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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 839 draft                                                    2024 Oct 26    Somerville, MA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
---------------------------

Expedition 72 continues with Suni Williams (ISS commander), Barry Wilmore, Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, 
Don Pettit, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.

On Nov 3 at 1135 UTC Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams undocked
Dragon Crew-9 from the IDA-2 port, flew out to a 60 metre distance, and 
then redocked with the zenith port, IDA-3, at 1225 UTC.

On Nov 5 SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-31 cargo ship from KSC.  It docked with IDA-2
at 1452 UTC Nov 5. On Nov 8 at 1750 UTC CRS-31 performed the first Dragon reboost of ISS,
with a 12.5 minute, 0.3m/s burn.

On Nov 10 Dextre removed the CODEX experiment from the CRS-31 trunk. CODEX was 
installed on ELC-3 on Nov 11.

Chinese Space Station
---------------------

The Chinese station reboosted its orbit on Oct 23 at about 0530 UTC with a circa 4.5m/s burn.
Two further burns were carred out on Oct 28 at 0700 UTC and Nov 6 at 0630 UTC, about
5.0m/s and 3.0 m/s respectively. The burns were probably all done by the Tianzhou-7
freighter prior to its departure.

Shenhou 19 was launched on Oct 29 with the TGZR8 expedition 8 crew of Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze.
It docked with the Tianhe forward port at 0300 UTC Oct 30.

Shenzhou 18 undocked from the nadir port on Nov 3 at 0816 UTC, with the expedition 7 crew of Ye Guangfu,
Li Guangsu and Li Cong. The orbital module was jettisoned at 1635 UTC. Following the deorbit burn at 1636 UTC
the propulsion module was jettisoned at 1659 UTC. Shenzhou 18 landed
at the target landing site in the Dongfeng landing area at about 1724:27 UTC. Mission duration
was 192 days 4h 25m.

The Tianzhou 7 cargo ship undocked from the aft port on Nov 10 at 0830 UTC.

The Tianzhou 8 cargo ship was launched on 2024 Nov 15 and docked with the aft port of Tiane on Nov 15 at 1832 UTC.


Starlink
---------

Starlink Group 10-8 (22 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Oct 26 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 9-9 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Oct 30 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 10-13 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Oct 30 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 6-77 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Nov 7 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 9-10 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Nov 9 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 6-69 (24 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Nov 11 to a 43 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 9-11 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Nov 14 to a 53 deg orbit.
Starlink Group 6-68 (24 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Nov 14 to a 43 deg orbit.

The Oct 24 Starshield launch carried only 17 payloads, fewer than previous Starshield launches.
Orbital height data released on Space-Track.org around Nov 7 show the lowest of the 17 satellites
in 480 km orbits. If this is the deployment orbit it would explain the lower number of
satellites on the launch. The 515 km altitude of the highest of the satellites may
reflect the operational altitude.


North Korean ICBM
-----------------

North Korea launched a test of the Hwasong-19 ICBM on Oct 30. To avoid
flying over Japan, their ICBM tests use a 'lofted' trajectory with a
very high apogee - of 7687 km in this case - and a relatively short 1000
km range.  Launch site was Chongdong (Samsok) near Pyongyang.

Because the total energy of the trajectory is comparable to
orbital energy, I have given it a special 'U' designation, 2024-U05, and
included it in the list of near-orbital flights.

Kosmos-2579
-----------

On Ocr 31 at 0751 UTC a Soyuz-2-1a was launched from Plesetsk carrying the
Kosmos-2579 sat (probably the Bars-M No. 6 cartographic sat) for the
Russian Defense Ministry to a 338 x 498 km x 97.6 deg sunsync orbit with
2333 LTDN orbit plane.

Kirameki 3
----------

Japanese military communications satellite Kirameki 3 (DSN 3) was launched by H3
from Tanegashima on Nov 4.

Soyuz rideshare
---------------

On Nov 4 Roskosmos launched a Soyuz-1B/Fregat with the two Ionosfera-M research satellites,
Iran's Kowsar 30 kg imaging satellite and its Hodhod IOT cubesat, Zimbabwe's ZIMSAT-2 cubesat,
Harbin Inst. Tech. 's ASRTU-1 cubesat, 
 and: 20 Russian university cubesats from 
    Northern (Arctic) Federal U., St Peterburg Poly. U,
    Samara Nat. Res. U., TUSUR (Tomsk), YuZGU (Kursk), BGTU (St-Peterburg), SPbGUT (St-Peterburg),
    Novosibirsk State U., Chechen State U., Saransk Polytechnic, MGU (Moscow),
    RTU MIREA (Moscow), Bauman (Moscow), and MTUSI (Moscow).
 as well as 29 Russian commercial comsats -
  24 SITRO-AIS satellites for an AIS (ship tracking) constellation operated by SITRONIX
  4 satellites for STTs (St Peterburg), in 
  1 satellite for MGU Standard, a Moscow State U. (MGU) spinoff company.

