OrbitalHub

Ergo dixit:

The NRO satellites are operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO missions are generally classified, so their exact purposes and orbital elements are not available to the public.

Wikipedia dixit:

“The Atlas V was developed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services as part of the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and made its inaugural flight on August 21, 2002. The vehicle operates out of Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Space Launch Complex 3-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services continues to market the Atlas V to commercial customers worldwide.

The Atlas V first stage, the Common Core Booster (CCB), is 12.5 ft (3.8 m) in diameter and 106.6 ft (32.5 m) in length. It is powered by a single Russian RD-180 main engine burning 627,105 lb (284,450 kg) of liquid oxygen and RP-1. The booster operates for about four minutes, providing about 4 meganewtons (860,000 lbf) of thrust. Thrust can be augmented with up to five Aerojet strap-on solid rocket boosters, each providing an additional 1.27 meganewtons (285,500 lbf) of thrust for 94 seconds. The Atlas V is the newest member of the Atlas family. Compared to the Atlas III vehicle, there are numerous changes. Compared to the Atlas II, the first stage is a near-redesign. There was no Atlas IV. The “1.5 staging” technique was dropped on the Atlas III, although the same RD-180 engine is used. The RD-180 features a dual-combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture. The main-stage diameter increased from 10 feet to 12.5 feet. As with the Atlas III, the different mixture ratio of the engine called for a larger oxygen tank (relative to the fuel tank) compared to Western engines and stages. The first stage tanks no longer use stainless steel monocoque “balloon” construction. The tanks are isogrid aluminum and are structurally stable when unpressurized. Use of aluminum, with a higher thermal conductivity than stainless steel, requires insulation for the liquid oxygen. The tanks are covered in a polyurethane-based layer. Accommodation points for parallel stages, both smaller solids and identical liquids, are built into first stage structures.

The Centaur upper stage uses a pressure stabilized propellant tank design and cryogenic propellants. The Centaur stage for Atlas V is stretched 5.5 ft (1.68 m) relative to the Atlas IIAS Centaur and is powered by either one or two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A-4-2 engines, each engine developing a thrust of 99.2 kN (22,300 lbf). The inertial navigation unit (INU) located on the Centaur provides guidance and navigation for both the Atlas and Centaur, and controls both Atlas and Centaur tank pressures and propellant use. The Centaur engines are capable of multiple in-space starts, making possible insertion into low Earth parking orbit, followed by a coast period and then insertion into GTO. A subsequent third burn following a multi-hour coast can permit direct injection of payloads into geostationary orbit. As of 2006, the Centaur vehicle had the highest proportion of burnable propellant relative to total mass of any modern hydrogen upper stage and hence can deliver substantial payloads to a high energy state.

The standard payload fairing sizes are 4 or 5 meters in diameter. The 4.2-meter fairing, originally designed for the Atlas II booster, comes in three different lengths, the original 9-meter high version, as well as fairings 10 meters (first flown on the AV-008/Astra 1KR launch) and 11 meters (seen on the AV-004/Inmarsat-4 F1 launch) high. Lockheed Martin had the 5.4-meter (4.57 meters usable) payload fairing for the Atlas V developed and built by RUAG Space (former Oerlikon Space) in Switzerland. The RUAG fairing uses carbon fiber composite construction, based on flight-proven hardware from the Ariane 5. Three configurations will be manufactured to support the Atlas V. The short (10-meter long) and medium (13-meter long) configurations will be used on the Atlas V 500 series. The 16-meter long configuration would be used on the Atlas V Heavy. The classic fairing covers only the payload, leaving the Centaur stage exposed to open air. The RUAG fairing encloses the Centaur stage as well as the payload.”

Video credit: United Launch Alliance

NASA dixit:

“The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on July 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the Expedition 48 and 49 crew aboard the International Space Station. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon reached its preliminary orbit, deployed its solar arrays and began a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to begin its two-day journey to the station. […]

On July 20, two days after launching from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida , the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the station’s Expedition 48 and 49 crews. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams used the station’s robotic arm, which he controlled from the station’s cupola, to capture the Dragon. Ground controllers in Houston then sent commands instructing the robot arm to install Dragon on the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module. During the next five weeks, crew members will unload the spacecraft and reload it with cargo to return to Earth. About five-and-a-half hours after it departs the station Aug. 29, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.”

