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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 830                                                           2024 Mar  1   Somerville, MA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Space Station
---------------------------

Expedition 70 continues. 

Axiom-3 undocked at 1420 UTC Feb 7, ejected its trunk into a 223 x 293 km orbit
at about 1237 UTC Feb 9, and made its deorbit burn at 1241 UTC for splashdown
in the Daytona recovery area near 80.7W 29.8N at 1330 UTC Feb 9.

Progress MS-24 undocked from the Zvezda module at 0209 UTC Feb 13 and made
its deorbit burn at 0516 UTC, with reentry over the S Pacific around 0552 UTC.

Progress MS-26 was launched on Feb 15 by Soyuz-2-1a from Baykonur with
2500 kg of cargo. It docked with the Zvezda aft port at 0606 UTC Feb 17.
On Feb 24 at 0021 UTC it fired its engines to adjust the ISS orbit with a 1.2 m/s burn.

Chinese Space Station
---------------------

The CSS made an orbit raise burn of about 5 m/s on Feb 19 around 0935 UTC, probably
using the engines on the Tianzhou-7 freighter.

Jielong-3
---------

On Feb 3 the China Long March Rocket Co. launched a Jielong-3 from the Borun Jiuzhou barge in the South China Sea.
near 112.05E 21.54N, placing nine satellites in a 1035 LTDN sun-synchonous orbit.
The payloads include the Egyptian NEXSAT-1 satellite (developed in conjunction with Berlin
Space Technologies), the Weihai-1 01 and 02 laser communications test satellites with payloads
from Weihai Laser Comm. Advanced Tech Research Inst., the Xingshidai-18 to 20 satellites from Guoxing Yuhang
Keji (XSD-19 in collaboration with Beijing Star Mobile Lianxin Tech Dev Co Ltd and XSD-20 with Sichuan Satellite TV);
the  Xunming Laojia 1 and  Yantai-2 imaging satellites from Luhai Kongjian (Yantai) Xinxi Jishu YG
(Land and Sea Space Info Tech Co.)
and the Zhixing-2A radar satellite
from Jinan Zhixing Space Technology Co., Ltd. One of the satellites is also called
DRO-L, but it's not clear which one.

PACE
-----

NASA's PACE ocean color monitoring satellite was launched by Falcon 9 from Canaveral on Feb 8.

Kosmos-2575
-----------

A new low orbit Russian Ministry of Defense satellite was launched on Feb 9. It appears to be
similar to the Kosmos-2574 mission launched in December.

Starlink launches
------------------

Starlink Group 7-13 (22 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Feb 10.
Starlink Group 7-14 (22 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Feb 15.
Starlink Group 7-15 (22 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Feb 23.
Starlink Group 6-39 (24 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 25.
Starlink Group 6-40 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Feb 29.

USSF-124
--------

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Feb 14 on the USSF-124 mission with
two HBTSS missile tracking satellites for the US Missile Defence Agency and four
Tranche 0 Tracking Layer missile tracking satellites for the US Space Development Agency.
One HBTSS is built by Northrop Grumman; the remaining five payloads were built by
L3-Harris. The satellites were sent to a 1000 km circular orbit. The Falcon 9
second stage made a deorbit burn at the end of the first orbit over the eastern US
and reentered southeast of Madagascar.

IM-1
----

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Feb 15 deploying the Intuitive Machines IM-1 Odysseus
lander on a translunar trajectory. The Falcon 9 entered a 160 x 242 km x 28.6 deg parking
orbit at 0612 UTC. Over the Indian Ocean at 0646 UTC the stage re-ignited
to a 223 x 411633 km x 28.6 deg translunar orbit. The IM-1 separated from the second
stage at 0653 UTC. The second stage made a lunar flyby and will enter solar orbit.

IM-1 entered the lunar gravitational sphere of influence at 2047 UTC Feb 20
and entered a 100 km lunar polar orbit at 1436 UTC on Feb 21.
Late on Feb 21 the orbit was adjusted to an elliptical one of around 12 x 250 km.

It was discovered during tests of the system near perilune that the
prime laser rangefinders did not work because of a switch misconfiguration
during launch processing; controllers delayed the landing for an orbit
while converting the software to use the experimental NDL system for
altitude data. This mostly worked but no altimeter data were available
for the final part of the descent, and the lander touched down when it thought
it still had 100 metres to go.

