[JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 795
Jonathan McDowell
jcm at planet4589.com
Thu Jul 22 13:54:42 EDT 2021
Jonathan's Space Report
No. 795 2021 Jul 22 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 65 continues.
On Jun 30 the Canadarm-2 removed the IROSA FSE carrier from the POA (Payload ORU Accomodation)
storage point on the ISS truss Mobile Base System and stowed it in the trunk of Dragon CRS-22,
wrapping up the operations to install the 2B and 4B IROSA solar arrays.
Cygnus NG-15, in free flight after departing ISS, released three cubesats from its SEOPS LLC Slingshot
deployer on Jun 30. Two of the satellites are thought to be ORCA-7 and Gunsmoke-J 3.
NG-15 was deorbited over the Pacific at about 0130 UTC Jul 2.
According to reporting by Novosti, the BD-28 satellite deployed from ISS
on Jun 22 is actually G-SATELLITE 2. The satellite is owned by OneTeam,
a collaboration of Tokyo U's Nakasuka Funase Lab and various companies.
G-SATELLITE 1 was deployed in similar secrecy in Apr 2020. That
satellite's mission was advertising, to promote the Tokyo Olympics. It
contained mechanisms to deploy to the exterior (but remaining attached)
a display with figurines of robot characters from the 'Mobile Suit
Gundam' anime television series, and a camera to image them against the
Earth in the background. I assume G-SATELLITE 2 is a duplicate of the
first one.
On Jul 8 at 1445 UTC the Dragon CRS-22 cargo ship undocked from the IDA-3 docking port
to begin its return to Earth. Around 1800 UTC Jul 8 the ship lowered its orbit to 203 x 319
km. On Jul 10, after jettisoning the trunk (containing the IROSA FSE) CRS-22 fired
its engines at about 0245 UTC for a 9 minute deorbit burn, and splashed down at 0329 UTC
in the Gulf of Mexico near 84.3W 29.2N.
On Jul 21 at 1045 UTC astronauts Kimbrough, McArthur, Hoshide and Pesquet undocked
from IDA-2 in Dragon Endeavour and flew around ISS to redock at IDA-3 at 1135 UTC.
This leaves IDA-2 free for the planned Starliner docking.
On Jul 21 at 1458 UTC Roskosmos launched a Proton-M from Baykonur
carrying the 20-tonne MLM-U Nauka module to orbit. Nauka is scheduled to
dock with the ISS Zvezda nadir port. Attached to the 19627 kg Nauka is
the European Robotic Arm, ERA, a 630 kg, 11.4m long robot arm. Two parts
of Nauka, the ShK airlock and the module radiator, are already at ISS -
they have been sitting dormant attached to the Rassvet module for the
past eleven years. On the first day in orbit, a number of Nauka's
systems malfunctioned, including its main engines, and flight
controllers were working to resolve the issues.
Blue Origin NS-16
-----------------
On Jul 20 Blue Origin launched the New Shepard PM4/CC2.0-2 stack on its
third flight from the West Texas launch site. Mission NS-16 carried Jeff
Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen aboard the crew capsule
CC2.0-2 (RSS First Step). The flight reached a 107 km apogee; the booster
PM4 landed back at the launch site and the capsule separated and landed
on parachutes.
Virgin Galactic Unity-22
------------------------
Virgin Galactic carried out another test flight of Spaceship Two into
space on Jul 11, with six Virgin Galactic employees on board: Chief
Pilot David Mackay, Pilot Mike Masucci, and 'Astronaut 001' to
'Astronaut 004' Richard Branson, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha
Bandla.
The Unity 22 mission took off from Spaceport America at 1443 UTC. The
carrier plane VMS Eve, flying at 14.1 km altitude, dropped the VSS Unity
spaceplane at 1525 UTC over 107.0W 33.2N. Two seconds later Unity fired
its hybrid rocket engine for a 60 second burn with a cutoff velocity of
0.98 km/s. Unity reached space at D+2:02 (2 min 2s after drop); at
D+2:39 it reached an apogee of 86.2 km above sea level. It dropped below
80 km at D+3:14 and glided to landing back at Spaceport America at
D+14:19 (touchdown), with wheels stop at D+15:14. The exact drop time to
the second is not yet available.
