During this active week of launches, SpaceX launched Falcon 9 three times, and New Shepard carried the first all-woman crew above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line.<\/p>\n
On April 10, China successfully launched a Cheng Zhang 3B\/E rocket into geostationary transfer orbit. SpaceX launched NROL-192 and Starlink Group 12-17 on April 12, followed by an expected launch of Starlink Group 6-73 on April 14. Then, Blue Origin concluded the week by launching New Shepard on the NS-31 mission on April 14. United Launch Alliance had been scheduled to kick off the week by launching its Atlas V 551 rocket as early as April 9, sending the first operational Kuiper mission into orbit. However, the launch has now been moved to no earlier than April 28.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cheng Zhang 3B\/E | TJSW-17<\/p>\n
Cheng Zhang 3B\/E lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China at 16:47 UTC on Thursday, April 10. This mission carried the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 17 satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit. These TJSW satellites are classified, so not much is known about their true purpose, but China states they are used for communication technology testing.<\/p>\n
This was Cheng Zheng 3B\/E\u2019s sixth mission beyond low-Earth orbit this year, making it the leading rocket launched beyond low-Earth orbit so far this year. This marks the 569th launch of the Cheng Zhang series of launch vehicles.<\/p>\n
Falcon 9 | NROL-192<\/b><\/p>\n
Falcon 9 launched NROL-192 from Space Launch Complex-4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on April 12 at 5:17 am PDT (12:17 UTC). The mission was the ninth SpaceX mission to deploy Starshield satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The exact specifications of the Starshield satellites remain highly classified, although they are believed to conduct reconnaissance operations such as Earth imaging and early missile warning detection.<\/p>\n
Space Shuttle models (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n B1071 carried the upper stage on a southern trajectory before the upper stage deployed 22 Starshield satellites into an orbit inclined 70 degrees. After the booster completed its initial ascent, it returned to Earth and landed atop SpaceX\u2019s droneship Of Course I Still Love You <\/i>in the Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n