At least 10 launches are planned worldwide this month. The launches include crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station and the first commercial flight of Rocket Lab’s Electron booster. Orbital ATK’s Pegasus XL will launch NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) from the Marshall Islands on June 14. China got June off to a successful start on Saturday with the launch of the Gaofen-6 remote sensing satellite aboard a […]
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Electron lifts off on maiden flight from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Huntington Beach, Calif., Friday 25 May 2018 (Rocket Lab PR) — US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has today confirmed the new launch window for the upcoming ‘It’s Business Time’ mission. The 14-day launch window will open from 23 June to 6 July (NZST), with launch opportunities between 12:30 – 16:30 NZST daily (00:30 – 04:30 UTC).
NOAA has issued a request for proposals for the second phase of its commercial weather data pilot program. The program’s goal is to determine whether GPS radio occultation data from commercial satellites can be used to improve weather forecasting. Radio occultation involves the change in a radio signal as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere, allowing for the measurement of physical properties there. The firm-fixed price contracts for the second phase […]
ISS with Soyuz and Progress spacecraft docked to it. (Credit: NASA)
There are a dozen orbital launches planned around the world through the end of June.
China will lead off on Sunday as it launches its Chang’e-4 lunar relay satellite from Xichang. A lunar lander and rover targeted for the far side of the moon is scheduled for launch at the end of the year.
Orbital ATK will follow with the launch of a Cygnus resupply ship bound for the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday from Wallops Island. On Tuesday, SpaceX is scheduled to launch 5 Iridium Next satellites and a pair of scientific spacecraft for NASA.
Other notable missions scheduled through June include a Soyuz crew mission and a SpaceX Dragon resupply flight. Rocket Lab is probably going to launch the first commercial flight of its Electron booster from New Zealand. However, the company has not published a launch window for the flight.
The current global schedule is below. Be sure to check Space Flight Now’s launch schedule for updates.
Mars InSight lander (Credit: NASA)
There are some interesting launches among the nine orbital flights currently scheduled for May. Highlights include:
- NASA’s Mars InSight lander with two deep-space CubeSats (May 5);
- SpaceX’s first flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 variant (NET May 7);
- Two Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE Follow-On) satellites (May 19);
- Orbital ATK’s Antares Cygnus ISS resupply mission (May 20);
- China’s Chang’e-4 lunar relay satellite with two deep-space microsats (TBD); and,
- Rocket Lab’s first Electron commercial flight (TBD).
There have been 40 orbital launches through April, with 38 successes, one failure and one partial failure.
The schedule below is subject to change. Please check with our friends at Spaceflight Now for updates.
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Eelectron rocket on the launch pad. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Huntington Beach, Calif., 3 April 2018 (Rocket Lab PR) — US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has today confirmed it will open a 14-day launch window this month to conduct the company’s first fully commercial launch. The mission, named ‘It’s Business Time’, includes manifested payloads for Spire Global and GeoOptics Inc., built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.
CubeSats (Credit: ESA/Medialab)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
On most launches, the small secondary satellites that ride along with the primary payloads garner little attention.
That has begun to change in recent years as CubeSats have become increasingly capable. The importance of these small satellites could be seen in the recent launch of an Indian PSLV rocket, which carried a CartoSat Earth observation satellite and 30 secondary spacecraft from India, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and the United States.
A Russian Soyuz-2 rocket deployed 48 Planet Dove and eight Spire Lemur CubeSats on Friday during a flight that deployed a total of 73 satellites. The Dove and Lemur satellites were secondary payloads on the launch, whose main mission was to deploy the Kanopus-V-IK remote sensing satellite. Planet co-founder Will Marshall tweeted that all 48 satellites were deployed as planned and were in contact with ground controllers. The Soyuz also […]
Members of the NASA Ames Nodes Integration & Test team ready to integrate the Nodes 1 and 2 spacecraft (forefront) into the Nanoracks dispenser.(Credit: NASA)
by Steve Fetter and Tom Kalil
White House OSTP
Today, astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are visiting the White House to talk to the President about developing innovative new space technologies. One critical area for technology development is making satellites more affordable, adaptable, and adept at providing the sorts of real-time information that will help advance knowledge out in space and on Earth.
WASHINGTON (NOAA PR) — On September 15, 2016, NOAA awarded contracts to GeoOptics, Inc., and Spire Global, Inc., as part of the Commercial Weather Data Pilot.
GeoOptics and Spire Global will each provide space-based GNSS radio occultation data to NOAA for the purpose of demonstrating data quality and potential value to NOAA’s weather forecasts and warnings. This approach is a win-win solution. Both NOAA and the commercial firms will gain a trial run of the NOAA evaluation process, a necessary first step to considering sustained operational use of new commercial weather data.