The Space Report ("JSR") is issued about twice a month. It describes all space launches, including both piloted missions and automated satellites. Back issues are available online. To receive the JSR each week by direct email, subscribe at http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr Feel free to reproduce the JSR as long as you're not doing it for profit. If you are doing so regularly, please inform Jonathan by email. Comments, suggestions, and corrections are encouraged. See here for translations to other languages.
You can mail Jonathan McDowell at planet4589 at gmail dot com.
JSR STOP PRESS - the draft of NEXT week's JSR, updated throughout the week.
GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE LOG with a catalog of all known satellites ever in the geosynchronous ring and their reasonably current positions.
LAUNCH LOG - My best attempt at a complete listing of all satellite launch attempts.
Jonathan's Space Home Page - with links to lots of other space data not available elsewhere.
SATELLITE CATALOG - My version of the Space Command satellite catalog, providing a cross reference between catalog number and international designation. Corrections are welcome.
Jonathan's Space Report No. 728 2016 Jul 12 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial Note -------------- This issue is coming out early and is centered on the discussion of the claimed Juno and Helios velocity records, which I decided needs a permanent URL sooner rather than later. International Space Station --------------------------- Soyuz MS-01 was launched on Jul 7 into a 181 x 239 km orbit; it docked with the ISS Rassvet module at 0406 UTC Jul 9. The Soyuz MS is a new variant of the ferry ship with upgraded onboard systems. Crew are Anatoliy Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kate Rubins (NASA). Juno ---- NASA's Juno probe entered Jupiter orbit on Jul 5. The probe's UK-built Leros-1b engine fired for 35min 2s starting at 0230 UTC, slowing the vehicle by 0.542 km/s to reach a 3900 x 8029000 km x 89.8 deg orbit around the giant planet. The engine-induced velocity change was, of course small compared to the velocity change caused by Jupiter's gravity as Juno passed through perijove, but enough that as it arced upwards again, it no longer had enough speed to escape the planet's pull - although it won't start falling back down again until Apojove 0 on around Jul 31. At 0000 UTC Juno had a velocity of 28.1 km/s relative to Jupiter at a height of 261000 km above the cloud tops. As it fell inward, by the start of the burn at 0230 UTC this had increased to 53.9 km/s at a mere 19000 km above the planet at 47 deg N latitude. Maximum jovicentric velocity, 57.95 km/s, was reached at 0248 UTC, with Juno only about 4400 km over the Jovian equator. By the end of the burn Juno's speed relative to Jupiter had dropped to 54.2 km/s. On Jul 12, a week after orbit insertion, Juno was travelling only 4.5 km/s relative to and away from the planet, at a distance of almost 5 million km from it. The almost 58 km/s perijove velocity appears to be the record speed at periapsis relative to the central body during an orbit insertion. As it happens, the probe's heliocentric velocity was almost the same, 59.3 km/s. Relative to Earth, the probe was travelling at 61.7 km/s. On its third perijove later this year (Aug 27) the velocity vectors of probe and Earth will be better aligned and although it will again be travelling at 58 km/s relative to Jupiter, relative to Earth it will be going 73.7 km/s according to NASA (the predicted trajectory on Horizons actually reaches 76 km/s), and this is the maximum expected geocentric velocity during the mission. Fastest ever? - Not so fast! ----------------------------- So, Juno is orbiting its host planet faster than any planetary orbiter ever. However, this is not, as some media outlets have reported, the fastest ever spacecraft relative to the Earth. The largest geocentric velocity reached by a spacecraft was 98.9 km/s, by Helios 2. The Helios 2 mission was a joint German-US probe to study the solar wind, placed in an elliptical solar orbit of about 0.28 x 1.0 AU. My media contacts tell me that JPL claims (I haven't heard from JPL directly) that the record was only 164000 mph - i.e. about 73 km/s - and was set in Apr 1976. It is true that the HELIOCENTRIC velocity record was set on 1976 Apr 16 by Helios 2, reaching a velocity of 68.6 km/s, beating