Observation by Nigel Evans: Space Junk

Uploaded by

Nigel Evans

Observer

Nigel Evans

Observed

2026 May 12 - 22:25

Uploaded

2026 May 15 - 17:01

Objects

Spacecraft

Equipment

200mm EdgeHD +ASI6200

Exposure

702 x 10seconds

Location

Ipswich

Target name

2025-010D

Title

Space Junk

About this image

2025 -010D is the SpaxeX carrier rocket for Blue Ghost and Hakuto–R2 which both landed on the Moon (one soft, one hard). On August 5 2026 it too will make a hard landing on the Moon. A recent image from Grant Privett https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20260512_194756_d9cd8fb56be90d45 showed it was tumbling, with a very pronounced flare every so often.

For me the flare occurred every 18 or 19 frames, equivalent to 3.45 minutes - in between it was completely invisible ( i.e. below mag 17). This should show up as a straight row of dots in an Addmax view of 702 frames. It was completely impossible to see them, due to a blizzard of random hot pixels. It was a very tedious process to remove them, while leaving the faint background stars.

Here the line of bright flares from the tumbling booster are highlighted in amongst a dozen or more satellite trails.

Files associated with this observation

260512 2025_010D NSE.jpg (2.0 MB)

Like this image

Martin Mobberley, Grant Privett

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