Jonathan's Space Report

No 794 2021 Jun 30 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

The Dragon CRS-22 cargo ship docked at IDA-3 at 0909 UTC Jun 5

On Jun 10 at 2249 UTC the Canadarm-2 extracted the IROSA solar array package from CRS-22's trunk At 0343 UTC Jun 11 the package was stowed on the POA (`Payload ORU Accommodation') on the station truss' Mobile Base System The MBS was later moved to worksite 8 at the end of the truss railway to put the IROSA package nearer the P6 truss where the new arrays are to be installed

CRS-22 delivered the Nanoracks NRCSD-20 package to ISS; the crew moved it to the Kibo module airlock and on Jun 14 the Japanese RMS arm extracted NRCSD-20 from the airlock Two cubesats, RamSat and SOAR, were ejected from it at 0505 UTC Jun 14 NRCSD-20 was then placed back in the airlock CRS-22 also delivered J-SSOD-17, as noted below

RamSat is a 2U student satellite from Robertsville Middle School, Oak Ridge, Tennessee SOAR is a 3U cubesat from the University of Manchester to study materials coatings and aerodynamics in lower LEO

On Jun 16 astronauts Pesquet and Kimbrough made a spacewalk in suits 3009 and 3006 to attempt installation of IROSA array 2B, as US EVA-74 The crew lost some time due to problems with Kimbrough's spacesuit, but eventually removed array 2B from the IROSA launch package and attached it to the support bracket at the base of the 2B array mast on truss segment P6 However, they were unable to unfold the two halves of the array cylinder and returned to the airlock with the array still in a packed configuration Quest was depressurized from 1204 to 1926 UTC and the hatch was open from 1210 to 1923 UTC

On Jun 20 US EVA-75 saw the completion of 2B IROSA deployment EVA-75 used spacesuits 3009 (Pesquet) and 3015 (Kimbrough) with SAFER units 13 and 15 The airlock was depressuized at 1135 UTC and repressurized at 1810 UTC (50 mbar level) The hatch was open from 1141 to 1807 UTC EV1 was outside 1147 to 1755, EV2 from 1154 to 1745 The astronauts went on to battery power at 1142 UTC and back to station power around 1805 UTC? The IROSA 2B array was unfolded at 1300 UTC and deployed from 1524 to 1535 UTC The 2nd IROSA array, 4B, remained attached to the carrier on the MBS POA until EVA-76

On Jun 22 the Japanese RMS robot arm extracted the J-SSOD-17 deployer from the Kibo airlock J-SSOD-17 was delivered to ISS on CRS-22 At 1055 UTC the deployer ejected MIR-SAT1, a 1U cubesat from the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council sponsored by the UN KiboCube program

A second satellite was deployed a few hours later (actual time unknown) It was described only as a 'business satellite' We don't know the owner or even which country licences the satellite In the Space-Track database it is called 'BD-28', which I suspect is a designation from JAXA's commercial cubesat integrator SpaceBD, which probably managed the integration and flight, and not the name that the owner gave the satellite SpaceTrack marks the satellite as being a US one, but it's not clear where they get that information

On Jun 25 Pesquet and Kimbrough carried out US EVA-76 to install the 4B IROSA array on the 4B mod kit at P6 The airlock was depressurized at 1145 UTC and repressurized at 1837 UTC Hatch open/close was 1151 to 1833 UTC; astronauts went on battery pwer at 1152 UTC The 4B IROSA was removed from the carrier at 1410 UTC and soft docked to the mod kit on P6 at 1550 UTC Array deployment was complete at 1755 UTC

On Jun 29 the Canadarm-2 unberthed the S S Katherine Johnson (Cygnus NG-15) from the Unity module and at 1632 UTC released it into orbit At 2250 UTC the IT-SPINS and MySat-2 cubesats were deployed from the Nanoracks NRCSD-E deployer on NG-15

On Jun 29 the Progress MS-17 cargo ship (spacecraft 7K-TGM No 446) was launched from Baykonur It is scheduled to dock with the Poisk module

SXM-8

On Jun 6 SpaceX launched the SXM-8 digital radio broadcasting satellite for Sirius XM Launch mass of the satellite is approximately 7000 kg The F9 first stage landed on the droneship JRTI SXM-8 and the F9 second stage were placed in a 235 x 19384 km transfer orbit SXM-8 was on station in geostationary orbit at 120 5W by Jun 22

CZ-2D

The first of the Beijing-3 series of imaging satellites was launched from Taiyuan by a SAST CZ-2D on Jun 11 The satellite is operated by 21st Century Aerospace Technology of Beijing The Beijing-1 satellite was built for them by Surrey Satellite and launched in 2005 21AT also leased the capacity of the DMC-3 satellites from Surrey, launched in 2015, and branded the data as Beijing-2

TacRL-2

The first US Space Force Tactical Responsive Launch, TacRL-2, flew successfully on Jun 13, placing the Odyssey satellite in orbit The Northrop Grumman L-1011 Stargazer aircraft took off from runway 30/12 at Vandenberg Space Force Base at about 0710 UTC and headed out over the California coast At 0811 UTC the airplane dropped its Pegasus XL launch vehicle at about 123 5W 35 3N The Pegasus first stage ignited 5 seconds later and after about 8 minutes stage 3 burnout left the third stage and the Odyssey satellite in sun-synchronous orbit with a 23:43 local time descending node

