Launch

On Thanksgiving day here in the US, ESA conducted a simulated launch static fire of the Ariane 6 first stage booster. Powered by a single Vulcain 2.1 engine, the stage burned through almost 150 tons of fuel over a seven minute burn.

A NASA official’s notes during an Advisory Council meeting shares that Blue Origin‘s first New Glenn launch could come no earlier than August 2024. NASA expects its ESCAPADE mission to be on top of that rocket, but is less confident in the launch date.

After a rather eventful weekend, SpaceX only has one launch schedule for the week with a private Chinese company making a rare appearance, and Russia’s military launching a Soyuz 2. However, on Thanksgiving day, Arianespace and the ESA are planning a test of its Vulcain 2.1 engine down in French Guiana.

This week is a rather slow one with two launches scheduled for SpaceX‘s Falcon 9, yes they’re for Starlink. However, pending regulatory approval, the week could finish with the second launch of the company’s Starship rocket.

Over the weekend, SpaceX launched three Falcon 9 rockets from all three of its launch pads. The missions were all commercially purchased wither by NASA, SES, or in part of a rideshare program. Two out of the three flights featured RTLS landings at LZ-1 and 4, a rare occurrence.

This week we have four launches from SpaceX and from both coats. Not just that, but two of the launches this week will feature RTLS landings. That means only one thing, non-Starlink launches!

This week Virgin Galactic is returning for its six flight within six months. Galactic 5 will be one of many launches happening this week, two others from China and possibly three from SpaceX.

Early Friday morning, Astrobotic’s first lunar lander departed its offices in Pittsburgh for a drive down to Florida to be integrated onto the Atlas V for launch as soon as December. A flight the company has been waiting to do for years.

In an interview with CNBC, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said that they plan to fly its new Vulcan every other week by the second half of 2025. This is thanks to their new grasp on the commercial launch market that Vulcan is expected to be able to compete with SpaceX on.

After long delays due to engines and the rocket’s Centaur upper stage, ULA finally has given a launch date for when it thinks it can launch its new Vulcan rocket. In an interview with CNBC, ULA CEO Tory Bruno shared the date and a lot of other company updates we’ll expand upon in future articles.

This week is an exciting week if you follow Chinese human spaceflight as we are set for the next crewed rotation launch for China’s Tiangong Space Station. Russia will also see a launch this week and over the weekend, we’ll see a double header from SpaceX.

After dodging some harsh weather, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft lifted off from the historic LC-39A launch pad at 10:19 A.M. ET on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. After being delayed a year, the spacecraft is finally on its way to an asteroid, of the same name, to do some good old science.

SpaceX is leading the show this week with three rocket launches from Florida’s Space Coast. The one on all of our eyes is of course NASA’s Psyche mission flying on SpaceX Falcon Heavy, a show stopping rocket and science mission all in one week!

P.S. I’m on site for this mission, yay!

Begun, the low Earth orbit satellite internet wars have – Yoda’s line sounded way more epic.

After potential delays pushing the flight of the satellite into next year, Amazon took advantage of one of its Atlas rockets to launch its first two Kuiper internet satellites to begin testing its service. This ended up being the third launch by ULA for 2023 and the 99th flight overall for the Atlas V.

A significant union has taken place in the realm of space exploration as space technology firm SpinLaunch and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation join hands. This strategic partnership aims to redefine the global space industry, bringing together innovation and investment to pave the way for sustainable and affordable space access, according to insiders. 

In the very early hours of Thursday, SpaceX launched its 71st rocket of the year, a run truly for the record books. Of those 71 50 came from the East Coast, a milestone any company would be happy to reach, SpaceX achieved from just one region.

ULA is prepared to launch the first batch of Amazon Kuiper test satellites into orbit on the final Atlas V 501 rocket. The satellites, which were initially intended for Vulcan, have been mated with the rocket and enclosed in its payload fairing. Project Kuiper’s “Protoflight” mission is set to launch Friday with a window opening up at 2:00 P.M.

With today marking the first Monday of October it also marks the start of the first week of the final quarter of 2023. Seriously where has the year gone?

So now is the time to catch up with SpaceX’s 100 launch goal for the year and see if they are anywhere close from hitting it or if they even have the chance.

This week turned out rather more exciting than originally expected when I discussed the week’s launches on Monday. Tuesday morning, Rocket Lab’s eighth Electron launch of the year suffered a failure on the second stage and SpaceX yet again broke its reuse record on a single booster.

Dare I say this week is rather… boring? Both SpaceX and Rocket Lab are launching this week for a total of three missions which like a year ago would be cause for celebration. However, both companies are continuing their deployment of constellation satellites, leaving much to be desired on the excitement level, but should we really be complaining?

With ULA sneaking in its first Atlas V launch between issues in this series, the only exciting launch I have to discuss this week is Russia’s crew rotation to the ISS. While it might seem like the only topic, it is indeed a significant event. MS-24, a crewed Soyuz mission, will replace the crew of MS-22, who have been in space for approximately a year.