The orbital debris/failed satellite thread

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Update on Japan’s DSN-1 military communications satellite

 

 

Sources: Tarpaulin delays Japanese military communications satellite by two years

 

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TOKYO (Reuters) —  The launch of Japan’s first dedicated military communications satellite will be delayed by two years after a mishap with a blue tarpaulin damaged sensitive antennas during transportation to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, two government sources told Reuters.

 

The mishap has set back plans by Japan’s military to unify its fractured and overburdened communications network, and could hinder efforts to reinforce defenses in the East China Sea as Chinese military activity in the region escalates.

 

“When we need to shift units to the southwest and troops are moving down from the north, we need a stable communications link and this delay could affect that,” a senior Defense Ministry official said on condition he wasn’t identified because he isn’t authorized to talk to the media.

 

The satellite was damaged in a plane’s cargo hold on May 25 after a tarpaulin blocked valves used to equalize its container’s internal air pressure as it descended into thicker atmosphere when landing in French Guiana, according to an internal Japanese government document viewed by Reuters.

 

The document did not detail who was responsible for the mishap, or whether they suffered any consequences.

more at the link...

http://spacenews.com/sources-tarpaulin-delays-japanese-military-communications-satellite-by-two-years/

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Update on DMSP-F19

 

U.S. Air Force blames power failure for loss of DMSP-F19 weather satellite

 

The U.S. Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite System (DMSP) -19 satellite stopped accepting commands in February because of a power failure in the command and control subsystem. Credit: U.S. Air Force 

 

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WASHINGTON – A power failure affecting an encrypted command-and-control system on board the U.S. Air Force’s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight-19 spacecraft is to blame for the loss of the two-year-old weather satellite, the Air Force announced July 25. 

 

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Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and launched in April 2014, DMSP-F19 helped weather forecasters predict fog, thunderstorms and hurricanes that could have an impact on military operations. The spacecraft was the Air Force’s newest weather satellite on orbit and had a five-year design life.

 

“The satellite is not repairable and no further action will be taken to recover it,” the Air Force said in a July 25 press release announcing that its satellite anomaly resolution team had completed its investigation.

 

“The anomaly team determined there was a power failure with the command and control system affecting on board cryptographic equipment,” the Air Force said. “Due to this failure, commands are unable to reach the command processor. Both the A and B side of the command and control subsystem failed, eliminating the possibility of commanding via a back-up command path.”

 

While NOAA operators are unable to control DMSP-F19, the satellite remains in a “safe and stable configuration” and continues to provide some real-time tactical weather data. However, the quality of that data is expected to degrade as the satellite’s pointing accuracy degrades and will eventually become unusable.

http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-blames-power-failure-for-loss-of-dmsp-f19-weather-satellite/

 

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WorldView-2 Earth Imaging Satellite involved in Space Debris Event

 

Photo: Ball Aerospace

 

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The WorldView-2 satellite in operation by DigitalGlobe was involved in a “debris-causing” event on Tuesday liberating at least eight pieces of unknown size, the Joint Space Operations Center reported.

 

DigitalGlobe said the satellite remained operational after the event.

 

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The Joint Space Operations Center issued a notification on Tuesday, reporting that WorldView-2 was involved in a debris-causing event with at least eight associated pieces being tracked. No orbital data was available for the debris, however, JSpOC is including preliminary orbit information in conjunction screenings for operational satellites.

 

Satellite operator DigitalGlobe acknowledged the JSpOC report via Twitter and said “WorldView-2 is currently operational and is performing standard maneuvering and imaging tasks.”

 

A few hours later, DigitalGlobe shared a satellite image of Oakland, California, taken by WorldView-2 at 21:34 UTC on Tuesday, after the debris event had taken place – reaffirming that the operation of the spacecraft has not been impacted.

 

DigitalGlobe has begun an investigation into what happened to the satellite.

 

The fact that the spacecraft is operating nominally suggests that no critical systems were involved in the event. A possible source of the debris could be external insulation material such as portions of a blanket being liberated from the satellite.

 

WorldView-2 is currently being tracked in a 765 by 767-Kilometer orbit inclined 98.54 degrees and no obvious orbital change was seen associated with the debris event, suggesting whatever happened to the spacecraft was of a low-energy nature.

more at the link...

http://spaceflight101.com/worldview-2-earth-imaging-satellite-involved-in-space-debris-event/

[DocM]

The recently launched MUOS-5 military communications satellite is having trouble getting to GEO. Apogee engine difficulties.