Virgin Orbit
------------
Virgin Orbit's third orbital attempt, with LauncherOne S/N R4, was
carried out on Jun 30. The Boeing 747 'Cosmic Girl' took off from Mojave
at 1353 UTC and flew to 120.1W 33.2N where it dropped the LauncherOne at
1447 UTC. The first stage ignited a few seconds later. The two-stage
rocket reached transfer orbit at 1455 UTC and then made an orbit
circularization burn at 1525 UTC. Payload deployment began at 1527 UTC.
The payloads were:
CNCE Block 1 (two 3U satellites) for the Missile Defense Agency's Cubesat Networked Communications Experiment
- the two cubesats will mimic two suborbital interceptor kill vehicles and test communications between them.
Control from MDA/Schriever in Colorado Springs; unclear who built the satellites.
Gunsmoke-J, a 3U communications test satellite for the US Army Space and Missile Defence Center, built by
TriSept Corp. Two other Gunsmoke-J satellites were launched on Electron 19 and Cygnus NG-15.
Halo-NET Free Flyer, a 3U test of a laser retroreflector array for the US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Center's
laser communications program. An earlier Halo-NET payload flew attached to STPSAT-5 in 2018.
Brik-II, a 6U test satellite for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
STORK 4 and STORK 5, 3U imaging satellites for SatRevolution of Poland.
Transporter-2
-------------
SpaceX launched the Transporter-2 rideshare mission and three Starlink satellites on Jun 30.
The main payload was a stack of 4 ESPA rings from which satellites were ejected. The three
Starlink satellites were on a truss structure at the top of the stack and ejected last. It is not yet clear if
the usual four tension rods were also released. Three of the ejected payloads - Sherpa-FX2, Sherpa-LTE1
and ION-SVC-003 - were `tugs' that carried satellite stacks of their own. The Sherpa subsatellites
were released within a few hours of launch. Two NASA satellites were released from a Mandrake dispenser
attached to the aft end of the second stage. The second stage was deorbited over the Indian Ocean
at about 2130 UTC, with the ESPA stack still attached. (On Transporter 1, the Starlinks were between
the ESPA stack and the second stage, so the ESPA stack had to be itself ejected and remains in orbit as debris.)
ION-SVC-003 'Dauntless David' began dispensing its payloads on Jul 16, including the first Kuwaiti satellite
QMR-KWT.
OneWeb
------
36 more OneWeb satellites were launched by Soyuz from Vostochniy on Jul 1.
CZ-2D
-----
SAST (Shanghai) launched a CZ-2D from Taiyuan on Jul 3 with five imaging
satellites. The Jilin-1 series of commercial Earth imaging satellites is
operated by the Changguang Sat Tech Ltd in Changchun, Jilin province.
The Jilin-1 Kuanfu (wide) series has a large field of view while the
Jilin-1 Gaofen (hi-res) series has narrow hi-res imagers. Xingshidai-10
(also called Guangdong Hengjian) is a small imaging satellite from
Guoxing Yuhang Keji YG (ADA Space).
Jilin-1 Kuanfu 01B is also called Neimenggu 1 (Inner Mongolia 1).
Tianhe
------
Chinese astronauts Liu and Tang made the first spacewalk from the new Chinese station on Jul 4.
The hatch was opened at 0011 UTC and closed at 0657 UTC. They installed foot restraints on
the robot arm and tested moving Liu on the arm, and deployed an exterior camera.
CZ-4C
-----
SAST (Shanghai) launched a CZ-4C from Jiuquan on Jul 4 with the Fengyun 3E polar weather
satellite. The satellite entered a sun-sync orbit with 0541 local time descending node.
