Launches: China Debuts New Booster, SpaceX’s Starship Launch Looms
Welcome to this week’s launch roundup.
A Chinese company’s new rocket succeeded on its maiden flight, Israel orbited a satellite for the first time in three years, and the inaugural flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy system might happen in the next few weeks.
The Week in Launches
Space Pioneer launched its Tianlong-2 rocket on its maiden flight from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Sunday. The booster placed three satellites into orbit.
It was China’s first privately-funded liquid-fuel rocket to successfully launch a satellite. It was also first liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit on its maiden launch.
Launches
March 28 – April 2
| Date | Launcher – Organization | Payload – Organization | Purpose | Launch Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | Shavit-2 — Israel Ministry of Defence | Ofek 13 – Israel Aerospace Industries | Reconnaissance | Palmachim |
| March 29 | Soyuz-2.1v – RVSN RF* | Kosmos 2568 | Tech demo | Plesetsk |
| March 29 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | 56 Starlink – SpaceX | Communications | Cape Canaveral |
| March 30 | Long March 2D – CASC+ | 4 PIESAT-1 – PIESAT | Earth observation | Taiyuan |
| March 31 | Long March 4C – CASC+ | Yaogan 34-04 – CAS | Reconnaissance | Jiuquan |
| April 2 | Tianlong-2 – Space Pioneer | Jinta – Hunan Hangsheng Satellite Technology | Flight test – Tech demo | Jiuquan |
| Hong Kong Knowledge | ||||
| iTaikong Science | ||||
| April 2 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | 8 Transport Layer Tranche 0, 2 Tracking Layer Tranche 0 – SDA^ | Military communications, missile warning | Vandenberg |
+ China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
^ Space Development Agency
The two-stage rocket, which is powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen, is capable of delivering 2,000 kg (4,409 lb) into low Earth orbit (LEO) or 1,500 kg (3,307 lb) into a 500 km high sun-synchronous orbit.
Space Pioneer is developing the larger Tianlong-1 rocket, which will be capable of placing more than 3,000 kg (6,614 lb) into LEO.
Also known as the Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., Space Pioneer was founded in 2015 by Kang Yonglai. The company is focused on developing reusable boosters, although the rocket launched on Sunday was apparently not recovered.
Israel made a rare appearance on the table when a Shavit-2 rocket launched the Ofek 13 reconnaissance satellite on March 28. The booster’s most recent flight was in July 2020. Israel conducts all its launches to the west over the Mediterranean Sea to avoid flying over populated areas. Most rockets are launched to the east to take advantage of Earth’s rotation.
Falcon 9 launched 10 satellites for the Space Development Agency on Sunday. The spacecraft will provide communications and ballistic missile early warning data for the U.S. military.
Upcoming Launches
There are a number of launches planned for the rest of April, but the marquee one will be the maiden flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy booster from the company’s Starbase spaceport in south Texas. CEO Elon Musk has tweeted that the company could conduct it in the weeks ahead, but no date has been made public.
Upcoming Launches
| Date | Launcher – Organization | Payload – Organization | Purpose | Launch Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 5 | Kuaizhou-1A – ExPace | TBA | TBA | Jiuquan |
| April 5 | Hyperbola-1 | TBA | TBA | Jiuquan |
| April 7 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | Intelsat 40e – Intelsat | Communications | Cape Canaveral |
| TEMPO – NASA | Pollution monitoring | |||
| April 13 | Ariane 5 | Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – ESA* | Jupiter orbiter | Kourou |
| April 18 | Falcon Heavy – SpaceX | ViaSat-3 Americas – ViaSat | Communications | Kennedy |
| Arcturus (Aurora 4A) – Astranis/Pacific Dataport | Communications | |||
| Nusantara-H1A – PSN+ | Communications | |||
| April 20 | Delta IV Heavy – ULA | NROL-68 – NRO^ | Reconnaissance | Cape Canaveral |
| April 28 | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | O3b mPower FM23, O3b mPower FM24 – SES | Communications | Cape Canaveral |
| TBA | Starship – SpaceX | None | Flight test | Starbase |
| TBA | Falcon 9 – SpaceX | Transporter 7 – Multiple | Rideshare | Vandenberg |
+ PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (Indonesia)
^ National Reconnaissance Office
Starship will enter orbit, but it will not complete a full orbit around Earth. Instead, it will make a water landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii.
Musk has lowered expectations for the launch, stressing that it is a flight test with a significant probability of failing. SpaceX has not announced any payload for the flight.
