Launches from China and New Zealand coming up, watch the Ariane 6 maiden flight - TWIRL #173

We have several missions coming up this week from the Eastern Hemisphere. On Thursday and Friday, we get launches from China and then on Saturday, there is a launch from New Zealand. Be sure to check the recap section to see the launch of Ariane 6 which gives the European Space Agency (ESA) continued access to space, independently.

Thursday, 18 July

• Who: Galactic Energy
• What: Ceres 1S
• When: 3:20 a.m. UTC
• Where: Yellow Sea, China
• Why: Galactic Energy will launch its Ceres 1S rocket from the Dongfang Hangtiangang ship carrying an unknown payload to space. The mission has been called "How far I'll go".

Friday, 19 July

• Who: China National Space Administration (CNSA)
• What: Long March 4B
• When: 2:30 a.m. UTC
• Where: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China
• Why: China will use a Long March 4B to launch the Gaofen 11-05 hyperspectral Earth-imaging satellite which will join the CHEOS constellation. The satellite has a ground image resolution of up to sub-meter level. It will be used for land census, urban planning, land rights, road network design, crop estimation, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Saturday, 20 July

• Who: Rocket Lab
• What: Electron
• When: 7:15 p.m. UTC
• Where: Mahia, New Zealand
• Why: Rocket Lab will launch its Electron rocket carrying the Acadia 3 satellite for Capella Space. The mission is called "A Sky Full of SARs". The satellite is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite. The satellite has SAR technology which can get images of the Earth's surface even if it's cloudy or nighttime. The information could be useful for agriculture, disaster relief, infrastructure monitoring, and more.

Recap

• The first mission of the last week was a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the Turksat-6A satellite into orbit. Following the launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 performed a landing on the "Just Read the Instructions" drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Next, we saw the most important launch, the maiden flight of the Ariane 6. This rocket will be used by the European Space Agency (ESA) to keep its ability to get to space independently.

• The third mission of the week saw Chinese firm iSpace launch the Hyperbola-1 launch vehicle from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China. The mission failed after an issue with the fourth stage of the launch and the incident is being reviewed.

• Finally, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites which will beam internet connectivity to customers on Earth. The first stage of the rocket then landed.

That's it for this week, check in next time!

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