Jonathan's Space Report

No 803 2022 Feb 21 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 66 continues

On Jan 19 astronauts Shkaplerov and Dubrov made a spacewalk from the Poisk airlock to work on outfitting the new Prichal module The airlock wsa depressurized around 1150 UTC and the hatch was open at 1218 UTC Dubrov, in suit Orlan MKS4, and Shkaplerov - in suit MKS5 - emerged at 1225 and 1236 UTC, and used the Strela crane to reach the Nauka module, then crawled down to Prichal They installed handrails, cables and two antennas They relocated a TV camera, and installed two docking targets At 1729 UTC Jan 19 the astronauts jettisoned the docking target cover; at 1810 and 1811 UTC two antenna covers were jettisoned; and at 1905 and 1906 UTC two cleaning towels were thrown into space after the astronauts wiped themselves down to avoid bringing any thruster contamination into the airlock At 1910 and 1915 UTC respectively Shkaplerov and Dubrov went back inside the airlock, with hatch closure at 1929 UTC and repressurization beginning at 1932 UTC

Cargo ship Dragon CRS-24 undocked from IDA-3 at 1540 UTC Jan 23 and at about 1755 UTC lowered its orbit to 186 x 377 km x 51 6 deg It jettisoned the trunk into a 184 x 369 km orbit and made its deorbit burn at 2018 UTC Jan 24, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, at around 86 2W 29 7N at about 2105 UTC

On Jan 26 the Japanese RMS arm extracted Nanoracks NRCSD-22 from the Kibo airlock; NRCSD-22 then ejected five cubesats On Feb 3 the JRMS was used similarly with the JAXA J-SSOD #20 deployer, ejecting two cubesats

On Feb 8 at 0736 UTC the engines of Progress MS-18 were fired to change the ISS orbit by 0 3 m/s

Progress MS-19 was launched from Baykonur on Feb 15 with 2523 kg of cargo including six 3U amateur radio satellites for later manual EVA deployment The ship docked with the Poisk module at 0703:20 UTC Feb 17

Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship NG-17, the S S Piers Sellers, was launched on Feb 19 It arrived at ISS on Feb 21; SSRMS grappled it at 0944 UTC and berthed it at Unity nadir at 1202 UTC

GSSAP

Two GSSAP geosynch space surveillance sats for the Space Force were launched on Jan 21 at 1900 UTC by a ULA Atlas V 511 This is the only flight of the 511 model, with one strapon SRM booster, a single-engine Centaur, and a 5-meter-diameter fairing

The Centaur reached a 176 x 319 km x 28 0 deg parking orbit at 1913 UTC and a 231 x 36329 km x 26 0 deg geotransfer orbit at 2013 UTC Deployment of the payloads in circular 36100 km orbits occurred at 0135 and 0145 UTC Jan 22

The payloads were also given the cover designations USA 324 and USA 325

Ludi Tance

At 2344 UTC Jan 25 China's SAST launched a CZ-4C from Jiuquan with the Ludi Tance 1 hao 01 zu A xing, a 3200 kg L-band SAR satellite The name translates as Land Probe 1 Group 01 Sat A

CSG2

The second Cosmo-Skymed Second Generation radar satellite, FM2, was launched by SpaceX on Jan 31 into the same 17:46 local time orbital plane as FM1 The X-band SAR satellite is operated by ASI (the Italian space agency) and the Italian Ministry of Defence

USA 326

A new large imaging reconnaissance satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office is now in orbit after launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base by a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Feb 2

Kosmos-2553

On Feb 5 Russia launched a military satellite from the Plesetsk spaceport into an unusual orbit nearly 2000 km high With the cover name Kosmos-2553, the satellite is thought to be the first Neitron radar satellite, built by NPO Masinostroenie The Soyuz-2a third stage flew a suborbital trajectory to the western Pacific; the Fregat upper stage made several burns to reach the target orbit and a final one after payload separation to deorbit itself It's not immediately obvious which ocean was used for the Fregat disposal

