Jonathan's Space Report
No. 845 2025 May 23 Somerville, MA
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Library Relocation News
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Still no definite news. I am making a brief trip to the UK next week to look at property.
I hope to have more to say next month.
International Space Station
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Expedition 73 continues.
Progress MS-30 reboosted the ISS orbit on Apr 24 (1.2 m/s) and Apr 30 (0.3 m/s).
On Apr 24 Dextre transferred the STP-H10 experiment pallet from the Dragon
CRS-32 trunk to its operating location on the Columbus module EPF, location SOX.
On Apr 25, Dextre performed the same operation for the ACES experiment,
placing it at COL EPF location SDN.
On May 1, astronauts McClain and Ayers performed spacewalk US EVA-93, in
sutis 3003 and 3015 to begin the installation of the 2A solar array Mod
Kit. The airlock was depressurized from 1256 to 1849 UTC. The
spacewalkers installed the mod kit upper triangle and lower right strut;
due to time concerns the installation was not completed and the
remaining struts were returned to the airlock. A C2V2 comms antenna was
also installed on the P4 truss during the EVA.
Chinese Space Station
----------------------
Shenzhou-20 was launched on Apr 24 carrying the CSS Expedition 9 crew of Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie.
The ship docked at Tianhe nadir at 1549 UTC, 6 h 32m after launch.
The CZ-2F upper stage was left in a low 192 x 342 km orbit. It made an uncontrolled reentry on
May 3 over the Pacific.
Shenzhou-19 undocked from the Tianhe forward port at 2000 UTC Apr 29 with Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze.
It landed in the Dongfeng recovery zone at 0508 UTC Apr 30.
On May 22 astronauts Chen D. and Chen Z. made a spacewalk from the zenith airlock on Tianhe to install
a debris protection panel. The EVA lasted about 8 hr and ended with hatch closure at 0849 UTC.
Starlink
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Starlink Group 6-74 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Apr 25 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 12-23 (13 DTC and 10 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Apr 28 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 11-9 (27 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Apr 28 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 12-10 (13 DTC and 10 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Apr 29 from Kennedy.
Starlink Group 6-75 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 2 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 6-84 (29 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 4 from Kennedy
Starlink Group 6-93 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 7 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 15-3 (26 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 10 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-91 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 10 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 15-4 (26 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 13 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-83 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 13 from Kennedy.
Starlink Group 6-67 (28 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 14 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 15-5 (26 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 16 from Vandenberg.
CALT launches
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CALT (Beijing) launched a CZ-3B from Xichang on Apr 27 carrying the Tianlian 2-05 data relay satellite.
The CZ-3B upper stage was left in geotransfer orbit. TL2-05 is now on station in GEO at 20.3E.
CALT launched a CZ-5B/YZ2 from Wenchang on Apr 28 carrying a set of Xingwang internet satellites,
Wexiing Hulianwang Digui 03 zu weixing. The CZ-5B core stage was suborbital. The YZ-2 upper
stage was deorbited over the Indian Ocean at about 2214 UTC.
CALT launched a CZ-3C from Xichang on May 12 with the TJS 19 satellite. Like TJS-17, TJS 19 left
an apogee motor in a graveyard orbit. TJS 17 is now at 153E, and TJS 19 is at 141.2E.
CALT launched a CZ-7A from Wenchang on May 20 with the Zhongxing-3B military communications satellite.
SAST launches
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SAST (Shanghai) launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan on May 11 with three Yaogan-40 satellites. They are likely
for signals intelligence.
SAST launched a CZ-2D from Jiuquan on May 14 with twelve Xingshidai satellites in the Taikong Jisuan
orbital computing constellation. The launch services were provided by CASC Commercial Rocket YG.
The satellites were placed in 1030 LTDN sun-sync orbit.
ULA
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ULA launched an Atlas V on Apr 28 with 27 Amazon Kuiper internet satellites.