CZ-3C
-----
CALT (Beijing) launched a CZ-3C from Xichang on Jul 6 with the TianLian 1-05 data relay satellite.
CZ-6
----
SAST launched a CZ-6 from Taiyuan on Jul 9 with five radio-spectrum monitoring satellites for the Ningxia
company, designated Zhongzi Constellation Group 2.
CZ-2C
-----
CALT launched a CZ-2C from Xichang on Jul 19 with the tenth triplet of Yaogan-30 satellites,
thought to be for signals intelligence. The Tianqi-15 commercial communications satellite
was carried as a secondary payload.
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
----------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Jun 18 0630 Yaogan 30 hao 09 zu 01 xing) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint? 55A S48860 590 x 603 x 35.0
Yaogan 30 hao 09 zu 02 xing) Sigint? 55B S48861 591 x 602 x 35.0
Yaogan 30 hao 09 zu 03 xing) Sigint? 55D S48863 592 x 602 x 35.0
Tianqi 14 ) Comms 55E S48864 571 x 681 x 35.1
Jun 22 1055 MIR-SAT1 ISS, LEO Tech 9867SP S48868 416 x 420 x 51.6
Jun 22 1200? G-SATELLITE 2 ISS, LEO Tech 9867SN S48867 415 x 419 x 51.6
Jun 23? Test satellite? Simorgh? Khomeini Test? F03
Jun 25 1950 Kosmos-2550 Soyuz-2-1b Plesetsk LC43/4 Sigint 56A S48865 195 x 466 x 67.1
Jun 29 2250 IT-SPINS ) Cygnus NG-15, LEO Sci 13G S49017 489 x 503 x 51.6
MySat-2 ) Tech 13F S49016 489 x 503 x 51.6
Jun 29 2327 Progress MS-17 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 57A S48869 280 x 383 x 51.7
Jun 30 1447 CNCE 1 ) Launcher One B747, Mojave Com 58E S48875 495 x 520 x 60.7
CNCE 3 ) Com 58D S48874 495 x 520 x 60.7
Gunsmoke-J 4 ) Com 58H S48878 495 x 526 x 60.7
HALO-Net FF ) Tech 58G S48877 495 x 522 x 60.7
Brik-II ) Tech/Com 58F S48876 495 x 522 x 60.7
STORK 4 ) Imaging 58C S48873 495 x 526 x 60.7
STORK 5 ) Imaging 58B S48872 495 x 522 x 60.7
Jun 30 1931 Transporter-2 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Dispenser 59 530 x 545 x 97.5
Starlink 3003 ) Comms 59A S48879 515 x 536 x 97.5
Starlink 3004 ) Comms 59B S48880 515 x 536 x 97.5
Starlink 3005 ) Comms 59C S48881 510 x 525 x 97.5
SHERPA-LTE-1 ) Dispenser 59BQ S48941 524 x 536 x 97.5
SHERPA-FX-2 ) Dispenser 59
ION-SVC-003 ) Dispenser 59AK S48912 520 x 537 x 97.5
YAM-2 ) Tech 59
YAM-3 ) Tech 59AN S48915 519 x 537 x 97.5
Nusat-19 (Rosalind) ) Imaging 59AC S48905 521 x 537 x 97.5
Nusat-20 (Grace) ) Imaging 59AU S48921 521 x 537 x 97.5
Nusat-21 (Elisa) ) Imaging 59AT S48920 521 x 537 x 97.5
Nusat-22 (Sofya) ) Imaging 59AS S48919 521 x 537 x 97.5
Umbra-SAR 2001 ) Radar 59AD S48906 521 x 537 x 97.5
ICEYE-X11 ) Radar 59AR S48918 519 x 537 x 97.5
ICEYE-X12 ) Radar 59AM S48914 519 x 537 x 97.5
ICEYE-X13 ) Radar 59AP S48916 519 x 537 x 97.5
ICEYE-X15 ) Radar 59AQ S48917 519 x 537 x 97.5
Capella 5 ) Radar 59AL S48913 520 x 536 x 97.5
TUBIN ) Tech 59X S48900 523 x 537 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Jackson ) Com/Met 59G S48885 524 x 537 x 97.5
Lemur-2-AnnaBanana ) Com/Met 59AW S48923 524 x 537 x 97.5
D2/AtlaCom-1 ) Tech 59
PACE-1 ) Tech 59
TROPICS Pathfinder ) Sci 59Y S48901 522 x 537 x 97.5
