Launch News SUCCESS: Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat (Vostochny) Kanopus-V #3 & 4 - Feb. 1, 2018 (02:07 UTC)

Nicholas Kang · Jan 31, 2018

SUCCESS: Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat (Vostochny) Kanopus-V #3 & 4 - Feb. 1, 2018 (02:07 UTC)

A Russian government-operated Soyuz will launch the Kanopus-V No. 3 and 4 Earth Observation Satellites into a Sun Synchronous Orbit from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s far east. This will be the third launch from Vostochny after the facility opened for business in 2016. Kanopus represents a constellation of small remote sensing spacecraft, operating alongside the large Resurs satellites that build Russia’s primary civilian Earth observation system, however, both Resurs and Kanopus have some overlap with the military. The Kanopus Satellites host three imaging payloads to capture high-resolution panchromatic images, multi-spectral and hyperspectral data.

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Launch date:

| January 31, 2018

Window open:

| 2:07 a.m. UTC

Window close:

| 2:45 a.m. UTC

Launch site:

| Vostochny LC-1S, Vostochny Cosmodrome, Oblast Amur, Russia, 676470

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Official Document

Launch coverage:

http://en.roscosmos.ru/317/ (Requires Java)

http://online.roscosmos.ru

Youtube launch broadcast should be available as well.

https://www.youtube.com/user/tvroscosmos/

Payload:

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RussianSpaceWeb provides an interesting 3D scale model view of the satellite. Enjoy!

Kanopus-V (Kanopus-Vulkan) is a small Russian remote sensing satellite.

Provision of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, Russian Academy of Sciences operational weather information for the following major tasks:

Monitoring of man-made and natural emergencies, including natural weather phenomena
Mapping
Detect pockets of forest fires and emissions of major pollutants in the environment
Registration abnormal physical phenomena for earthquake prediction
Monitoring of agriculture, water and coastal resources
Land use

The satellite was built by NPO VNII Elektromekhaniki, who subcontracted the avionics suite to SSTL.

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Specifications

Type / Application:|

Earth Observation

Operator:|

Roscosmos

Contractors:|

NPP VNIIEM

Equipment:|

PSS
MSS
MSU-200

Configuration:|

Kanopus bus

Dimensions:|

?

Propulsion:|

?

Power:|

2 deployable solar arrays
batteries

Lifetime:|

5 years

Mass:|

473 kg

Orbit:|

Sun-Synchronous Orbit

Kanopus-V features three prototype instruments:

PSS (Panchromatic Imaging System):
PSS is an instrument to provide panchromatic imagery for environmental monitoring, agriculture and forestry. It provides high resolution imagery of 2.5 m on a swath of 20 km. The spectral range is 0.5-0.8 µm.

Kanopus-V1 PSS image of La Savina, Balearic islands, Spain, acquired on 1 February 2017 (Image credit: NTs OMZ)

Kanopus-V1 PSS pansharpened image of Moscow, Russia, acquired on May 06, 2015 (Image credit: NTs OMZ)

MSS (Multispectral Imaging System):
MSS is an instrument to provide multispectral imagery of land and coastal surfaces and ice cover. It provides a spatial resolution of 12 m on a swath of 20 km. Four spectral bands are provided: 0.5-0.6 µm; 0.6-0.7 µm; 0.7-0.8 µm; 0.8-0.9 µm.

KANOPUS-V1 MSS image of Formentera Island, Balearic islands, Spain, acquired on 1 February 2017 (Image credit: NTs OMZ)
Legend for photo: The main island of Formentera is 19 km long and is located about 6 km south of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Main characteristics of the panchromatic and multispectral sensors

Spectral bands|

1

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4

Panchromatic|0.52-0.85 µm|

MS (Multispectral) bands||0.54-0.60, 0.63-0.69, 0.69-0.72, 0.75-0.86 µm

Focal length|

1797.5 mm

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359.5 mm

Relative hole|

1:10.3

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1:5.6

Transmittance|

0.7

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0.6-0.8

Matrix size, pixels|{colsp=2}

1920 x 985

Swath width (nadir)|

23.3 km

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20.1 km

GSD (Ground Sample Distance)|

2.1 m

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10.5 m

Data quantization|{colsp=2}

12 bit

MSU-200 (Multispectral Scanner Unit):
MSU-200 is an instrument to provide imagery of land and sea surfaces and ice cover. The spatial resolution is 25 m on a swath of 250 km. The spectral coverage is 0.54-0.86 µm.

Kanopus-V1 MSS image of Santiago de Chile observed on January 22, 2013 (Image credit: NTs OMZ)

Kanopus-V1 image of Nakhodka, Russia, observed on August 12, 2013, a combined image of PSS and MSS instruments (Image credit: NTs OMZ)

S-Net is a nanosatellite project of the Technical University of Berlin to investigate and demonstrate the inter-satellite communication technology within a distributed an autonomously operating nanosatellite network.