the 66.1 km/s record of its sibling Helios 1. And it is true that on that day the geocentric velocity of Helios 2 was 73.4 km/s, the record quoted by NASA. But: you don't get the maximum geocentric velocity by taking the date of the maximum heliocentric velocity and converting that one to geocentric (which is what JPL seem to have done) - the +/- 30 km/s modulation caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun means that the heliocentric and geocentric velocities don't peak at the same time. For a fixed elliptical Keplerian orbit around the Sun, the maximum heliocentric velocity always occurs at perihelion and always has the same magnitude. The maximum geocentric velocity will happen when perihelion happens on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth, and since the orbital periods of probe and Earth are different, that will only happen once every many orbits. In Apr 1976 the Earth was moving almost at right angles to Helios 2, so the geocentric velocity was not much bigger than its heliocentric one. In contrast, on 1989 Jan 12 I calculate Helios 2 was close to perihelion and moving in the opposite direction to the Earth, so a similar heliocentric velocity translated to a much larger geocentric velocity of 98.9 km/s. Caveat: I have extrapolated the 1980 orbital solution without including any perturbations, so the date is almost certainly wrong, but the magnitude of the maximum velocity probably isn't far off. I hope that GSOC and JPL can do a better job. My results, which use orbital elements obtained from NASA/NSSDC in 1993, are in good agreement with the SPK kernels of L. Wennmacher (2011) available at naif.jpl.nasa.gov for the period when they overlap. But perhaps you don't want to count the 1989 Helios 2 record, because Helios 2 died in 1980. What is the maximum geocentric velocity of a working space probe? Helios 1 was still transmitting in 1985, and on 1980 Dec 5, it reached an impressive geocentric velocity of 96.2 km/s (215000 mph). Plots of the Helios 1 and 2 geocentric velocity versus time can be seen at http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/Helios1Vel.jpg and http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/Helios2Vel1.jpg http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/Helios2Vel.jpg So to summarize: Fastest geocentric velocity of human artifact: Helios 2, 1989 Jan 12?, 98.9 km/s Fastest geocentric velocity of active probe: Helios 1, 1980 Dec 5, 96.2 km/s Fastest planetocentric velocity of artifact in orbit around that planet: Juno, 2016 Aug 27 (expected), 57.7 km/s Fastest heliocentric velocity of (active or not) human artifact: Helios 2, 1976 Apr 16, 68.6 km/s A new record is expected to be set in Dec 2024 when NASA's Solar Probe Plus mission, scheduled for launch in 2018, will reach the perihelion of an 0.04 x 0.73 AU solar orbit travelling at a searing heliocentric velocity of 205.0 km/s and an even more remarkable geocentric velocity of 234.8 km/s (525000 mph for the metrically impaired). Supplement: sample Ecliptic1950 orbital elements for Helios 1 and 2 Helios 1 - Epoch 1980 Feb 24.00 0.310 x 0.985 AU i=0.006 Node=143.33 e=0.522 AOP=114.17 M=180.33 Helios 2 - Epoch 1980 May 12.73 0.291 x 0.986 AU i=0.029 Node=138.16 e=0.544 AOP=155.75 M= 0.00 MUOS 5 ------ The MUOS 5 spacecraft launched Jun 24 has had problems with its propulsion system and is currently parked in a 15242 x 35703 km x 9.8 deg intermediate geotransfer orbit. Erratum ------- The Claire (GHGSat-D) greenhouse gas research satellite was built by the Toronto UTIAS-SFL team, but is owned by the Montreal-based company GHGSat Inc. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes km km deg Jun 25 1200 DFFC ) Chang Zheng 7 Wenchang LC201 Reentry test 42 A08387 288 x 382 x 40.8 Aoxiang zhixing ) Tech 42B S41625 289 x 376 x 40.8 Aolong 1 ) Tech 42F S41629 198 x 367 x 40.8 Tiange feixingqi 1 ) Tech 42L S41636 277 x 289 x 40.8 Tiange feixingqi 2 ) Tech 42M S41637 277 x 287 x 40.8 ZGZ shiyan zhuangzhi) Tech 42A S41624 287 x 381 x 40.8 Jun 29 0321 Shi Jian 16-02 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Sigint? 43A S41634 596 x 616 x 75.0 Jul 7 0136 Soyuz MS-01 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 44A S41639 181 x 239 x 51.7 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Jul 1 0718 RV x 6? M51 S616, Baie d'Audierne Test 1000? North Atlantic .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
