Jonathan's Space Report

No 801 2021 Dec 27 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 66 continues

On Dec 2 astronauts Marshburn and Barron carried out spacewalk US EVA-78, to replace the SASA antenna on the P1 truss The airlock was depressurized from 1108 to 1747 UTC; the hatch was open from 1114 to 1743 UTC The SASA (S-band Antenna SubAssembly) units are about 116 kg each; there are three installed on S1, P1 and Z1 and a further two spares on the ELC-3 carrier During the spacewalk, the astronauts removed the P1 SASA unit and swapped it with one of the spares on ELC-3

On Dec 8 Roskosmos launched Soyuz MS-20 with commander Aleksandr Misurkin and spaceflight participants (tourists) Maezawa Yusaku and Hirano Yozo Soyuz MS-20 docked with Poisk at 1340 UTC Dec 8 The three visitors returned on the same ship, undocking at 2350 UTC Dec 19 and landing in Kazakhstan at 0313 UTC Dec 20

On Dec 21 SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-24 cargo ship (also called mission SpX-24) This mission uses capsule C209 on its second flight In the Dragon trunk are two Space Force payloads in the Space Test Program, STP-H7 and STP-H8 STP-H7 will be installed on an external platform on the Columbus module and STP-H8 will go to the Kibo Exposed Facility (I don't know which EFU) Combined mass of STP-H7 and STP-H8 is 908 kg

Inside the Dragon capsule are two cubesat deployer payloads: NRCSD-22, from Nanoracks, contains DAILI - Aerospace Corp, 1x6U cubesat for ionospheric research FEES 2 - GP Advanced Projects (Brescia), 0 3U cubesat GASPACS - Utah State U 1U cubsat to test a deployable boom for attitude control PATCOOL - KSC/U Florida 3U cubesat to test thermal coatings and a drag device TARGIT - a 3U cubesat from Georgia Tech with a lidar (laser ranger) and a target subsatellite The 4 5 kg cubesat will deploy the 1 5 kg subsatellite on a 6 m tether; the subsatellite has a 1-meter-sized inflatable Mylar tetrahedral balloon The lidar will be used to image the subsatellite The tether will be deployed after TARGIT's altitude decays below that of the Chinese space station J-SSOD-20 (serial number to be confirmed), from Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, carries GT-1, a 1U amateur radio satellite from Georgia Tech, Light-1, a 3U satellite to study terrestrial gamma-ray lightning flashes from NYU Abu Dhabi and Khalifa U , and one further so-far-unidentified 1U cubesats, likely from Japanese companies

CRS-24 is thought to also be carrying a new EMU spacesuit, but I haven't been able to find out the serial number

Dragon CRS-24 docked to IDA-2 on the Harmony module at 0841 UTC Dec 22

At 2303 UTC on Dec 22 the Progress M-UM tug undocked from the Prichal module (which it delivered to the ISS on Nov 26) Progress M-UM was then deorbited with reentry over the South Pacific at 0430 UTC Dec 23

Chinese Space Station

On Dec 26 astronauts Ye and Zhai made a spacewalk to deploy an external camera platform The Tianhe airlock hatch was open from 1044 to 1655 UTC

Starlink

48 Starlink satellites were launched from Cape Canaveral on Dec 2 as Group 4-3 The launch also deployed two BlackSky Global imaging satellites

52 Starlinks were launched on Dec 18 as Group 4-4 The launch southeast from Vandenberg to 53 degrees was the lowest-inclination ever from the site

Galileo

Two more European Union navigation satellites in the Galileo series were launched on Dec 5 GalileoSat-27/28 are FOC flight models 23/24

Gushenxing-1

The second launch of the Gushenxing-1 (Ceres-1) rocket placed five satellites in orbit: - Tianjun Daxue 1 built by Changguang Satellite for Tianjin University, with an IR imager; - Lize-1 and Baoyun from Tianyi Research - Jin Zijing 5, an imaging satellite built by Zhongke Xingrui for Hong Kong Aerospace Tech - Jin Zijing 1-03, an imaging satellite built by Lingzhong Kongjian (Zero Gravity Lab) for Hong Kong Aerospace Tech Gushenxing-1 is a commercial launch vehicle developed by Xinghe Dongli Kongkian Keji YG (Galactic Energy) of Beijing

