Launch Roundup: Starship to fly? Europa Clipper Hurricane delays, Falcon 9s on hold

Date:
Tue, 08 Oct 2024 20:38:26 +0000

Description:
SpaceX plans a SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy launch on Sunday, Oct. 13, pending regulatory approval. This The post Launch Roundup: Starship to fly? Europa Clipper Hurricane delays, Falcon 9s on hold appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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SpaceX plans a SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy launch on Sunday, Oct. 13, pending regulatory approval. This will be the fifth test flight of the full Starship-Super Heavy stack and the first attempt at catching the booster.

Meanwhile, multiple SpaceX Falcon 9 missions are on hold to await the investigation into the anomaly with the second stage of the Crew-9 mission. The stage landed outside of the designated zone following re-entry on Sept. 28. While not affected by this investigation, the NASA-licensed Europa
Clipper flight faces delays because its launch site is under a Hurricane
Alert as Hurricane Milton is due to pass over Florida on Wednesday.

Blue Origin attempts to launch the first flight of a new human-rated vehicle. On the other side of the world, China appears to have at least one launch planned this week.



Blue Origin New Shepard | NS-27

Following an unsuccessful launch attempt on Monday of this week, Blue Origin will make another attempt at an uncrewed, sub-orbital flight. This mission is a verification flight for the companys latest human-rated capsule named RSS Krmn Line and its booster. RSS Karman line and Booster 5 wait on the pad for the team to troubleshoot a vehicle issue (Credit: Blue Origin)

The previous attempt was scrubbed when troubleshooting an issue on the launch vehicle caused the company to overrun its launch window. The new attempt will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 9:00 AM EDT(13:00 UTC) from Launch Site One in West Texas.

CASC Chang Zheng 3B | Unknown Payload

A Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B/E is expected to launch from LC-2 at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 13:50 UTC. Chang Zheng 3/E is a three-stage vehicle with a total height of 52.52 meters. This missions payload is strongly rumored to be the Weixing Hulianwang Gaogui 03 satellite.

All flight paths from this inland launch center take vehicles over land and these rockets have been filmed dropping spent stages on populated areas after recent launches.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy | Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper, the NASA mission to investigate the Jovian moon Europa has a finite launch window from Oct. 10 to Nov. 6, 2024. SpaceX was planning to launch the probe at the earliest opportunity of 12:31 EDT (16:31 UTC) on Oct. 10, however, the company has postponed the mission to out wait Hurricane Milton. Meanwhile, the probe and its Falcon Heavy launch vehicle have been secured in SpaceXs hangar.

Instead, SpaceX now hopes to launch on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 1:19 PM EDT (17:19 UTC), weather permitting. Up-close image of Europa Clipper in its
clean room at JPL. Note the instruments located around the body of the spacecraft. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)

The launch is a major task, even for a Falcon Heavy in fully expendable mode. Massing at 6,065 kg, the Europa Clipper payload is one of the heaviest interplanetary probes ever launched. The payload will be placed in a heliocentric orbit.

On its five-and-a-half-year journey to Jupiter, Europa Clipper will fly by Mars and Earth to make gravity-assisted changes to its trajectory. When the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, it will enter an orbit that brings the probe
close to Europa, enabling it to conduct a wide range of experiments and provide imagery of the moon.

The Falcon Heavy has been optimized for this flight, with thecenter-core booster, B1090, on its first and only flight, and the two side boosters B1064 and B1065 both flying their sixth and final flight. Being expended on this flight, the side boosters have been stripped of their landing legs, grid
fins, and landing-related hardware.

The two side boosters for the Falcon Heavy separate after their burn and are expected to fall into the ocean some 775 km downrange. This is substantially farther than the booster landing site of a regular Falcon 9 Starlink mission, which usually is approximately 640 km downrange. After the side cores have been expended, the Falcon Heavy center core will continue its burn, before also falling into the ocean 1,960 km downrange. These additional distances reflect the large increase in energy being expended by the boosters to
deliver this heavy payload into its target orbit.

The two side boosters have always flown as a pair, previously flying USSF-44, USSF-67, EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3), Psyche, and USSF-52 (OTV-7). Their first flight was USSF-44 on Nov. 1, 2022.

Europa Clipper was completed by Sept. 21 and encapsulated by the fairings
atop the payload adapter that fits into the Falcon Heavy upper stage, on Oct. 4. Starships fifth flight test is preparing to launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval https://t.co/hibmw2lVv1 pic.twitter.com/Suw1kKLHiE

SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 7, 2024



SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy | Flight Five

SpaceX is planning Starships fifth flight test and its first attempt at catching a Super Heavy booster no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13. While the booster will attempt to return to its launch site for a catch attempt, Starship will follow a similar trajectory as the previous test flight and splash down in the Indian Ocean.

Some important requirements, most notably the required launch license from
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), are not yet in place. The latest response from the FAA to NSFs Adrian Beils inquiries, states that the launch will take place no earlier than November.

The Starship-Super Heavy hardware were restacked over Saturday night and Sunday morning Oct. 5 and 6, at Starbase Pad A in Boca Chica. With the full stack on the launchpad, SpaceX performed a partial tanking test on Oct. 7. Commentators have noted that the Flight Termination System (FTS) is not yet installed on either of the vehicles, a process that must also be completed before launch.

SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 8-19

This Starlink flight is currently listed on the FAA Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) on Sunday, Oct. 13, and would likely fly from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. No further details are available at this time. We have lift off in California! Thanks to our colleagues at @SpaceX for a successful launch.

Follow us for more updates throughout the rest of the mission.
#OneWebLaunch19 pic.twitter.com/niH4tVP5BO

Eutelsat Group (@EutelsatGroup) May 20, 2023



SpaceX Falcon 9 | OneWeb #20

A SpaceX Falcon 9 was scheduled to perform the 20th flight for the OneWeb high-speed internet constellation this week, pending regulatory approval. Originally planned to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), California, on Sunday, Sep. 29, at 11:49 PM PDT (Monday, Sep. 30, at 06:49 UTC), the mission was delayed following the second-stage anomaly experienced during the Crew-9 mission.

The mission will fly due South to place the 20 satellites into a polar orbit, at 1,200 km altitude, inclined at 87.9 degrees. The mass of each of the
OneWeb satellites is 147.7 kg. OneWeb is building up the constellation to an initial 648 satellites.

The booster for this flight will be B1082 flying for the seventh time having previously flown Starlink Group 7-9 on Jan. 3, 2024, followed by Starlink Group 7-14, USSF-62/WSF-M1, Starlink Group 8-2, Starlink Group 9-1, and Starlink Group 11-1.

The booster will burn for around 2 minutes after liftoff, before separating from the second stage, performing a boostback burn, and returning to land at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.

(Lead image: A previous Falcon Heavy launch. Credit: SpaceX)

The post Launch Roundup: Starship to fly? Europa Clipper Hurricane delays, Falcon 9s on hold appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/10/launch-roundup-100824/


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