Here’s what’s launching from August 11 to August 17: A revolutionary navigation satellite joins Europe’s next-generation weather sentinel, and a flurry of SpaceX Starlink launches from both coasts.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket rolls from the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Vulcan will launch the USSF-106 mission for the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC). Credit: United Launch Alliance
Mission highlight: USSF-106’s historic flight scheduled for Tuesday
In last week’s edition, we mistakenly reported that the USSF-106 mission was scheduled for August 10. On August 5, United Launch Alliance announced the official launch date. The historic flight is now set to lift off on Tuesday, August 12, at 7:59 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-41 aboard a ULA Vulcan rocket.
As we noted previously, the mission is significant for two reasons: it is the first national security launch aboard a Vulcan rocket, and its primary payload, the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), is the Department of Defense’s first experimental, next-generation navigation satellite in nearly 50 years.
Managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, NTS-3 is designed to protect GPS technology from 21st-century threats such as jamming and spoofing. By featuring a design that can adapt to threats quickly with software updates instead of requiring new hardware, NTS-3 represents a major leap forward for the U.S.’ GPS technology and the critical infrastructure that depends on it.
Last week’s recap
Last week’s launch activity spanned the globe with four key international and commercial missions. The action began before dawn on Monday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the Starlink Group 10-30 batch from Florida. This was followed just a few hours later by a Chinese Long March 12 rocket, which lifted off from Wenchang carrying the SatNet LEO Group 07 mission. Early Tuesday morning, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket successfully launched “The Harvest Goddess Thrives” mission from its site on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula. The week’s activity concluded on Friday afternoon with a sea launch from China, where a Chinarocket Jielong 3 deployed another group of satellites for the Geely Constellation.
Other missions this week
This week’s launch activity kicked off on Monday morning with a flight for Amazon’s satellite internet constellation. A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Project Kuiper (KF-02) mission from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40 at 8:35 a.m. EDT.
The company is slated for a second flight later tonight, with another Falcon 9 scheduled to lift Starlink Group 17-4 to orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:44 p.m. EDT.
On Tuesday evening, attention will turn to South America, where an Arianespace Ariane 62 rocket is scheduled to launch the METOP-SG A1 weather satellite from French Guiana at 8:37 p.m. EDT.
Early Wednesday morning, China is slated to launch a Long March 5B/YZ-2 rocket carrying a SatNet LEO Group mission from Wenchang at 2:45 a.m. EDT.
SpaceX will then conduct a series of launches to close out the week. On Thursday at 6:47 a.m. EDT, a Falcon 9 will launch the Starlink Group 10-20 batch from Cape Canaveral.
This is followed by a daytime launch on Friday from Vandenberg, carrying the Starlink Group 17-5 satellites at 11:44 a.m. EDT.
The week’s manifest concludes Saturday morning with the Starlink Group 10-11 mission lifting off from Cape Canaveral at 7:35 a.m. EDT.
Looking ahead
Next week is shaping up to be another major one, highlighted by the tenth orbital flight test of SpaceX’s Starship from Texas and the launch of the clandestine USSF-36 mission carrying the OTV-8 robotic spaceplane. A SpaceX cargo run to the International Space Station is also on the manifest, along with a Russian Soyuz launch carrying the Bion-M n°2 biosatellite. Multiple Starlink deployments and a Bandwagon rideshare mission round out the busy schedule.
