From: mailto: Jonathan's Space Report

No 837 2024 Sep 25 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 71 continued until Sep 23 Crew in early Sep were Oleg Kononenko (ISS commander), Nikolai Chub, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Aleksandr Grebyonkin, Tracy Dyson, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams

The Cygnus NG-21 cargo ship fired its engines for a 19 min, 1 1m/s ISS reboost burn on Aug 22 The burn was scheduled at 1721 UTC

The Progress MS-28 cargo ship fired its engines for a 18min, 2 0 m/s ISS reboost burn on Aug 28 and again on Sep 5 for a 13 min, 1 4m/s reboost

Seven 1U cubesats were deployed from the JAXA J-SSOD No 31 deployer on Aug 29 - four of them from Japanese organizations (Sakura, Emma, Sagansat0, Wisseed Sat) and three from Australia's Curtin University (Binar 2 to 4)

Starliner undocked from IDA-2 at 2204 UTC Sep 6, with no crew aboard It performed its deorbit burn at 0317 UTC Sep 7 and jettisoned the service module at 0318 UTC Starliner landed at White Sands Missile Range at 0401:35 UTC

Soyuz MS-26 was launched on Sep 11 with astronauts Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit It docked with the Rassvet module 3h later

Soyuz MS-25 undocked on Sep 23, with Kononenko, Chub and Dyson It landed in Kazakhstan at 1159 UTC Sep 23 Kononenko and Chub had been in space for 373d 20h

Expedition 72 began on Sep 23, with Suni Williams (ISS commander), Barry Wilmore, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, Aleksandr Grebyonkin, Aleksey Ovchini, Ivan Vagner, and Don Pettit

Chinese Space Station

The Chinese Space Station made a 3 2 m/s reboost on Sep 17 The Shenzhou 18 crew have been in orbit for 152 days

Starlink launches

Starlink Group 8-6 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Aug 28 Starlink Group 8-10 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Aug 31 Starlink Group 9-5 (21 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Aug 31 Starlink Group 8-11 (21 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Sep 5 Starlink Group 9-6 (21 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Sep 13 Starlink Group 9-17 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Sep 20 Starlink Group 9-8 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Sep 25

The first stage from Group 8-6, B1062 23, caught fire and was destroyed shortly after landing on A Shortfall of Gravitas

Transporter-11

It has been confirmed that the GNA-3 satellite is owned by the Swedish defense research agency FOI

The ION tug has released four Spire Global Lemur-2 satellites and the Sedna-1 satellite for AAC ClydeSpace

Gushenxing-1

Galactic Energy (Xinhe Dongli) launched a Gushenxing-1 from the Dongfeng Hangtiangang barge at about 123 2E 36 4N in the Yellow Sea on Aug 29 to a sun sync orbit with 1330 local time descending node The payloads were three Yunyao-1 GNSS-RO meteorology satellites, the Jitianxing A-03 imaging satellite from Jitian Xingzhou Space Technology of Suzhou, the Suxing 1-01 imaging satellite from Taicang Yangtze River Delta Research Inst and the Tianfu Gaofen 2 imaging satellite from Xiamen Tianwei Tech Co Ltd

SAST launches

On Sep 3 SAST launched a CZ-4B with the second group of Yaogan 43 satellites They are possibly military comm satellites

On Sep 5 SAST launched a CZ-6 with 10 autonomous-driving-support comm satellites for Geely

On Sep 20 SAST launched a CZ-2D with six wide field imaging satellites for Chuanguang Satellite

CALT launches

On Sep 19 CALT/Beijing launched a CZ-3B with two Beidou navigation satellites

EXPACE launches

On Sep 20 EXPACE/CASIC launched a KZ-1A with four Tianqi IoT data relay communications satellites

Vega VV24

Arianespace launched the final base-model Vega, flight VV24, on Sep 4, placing the Sentinel 2C satellite in sun-sync orbit

BepiColombo

The BepiColombo probe made a 165 km altitude flyby of Mercury on Sep 4 at 2148 UTC In its passage through Mercury's gravitational sphere of influence from Sep 4 0441 UTC to Sep 5 1459 UTC it changed its solar orbit from 0 31 x 0 58 AU x 5 8 deg to 0 31 x 0 47 AU x 4 3 deg

Starshield

The third Starshield launch, NROL-113, was launched by Falcon 9 on Sep 6

Chinese spaceplane

The Chinese spaceplane (possible X-37 analog) completed its third flight with a landing on Sep 6 TLE analysis suggests landing at the airbase in the Lop Nor region at circa 0110 UTC Sep 6

Polaris Dawn

Dragon Resilience (C207) has begun its third flight on a private mission, Polaris Dawn This was the second flight to be funded by Jared Isaacman following the Inspiration 4 mission, which also used Resilience, and the first in the Polaris Program