The satellites were deployed to a 52 deg orbit around 2330 UTC; the Centaur was
deorbited over the Pacific at about 0032 UTC Apr 29. As of May 22, two of the satellites
had begun orbit raising.
Biomass
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ESA's 1131 kg Biomass satellite, with a 12 m dia P-band radar antenna to study forest cover,
was launched on Apr 29 by Vega-C.
The trajectory data on the webcast suggests a slight underperformance of
the lower stages leading to the vehicle being about 7 km low at 4th
stage ignition, but the AVUM stage appears to have made up any deficit.
The first AVUM burn was from T+8:22 to T+15:46, leading to a transfer
orbit; the second burn from T+53:25 to T+55:41 circularized the orbit,
and Biomass separated at 1012 UTC.
he AVUM stage made a third burn at 1101 UTC over the midwestern USA to deorbit;
entry was over the Indian Ocean at about 1145 UTC.
Firefly
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Firefly's Alpha flight FLTA0006 was launched on Apr 29 but failed to
reach orbit due to the second stage nozzle being damaged during stage 1
separation. The payload was the LM400 Tech Demo satellite for Lockheed
Martin. The vehicle reentered over the South Pacific off the coast of
Antarctica after reaching an apogee of 320 km.
Because the flight appears to have fallen short of orbital velocity by only a small
amount, I am provisionally assigning it one the my special 'U' designations, 2025-U01.
I estimate the orbit to have been (-400 to -100) km x 320 km x 85 deg.
Landspace
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Landspace launched Zhuque-2E flight Y2 from Jiuquan on May 17. The methalox rocket
placed six Tianyi radar, imaging and technology satellites in orbit.
Tianyi-34, from Tianyi Research Inst and the Southern U. of Sci and Tech (Nanfang Keji Daxue),
is a science mission and carries electric field, auroral camera, and gamma ray burst payloads.
Tianyi-42 was a C-band SAR satellite from Tianyi and Zhangye.
Tianyi-45 and 46 are part of the Tiansuan constellation with advanced computing and lasercom payloads, in
collaboration with the Beijing Univ. of Posts and Telecom.
Tianyi-29 and 35 are imaging satellites for the China Univ. of Geosciences (Wuhan) and the Nanchang Hankong
Univ. (Shenzhen).
Electron 64
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Rocket Lab launched an Electron from Mahia on May 17, placing the QPS-SAR-10 radar satellite in orbit
Mfor iQPS (Japan).
PSLV-C61
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ISRO'S PSLV-C61 launch on May 18 failed to reach orbit due to a problem with the PS3 third stage.
The EOS-09 (RISAT-1B) radar satellite payload was lost.
GSX-1S
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On May 19, Xinghe Dongli (Galactic Energy) launched a Gushenxing-1S from the DFHT barge off the coast
of Rizhao to a 45 deg orbit, carrying four Tianqi satellites for IoT communications.
Lijian-1
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CAS Space launched Lijian-1 flight Y7 on May 21, placing six commercial satellites in 1031 LTDN sun-synch
orbit for Earth observation missions.
SPADEX
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India's SPADEX satellites completed a second docking with each other on Apr 20 and undocked again on Apr 27.
Transporter-13
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Objects 63833 to 63835, cataloged around May 7, are probably the HERMES Pathfinder H3, H4 and H5 satellites
deployed from ION on Apr 9 to Apr 11. Object 63980 and 63981, deployed from ION on May 6, are Alba's Unicorn-2O
and Unicorn-2P.
Resilience
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The iSpace Resilience lunar lander entered lunar orbit on May 6 at 2041 UTC. Scott Tilley estimates
the initial orbit as 44 x 5910 km x 104 deg. A lunar orbit manuever later lowered the orbit to 100 x 3200 km.
(iSpace have not released their value of the lunar orbital inclination).
Varda
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Rocket Lab's Pioneer 03 bus manuevered from 507 x 517 km to a 308 x 897
km orbit on May 11 and made its deorbit burn on May 14 at 0113 UTC,
sending the Varda W-3 capsule on a reentry trajectory to a successful
landing at 0207 UTC in the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia.
