Jonathan's Space Report
No. 849 draft 2025 Aug 17 Somerville, MA, USA
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Library Relocation
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The date of my departure to the UK is slipping at about the rate that the JWST launch date used to slip.
Still hoping for a positive update in about a month, but looks likely that I won't be moving till the new year.
International Space Station
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Expedition 73 continues.
On Aug 24 Dragon cargo mission CRS-33 was launched by Falcon 9 from Canaveral. The Dragon trunk
is equipped with a new propulsion system featuring two Draco thrusters to help with ISS orbit reboosts.
The Dragon carries the J-SSOD 32 deployer with five Japanese university/amateur cubesats.
CRS-33 docked at IDA-2 at 1105 UTC Aug 25.
Starship Flight 10
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SpaceX carried out the 10th flight test of Starship on 2025 Aug 26, with liftoff
of Booster 16 and Ship 37 around 2330:03 UTC. The booster reached an altitude of about 90 km,
flying successfully despite one unplanned engine shutdown. It completed successful
hot-staging at T+2m44s, and performed a boostback burn from T+2:50 to T+2:37. The hotstage
ring was jettisoned at 70 km altitude at T+4:47. Booster performed a landing burn
to reach a low velocity touchdown in the Gulf of Mexico at T+6:50.
Ship 37 completed its ascent with shutdown at T+8:53 into an orbit with 192 km apogee.
I estimate the perigee to have been +2 plus or minus 7 km. Since the perigee is within
the atmosphere, I do not characterize the flight as orbital, but 'marginally orbital'.
It will not be cataloged by Space Force or given an international designation; I give
it one of my 'special' launch designations, 2025-U03.
The Ship carried eight dummy Starlink V3 satellites which were deployed
from the payload bay at approximately T+19:20, T+19:50, T+21:00,
T+21:35, T+22:42, T+23:18, T+24:24, and T+25:00. The deployments looked
a bit rickety, with some hitting the door on the way out, but
apparently were successful overall. The dummy sats were on the same 2 x
192 km trajectory and were destroyed on reentry over the Indian Ocean near 76E 26S at
about 0017 UTC Aug 27.
Ship reached its 192 km apogee at T+23 min. On descent passing through
145 km (T+37:50), it made a brief Raptor restart burn, perhaps around
22 m/s posigrade, increasing the orbit from around 2 x 192 km to 47 x
220 km.
Ship passed the 120 km nominal entry interface at T+42min. At 90 km
(T+47:00) part of the aft skirt suffered a structural failure and
disintegrated. However, despite this and some heat damage to the flaps,
the flight continued in a controlled manner, with a soft vertical
touchdown on the Indian Ocean near 107E 19S at T+1:06:30 (0036:38 UTC).
As expected, about 8 seconds later the Ship toppled over and exploded.
Starlink launches
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Starlink Group 17-5 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Aug 18 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 17-6 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Aug 22 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 10-56 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Aug 27 from Canaveral.
Other F9 launches
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On Aug 22 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Kennedy carrying OTV-8, the eight flight of the US Space
Force X-37B robot spaceplane. A secondary payload with an unknown mission, LIMASAT, was
also placed in orbit, probably ejected from the OTV service module.
On Aug 26 SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg with the Luxembourg government's NAOS
imaging satellite. NAOS is owned by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Armed Forces and operated by LUXEOPs
(a RHEA System, LUXSPACE and OHB consortium). Several rideshare payloads were also carried
aboard a Transporter-9-class dispenser: Pelican 3 and 4 (300a and 300b) for Planet
were deployed in the same orbit as NAOS. The remaining payloads were deployed after
two further stage 2 burns: Firefly 4, 5 and 6
for Pixxel (India), LEAP-1, a hosted payload carrier for Dhruva Space (India), and Capella 16 (Acadia 6),
an X-band radar sat for Capella Space.
SAST launches
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SAST (CASC 8th Academy, Shanghai) launched a CZ-4C from Xichang on Aug 17 with the Shiyan 28B-02 satellite,
built by SECM.
SAST launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan on Aug 17 with the Weixing Hulianwang Digui 09 zu Weixing (SatNet
LEO Group 9) satellites, built by CAST.
CALT launches
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CALT (CASC 1st Academy. Beijing) launched a CZ-8A from Hainan on Aug 25 with the Weixing Hulianwang Digui 10 zu
Weixing (SatNet LEO Group 10) satellites.
CAS Space launches
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CAS Space's Lijian-1 flight Y10 was launched from Jiuquan on Aug 19, placing seven sats in orbit:
AIRSAT-05 (Zhongke-1 05 = Haishao 2), an X-band radar sat for Zhongke Weixing Keji Jituan
Tianyan-26, an imaging remote sensing sat for Navi Beidou IT Co Ltd (Xi'an) and Tianlian Cekong Jihsu.
