Jonathan's Space Report
No. 855 draft 2026 Apr 1 Somerville, MA, USA
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ISS
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Expedition 74 continues.
Artemis II
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The Artemis II mission was launched on Apr 1. The SLS core stage CS-2 entered a 28 x 2222 km x 28.5 deg
orbit at 2243 UTC and after reaching apgoee at 2331 UTC reentered over the Pacific at about Apr 2 0019 UTC.
At 2325 UTC the ICPS-2/Artemis II upper stage vehicle made a rocket firing near apogee to boost perigee, reaching
a 185 x 2222 km orbit, and another burn near perigee at 0023 UTC, reaching a 2 x 70354 km orbit.
The Orion spacecraft, `Integrity', separated from the ICPS at 0157 UTC Apr 2. After some test flying of the Orion
using the ICPS stage as a stationkeeping target, Integrity made a separation burn at 0325 UTC to a 56 x 70152 km orbit.
At 0335 UTC the ICPS made a disposal burn to adjust its reentry trajectory. I don't have details of this burn, but
ICPS-2 reentered over the Pacific near 148W 28N at about 2330 UTC Apr 2. At 0404 UTC ICPS-2 deployed
four 12U cubesats from the Orion Stage Adapter: Atenea (CONAE, Argentina),
SWC-1 (Saudi Space Agency), Tacheles (Neurospace/DLR, Germany) and K-RAD-Cube (Korean Space Agency).
Several of them used onboard propulsion to raise their perigee and avoid immediate reentry.
Integrity made another perigee-raising burn at 1207 UTC Aptr 2, to a 192 x 70174 km orbit. It reaached
apogee around 1210 UTC and began falling back towards perigee. The TLI (translunar injection) burn
from 2349:50 to 2355:41 UTC put Integrity on course for the Moon.
Starlink launches
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Starlink Group 10-58 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Apr 2 from Canaveral.
Chinese commercial launches
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Space Pioneer launched the first full Tianlong-3 rocket from Jiuquan on Apr 3.
Preliminary reports suggest that it failed to reach orbit.
Russian launches
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A launch from Plesetsk on Apr 3 may be a Meridian military comms satellite. Details awaited.
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
Mar 17 0519 Starlink Group 17-24 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 53 242 x 247 x 97.3
Mar 17 1327 Starlink Group 10-46 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 54 252 x 258 x 53.2
Mar 19 1420 Starlink Group 10-33 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 55 256 x 268 x 53.1
Mar 20 1810 StriX-6 Electron Mahia LC1B Radar 56A 556 x 578 x 50.3
Mar 20 2151 Starlink Group 17-15 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 57 238 x 251 x 97.3
Mar 22 1159 Progress MS-33 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 58A 263 x 279 x 51.6
Mar 22 1447 Starlink Group 10-62 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 59 256 x 267 x 53.2
Mar 22 1549 Weili Kongjian 02 zu 01-10 Jielong-3 DFHT, Yellow Sea Nav 60 635 x 635 x 55.0
Mar 23 1724 Rassvet-3 1 to 16 Soyuz-2-1b Plesetsk Comms 61 288 x 323 x 82.3
OBZP-1 Comms 61
Mar 25 2251 Siwei Gaojing 2-05 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 62A 500 x 513 x 97.4
Siwei Gaojing 2-06 Imaging 62B
Mar 26 2303 Starlink Group 17-17 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 63 237 x 251 x 97.3
Mar 27 0411 Shiyan 33 Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S Jiuquan Tech 64A 499 x 592 x 97.4
Mar 28 0914 Celeste IOD-1 Electron Mahia LC1 Nav 65A 500 x 522 x 97.4
Celeste IOD-2
Mar 30 1100 Xinzhengcheng-02 Lijian-2 Jiuquan LC140 Cargo 66A 255 x 613 x 85.0
Xinzhengcheng-01 Imaging? 66
Tianshi-01 Tech? 66
Mar 30 1102 Transporter-16 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 67 593 x 594 x 97.8
Mar 30 2115 Starlink Group 10-44 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 68 251 x 264 x 53.2
Apr 1 2235 Integrity (Artemis 2) SLS Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 69A 201 x 406771 x 28.4
ATENEA Tech 69 61 x 70276 x 28.4
SWC-1 Sci 69
Tacheles Tech 69
K-RAD-CUBE Sci 69
Apr 2 1155 Starlink Group 10-58 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 70 255 x 266 x 53.2
Apr 3 0417? Dummy payload? Tianlong-3 Jiuquan Test F05? -6300? x 50? x ?
Apr 3 0628 Kosmos Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat? Plesetsk Comms? 71A
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Daily exoatmospheric missile launches in the Middle East conflict continue, but are not listed here.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Mar 17 JFTX1 E1 Terrier Oriole? Wallops Target 100? Atlantic
Mar 19 JFTX1 E2 Terrier Oriole? Wallops Target 100? Atlantic
Mar 26 1630 Dark Eagle CHGB Booster Canaveral SLC46 Test 150? Atlantic
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 USA | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| and | twitter: @planet4589 |
| Bromley, UK |
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