Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch next ISS crew rotation; Electron launches debris removal demonstration

Date:
Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:03:40 +0000

Description:
Despite multiple scrubs and delays due to weather violations, SpaceX broke
its own cadence record The post Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch next ISS
crew rotation; Electron launches debris removal demonstration appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Despite multiple scrubs and delays due to weather violations, SpaceX broke
its own cadence record in January with 10 launches and landings in a calendar month. Those weather challenges have prevailed into February. Between these and the pad logistics related to launching the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission, PACE satellite, USSF-124, and an upcoming crewed mission, it currently looks unlikely that the company will repeat this target by the end of February.

Nonetheless, SpaceX continues to set milestones, with Falcon 9s 300th mission occurring with the launch of the IM-1 on Feb. 15. The company almost launched a Falcon 9 from each of its three key launch pads within eight hours on the busy evening of Feb. 14, but the Starlink Group 7-14 mission was scrubbed while on the pad.



Two further non-Starlink missions on Falcon 9 are planned from the east coast in the next couple of weeks. The most anticipated of these will be SpaceXs eighth crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and mission specialists Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.

Crew Dragon Endeavour is flying for the fifth time on Crew-8. This crew can expect to see cargo arrivals during their stay on the ISS from Northrop Grummans Cygnus, SpaceXs Cargo Dragon, and Sierra Spaces Dream Chaser spaceplane. The astronauts will also get to greet the crew of the Boeing Crew Flight Test during their stay when Starliner arrives in April.

Launching on Falcon 9 this week is a new high-throughput communications satellite for Indonesia, which has a 15-year expected lifespan and will strengthen the communications architecture across the archipelago. SpaceX
will also loft an additional batch of Starlink satellites into the Group 6 shell. Falcon 9 launches its 300th mission, Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission, on Feb. 15. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

Rocket Labs Electron is scheduled to launch Astroscales ADRAS-J demonstration mission, which plans to make advancements toward the removal of large-scale space debris from low-Earth orbit. In this first phase of the project, the spacecraft will illustrate a safe and methodical approach toward an unresponsive object in orbit (a discarded rocket upper stage), capturing images and other data as it then orientates around the stage, demonstrating that it can maintain a fixed position close by.

Lastly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its first Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket since May 2023, delivering the successor to the INSAT-3DR weather research satellite.
Sporting a six-channel imager and a 19-channel sounder, the INSAT-3DS will provide meteorological and disaster warning services to India from a geostationary orbit. SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 7-14 SpaceX will launch another stack of Starlink satellites on Feb. 15 at 1:34 PM PST (21:34 UTC) from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 4E out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Starlink Group 7-14 will carry a payload of 22 Starlink v2 Mini satellites. They will be headed to an inclined 53-degree orbit on a southeastern trajectory with an expected initial orbit of approximately 286
by 295 kilometers. The satellites will be added to the thousands of active Starlink satellites in orbit, giving internet to people all over the world. The booster for this mission is B1082, which will be taking its second flight with this mission. It will land on the Of Course I Still Love You autonomous droneship, which will be stationed 610 kilometers downrange on the west
coast. This will be the 29th total orbital launch of 2024 and the 300th
launch of Falcon 9.

JAXA/MHI H3-22 | VEP 4, CE-SAT-1E & TIRSAT

The second flight of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H3-22 rocket is set for Feb. 17 at 9:22 AM JST (00:22 UTC) from LA-Y2 out of the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. H3
is classified as a medium-lift launch vehicle and uses cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in its first and second stages, with two or four optional SRBs.

This mission will use two boosters along with a short payload fairing, taking three payloads into a Sun-synchronous orbit.



The first flight of H3 experienced a failure of the second engine ignitor, causing the test payload to fall short of orbit. While flight two was originally planned to launch the ALOS-4 Earth observation satellite, the vehicle failure caused JAXA to elect to fly the Vehicle Evaluation Payload-4 (VEP-4) mass simulator, although there are also two small satellites onboard for this flight.

CE-SAT-1E is a 70-kilogram Earth observation satellite built by Canon Electronics Inc., and TIRSAT is a five-kilogram 3U cubesat from Japan Space Systems to test infrared sensors for Earth observation. While there is an inherent risk to flying an unproven rocket, the customers are confident in
the new vehicles ability to take their payloads to orbit.

GSLV Mk II | INSAT-3DS

The INSAT-3DS weather research satellite is scheduled for launch on an Indian GSLV rocket from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on Feb. 17 at 5:35 PM IST (12:05 UTC).

This will be the 7th flight for the INSAT series of satellites and is the successor to the INSAT-3DR satellite, which was similarly delivered to a geostationary orbit by an expendable GSLV back in September 2016. GSLV-F14/ INSAT-3DS Mission: The mission is set for lift-off on February 17, 2024, at 17:30 Hrs. IST from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. In its 16th flight, the GSLV aims to deploy INSAT-3DS, a meteorological and disaster warning satellite. The mission is fully funded by the pic.twitter.com/s4I6Z8S2Vw

ISRO (@isro) February 8, 2024



Built by ISRO, this advanced meteorological satellite will deliver weather surveillance, forecasting, and disaster warning services to India. The
mission is fully funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

An onboard six-channel imager is complemented by a 19-channel sounder, and
the satellite will also provide a Satellite Aided Search & Rescue transponder and a message relay for terrestrial data collection platforms.

