Observation by Nick James: Falcon 9 upper stage from IM-2 launch

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2025 Feb 28 - 19:45

Uploaded

2025 Mar 01 - 10:03

Objects

Spacecraft

Equipment

ASI6200MM + Celestron HD11

Exposure

3x30s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

Falcon 9 upper stage

Title

Falcon 9 upper stage from IM-2 launch

About this image

Conditions were poor last night but I managed to image the Falcon-9 upper stage which put IM-2 and a bunch of other small spacecraft into a translunar trajectory. At the time I imaged it the stage was around 267,000 km away.

These spacecraft are being tracked by the 32-m deep space ground station at Goonhilly in Cornwall.

Files associated with this observation

falcon9_20250228_1945_ndj.jpg (529.3 kB)

Like this image

Alan Thomas, Brendan Tynan, Grant Privett

Comments

Grant Privett, 2025 Mar 01 - 12:03 UTC

Nick,

Did you use a Lunar Trailblazer ephemeris from JPL Horizons to find it?

How accurate was it?

Grant

Nick James, 2025 Mar 01 - 15:48 UTC

Last night this object was 6 arcmin east of the Trailblazer ephemeris from Horizons. We are pretty sure that this is the upper stage since it is quite bright (mag 16). I would expect the spacecraft to be much fainter (18-19?) since they are small.

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