Jonathan's Space Report
No. 846 draft 2025 May 23 Somerville, MA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Space Station
---------------------------
Expedition 73 continues.
The Dragon CRS-32 cargo ship undocked from IDA-3 on May 23 at 1605 UTC. It carried the EMU 3009
spacesuit, launched to ISS in 2019. CRS-32 landed off the coast of San Diego
at 0544 UTC May 25.
Starlink
--------
Starlink Group 11-16 (27 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 23 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 12-22 (13 DTC and 10 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 24 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 17-1 (24 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 27 from Vandenberg to 0840 LTDN sun-sync orbit.
Starlink Group 10-32 (27 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 28 from Kennedy.
Starlink Group 11-18 (27 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on May 31 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 12-19 (13 DTC and 10 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Jun 3 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 11-22 (27 Ku V2MO sats) was launched on Jun 4 from Vandenberg.
Other Falcon launches
---------------------
US Space Force GPS III space vehicle SV08 was launched on May 30 from Canaveral.
Kosmos-2588
------------
A Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat was launched on May 23 placing a satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry
in orbit. The satellite was given the cover name Kosmos-2588. The Soyuz third stage
reentered east of New Zealand at about 0921 UTC; the Fregat upper stage was deorbited south of Tasmania
at about 1230 UTC.
The satellite is thought to be an inspector satellite in the Nivelir series; it is in the same orbital
plane as the American spy satellite USA 338.
CALT launches
-------------
On May 28 CALT launched the Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission by CZ-3B from Xichang. TW-2 is expected to visit
469219) Kamo'oalewa in 2026. The CZ-3B third stage entered a 29.3 deg parking orbit and then reignited
to send TW-2 on an escape trajectory with a C3 of around 13.5 km2/s2.
SAST launches
-------------
On May 29 SAST launched a CZ-4B with the Shi Jian 26 optical remote sensing satellite, developed by
the Harbin Inst. of Technology.
Starship
---------
Starship Flight 9 was launched on May 27 using Booster 14 (on its second flight and Ship 35.
Launch was at about 2336:29 UTC.
Booster 14 completed its ascent burn and Ship hot-staged (ignited and then separated) at about T+2m40s,
with the booster successfully separated in a controlled direction for the first time.
The SpaceX webcast provided less info than previously but the booster likely reached an
apogee of about 95 km. It made a controlled descent towards the Gulf of Mexico but
reignition of the engines for the landing burn at about T+6m17s resulted in destruction of the
vehicle, for reasons that are not yet publicly known.
Ship completed a successful ascent on all 6 engines, with shutdown at
about T+9m0s in an orbit that I estimate as 5 x 189 km x 26.5 deg. I
can't quite get the height and velocity curves from the webcast to yield
a consistent orbit solution; the velocity values prefer a perigee of
around plus 5 km, the height values prefer more like minus 15 km, and this may serve
as an indication of the uncertainty range.
At T+17 min the payload bay door opening process began but was unsuccessful and the
door was resealed; the eight Starlink-3 simulators (dummy payloads) were not ejected.
At T+22 min the Ship's attitude began to oscillate notably and by T+26 min (0002 UTC May 28)
attitude control had been lost. According to a later statement by SpaceX this was due
to internal tank leaks; the problem may have begun not long after SECO.
The planned restart of a Raptor engine was cancelled
and by T+42m the vehicle was 'passivating', dumping its propellant. Ship 35
was destroyed on reentry, with loss of signal at 0023:18 UTC May 28 at an altitude
of 59 km.
Because of the marginal orbit I am assiging a 'U' series launch designation, 2025-U02. It will, as usual,
not get a Space-Force-assigned international designation.
I am categorizing the *launch* as a success since it reached the correct trajectory,
even though the *mission* failed due to problems following propulsion cutoff. Compare a conventional
launch of a satellite on a rocket in which the rocket worked fine and put the satellite in
the right orbit, but the satellite failed to operate. In Starship, as for Shuttle, a single
vehicle plays the role of both the upper stage and one of the payloads. Similarly, loss of the
booster on landing - as for a Falcon 9 mission - does not score against launch vehicle success;
it is a finanical hit on the launch service provider but doesn't impact successful delivery
of the payloads.
Electron
--------
Electron flight 65 on Jun 2 placed the second Gen3 BlackSky imaging satellite in orbit.
Hakuto-R M2
-----------
Reslience, the second iSpace (Japan) Hakuto-R lander, lowered its orbit around the Moon to 100 x 100 km
on May 28. On Jun 5 at about 1809 UTC it made a deorbit burn, but impacted the lunar surface at high
speed at 1915 UTC near the target landing side in Mare Frigoris (60.5N 4.6W).
Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
---------------------------------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
May 20 1150 Zhongxing-3B Chang Zheng 7A Wenchang LC201 Comms 106A 206 x 35799 x 15.5
May 21 0319 Starlink Group 12-15 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 107 283 x 291 x 43.0
May 21 0404? Taijing 3-04 Lijian-1 Jiuquan Imaging 108 517 x 537 x 97.5
Taijing 4-02A Radar 108
Xingrui-11 Imaging 108
Xingjiyuan-1 Imaging 108
Xiguang 1-02 Imaging 108
Lifang 108-011 Meteo 108
May 23 0836 Kosmos-2588 Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Inspector 109A 464 x 481 x 73.0
May 23 2232 Starlink Group 11-16 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 110 263 x 275 x 53.2
May 24 1719 Starlink Group 12-22 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 111 284 x 288 x 43.0
May 27 1657 Starlink Group 17-1 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 112 262 x 277 x 97.6
May 27 2336 Ship 35 (Flight 9) Starship Starbase OLP1 Test U02 5? x 189 x 26.5
May 28 1330 Starlink Group 10-32 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 113 262 x 273 x 53.2
May 28 1731 Tianwen-2 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Asteroid probe 114 200?x-75000? x 29.3
May 29 0412 Shi Jian 26 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Imaging 115 490 x 503 x 97.5
May 30 1738 GPS III SV08 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Nav 116 388 x 20222 x 55.0
May 31 2010 Starlink Group 11-18 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 117 263 x 268 x 53.1
Jun 2 2357 Global-32 Electron Mahia LC1B Imaging 118A 455 x 491 x 59.0
Jun 3 0443 Starlink Group 12-19 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 119 283 x 292 x 43.0
Jun 4 2340 Starlink Group 11-22 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 120
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------
Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-32 flew on May 31 with launch at 1339:18 UTC to apogee of 104.8 km.
Passengers Gretchen Green, Paul Jeris, Jesse Williams, Jaime Aleman
Healy, Aymette Medina Jorge and Mark Rocket (Mark Stephens) became space travellers 736 to 741.
The flight used the RSS First Step capsule (CC2.0-2) and booster PM4-4.
Date UT Payload Rocket Site Mission Apogee Target
May 21 0701 GT253 Minuteman 3 Vandenberg LF10 Op.Test 1300? Kwajalein
May 31 1339 NS-32 New Shepard W Texas Tourist 105 W Texas
.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| 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 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
|
