Jonathan's Space Report
No. 850 draft 2025 Sep 17 Somerville, MA, USA
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ISS
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Expedition 73 continues.
Cygnus NG-23 arrived at ISS on Sep 18; Canadarm-2 grappled it at 1124 UTC and berthed it at the Unity module
nadir CBM port at 1410 UTC. Estimated launch mass of NG-23 is about 10200 kg, including 4911 kg of cargo.
The five J-SSOD-23 cubesat payloads were deployed from the Kibo module on Sep 19.
Chinese Space Station
----------------------
Astronauts Chen Z. and Wang J. made a spacewalk on Sep 25 from the Wentian module.
Hatch open was at 1145 UTC and hatch close was at 1735 UTC, for a duration of 5h50m.
Starlink launches
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Starlink Group 10-61 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 18 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 17-12 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 19 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 10-27 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 21 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 10-15 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 25 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 17-11 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 26 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 11-20 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Sep 29 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 11-39 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Oct 3 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 10-59 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Oct 7 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 11-17 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Oct 8 from Vandenberg.
Other Falcon 9 launches
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On Sep 22 SpaceX launched NROL-48, the 11th NRO Proliferated Architechture launch of Starshield satellites.
Bion-M
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The Bion-M No. 2 mission, with its cargo of mice, landed near Orenburg at about 0700 UTC Sep 19.
The jettisoned service module burnt up over the Arctic.
Zoljanah
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Iran launched an unknown vehicle from Semnan on Sep 18; reports suggest it was the Zoljanah
launch vehicle on its third flight test. The last test in 2022 was a suborbital flight with a dummy
upper stage. It seems possible that this test may have been an orbital attempt, although remarks by
Iranian officials raise the possibility that it was a suborbital ICBM test based on the Zoljanah hardware.
However, in any case, the vehicle ran into problems during first stage flight and failed a few kilometers up.
Kuiper KA-03
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ULA launched an Atlas 5 (serial AV-108) on Sep 25 with the KA-03 mission carrying
27 more Kuiper internet satellites to orbit.
IMAP launch press kit
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I have been frustrated by the lack of quantitative information in the NASA, NOAA and Princeton
press kits for the spacecraft on the IMAP mission. So, here is my own attempt:
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from KSC on 1130:50 UTC Sep 23
carrying three payloads to a trans-Lagrange trajectory with C3 of about
-0.68 km2/s2. IMAP, SWFO-L1 and Carruthers will end up at Sun-Earth L1;
the F9 second stage will likely enter solar orbit. The F9 first stage landed on
the droneship Just Read The Instructions.
IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) is mission 5 in the
NASA STP (Solar Terrestrial Probe) series; PI D. McComas (Princeton). It
was built and is operated by APL, and its mission is to study the flow
of the interstellar gas near the Earth using energetic neutral atom
(ENA) imagers. IMAP is a cylinder 0.9m tall 2.4m dia plus a
magnetometer boom, length 2.5m (for total span 4.9m) with a launch mass
of about 900 kg wet including 144 kg of hydrazine for its 12 L3Harris MR-111G
hydrazine thrusters. (Does anyone have a more accurate mass for IMAP?)
The instruments are:
IMAP-Lo (UNH) - a low energy ENA imager with a 9 degree field of view (FOV), covering the 0.005-1 keV energy range.
IMAP-Hi (LANL and others) - a pair of high energy ENA imagers covering the 0.4-15.6 keV range, scanning the ecliptic plane and poles
IMAP-Ultra (APL) - a pair of high energy ENA imagers covering the 3-300 keV range, with 2 deg angular resolution
MAG (Imperial College) - a vector triaxial fluxgate magnetometer, with 500nT range.
SWAPI (Princeton) - the Solar Wind and Pickup Ions instrument to study H and He ions in the 0.1 to 20 keV/q energy range
HIT (GSFC) -High Energy Ion Telescope, ion and electron energetic particle spectrometer, energy range 2-40 MeV/nuc.
GLOWS (CBK PAN, Poland) - Global Solar Wind Structure, map heliospheric resonant backscatter glow of H Lyman-alpha 1216A and He 584A.
