A trio of Falcon 9 Starlink launches, a Falcon 9 non-Starlink launch involving an Eutelsat communications satellite, a Chinese launch, and a Russian Soyuz launch with a Resurs Earth observation satellite are scheduled for this week. However, the launch that will likely get the most attention is the final launch ever of a Delta family rocket, a family that dates back to near the beginning of the space age.
Starlink 6-46 starts the launch week off on Monday, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). A launch from China, thought to be a Chang Zheng 6C, is scheduled for Tuesday. Starlink 7-18 follows up from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) on the West Coast on Wednesday evening in the United States, with NROL-70 making the last Delta 4 Heavy — and Delta family — launch from SLC-37B at CCSFS on Thursday. Starlink 6-45 on a Falcon 9 is scheduled to fly from Florida on Friday. A Soyuz 2.1b with the Resurs-P No. 4 and a Falcon 9 with the Eutelsat 36D satellite are both scheduled to fly on Saturday to round out the launch week.
Starlink v2 Mini satellites prior to deployment. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-46
The first launch for this week will feature a Starlink launch from SLC-40, on the heels of a cargo Dragon launch from that same pad. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to fly on Monday, March 25 at 5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC), at the beginning of a four-hour and 31-minute launch window. Several Starlink launches have made use of these extended windows to be able to fly on the scheduled launch date, and this one could as well.
The booster for this launch, B1078-8, will be carrying a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites to continue building up the 6,000-unit strong satellite constellation and its reach to up to 2.6 million users worldwide. Like all Group 6 launches, this flight will fly to the southeast on a trajectory inclined 43 degrees to the Equator, and after stage separation, the booster will land on A Shortfall of Gravitas out in the Atlantic.
This flight is currently scheduled to be the 29th SpaceX orbital launch — and Falcon 9 flight — of 2024 as well as the 10th Falcon 9 launch in March. To put this in perspective, 2017 was the first year that SpaceX reached double digits in launch cadence, with 18 flights for the whole year. There is a possibility of 12 Falcon 9 launches this month if the rest of this week’s flights happen as scheduled, as the company continues to attempt to reach its stated goal of 148 launches this year.
Chang Zheng 6C | Unknown Payload
A Chang Zheng 6C is scheduled to fly from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China on Tuesday, March 26, at 23:10 UTC from the LA-9A pad. The payload is currently not known, though the flight path would be to a sun-synchronous orbit as per published notices. Sun-synchronous polar orbits are frequently used by Earth observation satellites as they allow the spacecraft to image a given location in the same lighting conditions every day.
This is the first launch of a CZ-6C this year and the 14th flight of 2024 for China. This flight will also be the 12th launch of a CZ-6 family rocket and the first of the 43-meter-high CZ-6C variant. This variant, capable of launching 2,000 kilograms to a sun-synchronous orbit, features two RP-1 kerosene-fueled YF-100 engines on the first stage and an RP-1 kerosene-fueled YF-115 on the second stage. Both stages use liquid oxygen as the oxidizer.
The CZ-6C is comparable to some variants of the retired Delta II launch vehicle in performance, and was designed as a modern launcher for small to medium-sized commercial, military, and civilian satellites to low-Earth orbits. This dual-engine variant has two stages, unlike other CZ-6 variants with one YF-100 engine on the first stage, three stages, or solid rocket strap-on boosters.
Video capture from a Falcon 9 flight showing Starlink v2 Mini satellites being deployed. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 7-18
Just a little over 48 hours after Starlink 6-46’s scheduled launch, another batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites is scheduled to fly but this time from the West Coast. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from SLC-4E at VSFB on Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30 PM PDT (02:30 UTC on Thursday, March 28), at the beginning of a four-hour, 29-minute launch window. The launch time can be adjusted to later in the window if needed to accommodate weather or vehicle readiness.
Once Starlink 7-18 gets off the ground, the vehicle will fly on a southeast trajectory with a minimal “dogleg” maneuver required to get its batch of satellites into an orbit inclined 53 degrees to the Equator. The booster’s identity is not yet known, but after stage separation, it will land downrange on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. This particular drone ship is based out of Long Beach, California for VSFB flights and is the only one assigned to the Pacific at present.
This flight will be the 30th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 and the 11th Falcon 9 flight in March — setting a new record for monthly flight cadence — if this week’s flights fly on schedule. SpaceX’s 30 orbital flights this year — not counting Starship IFT-3, which also took place in March — nearly matches the 2021 total of 31 launches for the whole year and would exceed the total number of launches for the company for any given year before that.
