Jonathan's Space Report
No. 808 draft 2022 Jun 28 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 67 continues with Oleg Artem'ev, Denis Matveev, Kjell
Lindgren, Robert Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti, and Jessica Watkins
aboard the ISS.
On Jun 28 (at about 0700 UTC?) the Canadarm-2 unberthed the Cygnus NG-17 freighter S.S. Piers Sellers.
The Sellers was released into orbit at 1107 UTC. It ejected the Los Alamos NACHOS-1 cubesat on
Jun 28 and was deorbited over the Pacific at about 0645 UTC Jun 29.
On Jul 2 about 2230 UTC the Canadarm-2 unberthed the Bishop Airlock
from the ISS and held it out facing opposite the ISS velocity vector.
Bishop then ejected a large trash bag at 0005 UTC Jul 3. Bishop
was reberthed on the Tranquility module around 0130 UTC Jul 3.
This was the first use of the Nanoracks Airlock Trash Deployer system,
brought up on Cygnus NG-17. Mass of the trash bag may be around 250 kg;
size is around 1.5m diameter.
CAPSTONE
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The CAPSTONE mission began on Jun 28 with the launch of a Rocket Lab Electron from Mahia.
The 12U spacecraft has a mass of 25 kg and will be used to validate navigation
in near-rectilinear lunar halo orbit. The mission is sponsored by NASA-Ames and carried out
by the company Advanced Space (Colorado); CAPSTONE was built by Tyvak.
At 1004 UTC Jun 28 the Electron second stage placed CAPSTONE in a 154 x
171 km x 39.1 deg Earth orbit, attached to a Photon Lunar stage.
Combined wet mass of CAPSTONE/Photon Lunar was around 300 kg, and Photon
Lunar is around 275 kg wet 55 kg dry. Photon Lunar is an enlarged
Electron kick stage and marks the first flight of the improved
HyperCurie rocket engine. At 1005 and 1045 UTC Photon made two burns to
raise the vehicle's orbit to 220 x 1075 km. On Jul 1 the orbit was
raised to 258 x 70215 km. On Jul4 at 0656 UTC the Photon made a further
416 m/s burn to reach a 264 x 1060200 km x 39.1 deg transfer orbit
towards Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 (SEL1). Photon and CAPSTONE separated at
0718 UTC.
[Late on Jul 4 some sources expressed concern at evidence that CAPSTONE
was not communicating with Earth. This has not been officially confirmed
as of this writing.]
SES-22
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SES-22 is a C-band cable TV distribution satellite for the western US, to be stationed
at 135W. The Thales Alenia Spacebus satellite has a launch mass of 3500 kg. It was
launched by Falcon 9 on Jun 29.
PSLV-C53
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India's PSLV flight C53 placed three satellites in orbit for Singapore.
DS-EO and NeuSAR are imaging and radar satellites for Singapore's
Defense Science and Technology Agency, in collaboration with ST
Electronics, and built by S Korea's SATRECI. SCOOB-1 is a 3U cubesat
from Nanyang Tech U. with a solar multi-band photometer. POEM (PSLV
Orbital Experimental Module) is a set of ISRO technology experiments
attached to the PSLV PS4 fourth stage, which has been supplied with
solar panels to turn it into an operational satellite.
WFOV
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ULA launched Atlas AV-094 on Jul 1. The Centaur stage made a three burn ascent
to a circular orbit a few hundred km above GEO. The main payload was
the WFOV Testbed, an experimental infrared missile early warning satellite
built by Boeing Millennium Space for the Space Force's Space Systems Command.
After WFOV was deployed an adapter was jettisoned, and finally the USSF 12 Ring
payload separated from the Centaur. USSF 12 Ring is an ESPA ring with solar
panels and a small propulsion system, carrying a set of secret experiments.
STP-S28A
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Virgin Orbit carried out a LauncherOne flight on Jul 2 carrying
payloads for the US Space Force's Space Test Program flight STP-S28A
and NASA's Elana 39 flight. The Boeing 747 carrier, Cosmic Girl, took
off from Mojave at 0549 UTC and flew out to the drop point at 120.8W
32.3N. Cosmic Girl dropped LauncherOne R6 at 0653:00 UTC; the two-stage
rocket reached a 170 x 500 km x 45 deg parking orbit at 0701 UTC; and at
0747 UTC the upper stage restarted to circularize the orbit at 492 x 498
km x 45.0 deg and released seven cubesats. The payloads are:
CTIM-FD, a Univ. of Colorado 6U satellite to measure total solar flux.
GPX-2, a NASA-LaRC 3U satellite to test commercial differential GPS receivers.
Recurve, an AFRL 12U satellite to demonstrate communications with a ground-based mesh communications network.