Starlink

49 more Starlinks (Group 4-6) were launched to the Group 4 shell on Jan 19 The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas

Starlink Group 4-7, with 49 satellites, was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Feb 3 However, a geomagnetic storm on Feb 4 meant that atmospheric density was larger than expected and drag forces exceeded the ability of the satellites to operate correctly According to SpaceX (spacex com, Feb 8), `the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth's atmosphere ' In fact, 11 satellites appear to have survived, with 38 reentering within a few days

Starlink Group 4-8 was launched from Cape Canaveral on Feb 21, this time using a two-burn insertion profile to a slightly higher deployment orbit The number of satellites aboard was reduced to 46 as a result

OneWeb

On Feb 10, 34 OneWeb satellites were launched on an Arianespace Soyuz from French Guiana

Astra LV0008

Astra Rocket 3 3, mission LV0008, was launched from Cape Canaveral on Feb 10 carrying four cubesats: BAMA-1 for the U of Alabama, QubeSat for Berkeley, INCA for NMSU, and R5-S1 for Johnson Space Center Three minutes after launch the first stage shut down but there was some kind of problem during fairing and first stage separation; the vehicle tumbled and did not reach orbit

Transporter 3

Four previously unknown US military payloads, USA 320 to USA 323, have been cataloged associated with the Transporter 3 launch The OroraTech infrared imager, FOREST, is aboard the 6U satellite Lemur-2-Rohovithsa D-Orbit's ION SCV 004 has deployed the VZLUSat-2, STORK-1 and 2, LabSat, Dodona and SW1FT cubesats

Corrections to last week's Transporter 3 comments: Three, not four, Unicorn-2 imaging sats (2A,2D,2E); and aboard ION-SCV I missed the SW1FT cubesat from SatRevolution ICEYE X14 is US-licenced and is probably the Orbital Effects XR-2 satellite

Shiyan 12

The two Shiyan 12 satellites launched in December maintained a 100 km separation at 94E in GEO until Jan 8, when they moved about 40 km above GEO and began proximity operations, staying within 5 km of each other most of the time since Jan 18

PSLV-C52

ISRO launched the PSLV-C52 mission on Feb 14 The rocket placed the 1710 kg RISAT-1A (EOS-04) C-band radar imaging satellite in a 0600 LTDN sun-synch orbit Two secondary payloads were also deployed: INS-2TD, a 17 kg ISRO test satellite with a thermal imager, and InspireSat-1, an 8 kg satellite with a solar X-ray spectrometer InspireSat-1 is a joint project of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram and the University of Colorado's LASP space physics lab

Upper stage to hit moon

Further analysis by Bill Gray shows that an upper stage, abandoned since 2014, will actually impact the lunar farside at around 1222 UTC Mar 4 Originally thought to be a Falcon 9 upper stage from the 2015 DSCOVR launch, further backtracking of the orbit data now shows that it is actually the CZ-3C Y12 third stage from China's Chang'e-5T1 lunar test mission, launched in Oct 2014 (China issued a confusing statement saying it wasn't the booster from Chang'e-5 - the 2020 followon mission - which no-one was claiming it was anyway)

Following a flyby of the Moon soon after launch, the stage remained in a 350000 x 565000 km x 57 4 deg deep Earth orbit in the outer part of the Earth-Moon system The perigee was close to lunar distance, making eventual further lunar encounters inevitable Orbits like this are somewhat chaotic, their orbital parameters strongly affected over time by lunar and solar gravity as well as the Earth

Further lunar flybys occurred: 23573 km on 2016 Jan 17, and 9312 km on 2022 Jan 5 This last flyby sent the stage on an elliptical orbit that came as low as 25000 km from the Earth, on Jan 21, then out again to lunar distance It will come back in to 45000 km perigee on Feb 9 on a path for a fatal last apogee at 688000 km on Feb 23 from which it will fall back in to hit the Moon on Mar 4

