Space launches

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Weather concerns

Liftoff Winds, Cumulus Cloud s Rule

DSN 3, also known as Kirameki 3, is a geostationary communications satellite to be used for military communications by the Japanese military.

Ionosfera is a constellation of four ionospheric and magnetospheric research satellites developed by for Roscosmos for the project Ionozond.

The satellites will operate on circular sun-synchronous orbits (SSO), at altitude of about 800 km and located in two orbital planes of two satellites each.

The following science instruments are carried on the satellites:

* SPER/1 Plasma and energy radiation spectrometer

* SG/1 Gamma-ray spectrometer

* GALS/1 Galactic cosmic ray spectrometer / 1

* LAERTES On-board Ionosonde

* NBK/2 Low-frequency wave complex

* ESEP Ionospheric plasma energy spectrometer

* Ozonometer-TM Ozonometer

* MayaK On-board radio transmitters

* PES GPS-GLONASS device

31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Cargo Dragon 2 brings supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support science and research investigations that occur onboard the orbiting laboratory.

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Launch of a yet to identified satellite to SSO for an undisclosed customer. The customer is suspected to be Low Earth Orbit communication satellite constellation operator E-Space.

Launch contract was signed less than 2 months before launch.

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The Kondor-FKA is a small civilian radar Earth observation satellite designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a civilian counterpart to the Kondor-E satellite.

The Kondor satellite features a S-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can conduct both continous swath surweys or detailed spot surveys. The swath width is 10 km. Ground resolution is 1 to 2 m in spotlight mode, 1 to 3 m in stripmap mode and 5 to 30 m in ScanSAR mode.

Details TBD.

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

Third batch of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.

GSAT-20 is an Indian geostationary Ka-band high-throughput communications satellite.

GSAT 20 is reportedly built on the I-6K unified modular bus and features a Ka-band high-throughput communications payload with 70 Gbps throughput utilizing multiple spot beams providing broadband services across the Indian region.

It will be the first fully Electric Propulsion/EP enabled satellite which can be five to six times more efficient than chemical-based propulsion. It will be the first ISRO made satellite to move from Geostationary transfer orbit to Geosynchronous orbit using Electric Propulsion.

The Koreasat 6A spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, will have 20 transponders for fixed satellite services and six for TV broadcasting to replace the Koreasat 6 launched in 2010.

Koreasat 6A will be based on the manufacturer’s Spacebus 4000B2 platform and is expected to weigh about 3.5 metric tons at launch. It will be designed to operate for at least 15 years.

SXM-9 is the 10th high-powered, digital, audio radio satellite built by Maxar (SSL) for SiriusXM. The SXM-9 satellite will be based on Maxar’s proven 1300-class platform and built at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. It is expected that SXM-9 will launch in 2024. SXM-9 has a large, mesh, unfurlable reflector almost 10 meters in diameter that allows SiriusXM programming to reach its radios, including those in moving vehicles.

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

WorldView Legion is a constellation of Earth observation satellites built and operated by Maxar. Constellation is planned to consist of 6 satellites in both polar and mid-inclination orbits, providing 30 cm-class resolution.

Maiden flight of the New Glenn launch vehicle. Will carry the prototype Blue Ring payload tug and payload hoisting platform, in addition to serving as New Glenn's first National Security Space Launch certification flight.

Sentinel-1C carries an advanced radar technology to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface. It is a replacement satellite to complete the Sentinel-1 duo after Sentinel-1B suffered a technical anomaly.

Proba-3 (Project for On-Board Autonomy 3) is the first close formation flying mission for the European Space Agency (ESA). It consists of two independent, three-axis stabilised spacecraft flying 150 meters from one another with the ability to accurately control the attitude and separation of the two craft. Such formation flying will be maintained for 6 hours, creating ″artificial solar eclipse″ for the satellite below.

The spacecraft pair will fly a highly elliptical orbit divided between periods of accurate formation flying around apogee, when payload operations will be possible, and periods of free flight.

Second flight of the KAIROS launch vehicle. Payload is TBD.

NZSA Venus Mission is a small direct Venus entry probe with a single 1 kg low-mass, low-cost autofluorescing nephelometer riding on a satellite bus based on the Photon Upper stage of the Electron rocket.

The probe mission will spend approximately 5 minutes in the Venus cloud layers, 48-60 km above the surface, collecting in situ measurements to search for organic molecules in cloud particles and constrain particle composition.

The CSO-3 (Composante Spatiale Optique-3 satellite is the third of three new-generation high-resolution optical imaging satellites for the French military, replacing the Helios 2 spy satellite series.

Fourth batch of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.

Note: Name of payload is provisional.

Third launch of an ultimately 5 reconnaissance satellites for the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), with 1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite on this launch.

They will be launched to low Earth orbit between 600 and 700 km by 2025, enabling South Korea’s military to observe the nuclear-armed neighbor’s key military facilities every two hours with 30-50 centimeters resolution imagery, according to a 2019 report produced by the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning.

