Jonathan's Space Report
No. 842 2025 Feb 19 Somerville, MA
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Annual Report
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The 2024 annual report is available at https://planet4589.org/space/papers/space24.pdf
Latest corrected version is v1.4, if you downloaded an earlier version please replace it.
JSR Fundraiser
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The JSR Fundraiser at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-jonathans-space-report-library-transition
has now raised over $100K. I am profoundly moved and grateful for all your
support.
I am looking at several properties in the south of England as possible homes,
but nothing solid (or affordable) yet. I'll keep you all posted.
International Space Station
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Expedition 72 continues with Suni Williams (ISS commander), Barry Wilmore, Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner,
Don Pettit, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
US spacewalk EVA-92 on Jan 30, by Williams and Whitmore, saw the
successful retrieval of the failed S-band radio frequency group (RFG)
package.
Proba-3
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The Proba-3 occulter spacecraft separated from Proba-3 coronagraph at 2300 UTC on Jan 14.
CALT launches
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CALT launched a CZ-3B on Jan 23 with the military TJS 14 sat, mission unknown. It was placed in GEO at 18.3E.
CALT launched the first CZ-8A on Feb 11 with the second group of Hulianwang Weixing Digui low orbit
internet satellites.
SAST launches
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SAST launched a CZ-6A on Jan 23 with 18 more Qianfan internet satellites.
Starlink
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Starlink Group 11-6 (23 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Jan 24 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 12-7 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jan 27 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 11-4 (22 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Feb 3 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 12-3 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 4 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 12-9 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 8 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 11-10 (23 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Feb 11 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 12-18 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 11 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 12-8 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 15 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 10-12 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 18.
The Falcon 9 second stage from the Group 11-4 launch failed to deorbit and remained in low orbit
until its uncontrolled reentry on Feb 19 on a path from the Irish Sea to Poland and Ukraine.
A COPV tank from the stage survived reentry and crashed in Poznan.
Other Falcon 9 missions
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On Jan 30 SpaceX launched the Spainsat NG-1 military comms satellite for
Spain's Hisdesat to supersynch transfer orbit. By Feb 18 it was in a 25626 x 71267 km x 19.4 deg
orbit as the PPS-5000 electric propulsion system of the 6100 kg Airbus Eurostar-NEO satellite
slowly appreached GEO.
On Feb 4 SpaceX launched two further Maxar Legion imaging satellites to LEO.
ISRO
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ISRO launched GSLV Mk II flight F15 on Jan 29, placing the NVS-02 navigation satellite in geotransfer orbit.
However, the satellite's own propulsion system failed to work and NVS-02 wsa stranded in that initial orbit.
It will eventually make an uncontrolled reentry.
H3
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Japan's JAXA launched the QZS 6 (Michibiki 6) navigation sat on an H3
to geotransfer orbit on Feb 2. By Feb 13 it was on station in GEO at 90.5E.
RocketLab
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Five more Kineis IoT satellites were launched on an Electron from Mahia on Feb 8 to 0906 LTDN SSO.
BlackSky Global's first Gen3 satellite was launched on an Electron from Mahia on Feb 18.
Soyuz
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Russia launched three Defense Ministry satellites on a Soyuz-2-1v/Volga from Plesetsk on Feb 5 to 82
deg orbit.
New Glenn
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Tracking data from the Russian Vimpel network indicates the New Glenn
second stage may have fragmented upon passivation, with over 60 debris
objects tracked in its 2400 x 19000 km orbit. No objects have yet been
cataloged by US Space Force.
Blue Ghost
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Firefly's Blue Ghost entered a 150 x 5673 km lunar orbit on Feb 14 at 0150 UTC. On Feb 18
the orbit was lowered to around 100 x 150 km.
Resilience
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iSpace's Resilience lander made an 8400 km lunar flyby at 2243 UTC Feb 14.
Transporter 12
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Orbital data for the Transporter 12 objects is now available, but most of the objects
are not yet matched up with specific satellites.
Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Jan 15 0611 Blue Ghost 1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Lunar 10 189 x 322453 x 35.0
Resilience Lunar 10 176 x 362529 x 35.2
Jan 16 0703 DS-1/Blue Ring Pathfinder New Glenn Canaveral LC36 Tech 11A 2409 x 19224 x 30.0
Jan 16 2237 Ship 33 Starship Starbase Tech F01 -3170 x 146 x 26
Starlink Simulators 1-10
Jan 17 0407 PAK EO-1 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 12 516 x 528x 97.5
Tianlu-1 Rem.Sens.12
Lantan-1 Rem.Sens.12
Jan 20 1011 Yunyao-1 37 Gushenxing-1 Jiuquan Met 13 528 x 547 x 97.6
Yunyao-1 38 Met 13
Yunyao-1 39 Met 13
Yunyao-1 40 Met 13
Jitianxing A-05 xing Imaging 13
Jan 21 0524 Starlink Group 13-1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 14 305 x 312 x 43.0
USA 485 Unknown 14X
USA 486 Unknown 14Y
Jan 21 1545 Starlink Group 11-8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 15 269 x 277 x 53.2
Jan 23 0515 Qianfan Jigui 06 (1 to 18) Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 16
Jan 23 1532 TJS 14 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Sigint? 17A 189 x 35807 x 28.5
Jan 24 1407 Starlink Group 11-6 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 18 267 x 280 x 53.2
Jan 27 2205 Starlink Group 12-7 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 19 285 x 292 x 43.0
Jan 29 0053 NVS-02 GSLV Mk II Satish Dhawan SLP Nav 20A 164 x 37593 x 20.8
Jan 30 0134 Spainsat NG-1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 21A 472 x 68525 x 26.8
Feb 1 2302 Starlink Group 11-4 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 22A 278 x 293 x 51.6
Feb 2 0830 Michibiki 6 H3 Tanegashima Nav 23A 250 x 35225 x 21.5
Feb 4 1015 Starlink Group 12-3 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 24A 287 x 289 x 43.0
Feb 4 2313 Maxar Legion WV5 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Imaging 25A 699 x 706 x 45.1
Maxar Legion WV6 Imaging 25B 446 x 452 x 45.0
Feb 5 0359 Kosmos-2581 Soyuz-2-1V/Volga Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging? 26 576 x 594 x 82.0
Kosmos-2582 Imaging? 26
Kosmos-2583 Imaging? 26
Feb 8 1918 Starlink Group 12-9 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 27 284 x 291 x 43.0
Feb 8 2043 Kineis-2A Electron Mahia Comms 28E 636 x 652 x 98.0
Kineis-2B Comms 28G
Kineis-2C Comms 28B
Kineis-2D Comms 28C
Kineis-2E Comms 28D
Feb 11 0209 Starlink Group 11-10 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 29 275 x 288 x 53.2
Feb 11 0930 HWD 2-01 to 2-09 Chang Zheng 8A Wenchang LC201 Comms 30 860 x 871 x 50.0
Feb 11 1853 Starlink Group 12-18 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 31 285 x 292 x 43.0
Feb 15 0614 Starlink Group 12-8 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 32 285 x 291 x 43.0
Feb 18 2317 BlackSky Gen3 Electron Mahia LC1B Imaging 33A 466 x 476 x 59.0
Feb 18 2321 Starlink Group 10-12 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 34 273 x 284 x 53.2
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target
Jan 14 0015 HTB-2 T-T-Oriole Wallops I Target 200? Atlantic
Jan 24 1735 ORIGIN 1 Imp. Malemute Kiruna Atmosphere 100? ESRANGE
Feb 2 0707 GIRAFF 1 Black Brant 9 Poker Flat Auroral 200? Alaska
Feb 4 1600 NS-29 New Shepard West Texas Lunar grav sim 105 West Texas
Feb 9 0835 GIRAFF 2 Black Brant 9 Poker Flat Auroral 200? Alaska
Feb 19 0900 GT252 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Op.Test 1300? Kwajalein
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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