Made On Earth, Found In Space

10/14/2024

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is targeting launch today (10/14) at 1206pm ET from LC39A in Kennedy Space Center for the NASA Europa Clipper mission.

NASAs Europa Clipper mission is a probe to send to Jupiter's icy moon Europa in order to study in more depth and determine if the celestial body could hold potential life in the subterranean oceans under it's icy exterior. High quality photos and sensors will help determine the thickness of the ice surface and depth of the lakes and oceans underneath. The mission will look for recent geological activity, including geysers. This 6065kg spacecraft was primarily built by JPL and APL and will be deployed into a heliocentric orbit.

The Falcon Heavy is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 70 meters tall. This partially reusable launch vehicle can lift as much as 63800kg to a low Earth orbit(LEO), but typically gives up some performance to propulsively land some or all of its first stage boosters for reuse. The first stages being used for this mission as side stages, B1064 & B1065, are making their 6th and final flights. The center core booster, B1089, will be making its first and only flight. All the recovery hardware has been removed for this launch as the mission requires maximum performance, and there will be no recovery attempts. The fairings will be recovered from the Atlantic ocean for reuse.

NASA has a live webcast for this launch at https://www.youtube.com/live/lQToTWKwtuw?si=4r25Nu9TjYCC_FPE

10/14/2024

A SpaceX Starship launched on 10/13 at 8am ET from Starbase in Boca Chica, TX for the Flight Test 5 mission.

Flight Test 5 would strive to accomplish and improve on Flight Test 4, with a good launch separation and controlled set down of both vehicle stages. Where Flight 5 sets itself apart is on the controlled landing of the Booster stage, which was actually put down and caught by the launch pads mechanical catch arms. Booster 4 just made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico in comparison. The Starship upper stage set down cleaner in the water than on the previous mission as well, showing good progress of development. SpaceX wants to catch boosters on the launch pad so they can rapidly reuse the boosters to launch more Starship upper stages.

The Starship is a two stage methalox rocket standing 121 meters tall. This potentially fully reusable launch vehicle is targeting to be able to lift as much as 150000kg to a low Earth orbit, although it's unclear how much payload the current development rockets could lift. These development stages are not yet being reused, but both stages will eventually be reusable.

SpaceX had a live webcast of this Flight Test on their Twitter account.

10/07/2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is targeting launch today (10/7) at 1052am ET from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral SFS for the ESA Hera mission.

Hera is a probe to validate the orbital changes and impacts on the Dimorphos astroid which the NASA DART probe impacted into during a September 2022 mission. The European Space Agency Hera probe is a 1081kg spacecraft being placed into a heliocentric orbit to follow up on the DART mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 70 meters tall. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 22800kg, but typically gives up some performance to propulsively land it's first stage booster for reuse. The first stage being used for this mission, B1061, will be making its 23rd and last flight. SpaceX intends to expend the booster on this launch, so no landing legs or grid fins are present. Fairings will be recovered from the Atlantic ocean for reuse.

ESA has a live webcast for this launch at https://www.youtube.com/live/O13Sp00Ltlw?si=gnvdVWm68kSZgduN

10/04/2024

A ULA Vulcan VC2S is targeting launch this morning(10/4) during a three hour window starting at 6am ET from SLC-41 in Cape Canaveral SFS for its Second Certification Flight mission.

A successful second certification flight will allow ULA to start launching national defense missions with this new rockets. It has several contracts backlogged for national defense missions already and hopes to launch some by end of year. The 1500kg payload for this launch is mostly just a mass simulator, but there are sensors, instruments, and small demonstrators on board. Originally, the second certification mission was to carry the first Sierra Space Dream Chaser to orbit for a test flight, but Dream Chaser kept getting delayed.

The Vulcan VC2S is a two stage rocket with a methalox first stage and hydrolox Centaur V upper stage, all standing 61 meters tall. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 19000kg to a low Earth orbit with the help of it's two strap-on solid rocket motors. The rocket sources it's BE-4 first stage engines from Blue Origin and the GEM 63XL SRMs from Northrop Grumman.

ULA will have a live webcast for this launch at

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan VC2S rocket will launch the second certification (Cert-2) mission from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space ...

09/28/2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for launch today(9/28) at 117pm ET from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral SFS for the NASA Crew-9 mission.

NASAs Crew-9 mission is a crewed expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) for six months, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and ROSCOSMOS cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The original plan was to carry four astronauts to ISS, but when the Boeing Starliner CFT mission came back uncrewed due to potentially unsafe malfunctions, it was decided by NASA to launch with only two astronauts so Butch and Suni could ride back on Crew-9.

The Falcon 9 is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 70 meters tall. This partially reusable launch vehicle can lift as much as 22800kg to low Earth orbit(LEO), but typically gives up some performance to propulsively land it's first stage booster for reuse. The first stage being used for this mission, B1085, is making its second flight and will propulsively land back at LZ-1 in Cape Canaveral SFS. The Crew Dragon being used, Freedom(C212), is making its 4th flight.

