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Jonathan's Space Report

No 826 2023 Nov 18 Somerville, MA

Note: I will be on travel for two weeks and the JSR, GCAT and Starlink Stats web pages may not be updated until I return in early December

International Space Station

Expedition 70 continues

Astronauts Kononenko and Chub made spacewalk VKD-61 on Oct 25-26 in spacesuits Orlan MKS-5 and MKS-4 respectively The Poisk airlock was depressurized from 1729 to 0135 UTC and the airlock hatch was open from 1749:28 to 0130:40 UTC The spacewalkers carried out maintenance on the leaky Nauka RTOd radiator, installed the Napor SAR radar on Nauka, and at 2320 UTC deployed the 1 75 kg Parus-MGTU small satellite developed by Bauman Moscow State Tech University (MGTU) students The satellite was meant to deploy two small solar sail wings, but failed to do so Before returning to the airlock the spacewalkers also jettisoned two decontamination cleaning towels, at 0103 and 0105 UTC

On Oct 27 the SSRMS/SPDM moved the RRM3 robotic refuelling experiment from the ELC-1 storage carrier to the Cygnus NG-19 cargo ship It will be destroyed on reentry

Astronauts Moghbeli and O'Hara made spacewalk EVA-89 from the Quest airlock on Nov 1 They replaced a trundle bearing assembly on the port SARJ joint on the P4 truss The airlock was depressurized from 1156 to 1847 UTC and the hatch was open from 1204 to 1843 UTC Moghbeli lost a crew lock bag at about 1433 UTC and it floated away; it was later cataloged as 1998-067WC

On Nov 10 SpaceX launched Dragon CRS-29 on a cargo mission to ISS The capsule is C211 on its second flight Dragon docked with IDA-2 at 1007 UTC Nov 11

Trunk payloads are the ILLUMA-T laser comms experiment and the AWE atmospheric airglow instrument Their combined mass is 569 kg; I estimate ILLUMA-T is 396 kg and AWE (with its ExPA adapter) is 173 kg On Nov 14 the Canadarm-2 extracted ILLUMA-T from the trunk and handed it to the JEM RMS, which installed it the Kibo Exposed Facility at location EFU3 On Nov 15 Dextre extracted AWE and placed it on Dexter's EOTP arm, then moved to the MBS ORU for temporary storage AWE is going to Express Logistics Carrier 1 (ELC-1) Site 3

On Nov 9 at 2111 UTC Progress MS-24 made a 1 4 m/s burn to raise the ISS orbit in advance of the Progress MS-25 launch On Nov 10 at 1507 UTC Progress MS-24 made a further 0 5 m/s burn to avoid a piece of space debris

Chinese Space Station

Shenzhou 17 was launched on Oct 26 and docked with the forward port of the Tianhe module at 0946 UTC that day Crew are Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin

The 5-tonne CZ-2F second stage reentered on Nov 3 near Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia)

Shenzhou 16 undocked from the Tianhe nadir port at 1237 UTC Oct 30 and the reentry module (fanhui cang) landed in the Dongfeng landing area at 100 06 52E 41 39 28N at 0011:32 UTC Oct 31 The orbital module (guidao cang) was jettisoned into orbit at 2321 UTC; the deorbit burn was from 2322 to 2325 UTC; the propulsion module (tuijin cang) was jettisoned in a suborbital trajectory at 2348, burning up a few minutes later over the Taklamakan Desert, and reentry was arond 2351 UTC

The orbital module will probably remain in orbit for about a year before reentry

Starship

SpaceX carried out the second full test flight of Starship on Nov 18 with Booster 9 and Ship 25 launched from Boca Chica Starship made it to space but not to orbit

Based on the Spaceflight Now webcast I estimate the ignition time was about 1302:47 UTC and the liftoff time was about 1302:53 UTC (improved estimates are welcome) Booster 9 had a successful ascent with all Raptor engines working through main engine cutoff (MECO) at 70 km altitude about T+2m45s Booster hot-staging was carried out about T+2:48 at which point Ship 25 ignited starting from a -6196 x 95 km x 26 deg trajectory However, the Booster subsquently exploded at T+3:20 at an altitude of 90 km Weather radars detected a debris cloud at around 94 4W 25 6N

