Following a week in which Tropical Storm Alberto brought high seas, wind, and rain-related delays to the launch schedule in Florida, SpaceX managed to get back on track this week with launches from all three of the active Falcon launch pads, including a Falcon Heavy.
Toward the end of the week, the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) achieved the third launch of the H3 rocket from JAXA’s Tanegashima launch site in Japan.
Additionally, Firefly’s Alpha was due to return with its first mission of the year from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California, but was scrubbed due to ground equipment issues.
Given the reconfiguration of the pad for the Falcon Heavy launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX has not been able to schedule any Falcon 9 launches from this pad since May 24. SpaceX will, therefore, try to make maximum use of its other east coast pad, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Inclement weather may not be over for Florida yet, though. With hurricane season underway and further tropical storms brewing, launch schedules are likely to be impacted. The weather also affects marine assets, as recovery vessels have to dodge the storms, leading to further disruption and delay.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-2
Launched on Sunday, June 23, at 8:47 PM PDT (Monday, June 24, at 03:47 UTC) from VSFB’s SLC-4E, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted the second batch of Group 9 Starlink v2 Mini satellites. The drone ship Of Course I Still Love You supported the mission and was stationed approximately 600 km downrange. The booster landed on the drone ship after completing the ascent, separation from the second stage, and a controlled return, using an entry burn to slow the rate of descent and a landing burn to bring it to a soft touchdown.
SpaceX Falcon 9 B1075-11 launches Starlink Group 9-2 from SLC-4E, Vandenberg.
Info: https://t.co/O10EzKQ9Rr
Livestream: https://t.co/ryban1KPm2 pic.twitter.com/wc39ivKZWp
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) June 24, 2024
The mission launched on a southeasterly trajectory, placing the payload of 20 satellites into an orbit inclined at 53 degrees. Thirteen of the Starlinks have Direct-to-Cell capability, a pioneering feature that allows a mobile phone to communicate directly with the satellite when no other service exists.
B1075, the booster for this mission, flew after a 97-day turnaround, with this mission serving as its 11th flight. Previously, the booster flew Starlink Group 2-4, Transport and Tracking Tranche 01, Starlink Group 2-9, Starlink Group 5-7, Starlink Group 6-20, Starlink Group 7-3, Starlink Group 7-6, SARah 2 and 3, Starlink Group 7-12, Starlink Group 7-16, and USA 350 and 351.
The booster has flown all of its previous missions from Vandenberg, flying for the first time on Jan. 19, 2023. It has previously landed twice at Landing Zone 4, and eight times on Of Course I Still Love You.
Falcon Heavy lifts GOES-U (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
The tenth flight of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was due to take place on Tuesday, June 25, at 5:16 PM EDT (21:16 UTC). Launching from the historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Falcon Heavy will lift the GOES-U weather satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), flying due east to take full advantage of the Earth’s rotation to gain extra performance. At a little over an hour before the T-0 mark, SpaceX announced a 10-minute delay to the launch time, to 5:26 PM EDT (21:26 UTC). The weather also improved to a 70 percent chance of good conditions for launch as teams were given the ‘Go’ to start loading propellent into the vehicle.
The launch took place on time and with the payload weighing over 5,000 kg, the center core of the Falcon Heavy, B1087, was expended, because as expected, it was unable to preserve enough propellant to land softly on a droneship. The two side boosters, B1072 and B1086, performed a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zones 1 and 2, respectively., marking the 249th and 250th consecutive successful landings by Falcon boosters.
All three boosters were flying for the first time,
Following the separation of the core stage, the second stage completed the first of three burns that will take the payload into an orbit that is just short of the final orbit. The vehicle was fitted with a Mission Extension Pack, which is painted a distinctive light-grey color to enable the second stage to maintain a good thermal balance during the four and a half hours before the satellite is deployed, which occurred on time after a short circularization burn of the stages vacuum optimized Merlin engine.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-3
A further batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites have been delivered to orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster. The mission launched from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Thursday, June 27, at 7:14 AM EDT (11:14 UTC).
Flying northeast, the booster burned for around 150 seconds before separating from the second stage, which then lit up its single vacuum Merlin engine to take the payload into an orbit inclined by 53 degrees.
The booster returned to land on the autonomous drone ship Just Read The Instructions stationed about 600 km downrange of the pad.
Launch! B1062 flies for the 22nd time. #FleetLeaderhttps://t.co/RordzXUsK6 https://t.co/lmP8iq2UbT pic.twitter.com/uikcwGdsoF
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) June 27, 2024
The booster supporting this mission was B1062, flying for a record-breaking 22nd time. The booster has previously flown GPS-3 4 (USA-309), GPS-3 (USA-319), Inspiration 4, Starlink Group 4-5, Aion Mission 1, Starlink Group 4-16, Nilesat-301, Starlink Group 4-25, Starlink Group 4-27, Starlink Group 4-36, Starlink Group 5-1, Starlink Group 5-4, OneWeb #17, Arabsat 7B (Badr 8), Starlink Group 6-7, Starlink Group 6-23, Starlink Group 6-30, Starlink Group 6-38, Starlink Group 6-44, Starlink Group 6-49, and Starlink Group 6-59. The booster’s first flight was on Nov.11 2020, at 23:24 UTC.
This launch carried a second batch of a classified reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the USA National Reconnaissance Office.