 

https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/08/navys-new-muos-5-communications-satellite-hits-snag-in-space/
 

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

Laser-based removal of irregularly shaped space debris

 

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

 

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Siberia Home to New Russian Space Monitoring Complex

 

The Russian Space Monitoring System is intended to regulate and send information on the problems and threats coming from space, to keep a check on the smooth deployment and operation of domestic spacecraft and to calculate other risks like manmade space debris.

 

 

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Russia’s first space monitoring system begins working in Altai

 

The space monitoring system, first of the four to be made in Russia, began working in Altai at the Titov optical-laser center, director general of the Precision Instrumentation Systems Corporation, Yuri Roi, told reporters on Aug. 6.

 

"The order to put the complex on combat duty, which is most important not only for Russia, but for the entire world, has been signed," he said. "This is a space monitoring system. Russia will have four of them - in Kaliningrad, in the Far East and in Crimea, and the first one is ready now in Altai. It will be serviced jointly by the civil and the military, and this system may locate space apparatuses, fragments, nano satellites, space waste - everything which may be harmful for space apparatuses, including ISS (the International Space Station)," he said.

 

The new monitoring system is one of the three main facilities at the Altai optical-laser center, he continued. The first facility with a telescope, which allows viewing objects at the distance of 40,000 kilometers, was put operational in 2006. The second stage, where the optical telescope will have the main mirror of 3.12 meters in diameter, will be ready in 2017.

 

"Construction of the second stage was finalized last year, and now we finalize installation and launching of the unique telescope to receive pictures, which will be of very high resolution," the official said adding development of the technical parts of the Altai optical and laser center without prices of the infrastructures required investments of about three billion rubles (some $45.7 million).

 

TASS reported earlier, the Altai optical laser center makes high-precision measurements of distance and angular coordinates of space apparatuses to adjust their orbits. The Zmeinogorsk district in Altai was picked for this project as it has the biggest number in Russia of clear nights a year - about 160. The telescope of the second stage will be used for detailed pictures of low-orbit space apparatuses. Two similar centers are working in Russia now - not far from Moscow and not far from St. Petersburg.

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

NASA ‘hears’ from lost spacecraft after nearly two years

 

NASA

 

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NASA re-established contact with a wayward sun-watching science satellite Sunday nearly two years after the spacecraft suddenly dropped off line during a test, the agency said in a statement Monday.

 

NASA’s Deep Space Network, or DSN, “established a lock on the STEREO-B (spacecraft’s) downlink carrier at 6:27 p.m. EDT,” NASA said in a statement. “The downlink signal was monitored by the Mission Operations team over several hours to characterize the attitude of the spacecraft and then transmitter high voltage was powered down to save battery power.

 

“The STEREO Missions Operations team plans further recovery processes to assess observatory health, re-establish attitude control and evaluate all subsystems and instruments.”

 

Launched in 2006, the STEREO mission featured two spacecraft — STEREO-A and STEREO-B — designed to monitor solar activity from different locations, one “ahead” in its orbit and one “behind,” allowing scientists to see the entire star, not just the side facing Earth. The spacecraft were built and are managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

 

Years beyond the original two-year mission duration, the spacecraft reached positions in their orbit relative to the sun and Earth where they would be on the far side of the star and out of direct contact with Earth for up to three months.

 

Both spacecraft featured a “command loss timer” designed to force the flight computer to reboot if it didn’t hear from Earth over a three-day period. On the far side of the sun, the command loss timer would trigger repeated computer resets during the three months the spacecraft were out of contact with Earth.

 

more at....

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/08/23/nasa-hears-from-lost-spacecraft-after-nearly-two-years/

 

http://spaceflight101.com/stereo-b-solar-observatory-checks-in-after-nearly-two-years-of-silence/

 

You may catch it on the DSN

https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

 

/s   The last transmission was something about veeger and a whale?     

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Images from European satellite reveal possible impact with space junk

 

The picture shows Sentinel 1A’s solar array before and after the impact of a millimeter-size particle on the second panel. The damaged area has a diameter of about 40 centimeters (16 inches), which is consistent on this structure with the impact of a fragment of less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) in size. Credit: ESA

 

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A minuscule particle of orbital debris or a pebble of space rock struck Europe’s Sentinel 1A radar imaging satellite Aug. 23, officials said Wednesday, leaving an imprint nearly twice the size of a basketball on one of the spacecraft’s solar panels.

