[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 818
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.com
Sun Apr 16 10:49:52 EDT 2023
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 818 2023 Apr 16 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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On Mar 17 the Japanese RMS arm was used to move NASA's
temporarily-retired GEDI Earth observing experiment from slot EFU6 to
EFU7 on the Kibo Exposed Facility, freeing up a slot for STP-H9.
On Mar 19 STP-H9 was moved from the Dragon CRS-27 trunk to Kibo-EF EFU6.
On Mar 27 spacesuit EMU 3003 was unloaded from the recently arrived
Dragon CRS-27 cargo ship. EMU 3003 previously was on ISS from 2014 to
2019 and was returned to Earth for refurbishment. Its first flight was
aboard STS-77 in 1996.
On Mar 28 Soyuz MS-22, with damaged cooling system, was returned to
Earth without a crew. It undocked from Rassvet at 0957:27 UTC, fired its
deorbit engines at 1051:11, jettisoned the orbital and propulsion
modules at 1119:18 UTC, reentered at 1122 UTC and landed successfully in
Kazakhstan at 1145:58 UTC. It was reported that if a crew had been
aboard, temperatures in the cabin might have risen to 50 deg C.
Expedition 68 concluded, and Expedition 69 began, with the undocking of Soyuz MS-22,
On Mar 30 at 1603 UTC Cygnus NG-18 carried out a 0.9m/s reboost of the ISS.
On Apr 6 Soyuz MS-23 was flown fromn the Poisk module to the Prichal
module. Prokop'ev, Petelin and Rubio undocked from Poisk at 0845 UTC and
docked with Prichal at 0921 UTC.
On Apr 15 at 1505 UTC the Dragon CRS-27 cargo ship undocked from IDA-2. It landed
in the Gulf of Mexico near 28.1N 83.9W (Tampa recovery area) at 2058 UTC.
The trunk was jettisoned into orbit.
Chinese Space Station
---------------------
Astronauts Fei and Zhang carried out another secretive spacewalk (which
I label ZR4 EVA-3) on Mar 30, and possibly a further one (ZR4 EVA-4) on
Apr 15. In each case, the start time and duration were not revealed.
Hakuto-R
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The iSpace company reports that its Hakuto-R M1 probe has entered a 100 x 2300 km lunar
orbit, but the orbital inclination has not been made public. On Apr 13 the probe
maneuvered to a 100 x 100 km orbit.
Tianmu
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EXPACE launched a Kuiazhou-1A from Jiuquan on Mar 22 and placed four Tianmu-1 satellites in
polar orbit. The Tianmu-1 system is used for GNSS radio occultation meteorology.
Terran 1
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Relativity Space launched their Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral on
Mar 23. The rocket had a successful first stage flight but the second
stage failed to ignite and the vehicle fell in the Atlantic. This was
the second methalox rocket to reach space.
Bars-M
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On Mar 23 Russia launched the fourth Bars-M military cartography satellite, cover name Kosmos-2567.
Electron 35
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Rocket Lab's 35th Electron mission placed two BlackSky Global imaging satellites in orbit.
Starlink
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Group 5-5, with 56 satellites, was launched from Canaveral on Mar 24 to a 43 degree orbit.
Group 5-10, with 56 satellites, was launched from Canaveral on Mar 29 to a 43 degree orbit.
OneWeb
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Launch 18 (India-2), on Mar 26, placed 36 OneWeb satellites in orbit, giving the company enough satellites
to start global service. The LVM3 rocket's second stage remains in orbit.
'Ofeq-13
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Israel launched the 'Ofeq-13 spy satellite from Palmachim on Mar 28. It is thought to be in
a retrograde orbit with inclination around 140 deg, but no hobbyist observations have been
reported yet and the US tracking data is secret.
EO-MKA
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Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1v rocket on Mar 29 carrying a small satellite to sun-sync orbit.