STP-3

The US Space Force's Space Test Program 3 mission was launched on a ULA Atlas V on Dec 7 to near-synchronous orbit The main payload was the STPSAT-6 satellite A modified ESPA ring, the LDPE-1 (Rooster 1) satellite, was also put in orbit; it will deploy a number of smaller satellites including the 12U ASCENT cubesat from AFRL

An additional object (50214 / 2021-118D ) from the launch was cataloged on Dec 20; Space-Track records it as 'Atlas Centaur 5 Debris' but it's possible it is the first of these subsatellites

Electron 23

Another two BlackSky Global imaging satellites were launched on the 23rd Electron flight on Dec 9 The flight was nicknamed 'Data with Destiny'

IXPE

The IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) satellite was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Dec 9 aboard a Falcon 9

IXPE has three 0 27m-diameter grazing incidence X-ray telescopes with special detectors that can measure X-ray polarization Satellite mass is about 330 kg

SJ6

11 years after the previous launch in the series, the Shi Jian 6 Group 05 Sats A and B (Shi Jian 6 hao 05 zu A/B xing) were launched from Jiuquan on Dec 10

The earlier SJ6 satellites operate in a 590 km sun-synchronous orbits They are thought to be signals intelligence satellites One of the satellites in each pair was a large SAST/Shanghai maneuverable satellite possibly based on the FY-1 bus, and the other was a smaller satellite that does not have orbit adjust capability I am guessing that the SAST satellite is the B xing, which (confusingly) is usually assigned to object A for the launch in the US satellite catalog The A object (putative B xing) carries out occasional orbit adjustments; based on the TLEs it appears all the A objects from the earlier launches were still active as recently as 2019

The new Group 05 satellites, in contrast, are both built by SAST and are in a lower orbit

The orbital planes (characterized by the LTDN, the local time of the orbit descending node) and heights are listed in the table below

SJ-6 launches

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Group (zu) Launch CatNo: B xing A xing LTDN (launch) LTDN (2021) 2021 Orbit (B xing) 01 2004 Sep 8 28413 28414 0620 0655 582 x 591 x 97 7 02 2006 Oct 23 29505 29506 0640 0649 577 x 585 x 97 8 03 2008 Oct 25 33408 33409 0821 0415 571 x 596 x 97 8 04 2010 Oct 6 37179 37180 0755 0425 564 x 605 x 97 7

05 2021 Dec 10 49961? 49962? 0630 0630 457 x 470 x 97 4

Proton

Roskosmos launched a Proton on Dec 13 with two Ekspress communications satellites A slight underburn of the Briz-M stage left the satellites in a somewhat lower than planned orbit; the satellites have electric propulsion systems and will take somewhat longer than expected to reach their final orbits In accordance with the scheme for rocket statistics described in my General Catalog, I am rating this Proton launch's success rate score as 0 80 (reached usuable but not nominal orbit)

TL2-02

CALT launched a CZ-3B on Dec 13 with the second of the Tian Lian 2 data relay satellites On around Dec 15 it began orbit raising and as of Dec 21 in was on station in GEO at 171E

GeeSat

EXPACE launched a Kuaizhou-1A with two GeeSat satellites on Dec 15, but it failed to reach orbit Reports indicate the third stage failed and debris impacted about 1000 km downrange GeeSpace's 130 kg GeeSat satellites are intended to provide commercial navigation services GeeSpace (Shanghai) is a subsidiary of the Geely Holding Group (Hangzhou) The satellites were built by another Geely subsidiary, Xingkong Zhilian Keji (Taizhou)

Turksat

The Turksat-5B communications satellite, an Airbus Eurostar electric-propulsion vehicle with a launch mass of 4500 kg, was placed in geotransfer orbit by a Falcon 9 on Dec 19 A small perigee raising burn occurred on Dec 22

Inmarsat 6

The first Inmarsat 6 satellite for maritime and aviation communications was launched to supersynchronous transfer orbit on Dec 22 by a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA from Tanegashima The 5740 kg Airbus Eurostar 3000EOR satellite carries Ka-band and L-band communications payloads

