Jonathan's Space Report
No. 835 2024 Jul 25 Somerville, MA
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Chandra X-ray Observatory
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The second batch of Starshield satellites, mission NROL-186, was launched from Vandenberg on Jun 29.
GOES-U
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 Starlink Group 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
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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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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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