Launch Roundup – SpaceX Launches Euclid, Ariane 5 Bows Out

In this week’s Launch Roundup, SpaceX kicked off July by sending the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope into space on Saturday, July 1. Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket is set to fly for for the final time later today, July 5. The two launches illustrated the problem Europe is having with launching spacecraft this year.

On 5 July 2023 SpaceRef.com editor Keith Cowing spoke with Deutsche Welle TV about the last flight of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and its successor, the Ariane 6. [audio]

Euclid is a visible-to-near-infrared telescope designed to study dark energy and dark matter from its location at the Sun-Earth Lagrange 2 point. The space telescope will observe billions of galaxies, allowing astronomers to create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe to date. The map is expected to reveal how matter is distributed, and how the expansion of the Universe has evolved over cosmic history. Astronomers will use the map to infer the properties of dark energy and dark matter.

“The successful launch of Euclid marks the beginning of a new scientific endeavor to help us answer one of the most compelling questions of modern science,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in a press release. “Euclid has been made possible by ESA’s leadership, the effort and expertise of hundreds of European industrial and scientific institutions, and through collaboration with international partners. The quest to answer fundamental questions about our cosmos is what makes us human. And, often, it is what drives the progress of science and the development of powerful, far-reaching, new technologies. ESA is committed to expanding Europe’s ambitions and successes in space for future generations.”

Recent Launches

In other launch news, Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial mission with paying customers on June 29. VSS Unity flew three Italian researchers on a suborbital flight that originated from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Europe’s Launch Woes

ESA originally intended to launch Euclid on a Russian Soyuz ST-B rocket. However, Arianespace and ESA suspended cooperation on commercial Soyuz launches after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

ESA went to SpaceX after delays with the new Ariane 6 rocket ruled out launching Euclid on that booster. Ariane 6’s maiden launch has been pushed back to the end of this year, or early 2024, due to a series of technical challenges.

The delays come as Europe’s main launcher bows out. The 117th and final Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled to launch geosynchronous communications satellites for the German Aerospace Center and France’s Directorate General of Armament on July 5. A planned launch on July 4 was delayed due to weather.

Ariane 5’s launch window is from 6:00-7:05 PM EDT (22:00-23:05 UTC). ESA will webcast the launch on its YouTube channel.

Ariane 5 has a record of 11 successes, two failures, and three partial failures since its first flight in June 2006. 

The Vega-C rocket is still grounded after suffering a failure of its Zefiro 40 motor during a launch in December 2023. On August 29, the rocket’s manufacturer, Avio, announced that the booster’s return to flight would be further delayed due to an anomaly experienced during the test firing of a Zefiro 40 motor last week.

Avio said that its plans to launch the smaller Vega rocket in September remain on track because the booster does not use the Zefiro 40 motor.

Upcoming Launches

India is scheduled to launch its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon on July 12. The lander will carry instruments to study the lunar environment and deploy a small rover.

The lander is a replacement for Chandrayaan-2, which crashed into the lunar surface in September 2019 while attempting to land. The new mission lacks its predecessor’s orbiter, which continues to return data about the Moon.

India will launch an Earth observation satellite for the Defence Science and Technology Agency on July 23. The launch will carry an unidentified secondary payload from OrbAstro.

Upcoming Launches

Rocket Lab is set to conduct its sixth orbital launch of the year from the Mahia Peninsula on July 14. The Electron booster will carry four Starling satellites for NASA, a pair of Lemur-2 spacecraft for Spire Global, and Telesat’s LEO 3 satellite.

NASA’s Starling mission is designed to test how small swarms of satellites can work together in a synchronized manner without resources from the ground. The spacecraft will test maneuvering, communications, navigation, and autonomous coordination.

LandSpace of China will make another attempt to launch its methane-fueled Zhuque-2 rocket in early July. The rocket failed on its maiden launch in December 2022 after the second stage vernier engines shut down prematurely.

Launches by Nation

There have been 98 orbital launch attempts so far this year. The United States continues to lead the world by a wide margin with 54 launches, including 50 successes and four failures. China is in second place overall with 25 launches.

Orbital Launches by Nation

Russia has launched nine times, India four times, and Japan twice. Europe, Israel, South Korea, and North Korea have conducted one flight each.

Six launches have failed this year. The four American failures included three maiden flights – SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy, ABL Space Systems’ RS1, and Relativity Space’s Terran 1 – as well as the sixth launch of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne. Japan’s H3 and North Korea’s Chollima-1 boosters failed on their maiden launches.

Launches by Company/Agency

SpaceX has launched 45 times, far ahead of the 19 flights by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). Elon Musk has set the goal for SpaceX to launch 100 times this year. The company launched 61 times in 2022.

Launches by Company/Agency

SpaceX’s 44 successful flights have placed 1,416 of 1,647 payloads launched into orbit this year. CASC is in second place with 83 satellites.

Roscosmos has launched seven times. Rocket Lab has conducted five orbital launches and one suborbital launch. The company aims to complete 15 launches this year, up from nine in 2022.

Launches by Booster

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket remains the most-flown booster in the world with 42 flights. The company has conducted two successful Falcon Heavy launches and one Starship/Super Heavy flight that failed.

China has launched its Long March 2C and Long March 2D rockets eight times. There have also been five launches of Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a and Soyuz-2.1b rockets.

Launches by Booster

There are 21 launch vehicles on the list that have flown only once this year. Six of the boosters – Chollima-1, H3, RS1, Starship/Super Heavy, Terran 1, and Tianlong-2 – were launched for the first time. Only Tianlong-2 placed a satellite in orbit; the other five launchers failed.

Launches by Spaceport

Florida remains the busiest launch site in the world, with a combined 33 launches originating from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Vandenberg Space Force Base is in second place among American spaceports with 13 launches.

Rocket Lab has launched twice from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia and three times from its spaceport on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.

Launches by Spaceport

SpaceX’s Starbase and the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska have each hosted a single launch. The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center leads all Chinese spaceports with 14 launches. The nation’s other three launch sites have hosted a total of 11 launches. Russia has launched five times from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and two times each from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and the Vostochny Cosmodrome. India’s Satish Dhawan Launch Centre has hosted four flights this year.