Starship and Starliner Soar, SpaceShipTwo Bows Out
SpaceX’s Starship soared into space, Boeing’s Starliner finally made it to the International Space Station (ISS) with a crew, and Virgin Galactic’s only operational SpaceShipTwo bowed out last week.
Starship’s fourth flight test achieved all its major objectives. Both Starship and its Super Heavy first stage survived to make controlled splashdowns into the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, respectively.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that there will be no mishap investigation into the launch as there were on the first three flight tests. That will pave the way to a quick turnaround for a fifth flight test that is likely to occur in July.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk suggested SpaceX could attempt to catch the Super Heavy first stage with a pair of metal arms on the upcoming flight test.
Recent Launches
June 5 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 20 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
June 5 – Electron – Rocket Lab – PREFIRE 2 – NASA – Meteorology – Mahia – New Zealand
June 5 – Atlas V – United Launch Alliance – Starliner – Boeing – Crewed flight test – Cape Canaveral – USA
June 6 – Ceres-1 – Galactic Energy – Jiuquan – China
Eros – Galactic Energy – Space tug
TEE-01B – TBA – Earth observation
Naxing-3A – TBA – Earth observation
Naxing-3B – TBA – Earth observation
June 6 – Starship – SpaceX – Flight test – Starbase – USA
June 7 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 23 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
June 8 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 20 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Vandenberg – USA
June 8 – VSS Unity – Virgin Galactic – Tourism/research – Spaceport America – USA
In addition to Starship, SpaceX also launched its Falcon 9 rocket three times last week with 63 Starlink broadband satellites aboard. SpaceX has launched nearly 1,000 Starlink satellites this year and more than 6,600 of the spacecraft since 2018.
Starliner Reaches ISS
After years of delay, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft reached the space station with a crew for the first time last week. Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams reached the orbital facility despite the spacecraft experiencing multiple helium leaks. Wilmore and Williams are due to return to Earth on June 18.
This is the third and final flight test of Starliner before NASA certifies the spacecraft to carry astronauts to ISS on a commercial basis. Boeing developed the spacecraft as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
The Boeing flight raised to 16 the number of astronauts launched into orbit this year. In addition to Wilmore and Williams, the list includes:
eight astronauts on SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft,
three astronauts aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-25,
three Chinese astronauts on Shenzhou 18,
The 16 astronauts include seven Americans, three Chinese, two Russians, and one individual each from Belarus, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey.
Farewell Unity
Virgin Galactic flew its SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity on a suborbital flight for the final time on June 8.
Tuva Cihangir Atasever, a researcher from the Turkish Space Agency,
Anand “Andy” Harish Sadhwani, a principal propulsion engineer at SpaceX in California,
Irving Izchak Pergament, a New York real estate developer and pilot, and
Giorgio Manenti, a London-based Italian national who advises clients on hotel and resort investment strategy.
VSS Unity flew 12 suborbital missions, including seven commercial flights that carried 23 paying customers. Virgin Galactic said it is retiring the vehicle in focus on the development of newer Delta spacecraft capable of flying more frequently than once per month with six customers instead of four.
Eighteen individuals have flown on two Virgin Galactic and one Blue Origin flight this year.
Upcoming Launches
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is due to launch America’s newest weather satellite, GOES-U, from Kennedy Space Center on June 25.
Upcoming Launches
June 13 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 22 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
June 17 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – Astra 1P/SES-24 – SES – Communications – Cape Canaveral – USA
June 18 – Electron – Rocket Lab – 5 Kinéis – Kinéis – Internet of Things – Mahia – New Zealand
June 19 – Falcon 9 – SpaceX – 20 Starlink – SpaceX – Communications – Vandenberg – USA
June 22 – Long March 2C – China Aerospace Science and Technology - China National Space Administration/CNES – Gamma-ray astronomy – Xichang – China
June 24 – Ceres-1 – Galactic Energy – Yunyao-1 15-17 – Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics – Meteorology – Yellow Sea – China
June 25 – Falcon Heavy – SpaceX – GOES-U – NOAA/NASA – Meteorology – Kennedy – USA
June 26 – Electron – Rocket Lab – Acadia-3 (Capella-13) – Capella Space – Earth observation – Mahia – New Zealand
June 30 – H3 – JAXA – ALOS-4 (Daichi 4) – JAXA – Earth observation – Tanegashima – Japan
After launching NASA’s PREFIRE 2 satellite on June 5, Rocket Lab is aiming for two additional Electron flights for Kinéis and Capella Space by the end of June.
Launch Statistics
There have been 116 launches with 112 successes, two failures and a pair of partial failures through June 12. May was the busiest month with 27 launches, or one flight on average every 26 hours 40 minutes.
The U.S. continues to lead the world with 72 launches, followed by China with 28 and Russia with eight.
SpaceX has accounted for 62 of 72 launches by U.S. companies.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has launched 60 times without failure, placing nearly 1,100 payloads into space.
U.S. companies have conducted 44 launches from Florida and an additional 19 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Ten launches have been conducted from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and eight launches from the Xichang spaceport.