Jonathan's Space Report
No. 852 draft 2025 Dec 1 Somerville, MA, USA
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ISS
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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.
On Dec 2 the NRCSD-29 cubesats were deployed from the Kibo module.
On Dec 9 at 0141 UTC Soyuz MS-27 undocked from the Prichal module to return
astronauts Ryzhikov, Zubritskiy and Kim to Earth. The ship's descent module
landed in Kazakhstan at 0503 UTC.
Chinese Space Station
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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.
On Dec 9 Zhang Lu and Wu Fei made a spacewalk from the Wentian module in the new Feitian suits, D and E.
They inspected the damage to the Shenzhou-20 window and installed more debris panels on the station.
The hatch was open from 0228 to 1045 UTC.
Starlink launches
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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.
Starlink Group 15-10 (27 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 2 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-95 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 2 from Canaveral
Starlink Group 11-25 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 4 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 11-15 (28 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 7 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-92 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 8 from Kennedy.
Starlink Group 15-11 (27 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 10 from Vandenberg.
Starlink Group 6-90 (29 Ku sats) was launched on Dec 11 from Kennedy.
Transporter-15
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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.
Other Falcon 9 launches
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On Dec 9 SpaceX launched USA 590, an INTRUDER-class LEO signals intelligence satellite for the US
National Reconnaissance Office. The launch was designated NROL-77.
Rocket Lab launches
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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
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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.
On Dec 6 CALT launched a CZ-8A from Hainan Commercial, placing Weixing Hulianwang Digui 14 zu weixing
in orbit (9 sats).
On Dec 9 CALT launcnhed a CZ-3B from Xichang carrying the Tongxing Jishu Shiyan Weixing 22 (TJS 22)
military satellite to geotransfer orbit.
SAST launches
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On Dec 8 SAST launched a CZ-6A from Taiyuan, placing Weixing Hulianwang Digui 15 zu weixing (5 sats) in orbit.
On Dec 9 SAST launched a CZ-4B from Jiuquan, placing the Yaogan 47 military imaging sat in orbit.
On Dec 12 SAST launched a CZ-12 from Hainan Commercial, placing
Weixing Hulianwang Digui 16 zu weixing (9 sats) in orbit.
Chinese commercial launches
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The Chinese company Landspace launched the first test flight of its Zhuque-3 rocket,
a methalox Falcon 9 competitor. The first stage made a reentry burn and attempted a downrange
landing, but an explosion at engine re-ignition caused the vehicle to crash. The second stage
successfully reached orbit with a non-separating dummy payload.
EXPACE launched a Kuaizhou-1A on Dec 5 with two Jiaotong VDES satellites.
CAS Space launched a Lijian-1 (aka Kinetica-1) on Dec 10, placing a cluster of satellites in orbit:
UAE-813 for the UAE Space Agency, a 260 kg sat with a hyperspectral imaging payload; mission developed
by IMICAS and UAE University
SPNeX for the Egyptian Space Agency, a 6U cubesat with an ionospheric research payload;
Slippers2Sat for the Nepali organization APN, a 1U student cubesat;
Jilin-1 Gaofen 07B01, 07C01 and 07D01, imaging sats for Changguang Satellite;
Dongpo-15 for Meishan Huantian Smart Tech Co. Ltd.;
Yixian-A (R) for Sun Yat-Sen University, a 3U cubesat;
and Yuxing-2-09, owner not clear.
On Dec 12 at about 0642:04 UTC one of the satellites, tracked by the US
as object 67001, appears to have come dangerously close to Starlink
6079, as noted by Michael Nicholls of SpaceX. As pointed out by CAS
Space, two days after launch is beyond the window usually used for
predicting launch related risks. At this point SpaceX would normally us
Space Force tracking data to drive their vaunted collision avoidance
methodology, but perhaps the TLE data were not available soon enough for
this to happen. This emphasizes how much operators can be impacted by
the long delays in providing TLE data for newly launched missions.
EXPACE launched a Kuaizhou-11 on Dec 13 with the Dier-5 recoverable microgravity satellite for Ziwei Tech.
