[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 816

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.com
Mon Feb 13 23:58:05 EST 2023


Jonathan's Space Report
No. 816                                                      2023 Feb 14       Somerville, MA
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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                                 |
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