The stage is about 4 tonnes and it will hit the Moon at 2 5 km/s

We know lots of junk from lunar missions has ended up hitting the Moon, for example upper stages from lunar missions and junk left in lunar orbit The LCROSS mission deliberately smashed a Centaur stage (similar size) into the Moon on 2009 Oct 9, with a special spacecraft following behind it to study the impact

This is the first time that something not explicitly targeted at the Moon has been noticed to accidentally hit it, but that's mainly because we weren't paying attention until recently Thanks to Bill Gray and a few other people who have spent their own time keeping track of the space junk that's too far out for SpaceForce to care about, we can now spot events like this Amazingly it is no one's paid job to do - the fact that the stage was initially misidentified adds emphasis to our lack of knowledge of the artificial objects abandoned in cislunar space

There are about 30 to 50 lost deep space objects like this that have been missing for years - 50 years in some cases - that haven't been picked up by asteroid searches, and probably some of them hit the moon without us noticing This is not 'the launch agency did something bad' - it's perfectly standard practice to abandon stuff in deep orbit - this is 'none of the space agencies care about leaving stuff out beyond the Moon'

Traffic in deep space is increasing And it's not like the old days with just the USA and the USSR sending stuff to deep space, it's many countries and even commercial companies like SpaceX So I think it's time for the world to get more serious about regulating and cataloging deep space activity

Thanks to Bill Gray and Dan Adamo for sterling astrodynamics work sorting this out

Oh, and where is the DSCOVR booster? Based on extrapolation of a dataset provided by SpaceX, Dan Adamo derives a prediction which implies it left the Earth-Moon system in March 2015 and is now in a 0 95 x 0 99 AU x 0 1 deg heliocentric orbit

SJ-21

China's Shi Jian 21 turns out to be the first space garbage truck On Jan 21 it appears to have docked with the defunct Beidou 2-G2 satellite drifting in GEO and then raised its orbit above GEO On Jan 27 Beidou was tracked in a 36076 x 38886 km orbit, 290 x 3100 km above GEO, and SJ-21 had lowered its orbit back to the GEO ring

