[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 808
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.com
Thu Jul 28 22:40:24 EDT 2022
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 808 2022 Jul 28 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 67 continues with Oleg Artem'ev, Denis Matveev, Sergey Korsakov, Kjell
Lindgren, Robert Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti, and Jessica Watkins
aboard the ISS.
On Jun 28 (at about 0700 UTC?) the Canadarm-2 unberthed the Cygnus NG-17
freighter S.S. Piers Sellers. The Sellers was released into orbit at
1107 UTC. It ejected the Los Alamos NACHOS-1 cubesat on Jun 28 and was
deorbited over the Pacific at about 0645 UTC Jun 29.
On Jul 2 about 2230 UTC the Canadarm-2 unberthed the Bishop Airlock
from the ISS and held it out facing opposite the ISS velocity vector.
Bishop then ejected a large trash bag at 0005 UTC Jul 3. Bishop
was reberthed on the Tranquility module around 0130 UTC Jul 3.
This was the first use of the Nanoracks Airlock Trash Deployer system,
brought up on Cygnus NG-17. Mass of the trash bag is 78 kg;
size is around 1.5m diameter.
On Jul 15 SpaceX launched Dragon CRS-25, a cargo delivery mission. The Dragon trunk contains
a repaired BCDU (Battery Charge/Discharge Unit) for the ISS truss, and the JPL EMIT spectrograph
to be installed on ELC1 to study dust in the Earth's atmosphere.
CRS-25 docked with IDA-2/PMA-2 at 1521 UTC on Jul 16.
The EMIT was extracted from the Dragon trunk on Jul 22 and installed on ELC1 on Jul 24.
The BCDU was installed on ELC1 on Jul 25.
On Jul 21 astronauts Artem'ev and Cristoforetti made a spacewalk for
outfitting of the ERA robot arm. Between 1602 and 1640 UTC Artem'ev
hand-jettisoned ten student-built cubesats into orbit. Note that the
release times listed below are correct, but the mapping of specific
satellites to specific release times is speculative.
Chinese Space Station
---------------------
The Tianzhou 3 cargo ship undocked from the Tianhe module at 0259 UTC Jul 17.
On Jul 24 it remained in a 382 x 385 km orbit. It was deorbited over the South
Pacific on Jun 27 at 0331 UTC.
The Wentian module was launched from Wenchang Space Centre on Jul 24 at 0622 UTC.
It separated from the CZ-5B Y3 core stage at 0630 UTC and docked with the Tianhe
module forward port at 1908 UTC the same day.
Wentian has lab racks, an airlock, a robot arm, and an unpressurized experiment
section somewhat similar to the JEM-EF. Next month, it is planned to rotate the
module to a docking port at 90 degrees to the current one, giving the station
an L-shaped configuration similar to Mir/Kvant-2 in 1989-1990.
The 21 tonne CZ-5B Y3 core stage, despite statements by Chinese officials, remains in
orbit and is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry sometime on Jul 30-31.
CAPSTONE
--------
The CAPSTONE mission began on Jun 28 with the launch of a Rocket Lab Electron from Mahia.
The 12U spacecraft has a mass of 25 kg and will be used to validate navigation
in near-rectilinear lunar halo orbit. The mission is sponsored by NASA-Ames and carried out
by the company Advanced Space (Colorado); CAPSTONE was built by Tyvak.
At 1004 UTC Jun 28 the Electron second stage placed CAPSTONE in a 154 x
171 km x 39.1 deg Earth orbit, attached to Rocket Lab's Photon Lunar stage.
Combined wet mass of CAPSTONE/Photon Lunar was around 300 kg, and Photon
Lunar is around 275 kg wet 55 kg dry. Photon Lunar is an enlarged
Electron kick stage and marks the first flight of the improved
HyperCurie rocket engine. At 1005 and 1045 UTC Photon made two burns to
raise the vehicle's orbit to 220 x 1075 km. On Jul 1 the orbit was
raised to 258 x 70215 km. On Jul4 at 0656 UTC the Photon made a further
416 m/s burn to reach a 264 x 1060200 km x 39.1 deg transfer orbit
towards Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 (SEL1). Photon and CAPSTONE separated at
0718 UTC.
After CAPSTONE separated, it communicated with the Deep Space Network
for a few hours and then fell silent, raising fears for possible loss of
the mission. Happily, though, communications were regained on Jul 6.