Video credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“Expedition 48-49 Soyuz Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched on the Russian Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft July 7 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station and the start of a four-month mission.”

De Soyuz MS Wikipedia dixit:

“The Soyuz-MS (Союз МС) is the latest (and probably last) revision of the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. It is an evolution of the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, with modernization mostly concentrated on the communications and navigation subsystems. It is used by the Russian Federal Space Agency for human spaceflight. Soyuz-MS has minimal external changes with respect to the Soyuz TMA-M, mostly limited to antennas and sensors, as well as the thrusters placement.

The Soyuz MS received the following upgrades with respect to the Soyuz TMA-M:

The power supply system SEP (Russian: CЭП, Система Электропитания) still uses fixed solar panels. But photovoltaic cells efficiency was improved to 14% (from 12%) and collective area was increased 1.1 m2 (12 sq ft).

A fifth 906V battery with 155 Ampere-hour capacity was added to support the increased energy consumption from the improved electronics.

Additional micro meteoroid protection was added to the BO orbital module.

New computer (TsVM-101), weighs one-eighth that of its predecessor (8.3 kg vs. 70 kg) while also being much smaller than the previous Argon-16 computer.

While as of July 2016 it is not know if the propulsion system is still called KTDU-80, it has been significantly modified. While previously the system had 16 high thrust DPO-B and six low thrust DPO-M in one propellant supply circuit and six other low thrust DPO-M on a different circuit, now all 28 thrusters are high thrust DPO-B, arranged in 14 pairs. Each propellant supply circuit handles 14 DPO-B, with each element of each thruster pair being fed by a different circuit. This provides full fault tolerance for thruster or propellant circuit failure. The new arrangement adds fault tolerance for docking and undocking with one failed thruster or de-orbit with two failed thrusters. Also, the number of DPO-B in the aft section has been doubled to eight, improving the de-orbit fault tolerance.

The propellant consumption signal, EFIR was redesigned to avoid false positives on propellant consumption.

The avionics unit, BA DPO (Russian: БА ДПО, Блоки Автоматики лодсистема Двигателей Причаливания и Ориентации), had to be modified for all this changes in the RCS.

Instead of relying on ground stations for orbital determination and correction, the now included Satellite Navigation System ASN-K (Russian: (АСН-К, Аппаратуру Спутниковой Навигации) relying on GLONASS and GPS signals for navigation. It uses four fixed antennas to achieve a positioning accuracy of 5 m (16 ft), with the objective to reduce that number to as little as 3 cm (1.2 in) and an attitude accuracy of 0.5°.

The old radio command system, the BRTS (Russian: БРТС Бортовая Радио-текхническая Система) that relied on the Kvant-V was replaced with an integrated communications and telemetry system, EKTS (Russian: ЕКТС, Единой Kомандно-Телеметрической Системы). It can use not only the VHF and UHF ground stations but thanks to the addition of an S band antenna, the Lutch Constellation as well, to have theoretical 85% of real time connection to ground control. But since the S band antenna is fixed and Soyuz spacecraft cruises in a slow longitudinal rotation, in practice this capability might be limited due to lack of antenna pointing capability. It may also be able to use the American TDRS and the European EDRS in the future.

The old information and telemetry system MBITS (Russian: МБИТС, МалогаБаритная Информационно-Телеметрическая Система) has been fully integrated into the EKTS.

The old VHF radio communication system (Russian: Система Телефонно-Телеграфной Связи) Rassvet-M (Russian: Рассвет-М) was replaced withe the Rassvet-3BM (Russian: Рассвет-3БМ) system that has been integrated into the EKTS.

The old 38G6 antennas are replaced with four omnidirectional antenna (two on the solar panels tips and two in the PAO) plus one S band phased array, also in the PAO.

The descent module communication and telemetry system also received upgrades that will lead to eventually having a voice channel in addition to the present telemetry.

