This week’s manifest includes the delayed launches of a Falcon 9 with Galileo global positioning satellites and an Electron with a second batch of satellites for Kinéis. SpaceX also launched a batch of 20 Starlink satellites from California as the constellation increases to 6,000 operational satellites.
Following last weekend’s return and recovery of the Polaris Dawn crew onboard Crew Dragon Resilience, the crew of Soyuz MS-25 is scheduled to return to Earth next week and will spend this week preparing for their return. Undocking from the International Space Station is scheduled for the early hours of Monday, Sept. 23, with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub onboard.
Angara 1.2 launches Cosmos 2577 & 2578. (Credit: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation)
Angara 1.2 | Cosmos 2577 & 2578
With little notice, a Russian Angara 1.2 has launched a secretive payload into a Sun-synchronous orbit. This was the vehicle’s first flight this year and its third orbital mission to date since becoming active in April 2022.
The launch took place from Site 35/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 07:00 UTC. On board were two classified satellites for the Russian military. This two-stage launcher is 42.7 m high with a 2.9m wide fairing and burns a Russian grade of kerosene known as RG-1 with liquid oxygen.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Galileo FOC FM26 & FM32
Following several delays, Falcon 9 launched a pair of Galileo global positioning satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 6:51 PM EDT (22:51 UTC). This mission, the 13th for the Galileo constellation, was originally planned to launch on Soyuz and then Ariane 6 but was eventually contracted to SpaceX alongside another pair of European satellites due to delays with Ariane 6.
The two 700 kg satellites were built by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the European Union (EU) and have been carried to a medium-Earth orbit at an altitude of around 23,000 km. The Galileo constellation is part of the EU’s high-precision positioning system and is designed to feature 30 total satellites across three equally spaced orbital planes, with three satellites serving as spares. The satellites will ultimately allow Europe to not depend on either the United States’ GPS or Russia’s GLONASS systems.
Rendering of the Galileo satellites being released from Falcon 9. (Credit: European Union)
The first Galileo satellites were activated in 2011, and the system gained operational status in 2019. The previous two satellites that SpaceX launched, numbered 29 and 30, have just completed their on-orbit tests. They were promoted into full operation just over a week ago, having reached their final orbit, which places the satellites at 23,222 km in altitude.
The last Galileo mission launched by Falcon 9 expended booster B1060 on its 20th flight. Booster B1067 supported this mission on its 22nd flight and landed around 670 km downrange on the autonomous drone ship Just Read The Instructions, which had left Port Canaveral last Friday. Currently, the fleet leader, this stage has previously launched four missions to the International Space Station, including Crew-3, Crew-4, and the CRS-22 and CRS-25 cargo missions. Active since June 2021, this booster has also supported 12 Starlink missions, Merah Putih 2, Hotbird 13G, and Türksat 5B, amongst others.
This was an envelope-pushing mission with the highest-energy Falcon 9 landing to date. The mission profile included the fastest main engine cut-off, or MECO, of any recovered Falcon 9 booster and a high-speed re-entry that was tracking at 6,000 km/h after the entry burn had completed. Marking the 170th global orbital launch attempt of the year, this was SpaceX’s 90th mission of 2024 and its 206th from this launch pad. The next mission from this pad will be Crew-9 on Sept. 25th.
Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 | BeiDou-3
The first of three anticipated launches from China this week carried two more global positioning satellites for the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) to medium-Earth orbit. Lift-off occurred on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 01:14 UTC from LC-2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the Sichuan Province.
This was the fifth Chang Zheng 3B to fly this year, lofting the 59th and 60th BeiDou satellites. This constellation is an alternative to the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and is claimed to be ten times more accurate than that system with post-processing. It’s suspected that this launch also tested a parachute system on one or more of the boosters that could return boosters or fairings up to 4,000 kg to the ground for later recovery.
Chang Zheng 2D launches more Jilin-1 satellites from LC-9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (Credit: CCTV)
Chang Zheng 2D | Jilin-1 Wideband 02B – 01 to 06
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched a Chang Zheng 2D on Friday, Sept. 20, at 04:11 UTC from LC-9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province of China. This was the 91st mission for this two-stage orbital carrier manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).