 

The high-speed impact caused no major problems for the Earth observation satellite, which continues to operate normally. But ground controllers noticed a “sudden” small reduction in the power generated by one of Sentinel 1A’s solar arrays at 1707 GMT (1:07 p.m. EDT) Aug. 23, along with slight changes in the orbit and orientation of the spacecraft sailing in orbit 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth, the European Space Agency said in a press release.

 

Engineers suspected the culprit was an impact by a piece of space junk or a micrometeoroid.

 

“Such hits, caused by particles of millimeter (.04 inch) size, are not unexpected,” said Holger Krag, head of the space debris office at ESA’s establishment in Darmstadt, Germany. “These very small objects are not trackable from the ground, because only objects greater than about 5 centimeters (2 inches) can usually be tracked and, thus, avoided by maneuvering the satellites.”

 

Components of the International Space Station have suffered impacts from space junk before, and space shuttles that returned to Earth sometimes came home with scars from orbital debris. An Iridium communications satellite collided with a defunct Soviet-era military spacecraft in 2009, destroying both platforms in a shower of debris.

 

What is unusual is Sentinel 1A’s ability to conduct a self-inspection.

 

The satellite carries on-board cameras pointed at its solar wings. Engineers used the cameras to monitor the extension of the satellite’s solar arrays after its launch in April 2014, a deployment more complicated than normal because Sentinel 1A carries a large C-band radar array.

 

The cameras were switched off soon after the solar panels deployed, but controllers turned the devices back on to investigate the cause of the power loss. They found evidence of an impact on the second segment of one of the craft’s two solar array wings.

 

“In this case, assuming the change in attitude and the orbit of the satellite at impact, the typical speed of such a fragment, plus additional parameters, our first estimates indicate that the size of the particle was of a few millimeters (approximately 0.2 inches or less),” Krag said in a statement.

 

Experts are not sure of the origin of the particle.

 

“Analysis continues to obtain indications on whether the origin of the object was natural or man-made,” Krag said. “The pictures of the affected area show a diameter of roughly 40 centimeters (16 inches) created on the solar array structure, confirming an impact from the back side, as suggested by the satellite’s attitude rate readings.”

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/08/31/images-from-european-satellite-reveal-possible-impact-with-space-junk/

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Wow. Took out that whole panel.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Another U.S. Air Force weather satellite just broke up in orbit

 

A rendering of a DMSP Block 5D weather satellite. Credit: USAF/SpaceNews

 

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WASHINGTON — A third U.S. Air Force weather satellite that launched more than 20 years ago has broken up in orbit, Air Force Space Command disclosed Monday evening.

 

Air Force officials confirmed the breakup of the long-retired Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 12 satellite (DMSP F-12) after the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, detected an additional object orbiting alongside the 22-year-old satellite.

 

DMSP F-12, which the Air Force retired from service in 2008, had the same battery assembly that was implicated in the February 2015 breakup of DMSP F-13.

 

While both satellites were built by Lockheed Martin and launched less than a year apart, DMSP F-13 was still in service when it suffered its breakup, producing nearly 150 pieces of debris.

 

DMSP F-12, in contrast, was shut down in 2008 — a process that entails burning off the satellite’s remaining fuel, releasing compressed gasses, and discharging the battery. The Air Force said Monday evening it was tracking just one piece of debris associated with DMSP F-12’s breakup.

 

Properly shutting down a DMSP satellite at the end of its service life is no guarantee that it won’t suffer a catastrophic breakup, however. In 2004,  a 13-year-old DMSP spacecraft, dubbed DMSP-F11, broke apart and  produced 56 pieces of cataloged space debris, even though it had been taken out of service and gone through the normal end-of-life showdown procedures.

 

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The Air Force still has five DMSP satellites in service. The youngest, DMSP F-18, was launched in 2009. The oldest, DMSP F-14, was launched in 1997.

http://spacenews.com/another-u-s-air-force-weather-satellite-just-broke-up-in-orbit/

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Wow. Looks like a design flaw in the batteries that causes explosions at old age. Oof. All the more reason to have a de-orbiting platform on birds to bring 'em down at retirement.