This week, Japanese commercial company Space One will make a second attempt to launch its Kairos vehicle, while SpaceX has three Falcon 9 launches planned in less than 28 hours towards the end of the week. These include two back-to-back customer missions on Friday, both from the east coast, carrying satellites for the 03b mPOWER and GPS-III satellite constellations.
This week opens with five launches on the schedule — half of the 11 total orbital launches from an exceptionally busy week before. A record-breaking 14 rocket launches had taken place worldwide in the seven days leading to the launch of a Simorgh rocket on Friday, Dec. 6. These included launches from the U.S., China, Russia, India, French Guiana, and Iran. Six launches were originally expected to take place in one day, Dec. 4, two of which were subsequently moved to later in the week. In total, there were 29 orbital flights in November, averaging almost one per day, and the month closed with a record-breaking 229 orbital launches so far this year worldwide, beating 2023’s record of 221.
Adding to the milestones, SpaceX completed its 350th flight with a flight-proven booster last week on the Starlink Group 9-14 mission. The company also completed its first Direct-to-Cell constellation shell on this mission, which consists of 24 planes, each containing 13 satellites at a 53-degree inclination at an operational altitude of 360 km. In the same week, the company achieved the 100th successful landing on its droneship Just Read The Instructions.
Gushenxing-1 (Ceres-1) ahead of its previous launch at Site 95A of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in June 2024. (Credit: Galactic Energy)
Gushenxing-1 | Unknown payload
This will be Galactic Energy’s fifth launch this year of its Gushenxing-1 rocket, also known as the Ceres-1, and the third of the year to launch from Site 95A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gansu Province of China.
This is the first vehicle to roll off the production line at the company’s new Ziyang Assembly and Manufacturing plant in the Sichuan Province, which will increase the rocket’s production. To date, Galactic Energy has conducted 14 successful missions, launching 54 satellites for its customers, including three sea-launched missions with the Ceres-1S variation of the rocket.
Little is currently known about the payload onboard this particular mission. The launch is expected to take place on Thursday, Dec. 12, at 07:20 UTC. The four-stage Ceres-1 launch vehicle is 19 m tall with a mass of 33,000 kg and burns solid propellant on the first three stages. The final stage uses storable liquid hydrazine for propulsion. Up to 400 kg can be carried to a low-Earth orbit or up to 300 kg to a Sun-synchronous orbit, which has been more commonly targeted on recent missions.
22 Starlink satellites deployed during the Starlink Group 10-8 mission from SLC-40. (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-2
This mission will send the second group of 22 Starlink v2-Mini satellites into Group 11 of the Starlink constellation, the first of which flew over four months ago at the start of August. Launch is scheduled for Thursday, Dec 12, at 1:33 PM PST (19:33 UTC), at the top of a typical four-hour launch window, from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
A Falcon 9 will fly on a southeasterly trajectory to place the satellites into an initial 273 by 283 km orbit, inclined 53 degrees. The first stage booster has not yet been confirmed but is expected to land on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You approximately eight minutes into the mission. SpaceX launched 7,523 Starlink satellites, of which 6,031 have now moved into their operational orbits (not including Group 11-2).
Boeing delivers the latest pair of 03b mPower satellites to SES. (Credit: Boeing/Sally Aristei)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | 03b mPOWER 7 & 8
SpaceX is launching the fourth pair of O3b mPOWER high-throughput and low-latency internet satellites for operator SES this week. The launch is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 13, at 3:55 PM EST (20:55 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, targeting a medium-Earth orbit. This will be the first of two back-to-back missions with three hours of each other on Dec. 13.
The 03b mPOWER system is already operational with six satellites in orbit and, following this mission, will launch another three satellites in 2025, with a final pair launching in 2026. Boeing, who will now build two additional satellites beyond its original 11-satellite contract, transported the satellites to the Cape last month from its build facilities in El Segundo, California.
This pair of satellites will feature redesigned power modules, addressing the electrical problems experienced on the first six satellites, impairing their performance and delaying this mission. Each subsequent launch will strengthen the existing constellation, which will have tripled in capacity once it has grown to seven fully capable satellites, with the original six satellites acting as spares. The satellites allow the operator, SES, to dynamically allocate bandwidth and power to their customers as required, generating over 5,000 fully steerable beams.
The booster supporting this mission has not been confirmed but is expected to land on an autonomous droneship stationed approximately 600 km downrange to the east of LC-39A.
Render of the enhanced GPS IIIF satellite (Credit: Lockheed Martin)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | GPS-3 10
The launch of the GPS-3 10 mission will see the second Falcon 9 launch from the east coast within three hours, following the 03b mPower mission from LC-39A. This launch for the U.S. Space Force is planned to launch from neighboring pad Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) on Friday, Dec. 13, at 6:30 PM EST (23:30 UTC). The satellite will be carried into a medium-Earth orbit, building the third generation of the global positioning system (GPS). The Navstar-3 program leverages technological advances to modernize the original GPS system, which was first launched in 1978. GPS-3 improves positioning, navigating, and timing services for civil and military users worldwide, with increased resistance to jamming and spoofing through M-code security algorithms.
Built on Lockheed Martin’s A2100M satellite bus, each satellite carries eight deployable antennas manufactured by Northrop Grumman. The GPS has been operational for almost three decades, with six Block 3 satellites already in service and another three ready for launch on Vulcan Centaur rockets next year. This will be the sixth GPS Block 3 satellite to be launched on a Falcon 9 since the launch of the first nearly six years ago.
The booster supporting this mission has not yet been confirmed, nor the droneship on which it is expected to land.
Render of Spaceport Kii with pad and integration building (Credit: Space One)
Render of Spaceport Kii with pad and integration building. (Credit: Space One)
Kairos | Flight 2
Following a troubled maiden launch attempt in March, Japanese commercial launch company Space One is set to launch its Kairos rocket on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 02:00 UTC. Named after the Greek god of opportunity, the rocket’s second attempt has a 20-minute launch window to lift off from Spaceport Kii – the company’s dedicated launch site in the Kii Peninsula within the Wakayama Prefecture. This 15-hectare site includes a pad, tower, control center, storage, and integration facilities, opening out to the sea at the southernmost point of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
The vehicle will target a Sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km altitude and is expected to carry a 50 kg Tarara-1 micro-satellite alongside four cubesats measuring 3U each, built by high school students in partnership with Terra Space. The primary satellite includes the first Buddha statue to launch into orbit, enshrined at the top of what has been dubbed the Kounji (Space) Temple. Following deployment at around 55 minutes into the mission at an altitude of 500 km, the upper stage will perform a retrograde burn to deorbit itself.
The first flight of the Kairos small satellite launcher was also the first launch from Space One’s launch facility and was planned to be the country’s first orbital launch from the private sector. The vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly just seconds into the flight at an altitude of less than 100 m when a lower-than-expected rate of thrust triggered the rocket’s automatic termination system.
The Kairos vehicle is similar in size to Rocket Lab’s Electron, standing 18 m tall with a diameter of 1.5 m. Massing 23,000 kg, it is capable of carrying 250 kg to LEO or 150 kg to a Sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km. The first three stages are solid-fuelled, using motors developed by IHI Aerospace, an investor in Space One, which have also been used on JAXA’s Epsilon rocket. A fourth upper kick stage is liquid-fuelled. Space One plans to build its launch cadence to a level greater than the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA), with intentions to increase to 20 launches per year before the end of the decade.
(Lead image: Streak as Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 12-5 mission from SLC-40 at CCSFS on Sunday, Dec. 8. Credit: SpaceX)