SpaceX dominates this week’s launch manifest with four missions aboard Falcon 9 vehicles, one of which was the first expendable mission for the rocket since January.
International missions include a classified payload lofted from China aboard a Chang Zheng 5. An optical stereo mapping satellite flew from Xichang at the weekend, when Japan also launched the maiden flight of a launcher variant and of the spacecraft on board. The HTV-X cargo supply vehicle made its debut aboard an H3 rocket with four solid boosters – a configuration which also flew for the first time.
SpaceX reached more milestones last weekend, when booster fleet leader B1067 became the first Falcon 9 booster to fly for the 31st time when it supported Sunday’s Starlink Group 10-17 mission from Florida. This same mission also launched the 10,000th Starlink satellite into orbit.
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 11-5 from SLC-4 at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-5
The first scheduled Falcon 9 mission of the week launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday, Oct. 22. Liftoff took place near the start of the traditional four-hour launch window at 7:16 AM PDT (14:16 UTC).
Onboard was a batch of 28 Starlink v2-Mini satellites headed southeast to join the Group 11 shell of the megaconstellation in low-Earth orbit (LEO) at 535 km altitude.
Booster B1075 made its 21st flight for this mission and has been in service since its debut in January 2023. In that time, it has launched 17 other Starlink missions in addition to the Transporter 11 rideshare mission, SARah 2 & 3, and the Tranche 0A mission. The booster landed successfully on the deck of the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean, a little over eight minutes into the mission.
At the start of this week, SpaceX had launched 10,044 Starlink satellites, of which 1,364 have re-entered and 7,455 have reached their operational orbits.
A Chang Zheng 5 is prepared for the Chang’e 6 mission (Credit: CGTN)
A Chang Zheng 5 launched from the pad at Launch Complex 101 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on China’s Hainan Island on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 10:30 PM CST (14:30 UTC). The payload onboard was another in the Tongxin Jishi Shiyan (TJSW) series of classified communication satellites – the fifth to launch this year.
This was the first launch of a Chang Zheng 5 (CZ-5) vehicle since May 2024 when it lofted the Chang’e 6 lunar soil sample return mission. This is China’s most powerful rocket and has become the heavy-lift workhorse for major space missions including the Tianwen-1 Mars mission and two Chang’e lunar landers, while its CZ-5B variant has lofted each of the modules for the Tiangong space station and, more recently, batches of Guowang (“national network”) satellites for operator SatNet’s internet megaconstellation. This mission utilized a longer 18.5 meter fairing to accommodate the payload.
The core stage is powered by two YF-77 engines burning liquid hydrogen and oxygen, augmented by four strap-on boosters, each using a pair of YF-100 engines burning kerosene and liquid oxygen. The upper stage is equipped with two YF-75D vacuum engines, also running on hydrogen and oxygen.
Falcon 9 | SPAINSAT New Generation II
Initially planned for Wednesday, the first Falcon 9 launch of the week from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) on Thursday, Oct. 23. Liftoff occurred at the top of an almost four-hour window, at 9:30 PM EDT (01:30 UTC on Oct. 24).
Onboard was the second of two SPAINSAT NG (“New Generation”) satellites, which replace the current SpainSat and XTAR-EUR communications satellites in geostationary orbit. This second-generation constellation is operator Hisdesat’s largest project yet, incorporating modern technical advances in communications, adding improved resilience and security. Manufactured by Airbus, the satellites have a roughly 15-year lifespan and improve their predecessors’ X and Ka military band capacity by 16 times, adding further capacity in the UHF band.
This mission was supported by booster B1076, on its 22nd and final flight due to the mission needing the full performance of the first stage to reach its geosynchronous transfer orbit. Expending a Falcon 9 booster is rare for SpaceX, which landed its 500th booster for recovery and reuse last week on the Starlink Group 10-52 mission.
This booster, therefore, flew without the distinctive landing legs and grid fins which are usually required for the vehicle’s descent and landing. The last expendable mission for SpaceX was for the first SPAINSAT NG mission in late January this year.
Booster B1076 made its debut with the CRS-26 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2022. It went on to launch satellites for the OneWeb, 03b mPOWER, Starlink, and IntelSat constellations in addition to lofting Ovzon 3, Eutelsat 36D, SXM-9, Turksat 6A, and a pair of WorldView Legion earth observation satellites over its nearly three-year service.
Falcon 9 upper stage is reflected in Starlink satellites as they are deployed (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-12
The second mission to launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base this week was the 19th for the Group 11 shell, all of which have launched from pad SLC-4E. These missions for the Starlink constellation have launched more notably out of sequence than for other shells, with recent launches including the Group 11-39 mission earlier this month.
Liftoff was at the start of the four-hour launch window, at 7:20 AM PDT (14:20 UTC) on Saturday, Oct. 25. The vehicle flew southeast, carrying a batch of 28 Starlink v2-Mini satellites to LEO.