P03/W-3 was launched aboard Transporter 13 on 2025 Mar 15.
MEV-1
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The Space Logistics MEV-1 satellite, which undocked from Intelsat 10-01
on Apr 4, has now approached the Optus D3 satellite and was within 10 km
of it by May 14. As of May 22, it is possible that MEV-1 has already
docked with Optus D3, but this has not been publicly confirmed.
Kosmos-482
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Continued from JSR 762 ( https://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.762.txt )
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the newly-formed IKI (Space Research
Institute) and the Lavochkin company developed a series of Venus probes
based on an evolution of Korolev's early Mars/Venera probe design.
In the 1972 Venus window, the last two such probes were launched: V-71
No. 670 and V-71 No. 671, both on Molniya-M (8K78M) four-stage launch
vehicles (basically Soyuz rockets with a fourth stage, in this case the
Blok-NVL)
Probe No. 670 was boosted to solar orbit and named Venera-8 ("Venus-8").
It was launched on 1972 Mar 27 and successfully landed on Venus on 1972
Jul 22, surviving for 50 minutes on the surface.
Probe No. 671 didn't go so well. The lower 3 stages of the Molniya-M
rocket put the stack in a 196 x 215 km Earth partking orbit. Then the
Blok-NVL's BOZ ullage motor unit fired to give the upper stage a little
kick and itself separated.
The Blok-NVL main engine now ignited but shut down prematurely, 2 min
into a 4 min burn. The Venera probe/Blok-NVL stack was now stranded in
a 206 x 9800 km Earth orbit.
US tracking found THREE objects in this orbit. One was labelled as
Kosmos-482, one as the rocket stage, and one as debris.
"Kosmos-482" and the "rocket stage" (1972-023A and B) had relatively
rapid orbital decay and reentered in 1981 and 1983 respectively. The
debris object, 1972-023E, came down more slowly.
In Sep 2000 I noted this and discussed with a few experts the possiblity
that, with its 1 sq m radar cross section, 23E (object 6073) might be
the separated Venera descent sphere; I started labelling it as such in
my online satellite catalog. Funnily enough, in June 2002 the NORAD
satellite catalog starting labelling 6073 as the Venera descent sphere
too. Probably just a coincidence.
The low perigee of 6073 led to a brief flurry of media interest in 2019
when someone mistakenly imagined that meant it would reenter soon, despite
its high apogee. I pointed out this was wrong and said "Reentry probably early-mid 2020s?".
But here we are six years later and it was finally time for the object to reenter.
Its heat shield means that the half-ton, one-metre-diameter sphere
might well have survived Earth atmosphere entry and hit the ground.
There was probably about the usual one-in-several-thousand chance of
hitting someone. The vehicle was dense but inert and had no nuclear
materials. There was no need for major concern, but you wouldn't want
it bashing you on the head. In the event, US Space Force did not
identify an accurate reentry location, but a combination of European and
Russian data suggest that it probably reentered at around 0638 UTC May
10 over the Indian Ocean.
Plots of apogee and perigee height for the object are at
https://planet4589.org/space/debris/notes/k482/k482.html
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
Apr 16 1933 USA 521 to USA 522 (NROL-174) Minotaur IV Vandenberg SLC8 Sigint? 77A 600?x 600?x 63?
Apr 18 2251 Shiyan 27-01 to 27-06 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Unknown 78 1000 x 1010 x 99.7
Apr 20 1229 USA 523 to 544 (NROL-145) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging? 79 300 x 300 x 70?
