Weekly Dose of Space (15/3-21/3)
Welcome back to Weekly Dose of Space! Last week again saw seven rockets flying into orbit, with most carrying several satellites. News from the week had a spacewalk outside of the Tiangong Space Station and Blue Origin looking into orbiting data centers. As always, we'll also look ahead to what the worldwide launch schedule might look like next week.
Launches This Week
March 15th - Long March 6A with Yaogan 50-02
A Long March 6A blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center heading into a retrograde low Earth orbit, carrying Yaogan 50-02. The remote sensing satellite is reportedly for land survey, crop yield estimation, and disaster mitigation and prevention.
March 16th - Kuaizhou-11 with eight satellites
ExPace's Kuaizhou-11 flew from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to place eight satellites into sun-synchronous orbit. Satellites onboard were the Weitong-1-1 AI-demonstrating remote sensing satellite, the Xiyuan-0 early refueling testing spacecraft, and the other operation remote sensing spacecraft known as Yuxing-3-05, Juntian-1-04A, Dongpo-11, Dongpo-12, Dongpo-16, and Xiguang-1-06.
March 17th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 17-24
SpaceX launched twenty-five Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California. Supporting this mission was booster B1088 for its fourteenth flight, landing downrange on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You'.
March 17th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-46
Twenty-nine more Starlink satellites were placed into low Earth orbit by a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida. Booster B1090 supported this mission, flying for the eleventh time and landing on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas' downrange.
March 19th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-33
Another Falcon 9 flew into low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 carrying twenty-nine Starlink satellites. Supporting this flight was booster B1077 for its twenty-seventh flight, touching down on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.
March 20th - Electron for 'Eight Days A Week'
An Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab flew into low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 1B, on the Mฤhia Peninsula in New Zealand, carrying a single satellite for Synspective. The satellite onboard is believed to have been a remote sensing satellite, and the second of ten launched as part of a single order.
March 20th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 17-15
Another twenty-five Starlink satellites were launched atop of a Falcon 9 and placed into low Earth orbit out of Space Launch Complex 4E. Booster B1100 supported this mission for its fourth flight, landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.
In Other Space News
Shenzhou-21 crew perform second spacewalk
March 16th saw the second spacewalk of the Shenzhou-21 mission aboard the Tiangong Space Station, with Zhang Lu and Wu Fei venturing outside via the Wentian module's airlock for about seven hours. Zhang Hongzhang remained inside to support the two spacewalkers as well as the station's robotic arm.
While outside of the space station, the two taikoanuts installed new space debris protection devices onto vulnerable points of the outside of Tiangong's modules. Zhang and Wu also performed standard inspections of the Tianhe, Mengtian, and Wentian modules.
Back inside the station, the Shenzhou-21 crew continued to support and maintain experiments running onboard the space station. They have also recently harvested a crop of cherry tomatoes grown in microgravity.
Blue Origin looking into orbital data centers
In filings submitted to the Federal Communications Commission, Blue Origin is seeking approval to launch 51,600 satellites as part of what it calls 'Project Sunrise'. Those satellites will be for in-space computing, primarily tasked with artifical intelligence tasks, and circling the Earth in 500 to 1,800 kilometer sun-synchronous orbits.
Blue Origin's filing comes after an 88,000-spacecraft plan from Starcloud and a one-million-satellite proposal from SpaceX. At present, American space computing proposals are behind operational ones from enterprises in China.
What to Expect Next Week
March 22nd - Soyuz 2.1a with Progress MS-33
A Soyuz 2.1a will fly from a repaired Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to send the Progress MS-33 resupply spacecraft toward the International Space Station.
March 22nd - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-62
Falcon 9 is set to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 to carry a batch of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
March 22nd - Jielong-3 with to-be-annouced payloads
From the Yellow Sea, a Jielong-3 is preparing to fly into low Earth orbit off of a sea launch platform, carrying a handful of unknown satellites.
March 23rd - Spectrum for 'Onward and Upward'
Isar Aerospace is preparing to fly from Andรธya Spaceport in Norway for its second demonstration flight, following its failed first in March 2025.
March 24th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 17-17
Another batch of Starlink satellites are set to be placed into low Earth orbit by a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 4E.
March 25th - Electron for 'Daughter Of The Stars'
Rocket Lab's Electron is set to carry two positioning, navigation, and timing demonstration satellites into sun-synchronous orbit on behalf of the European Space Agency from Launch Complex 1A, on the Mฤhia Peninsula in New Zealand.
March 26th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-44
From Space Launch Complex 40, yet more Starlink satellites will be launched atop of Falcon 9 and delivered to low Earth orbit.
