Jonathan's Space Report No. 811 2022 Oct 28 Somerville, MA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- In mid-September Expedition 67 continued with Oleg Artem'ev, Denis Matveev, Sergey Korsakov, Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti, Jessica Watkins, Sergey Prokop'ev, Dmitriy Petelin and Frank Rubio aboard the ISS. On Sep 29, Artem'ev, Matveev and Korsakov undocked from the Prichal module in Soyuz MS-21 'Korolev' at 0734 UTC, with a deorbit burn at 1003 UTC returning them to a landing in Kazakhstan at 1057 UTC. Expedition 68 officially began at 0734 UTC Sep 29, under the command of Samantha Cristoforetti. Dragon Crew-5 was launched on Oct 5 at 1600 UTC, using capsule C210 Endurance on its second flight, with crew Nicole Mann (NASA), Josh Cassada (NASA), Koichi Wakata (JAXA) and Anna Kikina (Roskosmos). It docked with ISS port IDA-2 at 2101 UTC Oct 6. Dragon Crew-4 (Freedom) undocked from IDA-3 at 1605 UTC Oct 14 with Lindgren, Hines, Cristforetti and Watkins. It jettisoned its trunk into orbit at 1956 UTC and made a 16m40s deorbit burn starting at 2001 UTC, with splashdown in the Jacksonville recovery area near 80.1W 30.8N at about 2055:03 UTC. The Progress MS-19 cargo ship undocked from the Poisk module on Oct 23 at 2245 UTC and made its deorbit burn at 0151 UTC Oct 24 for reentry over the Pacific. Progress MS-21 was launched on Oct 26 carrying 2520 kg of cargo for ISS and docked with the Poisk module at 0248 UTC Oct 28. Chinese Space Station ----------------------- On Sep 30 the Wentian module was unberthed from the Tianhe axial port and moved through 90 degrees to be reberthed at the starboard docking port, leaving the station in an L-shaped configuration. This is similar to the process used for the Kvant-2 module on the Mir station in Dec 1989. The operation was completed at 0444 UTC Sep 30. Starlink -------- Starlink Group 4-29 (52 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Oct 5. Starlink Group 4-36 (54 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Oct 20. Starlink Group 4-31 (53 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Oct 28. Firefly -------- Firefly Aerospace's second Alpha rocket was launched from Vandenberg on Oct 1 and successfully reached a low retrograde Earth orbit. The payloads were two 3U cubesats - Serenity for Teachers In Space, and NASA's TechEdSat-15 - and five PocketQube satellites - two for Amsat-Spain and two for LibreSpace, each with masses only around 0.3 kg. Launch of Alpha flight FLTA0002 was at 0701 UTC, with second stage first cutoff at 0708 UTC followed by a 2-second circularization burn at 0754 UTC. The payloads were deployed at 0801 (Serenity), 0802 (TES-15) and 0803 UTC (PocketQubes). The orbit was rather lower than planned, with correspondingly short lifetimes for the payloads, all of which reentered by Oct 12. I am scoring the launch as OS75 (a 75 percent score, overall assessed a marginal success). SES-20/21 --------- On Oct 4 United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V 531, flight AV-099, with the SES 20 and 21 C-band communications satellites. The Centaur made three burns to 163 x 611 km x 28.1 deg, 193 x 35000 km x 26.1 deg, and 34765 x 35003 km x 1.9 deg, deploying the two satellites in near-geosynchronous orbits. Both satellites are Boeing 702SP satellites with four XIPS-25 electric propulsion thrusters. Galaxy 33/34 ------------ Two C-band communications satellites for Intelsat were launched by Falcon 9 on Oct 8 to subsynchronous transfer orbit. Galaxy 33 and 34 are Northrop Grumman Star-2 satellites with mass around 3500 kg. GAzelle -------- Rocket Lab's Electron placed the GAzelle (Orbital Test Bed 3) satellite in orbit for the Colorado company General Atomics. The 118 kg satellite carries the Argos 4 meteorology data relay payload for NOAA and CNES. CALT launches -------------- CALT launched a CZ-11 on Oct 7 from the DEFU15002 barge in the Yellow Sea, located at around 121.2E 36.6N. Two Centispace (Weili Kongkian) navigation satellites were placed in a 700 km, 55 deg orbit. On Oct 12 China's CALT launched a CZ-2C with the Huanjing Jianzai 2-05 satellite. The satellite is also called 5-m S-SAR 01, and carries a large mesh S-band antenna with 5 metre resolution for remote sensing. SAST launches -------------- SAST launched a CZ-2D from Jiuquan on Oct 8 with the ASO-S advanced solar observatory, named Kuafu-1. The 888 kg observatory was placed in a 720 km sun-synch orbit with 0600 local time orbital plane descending node. It carries a magnetic field imager, a Lyman-alpha ultraviolet telescope, and a hard X-ray