From: mailto: Jonathan's Space Report

No 817 2023 Mar 18 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

Expedition 68 continues

In JSR 816 I omitted the spacewalk on Feb 2 Mann and Wakata completed installation of the 1A IROSA mod kit on the station truss

On Feb 18 at 0226 UTC Progress MS-21 undocked from Poisk After cameras on ISS inspected its service module in the area of the coolant leak, it departed the station and was deorbited over the S Pacific with an engine burn at 0315 UTC Feb 19 leading to debris impact at 0357 UTC Feb 19

On Feb 20 at 0420 UTC Progress MS-22 fired its engines for 958 seconds to increase the ISS velocity by 1 8 m/s, raising its orbit 3 km and using 291 kg of propellant

Soyuz MS-23 was launched at 0024 UTC Feb 24, and docked with the Poisk module at 0058 UTC Feb 26 The spacecraft, no 754, was launched without a crew to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 following the latter's coolant leak Soyuz MS-22 is to be returned to Earth without anyone aboard, and its former crew will land on Soyuz MS-23

Dragon Endeavour was launched on Mar 2 on the Crew-6 mission, with astronauts Steve Bowen (NASA), Warren Hoburg (NASA), Sultan Al Neyadi (UAE MBRSC), and Andrey Fedyaev (Roskosmos) Dragon docked with IDA-3 at 0640 UTC Mar 3

Progress MS-22 fired its engines on Mar 6 at 1242 UTC for 376s in a burn to avoid collision with Satellogic's Nusat-17 satellite (46835) which was on course to be less than 2 km from ISS at 1823 UTC At the same time a Genesis 1 debris object (31392) also was on track for a close pass at 1833 UTC

Another avoidance burn was carried out by Progress MS-22 at 1154 UTC Mar 14, probably to avoid object 49982, a piece of Kosmos-1408 ASAT debris

Dragon Endurance (Crew-5; Mann, Casada, Wakata, Kikina) undocked from IDA-2 at 0719:26 UTC Mar 11 and landed in the Gulf of Mexico at 0202 UTC near 28 1N 83 9W The trunk was jettisoned at 0106 UTC into a 299 x 410 km orbit

Cargo mission Dragon CRS-27 was launched from KSC on Mar 15 It docked with IDA-2/PMA-2 at 1131 UTC Mar 16 The trunk carries the Space Force STP-H9 experiment package which will be installed on the Kibo EF

Erratum

Progress MS-22 docked with the Zvezda module at 0845 UC Feb 11 (not 0249 UTC)

Chinese Space Station

On Feb 9 astronauts Fei and Zhang made a spacewalk to install a pump on the station exterior The hatch was open at 0910 UTC and closed at 1616 UTC

They apparently made a second spacewalk on Feb 28 but no details of this EVA were made public This is the first time in spaceflight history that a spacewalk was carried out without its duration or start time being announced (although there were rumours of clandestine EVAs during military Shuttle missions, there is no convincing evidence of this)

Starlink

Starlink Group 2-5 (51 satellites) launched from Vandenberg on Feb 17 Starlink Group 6-1 (21 satellites) launched from Canaveral on Feb 27 with the first 800 kg V2-Mini satellites Starlink Group 2-7 (51 satellites) launched from Vandenberg on Mar 3 Starlink Group 2-8 (52 satellites) launched from Vandenberg on Mar 17

The V2-Mini satellites raised their orbit from 365 to 380 km by Mar 6, but on Mar 11 all 21 satellites appear to have stopped orbital maintenance burns and their orbits began to decay However, it's a bit too early to say whether the satellites will reenter or whether control over them will be recovered

Inmarsat

The Inmarsat 6F2 communications satellite was launched by SpaceX for Inmarsat on Feb 18 to geotransfer orbit The satellite is a 5470 kg Airbus Eurostar 3000EOR with an electric propulsion system As of Mar 15 it was in a 1009 x 42771 km x 24 4 deg orbit

CALT launches

CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang on Feb 23 with the Zhongxing-26 high bandwidth Ka-band comms satellite By Mar 3 it was in GEO at 125E

CALT launched CZ-2C vehicles from Jiuquan on Feb 24 and Mar 13 with Horus-1 (Helusi-1) and Horus-2 (Helusi-2), a pair of Chinese-built imaging satellites for Egypt They are both in sun-sync orbit with 10:21 local time orbital plane

CALT launched a CZ-11 from Jiuquan on Mar 15 with the Shiyan 19 experiment satellite, apparently carrying either an optical or possibly radar imaging payload The satellite is in sun-sync orbit with 18:00 local time orbital plane

SAST launches

SAST launched a CZ-4C from Taiyuan on Mar 9 placing two Tianhui-6 imaging satellites into an 0600 LTDN sun-sync orbit

H3-TF1

The first flight of JAXA's H3 rocket ended in failure on Mar 7 The second stage did not ignite; a destruct command was sent and the debris from the vehicle impacted the Pacific east of the Phillipines around 132E 13N at 0155 UTC Payload was the ALOS-3 (Daichi-3) Earth observing satellite JAXA reports that electrical issues in the second stage engine controller prevented valves from opening and prevented stage ignition

OneWeb L17

SpaceX launched a further 40 OneWeb internet satellites from Cape Canaveral on Mar 9

Luch-5Kh

On Mar 13 Russia launched a satellite with the cover name Luch-5Kh The satellite is believed to actually be the second Olimp-K geostationary signals intelligence satellite

