[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 815

Jonathan McDowell jcm at planet4589.com
Mon Jan 16 14:45:45 EST 2023


Jonathan's Space Report
No. 815                                                      2023 Jan  16      Somerville, MA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy new year! This issue marks the 34th anniversary of the first JSR.

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

Expedition 68 continues.

On Jan 6 three cubesats were deployed from the J-SSOD-24 deployer: SuryaSat-1
for Surya U  in Indonesia, OPTIMAL-1 for ArkEdge Space of Tokyo, and HSKSAT
for Harada Seikei Co. of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka province.

On Jan 9 at 2205 UTC Dragon CRS-26 undocked from IDA-3; at about 0925 UTC
on Jan 11 it jettisoned its trunk section and then fired its deorbit engines
for splashdown near 83.9W 28.1N off Tampa, Florida at 1019 UTC.
The trunk remains in a 200 x 320 km x 51.6 deg orbit.

The IROSA FSE used in the recent IROSA installation spacewalks remains
attached to the MBS POA attachment point on ISS and will be jettisoned 
at a later date. Its estimated mass is around 500 kg.

Soyuz MS-22, damaged by a coolant leak, remains docked to the Rassvet
module. Roskosmos has decided to launch Soyuz MS-23 crewless to dock
with the station automatically, and bring Soyuz MS-22 back to Earth,
also crewless. This has been done before - Soyuz-34 was launched without
a crew in Jun 1979 to replace Soyuz-32, which had exceeded its design life
while docked to the Salyut-6 station.

Transporter-6
-------------

SpaceX launched the Transporter-6 mission on Jan 3 placing over 100 satellites in 0930 LTDN SSO.
The larger ( 30 to 300 kg ) satellites were:
 Space tugs
  ION SCV007   (D-Orbit, Como, Italy)
  ION SCV008   (D-Orbit, Como, Italy)
  Orbiter SN1  (Launcher, Los Angeles)
  Vigoride VR-5 (Momentus, San Jose)   
  Chimera LEO-1 (EPIC Aerospace, San Francisco)
  Skykraft carrier (Skykraft, Canberra)
 
 Satellite phone service
  Lynk Tower 3 and 4 (Lynk, Virginia)

 Imaging
   Newsat-32 (Albania-1)   (Satellogic, Uruguay/Argentina)
   Newsat-33 (Albania-2)
   Newsat-34
   Newsat-35
   EOS SAT-1   (EOS Data Analytics, San Francisco)

 Radar
   ICEYE X21, X22, X27   (Iceye, Helsinki)

 ADS-B aviation tracking
   Skykraft 1,2,3   (Skykraft, Canberra)  (deploy from Skykraft carrier)

 Space and missile tracking?
   Blackjack 1 to 4?   (Space Development Agency, US DoD)  (unconfirmed)

 Smaller satellites (cubesats) were
  Planet satellites (3U imaging)
   Flock 4y-1 to 4y-36
   (Dove 2415, 24a1, 242e, 24b0, 24b4, 24af, 2417, 24ab, 24a8, 24c3,
         24a7, 24cf, 24c7, 24b5, 24b3, 24c9, 24c2, 24ce, 24a9, 24ca,
         24ba, 24c1, 24bc, 24b9, 24b2, 24c4, 24c8, 24b1, 24bb, 24c0,
         24be, 24b6, 24bf, 24cc, 24c5, 24d0).
  