Ship 25 continued accelerating, but at T+7:07 some kind of anomalous event was visible in the rocket plume and at T+8:04 the webcast telemetry values froze at 149 km altitude, 6 701 km/s SpaceX later announced that the ship's flight termination system had been activated towards the end of the burn, which according to the flight plan was to have shut down at T+8:33 in an estimated 50 x 250 km marginal orbit

The altitude figures remained constant for some time prior to the freezing of the data, suggesting flight was near horizontal at that point From this I infer an actual suborbital path of -1750 x 149 km x 26 5 deg with an impact point in the Atlantic at about 1319 UTC near 65W 19N, north of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands Indeed, a debris cloud was detected in NOAA weather radar data at that time and location, confirming this analysis

The weather radars also saw the booster debris cloud in the Gulf of Mexico at 94 3W 25 6N

Starlink

Starlink Group 7-6 (22 sats) launched from Vandenberg on Oct 29 Starlink Group 6-25 (23 sats) launched from Canaveral on Oct 30 Starlink Group 6-26 (23 sats) launched from Canaveral on Nov 4 Starlink Group 6-27 (23 sats) launched from Canaveral on Nov 8 Starlink Group 6-28 (23 sats) launched from Canaveral on Nov 18

SAST Launches

SAST launched a CZ-2D from Xichang on Oct 23 with the fourth YG-39 triplet

SAST launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan on Oct 31 with a pair of Tianhui-5 mapping satellites

CALT Launches

CALT launched a CZ-7A from Wenchang on Nov 3, placing the TJS-10 satellite in geotransfer orbit The TJS series provides a cover name for a variety of military satellites, and it's not clear yet which subseries TJS-10 belongs to

CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang on Nov 9, placing the Zhongxing (Chinasat) 6E C/Ku-band comms satellite in geotransfer orbit

CALT launched a CZ-2C from Jiuquan on Nov 16 with a YZ-1S upper stage The launch placed the HY3-01 ocean color monitoring satellite in a 10:11 LTDN sun-synchronous orbit

Kosmos-2570/2571

As expected, the new Lotos-S satellite Kosmos-2570 circularized its orbit around 0216 UTC Oct 29 and then ejected a small passenger subsatellite at about 0820 UTC Oct 29, presumably to be named Kosmos-2571

Transporter-9

SpaceX launched its Transporter-9 rideshare mission on Nov 11 from Vandenberg to a 10:32 local time sun-synchronous orbit The vehicle reached parking orbit at 1857 UTC and then circularized the orbit at 1940 UTC Satellite deployments continued from 1943 to 2014 UTC The second stage was deorbited south of S Africa at about 2109 UTC

Previous Transporter missions used a dispenser structre based on a set of circular ESPA rings This flight debuted a new dispenser assembled from flat plate sections

As of Nov 18, no Space Force TLEs were available for this launch

Satellites released from Transporter 9 or thought to be aboard the tugs for later release include:

• Satellite tugs ION SCV013 (D-Orbit) SpaceVan-1 (Exotrail) LEO Express 1 (Impulse Space)

• X-ray astronomy satellites NinjaSat (RIKEN, Japan)

• Optical imaging satellites: 36 Planet SuperDoves (Flock 4q-1 to 4q-36) 1 Planet test satellite, Pelican-3001 SPIP (Aerospacelab, Belgium) AMAN-1 (MTCIT, Oman) PEARL-1C and 1H (Foxconn, Taiwan) GENMAT-1 (Quantum Generative Materials, US) ProtoMethee (Promethee Earth Intelligence, France) JinjuSat-1 (CONTEC Co , S Korea) Observer-1A (Nara Space, S Korea) Veronika (SpaceManic/TU Kosice) MANTIS (OpenCosmos/UK) PLATERO (OpenCosmos/Spain) Intuition-1 (KP Labs/S Korea; aboard ION) EPIC Hyper-3 (Clyde Space/UK; aboard ION) Unicorn-2J and 2K (Alba Orbital/UK/D; aboard ION)

• Radar satellites ICEYE X31, X32, X34, X35 (ICEYE, Finland) Umbra07 and 08 (Umbra, US) STORK-7 (SatRev, Poland; aboard a tug)

• Other remote sensing satellites GHGSat-C9, C10 and C11 (GHGSat/Canada and Spire)

