Jonathan's Space Report

No 806 2022 May 25 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 67 continues

Crew-3 (Chari, Marshburn, Maurer, Barron) undocked in Dragon Endurance at 0520 UTC May 5 Dragon splashed down at 0443 UTC May 6 in the Tampa recovery zone in the Gulf of Mexico at about 83 9W 28 1N With Marshburn's departure, Oleg Artem'ev assumed command of ISS

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft 2 was launched on orbital flight test mission OFT-2 on May 19 The ULA Atlas V Model N22, serial AV-082, took off from Cape Canaveral at 2254:47 UTC; the Centaur upper stage entered a 73 x 181 km x 51 6 deg orbit at 2306:37 UTC Starliner separated three minutes later; Centaur reentered at first perigee around 0009 UTC May 20, SW of Australia, while Starliner made a 45s duration orbit insertion burn with its OMACS thrusters at 2325:45 UTC, reaching a 187 x 367 km orbit The Starliner cabin carries an anthropomorphic test dummy dubbed 'Rosie the Rocketeer' and about 200 kg of cargo Mass of Starliner was around 13000 kg but the exact launch mass has not been made public

After a series of tests, and some delays, Starliner docked with ISS IDA-2 at 0028 UTC May 21 It undocked at 1836 UTC May 25; the deorbit burn was made at 2205 UTC followed by service module jettison at 2208 UTC Starliner landed at White Sands at 2249 UTC the same day Following the troubled mission of OFT-1, the largely successful flight of OFT-2 marked important and positive progress in the Starliner program The main problems on this mission were with two failed thrusters, but this did not prevent Starliner completing its main mission objectives

Chinese Space Station

On May 9 CALT launched the Tianzhou-4 cargo ship from Wenchang It docked with the aft port of the Tianhe module at 0047 UTC May 10 The CZ-7 second stage reentered over Tunisia on May 25

Other CALT launches

On Apr 29 CALT launched two high resolution imaging satellites, Siwei 1-01 and 1-02, from Jiuquan

On Apr 30 China's CALT carried out the third sea launch of a CZ-11 from the Tai Rui barge in the Yellow Sea Five Jilin-1 imaging satellites were placed in orbit

On May 20 CALT launched a CZ-2C/YZ-1S to place two Changguang-built communications satellites in orbit, along with a smaller CAST/DFH-Shenzhen communications test satellite

SAST launches

China's SAST launched a CZ-2D on May 6 placing the Jilin-1 Kuanfu-01C satellite in orbit, along with six smaller Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D sats

Starlink

Starlink Group 4-16, with 53 satellites, was launched on Apr 29 Group 4-17, also with 53 satellites, was orbited on May 6 Group 4-13 was launched from Vandenberg on May 13, Group 4-15 was launched from Canaveral on May 14 Group 4-18 from KSC on May 18

Angara-1 2

The first Krunichev Angara-1 2 rocket was launched from Plesetsk on Apr 29 at 1955 UTC It placed small satellite, Kosmos-2555, into low sun-synchronous orbit The satellite is thought to have been an EMKA-class imaging satellite (although it is possible that it was just a dummy satellite, given the failure to manuever noted below)

The second stage fired from about 1957 to 2000 UTC and reached a marginal orbit of about -40 x 294 km, flying over Vancouver at about 2017 UTC and impacting the Pacific near 132W 13N at 2026 UTC The low-thrust third stage, called the AM or Agregatniy Modul', made the orbit insertion burn and separated into a 279 x 294 km x 96 5 deg orbit at about 2018 UTC, again near Vancouver It completed a further one-and-a-half orbits before making a deorbit burn somewhere over W Africa circa 2245 UTC (or possibly as late as circa 2258 UTC over France/UK) to lower perigee into the atmophere for reentry in the North Pacific about 2321 UTC Despite making multiple orbits, the AM was not cataloged

Kosmos-2255 had a similar orbit to the Kosmos-2251 satellite (which failed), and was in the same 11:30 local time orbital plane Like Kosmos-2251, it failed to make any orbital manuevers; Kosmos-2255 reentered on May 18

Electron 26

Rocket Lab's Electron mission 26 'There and Back Again' was launched on May 2 and placed a cluster of small satellites in orbit The first stage, descending on a parachute, was briefly captured in mid-air by a helicopter but then released and splashed down to be recovered from the ocean

• The main passengers on this flight were three E-Space demo satellites E-Space is planning an extremely (excessively) large internet constellation Based on the animation shown in the launch webcast, I estimate that each satellite is a box about 0 15 x 0 6 x 0 6m (very roughly) and probably with mass in the 30 to 60 kg range

• 16 Swarm-US SpaceBEE and 8 Swarm-NZ Spacebee-NZ satellites for IoT data relay were deployed Each satellite is 0 25U in size and about 0 3 kg

  Other payloads:

• BRO-6 for Unseen Labs (France) and AuroraSat 1 for Aurora Propulsion Tech (Finland);
• Unicorn-2 for Alba (Scotland); TRSI-2/3 for TRSI (Germany); MyRadar-1 for ACME AtronOmatic (US)
• Copia, a payload attached to the Electron kick stage to test an inflatable solar array

