Launch

After Thursday’s green light from the FAA to resume launches, SpaceX took no time to try to catch up on the last few week’s lack of Starlink missions. Using all three of its Falcon 9 launch sites, the company launched a total of 67 Starlink satellites into orbit.

SpaceX has been cleared by the FAA to resume flight operations for its Falcon 9 rocket, even though the company’s investigation hasn’t yet been fully closed. SpaceX released a statement detailing what caused the failure of its second stage earlier this month and a short term fix ahead of Saturday’s early morning Starlink launch.

Blue Origin announced Wednesday its crew for the NS-26 missions. On board will be several high achieving and and lucky individuals that will get the chance to fly and feel weightlessness above the Karman Line. One of the crew members, a daughter of a previous participant, will become the youngest woman to reach 100 km.

Next month SpaceX is planning to launch the next crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. In case you forgot, here’s a quick recap of who’s going to be on top of that Falcon 9 rocket come liftoff.

We only have two known launches this week and both will be coming from SpaceX within a couple hours of each other. However, there is no word from the FAA if the agency has green-lit the company to return to flight.

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.

On Tuesday Arianespace and ESA lifted off the long awaited Ariane 6 rocket from its launch site in French Guiana. Delivering several test satellites for multiple customers, the rocket proved it was capable of getting to orbit, however its second stage suffered an anomaly on a highly requested upgrade.

Today ESA is preparing to launch its first Ariane 6 rocket from French Guiana in South America. The continent has been waiting a long time for this moment after several delays to various parts of the rocket.

Following a double header by SpaceX later today, tomorrow Arianespace and the European Space Agency are ready to attempt its first launch of its Ariane 6 rocket. After years of delays and issues, the rocket has finally made it to the launch pad.

While the launch date was still set, it was getting questionable if Polaris Dawn would actually be launching on July 12. Wednesday, the program announced a new launch date of July 31.

After four years of delays, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is poised for its first launch next week, aiming to restore the Continent’s independent access to space and counter the intense competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The European Space Agency’s most powerful rocket is scheduled to blast off from its South American spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 2:00 p.m. EDT (18:00 UTC) July 9.

It’s been six months into 2024 (literally how?) so it’s time to check in on how well SpaceX is doing in getting to its 148 launch goal. So far SpaceX has had one of its best years yet, but is it enough to reach that hefty goal? We’ll see.

On this quiet holiday week, China will actually be launching more than SpaceX, and even on Fourth of July (how rude). However, we do finally get to see Firefly return to the launch site after December’s partial failure of its Alpha rocket – scheduled for late Monday evening.

SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy of 2024 Tuesday afternoon on a spectacular clear day for all to see. On top was NOAA’s final GOES-R series of weather satellites, GOES-U (here’s an explainer on the names).

What do you get when you take three Falcon 9 boosters and strap them together? Well, a Falcon Heavy of course. The second most powerful operational rocket (surpassed only by NASA’s Space Launch System), SpaceX doesn’t get to launch it often, but when they do, everyone wants to see it. The next Falcon Heavy launch is scheduled for no earlier than June 25, 2024, from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. [LAUNCHED]

The next Falcon Heavy launch will be NASA’s Europa Clipper mission in October 2024. Comeback soon for details.

This week, two rockets returning to the launch pad after over six months. First will be SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, launching NOAA’s GOES-U weather satellite, and Firefly’s Alpha, launching CatSat, and many others, a 6U CubeSat built by students from the University of Arizona.

An honorable mention, Japan’s H3 rocket will launch for the third time, its second of the year.

Thursday night Rocket Lab hit a major milestone for any rocket launch provider, 50 launches. The little rocket that could, did, and has become one of the most flown rockets in the world right now.

Six months into the year and SpaceX has launched 62 rockets, two Starships and the rest Falcon 9s. So far, the company has yet to launch its biggest operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy. In one week that will change with the launch of NASA/NOAA’s GOES-U spacecraft on June 25.

This week is a big week for Rocket Lab as it plans to launch its 50th Electron rocket, faster than any other company to date. SpaceX will also have a double header on Tuesday with a third mission on Thursday.

Wednesday morning Boeing, ULA, and NASA once again convened to attempt to launch the Starliner CFT mission with astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard. With a clean countdown, ULA’s Atlas V successfully delivered Starliner to space, however, two additional helium leaks have been found while in orbit, but docking is planned to continue unchanged.

Yes I know we just had a big mission yesterday but this week is not for the weary. This morning SpaceX is attempting Starship Flight 4 from its launch facility down in Starbase, Texas.