  Spire satellites: (AIS, meteo, ADS-B; 3U?)
   Lemur-2-Disclaimer
   Lemur-2-Emmaculate (L3C-1)
   Lemur-2-SteveAlbers (AIS-1)
   Lemur-2-Fuentetaja-01 (AIS-2)
   Lemur-2-MMolo (GNSS-3)
   Lemur-2-PhilAri (INCUBED PRO, ESA/Luxembourg)
  
  Radio spectrum monitoring satellites:
  6U KSF3-A,B,C,D from Kleos (Luxembourg)
  6U BRO-8 from Unseen Labs (Rennes) 
  6U Huygens and Birkeland from NLR (Amsterdam)/TNO (Den Haag)/FFI (Oslo)
  
  AIS maritime monitoring:
  6U Sternula-1 with VDEs payload from Sternula (Aalborg)
  3U Kelpie-1 with AIS from AAC ClydeSpace (Glasgow) for Orbcomm, to eject from ION
  
  IoT data relay
  3U Connecta T1.2 from Plan-S (Ankara)
  0.25U SpaceBee 156 to 167 from SpaceX Swarm (San Francisco)
  3U Astrocast-0401, 0402, 0403, 0404 from Astrocast (Lausanne), to eject from ION
  2P MDQSAT-1A 1 and 1A 2, from Innova Space (Buenos Aires),   aboard Orbiter SN1
  
  Meteorology
  12U RROCI (Orion Space, Boulder, for Space Force)
  
  Space science
  3U Tausat3 (Tel Aviv U.) with particle detector, aboard ION
  
  Technology satellites:
  6U GAMA Alpha with 8.5m solar sail (GAMA, Paris)
  6U Menut from OpenCosmos (Barcelona) with imager and onboard processing
  6U STAR VIBE from Scanway (Wroclaw)
  3U Guardian-alpha from Orbital Astronautics (Harwell) with electric propulsion test
  6U NSLSat-2 from NSLComm (Tel Aviv) with experimental comms antenna
  3U Pushan Alpha from Digantara (Bengaluru) with space weather test payload
   
  Hosted experiment platform:
  6U SharedSat-2211 (Platform-2) from Endurosat (Sofia)
         
  Test and student satellites:
  6U STAR SPHERE 1 from Sony and Tokyo U. (Tokyo) with cameras for use by public
  6U FUTURA-SM2 from SpaceMind (Imola, Italy), aboard ION
  3U FUTURA-SM1 from SpaceMind (Imola, Italy), aboard ION
  3U Zeus-1 from Qosmosys (Singapore)   (eject from VR-5)
  2U PolyITAN-HP-30 from KPI (Kyiv) with heat pipe experiment
  2U KuwaitSat-1 from Kuwait University  (Kuwait)
  1U BDSAT-2 from CEITEC (Brno)
  1U PROVES-Yearling from Cal Poly Pomona (Pomona, California), aboard Orbiter SN1
  1U Skyline Celestial from Skyline Celetial (San Francisco),  aboard Orbiter SN1
  1U SSSI cubesat from Stanford Student Space Initiative (Palo Alto), aboard Orbiter SN1
  

  The Falcon 9 second stage was deorbited over the Indian Ocean at about 1721 UTC.
  As of Jan 16, TLEs were available for 30 tracked objects from the launch but none had yet 
  been associated with a specific satellite.  

OneWeb
-----

The second OneWeb Falcon 9 launched placed 40 more OneWeb satellites in a 600 km inital orbit on Jan 10.
The Falcon second stage was deorbited over the Indian Ocean at 0723 UTC.

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

 On Jan 8 CALT launched a CZ-7A with the SJ-23 (Shi Jian 23) communications technology satellite to geotransfer orbit.
 The CZ-7A third stage remains in a low-perigee geotransfer orbit. SJ-23 may have raised its orbit
 around Jan 13.
 
 On Jan 12 CALT launched a CZ-2C. The second stage reached LEO and deployed the Apstar 6E (Yatai 6E) satellite
 with a new attached orbit transfer stage which will raise its orbit.

SAST launches
--------------

 On Jan 13 SAST launched a CZ-2D carrying a satellite codenamed Yaogan 37 to a 43 deg LEO.
 Yaogan 37 is probably the first of a new series of imaging reconnaissance satellites.
 Two subsatellites, Shiyan 22A and 22B, were also deployed. A fourth cataloged object
 may be the CZ-2D second stage.

