The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) recent decision to clear SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for a return to all flights paved the way for a busy week of launches. Before Falcon 9 returned to flying regular Starlink missions, though, a Falcon Heavy launch with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission started the week off.
Following Europa Clipper’s launch, SpaceX resumed its regular Starlink launches early on Tuesday, Oct. 15, with two additional Starlink launches scheduled for the week. Both missions successfully launched, while a third Starlink mission moved to next week. Over in China, a pair of Chang Zheng launches happened on Tuesday.
An additional non-Starlink Falcon 9 mission launched toward the end of this week, while an Electron launch from New Zealand has now been pushed outside this week.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy | Europa Clipper
The long-awaited Europa Clipper mission, originally scheduled for launch on Oct. 10 before Hurricane Milton formed and impacted Florida, launched successfully on Monday, Oct. 14, from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch occurred at 12:05 PM EDT (16:05 UTC), on the fourth day of a planetary launch window that extended through the end of October.
B1089, the core of the Falcon Heavy vehicle, made its first and only flight, while the side boosters B1064 and B1065 made their sixth and final flights. The core and the side boosters were expended due to Europa Clipper requiring all of the vehicle’s performance to make it to its planned trajectory to Jupiter.
B1064 and B1065 flew as a side booster pair on five previous Falcon Heavy flights. These flights were the USSF-44 and USSF-67 missions for the U.S. Space Force, the EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3) telecommunications satellite, NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission, and the USSF-52 mission that carried the X-37B reusable mini-shuttle into space for the OTV-7 mission.
Europa Clipper during launch processing. (Credit: NASA)
The 6,065 kg Europa Clipper was launched into a trajectory that will take the spacecraft to Mars, where it will perform a gravity-assist flyby. After Europa Clipper flies past Mars in February 2025, the spacecraft will be redirected back to Earth for a flyby in December 2026. If all goes as planned, the largest planetary science mission ever launched by NASA will arrive in orbit at Jupiter on April 11, 2030.
Once in Jovian orbit, Europa Clipper will conduct up to 49 flybys of Europa. The icy moon is believed to contain an ocean of liquid water underneath its icy surface, and the spacecraft will use nine instruments and Europa Clipper’s communication system to study the moon and its potential for habitability.
Europa Clipper flight was the second Falcon Heavy launch of 2024. This was the Falcon family’s 96th launch of this year, tying 2023’s record-setting cadence with just over two and a half months to go in 2024.
Falcon Heavy launching Europa Clipper to Jupiter. (Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-10
The first Starlink launch since Sept. 24 is now in the books after the FAA approved the return to flight for all Falcon 9 missions. Starlink 10-10 launched successfully on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 2:10 AM EDT (06:10 UTC) from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida during a four-hour-long window.
The launch, using B1080-11, carried 23 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into low-Earth orbit. Falcon 9 flew a northeasterly trajectory, and the satellites are in an initial 281 by 292 km orbit inclined 53 degrees to the equator. The booster landed safely on A Shortfall of Gravitas out in the Atlantic.
B1080 started its flying career carrying up a Crew Dragon with astronauts for the Axiom-2 mission and later launched another Crew Dragon on Axiom-3 as well. This booster also launched the ESA Euclid telescope, the CRS-30 Dragon, and the NG-21 Cygnus cargo missions to ISS, the Astra 1P/SES-24 communications satellite, and four Starlink flights before Starlink 10-10.
This launch was the 97th Falcon family launch of 2024, breaking 2023’s record cadence, and the 95th Falcon 9 launch of the year. Though SpaceX’s original target of 148 Falcon 9 launches for 2024 looks to be out of reach, 2023’s record of 91 Falcon 9 launches has been broken.
Despite three “groundings” due to mission anomalies, including one launch failure, it seems certain that there will be more than 100 Falcon 9 flights in 2024. In fact, since Starship Flight 5 successfully launched and made it to space before the Europa Clipper launched, Starlink 10-10 became the 100th space launch — not orbital launch — of 2024 for SpaceX when the Starship test flights are counted.
The @FAANews has approved the return to flight for Falcon 9! pic.twitter.com/IuQ6uVXSI6
— Adrian Beil (@BCCarCounters) October 11, 2024
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 9-7
This week’s return of Starlink launches saw a return of Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. Starlink 9-7 launched successfully from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at VSFB on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 1:21 AM PDT (08:21 UTC). Starlink 9-7’s launch window, like Starlink 10-10’s, was four hours long.
The booster, B1071-19, landed safely on Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific. Falcon 9 launched on a southeasterly trajectory with 20 Starlink v2 Mini satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell (DTC) capabilities. These satellites were injected into an initial 278 by 290 km low-Earth orbit inclined 53 degrees to the equator.
Once the DTC satellites make it to their operational orbit, they will increase the total number of Starlink DTC satellites in orbit to 246. The DTC satellites and the overall Starlink system are currently being used to connect parts of North Carolina, Florida, and other communities badly damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Starlink 9-7 was the 96th Falcon 9 launch and the 98th Falcon family launch of 2024. This was B1071’s 12th Starlink flight. B1071 also flew the NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah 1, SWOT, the Transporter 8 and 9 rideshares, and NROL-146. After Starlink 9-7’s launch, there were 7,105 Starlink satellites launched, with 6,150 in their operational orbit and 647 having re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
SpaceX has also set new records for the time it took to fly three launches within 24 hours and four in 48 hours. The Falcon Heavy and Starlink missions took place in 16 hours and 15 minutes, and if you add Starlink Flight 5 to the mix, four flights were done in 43 hours and 56 minutes. The previous record for three flights was set in March of this year, and the previous record for four flights was set in June.
