Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch Euclid; Virgin Galactic to fly crewed suborbital mission

Date:
Mon, 26 Jun 2023 20:50:44 +0000

Description:
Four launches are planned for the week of June 24 to July 1. The Russians The post Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch Euclid; Virgin Galactic to fly crewed suborbital mission appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Four launches are planned for the week of June 24 to July 1. The Russians are planning to launch a Meteor weather satellite aboard a Soyuz rocket on Tuesday, June 27, and Virgin Galactic plans to fly its Galactic 01 crewed suborbital mission no earlier than Thursday, June 29. Fireflys Alpha rocket
is thought to be making its first operational flight with the DARPA Victus
Nox mission no earlier than the last week of June, and SpaceX plans to end
the week with the launch of the European Space Agencys (ESA) Euclid telescope for on Saturday, July 1.

The Euclid spacecraft, a visible and near-infrared telescope intended to measure the influence of dark matter and dark energy, is scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9. Galactic 01 is the first commercial mission for VSS Unity
and Virgin Galactic, 12 years after Sir Richard Branson initially predicted the start of commercial flights.



Soyuz 2.1b Meteor-M no. 2-3

The first launch of the week is scheduled to be a Soyuz 2.1b rocket with the Meteor-M no.2-3 weather satellite onboard, along with 42 other rideshare payloads. The launch is scheduled for Tuesday, June 27, at 11:34 UTC from
Site 1S at Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

The 2,750-kilogram satellite is the third in a series of Meteor-M second-generation satellites and will be flown to its operational sun-synchronous polar orbit by a new version of the Fregat upper stage. The updated and modernized version of Fregat is making its first flight on this mission. The Meteor weather satellite and its Fregat upper stage being
mounted onto the Soyuz rocket (Credit: Roscosmos)

The Meteor-M satellite is equipped with six instruments. A low-resolution multi-spectral scanner for global and regional cloud cover mapping, a multichannel Earth surface monitoring scanner, and an atmospheric imager/sounder that can measure sea surface winds are aboard.

In addition, an advanced IR sounder for atmospheric temperature and humidity, a data collection system, and a rescue radio complex are included on the spacecraft. This satellite is one of a series that will replace the older Meteor-M3 satellites.

In addition to the Meteor satellite, 42 CubeSats will fly as rideshare payloads. The CubeSats are from Russia and international organizations.

Virgin Galactic Galactic 01

The second spaceflight of the week is a crewed Virgin Galactic suborbital flight from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The Italian Air Force contracted Virgin Galactic to fly a research mission with its personnel onboard in what will be SpaceShipTwos second powered flight of 2023. The flight is currently scheduled for no earlier than 9:00 AM MDT (15:00 UTC) on Thursday, June 29.

The SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity will be launched from the White Knight Two VMS Eve carrier aircraft and fly to around 80 90 kilometers altitude with former Shuttle astronaut Rick Sturckow and Mike Masucci as the pilots. Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer Colin Bennett instead of Beth Moses, who had earlier been slated to fly this mission will fly with Italian personnel Col. Walter Villadei, Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, and Pantaleone Carlucci. VMS Eve and VSS Unity take off on the Unity 24 unpowered glide flight. (Credit:
Virgin Galactic)

The pilots and Colin Bennett have flown before, but the Italian personnel will each be making their first flight. Villadei and Landolfi are Italian Air Force officers, while Carlucci is a civilian aerospace engineer and
researcher for the National Research Council of Italy.

The crew will be operating various experiments during the flight. Villadei, the commander of the Italian Air Force Virtute 1 mission on this flight will be wearing a suit to measure biometric data during the flight, while Landolfi will be measuring cognitive performance in microgravity. Carlucci will have his heart rate and other metrics measured during the flight.

VSS Unity will reach a maximum speed of Mach 3, and after its reentry will perform a gliding flight to land at Spaceport Americas long runway. The
flight had been initially scheduled for 2021 but was delayed due to the need to refurbish and modify both Unity and Eve after Sir Richard Bransons flight.

Firefly Alpha Victus Nox

The Firefly Alpha, after successfully reaching orbit last year, is now set
for its first operational flight. Launching a DARPA payload on short notice under the name Victus Nox, Alpha will launch from Space Launch Complex 2 West (SLC-2W) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The launch time and date are not yet known, and Firefly has 24 hours to
launch the satellite after the US Space Force gives the order to launch the payload. The launch is expected to happen sometime this week. The satellites purpose is listed as space domain awareness, and the flight is meant to test
a rapid launch capability for the DoD. Firefly Alpha FLTA002 on the pad at VSFB before launch. (Credit: Michael Baylor for NSF)

Falcon 9 Euclid

SpaceX is scheduled to launch the ESA Euclid telescope atop a Falcon 9 booster. Euclid was originally scheduled to fly aboard a Soyuz rocket but
this had to be changed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ESA needed to contract with SpaceX to launch Euclid due to the retirement of the Ariane 5 and delays to Ariane 6.

The 2,100-kilogram Euclid telescope is scheduled to launch from SLC-40 at
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on Saturday, July 1 at 11:11 am EDT (15:11 UTC). The payload will be sent to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, which is used by the James Webb Space Telescope and other scientific
missions. Artists impression of the Euclid space telescope. (Credit: ESA/C. Carreau)

Euclid is a visible to near-infrared space telescope built by Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space, and developed by ESA and the Euclid Consortium. The telescopes primary purpose is to research dark matter in the universe by measuring the acceleration of the universe, which will allow scientists to better understand what dark matter is and how it affects our universe. Euclid is a Korsch-type telescope and is one of the medium-class missions in ESAs Cosmic Vision program.

( Lead image: Falcon 9 at SLC-40. Credit: SpaceX )

The post Launch Roundup: SpaceX to launch Euclid; Virgin Galactic to fly crewed suborbital mission appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/06/launch-roundup-062523/


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