From: mailto: Jonathan's Space Report

No 818 2023 Apr 16 Somerville, MA

International Space Station

On Mar 17 the Japanese RMS arm was used to move NASA's temporarily-retired GEDI Earth observing experiment from slot EFU6 to EFU7 on the Kibo Exposed Facility, freeing up a slot for STP-H9 On Mar 19 STP-H9 was moved from the Dragon CRS-27 trunk to Kibo-EF EFU6

On Mar 27 spacesuit EMU 3003 was unloaded from the recently arrived Dragon CRS-27 cargo ship EMU 3003 previously was on ISS from 2014 to 2019 and was returned to Earth for refurbishment Its first flight was aboard STS-77 in 1996

On Mar 28 Soyuz MS-22, with damaged cooling system, was returned to Earth without a crew It undocked from Rassvet at 0957:27 UTC, fired its deorbit engines at 1051:11, jettisoned the orbital and propulsion modules at 1119:18 UTC, reentered at 1122 UTC and landed successfully in Kazakhstan at 1145:58 UTC It was reported that if a crew had been aboard, temperatures in the cabin might have risen to 50 deg C

Expedition 68 concluded, and Expedition 69 began, with the undocking of Soyuz MS-22,

On Mar 30 at 1603 UTC Cygnus NG-18 carried out a 0 9m/s reboost of the ISS

On Apr 6 Soyuz MS-23 was flown fromn the Poisk module to the Prichal module Prokop'ev, Petelin and Rubio undocked from Poisk at 0845 UTC and docked with Prichal at 0921 UTC

On Apr 15 at 1505 UTC the Dragon CRS-27 cargo ship undocked from IDA-2 It landed in the Gulf of Mexico near 28 1N 83 9W (Tampa recovery area) at 2058 UTC The trunk was jettisoned into orbit

Chinese Space Station

Astronauts Fei and Zhang carried out another secretive spacewalk (which I label ZR4 EVA-3) on Mar 30, and possibly a further one (ZR4 EVA-4) on Apr 15 In each case, the start time and duration were not revealed

Hakuto-R

The iSpace company reports that its Hakuto-R M1 probe has entered a 100 x 2300 km lunar orbit, but the orbital inclination has not been made public On Apr 13 the probe maneuvered to a 100 x 100 km orbit

Tianmu

EXPACE launched a Kuiazhou-1A from Jiuquan on Mar 22 and placed four Tianmu-1 satellites in polar orbit The Tianmu-1 system is used for GNSS radio occultation meteorology

Terran 1

Relativity Space launched their Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Mar 23 The rocket had a successful first stage flight but the second stage failed to ignite and the vehicle fell in the Atlantic This was the second methalox rocket to reach space

Bars-M

On Mar 23 Russia launched the fourth Bars-M military cartography satellite, cover name Kosmos-2567

Electron 35

Rocket Lab's 35th Electron mission placed two BlackSky Global imaging satellites in orbit

Starlink

Group 5-5, with 56 satellites, was launched from Canaveral on Mar 24 to a 43 degree orbit Group 5-10, with 56 satellites, was launched from Canaveral on Mar 29 to a 43 degree orbit

OneWeb

Launch 18 (India-2), on Mar 26, placed 36 OneWeb satellites in orbit, giving the company enough satellites to start global service The LVM3 rocket's second stage remains in orbit

'Ofeq-13

Israel launched the 'Ofeq-13 spy satellite from Palmachim on Mar 28 It is thought to be in a retrograde orbit with inclination around 140 deg, but no hobbyist observations have been reported yet and the US tracking data is secret

EO-MKA

Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1v rocket on Mar 29 carrying a small satellite to sun-sync orbit It is thought to be in the EO-MKA series and may be an imaging satellite

SAST launches

Four radar imaging satellites were launched for the Hangtian Hongtu company on Mar 30 on a CZ-2D

The Yaogan 34-04 satellite was launched on Mar 31 by a CZ-4C

Fengyun 3 07 xing, or FY-3G, was launched on Apr 16 by a CZ-4B The satellite has a different mission from the other FY-3 weather satellites and is dedicated to rainfall studies It carries a precipitation radar, a GNSS-RO sounder, a spectral imager, a microwave imager, a radiometric calibrator, and an IR polarized multi-angle imager

Tianlong 2

The Beijing company Tianbing Keji (Space Pioneer) launched its first orbital mission on Apr 2 The three stage Tianlong-2 rocket has two kerolox stages and one N2O4/MMH upper stage The fact that it shares the 3 35m diameter of the Long March 2 and its descendants indicate some technology heritage from that CALT/SAST family of rockets

