Lukas C. H.
@gewoonlukas
Spaceflight Enthusiast 🚀 May the force be with you my friend, Ad Astra Per Aspera ✨ Mission Patches Other socials
A brand new Falcon Heavy Side Booster has been rolled to LC-39A! This likely is B1102 or B1104 for the launch of the Roman Space Telescope NET Aug. 30. The booster is expected to RTLS, however no landing legs are installed yet... 📸 nsf.live/spacecoast
Well this is surprising, MRV-1 will be an expendable launch! This is likely to reserve propellant on the MEP's, so they can extend the life of the GEO satellites longer, as the combined mass of the MRV and MEP's is only ~4,200kg. Falcon 9 first stage B1069-32 will be expended.
Following its launch aboard Pegasus, all is well with Katalyst's LINK spacecraft. The spacecraft is about halfway through its commissioning phase. Once commissioning has been completed, the spacecraft will start its rendezvous with NASA's Swift Observatory.
Last night, Blue destacked the 4th tower segment at LC-36A, as they take it down for repairs & modifications. It'll be interesting to see how long this will take, as realisticly they only have a few months if they want to launch by the end of the year. 📸 nsf.live/spacecoast
Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle is finally ready for launch NET July 21st at 21:15 UTC! MRV-1 will launch with 3 Mission Extension Pods. The MRV & MEP's will raise their orbits to GEO separately and will rendezvous there for installation on satellites from Intelsat/SES and Optus.
After 8 months of delays, hazard area's for the next launch for the Space Development Agency have finally appeared! This won't be T1TL-A with Northrop Grumman satellites however, instead it'll be T1TL-E with the 2nd batch from York. Launch is NET July 16th at 20:22 UTC.
The mission patch for the next iQPS launch after "The Grain Goddess Provides" has appeared on Rocket Lab's store. The mission is named "The Lightning God Defends". The colors of the patch seem to match with the sticker on this fairing, so we could see back-to-back iQPS launches.
The VICTUS HAZE responsive space demonstration continues. The next mission phase of rendezvous & proximity operations has now been completed. Rocket Lab was given 84 hours to approach & photograph TrueAnomaly's Jackal satellite on orbit, which they completed it in just 59 hours.
Yeah that's my current prime suspect as well, but I don't think it quite lines up with this shot of the spacecraft Argo showed in a video. www.linkedin.com/posts/space-...
Here's my identification attempt for Transporter-17, SpaceX' 4th rideshare mission this year. I've gotten pretty much everything, except that circular satellite between Apex Flashpoint and ICEYE, with what appears to be some sort of Roll-Out Solar Array?
While Northrop now no longer has any manufactured Pegasus rockets, and none on contract, Pegasus isn't officially retired yet. Northrop Grumman said they are open for opportunities, and can make more if needed. However I do think the chance of that happening is small.
And NASA confirmed Pegasus launched and reached orbit! Launch took place at 08:36 UTC. Over the next few weeks, Katalyst will perform checkouts and rendezvous with Swift, after which they will observe Swift to characterise it before attempting to dock. 📸 CYGNSS in 2016
Stargazer is descending and returning back to Bucholz Army Airfield. The plane did make a big turn, which would be expected for a drop, but they also did this yesterday so nothing that can be determined from that. All eyes on NASA's blog...
After yesterday's confusing launch attempt, which was ultimately scrubbed due to a software issue, Northrop Grumman's Stargazer airplane is back in the air with Pegasus and LINK. The plane is flying a holding pattern to line up with the drop zone for drop and launch at 08:35 UTC.
Over at LC-36A, the massive crane has attached to the lightning tower as Blue Origin prepares to take it down. The tower will be taken down in segments, after which they will be repaired and modified to accomodate Blue Origin's new vertical ConOps. 📸 nsf.live/spacecoast
ULA's next launch, and likely Amazon's next launch as well, will be LV-01, the first Amazon Leo launch on Vulcan. This will also be the first flight of the VC6L configuration, and the first flight of the 85K "LEO-Optimized" Centaur V. Launch is expected in Late-Q3, in September.
DROP and IGNITION of Pegasus-XL and LINK! 📸 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZu3...
Northrop Grumman's Stargazer airplane is in the air with the Pegasus rocket and Katalyst's LINK spacecraft. Based on the few datapoints recieved via Aireon on Iridium-NEXT satellites it is in the holding pattern, awaiting drop and launch at 09:09 UTC. www.flightradar24.com/N140SC/40775...
And with that, Atlas V has done its job for Amazon and it's now up to Vulcan. It's been impressive to watch ULA launch these Atlas V's in quick succession, especially the last couple months with sub-1 month turnarounds, and makes me excited for what will be possible with Vulcan.
The: - final launch of the Atlas V 551 configuration, - final launch of the Atlas V 5-meter fairing, - final Atlas V to launch satellites, - final launch of the Single Engine Centaur, - final Amazon Leo launch on Atlas V 🫡
And the Pegasus-XL launch of the Swift Boost Mission has unfortunately been delayed again due to unfavorable weather. The next launch attempt is now scheduled for tomorrow, July 2nd, at 09:09 UTC.
Blue Origin revealed their rebuild plans for LC-36A! They involve lifting New Glenn vertical at the pad using a crane & vertically mating the fairing. The lightning tower will be modified with the umbilicals. Still lots of work to do, but feeling more confident for a return to flight this year.
Es'hailSat, in partnership with Turksat, has contracted Thales Alenia Space to build the Es'hail-3/Turksat-Biruni satellite! The satellite will be operated at 50° East, and will be based on the software-defined Space INSPIRE platform. A launch target was not provided.
Unfortunately the Pegasus-XL launch of the Swift Boost Mission was scrubbed due to unfavorable weater conditions. The next launch attempt is tomorrow at 09:43 UTC.
Falcon 9 B1085-17 is vertical at SLC-40 ahead of launch with the SXM-11 satellite in about 4 hours from now at 02:25 UTC. Weighing ~7,000kg, SXM-11 was built by Lanteris and will operate at 115° West, where it'll replace SiriusXM'S XM-5 satellite, which was launched in 2010.
Last year, iQPS was Rocket Lab's largest customer with 6 out of 21 launches being for them. Starting with "The Grain Goddess Provides", the pace will be slower with only 8 launches planned by the end of 2028. Launch of QPS-SAR-13 "MIKURA-I" is set for NET June 30th at 01:15 UTC.
And as expected, the payload fairing with the 29 Amazon Leo satellites for LA-08 has now also been stacked, completing the final 500-series Atlas V rocket. 🫡