Jonathan's Space Report
No. 858 draft 2026 Jul 1 Bromley, UK
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Note: have just got back from a trip and will update page over the weekend
Update:
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Construction on my new Space Library near London is finally proceeding.
Updates at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-jonathans-space-report-library-transition
Warning: TLE format expired (sort of)
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Space Force use US satellite catalog numbers 70000 to 99999 as temporary
identifiers for not-yet-identified objects. When the US satellite
catalog hit 69999, it then rolled over to 100000, skipping the space
reserved for temporary IDs. At this point the venerable 80-character
punch-card-heritage TLE format stopped working (there is an ugly
'Alpha-5' hack to use letters in the catalog numbers to buy a another
year or so, but you should avoid it). It is time to make sure that your
orbit software that ingests Space Force data is upgraded to use a newer
format - I recommend the JSON one.
The Alpha-5 hack is that the string A1744 in the catalog number
field of a TLE is to be interpreted as 101744, F2317 is to be interpreted
as 152317, and so on. Note that `A1744' is *not* the catalog number, and you
should not quote it as such - if you must use Alpha-5 data do the mapping
at I/O time and use the numerical catalog number elsewhere.
In the JSON GP data from Space-Track, the Alpha-5 hack is not used, the full
greater-than-100k catalog numerical catalog number is written explicitly.
ISS
----
Expedition 74 continues.
Progress MS-34 reboosted the ISS orbit with a 568s, 1.1m/s burn at 2039 UTC Jul 1.
On Jul 2 the Kibo RMS extracted NRCSD-30 from the JEM airlock, and the
NRCSD ejected six university cubesats: Proves-Alcyone (Columbia) and
Proves-Atlas (Northeastern) at 0850 UTC; HUCSat (Harvard) at 0900 UTC;
Coconut (ASU) and LeopardSat (Cincinnati) at 1030 UTC; Proves-Electra
(Santa Cruz) at 1140 UTC. (these deployment times are not yet confirmed).
Soyuz MS-29 was launched on Jul 14 carrying Petr Dubrov (Roskosmos), Anna Kikina (Roskosmos)
and Anil Menon (NASA). It docked with the Prichal module at 1752 UTC Jul 14.
Starship
--------
Flight 13, with Super Heavy 20 and Ship 40, was carried out on Jul 24 at
2251 UTC. It was the second flight of the version 3 Starship. The
booster impacted the water in the Gulf of Mexico when not all required
engines ignited for the landing burn. Ship reached the target orbit,
around 8 x 195 km x 26.5 deg, deployed twenty Starlink V3 satellites,
and made a Raptor restart raising the orbit to around 43 x 217 km. Ship
reentered at 2338 UTC and, after a successful landing burn, splashed
down intact in the Indian Ocean at 2356 UTC, continuing to return telemetry
as it floated in the ocean.
Megaconstellation launches
--------------------------
Starlink Group 17-46 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 2 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg
Amazon Leo LA08 (29 sats) was launched on Jul 2 from Canaveral on ULA Atlas V 551 flight AV-114.
Starlink Group 10-50 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 5 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 10-42 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 9 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 15-14 (27 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 14 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 10-45 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 14 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 17-39 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 21 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 17-51 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 25 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Transporter 17
---------------
On Jul 7 the Transporter 17 rideshare mission was launched by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
After deploying rideshare payloads in a 600 km orbit, the Korean CAS500-4 was delivered to a 900 km orbit.
The rideshare payloads were:
Imaging: Cuby 1 to 5 (Germany), TOM-1 to 3 (Germany), N2-P-BODY (US), CloudCT-Precursor (Israel),
Balkan-3 (Bulgaria), Hyperion GR1 (Greece), Posidonia (Balaeric Islands),
Pelican-11 (US), GRUS-3 x 7 (Japan), Firesat x 3 (US), EDC-08 (US), Mikroglob-1 (Poland)
Radar: ICEYE x 4 (Finland)
Remote sensing/Climate: GHGSat-C-16 and 17 (Canada)
Space weather: SENTINEL 1 (Germany), SCION-X (Taiwan), MAVERIC (US)
Tritium battery test: Bohr (US)
Military prox ops tests: SPEAR-1A/B/C (US), Flashpoint-1,2 (US)
Technology and student experiments: SUCHAI-4 (Chile), KOYO (Taiwan), Cybercube (ESA), Marmotsat (Canada),
Kostka (Czechia), Marina (Slovakia), Replicator-2 (Poland) R5-S9 (US)
Comms: IPOS (US), Centauri 9 (Australia), FossaSat 2E-26 (Spain), Kita x 2 (US)
Comms/GNSS-RO: Lemur-2 x 5 (US?)