Mandrake 2A ) Com 59AE S48907 521 x 537 x 97.5
Mandrake 2B ) Com 59AF S48908 521 x 537 x 97.5
LINCS 1 ) Com 59
LINCS 2 ) Com 59
Centauri 4 ) Com 59V S48898 522 x 538 x 97.5
GNOMES 2 ) Com 59
EG-3 ) Com 59P S48892 642 x 655 x 97.5
SpaceBEENZ-7 ) Com 59L S48889 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEENZ-8 ) Com 59N S48891 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEENZ-9 ) Com 59J S48887 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEENZ-10 ) Com 59D S48882 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-88 ) Com 59BJ S48935 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-89 ) Com 59BG S48933 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-90 ) Com 59BW S48947 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-91 ) Com 59BP S48940 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-92 ) Com 59BF S48932 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-93 ) Com 59BN S48939 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-94 ) Com 59BL S48937 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-95 ) Com 59BU S48945 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-96 ) Com 59BH S48934 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-97 ) Com 59BK S48936 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-98 ) Com 59BY S48949 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-99 ) Com 59BV S48946 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-100 ) Com 59E S48883 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-101 ) Com 59F S48884 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-102 ) Com 59H S48886 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-103 ) Com 59K S48888 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-104 ) Com 59M S48890 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-105 ) Com 59T S48896 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-106 ) Com 59Q S48893 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-107 ) Com 59R S48894 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-108 ) Com 59S S48895 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-109 ) Com 59U S48897 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-110 ) Com 59W S48899 525 x 536 x 97.5
SpaceBEE-111 ) Com 59AB S48904 521 x 536 x 97.5
Jun 30 2300? Astrocast-0201 ) Sherpa-FX2, LEO Com 59CD S48954 512 x 533 x 97.5
Astrocast-0202 ) Com 59CL S48961 512 x 533 x 97.5
Astrocast-0203 ) Com 59CE S48955 512 x 533 x 97.5
Astrocast-0204 ) Com 59
Astrocast-0205 ) Com 59CK S48960 512 x 533 x 97.5
Hawk 3A ) Sigint 59CG S48957 513 x 536 x 97.5
Hawk 3B ) Sigint 59BE S48931 513 x 536 x 97.5
Hawk 3C ) Sigint 59BX S48948 513 x 536 x 97.5
Lynk 06 (Shannon) ) Com 59BM S48938 513 x 536 x 97.5
Painani-2 ) Tech 59
Lemur-2-John-Treires ) Com/Met 59AY S48925 524 x 537 x 97.5
Lemur-2-AC-Cubed ) Com/Met 59BA S48927 524 x 537 x 97.5
Lemur-2-Merima ) Com/Met 59BC S48929 524 x 537 x 97.5
Jun 30 2300? Aurora/Shasta ) Sherpa-LTE1, LEO Sigint 59
Polar Vigilance 1 ) Sigint 59
Polar Vigilance 2 ) Sigint 59
Polar Vigilance 3 ) Sigint 59