The EKTS system also includes a COSPAS-SARSAT transponder to transmit it’s coordinates to ground control in real time during parachute fall and landing.

All the changes introduced with the EKTS enable the Soyuz to use the same ground segment terminals as the Russian Segment of the ISS.

The new Kurs-NA (Russian: Курс-НА) automatic docking system is now made indigenously in Russia. Developed by Sergei Medvedev of AO NII TP, it is claimed to be 25 kg (55 lb) lighter, use 30% less voluminous and 25% less power. An AO-753A phased array antenna replaced the 2AO-VKA antenna and three AKR-VKA antennas, while the two 2ASF-M-VKA antenna were moved to fixed positions further back.

The docking system received a backup electric driving mechanism.

Instead of the analog TV system Klest-M (Russian: Клест-М), the spacecraft uses a digital TV system based on MPEG-2, which makes it possible to maintain communications between the spacecraft and the station via a space-to-space RF link and reduces interferences.

A new Digital Backup Loop Control Unit, BURK (Russian: БУРК, Блок Управления Резервным Контуром), developed by RSC Energia, replaced the old avionics, the Motion and Orientation Control Unit, BUPO (Russian: БУПО, Блока Управления Причаливанием и Ориентацией) and the signal conversion unit BPS (Russian: БПС, блока преобразования сигналов).

The upgrade also replaces the old Rate Sensor Unit BDUS-3M (Russian: БДУС-3М, блок датчиков угловых скоростей) with the new BDUS-3A (Russian: БДУС-3А).

The the old halogen headlights, SMI-4 (Russian: СМИ-4), have been replaced with the LED powered headlight SFOK (Russian: СФОК).

A new black box SZI-M (Russian: СЗИ-М, Система запоминания информации) that records voice and data during the mission was added under the pilot’s seat in the descent module. The dual unit module was developed at AO RKS corporation in Moscow with the use of indigenous electronics. It has a capacity of 4GB and a recording speed of 256Kilobyte/s. It is designed to tolerate falls of 150 m/s (490 ft/s) and is rated for 100,000 overwrite cycles and 10 reuses. It can also tolerate 700 °C (1,292 °F) for 30 minutes.”

Video credit: NASA/Roscosmos

ULA dixit:

“The most powerful version of the Atlas V available launched […] from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The nearly 63 meter tall rocket with Russian powered RD 180 engine and five solid rocket motors boosted the Mobile User Objective System 5 (MUOS-5) satellite into orbit for the US Navy. MUOS provides vital communications and connectivity to armed forces around the globe. This was the fifth and final MUOS satellite to complete the first generation fleet.”

Wikipedia dixit:

“The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) is an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) (300 MHz to 3 GHz frequency range) SATCOM system, primarily serving the United States Department of Defense (DoD). International allies use is under consideration. The MUOS will replace the legacy UHF Follow-On (UFO) system before that system reaches its end of life to provide users with new capabilities and enhanced mobility, access, capacity, and quality of service. Intended primarily for mobile users (e.g. aerial and maritime platforms, ground vehicles, and dismounted soldiers), MUOS will extend users’ voice, data, and video communications beyond their lines-of-sight.

MUOS is an array of geosynchronous satellites that will provide global satellite communications (SATCOM) narrowband connectivity for communications use by the United States at data rates up to 384kbit/s. The program will deliver five satellites, four ground stations, and a terrestrial transport network at a cost of $7.34 billion USD.

The Navy’s Communications Satellite Program Office (PMW 146) of the Program Executive Office (PEO) for Space Systems in San Diego is lead developer for the MUOS Program. Lockheed Martin is the Prime System Contractor and satellite designer for MUOS under U.S Navy Contract N00039-04-C-2009, which was announced September 24, 2004. Key subcontractors include General Dynamics Mission Systems (Ground Transport architecture), Boeing (Legacy UFO and portions of the WCDMA payload) and Harris (deployable mesh reflectors).

