This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has had to reduce this goal to four launches this week, with one of the Starlink missions slipping into next week.
India’s PSLV-XL launch vehicle will loft a pair of European spacecraft into orbit to study the Sun. The much-delayed European radar satellite Sentinel-1C finally launched atop a Vega C from French Guiana. Russia has launched a delayed military satellite aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.
Lastly, an unexpected launch from Iran on Friday appears to have been successful.
Outside of the launch manifest for the week, the departure of SpaceX’s CRS-31 Cargo Dragon from the International Space Station (ISS) has now been delayed to Thursday, Dec. 12, due to poor weather in the splashdown zone.
CASC CZ-3B | Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-13
Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-13 Lifts off aboard a CZ-3B. (Credit: CCTV)
Little was known about the first Chinese launch of the week prior to launch. However, the launch is reported to have occurred on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 05:55 UTC from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. The rocket used for this mission was a Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B, which features three stages and stands 56.3 m tall.
This is the 100th launch for this rocket type, some 28 years since it first flew.
The payload for this mission is Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-13. The rocket followed a southeasterly trajectory following launch and lifted the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
The second Chinese launch of the week launched on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 04:48 UTC. The payload aboard was a radar satellite — Haishao-1.
The mission launched from a Mobile Launcher Pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. The launch vehicle was a Kuaizhou 1A (KZ-1A), a quick-reaction rocket with three solid-fuelled stages. This newly improved rocket has more powerful upper stages and wider fairings. The vehicle is capable of lifting 450 kg into low-Earth orbit (LEO).
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-70
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 5:13 AM EST (10:13 UTC), a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Starlink Group 6-70 mission to LEO. This batch of 24 Starlink V2-Mini satellites launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Falcon 9 followed a southeasterly trajectory out of Florida following the launch. The booster for this mission was B1067 flying for a record-breaking 24th time. B1067 landed ~600 km downrange on one of SpaceX’s two east coast droneships, A Shortfall of Gravitas. The successful landing marked the 300th successful droneship landing.
Falcon 9’s 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.
Booster B1067 first flew on June 3, 2021 and has previously flown CRS-22, Crew-3, Türksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Starlink Group 4-34, Hotbird 13G, O3b mPOWER 1&2, Starlink Group 5-2, Starlink Group 5-5, Starlink Group 5-9, Satria, Starlink Group 6-10, Starlink Group 6-22, Starlink Group 6-29, Starlink Group 6-35, HTS-113BT, Starlink Group 6-45, Starlink Group 6-55, Starlink Group 8-5, Starlink Group 8-3, Galileo FOC FM26 & FM32, and Koreasat 6A.
This launch also marks this booster’s fastest-ever turnaround time at 24 days, which is the third fastest for all of the Falcon 9 boosters, and the 120th Falcon 9 mission of 2024.
A Soyuz 2.1b rocket launches Cosmos 2576 from Site 43/4 at Plesetsk in May 2024. (Credit: Russian Ministry of Defence)
Soyuz 2.1b | Cosmos 2580 (Unknown Payload)
A Soyuz 2.1b rocket was initially expected to launch the Cosmos 2580 mission, featuring another Lotos-S satellite, into orbit last week, but has since been rescheduled to Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 17:59 UTC. The Soyuz 2.1b is launched from an unconfirmed pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia during a three-hour launch window, carrying the payload to an orbit inclined by 67 degrees.
The Lotos reconnaissance satellites form part of a wider, classified, orbital electronic intelligence system known as Liana. This Electronic Signals Intelligence, or ELINT, system intercepts radar and electromagnetic radiation signals for the location and characterization of sites, ships, and aircraft of military interest. Four were procured by the Russian Ministry of Defense back in 2017, one of which has yet to be launched and could, therefore, be this payload. A further batch was subsequently ordered in August 2022 and is assumed to still be in production. Previous Lotos launches have been accompanied by a secondary payload, which has been deployed shortly after the primary satellite is released.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-14
LAUNCH! SpaceX Falcon 9 B1081-12 launches Starlink Group 9-14 from SLC-4E, Vandenberg.
Overview:https://t.co/4QxSM7ld0B
SpaceX livestream (three in a row now from Vandy where the livestream began after the actual launch): https://t.co/70Bb69qlhy
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) December 5, 2024
The second Starlink launch of this week lifted off on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 7:05 PM PST (Thursday, Dec. 5, at 03:05 UTC). Starlink Group 9-14 launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The booster for this flight was B1081 flying for the twelfth time. Following launch and separation, the booster landed safely on SpaceX’s west coast droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed approximately 600 km southeast of Vandenberg. The mission will deploy 20 Starlink V2-Mini satellites into orbit.
