A Minotaur IV rocket will launch a secretive US government satellite this week - TWIRL #140

We have quite a number of missions This Week in Rocket Launches. One that stands out is Orbital ATK’s launch of a Minotaur IV rocket carrying a secretive satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office. There will also be a Russian resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Tuesday, 28 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 4:00 - 8:31 a.m. UTC
• Where: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will be sending 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, this group of satellites is known as Starlink Group 6-30. Under this designation you can view these satellites from Earth using various satellite tracking apps.

Wednesday, 29 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 6:04 - 7:18 p.m. UTC
• Where: Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4, California, US
• Why: SpaceX will be launching the EO/IR 1 satellite to orbit for South Korea. It is part of the 425 Project reconnaissance satellite project and is the electro-optical / infra-red component. Ireland is also hitching a ride as its EIRSat 1 will fly as a secondary payload.

Friday, 1 December

• Who: Galactic Energy
• What: Ceres 1
• When: Unknown
• Where: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre
• Why: Not much is known about the mission other than that it’s called “We won’t stop!” and that EllipSpace’s Xingchi 2A/B satellites are the payload.

• Who: Orbital ATK (Northrop Grumman)
• What: Minotaur IV rocket
• When: Unknown
• Where: Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 8, California, US
• Why: This rocket will launch the NROL-174 mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office. Details of the mission aren’t available as the payload is classified.

• Who: Roscosmos
• What: Soyuz 2.1a
• When: 9:25 a.m. UTC
• Where: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
• Why: This mission is the 86th Progress cargo mission to the International Space Station. Resupply missions like this usually include scientific experiments and supplies for the crew.

Recap

• The first mission last week saw SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 carrying 22 Starlink satellites. This was Starlink Group 7-7.

• Next up, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 6-29.

• We didn’t write about this next launch in the last TWIRL edition, probably because North Korea is so secretive but the country did launch its Chollima-1 rocket carrying the Malligyong-1 satellite this week from the Sohae Satellite Launching station. According to officials in the country, the reconnaissance satellite entered into orbit 705 seconds after launch.

• Lastly, China launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying the Satellite Internet Technology Test Satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. The satellite entered its planned orbit successfully and will be used to test satellite internet technologies.

That's all for this week, check in next time!