The rocket placed a 4U cubesat for Hantian Hangsheng in orbit I suspect it carried a much heavier dummy payload, which was deorbited along with the third stage for reentry over Antarctica about 45 min after launch

SDA-0A

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Apr 2 with 10 satellites for the US Space Development Agency's Proliferated Space Warfighter Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 0 program This first Tranche 0 launch was designated SDA-0A

8 of the satellites were built by York Space Systems and carry communications data relay payloads; the remaining two were built by SpaceX at its Starlink factory in Seattle, and carry Leidos infrared missile tracking sensors

Transporter-7

SpaceX launched the Transporter-7 rideshare mission from Vandenberg on Apr 15

This launch featured the first use of a shorter-nozzle MVac upper stage engine for missions not needing the highest performance, as well as a different stage 1 landing sequence in which the entry burn uses 1 engine and the landing burn uses 3 engines

TSP7 carried Turkey's 800 kg IMECE imaging satellite as a primary payload, on top of a dispenser consisting of three ESPA rings carrying the rideshare payloads The upper stage made two burns to reach a 495 x 511 km x 97 4 deg, 2232 LTDN, sun-sync orbit and deployed the rideshare payloads from 0748 to 0810 UTC, and then made two more burns to a higher 668 x 679 km x 98 2 deg orbit and deployed IMECE at 0922 UTC The upper stage then carried out a deorbit burn and reentered around 1018 UTC about 1000 km north of New Zealand

Known payloads on the mission:

IMECE (TUBITAK UZAY, Turkey), 800 kg imaging sat Momentus Vigoride VR-6, tug with cubesats LLITED A/B, Revela, DISCO-1, VIREO D-Orbit ION SCV-010 Masterful Matthaeus, tug with cubesats Kepler-20/21, Istanbul, ROM-2, MRC-100, EPICHyper-1, VCUB? Hawkeye 360's Hawk 7A/7B/7C commercial sigint satellites Satellogic Nusat-36, 37, 38, 39 imaging sats Tomorrow-R1 radar meteorology sat Umbra-06 radar imaging sat Norwegian Norsat-TD technology demo sat Orbital Sidekick GHOSt-1 and 2 hyperspectral imager sats GHGSat C6, C7, C8 greenhouse gase monitor sats Maverick Space cubesat deployers: Colorado U CIRBE space weather; Kilicsat (Gumush, Turkey)

Exolaunch cubesat deployers: Spire Lemur-2 (3x 3U sats) Imaging: Chile FACSAT-2 IoT comms: Sateliot-0 (Sateliot/Spain), Dubai DEWASAT-2, Connecta T2 1 (PlanS/Turkey) and maybe "LS2f" - probably a Lacuna Space cubesat Science: InspireSat-7 (LATMOS/France) Radio surveillance: BRO-9 (Unseen/France) Nav/Timing tech: "It's About Time", (TrustPoint/US), unknown size Technology: AstroForge AF-1 Student: Pleiades-Squared (UC Pomona), Sapling (Stanford), SSS-2B (Turkey), Taifa-1 (Kenya), RoseyCubesat (OSM/Monaco)

JUICE

Arianespace launched ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission on Apr 14 Ariane vehicle L5120 on launch VA260 is the penultimate Ariane 5 flight The Ariane 5 includes two EAP solid boosters, the EPC core stage (possibly S/N 5117?) and the ESC-D upper stage (possibly FM84?) The large core stage was suborbital Alas, the press kits no longer give the orbital parameters for the EPC but I estimate a trajectory of -900 x 225 km with impact near 5W 1N The ESC-D made a single 18m56s burn to a 316 x -156007 km x 5 9 deg hyperbolic escape trajectory with energy parameter C3 = 5 6 km^2/s^2 The probe will pass the orbit of the Moon a mere 32 hours after launch and will enter a 0 86 x 1 07 AU x 0 5 deg solar orbit, leaving the Earth's Hill sphere, at about 1430 UTC Apr 19 The 5000 kg-ish ESC-D stage will remain in that near-Earth solar orbit, likely to be miscataloged as an asteroid some day in the future JUICE will remain in the inner solar system for several years (with only a quick dip into the Main Belt in 2028) with three Earth and one Venus flybys The Earth-3 flyby in 2029 Jan will finally set JUICE on course for Jupiter, along a 0 94 x 5 24 AU x 0 6 deg transfer orbit Jupiter arrival and orbit insertion is scheduled for 2031 Jul