Slingshot-1, an Aerospace Corp 12U satellite to demonstrate use of internal ethernet to connect multiple
payloads on a spacecraft.
NACHOS-2, a Los Alamos 3U satellite to study trace atmospheric gases for volcanology and climate research.
MISR-B, a 6U US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) satellite for `Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance'.
Gunsmoke-L, a 6U Army SMDC tactical communications satellite.
PVSAT
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S Korea's PVSAT ejected its first cubesat passenger, STEP Cube Lab II for Chosun University, on Jun 29.
RANDEV, for KAIST, was ejected on Jun 30. SNUGLITE-2, for SNU, was ejected Jul 3.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Jun 2 0400 Geely Xingguo 01 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Comm/Nav 58A 600 x 617 x 50.0
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 02 xing ) Comm/Nav 58B
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 03 xing ) Comm/Nav 58C
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 04 xing ) Comm/Nav 58D
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 05 xing ) Comm/Nav 58E
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 06 xing ) Comm/Nav 58F
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 07 xing ) Comm/Nav 58G
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 08 xing ) Comm/Nav 58H
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 09 xing ) Comm/Nav 58J
Jun 3 0932 Progress MS-20 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur Cargo 59A 189 x 220 x 51.7
Jun 5 0244 Shenzhou 14 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 60A 194 x 321 x 41.5
Jun 8 2104 Nilesat 301 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 61A 313 x 44926 x 18.7
Jun 12 1743 TROPICS 1 Rocket 3.3 Canaveral LC46 Sci F03 -1250 x 532 x 29.5?
TROPICS 2 Sci F03 -1250 x 532 x 29.5?
Jun 17 1608 Starlink (Group 4-19) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 62 253 x 327 x 53.2
Jun 18 1419 SARah-1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Radar 63A 743 x 751 x 98.4
Jun 19 0427 Globalstar-2 FM19 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 64 1111 x 1125 x 52.0
USA 328 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 329 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 330 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 331 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
Jun 21 0700 Wiseong-mosache Nuri Naro Dummy 65A 694 x 708 x 98.0
PVSAT Tech 65B 695 x 704 x 98.0
Jun 22 0208 Tianxing-1 Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Sci 66A 275 x 290 x 96.8
Jun 22 2150 Measat-3D Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Comms 67 274 x 35814 x 6.0
GSAT-24 Comms 67 260 x 35739 x 6.0
Jun 23 0222 Yaogan 35 02 zu 01 xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Yaogan 35 02 zu 02 xing Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Yaogan 35 02 zu 03 xing Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Jun 27 1546 Gao Fen 12-03 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Radar? 69A 595 x 599 x 98.0
Jun 28 0955 CAPSTONE Electron Mahia LC1B Lunar probe 70A 220 x 1075 x 39.1
Jun 28 2020 NACHOS Cygnus NG17, LEO Sci 15D 399 x 409 x 51.6
Jun 29 0750 STEP Cube Lab II PVSAT, LEO Tech 65D 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jun 29 2104 SES-22 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 71A 310 x 35627 x 16.5
Jun 30 1232 DS-EO PSLV-CA Satish Dhawan SLP Imaging 72A
NeuSAR Radar 72
SCOOB-1 Solar phys 72
POEM Tech 72 533 x 567 x 9.9
Jun 30 2300? RANDEV PVSAT, LEO Tech 65D 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jul 1 2315 WFOV Atlas V 541 Canaveral LC41 Early Warn 73A 36106 x 36168 x 0.0
USSF 12 Ring Tech 73B 36167 x 36323 x 0.0
Jul 2 0653 CTIM-FD LauncherOne Cosmic Girl, Pacific Solar 74 492 x 498 x 45.0
GPX-2 Tech 74
Recurve Tech 74
Slingshot-1 Tech 74
NACHOS-2 Sci 74
Gunsmoke-L1 Comms 74
MISR-B Imaging? 74
Jul 3 0750? SNUGLITE-2 PVSAT, LEO Tech 65E 693 x 704 x 98.0
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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On Jun 26 Equatorial Launch Australia inaugurated use of their Arnhem Space Centre launch site
with a NASA launch of a Black Brant 9 carrying the Wisconsin XQC X-ray astronomy payload.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jun 4 1325 New Shepard NS PM4-4 W Texas Tourism 107 W Texas
Jun 6 1400 Agni RV Agni 4 Kalam I. Test 500? Indian Ocean
Jun 15 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 15 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 17 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 17 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 24 0935 RockOn Terrier Imp. Orion Wallops I Education 117 Atlantic
Jun 24? Dummy stage Zoljanah Semnan Test 500? Arabian Sea
Jun 26 0219 STORT VS-30/IO? Andoya Hypersonic 100? Norw. Sea
Jun 26 1429 XQC Black Brant 9 Arnhem X-ray Astron 327 N. Terr.
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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