4th batch of Iridium satellites will be launched by SpaceX on an expendable booster

Stock photo of AsiaSat-8
Photo Credit // SpaceX

SpaceX will be launching the 4th batch of Iridium satellites into a polar orbit around Earth on Friday, December 22nd at 8:26pm EST. Iridium-4 will be launched from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The booster used on this mission will be expendable, or not recovered, so it will not feature the iconic grid fins or landing legs found on most Falcon 9 rockets nowadays. It will be a flight-proven booster with the soot from the last mission still on it, as confirmed on Twitter by the CEO of Iridium, Matt Desch. This will also be the first launch of a flight-proven rocket from Vandenberg. The booster that is being used previously launched the Iridium-2 mission, making Iridium the first company in history to reuse the same rocket. These next 10 satellites, once launched, will mark the halfway point of bringing the whole fleet into orbit around the Earth. A total of 40 satellites have been launched so far and after this launch there will be 40 left to launch, 10 satellites per launch. More info on the launch will be released as the launch date approaches. The static fire for the launch was successfully completed on December 17th.

Russion Soyuz launches U.S astronaut Scott Tingle to the ISS

Expedition 54 launches from Kazakhstan
Photo credit // NASA

Last night at 2:21am EST, a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Expedition 54. The launch carried 3 astronauts to the ISS, NASA's Scott Tingle, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Space Agency, and Norishige Kanai from Japan Aerospace and are expected to dock at 3:43am on Tuesday Dec. 19. The Soyuz spacecraft will dock with the station's Rassvet module and the hatch opening between the station and the spacecraft will occur at 5am EST. With the arrival of this crew, it will bring the population of the station back up to 6 crew members. The new crew will be conducting about 250 science investigations in Biology as well as Earth Science, human research, physical sciences, and developments in technology. Following their arrival, the crew size in the US module increased from 3 crew to 4 crew members to help maximize the time of research and increase productivity. 

SpaceX Dragon spreads its wings toward the ISS

SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) carrying the Dragon spacecraft toward the ISS. This is the first launch from SLC-40 since the Amos-6 pad anomaly back in September of 2016. This is also the first time NASA has agreed to use a flight-proven first stage on a resupply mission under the CRS contract. 

The Falcon 9 lifted off from SLC-40 at 10:36am EST and ascended into the skies of Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying loads of science to the International Space Station. There are 2 major payloads in

Photo of Dragon separation from the second stage
Photo credit // SpaceX

the unpressurized portion of Dragon which will be extracted by the robotic arm on the ISS a little after arrival. One of the payloads is a Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1) that will measure the suns solar energy flow to the Earth and how it affects the atmosphere. The second payload is a space debris sensor that'll be used to analyze the small particles that the ISS collides with. Inside the pressurized portion of Dragon, there are various experiments that will be conducted inside of the ISS by the crew. There are also technological demonstrators for cell science research and fluid experiments as well as materials for micro-g fiber optic cable construction. Secondly, there are rodents being sent up for other research on how they react to different environments on the space station. Lastly, barley is being sent to the ISS and will be the first step to an on-board brewery.

Falcon 9 lifts off of SLC-40
Photo credit // SpaceX

SLC-40 has also been upgraded in various ways to support more launches and added redundancies for familiarity between launch pads for employees. They have made new doghouses (shields for the hold down clamps) to help protect the clamps during launch to last longer. The flame trench has been redesigned to withstand more power which allow for longer static fires of the Falcon 9. LOX Systems have been upgraded to make the densification of liquid oxygen a lot faster and the loading of it into the launch vehicle quicker. After the strongback was destroyed when Falcon exploded on the pad, they have manufactured a new one which has stronger lift cylinders to allow a one-step process to raise the vehicle vertically faster. Now that SLC-40 is active once again, SpaceX has 3 operational launch pads which will allow for a faster cadence of launches.

The Dragon spacecraft used on this mission has been refurbished after being flown for CRS-6 back in 2015. In order for Dragons to be reused, they need to go under several analysis, inspections, and

The Falcon 9 first stage lands at LZ-1
Photo credit // SpaceX

tests in McGregor, Texas and Hawthorne, California. The first stage was also reused and did not have the soot washed off of it, which they plan to do for other reused boosters as well (unless it's beneficial to wash it). 

Electrical issue scrubs Electron launch

Rocket Lab confirmed on Twitter the scrub of the Electron launch planned for tonight. The launch attempt was scrubbed due to an "indication of a power fault during ground checkouts" and are going to proceed on working out the issue. They were monitoring upper level winds throughout the day and it doesn't appear as though it would've been an issue at the time of launch. Rocket Lab stated on Twitter, "Team will work the issue tomorrow before a new target launch time is determined..". For further updates on the upcoming launch dates, follow Rocket Lab on Twitter @RocketLab.

