Jonathan's Space Report, No. 578

Jonathan's Space Report
No. 578 2007 Mar 16, Montreal
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STP-1
-----

The US Air Force STP-1 mission was launched on Mar 9 at 0310 UTC on
Atlas V flight AV-013. It carries the Orbital Express mission with the
two linked satellites ASTRO (Autonomous Space Transporter and Robotic
Orbiter) and NextSat. The satellites will carry out refuelling
experiments and undocking/docking experiments. Astro/Nextsat were
deployed to a 490 x 498 km x 46.0 deg orbit. STP-1 also carried the
first ESPA (EELV Secondary Payload Adapter) ring with four smaller
satellites attached. The US Naval Academy's Midstar-1 carries
experimental spacecraft systems and was ejected into a 494 x 498 km x
46.0 deg orbit. The Centaur stage then made two burns to raise the
orbit, entering a 397 x 3435 km x 44 deg 'fast transfer' orbit 34 min
after launch and then a 557 x 560 km x 35.4 deg orbit 13 min later. The
remaining three satellites were then deployed.

STPSat, built by AeroAstro (hi, Rick...) carries experiments to study
the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and radiation environment. The Los
Alamos Lab CFESat, built by Surrey Satellite (hi, lads...) carries the
Cibola Flight Experiment to survey the radio spectrum and study the
ionosphere and lightning. Falconsat 3 is a USAF Academy student
satellite with ionospheric experiments and plasma atttiude control
thrusters. STPSat will also eject two small MEPSI picosatellites for
the Aerospace Corp.

Finally the Centaur stage was disposed of in a 500 x 545 km x 35.7 deg
orbit.



IGS
---

Makoto Kamada and other sources report the following information
from Japanese newspapers:

The Optical-3 Verification satellite is an experimental satellite on a
six-month engineering mission to test out improvements to the earlier
Japanese optical spy satellites, which performed less well than hoped.
The true Optical-3 satellite will fly in 2009, followed by launch
of Radar-3 and Optical-4 in around 2011. After an initial checkout phase
by JAXA, the satellites are operated by the Cabinet Satellite
Intelligence Center (CSICE, Naikaku Eisei Joho Center) of Tokyo
via its main Kitaura Fuku Center ground station in Ibaraki prefecture.

Ariane
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Ariane vehicle L535, flight V175 was launched on Mar 11. The EPC first
stage entered a -1251 x 157 km x 7.2 deg suborbital path; the EPS upper
stage delivered the payloads to geostationary transfer orbit.

Payloads were Skynet 5A and Insat 4B.

Insat 4B is an ISRO communications satellite with C and Ku band
channels, and a dry mass of 1335 kg. Insat 4B was in a 261 x 35749 km
x 4.5 deg transfer orbit.

Skynet 5A is an EADS Astrium Eurostar 3000S communications satellite
with a dry mass of 2170 kg. It is owned and operated by Paradigm Secure
Communications to provide military comms for the UK Ministry of Defence
and NATO. The first Skynet satellite was deployed in 1969 as an
outgrowth of the US Initial Defense Satellite Communications System. By
Mar 14 Skynet 5A was in a 32876 x 35734 km x 0.19 deg.

Europe now has an extensive history of military communications satellites,
summarized below.

European GEO military communications
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Operator Satellite Launch End of life

UK MoD Skynet 1A 1969 Nov 28 1980s? IDCSP/A Philco/Palo Alto
UK MoD Skynet 1B 1970 Aug 19 Failed IDCSP/A Philco/Palo Alto
UK MoD Skynet 2A 1974 Jan 19 Failed Skynet II Marconi/Stevenage?
UK MoD Skynet 2B 1974 Nov 23 1990s? Skynet II Marconi/Stevenage?
UK MoD Skynet 4B 1988 Dec 10 1998 ECS Marconi/Stevenage
UK MoD Skynet 4A 1990 Jan 1 2005 ECS Marconi/Stevenage
UK MoD Skynet 4C 1990 Aug 30 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage
UK MoD Skynet 4D 1998 Jan 10 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage
UK MoD Skynet 4E 1999 Feb 26 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage
UK MoD Skynet 4F 2001 Feb 7 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage
Paradigm Skynet 5A 2007 Mar 11 Active E3000S Astrium/Stevenage

NATO NICS NATO IIA 1970 Mar 20 1984 IDCSP/A Philco/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IIB 1971 Feb 3 1984? IDCSP/A Philco/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IIIA 1976 Apr 22 1992 NATO-III Ford/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IIIB 1977 Jan 28 1993 NATO-III Ford/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IIIC 1978 Nov 19 1992 NATO-III Ford/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IIID 1984 Nov 13 2003 NATO-III Ford/Palo Alto
NATO NICS NATO IVA 1991 Jan 8 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage
NATO NICS NATO IVB 1993 Dec 8 Active ECS Marconi/Stevenage

France DGA Syracuse 1 1984 Aug 4 1992 ECS Matra/Toulouse
(on Telecom 1A)
France DGA Syracuse 1 1985 May 8 1988 ECS Matra/Toulouse
(on Telecom 1B)
France DGA Syracuse 1 1988 Mar 11 1996 ECS Matra/Toulouse
(on Telecom 1B)
France DGA Syracuse 2 1991 Dec 16 2005 ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Telecom 2A)
France DGA Syracuse 2 1992 Apr 15 2004 ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Telecom 2B)
France DGA Syracuse 2 1995 Dec 6 Active ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Telecom 2C)
France DGA Syracuse 2 1996 Aug 8 Active ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Telecom 2D)
France DGA Syracuse 3A 2005 Oct 13 Active SB4000 Alcatel Alenia/Cannes
France DGA Syracuse 3B 2006 Aug 11 Active SB4000 Alcatel Alenia/Cannes
Spain FAE Secomsat 1992 Sep 10 2003 ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Hispasat 1A)
Spain FAE Secomsat 1993 Jul 22 2006 ES2000 MMS/Toulouse
(on Hispasat 1B)
Hisdesat XTAR-EUR 2005 Feb 12 Active LS1300 Loral/Palo Alto
Hisdesat Spainsat 2006 Mar 11 Active LS1300 Loral/Palo Alto
Italy DNA Sicral 1A 2000 Feb 7 Active Italsat Alenia/Torino


Table of Recent Launches
-----------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jan 10 0416 Cartosat-2 ) PSLV Sriharikota LP1 Imaging 01B
SRE-1 ) Tech 01C
LAPAN Tubsat) Imaging 01A
Pehuensat ) Comms 01D
Jan 18 0212 Progress M-59 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 02A
Jan 30 2322 NSS 8 Zenit-3SL SL Odyssey, POR Comms F01
Feb 2 1628 Beidou 2A Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Navigation 03A
Feb 17 2301 THEMIS A ) Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17B Science 04A
THEMIS B ) Science 04B
THEMIS C ) Science 04C
THEMIS D ) Science 04D
THEMIS E ) Science 04E
Feb 24 0441 IGS Radar-2 ) H-2A 2024 Tanegashima YLP1 Radar 05A
IGS Optical-3V ) Imaging 05B
Mar 9 0310 STPSat-1 ) Atlas V 401 Canaveral SLC41 Tech 06D
Astro ) Tech 06A
NextSat ) Tech 06C
Midstar 1 ) Tech 06B
Falconsat-3) Tech/Sci 06E
CFESat ) Science 06F
MEPSI Picosat) Tech 06
MEPSI Picosat) Tech 06
Mar 11 2203 Skynet 5A ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 07A
Insat 4B ) Comms 07B

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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : |
| USA | |
| |
| JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
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