 On Jan 15 SAST launched a CZ-2D carrying a cluster of satellites to 500 km SSO with a 10:21 local
  time orbital plane:

  Qilu-2 and Qilu-3, 189 and 186 kg imaging sats for Shandong Inst. of Industrial Tech.
  Luojia-3 01, remote sensing satellite for Wuhan U., mass 245 kg with 0.7m resolution.
  Beiyou-1, spaceborne computing experiment for Beijing University of Posts and Telecoms built by Tianyi.
     Probably around 50 kg? 
  Jin Zijing 6, imaging satellite for Hong Kong Aerospace Tech's Shenzhen subsidiary GHK, mass probably 50 to 100 kg,
     in collaboration with Shandong IIT, for agricultural monitoring.  
  Tianzhi-2D, spaceborne computing experiment for the CAS Institute of Software, mass 19 kg.
  Jin Zijing 3 and 4, imaging satellites for GHK in collaboration with Jiutian Weixing (Shanghai).
    Possibly small 10 kg cubesats, but it's unclear.
  Six satellites in the Jilin-1 imaging constellation by Chuangguang Sat Tech -
    Jilin-1 GF03D34, high res imager with 42 kg mass.
    Jilin-1 MF02A03, MF02A04, MF02A07, small imagers with 18 kg mass.
    Jilin-1 HWA08, HWA07 infrared imaging satellites, possibly 40 kg? 
  The latter two are in collaboration with Yunyao Aerospace and have the alternate names Wofuman and Haihe-1.
  On this flight it appears that the second stage may have been deorbited.

Gushenxing-1
------------

On Jan 9 the Xinghe Dongli (Galactic Energy) company launched its fifth
Gushenxing-1 (Ceres-1) rocket. All five flights have been successful. Y5
placed in orbit the Xiamen Science/tech satellite for Xiamen Tianwei and
Xi'an Zhongke Xiguang; the Tianmu-1 01 and 02 GNSS radio occultation
meteorology satellites for Xiyong Microelectronics Park, the Tianqi-13
IoT comms satellite for Guodian Gaokeji, and the Nantong Zhongxue Hao
imaging satellite (named after Nantong Middle School) for Shanghai
Satellite Technology. The satellites reached a 500 km SSO with 1123
local time orbital plane. The upper stage appears to have been deorbited.

LauncherOne
------------

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl carrier plane took off from Newquay Airport,
Cornwall, at 2202:24 UTC Jan 9 and flew out over the Celtic Sea. At
about 2308:49 UTC the plane dropped LauncherOne vehicle R7 over
approximately 11.12W 50.74N. The rocket ignited to head southwards
towards SSO, but at 2315:24 or so a problem occurred during second stage burn at an
altitude of 183 km, and the vehicle fell in the ocean. Reentry was at
around 2319 UTC north of the Canaries at about 17W 32N and was observed
from the Canary Is. I estimate an orbit of -4580 x 183 km x 97.5 deg.
Cosmic Girl landed back at Newquay at 2353 UTC.

R7 carried the Amber maritime radio monitoring satellite for Catapult, two Prometheus and two
CIRCE cubesats for the UK defense research agency DSTL, the DOVER satellite built by OpenCosmos
for the RHEA Group to test signals for a new GNSS augmentation system, the ForgeStar-0 test
satellite for Space Forge (Cardiff), the STORK 6 imaging satellite for Poland's SatRev,
and the AMAN cubesat built by SatRev for the Omani government and Omani company ETCO.


RS1
---

ABL Space Systems launched the first RS1 orbital launch vehicle from
Kodiak on Jan 10. The rocket's engines almost immediately  shut down and
the vehicle crashed back onto the launch pad.

No information is available about how many seconds into the flight the
problem occurred and what the maximum altitude reached was. However, the
fact that it hit the pad suggests of order less than 20 seconds flight
and 100 metres altitude.


USSF-67
-------

SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy 005 on the US Space Force USSF-67 mission on Jan 15. The upper stage
is thought to have delivered the CBAS 2 communications satellite (USA 342) and the LDPE-3A experiment platform
to a drift orbit just above geostationary. The side boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral and
the core stage was discarded in the ocean. USSF has cataloged the CBAS, the LDPE, the second stage,
and two pieces of debris, all presumably in near-GEO.