CAPSTONE made orbit adjustments at 1530 UTC Jul 7 and 1530 UTC Jul 12
and is now entering the Sun-Earth L1 region.
SES-22
-------
SES-22 is a C-band cable TV distribution satellite for the western US, to be stationed
at 135W. The Thales Alenia Spacebus satellite has a launch mass of 3500 kg. It was
launched by Falcon 9 on Jun 29.
After intial checkout at 142W, by Jul 27 the satellite was drifting in GEO towards its
operational position.
PSLV-C53
--------
India's PSLV flight C53 placed three satellites in orbit for Singapore.
DS-EO and NeuSAR are imaging and radar satellites for Singapore's
Defense Science and Technology Agency, in collaboration with ST
Electronics, and built by S Korea's SATRECI. SCOOB-1 is a 3U cubesat
from Nanyang Tech U. with a solar multi-band photometer. POEM (PSLV
Orbital Experimental Module) is a set of ISRO technology experiments
attached to the PSLV PS4 fourth stage, which has been supplied with
solar panels to turn it into an operational satellite.
WFOV
----
ULA launched Atlas AV-094 on Jul 1. The Centaur stage made a three burn ascent
to a circular orbit a few hundred km above GEO. The main payload was
the WFOV Testbed, an experimental infrared missile early warning satellite
built by Boeing Millennium Space for the Space Force's Space Systems Command.
After WFOV was deployed an adapter was jettisoned, and finally the USSF 12 Ring
payload separated from the Centaur. USSF 12 Ring is an ESPA ring with solar
panels and a small propulsion system, carrying a set of secret experiments.
STP-S28A
--------
Virgin Orbit carried out a LauncherOne flight on Jul 2 carrying
payloads for the US Space Force's Space Test Program flight STP-S28A
and NASA's Elana 39 flight. The Boeing 747 carrier, Cosmic Girl, took
off from Mojave at 0549 UTC and flew out to the drop point at 120.8W
32.3N. Cosmic Girl dropped LauncherOne R6 at 0653:00 UTC; the two-stage
rocket reached a 170 x 500 km x 45 deg parking orbit at 0701 UTC; and at
0747 UTC the upper stage restarted to circularize the orbit at 492 x 498
km x 45.0 deg and released seven cubesats. The payloads are:
CTIM-FD, a Univ. of Colorado 6U satellite to measure total solar flux.
GPX-2, a NASA-LaRC 3U satellite to test commercial differential GPS receivers.
Recurve, an AFRL 12U satellite to demonstrate communications with a ground-based mesh communications network.
Slingshot-1, an Aerospace Corp 12U satellite to demonstrate use of internal ethernet to connect multiple
payloads on a spacecraft.
NACHOS-2, a Los Alamos 3U satellite to study trace atmospheric gases for volcanology and climate research.
MISR-B, a 6U US SOCOM (Special Operations Command) satellite for `Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance'.
Gunsmoke-L, a 6U Army SMDC tactical communications satellite.
Glonass
-------
Russia launched the Glonass-K No. 16L navigation satellite on Jul 7. It is expected to get the cover name
Kosmos-2557.
Starlink
--------
SpaceX launched Starlink Group 4-21 (53 satellites) on a single-upper-stage-burn insertion mission from Cape
Canaveral on Jul 7. Group 4-22 (53 satellites) flew on Jul 17 on a one-burn mission from Canaveral.
Group 4-25 (53 satellites) flew on Jul 24 on a one-burn mission from Kennedy Space Center.
Groups 3-1 and 3-2 (46 satellites each) were launched on Jul 11 and Jul 22 from Vandenberg, each on a two-burn
mission to sun-sync orbit.
CALT launches
--------------
CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang on Jul 12 to put the Tianlian 2-03 data relay sat in geotransfer orbit.
CALT launched a CZ-2C from Taiyuan on Jul 15 to put two Siwei Gaojing 2 radar satellites in an 0604 LTDN sun-synch
orbit for Superview.
Vega-C
------
ESA carried out the first Vega-C launch, VV21, on Jul 13. The new P120C and
Zefiro 40 stages boosted the rocket northeast from the Centre Spatial
Guyanais, followed by the Zefiro 9 third stage and the first burn of the
AVUM+ fourth stage. This placed AVUM+ in an elliptical orbit, possibly
around 150 x 5890 km x 70 deg. At apogee a second AVUM+ burn
circularized the orbit and the LARES laser reflector satellite was
released. Two more burns lowered the orbit and six cubesats were
ejected, and then a fifth AVUM+ burn sent the empty stage to a disposal
orbit.
