We have lots of missions coming up this week, but the most notable one will be a cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This mission will see SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon 2 spacecraft with the cargo. The first stage of the rocket will perform a landing that is ready for reuse.
Sunday, 3 November
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 21:57 UTC
- Where: Florida, US
- Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 to launch 23 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. These satellites will be known as Starlink Group 6-77, and this identifier can be used to find the satellites when they"re in orbit using tracking apps like ISS Detector.
Monday, 4 November
- Who: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- What: H3-22S
- When:06:48 - 08:30 UTC
- Where: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
- Why: Mitsubishi will launch an H3 rocket carrying the Kirameki 3 communications satellite, which will be operated by the DSN Corporation. These satellites have been built for use by the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
- Who: Rocket Lab
- What: Electron
- When: 10:30 UTC
- Where: Mahia, New Zealand
- Why: Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket with an unknown payload for a commercial firm into a Syn-synchronous orbit. The mission will be named "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes". It"s unclear who the satellite is made by, but it could be for E-Space.
- Who: Glavkosmos
- What: Soyuz 2.1b
- When: 23:18 UTC
- Where: Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia
- Why: Glavkosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1b rocket carrying the first two Ionosfera-M heliogeophysical satellites and 53 small sats. The Ionosfera constellation will consist of four ionospheric and magnetospheric research satellites developed by Roskosmos for a project called Ionozond.
Tuesday, 5 November
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 02:29 UTC
- Where: Florida, US
- Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon 2 on a cargo mission to the International Space Station. The flight is part of NASA"s Commercial Resupply Services program.
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Starlink
- When: 07:46 - 11:46 UTC
- Where: California, US
- Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. The group of satellites will include 13 direct-to-cell (DTC) Starlink satellites. This batch is known as Starlink Group 9-10.
Thursday, 7 November
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 22:53 UTC
- Where: Florida, US
- Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying 23 Starlink satellites to a low Earth orbit. It will be known as Starlink Group 6-69.
Saturday, 9 November
- Who: China
- What: Long March 2D
- When: Unknown
- Where: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
- Why: This mission will orbit four Piesat synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites for the Hangtian Hongu constellation to orbit. These satellites will fly in a unique formation as they collect imagery and data from the Earth"s surface, this formation will boost stability, compared to similar satellites.
Recap
- The first launch last week was a Long March 2F Y19 carrying the Shenzhou 19 mission to the Chinese Space Station. Aboard Shenzhou 19 were Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze.
- Next up we got the launch of a Falcon 9 from SpaceX, it was carrying 20 Starlink satellites marked as Group 9-9. The first stage of the rocket landed ready for reuse.
- The final launch was another Falcon 9, this time carrying 23 Starlink satellites known as Group 10-13. The first stage of the rocket landed on a droneship for reuse.
That"s all for this week; check in next time!