SY-12

On Dec 23, the third test flight of the Chang Zheng 7A placed two 3-tonne CAST-built Shiyan 12 satellites in geotransfer orbit

JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Dec 25 Ariane 5 rocket L5114 took off on flight VA256 at 1220:07 UTC The EAP solid boosters separated 2m21s after launch at 72 km altitude The two halves of the nose fairing were jettisoned 3m26s after launch at 126 km altitude The EPC core stage shut down and separarated at T+8:47, 229 km up The ESC-D upper stage ignited at T+8:51 and fired for 16 minutes, cutting off at 928 km altitude with the stack in a 315 x 1011900 km x 4 1 deg orbit ESC-D separated from JWST at 1247 UTC, T+27:07, and JWST deployed its solar array at 1250 UTC The observatory carried out its first midcourse correction, MCC-1a, at 0050 UTC to 0155 UTC Dec 26, gaining about 16 m/s Arrival at Sun-Earth L2 is expected in late January

JWST has a mass of 6161 kg wet and 5861 kg dry The spacecraft is packed into a 10 7m high 4 5m dia form at launch but will deploy its 6 5m diameter, 18-segment primary mirror and a 21 2m x 14 2m sunshade

JWST observes in infrared wavebands; the focal plane will be cooled to 40 Kelvin, and the active cryocooler will cool the MIRI instrument to a mere 7 Kelvin

The ISIM (Integrated Science Instrument Module) carries the four JWST instruments: - NIRCAM (Arizona), a 0 6-5 micron near-IR camera - MIRI (ESA/JPL), a mid-IR imager (5 to 28 microns) - NIRSPEC (ESA), a near-IR spectrograph/IFU (0 7 to 5 3 microns) - NIRISS (CSA), a near-IR imager/slitless spectrograph (1 0-2 5 microns) An Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator (ADIR) also unfolds from the ISIM

The OTE (Optical Telescope Element) includes the PMSA (Primary Mirror Segment Assenbly), the +V2 and -V2 PMBA (Primary Mirror Backplane Assemblies), and the SMSS (Secondary Mirror Support Structure) with SMA (Secondary Mirror Assembly) The OTE is mounted on the DTA (Deployable Tower Assembly) attached to the main spacecraft

Also on the main spacecraft are the solar array and solar trim tab (Aft Momentum Flap), the GAA (Gimballed Antenna Assembly) with the high and medium gain communications antennae, the SCAT-1 and SCAT-2 thruster booms, and the left and right forward and aft Unitized Pallet Structures containing the sunshade The sunshade includes retractable sunshade covers, 5 sunshade layers, +J2 and -J2 sunshade booms, and tensioning systems

JWST is scheduled to arrive at Sun-Earth L2 on Jan 23, by which time the mechanical deployments will be complete However, it is expected to take six months to align the mirror segments, perfect the guiding, cool the focal plane, and commission the spacecraft, telescope and instruments We can therefore hope for the first public release of images from the telescope sometime in June-July 2022

ZY1-02E

The Zi Yuan 1 02E remote sensing satellite was launched from Taiyuan on Dec 26, along with a small 10 kg 6U cubesat carrying the CAS-9/XW-3 amateur radio payload, and experiments from Beijing 101 Middle School

OneWeb

36 more OneWeb satellites were launched from Baykonur on Dec 27

Angara

The third Angara A5 test flight on Dec 27 placed Energiya's Persei upper stage in orbit 14S48 Persei is a modified Blok DM-03

Erratum

In my description of the ASAT test I got the heights the wrong way round The text should have read: The intercept was about a height of 486 km above the Earth ellipsoid (468 km above the fictive 6378 km spherical Earth used for orbit parameters)

