Moving on to the second half of 2024, the first week of July has already begun with the third launch of the Japanese H3 rocket in the early hours of Monday morning UTC – covered in our previous launch roundup.
Next week continues with two Starlink missions from SpaceX, bringing the number of Starlink satellites launched to over 6,700. Two more launches are expected from China with the first flight of the year for i-Space’s Hyperbola-1, now rescheduled for on Friday, and another mission on a Chang Zheng 6A. SpaceX is also preparing to launch the first communications satellite built in Turkey this Monday.
The fifth flight of Firefly’s Alpha launcher was scheduled for Tuesday night, July 2, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, but that date has now been pushed back.
This week marks the first anniversary of the last flight of an Ariane 5. Its successor, Ariane 6, is now ready for its first launch next week.
Another new vehicle, Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3, which is expected to make its first launch later this year, suffered a setback on Sunday when part of the vehicle flew off earlier than expected. During a static fire test, the rocket’s first stage, which uses kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellant, left the pad and disintegrated after a few seconds of flight, falling 1.5 km.
Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage from China’s Space Pioneer. This is catastrophic, not static. The firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1N
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 30, 2024
The company reported a structural failure in the connection between the rocket and the test stand. Still under development, this Chinese vehicle is similar in altitude and approach to the Falcon 9 with a reusable first stage.
The first half of the year saw 124 orbital launch attempts in total, with only a few failures, carrying 14 crew and over 1,330 payloads into orbit. The US and China accounted for 81% of launches over the six months, with 57% and 24% shares respectively. SpaceX was responsible for over half of all orbital launches at 54%. The only other launches that flew from the US in the first half of the year were: the last Delta IV Heavy, the first Vulcan Centaur, the last Atlas V Starliner launch, and an Electron that launched a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
By comparison, just two years ago the same number of launches was achieved with only a late September launch, and the count was at 75 this mid-year. A year ago the industry had yet to pass the 100 mark, with 98 orbital launches by the end of June. With the weather slowing launches recently and 67 missions under its belt so far, SpaceX is not yet halfway to its ambitious goal of 148 launches by 2024. There is still time to reach that point if the company returns to the launch cadence shown in May, with 14 flights per month, local time.
Firefly Alpha FLTA005 | ELaNa 43 “Summer Noise”
Originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 26, at 21:03 PDT (Thursday, June 27, 04:03 UTC), the launch date for the first flight of Firefly Aerospace’s two-stage Alpha rocket in 2024 is now is set for 21:03. PDT on July 3 (4:03 UTC on July 4). A launch attempt on Monday, July 1, was aborted seconds before liftoff due to a problem with ground support equipment on the launch pad. The mission will launch from SLC-2W at VSFB carrying a number of CubeSats into orbit.
Firefly has decided to drop today’s Alpha #FLTA005 launch to give the team more time to evaluate data and test systems from the first attempt. We will work closely with the range and ours @NASA client to determine the next launch window. Stay tuned for more.… pic.twitter.com/1EkcWfl8QD
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) July 2, 2024
This mission is part of the Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract between NASA and Firefly. The eight CubeSats in the payload include four built by universities, one built by an educational nonprofit and three built by NASA.
The Venture Class launch services program aims to provide more frequent and lower-cost access to space for cargo with a higher risk tolerance. Payloads built by educational institutions and non-profit organizations are eligible for selection through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), which aims to aid such projects, and each flight is given a mission name and number of the Educational Nanosatellite Launch (ELaNa), this flight being ELaNa 43.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is flying two R5 satellites, S4 and S2 2.0. These small 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’s Ames Research Center also has a satellite on board — TechEdSat 11 (TES 11) — that includes the latest and largest iteration of NASA’s Ames External Deceleration Experiment, which uses an umbrella-like device. to increase traction on a spacecraft and bring it safely. out of orbit faster.
For more information on cargo, please see our flight article.
Firefly announced a partnership with the Swedish Space Corporation last week to jointly launch satellites from the recently inaugurated Esrange Space Center in Sweden, targeting a first launch in 2026. The FAA also added Firefly vehicles to its Integrator of Space Data last week, tracking them in near-real time during launch operations.
