This week’s manifest includes the delayed launches of a Falcon 9 with Galileo global positioning satellites and an Electron with a second batch of satellites for Kinéis. SpaceX will also launch one batch of Starlink satellites from California as the constellation increases to 6,000 operational satellites.
Following last weekend’s return and recovery of the Polaris Dawn crew onboard Crew Dragon Resilience, the crew of Soyuz MS-25 is scheduled to return to Earth next week and will spend this week preparing for their return. Undocking from the International Space Station is scheduled for the early hours of Monday, Sept. 23, with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub onboard.
Rendering of the Galileo satellites being released from Falcon 9. (Credit: European Union)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Galileo FOC FM26 & FM32
Following several delays, Falcon 9 is now expected to launch a pair of Galileo global positioning satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday, Sept. 16 at 6:51 PM EDT (22:51 UTC). This mission, the 13th for the Galileo constellation, was originally planned to launch on Soyuz and then Ariane 6, but was eventually contracted to SpaceX alongside another pair of European satellites due to delays with Ariane 6.
The two 700 kg satellites were built by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the European Union (EU) and will be carried to a medium-Earth orbit at an altitude of around 23,000 km. The Galileo constellation is part of the EU’s high-precision positioning system and is designed to feature 30 total satellites across three equally spaced orbital planes, with three satellites serving as spares. The satellites will ultimately allow Europe to not depend on either the United States’ GPS or Russia’s GLONASS systems.
The first Galileo satellites were activated in 2011, and the system gained operational status in 2019. The previous two satellites that SpaceX launched, numbered 29 and 30, have just completed their on-orbit tests. They were promoted into full operation just over a week ago, having reached their final orbit, which places the satellites at 23,222 km in altitude.
The last Galileo mission launched by Falcon 9 expended booster B1060 on its 20th flight. The booster for this mission is not yet known, but it is expected to land around 670 km downrange on the autonomous droneship Just Read The Instructions, which left Port Canaveral last Friday. Marking the 170th global orbital launch attempt of the year, this will be SpaceX’s 90th mission of 2024. The next mission from this pad will be Crew-9 on Sept. 25th.
Falcon 9 prepares for launch of Starlink Group 9-6 from SLC-4E last week. (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-17
Starlink Group 9-17, the only Starlink mission for this week, is planned to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7:20 AM PDT (14:20 UTC). Falcon 9 will carry another batch of 21 Starlink v2-mini satellites on a southeasterly trajectory, of which 13 are anticipated to be direct-to-cell satellites. The booster for this mission is not yet known, but will land on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You approximately eight minutes after liftoff.
With this mission, the number of operational Starlink satellites in orbit is set to exceed 6,000. At the start of the week, 7,022 satellites had been launched, 607 of which have re-entered, leaving 5,996 in their operational orbits.
Last week, during the Polaris Dawn mission, the Starlink constellation was tested multiple times from above the constellation’s orbit. One test showcased the constellation’s connectivity capabilities with an uninterrupted video call from the crew that lasted over 40 minutes.
Electron is rolled to the pad for its 53rd mission. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Electron / Curie | Kinéis Killed The RadIoT Star
Rocket Lab is preparing to launch the second batch of nanosatellites for customer Kinéis, the global connectivity provider dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), on the “Kinéis Killed The RadIoT Star” mission. The first batch of satellites was carried to orbit on an Electron back in June on the “No Time Toulouse” mission, which began building out a planned constellation of 25 nanosatellites massing 30 kg each.
The launch was originally planned for Monday, Sept. 16, from Pad B at Launch Complex 1 at the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand but has been delayed to no earlier than this Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 23:02 UTC due to unfavorable weather. This is an instantaneous launch window, with other opportunities at the same time across the following 11 days, if necessary. This mission will be Electron’s 53rd mission to date and will place the satellites at an altitude of 643 km in an orbit inclined 98 degrees. This mission will bring the total number of satellites launched by Rocket Lab to 192.
The Curie kick stage will perform an eight-second burn after circularizing to deploy the satellites into precise locations. After releasing the satellites, Curie will conduct a perigee-lowering burn to reduce its orbital lifetime. Additional batches of five satellites are expected to launch on more Electron missions this November and December, with a final batch targeting launch next February.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches a batch of Starlink satellites. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
The post Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 and Electron to extend satellite constellations appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
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