Weekly Dose of Space (27/7-2/8)

Welcome back to Weekly Dose of Space! This week saw ten launches worldwide, with half dedicated to supporting internet mega-constellations. News during the week had progress toward Starship-Super Heavy's tenth flight made, another crew boarding the International Space Station, and a Chinese launch company looking to go public. As always, we'll also look ahead to what the worldwide launch schedule might look like next week.

Launches This Week

July 27th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 17-2

From Space Launch Complex 4E, in California, a Falcon 9 launched twenty-four Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Supporting this mission was B1075, making its nineteenth flight and landing downrange on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You'.

July 27th - Long March 6A with GuoWang Group 05

A Long March 6A flew from Launch Complex 9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center into a polar orbit carrying five satellites for the GuoWang constellation. GuoWang aims to provide space-based internet services, with 39 spacecraft in orbit following the launch.

July 29th - Hyperbola-1 with Kunpeng-03

iSpace’s Hyperbola-1 rocket soared from Launch Area 95A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, for its return-to-flight, carrying the Kunpeng-03, also called Enshi Selenium Capital Mountain Spring Satellite, to sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite is planned to gather data for natural resources monitoring, agricultural planning, and ocean resource management.

July 29th - Eris-1 for its debut flight

Gilmour Space's Eris-1 rocket performed its debut flight from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in northeastern Australia. During the flight, the rocket headed skyward momentarily, before falling back toward the ground and destroying itself next to its launch pad.

July 30th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-29

Another Twenty-eight Starlink satellites were launched atop of a Falcon 9 to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida. Booster B1069 supported this mission for its twenty-sixth flight, with a landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.

July 30th - Long March 8A with GuoWang Group 06

For the first time, a Long March 8A flew from Commercial Launch Pad 1 at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site carrying nine satellites into low Earth orbit. The nine satellites are the latest addition to the GuoWang constellation, bringing it up to 48 spacecraft in orbit.

July 30th - GSLV Mk-II with NISAR

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, heading to sun-synchronous orbit atop of a GSLV Mk-II. NISAR is planned to gather data on ecosystem disturbances, polar ice changes, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater issues.

July 31st - Kuaizhou-1A with PRSC-S1

ExPace performed Kuaizhou-1A's return-to-flight mission with the rockets 'Pro' variant with a launch out of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying Pakistan’s PRSC-S1 to low Earth orbit. The spacecraft is planned to provide monitoring for natural disasters, including floods, landslides, earthquakes, glacier melting, and deforestation, as well as aiding in agricultural monitoring, natural resource management, urban planning, infrastructure development, and mapping of transportation networks.

July 31st - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 13-4

Nineteen Starlink satellites were sent into low Earth orbit by Falcon 9 yet again, flying from Space Launch Complex 4E. The booster supporting this mission was B1071, flying for the twenty-seventh time and landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.

August 1st - Falcon 9 for Crew-11

NASA's Crew-11 mission, with astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, as well as JAXA's Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos' Oleg Platanov, to the International Space Station blasted off atop of a Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A, in Florida. Supporting this mission was booster B1094, for its third mission, and landing at Landing Zone 1 back at Cape Canaveral.

In Other Space News

Crew-11 boards International Space Station

Following launch on August 1st, Crew Dragon 'Endeavour' carrying Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov onboard arrived at the International Space Station on August 2nd.

Docking to the space-facing port of the Harmony module, part of the U.S. segment, occurred at 06:27 am Universal Coordinated Time, with leak checks between Crew Dragon and the module beginning shortly after. Just over an hour later, at 07:46 am, the hatches between the space station and Crew Dragon were opened, allowing the Crew-11 team to enter and be greeted by the seven astronauts already onboard.

Now onboard the International Space Station, the Crew-11 astronauts are now part of the 73rd Expedition to the station and will be part of the 74th. The crew will also spend around six months on board, but their stay could be extended due to budgetary pressures.

Ship 37 completes static fires

Ahead of the tenth test flight of Starship-Super Heavy, Ship 37 has recently completed two static fires. A single sea-level Raptor fired up on July 31st, followed by a multiple-engine firing on August 1st (SpaceX did not disclose how many engines were lit).

The two static fires of Ship 37 took place on the Orbital Launch Mount, modified to have the Ship sit higher than a Super Heavy booster would, along with modifying propellant lines to reach the vehicles' quick disconnect ports for fueling.

Those modifications were necessary for SpaceX to continue with Starship-Super Heavy's test campaign after the vehicle previously set for the tenth flight, Ship 36, exploded ahead of its second static fire. That explosion heavily damaged the Massey's test site used to perform static fires of the Starship upper-stage.

LandSpace eyes Shanghai IPO

Chinese launch company LandSpace, currently flying the Zhuque-2E rocket and developing the reusable Zhuque-3 (both burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen), has submitted the necessary filings to begin the multi-month process for an initial public offering. If approved by regulators, following the submittal of further paperwork, the company will be public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science and Technology Innovation Board.

At the current stage of the process to go public, it is unknown how much of LandSpace will be available to buy on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, along with how much dilution of shares will take place with prior investors. One of the larger shareholders in the company is LandSpace’s Founder Zhang Changwu, who owns about 14.68 percent.

A listing on Shanghai's Science and Technology Innovation Board could be advantageous for LandSpace, as it does not require the company to be profitable yet, so long as the company has demonstrated good growth potential via a foundation of technological innovation. This can be helpful for LandSpace and companies like it that need investment over a long period of time to develop and field innovative technologies.

What to Expect Next Week

August 3rd - New Shepard for NS-34

Blue Origin is planning to conduct a sub-orbital tourism mission using its New Shepard vehicle to carry Arvi Bahal, Gökhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, J.D. Russell, and Justin Sun.

August 4th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 10-30

SpaceX is preparing to launch twenty-eight Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit atop of a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40.

August 4th - Long March 12 with a to-be-announced payload

A Long March 12 may be preparing to launch from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, carrying a currently unknown payload to Earth orbit.

August 5th - Electron for 'The Harvest Goddess Thrives'

Rocket Lab is preparing to launch a synthetic aperture radar satellite to low Earth orbit for iQPS, from Launch Complex 1B on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.

August 5th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 11-25

More Starlink satellites are planned to be launched to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E via a Falcon 9.

August 7th - Falcon 9 with KF-02

Another twenty-four Kuiper satellites are set to be launched to low Earth orbit atop of Falcon 9 for Amazon, from Space Launch Complex 40.