From: mailto: Jonathan's Space Report

No 835 2024 Jul 25 Somerville, MA

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Jul 23 was the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Chandra space telescope aboard STS-93 Chandra continues to operate well in orbit, but funding for continued full-scale operation is in doubt

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

US EVA-90 was carried out on Jun 24 The Quest airlock was depressurized with astronauts Dyson and Barratt in spacesuits EMU 3003 and EMU 3009 The airlock went below 50 mbar at 1236 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1244 UTC However at 1246 UTC water started coming out of an attach fitting and the spacewalk was aborted, with hatch close at 1254 UTC and beginning of repressurization at 1318 UTC The airlock was depressurized for 42 minutes

On Jun 27 the Kibo RMS moved the CREAM experiment package from external location EFU13 to EFU12 On Jun 28 it then moved the ILLUMA-T lasercom experiment package from EFU3 to EFU13 Later that day the Canadarm-2 unberthed ILLUMA-T from EFU13, and on Jun 29 at 1600 UTC ILLUMA-T was jettisoned into orbit It has been cataloged as object 60181 CREAM was moved back to EFU13 on Jul 3 OCO-3 was then moved back from EFU4 to EFU3 on Jul 5

On Jul 12 the Cygnus NG-20 freighter was unberthed at 0800 UTC and released into orbit at 1101 UTC It was deorbited over the Pacific on Jul 13 with reentry around 1627 UTC

The return date of the Starliner mission remains uncertain at this writing

Chinese Space Station

Astronauts Ye G and Li C made the second spacewalk of the seventh expedition on Jul 3, from the Wentian airlock, to continue installation of debris panels It lasted 6 5 hours and ended at 1451 UTC

Starlink launches

Starlink Group 10-2 (22 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jun 23 Starlink Group 9-2 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Jun 24 Starlink Group 10-3 (23 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jun 27 Starlink Group 8-9 (20 sats) was launched from Canaveral on Jul 3 Starlink Group 9-3 (20 sats) was launched from Vandenberg on Jul 12

No orbital data have been released for six of the Ku-band group 9-1 satellites since the day of launch and it appears that those six satellites failed at launch Two have reentered so far

On the Group 9-3 flight, the second stage engine failed during restart for the circularization burn following an apparent LOX leak during the first burn The satellites were deployed in a lower than planned orbit Orbital data were received from the satellites in the hours after insertion but not afterwards, and it seems that many of them, together with the second stage, reentered within hours of launch At least one reentry was observed over Chile at around 1040 UTC Jul 12 However on Jul 15 two objects from the launch were cataloged as 2024-129A and 129B by Space Force, still in orbits of 182 x 296 and 177 x 274 km They were identified as Starlink 11214 and 11202, which were slated to be 129A/B prior to launch; I suspect Space Force doesn't really know which specific Starlinks these were Both had reentered by Jul 20

I am categorizing the 9-3 launch with a success score of 0 40 (reached orbit, but not a usable one) Falcon 9 launches were suspended but are expected to resume in late July

Starshield launches

The second batch of Starshield satellites, mission NROL-186, was launched from Vandenberg on Jun 29

GOES-U

NOAA's GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) was launched on Jun 25 aboard a Falcon Heavy from KSC to an intermediate high-perigee transfer orbit The satellite was renamed GOES 19 once in its operational geostationary orbit at 90W

CALT launches

CALT launched a three-stage CZ-7A from Wenchang on Jun 29, placing the Zhongxing-3A satellite in geotransfer orbit ZX-3A is probably a military communications satellite It has now reached geostationary orbit at 101 6E

SAST launches

SAST launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan on Jul 4 placing two Tianhui-5 satellites in orbit They are possibly radar mapping satellites built by SAST

SAST launched a CZ-4B from Taiyuan on Jul 19 with the Gao Fen 11-05 imaging satellite to 1012 LTDN elliptical SSO These satellites are launched to elliptical orbit for an initial mission phase, and then a few months later are moved to a circular orbit for longer term operations

Daichi-4

JAXA's Daichi-4 L-band radar satellite was launched on Jul 1 aboard an H3 from Tanegashima to a 1200 LTDN sun-synch orbit

Chang'e-6

The Chang'e-6 reentry capsule landed in the Siziwang Banner region at 0607 UTC Jun 25, with its lunar farside samples aboard

Firefly Alpha

Firefly Aerospace's Alpha flight FLTA005 was launched on Jul 4 from Vandenberg with a NASA-sponsored cargo of eight cubesats:

