Only 30 of 90 Cataloged Transporter 16 Payloads Identified
I believe 95 payloads were meant to be deployed from SpaceX's Transporter 16 rideshare. 90 have been cataloged to date, and with some ID'd by radio amateurs and the first IDs on Space-Track, 30 are now identified.
Firefly Launch Objects Possibly Misidentified by SpaceTrack
The last Firefly launch put one object (A) in a 222 x 366 km orbit, and one (B) in 390 x 408 km. B's still in orbit, A just reentered. SpaceTrack say A was the @LockheedMartin Martin...
GPS III SV10 Enters 388×20201 Km Transfer Orbit
GPS III SV10 tracked in a 388 x 20201 km x 55.0 deg transfer orbit following successful launch on Falcon 9 from Canaveral at 0653 UTC
Possible BlueBird 7 Reentry Video, Timing Discrepancy Noted
The following video by @MvCrisis was reportedly taken in the Maldives at 0355-0400 UTC Apr 20. It's possible it shows the @AST_SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 reentry, although the SpaceForce TLE says this time was 25 min too early to be BB7,...
Progress MS-32 Undocks, Set for South Pacific Reentry
The Progress MS-32 cargo ship undocked from the aft port on Zvezda at 2208 UTC Apr 20. The deorbit burn was due to occur at 0114 UTC Apr 21 with reentry expected over the S Pacific at 0205 UTC.
Low‑Thrust BE‑3U May Extend
Question for those more expert on rocket engines than me: if the BE-3U fires at low thrust, does the stage try to fire longer to compensate? How plausible that it fired the normal amount and had prop left over for...
Space Force Confirms BlueBird 7 Reentry on April 20
DEORBIT - Space Force just issued a decay notice for BlueBird 7, saying it reentered on Apr 20 (with no further details)
Space Force Releases Likely Bogus BB7 Search Orbit Data
Well this is REALLY WEIRD. Space Force just issued another BB7 orbit with an epoch of 1235 UTC yesterday and a nominal orbit of 455 x 462 km x 49.5 deg. I suspect this orbit is BOGUS and is a...
BlueBird-7’s Orbit Shows only Half Required Δv
A second orbit dataset from SpaceForce for the BlueBird-7 sat shows it in a 265 x 485 km x 43.0 deg orbit, indicating that the upper stage delivered about 1000 m/s, mostly changing orbital inclination. This is about half the...
China's Daqi‑2 and Qianfan‑07 Meet Planned Orbits
China's Daqi-2 satellite cataloged in a 682 x 689 km x 98.3 deg orbit in 1025 LTDN orbit plane. The Qianfan 07 orbits are now out, showing 800 x 820 km x 89.0 deg deployment orbits as expected.
Space Force Tracks Blue Origin Launch’s Precarious Orbit
The @BlueOrigin @AST_SpaceMobile launch has been tracked by Space Force as catalog 68765, 2026-85A, in a 154 x 494 km x 36.1 deg orbit. Epoch is 1138 UTC which is the time of SECO-1, so this may not be the...
SECO-1 Orbit Estimated Between 116×420 Km And
Best estimate for the SECO-1 orbit given the slow observed decrease in altitude in the webcast is somewhere in the range of 164 x 380 km to 116 x 420km, depending on flight path angle at cutoff which was somewhere...
Insufficient Data, but Webcast Velocity
Unfortunately there's not enough data on Blue's webcast to derive a SECO-1 orbit, but it may have been fine - the velocity on the screen is in the rotating Earth frame and seems reasonable, for those worried it was too...
New Glenn Launch Undershoots Orbit, Data Pending
LAUNCH at 1125 UTC Apr 19 of New Glenn flight 3 with AST SpaceMobile-007 from Canaveral. Second stage underperformance and lower than planned final orbit, but still waiting for Space Force tracking data for details
Chinese Astronauts Conduct 5‑hour Spacewalk on April 16
Astronauts Zhang L. and Wu F. made a spacewalk from the Chinese Space Station on Apr 16 from about 1206 UTC to 1736 UTC
CZ-4C Launches Daqi-2 Atmospheric Satellite From Jiuquan
LAUNCH at 0410 UTC Apr 17 of a CZ-4C from Jiuquan with the Daqi-2 atmospheric research satellite
Soyuz-2-1b Launches Kosmos Satellites Into 457×547 Km Orbit
LAUNCH at about 2318 UTC Apr 16 of one or more Kosmos satellites by Soyuz-2-1b from Plesetsk to a 457 x 547 km x 98.3 deg orbit (h/t @Dillonshrop06 )
Transporter 6 TLE Data Released; Qian
TLE orbit data now out for the Transporter 6 launch (Mar 30); nothing yet for last week's Qianfan launch.