It is thought to be in the EO-MKA series and may be an imaging satellite.
SAST launches
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Four radar imaging satellites were launched for the Hangtian Hongtu company on Mar 30 on a CZ-2D.
The Yaogan 34-04 satellite was launched on Mar 31 by a CZ-4C .
Fengyun 3 07 xing, or FY-3G, was launched on Apr 16 by a CZ-4B. The
satellite has a different mission from the other FY-3 weather satellites
and is dedicated to rainfall studies. It carries a precipitation radar,
a GNSS-RO sounder, a spectral imager, a microwave imager, a radiometric
calibrator, and an IR polarized multi-angle imager.
Tianlong 2
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The Beijing company Tianbing Keji (Space Pioneer) launched its first orbital mission
on Apr 2. The three stage Tianlong-2 rocket has two kerolox stages and one N2O4/MMH upper
stage. The fact that it shares the 3.35m diameter of the Long March 2 and its descendants
indicate some technology heritage from that CALT/SAST family of rockets.
The rocket placed a 4U cubesat for Hantian Hangsheng in orbit. I suspect it carried a much
heavier dummy payload, which was deorbited along with the third stage for reentry
over Antarctica about 45 min after launch.
SDA-0A
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SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Apr 2 with 10 satellites for the US Space Development Agency's
Proliferated Space Warfighter Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 0 program. This first Tranche 0
launch was designated SDA-0A.
8 of the satellites were built by York Space Systems and carry communications data relay
payloads; the remaining two were built by SpaceX at its Starlink factory in Seattle, and
carry Leidos infrared missile tracking sensors.
Transporter-7
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SpaceX launched the Transporter-7 rideshare mission from Vandenberg on Apr 15.
This launch featured the first use of a shorter-nozzle
MVac upper stage engine for missions not needing the highest
performance, as well as a different stage 1 landing sequence in
which the entry burn uses 1 engine and the landing burn uses 3 engines.
TSP7 carried Turkey's 800 kg IMECE imaging satellite as a primary
payload, on top of a dispenser consisting of three ESPA rings carrying
the rideshare payloads. The upper stage made two burns to reach a 495 x
511 km x 97.4 deg, 2232 LTDN, sun-sync orbit and deployed the rideshare
payloads from 0748 to 0810 UTC, and then made two more burns to a higher
668 x 679 km x 98.2 deg orbit and deployed IMECE at 0922 UTC. The upper
stage then carried out a deorbit burn and reentered around 1018 UTC
about 1000 km north of New Zealand.
Known payloads on the mission:
IMECE (TUBITAK UZAY, Turkey), 800 kg imaging sat
Momentus Vigoride VR-6, tug
with cubesats LLITED A/B, Revela, DISCO-1, VIREO
D-Orbit ION SCV-010 Masterful Matthaeus, tug
with cubesats Kepler-20/21, Istanbul, ROM-2, MRC-100, EPICHyper-1, VCUB?
Hawkeye 360's Hawk 7A/7B/7C commercial sigint satellites
Satellogic Nusat-36, 37, 38, 39 imaging sats
Tomorrow-R1 radar meteorology sat
Umbra-06 radar imaging sat
Norwegian Norsat-TD technology demo sat
Orbital Sidekick GHOSt-1 and 2 hyperspectral imager sats
GHGSat C6, C7, C8 greenhouse gase monitor sats
Maverick Space cubesat deployers:
Colorado U. CIRBE space weather; Kilicsat (Gumush, Turkey)
Exolaunch cubesat deployers:
Spire Lemur-2 (3x 3U sats)
Imaging: Chile FACSAT-2
IoT comms: Sateliot-0 (Sateliot/Spain), Dubai DEWASAT-2, Connecta T2.1 (PlanS/Turkey)
and maybe "LS2f" - probably a Lacuna Space cubesat.