Apr 21 0815 Dragon CRS-32 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 80A 190 x 210 x 51.6
Apr 22 0048 ADD-425 No. 4 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Radar 81A 567 x 607 x 45.4
Tomorrow-S7 Weather 81B 572 x 581 x 45.4
Phoenix 1 Reentry 81 -35?x 584 x 45.4
Apr 24 0917 Shenzhou 20 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 82A 193 x 343 x 41.5
Apr 25 0152 Starlink Group 6-74 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 83 265 x 276 x 43.0
Apr 27 1554 Tianlian 2-05 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Comms 84A 196 x 35818 x 27.2
Apr 28 0209 Starlink Group 12-23 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 85 282 x 291 x 43.0
Apr 28 2010? WHW Digui Group 3 Chang Zheng 5B/YZ-2 Wenchang Comms 86 1096 x 1111 x 86.5
Apr 28 2042 Starlink Group 11-9 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 87 268 x 281 x 53.2
Apr 28 2301 Kuiper Group KA-01 Atlas V Canaveral SLC41 Comms 88 455 x 467 x 51.9
Apr 29 0234 Starlink Group 12-10 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 89 284 x 292 x 43.0
Apr 29 0915 Biomass Vega-C Kourou ELV Science 90A 666 x 668 x 98.1
Apr 29 1337 LM-400 Tech Demo Alpha Vandenberg SLC2W Tech U01 -250? x 325 x 85
May 2 0151 Starlink Group 6-75 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 91 274 x 283 x 43.0
May 4 0854 Starlink Group 6-84 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 92 270 x 277 x 43.0
May 7 0117 Starlink Group 6-93 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 93 274 x 283 x 43.0
May 10 0119 Starlink Group 15-3 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 94 264 x 280 x 70.0
May 10 0628 Starlink Group 6-91 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 95 268 x 278 x 43.0
May 11 1327 Yaogan 40 hao 02 zu 01-03 xing Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Sigint? 96 795 x 811 x 86.0
May 12 1608 TJS 19 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Tech? 97A 178 x 35830 x 28.6
May 13 0115 Starlink Group 15-4 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 98 264 x 279 x 70.0
May 13 0502 Starlink Group 6-83 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 99 267 x 278 x 43.0
May 14 0412 Xingshidai 27 to 38 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Tech 100 489 x 504 x 97.4
May 14 1638 Starlink Group 6-67 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 101 267 x 277 x 43.0
May 15 1343 Starlink Group 15-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 102 264 x 279 x 70.0
May 17 0412 Tianyi-29 Zhuque-2E Jiuquan Radar? 103 518 x 526 x 97.4
Tianyi-34 Imaging?103
Tianyi-35 Imaging?103
Tianyi-42 Tech? 103
Tianyi-45 Tech? 103
Tianyi-46 Tech? 103
May 17 0817 QPS-SAR-10 Electron Mahia LC1A Radar 104A 569 x 582 x 42.0
May 18 0029 RISAT-1B PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan Radar F05 -3900 x 450 x 97?
May 19 0738 Tianqi-16 Gushenxing-1S DFHT, Yellow Sea Comms 105 835 x 853 x 45.0
Tianqi-17 Comms 105
Tianqi-18 Comms 105
Tianqi-20 Comms 105
May 20 1150 Zhongxing-3B Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Comms 106A 206 x 35799 x 15.5
May 21 0319 Starlink Group 12-15 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 107 283 x 291 x 43.0
May 21 0404? Taijing 3-04 Lijian-1 Jiuquan Imaging 108 517 x 537 x 97.5
Taijing 4-02A Radar 108
Xingrui-11 Imaging 108
Xingjiyuan-1 Imaging 108
Xiguang 1-02 Imaging 108
Lifang 108-011 Meteo 108
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target
Apr 14 1330 NS-31 New Shepard West Texas Tourist 107 West Texas
Apr 18 1903 Meraki 2 Meraki Mt White Stn, NZ Amateur 122 S Island, NZ
Apr 25 1205 Dark Eagle LHRW Canaveral LC46 Test 150? Atlantic
May 4 Warhead Palestine-2? Yemen Weapon 100? Ben Gurion Airport
May 8 0020 RV Hwasong-11a? Wonsan Test 100? Sea of Japan
May 21 0701 GT253 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300? Kwajalein
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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