Jonathan's Space Report No. 785 2020 Nov 5 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 63 concluded on Oct 21 with the undocking of Soyuz MS-16. Expedition 64 is now underway under the command of Sergey Ryzhikov. Soyuz MS-17 was launched on Oct 14 at 0545 UTC with Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud'-Sverchkov and Kate Rubins. It docked with the Rassvet module at 0848 UTC. The 3 hr 3min 49s flight from Earth to ISS is a record for the ISS program. Soyuz MS-16 undocked from the Poisk module at 2332 UTC Oct 21 and landed in Kazakhstan at 0254 UTC Oct 22, returning Anatoliy Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and Chris Cassidy to Earth. The Nanoracks NRCSD-19 payloads, delivered to the ISS on Cygnus NG-14, are being prepared for deployment from the Kibo airlock. The payloads are: Bobcat-1, 3U cubesat from Ohio U with a technology payload NEUTRON, 3U cubesat from U of Hawaii with a space physics experiment SPOC, 3U cubesat from U of Georgia with an ocean color imager Lemur-2-v4.7 and Lemur-2-v4.8, 3U cubesats from Spire Global with comms and GNSS-RO weather payloads DESCENT Mother and DESCENT Daughter, two 1U cubesats joined by a 100-metre tether from York University (Canada). SATTLA-1, 1U student and amateur radio payload from Ariel University in the West Bank Starlink ---------- The Falcon 9 stage 2 from the Oct 6 launch failed to perform its deorbit burn and was left in a 262 x 277 km orbit. It reentered on Oct 30. Another 60 Starlinks (launch 14, V1.0-L13) were launched on Oct 18 from KSC. The first stage, B1051, made its sixth flight and landed on OCISLY. The second stage made a two-burn insertion; it was not cataloged and may have been deorbited. One of this batch, Starlink 1819, failed at deployment and reentered over Chad on Oct 25. 60 more Starlinks (launch 15, V1.0-L14) went up on Oct 24 from Cape Canaveral using booster B1060 on its third flight, landing on JRTI. The two-burn insertion profile was used again and this time the second stage was again cataloged in orbit with no deorbit burn performed. Starlinks 1915 and 1950 are in decaying orbits and may have failed. Glonass-K --------- The third Glonass-K navigation satellite, No. 15L, was launched on Oct 25. The Glonass-K series is expected to replace the current Glonass-M type, but with only 3 launches in 9 years the system's deployment rate is not impressive. The Glonass site confirms that the satellite has been given the cover name Kosmos-2547. Yaogan 30 Group 7 ------------------ On Oct 26 China's CALT launched a CZ-2C from Xichang with three Yaogan 30 hao 07 zu (YG-30 Group 7) satellites. A small Tianqi Xingzuo 06 secondary payload was also carried. Electron Launch 15 ------------------ On Oct 28 RocketLab launched its 15th Electron flight, In Focus, carrying the CESAT-IIB satellite for Canon Electronics and nine Flock 4e-Prime satellites for Planet to 0942 LTDN sun-sync orbit. The nine Planet sats are Doves 225a, 2279, 2251, 227e, 2276, 2280, 2262, 2264, and 2441. ION-SVC ------- Deployment of the 12 Flock 4v cubesats from the ION-SVC carrier was completed on Oct 28. OSIRIS-REX ---------- NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe performed a touch-and-go sample retrieval from the surface of minor planet (101955) Bennu on Oct 20. It left the 1 km parking orbit at 1730 UTC, began a steep descent from 125m at 2133 UTC (Checkpoint Burn), matched horizontal speed with Bennu's rotation (Matchpoint Burn) at around 2143 UTC at 50m altitude, and landed at 2153 UTC. After activation of the TAGSAM sampler, the probe took off again after about 9 seconds on the surface. It departed from Bennu at 0.4 m/s, which exceeds escape velocity, and left the 48-km-radius Sun-Bennu Hill sphere at about 0700 UTC Oct 22. Sample stow was expected on Oct 26, with the TAGSAM observed to be overflowing with material. