Launch Roundup: SpaceX launching three Falcon 9 rockets including Crew-8; new launcher to debut from Japan
This week now has four flights scheduled, starting with Crew-8, which is to send a new crew to the International Space Station for a six-month tour of duty after launching from Florida. Starlink 6-41 from Cape Canaveral and Transporter 10 from Vandenberg Space Force Base are also on the docket along with the debut of a new small satellite launcher from Japan.
Crew-8 is due to fly three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut to the Station on March 2, while the Starlink 6-41 flight is due to launch on March 3, and Transporter 10 is scheduled for no earlier than March 4. The new KAIROS small satellite launcher developed by the Japanese commercial sector is scheduled to fly on March 8.
Crew-8 members left to right: Alexander Grebenkin, Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeannette Epps. (Credit: SpaceX)
The month of March is starting with a crewed spaceflight, the third of the year. Falcon 9 B1083-1 is making its launch debut with the Crew Dragon Endeavour on top making its fifth flight. Launch is scheduled for the late evening hours from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, March 2. T0 is set for 11:16 PM EST (04:16 UTC Sunday, March 3).
Crew-8 is commanded by astronaut Matthew Dominick, with Michael Barrett being the pilot, and astronaut Jeanette Epps along with cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin being the mission specialists. While these fliers continue to orbit on the second stage, B1083-1 will be making a return to launch site landing on the concrete pad at LZ-1.
Endeavour will take approximately eight minutes to get to its orbit on its northeast trajectory, which is inclined at 51.6 degrees to the Equator, the same inclination the Station uses. There are abort zones along the flight path where the spacecraft can splash down in the event of an in-flight emergency, but the weather there needs to cooperate as well as weather at the launch site.
Updated launch forecast from the 45th Weather Squadron. (Credit: USSF)
The 45th Space Wing had the weather forecast from the Kennedy Space Center as 90 percent go for a March 1 launch but that was pushed back due to ascent corridor weather. A certain number of sites on the ascent corridor must have weather suitable for an emergency splashdown. Saturday evening’s launch attempt has a 40 percent chance of acceptable launch weather, but the outlook improves for Sunday evening.
Once the Dragon makes orbit and separates from the second stage, Endeavour will conduct maneuvers to get it to the vicinity of ISS. Crew-8 docks to the Station and its Harmony module’s forward port on Sunday, March 3 at 2:10 PM EST (19:10 UTC).
This flight will be the 20th SpaceX orbital mission of 2024 if the launch is on time, as SpaceX tries for what could be up to 148 flights this year. The flight will also be the first flight of March for the company, after nine flights in February and 10 in January.
Starlink v2 Mini satellites prior to deployment. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-41
The next Starlink launch for SpaceX is scheduled to fly on Sunday, March 3 at 7:19 PM EST (00:19 UTC Monday, March 4) from SLC-40 at CCSFS in Florida. It will take advantage of improvements in the vehicle’s capabilities to fly up to 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit on a southeast trajectory.
B1073-13 will be landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. Starlink flights carrying the full complement of satellites require a drone ship farther out in the Atlantic as they do not have enough performance for a boost back burn. A reduced number of satellites would be necessary for a return-to-launch site capability.
B1073 has flown the Starlink 4-15, SES-22, Starlinks 4-26 and 4-35, HAKUTO-R Mission 1, Amazonas Nexus, CRS-27, Starlinks 6-1, 6-2, 5-11, 6-12, 6-27, and 6-37. All of B1073’s flights have been from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This flight will be the 21st launch of the Falcon 9 and SpaceX this year, and the second of the month if the current schedule holds. SpaceX is roughly on pace to perform 120 launches this year, though it aims for as high as 148 flights.
Aerospacelab’s high resolution earth observation satellite, one of dozens of payloads aboard Transporter-10. (Credit: Aerospacelab)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Transporter 10
The next flight that is currently planned will also be a Falcon 9, this time from the California coast. The rocket is scheduled to launch Monday, March 4 at 1:04 PM PST (21:04 UTC) from SLC-4E with a dedicated rideshare mission for small satellites.
This flight is to take a southward trajectory that will take all the payloads into a sun-synchronous polar orbit. It is unknown which booster will be used at the time of writing, but whichever booster is used will be conducting a boost back maneuver and RTLS landing on the concrete pad at LZ-4.
Highlights of Transporter 10’s payload include the first satellite fully developed, built, and operated by Portugal, two Mongolian amateur radio satellites, and a satellite to monitor methane levels in the atmosphere. Transporter missions can carry dozens of satellites on one flight.
Transporter 10 is to be the 22nd launch for SpaceX in 2024 under the current flight schedule, and the eighth launch from SLC-4E this year as well as the third flight of March for the company. The pace of launches from the West Coast has picked up in recent years and this seems likely to continue, especially with SLC-6 now being leased by SpaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
Computer-generated render of Space One’s KAIROS launching from Space Port Kii. (Credit: Space One)
A Japanese commercial company known as Space One is scheduled to make its debut in the world of orbital space launch with its new KAIROS small satellite launcher. KAIROS is scheduled to fly from Space Port Kii, which is a new launch facility built from 2019 to 2021 that is also making its debut.
The KAIROS launch is scheduled for Saturday, March 9 at 02:00 UTC from the Space One Launch Pad at Space Port Kii, which is on the coast east of Osaka on the main island of Honshu. KAIROS is flying a prototype quick response satellite for the Japanese Government Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center, which operates Japan’s IGS satellites and is roughly the equivalent of the US National Reconnaissance Office.
KAIROS is a four stage launcher, 18 meters high, with three solid-fueled rocket stages and a fourth liquid-fueled upper stage to make the final push into orbit. The rocket, just under one and a half meters wide and massing 23 metric tons, is capable of flying a 250-kilogram payload to a low-Earth orbit inclined 33 degrees to the Equator, or a 150-kilogram payload into a sun-synchronous polar orbit.
The rocket is of a similar size and width to the Rocket Lab Electron and is roughly similar in capability to the original version of Electron before its 2020 upgrade in payload capacity. Similarly to Rocket Lab’s Mahia launch site, Space Port Kii is a dedicated launch site for Space One. The company aims to launch frequently and have the world’s shortest time between contract and launch, to try to lower the cost of access to space. Space One is joining a fairly crowded field of small satellite launch operators.
(Lead image: Crew Dragon Endurance and B1083-1 being rolled out to Launch Pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX)
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