Jacques van Oene
August 22nd 05, 11:07 AM
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 552 2005 Aug 21, Somerville, MA
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
---------------------------
NASA's latest Mars mission was launched on Aug 12. MRO is twice the mass
of other recent Mars missions, 2180 kg at launch - back to the scale of
the ambitious but unsuccessful Mars Observer whose failure helped
triggered creation of the `faster, better, cheaper' missions of the
1990s. The big spacecraft carries a big camera, the 0.5 meter aperture
HiRISE telescope, which will return high resolution images of the
surface, and a big 3-meter communications dish to allow a high data rate
for sending the pictures back. MRO has 1196 kg of hydrazine propellant,
with six 170-Newton MR-107E Aerojet thrusters and six smaller 22-Newton
MR-160E thrusters. The mutiple engines provide propulsion for course
correction and Mars orbit insertion. MRO will reach Mars in March 2006.
The NASA Mars Program
---------------------
Spacecraft Launch Mass NASA Program
Mariner 3 1964 Nov 5 261 kg Mariner flyby
(failed)
Mariner 4 1964 Nov 28 261 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 6 1969 Feb 25 385 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 7 1969 Mar 27 383 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 8 1971 May 9 1031 kg Mariner orbiter
(failed)
Mariner 9 1971 May 30 1031 kg Mariner orbiter
Viking 1 1975 Aug 20 3534 kg Viking
orbiter/lander
Viking 2 1975 Sep 9 3526 kg Viking
orbiter/lander
Mars Observer 1992 Sep 25 2565 kg Planetary Observer,
failed
Mars Global Surveyor 1996 Nov 7 1062 kg Mars Surveyor
Program
Mars Pathfinder 1996 Dec 4 880 kg Discovery Program
Mars Climate Orbiter 1998 Dec 11 629 kg Mars Surveyor
Program, failed
Mars Polar Lander 1999 Jan 3 615 kg Mars Surveyor
Program, failed
2001 Mars Odyssey 2001 Apr 7 730 kg Mars Surveyor
Program
Mars Exploration Rover A 2003 Jun 10 1062 kg Mars Program
Mars Exploration Rover B 2003 Jul 8 1062 kg Mars Program
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2005 Aug 12 2180 kg Mars Program
Launch of MRO was with a Lockheed Martin Atlas V, model 401, serial
AV-007. The Atlas CCB stage fired for 4 minutes, followed by the first
Centaur stage burn, putting MRO in a 148 x 185 km x 28.5 deg Earth
parking orbit 14 min after launch. Centaur fired again at 1132 UTC to
reach escape velocity, and separated from MRO at 1141 UTC, with both
vehicles on hyperbolic Earth departure orbit with around 205 km perigee
and 40.7 deg inclination. MRO passed lunar orbit on Aug 13 and is now
in a 1.013 x 1.680 AU x 3.1 (ecliptic) deg heliocentric transfer orbit
to Mars. The Centaur is lagging slightly behind in a 1.013 x 1.659 AU
orbit, targeted to miss Mars.
Thaicom 4
---------
Arianespace launched Shin Satellite's Thaicom 4 (also known as IPSTAR 1)
on Aug 11. Thaicom 4 is a 3400 kg (dry) Loral LS-1300SX satellite for
broadband
Ku-band/Ka-band data relay and digital telecoms in the Asia-Pacific region.
The satellite carries 3100 kg of propellant for a total launch mass of 6500
kg.
Ariane flight V166 used launch vehicle L523, the first Ariane 5GS variant.
This has the enhanced P240 strapons and uprated L10 variant of the EPS
upper stage, with the standard Ariane 5 Generic EPC core stage (H158).
L523's EPC stage reached a 47 x 1623 km x 7.2 deg marginal orbit,
completing a single orbit and reentering over the Pacific. The EPS
second stage put Thaicom 4 in geostationary transfer orbit.
By Aug 19 Thaicom 4 was in a 35523 x 35805 km x 0.1 deg geostationary
drift orbit.
