Jonathan's Space Report
No. 789 draft 2021 Jan 25 Somerville, MA
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International Space Station
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Expedition 64 continues under the command of Sergey Ryzhikov.
Transporter-1
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On Jan 24 SpaceX launched the Transporter-1 mission, placing a record number of satellites in
orbit on a single launch. 110 satellites were deployed, plus a dispenser structure and 4 support
rods. Two of the satellites are dispenser craft containing a total of 33 further satellites
to be deployed in the coming weeks, so the total number of payloads associated with the launch
will be 143. The second stage was deorbited in the south Pacifc west of Chile and the first
stage landed on the OCISLY droneship.
Transporter-1 is a complex mission. The second stage carried a stack of 10 Starlink satellites.
Above the Starlinks was a payload adapter with three ESPA rings above it. The ESPA rings
are designated A, B and C with C being the topmost one. The various rideshare payloads
were attached to dispensers on the four large ports around each ESPA ring. In addition,
an extra dispenser location was present on the top ring, and the Falcon 9 second stage
had a cubesat dispenser attached to its aft end next to the rocket engine.
The mission is a good illustration of the importance of new layer of
intermediary space companies that bundle satellite deployments, sitting
between the launch vehicle providers and the satellite owners. In my
opinion, this extra `service industry' layer is a sign of the existence
of a mature commerical space economy.
The Transporter 1 payloads, excluding Starlink, are listed below.
The satellites are mostly from the USA except where noted.
ESPA Port Carrier mission Payloads
A2 D-Orbit Pulse ION-SVC-2 LAURENTIUS (D-Orbit, Italy) Dispenser
A4 Spaceflight Sherpa-FX Sherpa-FX (Spaceflight) Dispenser
B1 - IQPS QPS-SAR-2 (QPS Labs, Japan) Radar imaging
B2 EXOLAUNCH Zeitgeist EXOPORT2 1 x ICEYE (ICEYE, Finland?) Radar imaging
36 x 0.25U Spacebee (Swarm Tech) IoT comms
1 x 6U AU Charlie (Aurora Insight) RF spectrum
1 x 3U PIXL 1 (DLR, Germany) Laser com test
1 x 2U SOMP-2b (Dresden Tech, Germany) Science
B3 EXOLAUNCH Zeitgeist EXOPORT1 2 x ICEYE (ICEYE, Finland) Radar imaging
B5 - Capella-3 (Capella Space) Radar imaging
C1 ISILAUNCH IS34 8 x 6U Kepler (Kepler Comms, Canada) IoT Comms
4 x 3U SuperDove Flock 4c-37 to 40 (Planet) Imaging
1 x 3U ASELSAT (ASELSAN, Turkey) Tech
1 x 3U IDEASSat (NCU, Taiwan) Science
1 x 1.5U YUSAT-1 (NTOU, Taiwan) Com/AIS
1 x 1U UVSQ-SAT (UVSQ, France) Science
1 x XSAT GNOMES-2 ?? (PlanetIQ?) IoT Comms
C3 NanoRacks Eyries-1 1 x Nemo-V1 Hugo (GHGSat, Canada) Science
8 x 3U Lemur (SpireGlobal) AIS/GNSS-RO weather
C4 ISILAUNCH IS34 36 x 3U SuperDove Flock 4c-1 to 36 (Planet) Imaging
C6 - Capella-4 (Capella Space) Radar imaging
Aft Maverick MERCURY 3 x 1U V-R3X (NASA-Ames/CMU) Tech
The additional payloads to be released later are thought to be:
Sherpa-FX 3 x Defiant Hawk-2A,B,C (Hawkeye 360) RF spectrum
1 x 6U PTD-1 (NASA-Ames/Tyvak) Tech
5 x 3U Astrocast-1.x1 to 1.x5 (Astrocast, Switzerland) IoT comms
1 x 1,5U Prometheus-2.10 (Los Alamos/SOCOM) Military Comms
3 x 0.5U ARCE-1A,B,C (U. South Florida) Tech
ION-SVC 8 x 3U SuperDove Flock 4c-41 to 48 (Planet) Imaging
12 x 0.25U SpaceBEE (Swarm Tech) IoT Comms
Table of Recent Orbital Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
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)
Jan 24 1500 Transporter-1 )
Starlink 2199-2208 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 06 517 x 536 x 97.5
ION SVC LAURENTIUS )
SHERPA-FX 1 )
Izanami QPS-SAR-2 )
Capella-3 )
Capella-4 )
ICEYE X8 )
ICEYE X9 )
ICEYE X10 )
V-3RX 1 )
V-3RX 2 )
V-3RX 3 )
GHGSat Hugo )
Flock-4s 1 to 36 )
Flock-4s 37 to 40 )
Kepler-8 to 15 )
UVSQ-SAT )
Yushan Weixing )
Feishu Weixing )
ASELSAT )
PIXL 1 )
SOMP 2b )
GNOMES-2?? )
Aurora Insight Charlie)
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
Lemur-2-Unnamed )
SpaceBEE-40 to 63 )
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
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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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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