The Delta IV Heavy center core for the NROL-70 mission rolls through Cape Canaveral on May 11, 2023. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
The Delta family of rockets started its service in May 1960 with the first launch of what was then known as the Thor-Delta, based on the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. This week, the very last launch of the Delta family is set for Thursday, March 28 from SLC-37B at 1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC) and this flight is a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
The Delta IV Heavy, the heaviest-lifting variant of the Delta IV family with a Common Booster Core (CBC) stage and two CBC stages mounted as boosters, has been the final variant of the Delta IV family to continue flying. While medium-capacity Delta IV variants have been retired since 2019, the NRO had heavier payloads that required the Heavy variant’s capabilities and that needed to fly before new vehicles were fully available.
The NROL-70 payload being mated to the Delta IV Heavy. (Credit: ULA)
The NRO’s Delta IV Heavy flights out of CCSFS have flown spacecraft thought to be signals intelligence satellites to geostationary orbits, as opposed to the electro-optical reconnaissance payloads from SLC-6 at VSFB. If this flight follows form, NROL-70 will be taking its payload on a due east trajectory out of CCSFS into a geostationary orbit.
The Delta IV Heavy, capable of launching up to 13,810 kilograms to a geostationary transfer orbit, is making its first and only flight of 2024, its 16th overall flight, and the second flight this year for the United Launch Alliance. NROL-70 will also be the very last of 389 Delta family rockets that have flown since the dawn of the space age, with a 95 percent success rate.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 7-25
A third Starlink launch is now on the schedule for this week. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites on Friday, March 29 from CCSFS SLC-40 at 5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC). This flight will go on a southeast trajectory like all other Group 7 Starlink launches, to an orbit inclined 53 degrees to the Equator.
After stage separation, the booster, which is not yet known, is to land on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions out in the Atlantic. This flight is set to be the 12th launch in March 2024, and the 31st mission of this year if all goes as planned. This will match 2021’s entire yearly launch output for the Falcon 9.
A previous Soyuz 2.1b on the launch pad at Baikonur following its rollout. (Credit: Glavkosmos)
RKK Energia Soyuz 2.1b | Resurs-P No.4
A Soyuz 2.1b is scheduled to fly from Site 31/6 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan with the Resurs-P No.4 Earth observation satellite on board. The launch is set for Saturday, March 30 at 09:36 UTC, one week after Soyuz MS-25 flew atop a Soyuz 2.1a. The flight is scheduled to send the 6,570-kilogram Resurs-P satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit.
The Resurs-P family of satellites, operated by Roscosmos, is capable of obtaining imagery at 1-meter resolution. The Resurs-P is a replacement for the Resurs-DK No.1 satellite, and the imagery has government and commercial applications. The three prior Resurs-P satellites are no longer in orbit, so Resurs-P No.4 will fill a gap in Russian imaging capability while the follow-on Resurs-PM family is under development.
This flight is the second mission for this Soyuz variant this year and just the fifth orbital launch for Russia in 2024. The Soyuz family has flown much higher yearly cadences in the past, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, but the current funding situation for spaceflight in Russia has forced a decrease in activity.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Eutelsat 36D
The final currently scheduled launch for the week is another Falcon 9, this one launching from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with a non-Starlink payload, the Eutelsat 36D geostationary communications satellite. Like the Resurs-P No.4 launch, this flight is scheduled to fly on Saturday, March 30 as well. Launch time is set for 5:52 PM EDT (21:52 UTC).
After launch, the Falcon 9 will be flying due east to launch the Eutelsat payload into a geostationary transfer orbit. How and whether the booster, whose identity has not been revealed, is to be recovered is currently not known. Eutelsat 36D will end up at the 36 degrees East longitude orbital slot to serve Europe, Africa, and Russia, and will succeed the earlier Eutelsat 36B satellite.
Eutelsat 36D prior to shipment aboard an Airbus Beluga cargo jet to Florida. (Credit: Airbus)
Eutelsat 36D, massing 5,000 kilograms at launch, is based on the Eurostar-Neo platform. This satellite features 70 Ku-band transponders over five downlink beams, a steerable antenna, an 18-kilowatt power generation capability, and an electric orbit-raising ability. It is designed to serve for up to 15 years and will service a key Eutelsat direct-to-home TV and government services orbital slot.
The Eutelsat 36D flight will be the 13th and last one for March for SpaceX if all goes on schedule, and it will also be the 32nd Falcon 9 launch of this year, exceeding the entire 2021 launch total for the type in just three months. SpaceX is currently on track to fly around 120 times this year with the Falcon family of rockets, not accounting for an increased cadence in the latter half of the year. Taking this into account, Falcon is expected to reach roughly 140 flights.
(Lead image: Delta IV Heavy being prepared for its final flight on NROL-70. Credit: ULA)
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