A covert launch on June 19? [UPDATED]

 

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On 19 June 2022 at 4:27 UT, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral pad 40 ostensibly carrying a Globalstar block II communications satellite, Globalstar-2 FM15. 

However, something was odd about this launch, and rumour has it that it covertly launched a second unacknowledged payload for the US Government. [UPDATE: now confirmed. And it are actually 4 payloads!]

This payload, if it exists, was seemingly released into a lower orbit than the Globalstar payload eventually was, possibly (as suggested by Cosmic Penguin on Twitter) at ~535 km (the Globalstar satellite was subsequently released at a much higher  ~1125 km altitude). It likely is in the same 52-degree inclined orbital plane as the Globalstar satellite. 

At ~535 km and with ~52 degree orbital inclination, this means the covert payload is hiding near the forest of Starlink satellites, which orbit at around ~550 km in 53-degree inclined orbits, only slightly higher in orbital altitude and 1 degree higher in orbital inclination.

The oddities with the launch that gave rise to the rumour are listed in this Spaceflight.com article. Given the mass of a Globalstar satellite and capacity of a Falcon 9, there was no need to have the first stage land on a droneship downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, rather than have it return to land at Cape Canaveral. This suggests it might have carried a heavier payload (e.g., because a second covert payload was on board), which lead to the rumours.

And then, just before the Globalstar deployment, live in-flight footage was shown (screenshot below) that showed something odd: the Globalstar satellite (still attached to the payload adapter on top of the rocket stage) and what looks like a second, empty payload adapter.

 

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So this gives credence to the suspicion of a covert deployment of a second satellite in a lower orbit, before deployment of the Globalstar payload into a higher orbit.

The live webcast made no mention of such a second payload: after initial orbit insertion of the Falcon 9 some 10.5 minutes after launch, merely a long 'coasting phase' was suggested (with no live footage during this coasting period), before an orbit raising burn 1 hour 5 minutes after launch (~5:33 UT) , followed by a circulation burn 1 hour 47 minutes after launch (~6:14 UT) and deployment of the Globalstar satellite at 1h 53 minutes after launch (6:20 UT).

At the moment the live feed cut out after reaching orbit, the Falcon 9 seemed to be in a coasting orbit at ~535 km altitude. If there was a covert second payload, it was likely released at this altitude, either just after orbit insertion of the Falcon 9 upper stage slightly over 10 minutes after launch, or just before the orbit raising burn at about an hour after launch. The latter burn, at about ~5:33 UT, was to raise the Falcon 9 plus payload to the orbital altitude of the Globalstar satellite. It was followed some 40 minutes later by a brief orbit circularization burn, at ~6.14 UT.

 

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The orbit circularization burn at ~6:14 UT and deorbit burn after 6:20 UT happened over the central and eastern United States and caused a spectacle in the sky, with a 'smoke ring' (probably from the circularization burn) followed by a bright fuzzy cloud (probably the start of the deorbit burn).

This footage of the sky events related to the circularization burn and deorbit burn was made by Dan Bush in Albany, Missouri:

More images can be seen on the Spaceweather.com site here. Some very nice images which can be seen here were taken by Lick Observatory telescope operator Keith Wandry.

Spectacular views were also seen an hour later over New Zealand, where the Falcon 9 upper stage tank depressurization (fuel vent) in anticipation of the deorbit over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii caused the by now familiar, spectacular bright 'spiral' cloud in the sky typical for Falcon 9 upper stage fuel vents (e.g. see an earlier similar event here, connected to the ill-fated Zuma launch in 2018). Imagery of the spiral cloud can be seen here.

In terms of the potential orbit of the covert payload, if it exists: a lot is uncertain, but I offer this very rough search orbit: [EDIT: updated orbits based on observations here]

UNKNOWN    launched with Globalstar FM15
1 70001U 22999A   22170.18541667  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    02
2 70001 052.0000 230.1696 0001447 047.8547 325.7015 15.10393460    00

 

UPDATE 1 (20 June 20:45 UT):

The CSpOC catalogue list 4 (four) additional objects for this launch (all with orbital elements witheld):
USA 328, USA 329, USA 330 and USA 331 (catalogue nrs 52889 to 52892).

