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SpaceX has another busy week of launches this week, with Rocket Lab, Russia, and China also launching rockets. On Thursday, SpaceX will begin their busy week with the launch of Falcon 9 carrying another batch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Florida. The company’s Thursday launch will be followed by another Falcon 9 launch carrying another batch of Starlink satellites, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Friday.
At the end of the week, Rocket Lab will return to space on Friday with the mission “The Moon God Awakens”. This comes after a previous mission, titled “We Will Never Desert You,” failed to reach orbit on September 19, 2023, and will set a new launch record. annual for the company. Russia is expected to launch a Soyuz 2.1b with the Arktika-M n ° 2 remote control satellite on Saturday, and SpaceX will finish the week with the launch of a Falcon 9 carrying the satellite Ovzon -3 from SLC-40 up. Sunday.
Throughout the week, China is also expected to make three announcements, and one may be China’s reusable aircraft, similar to the United States’ X-37B.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Section 6-34
On Thursday night, SpaceX will launch another batch of 23 Starlink V2 mini satellites at 11:00 PM EST (04:00 UTC on December 13) aboard a Falcon 9 from SLC -40. This is the first of two Starlink missions SpaceX will launch this week.
B1081-3 is the first step of the upgrade command in this mission, marking the 32-day turnaround after the launch of the CRS-29 re-delivery to the International Space Station in November. After the launch, the booster will land on the drone ship A Fall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch of Building 40 at Cape Canaveral pic.twitter.com/8GnI5aXpiW
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2023
On Thursday at 14:10 UTC, the Chang Zheng 2F/T rocket is expected to launch China’s space shuttle into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. There is very little public information about this spacecraft, even less than the X-37B, on which this vehicle is believed to be based. .
If this launch takes the spacecraft into orbit, it will mark the spacecraft’s third mission and the second time it has been in orbit. into space in 2023. The last launch of this vehicle occurred on August 4, 2022, and returned to Earth. earlier this year on May 8.
Electron/Curie | The Moon God is awake
On Friday, Rocket Lab will launch “The Moon God Awakens” mission aboard their Electron rocket, officially returning the vehicle to space after its last failed mission. an electrical fault has occurred in the secondary circuit, causing the vehicle to lose power and shut down the engine shortly after exiting primary position.
Liftoff is scheduled to take place in a two-hour window, opening at 17:00 NZDT and closing at 19:00 NZDT (0400-0600 UTC), from Pad B at Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.
Mission patch for “The Moon God Awakens” mission. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
This mission will carry the QPS-SAR-5 satellite for the iQPS company. This satellite is a small, integrated radar satellite that weighs only 100 kilograms and will be used to collect high-resolution images of the Earth from orbit. QPS-SAR-5 will join other satellites in the iQPS fleet, and once completed, the fleet will include 36 satellites capable of monitoring specific parts of the world every 10 minutes. all.
This mission will also set a new annual record for Rocket Lab, closing 2023 with ten launches, beating the company’s previous record of nine in 2022.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Episodes 7-9
Later in the day on Friday, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying another batch of 22 Starlink V2 mini satellites from Space Launch Complex 4- East at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The liftoff is scheduled for 9:14 PM PST (04:59 UTC on December 14).
The booster used in this mission is currently unknown; however, after the launch, it is expected to fall on the Yes I still love you drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
Chang Zheng 5 | Pay the unknown
On Friday, the Chang Zheng 5 will launch a currently unknown payload from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China. An exact time for removal is not known; however, NOTAMS indicates a launch window of 13:32-14:26 UTC.
If the launch goes as scheduled, it will be the sixth regular Chang Zheng 5 launch and the tenth for the Chang Zheng 5 car family.
Chang Zheng 5 is rolling on the rock in Wenchang. (Note: CASC)
Hyperbola-1 | Pay the unknown
On Saturday, China’s private aerospace company i-Space is expected to launch its Hyperbola-1 rocket with an unknown payload. Liftoff from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is expected to occur at 06:00 UTC.
A few hours later, Russia is expected to launch a Soyuz 2.1b rocket from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is expected to be lifted at 12:17 Moscow Time (09:17 UTC).
Arktika-M is a long-distance communication satellite with emergency response designed to monitor high-altitude areas of the Earth with a weight of ~2100 kg. Arktika-M will be launched into the Molniya orbit. This highly elliptical orbit takes 12 hours to complete and allows a satellite to pass over the same location every 24 hours, and is widely used for communications satellites in high places.
The Arktika-M n°2 satellite before launch. (Courtesy: Roscosmos)
At the end of the week on Sunday, another Falcon 9 will be launched from SLC-40, bringing the Ovzon-3 satellite into the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The liftoff is scheduled for 3:46 PM EST (20:46 UTC).
Ovzon-3 is a Swedish geostationary satellite and the first privately funded geostationary satellite built by the country. The weight of the satellite ~ 1800 kg and, after installation, it is 27 meters long.
Once installed from the Falcon 9’s second stage, the satellite will use its on-board electrical system to transfer it to its final test next month. The motivation for this mission is currently unknown; however, after launch, it will return to Landing Zone 1 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is unusual because many of the missions launched in GTOs require a lot of performance from the Falcon 9, and often require a spacecraft. This may indicate that SpaceX has developed more indicators about Falcon 9’s performance.
(Lead photo: Electron on a rock in New Zealand before Friday’s launch. Credit: Rocket Lab)