Jonathan's Space Report

No 814 2023 Jan 1 Somerville, MA

Happy new year!

International Space Station

Expedition 68 continues

On Dec 15 astronauts Prokop'ev and Petelin, in suits Orlan MKS-5 and MKS-4, prepared to make spacewalk VKD-56 from the Poisk airlock to continue ERA robot arm installation However, when mission controllers noticed a coolant leak spraying from Soyuz MS-22, the excursion was paused just before hatch opening and, after a half-hour wait, was cancelled The airlock was depressurized below 50 mbar at 0154 UTC; depressurization paused at 12 mbar at 0158 UTC and the airlock began repressurization at 0249-0250 UTC (Thanks to Anatoliy Yegorov for data)

On Dec 21 at 1342 UTC Progress MS-20 fired its engines to adjust the station orbit in order to avoid a close pass by debris object 52960

On Dec 22 astronauts Rubio and Cassada made spacewalk EVA-83 from the Quest airlock, installing the IROSA 4A solar array on the P4 truss The airlock was depressurized from 1311 to 2027 UTC Spacesuits EMU 3013 and 3004 were used

On Dec 29 the Nanoracks NRCSD-24 deployer, delivered by Dragon CRS-26, was extracted from the Kibo airlock by the Japanese RMS arm 8 cubesats were deployed from NRCSD-24

Chinese Space Station

The Xi Wang 4 amateur radio satellite, an 8U cubesat, was ejected from a deployer on the Tianzhou-5 cargo ship on Dec 18 Tianzhou-5 remains docked to the CSS (There was some suggestion that XW-4 was actually deployed usin the Mengtian robot arm but this turns out to be an incorrect report ) Xi Wang 4 is also called Macau Student Science Sat and carries experiments from students in Macau

CALT launches

CALT launched a CZ-11 on Dec 16 with Shiyan 21, a test satellite with an unknown mission

CALT launched a CZ-3B on Dec 29 with Shiyan 10-02, a SAST test satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, possibly for studying the radiation belts

SAST launches

SAST launched a CZ-4C on Dec 12 with the SY-20A satellite from CAST and the SY-20B satellite from SAST Stage 3 made a perigee lowering burn at 0854 UTC

SAST launched a CZ-2D on Dec 14 with another Yaogan-36 triplet

SAST launched a CZ-4B on Dec 27 with the fourth Gao Fen 11 (Jianbing-16) spy satellite

The JB-16 series satellites follow a pattern: they enter an elliptical 245 x 700 km orbit; over a period of months the apogee is allowed to decay to 500 km, and then the orbit is circularized

GF11 Satellite ID Launch Circ after Initial Current Plane (days) Orbit Orbit 1 2018-063A 2018 Jul 31 253 248 x 694 x 97 4 488 x 503 x 97 3 10:27 2 2020-064A 2020 Sep 7 192 248 x 694 x 97 3 494 x 495 x 97 4 13:18 3 2021-107A 2021 Nov 20 145 248 x 694 x 97 5 489 x 500 x 97 4 09:28 4 2022-176A 2022 Dec 27 - 245 x 697 x 97,3 - 14:46

Ariane VA259

Arianespace flight VA259, probably using Ariane vehicle L5118, flew from Kourou on Dec 13 and placed two C-band Intelsat Galaxy satellites in geotransfer orbit along with the EUTMETSAT/ESA Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG I-1) weather satellite MTG-I1, mass 3760 kg, was the top payload; inside the Sylda adapter were the two 3150 kg Maxar FS1300-122 class Galaxy satellites stacked on each other on top of the ESC-D upper stage

SWOT

The joint US-French water monitoring satellite, SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Technology), uses a Ka-band radar interferometer and a nadir altimeter to measure sea surface heights and study water volume and flow across the globe The satellite was built by Thales Alenia (Cannes) and has a mass of 2200 kg The two KaRIn sensors are at either end of a 10 metre deployable boom The project is led by JPL and CNES

It's not clear whether SWOT will be registered with the UN by the US or by France The earlier Jason 1 and 2 satellites were registered by France, but Jason 3 was registered by the US

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched west from Vandenberg and then made a large turn to the south, reaching an approximately 164 x 870 km x 77 6 deg transfer orbit at SECO-1 The first stage landed back at Vandenberg on Landing Zone 4 Stage 2 coasted to apogee over Antarctica and circularized the orbit at 856 x 862 km x 77 6 deg at 1230 UTC SWOT separated at 1239 UTC The second stage made a deorbit burn of over 200 m/s and reentered over 145W 4N at about 1340 UTC

O3b mPOWER

The first two O3b mPOWER Ka-band broadband internet distribution satellites for SES O3b Networks were launched by Falcon 9 on Dec 16 to a 2780 x 6990 km x 9 6 deg transfer orbit The Falcon 9 second stage was left in the same orbit

Starlink

Group 4-37 (54 satellites) was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Dec 17

Group 5-1 (54 satellites) was launched from Cape Canaveral on Dec 28 to a new shell at 43 degrees inclination, under the limited Gen2 Starlink licence but apparently using the V1 5 model satellites

Vega-C

The second Vega-C launch on Dec 21 was meant to put two Pleaides Neo imaging satellites in 600 km sun-sync orbit However, the Zefiro-40 second stage failed 2m27s after launch Although stage 2 separation, stage 3 ignition and fairing separation appear to have occurred on schedule, the vehicle crashed in the Atlantic about 8 min after launch near 56W 18N after reaching an apogee of only 110 km