RF monitoring: Deloitte 4 to 6 (US), BRO-31 (France)
Navigation: Leonav (UAE), ET-001 to -004 (US), RAFS Cubesat (Turkey)
Astronomy: GRITSS (US)
Hosted payload buses and tugs: Oasis-Alpha (Austria); ION SCV-023 (Italy), Nova-1 (US)
Navigator (US), LA3 (US)
Three LusoSpace (Portugal) maritime monitoring cubesats were carried on ION.
Other F9 flights
-----------------
On Jul 16 SpaceX launched an F9 with the T1TL-E mission of 21 York Space
Systems comms sats for the US Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer.
On Jul 21 SpaceX launched an F9 with the Mission Robotic Vehicle, a 3000 kg Northrop Grumman /
Space Logistics Services spacecraft with a pair of robotic arms, and three Mission Extension Pods
with a mass of 400 to 500 kg. The MRV will install the MEPs on geostationary satellites to extend
their operational lives.
SAST launches
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On Jul 1 SAST launched a CZ-4B with the HY2-05 oceanographic satellite to a 937 x 958 km sun sync orbit.
At about 0018 UTC Jul 2 the CZ-4B upper stage made a perigee lowering burn to 649 x 934 km.
On Jul 4 SAST/CGWIC launched a CZ-6A with the Group 13 cluster of Qianfan internet satellites.
CALT launches
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On Jul 5 CALT/CASC Commercial Rocket launched an upgraded CZ-8A from Hainan with twenty Qianfan satellites (Group 15).
On Jul 10 CALT launched the first CZ-10B from Hainan, placing a test payload, SECM's CX-26, in orbit.
The CZ-10B kerolox first stage successfully landed on a downrange barge equipped with a tower containing
an arrestor cable net. The second stage of CZ-10B is methalox, making this the first methane/kerosene combination
vehicle to reach orbit.
On Jul 23 CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang, placing the TL2-06 data relay satellite in geotransfer orbit.
Chinese commercial launches
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On Jul 22 Orienspace launched a Yinli-1 from the Dongfang Hangtiangang barge at a new location
in the East China Sea near 122.7E 31.2N. The rocket placed into an 1100 LTDN sun-synch orbit:
Dongpo 13 and 14, imaging sats for Huantian Zhihui
Dongpo 17 to 20, radar sats for Huantian Zhihui
Tianyi 49 (Beiyou-4), a technology sat from Tianyi for the Beijing Univ of Posts and Telecoms.
Xiguang-2-01, a Xiguang imaging sat.
Zidingxiang-3 (Kaiyun-3), a 30 kg disk-shaped technology sat from Harbin Inst. of Tech.
On Jul 23 CAS Space launched a Lijian-1 from Jiuquan to 0600 LTDN sun-synch orbit.
Payloads were:
Yinglong Fengguang-1, a commercial weather satellite
Zhonghang Hongwai 1, a commercial infrared weather satellite (also called Xiguang 2-03)
Tianyi-48 (Chenguang-1), a technology satellite for orbital data center tech development
Gande 1-01, a space debris tracking sat for Aotian Tech;
Jitianxing A-04, testing an AI computing system for imaging satellites.
LINK
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On Jul 3 the L-1011 Stargazer aircraft N140SC took off from Kwajalein runway 06/24 at 0739 UTC
and at 0836 UTC dropped its cargo, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket, over about 166W 7N.
The three-stage Pegasus delivered the 430 kg NASA/Katalyst Space LINK spacecraft to low orbit.
LINK's mission is to rendezvous and dock with NASA's SWIFT space observatory and boost it
to a higher orbit.
Vikram
--------
India's Skyroot Aerospace launched the first Vikram-1 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota
on Jul 18. The rocket has three solid stages and a liquid-prop fourth stage. Despite an apparent
near-recontact after stage 3/stage 4 separation, the vehicle reached orbit successfully and deployed two cubesats.
Rassvet
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On Jul 19 Russia lauched a Soyuz from Plesetsk with the second batch of 16 Rassvet-3
commercial communication sats for Byuro 1440. The launch time was not announced, but
propagating back Space Force tracking data issued some days later, the time was around 1750 UTC.