UPDATE 2 (23 June 10:00 UT):

We are tracking the objects from the launch, see this follow up post. One of the four payloads seems to be tumbling.

Spectacular deorbit burn / fuel dump from the Landsat 9 Centaur upper stage observed

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Yesterday 27 September 2021 at 18:12 UT, Landsat 9 was launched from Vandenberg with a ULA Atlas V rocket. 

2h 58m after the launch, after 1.5 revolutions and while over the east coast of the United Kingdom, the Centaur upper stage performed its deorbit burn, lowering perigee such that half an orbit later it would reenter over a designated area in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the second revolution. Following the deorbit burn, there was a fuel blow-out.

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The deorbit burn and fuel blowout happened within minutes of shadow exit over NW Europe. When the resulting exhaust and fuel clouds came into sunlight, they caused a bright spectacle in the sky that was widely seen around 21:12 UT (23:12 CEST) from a.o. the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, France and Scandinavia.

The event was anticipated: already before the launch, Cees Bassa had noted that the time of the burn coincided with a pass over NW Europe and alerted observers on the Satobs list. I then put out additional alerts on a.o. Twitter, and as a result, many people observed it. 

In addition, there were hundreds of unexpecting casual eyewitnesses, who often had no clue as to what they were seeing. One of the Dutch "UFO"-reporting sites got over 150 reports of a "UFO" in the northern sky as a result.

As seen from my hometown Leiden in the Netherlands, shadow exit would occur low in the northern sky, in Ursa Major. I had put up my camera opposite the historic Leiden Observatory in the center of Leiden, hoping to capture it over the telescope domes.

As it happened, the actual sky trajectory was slightly more eastwards in the sky than we had anticipated based on a pre-launch TLE estimate (my estimate placed in in the tail of the Big Dipper, while in reality it was in the bowl of the Big Dipper). Just enough to place it outside the FOV of my camera (and initially behind a tree). 

So when it became visible and I realized it was off the predictions, I quickly grabbed the tripod and repositioned it. This made me photographically miss the first 20 seconds or so of the event. Over slightly more than 1 minute, I managed to shoot 50 images of the exhaust and fuel clouds descending over the roof of one of the Observatory's auxilliary buildings.

I was lucky with the clouds too. Fields of cumulus were drifting across the sky, and the relevant part of the sky had been clouded out only minutes before the observation (the clouds leaving the scene are visible in the photographs and time-lapse below).

The event was downright spectacular: two v-shaped, comet-like clouds, one very bright and one fainter (see images) with the tips upward, moving down in the sky among the stars of Ursa Major. The brighter, trailing one of the two clouds was easily visible, and of negative magnitude (mag -4 perhaps, as a rough estimate). It's shape changed over time, with a shell-like structure moving away from the tip. Very spectacular!

The fainter cloud is probably rocket engine exhaust from the brief deorbit burn. The brighter cloud is a cloud of fuel particles, resulting from the blow-out (depressurization) of the Centaur's fuel tanks after the burn (this is a.o. done to avoid fuel remnants exploding). Both clouds are illuminated by the sun, which is why they are visible.

Here are some of the 50 images I shot

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In two consecutive of the 50 images, an object briefly becomes visible between the fuel and exhaust clouds (arrow): it is not clear what this exactly is, as one would not expect the Centaur itself in this position (rather, at the tip of the bright cloud).

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Below is a time-lapse movie I constructed from the 50 images. It is at 13 times the real speed: the series of images from which the movie was made spans slightly over 1 minute in time:

The event happened somewhere between ~550 and 685 km altitude, over the United Kingdom and North Sea. An exact altitude cannot be given at the moment: landsat 9 was delivered to a ~685 km orbit, but the rocket made additional manoeuvres, while releasing cubesats.

I have always wanted to see an event like this, and now finally have (my 51 degree North NW European location does not see this kind of events often). Still on my list: a real reentry.

(all the images shown here were made with a Canon EOS 80D camera and EF 2.0/35 mm lens, at 1-second exposure at ISO 2500).