Jonathan's Space Report No. 816 2023 Feb 14 Somerville, MA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 68 continues. On Jan 18 at 1457 UTC Progress MS-20 fired its engines for a 1.0m/s boost of the ISS orbit. On Jan 20 astronauts Wakata and Mann made spacewalk US EVA-84 to install mounting brackets for another IROSA solar array on the 1A power channel base on the S4 truss segment. They used spacesuits 3004 and 3009, and the airlock was depressurized from 1300 to 2036 UTC. The Quest airlock hatch was open from 1312 to 2015 UTC. Most of the 1A mod kit was successfully installed but the crew ran into problems with the left middle strut, whose installation will be left to a later spacewalk. On Jan 31 the Canadarm-2 removed the IROSA flight support equipment (FSE) from the MBS POA and at about 1726 UTC jettisoned it. Mass of the FSE, which was used to deliver two IROSA solar arrays, is probably about 500 kg. The object has been cataloged as 55448, 1998-067VB. On Feb 3 at 1030 UTC Progress MS-20 fired its engines for a 1.4m/s ISS altitude boost. ISS is now in a 412 x 424 km x 51.6 deg orbit. On Feb 7 at 0456 UTC Progress MS-20 undocked from Zvezda. After a deorbit burn at 0804 UTC it reentered the atmosphere over the S Paciic at 0837 UTC. Progress MS-22 (spacecraft 452, flight 83P) was launched from Baykonur on Feb 9 with 2542 kg of cargo for ISS. It docked with the Zvezda module at 0249 UTC Feb 11. On Feb 11 the Progress MS-21 cargo ship sprang a leak in its external cooling system - apparently just like the Dec 15 incident on Soyuz MS-22 which was originally blamed on a meteoroid hit. GPS III-6 --------- The GPS Block III Space Vehicle 06 navigation satellite, 'Amelia Earhart', was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 on Jan 18 to a MEO transfer orbit. The Falcon 9 second stage made a perigee lowering burn at around 1400 UTC, leading to its reentry over the Indian Ocean at about 1840 UTC at the end of its first orbit. By Jan 31 the GPS satellite had circularized its orbit. As of Feb 12 the satellite is in a 20160 x 20203 km x 55.1 deg orbit. Transporter-6 ------------- On Jan 16 D-Orbit ejected the TAUSAT2 (also called TAUSAT3) and SharjahSat cubesats from ION SCV008. On Jan 18 Spacemind's FUTURA-SM1 was ejected from SCV008. On Jan 20 Spacemind's FUTURA-SM3 was ejected from SCV008. Danny Lentz points out an FCC filing that implies EWS RROCI failed to deploy from Transporter 6. It is thought to have been in a Maverick cubesat deployer. Presumably it reentered along with the F9 second stage on the day of launch. Starlink -------- Starlink Group 2-4 (51 satellites) was launched on Jan 19 into a 70 deg orbit. Starlink Group 5-2 (56 satellites) was launched on Jan 26 into a 43 deg orbit. Starlink Group 2-6 (49 satellites) was launched on Jan 31 into a 70 deg orbit along with D-Orbit's ION SCV009. Starlink Group 5-3 (53 satellites) was launched on Feb 2 into a 43 deg orbit. Starlink Group 5-4 (55 satellites) was launched on Feb 12 into a 43 deg orbit. ABL-SS RS1 ----------- ABL Space Systems has released more details on the RS1 SN01 failure after launch from Kodiak LP3C at 2327:30 UTC Jan 10. Preliminary analysis suggests that a fire started in the aft part of the rocket at liftoff and spread to the avionics system, causing total electrical failure which triggered an orderly shutdown of all engines at T+11 seconds. The vehicle reached an apogee of about 0.27 km at T+13s and fell back to impact 18m east of the pad at T+22s. IGS R-7 ------- Japan's Joho shushu eisei reda 7-go, or IGS Radar-7 satellite, was launched from Tanegashima on Jan 26. The radar spy sat is expected to operate in a circa 500 km sun-synch orbit. Elektro-L --------- Russia's Elektro-L No. 4 weather satellite was launched on Feb 5 on a Proton-M/Blok DM-03 from Baykonur. As of Feb 12 it was drifting east over Indonesia. Amazonas Nexus -------------- The Amazonas Nexus satellite is a 4500 kg Thales Spacebus NEO electric-propulsion comms satellite