Starlink Failure Creates Uncatalogued Debris, Orbit Now Decaying
Starlink 34343 failed on Mar 29 in a fatal energetic event which raised its apogee by 30 km and generated observed (but so far uncataloged) debris. Since then the orbit has undergone natural decay. Current orbit is...
Precise Data Shows CSS Farther From Artemis than ISS
A more precise calculation gives a max CSS-Artemis distance as 419643 km at 2220:08 UTC; max ISS-Artemis was 419581 km at 2222:05 UTC. My earlier calculation neglected a coordinate frame precession between the Artemis and ISS/CSS data...
Artemis–Chinese Space Station Distance Might Exceed Estimates
Oh, but wait.... A preliminary check suggests the Artemis- Chinese Space Station max distance may be even larger. I'll have to do a more careful analysis
Ukraine’s Yuzhnoe Previously Built Massive Solid Rocket Boosters
Very interesting. Do we know anything about these rocket boosters? They are new to me. Ukraine's Yuzhnoe did build the RT-23 and R-39 solid missiles (2.4m dia) in the Soviet era.
Artemis 2 Set Record: 413,145 Km From Earth
Artemis 2 was the furthest human voyage from Earth. Per the final JPL Horizons trajectory I estimate the max distance from the geocenter was 413145 km at 2304 UTC Apr 6 (about 4 km less and 1...
Heat Shield Fine Despite White Discoloration, Says Jared
Jared clarifies the status of the heat shield; some observers were concerned by an area of white discoloration but it's no big deal.
Falcon 9 Lifts ISS Cargo as China Readies Jielong‑3 Launch
LAUNCH at 1141 UTC Apr 11 of a Falcon 9 from Canaveral with the ISS Cygnus NG-24 cargo ship SS Steven R. Nagel. Also waiting to confirm LAUNCH at 1133 UTC of a Jielong-3 from the Yanjiang area in the South...
Starlink Group 17‑21 Launches From Vandenberg at 0504 UTC
LAUNCH at 0504 UTC Apr 11 of Starlink Group 17-21 from Vandenberg Space Force Base
Only One Artemis II CubeSat Achieved Orbit Boost, Others Failed
Three of the four Artemis II cubesats were meant to fire propulsion systems to raise perigee and stay in orbit. Only one (Saudi Arabia's SWC-1) managed to do so; TACHELES and K-RadCube reentered at first perigee.
NASA Celebrates Flawless, Triumphant Mission Success
Warmest congratulations to the entire @NASA family for an outstandingly successful and perfectly executed mission.
Capsule Lands Right-Side-Up: Stable One Confirmed
Glad to see the capsule is "Stable One". (There are two stable positions for a capsule after splashdown. "Stable Two" is NASA speak for "upside down".)
Command Module Executes 3 M/S Raise
Integrity CM 3m/s raise burn using the small thrusters on the command module to ensure good distance from the abandoned service module
US Space Force Launches STP‑S29A on Minotaur IV
LAUNCH of the US Space Force STP-S29A mission on a Minotaur IV from Vandenberg at 1133 UTC Apr 7
China’s CZ‑8 Lifts Qian
LAUNCH at 1332 UTC Apr 7 of a Chang Zheng 8 from Hainan with batch 7 of the commercial Qianfan internet satellite system - the first Qianfan launch since Oct 2025
Tianshi‑1 Deployment Near 66A Raises Orbital Ambiguity
China's Tianshi-1 appears to have been deployed from the Xinzhengcheng-02 parent satellite; object 66D was cataloged, but has TLEs that put it stationkeeping within 1 km of 66A. More data needed for clarity.