Secret Electron 
---------------

Rocket Lab launched an Electron on Nov 5 with a secret commercial satellite aboard,
suspected to be a communications satellite for E-Space.

CALT launches
-------------

CALT launched a CZ-2C from Jiuquan on Nov 9 with four PIESAT (Hongtu Hangtian) satellites,
likely with X-band radars.

CAS Space
--------

CAS Space launched Lijian-1 Y5 from Jiuquan on Nov 11 with 15 satellites aboard to 1030 LTDN SSO.
The Oman Zhineng Yaogan 1 satellite was built by the Chinese Star Vision company
for Sultan Qaboos University in Oman.

Koreasat 6A
-----------

Korea Telecom/KTSat's Koreasat 6A is a 3500 kg Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000 Ku-band communications
sat. It was launched to GTO on Nov 11 by a Falcon 9.


Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
---------------------------------------------------

Date UT       Name			          Launch Vehicle	 Site		 Mission  INTL.  Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl	 Notes
Oct  4 1125   Cert-2                               Vulcan VC2S           Canaveral SLC41  Test      179A  735 x -237885 x 26.7
Oct  7 1452   Hera                                 Falcon 9              Canaveral SLC40  Probe     180A  190 x -36368 x 34.2
Oct  8 1025   CySat-1                                                   ISS, LEO          Tech    98067WZ 408 x 421 x 51.6
Oct  8 1035   DORA                                                      ISS, LEO          Tech    98067XA 410 x 420 x 51.6
Oct 10 1350   HGW 03                               Chang Zheng 3B        Xichang          Comms     181A 198 x 35774 x 28.4
Oct 13 1225   Starship 30                          Starship              Starbase OLP1    Test      U04  -15 x 213 x 26.2
Oct 14 1606   Europa Clipper                       Falcon Heavy          Kennedy LC39A    Probe     182A 180 x -32078 x 32.9
Oct 15 0610   Starlink Group 10-10                 Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     183  280 x 291 x 53.2
Oct 15 0821   Starlink Group 9-7                   Falcon 9              Vandenberg SLC4E Comms     184  277 x 287 x 53.2
Oct 15 1106   Qianfan Jigui 02 (01 to 18)          Chang Zheng 6A        Taiyuan          Comms     185
Oct 15 2345   Gao Fen 12-05                        Chang Zheng 4C        Jiuquan          Radar     186A 594 x 600 x 97.9
Oct 18 2331   Starlink Group 8-19                  Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     187  280 x 291 x 53.2
Oct 20 0513   OneWeb L20                           Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     188  591 x 595 x 86.5
Oct 22 0010   Tianping-3A(01)                      Chang Zheng 6         Taiyuan          Calib     189A 555 x 566 x 97.6
              Tianping-3B(01)                                                             Calib     189B
              Tianping-3B(02)                                                             Calib     189C
Oct 23 0109   Yaogan 43-03-01                      Chang Zheng 2C        Xichang          Comms?    190A 490 x 502 x 35.0 
              Yaogan 43-03-02                                                             Comms?    190B
              Yaogan 43-03-03                                                             Comms?    190C
Oct 23 2147   Starlink Group 6-61                  Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     191  284 x 291 x 43.0
Oct 24 1713   Starshield Group 1-4                 Falcon 9              Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging?  192  300 x 310 x 70.0
Oct 26 2147   Starlink Group 10-8                  Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     193  290 x 301 x 53.2
Oct 29 2027   Shenzhou 19                          Chang Zheng 2F        Jiuquan          Spaceship 194A 382 x 392 x 41.5
Oct 30 1207   Starlink Group 9-9                   Falcon 9              Vandenberg SLC4E Comms     195  285 x 295 x 53.2
Oct 30 2110   Starlink Group 10-13                 Falcon 9              Canaveral LC40   Comms     196  269 x 278 x 53.2
Oct 30 2211   Hwasong-19 RV                        Hwasong-19            Chongdong        Test      U05 -6243 x 7687 x 42
Oct 31 0751   Kosmos-2579                          Soyuz-2-1a            Plesetsk LC43/4  Imaging   197A 338 x 498 x 97.6
Nov  4 0648   Kirameki 3                           H3-22S                Tanegashima      Comms     198A 396 x 35415 x 24.8
Nov  4 2318   Ionosfera-M No. 1                    Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat     Vostochniy PU1S  Sci       199A
              Ionosfera-M No. 2                                                           Sci       199B
              Rideshare sats
Nov  5 0229   Dragon CRS-31                        Falcon 9               Kennedy LC39A   Cargo     200A  193 x 210 x 51.6
Nov  5 1054   E-Space 4?                           Electron               Mahia LC1B      Comms     201B  640 x 652 x 97.9
Nov  7 2019   Starlink Group 6-77                  Falcon 9               Canaveral LC40  Comms     202   282 x 290 x 43.0
Nov  9 0339   PIESAT 2-1                           Chang Zheng 2C         Jiuquan         Radar?    203A  516 x 537 x 97.5
              PIESAT 2-2                                                                  Radar?    203B
              PIESAT 2-3                                                                  Radar?    203C
              PIESAT 2-4                                                                  Radar?    203D
Nov  9 0644   Starlink Group 9-10                  Falcon 9               Vandenberg SLC4E Comms    204   284 x 295 x 53.2
Nov 11 0403   Shiyan 26A                           Lijian-1               Jiuquan         Imaging?  205A  513 x 532 x 97.5
              Shiyan 26B                                                                  Imaging?  205B
              Shiyan 26C                                                                  Imaging?  205B
              Jilin-1 GF05B                                                               Imaging   205
              Jilin-1 PT02A03                                                             Imaging   205
              Yunyao-1 31 to 36                                                           GNSS-RO   205
              Xiguang-1-04                                                                Imaging   205
              Xiguang-1-05                                                                Imaging   205
              Tianyan-24                                                                  Imaging?  205
              Oman Zhineng Yaogan 1                                                       Imaging   205
Nov 11 1722   Koreasat-6A                          Falcon 9               Kennedy LC39A   Comms    206A   388 x 35333 x 26.2
Nov 11 2128   Starlink Group 6-69                  Falcon 9               Canaveral LC40  Comms     207   281 x 289 x 43.0 
Nov 13 2242   Hai Yang 4-01                        Chang Zheng 4B         Taiyuan         EO Sci    208A  632 x 645 x 98.0
Nov 14 0523   Starlink Group 9-11                  Falcon 9               Vandenberg SLC4E Comms    209   282 x 292 x 53.2
Nov 14 1321   Starlink Group 6-68                  Falcon 9               Canaveral LC40  Comms     210   277 x 284 x 43.0
Nov 15 1513   Tianzhou 8                           Chang Zheng 7          Wenchang        Cargo     211A  201 x 334 x 41.5