Joining Isaacman as commander were Kidd Potteet (Mission Pilot) and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon (MS and medical officer) and Sarah Gillis (MS)

Polaris Dawn was launched on Falcon 9 from KSC on 2024 Sep 10 to an elliptical 196 x 1200 km x 51 6 deg orbit Early on Sep 11 the orbit apogee was boosted to 1400 km, higher than that of Gemini XI, and at the first post-burn apogee at 0111 UTC Sep 11 they achieved the highest geocentric distance for humans since the flight of Apollo 17 in 1972 Orbit lowering burns began around 1200 UTC Sep 11 to a 192 x 730 km orbit

The Dragon cabin was depressurized at 1044 UTC Sep 12 for the first spacewalk by private astronauts The hatch was opened at 1049 UTC The airlock was depressurized below 5 kPA for 33m 25s, and the hatch was open for 26m 40s Isaacman ventured outside for 8 min then returned to the cabin; then Gillis went outside for 7 min and returned Poteet and Menon remained in the cabin Repressurization of the airlock began at 1116 UTC and was complete by 1154 UTC

Dragon jettisoned its trunk at 0635 UTC Sep 15 and carried out the deorbit burn at 0641 UTC It splashed down in the Tortuga recovery area at 83 0W 25 1N at 0737 UTC

Chamran-1

On Sep 14 the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a Qaem-100 from Shahroud, placing the 60 kg Chamran-1 satellite in orbit

LDPE-2

The LDPE-2 mission (2022-144) has deployed another classified satellite, USA 399, in a GEO drift orbit with unknown parameters

BlueBird

On Sep 12 SpaceX launched five 1500 kg BlueBird direct-to-cell comms satellites for AST Space Mobile These are similar to the BlueWalker 3 test satellite launched in 2022

Angara

On Sep 17 Russia launched an Angara-1 2 from Plesetsk, placing two small Ministry of Defense satellites in orbit They are rumoured to be designated OO-MKA

Galileo L13

On Sep 17 SpaceX launched two Galileo navigation sats for the EU

Kineis

Rocket Lab launched an Electron on Sep 20 with five 30 kg IoT satellites for the French company Kineis After deploying the payloads at 0006 UTC the kick stage made a small perigee lowering burn at about 0040 UTC

Jielong-3

On Sep 24 the China Long March Rocket Co launched a Jielong-3 from the Dongfeng Hangtian ship off the coast of Haiyang, placing 8 satellites in orbit: Jitianxing A-01, imaging sat for Jitian Xingzhou Kongjian Jishu YG (Suzhou) Fudan-1, science sat for Fudan University, Shanghai, with X-ray solar flare spectrometer Luojia 4-01 (Yuxing 2-05), imaging sat for Wuhan U , Hubei, dedicated to studying environmental effects on health Shenqi (Tianyi-41), C-band radar satellite for Zhangye Xingzuo (Zhangye, Gansu) Tianyan-15, for tests of imaging technology Xingshidai-15, an imaging satellite for Guoxing Yuhang Keji (Chengdu) Xingshidai-21 and 22, a pair of lasercom test satellites for Guoxing Yuhang Keji (Chengdu) and HiStarlink (Shanghai)

Lijian-1

CAS Space (Zhongke Tansuo Jishu) launched a Lijian-1 from Jiuquan on Sep 24, placing 5 satellites in orbit: AIRSAT-01/02 (Zhongke-1 01/02) radar satellites for Zhongke Weixing Jilin-1 SAR01A X-band radar sat for Chuanggang Sat Tech Yunyao-1 21/22 GNSS-RO meteorology sats for Yunyao,

Errata

I missed Starlink Group 10-7 from the narrative in the last issue, and wrote EOS-07 instead of EOS-08 Also, ZX-4A launch site was Wenchang The data in GCAT are correct