Electron/Curie | On Closer Inspection

Rocket Labs On Closer Inspection mission is scheduled to launch on an
Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, during a five-hour window that opens on Feb. 18 at 11:45 UTC.

Onboard is the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J)
spacecraft, which was selected by JAXA as the initial phase of their Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project. ADRAS-J craft approaches the unresponsive discarded upper stage of an H-IIA rocket. (Credit: Astroscale)

The goal of the mission is to safely approach, characterize, and fly an observational inspection path around a large uncommunicative piece of space debris in low-Earth orbit. It will follow a series of measures and processes set out in November 2021 after consultation with various space agencies, ministries, and industry experts, including leading private space companies.

For this demonstration, the target is the upper stage of a discarded Japanese H-IIA rocket which is still orbiting at around 600 kilometers in altitude.
The ADRAS-J craft will approach the stage using a series of corkscrew-style safety ellipse maneuvers. Once close, it will continue to execute a series of Rendezvous and Proximity Operations, which are a combination of maneuvers and data collection.

Images and data will be collected as the spacecraft then performs a further fly-around maneuver, determining the targets spin rate and axis so that the craft can demonstrate a safe orientation around it. ADRAS-J will complete the demonstration by settling into a stable position a short distance away, aligned with the objects orientation.

In the next phase, the target object would be actively engaged and removed from orbit. This mission is directly informing the companys other ongoing programs, including Astroscales End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-Multiple and Astroscales Clearing Outer Space Mission through Innovative Capture missions, which is part of the UKs Active Debris Removal initiative. Indonesian TelkomSat HTS-113BT is loaded into its container inside the clean room (Credit: Thales Alenia Space)

Falcon 9 Block 5 | TelkomSat HTS-113BT

The launch of TelkomSat HTS-113BT atop a Falcon 9 is scheduled to occur from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a two-hour window
that opens on Feb. 20 at 3:11 PM ET (20:11 UTC), deploying the 4,000-kilogram satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit.

Designed, built, and operated by Thales Alenia Space for the state-owned PT Telkom Satelit Indonesia, or TelkomSat, this new broadband communications satellite will strengthen the telecommunications structure across the archipelago. Operating in the Ku- and C-bands, this high-throughout communication satellite is built upon the Spacebus-4000B2 platform and will provide over 32 billion bits per second (Gbps) capacity from its position in geostationary orbit, stationed at 113 degrees east.

The satellite left Thales Alenia Spaces clean rooms in Cannes, France, late last year and was shipped to the Cape from Nice, arriving at Port Canaveral
in late January to then make a final trip to the integration facility. Thales Alenia Space will be delivering in-orbit support throughout the satellites expected 15-year lifecycle, as well as providing the ground control segment and on-site training and support for the customers engineering team. Starlink v2 Mini satellites prior to deployment (Credit: SpaceX)

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-15

SpaceX will launch the next batch of 22 Starlink v2 Mini satellites from the west coast no earlier than Feb. 20 from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The booster for this flight, which is currently unknown, will land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be waiting downrange.

The satellites will be sent on a southeastern trajectory into an initial
orbit of approximately 286 by 296 kilometers, inclined 53 degrees.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-39

The latest addition to the Group 6 shell of the Starlink constellation will launch from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base no earlier than
Feb. 24.

The booster for this flight is currently unkown, as is the droneship on which it will make its recovery landing further downrange. The payload is another
23 Starlink v2 Mini satellites headed for a low-Earth orbit.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-8

Crew Dragon Endeavour will be carrying SpaceXs eighth crew rotation mission
to the ISS, carrying commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and two mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. Epps was previously assigned to a Boeing Starliner mission but was later moved to Crew-8. Launch is scheduled to fly from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center on March 1 at 12:04 AM ET (05:04 UTC)

All crew members except pilot Michael Barratt are making their first flight into space on this mission. Barratt previously served as a flight engineer
for Expeditions 19/20 and has spent a total of 212 days in space, including time aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-133 mission in 2011.
SpaceX Crew-8 Left to Right: Roscosmos cosmonaut and Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin, Pilot Michael Barratt, Commander Matthew Dominick, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps. (Credit: SpaceX)

This is the ninth human spaceflight as part of NASAs Commercial Crew program and the maiden flight for booster B1083, which will return to the Cape to
land at Landing Zone 1 a few miles south of LC-39A. This is the fifth flight of C206 Endeavour , which has also launched crew for the Axiom-1, Crew-2, Crew-6, and the historic Demo-2 missions.

Dragon will perform a series of maneuvers before docking autonomously with
the forward-facing port of the Stations Harmony module. The four astronauts will meet the members of the Expedition 70 crew and spend a few days of handover with the outgoing Crew-7 crew, who will then undock from the Station and splash down off the coast of Florida.

During their stay, this crew can expect to see the arrival of three different cargo craft Cygnus (NG-21), Cargo Dragon (CRS-30), and the maiden flight of Sierra Spaces long-anticipated Dream Chaser spaceplane.

They can also look forward to greeting the astronauts of Boeings Crew Flight Test on Starliner in April, as well as welcoming three new crew members who are scheduled to arrive on a Soyuz in March (MS-25). They will also see Loral OHara depart back to Earth on a Soyuz.

(Lead image: Astroscales ADRAS-J spacecraft. Credit: Astroscale)

The post Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch next ISS crew rotation; Electron launches debris removal demonstration appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/02/launch-roundup-021524/


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