Launch Roundup: SpaceX flies more customer payloads and Ariane 6 debuts

by John Sharp

As many as four SpaceX Falcon 9 missions and the long-delayed inaugural flight of Ariane 6 make up the roster for this week’s launch schedule. The four SpaceX missions will be split evenly between Starlink and two payloads for other customers.

At least one of the SpaceX missions is likely to be affected by the severe weather currently being experienced on the east coast of the United States.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Türksat 6A

SpaceX launched a communications satellite atop a Falcon 9 on Monday, July 8. The mission was originally planned to launch at 5:21 PM EDT (21:21 UTC), but the weather forecast from the 45th Weather Squadron of the United States Space Force showed that conditions were 70 percent against a launch at the stated time, with both cumulus and anvil clouds, as well as surface electric fields, potentially causing a scrub.

Shortly before SpaceX began to load propellent into the rocket, the launch time was pushed back several times. A weather system passed through the Cape causing the delays, but eventually cleared sufficiently, allowing liftoff to occur at 7:30 PM EDT (23:30 UTC).

Launching from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Falcon 9 flew due east to propel the payload into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The booster, B1076, landed successfully on the autonomous droneship Just Read The Instructions, stationed 660 km downrange from the launch site. The payload deployed following a second burn from the upper stage. Separation took place after 35 minutes and 31 seconds.

TürkSat-6A launch. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

This satellite is the first Turkish-built satellite for TürkSat. SpaceX has previously launched TürkSat missions, but these have been built in Canada. TürkSat 6A has a mass of 4,250 kg and will provide communication support for both civilian and military entities in and around the Antalya Peninsula region.

Booster B1076 has flown 14 previous missions. Its first flight was CRS-26 on Nov. 26 2022, at 19:20 UTC, followed by OneWeb #16, Starlink Group 6-1, Intelsat40e/TEMPO, Starlink Group 6-3, Starlink Group 6-6, Starlink Group 6-14, Starlink Group 6-21, O3b mPOWER 5 & 6, Ovzon-3, Starlink Group 6-40, Eutelat 36D, Starlink Group 6-54, and Starlink Group 6-64.

ESA Ariane 62 | ESA Rideshares Demo

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the long-awaited Ariane 6 for the first time on Tuesday, July 9, at 19:00 UTC, from Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 4 (ELA-4) — Ariane Launch Complex 4 — at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Initially, the launch was delayed by one hour to troubleshoot issues with ground segment equipment at the pad. However, the launch proceeded flawlessly, with both the first stage and solid rocket boosters completing their burns before separating. The second stage performed its first burn to take the rocket into a nominal orbit. The upper stage then coasted for approximately 45 minutes before reigniting its engine to insert the upper stage and the payloads into a new orbit.

The cubesat payloads were all successfully deployed, and the onboard scientific instruments were activated. The upper stage and remaining payloads were expected to continue coasting until T+2:37:15 when a second reignition of the upper stage engine would occur before the remaining payloads were deployed.

Between the second and third upper-stage burns, the planned trajectory appears to have been a deviation. Arianespace has now confirmed this to be related to an issue with the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU).

The final phase of this mission should have seen the upper stage reenter the atmosphere and burn up safely, but the APU failure has rendered this impossible. Consequently, the upper stage and the remaining two payloads have been passivized by automated systems on board. The vehicle will now remain in an uncontrolled orbit until it decays and reenters.

The various main components of Ariane 6 were built in Europe and shipped to Kourou for assembly and integration in preparation for this maiden flight. The Ariane 6 replaces Ariane 5, which last flew on July 5, 2023, having attained a flight history of 82 consecutive successful launches since April 9, 2003. Before this date, Ariane 5 suffered several failures during its first 14 launches. The new Ariane 6 will fill a large gap in Europe’s orbital capabilities, replacing not only Ariane 5 but also the Soyuz 2.1b.

The Ariane 6 first stage is built by the ArianeGroup for the ESA and is powered by a single Vulcain 2.1 engine, a further development of the first stage engines used on the Ariane 5. Depending on the payload being launched, two or four solid rocket boosters (SRB) are added. This initial launch will feature just two SRBs, indicated by the “62” in the Ariane 62 designation.

