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Jonathan's Space Report

No 834 2024 Jun 23 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 71 continues Crew are Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Aleksandr Grebyonkin, Tracy Dyson, and visiting Starliner crew Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams

On May 24 at 1416 and 2303 UTC the Cygnus NG-20 cargo ship made engine firings to reboost the ISS orbit Each burn had a delta-V of around 1 1 m,/s

The Progress MS-25 cargo ship undocked from Poisk at 0839 UTC May 28 and was deorbited over the Pacific at 1229 UTC May 28

The Progress MS-27 cargo ship was launched on May 30 and docked with the Poisk module at 1142:13 UTC Jun 1

On May 30 Dextre removed the STP-H5 experiment package from the ISS ELC-3 platform and fixed it to the exterior of the Cygnus NG-20 cargo ship for disposal

On May 24 at 1416 and 2303 UTC Cygnus NG-20 fired its engines in two burns to raise the station's orbit Each burn was about 1 1 m/s

On Jun 5 Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test mission was launched on Atlas AV-085 from Canaveral, placing the CST-100 capsule SC3 Calypso in orbit carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, an all-civilian crew (both are NASA astronauts and retired Navy Captains) Calypso docked with ISS IDA-2 at 1734 UTC Jun 6 The Calypso stay at ISS has been extended while controllers check out and debug the spacecraft

On Jun 7 at 1519 UTC Cygnus NG-20 fired its engines for an 18 min burn to reboost the ISS orbit

On Jun 15 at 0440 UTC Progress MS-27 fired its engines for a 23 min burn to boost the ISS orbit; delta-V was 2 0 m/s

Erratum:

Dragon CRS-30 undocked from IDA-3 at 1710 UTC Apr 28, not 0043 UTC on Apr 30 (the latter was the Shenzhou 17 undocking time, I read the wrong line in my database when preparing the previous issue!)

Chinese Space Station

Ye Guangfu, Li Guangsu and Li Cong continue CSS expedition 7

Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu made an 8 hr 23 m spacewalk (hatch open to close) on May 28 from the Wentian module, from 0235 UTC to 1058 UTC They installed some debris protection material on the station exterior The red and blue Feitian spacesuits were used

On May 30 to May 31 the Chinese station made four reboost burns with a total of around 6 9 m/s, raising its orbit by 13 km The Tianzhou-7 freighter probably made the burns

Starshield

On May 22 SpaceX launched the NROL-146 mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office The mission is suspected to have placed a batch of 21 Starshield imaging satellites in orbit The satellites are probably based on the Starlink V2Mini bus, with Northrop Grumman imaging sensors aboard

Starlink

Starlink Group 6-62 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on May 23 Starlink Group 6-63 (23 sats) was launched from Kennedy on May 24 Starlink Group 6-60 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on May 28 Starlink Group 6-64 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jun 1 Starlink Group 8-5 (20 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jun 5 Starlink Group 10-1 (22 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jun 8 Starlink Group 8-8 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Jun 8 Starlink Group 9-1 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Jun 19

PREFIRE

RocketLab launched an Electron with JPL's 6U cubesat PREFIRE 1 to a 20:03 LTDN sun-synchronous orbit on May 25 PREFIRE carries a mid-infrared (3 to 54 microns) imaging spectrometer to study heat loss from the Earth's poles

Another Electron carried PREFIRE 2 to orbit on Jun 5 to a 15:36 LTDN SSO

North Korean launch

North Korea launched the fourth Manligyeong-1 spy satellite on May 27, targeting an 0950 LTDN SSO, but the first stage of the launch vehicle appears to have exploded early in flight I am designating the failed launch as 2024-F02

The launch vehicle is reported to have a new kerolox engine, instead of the N2O4/UDMH engine of the Cheonlima-1 It's not clear at this point whether the rest of the vehicle is based on Cheonlima-1 or if it's an entirely different design

EarthCARE

The European Space Agency's 2200 kg EarthCARE satellite was launched by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg on May 29 to a 1405 LTDN SSO The satellite carries a lidar, imagers and a JAXA (Japan) cloud profile W-band radar

Xinghe Dongli launches

On May 29 four more Tianqi IoT satellites were launched on a Xinghe Dongli (Galactic Energy) Gushenxing-1S from the Dongfeng Hangtiangang barge at location 119 6E 35 4N near Rizhou to a 45 deg orbit