Lijian-1
--------
CAS Space launched the first Lijian-1 (also called Zhongke-1A) rocket on Jul 27.
The four-stage solid rocket placed six small satellites in orbit.
The main payload, possibly around 400 kg, is Xin Jishu Shiyan (New Tech
Sat), developed by the Shanghai microsatellite centre for the Chinese
Academy of Sciences. The Jinan-1 satellite will continue experiments
with quantum key cryptography transmission; Guidao Daqi midu tance
shiyan weixing (Orbiting atmospheric density detection test satellite)
is a spherical atmospheric density research satellite. A pair of
satellites called Dianci zuzhuang shiyan shuangxing, Electromagnetic
assembly test double-satellite, are testing an electromagnetic docking
system. They may be 12U cubesats and were probably launched attached to
each other for later separation. Finally, Nanyue Aerospace Science and
Tech Innovation Research Institute in Guangzhou led the project for the
sixth payload, Nanyue Kexue Xing (Nanyue Science Sat), with ocean wind
speed and soil moisture detection instruments.
PVSAT
-----
S Korea's PVSAT ejected its first cubesat passenger, STEP Cube Lab II
for Chosun University, on Jun 29. RANDEV, for KAIST, was ejected on Jun
30. SNUGLITE-2, for SNU, was ejected Jul 3, and finally MIMAN, for
Yonsei U., on Jul 5.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Jun 2 0400 Geely Xingguo 01 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Comm/Nav 58A 600 x 617 x 50.0
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 02 xing ) Comm/Nav 58B
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 03 xing ) Comm/Nav 58C
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 04 xing ) Comm/Nav 58D
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 05 xing ) Comm/Nav 58E
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 06 xing ) Comm/Nav 58F
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 07 xing ) Comm/Nav 58G
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 08 xing ) Comm/Nav 58H
Geely Xingguo 01 zu 09 xing ) Comm/Nav 58J
Jun 3 0932 Progress MS-20 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur Cargo 59A 189 x 220 x 51.7
Jun 5 0244 Shenzhou 14 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 60A 194 x 321 x 41.5
Jun 8 2104 Nilesat 301 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 61A 313 x 44926 x 18.7
Jun 12 1743 TROPICS 1 Rocket 3.3 Canaveral LC46 Sci F03 -1250 x 532 x 29.5?
TROPICS 2 Sci F03 -1250 x 532 x 29.5?
Jun 17 1608 Starlink (Group 4-19) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 62 253 x 327 x 53.2
Jun 18 1419 SARah-1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Radar 63A 743 x 751 x 98.4
Jun 19 0427 Globalstar-2 FM19 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 64 1111 x 1125 x 52.0
USA 328 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 329 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 330 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
USA 331 Sigint? 64 520 x 531 x 53.0
Jun 21 0700 Wiseong-mosache Nuri Naro Dummy 65A 694 x 708 x 98.0
PVSAT Tech 65B 695 x 704 x 98.0
Jun 22 0208 Tianxing-1 Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Sci 66A 275 x 290 x 96.8
Jun 22 2150 Measat-3D Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Comms 67 274 x 35814 x 6.0
GSAT-24 Comms 67 260 x 35739 x 6.0
Jun 23 0222 Yaogan 35 02 zu 01 xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Yaogan 35 02 zu 02 xing Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Yaogan 35 02 zu 03 xing Sigint? 68 488 x 500 x 35.0
Jun 27 1546 Gao Fen 12-03 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Radar? 69A 595 x 599 x 98.0
Jun 28 0955 CAPSTONE Electron Mahia LC1B Lunar probe 70A 220 x 1075 x 39.1
Jun 28 2020 NACHOS Cygnus NG17, LEO Sci 15D 399 x 409 x 51.6
Jun 29 0750 STEP Cube Lab II PVSAT, LEO Tech 65D 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jun 29 2104 SES-22 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 71A 310 x 35627 x 16.5
Jun 30 1232 DS-EO PSLV-CA Satish Dhawan SLP Imaging 72A 562 x 573 x 9.99
NeuSAR Radar 72
SCOOB-1 Solar phys 72
POEM Tech 72 533 x 567 x 9.9
Jun 30 2300? RANDEV PVSAT, LEO Tech 65E 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jul 1 2315 WFOV Atlas V 541 Canaveral LC41 Early Warn 73A 36106 x 36168 x 0.0
USSF 12 Ring Tech 73B 36167 x 36323 x 0.0
Jul 2 0653 CTIM-FD LauncherOne Cosmic Girl, Pacific Solar 74 492 x 498 x 45.0
GPX-2 Tech 74
Recurve Tech 74
Slingshot-1 Tech 74
NACHOS-2 Sci 74
Gunsmoke-L1 Comms 74
MISR-B Imaging? 74
Jul 3 0750? SNUGLITE-2 PVSAT, LEO Tech 65F 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jul 5 0925? MIMAN PVSAT, LEO Tech 65G 693 x 704 x 98.0
Jul 7 0918 Glonass-K No. 16L Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk Nav 75A 19140 x 19177 x 64.9
Jul 7 1311 Starlink Group 4-21 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 76 267 x 327 x 53.2
Jul 11 0139 Starlink Group 3-1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 77 306 x 319 x 97.7
Jul 12 1630 Tianlian 2-03 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 78A 188 x 35828 x 27.2
Jul 13 0630 USA 334 Electron Mahia LC1A Sigint? 79A 590 x 590 x 40?
