SpaceX to send cargo to the International Space Station - TWIRL #187

TWIRL logo in front of Dragon capsule

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.