Powerered descent from 12 km began at 2312 UTC prior to landing near crater Malapert A
at 2323 UTC on Feb 22. The lander partly toppled over at touchdown, ending up inclined
30 degrees to the horizontal, but still transmitting.

The Embry-Riddle Eaglecam cubesat was intended to be ejected from the lander just before
touchdown but because of the nav system change this did not occur. It was eventually
ejected on Jan 28 but returned no data.

Some data return was achieved from all the experiments on the lander, which
fell silent for the lunar night on Feb 29. It's unclear whether or not
it will revive at the next dawn.

H3 TF2
------

The second test flight of Japan's H3 rocket, on Feb 17, was successful.
Two small sats were deployed to sun-sync orbit. The large (2900 kg?) VEP-4 dummy payload
remained attached to the second stage which was deorbited over the Indian Ocean.

GSLV-F14
--------

ISRO launched GSLV-F14 on Feb 17, placing the INSAT-3DS satellite in geotransfer orbit.
The 2275 kg satellite carries meteorological imagers, a meteo data relay payload, and
a UHF search and rescue transponder.

ADRAS-J
-------

The Astroscale ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal By Astroscale - Japan) satellite
was launched from New Zealand by Electron flight 44. The mission of the 150 kg
satellite is to carry out proximity operations with and to inspect the
H-2A-F15 upper stage (33500, 2009-002J). As of Feb 29 ADRAS-J had not made any significant orbit
changes.

Merah Putih 2
-------------

On Feb 20 SpaceX launched the Merah Putih 2 satellite for the Indonesian company Telkom
to supersync transfer orbit.  The satellite is a 4000 kg Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000B2.

Meteor-M 2-4
------------

On Feb 29 Roskosmos launched the Meteor-M No. 2-4 weather satellite and 17 small Russian
sats, as well as Iran's Pars-1 small imaging satellite, to a 0300 LTDN sun-sync orbit.

The Soyuz third stage entered a marginal orbit of around 12 x 180 km x 98.6 deg at 0552 UTC and reentered
over the Atlantic nrear 25N 42W at about 0613 UTC.

The Fregat stage made its first burn at 0554 UTC to a 180 x 800 km x 98.6 deg orbit.
A second burn at apogee at 0640 UTC reached an 812 x 824 km x 98.6 deg orbit.
Meteor-M No. 2-4 was deployed in this orbit.

Fregat burn 3 was probably around 0722 UTC, lowering perigee to 500 km.
Fregat burn 4 followed at 0810 UTC, circularizing at 486 x 509 km x 97.4 deg.

14 objects were deployed in this orbit. These were probably twelve SITRO-AIS 3U cubesats for Sitronics
the Zorkiy-2M No. 2 imaging sat also for Sitronics, and Iran's Pars-1 134 kg imaging satellite.

At 0848 UTC Fregat made burn 5, to a 502 x 750 km x 95.4 deg orbit.
Four more satellites were deployed in this orbit, likely the final four SITRO-AIS 3U cubesats.

At 0936 UTC Fregat made a 6th burn, to a 732 x 752 km x 89.0 deg orbit, a sigificant inclination change.
One satellite was deployed here, likely the Marafon-D GVM, a dummy test satellite for the Marafon
communications constellation.

According to Space Force sources the final cataloged object, in a 710 x 752 km x 89.0 deg orbit,
is the Fregat stage itself, which seems to have made a small passivation manuever after releasing
its final payload rather than deorbiting itself.

CALT launches
-------------

Chang Zheng 5 serial Y7 was launched from Wenchang on Feb 23 carrying the TJS 11 military
satellite to geotransfer orbit. TJS 11 is suspected to be a large SIGINT satellite of a new
generation. 

A CZ-3B was launched from Xichang on Feb 29 with Hulianwang gaogui weixing 01 xing
(High Orbit Satellite Internet 01 satellite). Orbit parameters not yet known.

X-37B
-----

The OTV 7 spaceplane has been located by observer Tomi Simola in a 323 x 38838 km x 59.1 deg orbit
with apogee near 37 deg south latitude.