It also deployed CAST's Xi Wang 5 Phase 2, which is testing Earth observing technology and
apparently not an amateur radio satellite in the the existing Xi Wang series.
Angara
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On Nov 25 Russia launched an Angara-1.2 from Plesetsk. It placed three Rodnik military communications sats in orbit.
Nuri
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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
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Arianespace launched Vega-C VV28 on Dec 1 with Korea's Kompsat-7 high resolution imaging satellite.
Rocket Lab
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Rocket Lab launched Electron flight 77 on Dec 14 with JAXA's 110 kg RAISE technology test satellite.
SJ-21/25
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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.
USSF-51
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Two more secret payloads, USA 568 and USA 569, were deployed from one of the USSF-51 spacecraft (2024-134)
in near-GEO during late Nov.
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
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? USA 568 USSF-51, GSO Unknown 24134K
USA 569 Unknown 24134L
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 278 259 x 262 x 43.0
Dec 1 1721 Kompsat-7 Vega-C Kourou ELV Imaging 279A 565 x 578 x 97.6
Dec 2 0528 Starlink Group 15-10 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 280 260 x 265 x 70.0
Dec 2 0810 DUPLEX ISS, LEO Tech 98067
Dec 2 0820 ContentCube Tech 98067
RHOK-SAT ISS, LEO Tech 98067
SilverSat Tech 98067
CU-Alpha Tech 98067
Dec 2 0950 EagleSat-2 ISS, LEO Tech 98067
Foras Promineo Tech 98067
Dec 2 2218 Starlink Group 6-95 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 281 260 x 262 x 43.0
Dec 3 0400 Zhuque-3 Payload Zhuque-3 Jiuquan LC43/96B Test 282A 144 x 1287 x 57.0
Dec 4 2042 Starlink Group 11-25 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 283 258 x 259 x 53.2
Dec 5 0900 Jiaotong VDES A Kuaizhou-1A Jiuquan LC43/95A Comms 284A 503 x 514 x 80.4
Jiaotong VDES B Comms 284B 496 x 514 x 80.4
Dec 6 0753 WHWD 14 (SatNet LEO 14) Chang Zheng 8A Hainan CLS LC1 Comms 285 866 x 878 x 50.0
Dec 7 1758 Starlink Group 11-15 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 286 262 x 263 x 53.2
Dec 8 2211 WHWD 15 (SatNet LEO 15) Chang Zheng 6A Taiyuan Comms 287 995?x1006?x86.5
Dec 8 2226 Starlink Group 6-92 Falcon 9 Kennedy LC39A Comms 288 264 x 266 x 43.0
Dec 9 0341 Yaogan 47 Chang Zheng 4B Jiuquan Imaging 289A 492 x 496 x 97.5
Dec 9 1508 TJS 22 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Sigint? 290A 165 x 34517 x 28.5
Dec 9 1916 USA 590 (INTRUDER?) Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Sigint 291A 1008 x 1207 x 63.4
Dec 10 0403 UAE-513 Lijian-1 Jiuquan Imaging 292 543 x 562 x 97.7
Jilin-1 GF07B,C,D
Dongpo-15
Yuxing 2-09
Yixian-A
SPNeX
Slippers2Sat
Dec 10 1140 Starlink Group 15-11 Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Comms 293 260 x 265 x 70.0
Dec 11 2201 Starlink Group 6-90 Falcon 9 Canaveral LC40 Comms 294 262 x 273 x 43.0
Dec 11 2300 WHWD 16 (SatNet LEO 16) Chang Zheng 12 Hainan CLS LC2 Comms 295 796 x 811 x 50.0
Dec 13 0108 Dier-5 Kuaizhou-11 Jiuquan Micrograv 296A
Xi Wang 5-2 Comms? 296B
Dec 14 0309 RAISE-4 Electron Mahia LC1B Tech 297A
Table of Recent Suborbital Launches
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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
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| Jonathan McDowell | |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail |
| USA | twitter: @planet4589 |
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