Jonathan's Space Report
No. 845 2025 Apr 23 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 73 continues.
Progress MS-30 reboosted the ISS orbit on Apr 24.
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.
Chinese Space Station
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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.
Shenzhou-19 undocked from the Tianhe forward port at 2000 UTC Apr 29 with Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze.
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.
CALT launches
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CALT 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Apr 29 1337 LM-400 Tech Demo Alpha Vandenberg SLC2W Tech U01 -250? x 325 x 85
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 25 1205 Dark Eagle LHRW Canaveral LC46 Test 150? Atlantic
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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