Blue Origin launches New Shepard for the first time in a year

New Shepard launching on M7 - Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket fired up its BE-3 engine and lifted off from their launch facility in West Texas on its seventh mission (M7). The launch featured the first flight of the Crew Capsule 2.0 with real windows instead of the painted on ones used in previous flights. They measure about 3.5ft tall and 2.4ft wide, which is larger than the windows in a Boeing 747. This mission also included 12 payloads for research and education purposes. The flight reached a maximum altitude of 98.27km AGL with a successful landing of the booster and the crew capsule. The capsule and booster will most likely be recovered and reused for the next test flight. A video of the launch and landing can be viewed on their YouTube channel.

Rocket Lab scrubs launch of Electron

At T-2 seconds until liftoff, Electron fired up its 9 Rutherford engines ready to launch, but the launch was aborted shortly after. The strongback returned to its original position and the cradle arm closed around the rocket as it switched back to external power. The Rocket Lab team is looking over the data of the rocket and will be providing updates regarding the next launch attempt on their Twitter @RocketLab.

SpaceX launch delays one more day

Falcon 9 Horizontal at SLC-40 - Credit: Craig Vander Galien // SpaceNews

SpaceX was planning the liftoff of the Falcon 9 with Dragon to the International Space Station tomorrow (Dec. 12) at 11:46am EST from SLC-40. They have now decided to push the launch one day to December 13th for additional time on the pre-launch ground systems checks. The new time of launch will be December 13th at 11:24am EST from SLC-40. This launch includes the first time NASA has allowed the reuse of a first stage booster and the soot from its last launch (CRS-11) has not been washed off like it usually is.        

SpaceX to launch reused Dragon spacecraft on a reused Falcon 9 booster to the ISS

SpaceX's Falcon 9 standing at SLC-40 for the first time in a year
Credit: SpaceX

CRS-13
SpaceX will be launching another resupply mission to the International Space Station using a reused Dragon spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Resupply Service contract. The mission will also include a flight-proven first stage which was previously used to launch the CRS-11 mission back in June 2017 and the Dragon spacecraft was last used to support the CRS-6 mission in April of 2015. After the first stage separates, the booster will flip around and fly back towards Cape Canaveral and perform a landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). The Dragon spacecraft is filled with approximately 4,800lbs of crew supplies and experiments as well as important materials to support several science and research investigations. It will rendezvous with the ISS on December 15th and will be captured by the station's robotic arm to be berthed with the station. Dragon will stay attached to the station for about a month and will then be returned to Earth and recovered in the Pacific Ocean. The Falcon 9 will liftoff tomorrow at 11:46am EST from Space Launch Complex 40 with a backup launch for Dec. 13th at 11:24am EST. Weather is currently 90% go for the launch tomorrow.

Space Launch Complex 40
This will be the first launch from SLC-40 since the anomaly that occurred during a static fire for the launch of Amos-6 back on September 1st, 2016. The SpaceX team have been launching Falcon 9s from LC-39A in SLC-40s downtime. While launching from LC-39A, they've been working tirelessly on getting the pad functioning again as well as getting Falcon Heavy ready. Now that SLC-40 is back online, work towards the Falcon Heavy flight will start to accelerate for it's Demo flight sometime in January of 2018.

Electron rocket launch scrubbed

Rocket Lab had planned to launch their Electron rocket today on it's second test flight carrying 3 small satellites into orbit. The launch has been scrubbed for the day due to weather factors and 'orbital traffic' making the launch difficult. They're planning another launch tomorrow and have yet to announce a new launch time.

Rocket Lab gearing up for launch on Sunday

Hold down fire of the Electron Rocket
Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket lab is currently planning to launch their Electron "Still Testing" rocket from their private launch facility in New Zealand on Sunday at 8:30pm EST. The 2 stage rocket will be launching 3 satellites into orbit around the Earth. One of the satellites is an Earth imaging Dove satellite for Planet. The other 2 are Lemur-2 satellites for Weather mapping and ship traffic tracking from the company Spire. "We're eager to to test the next crucial step - payload deployment." says Peter Beck, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, "No major changes to the launch vehicle hardware have been required". The first launch of the Electron rocket failed to reach orbit on May 25th, 2017 after a third-party error in the hardware that has now been corrected. Beck also stated that carrying these payloads marks a significant milestone for Rocket Lab and it enables them to gather data and test the systems used in deploying satellites safely into orbit. A livestream of the launch will be shown on Rocket Lab's website about 12 minutes before launch.

Rocket Lab's "Still Testing" launch delayed by one day

Electron 'Still Testing' at Rocket Lab LC-1

Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab, a private space company, was planning the second launch of their Electron rocket today from their private launch complex in New Zealand, but has been delayed by a day. They had planned to launch Electron during a 4-hour window that stretched from 8:30pm to 12:30am EST to carry three small satellites into orbit. This was the first of the planned 10-day launch window and they will attempt the same window again tomorrow. Weather forecasts for the next few days appear unfavorable for launch until at least Monday. They will be live streaming the launch on their website about 12 minutes before the anticipated time of the launch for the first time. When launched, this will be the second of the three planned test launches of the Electron rocket before opening up to commercial customers. If everything goes well during this launch, commercial access capabilities will be accelerated. Real time updates of the launch will be posted on Twitter @RocketLab.