Falcon 9 booster B1081 has previously flown Crew-7, CRS-29, Starlink Group 6-34, PACE, Transporter 10, Starlink Group 8-1, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Starlink Group 9-5, and Starlink Group 9-10. Its first flight was on Sept. 26, 2023. This was the 350th reflight of a booster.
The final Chinese launch of the week was launched from pad LC-9A at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China. Launch was originally expected to occur on Monday, Dec. 2, at 05:53 UTC, but a scrub seems to have occurred. The launch took place on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 04:41 UTC.
A Chang Zheng (Long March) 6A (CZ-6A) rocket was used for this mission. CZ-6A consists of two stages with four additional strap-on engines. A 4.2 m diameter, 5.7 m tall fairing is fitted atop the second stage, giving the vehicle a height of 50 m.
The payload being launched on this mission was another group of 18 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q, and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) with funding backed by the Shanghai local government.
The initial constellation will consist of 1296 satellites by 2027 with long-term plans to expand it to 12000 satellites.
LAUNCH: https://t.co/8wifgLkuWU pic.twitter.com/16D6mBFhfL
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) December 5, 2024
The first of two European Space Agency (ESA) payloads being launched this week is PROBA-3, which was due to launch atop India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 10:38 UTC from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. The countdown was scrubbed during the final hour, and the launch was rescheduled for 24 hours later. ESA reported that systems detected an anomaly on the payload thruster system that required further investigations before the launch could proceed.
Launch occurred on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 10:34 UTC as planned. The first three stages executed perfect burns to reach a coast phase, after which the third stage was separated. The fourth stage powered the twin satellites into the required orbit, after which the satellites deployed successfully.
The two 340 kg PROBA 3 spacecraft will be deployed by PSLV in a highly elliptical high-Earth orbit of 600 km by 60530 km with an orbital period of 19.7 hours. After a short preparatory period, the two satellites will be separated and injected into a safe relative tandem orbit.
The PROBA-3 mission uses two satellites to create artificial solar eclipses to study the Sun’s corona. The two spacecraft will maneuver precisely in Earth orbit so that, when flying in formation, one casts a shadow onto the other. This allows the other spacecraft to observe the Sun’s corona without being blinded by sunlight
“It’s an experiment in space to demonstrate a new concept, a new technology,” said Damien Galano, the PROBA project manager at ESA. “It’s very challenging because we need to control very well the flight path of the two spacecraft.”
In the XL configuration being used for this mission, India’s PSLV rocket stands 44 m tall. Six strap-on solid rocket motors assist the rocket’s four stages and power the vehicle into orbit.
The latest cycle of launches from each of SpaceX’s three Falcon launch pads will be completed with the SXM-9 mission, which launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch occurred on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 11:10 AM EST (16:10 UTC). Falcon 9 successfully deployed SXM-9 into a geostationary transfer orbit after flying a due east trajectory out of the Cape.
Operated by SiriusXM, SXM-9 is the first in a series of almost identical third-generation satellites that will update the fleet. The satellite is the 10th high-powered, digital, audio radio satellite built by Maxar (SSL) for SiriusXM. Subsequent missions are planned to launch once per year up to SXM-12 in 2027. Built on Maxar’s 1300-class platform and massing around 7,000 kg, SXM-9 will support both Sirius and XM services’ broadcasting of sports, music, news, and entertainment content via satellite radio. The satellite includes a large mesh reflector, which measures almost 10 m in length when unfurled and has an expected 15-year lifespan.
The Falcon 9 booster chosen for this mission is B1076, flying its 19th flight after just 21 days since its last launch. This breaks its previous fastest turnaround time by five days. B1076 previous flew CRS-26, 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, Starlink Group 6-64, Türksat 6A, WorldView Legion 3 & 4, Starlink Group 8-19, and Starlink Group 6-68. Its first flight was on Nov. 26, 2022. This was the booster’s 10th flight this year.
The booster landed successfully on Just Read The Instructions, bringing up 100 landings for SpaceX’s droneship.