SOC-i from the U of Washington, Kubesat-1 from U of Kansas, MESAT-1 from U of Maine, CATSAT from U of Arizona; Serenity from Teachers In Space; and Techedsat-11 from NASA-Ames, and R5-S4 and R5-S2-2 0 from NASA-JSC

It is not clear how many of these satellites have successfully been contacted once in orbit

Turksat

Turkey's Turksat 6A communications satellite, the first in the series to be built in Turkey, was launched on a Falcon 9 on Jul 8 The 4250 kg Turkish Aerospace Industries satellite has Ku and X band communications payloads

Ariane 6

The first Ariane 6 vehicle, Ariane L6001, was launched on mission VA262 on Jul 9 The rocket is an Ariane 62 variant with two solid boosters It placed a 1600 kg dummy payload in a 580 km orbit together with 8 cubesats The dummy payload remained attached to the upper stage, which was to be deorbited 2h40m into flight However, the auxiliary power unit fail to restart after the cubesat deployments, and the stage was passivated in orbit without performing a deorbit burn As a result, two reentry capsules remain attached to the stage and will not be able to perform their missions

SQX-1

The Xingji Rongyao (iSpace) company lost another Shuang Quxian 1 (Hyperbola-1) rocket after launch from Jiuquan on Jul 10 Three Yunyao weather satellites were aboard The failure was in the rocket's fourth stage The SQX-1 now has 4 failures out of 7 orbital attempts

Erratum

EarthCare launch was May 28 at 2220 UTC as noted in the table, and not May 29 as stated in the text of JSR 834

Table of Recent Orbital Launches

Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes 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 1A Electron Mahia 1B Comms 114F 637 x 640 x 98 0 Kineis 1B Comms 114A Kineis 1C Comms 114C Kineis 1D Comms 114D Kineis 1E Comms 114E 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 Jun 23 1715 Starlink Group 10-2 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 117 263 x 277 x 53 2 Jun 24 0347 Starlink Group 9-2 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 118 284 x 295 x 53 2 Jun 25 2126 GOES U Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC39A Weather 119A 16009 x 35240 x 4 4 Jun 27 1114 Starlunk Grouo 10-3 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 120 264 x 274 x 53 2 Jun 29 0314 Starshield Group 1-2 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Imaging? 121 310? x 315? x 70 0 Jun 29 1157 Zhongxing-3A Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang Comms 122A 144 x 34350 x 51 5 Jul 1 0306 Daichi 4 H3 Tanegashima Radar 123A 609 x 612 x 97 9 Jul 3 0855 Starlink Group 8-9 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 124 285 x 296 x 53 2 Jul 4 0404 SOC-i Alpha Vandenberg SLC2W Tech 125 450 x 523 x 97 3 TechEdSat-11 Tech 125 Serenity Com 125 R5-S4 Tech 125 R5-S2-2 0 Tech 125 CATSAT Tech 125 Kubesat-1 Sci 125 MESAT-1 Sci 125 Jul 4 2249 Tianhui-5 2-01 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Radar? 126 607 x 610 x 97 8 Tianhui-5 2-02 Radar? 126 Jul 8 2330 Turksat 6A Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 127A Jul 9 1900 Ariane L6001 Dummy Payload Ariane 6 Kourou ELA4 Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 OOVCube Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 Curium Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 Robusta-3A Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 3Cat-4 Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 GRBBeta Ast 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 ISTSat-1 Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 Replicator Tech 128 580 x 580 x 62 0 Jul 10 2341 Yunyao-1 15 Shuang Quxian 1 Jiuquan Weather F03 -3900? x 500? x 97 Yunyao-1 16 Weather F03 Yunyao-1 17 Weather F03 Jul 12 0235 Starlink Group 9-3 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 129 138? x 250? x 53 2 Jul 19 0303 Gao Fen 11-05 Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan Imaging 130A 244 x 697 x 97 5

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches

Congratulations to my friend Dr Amy Winebarger at NASA-MSFC on the successful launch of the MAGIXS suborbital solar physics X-ray telescope on Jul 16

Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target

May 25? LRHW AUR CHGB Booster Kauai Test 200? Kwajalein 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 Jun 20 1030 RockOn Terrier Imp Ori Wallops I Education 114 Atlantic Ocean Jun 25 2030 MIRV test Hwasong-16Na Chongdong Test 100 Sea of Japan Jun 30 2005 RV Hwasong-11Da-4 5 Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan Jun 30 2015 RV Hwasong-11Da? Jangyon Test 100? Sea of Japan Jul 16 1901 MAGIXS 2 Black Brant 9 White Sands Solar X 300? White Sands

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