This Week in Launches: Post Starship lull and Thanksgiving day engine test

After a rather eventful weekend, SpaceX only has one launch schedule for the week with a private Chinese company making a rare appearance, and Russia’s military launching a Soyuz 2. However, on Thanksgiving day, Arianespace and the ESA are planning a test of its Vulcain 2.1 engine down in French Guiana.

This week’s launches

• November 21
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 6-29, 11:00 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 23
  • ExPace Kuaizhou 1 Unknown Payload, 5:00 A.M. ET
    • Mobile Launcher Pad, Xichange Satellite Launch Center, China
  • VKS RF Soyuz 2.1a Bars-M n°5, 3:00 P.M. ET
    • Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia

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SpaceX to launch one mission after eventful weekend

Over the weekend SpaceX launch not just its largest rocket currently in development, Starship, but also two Falcon 9s (one was early this morning, I missed it too). This week, the company looks to be taking a little break for Thanksgiving.

SpaceX will launch rocket number 88 tomorrow and like the majority of them, it will be another batch of Starlink satellites. With Starlink service continuing to grow world wide, the more satellites the better at this point.

Outside of that, SpaceX will be pretty quiet when it comes to launches. Starbase, however, has already sprung back into testing mode with a Starship booster (Booster 11) moving back from a test site last night. Elon Musk wants to have hardware ready to launch int time for Christmas.

Vote in this week’s poll on when you think Starship will fly again.

Ariane 6 to get engine static fire Thursday

On Thanksgiving Day here in the states, ESA plans to do a full duration engine firing on its Ariane 6 rocket down in French Guiana. This will be live streamed on the agency’s website, something not many of us were expecting.

When this test is complete, we expect ESA and Arianespace to finally announce a launch date for the rocket. The agency has already stated launch will take place in 2024, but officials have been waiting for this test to be complete to give an exact date.

The test will feature a full countdown of the rocket but will exclude booster ignition, just focusing on the Vulcain 2.1 engine. This engine will complete a full duration burn using fuel from the Ariane 6 first stage tanks. The test will last for almost eight minutes and cover the entire flight profile of Ariane 6’s first stage launch.

Ignition is set to take place at 3:30 P.M. ET on Thursday, perfect material to watch in-between Thanksgiving Day football. Coverage will begin about 20 minutes before ignition, so make sure to set that reminder right next to putting the turkey in the oven.

Okay I’ll stop now before the turkey jokes get a bit too… overdone.