SpaceX also has plans to launch the ViaSat-3 Americas communications satellite aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. The company will also launch its first Transporter rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. All previous Transporter flights have been conducted from Florida.
A pair of boosters will make their penultimate (next-to-last) flights. Arianespace’s Ariane 5 will launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) to explore Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, three moons whose ice-covered surfaces obscure subsurface oceans.
Ariane 5’s 117th and final flight is scheduled for June 21 when the rocket launches a pair of communications satellites. Ariane 5 has a record of 110 successes, two failures and three partial failures.
United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy will launch the NROL-68 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office NRO) on April 20. The final Delta IV flight will also carry a NRO satellite later this year. The Delta IV family has a record of 40 successes and one partial failure.
Orbital Launches
There were 54 launches through the first 92 days of the year, putting the world on track for 200 attempts by the end of this year. That would exceed the 187 launches conducted last year.
The United States continues to lead the world with 28 launches. China has picked up the pace in recent weeks and is now at 15 launches. Russia is a distant third with six flights, followed by India, Japan and Israel. Europe is not yet on the board.
Orbital Launches by Nation
Through April 2
| Nation | Successes | Failures | Total | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 25 | 3 | 28 | 51.9 |
| China | 15 | 0 | 15 | 27.8 |
| Russia | 6 | 0 | 6 | 11.1 |
| India | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3.7 |
| Japan | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3.7 |
| Israel | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.9 |
| Total | 50 | 4 | 54 | 100 |
SpaceX has launched 22 times, which is slightly below the pace the company needs to reach its goal of 100 launches this year. SpaceX tied a 42-year old Soviet record with 61 launches in 2022.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has launched a dozen Long March boosters. Galactic Energy, ExPace and Space Pioneer have conducted the other three Chinese launches.
Launches by Company/Agency
Through April 2
| Company/Agency | Successes | Failures | Total | Satellites Launched | Satellites Lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX (USA) | 22 | 0 | 22 | 772 | 0 |
| CASC* (China) | 12 | 0 | 10 | 31 | 0 |
| Roscosmos (Russia) | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Rocket Lab (USA) | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| ISRO (India) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 39 | 0 |
| Galactic Energy (China) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| ExPace (China) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| MHI^ (Japan) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| RVSN RF+ (Russia) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Israel Ministry of Defence | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Space Pioneer (China) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Virgin Orbit (USA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| ABL Space Systems (USA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| JAXA (Japan) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Relativity Space (USA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 50 | 4 | 54 | 867 | 12 |
^ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
+ Russian Strategic Rocket Forces
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 remains the most launched rocket in the world with 21 flights. Long March 2C and 2D have launched a combined six times. No other rocket has launched more than three times.
Launches by Booster
Through April 2
| Launch Vehicle | Company/Agency | Successes | Failures | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon 9 | SpaceX | 21 | 0 | 21 |
| Electron | Rocket Lab | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Long March 2C | CASC* | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Long March 2D | CASC* | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Soyuz-2.1a | Roscosmos, RVSN RF | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Long March 3B/E | CASC* | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Long March 4C | CASC* | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Proton | Roscosmos | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Ceres-1 | Galactic Energy | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Falcon Heavy | SpaceX | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| H-IIA | MHI~ | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Kuaizhou 1A | ExPace | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Long March 7A | CASC* | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Long March 11 | CASC* | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| LVM III | ISRO+ | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Shavit 2 | Israel Defense Forces | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| SSLV | ISRO+ | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Soyuz-2.1v | RVSN RF | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Tianlong-2 | Space Pioneer | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| H3 | JAXA^ | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| LauncherOne | Virgin Orbit | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| RS1 | ABL Space Systems | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Terran 1 | Relativity Space | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 50 | 4 | 54 |
~ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
+ Indian Space Research Organisation
^ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
There were three additions to the list of boosters this week. Space Pioneer launched the Tianlong-2 rocket on its maiden flight. Israel raised the Shavit-2’s to 10 successes and two failures since the first launch in 1988. And Russia launched a Soyuz-2.1v, which is a stripped version of the Soyuz-2.1a with a different first-stage engine and no side boosters.
Launches by Location
Through April 2
| Location | Nation | Successes | Failures | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Canaveral | USA | 12 | 1 | 13 |
| Vandenberg | USA | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Kennedy | USA | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport | USA | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska | USA | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Jiuquan | China | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Xichang | China | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Taiyuan | China | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Wenchang | China | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Baikonur | Kazakhstan | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Plesetsk | Russia | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Satish Dhawan | India | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Tanegashima | Japan | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Mahia | New Zealand | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Palmchim | Israel | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cornwall | UK | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 50 | 4 | 54 |
Florida remains on top with a total of 17 launches, 16 of which were successful. Six launches have been conducted from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with two others from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia and one from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska.