The project is lead by the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), with input from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Hanwha Systems and Thales Alenia Space.

Four Astranis MicroGEO communications satellite inserted in a custom geostationary orbit, from where they conduct on-orbit maneuvers to reach their individual slots.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

Second mission of the Hakuto-R commercial lunar lander developed by private Japanese company ispace. The lander will carry a small rover developed by ispace to perform studies on the moon's surface.

The rover is also expected to collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA signed in 2020, in which companies will collect materials on the moon and then transfer ownership "in situ" to the agency.

First of two new-generation satellites built by Airbus to provide secure communications to the Spanish government, its allies, and various international organizations.

Thuraya 4-NGS is a communication satellite being built by Airbus Defense and Space for the UAE based Yahsat. Based on the all-electric Airbus Eurostar-Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12-meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing providing advanced routing flexibility of up to 3200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams.

SPADEX (Space Docking Experiment) is an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) technology mission to demonstrate autonomous docking between 2 spacecraft in orbit.

The mission will involve two spacecraft (Chaser and Target) rendezvous and docking together, plus testing attitude control of the combined spacecraft under docked conditions. The Chaser and Target spacecraft will then be separated for operating other payload. The mission is critical to develop rendezvous and docking abilities for ISRO’s future human spaceflight and lunar sample return missions.

TDS-01 (Technology Demonstration Satellite-01) is an Indian geostationary orbit technology demonstration satellite carrying payloads for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani.

Payloads to be tested included an internally developed 300 mN electric powered thrusters, atomic clocks, travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) & a quantum communication suite (QuTDS).

Lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace. Blue Ghost will be carrying 10 payloads for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as well as several additional commercial payloads.

NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) is the space component of Luxembourg's governmental dual-use observation satellite system LUXEOSys (Luxembourg Earth Observation System). Its purpose is to provide high resolution images to national and international governmental and military organizations such as NATO.

The 800 kg satellite is built by OHB Italia and is equipped with a very high-resolution optical camera with a ground reolution of 50 cm in an around 450 km high sun-synchronous orbit. It will have a operational life time of 7 years.

Seventh and eighth of a constellation of eleven high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) built by Boeing and operated by SES.

First of up to 25 launches of Low Earth Orbit technology demonstration satellites to be built and operated by Lockheed Martin. Launch operation will also again demonstrate responsive space pre-launch operation capabilities.

Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.

Glonass-K2 are the fourth generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 1645 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.

Resurs-P is a series of Russian commercial Earth observation satellites capable of acquiring high-resolution imagery (resolution up to 1.0 m).

USSF-106 is a mission for the United States Space Force. The launch will deploy various payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit, including the NTS-3 (Navigation Technology Satellite 3), a demonstration navigation satellite testing a new digital signal generator that can be reprogrammed on-orbit to broadcast new signals, improve performance by avoiding and defeating interference, and adding signatures for detecting spoofing attacks.

Seventh cargo delivery mission to the Chinese space station.

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

Four space situational awareness (SSA) satellites for Canadian company NorthStar Earth and Space.

Four space situational awareness (SSA) satellites for Canadian company NorthStar Earth and Space.

Synthetic aperture radar satellites for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.

Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office

Nusantara Lima is an Indonesian geostationary communications satellite with a capacity of more than 160 Gbps.

OSAM-2 is a mission to demonstrate the ability of small spacecraft to manufacture and assemble spacecraft components in low-Earth orbit. Once it’s positioned in low-Earth orbit, the spacecraft will 3D-print two beams that extend 32 feet (10 meters) out from each side of the spacecraft. As manufacturing progresses, each beam will unfurl two solar arrays that generate as much as five times more power than traditional solar panels on spacecraft of similar size.

First of six missions launched by the Space Development Agency for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer.

Classified payload for the US Space Force.

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS and will be used for military and civilian use. Located at a geosynchronous orbit, the system will be operated by the Indian government.

No description.

No description.

Sub-orbital launch of the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) program for a confidential customer.

Classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

This is the second launch of RS1 launch vehicle developed and built by ABL Space Systems. Payload onboard is TBD.

Telescope satellite for Scout Space, a startup specializing in space domain awareness through in-space observation.

Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.

First flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle.

No description.

Payload consists of a single 30 kg NASA payload to be delivered to a 500 km orbit with a 41 degrees inclination.

Classified payload for the US Space Force

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve optimal high-elevation visibility in urban canyons and mountainous areas. The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation.

The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation in inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits.

GOSAT-GW (Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite Greenhouse gases and Water cycle), formerly known as GOSAT 3, is JAXA's next generation satellite to monitor the greenhosue gases like carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. It is the follow on to the GOSAT 2 (Ibuki 2) and GCOM-W (Shizuku) missions.

