Jonathan's Space Report

No 788 2021 Jan 25 Somerville, MA

Space Activities in 2020

My annual summary https://planet4589 org/space/papers/space20 pdf is now available

Transporter-1

I'll cover the SpaceX Transporter-1 launch in the next issue

International Space Station

Expedition 64 continues under the command of Sergey Ryzhikov

On Dec 19 at 2344 UTC the Canadarm-2 extracted the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock (NRAL) from the Dragon CRS-21 trunk, and at about 0330 UTC Dec 20 it was berthed to the Tranquility module

On Jan 6 at 1225 UTC the Canadarm-2 unberthed the S S Kalpana Chawla cargo ship (mission Cygnus NG-14) from Unity nadir, at at 1511 UTC released it into orbit

Cargo Dragon CRS-21 undocked from IDA-3 at 1405 UTC Jan 12 It jettisoned its trunk into orbit probably at about 0030 UTC Jan 14; began its deorbit burn at 0037 UTC; and landed in the Gulf of Mexico at 0126 UTC at about 28 6N 83 9W It returned spacesuit EMU 3008 to Earth along with a further 1872 kg of cargo

PSLV-C50

India launched PSLV-C50 on Dec 17 with a communications satellite, CMS-01, to subsynchronous transfer orbit CMS-01 was previously known as GSAT-12R With this and EOS-1 (formerly RISAT-2BR2) ISRO is moving towards renaming new satellites with blander names for some reason CMS-01 carries an extended C-band comms payload for regional service The satellite was tested at 77 5E and then on Jan 10 began moving again to a long-term location

OneWeb

36 more OneWeb internet satellites were launched on Dec 18 aboard a Soyuz from Vostochniy The launch was Starsem flight ST29, the first Starsem launch from the far eastern site

NROL-108

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center on Dec 18 carrying the NROL-108 mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office Two payloads, USA 312 and 313, were deployed; one has been tracked by hobbyists in a 519 x 540 km x 51 4 deg orbit This is well above the USA 276 satellite launched in 2017, currently in a 383 x 391 km x 50 0 deg orbit

The first stage returned to a landing at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1

Chang Zheng 8

The first launch of the new Chang Zheng 8 (Long March 8) rocket was successful on Dec 22 CZ-8 has a core stage, two side boosters, and a LOX/LH2 upper stage derived from the CZ-3B third stage The main payload was Xinjishu Yanzheng 7, a technology satellite The launch also deployed:

Haisi-1, a 185 kg satellite with a C-band radar payload - the first TY-MINISAR satellite from Tianyi Research (Spacety), for CETC38 (the China Electronics Technology 38th Research Institute)

Yuanguang, a 12U cubesat also from Tianyi carrying a space tribology payload for the Hubei University of Technology and a GNSS-RO meteorology payload for Tianjin Yunyao Aerospace Tech Co ;

Tianqi Xingzuo 08, a 40 kg satellite for IoT and financial data relay for Guodian Gaokeji YG; also called Ping'an-1 due to a collaboration between GG and the Ping'an bank

ET-SMART-RSS, also called Zhixing 1A, a 10 kg 6U cubesat for Ethiopia's ESSTI remote sensing institute built by Zhixing Kongjian Keji YG (Smart Satellite Tech Co )

(Thanks to Andrew Jones for some of this info )

Yaogan 33

China's SAST/Shanghai launched a Chang Zheng 4C from Jiuquan on Dec 27 into sun-synchronous orbit Previous SSO CZ-4B/C missions from Taiyuan dropped launch debris on other countries, prompting the switch to Jiuquan The payload is not related to the Yaogan 33 which failed to reach orbit in 2019 - the name is being reused The new payload is thought to be a SAST radar satellite of a new series, but details are unclear for now

A small secondary payload, called `Micro-Nano Technology Test Satellite', was also carried The satellite adjusted its orbit to maintain a 9800 km distance from YG-33

CSO 2

The second CSO (Composant Spatiale Optique) spy satellite for the French defense agency DGA was launched on Dec 29 aboard an Arianespace Soyuz-ST-A from the Centre Spatial Guyanais No orbital data were available as of Jan 18

Turksat 5A

Turksat-5A, an all-electric-propulsion Eurostar E3000EOR with a launch mass of 3500 kg, carries a Ku-band communications payload for Turk Telecom It was launched to supersynchronous geotransfer orbit on Jan 8 The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the Just Read The Instructions droneship