TU Berlin developed an S band transceiver (SLink) with 100 kbps crosslink and 1 Mbps downlink capability suitable for accommodation in nanosatellites.

Currently TU Berlin is developing a mission of four nanosatellites to verify the SLink payload and demonstrate intersatellite communication on a sophisticated level. An increasing numbers of communication entities participating in the network relates to a larger test bed for algorithm and verification. However for a nanosatellite based demonstration mission, four satellites present the best cost-benefit-ratio. Four entities enable six independent communication links while three satellites only make three links possible. Furthermore a multi-hop communication can only be realized with a number of at least four nodes.

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Specifications

Type / Application:|

Technology

Operator:|

TU Berlin

Contractors:|

TU Berlin

Equipment:|

SLink Payload

Propulsion:|

None

Power:|

Solar cells
batteries

Lifetime:|

1 year

Mass:|

8 kg

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Lemur-2 is the initial constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites built by Spire. These satellites carry two payloads for meteorology and ship traffic tracking.

The Lemur-2 satellites carry two payloads: STRATOS GPS radio occultation payload and the SENSE AIS payload.

The SENSE payload enables tracking ships worldwide by receiving their AIS signals. Spire satellites, which orbit close to Earth's atmosphere, listen for GPS satellite signals - which are impacted as they pass through Earth's atmosphere. Using a process called GPS radio occultation, Spire measures the change in GPS signal readings to calculate very precise profiles for temperature, pressure, and humidity here on Earth.

Spire announced a sencond generation series to be launched from 2018 onwards, which will also feature ADS-B payloads to track airplanes.

It is unknown, how many Lemur-2 satellites in total will be launched. The total number of Lemur satellites will be around 100, but these will be incremental updated and may feature different sensors.

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Specifications

Type / Application:|

Earth observation
Traffic monitoring

Operator:|

Spire

Contractors:|

Spire

Equipment:|

STRATOS (GPS radio occultation payload)
SENSE (AIS payload)

Propulsion:|

None

Power:|

Solar cells
batteries

Mass:|

4 kg

D-Star One is a 3U CubeSat designed and built by German Orbital Systems as a technology demonstration for their planned CubeSat communications constellation.

The satellite is equipped with two D-Star communication modules onboard. These modules will be fully dedicated to the amateur radio community. Subsequent satellites will have enhanced capabilities and address larger potential customer groups.

The satellite was launched on 28 November 2017 as a copassenger on a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M rocket, but was lost due to an upper stage problem.

A reflight under the designation D-Star One v.1.1 Phoenix is planned for 2018.

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Specifications

Type / Application:|

Communications

Operator:|

German Orbital Systems GmbH

Contractors:|

German Orbital Systems GmbH

Equipment:|

2 D-Star communication modules

Configuration:|

CubeSat (3U)

Propulsion:|

None

Power:|

Solar cells
batteries

Lifetime:|

1 year

Mass:|

4 kg

Launch Vehicle:

Soyuz 2-1A is the next-generation of the Russian workhorse Soyuz Launcher. It is nearly identical to previously flown Soyuz launchers, but features an upgraded Control System switching from analog to digital control system to make the Soyuz Launcher more flexible.

With its new digital control system, Soyuz 2-1A can perform more flexible Ascent Missions. The old Soyuz Launchers had to be rotated on their launch tables to the correct launch azimuth angle since their control system was not able to perform a Roll Maneuver early in the flight.

With the new digital control System, the launch table does not need to be rotated since the digital control system supports three-axis vehicle control from the point of liftoff. The digital controller also provides more stability during ascent, allowing the Soyuz to be outfitted with larger Payload Fairings enabling it to carry bigger payloads. The old Soyuz control system was unable to handle the instabilities caused by a larger fairing. In addition, the Soyuz 2 generation of vehicles provides a significantly higher injection accuracy that is important for direct-to-orbit flights.

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Specifications

Manufacturer:|

TSSKB-Progress

Height:|

46.1m/46.2m

Diameter:|

2.95m

Launch Mass:|

303,000kg

Mass to LEO:|

7,800 kg

Mass to GTO:|

3,150 kg

Mass to SSO:|

4,500 kg

The Soyuz-2 Vehicle stands 46.1 meters tall and has a main diameter of 2.95 meters and a span of 10.3 meters from booster fin to booster fin.

All stages of the vehicle use Rocket Propellant 1 (Rocket-Grade Kerosene) and Liquid Oxygen as propellants. Liftoff mass is about 303,000 Kilograms -. excluding payload and Fregat Upper Stage mass.

The 2-1A version of the Soyuz can deliver payloads of up to 7,800 Kilograms to Low Earth Orbit featuring a slightly improved performance over the previous Soyuz Vehicles, making it suitable for cargo flights to the Space Station with increased cargo upmass as well as future crewed missions when qualification of the vehicle is complete. With an appropriate Upper Stage like Fregat, Soyuz can reach a variety of orbits including Sun Synchronous, Medium Earth and Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

Flight Sequence/Launch Profile:

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Flight Sequence