SWE (LANL) Solar Wind Electrons - 3D distribution of thermal and suprathermal e, 1 eV-5 keV.
CoDICE (SwRI) Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment, mass/charge of ions. Electrostatic analyser with a TOF/E system to
measure 3D velocity distribution function, charge and mass of 0.5 to 80 keV/q ions (CoDICE-LO) and
energetic particle spectrometer (CoDICE-HI) for mass and direction of 0.03-5 MeV/nucleon ions and 20-600 keV e.
IDEX (CU-LASP) Interstellar dust experiment; impact ionization / time of flight MCP detector to measure mass spectrum of component elements.
Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a NASA STP Mission of Opportunity,
led by PI L. Waldrop (UIUC) and built by BAE Systems (former Ball). It
carries GCI (Geocoronal Imager). a set of ultraviolet imagers developed
by UC Berkeley to study hydrogen Lyman-alpha emission from the Earth's
exosphere, sensitive in approximately the 110-140 nm band. Mass 240 kg
wet; size 1.72 x 1.08 x 0.97m . The GCI consists of the NFI (Narrow
Field Imager), with a 3.6 deg field of view imaging out to 7 Earth
radii, and the WFI (Wide Field Imager) with an 18 degree field of view
out to 30 Earth radii.
SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On - L1) is a NOAA-NESDIS space weather
observatory built by BAE Systems/Boulder using the Evolve bus. Mass is
377 kg wet 304 kg dry. Size is roughly 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.0m with a 5.6m long
magnetometer boom.
Its instruments are:
CCOR-2 (NRL) Compact Coronagraph, imaging 3.5 to 26 solar radii with 65 arcsec resolution and a 4 Mpix camera sensitive in the 470-740 nm band.
SWIPS (SwRI), Solar Wind Plasma Sensor, electrostatic analysers for velocity, density, temperature of low energy ions, 0.2-32 keV/e, and protons at 180-2500 km/s.
STIS (Berkeley), Suprathermal Ion Sensor, measuring 25 keV - 6 MeV high energy ions
MAG (UNH/SwRI/), a fluxgate magnetometer with 64 vectors per second.
Chinese Commercial Launches
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A China Long March Rocket Co. Jielong-3 was launched from the DFHT barge
near Rizhao on Sep 24 with the 6th batch of Geely autonomous-driving-support satellites.
Beijing Daxue (Peking U.)'s Shikongxing 1 was also aboard.
The Jielong-3 4th stage was deorbited soon after launch and appears to be the source of
a large debris object found in Argentina later that day.
SAST launches
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On Sep 26 SAST launched a CZ-4C from Jiuquan with the Feng Yung 3 hao 08 xing polar weather satellite
to sun-synch orbit with 01:41 local time descending node.
On Sep 27 SAST launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan with five SatNet LEO Group 11
(Weixing hulianwang digui 11 zu weixing) internet satellites.
On Sep 29 SAST launched a CZ-2D from Xichang to a 35 deg orbit with the Shiyan 30-01 and 30-02 satellites,
built by SAST for `tests of Earth observation technology'. The CZ-2D second stage was left in a similar orbit.
E-Space
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The five secret commercial satellites launched by Electron on Aug 23
have finally been identified in Space-Track as Calistus A to Calistus E,
with the launching state identified as Rwanda. This flag-of-convenience
basically confirms the satellites belong to E-Space. None have yet
manuevered.
SDA
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The 21 SDA/York Space Systems satellites launched on Sep 10 have been cataloged as
"Praetorian SDA-601" to "Praetorian SDA-621". (Actually the Space Track entry uses an underscore
after "SDA" not a dash, but that messes with my software so I refuse to adopt that orthography.)
USA 566
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On about Oct 3 Space-Track added to the catalog a new secret payload from the Jul 2024 launch of USSF-51,
designated USA 566. Thanks to Neil Bland for the heads-up.