Juno
-----

The Juno probe, in a 917 x 6068000 km x 97.4 deg Jovian polar orbit, made
a close flyby of Io at 1747 UTC on Feb 3 at a height of 1496 km. The close
encounter raised the probe's perijove to 2000 km.

Varda
-----

Varda Space's Winnebago-1 materials processing spacecraft returned to Earth on Feb 21.
On Feb 19 at 0558 UTC the orbit was changed from 504 x 523 km to about 302 x 508 km.
A second burn on Feb 20 at about 1953 UTC put the spacecraft into a 302 x 908 km orbit.
The Rocket Lab Photon service module then made a deorbit burn at 2044 UTC Feb 21.
The Varda W-1 capsule separated at 2108 UTC. Photon burnt up on entry while W-1
made a heat-shield-protected reentry, and landed under parachutes at 2140 UTC in
the Utah Test and Training Range, probably near 113W 40N.

Manligyeong-1
-------------

North Korea's Manligyeong-1 satellite made a series of small orbit reboosts to counteract drag
on Feb 21-24. Its orbit is now 497 x 508 km x 97.4  deg, compared to 488 x 508 km on Feb 18.


Erratum
-------

In last JSR there was a typo in the text about Tianzhou-7. Launch date was Jan 17, not Jan 14.

Table of Recent Orbital Launches
 ----------------------------------

Date UT       Name			     Launch Vehicle	 Site		 Mission  INTL.  Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl	 Notes
Jan 17 1427   Tianzhou-7                        Chang Zheng 7             Wenchang LC201   Cargo    13A   376 x 385 x 41.5
Jan 18 0643   Dalian-1 Lianli                                           TZ-6, LEO          Tech    23063C 370 x 383 x 41.5
Jan 18 2149   Axiom Ax-3                        Falcon 9                  Kennedy LC39A    Spaceship 14A  211 x 296 x 51.6
Jan 20 0628   Soraya                            Qaem-100                  Shahroud         Comms?   15A   744 x 760 x 64.5
Jan 23 0403   Taijing-1 03                      Lijian-1                  Jiuquan          Imaging  16    524 x 542 x 97.5
              Taijing-2 02                                                                 Imaging  16
              Taijing-2 04                                                                 Imaging  16
              Taijing-3 02                                                                 Imaging  16
              Taijing-4 03                                                                 Radar    16
Jan 24 0035   Starlink Group 7-11               Falcon 9                  Vandenberg SLC4E Comms    17    285 x 296 x 53.2
Jan 28 0004?  Mehda                             Simorgh                   Khomeini SC      Tech     18A   456 x 1117 x 58.7
              Hatef 1                                                                      Comms    18B?
              Kaihan 2                                                                     Tech     18C?
Jan 29 0110   Starlink Group 6-38               Falcon 9                  Kennedy LC39A    Comms    19    283 x 291 x 43.0
Jan 29 0557   Starlink Group 7-12               Falcon 9                  Vandenberg SLC4E Comms    20    285 x 294 x 53.2
Jan 30 1707   S.S. Patricia Robertson           Falcon 9                  Canaveral LC40   Cargo    21A   242 x 251 x 51.7
Jan 31 0634   Lemur-2 Nimbus2000                Electron                  Mahia LC1B       SpSurv   22A   520 x 540 x 97.5
              Lemur-2 Valhalla                                                             SpSurv   22B   520 x 540 x 97.5
              Lemur-2 Oba-Ni-Jesu                                                          SpSurv   22D   520 x 540 x 97.5
              Lemur-2 Cael                                                                 SpSurv   22E   520 x 540 x 97.5
Feb  2 2337   Geely Xingguo 02 zu 01 xing       Chang Zheng 2C            Xichang          Nav      23A   595 x 605 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 02 xing                                                  Nav      23B   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 03 xing                                                  Nav      23C   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 04 xing                                                  Nav      23D   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 05 xing                                                  Nav      23E   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 06 xing                                                  Nav      23F   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 07 xing                                                  Nav      23G   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 08 xing                                                  Nav      23H   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 09 xing                                                  Nav      23J   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 10 xing                                                  Nav      23K   594 x 607 x 50.0
              Geely Xingguo 02 zu 11 xing                                                  Nav      23L   594 x 607 x 50.0
Feb  3 0306   NEXSAT-1                          Jielong-3                BJRZ, S China Sea Imaging  24    506 x 520 x 97.4