Electron 34

Rocket Lab launched the 34th Electron mission on Mar 16 This flight, from Launch Area 0C at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, placed the Capella 9 and 10 radar satellites in orbit The second stage reached a 178 x 300 km orbit and then, in a new launch profile, the kick stage made an immediate apogee raise burn to about 180 x 600 km, followed by the usual circularization burn at apogee A small passivation burn was also reported but the kick stage appears to be in an orbit close to the payloads

SES-18/19

On Mar 17 SpaceX launched two C-band communications satellites for SES SES-18 and SES-19 are Northrop Grumman Geostar-3 satellites with mass 3605 and 3650 kg wet, 1139 and 1280 kg dry

High energy North Korean missile launches

North Korea launched a Hwasong-17 missile on a high energy trajectory of Feb 18 The missile reached a 5768 km apogee This trajectory, although suborbital, has total energy comparable to an orbital launch; I assign it one of my 'special' designations, 2023-U01, to distinguish it from the run-of-the-mill suborbital flights See https://planet4589 org/space/gcat/web/intro/u html for more discussion

A very similar flight was carried out on Mar 15; I assign it designation 2023-U02

ION SCV009

The ION SCV009 tug carried a test of a payload ejection system from the Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense (EBAD) company The EBAD deployer ejected a dummy test mass in February, cataloged as 2023-014BH TLEs suggest the ejection was around Feb 19, but an EBAD press release says it was on Feb 8

Transporter 6

Jeff Foust reports in Space News that the Launcher company's Orbiter SN1 tug, launched on Transporter-6, has failed, and the satellites aboard it can not be deployed In GCAT I have assigned those satellites auxiliary catalog numbers A10880 to A10885 (Proves-Yearling, MDQub-SAT1A/1B, Sapling, Unicorn 2G/2H) with metadata to show they remain attached to the tug

D-Orbit's ION SCV007 deployed the Kelpie-1 maritime AIS location satellite on Mar 1, after raising its orbit to 638 x 655 km

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Feb 3 0758 Starlink Group 5-3 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 15A 322 x 342 x 43 0 Feb 5 0912 Elektro-L No 4L Proton-M/DM-03 Baykonur LC81/24 Weather 16A 35379 x 35502 x 0 6 Feb 7 0132 Amazonas Nexus Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 17A 338 x 59587 x 25 1 Feb 9 0615 Progress MS-22 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Cargo 18A 270 x 314 x 51 6 Feb 9 0348 EOS-07 SSLV Satish Dhawan Tech 19A 443 x 460 x 37 2 AzaadiSat-2 Tech 19 JANUS-1 Tech 19 Feb 12 0510 Starlink Group 5-4 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 20A 296 x 338 x 43 0 Feb 14? DRUMS Target 1 DRUMS, LEO Tech 21-102M 539 x 568 x 97 5 Feb 17 1912 Starlink Group 2-5 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 21A 234 x 316 x 70 0 Feb 18 0359 Inmarsat 6F2 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 22A 387 x 41593 x 27 0 Feb 18 0822 Hwasong-17 RV Hwasong-17 Sunan LP4 Missile U01 -6260 x 5768 x 41 Feb 19 1200? EBAD Test Mass ION SCV009, LEO GTech 14BH 318 x 327 x 70 0 Feb 23 1149 Zhongxing-26 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 23A 225 x 35794 x 27 9 Feb 24 0024 Soyuz MS-23 Soyuz-2-1a Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 24A 193 x 222 x 51 6 Feb 24 0401 Horus-1 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Imaging 25A 488 x 503 x 97 5 Feb 27 2313 Starlink Group 6-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 26A 364 x 372 x 43 0 Mar 1 1200? Kelpie-1 ION SCV007, LEO 01DC 637 x 655 x 98 1 Mar 2 0534 Dragon Crew-6 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 27A 192 x 210 x 51 6 Mar 3 1838 Starlink Group 2-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 28A 222 x 327 x 70 0 Mar 7 0137 Daichi-3 H3-22S Tanegashima Imaging F03 -5940 x 635 x 86 6 Mar 9 1913 OneWeb L17 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 29A 581 x 599 x 86 5 Mar 9 2241 Tianhui-6 01 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Imaging 30A 888 x 888 x 99 0 Tianhui-6 02 30B 888 x 888 x 99 0 Mar 12 2313 Luch-5Kh Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC81/24 Sigint 31A 381 x 35715 x 48 7 Mar 13 0402 Horus-2 Chang Zheng 2C Jiuquan Imaging 32A 489 x 502 x 97 4 Mar 15 0030 Dragon CRS-27 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Cargo 33A 194 x 208 x 51 6 Mar 15 1141 Shiyan 19 Chang Zheng 11 Jiuquan Tech 34A 495 x 515 x 97 5 Mar 15 2210 Hwasong-17 RV Hwasong-17 Sunan LP5 Missile U02 -6260 x 6045 x 41 6 Mar 16 2339 Capella 9 Electron MARS LA0C Radar 35A 590 x 603 x 44 Capella 10 Radar 35B 590 x 603 x 44 Mar 17 0833 Gao Fen 13-02 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Imaging 36A 190 x 35799 x 28 5 Mar 17 1926 Starlink Group 2-8 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 37 Mar 17 2338 SES 18 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 38A SES 19 Comms 38B

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Feb 10 0701 GT245GM Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein Feb 16 1200 MesOrion 1 Imp Orion Wallops Test 114 Atlantic Feb 16 1228 MesOrion 2 Imp Orion Wallops Test 114 Atlantic Feb 18 0945? RV Sarmat Plesetsk Test 100? (Kura, failed) Feb 19 2215? RV KN-25? Sukchong Test 100 Sea of Japan Mar 13 2241 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan Mar 13 2251 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan

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