SpaceX preps Falcon 9 in Florida for its next Starlink mission - TWIRL #177

A Falcon 9

This Week in Rocket Launches will be quieter than last week. It includes a Starlink mission from SpaceX and the launch of an unknown payload from China. The recap section is massive this week, so be sure to have a look.

Monday, 19 August

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 09:43 - 13:43 UTC
Where: Florida, US
Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying 23 Starlink satellites to a low Earth orbit. This batch is known as Starlink Group 10-5. You can use this identifier on apps like ISS Detector to try and find these exact ones once they're in space. The first stage of the Falcon 9 will do a landing ready for reuse.

Wednesday, 21 August

Who: CNSA
What: Long March 7A
When: 10:30 UTC
Where: Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, China
Why: Like many Chinese missions, which are military-led, it's not clear what payload will be launched on this mission.

Recap

The first launch we got last week was from Rocket Lab. The company launched one of its Electron rockets on a mission called "A Sky Full of SARs," which put Capella Space's Acadia-3 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite into orbit. It took off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

On Monday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Space Norway Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). The mission consists of two satellites that operate in a highly elliptical orbit to deliver broadband coverage in the Arctic region for the US Space Force and Space Norway.

Also on Monday, SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites from Florida atop a Falcon 9. For those that don't know, these satellites provide broadband service back on Earth. The first stage of the rocket performed a sea landing.

Next up, on Thursday, Russia launched the Soyuz-2.1a from Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was carrying the Progress MS-28 spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Progress MS-28 was carrying nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew on the ISS.

On the same day, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 to launch the third and fourth of six planned WorldView Legion satellites as part of the Maxar 2 mission. It took off from Florida, and the first stage performed a landing so that it could be reused.

On Friday, India launched the SSLV-D3 carrying the EOS-08 and SR-0 DEMOSAT satellites. It took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

On the same day, China launched a Long March 4B carrying a group of Yaogan-43 remote sensing satellites from Sichuan Province. The satellites will be used for testing new technologies.

Finally, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter 11 mission, which carried 116 SmallSat payloads on a rideshare mission. It took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and the first stage of the rocket landed and was ready for reuse.