Onboard were six ultra-wideband observation satellites which will offer users 0.5 m resolution with a width of 150 km and feature high-speed data transmission. This brings the number of Jilin-1 satellites in orbit to 114, so named after the Jilin province in which the satellite operator and developer, Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co, is based. The batch also included the first of a new Qilian Series developed to support forestry and grassland protection in Gansu in addition to forest fire prevention and disaster monitoring.
ExPace launched its Kuaizhou 1A carrier for the third time this year, carrying four more satellites for the Tianqi Internet of Things (IoT) constellation in low-Earth orbit. The launch took place six hours after the CZ-2D mission on Friday, Sept. 20, at 09:43 UTC from the mobile launcher pad at Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
This four-stage vehicle stands 3.4 m high with a 1.4 m wide fairing and is capable of lifting 300 kg to low-Earth orbit. It has previously lofted various payloads into Sun-synchronous orbit, such as the small meteorology satellites for the Tianmu-1 constellation.
Booster B1075 landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You on the Starlink Group 9-17 mission (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-17
Starlink Group 9-17, the only scheduled Starlink mission for this week, was rescheduled during the week and finally launched from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:50 AM PDT (14:50 UTC). The Falcon 9 carried a batch of 20 Starlink v2-mini satellites on a southeasterly trajectory, of which 13 were the Direct-to-Cell variant.
Booster B1075 supported this mission on its 13th flight and landed on the autonomous drone ship Of Course I Still Love You approximately eight minutes after liftoff. Active since January 2023, this first stage has supported Transporter 11, SARah 1, and the first Tracking and Tranche layer mission for the USSF, in addition to nine other Starlink missions.
With this mission, the number of operational Starlink satellites in orbit is set to exceed 6,000. At the start of the week, 7,022 satellites had been launched, 607 of which have re-entered, leaving 5,996 in their operational orbits.
Last week, during the Polaris Dawn mission, the Starlink constellation was tested multiple times from above the constellation’s orbit. One test showcased the constellation’s connectivity capabilities with an uninterrupted video call from the crew that lasted over 40 minutes.
Electron is rolled to the pad for its 53rd mission. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Electron / Curie | Kinéis Killed The RadIoT Star
Rocket Lab launched the second batch of nanosatellites for customer Kinéis, the global connectivity provider dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), on the “Kinéis Killed The RadIoT Star” mission. The first batch of satellites was carried to orbit on an Electron back in June on the “No Time Toulouse” mission, which began building out a planned constellation of 25 nanosatellites massing 30 kg each.
The launch was originally planned for Monday, Sept. 16, from Pad A at Launch Complex 1 at the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand but this was delayed to Wednesday, Sept. 18 due to unfavorable weather. This launch attempt was aborted at T-0 after engine ignition due to an issue with ground support equipment.
A successful launch occurred on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 11:01 AM NZST (23:01 UTC on Sept. 20). This was Electron’s 53rd mission to date and placed the satellites at an altitude of 643 km in an orbit inclined 98 degrees, bringing the total number of satellites launched by Rocket Lab to 197. It was the first to launch from pad LC-1A since July 2022 following the completion of hydraulic and fluid system upgrades.
🚀 Mission Success for "Kinéis Killed the RadIoT Star" 🎉
5 new satellites, launched by @rocketlab have joined our constellation in orbit. We're halfway to our goal of 25 nanosatellites, revolutionizing global IoT connectivity! 🛰️🌍
Did you know? With Kinéis’ solution you are… pic.twitter.com/7hshlmPZwl
— Kineis IoT (@KineisIoT) September 21, 2024
The Curie kick stage performed an eight-second burn after circularizing to deploy the satellites into precise locations. After releasing the satellites, Curie conducted a perigee-lowering burn to reduce its orbital lifetime. Additional batches of five satellites are expected to launch on more Electron missions this November and December, with a final batch targeting launch next February.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches Galileo L13 mission from SLC-40 – Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