Jiuquan leads all Chinese spaceports with eight launches, followed by Taiyuan and Xichang with three each and Wenchang with one.
Russia has launched four times from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and twice from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Suborbital Launches
There were two suborbital launches last week from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. The German Aerospace Center and Swedish National Space Agency launched a pair of Improved Orion boosters for educational purposes.
Suborbital Launches
March 28 – April 2
Excludes Ballistic Missile Tests
| Date | Launcher – Organization | Payload – Organization | Purpose | Launch Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 29 | Improved Orion – DLR*/SNSA+ | REXUS-30 – DLR/SNSA | Education | Esrange |
| April 1 | Improved Orion – DLR*/SNSA+ | REXUS-29 – DLR/SNSA | Education | Esrange |
+ Swedish National Space Agency
Five of the eight civilian sounding rocket launches this year have been conducted from Esrange and the Andoya Space Center in Norway. Two have been launched from Wallops Island in Virginia, and one from the Alcantara spaceport in Brazil.
Suborbital Launches by Location
Through April 2
Excludes Ballistic Missile Tests
| Launch Site | Nation | Launches |
|---|---|---|
| Esrange | Sweden | 3 |
| Andoya | Norway | 2 |
| Wallops | USA | 2 |
| Alcantara | Brazil | 1 |
| 8 |
Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are scheduled to resume suborbital launches later this year. Blue Origin’s first New Shepard launch will be a repeat of a dedicated microgravity research flight that went awry last September when the booster failed. An escape rocket pulled away the capsule and its load of experiments, which landed safely under parachutes.
Virgin Galactic has said it plans to complete SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity‘s flight test program during the second quarter. One additional flight test with four employees in the passenger cabin is planned. The company will then conduct the program’s first paid flight with two Italian Air Force pilots and an Italian researcher aboard who will perform microgravity experiments.
26 responses to “Launches: China Debuts New Booster, SpaceX’s Starship Launch Looms”
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Go Space X, go Starship! God speed.
Looming is cool 😀
Quite a detailed launch roundup there, Douglas!
Glad to hear the JUICE mission is ready to go –looking forward to an exciting mission in the Jupiter system over the years ahead
It will be interesting to see if the environmentalists file a lawsuit when the license is issued to delay the flight.
You have to assume someone will try.
BTW, Heard anything from Robert Oler? He hasn’t posted for a while…
I have not either. I was happy to see some activity from Eagleson yesterday. I know he’s anticipating Monday with great anticipation. I know he really wanted to see SS/SH fly more than most, and I hope he has a great week next week.
Eagleson has been on other sites recently. I can’t say as I share his confidence in the greatness of Starship. Of course I also don’t share the doom speak of Oler.
I expect it to shake out over the years as a good large launcher. I expect smaller more responsive launchers to be more competitive for at least a decade.
I don’t care for the current layout as I can’t tell if there are comments to check out or not without scrolling through every post every time.
I’ve argued in the past that SS/SH is The Great Eastern of our era. Musk and NASA will create artificial payloads for it meanwhile it will settle into operational status and might become less expensive and more responsive than Falcon. However as soon as it works, it will allow NASA to transfer SLS money to payloads should they choose to do so and have Congress go along with that. We’ll have options. But it’s going to be strange. DoD will put pressure on SpaceX to keep Falcon going, but also bleed Falcon of payloads to keep Vulcan going. But no matter what SS/SH will be the agent of Falcon’s retirement because the government is going to keep Vulcan going for far into the future.
“it will settle into operational status and might become less expensive and more responsive than Falcon” <– It is already purpose built to do that, and the only reasonable question is whether it requires 1 more year or 3 to fulfill that purpose.
Remember it took on the order of 8 years before Falcon 9 could keep to a projected yearly launch rate. I’m sure you believed that SS/SH would launch in 2019 or 2020 like Musk orig said BFR would first fly, your projections are also vastly over optimistic. But who cares, Space X in the end delivers. It just takes more time. And that’s fine.
Remember SH/SS is already well along into the equivalent 8 year period?