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
Sep 10 1412 Praetorian SDA-601 to 621 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 203 940 x 943 x 81.3
Sep 11 1554 Progress MS-32 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 204A 187 x 219 x 51.7
Sep 12 0156 Nusantara Lima Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 205A 249 x 15729 x 26.5
Sep 13 0210 Kosmos-2595 (Glonass) Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/3 Nav 206B 19136 x 19156 x 64.8
Kosmos-2596 (Mozhaets-6) Nav 206A
Sep 13 1755 Starlink Group 17-10 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 207 255 x 269 x 97.6
Sep 14 2211 Cygnus NG-23 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Cargo 208A 242 x 245 x 51.6
Sep 16 0106 WHJSW 07-01 to 07-04? Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S Jiuquan Comms 209 807 x 811 x 50.0
Sep 18 0930 Starlink Group 10-61 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 210 263 x 274 x 53.2
Sep 18 1500? Zoljanah test payload Zoljanah Semnan Test F08 -6370? x 10? x 55?
Sep 18? USA 556 LDPE-2, GSO Unk 22144S 35700 x 36000 x 2?
USA 557 Unk 22144T 35700 x 36000 x 2?
Sep 19 0850 GHS-01 ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 411 x 51.6
Dragonfly Tech 98067 410 x 411 x 51.6
Sep 19 1040 ASC Tech 98067 410 x 411 x 51.6
Hamorun Tech 98067 410 x 411 x 51.6
Horai Tech 98067 410 x 411 x 51.6
Sep 19 1631 Starlink Group 17-12 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 211 256 x 269 x 97.6
Sep 21 1053 Starlink Group 10-27 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 212 261 x 271 x 53.2
Sep 22 1738 USA 558 to 579 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 213 250?x260? x70?
Sep 24 0756 Geely Group 06 Jielong-3 DFHT, Rizhao Comms 214 583 x 605 x 50
Shikongxing 1
Sep 24 1130 IMAP Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Science 215 188 x 1164400 x 28.4
SWFO-L1 Science 215 188 x 1164400 x 28.4
Carruthers Science 215 188 x 1164400 x 28.
Sep 25 0839 Starlink Group 10-15 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 216 265 x 277 x 53.2
Sep 25 1209 Kuiper KA-03 Atlas V 551 Canaveral LC41 Comms 217 455 x 466 x 51.9
Sep 26 0426 Starlink Group 17-11 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 218 254 x 267 x 97.6
Sep 26 1928 Feng Yun 3-08 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Meteo 219A 798 x 814 x 98.6
Sep 27 1240 WHDW 11-01 to 11-05 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 220 996 x 1006 x 86.5
Sep 29 0204 Starlink Group 11-20 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 221 258 x 271 x 53.2
Sep 29 0300 Shiyan 30-01 Chang Zheng 2D Xichang LC3 Radar? 222A 584 x 591 x 35
Shiyan 30-02 Radar? 222B
Oct 1? USA 566 USA 328?, GEO Tech? 24134H GEO?
Oct 3 1406 Starlink Group 11-39 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 223 258 x 271 x 53.2
Oct 7 0646 Starlink Group 10-59 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 224 258 x 270 x 53.2
Oct 8 0354 Starlink Group 11-17 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 225
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Aug 28 0243 TOMEX+ 41.123CE Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops LA2 ARC Atmospheric 154? Atlantic
Aug 28 0244 TOMEX+ 41.124CE Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops LA2 MRL Atmospheric 154? Atlantic
Aug 28 0248 TOMEX+ 36.335CE Black Brant 9 Wallops LA2 50K Atmospheric 135? Atlantic
Sep 17 USN RVs Trident II D-5 SLBM, ETR LP6 Test 1000? S Atlantic
Sep 18 1300 NS-35 New Shepard W Texas Micrograv 105 W Texas
Sep 18? USN RVs Trident II D-5 SLBM, ETR LP6 Test 1000? S Atlantic
Sep 20? USN RVs Trident II D-5 SLBM, ETR LP6 Test 1000? S Atlantic
Sep 21 2328? USN RVs Trident II D-5 SLBM, ETR LP6 Test 1000? S Atlantic
Sep 23 0000 JENNA HASTE Wallops LA0C Hypersonic 200? Atlantic
Oct 1 0028 JUSTIN HASTE Wallops LA0C Hypersonic 200? Atlantic
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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