Launch Roundup: Falcon Heavy returns with GOES-U, Firefly launches an Alpha

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Following a week in which Tropical Storm Alberto brought high seas, wind, and rain-related delays to the launch schedule in Florida, SpaceX hopes to get back on track this week with launches planned for all three of the active Falcon launch pads, including a Falcon Heavy.

Toward the end of the week, the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) will attempt the third launch of the H3 rocket from JAXA’s Tanegashima launch site in Japan. Additionally, Firefly’s Alpha returns with its first mission of the year from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California.

Given the reconfiguration of the pad for the Falcon Heavy launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX has not been able to schedule any Falcon 9 launches from this pad since May 24. SpaceX will, therefore, try to make maximum use of its other east coast pad, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Inclement weather may not be over for Florida yet, though. With hurricane season underway and further tropical storms brewing, launch schedules are likely to be impacted. The weather also affects marine assets, as recovery vessels have to dodge the storms, leading to further disruption and delay.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-2

Launched on Sunday, June 23, at 8:45 PM PDT (Monday, June 24, at 03:45 UTC) from VSFB’s SLC-4E, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted the second batch of Group 9 Starlink v2 Mini satellites. The droneship Of Course I Still Love You supported the mission and was stationed approximately 600 km downrange. The booster landed on the drone ship after completing the ascent, separation from the second stage, and a controlled return, using an entry burn to slow the rate of descent and a landing burn to bring it to a soft touchdown.

The mission launched on a southeasterly trajectory, placing the payload of 20 satellites into an orbit inclined at 53 degrees. Thirteen of the Starlinks have Direct-to-Cell capability, a pioneering feature that allows a mobile phone to communicate directly with the satellite when no other service exists.

B1075, the booster for this mission, flew after a 97-day turnaround, with this mission serving as its 11th flight. Previously, the booster flew Starlink Group 2-4, Transport and Tracking Tranche 01, Starlink Group 2-9, Starlink Group 5-7, Starlink Group 6-20, Starlink Group 7-3, Starlink Group 7-6, SARah 2 and 3, Starlink Group 7-12, Starlink Group 7-16, and USA 350 and 351.

The booster has flown all of its previous missions from Vandenberg, flying for the first time on Jan. 19, 2023. It has previously landed twice at Landing Zone 4, and eight times on Of Course I Still Love You.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy | GOES-U

The tenth flight of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is due to take place on Tuesday, June 25, at 5:16 PM EDT (21:16 UTC). Launching from the historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Falcon Heavy will lift the GOES-U weather satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit, flying due east to take full advantage of the Earth’s rotation to gain extra performance.

With the payload weighing over 5,000 kg, the center core of the Falcon Heavy, B1087, will be expended, as it is unable to preserve enough propellant to land softly on a droneship. The two side boosters, B1072 and B1086, will perform a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zones 1 and 2, respectively. All three boosters are flying for the first time.

Firefly Alpha FLTA005 | ELaNa 43 “Noise of Summer”

Firefly FLTA005 static fire. (Credit: Firefly Aerospace)

On Wednesday, June 26, at 9:00 PM PDT (Thursday, June 27, at 04:00 UTC), Firefly Aerospace’s two-stage Alpha rocket will make its first flight of 2024 from SLC-2W at VSFB carrying an array of cubesats to orbit.

This mission is part of the Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 Contract between NASA and Firefly. The eight satellites in the payload are mostly college-built cubesats, while three are built by NASA. Venture-Class is intended to give better access to space for colleges and other small-scale ventures. The college-built payloads are selected through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) intended to assist such projects, and each flight is given a collective mission name in the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) range, this flight forming ELaNa 43.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is flying two R5 satellites, S4 and S2 2.0. These small, free-flying devices are built using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and are intended to test their suitability as low-cost on-orbit inspection devices.

NASA Ames Research Center also has a satellite aboard — TechEdSat 11 (TES 11) — the latest and largest iteration of NASA Ames’ exo-braking experiment, which uses an umbrella-like device to increase drag on a spacecraft and bring it safely out of orbit in a controlled reentry.

The remaining satellite payloads feature small experimental features designed by students. One novel experiment is aboard CatSat, a 6u CubeSat built by the University of Arizona. CatSat will nearly reach a Sun-synchronous orbit and will use this to remain in constant daylight. Intended to operate for around six months, the cubesat will perform high-resolution Earth imaging, use HAM radio signal monitoring to measure the ionosphere, and test an inflatable antenna.

This launch livestream will be hosted by Firefly in collaboration with NSF.

Ceres 1S | Unknown payload

The Chinese Galactic Energy enterprise will launch a four-stage Ceres 1S rocket on Thursday, June 27, at 05:30 UTC. The mission will be a sea launch from coastal waters adjacent to Haiyang Spaceport. The payload for the mission is currently unknown. This will be the fourth Ceres 1 launch of 2024.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-3

A further batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites will be delivered to orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster. The mission will launch from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Thursday, June 27, at 6:55 AM EDT (10:55 UTC).

Flying northeast, the booster will burn for around 150 seconds before separating from the second stage, which will then light up its single vacuum Merlin engine to take the payload into an orbit inclined by 53 degrees.

The booster will return to land on an autonomous drone ship stationed about 600 km downrange of the pad.

JAXA H3-22S | ALOS-4/Daichi-4

The third launch attempt for JAXA’s H3 rocket will take place from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, on Sunday, June 30, at 03:06 UTC. The first H3 mission, launching Daichi-3, failed following a second-stage malfunction.

This payload — the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4) — was built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Kamakura Plant and carries the name “Daichi 4.” The Japanese word “daichi” signifies wisdom from the Earth and part of a growing family.

The booster for this mission is a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H3 with a designation of 22S, which indicates two LE-9 engines, two solid rocket boosters (SRB), and a shorter payload fairing. It has been reported that this mission was originally expected to fly on an H3-30, a three-engined first stage with no SRBs. However, the H3-30 is slightly delayed, still requiring engines and static fire testing. The previous flight showed that the H3-22 was powerful enough to lift this payload.

The previous launch of an H3-22. (Credit: JAXA)

The LE-9 engines used on the first stage use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and the expander bleed cycle method of engine cooling, in which the combustion chamber is cooled by cryogenic liquid fuel. The cooling process causes the fuel to change phase to a gas, which is subsequently used to power the turbine pumps, pushing more fuel and oxidiser into the engines. This is believed to be the first successful use of the expander bleed cycle in a bi-fuelled engine.

The second stage has a single LE-5B engine, which uses the same liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants as the first stage.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 8-9

Another batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites will launch from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral on Sunday, June 30, at 3:11 AM EDT (07:11 UTC). Early indications suggest a northeasterly trajectory, with the supporting droneship stationed 618 km downrange, where the booster will land following the launch’s completion.

The timing of this launch suggests another ambitious pad turnaround for SLC-40. The current pad turnaround record is two days, 19 hours, and 40 minutes, set only a few days ago by the Starlink Group 10-2 mission.

(Lead image: Falcon Heavy atop LC-39A. Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)

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