Tag: Long March
-
Launch Roundup: Cygnus XL and Progress fly cargo missions to ISS
Two cargo resupply missions have launched to the International Space Station this week. A Russian Soyuz launched the Progress MS-32 spacecraft Thursday, to be followed on Sunday by a Falcon 9 carrying Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL vehicle. In addition to Cygnus XL, Falcon 9 launched one Starlink mission and two customer missions. Russia and…
-
China’s Guowang megaconstellation is more than another version of Starlink
US defense officials have long worried that China’s Guowang satellite network might give the Chinese military access to the kind of ubiquitous connectivity US forces now enjoy with SpaceX’s Starlink network. It turns out the Guowang constellation could offer a lot more than a homemade Chinese alternative to Starlink’s high-speed consumer-grade broadband service. China has…
-
Launch Roundup: Vulcan and Ariane launch ahead of Starlink missions
After a week of weather delays across the U.S, launch cadence increases as providers strive to catch up with the backlog. An Ariane 6 carrying a weather satellite launched ahead of a navigational technology satellite and a classified payload launched atop Vulcan. A Chinese Chang Zheng 5B rocket also launched on Wednesday. Three Falcon 9…
-
Launch Roundup: Chinese asteroid mission, and Falcon 9 launch
This week, China launched a near-Earth asteroid sample return mission amongst several other missions. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab has postponed the launch its Electron rocket from New Zealand until June 3 for additional checks and bad weather. Coming off the launch of Starship’s ninth flight test on Tuesday, SpaceX launched several Starlink missions. The company also…
-
Launch Roundup: Starship Flight 9; SpaceX starts new Starlink shell; China, Russia also launch
This Launch Roundup has been extended to include the launch of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 on Tuesday/Wednesday. SpaceX was expected to begin building a new shell for its Starlink constellation last week, launching from Vandenberg to a polar orbit. This mission was postponed until Tuesday and now falls into the scope of this Roundup. Two…
-
Chang Zheng 12, ZhuQue-2E fly maiden missions; Hainan spaceport and mega constellations expand
In late November, two new Chinese rockets took their maiden flights within four days of each other, with the Chang Zheng 12 and Landspace’s enhanced ZhuQue-2E successfully completing their missions. This week saw the first launch of the Chang Zheng 5B heavy-lift vehicle in over two years, carrying an initial batch of satellites for another…
-
China orbits first Guowang Internet satellites, with thousands more to come
The first batch of Internet satellites for China’s Guowang megaconstellation launched Monday on the country’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket. The satellites are the first of up to 13,000 spacecraft a consortium of Chinese companies plans to build and launch over the next decade. The Guowang fleet will beam low-latency high-speed Internet signals in an…
-
Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon
China’s new Long March 12 rocket made a successful inaugural flight Saturday, placing two experimental satellites into orbit and testing uprated, higher-thrust engines that will allow a larger Chinese launcher in development to send astronauts to the Moon. The 203-foot-tall (62-meter) Long March 12 rocket lifted off at 9:25 am EST (14:25 UTC) Saturday from…
-
Launch Roundup: Sentinel 1C and PROBA 3 among ten planned launches
This week is busy in spaceflight, with 10 orbital launches planned throughout the week. China has, as expected, continued its launch cadence from last week with three more launches this week. SpaceX planned to launch five Falcon 9 missions in five days with the launches of four Starlink missions and one customer payload but has…
-
Launch Roundup: China launch crew to Tiangong Space Station, Russia launches military payload
In another busy week of launches, China launched three taikonauts to the Tiangong Space Station aboard a Chang Zheng rocket this week as part of the Shenzhou 19 mission. Additionally, both Russia and Japan launched military payloads. As usual, SpaceX continues to fly Starlink missions throughout the week. SpaceX’s CRS-31 mission, a Cargo Resupply Services…