Science: InspireSat-7 (LATMOS/France)
Radio surveillance: BRO-9 (Unseen/France)
Nav/Timing tech: "It's About Time", (TrustPoint/US), unknown size
Technology: AstroForge AF-1
Student: Pleiades-Squared (UC Pomona), Sapling (Stanford), SSS-2B (Turkey), Taifa-1 (Kenya),
RoseyCubesat (OSM/Monaco)
JUICE
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Arianespace launched ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission on
Apr 14. Ariane vehicle L5120 on launch VA260 is the penultimate Ariane 5
flight. The Ariane 5 includes two EAP solid boosters, the EPC core stage
(possibly S/N 5117?) and the ESC-D upper stage (possibly FM84?). The
large core stage was suborbital. Alas, the press kits no longer give the
orbital parameters for the EPC but I estimate a trajectory of -900 x 225
km with impact near 5W 1N. The ESC-D made a single 18m56s burn to a 316
x -156007 km x 5.9 deg hyperbolic escape trajectory with energy
parameter C3 = 5.6 km^2/s^2. The probe will pass the orbit of the Moon a
mere 32 hours after launch and will enter a 0.86 x 1.07 AU x 0.5 deg
solar orbit, leaving the Earth's Hill sphere, at about 1430 UTC Apr 19.
The 5000 kg-ish ESC-D stage will remain in that near-Earth solar orbit,
likely to be miscataloged as an asteroid some day in the future. JUICE
will remain in the inner solar system for several years (with only a
quick dip into the Main Belt in 2028) with three Earth and one Venus
flybys. The Earth-3 flyby in 2029 Jan will finally set JUICE on course
for Jupiter, along a 0.94 x 5.24 AU x 0.6 deg transfer orbit. Jupiter
arrival and orbit insertion is scheduled for 2031 Jul.
JUICE at launch vehicle separation is 5963 kg wet, 2325 kg dry; 4.1 x
2.9 x 4.4m bus with 27.1m solar panel span.
Hwasong
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On Apr 12 North Korea launched another long range missile (Hwasong-18) on a lofted trajectory.
However, some reports indicate this one had a lower apogee (less than 3000 km) and therefore
did not reach the near-orbital energy of the recent Hwasong-17 launches. I am therefore treating
it as a regular suborbital launch, for now.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Mar 1 1200? Kelpie-1 ION SCV007, LEO 01DC 637 x 655 x 98.1
Mar 2 0534 Dragon Crew-6 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 27A 192 x 210 x 51.6
Mar 3 1838 Starlink Group 2-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 28A 222 x 327 x 70.0
Mar 7 0137 Daichi-3 H3-22S Tanegashima Imaging F03 -5940 x 635 x 86.6
Mar 9 1913 OneWeb L17 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 29A 581 x 599 x 86.5
Mar 9 2241 Tianhui-6 01 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 30A 888 x 888 x 99.0
Tianhui-6 02 30B 888 x 888 x 99.0
Mar 12 2313 Luch-5Kh Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Sigint 31A 381 x 35715 x 48.7
Mar 13 0402 Horus-2 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Imaging 32A 489 x 502 x 97.4
Mar 15 0030 Dragon CRS-27 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 33A 194 x 208 x 51.6
Mar 15 1141 Shiyan 19 Chang Zheng 11 Jiuquan Tech 34A 495 x 515 x 97.5
Mar 15 2210 Hwasong-17 RV Hwasong-17 Sunan LP5 Missile U02 -6260 x 6045 x 41.6
Mar 16 2339 Capella 9 Electron MARS LA0C Radar 35A 590 x 603 x 44
Capella 10 Radar 35B 590 x 603 x 44
