Jonathan's Space Report No. 821 2023 Jun 24 Somerville, MA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 69 continues. The Dragon CRS-28 cargo ship was launched from Kennedy Space Center at 1547 UTC Jun 5 docked with port IDA-3 on the ISS at 0954 UTC Jun 6. Two more IROSA solar arrays were in the trunk, and at least 6 cubesats were carried up in the cabin for future deployment. On Jun 7 the SPDM/SSRMS arms moved the IROSA package from the CRS-28 trunk to the MBS POA stowage location on the truss. On Jun 9 astronauts Bowen and Hoburg made spacewalk US EVA-87 from the Quest airlock to install the 1A IROSA array on the 1A mod kit structure attached to the S4 truss segment. The airlock was depressurized from 1320 to 1928 UTC and the hatch was open from 1324 to 1922 UTC. On Jun 15 Bowen and Hoburg, on US EVA-88, installed the second IROSA that came up on CRS-28, the 1B array, moving it from the IROSA FSE on the MBS POA to the 1B mod kit on the S6 truss. The airlock was depressurized from 1232 to 1818 UTC and the hatch was open from 1240 to 1814 UTC. On Jun 16 at 0627 UTC Progress MS-22, which is docked to Zvezda, fired its engines to reboost the ISS orbit by 2 km. On Jun 22 astronauts Petelin and Prokop'ev made spacewalk VKD-59 from the Poisk airlock. The airlock was depressurized from 1405 to 2052 UTC, and the hatch was open from 1424 to 2048 UTC. The Seismoprognoz experiment, launched on Progress M-21M in Nov 2013, was jettisoned from the Zvezda module at 1633 UTC. The SVPI data unit, launched on Progress M-08M in Oct 2010, was jettisoned from Zvezda at 1638 UTC. The TM/TS data unit, launched on Progress M-51 in Dec 2004, was jettisoned at 1647 UTC. The RSPI-M data unit, probably launched in May on Progress M-23, was installed on Zvezda at 1609 UTC. The Impakt experiment launched on Progress MS-03 in Jul 2016 and installed on Zvezda in Aug 2017 was retrieved and brought inside the airlock. Chinese Space Station --------------------- Fei, Deng and Zhang returned to Earth in Shenzhou 15 on Jun 3. They undocked at 1329 UTC and landed at 2233 UTC. The Shenzhou 16 crew of Jing, Zhu and Gui remain aboard the station. The Tianzhou-5 cargo ship docked with the Tianhe forward port at 1910 UTC Jun 5, after a month-long free flight. In mid-May (exact date unclear), a space radiation experiment was robotically installed on the station exterior after being extracted from the science airlock. Starlink --------- Starlink Group 6-3 (22 satellites) was launched on May 19 from Canaveral (I omitted this one last issue). Starlink Group 2-10 (52 satellites) was launched on May 31 from Vandenberg. Starlink Group 6-4 (22 satellites) was launched on Jun 4 from Canaveral. Starlink Group 5-11 (52 satellites) launched on Jun 12 from Canaveral. Starlink Group 5-7 (47 satellites) launched on Jun 22 from Vandenberg. Starlink Group 5-12 (56 satellites) launched on Jun 23 from Canaveral. Lijian-1 --------- The CAS Space Lijian-1 rocket made a successful secondflight on Jun 7 from Jiuquan, placing 26 satellites in a 491 x 512 km sun-sync orbit with 10:30 local time orbital plane. Only four of the satellites have been tentatively identified to date. Longjiang-3 ----------- EXPACE launched a KZ-1A on Jun 9 putting the Harbin Institute of Technology's Longjiang-3 satellite in orbit. Longjiang-3 is a test of a Starlink-like flat-panel communications satellite. SAST launches -------------- On Jun 15 SAST launched a CZ-2D from Jiuquan carrying 41 payloads, a record for a Chinese launch. The satellites are part of the Jilin-1 imaging constellation. In addition to eight further satellites in the Jilin-1 GF03D series, the first 30 satellites in the Jilin-1 GF06A series were launched. The GF06A sats appear to be an upgraded version of the GF03D optimized for rapid mass production. Two of these sats, GF06A 17 and 18, are also part of the Hong Kong-led Jin Zijing (Golden Bauhinia) constellation. Two sats in the Jilin-1 Pingtai 02A series carry a high res imager and laser comm intersatellite and ground-space links. They have an `independent business capability' to share satellite resources among different users. The experimental Huoerguosi-1 (or Khorgos-1) satellite was also aboard. It is a technical verification satellite for the next generation of Jilin-1 sats. On Jun 20 SAST launched a CZ-6 from Taiyuan carrying the Shiyan 25 satellite, which will test a new remote sensing instrument suite. It was launched to an unusually low 306 x 321 km sun-sync orbit with 10:30 local time of descending node. Transporter-8 -------------- SpaceX's Transporter-8 rideshare mission was launched on Jun 12 to sun-synch orbit. The satellites are: Imaging satellites: FOSSA Systems FEROX 1 to 4; Satlantis GEI-SAT Precursor, Satellogic Nusat-40 to 43; SatVu HOTSAT-1; GHOST-3; Runner-1; Dragonette-2; Unicorn-2I Radar satellites: Tomorrow-R2; ICEYE X23,X25,X26,X30; QPS-SAR-6 Sigint satellites: AII-Delta; MISR-A and B; MRC-100 Comm satellites: EIVE; SpaceBEE 168 to 179; XVI; TIGER-4; Blackjack Aces-1 to 4; MDQSAT-1C/1D; URESAT; Istanbul; Kelpie-2 