SpaceX is preparing to launch three Falcon 9s, including two Starlink missions. Additionally, launching this week are two Chinese rockets, an Electron, and a crewed Soyuz.
SpaceX will continue to strive for a record-breaking year by launching from all three of its Falcon 9 launch pads this week, which will take its launch total to 10 for March, with several days remaining. This week will also see the first launch of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This launch will be the first to make use of the newly added crew access arm as the CRS-30 mission heads to the International Space Station (ISS).
China will launch a relay satellite and a pair of navigation technology experimental satellites to lunar orbit to support future missions. This will be followed the next day by a launch of several Earth observation satellites.
Russia will launch a crew to the ISS, and Rocket Lab will launch a classified payload.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 7-16
SpaceX is expected to launch 22 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to a 53-degree inclination orbit on a southeastern trajectory, with an initial orbit of 286 by 296 kilometers. The launch is currently targeted for Monday, March 18, at 7:28 PM PDT (02:28 UTC on March 19) from Space Launch Complex 4E, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The booster will attempt to land on SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ship Of Course I Still Love You and should become the 30th successful recovery since the loss of B1058 in stormy seas in late December last year.
Chang Zheng 8 | Queqiao-2 Tiandu-1 & 2
China is due to launch its Queqiao-2 relay satellite on a Chang Zheng 8 Yao-3 no earlier than March 20 from LC-201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province. Launch windows will be 00:21 to 00:47 UTC and 01:45 to 02:16 UTC.
Larger and more capable than its predecessor the Queqiao-2 is said to carry science payloads including a very-long-baseline interferometry system array neutral atom imager, and a camera to capture extreme ultraviolet radiation.
Long March 8 on the pad.
With a mass of around 1,200 kilograms and a 4.2-meter antenna, the relay satellite has an expected lifespan of at least eight years. It will be sent into an inclined elliptical 24-hour lunar orbit that will support the Chang’e-6 lunar far-side sample return mission and will also provide relay communications for the Chang’e 7 and 8 missions, for which its orbit will be adjusted to 12 hours.
Also sharing a ride are a pair of navigation technology experimental satellites from the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory. Named after the Huangshan Mountains’ Tiandu Peak, the Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 satellites have a mass of 61 and 15 kilograms respectively.
The pair will fly in formation in a lunar orbit to verify the calibration of the navigation system for high-precision orbit determination, using inter-satellite ranging methods. They will also perform other communications and signal routing activities, and the data will inform the development and implementation of the planned Queqiao Communication and Remote Constellation System.
Long March 2D/YX-3 | Yunhai-2 Group 2
A Long March 2D is anticipated to carry several Yunhai-2 Group 2 Earth observation satellites to orbit on March 21, at 05:35 UTC. Launching from Launch Area 4, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, these are the first of the Group 2 satellites, following several Group 1 launches over the past five years.
The launcher has previously flown 85 times since 1992.
Rocket Lab Electron | NROL-123 Live and Let Fly
This mission will be Rocket Lab’s first launch from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). This follows four successful launches from New Zealand for the agency.
Targeting Thursday, March 21, 2:40 AM EDT (06:40 UTC), this will be Rocket Lab’s fourth mission from Launch Complex 2, a dedicated pad for the Electron rocket, located at Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA Wallops.
The launch service was acquired using NRO’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract. RASR enables the NRO to explore new opportunities for launching small satellites through a streamlined, commercial approach. The launch trajectory will be toward the southeast, but no further details of the classified payload have been made known.
This will be Rocket Lab’s 46th launch.
Roscosmos Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-25
Roscosmos will launch a crewed Soyuz 2.1a rocket to the ISS on March 21, at 8:21 PM EST (13:21 UTC) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz 2.1a is assembled, ready for flight. (Credit: Roscosmos)
The crew is led by Commander Oleg Viktorovich Novitsky (Russia), and the remaining seats are taken by Marina Vasilevskaya (Belarus) and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson (USA).
Commander Novitsky has flown three previous missions to the ISS, totaling 531 days in space, while this will be Marina Vasilevskaya’s first spaceflight.
Tracy Dyson is traveling under the “seat swaps” arrangement between NASA and Roscosmos, allowing for continuity of occupation of the ISS by both agencies in the event of either having launcher issues. According to Joel Montalbano, manager of NASA’s International Space Station program: “that integrated crew agreement provides for Soyuz and SpaceX missions, one a year in 2022, 2023, and 2024.” Dyson has flown two previous missions and performed three spacewalks, totaling over 22 hours, and will join the Expedition 71 crew on arrival.
Docking with the ISS is expected at 12:39 PM EST (17:39 UTC) after a three-hour rendezvous.
Following the completion of work on the tower at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, SpaceX will launch a cargo Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 on Thursday, March 21, 4:55 PM EDT (20:55 UTC). This will be the first Dragon 2 to launch from SLC-40 and will allow crews to test out the new crew arm as they perform late-loading operations before launch. This is seen as part of the certification process for the crew launch facilities at SLC-40 before they are used for the first crew launch.
CRS-30 mission patch. (Credit: SpaceX)
The booster, as yet undesignated, is expected to perform a return-to-launch-site landing a few miles south of SLC-40 at Landing Zone 1.
Arrival at the station is scheduled for Saturday, March 23 at approximately 7:30 AM (03:30 UTC). The SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft will dock autonomously at the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module.
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-42
Rounding off the week, SpaceX’s third launch will be another Starlink mission. Targeting Friday, March 22, at 7:55 PM EDT (23:55 UTC), the Falcon 9 will launch 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to a 43-degree inclination orbit on a southeastern trajectory, with an expected initial orbit of 275 by 283 kilometers.
The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The booster is expected to land on a SpaceX autonomous spaceport drone ship.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launching from SLC-40 while IM-1 waited to launch IM-1 from LC-39A. Credit: SpaceX)
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