SQX-1

Beijing Interstellar Glory Co (Xingji Rongyao Kongjian Keji YG) launched an Shuang Quxian 1 (Hyperbola-1) rocket on its fourth orbital attempt on May 13 It failed to reach orbit; reports indicate the second stage failed to ignite

Bars-M

The Russian Defense Ministry launched its third Bars-M mapping satellite on May 19 The satellite was given the cover name Kosmos-2556 The initial orbit was 337 x 556 km x 97 7 deg with a 23:47 local time orbital plane From May 20 to 23 the orbit was raised to 565 x 578 km

Transporter-5

SpaceX launched the Transporter-5 rideshare mission at 1835 UTC on May 25 to a 13:10 local time sun-sync orbit Transporter-5 made two burns to a 520 x 535 km orbit, deployed the payloads, and made a deorbit burn for reentry over the Pacific around 2034 UTC

Three of the T5 payloads were themselves satellite dispensers: Momentus Vigoride VR-3, thought to be carrying Orbit-NTNU (Norway)'s 2U SELFIESAT, CareWeather's 1P Veery FS-1 weather sat, and seven Fossa Systems 2P FOSSASAT-2E imaging satellites; Spaceflight Sherpa-AC1, carrying two hosted payloads but no deployables; D-Orbit ION SCV-006, with Aistech's Guardian 1 and Brown U /CNR's SBUDNIC

Other T5 payloads are: Comm satellites - Varisat-1C (Varisat, US); Connecta T1 1 (Plan S, Turkey), Spark-2 (OmniSpace, US); Centauri 5 (Fleet, Australia) Imaging satellites - 4 Newsat (Satellogic, Argentina/Uruguay); Urdaneta (Satlantis, Spain); Sejong-1 (Hancom, Korea/Spire) Radar satellites - 5 ICEYE (Finland/US); Umbra 03 (US) Radio spectrum monitoring satellites - Hawk 5A/5B/5C (Hawkeye 360, US) GNSS-RO satellites: Cicero-2 V1/V2 (Geooptics, US) Climate study: GHGSAT C3/C4/C5 (GHG, Canada) Shared/hosted payloads: SharedSat-2141 (Endurosat, Bulgaria); 3 Lemur-2 (Spire, US/UK with Myriota, Australia) Test satellites: Planetum-1 (Planetum, Czechia); SPIN-1 (Spin, Germany); Broncosat (U Cal Pomona, US); Foresail-1 (Aalto, Finland); CPOD-1/2 (Tyvak/NASA Ames); CNCE V4/V5 (US Missile Defence Agency); AMS (MIT-Lincoln Lab, US)