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches 
-----------------------------------

Date UT       Payload           Rocket              Site                 Mission       Apogee    Target

Oct  1 1309   SL-15             SpaceLoft XL        Spaceport America    Micrograv      100?     White Sands?
Oct  1 1630?  Warhead           Shahab-3?  (x180)   S Shiraz             Weapon         200?     Israel
                                Emad?
                                Ghadr-110?
                                Kheibar Shekan?
                                Fattah-1?
Oct 20 1824   Aftershock II     Aftershock          Black Rock           Test            100?    Black Rock
Oct 23 1525?  NS-27             New Shepard         West Texas           Test            101?    West Texas
Oct 24 2310   Target?           Terrier Oriole?     Wallops              Target?         100?    Atlantic
Nov  6 0701   GT251 RV          Minuteman 3         Vandenberg LF10      Op.Test        1300?    Kwajalein
Nov  8        SL-20             SpaceLoft XL        Spaceport America    Tech            100?    White Sands?
Nov 10 2136   VORTEX 2A         Black Brant 9       Andoya               Atmosphere      358     Norw. Sea
Nov 10 2138   VORTEX 2B         Terrier Imp.Orion   Andoya               Atmosphere      144     Norw. Sea
Nov 11 0838   MAPHEUS 15        Red Kite/IM         ESRANGE              Microgravity    309     ESRANGE
Nov 14 0230   S-520-34          S-520               Uchinoura            Tech            217     Pacific Ocean

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |  twitter: @planet4589              |
|                                                                         |
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