Following the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship on Tuesday, eight additional orbital launches were planned worldwide. Rocket Lab launched an experimental hypersonic testbed payload using a modified Electron from Wallops. What’s more, a second Electron launched a batch of nanosatellites into low-Earth orbit from New Zealand less than 24 hours later.
Meanwhile, SpaceX continued to launch Starlink missions aboard Falcon 9 rockets this week as the company pushes to meet its end-of-the-year targets for Falcon 9’s launch cadence. SpaceX continues to trim its turnaround times for Falcon boosters, pads, and recovery vessels and is currently launching almost every other day.
In Russia, Roscosmos flew a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Progress MS-29, atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Blue Origin flew a suborbital New Shepard mission, and China closed out the week with the launch of an unknown payload aboard a Chang Zheng 2C rocket.
Roscosmos Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-29
The Progress MS-29 mission launched from Site 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 12:22 UTC. The ISS cargo resupply mission achieved rendezvous and docking on the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory at 14:31 UTC on Saturday, Nov. 23.
LAUNCH! Soyuz 2.1a launches Progress MS-29 on a cargo resupply mission to the ISS:
Overview:https://t.co/H3SWbwXga3
Roscomsos livestream:https://t.co/FBYtxFm4Ck pic.twitter.com/Z4KibkapVG
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) November 21, 2024
Progress MS-29 delivered 2,500 kg of cargo to the Station, including 869 kg of fuel, 420 kg of drinking water for the crew of Expedition 72, and 42 kg of compressed nitrogen, as well as a variety of food, clothing, equipment, and science experiments. This was the Progress spacecraft’s 182nd flight.
Soyuz 2.1a 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-0110 engine on the third stage. Each stage uses liquid oxygen and kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-66
SpaceX is continuing its Starlink launch campaign from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Starlink Group 6-66 launched on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 11:07 AM EST (16:07 UTC) at the start of a four-hour launch window. The booster for this flight, B1069, flew on a southeasterly trajectory before landing on one of SpaceX’s east coast drone ships A Shortfall of Gravitas. Twenty-four satellites were carried to low Earth orbit on this mission.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines and is reusable, while the second stage utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine and is not recovered. The two payload fairings used to encapsulate the batch of Starlink satellites at the top of the second stage are recovered and reused on subsequent flights.
This mission was the 400th Falcon 9 mission of all time.
Booster B1069 was flying its 20th mission, having previously flown CRS-24, Starlink Group 4-23, Hotbird 13F, OneWeb #15, Starlink Group 5-3, SES-18 & SES-19, Starlink Group 5-6, Starlink Group 5-12, Starlink Group 6-9, Starlink Group 6-19, Starlink Group 6-28, Starlink Group 6-36, Starlink Group 6-39, Starlink Group 6-47, Starlink Group 6-57, Starlink Group 10-1, Starlink Group 10-9, and Starlink Group 10-8. B1069’s first flight was on Dec. 21, 2021. It became the seventh booster to reach a twentieth flight, and the two fairing halves used were both flying for their 21st time, thus becoming the fairing fleet leaders.
This mission marks the 56th launch from the SLC-40 pad this year, breaking the record for the number of flights in a year from this pad.
Blue Origin New Shepard | NS-28
The ninth crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket launched on Friday, Nov. 22, at 10:30 AM EST (15:30 UTC) from Launch Site One at Blue Origin’s West Texas facility. After flying a suborbital trajectory just above the Kármán Line, the booster, NS5 – flying its twelfth mission – vertically and propulsively landed nearby at the North Landing Pad with the capsule landing under parachutes.
The crew of six consisted of four civilians flying for the first time: Emily Calndrelli, Austin Litteral, James Russell, and Henry Wolfond. The two remaining crew members, Sharon and Marc Hagle, are flying on New Shepard for the second time The crew capsule is RSS First Step.
Falcon 9 delivers 20 @Starlink satellites to orbit from California pic.twitter.com/8NS0gV5Nnu
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 24, 2024
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-13
The next batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites, Group 9-13, launched from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 9:25 PM PST (Sunday, Nov. 24, 05:25 UTC). Liftoff was approximately halfway into the launch window for this mission, which extended over four hours.
The booster flew the regular southeasterly trajectory and landed safely on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed approximately 600 km downrange from Vandenberg.
Booster B1075 is supporting this mission and flew for the 15th time. All of B1075’s previous missions have flown from Vandenberg, namely -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, Starlink Group 9-17, and Starlink Group 9-9.