GOSAT-GW will have two missions: greenhouse gases observation for Japan's Ministry of the Environment and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), and water-cycle observation for JAXA. By developing the GOSAT-GW satellite, Mitsubishi Electric will contribute to measures for preventing disasters attributed to global warming and climate change, and to advance scientific and technological methods that enable more accurate prediction of climate change.

In December 2013, Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) was selected as the prime contractor for the spacecraft and the instruments.

This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.

Seventh of ten GPS III missions.

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Last of five batches of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.

Vietnamese Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth observation satellite build by NEC Corporation of Japan, based on Japan's ASNARO 2 satellite and the NEXTAR NX-300L satellite bus. The satellite will contribute to measures against natural disasters and climate change in Vietnam.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

SpaceX Crew-10 is the tenth crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

This is the 22nd flight of the Northrop Grumman's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 21st flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR satellite, will use advanced radar imaging to map the elevation of Earth's land and ice masses 4 to 6 times a month at resolutions of 5 to 10 meters. It is designed to observe and measure some of the planet's most complex natural processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

Under the terms of the agreement, NASA will provide the mission's L band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high-rate telecommunication subsystem for scientific data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem. ISRO will provide the satellite bus, an S band synthetic aperture radar, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services.

First uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

A pair of Russian optical Earth observation satellites built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre for obtaining stereo images of the Earth's surface, with maximum resolution of 1.2 m in panchromatic mode and a swath width of 32 km.

Soyuz MS-26 will carry two cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Cargo Dragon 2 brings supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support science and research investigations that occur onboard the orbiting laboratory.

First flight of Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander.

Bion-M is the next generation of Russian biological research satellites. While retaining the Vostok/Zenit-derived reentry module of the earlier Bion, the propulsion module has been replace by a Yantar type module, which provides maneuvering capabilities and longer mission support. The mission duration has been increased to up to 6 months by using solar cells for energy generation. The weight of scientific equipment has been increased by 100 kilograms.

Biomass is an Earth observation satellite launched as a part of ESA Earth Explorer program. It will be using a P-band synthetic aperture radar to collect data on the height of forests, allowing scientists to determine the amount of biomass and carbon stored there.

Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

Fram2 is the world’s first astronaut mission to polar orbit. Named after the Norwegian polar research ship Fram, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch into a 90° circular orbit from Florida, making it the first human spaceflight to fly over Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit. A cupola will be installed on the Dragon spacecraft to allow for Earth observation from at an altitude of 425 – 450 km.

During the 3-to-5-day mission, the crew will study green fragments and mauve ribbons of continuous emissions comparable to the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), persistently measured at an altitude of approximately 400 - 500 km above Earth’s atmosphere, among other studies. The crew will also work with SpaceX to conduct a variety of research to better understand the effects of spaceflight on the human body, which includes capturing the first human x-ray images in space, Just-in-Time training tools, and studying the effects of spaceflight on behavioural health.

Chun Wang, an entrepreneur and explorer who co-founded f2pool and stakefish, serves as the mission commander. The vehicle commander will be Jannicke Mikkelsen, a film director, and cinematographer. The vehicle pilot will be Eric Philips, a professional polar adventurer and guide who has completed ski expeditions to the North and South Poles. The final crew member will be mission specialist Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Berlin, currently pursuing her PhD in Norway.

The SpaceLogistics MRV-1 is a mission extension payload including a mission robotic vehicle (MRV) and multiple mission extension pods (MEPs).

Payload is a scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicle developed by by Australian company Hypersonix.

The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite designed by TsSKB-Progress.

In 2012, the development of the Arkon-2M radar satellite was stopped and instead the development of the Obzor-R was initiated.

The satellite features the BRLK X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar as the imaging instrument with a ground resolution of 500 m.

Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

45 satellites will be carried on each Vulcan launch.

The ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites is expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1-Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage high levels of flexibility to dynamically direct capacity to where customers are located.

This is a Crew Dragon flight for a private company Axiom Space. The mission will carry a professionally trained commander alongside three private astronauts to and from the International Space Station. This crew will stay aboard space station for at least eight days.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

Tianwen-2 is a planned Chinese asteroid sample return and comet orbiter mission due for launch in May 2025. The spacecraft will visit the Near Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), collecting samples from its surface using both touch-and-go and anchor-and-drill approaches. It will return the samples back to Earth around 2.5 years after launch, with the main spacecraft proceeding to visit the main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS in the mid-2030s.

The Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System (EWS) Operational Demonstration-1 (OD-1) is a weather satellite for the United States Space Force. It is a prototype satellite made by General Atomics that will be place in LEO for a three-year demonstration mission of new EO/IR sensor technologies to various US military branches, and to act as a stop-gap for Defense Department needs for weather data.

First flight of the Dream Chaser Spaceplane to the ISS.

Second of two new-generation satellites built by Airbus to provide secure communications to the Spanish government, its allies, and various international organizations.