Duogongfeng 2-01, 2-02, 2-03, test satellites (possibly with student experiments?) from the PLA Academy of
Military Science and the National University of Defense Technology.
ThumbSat-1 and 2, 0.1 kg femtosatellites from ThumbSat (Tijuana, Mexico).
Bion-M
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On Aug 20 Roskosmos launched a Soyuz-2-1b with the Bion-M No. 2 spacecraft.
Bion-M No. 2 consists of a recoverable cabin using the venerable Vostok sphere design, with a Yantar-class service module.
The cabin has a life sciences payload including 75 mice.
Angara-1.2
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On Aug 21 the Russian Defense Ministry launched four small satellites aboard an Angara-1.2 rocket
to a 0110 LTDN sun-synch orbit. Three of the satellites were tracked in a 321 x 337 km x 96.6 deg orbit.
Space Force reports one object in a 287 x 957 km orbit, which is unexpected and I'll be looking for
updated orbit data to confirm this.
Electron
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On Aug 24 Rocket Lab launched an Electron from Mahia carrying five secret commercial satellites.
The satellites are likely either for Echostar Australia or E-Space.
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
Aug 13 0037 METOP SG-A1 Ariane 62 Kourou Weather 172 802 x 806 x 97.7
Aug 13 0056 USA 554 Vulcan VC4S Canaveral LC41 Tech 173 35700 x 35800 x 0?
NTS 3 Nav 173 35700 x 35800 x 0?
Aug 13 0643 Weixing Hulianwang Digui 08 Chang Zheng 5B/YZ2 Wenchang LC101 Comms 174 1080 x 1110 x 86.5
Aug 14 0505 Starlink Group 17-4 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 175 265 x 278 x 97.6
Aug 14 1229 Starlink Group 10-20 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 176 264 x 275 x 53.2
Aug 15 0117 Weixing Hulianwang Jishu 07 Zhuque-2 Jiuquan LC96A Unk F07 -5000?x500? x50
Aug 17 0855 Shiyan 28B-02 Chang Zheng 4C Xichang LC3 EO Sci? 177A 792 x 797 x 11.0
Aug 17 1415 Weixing Hulianwang Digui 09 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 178 985 x 1010 x 86.5
Aug 18 1627 Starlink Group 17-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 179 265 x 278 x 97.6
Aug 19 0733 Zhongke-1 05 (Haishao-2) Lijian-1 Jiuquan Radar 180 520 x 540 x 97.5
Tianyan-26 Imaging 180
DGS 2-01 Tech? 180
DGS 2-02 Tech? 180
DGS 2-03 Tech? 180
ThumbSat-1 Tech 180
ThumbSat-2 Edu 180
Aug 20 1713 Bion-M No. 2 Soyuz-2-1b Baykonur LC31 LifeSci 181A 191 x 347 x 96.9
Aug 21 0932 Kosmos (4) Angara 1.2 Plesetsk Imaging? 182 321 x 337 x 96.6
Aug 22 0350 X-37B OTV-8 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceplane 183A 327 x 334 x 49.5
LIMASAT Unknown 183B 334 x 339 x 49.4
Aug 22 1704 Starlink Group 17-6 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 184 266 x 280 x 97.6
Aug 23 2242 UNKNOWN Electron Mahia LC1A ? 185A 654 x 668 x 98.0
Aug 24 0645 Dragon CRS-33 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Cargo 186A 374 x 377 x 51.6
Aug 25 1908 Weixing Hulianwang Digui 10 Chang Zheng 8A Hainan LC1 Comms 187 866 x 877 x 50.0
Aug 26 1853 NAOS Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 188A 458 x 464 x 97.3
Firefly 4, 5, 6 Imaging 188 595 x 603 x 97.8
Pelican 300a and 300b Imaging 188 458 x 464 x 97.3
LEAP-1 Tech 188 595 x 603 x 97.8
Capella 16 Radar 188 595 x 603 x 97.8
Aug 26 2330 Starship 37 (FT10) Starship Starbase OLP1 Test U03 2? x 192 x 26.5
Aug 27 1110 Starlink Group 10-56 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 189 262 x 276 x 53.2
Aug 28 0812 Starlink Group 10-11 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 190 265 x 276 x 53.2
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Aug 12 1000 RockSat-X Terrier Imp.Mal. Wallops Education 160? Atlantic
Aug 20 Agni RV Agni V Chandipur IC 4 Test 800 Indian Ocean
Aug 22 0610 CPS FT-3R? STARS ICBM-T1? Kodiak Hypersonic 500? Kwajalein
Aug 28 0243 TOMEX+ 41.123CE Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops LA2 ARC Atmospheric 154? Atlantic
Aug 28 0244 TOMEX+ 41.124CE Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops LA2 MRL Atmospheric 154? Atlantic
Aug 28 0248 TOMEX+ 36.335CE Black Brant 9 Wallops LA2 50K Atmospheric 135? Atlantic
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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