Jonathan's Space Report
No. 858 draft 2026 Jul 1 Bromley, UK
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Note: have just got back from a trip and will update page over the weekend
Update:
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Construction on my new Space Library near London is finally proceeding.
Updates at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-jonathans-space-report-library-transition
Warning: TLE format expired (sort of)
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Space Force use US satellite catalog numbers 70000 to 99999 as temporary
identifiers for not-yet-identified objects. When the US satellite
catalog hit 69999, it then rolled over to 100000, skipping the space
reserved for temporary IDs. At this point the venerable 80-character
punch-card-heritage TLE format stopped working (there is an ugly
'Alpha-5' hack to use letters in the catalog numbers to buy another
few years or so, but you should avoid it). It is time to make sure that your
orbit software that ingests Space Force data is upgraded to use a newer
format - I recommend the JSON one.
The Alpha-5 hack is that the string A1744 in the catalog number
field of a TLE is to be interpreted as 101744, F2317 is to be interpreted
as 152317, and so on. Note that `A1744' is *not* the catalog number, and you
should not quote it as such - if you must use Alpha-5 data do the mapping
at I/O time and use the numerical catalog number elsewhere.
In the JSON GP data from Space-Track, the Alpha-5 hack is not used, the full
greater-than-100k catalog numerical catalog number is written explicitly. So it's
a better approach.
ISS
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Expedition 74 concluded at 0703 UTC Jul 26. Expedition 75, under the command
of Jessica Meir, is underway.
Progress MS-34 reboosted the ISS orbit with a 568s, 1.1m/s burn at 2039 UTC Jul 1.
On Jul 2 the Kibo RMS extracted NRCSD-30 from the JEM airlock, and the
NRCSD ejected six university cubesats: Proves-Alcyone (Columbia) and
Proves-Atlas (Northeastern) at 0850 UTC; HUCSat (Harvard) at 0900 UTC;
Coconut (ASU) and LeopardSat (Cincinnati) at 1030 UTC; Proves-Electra
(Santa Cruz) at 1140 UTC. (these deployment times are not yet confirmed).
Soyuz MS-29 was launched on Jul 14 carrying Petr Dubrov (Roskosmos), Anna Kikina (Roskosmos)
and Anil Menon (NASA). It docked with the Prichal module at 1752 UTC Jul 14.
Kud'-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams undocked Soyuz MS-28 from the Rassvet module
at 0703 UTC Jul 26. The deorbit burn was at 0931:57 UTC and Soyuz MS-28 landed
in Kazakhstan at about 1027:25 UTC.
Chinese Space Station
----------------------
On Jul 2 the CSS raised its orbit from 378 x 390 km to 392 x 396 km,
probably using the engines on the Tianzhou-10 cargo ship.
Starship
--------
Flight 13, with Super Heavy 20 and Ship 40, was carried out on Jul 24 at
2251 UTC. It was the second flight of the version 3 Starship. The
booster impacted the water in the Gulf of Mexico when not all required
engines ignited for the landing burn. Ship reached the target orbit,
around 8 x 195 km x 26.5 deg, deployed twenty Starlink V3 satellites,
and made a Raptor restart raising the orbit to around 43 x 217 km. Ship
reentered at 2338 UTC and, after a successful landing burn, splashed
down intact in the Indian Ocean at 2356 UTC, continuing to return telemetry
as it floated in the ocean.
Megaconstellation launches
--------------------------
Starlink Group 17-46 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 2 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg
Amazon Leo LA08 (29 sats) was launched on Jul 2 from Canaveral on ULA Atlas V 551 flight AV-114.
Starlink Group 10-50 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 5 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 10-42 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 9 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 15-14 (27 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 14 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 10-45 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 14 by Falcon 9 from Canaveral.
Starlink Group 17-39 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 21 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 17-51 (24 Ku sats) was launched on Jul 25 by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
Transporter 17
---------------
On Jul 7 the Transporter 17 rideshare mission was launched by Falcon 9 from Vandenberg.
After deploying rideshare payloads in a 600 km orbit, the Korean CAS500-4 was delivered to a 900 km orbit.
The rideshare payloads were:
Imaging: Cuby 1 to 5 (Germany), TOM-1 to 3 (Germany), N2-P-BODY (US), CloudCT-Precursor (Israel),
Balkan-3 (Bulgaria), Hyperion GR1 (Greece), Posidonia (Balaeric Islands),
Pelican-11 (US), GRUS-3 x 7 (Japan), Firesat x 3 (US), EDC-08 (US), Mikroglob-1 (Poland)
Radar: ICEYE x 4 (Finland)
Remote sensing/Climate: GHGSat-C-16 and 17 (Canada)
Space weather: SENTINEL 1 (Germany), SCION-X (Taiwan), MAVERIC (US)
Tritium battery test: Bohr (US)
Military prox ops tests: SPEAR-1A/B/C (US), Flashpoint-1,2 (US)
Technology and student experiments: SUCHAI-4 (Chile), KOYO (Taiwan), Cybercube (ESA), Marmotsat (Canada),
Kostka (Czechia), Marina (Slovakia), Replicator-2 (Poland) R5-S9 (US)
Comms: IPOS (US), Centauri 9 (Australia), FossaSat 2E-26 (Spain), Kita x 2 (US)
Comms/GNSS-RO: Lemur-2 x 5 (US?)