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Oct 2? Flock 4v-17) ION-SVC, LEO Imaging 61BF S46529 516 x 521 x 97.5 Flock 4v-18) Imaging 61BG S46597 514 x 527 x 97.5 Oct 3 0116 S.S. Kalpana Chawla Antares 230+ MARS Pad 0A Cargo 69A S46530 185 x 238 x 51.6 Oct 6 1129 Starlink 1531 ) Starlink 1644 ) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 70A S46532 262 x 277 x 53.0 Starlink 1648-1650 ) to S46591 Starlink 1659-1660 ) Starlink 1663-1664 ) Starlink 1668 ) Starlink 1671-1672 ) Starlink 1674-1685 ) Starlink 1687 ) Starlink 1692-1694 ) Starlink 1696-1702 ) Starlink 1705-1706 ) Starlink 1708-1709 ) Starlink 1712 ) Starlink 1714 ) Starlink 1728-1730 ) Starlink 1732-1733 ) Starlink 1735-1737 ) Starlink 1740-1741 ) Starlink 1743-1744 ) Starlink 1746-1749 ) Starlink 1753-1755 ) Oct 9? Flock 4v-19) ION-SVC, LEO Imaging 61BH S46529 516 x 521 x 97.5 Flock 4v-20) Imaging 61BJ S46597 514 x 527 x 97.5 Oct 11 1657 Gao Fen 13 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Imaging 71A S46610 182 x35836 x 28.5 Oct 14? Flock 4v-21) ION-SVC, LEO Imaging 61BK S46596 515 x 521 x 97.5 Flock 4v-22) Imaging 61BL S46735 515 x 526 x 97.5 Oct 14 0545 Soyuz MS-17 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 72A S46613 417 x 420 x51.6 Oct 18 1226 Starlink 1715-1718) Starlink 1720 ) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 73A S46670 263 x 277 x 53.0 Starlink 1731 ) to S46729 Starlink 1766 ) Starlink 1772-1776) Starlink 1778 ) Starlink 1780-1781) Starlink 1783 ) Starlink 1784 ) Starlink 1786 ) Starlink 1788-1797) Starlink 1799-1805) Starlink 1807-1811) Starlink 1813-1831) Starlink 1841 ) Oct 20? Flock 4v-23) ION-SVC, LEO Imaging 61BM S46737 515 x 521 x 97.5 Flock 4v-24) Imaging 61BN S46738 515 x 526 x 97.5 Oct 24 1531 Starlink 1798 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 74A S46739 263 x 277 x 53.0 Starlink 1832-1835) to S46798 Starlink 1847-1848) Starlink 1851 ) Starlink 1865 ) Starlink 1872 ) Starlink 1882-1883) Starlink 1892-1894) Starlink 1896-1899) Starlink 1901-1903) Starlink 1905-1906) Starlink 1908 ) Starlink 1910-1911) Starlink 1915-1926) Starlink 1928-1937) Starlink 1939 ) Starlink 1941-1950) Oct 25 1908 Glonass-K No. 15L Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 75A S46805 19125 x 19150 x 64.8 Oct 26 1519 Yaogan 30 hao 07 zu 01 xing) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint 76A S46807 589 x 604 x 35.0 Yaogan 30 hao 07 zu 01 xing) Sigint 76B S46808 589 x 604 x 35.0 Yaogan 30 hao 07 zu 01 xing) Sigint 76C S46809 589 x 604 x 35.0 Tianqi Xingzuo 06 ) Comms 76D S46810 589 x 604 x 35.0 Oct 28 2121 CE-SAT-IIB ) Electron Mahia LC1 Imaging 77K S46822? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-1 ) Imaging 77A S46813? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-2 ) Imaging 77H S46820? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-3 ) Imaging 77G S46819? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-4 ) Imaging 77J S46821? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-5 ) Imaging 77E S46817? 511 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-6 ) Imaging 77F S46818? 508 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-7 ) Imaging 77B S46814? 505 x 528 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-8 ) Imaging 77D S46816? 507 x 524 x 97.5 Flock 4e'-9 ) Imaging 77C S46815? 505 x 525 x 97.5 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Oct 1 Black Dagger Boosted Zombie Fort Wingate? Target 100? White Sands Oct 13 1336 NS-13 New Shepard W Texas Test 106 W Texas Oct 29 0727 GT236GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Op. Test 1300? Kwajalein .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'