This Week in Launch: SpaceX launching European science mission as ESA waits for Ariane 6

Alongside possibly two other missions, SpaceX is launching a science mission co-sponsored by ESA and JAXA, beating both agencies home-built rockets. This week we’ll also see a resupply mission to the ISS by Russia and two mysterious launches from a Chinese company within a few days of each other.

For the fourth time, Boeing’s Starliner CFT makes an appearance as it struggles with leakage and propellent issues in the spacecraft’s service module.

This week’s launches:

• May 27 (Monday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-60 | 7:30 A.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• May 28 (Tuesday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | EarthCARE | 3:20 P.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• May 29 (Wednesday)
  • Galactic Energy | Ceres 1S | Unknown Payload | 4:20 A.M. ET
    • Haiyang Spaceport, China Coastal Waters
• May 30 (Thursday)
  • Roscosmos | Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-27 | 5:43 A.M. ET
    • Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
  • CASC | Long March 3B/E | Possibly Passat MM1R | 8:20 A.M. ET
    • LC-2, Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-64 | 7:09 P.M. ET
    • TBD, Florida
  • Galactic Energy | Ceres 1 | Unknown Payload | 7:35 P.M. ET
    • Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• June 1 (Saturday)
  • ULA | Atlas V N22 | Boeing Starliner CFT | 12:35 P.M. ET
    • SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

SpaceX taking charge as Ariane 6 awaits debut

The launch of an scientifically important payload from Europe and Japan will not be on either an Ariane 6 or H3 rocket. Instead, it will fly to a Sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

While the H3 is operational, the Ariane 6 is still awaiting its first launch, hopefully in the next few months. ESA plans to conduct a wet dress rehearsal of the first flight ready Ariane 6 rocket on June 18 with launch expected in the first couple weeks of July.

Increased cost, development delays, and slow cadence have pushed not just commercial companies but government agencies to look at SpaceX for launch services. EarthCARE, an observation satellite studying the clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere, is not the first and most certainly won’t be the last European mission to fly on SpaceX.

However, that might change in the near future. A growing list of companies are getting started with first generation rockets that could build a competitive launch market for ESA or local businesses. Rocket Factory Augsburg is one of those that has recently conducted a static fire of its first-stage rocket at its launch site in the UK.

If you aren’t educated in the current state of European launches here’s the gist: like the early 2000s US, the continent is controlled by one monopoly, Arianespace. They are the operators of both the Ariane and Vega family of rockets but also operated Soyuz rockets until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There’s a solid chance that the monopoly is broken as the need for an in house competitive rocket grows.