Arianespace Vega C | Sentinel-1C
Arianespace Vega-C returns to flight with the Sentinel-1C launch:
Overview:https://t.co/4QxSM7ld0B
Arianespace livestream:https://t.co/nYRbdNUpWM pic.twitter.com/ErMrWScOk7
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) December 5, 2024
The second ESA mission of the week, indeed of the day, is the long-delayed Sentinel-1C mission. Launch was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 21:20 UTC from pad ELV-1 at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana atop a Vega C booster. However, the launch was scrubbed for the day due to a “mechanical issue preventing the withdrawal of the mobile gantry.” The launch was rescheduled and took place on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 21:20 UTC. Vega C performed as expected and continued along the planned trajectory. The AVUM stage completed its first burn, entering a cost phase after 16 minutes and 45 seconds. The coast phase lasted until 1 hour and 40 minutes into the mission, with the AVUM stage relighting to circularize the orbit at an altitude of -700 km. A separation maneuver to place the spacecraft into the correct orientation followed before the Sentinel-1C was successfully deployed into free flight and satellite initialization commenced.
A more in-depth article covering this launch has been written by William Graham for NSF.
Copernicus Sentinel-1C is the third Sentinel-1 satellite, following Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B, which were launched in April 2014 and April 2016, respectively. The three satellites are identical, each carrying an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface. The mission has been used to monitor the movement of icebergs, ice sheets, glaciers, ground deformation from subsidence and earthquakes, floods after severe storms, and much more.
Throwback to the deployment tests of the Airbus-built Sentinel-1C Radar Antenna😮
As the deployed antenna does not fit into the fairing of the Vega-C rocket, it has to be folded around the spacecraft 🛰️ and will be deployed once in orbit.
🚀The satellite is scheduled for launch… pic.twitter.com/2WsKwK68KB— Airbus Space (@AirbusSpace) December 2, 2024
The satellite boasts a large, 12 m-long radar antenna and twin 10 m-long solar arrays, all of which unfold during the satellite’s initialization phase once in orbit.
Sentinel-1C has been ready to launch since early 2023. ESA intended to launch as soon as possible, particularly as the Sentinel-1B satellite had developed a terminal fault while in orbit in December 2021. However, Sentinel-1C’s launch was significantly delayed following the December 2022 failure of a Vega C vehicle during launch and an anomaly during a test fire of the redesigned nozzle that was intended to fix the original failure.
Vega C is a four-stage rocket standing 35 m in height. The first three stages are solid rocket motors, while the fourth stage, known as AVUM, uses a liquid-propelled motor. AVUM compensates for the performance scattering of the first three solid propulsion stages, circularizes the orbit, and executes the final deorbiting maneuvers of the stage following payload deployment.
ISA Simorgh | Fakhr-1 & Saman-1
The Saman-1, along with a CubeSat and a research payload, was successfully launched from the Imam Khomeini Space Launch Terminal, southeast of Semnan, in Iran, on Friday, Dec. 6, at 03:14 UTC. Using a Simorgh launcher, the payloads were placed in an orbit around the Earth, with an apogee of 410 km and a perigee of 300 km.
Simorgh is a two-stage SLV with liquid fuel developed by the Iranian Ministry of Defense.
In its eighth launch, the Simorgh set a new record for the liftoff of payloads. During this multi-phase mission, it successfully placed the Saman-1 orbital transfer block and two other research payloads, weighing nearly 300 kg, into orbit.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 12-5
The fourth and final Falcon 9 launch of the week was the launch of the Starlink Group 12-5 mission from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 12:12 AM EST (05:12 UTC). The booster landed on A Shortfall Of Gravitas, one of two east coast droneships SpaceX utilizes for Falcon missions, stationed ~600 km to the southeast of the launch site.
Based on information provided by SpaceX, the booster will be either B1072 or B1086. These are both Falcon Heavy side-boosters which could have been converted into Falcon 9 cores after flying on the GOES-U mission earlier this year, making this the second flight for the booster, and the date of the first flight to June 25, 2024. Confirmation of the booster’s identity as B1086 required a visual check of the booster’s number when it returned to Port Canaveral post-launch.
The payload for this mission consists of 13 Direct to Cell and 10 regular V2-Mini Starlink Satellites launching to a 43-degree inclination.
The two fairing halves will return by parachute and will be recovered by SpaceX’s recovery vessel Doug which was stationed a little under 700 km downrange.
This mission was SpaceX’s 129th launch of 2024, the 381st landing, and the 40th consecutive successful landing.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-2
SpaceX now plans to launch the Starlink Group 11-2 mission from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Dec. 12, delayed from the origin time of Saturday, Dec. 7, at 1:24 PM PST (21:24 UTC). The currently unknown booster will attempt to land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You around eight minutes after launch.
(Lead Image: Launch of a Starlink mission atop a Falcon 9 from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