with Ku and Ka band payloads for Hispamar, the Brazilian subsidiary of Spanish operator Hispasat. A Falcon 9 launched it to supersync transfer orbit on Feb 7. SSLV-D2 ------- ISRO's SSLV rocket made its second flight, and first successful one, with the SSLV-D2 mission on Feb 10. It placed the 163 kg EOS-07 test satellite in orbit along with the AzaadiSat-2 educational payload and Janus-1, a test satellite for US company Antaris. Apstar-6E ---------- Apstar-6E is slowly orbit raising from LEO to GTO, and jettisoned its propulsion module on Jan 23. On Feb 9 it reached 2323 x 7580 km x 28.5 deg; orbit raising seems to have paused at that point. Skif-D ------ Russia has now registered the Skif-D satellite with the UN, reporting it in a 287.9 min, 8071.5 x 8076.5 km x 90.0 deg orbit. It was launched Oct 22 with the 2022-139 Gonets-M trio. It has now also been cataloged by Space Force as object 54153, and the Fregat stage is 54154. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Jan ? USA 340 LDPE-2, GEO Drift Tech? 22-144E USA 341 LDPE-2, GEO Drift Tech? 22-144F Jan 10 0450 OneWeb L16 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 04 584 x 601 x 86.5 Jan 10 2327 Varisat 1A RS-1 Kodiak LP3C Comms F02 -6378 x 0 x 97 Varisat 1B Jan 12? Skykraft 1A SK Carrier, LEO Comms 01 Skykraft 1B Comms 01 Skykraft 1C Comms 01 Skykraft 1D Comms 01 Jan 12 1810 Apstar 6E Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Comms 05 228 x 641 x 28.5 Jan 13 0700 Yaogan 37 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan ? 06 508 x 522 x 43.2 Shiyan 22A Tech 06 Shiyan 22B Tech 06 Jan ? LINUS-A 1 LDPE-2, GEO Drift Tech 22-144G LINUS-A 2 LDPE-2, GEO Drift Tech 22-144H Jan 15 0314? Qilu-2 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 07 488 x 504 x 97.4 Qilu-3 Imaging 07 Luojia-3-01 Tech 07 Jilin-1 GF03D-34 Imaging 07 Jilin-1 MF02A03 Imaging 07 Jilin-1 MF02A04 Imaging 07 Jilin-1 MF02A07 Imaging 07 Haihe-1 Imaging 07 Wofuman Imaging 07 Beiyou-1 Tech 07 Jin Zijing 6 Imaging 07 Jin Zijing 3 Imaging 07 Jin Zijing 4 Imaging 07 Tianzhi-2D Imaging 07 Jan 15 2256 CBAS 2 Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC39A Comms 08A 35199 x 35251 x 0.1 LPDE-3A Tech 08B Jan 16 TAUSAT2 ION SCV008, LEO Tech 01BS 516 x 537 x 97.5 Jan 16 SharjahSat-1 ION SCV008, LEO Tech 01CZ 516 x 537 x 97.5 Jan 18 1224 GPS III SV06 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Nav 09A 392 x 20163 x 55.0 Jan 18 FUTURA-SM1 ION SCV008, LEO Tech 01DA 513 x 536 x 97.5 Jan 19 1543 Starlink Group 2-4 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 10A 212 x 332 x 70.0 Jan 20 FUTURA-SM3 ION SCV008, LEO Tech 01DB 508 x 527 x 97.5 Jan 24 2300 Hawk 6A Electron MARS LA0C Sigint 11A 547 x 551 x 40.5 Hawk 6B Sigint 11B Hawk 6C Sigint 11C Jan 26 0150 IGS Radar-7 H-IIA Tanegashima Radar 12A 490 x 510 x 97? Jan 26 0932 Starlink Group 5-2 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 13A 212 x 336 x 43.0 Jan 31 1615 Starlink Group 2-6 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 14A 326 x 338 x 70.0 ION SCV009 Tug 14 326 x 338 x 70.0 Feb 3 0758 Starlink Group 5-3 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 15A 322 x 342 x 43.0 Feb 5 0912 Elektro-L No. 4L Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Weather 16A 35379 x 35502 x 0.6 Feb 7 0132 Amazonas Nexus Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 17A 338 x 59587 x 25.1 Feb 9 0615 Progress MS-22 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 18A 270 x 314 x 51.6 Feb 9 0348 EOS-07 SSLV Satish Dhawan Tech 19A 443 x 460 x 37.2 AzaadiSat-2 Tech 19 JANUS-1 Tech 19 Feb 12 0510 Starlink Group 5-4 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 20A 296 x 338 x 43.0 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Feb 10 0701 GT245GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300? Kwajalein .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | 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 | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'