The MUOS operates as a global cellular service provider to support the war fighter with modern cell phone-like capabilities, such as multimedia. It converts a commercial third generation (3G) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular phone system to a military UHF SATCOM radio system using geosynchronous satellites in place of cell towers. By operating in the UHF frequency band, a lower frequency band than that used by conventional terrestrial cellular networks, the MUOS provides warfighters with the tactical ability to communicate in “disadvantaged” environments, such as heavily forested regions where higher frequency signals would be unacceptably attenuated by the forest canopy. The MUOS constellation will consist of four operational satellites and one on-orbit spare. MUOS will provide military point-to-point and netted communication users with precedence-based and pre-emptive access to voice, data, video, or a mixture of voice and data services that span the globe. Connections may be set up on demand by users in the field, within seconds, and then released just as easily, freeing resources for other users. In alignment with more traditional military communications methods, pre-planned networks can also be established either permanently or per specific schedule using the MUOS’ ground-based Network Management Center.

In addition to the cellular MUOS WCDMA payload, a fully capable and separate UFO legacy payload is incorporated into each satellite. The “Legacy” payload extends the useful life of legacy UHF SATCOM terminals and enables a smoother transition to MUOS.”

Video credit: ULA

Ego dixit:

“On April 28th 2016, a Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from Vostochny (Восточный) with three satellites: Lomonosov (Ломоносов), AIST-2D (Аист-2Д), and SamSat-218. This was the first launch from Vostochny. Construction of the cosmodrome began in January 2011 and it is expected to be completed in 2018.”

Wikipedia dixit:

“Vostochny (which means “eastern” in Russian) is in the Svobodny and Shimanovsk districts of Amur Oblast in the Russian Far East, on the watershed of the Zeya and Bolshaya Pyora rivers, approximately 600–800 km (370–500 mi) from the Pacific Ocean, depending on launch azimuth. The planned total area is 551.5 km2, being a region approximately 30 km in diameter centred on 51°53′N 128°20′E. The nearby train station is Ledyanaya and the nearest city is Tsiolkovsky. The cosmodrome’s latitude, 51° north, means that rockets will be able to carry almost the same amount of payload as they can when launched from Baikonur at 46°N. Other arguments for choosing this location include the ability to use sparsely populated areas and bodies of water for the rocket launch routes; proximity to major transportation networks such as the Baikal–Amur Mainline, the Chita–Khabarovsk Highway; abundance of electricity production resources in the area; and the infrastructure supporting the former Svobodny Cosmodrome, on which the new spaceport will be based. The site’s location in the Russian far eastern region allows for easier transport of materials to the site, and allows rockets to jettison their lower stages over the ocean. It was expanded as part of the plan of modernization of the supporting infrastructure. Putin said that among places offered was an area on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, near Vladivostok, but that experts recommended not to locate it there since the proximity to the ocean can create problems and delays in launches, and as a result the current place was chosen.

The new cosmodrome is to enable Russia to launch most missions from its own land, and to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Currently, Baikonur is the only launch site operated by Russia with the capability to launch crewed missions to ISS or elsewhere. The Russian government pays a yearly rent of $115 million to Kazakhstan for its usage. Satellites bound for geostationary orbit and high inclination orbits can be currently launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia. The new site is intended mostly for civilian launches. Roscosmos plans to move 45% of Russia’s space launches to Vostochny by 2020, while Baikonur’s share will drop from 65% to 11%, and Plesetsk will account for 44 percent. In a draft strategy, which was presented at a meeting of the club of friends of the cluster space technology and telecommunications fund “Skolkovo” and published in the official fund microblog on Twitter said that in 2011 the share of space launches from Russia’s territory stands at 25% today and by 2030 this figure will stand on 90%.”

Video credit: Roscosmos

SpaceX dixit:

“SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon spacecraft to low Earth orbit to deliver critical cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. SpaceX is targeting an afternoon launch of its eighth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-8) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The instantaneous launch window opens on April 8th at 8:43pm UTC, and a backup launch window opens at 8:20pm UTC on April 9th. Dragon will be deployed about 10 minutes after liftoff and attach to the ISS about two days after launch. Following stage separation, the first stage of the Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Video credit: SpaceX