As of Jan 13, Turksat 5A was in a 514 x 55036 km x 17 5 deg orbit after a small perigee raise on Jan 10

Launcher One

Virgin Orbit carried out Launcher One's second test flight on Jan 17 - with complete success The Boeing 747 carrier plane `Cosmic Girl' took off from Mojave Air and Space Port at 1838 UTC and flew out over the Pacific near San Nicolas Island Drop was at 1938:51 UTC The second stage completed its first burn about 1948 UTC, reaching a 187 x 521 km x 60 7 deg transfer orbit A second burn at about 2034 UTC put the vehicle in a 500 km orbit and the cubesat payloads were separated

The payloads are: CACTUS 1, a 3U from Capitol Tech U , Maryland, with an experiment to use aerogel to capture and characterize micro-space-debris CAPE 3, a 1U cubesat with an educational communications payload from U Louisiana-Lafayette EXOCUBE 2 (CP12), a 3U cubesat from Cal Poly with a space weather payload MITEE 1, a U Michigan 3U cubesat with a 10-meter-deployable tether PolarCube, a 3U cubesat from U Colorado/Boulder with a radiometer/spectrometer for surface and atmosphere temperature measurement Q-PACE, a 3U cubesat from U Central Florida with a microgravity accretion physics experiment Fox-1E/RadFXSat-2 from AMSAT-NA and Vanderbilt U with an amateur radio payload and a radiation exposure experiment PICS 1 and PICS 2 from Brigham Young University, Passive Inspection Cubesats meant to image the LauncherOne final stage and its deployments TechEdSat-7, a 2U cubesat with an Exobrake for drag brake reentry tests TES-7 also carries a CUBIT, (Cubesat Identity Tag), a DARPA RFID tag to aid in cubesat identification I'm enthusiatic about this since this sort of technology is badly needed to help sort out the satellite catalog TES-7 is led by NASA-Ames and San Jose State

Tiantong-1 03

China's third Tiantong-1 S-band mobile comms satellite was launched on Jan 19 to geotransfer orbit

Electron 18

Rocket Lab launched their 18th Electron from New Zealand on Jan 20, placing a communications satellite in orbit The launch was purchased by OHB Group on behalf of an unknown customer thought to be Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology Ltd , which is related in some way to the German KLEO Connect company

Starlink

60 more Starlink satellites were launched on Jan 20 by a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center

Kosmos-2536

Kosmos-2536 (called Kosmos-2538 by Space-Track) had remained close, probably docked, to Kosmos-2535 since Oct 21; on Dec 8 it began a series of departures and returns to distances from 40 to 400 km

