This Week in Launch: The final launches of 2023

With New Years coming up at the end of the week, we now know what will end up being the final rocket launches of 2023. SpaceX‘s Falcon Heavy is also set to return this week after a lengthly delay. Meanwhile, China is back with a flurry of more launches, but India looks to be taking the crown as the final launch of 2023.

This week’s launches:

• December 27 (Wednesday)
  • VKS RF Soyuz 2.1v Unknown Payload, 1:00 A.M. ET
    • Site 43/4, Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
  • ExPace Kuaizhou 1A Unknown Payload, 2:00 A.M. ET
    • Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• December 28 (Thursday)
  • SpaceX Falcon Heavy USSF-52 (X-37B), 8:00 P.M. ET
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 6-36, 11:00 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• December 29 (Friday)
  • CASC Long March 11 Unknown Payload, 7:15 P.M. ET
    • Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• December 30 (Saturday)
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 7-9, 7:17 PM PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• December 31 (Sunday)
  • ISRO PSLV-DL XPoSat, 10:40 P.M. ET
    • First Launch Pad, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

Join our Discord Server: Join the community with forums and chatrooms about space!

SpaceX to finish out 2023 with 99 launches

With the delay of Ovzone-3 to January, if we tally up all of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and yes even the Starship test flights, the company will come up with 99 launches by the end of the week. That’s of course if all of these rockets go off without any delays.

On Thursday we have a true double header out of Florida. First will be the long awaited USSF-52 mission on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. Two weeks ago, the great SpaceX launch drought of 2023 you could call it, the launcher ran into a issue with some component on the rocket which led to it returning to the integration hanger at LC-39A. Just a few hours after the Falcon Heavy launches, SpaceX plans to launch a Starlink mission out of SLC-40.

On the West Coast, SpaceX’s final mission will unshockingly be for deploying more Starlink satellites. This mission however will feature newer satellites that have the ability to support cell phone data transmission. This will support the deal made with T-Mobile last year to support text messages via satellite.

After a year of one of the busiest launch years in recent US history, 99 launches for SpaceX is an amazing achievement for both the company and all the teams that support the launches, NASA, Space Force, FAA, and other local governments and companies. Next year SpaceX plans to firmly break that triple digit milestone with 144 launches, and soon we might even see 100 launches from the West Coast alone. With Starship beginning to show signs of more regular test flights, God help us reporters.

India to both finish 2023 and start 2024

Depending on where you are in the world this weekend, India’s X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) will either be the last launch of 2023 or the first launch of 2024. For India, and anyone that standardizes on UTC time, it will be the first mission of 2024. For us here in the US, it will be the last mission of 2023.

This mission will study the polarization of light coming from some of the largest and brightest objects in our night sky. This is the second mission of its kind, the first being NASA’s IXPE spacecraft that launched in 2021. Having a second spacecraft conducting this kind of science will be important for validating what IXPE finds. IXPE will also be able to validate any discoveries that XPoSat finds, similar to what Hubble and James Webb can do.

The jury will be out in deliberation over the next week to determine if this launch will be a first or last mission of its respective year.