Danuri

The South Korean lunar probe Danuri entered lunar orbit on Dec 16 Target lunar orbit was 111 x 8647 km x 90 8 deg but observations by Scott Tilley indicate the actual initial apolune was closer to 8930 km, corresponding to a modest 4 m/s underburn Further orbit adjustments made over the succeeding days adjusted the orbit as planned and by Dec 31 Danuri was in a 102 x 120 km x 89 5 deg low lunar polar orbit

EROS C3

On Dec 30 SpaceX launched EROS C3 from Vandenberg to a retrograde orbit for Israeli company ImageSat International The EROS/Ofeq satellites are operated by IAI and the Israeli military for intelligence gathering and commercial imagery The Falcon 9 first stage landed back at Vandenberg's LZ4

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Dec 2 0750? SpaceTuna-1 ISS, LEO Sci 98067UL? 409 x 420 x 51 6 PearlAfricaSat-1 Tech 98067UM? 409 x 420 x 51 6 ZimSat-1 Tech 98067UN? 409 x 420 x 51 6 Taka Tech 98067UP? 409 x 420 x 51 6 Dec 7 0115 Xingyun Jiaotong VDES SW Kuaizhou-11 Jiuquan Comms 164A 737 x 749 x 98 4 Dec 8 1831 Gao Fen 5-01 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 165A 668 x 683 x 98 1 Dec 8 2227 OneWeb L15 (40 sats) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 166 587 x 599 x 86 5 Dec 9 0635 Jilin-1 GF03D-44 Jielong-3 TaiRui, Yellow Sea Imaging 167 530 x 547 x 97 5 Jilin-1 GF03D-45 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 GF03D-46 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 GF03D-47 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 GF03D-48 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 GF03D-49 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 GF03D-50 Imaging 167 Jilin-1 Pingtai 01A01 Img/com? 167 Fengtai Shaonian 2 Comms 167 Jinzijing 1-05 Imaging 167 Jinzijing 1-06 Imaging 167 Jiaotong-5 Comms 167 Huoju-1 Bio 167 Tianqi Xingzuo 07 Comms 167 Dec 11 0738 Hakuto-R M1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Lunar 168A 293 x 1134167 x 29 1 Lunar Flashlight Lunar 168B 293 x 1134167 x 29 1 Dec 12 0822 Shiyan 20A Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Tech 169A 790 x 799 x 60 0 Shiyan 20B Tech 169B 790 x 799 x 60 0 Dec 13 2030 Galaxy 35 Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Comms 170 250 x 35700 x 6 Galaxy 36 Comms 170 MTG-I1 Weather 170 Dec 14 0830 Zhixing 1B Zhuque-2 Jiuquan LC43/96 Tech F05 -4500 x 400 x 97 6 13 unknown payloads Dec 14 1825 Yaogan 36 hao 04 zu 01 xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang LC3 Sigint? 171A 488 x 500 x 35 0 Yaogan 36 hao 04 zu 02 xing Sigint? 171B Yaogan 36 hao 04 zu 03 xing Sigint? 171C Dec 16 0617 Shiyan 21 Chang Zheng 11 Xichang LC4 Tech? 172A 474 x 493 x 36 0 Dec 16 1146 SWOT Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Sci 173A 856 x 862 x 77 6 Dec 16 2248 O3b mPOWER 1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 174A 2778 x 6992 x 9 6 O3b mPOWER 2 Comms 174B 2779 x 6990 x 9 6 Dec 17 2132 Starlink Group 4-37 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 175 231 x 335 x 53 2 Dec 18 0130? Xi Wang 4 CSS, LEO Comms 21035C 386 x 391 x 41 5 Dec 21 0147 Pleiades Neo 5 Vega-C CSG ZLV Imaging F06 -5800 x 110 x 97,8 Pleiades Neo 6 Imaging F06 -5800 x 110 x 97,8 Dec 27 0737 Gao Fen 11-04 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 176A 245 x 697 x 97 3 Dec 28 0534 Starlink Group 5-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 177A 212 x 335 x 43 0 Dec 29 0443 Shiyan 10-02 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Sci? 178A 188 x 40096 x 51 0 Dec 29 1205 TJREVERB NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO Edu 98067 414 x 421 x 51 6 DANTESAT Tech 98067 Dec 29 1215 MARIO NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO Tech 98067 NUTSAT Tech 98067 Dec 29 1345 LORIS NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO Imaging 98067 ORCASAT Tech 98067 Dec 29 1355 SPORT NRCSD-24/ISS, LEO Tech 98067 PetitSat Sci 98067 Dec 30 0738 EROS C3 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 179A 484 x 502 x 139 4

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Nov 20 1720 ACES II High Black Brant IX Andoya Auroral 406 Norwegian Sea Nov 20 1721 ACES II Low Black Brant IX Andoya Auroral 188 Norwegian Sea Nov 23 0342 Agni RV Agni 3 Kalam I Test 300? Bay of Bengal Nov 23 0723 MASER 15/S1X-3 VSB-30 Kiruna Microgravity 260 ESRANGE Dec 15 1215? Agni RV Agni 5 Kalam I Test 800? Indian Ocean Dec 18 0217 Imaging payload Hwasong-7? Sohae Test 550 Sea of Japan Dec 18 0255 Imaging payload? Hwasong-7? Sohae Test 550 Sea of Japan Dec 19 1000? RV Unknown missile Jiuquan Test 200? Korla range? Dec 30 0900? Test payload Hyunmoo TLV Anhueng Test 200? Yellow Sea? Dec 30 2305? RV KN missile Chunghwa Test 100? Sea of Japan Dec 30 2310? RV KN missile Chunghwa Test 100? Sea of Japan Dec 30 2315? RV KN missile Chunghwa Test 100? Sea of Japan

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