Moon‑
In a frame moving with the center of the Moon, the little loop goes away and is replaced by a hyperbola. Cyan dot is the sphere of the moon to scale, dashed line is the lunar sphere of influence....
Artemis 2’s Flight Path Overlaid on Moon’s Orbit
Here's the Artemis 2 trajectory in a geocentric inertial frame projected onto the equatorial plane. The cyan track shows the motion of the moon during the mission. https://t.co/deCYMUyDal
Integrity Exits Moon's Gravity, Heading Back Earth
Integrity has now passed lunar closest approach and is climbing uphill in the lunar gravity field. In about 18 hours it will leave the lunar gravitational sphere of influence and start falling back towards Earth.
Artemis Reaches 6,544 Km Perilune, 413,146 Km
At 2302 TDB (2300 UTC) Artemis will reach a perilune of about 6544 km altitude. Four minutes later it will reach a maximum distance to the geocenter of 413146 km. [Blue: geodistance; Red: height above moon; Magenta: geocent radial...
Integrity Spacecraft Reaches Lunar Orbit; 25‑28th Humans Depart Earth
The Integrity spacecraft just entered the lunar gravitational sphere of influence, at 0438 UTC Apr 6. Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen are now the 25th to 28th humans to have left terrestrial space.
Artemis Escapes Moon Thanks to Sufficient Escape Velocity
Good question in the press conf: once it's in the grip of lunar gravity how come Artemis gets out again later? Because it has escape velocity relative to the Moon. The Moon is dominating its motion, but it's going...
Satellite Lifetime Drops Sharply With Altitude, Study Shows
Today's calculation: how long does a satellite in a circular orbit stay up when it stops all reboost burns? Depends on a lot of things, especially solar activity, but let's average over all of that and do a Kaplan-Meier analysis...
Artemis II Cubesats Tracked; ATENEA Likely Re
The Artemis II cubesats TACHELES, SWC-1 and K-RADCUBE have now been identified on Space-Track. ATENEA was not cataloged+was expected to have reentered at 1st perigee since it had no propulsion to raise its orbit. K-RAD may also have...
Space Force Confirms Meridian-M Launched Into Expected Molniya Orbit
Space Force orbit data show the Meridian-M satellite launched yesterday in a 996 x 39714 km x 62.8 deg 'Molniya' orbit as expected
NYT's Shocking Decline: How the Gray Lady Fell
Incredible .... how the Gray Lady has fallen. How did this get as far as print @nytimes ?
Three Artemis‑II Cubesats Show Successful Perigee‑Raise Burn
Three of the four Artemis-II cubesats have now been cataloged; orbits are 149 x 70247 km, 492 x 70228 km, and 61 x 70276 km. Suggests at least one made a successful perigee raising burn, but waiting for more data...
Soyuz-2-1a Launch From Plesetsk Carries Meridian Satellite
LAUNCH at 0628 UTC of a Soyuz-class rocket from Plesetsk. Suspected to be a Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat with a Meridian military comms satellite, but we'll have to wait for Space Force tracking to confirm that.
Tianlong-3 Launch Unconfirmed Amid Failure Speculation
LAUNCH of Tianlong-3 from Jiuquan at about 0417 UTC. Speculation it has failed but no official info yet.
Integrity Crew Shatters Isaacman 1400 Km Record 13 Minutes Post‑launch
Per a question asked in the presser, Integrity's crew broke the Isaacman height record of 1400 km at 2306 UTC Apr 1, a mere 13 minutes after launch.
Artemis II Begins TLI Burn, Reaching Lunar Distance
The Artemis II Integrity spacecraft is now coasting downwards and will reach perigee of about 195 km late on Apr 2. At 2349:50 UTC it will make the TLI (Trans-Lunar Injection) burn, a 388 m/s burn lasting 5m51s to raise...
Artemis 2 to Raise Perigee, Reaching 191×70,133 Km Orbit
Next major Artemis 2 milestone is a perigee-raise rocket burn carried out at 1130 UTC, near apogee. Resulting orbit will be around 191 x 70133 km.
Seventeenth Rassvet‑3 Debris Cataloged, Upper Stage Still Unidentified
A 17th object has been cataloged associated with the Rassvet-3 launch. Not yet clear which of the 17 objects is the Soyuz upper stage.