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Jonathan's Space Report
No. 852 draft                                                   2025 Dec  1  Somerville, MA, USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: Updates will be sparse or absent while I am on travel Dec 1 - Dec 10.

ISS
----

Expedition 73 continues.

On Nov 25 the Canadarm-2 robot arm unberthed Cygnus NG-23, holding it away from ISS to provide
clearance for an upcoming Soyuz docking.

On Nov 27 Soyuz MS-28 was launched from Baykonur pad 31/6 carrying astronauts
Kud'-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams. Soyuz MS-28 docked with the ISS
Rassvet module at 1234 UTC. Pad 31/6 was seriously damaged during the launch; a service
structure broke off and fell into the flame trench. This is likely to significantly
postpone future Soyuz-MS and Progress-MS launches.

Chinese Space Station
---------------------

Shenzhou 22 was launched on 2025 Nov 25, to provide a new ferry ship
to the CSS after Shenzhou 20 was declared suspect. It docked at the Tianhe
forward port at 0750 UTC Nov 25.

Starlink launches
------------------

Starlink Group 6-78 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Nov 21 from Kennedy.
Starlink Group 6-79 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Nov 22 from Canaveral.  
Starlink Group 11-30 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Nov 23 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-86 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 1 from Kennedy.

Transporter-15
---------------

At 1844 UTC Nov 28, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg with the Transporter-15 rideshare mission.
It deployed over a hundred payloads in a 511 x 514 km orbit, then manuvered to a 562 x 591 km orbit
to release Taiwan's Formosat-8A. The second stage then performed a deorbit burn, and NASA's R5-S7
payload separated from it on a suborbital trajectory.

Rocket Lab launches
--------------------

On Nov 20 Rocket Lab launched an Electron from Mahia with a secret commercial payload,
later revealed to be the third BlackSky Gen3 imaging satellite. It was placed in a 42 deg
orbit.

CALT launches
-------------

On Nov 21 CALT launched a CZ-3B from Xichang with the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan 21 satellite.
TJS is a cover name for several unrelated series of military geostationary and elliptica orbit satellites.
This one appears to be a successor to TJS 13, in Molniya orbit.

On Nov 30 CALT launched a CZ-7A from Wenchang. It placed the SJ-28 sat in geotransfer orbit.

Angara
------

On Nov 25 Russia launched an Angara-1.2 from Plesetsk. It placed three Rodnik military communications sats in orbit.

Nuri
----

On Nov 26 South Korea launched the fourth Nuri rocket from the Naro Space Centre,
placing the CAS-500-3 satellite and twelve cubesats in orbit.

VV28
-----

Arianespace launched Vega-C VV28 on Dec 1 with Korea's Kompsat-7.

SJ-21/25
--------

Andrew Jones reported in Space News on Nov 30 that the SJ-21 and SJ-25 satellites have separated,
following their refuelling experiment. TLEs suggest that the undocking occurred around Nov 24.


Table of Recent Orbital (and near-Orbital) Launches
---------------------------------------------------

Date UT       Name			          Launch Vehicle	 Site		 Mission  INTL.  Catalog  Perigee Apogee  Incl	 Notes

Nov 13 2055   ESCAPADE Blue                            New Glenn        Canaveral LC36  Mars probe 260A  200 x 3970000 x 29.5
              ESCAPADE Gold                                                             Mars probe 260B  200 x 3970000 x 29.5
Nov 14 0304   Viasat-3F2                               Atlas V 551        Canaveral LC41   Comms   261A  12251 x 23673 x 6.0
Nov 15 0308   Starlink Group 6-89                      Falcon 9           Kennedy LC39A    Comms   262    257 x 267 x 43.0
Nov 15 0644   Starlink Group 6-85                      Falcon 9           Canaveral LC40   Comms   263    258 x 267 x 43.0
Nov 17 0521   Sentinel-6B                              Falcon 9           Vandenberg SLC4E EO Sci  264   1308 x 1327 x 66.0
Nov 19 0012   Starlink Group 6-94                      Falcon 9           Canaveral LC40   Comms   265    261 x 270 x 43.0
Nov 19 0401   Shi Jian 30A/30B/30C                     Chang Zheng 2C     Jiuquan          Tech    266    511 x 528 x 51.8
Nov 20 1243   BlackSky Global-33?                      Electron           Mahia LC1A       Imaging 267    468 x 477 x 42.0
Nov 21 0339   Starlink Group 6-78                      Falcon 9           Kennedy LC39A    Comms   268    263 x 272 x 43.0
Nov 21 1055   TJS 21                                   Chang Zheng 3B     Xichang LC2      Sigint? 269A  206 x 40083 x 51.1
Nov 22 0753   Starlink Group 6-79                      Falcon 9           Canaveral LC40   Comms   270  263 x 272 x 43.0
Nov 23 0848   Starlink Group 11-30                     Falcon 9           Vandenberg SLC4E Comms   271  256 x 268 x 53.2
Nov 25 0411   Shenzhou 22                              Chang Zheng 2F     Jiuquan        Spaceship 272A 374 x 385 x 41.5
Nov 25 1342   Kosmos-2597/98/99?                       Angara-1.2         Plesets          Comms   273  1491 x 1504 x 82.5
Nov 26 1613   CAS500-3                                 Nuri               Naro             Tech    274    582 x 598 x 97.7
              E3-TESTER-1                                                                  Tech    274
              Bicheon                                                                    Micrograv 274
              Sejong-4
              ETRISat
              COSMIC
              JACK-003
              JACK-004
              PERSAT01
              Hana/Duri
              INHA-RoSAT
              K-HERO
              SPIRONE
Nov 27 0927   Soyuz MS-28                              Soyuz-2-1a         Baykonur LC31      Spaceship 275A 416 x 422 x 51.6
Nov 28 1844   Transporter-15                           Falcon 9           Vandenberg SLC4E   Rideshare 276  512 x 514 x 97.4
              Formosat-8A                                                                    Imaging   276  562 x 591 x 97.6
              R5-S7                                                                          Tech      276  -79?x 568 x 97.6
Nov 30 1220   Shi Jian 28                              Chang Zheng 7A     Wenchang LC201     Tech?     277A 204 x 35806 x 14.4
Dec  1 0744   Starlink Group 6-86                      Falcon 9           Kennedy LC39A      Comms    278  
Dec  1 1721   Kompsat-7                                Vega-C             Kourou ELV         Imaging  279A

Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
-----------------------------------

Nov  5 0935   Mk 12/21 RV?      Minuteman 3         Vandenberg LF09/10?  Op. Test       1300?    Kwajalein
Nov  7 0335   RV                Hwasong-7?          Taegwan,N Korea      Test            200?    Sea of Japan
Nov 12 0405   MAPHEUS 16        Red Kite/Red Kite   Kiruna               Microgravity    267     ESRANGE
Nov 18 1300   VAN               HASTE               Wallops LA0C         Hypersonic      200?    Atlantic
Nov 18 1006   GHOST             Terrier I.Malemute  Andoya               Atmos.          268     Norwegian Sea
Nov 19 1400   SL-18             SpaceLoft-XL        Spaceport America    Micrograv       116     White Sands? 
Nov 23 0952   RENU 3            Oriole IV           Andoya               Atmos.          470     Norwegian Sea

.-------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|  Jonathan McDowell                 |                                    |
|  Somerville MA 02143               |  inter : planet4589 at gmail       |
|  USA                               |  twitter: @planet4589              |
|                                                                         |
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