Jonathan's Space Report
No. 862 draft 2026 Nov 6 Bromley, UK
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Update:
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Construction on my new Space Library near London is now near completion.
The books have arrived and I am unpacking; as of today, the internet and the plumbing are working. Hooray!
Still need a few weeks to get the ventilation system up and running, the fire alarms installed
and some electrical and painting work; and several months of sorting the books on the shelves.
Updates at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-jonathans-space-report-library-transition
(further donations welcome)
International Space Station
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Expedition 75 is underway.
On Nov 5 astronauts Kutryk and Menon carried out spacewalk US EVA-101. They moved the 3B IROSA
array from the MBS POA to the installed location on the S6 truss mod kit. The array was then deployed.
Starship
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Starship flight 15 was launched on Nov 13. The booster landing was diverted to just offshore and the
booster was destroyed just above the water. Ship reached orbit and deployed 26 V3 Starlink satellites.
It remained in orbit for one day. The 50 m/s deorbit burn at 2023 UTC Nov 14 was followed by
a successful tower catch landing at Starbase at 2120 UTC.
Falcon 9 launches
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On Nov 7 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with the USSF-432 (SBST R-4) mission, thought to be 23 comms sats
for the US Space Force.
On Nov 12 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with the USSF-627 (SBST R-5) mission, thought to be 23 comms sats
for the US Space Force.
CALT launches
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On Nov 5 CALT launched a CZ-2C from Xichang with three Yaogan 51 sigint sats.
SAST launches
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On Nov 8 SAST launched a CZ-12 from Hainan with the Xingwang 29 batch of internet sats.
On Nov 11 SAST launched a CZ-2D from Jiuquan with the Tanluzhe (Pathfinder) mission for the
Chinese Academy of Sciences' Origins Exploration Program. The main payload was Tanluzhe A
with a variety of science experiments. A second payload is a cluster of three
small radio astronomy sats, Tanluzhe B, C and D, which will separate from A as a single
unit and then later separate from each other. The CZ-2D was a modified version
with no stage 1 tail fins and a lighter stage 2 structure using a composite material
payload adapter.
Commercial Chinese launches
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On Nov 3 CAS Space launched a Lijian-2 with eighteen Qianfan internet satellites
On Nov 6 Xinghe Dongli (Galactic Energy) launched a Gushenxing-2 (Ceres-2) with the Guanlan Shiyan
lidar satellite for Laoshan Lab, the YY1-28 GNSS-RO meteorology sat for Yunyao, the Juntian 1-06A
radar sat for Juntian, and the Zhongbei Daxue 1 sat for North Univ. of China.
Rocket Lab
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On Nov 2 Rocket Lab launched a QPS-SAR radar satellite for iQPS.
On Nov 14 Rocket Lab launched another QPS-SAR radar satellite for iQPS; it was the 100th Electron launch.
ULA
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ULA launched a Vulcan from Canaveral on Nov 15 with a batch of Amazon LEO satellites, but the rocket
failed ten minutes after launch during the first Centaur burn and did not reach orbit.
Russian launches
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Russia launched a Glonass navigation sat on Nov 7. Launch was sometime around 1320 to 1330 UTC;
Robert Christy reported on X that he computes the time as 1322 UTC.
Russia launched a Soyuz/Fregat from Vostochniy on Nov 14 with the KOEN and Kinosputnik imaging
sats and twelve cubesats, including two Kaisant sats for drone comms and six CSTP sats from STTs
for AIS and sigint, plus four technology cubesats from unknown universities.
Erratum
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In JSR 858 I omitted Starlink Group 17-48 from the text, although it's in the table.
Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Nov 2 1641 QPS SAR 20 Electron Mahia Radar 247 570 x 582 x 42.0
Nov 3 0015 Qianfan Group 21 Lijian-2 Jiuquan Comms 248 796 x 804 x 89.0
Nov 5 1558 Yaogan 51 07-09 Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint 249 512 x 524 x 45.0
Nov 6 2337 Guanlan Shiyan Xing Gushenxing-2 Jiuquan EO Sci 250 530 x 546 x 97.6
Yunyao 1-28 Met-RO
Juntian 1-06A Radar
Zhongbei Daxue 1 Tech
Nov 7 0048 USA 726 to 748 Falcon 9 Vandenberg Comms? 251
Nov 7 1325? Kosmos-2621? (Glonass) Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat Plesetsk Nav 252 19128 x 19147 64.8
Nov 8 2024 Xingwang Group 29 Chang Zheng 12 Hainan Comms 253 914 x 929 x 50.0
Nov 11 1141 Tanluzhe A Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Sci 254 582 x 603 x 97.8
Tanluzhe B/C/D Sci 254
Nov 12 0436 USA 749 to 771 Falcon 9 Vandenberg Comms? 255
Nov 13 2247 Ship 42 Starship V3 Starbase OLP2 Test 256 261 x 272 x 30.5
Starlink Group 31-2 Comms 256 261 x 272 x 30.5
Nov 14 0116 KOEN Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat Vostochniy Imaging 257 578 x 594 x 97.8
Kinosputnik Imaging 257 499 x 514 x 97.5
Kaisant-Hermes Comms 257
Kaisant-Gonets Comms 257
CSTP (6 sats) Comms 257
Marafon Comms 257
Unk (3 sats) Tech 257
Nov 14 0530 QPS-SAR-19 Electron Mahia LC1A Radar 258 568 x 583 x 42.0
Nov 15 1740 Amazon Leo LV-01 Vulcan VC6L Canaveral LC41 Comms F07 -4800 x 94 x 50.2
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Oct 28 RV Bulava K553, Sea of Okhotsk Test 1000? Chiza
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Bromley, UK | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| | twitter: @planet4589 |
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| JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
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| JSR is no longer available by email |
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