Booster B1081 took its 19th flight and was introduced into service in August 2023 when it carried Crew-7 to the ISS. This booster supported another trip to the orbiting outpost on its second flight, carrying the CRS-29 cargo resupply mission. Since then, its manifest has included two Transporter missions, EarthCARE for the European and Japanese space agencies, and NASA’s PACE and TRACERS missions, amongst other flights for the Starlink constellation. It landed successfully on the deck of the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific Ocean.
Render of the HTV-X approaching the ISS (Credit: JAXA)
The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, had delayed the maiden launch of its new cargo vehicle due to persistent bad weather around the Tanegashima Space Launch Center since the start of the week. The launch successfully took place at 9:00 AM JST (00:00 UTC) on Sunday, Oct. 26.
The HTV-X is a successor to the HTV cargo spacecraft, which supplied the International Space Station (ISS) on nine missions between 2009 and 2020. Developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the new vehicle measures about eight meters in length – almost the same as the Cygnus XL but with a wider diameter. It also increases its cargo capacity by roughly a third, with 5.8 tonnes of pressurized supplies, or up to 7.2 tonnes including unpressurized payloads.
Left: H3-24W launches HTV-X from Tanegashima Space Launch Center, Right: Kimiya Kui in the black HTV-X jacket will berth HTV-X 1 to the ISS (Credit JAXA / Kimiya Yui)
Unlike the original HTV, it can also support late loading of cargo as close as 24 hours before launch, and can now supply power to its payloads during transit. Once it leaves the ISS, HTV-X is designed to remain in orbit, performing on-orbit experiments or technical demonstrations for up to 18 months before re-entering.
The HTV-X 1 launched aboard the seventh H3 rocket to fly, increasing the number of solid rocket boosters from two to four for the first time for this mission. It was inserted into the predetermined orbit around 14 minutes into the mission.
JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui, a member of Expedition 74, will use the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to berth the vehicle to the station’s Harmony module on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at around 0:50 AM JST (15:50 UTC on Oct. 29)
A Chang Zheng 3B sits on pad LC2 at Xichang Space Launch Center in September 2024 (Credit: CCTV)
Chang Zheng 3B/E | Gaofen-14 02
A Chang Zheng 3B/E (CZ-3B) launch from LC-2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the mountainous Sichuan region of southwestern China. Liftoff occurred on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 03:55 UTC, when the vehicle headed south, carrying another in the Gaofen series of earth observation satellites.
Gaofen-14 02 is a civilian optical stereo mapping satellite that will create digital topographic maps, surface and elevation models from a Sun-synchronous orbit. This was the tenth CZ-3B to fly this year, with plans to launch at least two more before the end of the year. The previous two CZ-3B vehicles to launch from this site in May and June of this year, carried the Tianwen 2 and ChinaSat 9C payloads, respectively.
This long-serving vehicle is now flying in its ‘Enhanced’ variation, which first flew in 2007, and surpassed its 100th flight for the CZ-3 vehicle in December 2024. This 100 mission milestone was also, more recently, achieved in September by the Chang Zheng 2D, while the Chang Zheng family also reached its 600th flight earlier this month.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-21
The second Falcon 9 mission to launch from SLC-40 in Florida this week was originally anticipated to carry 29 Starlink v2-Mini satellites into the megaconstellation’s Group 10 shell. This would continue to push the limit of satellites carried aboard a single flight even further, which has recently been capped at 28, with only the Starlink Group 6-84 mission back in May carrying this many. Updated information for this mission suggests there will be 28 satellites onboard.
Liftoff took place an hour into the four-hour launch window, on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 11:00 AM EDT (15:00 UTC). Booster B1077 flew for the 24th time and successfully landed on the deck of the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, northeast of the Cape.
This booster was first introduced into service just over three years ago in early October 2022, when it carried Crew-5 to the ISS. This booster also supported the CRS-28 and NG-20 cargo resupply missions to the Station, in addition to missions for Inmarsat, Starlink, GPS III, Intelsat’s Galaxy 37, and numerous Starlink launches.
Starlink satellites are released during Starlink Group 15-5 mission (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-21
An additional Starlink mission launched from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, Oct. 27. Another batch of 28 Starlink v2-Mini satellites will be onboard. Liftoff took place towards the end of the four-hour launch window, at 5:43 PM PDT (00:43 UTC on Oct. 28).
Booster B1082 took its 17th flight and landed successfully on the deck of the droneship Of Course I Still Love You approximately eight minutes into the mission in the Pacific Ocean. The booster has been in service since early January 2024 and has predominantly launched Starlink missions, along with the OneWeb 20, USSF-62, and NROL-145 missions.
(Lead image: Launch first timers watch the Kuiper KF-03 mission from SLC-40 last week – Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