imager. SAST launched another CZ-2D on Oct 14, with the second Yaogan 36 payload. Kosmos-2559 ----------- On Oct 10 Russia launched the Glonass-K1 No. 17L navigation satellite, with cover name Kosmos-2559. Epsilon 6 --------- JAXA's Epsilon rocket was launched on Oct 12 with a cluster of small satellites, but failed to reach orbit. The rocket failed due to an attitude control problem during second stage coast and a destruct signal was sent prior to stage 2/3 separation. Angosat 2 --------- Angola's second communications satellite, Angosat 2, was launched on Oct 12 on a Proton with an Energiya DM-03 upper stage. Angosat-2 was built by ISS Reshetnev and uses the Ekspress-1000N bus. Hot Bird -------- Eutelsat's latest high power Ku-band communications satellite, Hot Bird 13F, was launched on Oct 15 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral to supersynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite is the first Airbus/Toulouse Eurostar Neo model, with PPS-5000 electric propulsion thrusters. Kosmos-2560 ------------ On Oct 15 the Russian Space Forces launched the second Angara-1.2 orbital flight with the third EO-MKA satellite, Kosmos-2560. Previous EO-MKA missions have not changed their orbit and reentered within a few weeks. The Angara-1.2 AM upper stage was deorbited over the Pacific after deploying the payload in a sun-sync orbit with 11:30 local time descending node. Kosmos-2561/2562 ---------------- On Oct 21 Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1v/Volga placing two small military satellites in sun-synchronous orbit. The nature of the satellites is unknown. OneWeb L14 ---------- OneWeb's constellation deployment on Soyuz rockets was interrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Oct 22 their launches resumed, this time on an Indian LVM3 (also known as GSLV3) rocket. 36 satellites were placed in a 600 km deployment orbit and will later raise to 1200 km. Gonets/Skif ----------- On Oct 22 Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1b from Vostochniy with three Gonets-M messaging satellites and Skif-D, a test satellite for the Sfera internet constellation - a Russian analog to OneWeb. The Fregat upper stage entered a 200 x 200 km orbit around 2012 UTC. At 2032 UTC it changed to a 200 x 1500 km x 82 deg orbit, and at 2124 UTC a third burn reached a 1482 x 1500 km x 82.5 deg orbit where the three Gonets-M sats were deployed. At 2220 UTC and 2358 UTC two more Fregat burns moved the stage to an 8000 km medium Earth orbit; the Skif-D satellite was deployed at 0005 UTC Oct 23. No orbital data were available from US Space Force for the Skif-D and the Fregat as of Oct 27. Juno ---- The Juno probe, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, made a 354 km flyby of Europa at 0936 UTC Sep 29. Lucy ----- The Lucy space probe completed its first orbit of the Sun with a 360 km perigee gravity assist at 0655 UTC Oct 16, changing its solar orbit from 0.84 x 1.16 AU x 0.2 deg to 1.00 x 2.27 AU x 0.1 deg. Lucy's Centaur, AV-096, made an unexpectedly close flyby after its trip round the Sun, with a perigee of only 2720 km. It was initially cataloged as a new asteroid close encounter, 2022 UQ1, but Bill Gray quickly identified it as AV-096 after inspection of the orbital elements. AV-096's solar orbit was changed from 0.84 x 1.16 AU x 0.2 deg to 0.52 x 1.00 AU x 1.4 deg, sending it within the orbit of Venus. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Sep 11 0120 BlueWalker 3 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 111AL 502 x 518 x 53.2 Starlink Group 4-2 Comms 111 325 x 335 x 53.2 Sep 11 2314 LICIACube DART, solar orbit Probe 21-110 Sep 13 1318 Zhongxing-1E Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Comms 112A 197 x 35785 x 13.9 Sep 15 2038 StriX-1 Electron Mahia LC1B Radar 113A 557 x 575 x 97.7 Sep 19 0018 Starlink Group 4-34 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 114A 232 x 336 x 53.2 Sep 20 2315 Yunhai-1 03 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Meteo 115A 754 x 775 x 98.5 Sep 21 1354 Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 116A 184 x 212 x 51.6 Sep 24 2225 USA 338 Delta 4 Heavy Vandenberg SLC6 Imaging 117A 366 x 416 x 73.6 Sep 24 2255 Shiyan 14 Kuaizhou-1A Taiyuan Tech 118A 488 x 506 x 97.5 Shiyan 15 Tech 118B 488 x 502 x 97.5 Sep 24 2332 Starlink Group 4-35 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 119A 232 x 336 x 53.2 Sep 26 1338 Yaogan 36 hao 01 zu A xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Sigint? 120A 485 x 498 x 35.0 Yaogan 36 hao 01 zu B xing Sigint? 