Jul 13 1313 LARES 2 Vega C CSG ELV Geod 80A 5882 x 5896 x 70.1
AstroBio Life Sci 80 5832 x 5864 x 70.1
GreenCube Life Sci 80
Trisat-R Tech 80
MTCube-2 Tech 80
Celesta Tech 80
Alpha Tech 80
Jul 15 0044 Dragon CRS-25 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 81A 207 x 267 x 51.6
Jul 15 2257 Siwei GJ2-01 Chang Zheng 2C Taiyuan Radar? 82A 484 x 500 x 97.4
Siwei GJ2-02 Radar? 82B
Jul 17 1420 Starlink Group 4-22 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 83 320 x 332 x 53.2
Jul 21 1602 YuZGU-55 No. 5 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TQ
Jul 21 1604 YuZGU-55 No. 6 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TZ
Jul 21 1608 YuZGU-55 No. 7 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TU
Jul 21 1613 YuZGU-55 No. 8 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TS
Jul 21 1618 YuZGU-55 No. 9 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TT
Jul 21 1623 YuZGU-55 No. 10 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TR
Jul 21 1626 YuZGU-55 No. 11 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TW
Jul 21 1634 YuZGU-55 No. 12 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TV
Jul 21 1636 Tsiolkovskiy-Ryazan No. 1 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TX
Jul 21 1640 Tsiolkovskiy-Ryazan No. 2 ISS, LEO Tech 98067TY
Jul 22 1349 Starlink Group 3-2 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 84 306 x 319 x 97.7
Jul 24 0622 Wentian Chang Zheng 5B Wenchang LC101 Module 85A 166 x 318 x 51.3
Jul 24 1338 Starlink Group 4-25 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 86 231 x 335 x 53.2
Jul 27 0412 XJS Lijian-1 Jiuquan LC130 Tech 87A 492 x 510 x 97.4
Guidao Daqi MTSW Sci 87
Jinan 1 Tech 87
DZS 1 Tech 87
DZS 2 Tech 87
Nanyue Kexue Xing Sci 87
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
On Jun 26 Equatorial Launch Australia inaugurated use of their Arnhem Space Centre launch site
with a NASA launch of a Black Brant 9 carrying the Wisconsin XQC X-ray astronomy payload.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jun 4 1325 New Shepard NS PM4-4 W Texas Tourism 107 W Texas
Jun 6 1400 Agni RV Agni 4 Kalam I. Test 500? Indian Ocean
Jun 15 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 15 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 17 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 17 USN RV x 4? Trident II D-5 SSBN 737, Pacific Test 1000? Guam
Jun 24 0935 RockOn Terrier Imp. Orion Wallops I Education 117 Atlantic
Jun 24? Dummy stage Zoljanah Semnan Test 500? Arabian Sea
Jun 26 0219 STORT VSB-30/IO? Andoya Hypersonic 100? Norw. Sea
Jun 26 1429 XQC Black Brant 9 Arnhem X-ray Astron 327 N. Terr.
Jul 6 1347 SISTINE Black Brant 9 Arnhem UV Astron 243 N. Terr.
Jul 11 1101 DEUCE Black Brant 9 Arnhem UV Astron 262 N. Terr.
Jul 23 2000 S-520-RD1 S-520 Uchinoura Hypersonic 168 Phillipine Sea
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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