Launch Roundup – A Bad Week for SmallSat Launchers

Welcome to the Launch Roundup! Last week was a bad one for small satellite launchers with multiple failures, NASA is gearing up to launch another asteroid mission, and Virgin Galactic is preparing to send three more people on a suborbital joy ride.

Recent launches

Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 suffered its first failure in 10 launches on September 21. The failure lowered the solid-fuel booster’s reliability to 90 percent. Galactic Energy has not revealed the cause of the failure.

The failure came two days after a Rocket Lab Electron booster fell back to Earth after its second stage failed to ignite properly. It was the fourth failure in 40 launches for the orbital rocket, whose reliability fell to 90 percent as a result.

Recent Launches

Two previous launch mishaps resulted from the failures of Electron’s second stage. On the other flight, the range safety officer blew up the second stage after telemetry from it was lost. The problem was traced to a bug in the ground software; the stage was performing as designed.

While Rocket Lab struggled, SpaceX launched 65 Starlink broadband satellites on three Falcon 9 rockets. Two rockets used first stages that launched and landed for a record 17th time.

Starlink Launches

Forty-two Falcon 9s have launched 1,512 Starlink satellites this year. SpaceX has launched 5,178 Starlink spacecraft since February 2018.

Upcoming launches

With the OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu completed with the return of a soil sample, NASA is gearing up for another asteroid mission. On October 5, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to a metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche that orbits between Mars and Jupiter.

The launch is scheduled for 10:34 AM EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA will broadcast the launch on NASA TV and stream it at www.nasa.gov and www.youtube.com/@NASA.

The mission is being led by Arizona Space University, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory providing mission management and operations. Maxar Technologies built the spacecraft bus.

Upcoming Launches

On October 4, Europe’s Vega rocket will launch Earth observation and meteorology satellites aboard from Thailand and Taiwan, respectively. The booster will also launch 10 payloads into low Earth orbit.

Vega Launch, October 2023
Secondary Payloads

It will be only the third launch attempt for Europe in 2023. The Ariane 5 was retired in July, and the flight of its Ariane 6 successor has been delayed until 2024 due to technical problems. The Vega-C rocket, which is a larger version of Vega, has not flown since it failed on its second flight in December 2023.

Virgin Galactic will fly its fourth suborbital flight on October 5. Customers on the space tourism flight include Ron Rosano of the United States, Trevor Beattie of the United Kingdom, and Namira Salim of Pakistan. Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses will join them in the passenger cabin. The flight will be flown by Kelly Latimer and C.J. Stuckow.

Launches by nation

There have been 157 launch attempts with 148 successes and nine failures as we approach the end of the third quarter of 2023. There were 186 launches last year, with 178 successes, seven failures, and one partial failure.

Propelled by SpaceX’s record year, the United States leads the world in launch attempts (84), successes (79) and failures (5). US launch providers attempted 87 launches in 2022, with 84 successes, two failures and one partial failure.

China’s perfect record was blemished by the Ceres-1 failure. With 44 launches and three months left in 2023, China is well on its way to its stated goal of launching more than 60 times this year.

Launches by company/agency

With another launch scheduled for September 28, SpaceX is likely to end the month with 70 launches. That averages out to 7.8 launches per month. The company will need to fly an average of 10 times per month during the fourth quarter to reach Elon Musk’s goal of 100 launches in 2023.

Launches by Company/Agency

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is in second place with 30 launches, followed by Russia’s Roscosmos with 10 flights. Rocket Lab and the Indian Space Research Organisation are neck and neck in the battle for fourth place.

Launches by booster

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 leads the world with 65 launches and not a single failure. CASC has launched the Long March 2C and Long March 2D boosters 14 times. The Soyuz-2.1a and Soyuz-2.1b boosters remain the workhorses of the Russian launch fleet. A stripped-down version of the rocket named Soyuz-2.1v has flown once.

Launches by Booster

Launches by spaceport

Florida’s two adjacent spaceports have hosted 51 orbital launches this year. Floridians have seen a launch on average every five days and six hours. Vandenberg Space Force Base is also having a banner year with 21 launches.

Launches by Spaceport

China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center has hosted 24 launches. The Xichang and Taiyuan spaceports are in second place with nine and eight launches apiece.