Here are the components used in the Ariane 5 variants flown to date:
Solid booster Core stage Upper stage
5G EAP P238 EPC H158 EPS L9.5
5G+ EAP P238 EPC H158 EPS L10
5GS EAP P240 EPC H158 EPS L10
5ECA EAP P240 EPC H175 ESC-A
Shuttle and Station
-------------------
After the landing of Discovery, the Expedition 11 crew on the Station
are continuing their mission.
On Aug 18, Station crew Krikalyov (suit Orlan-M 25) and Phillips (suit
Orlan-M 27) made a spacewalk from the Pirs module, with depressurization
at 1846 UTC, hatch open at 1902 UTC and hatch closed at 0000 UTC on Aug
19. Pirs was repressurized at 0002 UTC. The astronauts retrieved and
installed experiments on the Station's exterior. (Thanks to Andrey
Krasil'nikov for the depress time.) One piece of space debris, 1998-067AG,
was cataloged following the EVA - probably the Matroshka-R experiment
cover ejected into space by Krikalyov at around 1945 UTC.
[thanks to Rui Barbosa for the Matroshka information].
Discovery flew back from California to Florida aboard the NASA 905 ferry
aircraft on Aug 19-21, with refuelling stops at Altus AFB, Oklahoma and
Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. NASA's talking about launching Discovery
again in March 2006 on the next mission, STS-121, but it's not yet clear
what fixes will be needed to the External Tank.
Galaxy 14
---------
On Aug 13 the French Starsem company provided launch services for the US
commercial communications satellite Galaxy 14 aboard a Russian
Soyuz-FG/Fregat
rocket.
Galaxy 14 is part of Panamsat's domestic US satellite network; it was
built by Orbital/Dulles and is based on the Star 2 bus, which uses
a Japanese 500N-thrust apogee engine. Earlier Galaxy 14 was planned for
an Ariane launch and was reported to have a mass of 1790 kg, but it
was transferred to Soyuz and now is reported to have a 2087 kg launch mass.
I imagine the extra mass is propellant to accommodate the new
supersynchronous
launch strategy described below. Dry mass is about 800 kg.
After takeoff from Baykonur, the three-stage TsSKB-Progress Soyuz-FG
(S/N 11) enters a mildly suborbital trajectory with perigee a few
hundred km below the Earth's surface and impact in the Pacific Ocean.
The upper stage, an NPO Lavochkin 14S44 Fregat, serial number 1007,
makes its first burn to enter a 200 x 200 km x 51.6 deg parking orbit
about 10 min after launch. A second burn about an hour later sent Galaxy
14 to a 351 x 66268 km x 49.2 deg transfer orbit. Galaxy 14's apogee
engine will then make multiple burns to lower inclination while
circularizing the orbit to reach a roughly 35780 x 35790 km x 0.0 deg
geosynchronous orbit. By Aug 16 it was in a 35755 x 66093 km x 2.2 deg
orbit. An Ariane launch would have put G14 in a 7 deg inclination
transfer orbit with a 35800 km apogee, which would need less fuel to
reach GEO - the advantage of the near-equatorial Kourou launch site
compared to Baykonur's 45 deg latitude.
FSW
---
The Chinese imaging satellite launched on Aug 2 raised its apogee
on Aug 5 and 7 to a 166 x 552 km x 63.0 orbit; the orbit was
reboosted to the same altitude on Aug 19 after the apogee decayed
to 535 km.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.
DES.
Jul 5 2240 SJ-7 CZ-2D Jiuquan Sci
24A
Jul 10 0330 Suzaku M-V Uchinoura XR Astron.