It isn't clear who built the CBAS (Continuous Broadcast Augmenting Satcom) 
satellites, or what frequency band they use. They are operated by the USSF Space Systems Command.

Meanwhile, four satellites have been ejected from the LDPE-2 platform launched to above-GEO last November.
LINUS-A 1/2 are 12U cubesats which will test proximity operations in near-GEO. USA 340 and 341 are
secret payloads, possibly using the 100 kg-class ESPASat bus. At least for now, no orbital
data has been released for any of the four.

Erratum
-------

On VA259, it was MTG-I1 inside the adapter and the Galaxy satellites on top,
and not the other way around as I wrote in JSR 814.

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

Date UT       Name			     Launch Vehicle	 Site		 Mission  INTL.  Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl	 Notes
Dec 16 0617   Shiyan 21                                Chang Zheng 11       Xichang LC4       Tech?   172A 474 x 493 x 36.0
Dec 16 1146   SWOT                                     Falcon 9             Vandenberg SLC4E  Sci     173A 856 x 862 x 77.6
Dec 16 2248   O3b mPOWER 1                             Falcon 9             Canaveral LC40    Comms   174A 2778 x 6992 x 9.6
              O3b mPOWER 2                                                                    Comms   174B 2779 x 6990 x 9.6
Dec 17 2132   Starlink Group 4-37                      Falcon 9             Kennedy LC39A     Comms   175   231 x 335 x 53.2
Dec 18 0130?  Xi Wang 4                                                   CSS, LEO            Comms  21035C 386 x 391 x 41.5
Dec 21 0147   Pleiades Neo 5                           Vega-C               CSG ZLV          Imaging  F06  -5800 x 110 x 97,8
              Pleiades Neo 6                                                                 Imaging  F06  -5800 x 110 x 97,8
Dec 27 0737   Gao Fen 11-04                            Chang Zheng 4B      Taiyuan           Imaging  176A  245 x 697 x 97.3
Dec 28 0534   Starlink Group 5-1                       Falcon 9            Canaveral LC40     Comms   177A  212 x 335 x 43.0
Dec 29 0443   Shiyan 10-02                             Chang Zheng 3B      Xichang LC2        Sci?    178A  188 x 40096 x 51.0
Dec 29 1205   TJREVERB                                                NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO       Edu   98067UV 411 x 418 x 51.6
              DANTESAT                                                                        Tech  98067UU 403 x 405 x 51.6
Dec 29 1215   MARIO                                                   NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO       Tech  98067UQ 411 x 415 x 51.6
              NUTSAT                                                                          Tech  98067UR 411 x 415 x 51.6
Dec 29 1345   LORIS                                                   NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO     Imaging 98067US 411 x 416 x 51.6
              ORCASAT                                                                         Tech  98067UT 411 x 416 x 51.6
Dec 29 1355   SPORT                                                   NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO       Tech  98067UW 413 x 417 x 51.6
              PetitSat                                                                        Sci   98067UX 413 x 417 x 51.6
Dec 30 0738   EROS C3                                  Falcon 9            Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging  179A  484 x 502 x 139.4
Jan  3 1456   Transporter-6                            Falcon 9            Canaveral LC40     Tug    01A   517 x 537 x 9 7.5
              ION SCV007                                                                      Tug    01                                                               
              ION SCV008                                                                      Tug    01                                                               
              Orbiter SN1                                                                     Tug    01                                                               
              Vigoride VR-5                                                                   Tug    01                                                               
              CHIMERA LEO 1                                                                   Tug    01                                                               
              Skykraft 1 Carrier                                                              Tug    01                                                               
              EOS SAT-1                                                                     Imaging  01
              ICEYE X21                                                                     Radar    01
              ICEYE X22                                                                     Radar    01
              ICEYE X27                                                                     Radar    01
              Umbra-04                                                                      Radar    01
              Umbra-05                                                                      Radar    01
              Albania-1                                                                     Imaging  01
              Albania-2                                                                     Imaging  01
	      Newsat-34                                                                     Imaging  01
              Newsat-35                                                                     Imaging  01
