Unlike last week which was very quiet, This Week in Rocket Launches we have several missions coming up from SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and China"s CNSA. Due to the uneventfulness last week, the recap section this week is a bit quiet but we do have a test fire of the Long March 10 - the first launch isn"t expected for a year or two though.
Monday, 17 June
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 9:35 p.m. – 12:22 a.m. UTC
- Where: Florida, US
- Why: SpaceX will be using a Falcon 9 to launch the SES 24 communications satellite for SES in this mission. As it’s a Falcon 9 rocket being launched, it’s likely that the first stage will perform a landing so that it can be reused.
Tuesday, 18 June
- Who: Rocket Lab
- What: Electron
- When: 6:13 p.m. UTC
- Where: Mahia, New Zealand
- Why: Rocket Lab will use its Electron rocket to launch five Kineis satellites to orbit. Eventually, this satellite will number 25 satellites and will provide Internet of Things communications. The mission has been named “No Time Toulouse”.
Wednesday, 19 June
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 3:00 – 7:00 a.m. UTC
- Where: California, US
- Why: SpaceX will use this mission to launch around 22 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. This batch of satellite is designated as Starlink Group 9-1, this can be used to identify the satellites on apps like ISS Detector. The first stage of the Falcon 9 should do a landing.
Saturday, 22 June
- Who: CNSA
- What: Long March 2C
- When: 7:00 a.m. UTC
- Where: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China
- Why: China will use a Long March 2C to launch the Franco-Chinese SVOM (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor) mission. The mission’s goal is to study explosions of stars which product black holes.
Recap
- We didn’t have any rocket launches in the last week, however, we did get a first stage propulsion test of China’s Long March 10 which you can see below:
That’s all for this week, be sure to check in next time!