              Xunming Laojia 1                                                             Imaging  24
              Weihai-1 01                                                                  Comms    24
              Weihai-1 02                                                                  Comms    24
              Xingshidai-18                                                              Comm/Imaging? 24
              Xingshidai-19                                                                Imaging  24
              Xingshidai-20                                                                Imaging  24
              Yantai-2                                                                     Imaging  24
              Zhixing-2A                                                                   Radar    24 
Feb  8 0633   PACE                              Falcon 9                 Canaveral LC40    Imaging  25A  673 x 676 x 98.1
Feb  9 0703   Kosmos-2575                       Soyuz-2-1v               Plesetsk LC43/4   Imaging  26A  349 x 361 x 96.8
Feb 10 0034   Starlink Group 7-13               Falcon 9                 Vandenberg SLC4E  Comms    27   284 x 294 x 53.2
Feb 14 2230   HBTSS 1                           Falcon 9                 Canaveral LC40   EarlyWarn 28A  995 x 1000 x 40.0
              HBTSS 2                                                                     EarlyWarn 28F
              RAPTOR 1                                                                    EarlyWarn 28C
              RAPTOR 2                                                                    EarlyWarn 28E
              RAPTOR 3                                                                    EarlyWarn 28D
              RAPTOR 4                                                                    EarlyWarn 28B
Feb 15 0325   Progress MS-26                    Soyuz-2-1a                Baykonur LC31     Cargo   29A  185 x 213 x 51.7  
Feb 15 0605   Odysseus IM-1                     Falcon 9                  Kennedy LC39A     Lunar   30A  223 x 411600 x 28.6
Feb 15 2134   Starlink Group 7-14               Falcon 9                 Vandenberg SLC4E  Comms    31   284 x 294 x 53.2
Feb 17 0022   VEP-4                             H3 22S                    Tanegashima Y2    Tech    32   664 x 670 x 98.1
              CE-SAT-1E                                                                    Imaging  32A?
              TIRSAT                                                                        Tech    32B?
Feb 17 1205   INSAT-3DS                         GSLV Mk II                Satish Dhawan SLP Meteo   33A  158 x 38264 x 19.5
Feb 18 1452   ADRAS-J                           Electron                  Mahia LC1B        Tech    34A  533 x 597 x 98.2
Feb 20 2011   Merah Putih 2                     Falcon 9                  Canaveral LC40    Comms   35A  316 x 54924 x 20.8
Feb 23 0411   Starlink Group 7-15               Falcon 9                 Vandenberg SLC4E  Comms    36   284 x 294 x 53.2
Feb 23 1130   TJS 11                            Chang Zheng 5            Wenchang          Sigint?  37A  218 x 35800 x 16.5
Feb 25 2206   Starlink Group 6-39               Falcon 9                 Canaveral         Comms    38   273 x 283 x 43.1
Feb 29 0543   Meteor-M No. 2-4                  Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat        Vostochniy        Weather  39A  812 x 824 x 98.6
              Pars-1                                                                       Imaging  39B? 486 x 511 x 97.4
              Marafon-D GVM                                                                Tech     39V? 731 x 751 x 89.0
              Zorkiy-2M No. 2                                                              Imaging  39C? 486 x 511 x 97.4
              SITRO-AIS-13 to -24                                                          Comms    39   486 x 511 x 97.4
              SITRO-AIS-25 to -28                                                          Comms    39   503 x 747 x 95.4
Feb 29 1303   HWGGW 01                          Chang Zheng 3B            Xichang          Comms    40A 236 x 35830 x 27.7
Feb 29 1530   Starlink Group 6-40               Falcon 9                 Canaveral         Comms    41A  273 x 283 x 43.1

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches 
-----------------------------------

Jan 26 1742   Galactic 06       Spaceship Two       Spaceport America    Tourist        89       Spaceport America
Feb  8        MRBM Target       MRBM-T2             C-17, near Kauai     Target        300?      Pacific
Feb  8        FTX-23            SM-3-IIA            DDG-85, Pacific      Interceptor   100?      Pacific
Feb 15 1442   TEXUS 60          VSB-30              ESRANGE              Microgravity  264       ESRANGE

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |  twitter: @planet4589              |
|                                                                         |
| JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html                                 |
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