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Nov 3 0743 Yaogan 32 hao 02 zu 01 xing ) Chang Zheng 2C/YZ1S Jiuquan Sigint 99A S49383 689 x 703 x 98 3 Yaogan 32 hao 02 zu 02 xing ) Sigint 99B S49384 689 x 703 x 98 3 Nov 5 0219 SDGSAT-1 (Guangmu) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Imaging 100A S49388 502 x 514 x 97 5 Nov 6 0300 Yaogan 35A ) Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Tech? 101A S49390 493 x 499 x 35 0 Yaogan 35B ) Tech? 101B S49391 493 x 499 x 35 0 Yaogan 35C ) Tech? 101C S49392 493 x 499 x 35 0 Nov 9 0055 RAISE-2 ) Epsilon Uchinoura Tech 102A S49395 561 x 573 x 97 6 Oruri ) Tech 102B? S49396 543 x 572 x 97 6 Asutarisuku ) Sci 102C? S49397 543 x 572 x 97 6 Z-SAT ) Imaging 102E? S49399 543 x 572 x 97 6 DRUMS ) Tech 102D? S49398 543 x 572 x 97 6 Hibari ) Tech 102F? S49400 543 x 572 x 97 6 KOSEN-1 ) Astron 102H? S49402 543 x 572 x 97 6 ARICA ) Astron 102J? S49403 543 x 572 x 97 6 NanoDragon ) Com 102G? S49401 543 x 572 x 97 6 Nov 11 0203 Endurance (Crew-3) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 103A S49407 190 x 212 x 51 6 Nov 13 1219 Starlink 3044 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 104A-BE 212 x 333 x 53 2 Starlink 3049 S49408-S49460 Starlink 3075 Starlink 3097-3099 Starlink 3105 Starlink 3108 Starlink 3110-3112 Starlink 3114-3115 Starlink 3117 Starlink 3120-3141 Starlink 3144-3147 Starlink 3149-3151 Starlink 3153-3162 Nov 16 0928 CERES 1 ) Vega CSG ELV Sigint 105A S49464 669 x 672 x 75 0 CERES 2 ) Sigint 105B S49465 671 x 672 x 74 9 CERES 3 ) Sigint 105C S49466 670 x 673 x 75 0 Nov 18 0138 BlackSky Global 14 ) Electron Mahia LC1A Imaging 106A S49469 428 x 439 x 42 0 BlackSky Global 15 ) Imaging 106B S49470 428 x 439 x 42 0 Nov 20 0152 Gao Fen 11-03 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 107A S49492 243 x 695 x 97 5 Nov 20 0616 STP-S27AD2 Astra Rocket 3 3 Kodiak LP3B Tech 108A S49494 438 x 507 x 86 0 Nov 22 2345 Gao Fen 3-02 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Radar 109A S49495 737 x 746 x 98 4 Nov 24 0621 DART ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Probe 110A S49497 263 x -135267 x 64 7 LICIACube ) Probe 110C T00005 263 x -135267 x 64 7 Nov 24 1306 Prichal/Progress M-UM Soyuz-2-1B Baykonur LC31 Module 111A S49499 323 x 351 x 51 6 Nov 24 2341 Shiyan 11 Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Imaging 112A S49501 489 x 502 x 97 5 Nov 25 0109 Kosmos-2552 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Early Warn 113A S49503 1643 x 35838 x 63 8 Nov 26 1640 Zhongxing 1D Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 114A S49505 186 x 35832 x 27 1 Dec 2 2312 Starlink 3113 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 115A- 424 x 440 x 53 2 Starlink 3143 )
Starlink 3148 )
Starlink 3155 )
Starlink 3190-3204 )
Starlink 3206-3210 )
Starlink 3218-3219 )
Starlink 3225-3229 )
Starlink 3231 )
Starlink 3233 )
Starlink 3236-3242 )
Starlink 3244 )
Starlink 3246-3252 )
