While SpaceX flew Starship on its sixth integrated test flight, the company also flew three satellites to geostationary transfer orbit this week. Koreasat 6A, Optus-X, and GSAT-20 were launched. Meanwhile, four Starlink missions also flew this week. Finally, Starship Flight 6 was moved to Tuesday, Nov. 19 and was launched successfully on that day.
Starlink 6-66 has now moved outside of this week to Nov. 21. Over in China, an ocean observation satellite launched from Taiyuan and a cargo resupply mission to the country’s Tiangong space station launched from Wenchang.
The Koreasat 6A communications satellite launched aboard a Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Nov. 11, at 12:22 PM EST (17:22 UTC). This mission is the first to use LC-39A since the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper atop a Falcon Heavy in October. LC-39A must be converted to support Falcon Heavy, meaning Falcon 9 cannot fly from the pad in the weeks before and after a Falcon Heavy launch.
Falcon 9 booster B1067-23 took an eastward flight path that allowed the payload to be inserted into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), while the booster conducted a return to launch site (RTLS) landing with a safe touchdown at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). This was only the second RTLS recovery for a booster flying a satellite to GTO after the Ovzon-3 mission on Jan. 3 of this year.
The 3,500 kg Koreasat 6A satellite uses the Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 4000B2 platform and is designed for a 15-year design life. It will be placed in the 116-degree east slot to provide fixed and broadcasting satellite service to South Korea, with 20 transponders for fixed service and six transponders for TV broadcasting service. The satellite will replace the Koreasat 6 spacecraft, which launched in 2010.
Although the mission utilized an RTLS recovery, SpaceX still sent one of their recovery operations ships, Bob, to sea to retrieve the payload fairings that covered Koreasat 6A during launch. Fairings can be expensive to make and SpaceX has perfected their retrieval and reuse, saving on launch and manufacturing costs.
This flight was the 107th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 as well as the 109th Falcon family mission of the year. In addition, B1067 joined two other boosters — B1061 and B1062 — that have flown 23 times, which is the current record for number of times that a booster has flown.
Falcon 9 on the pad at SLC-40. (Credit: Julia Bergeron)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-69
The Starlink 6-69 mission, delayed from Sunday, Nov. 10 due to weather conditions in the recovery area, launched on Monday, Nov. 11, just a few hours after the Koreasat 6A launch. Liftoff occurred from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) at 4:28 PM EST (21:28 UTC).
Falcon booster B1080-12 flew on a southeast trajectory and landed on SpaceX’s droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. The mission carried 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit (LEO); before this flight there were 7,256 Starlink satellites of all versions launched, with 2,542 of these being the second generation v2 Mini type. Starlink 6-69’s satellites were deployed in an initial orbit of 281 km by 291 km at an inclination of 43 degrees.
This flight was the 108th Falcon 9 mission of 2024 and the 110th Falcon family mission of the year. It was also the second Falcon 9 launch from Florida of the day.
A Chang Zheng 4C ignites its four YF-21C first stage engines seconds before liftoff. (Credit: Xinhua)
CASC Chang Zheng 4B | Haiyang 4-01
China launched a Chang Zheng 4B (CZ-4B) with an ocean observation satellite from LC-9 at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 22:42 UTC. The payload was the Haiyang 4-01 ocean salinity measurement satellite, which was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit.
The rocket that was to fly this mission was originally thought to be the CZ-4C. Instead, this flight was the fourth launch of 2024 for the older CZ-4B and the 52nd launch overall for this rocket since 1999. The 44 m tall three-stage rocket, capable of launching up to 4,200 kg to LEO or 2,800 kg to sun-synchronous orbit, has 51 successes in 52 flights to date.
The rocket uses storable but toxic hypergolic fuels, while newer generation Chang Zheng rockets use liquid oxygen as the oxidizer and fuels like hydrogen or methane. TSLC is an inland launch base in Shanxi Province and is primarily used to launch satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits in addition to being a ballistic missile test launch site.
A view of a stack of Starlink satellites including a Starlink Direct To Cell satellite at the top. The deployable antenna and its hinge can clearly be seen in this image. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 9-11
The second launch of Wednesday, Nov. 13, was a Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. The launch of Starlink 9-11 from Space Launch Complex-4E (SLC-4E) at VSFB took place at 9:23 PM PST (05:23 UTC on Thursday, Nov. 14), at the end of its launch window.