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Apr 2 1241 BlackSky Global 18 Electron Mahia LC1A Imaging 34B 430 x 441 x 53 0 BlackSky Global 20 Imaging 34C Apr 6 2347 Gao Fen 3-03 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Radar 35A 737 x 746 x 98 4 Apr 7 1120 Kosmos-2554 Soyuz-2-1b Plesetsk LC43/3 Sigint 36A 239 x 900 x 67 1 Apr 8 1517 Axiom-1 (Endeavour) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 37A 414 x 420 x 51 6 Apr 9 1422 PlantSat ION SVC005, LEO Sci 033AH Apr 11 0713 KSF2-C ION SVC005, LEO Sci 033AJ Apr 11 1816 KSF2-D ION SVC005, LEO Sci 033AK Apr 13 0803 SUCHAI-3 ION SVC005, LEO Sci 033AL Apr 14 0745 SUCHAI-2 ION SVC005, LEO Sci 033AM Apr 15 1200 Zhongxing-6D Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 38A 231 x 35765 x 28 5 Apr 15 1816 Daqi Huanjing Jiance Weixing Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Sci 39A 680 x 690 x 98 1 Apr 17 1313 USA 327 P/L 1 (INTRUDER) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Sigint 40A 1008 x 1207 x 63 4 Apr 21 1751 Starlink (Group 4-14) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 41A 304 x 318 x 53 2 Apr 27 0752 SpX Crew-4 (Freedom) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 42A 191 x 211 x 51 7 Apr 29 0411 Siwei Gaojing 1-01 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Imaging 43A 486 x 503 x 97 5 Siwei Gaojing 1-02 Apr 29 1955 Kosmos-2555 Angara-1 2 Plesetsk LC35/1 Imaging 44A 278 x 293 x 96 5 Apr 29 2127 Starlink (Group 4-16) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 45A 303 x 316 x 53 2 Apr 30 0330 Jilin-1 GF03D-04 Chang Zheng 11 CCOC, Huang Hai Imaging 46A 526 x 549 x 97 5 Jilin-1 GF03D-05 Imaging 46B Jilin-1 GF03D-06 Imaging 46C Jilin-1 GF03D-07 Imaging 46D Jilin-1 GF04A Imaging 46E May 2 2249 E-Space Demo 1 Electron Mahia LC1A Comms 47 522 x 532 x 97 5 E-Space Demo 2 Comms 47 E-Space Demo 3 Comms 47 SpaceBEE-140 to 155 Comms 47 SpaceBEE NZ-15 to NZ-22 Comms 47 BRO-6 Sigint 47 AuroraSat-1 Tech 47 Unicorn-2 Imaging 47 TRSI-2 Tech 47 TRSI-3 Tech 47 MyRadar-1 Weather 47 Copia Tech 47 May 5 0238 Jilin-1 KF-01C Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-27 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-28 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-29 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-30 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-31 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-32 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 Jilin-1 GF-03D-33 Imaging 48 528 x 545 x 97 7 May 6 0942 Starlink (Group 4-17) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 49 528 x 545 x 97 7 May 9 1549 KSF2-A ION SVC005, LEO Sigint 33AN 492 x 511 x 97 4 May 9 1756 Tianzhou-4 Chang Zheng 7 Wenchang LC201 Cargo 50A 376 x 392 x 41 5 May 9 1858 KSF2-B ION SVC005, LEO Sigint 33AP 492 x 512 x 97 4 May 13 0709 Jilin-1 MF-01A/R Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Imaging F02 -6300 x 60? x 97 0 May 13 2207 Starlink (Group 4-13) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 51 May 14 2040 Starlink (Group 4-15) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 52 May 18 1059 Starlink (Group 4-18) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 53 May 19 0803 Kosmos-2556 (Bars-M) Soyuz-2-1a Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 54A 337 x 556 x 97 7 May 19 2254 Starliner OFT-2 Atlas V N22 Canaveral LC41 Spaceship 55A 187 x 367 x 51 6 May 20 1030 CGSTL LEO Test Sat 1 Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S Jiuquan Comms 56 CGSTL LEO Test Sat 2 Comms 56 DTSW Comms 56 May 25 1835 Transporter-5 Deployer 57 Vigoride VR-3 Deployer 57 Sherpa-AC1 Deployer 57 ION SCV006 Deployer 57 CICERO-2 V1 GNSS-RO 57 CICERO-2 V2 GNSS-RO 57 SharedSat 2141 Tech 57 PTD-3 Tech 57 Lemur-2 Karen B Com/GNSS-RO 57 Lemur-2 TennysonLily Com/GNSS-RO 57 Lemur-2 Mimi1307 Com/GNSS-RO 57 Sejong-1 Imaging 57 GHGSat-C3 Imaging 57 GHGSat-C4 Imaging 57 GHGSat-C5 Imaging 57 Spark-2 Com 57 Urdaneta-Armsat1 Imaging 57 Planetum-1 Tech 57 Spin-1 Tech 57 CPOD 1 Tech 57 CPOD 2 Tech 57 CNCE V4 Tech 57 CNCE V5 Tech 57 Foresail-1 Tech 57 Connecta T1 1 Com 57 Centauri 5 Com 57 Nusat 28 Imaging 57 Nusat 29 Imaging 57 Nusat 30 Imaging 57 Nusat 31 Imaging 57 Varisat-1C Com 57 AMS Tech 57 BRONCOSAT-1 Tech 57 Hawk 5A Sigint 57 Hawk 5B Sigint 57 Hawk 5C Sigint 57 ICEYE X17 Radar 57 ICEYE X18 Radar 57 ICEYE X19 Radar 57 ICEYE X20 Radar 57 ICEYE X21 Radar 57

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Mar 4 2348 Recon test? Hwasong-8 LV? Sunan Test 550 Sea of Japan Mar 5 1127 LAMP Black Brant IX Poker Flat Auroral 429 Alaska Mar 9 1825 HERSCHEL Black Brant IX White Sands Solar UV 302 White Sands Mar 12 Target Black Dagger Ft Wingate Target 100? White Sands Mar 21 2312 BOLT-2 Terrier Malemute Wallops I Hypersonic 281 Atlantic Mar 29 FTT-21 Target Black Dagger Ft Wingate Target 100? White Sands Mar 30 Dummy payload Hyunmoo TLV SIRIUS, Anhueng Test 150? E China Sea? Mar 31 1358 NS-20 New Shepard West Texas Tourist flight 107 West Texas Apr 7 1247 INCAA 1 Terrier Malemute Poker Flat Auroral 340 PF Range Apr 7 1250 INCAA 2 Black Brant IX Poker Flat Auroral 208 PF Range Apr 9 RV Shaheen 3 Somniani? Op Test 500? Arabian Sea Apr 18 SLBM RV Hyunmoo 4-4 SS-083, Anhueng Test 150? E China Sea? Apr 18 SLBM RV Hyunmoo 4-4 SS-083, Anhueng Test 150? E China Sea? Apr 20 1212 RV Sarmat Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura May 4 0304 RV? Hwasong-8 LV? Sunan? Test 780 Sea of Japan May 11 0131 Endurance Oriole III Svalbard Atm Sci 764 Arctic May 12 0729 RV NK SRBM Sunan Training 90 Sea of Japan

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