Fleet Leader B1062 launches Starlink Group 10-3 from SLC-40 last week (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-9
The first Starlink mission of the week launched from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday, July 3 at 4:55 a.m. EDT (08:55 UTC) toward the end of the launch window—this was the 70th launch of SpaceX of the year.
The previous release from this block saw booster B1062 reach the 22-flight milestone for the first time last week. The device is approaching its 200th Falcon 9 launch soon, though probably not this month, with 196 launches from this site to date, including this mission.
The booster for this mission was B1073 on its 16th flight. It previously supported launches including Bandwagon-1, CRS-27, Hakuto-R, Amazonas Nexus, SES-22 and 10 Starlink missions. The booster landed on an autonomous drone A lack of Gravitas, which had seen 75 successful landings and recoveries before this one. This is the booster that suffered a rare ignition failure during an attempt to launch Starlink Group 10-2 in mid-June, subsequently causing the mission to slip behind Astra 1P and launch with an alternate booster, B1078.
With this mission, the company has launched over 6,700 Starlink satellites to date. As of earlier this week, SpaceX had launched 6,698, of which 477 had re-entered and 5,232 had moved into their operational orbit. The company added Madagascar to the long list of over 100 countries that can now access high-speed, low-latency internet service last week.
Chang Zheng 6A before the launch of Yunhai-3 02 in March 2024 (Credit: CASC / CCTV)
Chang Zheng 6A | Unknown payload
A Chang Zheng 6A is scheduled to launch from LC-9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China on Thursday, July 4 at 23:00 UTC.
This will be the third launch for this type of two-stage vehicle, which has been active since 2022 and is capable of lifting 5,000 kg into orbit, assisted by four side boosters. The CZ-6C single-stick variant made its debut this May.
The payload will likely be unknown until after launch. One possibility is the third in a series of Yunhai-3 satellites reportedly used for atmospheric, oceanic and environmental research. The same type of vehicle carried the second in that series at the beginning of this March and the first at the end of 2022.
Hyperbola-1 | Unknown payload
A launch is expected from Site 95A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China on Friday, July 5 at 23:40 UTC. Hyperbola-1, also known locally as Shuang Quxian-1 or SQX-1, is a four-stage solid-propellant rocket powered by liquid-propellant attitude control engines. This will be the seventh flight so far for this type of vehicle.
First flown five years ago this month, Hyperbola-1 has a 50% success rate after several issues in early flights, such as fuel valve jams and payload imbalances not separating. The last two missions have been successful, however, getting a dummy payload and then the DEAR-1 prototype recoverable experimental spacecraft into a sun-synchronous orbit last December. Beijing-based i-Space became the first private Chinese company to reach orbit with the first vehicle flight.
At just under 21m long and 1.4m in diameter, the vehicle can launch up to 300kg into low Earth orbit. Details of its cargo and destination have not yet been released before departure.
Hyperbola-1 ahead of DEAR-1 launch in December 2023 (Credit CCTV)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-3
A second Starlink mission is scheduled for the week, launching from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday, July 6 at 8:33 PM PDT (03:33 UTC July 7). While the booster has yet to be announced, it is expected to land on autonomous drones, Of course I still love you, waiting approximately 600 km down the range.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Turksat 6A
The launch of the first major communications satellite built in Turkey is scheduled for Monday, July 8 at 17:20 EDT (21:20 UTC) from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The communications satellite will be launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit en route to a geostationary orbit at 35,786 km above the equator, positioned at 42 degrees east longitude. The booster and autonomous drones supporting this mission have yet to be confirmed.
Weighing approximately 4,250 kg with thrusters on board, the satellite is equipped with 20 Ku-band transponders and 3 X-band transponders. It will provide data transmission for commercial, civil government and military communications over Europe, northern Africa, Middle East and most of Asia.
Türksat 6A after construction and testing in March, before being sent to Florida (Credit: TÜBİTAK UZAY / Turkish Century)
The Türksat 6A project started almost ten years ago and the main contractor, TÜBİTAK UZAY, reported that its scope will cover 118 countries and up to 4.5 billion people.
(Main image: Falcon 9 launch (Credit – Julia Bergeron for NSF)