Asteroids
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On Jul 4 China's Tianwen-2 probe matched orbit with (469219) Kamo'oelawa at a distance of about
20 km, in preparation for a sample return attempt.
On Jul 5 at 0930 UTC Japan's Hayabusa-2 flew past (98943) Torifune at a distance of about 1 km.
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
Jun 28 1609 Starlink Group 17-40 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 147 255 x 265 x 97.3
Jun 29 0225 SXM-11 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 148A 219 x 19617 x 27.0
Jul 1 2346 Haiyang 2-05 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Rem.Sen. 149A 928 x 946 x 99.3
Jul 2 0258 Starlink Group 17-46 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 150 255 x 271 x 97.3
Jul 2 0430 Amazon Leo LA-08 Atlas V 551 Canaveral LC41 Comms 151 450 x 465 x 51.9
Jul 2 0850 Proves-Alcyone ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Proves-Atlas Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 0900 HUCSAT ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 1030 LeopardSat ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Coconut Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 1140 Proves-Electra ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 3 0836 LINK Pegasus L-1011, Pacific Tech 152A 362 x 393 x 20.6
Jul 4 0930 Qianfan Group 13 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 153 797 x 808 x 88.9
Jul 5 1050 Starlink Group 10-50 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 154 240 x 250 x 53.2
Jul 5 1343 Qianfan Group 15 Chang Zheng 8A Hainan LC1 Comms 155 780 x 824 x 89.0
Jul 7 0712 Transporter 17 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 156 590 x 598 x 97.8
CAS500-4 Imaging 156 884 x 897 x 99.0
Jul 9 0925 Starlink Group 10-42 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 157 244 x 255 x 53.2
Jul 10 0415 CX-26 Chang Zheng 10B Hainan LC2 Tech 158 804 x 812 x 50.0
Jul 11 0300 Starlink Group 17-48 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 159 254 x 267 x 97.3
Jul ? Saramago ION, LEO Comms 67CY 500 x 508 x 97.5
Jul 14 0128 Starlink Group 15-14 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 160 245 x 259 x 70.0
Jul 14 0910 Starlink Group 10-45 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 161 238 x 251 x 53.2
Jul 14 1447 Soyuz MS-29 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 162A 415 x 424 x 51.6
Jul 16 1300? Pessoa ION, LEO Comms 7CZ 504 x 512 x 97.4
Jul 16 2032 Praetorian SDA 501 to 521 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 163 933 x 954 x 81.4
Jul 18 0635 Solaras-S3 Vikram-1 Satish Dhawan FLP Tech 164A 440 x 453 x 59.9
SCOPE Tech 164B 442 x 451 x 59.9
Jul 19 1750? Rassvet-3 Group 2 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk Comms 165 288 x 325 x 82.3
Jul 21 1449 Starlink Group 17-39 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 166 266 x 268 x 97.2
Jul 21 2115 MRV-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Servicing 167 308 x 44764 x 25.6
MEP 1 to 3 Servicing 167 309 x 44811 x 25.6
Jul 22 0254 Dongpo-13 Yinli-1 DFHT, East China Sea Imaging 168 524 x 550 x 97.5
Dongpo-14 Imaging 168
Dongpo-17 Radar 168
Dongpo-18 Radar 168
Dongpo-19 Radar 168
Dongpo-20 Radar 168
Beiyou-4 Imaging 168
Xiguang 2-01 Imaging 168
Zidingxiang-03 Tech 168
Jul 23 1200 Tianlian 2-06 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 169 215 x 35183 x 27.0
Jul 23 2333 Yinglong Fengguang 1 Met 170 532 x 555 x 97.5
Jitianxing A-04 Tech 170
Xiguang 2-03 Met 170
Gande 1-01 SSA 170
Tianyi-48 Tech 170
Jul 24 2251 Ship 40 Starship Starbase OLP2 Test U04 8 x 195 x 26.5
Starlink V3 1 to 20 Comms U04 8 x 195 x 26.5
Jul 25 1551 Starlink Group 17-51 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 171
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jun 24 0930 Rocksat/RockOn Terrier I.Mal. Wallops Student 119? Atlantic
Jun 26 1711 SHORTSTOP Castor IVBXL Wallops Hypersonic? 300? Atlantic
Jul 6 0401 RV JL-2 Type 094 Sub?,S Ch.Sea Test 1000? Pacific
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Bromley, UK | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| | twitter: @planet4589 |
| |
| JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
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