Jonathan's Space Report
No. 833 draft 2024 Apr 24 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 71 continues.
Spacewalk ISS VKD-62 (Expedition 71) was carried out on 2024 Apr 25
by Kononenko and Chub in suits MKS-5 and MKS-4. The crew
removed an experiment platform from the airlock and stowed it
outside, then translated to the nadir of the Nauka
module to adjust the Napor-miniRSA antenna panel and get some 'Test' swab samples.
Next at Poisk, the Biorisk-MSN1 container 2 was retrieved.
An RK-21-8 adapter was removed from the URM-D workstation on
Zvezda plane 2 and transferred to Poisk; the experiment
platform and the adapter were installed on the side of Poisk
opposite from the EVA hatch. The astronauts adjusted
the orientation of the BKDO device.
Next, the crew took the Kvartz-M and TKK-KM (Perspektiva) units
from the airlock and installed them on the just-installed adapter.
After connecting cabling to the new units, they returned
to the airlock.
Hatch open time was 4h36 m (1457 UTC to 1933 UTC); depressurized time
was 4h 55m.
On Apr 26 at 0235 UTC Progress MS-26, which is docked at the Zvezda aft
port, fired its engines for a 0.6 m/s, 403s burn to reboost the
station's orbit by 1 km.
Dragon CRS-30 undocked from IDA-3 at 0043 UTC on Apr 30 and landed in the Tampa recovery zone
in the Gulf of Mexico at 0538 UTC Apr 30. The trunk was jettisoned prior
to deorbit, probably in a 196 x 379 km orbit.
Dragon Endeavour, with Crew-8 aboard, undocked from IDA-2 at 1257 UTC May 2 and redocked with IDA-3 at 1346 UTC.
Chinese Space Station
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Shenzhou 18 was launched on Apr 25 at 1259 UTC with a crew of three: Ye Guangfu, Li Guangsu
and Li Cong. The ship docked with the nadir port on Tianhe at 1932 UTC.
The previous crew of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin boarded Shenzhou 17
for the trip home on Apr 29. Shenzhou 17 undocked from the Tianhe forward port
at 0043 UTC Apr 30. The orbital module was jettisoned at 0856 UTC prior to the
deorbit burn at 0857 UTC. The propulsion module was jettisoned at 0920 UTC, with reentry
at 0928 UTC. Shenzhou 17 landed at the Dongfeng landing site at 0946:08 UTC Apr 30.
Galileo
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Two EU Galileo navigation satellites FOC FM 25 and FM 27 (GSAT0225 and
GSAT0227), were launched on a Falcon 9 on Apr 28 from Kennedy Space
Center. The first stage, on its 20th flight, was expended in the
Atlantic Ocean. The first burn of the second stage reached a 168 x 23176
km x 54.7 deg transfer orbit, and its second burn circularized the orbit
at 22928 x 22985 km x 54.7 deg.
The launch was rather secretive with no information available about the
launch profile (number and timing of burns), rather pointlessly as one
can reconstruct that info fairly well from the Space Force orbital data.
As far as I can tell, the EU also did not release any photos of the
satellites during launch prep. The secrecy seems likely to be associated
with political embarrassment that Europe had to turn to SpaceX for a
launch opportunity following the delays to Ariane 6, and therefore deserves
to be ridiculed.
Starlink
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Starlink Group 6-54 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Apr 28.
Starlink Group 6-55 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on May 3.
Legion
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Maxar's WorldView Legion 1 and 2 commercial imaging satellites were launched on a Falcon 9 on May 2.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Apr 10 0540 Starlink Group 6-48 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 68 284 x 292 x 43.0
Apr 11 0900 GMM KA Angara A5/Orion Vostochniy 1A Tech 69A 36051 x 36470 x 0.1
Gagarinets Tech 69B 196 x 450 x 51.7
Dummy cubesat Tech 69C 196 x 450 x 51.7
Apr 11 0905 CURTIS ISS, LEO Tech 98067WF 413 x 420 x 51.6
Apr 11 1035 Kashiwa ISS, LEO Tech 98067WG 413 x 420 x 51.6
MicroOrbiter-1 Tech 98067WH 413 x 420 x 51.6
Apr 11 1425 WSF-M SV1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Weather 70A 819 x 828 x 98.7
Apr 13 0140 Starlink Group 6-49 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 71 283 x 291 x 43.0
Apr 15 0412 Siwei Gaojing 3-01 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Imaging 72A 489 x 503 x 97.5
Apr 17 2126 Starlink Group 6-51 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 73 284 x 292 x 43.0
Apr 18 1126 Snoopi ISS, LEO Science 98067WJ 407 x 413 x 51.6
BurstCube Astron 98067WK
Apr 18 1136 HyTI Imaging 98067WL
Apr 18 1755 Killick-1 Science 98067WM
QMSAT Tech 98067WN
Violet Science 98067WP
Apr 18 1805 BigRedSat Tech 98067WQ
Apr 18 2240 Starlink Group 6-52 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 74 284 x 292 x 43.0
Apr 20 2345 Yaogan 42-02 Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Imaging? 75A 491 x 502 x 35.0
Apr 23 2217 Starlink Group 6-53 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 76 284 x 292 x 43.0
Apr 23 2232 NeonSat-1 Electron Mahia 1B Imaging 77A 517 x 541 x 97.4
ACS3 Tech 77B 998 x 1028 x 97.4
Apr 25 1259 Shenzhou 18 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 78A 196 x 336 x 41.5
Apr 28 0034 Galileo FOC FM25 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Nav 79A 22928 x 22985 x 54.7
Galileo FOC FM27 Nav 79B
Apr 28 2208 Starlink Group 6-54 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 80 284 x 292 x 43.0
May 2 1836 WorldView Legion 1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 81A 515 x 521 x 97.6
WorldView Legion 2 Imaging 82A 514 x 518 x 97.6
May 3 0237 Starlink Group 6-55 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 83 284 x 292 x 43.0
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target
Apr 12 1600? Yars-E RV Topol'-ME Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Sary Shagan
Apr 13 2300? Warheads Emad? (many) Iran Weapon 300? Israel
Apr 13 2300? Warheads Kheibar Shekan? Iran Weapon 300? Israel
Apr 13 2300? Warheads Dezful? Yemen? Weapon 300? Israel
Apr 13 2300? Warheads Ghadr-110? Iran Weapon 300? Israel
(total 110 Iran ballistic missile launches on Apr 14?)
Apr 13 2330? Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-51, E. Med. Interceptor 100? Intercept Iranian missiles
Apr 13 2330? Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-51, E. Med. Interceptor 100? Intercept Iranian missiles
Apr 13 2330? Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-64, E. Med. Interceptor 100? Intercept Iranian missiles
Apr 13 2330? Aegis KV SM-3 DDG-64, E. Med. Interceptor 100? Intercept Iranian missiles
Apr 17 2213 FOXSI-4 Black Brant 9 Poker Flat Solar X-ray 300? PFRR Alaska
Apr 17 2214 Hi-C FLARE Black Brant 9 Poker Flat Solar X-ray 300? PFRR Alaska
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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