China prepares for the maiden flight of Long March 12 - TWIRL #189

TWIRL logo in front of space image

We have a lot of launches coming up this month but the most interesting will come from China when the country launches its Long March 12 rocket on a maiden flight. This is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of lifting up to 10 tonnes of payload to a low Earth orbit.

Sunday, 24 November

Who: Rocket Lab
What: Electron
When: 03:00 – 06:00 UTC
Where: Wallops Island, United States
Why: Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket on the second Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) suborbital mission for the US Department of Defense. It will launch the Mach-TB “Hippo” payload from Leidos on a hypersonic test flight. The mission will allow for faster testing of commercially available hypersonic systems.

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 03:26 UTC
Where: California, US
Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 to launch 20 Starlink satellites to a low Earth orbit. Among these satellites, will be 13 direct-to-cell satellites which are newer models. This batch of satellites is known as Starlink Group 9-13. You can use this identifier on apps like ISS Detector to see these satellites in space once they’re launched. The first stage of the Falcon 9 will likely perform a landing so it can be reused.

Monday, 25 November

Who: Rocket Lab
What: Electron
When: 03:55 UTC
Where: Mahia, New Zealand
Why: Rocket Lab will use an Electron rocket to launch five Kineis satellites to orbit. It consists of 25 satellites that provide IoT communications. The mission has been dubbed “Ice AIS Baby”.

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 09:32 – 13:09 UTC
Where: Florida, US
Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying 24 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. This batch will be designated Starlink Group 12-1. The rocket should perform a landing after launch.

Tuesday, 26 November

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 01:31 – 01:31
Where: Florida, US
Why: This mission will see SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites to a low Earth orbit. This batch is Starlink Group 6-76. Like the other missions this week, the Falcon 9 should perform a landing. Starlink satellites are used to beam internet connectivity down to customers on Earth.

Wednesday, 27 November

Who: Landspace
What: Zhuque ZQ-2E
When: 02:00 UTC
Where: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
Why: Landspace will launch the Zhuque ZQ-2E on its first flight to orbit. This is an upgraded version of the ZQ-2 rocket that the company previous designed. It will use four improved TQ-12A engines on the first stage and a single TQ-15 engine on the second stage.

Who: Roscosmos
What: Soyuz 2.1b
When: 19:00 – 21:00
Where: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
Why: Roscosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1b carrying the eighth Lotos-S1 military satellite for the Liana electronic intelligence network.

Saturday, 30 November

Who: Roscosmos
What: Soyuz 2.1a
When: Unknown
Where: Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia
Why: Roscosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1a carrying the second Kondor-FKA radar Earth observation satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense. The satellite will obtain high- and medium-resolution radar information for addressing socio-economic issues of Russia and providing round-the-clock all-weather probing of the Earth’s surface.

Who: CNSA
What: Long March 12
When: 13:20 – 16:00
Where: Hainan Commercial Launch Site, China
Why: China will launch the Long March 12 on its first flight. This is a medium-lift launch vehicle being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. It is capable of putting 10 tonnes of payload into a low Earth orbit or 6 tonnes in a 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

Recap

The first launch last week was a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the TD7 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following the launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage performed a droneship landing.

Next, SpaceX was up against with a Falcon 9 but this time launched 20 Starlink satellites known as Starlink Group 9-12. The first stage of the rocket landed on a droneship, ready for reuse.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 was involved in the third launch of the week, this time carrying the GSAT-N2 communications satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Florida, US.

The biggest launch last week was SpaceX’s Starship on its sixth test flight. You can see the launch and Super Heavy’s landing below.

Here’s a clip of the landing of Starship.

Finally getting away from SpaceX we got a launch of Roscosmos’ Soyuz 2.1a carrying the Progress MS-29 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station.

Back to SpaceX again for the next launch, this time we saw a Falcon 9 launch 24 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. The first stage of the rocket performed a landing.

The final launch of the week saw Blue Origin launch its New Shepard rocket to the edge of space and land again carrying several passengers. These included Emily Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell, and Henry (Hank) Wolfond.