LAUNCH! SpaceX Falcon 9 B launches NROL-186 from SLC-4E at Vandenberg.
Overview: https://t.co/xUFqDNcmjo
Live: https://t.co/SFKoAkXB6R pic.twitter.com/I5EuDXlryW
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) June 29, 2024
The mission launched from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg SFB on Friday, June 28, at 8:14 PM PDT (Saturday, June 29, at 03:14 UTC) and flew in a southeasterly direction. The booster landed on the autonomous drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed 695 km downrange.
Flying for the 8th time, booster B1081 supported this mission, having previously flown Crew-7, CRS-29, Starlink Group 6-34, and PACE from the East Coast, and Transporter 10, Starlink Group 8-1, and EarthCARE after a move to the West Coast. This booster first flew on Aug. 26, 2023, at 07:27 UTC.
CASC Long March 7A | Unknown payload
China has launched a Long March 7A bearing the designation ‘Y8.’ The mission launched from the Webchang Space Launch Site, China, on Saturday, June 29, at 11:57 UTC.
— China 'N Asia Spaceflight 🚀𝕏 🛰️ (@CNSpaceflight) June 29, 2024
There is no information regarding the payload at the current time, which indicates that it is likely a classified payload.
The hazard warnings to shipping and aircrew suggest that the final orbit is above Low Earth Orbit.
The third launch attempt for JAXA’s H3 rocket took place from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, on Monday, July 1, at 03:06 UTC. The first H3 mission, launching Daichi-3, failed following a second-stage malfunction. The launch date was delayed by 24 hours due to the weather conditions at the launch site.
Launch of JAXA H3 (Credit: JAXA)
The payload for this mission — the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4) — was built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Kamakura Plant and carries the name “Daichi 4.” The Japanese word “daichi” signifies wisdom from the Earth and part of a growing family.
The booster for this mission is a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H3 with a designation of 22S, which indicates two LE-9 engines, two solid rocket boosters (SRB), and a shorter payload fairing. It has been reported that this mission was originally expected to fly on an H3-30, a three-engined first stage with no SRBs. However, the H3-30 is slightly delayed, still requiring engines and static fire testing. The previous flight showed that the H3-22 was powerful enough to lift this payload.
The LE-9 engines used on the first stage use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and the expander bleed cycle method of engine cooling, in which the combustion chamber is cooled by cryogenic liquid fuel. The cooling process causes the fuel to change phase to a gas, which is subsequently used to power the turbine pumps, pushing more fuel and oxidizer into the engines. This is believed to be the first successful use of the expander bleed cycle in a bi-fuelled engine.
The second stage has a single LE-5B engine, which uses the same liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants as the first stage.
The rocket performed well and placed the payload into a Sun-synchronous orbit, and the mission marked the 125th orbital launch attempt, globally, this year.
Firefly Alpha Launches FLTA005 "Noise of Summer" https://t.co/vwtRCn7J00
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) July 2, 2024
Firefly Alpha FLTA005 | ELaNa 43 “Noise of Summer”
Originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 26, at 9:03 PM PDT (Thursday, June 27, at 04:03 UTC), Firefly Aerospace’s two-stage Alpha rocket’s first flight of 2024 has now been delayed until Monday, July 1, at 9:03 PM PDT (Tuesday, July 2, at 04:03 UTC). The mission was due to launch from SLC-2W at VSFB carrying an array of cubesats to orbit. This launch was aborted at around T-0. A 30-minute window was available and teams were investigating and mitigating the causes of the abort, intending to attempt to launch before the end of the window. The new T-0 time was set for 9:33 PM PDT, (04:33 UTC), but issues with ground equipment prevented this launch occurring and this attempt was scrubbed for the day. A new launch date will be published in the next Launch Roundup, to be published later today.
This mission is part of the Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 Contract between NASA and Firefly. The eight satellites in the payload are mostly college-built cubesats, while three are built by NASA. Venture-Class is intended to give better access to space for colleges and other small-scale ventures. The college-built payloads are selected through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) intended to assist such projects, and each flight is given a collective mission name in the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) range, this flight forming ELaNa 43.
Happy launch day y'all! Alpha #FLTA005 now stands ready to fly 8 @NASA CubeSats. Weather is green and the team is on track for liftoff from @SLDelta30 at 9:03 pm PDT. Livestream with @Nasaspaceflight will begin at T-30 minutes to launch. Get notified here: https://t.co/zKoGzUrUdV pic.twitter.com/jlNvI8Imyu
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) July 1, 2024
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is flying two R5 satellites, S4 and S2 2.0. These small, free-flying devices are built using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and are intended to test their suitability as low-cost on-orbit inspection devices.
NASA Ames Research Center also has a satellite aboard — TechEdSat 11 (TES 11) — the latest and largest iteration of NASA Ames’ exo-braking experiment, which uses an umbrella-like device to increase drag on a spacecraft and bring it safely out of orbit in a controlled reentry.
The remaining satellite payloads feature small experimental features designed by students. One novel experiment is aboard CatSat, a 6u CubeSat built by the University of Arizona. CatSat will nearly reach a Sun-synchronous orbit and will use this to remain in constant daylight. Intended to operate for around six months, the cubesat will perform high-resolution Earth imaging, use HAM radio signal monitoring to measure the ionosphere and test an inflatable antenna.
This launch live stream will be hosted by Firefly in collaboration with NSF.
(Lead image: Falcon Heavy atop LC-39A. Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)