• Communications Aether 1 and 2 (Kepler Comms, Canada) TIGER 5 and 6 (OQ Tech, Luxembourg) Lemur-2/Ella 1 (HiSky/Israel and Spire) Connecta T3 1/T3 2 (Plan S, Turkey) Hello Test 1 and 2 (Hello Space, Turkey) Ymir-1 (AAC Clyde Space, Sweden, aboard ION) SpaceANT-D (SpaceIn, Malaysia; aboard ION) HADES-D (AMSAT-EA, Spain; aboard ION?) MDQSAT-2 (Innova, Argentina; aboard ION?) Sateliot-2 (Sateliot, Spain; aboard a tug) Crypto3 (Cryptosat, US, aboard ION) PICO-1A 1 to 9 (Apogeo, Italy; aboard ION)

• Radio frequency surveillance BRO-10 and 11 (Unseen, France) Lemur-2 (4 Vindler SNC/Spire satellites, US) Lemur-2-NanaZ (Spire, US; on ION)

• Technology test satellites Lemur-2 Mango-2A and 2B (Jacobs Solutions/Spire) Picacho (Lunasonde, US) OMNI-LER1 (Internet Think Tank, US) Outpost Mission 2 (Outpost Tech, US) Platform 5 (Endurosat, Bulgaria) OrbAstro TR1 and PC1 (Orbital Astronautics, UK) Barry 1 (Rogue Space, US) IRIS-C2 (NCKU, Taiwan) Time We'll Tell (Trust Point, US; aboard LEO Express tug) OSW Cazorla (Odyssey Space Works, US)

• Student satellites FALCONSAT-X (USAF Academy) Kafasat (Korean AF Academy) Djibouti-1A (CERD Djibouti/CSUM Montpellier) ROM 3 (Romania, aboard ION) Tartan-Artibeus 2 (CMU, aboard ION)

O3b MP

The O3b MPOWER 5 and 6 satellites were launched to MEO on a Falcon 9 on Nov 12 According to reports, the first 4 satellites in the series have had power problems, although they are operating

UN registration of Chinese satellites

UN OOSA has made public China's latest filing under the satellite registration convention, ST/SG/SER E/1123, which together with ST/SG/SER E/1033 covers satellites launched in 2021-2022 There are some improvements in the latest filing: China has been kind enough to include the 'international designations' of the sats (in principle issued by COSPAR but long ago delegated by them to what is now the US Space Force) This helps match satellites to US catalog numbers

However, the incompleteness of the filing is regrettable According to my records China launched 305 payloads into orbit in 2021-22 But only 197 have been registered 35 percent of the payloads, 108, are missing from the documents It's not just small cubesats that are missing Big payloads like Tianzhou-4 and Shenzhou-14,and the second CSSHQ spaceplane flight, and major science payloads like the CHASE solar observatory and SATech-01 have been omitted There is no systematic pattern - for example some of the Centispace satellites are included and some are not It seems like the many omissions are just incredible sloppiness rather than deliberate?

For comparison, in the same period the US launched 2679 Starlink sats and 430 other payloads Only 24 were not registered (5 5 %) and they are all cubesats under 20 kg The US could and should do even better, but in comparison the Chinese lack of compliance is egregious