On May 30 a Gushenxing-1 was launched from Jiuquan carrying two Jiguang Xingzuo lasercom test satellites and three Yunyao-1 meteorology satellites with GNSS-RO and IR imager payloads

On Jun 6 a Gushenxing-1 was launched from Jiuquan carrying the TEE-01B imaging satellite for Mumei Xingkong Keji and two Tsinghua University Naxing-3 satellites with optical navigation experiments Attached to the GSX-1 fourth stage was an experiment platform called Ai Shen, carrying an experimental thruster

CALT launches

In 2018 Pakistan's SUPARCO leased the Asiasat 4 satellite from Asiasat and relocated it at 38 2E, calling it Paksat-MM1 The lease ended in 2022

A new, second, Paksat-MM1 satellite was built by CAST/Beijing and has a mass of 5400 kg It has C, Ku, Ka and L-band comms payloads CALT launched a Chang Zheng 3B from Xichang on May 30 carrying this second Paksat-MM1 communications satellite to geotransfer orbit It will use the old Paksat-MM1 position at 38 2E

Zhihui Tianwang 1-01A and 1-01B, launched on May 9, have been cataloged in a 20166 x 20192 km x 53 1 deg orbit

On Jun 22, CALT launched the China-France astronomical satellite SVOM, with a payload to study gamma ray bursts

Chang'e-6

The Chang'e-6 lander (and attached ascent stage) separated from the orbiter on May 30, and began powered descent on Jun 1 at 2209 UTC It landed in the South Pole-Aitken basin at 2223 UTC Jun 1 Target location was 154 4W 42 1S; based on images on Chinese TV, Seger Yu on twitter estimates the actual location as 153 99W 41 64S

On Jun 2 to 3 the Chang'e-6 collected lunar samples and placed them on the ascent stage The lander ejected a mobile camera' (yidong xiangji') micro-rover, which took a picture of the lander On Jun 3 at 2338 UTC the ascent stage took off, reaching a 15 x 180 km lunar orbit 6 minutes later It docked with the orbiter at 0648 UTC Jun 6 and transfer its samples to the return craft The Ascent stage the undocked and was deorbited, probably on Jun 8

On Jun 20 at about 1538 UTC the orbiter fired its engine for the lunar escape burn; it departed the lunar gravitational sphere of influence around 0923 UTC Jun 21 and is now on a 62 x 385538 km x 41 9 deg Earth orbit heading for entry on Jun 27

Kineis

On Jun 20 Rocket Lab launched five 28 kg IoT communications satellites for the Toulouse-based company Kineis to a 0636 LTDN sun-synch orbit

Astra 1P

SpaceX launched the Astra 1P communications satellite for SES on Jun 20 to a supersync transfer orbit Astra 1P is a 5000 kg Thales Alenia Spacebus NEO200 satellite with a Ku-band communications payload It is als called SES-24

Starship

Starship flight test 4 on Jun 6 saw a successful Booster controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico; Ship 29 completed its burn and entered marginal-orbit trajectory of around -15 x 213 km x 26 8 deg, with impact in the eastern Indian Ocean, NW of Australia Despite major thermal erosion to the flaps, Ship 29 survived reentry and reignited its engines just above the ocean to achieve a controlled ocean splashdown