              Lynk Tower 3                                                                  Comms    01
              Lynk Tower 4                                                                  Comms    01
              YAM-5                                                                         Tech     01
              Flock 4y-1                                                                    Imaging  01
                  to
              Flock 4y-36                                                                   Imaging  01
              KuwaitSat-1                                                                   Tech     01
              BDSAT-2                                                                       Tech     01
              SharedSat-2211                                                                Tech     01
              LEMUR 2 Emmaculate                                                            Comms    01
              LEMUR 2 Fuentetaja-01                                                         Comms    01
              LEMUR 2 Disclaimer                                                            Comms    01
              LEMUR 2 SteveAlbers                                                           Comms    01
              LEMUR 2 MMolo                                                                 Comms    01
              LEMUR 2 PhilAri                                                               Sci      01
              KSF3A                                                                         Sigint   01
              KSF3B                                                                         Sigint   01
              KSF3C                                                                         Sigint   01
              KSF3D                                                                         Sigint   01
              BRO-8                                                                         Sigint   01
              GAMA Alpha                                                                    Tech     01
              Menut                                                                         Tech     01
              Birkeland                                                                     Sigint   01
              Huygens                                                                       Sigint   01
              RROCI                                                                         Meteo    01
              PolyITAN-HP-30                                                                Tech     01
              Guardian-alpha                                                                Tech     01
              Sony Sphere-1                                                                 Imaging  01
              Sternula-1                                                                    Comms    01
              NSLSat-2                                                                      Comms    01
              SpaceBEE 156 to 167                                                           Comms    01
Jan  6 0802   SuryaSat-1                                              JSSOD-24/ISS, LEO       Tech  98067 411 x 418 x 51.6
Jan  6 0900   OPTIMAL-1                                               JSSOD-24/ISS, LEO       Tech  98067
Jan  6 0932   HSKSAT                                                  JSSOD-24/ISS, LEO       Tech  98067
Jan  8 2200   Shi Jian 23                      Chang Zheng 7A             Wenchang          Comms    02A  209 x 35793 x 16.4
Jan  9 0504   Keji-1                           Gushenxing-1               Jiuquan           Sci      03   494 x 510 x 97.3
              Tianmu-1 01                                                                   Met-RO   03
              Tianmu-1 02                                                                   Met-RO   03
              Tianqi-17                                                                     Comms    03
              Nantong Zhongxue                                                             Imaging   03
Jan  9 2308   Amber                            LauncherOne            B747, Celtic Sea               F01 -4580 x 183 x 97.5
              Prometheus 2-1
              Prometheus 2-2
              CIRCE 1
              CIRCE 2
              DOVER
              ForgeStar-0
              AMAN
              STORK 6
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 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


Table of Recent Suborbital Launches 

-----------------------------------

Date UT       Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle      Site                  Mission    Apogee/km    Target

Dec 15 1215?  Agni RV           Agni 5             Kalam I.              Test          800?      Indian Ocean
Dec 18 0217   Imaging payload   Hwasong-7?         Sohae                 Test          550       Sea of Japan
Dec 18 0255   Imaging payload?  Hwasong-7?         Sohae                 Test          550       Sea of Japan
Dec 19 1000?  RV                Unknown missile    Jiuquan               Test          200?      Korla range?
Dec 30 0900?  Test payload      Hyunmoo TLV        Anhueng               Test          200?      Yellow Sea?
Dec 30 2305?  RV                KN missile         Chunghwa              Test          100?      Sea of Japan
Dec 30 2310?  RV                KN missile         Chunghwa              Test          100?      Sea of Japan
Dec 30 2315?  RV                KN missile         Chunghwa              Test          100?      Sea of Japan

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