ADS-B and GNSS-RO satellites: Lemur-2 Embrionovis, Lemur-2 Naziyah, Lemur-2 Aadam-Aliyah; Skykraft 3/3A to 3D Unknown satellites: Aryis-1 and 2, unknown owner Technology research: DROID.001; Musat-1; ABA First Runner; Gregoire; W-Series 1; Otter Pup; Outpost M1 Test and educational satellites: Pleiades Squared; Spei Satelles; SATTLA-2I; ROM-2 Tugs: D-Orbit ION SCV-011, Launcher Orbiter SN3 Some of these satellites remain aboard the tugs for later deployment. Otter Pup was ejected from Orbiter SN3 on Jun 12-13; the latter spacecraft failed to operate correctly and contact with it was lost on Jun 13. Outpost M1 was deployed from ION around Jun 19. The Alba Orbital deployers on ION ejected six PocketQubes on Jun 21 and 22. Satria ------ Indonesia's Satria Ka-band communications satellite was launched on a Falcon 9 on Jun 18 to supersynchronous transfer orbit. Delta 4H -------- United Launch Alliance launched a Delta 4 Heavy from Cape Canaveral on Jun 22. The launch for the US National Reconnaissance Office was designated NROL-68. The DCSS-5 upper stage made three burns to place a large Advanced ORION signals intelligence satellite, USA 345, in geosynchronous orbit. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 21 0800 Aomen Kexue 1A Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Science 69A? 453 x 497 x 41.0 Aomen Kexue 1B Science 69B? 453 x 496 x 41.0 Luojia-2 01 Radar 69C? 453 x 494 x 41.0 May 21 2137 Axiom Ax-2 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 70A 210 x 302 x 51.7 May 24 1256 Progress MS-23 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 71A 187 x 224 x 51.6 May 25 0924 NEXTSAT-2 Nuri Naro Tech 72A 540 x 550 x 97.5 Doyosaet 1 Sci/Ast 72 Doyosaet 2 Sci/Ast 72 Doyosaet 3 Sci/Ast 72 Doyosaet 4 Sci/Ast 72 LUMIR-T1 Tech 72 JAC Tech 72 KSAT3U Tech 72 May 25 1900? VIREO VR-6, LEO Tech 54AX May 26 0346 TROPICS 03 Electron Mahia LC1B Science 73A 538 x 556 x 32.7 TROPICS 07 Science 73B 539 x 555 x 32.7 May 26 2114 Kondor-FKA No. 1 Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Vostochniy PU1S Radar 74A 509 x 512 x 97.4 May 27 0430 Badr 8 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 75A 403 x 61203 x 27.8 May 29 0512 NVS-01 GSLV Mk II Satish Dhawan SLP Nav 76A 208 x 40040 x 19.3 May 30 0131 Shenzhou 16 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 77A 189 x 534 x 41.6 May 30 2127 Manligyeong-1 Cheonlima-1 Sohae LC2 Imaging F06 -5700? x 150? x 93? May 31 0602 Starlink Group 2-10 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 78A 222 x 333 x 70.0 Jun 4 1220 Starlink Group 6-4 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 79A 314 x 321 x 43.0 Jun 5 1547 Dragon CRS-28 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 80A 403 x 407 x 51.7 Jun 7 0410 Fucheng-1 Lijian-1 Jiuquan Radar 81 491 x 512 x 97.4 Shiyan-24A Tech 81 Shiyan-24B Tech 81 Xi'an Hangtou 8 Imaging? 81 Tianyi-26? Tech? 81 Xingshidai-16? Imaging 81 Jun 9 0235 Longjiang-3 Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Comms 82A 490 x 500 x 49.1 Jun 12 0710 Starlink Group 5-11 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 83 297 x 338 x 43.0 Jun 12 2135 Transporter 8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Tug 84 520 x 534 x 97.5 Jun 12 2350? Otter Pup Orbiter SN3, LEO Tech 84 Jun 15 0530 Jilin-1 GF03D-19 to 26 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 85 Jilin-1 GF06A 01 to 30 Imaging 85 Jilin-1 PT02A 01 to 02 Imaging 85 Huoerguosi-1 Imaging 85 Jun 18 2221 SATRIA Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 86A 545 x 51670 x 27.9 Jun 20 0318 Shiyan 25 Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Imaging 87A 306 x 321 x 96.6 Jun 20? Outpost M1 ION 11, LEO Tech 84 Jun 21 1050 Istanbul ION 11, LEO Tech 84 SATTLA-2I Tech 84 Unicorn-2I Imaging 84 Jun 22 0719 Starlink Group 5-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 88 228 x 334 x 43.0 Jun 22 0918 USA 345 Delta 4H Canaveral SLC37B Sigint 89A 35800 x 35800 x 0? Jun 22 1210 ROM-2 ION 11, LEO Tech 84 MRC-100 Tech 84 URESAT Tech 84 Jun 23 1535 Starlink Group 5-12 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 90 297 x 338 x 43.0 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- The first (intentionally) suborbital Electron mission flew on Jun 18. The suborbital Electron is called HASTE and this flight carried a MACH-TB/DYNAMO-A experiment built by Dynetics for the Naval Surface Warfare Center/Crane Division. Apogee of the flight was not announced. One ore more Trident 2 missile launches from a submarine off the coast of Florida were expected in mid-June, but so far there is no confirmation that they occurred. Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target May 22 0500 MAPHEUS 13 IM/IM Kiruna Micrograv 225 ESRANGE May 25? RV Kheibar Unknown, Iran Test 300? Iran? May 25 1623 Unity 25 Spaceship Two Elephant Butte P3 Spaceship 87 Spaceport America Jun 18 0125 DYNAMO-A HASTE Wallops I. LA0C Hypersonic 300?? Atlantic .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: https://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'