The booster, B1082-8, flew a batch of 20 Starlink satellites to LEO. This batch included 13 Direct to Cell satellites and seven of the original v2 Mini satellites. Booster recovery happened safely on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific.
B1082-8’s previous flights include USSF-62 and OneWeb #20 along with five Starlink missions. This flight was the 109th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 and the 111th Falcon family flight of the year. With a successful launch and deployment, the number of Direct to Cell satellites in orbit will rise from 271 to 284.
Every Falcon flight until the end of the year is now setting a new record for the number of Falcon 9 and Falcon family missions flown in a single calendar year. There were 148 Falcon 9 missions planned for this year, but several brief pauses in flying forced by mission anomalies or weather conditions will not allow that target to be met.
22 Starlink satellites are deployed on the Group 10-8 mission. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-68
SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-68 mission from SLC-40 at CCSFS on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 8:21 AM EST (13:21 UTC) during a four-hour window ending at 9:33 AM EST (14:33 UTC).
Starlink 6-68, utilizing B1076-18, flew on a southeast trajectory from CCSFS. A batch of Starlink 24 v2 Mini satellites were deployed to LEO, while the booster landed safely on Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.
This flight was the 110th Falcon 9 mission of 2024 and the 112th Falcon family launch of this year. This flight also marked the fastest turnaround of a SpaceX launch pad from one flight to the next at two days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes from Starlink 6-69.
CASC Chang Zheng 7 | Tianzhou 8
China’s second launch of the week was a flight to its Tiangong space station in LEO. The Tianzhou 8 mission saw a Tianzhou cargo resupply spacecraft fly to Tiangong atop a Chang Zheng 7 (CZ-7) Y9 rocket from LC-201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island south of the Chinese mainland. The launch took place on Friday, Nov. 15, at 15:13 UTC, with CZ-7 lofting Tianzhou 8 into an orbit inclined 41 degrees.
The Tianzhou 8 spacecraft, based on the original Tiangong-1 prototype space station launched in 2011, carried supplies to Tiangong in a similar manner to the Progress, Cygnus, and Cargo Dragon spacecraft that fly to the International Space Station. This spacecraft, massing 13,000 kg, is supplying the Shenzhou-19 crew currently aboard Tiangong.
A Tianzhou cargo ship before its mission. (Credit: China News Service)
This flight was the fourth launch of a CZ-7 family rocket this year and the 17th overall mission of the CZ-7 family since 2016. The two-stage CZ-7 rocket, equipped with four liquid strap-on boosters, uses liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene, while the CZ-7A variant adds a third stage that uses liquid oxygen and hydrogen for payloads going to higher orbits.
The Optus-X/TD7 Australian communications satellite mission launched atop a Falcon 9 on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 5:28 PM EST (22:28 UTC) from LC-39A. The launch window is one hour and 58 minutes long and ended at 6:27 PM EST (23:27 UTC).
The booster, B1077-16, flew on an eastward trajectory, injecting Optus-X into GTO. The booster recovery was successfully done on A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. The support ship Doug sailed into the Atlantic on Friday, Nov. 15 to retrieve the mission’s fairings after it launched.
B1077’s flying career started with the Crew-5 mission, and it also flew CRS-28 and NG-20 missions to ISS. The booster also flew the GPS 3-6, Inmarsat I-6 F2, Galaxy 37, and nine Starlink missions before Optus-X/TD7.
The NGC MRV approaching a satellite. Optus-X may be a MRV mission. (Credit: Northrop Grumman)
There is not much publicly known about the Optus-X/TD7 payload, except that it is built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC). Optus signed a contract in early 2022 with NGC and its SpaceLogistics wholly-owned subsidiary with SpaceX as the launch provider for a mission extension pod (MEP) to be attached to the Optus D3 satellite by the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) in 2025.
The MRV is SpaceLogistics’ next-generation on-orbit servicing vehicle. It will use a robotic arm to install the MEP onto the Optus D3 satellite to extend its life by at least six years. The Optus D2 satellite’s expected end of service in May 2025, as well as Optus-11’s delay until at least 2027, will make this mission more urgent.
