EADS' Paradigm company,
which provides communications services at SHF and UHF to the UK Ministry
of Defence. The lower satellite is Star One C1 (formerly Brasilsat C1),
a joint project between a group of S American countries led by Brazil's
Embratel telecoms organization. Star One is the name of the Embratel
subsidiary that operates the Brasilsat system. The satellite is a
Thales Alenia Spacebus 3000B3 spacecraft. The satellites spent
an extended period in transfer orbit. Object A (32293) is now being
tracked over the western Atlantic, suggesting it may be Star One.

Sirius 4
--------

The Sirius 4 satellite for SES Sirius AB (the former Nordiska Satellit
AB) was launched aboard a Krunichev Proton-M on Nov 17. The satellite
carries Ku-band and Ka-band communications payloads for Nordic, Baltic
and East European communications. SES Sirius' Sirius 2 and Sirius 3 are
colocated in GEO at 5 deg E; Sirius 1 was retired in 2003. The SES
Sirius satellites are not to be confused with the Sirius digital radio
satellites owned by Sirius Satellite Radio.

NSAB/SES Sirius satellites and Sirius Radio satellites:
Owner Name Type Launch Orbit (km x km x deg)

NSAB Tele-X Spacebus 300 1989 Apr 2 36076 x 36112 x 9.1
NSAB Sirius 1 HS-376 1993 (see note) 36049 x 36137 x 7.3
NSAB Sirius 2 Spacebus 3000B 1997 Nov 12 35782 x 35790 x 0.0
NSAB Sirius 3 HS-376HP 1998 Oct 5 35780 x 35793 x 0.1
SES Sirius Sirius 4 A2100AX 2007 Nov 17 12676 x 35751 x 10.0

Sirius Radio Sirius 1 LS-1300 2000 Jun 30 24587 x 46990 x 62.1
Sirius Radio Sirius 2 LS-1300 2000 Sep 5 24504 x 47066 x 63.6
Sirius Radio Sirius 3 LS-1300 2000 Nov 30 24580 x 46989 x 64.0
Sirius Radio Sirius 4 LS-1300 Ground spare, will not be launched
Sirius Radio Sirius 5 LS-1300 Launch expected 2008

Note: NSAB Sirius 1 is the former British Satellite Broadcasting BSB 1,
launched in 1989, and was bought in orbit by NSAB in 1993 Dec.

The Proton-M reached a -942 x 164 km x 51.5 deg suborbital trajectory.
The first three Briz-M upper stage burns reached 173 x 173 km, 258 x
5000 km and 385 x 35681 km x 49.1 deg. At this point, the DTB fuel tank
was jettisoned. A final Briz burn at 0730 UTC on Nov 18 put Sirius 4 in
a 6916 x 35478 km x 17.4 deg high-perigee geostationary transfer orbit.
By Nov 21 the satellite's own Leros propulsion system had raised its
orbit to 12676 x 35751 km x 10.0 deg on the way to GEO.


Table of Recent (orbital) Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Oct 5 2202 Intelsat IS-11 ) Ariane 5GS Kourou ELA3 Comms 44B
Optus D-2 ) Comms 44A
Oct 10 1322 Soyuz TMA-11 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 45A
Oct 11 0022 WGS SV-1 Atlas V 421 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 46A
Oct 17 1223 Navstar GPS 55 Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17A Navigation 47A
Oct 20 2012 Globalstar FM66) Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms 48C
Globalstar FM67) Comms 48A
Globalstar FM68) Comms 48D
Globalstar FM70) Comms 48B
Oct 23 0439 Kosmos-2430 Molniya Plesetsk LC16/2 Early Warn 49A
Oct 23 1538 Discovery ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 50A
Harmony ) Module 50
Oct 24 1005 Chang'e-1 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Lunar probe 51A
Oct 26 0735 Kosmos-2431 ) Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Navigation 52A
Kosmos-2432 ) Navigation 52B
Kosmos-2433 ) Navigation 52C
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

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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
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