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Jan 6 2149 Starlink 3230 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 01A 209 x 337 x 53 2 Starlink 3232 Starlink 3234 Starlink 3278 Starlink 3290 Starlink 3294-3295 Starlink 3299-3300 Starlink 3302 Starlink 3308 Starlink 3310-3312 Starlink 3314-3316 Starlink 3318-3343 Starlink 3346-3349 Starlink 3353 Starlink 3355 Jan 13 1525 Transporter 3 (105 payloads) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Various 02 520 x 535 x 97 5 Jan 13 2252 GEARRS-3 LauncherOne Cosmic Girl, Mojave Comms 03 S51094 502 x 508 x 45 0 STORK-3 Imaging 03 SteamSat-2 Tech 03 PAN A/B Tech 03 Adler-1 (Lemur-2-Krywe) Sci 03F TES-13 Tech 03 Jan 17 0235 Shiyan 13 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan ? 04A S51102 357 x 1298 x 98 7 Jan 19 0202 Starlink 3172-3173 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 05A Starlink 3175-3177 Starlink 3179-3180 Starlink 3183-3185 Starlink 3243 Starlink 3253 Starlink 3344 Starlink 3350 Starlink 3352 Starlink 3354 Starlink 3356-3366 Starlink 3368-3370 Starlink 3372-3375 Starlink 3386-3400 Jan 21 1900 GSSAP 5 Atlas V 511 Canaveral SLC41 Surveillance 06A S51280? 36107 x 36166 x 0 0 GSSAP 6 06B S51281? 36075 x 36168 x 0 0 Jan 25 ASCENT or USA 326? LDPE-1, GSO ? 118E S51287 35517 x 35524 x 0 1 Jan 25 2344 Ludi Tance 1-01A Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Radar 07A S51824 590 x 601 x 97 8 Jan 26 1200 FEES2 ISS, LEO Tech 9867TB S51439 409 x 421 x 51 6 GASPACS Tech 9867TC S51440 409 x 421 x 51 6 Jan 26 1210 PATCOOL ISS, LEO Tech 9867TD S51441 409 x 421 x 51 6 Jan 26 1330 DAILI ISS, LEO Tech 9867TE S51442 409 x 421 x 51 6 Jan 26 1340 TARGIT ISS, LEO Tech 9867TF S51443 409 x 421 x 51 6 Jan 26 1502 VZLUSat-2 ION SCV004, LEO Sci 02? - Jan 28 LabSat ION SCV004, LEO Tech 02? - Jan 31 STORK-1 ION SCV004, LEO Imaging 02? - Jan 31 2311 Cosmo-Skymed SG-FM2 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Radar 08A S51444 621 x 648 x 97 9 Feb 2 2027 USA 326 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 09A S51445 492 x 524 x 97 4 Feb 3 0855? Light-1 ISS, LEO Tech 9867TG? S51509 407 x 422 x 51 6 Feb 3 1030? GT-1 ISS, LEO Tech 9867TH? S51510 410 x 421 x 51 6 Feb 3 STORK-2 ION SCV004, LEO Imaging 02? - Feb 3 1813 Starlink 3152 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 10A- S51456- 209 x 336 x 53 2 Starlink 3163-3167 S51504 Starlink 3169-3170 Starlink 3174 Starlink 3178 Starlink 3181-3182 Starlink 3186-3189 Starlink 3220-3224 Starlink 3367 Starlink 3376-3377 Starlink 3384 Starlink 3401-3420 Starlink 3422-3423 Starlink 3426-3427 Feb 4 SW1FT ION SCV004, LEO Tech 02? - Feb 5 0700 Kosmos-2553 Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Radar? 11A S51511 1987 x 1994 x 67 1 Feb 10 1809 OneWeb SL0410-0411 Soyuz-ST-B/Fregat CSG ELS Comms 12A- S51622 468 x 487 x 87 4
OneWeb SL0415-0416 -S51655 OneWeb SL0422-0423 OneWeb SL0425 OneWeb SL0428 OneWeb SL0431 OneWeb SL0434-0436 OneWeb SL0438-0439 OneWeb SL0442-0446 OneWeb SL0448-0449 OneWeb SL0451-0452 OneWeb SL0455-0458 OneWeb SL0461 OneWeb SL0463-0464 OneWeb SL0468 OneWeb SL0473-0475 Feb 10 2000 BAMA-1 ) Rocket 3 3 Canaveral SLC46 Tech F01 F01620 -5150?x 278? x 41 INCA ) Sci F01 F01621 QubeSat ) Tech F01 F01622 R5-S1 ) Tech F01 F01623 Feb 14 0029 EOS-04 ) PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan FLP Radar 13A S51656 516 x 534 x 97 5 INS-2TD ) Tech 13B S51567? 516 x 534 x 97 5 InspireSat-1) Sci 13C S51568? 516 x 534 x 97 5 Feb 15 0424 Progress MS-19 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 14A S51570? Feb 19 1740 S S Piers Sellers Antares 230+ Wallops MARS LA0A Cargo 15A S51712 Feb 21 1440 Starlink Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 16A

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Jan 9 0500 DXL 4 Black Brant 9 Wallops I X-ray Astron 267 Atlantic Jan 17 Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Abu Dhabi Jan 17 Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Abu Dhabi Jan 17 Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Abu Dhabi Jan 18 Target Silver Sparrow? F-15, Med Sea Target 150? Israel Jan 18 Arrow KV Arrow 3 Palmachim? Interceptor 150? Intercept Jan 18 Arrow KV Arrow 3 Palmachim? Interceptor 150? Intercept Jan 24 0015? Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Abu Dhabi Jan 24 0015? Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Abu Dhabi Jan 24 0015? Warhead Zulfiqar (YE) Al Jawf? Weapon 100? Dharan Jan 29 0700 MAPHEUS 9 IM/IM Kiruna Micrograv 254 ESRANGE Jan 29 2252 RV Hwasong-12? Mupyong Test 2000 Sea of Japan

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