Dragon 2 spacecraft to send science experiments to the space station - TWIRL #137

We have a pretty busy week in This Week in Rocket Launches. All of the launches are uncrewed so there's nothing super exciting going on. The most interesting launch is the Dragon 2 mission taking some science experiments up to the International Space Station (ISS).

Tuesday, 7 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9 B5
• When: 6:47 p.m. UTC
• Where: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, US
• Why: This is SpaceX’s Transporter 9 rideshare mission. The company will be launching several payloads including the Vigoride 7 space tug and several other satellites. The payloads will be delivered to a Sun-synchronous orbit.

Wednesday, 8 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9 B5
• When: 3:00 a.m. UTC
• Where: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will be launching 23 Starlink satellites to bolster its Starlink constellation. If you want to have a look at this batch of satellites on apps like ISS Detector then you’ll need to look for Starlink Group 6-27. Like other recent Starlink satellites, these ones have an anti-reflective coating so that they don’t interrupt astronomers as much.

Thursday, 9 November

• Who: CNSA
• What: Long March 3B/E
• When: 11:30 a.m.
• Where: Xichang Satellite Launch Centre
• Why: It’s not clear what the purpose of this mission as the payload is unknown.

Friday, 10 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9 B5
• When: 1:28 a.m. UTC
• Where: SpaceX LC-39A, Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will be launching a Dragon 2 spacecraft on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. It will be carrying the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE), and the laser communications terminal ILLUMA-T. This mission is part of the Commercial Resupply Service contract that SpaceX has with NASA.

Saturday, 11 November

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9 B5
• When: 11:08 p.m. UTC
• Where: Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, US
• Why: SpaceX will be launching two O3b mPOWER broadband internet satellites to a medium Earth orbit for SES of Luxembourg. They will provide internet services over much of the world and were built by Boeing.

Recap

• The first launch last week was a Falcon 9 carrying 22 Starlink satellites to orbit. This group of satellites is Starlink Group 7-6.

• Next up, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 6-25 consisting of 23 Starlink satellites.

• The third launch was a Long March 6A carrying the TianHui 5 satellite. It’s going to be used for geographic mapping, land resource survey, scientific experiments, and other missions.

• This week we also got the fifth commercial spaceflight and sixth successful human space mission in six months from VIrgin Galactic.

• In China we got an interesting test mission from private space firm iSpace which did a test flight and landing of its Hyperbola 2 rocket.

• Next, China launched a Long March 7a carrying the TJSW-10 comms tech test satellite. It will be used for multi-band and high-speed comms tech experiments.

• Lastly, SpaceX launched another group of 23 Starlink satellites to orbit. This group is Starlink Group 6-26.

That’s all for this week, check back next time.

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