RF monitoring: Deloitte 4 to 6 (US), BRO-31 (France)
Navigation: Leonav (UAE), ET-001 to -004 (US), RAFS Cubesat (Turkey)
Astronomy: GRITSS (US)
Hosted payload buses and tugs: Oasis-Alpha (Austria); ION SCV-023 (Italy), Nova-1 (US)
Navigator (US), LA3 (US)
Three LusoSpace (Portugal) maritime monitoring cubesats were carried on ION.
Other F9 flights
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On Jul 16 SpaceX launched an F9 with the T1TL-E mission of 21 York Space
Systems comms sats for the US Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer.
On Jul 21 SpaceX launched an F9 with the Mission Robotic Vehicle, a 3000 kg Northrop Grumman /
Space Logistics Services spacecraft with a pair of robotic arms, and three Mission Extension Pods
with a mass of 400 to 500 kg. The MRV will install the MEPs on geostationary satellites to extend
their operational lives.
SAST launches
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On Jul 1 SAST launched a CZ-4B with the HY2-05 oceanographic satellite to a 937 x 958 km sun sync orbit.
At about 0018 UTC Jul 2 the CZ-4B upper stage made a perigee lowering burn to 649 x 934 km.
On Jul 4 SAST/CGWIC launched a CZ-6A with the Group 13 cluster of Qianfan internet satellites.
CALT launches
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On Jul 5 CALT/CASC Commercial Rocket launched an upgraded CZ-8A from Hainan with twenty Qianfan satellites (Group 15).
On Jul 10 CALT launched the first CZ-10B from Hainan, placing a test payload, SECM's CX-26, in orbit.
The CZ-10B kerolox first stage successfully landed on a downrange barge equipped with a tower containing
an arrestor cable net. The second stage of CZ-10B is methalox, making this the first methane/kerosene combination
vehicle to reach orbit.
On Jul 23 CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang, placing the TL2-06 data relay satellite in geotransfer orbit.
Chinese commercial launches
----------------------------
On Jul 22 Orienspace launched a Yinli-1 from the Dongfang Hangtiangang barge at a new location
in the East China Sea near 122.7E 31.2N. The rocket placed into an 1100 LTDN sun-synch orbit:
Dongpo 13 and 14, imaging sats for Huantian Zhihui
Dongpo 17 to 20, radar sats for Huantian Zhihui
Tianyi 49 (Beiyou-4), a technology sat from Tianyi for the Beijing Univ of Posts and Telecoms.
Xiguang-2-01, a Xiguang imaging sat.
Zidingxiang-3 (Kaiyun-3), a 30 kg disk-shaped technology sat from Harbin Inst. of Tech.
On Jul 23 CAS Space launched a Lijian-1 from Jiuquan to 0600 LTDN sun-synch orbit.
Payloads were:
Yinglong Fengguang-1, a commercial weather satellite
Zhonghang Hongwai 1, a commercial infrared weather satellite (also called Xiguang 2-03)
Tianyi-48 (Chenguang-1), a technology satellite for orbital data center tech development
Gande 1-01, a space debris tracking sat for Aotian Tech;
Jitianxing A-04, testing an AI computing system for imaging satellites.
LINK
-----
On Jul 3 the L-1011 Stargazer aircraft N140SC took off from Kwajalein runway 06/24 at 0739 UTC
and at 0836 UTC dropped its cargo, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket, over about 166W 7N.
The three-stage Pegasus delivered the 430 kg NASA/Katalyst Space LINK spacecraft to low orbit.
LINK's mission is to rendezvous and dock with NASA's SWIFT space observatory and boost it
to a higher orbit.
Vikram
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India's Skyroot Aerospace launched the first Vikram-1 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota
on Jul 18. The rocket has three solid stages and a liquid-prop fourth stage. Despite an apparent
near-recontact after stage 3/stage 4 separation, the vehicle reached orbit successfully and deployed two cubesats.
Rassvet
--------
On Jul 19 Russia lauched a Soyuz from Plesetsk with the second batch of 16 Rassvet-3
commercial communication sats for Byuro 1440. The launch time was not announced, but
propagating back Space Force tracking data issued some days later, the time was around 1750 UTC.