25A
Jul 26 1439 Discovery Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship
26A
Aug 2 0730 FSW 21 CZ-2C Jiuquan Imaging
27A
Aug 11 0820 Thaicom 4 Ariane 5GS Kourou Comms
28A
Aug 12 1143 MRO Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe
29A
Aug 13 2328 Galaxy 14 Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms
30A
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail , (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
No. 552 2005 Aug 21, Somerville, MA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Sender:
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To:
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
---------------------------
NASA's latest Mars mission was launched on Aug 12. MRO is twice the mass
of other recent Mars missions, 2180 kg at launch - back to the scale of
the ambitious but unsuccessful Mars Observer whose failure helped
triggered creation of the `faster, better, cheaper' missions of the
1990s. The big spacecraft carries a big camera, the 0.5 meter aperture
HiRISE telescope, which will return high resolution images of the
surface, and a big 3-meter communications dish to allow a high data rate
for sending the pictures back. MRO has 1196 kg of hydrazine propellant,
with six 170-Newton MR-107E Aerojet thrusters and six smaller 22-Newton
MR-160E thrusters. The mutiple engines provide propulsion for course
correction and Mars orbit insertion. MRO will reach Mars in March 2006.
The NASA Mars Program
---------------------
Spacecraft Launch Mass NASA Program
Mariner 3 1964 Nov 5 261 kg Mariner flyby
(failed)
Mariner 4 1964 Nov 28 261 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 6 1969 Feb 25 385 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 7 1969 Mar 27 383 kg Mariner flyby
Mariner 8 1971 May 9 1031 kg Mariner orbiter
(failed)
Mariner 9 1971 May 30 1031 kg Mariner orbiter
Viking 1 1975 Aug 20 3534 kg Viking
orbiter/lander
Viking 2 1975 Sep 9 3526 kg Viking
orbiter/lander
Mars Observer 1992 Sep 25 2565 kg Planetary Observer,
failed
Mars Global Surveyor 1996 Nov 7 1062 kg Mars Surveyor
Program
Mars Pathfinder 1996 Dec 4 880 kg Discovery Program
Mars Climate Orbiter 1998 Dec 11 629 kg Mars Surveyor
Program, failed
Mars Polar Lander 1999 Jan 3 615 kg Mars Surveyor
Program, failed
2001 Mars Odyssey 2001 Apr 7 730 kg Mars Surveyor
Program
Mars Exploration Rover A 2003 Jun 10 1062 kg Mars Program
Mars Exploration Rover B 2003 Jul 8 1062 kg Mars Program
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2005 Aug 12 2180 kg Mars Program
Launch of MRO was with a Lockheed Martin Atlas V, model 401, serial
AV-007. The Atlas CCB stage fired for 4 minutes, followed by the first
Centaur stage burn, putting MRO in a 148 x 185 km x 28.5 deg Earth
parking orbit 14 min after launch. Centaur fired again at 1132 UTC to
reach escape velocity, and separated from MRO at 1141 UTC, with both
vehicles on hyperbolic Earth departure orbit with around 205 km perigee
and 40.7 deg inclination. MRO passed lunar orbit on Aug 13 and is now
in a 1.013 x 1.680 AU x 3.1 (ecliptic) deg heliocentric transfer orbit
to Mars. The Centaur is lagging slightly behind in a 1.013 x 1.659 AU
orbit, targeted to miss Mars.
Thaicom 4
---------
Arianespace launched Shin Satellite's Thaicom 4 (also known as IPSTAR 1)
on Aug 11. Thaicom 4 is a 3400 kg (dry) Loral LS-1300SX satellite for
broadband
Ku-band/Ka-band data relay and digital telecoms in the Asia-Pacific region.
The satellite carries 3100 kg of propellant for a total launch mass of 6500
kg.
Ariane flight V166 used launch vehicle L523, the first Ariane 5GS variant.
This has the enhanced P240 strapons and uprated L10 variant of the EPS
upper stage, with the standard Ariane 5 Generic EPC core stage (H158).
L523's EPC stage reached a 47 x 1623 km x 7.2 deg marginal orbit,
completing a single orbit and reentering over the Pacific. The EPS
second stage put Thaicom 4 in geostationary transfer orbit.
By Aug 19 Thaicom 4 was in a 35523 x 35805 km x 0.1 deg geostationary
drift orbit.
