SpaceX Delivers Customer Payloads, Ariane 6 Debuts

As many as four SpaceX Falcon 9 missions are on the roster for this week’s launch schedule. The four missions will be split evenly between Starlink and two payloads for other customers.

At least one of the SpaceX missions is likely to be affected by the severe weather currently being experienced on the east coast of the United States.

On Monday, July 8, SpaceX launched a communications satellite atop a Falcon 9. The mission was originally planned for 5:21 PM EDT (21:21 UTC), but the weather forecast showed conditions were 70 percent against a launch at the stated time due to cumulus and anvil clouds, as well as surface electric fields, potentially causing a scrub.

Shortly before propellent loading, the launch time was pushed back several times as a weather system passed through Cape Canaveral. Eventually, conditions cleared sufficiently, allowing liftoff to occur at 7:30 PM EDT (23:30 UTC).

Launching from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Falcon 9 flew due east to propel the payload, TürkSat-6A, into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The booster, B1076, landed successfully on the autonomous droneship Just Read The Instructions, stationed 660 km downrange. The payload deployed following a second burn from the upper stage after 35 minutes and 31 seconds.

TürkSat-6A is the first Turkish-built satellite for TürkSat, with a mass of 4,250 kg. It will provide communication support for both civilian and military entities in and around the Antalya Peninsula region.

Booster B1076 has flown 14 previous missions, including CRS-26, OneWeb #16, Starlink Group 6-1, and various other Starlink and commercial missions.

On Wednesday, July 10, between 7:00 PM PDT and 11:31 PM PDT (Thursday, July 11, 02:00 to 06:31 UTC), a Falcon 9 will launch a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites into the Group 9 shell in an orbit inclined at 53 degrees from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The booster will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship approximately 600 km downrange.

Another batch of Starlink satellites will launch from SLC-40 at CCSFS in Florida on Sunday, July 14, at 3:35 AM EDT (07:35 UTC). No details have been released regarding the booster or the droneship for this mission.

Previously expected no earlier than Monday, July 15, the launch of two satellites for the WorldView Legion 3 & 4 mission from Cape Canaveral in Florida is now postponed until later in July. Following launch, the unannounced booster is expected to perform a return-to-launch-site landing at LZ-1.

The European Space Agency (ESA) intends to launch the long-awaited Ariane 6 for the first time on Tuesday, July 9, between 18:00 and 22:00 UTC, from Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 4 (ELA-4) — Ariane Launch Complex 4 — at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

The various main components of Ariane 6 were built in Europe and shipped to Kourou for assembly and integration in preparation for this maiden flight. The Ariane 6 replaces Ariane 5, which last flew on July 5, 2023, having attained a flight history of 82 consecutive successful launches since April 9, 2003. Before this date, Ariane 5 suffered several failures during its first 14 launches. The new Ariane 6 will fill a large gap in Europe’s orbital capabilities, replacing not only Ariane 5 but also the Soyuz 2.1b.

The Ariane 6 first stage is built by the ArianeGroup for the ESA and is powered by a single Vulcain 2.1 engine, a further development of the first stage engines used on the Ariane 5. Two or four solid rocket boosters (SRB) are added depending on the payload being launched. This initial launch will feature just two SRBs, indicated by the “62” in the Ariane 62 designation.

The second stage has a single Vinci engine, which, like the first stage, uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, but can be reignited up to four times and is optimized for use in the vacuum of space.

ESA decided to not pursue recovery and reuse on Ariane 6, citing, amongst other reasons, the unviable economics of reuse when demand for launches is of a low volume.

This mission will carry 11 payloads, two of which are dispensers loaded with multiple payloads, totaling 15 in all. The payloads include NASA’s Curie, which is a cubesat using a radio interferometer to study radio burst emissions, and SpaceCase SC-X0, which is a re-entry capsule developed by ArianeGroup. Many of the other payloads are college-built cubesats. This demonstration mission will include several relights of the upper stage’s Vinci engine to place the payloads into different orbits and ultimately deorbit the stage.