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Aug? USA 399 LDPE 2, GSO Unknown 22144K - Aug 16 1856 Transporter-11 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 149 590 x 595 x 97 8 Aug 20 1320 Starlink Group 10-5 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 150 284 x 297 x 53 2 Aug 22 1225 ZX-4A Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang Comms 151A 220 x 35790 x 14 6 Aug 26 Lemur-2 ION SCV012, LEO Met 149
Aug 27 Lemur-2 ION SCV012, LEO Met 149
Aug 28 0654 Starlink Group 8-6 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 152 283 x 298 x 53 2 Aug 28 Lemur-2 ION SCV012, LEO Met 149
Aug 29 0522 Yunyao-1 15 Gushenxing-1 DFHT, Yellow Sea Met 153 528 x 549 x 97 6 Yunyao-1 16 Met 153 Yunyao-1 17 Met 153 Jitianxing A-03 Imaging 153 Suxing 1-01 Imaging 153 Tianfu Gaofen 2 Imaging 153 Aug 29 0945 Sakura ISS, LEO Tech 98067WS Emma Tech 98067WT Sagansat0 Tech 98067WU WisseedSat Tech 98067WV Aug 29 1120 Binar-2 ISS, LEO Tech 98067WW Binar-3 Tech 98067WX Binar-4 Tech 98067WY Aug 29 Lemur-2 ION SCV012, LEO Met 149
Aug 31 0743 Starlink Group 8-10 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 154 287 x 300 x 53 2 Aug 31 0848 Starlink Group 9-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 155 282 x 292 x 53 2 ep 3 0115 Yaogan 43-02 01 to 06 Chang Zheng 4B Xichang Comms? 156 489 x 501 x 35 0 Sep 4 0150 Sentinel 2C Vega CSG ELV Imaging 157A 776 x 780 x 98 6 Sep 5 1533 Starlink Group 8-11 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 158 288 x 302 x 53 2 Sep 5 1830 Geely Group 03 01 to 10 Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Comms 159 553 x 564 x 50 0 Sep 6 0320 Starshield Group 1-3 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 160 300?x300? x 70 Sep 10 0923 Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 161A 196 x1400 x51 6 Sep 11 1623 Soyuz MS-26 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 162A
Sep 12 0852 BlueBird 1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 163C 505 x 522 x 53 0 BlueBird 2 Comms 163D BlueBird 3 Comms 163A BlueBird 4 Comms 163E BlueBird 5 Comms 163B Sep 13 0145 Starlink Group 9-6 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 164 288 x 298 x 53 2 Sep 14 0558? Chamran-1 Qaem-100 Shahroud Tech 165B 546 x 557 x 64 1 Sep 17 0701 Kosmos-2577 Angara-1 2 Plesetsk Imaging? 166A 328 x 344 x 96 8 Kosmos-2578 Imaging? 166B 328 x 344 x 96 8 Sep 17 2250 Galileo FOC FM26 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Nav 167A 22941 x 23009 x 55 4 Galileo FOC FM32 Nav 167B 22948 x 23005 x 55 4 Sep 19 0114 Beidou DW 59 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Nav 168A 21182 x 22334 x 55 0 Beidou DW 60 168B 21538 x 22199 x 55 0 Sep 20 0411 Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-01 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Imaging 169A 531 x 547 x 97 6 Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-02 Imaging 169B Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-03 Imaging 169C Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-04 Imaging 169D Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-05 Imaging 169E Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02B-06 Imaging 169F Sep 20 0943 Tianqi 29 Kuaizhou 1A Xichang Comms 170A Tianqi 30 Comms 170B Tianqi 31 Comms 170C 841 x 854 x 44 9 Tianqi 32 Comms 170D Sep 20 1350 Starlink Group 9-17 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 171 286 x 295 x 53 2 Sep 20 2301 Kineis 2A Electron Mahia LC1A Comms 172A 638 x 640 x 98 0 Kineis 2B Comms
Kineis 2C Comms
Kineis 2D Comms
Kineis 2E Comms
Sep 24 0231 Jitianxing A-01 Jielong-3 DFHT, Yellow Sea Imaging 173 484 x 501 x 97 4 Fudan-1 Imaging 173 Luojia-4 01 Imaging 173 Shenqi Radar 173 Xingshidai-15 Imaging 173 Xingshidai-21 Tech 173 Xingshidai-22 Tech 173 Tianyan-15 Tech 173

Sep 24 2333 AIRSAT-01 Lijian-1 Jiuquan Radar 174 AIRSAT-02 Radar Jilin-1 SAR-01A Radar Yunyao-1 21 Meteo Yunyao-1 22 Meteo Sep 25 0401 Starlink Group 9-8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 175

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Blue Origin flew New Shepard flight NS-26 on Aug 29, with passengers Ephraim Rabin, Nicolina Elrick, Eugene Grin, Robert Ferl, Karsen Kitchen and Eiman Jahangir becoming space travellers 699 to 704

Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target

Aug 13 1000 RockSat-X Terrer Imp Mal Wallops I Education 164 Atlantic Ocean Aug 26 0400 OAxFORTIS Black Brant 9 White Sands UV Astron 272 White Sands Aug 29 1308 NS-26 New Shepard W Texas Priv Sflt 104? W Texas Sep 2 0941 BOLT-1B Black Brant VC Andoya Hypersonic 254 Norwegian Sea Sep 3 1921 FURST Black Brant IX White Sands Solar UV 300? White Sands Sep 6 Agni RV Agni 4 Chandipur Op Test 600 Indian Ocean Sep 15 0330 Warhead Toufan Yemen Weapon 300? Israel Sep 25 0044 RV DF-41? Wenchang? Test 1000? Pacific Ocean

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