CZ-6A on the pad before launch. (Credit: CNSA)
CASC Chang Zheng-6A | G60 Polar Group 02
Tuesday, Oct. 15, not only had two Falcon 9 launches but also two Chinese launches on the manifest as well. The first Chinese launch of the day took place earlier than expected at 11:06 UTC from LC-9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Shanxi Province.
A Chang Zheng 6A (CZ-6A) rocket was flying the second batch of 18 G60 low-Earth orbit communication satellites into a polar orbit. The CZ-6A is a medium-lift rocket with two liquid-fuelled stages (using RP-1 and liquid oxygen) and four strap-on solid rocket boosters.
Though all seven CZ-6A launches since the first in 2022 have been successful, the last few launches have seen the upper stages disintegrate in orbit after their missions ended. The upper stages are expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere after their missions have ended, but the recent breakup events have raised concerns about the amount of debris being generated by the spacecraft in orbit.
The CZ-6A replaces earlier Chang Zheng family vehicles that use storable but highly toxic hypergolic propellants, like the CZ-2, CZ-3, and CZ-4 rockets. Other CZ-6 family rockets are also in use, and these do not use solid rocket boosters. This is the sixth CZ-6 family mission of 2024 as the Chinese program continues its effort to extend its capabilities.
A CZ-4C launching from Jiuquan. (Credit: China Daily News)
CASC Chang Zheng-4C | Gaofen-12 05
The second Chinese launch of the day used a Chang Zheng 4C (CZ-4C) rocket. The launch happened on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 23:45 UTC in the middle of a 28-minute launch window from Site 9401 (SLS-2) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. Jiuquan, located within the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, is best known for hosting Shenzhou crewed launches but also hosts several satellite launches from various types of rockets.
The rocket launched the Gaofen-12 05 remote-sensing satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit. These orbits are typically used by Earth observation and reconnaissance satellites as well as weather and communications satellites that need to observe Earth’s polar regions. Gaofen 12-05, one in a series of Chinese civilian remote sensing satellites, is reportedly capable of sub-meter resolution.
This flight was only the second launch of a CZ-4C this year, as China works to modernize its fleet of launch vehicles. The original Chang Zheng rockets were derived from liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, but newer rockets have since been designed with spaceflight intentions.
A view of a stack of Starlink satellites including a Starlink DTC satellite at the top. The deployable antenna and its hinge can clearly be seen in this image. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX Falcon 9 | Starlink 8-19
The third Falcon 9 Starlink launch of the week happened on Friday, Oct. 18, at 7:31 PM EDT (23:31 UTC) from SLC-40 at CCSFS at the end of a four-hour launch window that started at 3:31 PM EDT (19:31 UTC). There was a 60 percent chance of violation for Friday’s launch weather, with liftoff winds as the primary concern. The chance of violation lowered to 40 percent for Saturday’s now unneeded backup window, but the cumulus cloud rule was added to the concerns along with liftoff winds.
Falcon 9 flew a northeast trajectory and launched a 20-strong batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites, some with DTC capabilities, to low-Earth orbit. Due to a relative lack of available satellites, Starlink’s DTC capabilities are still in the early stages of development and only provided in certain regions. More satellites will be needed for comprehensive worldwide coverage.
B1076-17 flew this mission and landed safely on Just Read the Instructions. Starlink 8-19 was the 97th Falcon 9 and 99th Falcon family flight of 2024. B1076 flew CRS-26, OneWeb #16, Intelsat40e/TEMPO, O3b MPOWER 5 & 6, Ovzon-3, Eutelsat 36D, Turksat 6A, WorldView Legion 3 & 4, and eight Starlink missions before Starlink 8-19.
Render of a OneWeb first generation satellite. (Credit: Eutelsat)
The fourth Falcon 9 launch this week was also a non-Starlink mission and had originally been scheduled for Sept. 29 before the Crew-9 deorbit anomaly the day before. This flight was the fifth mission SpaceX flew for OneWeb as the Eutelsat Group company continues to add on-orbit spare satellites to its constellation.
Launch from SLC-4E at VSFB happened successfully on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10:13 PM PDT (05:13 UTC Sunday, Oct. 20). B1082-7 took a southward trajectory to carry the 20 satellites to a 1200 km altitude polar orbit inclined at 87.9 degrees to the Equator. Booster recovery was a safe return to launch site (RTLS) and a touchdown at Landing Zone 4.
The OneWeb #20 satellite payload just before it left the factory in Florida for California. (Credit: Eutelsat Group)
The OneWeb satellites, massing 147.7 kg each, are designed to provide high-speed broadband access worldwide. The total payload mass for this flight was 2954 kg, which left plenty of margin for an RTLS recovery. This is important because the West Coast drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, was recovering the Starlink 9-7 booster to Long Beach, California.
This flight was the 98th Falcon 9 mission of 2024 and the 100th Falcon family mission of the year. This flight thus made the Falcon family the first family of rockets to fly 100 times in a calendar year.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches into the night. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