Asteroids
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On Jul 4 China's Tianwen-2 probe matched orbit with (469219) Kamo'oelawa at a distance of about
20 km, in preparation for a sample return attempt.
On Jul 5 at 0930 UTC Japan's Hayabusa-2 flew past (98943) Torifune at a distance of about 1 km.
Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes
Jun 28 1609 Starlink Group 17-40 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 147 255 x 265 x 97.3
Jun 29 0225 SXM-11 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 148A 219 x 19617 x 27.0
Jul 1 2346 Haiyang 2-05 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Rem.Sen. 149A 928 x 946 x 99.3
Jul 2 0258 Starlink Group 17-46 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 150 255 x 271 x 97.3
Jul 2 0430 Amazon Leo LA-08 Atlas V 551 Canaveral LC41 Comms 151 450 x 465 x 51.9
Jul 2 0850 Proves-Alcyone ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Proves-Atlas Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 0900 HUCSAT ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 1030 LeopardSat ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Coconut Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 2 1140 Proves-Electra ISS, LEO Tech 98067 410 x 422 x 51.6
Jul 3 0836 LINK Pegasus L-1011, Pacific Tech 152A 362 x 393 x 20.6
Jul 4 0930 Qianfan Group 13 Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 153 797 x 808 x 88.9
Jul 5 1050 Starlink Group 10-50 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 154 240 x 250 x 53.2
Jul 5 1343 Qianfan Group 15 Chang Zheng 8A Hainan LC1 Comms 155 780 x 824 x 89.0
Jul 7 0712 Transporter 17 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Rideshare 156 590 x 598 x 97.8
CAS500-4 Imaging 156 884 x 897 x 99.0
Jul 9 0925 Starlink Group 10-42 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 157 244 x 255 x 53.2
Jul 10 0415 CX-26 Chang Zheng 10B Hainan LC2 Tech 158 804 x 812 x 50.0
Jul 11 0300 Starlink Group 17-48 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 159 254 x 267 x 97.3
Jul ? Saramago ION, LEO Comms 67CY 500 x 508 x 97.5
Jul 14 0128 Starlink Group 15-14 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 160 245 x 259 x 70.0
Jul 14 0910 Starlink Group 10-45 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 161 238 x 251 x 53.2
Jul 14 1447 Soyuz MS-29 Soyuz-2-1A Baykonur LC31 Spaceship 162A 415 x 424 x 51.6
Jul 16 1300? Pessoa ION, LEO Comms 7CZ 504 x 512 x 97.4
Jul 16 2032 Praetorian SDA 501 to 521 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 163 933 x 954 x 81.4
Jul 18 0635 Solaras-S3 Vikram-1 Satish Dhawan FLP Tech 164A 440 x 453 x 59.9
SCOPE Tech 164B 442 x 451 x 59.9
Jul 19 1750? Rassvet-3 Group 2 Soyuz-2-1B Plesetsk Comms 165 288 x 325 x 82.3
Jul 21 1449 Starlink Group 17-39 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 166 266 x 268 x 97.2
Jul 21 2115 MRV-1 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Servicing 167 308 x 44764 x 25.6
MEP 1 to 3 Servicing 167 309 x 44811 x 25.6
Jul 22 0254 Dongpo-13 Yinli-1 DFHT, East China Sea Imaging 168 524 x 550 x 97.5
Dongpo-14 Imaging 168
Dongpo-17 Radar 168
Dongpo-18 Radar 168
Dongpo-19 Radar 168
Dongpo-20 Radar 168
Beiyou-4 Imaging 168
Xiguang 2-01 Imaging 168
Zidingxiang-03 Tech 168
Jul 23 1200 Tianlian 2-06 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comms 169 215 x 35183 x 27.0
Jul 23 2333 Yinglong Fengguang 1 Met 170 532 x 555 x 97.5
Jitianxing A-04 Tech 170
Xiguang 2-03 Met 170
Gande 1-01 SSA 170
Tianyi-48 Tech 170
Jul 24 2251 Ship 40 Starship Starbase OLP2 Test U04 8 x 195 x 26.5
Starlink V3 1 to 20 Comms U04 8 x 195 x 26.5
Jul 25 1551 Starlink Group 17-51 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 171 256 x 271 x 97.3
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target
Jun 24 0930 Rocksat/RockOn Terrier I.Mal. Wallops Student 119? Atlantic
Jun 26 1711 SHORTSTOP Castor IVBXL Wallops Hypersonic? 300? Atlantic
Jul 6 0401 RV JL-2 Type 094 Sub?,S Ch.Sea Test 1000? Pacific
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Bromley, UK | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| | twitter: @planet4589 |
| |
| JSR: https://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html |
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| JSR is currently no longer available by email |
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