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes

Dec 2 0133 FalconEye 2 Soyuz ST-A CSG ELS Imaging 90A S47226 597 x 599 x 97 9 1030 LT Dec 3 0114 Gonets-M No 30) Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Comms 91A S47227 1486 x 1506 x 82 5 Gonets-M No 31) Comms 91B S47228 1487 x 1506 x 82 5 Gonets-M No 32) Comms 91C S47229 1484 x 1505 x 82 5 Kosmos-2548 ) Tech 91D? S47230 1481 x 1508 x 82 5 Dec 3 1510 Chang'e-5 Shangsheng Qi Louville Omega North, Luna Probe U02 D1048 Lunar orbit Dec 6 0358 Gaofen 14 Chang Zheng 3B/G5 Xichang Imaging 92A S47231 485 x 509 x 97 4 1030 LT Dec 6 1617 Dragon CRS-21 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 93A S47233 192 x 211 x 51 7 Dec 9 2014 Xiaoji ) Chang Zheng 11 Xichang Astron 94A S47234 588 x 604 x 29 0 Xiaomu ) Astron 94B S47235 587 x 604 x 29 0 Dec 11 0109 USA 311 Delta 4 Heavy Canaveral SLC37B Sigint 95A S47237 35800?x 35800?x 0 Dec 13 1730 SXM-7 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 96A S47240 234 x 19380 x 27 0 Dec 14 0550 GVM Angara A5 Plesetsk LC35/1 Tech 97A S47242 36923 x 37594 x 0 1 Dec 15 1009 Strix-Alpha Electron Mahia LC1A Radar 98A S47253 489 x 511 x 97 4 Dec 15 2055 Astra Test Payload Astra Rocket 3 2 Kodiak LP3B Test F09 F01577 -1100 x 380 x 98 1 Dec 17 1011 CMS-01 PSLV-XL Satish Dhawan SLP Comms 99A S47256 273 x 20882 x 17 8 Dec 18 1227 OneWeb SL102 ) Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat Vostochniy Comms 100A S47258 428 x 442 x 87 5 OneWeb SL109-SL111) to OneWeb SL114 ) 100AM S47293 442 x 454 x 87 5 OneWeb SL117-SL147) Dec 19 1400 USA 312 ) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A ? 101A S47294 519 x 540 x 51 4 USA 313 ) ? 101B S47295 ? x ? x 51 4 Dec 21 0438 XJY 7 ) Chang Zheng 8 Wenchang LC201 Radar 102C? S47298 503 x 515 x 97 4 Haisi-1 ) Radar 102 503 x 515 x 97 4 Tianqi-08 ) Comms 102 503 x 515 x 97 4 Yuanguang ) Tech 102 503 x 515 x 97 4 ET-SMART-RSS ) Imaging 102 503 x 515 x 97 4 Dec 27 1544 Yaogan 33 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan LC43/94 Radar? 103A S47302 682 x 686 x 98 3 Dec 29 1642 CSO 2 Soyuz ST-A CSG ELS Imaging 104A S47305 480? x 480?x 97 3 Jan 8 0215 Turksat 5A Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 01A S47306 288 x 55049 x 17 7 Jan 17 1938 CACTUS 1 ) Tech 02 492 x 518 x 60 7 CAPE 3 ) LauncherOne Cosmic Girl, Pacific Tech 02 ExoCube 2 ) Tech 02 MiTEE 1 ) Tech 02 PolarCube ) Tech 02 Q-PACE ) Tech 02 TechEdSat-7 ) Tech 02 RadFxSat-2 ) Tech 02 PICS 1 ) Tech 02 PICS 2 ) Tech 02 Jan 19 1625 Tiantong-1 03 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 03A S47321 182 x 35815 x 28 5 Jan 20 0726 GMS-T Electron Mahia LC1 Comms 04A S47346 1140 x 1281 x 89 9 Jan 20 1302 Starlink 1952 ) Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 05 256 x 284 x 53 0 Starlink 2011 ) Starlink 2017 ) Starlink 2034 ) Starlink 2045-2047) Starlink 2049-2050) Starlink 2055 ) Starlink 2069-2071) Starlink 2076-2077) Starlink 2079-2082) Starlink 2084-2086) Starlink 2088-2089) Starlink 2092-2094) Starlink 2096-2106) Starlink 2108-2115) Starlink 2117-2124) Starlink 2127-2128) Starlink 2130 ) Starlink 2133-2135)

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

The US DoD reports a Russian direct-ascent antisatellite (ASAT) test on Dec 16 I understand the missile was not tested against a target satellite; at most just a `point in space' target NOTAMs suggest launch was between 0100 and 0600 UTC Unclear what the apogee was, but possibly a few hundred km

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

Dec 9 RV Yars Plesetsk Op Test 1000? Kura Dec 9 RV x 4? Sineva K-18, Barents Sea Op Test 1000? Kura? Dec 12 RV x 4 Bulava K-551, Sea of Okhotsk Op Test 1000? Chiza Dec 12 RV x 4 Bulava K-551, Sea of Okhotsk Op Test 1000? Chiza Dec 12 RV x 4 Bulava K-551, Sea of Okhotsk Op Test 1000? Chiza Dec 12 RV x 4 Bulava K-551, Sea of Okhotsk Op Test 1000? Chiza Dec 16 Nudol KV? Nudol' Plesetsk ASAT test 300? Laptev Sea Jan 14 1717 RSS First Step New Shepard West Texas Test 106 West Texas Jan 16 Sejjil RV Sejjil ?, Iran Op Test 800? Indian Ocean Jan 16 Sejjil RV Sejjil ?, Iran Op Test 800? Indian Ocean Jan 16 Sejjil RV Sejjil ?, Iran Op Test 800? Indian Ocean Jan 16 Emad RV Emad ?, Iran Op Test 400? Indian Ocean Jan 16 Emad RV Emad ?, Iran Op Test 400? Indian Ocean Jan 16 Ghadr RV Ghadr ?, Iran Op Test 400? Indian Ocean

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