JUICE at launch vehicle separation is 5963 kg wet, 2325 kg dry; 4 1 x 2 9 x 4 4m bus with 27 1m solar panel span

Hwasong

On Apr 12 North Korea launched another long range missile (Hwasong-18) on a lofted trajectory However, some reports indicate this one had a lower apogee (less than 3000 km) and therefore did not reach the near-orbital energy of the recent Hwasong-17 launches I am therefore treating it as a regular suborbital launch, for now

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes 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 37 221 x 331 x 70 0 Mar 17 2338 SES 18 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 38A 308 x 19720 x 26 9 SES 19 Comms 38B 308 x 19720 x 26 9 Mar 22 0909 Tianmu-1 03 KZ-1A Jiuquan Met 39A 503 x 518 x 97 4 Tianmu-1 04 Met 39B 502 x 517 x 97 4 Tianmu-1 05 Met 39C 502 x 516 x 97 4 Tianmu-1 06 Met 39D 501 x 515 x 97 4 Mar 23 0325 GLHF Terran 1 Canaveral LC16 Test F04 -6200 x 130 x 28 5 Mar 23 0640 Kosmos-2567 Soyuz-2-1a Plesetsk LC43/3 Imaging 40A 338 x 499 x 97 6 Mar 24 0915 Global-19 Electron Mahia LC1B Imaging 41A 448 x 456 x 42 0 Global-5 Imaging 41B 448 x 456 x 42 0 Mar 24 1543 Starlink Group 5-5 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 42A 297 x 339 x 43 0 Mar 26 0330 OneWeb L18 LVM3 Satish Dhawan Comms 43 441 x 454 x 87 4 Mar 28 2310 'Ofeq-13 Shavit Palmachim Radar 44A Mar 29 1957 Kosmos-2568 Soyuz-2-1v Plesetsk Imaging 45A 330 x 344 x 96 5 Mar 29 2001 Starlink Group 5-10 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 46 298 x 336 x 43 0 Mar 30 1050 Hongtu 1-01 01 Chang Zheng 2D Taiyuan Radar 47A 499 x 512 x 97 4 Hongtu 1-01 02 Radar 47 498 x 512 x 97 4 Hongtu 1-01 03 Radar 47 497 x 512 x 97 4 Hongtu 1-01 04 Radar 47 496 x 511 x 97 4 Mar 31 0627 Yaogan 34 04 Chang Zheng 4C Jiuquan Imaging 48A 1092 x 1096 x 63 4 Apr 2 0848 Jinta Tianlong 2 Jiuquan Imaging 49A 478 x 496 x 97 5 Apr 2 1429 SDA-0A TPL-01 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 50A 941 x 952 x 81 0 SDA-0A TPL-02 Comms 50B SDA-0A TPL-03 Comms 50C SDA-0A TPL-04 Comms 50D SDA-0A TPL-05 Comms 50E SDA-0A TPL-06 Comms 50F SDA-0A TPL-07 Comms 50G SDA-0A TPL-08 Comms 50H SDA-0A TRL-01 Early Warn 50J SDA-0A TRL-02 Early Warn 50K Apr 7 0400 Test payload Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Tech 51A 295 x 503 x 97 3 Apr 7 0430 Intelsat IS-40e/TEMPO Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms/Sci 52A 229 x 33836 x 27 0 Apr 14 1214 JUICE Ariane 5ECA+ Kourou ELA3 Space probe 53A 314 x -156007 x 5 9 Apr 15 0647 Transporter-7 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 54A 668 x 679 x 98 2 Apr 16 0136 Fengyun 3-07 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Weather 55A 410 x 417 x 50 0

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

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

Mar 13 2241 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan Mar 13 2251 RV KN-23 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan Mar 23 1823 BROR IM/IO Kiruna Auroral 240 ESRANGE Mar 23 2100 NASA 41 127UE Terrier IO Andoya Atmos 149 Nor Sea Mar 23 2102 NASA 36 361UE Black Brant 9 Andoya Atmos 363 Nor Sea Mar 23 PAC-3 Target Janus? Wake Island Target 300? Kwajalein Mar 29 0430 REXUS 30 Imp Orion Kiruna Auroral 80 ESRANGE Mar 30 FTM-31E1a Target MRBM-T3C2 Kauai Target 500? Pacific Apr 1 0420 REXUS 29 Imp Orion Kiruna Auroral 80 ESRANGE Apr 11 RV Yars-E Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Sary Shagan Apr 12 2223 Hwasong-18 RV Hwasong-18 Chong-dong Test 2500? Sea of Japan

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