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Oct 13 1419 Psyche Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC39A Probe 157 794 x -36991 x 30 1 Oct 13 2301 Starlink Group 6-22 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 158 282 x 292 x 43 0 Oct 15 0054 Yunhai 1-04 Chang Zheng 2D Jiuquan Rem Sens 159A 756 x 773 x 98 6 Oct 18 0039 Starlink Group 6-23 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 160 282 x 292 x 43 0 Oct 21 0823 Starlink Group 7-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 161 284 x 295 x 53 1 Oct 22 0217 Starlink Group 6-24 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 162 282 x 292 x 43 0 Oct 23 2003 Yaogan 39 hao 04 zu 01 xing Chang Zheng 2D Xichang Sigint 163A 491 x 502 x 35 0 Yaogan 39 hao 04 zu 02 xing Yaogan 39 hao 04 zu 03 xing Oct 25 2320 Parus-MGTU ISS, LEO Tech 98067VZ 417 x 418 x 51 6 Oct 26 0314 Shenzhou 17 Chang Zheng 2F Jiuquan Spaceship 164A 383 x 390 x 41 5 Oct 27 0605? Kosmos-2570 Soyuz-2-1b Plesetsk Sigint 165A 893 x 915 x 67 1 Oct 29 0820? Kosmos-2571 Kosmos-2570, LEO Tech? 165C 893 x 914 x 67 1 Oct 29 0900 Starlink Group 7-6 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 166 285 x 294 x 53 1 Oct 30 2320 Starlink Group 6-25 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 167 282 x 292 x 43 0 Oct 31 2250 Tianhui-5-01 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Imaging 168A 607 x 610 x 97 8 Tianhui-5-02 Imaging 168B 607 x 610 x 97 8 Nov 3 1454 TJS-10 Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Unk 169A 181 x 35844 x 17 0 Nov 4 0037 Starlink Group 6-26 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 170 283 x 292 x 43 0 Nov 8 0505 Starlink Group 6-27 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 171 283 x 292 x 43 0 Nov 9 1123 Zhongxing-6E Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 172A 215 x 35754 x 28 4 Nov 10 0128 Dragon CRS-29 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 173A 209 x 360 x 51 7 Nov 11 1849 Transporter-9 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Tug 174 523 x 544 x 97 5 Nov 12 2108 O3b MPOWER 5 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 175 2599 x 7005 x 9 0 O3b MPOWER 6 Comms 175 2596 x 7005 x 9 0 Nov 16 0355 Haiyang 3-01 Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S Jiuquan Imaging 176A 786 x 788 x 98 7 Nov 18 0505 Starlink Group 6-28 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 177 283 x 292 x 43 0 Nov 18 1303 Starship OFT-2 Starship Starbase OLP1 Test F11 -1750 x 149 x 26 5

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Virgin Galactic's Galactic 05 mission took off from Spaceport America at 1502 UTC Nov 2, drop and rocket ignition east of Elephant Butte at alt of 13 6km at about 1544 UTC (more precise time sadly not available), apogee 87 2 km, touchdown 1559 UTC, free flight duration about 14 min Aboard Galactic 05 were Virgin Galactic's Mike Masucci, Kelly Latimer and Colin Bennett, and passengers Alan Stern, Kellie Gerardi and Ketty Maisonrouge Alan, Kellie and Ketty became space travellers numbers 673, 674 and 675 in my list

Oct 14 1600 Apophis 1 Black Brant 9 White Sands Eclipse 346? White Sands Oct 14 1635 Apophis 2 Black Brant 9 White Sands Eclipse 346? White Sands Oct 14 1710 Apophis 3 Black Brant 9 White Sands Eclipse 346? White Sands Oct 18 RV Ababeel Somniani? Test 300? Arabian Sea Oct 24 RV Ghauri Somniani? Test 300? Arabian Sea Oct 25 RV x 4? Yars Plesetsk Test 1000? Kura Oct 25 RV Sineva K-114, Barents Test 1000? Kura Oct 25 FTM-48 Target 1 Terrier Oriole? Kauai Target 100? Pacific Oct 25 FTM-48 Target 2 Terrier Oriole? Kauai Target 100? Pacific Oct 25 FTM-48 SM-3-1A DDG-120, Pacific Interceptor 150? Pacific Oct 25 FTM-48 SM-3-1A DDG-120, Pacific Interceptor 150? Pacific Oct 30 0545 INFUSE Black Brant 9 White Sands UV Astron 267 White Sands Oct 31 Warhead Toufan? Sanaa? Weapon 300? Israel/Red Sea Oct 31 Arrow KV Arrow 3 Sdot Micha? Interceptor 100? Intercept Toufan Nov 1 0701? GT248 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg Test 100? Pacific (RSO destruct) Nov 2 1544 Galactic 05 Spaceship Two Sp America EBR3 Tourist 87 Sp America Nov 4? RV x6? Bulava K-554, White Sea Test 1000? Kura Nov 8 0941 DISSIPATION Terrier Oriole Poker Flat Auroral 150? PFRR Nov 9 1014 Beam-PIE Black Brant XII Poker Flat Auroral 450? PFRR Nov 18 1919 M51 RV M51 Biscarosse Test 1000? Atlantic

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