In another busy week of launches, China launched three taikonauts to the Tiangong Space Station aboard a Chang Zheng rocket this week as part of the Shenzhou 19 mission. Additionally, both Russia and Japan launched military payloads.
As usual, SpaceX continues to fly Starlink missions throughout the week. SpaceX’s CRS-31 mission, a Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station, was initially expected to launch this week but has since been postponed until no earlier than Nov. 5. To support the arrival of CRS-31, Crew-9’s Dragon has relocated from the forward port of the Harmony module (PMA-2) on ISS to the zenith port (PMA-3) on Saturday, Nov. 3, at 11:35 UTC.
This week has seen the 200th orbital launch attempt of 2024 for all vehicles, worldwide. An achievement made all the more noteworthy in that there are still two full months of the year remaining.
Chang Zheng 2F/G | Shenzhou 19
LAUNCH: Long March 2F/G launches a crew of three to the Tiangong Space Station.https://t.co/gv7F6StWto pic.twitter.com/doIzdr4RK3
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) October 29, 2024
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 20:27:31 UTC, China launched three taikonauts from Site 901 (SLS-1) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China on the Shenzhou 19 mission. Shenzhou-19 served as the 14th crewed flight of the Shenzhou program and carried the three crew members to the Tiangong Space Station.
The Chang Zheng (Long March) 2F/G rocket consists of two stages with four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters, lifting a total mass of 8,100 kg into LEO.
Leading the mission is commander Cai Xuzhe, a veteran taikonaut who previously flew on Shenzhou 14 in 2022. Flying alongside him are Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, the first female aerospace engineer on the Tiangong Space Station, both on their first spaceflight.
A full-system dress rehearsal was carried out on October 26 in preparation for Shenzhou-19’s launch.
The launch went ahead on time, and the spacecraft was delivered to the required orbit. Rendezvous and docking with the space station took place 6.5 hours after lift-off, at approximately 03:00 UTC. Following a short handover period, the Shenzhou 18 crew returned to Earth on Nov. 4 after a six-month mission aboard the space station.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-9
Falcon 9 B1075-14 launches Starlink Group 9-9 from Vandenberg and lands on OCISLY. https://t.co/YLCxWYdmdw
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) October 30, 2024
SpaceX’s first mission of the week saw the launch of the Starlink Group 9-9 mission atop a Falcon 9 on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 5:07 AM PDT (12:07 UTC). The payload of 20 v2 Mini Starlink satellites was launched into a low-Earth orbit (LEO) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. After launch and stage separation, the booster for this flight, B1075, landed successfully on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed approximately 600 km downrange.
This was the 200th operational Starlink launch by SpaceX.
The first stage booster is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines, while the second utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the first and only reusable orbital rockets in service today, with some Falcon boosters having flown over twenty flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after the flight.
Booster B1075 was flying for the 14th time, having previously flown Starlink Group 2-4, Transport and Tracking Tranche 0 1, Starlink Group 2-9, Starlink Group 5-7, Starlink Group 6-20, Starlink Group 7-3, Starlink Group 7-6, Sarah 2 & 3, Starlink Group 7-12, Starlink Group 7-16 & USA 350/351, Starlink Group 9-2, Transporter 11, and Starlink Group 9-17. The booster’s first flight was on Jan. 19, 2023.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-13
The second SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the day saw Falcon 9 carry 23 more Starlink v2 Mini satellites to LEO on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 5:10 PM EDT (21:10 UTC). Launched from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the booster landed on A Shortfall Of Gravitas, one of SpaceX’s east coast droneships, stationed 600 km downrange.
The booster supporting this mission was B1078, which was flying its 14th flight. Previous missions for this booster were: Crew-6, O3b mPower 3 & 4, Starlink Group 6-4, Starlink Group 6-8, Starlink Group 6-16, Starlink Group 6-31, USSF-124, Starlink Group 6-46, Starlink Group 6-53, Starlink Group 6-60, Starlink Group 10.2, Starlink Group 10-6, and Bluebird-1. The booster’s first flight was on March 2, 2023.
Falcon 9 flew on a northeasterly trajectory out of Florida. The payload did not include any direct-to-cell fitted satellites.
Russia launched a Soyuz 2.1b rocket on Thursday, Oct. 31, at 07:51 UTC from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, the 200th orbital launch attempt for 2024 for all vehicles, worldwide.
This secretive mission is likely a Russian military payload being launched into a polar Earth orbit.
The Soyuz 2 rocket has two major variants: Soyuz 2.1a, which serves as the base version, and Soyuz 2.1b, which utilizes a more powerful third stage. Soyuz 2.1b is powered by four RD-107A engines on the first stage (arranged around the second, core stage), a single RD-108A engine on the core stage, and an RD-0124 engine on the third stage. Each stage uses liquid oxygen and kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.
A previous Soyuz 2.1b on the launch pad at Baikonur. (Credit: Glavkosmos)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-77
The fourth Starlink mission of the week, Starlink Group 6-77, was expected to launch on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 4:57 PM EDT (21:57 UTC) from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission has been scrubbed for the day following a “Hold! Hold! Hold!” call just moments before liftoff. Following the call, SpaceX indicated that there was a stage one helium issue with the booster. Any such hold is an automatic scrub, as Falcon 9 is not able to recycle for launch as a consequence of the cryogenic propellants being used.
SpaceX has now anounced Tuesday, Nov. 5, as the next launch date for this mission.
The booster supporting this mission will be B1085 flying its third flight, having previously flown the Starlink Group 10-5 and Crew-9 missions. The first flight for B1085 was on Aug. 20, 2024.
Recovery vessel Just Read The Instructions is stationed approximately 600 miles southeast of the Cape for the booster to land on after the launch.
Japanese space agency JAXA launched a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H3-22L on Monday, Nov. 4, at 06:48 UTC, at the beginning of a launch window extending until 08:16 UTC. This launch had been delayed by bad weather in the launch area prior to this.
The launch took place from pad LA-Y2 at Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
This mission had been delayed twice — firstly from Oct. 26 following the discovery of an issue that required the combustion chamber cooling valve to be replaced on the second-stage engine. The second delay was due to a typhoon passing through the launch area.
The H3 booster consists of two liquid-propellant stages assisted by two strap-on SRBs. The two-stage booster uses cryogenic liquids – hydrogen and oxygen – to power the LE-9 engines. A H3-22S booster has two engines on the first stage, as designated by the first “2.” A single LE-5B engine is used in the second stage. The remaining designators are a “2” for the number of SRBs being used, and an “S” to indicate the use of a short fairing.
The payload – Kirameki 3 or DSN 3 — is an X-band geostationary military communications satellite for Japan.
Rollout of Electron to LC-1B at the Māhia launch site. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab Electron | Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
Rocket Lab’s Electron and the Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes mission has now been delayed until Nov. 5. Previously, Rocket Lab was targeting Monday, Nov. 4, at 10:30 UTC for the launch of the mission, which will see Electron carry a confidential payload from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1B (LC-1B) on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. Electron’s 12th mission of 2024 will fly on a southwesterly trajectory and loft the payload into a Sun-synchronous orbit.
The mission’s customer has not been announced, and the payload is confidential. However, Electron’s extended fairing appears to be in use for this mission.
(Lead image: SpaceX Starlink mission launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