Polar Vigilance 4 ) Sigint 59
Faraday Phoenix ) Tech 59
Lemur-2-CarlSantaMari ) Com/Met 59CJ S48959 524 x 537 x 97.5
Tiger-2 ) Tech 59
ARTHUR-1 ) Tech 59CC S48953 513 x 534 x 97.5
Tenzing ) Tech 59
Jun 30 1500 ORCA-7 Cygnus NG-15,LEO Tech? 13C S49013 492 x 501 x 51.6
Jun 30 1630 UNKNOWN SAT Cygnus NG-15,LEO Com 13E? S49015 487 x 503 x 51.6
Jun 30 1830 Gunsmoke-J 2 Cygnus NG-15, LEO Com 13D S49014 487 x 503 x 51.6
Jul 1 1238 OneWeb SL0249-SL0284 ) Soyuz/Fregat Vostochniy PU1 Com 60A-AM 443 x 454 x 87.4
Jul 3 0251 Jilin-1 KF01B ) Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 61A S49003 531 x 545 x 97.5
Jilin-1 GF03D-01) Imaging 61 S49004 530 x 543 x 97.5
Jilin-1 GF03D-02) Imaging 61 S49005 526 x 543 x 97.5
Jilin-1 GF03D-03) Imaging 61 S49006 525 x 543 x 97.5
Xingshidai 10 ) Imaging 61 S49007 525 x 543 x 97.5
Jul 4 2328 Fengyun-3 05 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Meteo 62A S49008 792 x 815 x 98.7
Jul 6 1553 TianLian 1-05 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang Comms 63A S49010 180 x 39784 x 17.6
Jul 9 1159 Zhongzi 2-01 ) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Sigint 64A S49018 857 x 867 x 45.0
Zhongzi 2-02 ) Sigint 64B S49019 857 x 867 x 45.0
Zhongzi 2-03 ) Sigint 64C S49020 857 x 867 x 45.0
Zhongzi 2-04 ) Sigint 64D S49021 857 x 867 x 45.0
Zhongzi 2-05 ) Sigint 64E S49022 857 x 867 x 45.0
Jul 16 QMR-KWT) ION-SVC03, LEO Tech 59
Ghalib ) Tech 59
Jul 18 NAPA-2 ION-SVC03, LEO Img 59
Jul 19 0019 Yaogan 30 hao 10 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Sigint 65A? S49026 588 x 599 x 35.0
Yaogan 30 hao 10 zu 02 xing ) Sigint 65B? S49027 588 x 599 x 35.0
Yaogan 30 hao 10 zu 03 xing ) Sigint 65C? S49028 588 x 599 x 35.0
Tianqi 15 ) Com 65D? S49029 591 x 602 x 35.0
Jul 21 1458 Nauka Proton-M Baykonur LC39/200 Module 66A S49044 190 x 346 x 51.6
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
China's CALT launched a test of a suborbital reusable spaceplane from
Jiuquan on Jul 16. It flew across the Badain Jaran desret and landed on
the runway at Alashan Youqi. It was described as Ya (sub) guidao
(orbital) chongfu shiyong (reusable) yanshi (demo) yanzheng
(verification/test) xiangmu (project) yunzai (carrier) qi (vehicle).
Neither apogee reached nor details of the vehicle are available.
Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jun 23 0050 DLR BOLT-1 VS-31/Orion Kiruna Hypersonic 280? ESRANGE
Jun 25 1232 RockOn Terrier/Imp.Orion Wallops Island Education 116 Atlantic
Jun 28 0525 Agni P RV Agni P Kalam Island Test 800? Indian O.
Jul 3 0845 MOMO F7 MOMO Hokkaido Test 99 Pacific
Jul 7 1800 Dynamo 2A Black Brant 9 Wallops I Ionosphere 123 Atlantic
Jul 11 1525 Unity 22 Spaceship Two Spaceport America Test 86 Spaceport America
Jul 11 1756 Dynamo 2B Black Brant 9 Wallops I Ionosphere 133 Atlantic
Jul 16 YG Chongfu Shiyong YGCS Jiuquan Test 200? Alashan Youqi
Jul 20 1311 RSS First Step New Shepard West Texas Tourism 107 West Texas
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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