We have quite an interesting schedule of rocket launches this week. Blue Origin will launch its New Glenn rocket on its first mission on Wednesday. Then on Friday we’ll get the expected seventh Starship launch, which includes Starlink simulators.
Monday, January 6
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 16:44 UTC
- Where: Florida, USA
- Why: On this mission, SpaceX will launch one of its trusted Falcon 9 rockets, which will carry 24 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. This batch of satellites is designated Starlink Group 6-71; you can use this ID to track them in space in apps like ISS Detector. After launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage will land for reuse.
Tuesday, January 7
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Falcon 9
- When: 15:51–19:51 UTC
- Where: Florida, USA
- Why: For this launch, SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 to launch 21 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit under the designation Starlink Group 12-11. Among these satellites are 13 more advanced point-to-point satellites. After launch, the first stage of the rocket will land.
Wednesday, January 8
- Who: Blue Origin
- What: New Glenn
- When: 06:00–09:45 UTC
- Where: Florida, USA
- Why: This is the most noteworthy mission this week because it marks the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. The mission is called NG-1 and launches with two payloads. The first is called the Blue Ring demonstrator and is a satellite support system. The second is the DS-1 flight system developed by Blue Origin.
The first stage of the reusable rocket contains seven BE-4 engines, the second stage – two BE-3U engines. The first stage of the rocket will land on the Jacklyn LPV1 offshore platform.
NASA’s EscaPADE mission was intended to be the payload for this mission, but it was delayed until the later launch of New Glenn.
Friday, January 10
- Who: SpaceX
- What: Starship
- When: 22:00–23:37 UTC
- Where: Texas, USA
- Why: This is the seventh test mission of SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Now that great progress has been made on launches and landings, SpaceX believes it’s time to send 10 Starlink simulators into orbit on the rocket. These simulators will be the same size and weight as real Starlink satellites. Interestingly, this mission will include the Raptor engine on the Super Heavy booster, which was also used in the fifth test flight.
To learn more about this mission, contact Neovin. dedicated lighting.
Resume
- The first launch we received this week was from SpaceX. He used a Falcon 9 to launch Starlink Group 11-3 into orbit before the rocket’s first stage landed.
- Next up was another SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, but this time it carried four satellites for Astranis, a mission that was delayed several times. The first stage of the rocket also landed.
- In the third mission of the week, India launched the PSLV rocket with the SpaDeX mission, which is a cost-effective docking test between two small spacecraft.
- On the last day of the year, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 12-6 on a Falcon 9 before landing the rocket’s first stage.
- In the last mission of the week, another SpaceX Falcon 9 was used to launch the Thuraya 4 mission. The next-generation Thuraya-4 satellite was launched into geostationary transfer orbit.
That’s all we have for this week, be sure to check back next time!