Launch

SpaceX launched its 128th Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday morning, carrying 53 Starlink satellites. They are destined for a 560 km orbit and will begin the fourth orbital shell of the Starlink constellation. An unusual amount of fog came over the launch pad, making for some great photos.

A few hours after the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-3, Rocket Lab plans to launch one of its rockets from New Zealand. The California-headquartered small satellite launcher will use its Electron rocket to place two second-generation BlackSky satellites into orbit. Electron’s launch will also sport a booster recovery. This will be Rocket Lab’s third recovery of an Electron booster and will be the first to have a helicopter nearby. While the booster will not be caught by the helicopter, instead, it will splashdown in the ocean. This is a step towards mid-air capture by a helicopter.

Date: Tuesday, November 16

SpaceX successfully launched Dragon Endurance, a brand new spacecraft, to space on its Falcon 9 rocket. The next stop for the crew on board will be docking with the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s third operational mission with NASA of their Crew Dragon vehicle, Crew-3, is planning to take flight early Halloween morning. This mission will carry four astronauts, three NASA and one ESA, to the International Space Station with additional supplies and experiments. Learn more about SpaceX’s Crew-3 launch and view updates on its status below.

Date: Wednesday, November 10, 9:03:31 p.m EST

SpaceX conducted a successful static fire of Crew-3’s Falcon 9 booster this last Thursday making them ready for their first launch date on Halloween. However, due to weather in planned abort zones along the easter coast of the US and a “minor medical issue”, Crew-3 has been delayed to tonight. Read below how to watch SpaceX’s Crew-3 launch.

NASA has delayed SpaceX’s Crew-3 launch, which was briefly scheduled for early morning on November 3 after weather pushed back a Halloween launch target. The delay is due to a “minor medical issue” that is not an emergency situation nor related to COVID-19.

NASA representatives released launch windows for the agency’s Artemis I mission, launching on the newly stacked Space Launch System, in a call with the media.

Since 2000 humanity has had a constant presence of individuals orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station. With the rise of commercial opportunities to reach for the stars, and other nations begin their crew launch programs, when is the next crewed launch?

NASA and United Launch Alliance launched the Lucy spacecraft in an early morning liftoff beginning its journey the Trojan asteroids.

NASA’s Lucy mission is preparing to launch a daring mission to visit both sets of Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. These asteroids lead and follow the gas giant in its orbit, and experts believe they will help answer how planets are formed. Read below for updates on the launch of NASA’s Lucy mission.

Date: Saturday, October 16, 5:34 a.m. EDT

Blue Origin launched their second human spaceflight today, marking the fifth New Shepard launch this year. On this flight of New Shepard, it carried a very special guest.

Blue Origin is preparing to launch NS-18 from their West Texas facility with a crew of four on Wednesday. NS-18 will be the company’s second crewed flight, with the most notable member being William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk from Star Trek. The launch will be a short hop above 100 km to give the crew about 4 minutes of weightlessness. Check below for updates on the launch of NS-18.

Date: Wednesday, October 13 at 10:50 a.m. EDT

Rocket Lab announced launch windows for their upcoming back-to-back launches for BlackSky. The missions will both launch from LC-1, one of their launch facilities in New Zealand.

NASA announced on Wednesday the first two members to fly on SpaceX‘s Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station. The crew members were reassigned from Boeing’s planned first two flights on Starliner, which doesn’t seem to be launching anytime soon.

Roscosmos is preparing to launch two private citizens and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station for a week and a half to film scenes for a movie called Challenge. NASA will provide live coverage of the launch.

SpaceX launched their first non-NASA crewed mission, Inspiration4, to orbit using their Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday night. The crew members are not professional astronauts, but average citizens. They were not selected based on the strict requirements of previous astronauts, but instead for their ability to represent and inspire the world.

On Monday, SpaceX plans to launch their first operational batch of Starlink satellites from their launch complex out of Vandenberg Space Force Base. While the official name of this mission is Starlink 2-1 the launch will not carry the 2.0 variants we’ve been waiting for. Instead, these will be 1.5 version satellites and the 2 refers to the “group 2” of Starlink satellites.

This will be the first SpaceX launch from the west coast since Sentinel 6 in November 2020. This will also be the first full batch of Starlink satellites to launch into a polar orbit. Starlink 2-1 will host the first use of the droneship Of Course I Still Love you on the west coast.

Date: Monday, September 13th, 11:55 p.m. EDT

Saturday Astra attempted their 5th test flight of one of their smallsat launchers from Kodiak Island, Alaska. While Astra’s Rocket 3.3 did not make it to space this time, it did give watchers a show when it slightly recovered after an engine failure.

Astra plans to launch their first commercial mission on top of their Rocket 3 vehicle. While the rocket has yet to reach orbit, the issue that caused the shortcoming was very minor and Astra is confident it will make it to orbit this time on this 4th launch. The payload on this mission will be the first of 2 demonstration missions for the US Space Force named STP-27AD1. This mission will be the companies first launch of the year.

Date: Friday, August 28th at 6:35 p.m. EDT

Earlier today, 34 more OneWeb satellites were lifted into orbit on a Soyuz rocket that launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, this being the company’s 9th launch.

The dedicated smallsat launcher, Rocket Lab, announced last Tuesday that they will try to push their launch schedule with a rapid succession of missions starting later this month.