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 13 0053 Starlink Group 6-58 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 90 284 x 292 x 43 0 May 14 1839 Starlink Group 8-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 91 284 x 296 x 53 2 May 16 2121 Kosmos-2576 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Imaging 92A 435 x 451 x 97 3 SITRO-AIS-53 Comms 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 SITRO-AIS-54 Comms 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 SITRO-AIS-55 Comms 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 SITRO-AIS-56 Comms 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 Zorkiy-2M No 4 Imaging 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 Zorkiy-2M No 6 Imaging 92 535 x 552 x 97 6 Rassvet-2 No 1 Comms 92 793 x 797 x 98 6 Rassvet-2 No 2 Comms 92 793 x 797 x 98 6 Rassvet-2 No 3 Comms 92 793 x 797 x 98 6 May 18 0032 Starlink Group 6-59 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 93 284 x 292 x 43 0 May 20 0306 Beijing-3C 01 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 94 489 x 503 x 97 5 Beijing-3C 02 Imaging 94 Beijing-3C 03 Imaging 94 Beijing-3C 04 Imaging 94 May 21 0415 Wuhan-1 Kuaizhou-11 Jiuquan Imaging 95 525 x 538 x 97 6 Chutian xingzuo 001 Tech 95 Tianyan-22 Imaging? 95 Lingque-3 01 Tech 95 May 22 0800 USA 354 to USA 374? Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging 96 350? x 350? x 70? May 23 0235 Starlink Group 6-62 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 97 284 x 292 x 43 0 May 24 0245 Starlink Group 6-63 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 98 284 x 292 x 43 0 May 25 0741 PREFIRE 1 Electron Mahia 1B Sci 99A 524 x 541 x 97 5 May 27 1344 Manligyeong-1-1 NK Kerolox LV Sohae Imaging F02 -6300 x 10? x 97? May 28 1424 Starlink Group 6-60 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 100 284 x 292 x 43 0 May 28 2220 EarthCARE Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Sci 101A 399 x 404 x 97 0 May 29 0812 Tianqi-25 Gushenxing-1S DFHT, Yellow Sea Comms 102A 837 x 852 x 45 0 Tianqi-26 Comms 102B Tianqi-27 Comms 102C Tianqi-28 Comms 102D May 30 0943 Progress MS-27 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 103A 187 x 225 x 51 7 May 30 1212 Paksat-MM1 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC2 Comms 104A 218 x 35761 x 26 8 May 30 2339 Jiguang Xingzuo 001 Gushenxing-1 Jiuquan Comms 105A 529 x 548 x 97 6 Jiguang Xingzuo 002 Comms 105B Yunyao-1 14 Meteo 105C Yunyao-1 25 Meteo 105D Yunyao-1 26 Meteo 105E Jun 1 0237 Starlink Group 6-64 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 106 284 x 292 x 43 0 Jun 5 0216 Starlink Group 8-5 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 107 272 x 286 x 53 2 Jun 5 0315 PREFIRE 2 Electron Mahia 1B Sci 108A 523 x 538 x 97 5 Jun 5 1452 Starliner CFT 'Calypso' Atlas V N22 Canaveral LC41 Spaceship 109A 319 x 329 x 51 6 Jun 6 0500 TEE-01B Gushenxing-1 Jiuquan Imaging 110A 540 x 556 x 97 6 Naxing-3A Imaging 110B Naxing-3B Imaging 110C Ai Shen Tech 110D Jun 6 1250 Starship FT4 Starship Starbase Test U03 -15 x 213 x 26 8 Jun 8 0156 Starlink Group 10-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 111 265 x 278 x 53 2 Jun 8 1258 Starlink Group 8-8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 112 279 x 289 x 53 2 Jun 19 0340 Starlink Group 9-1 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 113 284 x 295 x 53 2 Jun 20 1813 Kineis 1 Electron Mahia 1B Comms 114 637 x 640 x 98 0 Kineis 2 Comms 114 Kineis 3 Comms 114 Kineis 4 Comms 114 Kineis 5 Comms 114 Jun 20 2135 Astra 1P Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 115A 334 x 53369 x 27 9 Jun 22 0700 SVOM Chang Zheng 2C Xichang Astron 116A 626 x 632 x 29 0

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Galactic 07, the final flight of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two VSS Unity, was carried out on Jun 8 from Spaceport America, New Mexico The White Knight Two carrier plane took off at 1430 UTC and dropped Unity at 1526:30 UTC Unity's rocket motor fired to send the ship to an 87 5 km apogee; it landed back on the Spaceport America runway at about 1541 UTC Commander and copilot were Nicola Pecile and Jameel Janjua; passengers were Tuva Cihangir Atasever, Anand Sadhwani, I I Pergament and Giorgio Manenti

Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target

May 5 0332 CIBER-2 F3 Black Brant 9 White Sands IR Astron 300? White Sands May 19 1435 NS-25 New Shepard West Texas Tourist flight 107 West Texas Jun 4 0756 GT249 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein Jun 6 0846 GT250 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF09 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein Jun 8 1526 Galactic 07 Spaceship Two Spaceport America EBR3 Spaceship 87 Spaceport America Jun 12 HTB-1 T T Oriole Wallops I Hypersonic 300? Atlantic Ocean Jun 18 0701 Mk 21A RV Minotaur I Vandenberg Test 1000? Pacific

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