The second stage has a single Vinci engine, which, like the first stage, uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, but can be reignited up to four times and is optimized for use in the vacuum of space.

Ariane 64 Pathfinder on the launchpad. (Credit: ESA)

ESA decided to not pursue recovery and reuse on Ariane 6, citing, amongst other reasons, the unviable economics of reuse when demand for launches is of a low volume.

This mission carried 11 payloads, two of which were dispensers loaded with multiple payloads, totaling 15 in all. The payloads included NASA’s Curie, which is a cubesat using a radio interferometer to study radio burst emissions, and SpaceCase SC-X0, which is a re-entry capsule developed by ArianeGroup. Many of the other payloads are college-built cubesats. This demonstration mission was intended to include several relights of the upper stage’s Vinci engine to place the payloads into different orbits and ultimately deorbit the stage.

iSpace Hyperbola 1 | Unknown Payload

A Chinese iSpace Hyperbola 1 rocket was due to launch from Site 95A at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, on Wednesday, July 10, at 23:40 UTC. There has now been an official statement from iSpace confirming both the launch and the failure of the fourth stage solid rocket motor. No further details regarding the failure have been released.

Although not officially stated, it is believed that the payload was also lost and that it consisted of meteorological satellites Yunyao-1 numbers 15 to 17.

This is the fourth failure of the Hyperbola 1 booster in seven launches.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-3

On Thursday, July 11, at 7:35 PM PDT (Friday, July 12, at 02:35 UTC), a Falcon 9 launched a batch of 20 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into the Group 9 shell, in an orbit inclined at 53 degrees. The payload included 13 satellites equipped with Direct to Cell capabilities.

Launching from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E), at Vandenberg Space Force Base, booster B1063 landed on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, approximately 600 km downrange. During the second stage burn, an abnormal amount of ice was seen forming at the base of the stage.

SpaceX has now confirmed that the second stage engine restart failed due to an oxygen leak, leaving the stage in an unplanned elliptical orbit. The Starlink satellites were deployed from the second stage; however, as the perigee was not raised they will reenter prematurely due to atmospheric drag.

Booster B1063 has previously undertaken 18 flights, having first flown on Nov. 21, 2020, at 17:17 UTC launching Sentinel-6A. The booster has also flown Starlink V1 L28, DART, Starlink Group 4-11, Starlink Group 4-13, Starlink Group 3-1, Starlink Group 3-4, Starlink Group 4-31, Starlink Group 2-5, Transporter 7, Iridium-9 & OneWeb #19, Starlink Group 5-13, Transport & Tracking Layer (Tranche 0, Flight 2), Starlink Group 7-4, Starlink Group 7-7, Starlink Group 7-11, Starlink Group 7-17, and Starlink Group 8-7. All of these missions flew from Vandenberg SFB except for DART, which launched from SLC-40 at The Cape.

This was the 132nd orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2024. For SpaceX, this was the 69th Falcon 9 mission of the year.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-4

A further batch of Starlink satellites was due to launch from SLC-40 at CCSFS in Florida on Sunday, July 14, at 3:35 AM EDT (07:35 UTC). This launch is now delayed until the FAA completes its investigation into the partial failure of the Starlink Group 9-3 mission.

No details have been released regarding either the booster or the drone ship for this mission. The pad at SLC-40 is in demand while equipment at LC-39A is converted back to Falcon 9 after having been adapted for the recent Falcon Heavy launch of GOES-U. SLC-40 will soon be needed for the crewed launch of Polaris Dawn, which is now targeting July 31.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | WorldView Legion 3 & 4

Previously expected to launch no earlier than Monday, July 15, this mission is now postponed to August.  Launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida, a Falcon 9 will launch two satellites for the WorldView Legion 3 & 4 mission. Following launch, the unannounced booster is expected to perform a return-to-launch-site landing at LZ-1.

(Lead image: The launch of a Falcon 9 from SLC-40. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

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