Well, for those that may care… this was SpaceX's 100th launch from Vandenberg and Falcon 9's 400th launch. https://t.co/KiFyetJG6X
— Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera (Alex) (@Alexphysics13) November 24, 2024
Rocket Lab Electron | Leidos Mission 2
Rocket Lab had two launches planned for this week. The first of these was expected to fly from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 10:00 PM EST (Sunday, Nov. 24, at 03:00 UTC). The countdown was held shortly before T0 for an unknown reason, and another attempt at 11:50 PM EST (04:50 UTC Sunday, Nov. 24) was held just before T0 due to a boat violating the range area.
The HASTE mission finally launched at 1:00 AM EST on Sunday, Nov. 24 (06:00 UTC), and appeared to make it to main engine cutoff, stage separation, and second stage ignition. The rocket flew a suborbital trajectory and Rocket Lab has confirmed that the mission was a success.
The previous launch attempt, on Thursday/Friday, was held for some time, but eventually abandoned for the day due to high winds.
The Leidos Mission 2 will be Rocket Lab’s second of four missions for the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. The MACH-TB program was created by the Department of Defense (DoD) to reduce hypersonic risks and swiftly transition to innovative technologies. The payload is expected to be an experimental hypersonic glide body, although the details of the payload remain classified. The first Leidos mission for the MACH-TB program flew on June 17, 2023.
The booster for this mission is a Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), a modified Electron optimized for hypersonic testing using custom fairings and a modified kick stage. The rocket launches the payload on a suborbital trajectory, providing acceleration towards hypersonic speeds, or over five times the speed of sound.
Chang Zheng 2C | Unknown Payload
A Chinese mission launched from Site 9401 (SLS-2) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China on Sunday, Nov. 24, at 23:34 UTC.
A Chang Zheng (Long March) 2C was the rocket being used to launch this mission.
Early reports claim a successful launch and that the two payloads aboard are Siwei Gaojing-2 03 and Siwei Gaojing-2 04, (Superview NEO 3 and 4 SAR).
Rocket Lab Electron | Ice AIS Baby
Achievement unlocked.
Electron launches again, with the 'Ice AIS Baby' mission. https://t.co/LKY9yTrD9c pic.twitter.com/AWRKg7NqUX
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) November 25, 2024
Rocket Lab’s second launch of the week, indeed within 24 hours, saw Electron lift five Kinéis satellites into low-Earth orbit from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 at the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The launch occurred at 03:55 UTC on Monday, Nov. 25.
The payload, a batch of satellites numbered 11 to 15, forms the third batch of five Internet of Things (IoT) satellites for the French company Kinéis. The five satellites, which mass 30 kg each, are classified as nanosatellites. These include the 200th satellite to be launched by Electron.
The normal, non-HASTE-modified Electron is a two-stage booster with an additional kick stage. The first stage features nine Rutherford sea-level engines, each producing 21 kN of thrust at liftoff and peaking at 25 kN of thrust during ascent. The second stage includes a vacuum-optimized Rutherford engine that produces 25.8 kN of thrust. Both variants of Rutherford are powered by electric pumps as opposed to traditional gas turbines. The kick stage utilizes an unspecified bi-propellant fuel-powered Curie engine. Both the Rutherford and Curie engines are largely 3D-printed, and Electron’s two stages are constructed with carbon composite.
Electron reached the required transfer orbit as planned. The kick stage separated and entered a coast phase before the planned orbit circularization and payload deployment which occurred some 45 minutes after launch.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 12-1
SpaceX launched the Starlink Group 12-1 mission from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral SFS in Florida on Monday, Nov. 25 at 5:02 AM EST (10:02 UTC). The T-0 time was pushed back shortly before propellant loading commenced.
Falcon 9 B1080-13 launch of Starlink Group 12-1 from SLC-40 and landing on Just Read the Instructions.
Overview:https://t.co/H3SWbwXga3 pic.twitter.com/Pg4h6kbcao
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) November 25, 2024
The booster for the mission was B1080, flying for the thirteenth time. B1080 previously flew Axion 2, Euclid, Starlink Group 6-24, Axion 3, CRS-30, Starlink Group 6-52, Starlink Group 6-62, Astra 1P/SES-24, CRS-21, Starlink Group 10-10, and Starlink Group 6-69. Its first flight was on May 25, 2023.
This was the fastest-ever booster turnaround at just under 14 days, a full week off the previous record held by B1062 at 21 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 59 seconds.
SpaceX commenced building a new group of v2 Mini satellites with this launch, Group 12, with the first 23 satellites aboard the Falcon 9. Twelve of the satellites aboard were the Direct to Cell versions.
The booster landed safely on one of SpaceX’s two east coast droneships, Just Read The Instructions, which was stationed near The Bahamas, approximately 600 km downrange from the launchpad.
The payloads were deployed successfully once the required orbit was attained.
(Lead image: Launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from New Zealand. Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)