NASA TV will have live coverage of this launch starting at 910am ET.

09/24/2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on 9/20 at 950am ET from SLC-4E in Vandenberg Space Force Base for the Starlink Group 9-17 mission.

Starlink is SpaceXs constellation of high speed broadband internet satellites being placed into a low Earth orbit (LEO). This batch of 20 V2 Mini Starlinks will bring the total number launched to 7042; including prototypes, earlier versions, and satellites that have since de-orbited.

The Falcon 9 is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 70 meters tall. This partially reusable launch vehicle can lift as much as 22800kg to LEO, but typically gives up some performance to propulsively land it's first stage booster for reuse. The first stage used for this launch, B1075, made its 13th flight before propulsively landing on the autonomous drone landing ship, Of Course I Still Love You. Fairings were recovered from the Pacific ocean for reuse.

SpaceX has a webcast of this launch on their Twitter account.

09/24/2024

A Chinese ExPace Kuaizhou-1A launched on 9/20 at 543am ET from Xichang Satellite Launch Center for the Tianqi 29-32 mission.

Tianqi is a Chinese constellation of Internet-of-Things(IoT) satellites being deployed into a low Earth orbit (LEO). Four satellites were deployed on this launch.

The Kuaizhou-1A is a four stage solid fueled rocket standing 19 meters tall. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 300kg to LEO.

There was no official webcast for this launch.

09/24/2024

A Chinese Long March 2D launched on 9/20 at 1211am ET from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center for the Jilin-1 Wideband 02B-01 thru 06 mission.

Jilin-1 Wideband 02B is a constellation of commercial Earth observation satellites for the Chinese market. These six satellites were placed into a Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

The Long March 2D is a two stage hypergolic rocket standing 40 meters tall. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 3500kg to low Earth orbit (LEO).

There was no official webcast for this launch.

09/24/2024

A Chinese Long March 3B launched on 9/18 at 914pm ET from Xichang Satellite Launch Center for the Beidou-3 M25 & M27 mission.

Beidou-3 is a Chinese constellation of navigational satellites(like the US GPS, European Galileo, or Russian GLONASS) being placed into a medium Earth orbit (MEO). These two satellites weigh 4500kg and are the last two backup satellites (59th and 60th) to be put into orbit as part of the Beidou-3 constellation.

The Long March 3B is a four stage hypergolic rocket standing 54 meters tall. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 12000kg to low Earth orbit (LEO) with the help of it's four strap-on hypergolic boosters.

There's video of the launch at https://weibo.com/l/wblive/m/show/1022:2321325080229516279950

09/19/2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on 9/17 at 650pm ET from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral SFS for the Galileo FOC FM26 & FM28 mission.

Galileo FOC FM26 & FM28 are a pair of navigational satellites for the ESA Galileo constellation, being placed into a Medium Earth orbit (MEO). The Galileo constellation is the European equivalent to the US GPS, Russian GLONASS, or Chinese Beidou navigation constellations. The total mass of these two satellites was 1603kg. These satellites were originally going to be launched on a Soyuz rocket(but the Ukraine/Russia war stopped that) and then the Ariane 6(too many delays), before finally launching via Falcon 9.

The Falcon 9 rocket is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 70 meters tall. This partially reusable launch vehicle can lift as much as 22800kg to LEO, but typically gives up some performance to propulsively land it's first stage booster for reuse. The first stage booster used for this mission, B1067, flew for its 22nd time before landing on the autonomous drone landing ship, Just Read The Instructions. Fairings were also recovered from the Atlantic ocean for reuse. The first pair of Galileo satellites SpaceX launched were done so on an expended Falcon 9, SpaceX was able to squeeze out enough performance to recover the booster on this second pair.

SpaceX has a live webcast for this launch on their Twitter account.

09/17/2024

A Russian Angara 1.2 launched today (9/17) at 3am ET from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia for the Cosmos 2577 & 2578 mission.

Cosmos numerical designations are basically generic names the Russians give every mission payload. These two particular payloads are very likely military in nature as Russia has almost no commercial launch presence at this time while at war with Ukraine. The two satellites were put into a Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

The Angara 1.2 is a two stage kerolox rocket standing 42 meters high. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 3800kg to a low Earth orbit (LEO).

There was no official webcast for this launch.

09/17/2024

An Iranian Qaem 100 rocket launched on 9/14 from the Shahrud Missile Test Site in Iran for the Chamram-1 mission.

Chamram-1 is a technology demonstrator to test out satellite propulsion system. This small sat weighs 60kg and was places into a low Earth orbit (LEO).

The Qaem 100 is a three stage solid fueled rocket. This expendable launch vehicle can lift as much as 80kg to LEO.

There was no official webcast for this launch.