International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 61 continues. On Nov 20 the J-SSOD No. 12 deployer, delivered on HTV 8, was moved outside the Kibo airlock with the JEM RMS robot arm. Three cubesats were ejected: RWASAT-1, built by the University of Tokyo in collaboration with Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry; NARSSCube-1 from the Egyptian Space Agency; and AQT-D from the University of Tokyo which is testing a water thruster. On Nov 22 Parmitano and Morgan carried out spacewalk EVA-60, the second in the series to repair the cooling system of the AMS-02 particle physics experiment. The Quest airlock was depressurized from 1200 to 1835 UTC, and the hatch was opened at 1201 UTC and closed at 1833 UTC. The astronauts made cuts in cooling pipes, depressurizing the old cooling system and preparing for installation of the new pump. Beidou ------- China launched two more Beidou navigation satellites on Nov 23. Beidou 50 and 51 are satellites M19 and M20 in the Beidou-3 medium Earth orbit series. Meanwhile, Beidou 49 has been found in its target inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO). Kosmos-2542 ----------- Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1V on Nov 25. The Blok I second stage reached a 289 x 364 km x 97.9 deg orbit; the Volga third stage then fired to reach a 367 x 857 km x 97.9 deg orbit and deployed at least one payload. It's not entirely clear if the two objects in the higher orbit are payload and Volga stage, or two payloads with the Volga having deorbited itself. However Russian press statements imply only a single payload, with a mission to observe other satelites. Ariane VA250 ------------ Arianespace flight VA250 used launch vehicle Ariane 5 L5108. The payloads were TIBA-1, a 5600 kg AirbusDS Eurostar 3000 Ka-band satellite for the Egyptian Space Agency, and Inmarsat GX5, a 4007 kg Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000B2 Ka-band satellite for Inmarsat's Global Xpress fleet. Tiba is the Arabic name for the ancient city known in English as Thebes and in ancient Egyptian as Waset. It's unclear why the satellite's name is always rendered in upper case in English transliteration. PSLV-C47/Cartosat-3 -------------------- ISRO launched PSLV C47 from Sriharikota on Nov 27 to place the Cartosat-3 high resolution imaging satellite in sun-sync orbit. Cartosat-3's main camera has a resolution of 0.25m. The PS4 fourth stage also deployed the Meshbed 3U cubesat, an antenna test satellite for Analytical Space of Cambridge, MA, and a dozen Planet SuperDove imaging cubesats. GF-12 ----- China launched the Shanghai-built Gao Fen 12 high resolution SAR radar satellite on Nov 27. Starlink -------- 44 of the satellites from the first launch are lowering their orbits from 550 km; currently at 530 km. Meanwhile 40 of the sats from the 2nd launch have stopped raising at 350 km; the remaining 20 have now reached 390 km. Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes Nov 2 1359 S.S. Alan Bean Antares 230+ MARS LA0 Cargo 71A S44701 186 x 257 x 51.6 Nov 3 0322 Gao Fen 7 ) Chang Zheng 4B Taiyuan LC9 Imaging 72A S44703 489 x 518 x 97.5 1030LT SSO Huangpu-1 ) Imaging? 72C S44706 485 x 505 x 97.5 Dianfeng ) Imaging 72D S44705 485 x 505 x 97.5 Sudan Kexue Shiyan ) Tech 72B S44704 487 x 504 x 97.5 Nov 4 1743 Beidou DW49 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Navigation 73A S44709 35674 x 35887 x 58.7 Nov 11 1456 Starlink 1007 ) to ) 74A S44713 298 x 303 x 53.0 Starlink 1017 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms to Starlink 1019 ) 74BM S44772 298 x 303 x 53.0 to ) Starlink 1065 ) Starlink 1067 ) Starlink 1068 ) Nov 13 0340 Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Imaging 75A S44777 532 x 546 x 97.5 1000LT SSO Nov 13 0635 Ningxia-1 01 ) Chang Zheng 6 Taiyuan Sigint 76A S44779 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 02 ) Sigint 76B S44780 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 03 ) Sigint 76C S44781 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 04 ) Sigint 76D S44782 886 x 898 x 45.0 Ningxia-1 05 ) Sigint 76E S44783 886 x 898 x 45.0 Nov 17 1000 KL-Alpha-A ) Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan Comms 77A S44785 1044 x 1058 x 88.9 KL-Alpha-B ) Comms 77B S44786 1045 x 1432 x 88.8 Nov 20 0850 RWASAT-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QV? 411 x 420 x 51.6 Nov 20 0910 NARSSCube-1 ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QW? 411 x 420 x 51.6 Nov 20 0925 AQT-D ISS, LEO Tech 98-67QX? 411 x 420 x 51.6 Nov 23 0055 Beidou DW50 ) Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Navigation 78A S44793 21533 x 22193 x 55.0 Beidou DW51 ) Navigation 78B S44794 21533 x 22193 x 55.0 Nov 25 1752 Kosmos-2542? Soyuz-2-1V Plesetsk LC43/4 Tech 79A S44797 383 x 863 x 97.9 Nov 26 2123 TIBA-1 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 80A S44800 259 x 35753 x 5.0 Inmarsat GX5 ) Comms 80B S44801 256 x 35719 x 5.0 Nov 27 0358 Cartosat-3 ) PSLV-XL Sriharikota SLP Imaging 81A S44804 500 x 519 x 97.5 0930LT Meshbed ) Tech 81B S44805 Flock 4p-1 ) Imaging 81C S44806 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-2 ) Imaging 81D S44807 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-3 ) Imaging 81E S44808 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-4 ) Imaging 81F S44809 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-5 ) Imaging 81G S44810 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-6 ) Imaging 81H S44811 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-7 ) Imaging 81J S44812 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-8 ) Imaging 81K S44813 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-9 ) Imaging 81L S44814 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-10) Imaging 81M S44815 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-11) Imaging 81N S44816 500 x 517 x 97.5 Flock 4p-12) Imaging 81P S44817 500 x 517 x 97.5 Nov 27 2352 Gao Fen 12 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar 82A S44819 595 x 599 x 97.9 0700LT Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target Nov 15 0935 TEXUS 56 VSB-30 Kiruna Micrograv 256 ESRANGE Nov 16 1402 RV Agni 2 Kalam Island Test 600? Indian O. Nov 22 SL-14 SpaceLoft XL Spaceport America Micrograv 110? White Sands? Nov 26 0743 ICI 5 Terrer Imp.Malemute Svalbard Ionosphere 253 Arctic Nov 30 1350 Agni 3 RV Agni 3 Kalam Island Test 500? Indian O. .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: https://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'