Mar 17 0833 Gao Fen 13-02 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Imaging 36A 190 x 35799 x 28.5
Mar 17 1926 Starlink Group 2-8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 37 221 x 331 x 70.0
Mar 17 2338 SES 18 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 38A 308 x 19720 x 26.9
SES 19 Comms 38B 308 x 19720 x 26.9
Mar 22 0909 Tianmu-1 03 KZ-1A Jiuquan Met 39A 503 x 518 x 97.4
Tianmu-1 04 Met 39B 502 x 517 x 97.4
Tianmu-1 05 Met 39C 502 x 516 x 97.4
Tianmu-1 06 Met 39D 501 x 515 x 97.4
Mar 23 0325 GLHF Terran 1 Canaveral LC16 Test F04 -6200 x 130 x 28.5
Mar 23 0640 Kosmos-2567 Soyuz-2-1a Plesetsk LC43/3 Imaging 40A 338 x 499 x 97.6
Mar 24 0915 Global-19 Electron Mahia LC1B Imaging 41A 448 x 456 x 42.0
Global-5 Imaging 41B 448 x 456 x 42.0
Mar 24 1543 Starlink Group 5-5 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 42A 297 x 339 x 43.0
Mar 26 0330 OneWeb L18 LVM3 Satish Dhawan Comms 43 441 x 454 x 87.4
Mar 28 2310 'Ofeq-13 Shavit Palmachim Radar 44A
Mar 29 1957 Kosmos-2568 Soyuz-2-1v Plesetsk Imaging 45A 330 x 344 x 96.5
Mar 29 2001 Starlink Group 5-10 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 46 298 x 336 x 43.0
Mar 30 1050 Hongtu 1-01 01 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Radar 47A 499 x 512 x 97.4
Hongtu 1-01 02 Radar 47 498 x 512 x 97.4
Hongtu 1-01 03 Radar 47 497 x 512 x 97.4
Hongtu 1-01 04 Radar 47 496 x 511 x 97.4
Mar 31 0627 Yaogan 34 04 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Imaging 48A 1092 x 1096 x 63.4
Apr 2 0848 Jinta Tianlong 2 Jiuquan Imaging 49A 478 x 496 x 97.5
Apr 2 1429 SDA-0A TPL-01 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 50A 941 x 952 x 81.0
SDA-0A TPL-02 Comms 50B
SDA-0A TPL-03 Comms 50C
SDA-0A TPL-04 Comms 50D
SDA-0A TPL-05 Comms 50E
SDA-0A TPL-06 Comms 50F
SDA-0A TPL-07 Comms 50G
SDA-0A TPL-08 Comms 50H
SDA-0A TRL-01 Early Warn 50J
SDA-0A TRL-02 Early Warn 50K
Apr 7 0400 Test payload Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Tech 51A 295 x 503 x 97.3
Apr 7 0430 Intelsat IS-40e/TEMPO Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms/Sci 52A 229 x 33836 x 27.0
Apr 14 1214 JUICE Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Space probe 53A 314 x -156007 x 5.9
Apr 15 0647 Transporter-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 54A 668 x 679 x 98.2
Apr 16 0136 Fengyun 3-07 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Weather 55A 410 x 417 x 50.0
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Mar 13 2241 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan
Mar 13 2251 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan
Mar 23 1823 BROR IM/IO Kiruna Auroral 240 ESRANGE
Mar 23 2100 NASA 41.127UE Terrier IO Andoya Atmos. 149 Nor. Sea
Mar 23 2102 NASA 36.361UE Black Brant 9 Andoya Atmos. 363 Nor. Sea
Mar 23 PAC-3 Target Janus? Wake Island Target 300? Kwajalein
Mar 29 0430 REXUS 30 Imp. Orion Kiruna Auroral 80 ESRANGE
Mar 30 FTM-31E1a Target MRBM-T3C2 Kauai Target 500? Pacific
Apr 1 0420 REXUS 29 Imp. Orion Kiruna Auroral 80 ESRANGE
Apr 11 RV Yars-E Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Sary Shagan
Apr 12 2223 Hwasong-18 RV Hwasong-18 Chong-dong Test 2500? Sea of Japan
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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