The Weekly Rocket Report #32
06/23/2024-06/29/2024
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello space fans! Welcome back to The Weekly Rocket Report. We have a very busy week to break down, with a whopping 11 launches from all over the world, so let’s get right into it.
I’ll give you one guess, on what the first launch of the week was.. Did you guess Starlink? Good guess! Starlink Group 10-23 roared off the Florida coast on Monday carrying 27 satellites to orbit. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s booster flew back to Earth landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
The next launch was more internet satellites, but it was not a Starlink launch. This launch was KA-02 one of the final launches of the mighty Atlas V. Atlas carried 27 Kuiper sats to orbit, adding to the new Amazon operated satellite constellation Project Kuiper.
Atlas V launches KA-02. Photo Credit: ULA.
From the East Coast to the West Coast as Falcon 9 launched Transporter 14. The 14th of SpaceX’s SSO rideshare missions carried 70 payloads into orbit. Following a good stage separation the booster landed down range on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Heading back to Florida, the much delayed Axiom 4 mission finally lifted off taking a crew of 4 to the International Space Station. Following launch the first stage booster returned to the Cape, landing at LZ-1. The crew consisted of former NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson, Shubhanshu Shukla from India, Slawosz from Poland, and Tibor Kapu, from Hungary. The crew, and their Dragon capsule are slated to stay on the ISS for approximately 2 weeks before returning to Earth.
Falcon 9 prior to the launch of Axiom 4. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
Later the same day, another Falcon lifted off from Cape Canaveral, carrying another 27 satellites to join the Starlink constellation. Falcon 9 carried Starlink Group 10-16 to orbit, and successfully landed its first stage down range on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
Moving on to Thursday, Rocket Lab joined in on the busy week. Electron launched a mission called “Get the Hawk Outta Here” from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. The payload was 3 satellites for HawkEye 360, which map radio frequency emissions.
Now we get to Saturday, and what a day Saturday was. Saturday consisted of 4 different launches, from 4 different places in the world, by 3 different rockets, all within less than 13 hours. We begin at the Cape where Falcon 9 launched Starlink Group 10-34 at 12:26AM. The 27 satellites were deployed successfully, and the booster returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”. Also of note, this launch took place on SLC 40 at the Cape, 2 days, 8 hours, and 31 minutes after a previous Falcon 9 had lifted off from SLC 40. This breaks a new pad turnaround time for Falcon 9, beating the previous record by almost a half hour.
Next up, 3:08 AM, Electron. This mission, which flew from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand was called “Symphony in the Stars”. The rocket carried a payload for a confidential customer, which is speculated to be an EchoStar internet satellite.
Electron launches “Symphony in the Stars”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
Next, to Japan, 12:33PM. H-IIA launched GOSAT-GW which is a greenhouse gas monitoring satellite designed by JAXA. This is the final launch of an H-II rocket, finally retired after 50 launches over an almost 25 year tenure.
H-IIA launches GOSAT-GW. Photo Credit: JAXA.
The final launch Saturday came again from Falcon 9, this time however from Vandenberg. At 1:13 PM the Merlin engines roared to life and the 26 satellites of Starlink Group 15-7 were vaulted into orbit. Following separation, the first stage returned to Earth, landing down range on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
The last launch of the week came Sunday morning in the West Texas desert. Here, New Shepard carried 6 people on a journey to outer space. The crew of NS-33 consisted of Allie Kuehner, Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Jim Sitkin, Owolabi Salis, and Freddie Rescigno Jr. Following the mission both the booster, and the crew capsule landed back down safely in the West Texas desert.
There it is my friends, all 11 launches. You know I was thinking, as I was doing the research for this article. Imagine telling someone in the 70s, or the 80s that we would live in a time where there were 11 rocket launches in a week, or 4 launches in half a day. Now some back then would have told you that was the eventual goal, but I get the feeling most people wouldn’t have believed you. Heck if you told someone that 15 years ago, I don’t think they would have believed you, not until SpaceX came around, and China started ramping up its launch cadence. Speaking of China, there were no launches from them amongst the 11 launches this week. It is very, very rare that a week goes by without a launch from China. With that being said it looks like Long March returns to the launch order next week, as does Soyuz/Progress, we also look forward to another attempt at the maiden launch for the Eris rocket. We will be back here next week to break down all the action on the Weekly Rocket Report. See you then!
As always feel free to write to me at rickyew2112@gmail.com, or find me on X @Rickyew2112
Sic Itur Ad Astra
(Thus They Journey to the Stars)