“I’m sure you believed that SS/SH would launch in 2019 or 2020 like Musk orig said BFR would first fly” <– I’m sure you want to ignore SH/SS is not the BFR at all, that the whole structure was redesigned clean sheet to be stainless steel instead of composite, essentially retaining the engines for first prototype testing which engines have themselves since been quite successfully re-worked to be drastically more simple and powerful, and tested for that quite successfully.
More time than what? If everything manages it’s soft landing, and it carries payload on the next one, how is that not success after about 4 years?
8 years of FLYING. I’m not saying the extra 4 years for SS/SH to fly is a failure on behalf of Space X. I said it was going to take this long because I’ve been working in systems prototyping for about 30 years. It was the suckers in the fan boy community who kept screaming from the top of their lungs that Space X and Musk specifically can do anything inside ludicrous time frames, and then yell at and get angry at people who give them alternative arguments that in the end play out pretty much as said.
There are no “extra” 4 years for SH/SS to be flying, because the SH/SS started in 2019.
” It was the suckers in the fan boy community who kept screaming from the top of their lungs that Space X and Musk specifically can do anything
inside ludicrous time frames” <– You pretending that is what this is about is your pathology.
Hhahhahah, development is not flying. You’ll see.
When they are launching cargo before the end of the year you still won’t see.
Again, you still don’t understand the discussion I see. Let me remind you. Space X was promising very high flight rates as soon as they started recovering boosters. They even talked about ending production and running off stock on hand until SS/SH was going to fly. Projected flight rates were very high. Those projection were not met until two years ago. It took a long time for the Falcon program to be ready for its current flight rate. Think how much the Falcon 9 has changed since its first flight. SS/SH will evolve along a similar sequence and it’s going to take time to become a smooth operator.
Again, you have pathological skepticism. You think there is a discussion to be had, when you are an old man yelling at clouds.
“Space X was … started recovering boosters. ” <– They still are.
“They even talked … were very high.” <– And they are. You have forgotten they had vehicles and were waiting on payloads, or range slots.
“Think how much the Falcon 9 has changed since its first flight.” <– So what? It does not matter. There is no significance that it has significantly increased payload capacity over time beyond the fact that it has done so.
“SS/SH will evolve along a similar sequence and it’s going to take time to become a smooth operator.” <– To the extent true, so what? It has no significance, your obsessing about the fact not everything is instantly perfect is nutty.
We don’t have FTL yet either. Equally so, so what?
Oh, Tom has gone off the cliff again.
“Oh, Tom has gone off the cliff again.” <– Andrew Tubbiolo
“I’ve argued in the past that SS/SH is The Great Eastern of our era.” <– Also, Andrew Tubbiolo.
You have no relevant clue.
🙂
Sure they will throw some Starlinks in the mix during test flights. In your words, So What. There will be a lot of test and development before Starship can hit a reasonable launch cadence. SpaceX/Elon intentions and statements are not the same as already happened.
Starship will be more expensive to fly that Falcon9 for a few years yet.
No, the instant they recover hardware, it because less expensive to fly per flight. Even the full fuel load for SH/SS is less expensive.
The instant they recover hardware, they can start the process of learning what it takes start the process of learning what it takes to make it reusable. After making the modifications to hardware and procedures over a period of time, they can start to build a launch cadence. Then they can start building up more infrastructure and ships with lessons leaned and start retiring investment.
Part of that building will be developing new launch and landing sites with the locals knowing the inconveniences, if any, noise levels, and a reasonable idea of the risks involved. It is quite likely that acquiring other sites will prove to be a PITA. It should be obvious that current known launch/landing sites are inadequate to the projected cadence.
None of this is instantaneous.
“I’ve argued in the past that SS/SH is The Great Eastern of our era.” <– Thereby demonstrating your complete lack of understanding the situation. “The Great Eastern” was an unprofitable one off, the costs of operation of which scaled with her size compared to other vessels of her day, nevermind she stuck with obsolete paddle wheels.
As conservative to a fault organization as NASA has accepted that 7 successful launches of a “frozen” design effectively crew rates it, the DoD will not be more reluctant to use Starship — and it will have lower costs from the instant the booster is recovered than does F9 or FH.
It’s not like Robert to be silent. I hope he is OK.
This site and my browser weren’t getting along for a few days. I was hoping the switch to the new comment system meant I could actually post under my own name with the embedded space, but I keep getting told that there’s already an account under that name. So I guess duheagle I stay. I am looking forward to the Starship debut launch – now scheduled for 4-17. Whatever happens, there will certainly be greatly increased clarity anent Starship’s future development path and timeline. A narrowing of error bars is always good.