Jonathan's Space Report No. 800 2021 Nov 28 Somerville, MA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Expedition 66 continues. On Nov 17 Dextre moved the STP-H6 experiment from Express Logistics Carrier 3 and attached it to the exterior of the Cygnus NG-16 cargo ship for disposal. On Nov 20 at 1340 UTC Canadarm-2 unberthed the Cygnus, S.S. Ellison Onizuka, from the Unity nadir port and released it into orbit at 1601 UTC. As of Nov 26 the Onizuka remained in a 456 x 464 km x 51.6 deg orbit. On Nov 24 Russia launched the Uzlovoy Modul' (UM No. 1L, the `node module'), named `Prichal'. Prichal has a mass of 4650 kg including about 580 kg of cargo. It is attached to a modified Progress, Progress M-UM No. 303, which has the normal Progress/Soyuz propulsion section and an adapter docked to Prichal. The UM/Progress vehicle docked with Nauka SSVP-M port at 1519 UTC on Nov 26. The Progress will undock later to expose the UM's main docking port. Progress MS-17 undocked again from Nauka at 1122 UTC Nov 25, this time taking the SSVP adapter with it, exposing the SSVP-M docking adapter designed for module dockings. The cargo ship was deorbited over the Pacific with debris impact on the ocean at 1517 UTC. Russian ASAT test ------------------ On Nov 15 at about 0245 UTC Russia launched a Nudol' suborbital antisatellite missile from Plesetsk. The missile intercepted the defunct Soviet satellite Ikar No. 39L (codename Kosmos-1408) a few minutes later, possibly at 0250 UTC over about 60E 75N. Kosmos-1408 was in a 465 x 490 km x 82.6 deg orbit at the time. The intercept occurred at a height of 468 km above the Earth ellipsoid (486 km above the fictive 6378 km spherical Earth used for orbit parameters). The International Space Station passes through resulting debris cloud every 93 minutes, and the crew were instructed to take safety preparations including closing hatches and being ready for evacuation if needed. As of this writing, however, there is no evidence of any debris hits from the cloud on ISS. CERES ----- On Nov 16 Arianespace launched Vega VV20 from the Centre Spatial Guyanais. The AVUM upper stage deployed three CERES electronic intelligence satellites operated by the French space agency CNES on behalf of the French defense agency DGA. Electron --------- Electron flight 22 placed two BlackSky Global imaging satellites in orbit. The first stage was lowered to the ocean by parachute; the third stage made a perigee lowering burn to reduce its orbital lifetime.