This Week In Launch: A week with no SpaceX

In contrast to weeks past, we only have a single mission scheduled to launch this week, an Electron from New Zealand. Due to SpaceX’s anomaly mid-flight last week, its Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded until an investigation is completed.

This week’s launches:

• July 20 (Saturday)
  • Rocket Lab | Electron | A Sky Full Of SARs |
    • LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand

Rocket Lab launching upgraded Capella SAR sat

Rocket Lab’s 14 day launch window will open up this coming Saturday to launch an upgraded synthetic aperture radar satellite for Capella Space. The company provides its services to both government and commercial entities, a growing and lucrative market that’s been emerging over the last few years.

This will be Rocket Lab’s fifth mission for Capella, launching Arcadia 1 and 2 satellites, now the company will launch its larger, and more powerful, Arcadia 3.

This is the only launch currently scheduled for the week, if at all, as usually Rocket Lab missions push back a few days with better weather reports. It’s a moment to look at just how much SpaceX makes up the global launch market after its Falcon 9 is grounded.

SpaceX’s grounding and the world’s reliance on them for access to space, is a major concern among private and government officials. At the current moment, NASA has no way to send an emergency crewed spacecraft to the ISS if they wanted to. While Starliner could fly on the Atlas V, the Starliner CFT mission hasn’t yet finished, meaning Starliner is certified for operational flights just yet.

Other companies like Rocket Lab, Relativity, and Blue Origin are planning to bring new rockets to the market that would compete with SpaceX, bring not just better competition, but also redundancy in rapid launch ability.