Here are the components used in the Ariane 5 variants flown to date:
Solid booster Core stage Upper stage
5G EAP P238 EPC H158 EPS L9.5
5G+ EAP P238 EPC H158 EPS L10
5GS EAP P240 EPC H158 EPS L10
5ECA EAP P240 EPC H175 ESC-A
Shuttle and Station
-------------------
After the landing of Discovery, the Expedition 11 crew on the Station
are continuing their mission.
On Aug 18, Station crew Krikalyov (suit Orlan-M 25) and Phillips (suit
Orlan-M 27) made a spacewalk from the Pirs module, with depressurization
at 1846 UTC, hatch open at 1902 UTC and hatch closed at 0000 UTC on Aug
19. Pirs was repressurized at 0002 UTC. The astronauts retrieved and
installed experiments on the Station's exterior. (Thanks to Andrey
Krasil'nikov for the depress time.) One piece of space debris, 1998-067AG,
was cataloged following the EVA - probably the Matroshka-R experiment
cover ejected into space by Krikalyov at around 1945 UTC.
[thanks to Rui Barbosa for the Matroshka information].
Discovery flew back from California to Florida aboard the NASA 905 ferry
aircraft on Aug 19-21, with refuelling stops at Altus AFB, Oklahoma and
Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. NASA's talking about launching Discovery
again in March 2006 on the next mission, STS-121, but it's not yet clear
what fixes will be needed to the External Tank.
Galaxy 14
---------
On Aug 13 the French Starsem company provided launch services for the US
commercial communications satellite Galaxy 14 aboard a Russian
Soyuz-FG/Fregat
rocket.
Galaxy 14 is part of Panamsat's domestic US satellite network; it was
built by Orbital/Dulles and is based on the Star 2 bus, which uses
a Japanese 500N-thrust apogee engine. Earlier Galaxy 14 was planned for
an Ariane launch and was reported to have a mass of 1790 kg, but it
was transferred to Soyuz and now is reported to have a 2087 kg launch mass.
I imagine the extra mass is propellant to accommodate the new
supersynchronous
launch strategy described below. Dry mass is about 800 kg.
After takeoff from Baykonur, the three-stage TsSKB-Progress Soyuz-FG
(S/N 11) enters a mildly suborbital trajectory with perigee a few
hundred km below the Earth's surface and impact in the Pacific Ocean.
The upper stage, an NPO Lavochkin 14S44 Fregat, serial number 1007,
makes its first burn to enter a 200 x 200 km x 51.6 deg parking orbit
about 10 min after launch. A second burn about an hour later sent Galaxy
14 to a 351 x 66268 km x 49.2 deg transfer orbit. Galaxy 14's apogee
engine will then make multiple burns to lower inclination while
circularizing the orbit to reach a roughly 35780 x 35790 km x 0.0 deg
geosynchronous orbit. By Aug 16 it was in a 35755 x 66093 km x 2.2 deg
orbit. An Ariane launch would have put G14 in a 7 deg inclination
transfer orbit with a 35800 km apogee, which would need less fuel to
reach GEO - the advantage of the near-equatorial Kourou launch site
compared to Baykonur's 45 deg latitude.
FSW
---
The Chinese imaging satellite launched on Aug 2 raised its apogee
on Aug 5 and 7 to a 166 x 552 km x 63.0 orbit; the orbit was
reboosted to the same altitude on Aug 19 after the apogee decayed
to 535 km.
Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission
INTL.
DES.
Jul 5 2240 SJ-7 CZ-2D Jiuquan Sci
24A
Jul 10 0330 Suzaku M-V Uchinoura XR Astron.
25A
Jul 26 1439 Discovery Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship
26A
Aug 2 0730 FSW 21 CZ-2C Jiuquan Imaging
27A
Aug 11 0820 Thaicom 4 Ariane 5GS Kourou Comms
28A
Aug 12 1143 MRO Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Mars probe
29A
Aug 13 2328 Galaxy 14 Soyuz-FG/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms
30A
..-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
| Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back |
| Subscribe/unsub: mail , (un)subscribe jsr |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info