Launch Roundup Rocket Lab to launch first HASTE mission; SpaceX to launch Satria

Date:
Sat, 17 Jun 2023 21:01:35 +0000

Description:
In what will be a quiet week for orbital launches, Rocket Lab will launch its The post Launch Roundup Rocket Lab to launch first HASTE mission; SpaceX to launch Satria appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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In what will be a quiet week for orbital launches, Rocket Lab will launch its first suborbital Electron mission; SpaceX will launch the Satria satellite to geostationary transfer orbit; China will launch an unknown payload; the
United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch the penultimate Delta IV Heavy on
the NROL-68 mission; and SpaceX will launch a Starlink mission.

These missions will mark 2023s 91st through 94th launch attempts, with an orbital launch attempt occurring every 1.85 days.



Electron DYNAMO-A

Rocket Labs first hypersonic accelerator suborbital test Electron (HASTE) mission is scheduled to lift off on Saturday, June 17 at 8:45 PM EDT (00:45 UTC on June 18) from Rocket Labs Launch Complex 2 at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. In April of this year, the defense innovation unit selected the HASTE program to prototype a hypersonic launch under the hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities program. As the name
implies, this program aims to increase hypersonic launch cadence and decrease cost.

Rocket Labs HASTE missions will use its well-proven Electron launch vehicle with a modified kick stage and fairings. As the rocket is not attempting to reach orbit, Electrons payload capacity increases to 700 kilograms; however, due to the classified nature of this mission, the payload and its mass are
not known. Exclusion zones for the DYNAMO-A mission. (Credit: OneSpeed on NSF Forum)

Falcon 9 Satria (PSN MFS)

On Sunday, June 18 at 6:04 PM EDT (22:04 UTC), SpaceX is set to launch its 41st mission of 2023 on the Satria mission. Launching from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the Falcon 9 will launch the Satria (also known as PSN MFS) Indonesian Ka-band high-throughput communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite will then spend the coming months raising its orbit into the 146-degree East geostationary Earth orbit slot. See Also Satria Updates
SpaceX Missions Section L2 SpaceX Section Click here to Join L2

On June 16, the Space Launch Delta 45s weather squadron released a mission execution forecast giving a 40% chance of violating weather constraints at
the start of the 3.5-hour window; at the end of the window, the weather improves to a 25% chance of violating weather constraints. In the event of a delay, a backup launch opportunity is available roughly 24 hours later.

Based on the Spacebus-Neo-200 fully electric satellite bus, Satria, which was built by Thales Alenia Space, has a mass of roughly 5,000 kilograms and an on-orbit lifespan of roughly 15 years. The satellite is operated by Satelit Nusantara Tiga and will provide 90,000 schools, 40,000 hospitals, and many other residential and government sites in Indonesia with 150 gigabits per second connectivity. The satellite has two deployable solar arrays and batteries to power the spacecraft during the lunar night.

The booster supporting this mission is B1067-12, which has previously supported CRS-22 , Crew-3 , Turksat-5B , Crew-4 , CRS-25 , Hotbird 13G , O3b mPOWER 1 and 2 , and four Starlink missions. Following launch, the booster will land on SpaceXs autonomous spaceport drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas
, which was tugged roughly 600 kilometers in the Atlantic Ocean by Doug . Additionally, Doug will attempt recovery of both fairing halves ~45 minutes after launch. HR/MIN/SEC Satria Launch Sequence 00:01:14 Max Q (moment of
peak mechanical stress on the rocket) 00:02:33 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO) 00:02:37 1st and 2nd stages separate 00:02:44 2nd stage engine starts (SES-1) 00:03:30 Fairing deployment 00:06:33 1st stage entry burn starts 00:06:54 1st stage entry burn ends 00:08:10 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) 00:08:28 1st stage landing burn start 00:08:39 1st stage landing 00:27:40 2nd stage engine starts (SES-2) 00:28:36 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2)
00:36:47 PSN SATRIA deploys

Chang Zheng 6 Unknown Payload

On Tuesday, June 20 at 03:25 UTC, China is expected to launch a currently unknown payload atop a Chang Zheng 6 (CZ-6) rocket. This launch, lifting off from Launch Complex 16 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China, will mark 2023s 92nd orbital launch attempt and the CZ-6s 13th total launch and first of the year.

The Chinese state authorities have yet to confirm the launch vehicle and payload, so both could change before launch.

Delta IV Heavy NROL-68

United Launch Alliances (ULA) first mission of 2023 is scheduled to launch on June 21, 2023, at 3:29 AM EDT (07:29 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Delta IV Heavy will likely place a classified satellite into geostationary Earth orbit, on a mission called NROL-68. ULAs artwork for the NROL-68 mission. (Credit: ULA)

This launch was originally scheduled for April 20, 2023. However, the flight was delayed due to a flight valve that exhibited off-nominal behavior; the valve was later replaced, clearing ULA to proceed with the launch. Due to the classified nature of this mission, the purpose and details of the spacecraft are unknown.

Falcon 9 Starlink Group 5-7

Ending the week, SpaceX will launch its Starlink Group 5-12 mission from
Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket is expected to lift off on Wednesday, June 21 at
10:36 PM PDT (05:36 UTC on June 22), placing 47 Starlink v1.5 internet communication satellites into an elliptical low-Earth orbit at 43.0 degrees.

This launch will be the first West Coast launch targeting Starlinks second-generation constellation; in the coming months, the Starlink
satellites will raise their orbits to a 530-kilometer orbit inclined at 43.00 degrees. It is expected that this will be the fifth-to-last launch of
Starlink v1.5 satellites, with SpaceX focusing on its newer, more powerful Starlink v2 Mini satellites. These v2 satellites will also be used to replace the aging v1.0 satellites in Starlink shell one, which began launching in 2019.

Additionally, in recent research by Mallama et al. , it was discovered that SpaceXs efforts to reduce impacts on ground-based astronomers have been successful: despite Starlink v2 Minis larger size, the satellites are fainter in the sky than Starlink v1.0 and v1.5 satellites. It was noted that the Starlink v2 Mini satellites are bright during orbit raising and initial operations, but satellites in their operational orbits place their solar panels edge-on, resulting in observers being unable to see large portions of the solar array illuminated by the sun. Starlink v2 Mini satellites magnitude data. (Credit: Mallama et al.)

This launch will take the number of Starlink satellites launched to 4,642, of which 4,314 will be on orbit. Out of these, 3,622 are in their operational orbits.

Following launch, the currently unknown booster will land atop the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You , which was tugged downrange by Scorpius . SpaceXs multi-purpose recovery vessel GO Beyond will attempt to recover both fairing halves and will provide drone ship support for this mission.

This mission will mark SpaceXs 43rd launch of 2023a cadence that if sticks will result in roughly 90 launches this calendar year.

(Lead image: Electrons payload fairing for The Beat Goes On mission. Credit: Rocket Lab)

The post Launch Roundup Rocket Lab to launch first HASTE mission; SpaceX to launch Satria appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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


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