Black Sky Global 12) Imaging 115BA? S49772? 425 x 442 x 53 2 Black Sky Global 13) Imaging 115BB? S49773? 425 x 442 x 53 2 Dec 5 0019 GalileoSat-27 ) Soyuz-ST-B CSG ELS Nav 116A S49809 23517 x 23574 x 57 1 GalileoSat-28 ) Nav 116B S49810 23498 x 23570 x 57 1 Dec 7 0412 Tianjin Daxue 1 ) Gushenxing 1 Jiuquan Imaging 117 S49812 483 x 501 x 97 4 Lize 1 ) Tech? 117 Baoyun ) Tech? 117 Jin Zijing 5 ) Imaging 117 Jin Zijing 1-03 ) Imaging 117 Dec 7 1019 STPSAT-6 ) Atlas V 551 Canaveral SLC41 Tech 118A S49817 36096 x 36112 x 0 1 LDPE-1 ) Tech 118B S49818 36087 x 36125 x 0 1 Dec 8 0738 Soyuz MS-20 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 119A S49922 193 x 220 x 51 6 Dec 9 0002 BlackSky Global 16 Electron Mahia LC1A Imaging 120A S49949 429 x 440 x 42 0 BlackSky Global 17 Imaging 120B S49950 426 x 440 x 42 0 Dec 9 0600 IXPE Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A X-ray Astron 121A S49954 588 x 603 x 0 2 Dec 10 0011 Shi Jian 6-05A ) Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Sigint 122B S49962 456 x 470 x 97 4 Shi Jian 6-05B ) Sigint 122A S49961 454 x 469 x 97 4 Dec 13 1207 Ekspress AMU3) Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200 Comms 123A S50001 16325 x 52810 x 1 7 Ekspress AMU7) Comms 123B S50002 16335 x 52810 x 1 7 Dec 13 1609 Tian Lian 2-02 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Comms 124A S50005 181 x 35825 x 27 0 Dec 15 0200 GeeSat-1A ) Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Nav F10 F01615 -6200? x 400? x 51 5? GeeSat-1B ) Nav F10 F01616 -6200? x 400? x 51 5? Dec 18 1241 Starlink 3235 ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 125 Starlink 3245 ) Starlink 3254-3277) Starlink 3279-3289) Starlink 3291-3293) Starlink 3296-3298) Starlink 3301 ) Starlink 3303-3307) Starlink 3309 ) Starlink 3313 ) Starlink 3317 ) Dec 19 0358 Turksat 5B Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 126A S50212 208 x 68873 x 27 1 Dec 19? USA ? LDPE-1, high orbit Tech? 118D S50214 35990 x 36117 x 0 1 Dec 21 1007 Dragon CRS-24 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 127A S50318 212 x 362 x 51,6 Dec 22 1532 Inmarsat 6F1 H-IIA 204 Tanegashima Comms 128A S50319 179 x 64689 x 30 0 Dec 23 1016 Shiyan 12-01) Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Tech 129A S50321 191 x 35780 x 19 5 Shiyan 12-02) Tech 129B S50322 178 x 35779 x 19 5 Dec 25 1220 James Webb Space Telescope Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Astron 130A S50463 315 x 1050000 x 4 Dec 26 0311 Zi Yuan 1 02E) Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 131A S50465? Xi Wang 3 ) Comms 131B S50466? Dec 27 1310 OneWeb SL0389-0407) Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Baykonur LC31 Comms 132 OneWeb SL0409 ) OneWeb SL0412-0414) OneWeb SL0417-0421) OneWeb SL0424 ) OneWeb SL0426-0427) OneWeb SL0429-0430) OneWeb SL0432 ) OneWeb SL0440 ) OneWeb SL0450 )
Dec 27 1900 IPN-1 Angara A5/Persei Plesetsk LC35 Test 133A

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

New Shepard flight NS-19, on Dec 11, carreid Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard-Churchley, Dylan Taylor, Lane Bess, Cameron Bess and Evan Dick to 107 km apogee

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

Nov 4 0209 SS-520-3 SS-520 Svalbard Ionosphere 956 Arctic Nov 8 0925 SISTINE 2 Black Brant IX White Sands UV Astron 257 White Sands Nov 15 0245? Nudol KV Nudol' Plesetsk Antisatellite 500? Kosmos-1408 Nov 25 RV Shaheen 1A Somniani? Op Test 100? Arabian Sea? Dec 1 0825 C-REX 2 Oriole IV Andoya Atmosphere 631 Norw Sea Dec 6 0807 MAPHEUS 10 IM/IM Kiruna Micrograv 250 ESRANGE Dec 11 1050 RSS First Step New Shepard West Texas Tourist 107 West Texas dec 17 0630 Huozhong-1 Huayi-1 Jiuquan? Micrograv/bio 250
Dec 18 0536 Agni RV Agni P Kalam Island Test 800? Indian Ocean

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