Launch Roundup: Russian and European science missions to launch during busy week

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Eight launches are scheduled for this week. Four of these are Falcon 9s, with SpaceX launching two customer missions and two Starlink missions. Internationally, Russia and Europe are both expected to launch science payloads, while, in Australia, Gilmour Space intends to attempt to launch its Eris rocket once again. In China, a Hyperbola 1 will fly for the first time since a previous launch failure.

Falcon 9 | O3b mPOWER 9 & 10 

Two satellites for the SES-owned O3b Networks, mPOWER 9 and mPOWER 10, will now launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Monday, July 21, at 5:22 PM EDT (21:22 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. Weather conditions are only 50/50 for this launch and further delays may occur.

Flying due east, Falcon 9 will carry the two communications satellites, which comprise a total payload mass of 3,400 kg, into medium-Earth Orbit. The booster for this flight, B1090, will land on Just Read The Instructions, one of SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport droneships, downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m diameter, 70 m tall two-stage rocket. The first stage booster is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines, while the second stage utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the first and only reusable orbital rockets in service today, with one Falcon booster having flown 29 flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after flight.

Booster B1090 will be flying for the sixth time, having previously flown O3b mPOWER 7 & 8, Crew-10, Bandwagon-3, Starlink Group 6-67, and Starlink Group 10-18. Its first flight was on December 17, 2024.

Falcon 9 | TRACERS & Others

NASA’s next science mission is set to fly on Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. The Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission is comprised of two satellites, each 400 kg in mass, that will fly to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) along with at least three other rideshare payloads.

Liftoff is planned for Tuesday, July 22, at 11:13 AM PDT (18:13 UTC). The currently unknown booster is expected to perform a return-to-launch-site landing following launch and will land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), which is located directly adjacent to SLC-4E.

The twin TRACERS satellites will operate in tandem, helping to understand magnetic reconnection and its effect on the Earth’s atmosphere. The other payloads include Bard, an advanced communications demonstration device; Athena EPIC, a technology demonstrator; and REAL, which will study the loss of particles from the Earth’s Van Allen belts.

If schedules hold, this mission will be the 90th Falcon 9 mission of 2025.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-26 

SpaceX’s busiest launch pad, SLC-40 at CCSFS, will host another Falcon 9 launch on Thursday, July 24, at 5:12 AM EDT (09:12 UTC). The teams at SLC-40 are now regularly completing pad turnarounds in a remarkably short time, with this launch coming only two days and 12 hours after the launch of O3b mPOWER 9 & 10.

Falcon 9 will fly northeast out of the Cape to place the Starlink payloads into low-Earth orbit. Starlink Group 10-26 will add a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites to the constellation’s Group 10 shell, which is at an orbital inclination of 53.16 degrees.

Hyperbola 1 | Unknown Payload

A Chinese Hyperbola 1 is expected to launch on Friday, July 25, at 04:10 UTC, from Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China. The mission’s payload is currently unknown, with Hyperbola 1 flying directly south from the launch site following launch.

The rocket, a Hyperbola 1, is a 20.8 m tall rocket consisting of four solid-fueled stages, with liquid-fueled attitude control motors. All four stages are 1.4 m in diameter. The previous launch of Hyperbola 1 in July 2024 suffered a fourth-stage failure and failed to reach orbit.

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Ionosfera-M 3 & 4 

A Soyuz 2.1b will launch a pair of Ionosfera-M satellites from Site 1S at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on Friday, July 25, at 05:54 UTC. Flying northwest, Soyuz will place the payloads into SSO at an altitude of approximately 800 km.

Ionosfera-M 3 and Ionosfera-M 4 are the second pair of satellites to be launched to the Ionosfera constellation and will complete the constellation, which will be comprised of four Ionosfera satellites. The constellation aims to observe the Earth’s ionosphere and enhance our understanding of geomagnetic and solar storms, as well as their impact on the Earth. The mission will also carry 17 cubesats held in five containers onboard the Fregat-M upper stage.

The Soyuz 2 rocket has two major variants: Soyuz 2.1a, which serves as the base version, and Soyuz 2.1b, which utilizes a more powerful third stage. Soyuz 2.1b is powered by four RD-107A engines on the first stage (arranged around the second, core stage), a single RD-108A engine on the core stage, and an RD-0124 engine on the third stage. Each stage uses liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.

Vega C | CO3D & MicroCarb 

Vega C’s second mission of 2025 will launch from the Vega Launch Complex at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on Saturday, July 26, at 02:03 UTC.

Five payloads will be delivered to SSO, with Vega C flying directly north from the launch site. MicroCarb is a microsatellite based on the Myriade spacecraft bus from the Centre National d’ร‰tudes Spatiales (CNES) and masses only 180 kg. The onboard dispersive spectrometer instrument will measure carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere with high precision. The additional four satellites, built by Airbus, will provide stereo imagery of the Earth’s landmass for CNES.

Vega C is an expendable launch system jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It is operated by Arianespace.

The rocket, named after the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, features three solid rocket stages: the P80 first stage, the Zefiro 23 second stage, and the Zefiro 9 third stage. The fourth stage is comprised of the Attitude & Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) liquid stage. Italy is the leading contributor to the Vega program (65%), followed by France (13%). Other participants include Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-2 

The final Falcon 9 launch of the week will fly from SLC-4E at VSFB and is scheduled for Friday, July 25, at 7:09 PM PDT (Saturday, July 26, at 02:09 UTC).

Starlink Group 17-2 will be the third launch for Group 17, the Starlink constellation’s polar shell, and will launch due south from Vandenberg. The yet-to-be-announced booster will land downrange on the west coast droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

Eris | Testflight 1

Gilmour Space will make its third attempt at launching its Eris rocket on Saturday, July 21, at 21:30 UTC. Gilmour’s second attempt at the maiden launch of its Eris small satellite rocket was scheduled for July 16, but was delayed due to operational issues and unfavorable upper wind forecasts.

The company stood down from its first attempt, which was scheduled for May 16, after the fairings were prematurely triggered by the separation system during overnight launch preparations. An unexpected power surge from other devices downstream had caused the vehicle to shut down, causing the issue, which has since been mitigated.

The launch will take place from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport at Abbot Point, north of the coastal town of Bowen. As the emblem on the rocket body proudly declares, the three-stage launcher is “Australian-made.” TestFlight 1 is poised to become the first orbital launch from Australian soil performed by a sovereign-built vehicle.

Eris stands vertical against a scenic sky. (Credit: Gilmour Space)

Comparable to Rocket Lab’s Electron, Eris stands a little taller at 25 m in height. The vehicle also features a slightly larger 1.5 m fairing and boasts a payload mass of up to 215 kg for a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit, or 305 kg for equatorial orbits between 500 km and 1,000 km. The first stage is propelled by four Sirius engines, a proprietary hybrid engine that utilizes a 3D-printed solid fuel grain and hydrogen peroxide as the oxidizer. A single Sirius engine powers the second stage. A successful orbital launch would also be the first for a hybrid rocket design.

Gilmour Space recently announced a new partnership with Tokyo-based Space BD, which will see Gilmour Space provide dedicated and rideshare opportunities aboard its Eris rocket and ElaraSat platform for Japanese and global satellite customers.

(Lead image: A Falcon 9 launches a previous mPOWER mission for SES. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

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