Jonathan McDowellVarmennettu tili

I apologize for having been too lazy to google this myself... it's been a day. Thanks to all who pointed me in the right direction.

Was feeling crappy yesterday so tried the at-home Binax covid self-test. (Result a clear negative, thank goodness). The only hard part for me was the solution dropper - not obv or properly documented how to remove its cap, and I suck at holding the dropper steady over the hole

I don't normally pay attention to satellite budgets, but in this particular case I am curious (and I think it's a legit journalistic question): how much money has been spent on JWST by NASA vs ESA vs CSA, separately?

At 0758 UTC Roskosmos fired the engines of the Progress MS-18 cargo ship (docked at Zvezda aft) for 161s to decrease ISS altitude by 0.3 km with a 0.3m/s delta-V. The burn was carried out to dodge the HAPS debris 39915 https://www.roscosmos.ru/33531/ 

Something I often get asked about. Would be good if they added specific buying reccomendations thoughhttps://twitter.com/SkyandTelescope/status/1466450855083884548 …

Total of 239 debris objects now cataloged from the ASAT destruction of Kosmos-1408. I expect many more in the weeks to come.

While on the subject of cataloging oddities: I'll note that 49050, 49051, 49109, 49110, and 49111 are currently unused gaps in the catalog (for several months now) and could be used for stray debris objects.

More K1408 deb cataloged. Something a bit odd with 1982-092CA which appears to be both 49585, in a 275 x 468 km orbit, and 49722, in a 372 x 430 km orbit. And one of today's TLEs for 49585 is actually for a GEO object at 96.5E. Hmm...

Presumably also deployed are 4 tension rods and one rideshare adapter plate which will remain in orbit for some time as debris.

Confirmation that the 48 Starlink sats have deployed from the Falcon 9 second stage.

Interesting new TLE out today for Echostar EG-3 (48892) showing it in a 650 x 677 km x 96.0 deg orbit - first TLE in a month, Nov 3 it was in a 644 x 666 x 97.5 deg orbit, corresponding to a 1.5 deg inclination change since then if the ID is correct. That's huge for a cubesat

More Kosmos-1408 cataloging just dropped, with a suspiciously-Starlink-sized gap in the catalog numbers between rougly 49722 and 49780.

The BlackSky Global-12 and 13 satellites have been deployed from the Falcon 9. Next, the 48 Starlinks

SpaceX PAO :"this is close to orbital velocity.." ?? You had better darn well hope it *is* orbital velocity or those sats you just deployed have a problem

Falcon 9 second stage has completed its second burn at 0012:00 UTC Dec 3. Now for the satellite deploys, starting with the BlackSky rideshare payloads

Stage 2 has reached orbit; Stage 1 successfully landed on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas. Payload deployment will occur after about a 50 minute coast

Falcon 9 stage 1 shutdown and separation, stage 2 ignition

LAUNCH of a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base Launch Complex 40, carrying 48 Starlink sats and 2 BlackSky sats