120 Yaogan 36 hao 01 zu C xing Sigint? 120 Sep 26 2350 Shiyan 16A Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Tech 121 505 x 521 x 97.5 Shiyan 16B Tech 121 Shiyan 17 Tech 121 Oct 1 0701 FossaSat-1B Alpha Vandenberg SLC2W Imaging? 122 219 x 279 x 136.9 Serenity Edu 122 Qubik-1 Tech Qubik-2 Tech TES-15 Tech Genesis G Comms Genesis J Comms Oct 4 2136 SES-20 Atlas V 531 Canaveral SLC41 Comms 123A 34958 x 35021 x 1.9 SES-21 Comms 123B 34710 x 35018 x 1.9 Oct 5 1600 Dragon Crew-5 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 124A 208 x 228 x 51.7 Oct 5 2310 Starlink Group 4-29 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 125 301 x 312 x 53.2 Oct 7 1310 Weili Kongjian S5 Chang Zheng 11 DEFU 15002, Yellow Sea Nav 126A 689 x 709 x 55.0 Weili Kongjian S6 Nav 126 B Oct 7 1709 GAzelle Electron Mahia LC1B Tech 127A 744 x 761 x 98.3 Oct 8 2305 Galaxy 33 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 128A 302 x 19820 x 26.8 Galaxy 34 Comms 128B 307 x 19836 x 26.8 Oct 8 2343 Kuafu-1 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Solar phys 129A 713 x 732 x 98.3 Oct 10 0252 Kosmos-2559 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk Nav 130A 19146 x 19157 x 64.8 Oct 12 0050 RAISE-3 Epsilon Uchinoura E Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? QPS-SAR-3 Radar F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? QPS-SAR-4 Radar F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? MITSUBA Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? WASEDA-SAT-ZERO Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? MAGNARO-1/MAGNARO-2 Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? KOSEN-2 Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? FSI-SAT Tech F04 -4850 x 237 x 97.5? Oct 12 1500 Angosat-2 Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Comms 131A 36179 x 36195 x 0.0 Oct 12 2253 Huanjing Jinzai 2-05 Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Radar 132A 486 x 503 x 97.4 Oct 14 1912 Yaogan 36 hao 02 zu A xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Sigint? 133A 485 x 497 x 35.0 Yaogan 36 hao 02 zu B xing Sigint? 133 Yaogan 36 hao 02 zu C xing Sigint? 133 Oct 15 0522 Hot Bird 13F Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 134A 376 x 55950 x 27.1 Oct 15 1955 Kosmos-2560 Angara-1.2 Plesetsk LC35/1 Imaging? 135A 329 x 344 x 96.5 Oct 20 1450 Starlink Group 4-36 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 136A 232 x 333 x 53.2 Oct 21 1920 Kosmos-2561 Soyuz-2-1V/Volga Plesetsk LC43/4 Tech? 137A 407 x 419 x 97.1 Kosmos-2562 Tech? 137B 407 x 419 x 97.1 Oct 22 1837 OneWeb L14 LVM3 Satish Dhawah SLP Comms 138 588 x 606 x 87.4 Oct 22 1957 Gonets-M No. 33 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Vostochniy Comms 139A 1480 x 1501 x 82.5 Gonets-M No. 34 Comms 139B 1480 x 1501 x 82.5 Gonets-M No. 35 Comms 139C 1480 x 1501 x 82.5 Skif-D Comms 139D UNKNOWN Oct 26 0020 Progress MS-21 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Cargo 140A 257 x 282 x 51.6 Oct 28 0114 Starlink Group 4-31 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 141 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Sep? RV Fateh-360 ?, Iran Test 100? Arabian Sea? Sep 3 0650 IAD RH-300 Mk II TERLS Reentry test 84? Arabian Sea Sep 7 0813 GT244GM (3 RV) Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op. Test 1300? Kwajalein Sep 24 Test rocket Two Stage P to O Black Rock Test 100? Black Rock Sep 26 0410 tREXS Black Brant IX White Sands XR Astron 252 White Sands Oct 1 0626 TEXUS 57 VSB-30 Kiruna Micrograv 260? ESRANGE Oct 1 1730 MESOS MESOS Black Rock Test 89 Black Rock Oct 3? Saman Test Kavoshgar? Shahroud? Test 100 Iran Oct 3 2222 Hwasong RV? Hwasong 12A? Mupyong? Test 970 N Pacific Oct 4 1500? ATACMS ATACMS Gangneung Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 4 1500? ATACMS ATACMS Gangneung Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 4 1500? ATACMS ATACMS Gangneung Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 4 1500? ATACMS ATACMS Gangneung Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 4 1600? Hyunmoo RV Hyunmoo-2 Gangneung Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 5 2101 KN-25? KN-25? Samsok Test 80? Sea of Japan Oct 8 1645 KN-25? KN-25? Wonsan Test 90? Sea of Japan Oct 8 1658 KN-25? KN-25? Wonsan Test 90? Sea of Japan Oct 14 RV K-15? INS S73 Test 500? Bay of Bengal Oct 18 0400? RV Tayfun Rize-Artvin Test 100? Black Sea Oct 21 0725 MAPHEUS 12 IM/IM Kiruna Micrograv 260 ESRANGE Oct 26 1830 Hypersonic Test Terrier Imp.Mal? Wallops I Reentry test 200? Atlantic .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'