Odyssey is a satellite dedicated to `space domain awareness', which is US military jargon for tracking other satellites and space debris

NROL-111

On Jun 15 Northrop Grumman launched a Minotaur 1 rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia on the NROL-111 launch mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office Three small satellites were placed in low Earth orbit Their mission is not known; I am labelling them as communications for now but that's a very low confidence guess

Shenzhou 12

China's first human spaceflight launch in over 4 years took off on Jun 17 The CZ-2F placed Shenzhou 12 in orbit on its way to a rendezvous with the Tianhe/Tianzhou-2 complex

Crew of Shenzhou 12 are Nie Haipeng, Liu Boming and Tang Honbo The spaceship docked with the forward port of the Tianhe module at 0754 UTC The mission is scheduled to last three months

GPS

The fifth GPS Block III navigation satellite was launched on Jun 17 The first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle landed on the droneship JRTI; the second stage made two burns to place the GPS satellite in transfer orbit and then made a third burn to deorbit the stage southeast of South Africa By Jun 25 GPS III SV05 was in a 21068 x 21098 km x 55 0 deg orbit

Yaogan 30 Group 09

The 9th triplet of Yaogan 30 (also called Chuangxin-5) satellites was launched from Xichang on Jun 18 There are now 27 Yaogan-30 satellites in orbit; they are thought to be a signals intelligence constellation although a communications role also seems possible

A secondary payload, the Tianqi-14 commercial IoT data relay satellite for Guodian Gaokeji, was also deployed The CZ-2C second stage carried out propellant depletion venting while tumbling, resulting in one of the notorious spiral clouds being observed under its ground track in New Caledonia and Vanuatu

Iranian launch failure

US government sources have confirmed that Iran attempted an orbital launch of the Simorgh rocket from the Khomeini launch complex at the Semnan spaceport on Jun 12, but the launch failed in some way This is the 4th failed orbital attempt of the rocket (there was also a 2016 test launch that may not have been intended to reach orbit)

There are some indications there may have been a second failed launch on Jun 23

Pion-NKS

The Russian Defense Ministry launched its first Pion NKS naval electronic intelligence satellite, Pion-NKS No 901, on Jun 25 The 6 5-tonne spacecraft was developed by KB Arsenal (St-Peterburg) and TsSKB-Progress (Samara) It will probably raise perigee and circularize orbit on Jun 26

Erratum

In the text of JSR793 the May 15 Starlink launch was misstated as being on May 9

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Jun 2 1617 Fengyun 4 02 xing Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Weather 47A S48808 186 x 35808 x 28 5 Jun 3 1729 Dragon CRS-22 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 48A S48831 193 x 212 x 51 6 Jun 6 0426 SXM-8 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 49A S48838 235 x 19384 x 27 0 Jun 11 0303 Beijing-3 ) Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 50A S48840 488 x 502 x 97 5 Yangwang-1) UV Astron 50 Haisi-2 ) Imaging 50 Tianjian ) Tech 50 Jun 12 Test satellite? Simorgh? Khomeini Test? F03 Jun 13 0811 Odyssey Pegasus XL Vandenberg AFB Tracking 51A S48844 405 x 452 x 97 5 Jun 14 0505 RamSat) ISS, LEO Education 9867SL S48851 414 x 421 x 51 6 SOAR ) Tech 9867SM S48850 414 x 421 x 51 6 Jun 15 1335 USA 316 ) Minotaur 1 MARS LA0B Comms? 52A S48846 500?x 500? x 50? USA 317 ) Comms? 52B S48847 500?x 500? x 50? USA 318 ) Comms? 52C S48848 500?x 500? x 50? Jun 17 0122 Shenzhou 12 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 53A S48852 193 x 486 x 41 4 Jun 17 1609 GPS III SV05 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Nav 54A S48859 394 x 20176 x 55 0 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? BD-28 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 13C
MySat-2 ) Tech 13D Jun 29 2327 Progress MS-17 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 57A S48869

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

May 22 1526 VG-021 Spaceship Two Elephant Butte Test 89 Spaceport America May 24 0535 MAPHEUS 11 IM/IM Kiruna Micrograv 216? ESRANGE May 26 T4-B Target Terrier Oriole South Uist Target 300? Atlantic May 26 AEGIS KV SM-3 DDG-117, D-701 Atlantic Interceptor 150? Intercept T4-B May 27 0115 VIPER Terr Imp Mal Wallops Ionosphere 151? Atlantic May 29? FTM-31E1 Target MRBM-T3c2 Kwajalein Meck I Target 500? Pacific May 30 T4-B Target Terrier Oriole South Uist Target 300? Atlantic May 30 AEGIS KV SM-3 DDG-117, D-701 Atlantic Interceptor 150? Intercept T4-B Jun 7 0625 CIBER 2 Black Brant 9 White Sands IR Astron 310 White Sands Jun 11? RV? Topol? Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura 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 Ocean

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