Orbital Focus
@OrbitalFocus
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For those genuinely interested in the finer points of new launches & activities on orbit. Curated by Robert Christy. BlueSky: (at)https://t.co/f3yTMZ8CHm
United Kingdom
Joined May 2022
NRO Launches Payload descriptions and some orbit details available for recent launches L-192 https://t.co/mErn1Jo4wV L-174 https://t.co/dHbTBl18Dm
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Mission Update Chinese Space Station The small sat released on Apr 7 (63523, 2021-035E) made a thruster firing Apr 16 with no significant effect on orbit height Behaviour is similar to 62300/035D that was in orbit between 2024 Dec 7 and 2025 Apr 7 https://t.co/Tq4y3G9qcT
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Mission Update Chinese Space Station Released a small object on Apr 7 (63523, 2021-035E) https://t.co/crdEtnouSI May be similar to 62300/035D released 2024 Dec 7 - it re-entered the same day the new item appeared (Space-Track re-entry date of April 10 is incorrect)
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Mission Update MEV 1 (44625, 2019-067B) Northrop Grumman completed contract to provide 5 yrs support to Intelsat 901 Moved to graveyard orbit Mar 31 to release Intelsat Will return to GEO to take over station keeping and pointing of another Intelsat https://t.co/2Uxb6dscXS
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Mission Update Cosmos 2581 etc 2025-026C, one of the two parts of Cosmos 2583, made a very small thruster firing earlier today Effect on orbit height was insignificant 026A & 026B continue to orbit together within a couple of hundred metres of each other
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Launch Advisory 4x second generation internet connectivity test satellites Apr 1, 04:00 UTC CZ 2D Jiuquan SC 450 km orbit, lower than the 1000 km of earlier (presumably gen 1) missions https://t.co/MyBNunnb8S
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Mission Update Cosmos 2581 etc 026A & B still orbiting in tandem, with B a few metres ahead and doing the station keeping 026C & D are 3000+ km ahead with no orbit changes since separating from each other, not obvious if both are operational satellites https://t.co/Z9PzgtFnr2
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Mission Update Shijian 25 China's satellite servicing vehicle has been sitting at 120° east since launch in January https://t.co/ySHMJ7eK80 Potential client, Shijian 21, continues slow eastward drift, currently near 143° east https://t.co/zYlNayNokp Could there be a problem?
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Mission Update USA 498 Payload on the Falcon 9 launch on Mar 24 The amateur observing community is now tracking it in an orbit close to my initial estimate, see the comparison: https://t.co/fvdr50W1Wh
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Mission Update USA 498 NRO L-69 mission Space-Track has catalogued a single satellite Estimated orbit added to the Orbital Focus table based on timing of visual observations of the Falcon 9 from Europe and the location of the Falcon 9 re-entry zone https://t.co/fvdr50WzLP
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Visual sightings from Europe at ~20:00 UTC of propellant venting after re-entry firing of Falcon 9 Confirms near 65° inclination and demise of F9 above southern Indian Ocean ~20:50 UTC Also suggests orbit height above 1000 km - possible NOSS mission https://t.co/fvdr50W1Wh
Launch Advisory NRO sat Mar 24, 17:48 UTC Falcon 9 CCSFS Upper stage firing includes an inclination change: First stage aimed at ~50° inclination but stage 2 re-entry zone indicates final orbit ~65° incl Launch time for Mar 25 is 14 min earlier, also consistent with ~65°
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Launch Advisory NRO sat Mar 24, 17:48 UTC Falcon 9 CCSFS Upper stage firing includes an inclination change: First stage aimed at ~50° inclination but stage 2 re-entry zone indicates final orbit ~65° incl Launch time for Mar 25 is 14 min earlier, also consistent with ~65°
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Mission Update Cosmos 2581 etc C2582 still harassing 2581 When 026F separated from C2583, their orbits were raised and lowered from the original by similar amounts, suggests similar masses and that a spring mechanism was involved (Newton's third law) https://t.co/Z9PzgtFnr2
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Mission Update Cosmos 2581, etc Object, so far unidentified, was released from Cosmos 2583 on Mar 18 at about 20:15 UTC C2581 & 2582 continue to orbit together with 2582 making the station keeping effort Could this be a space weapon system? https://t.co/Z9PzgtFnr2
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Mission Update TJS 15 Interesting events in GEO - apparently two payloads, both have changed orbit My take on it https://t.co/LNuRVUzb3W Shaping up to be similar to the TJS 3 mission https://t.co/On4fORp4j2 Intriguingly, TJS 3 departed its GEO station March 17 @planet4589
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Launch Advisory 3x Rodnik store/dump comsats? Mar 16, 10:50 UTC Angara 1.2 Plesetsk Orbit details available https://t.co/ZI3RW1QYTt Will be given 'Cosmos' numbers Orbit plane matches an earlier group of Rodnik sats, launched in 2015 https://t.co/XVoHUyJxtr
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Cosmos 2581 - 2583 C2581 and C2582 are still orbiting close to each other but not flying in formation C2583 has shown its first sign of life with a very small orbit tweak - maybe a thruster test, it continues to move further ahead of the other two https://t.co/Z9PzgtFVgA
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Mission Update Cosmos 2581, etc Cosmos 2581 & 2582 have near-enough matched orbits as of Mar 9, running in tandem with C2582 less than 20 km in the lead At the same time C2583 was about 230 km in front of C2581 with the gap increasing by ~100 km/day https://t.co/Z9PzgtFnr2
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Mission Update USSF/Boeing X-37B orbiting as USA 349 on Mission OTV 7 Landed at Vandenberg SFB earlier today https://t.co/uVaHdv8xwl
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