However, the Optus D3 satellite is at the 156-degree east slot, whereas a US Federal Communications Commission document references the Optus-X mission communicating at the 88-degree east geostationary slot with Northrop Grumman as the mission manager. The Singtel ST-2 satellite, launched in 2011 by Arianespace, is stationed at the 88-degree east slot, and Singtel is the parent company of Optus.
Optus-X/TD7 was the 111th Falcon 9 mission this year and the 113th Falcon family launch of 2024. If Optus-X were to be an MRV, it would follow two previous NGC Mission Extension Vehicle flights that have successfully extended the life of other geostationary satellites.
Starlink 9-12 launched successfully on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 17 at 9:53 PM PST (05:53 UTC on Monday, Nov. 18) from SLC-4E. This flight launched 13 Direct to Cell and seven original v2 Mini satellites, and the rocket flew on a southeast trajectory to inject these satellites into an orbit inclined 53 degrees to the Equator.
The booster, B1071-20, was safely recovered on Of Course I Still Love You out in the Pacific. This flight was the 112th Falcon 9 mission of this year and the 114th Falcon family launch of 2024. B1071-20 has flown NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah 1, SWOT, Transporter 8 and 9, NROL-146, and 12 Starlink missions.
The flight also featured the fastest turnarounds for SLC-4E and Of Course I Still Love You, both at four days, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds between flights.
The GSAT-20 satellite during prelaunch preparation. (Credit: ISRO)
Just one day before Starship Flight 6, SpaceX launched yet another Falcon 9 mission. This flight was a mission for a customer’s payload, namely India’s GSAT-20 communications satellite. Launch happened on Monday, Nov. 18 at 1:31 PM EST (18:31 UTC) from SLC-40 at CCSFS.
The booster, B1073-19, recovered safely on Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. The rocket took an eastward trajectory to boost GSAT-20 – also known as GSAT-N2 – to a geostationary transfer orbit. The 4,700 kg GSAT-20 will use the 55-degree East slot in geosynchronous orbit.
B1073-19’s career started with Starlink 4-15, and it has flown 12 other Starlink flights, along with the SES-22, HAKUTO-R Mission 1, Amazonas Nexus, CRS-27, and Bandwagon-1 missions.
GSAT-20, equipped with a Ka-band communications payload, is funded, owned, and operated by the Government of India-created commercial space company, New Space India Limited. The satellite was developed in cooperation with the Indian Space Research Organisation and is expected to have a 15-year operational life.
The GSAT-20 was originally expected to fly on an Indian LVM3 rocket, but it turned out to be too heavy to fly aboard that launcher, so the Falcon 9 was chosen for this payload. This flight was the 113th Falcon 9 mission of 2024 and the 115th Falcon family flight of this year. When combined with the five Starship launches, this has now brought SpaceX’s total space launches for 2024 to 120.
Ship 31’s nose section seen before Flight 6. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)
The fourth Starship flight of 2024 launched on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 4:00 PM CST (22:00 UTC) at the start of a 30-minute window, after moving the flight from Monday due to weather. The flight, using Ship 31 and Booster 13, flew on an eastward trajectory toward the Caribbean prior to Ship 31 reaching a near-orbital velocity like other ships did before Flight 6.
Booster 13 jettisoned its hot staging ring before conducting a boost back burn to return to its launch site. However, the booster did not meet all the criteria to proceed to the catch attempt. The attempt by the “chopstick” Mechazilla arms at the Pad A launch tower to catch the booster similar to Flight 5 was canceled. The booster was ordered to proceed to abort to a zone just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico where it splashed down appearing to be under control.
Ship 31 conducted a similar suborbital flight and reentry to Ship 30, with one significant difference being a successful relight of at least one Raptor engine in orbit. This step had not been done before and was needed before orbital launches using Starship can begin. In addition, the launch time was chosen so that Ship 31’s landing burn took place in daylight, being watched by a camera on a buoy in the Indian Ocean landing zone. Despite some burn-through on the heat shield, this soft landing was successful.
(Lead image: A Falcon 9 sits on the pad at SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Credit: SpaceX)
