China set to launch cargo mission to its space station - TWIRL #188

We have lots of launches this week but the most interesting one will see China launch a cargo craft to its space station. It will operate in space for several months and make sure astronauts have everything they need.

Sunday, 10 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 21:28 - 01:28 UTC
• Where: Florida, United States
• Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 rocket to launch 24 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. This group of satellites will be known as Starlink Group 6-69. If you want to find them after launch, you can use apps like ISS Detector to see when they will pass overhead where you live. After the launch, the first stage of the rocket will likely perform a landing.

Monday, 11 November

• Who: CAS Space
• What: Kinetica 1
• When: 04:05 - 04:26
• Where: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
• Why: CAS Space will use its Kinetica 1 rocket to launch 15 satellites into orbit. It's unclear what these satellites will be used for.

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 17:07 UTC
• Where: Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying the Koreasat 6A satellite for KT Sat. The satellite will replace the current Koreasat 6 satellite and will deliver fixed satellite service (FSS) and broadcasting satellite service (BSS) in South Korea.

Wednesday, 13 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Starlink
• When: 11:00 - 15:00 UTC
• Where: Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 rocket to launch 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. This group is Starlink Group 6-68. The first stage of the rocket will likely land so it can be reused.

• Who: CNSA
• What: Long March 4C
• When: 22:50 UTC
• Where: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China
• Why: China will launch the Long March 4C carrying an unknown payload.

Thursday, 14 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 04:21 - 08:21 UTC
• Where: California, US
• Why: SpaceX will launch yet another Falcon 9 carrying 20 Starlink satellites called Starlink Group 9-11. Notably, this batch includes 13 direct-to-cell Starlink satellites. The first stage will also likely try to land for reuse.

Friday, 15 November

• Who: CNSA
• What: Long March
• When: 15:12 UTC
• Where: Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, China
• Why: China will launch a Long March 7 rocket carrying the 8th Tianzhou cargo craft which is heading to the Chinese Space Station (CSS). The Tianzhou 8 will supply the astronauts with their needs and operate for about 9 months in space.

Recap

The first launch we saw last week was Mitsubishi H3's fourth launch. It took off from JAXA Tanegashima Space Center at 06:48 UTC carrying the X-band defense communication satellite 3, also known as Kirameki 3.

The second launch saw Roscosmos launch a Soyuz 2.1b from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 23:18 UTC. It was carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites and 53 small satellites. The Ionosfera-M satellites will observe the Earth's ionosphere.

Next up, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying the CRS-31 Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Following the launch, the first stage of the rocket landed at Cape Canaveral.

The fourth launch came from Mahia, New Zealand, where Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket in a mission called "Changes In Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes". In this mission, it launched a single commercial satellite into low Earth orbit for a confidential commercial customer.

Next, we got a Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX carrying Starlink satellites with the first stage performing a landing.

The sixth launch was a Long March 2C taking off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China carrying four PIESAT 2 satellites. The satellites will be used to synthetic aperture radar imaging with high-precision imaging capability.

The seventh and final launch saw SpaceX launch another Falcon 9 carrying 20 Starlink satellites designated Starlink Group 9-10. The first stage of the rocket landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

That's all for this week, check back next time!

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