During the week of Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, the long-awaited maiden flight of the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket will take place, carrying the Peregrine Mission One Lunar Lander to the Moon. Three Chinese rocket launches are also expected, although there is currently conflicting information regarding the status of several of these launches.
Two further SpaceX launches have been scheduled, with the company’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying two batches of Starlink satellites. One mission will fly from Florida and the other from California.
The Vulcan mission remains on target for a Jan. 8 launch. ULA have indicated that the vehicle will roll out to the pad on Friday, Jan. 5, weather permitting.
A new Chinese private venture Orienspace will attempt a sea-launch of it’s first vehicle, Gravity-1 on Jan. 9
ExPace Kuaizhou 1A | Unknown Payload
Scheduled for launch on Jan. 5 at 10:00 UTC from Site 95A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China, this will be the twenty-fifth mission of the Kuaizhou 1A rocket. The Kuaizhou 1A will carry an unknown payload to an unknown orbit. If launch is confirmed, this will be first launch of the Kuaizhou 1A in 2024 and follows only 8 days after its most recent launch on Dec. 27, which occurred a record two days after another previous launch on Dec. 25. The likely, but unconfirmed, payload is a further batch of Tianmu 1 satellites as per the previous two launches.
The launch of a Kuaizhou-1A rocket. (Credit: CNSA)
Kuaizhou 1A is a 4-stage rocket that utilizes solid rocket motors and provides low-cost accurate and reliable low earth orbit (LEO) launches for up to 300 kilogram payloads.
Tianmu 1 satellites are used to monitor atmospheric environment elements and are built by the China Aerospace Science and Industry System Company.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-35
Currently scheduled for launch during the afternoon of Jan. 7, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The yet-to-be-confirmed booster is expected to land on one of SpaceX’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships (ASDS), although it is not yet clear which of these will be used, following damage to Just Read The Instructions during stormy weather, which resulted in the loss of veteran booster B1058 last week.
Falcon booster B1058 on the deck of Just Read The Instructions after tipping over. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-10
SpaceX will launch a batch of v2-mini Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday evening, with launch currently scheduled for 9:00 PM PST (05:00 UTC on Jan. 8) from SLC-4E. The yet-to-be-confirmed booster will land on ASDS Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
If launched when expected, it will be a mere four days since the previous launch and recovery using SLC-4E and Of Course I Still Love You.
ULA Vulcan VC2S | Peregrine Mission One
The long-anticipated debut launch of ULA’s Vulcan VC2S mission is currently set for 2:18 AM EST (07:18 UTC) on Jan. 8. Launching from ULA’s newly-updated SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, this launch has a plethora of firsts to its name, including the first flight of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines and the first flight of the primary payload, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, with demonstration payloads aboard as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Now that’s what I call a tree topper! #ToryTimelapse of Peregrine lander being settled atop the #VulcanRocket. Next stop, the Moon pic.twitter.com/4oD1sa5PsB
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) December 22, 2023
This first certification flight was initially due to launch on Dec. 24, 2023, but was delayed following issues uncovered during the Wet Dress Rehearsal on Dec. 8 2023.
The variation of Vulcan used for this flight consists of a booster assisted by two solid rocket boosters and a Centaur V upper stage. The 33.3 meters tall, 5.4 meters diameter booster is methane/oxygen fueled, with each of the two BE-4 engines producing 550,000 pounds of thrust. The two strap-on solid rocket boosters each provide a further 459,600 pounds of thrust at sea level.
The Centaur V upper stage is 11.7 meters tall and is also 5.4 meters in diameter. The Centaur provides guidance and flight management to the booster throughout the flight and also provides the payload interface. Powered by two RL10C-1-1A engines each providing 23,825 pounds of thrust, Centaur is fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
The two payloads on this mission, Peregrine and a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Voyager payload, were encapsulated in the 5.4 meter fairing and hoisted atop Vulcan on Dec. 20 2023.
Check out our Peregrine lunar lander nestled into the payload fairing in @ulalaunch‘s #VulcanRocket! She’s fueled. She’s ready for her journey to the Moon: targeting a launch on January 8, 2024 and a lunar landing on February 23, 2024!
— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) December 19, 2023
The Peregrine Lander has twenty individual payloads on board, including five specifically for NASA’s CLPS which are all scientific instruments, including a Laser Retroreflector Array which will be used to provide a permanent laser range finding marker on the lunar surface to be used by future visiting spacecraft.
The lander will be placed in an elliptical orbit by the Centaur V, which will allow a rendezvous with the Moon and subsequent landing on Feb. 23, 2024.
The Celestis Memorial payloads are a commercial venture and feature flight capsules containing cremated remains, DNA samples, digital messages, artwork, and more, with each forming a memorial to a deceased person. There are two payloads: The Enterprise Flight for which 234 capsules will remain onboard the Centaur upper stage that will be left in a safe and stable orbit around the sun following the deployment of the Peregrine Lander; and the Tranquility Flight payload in which the flight capsules will land on the lunar surface aboard the Peregrine lander. Amongst the memorials are a number dedicated to the memory of members of the cast and crew of the Star Trek series of films and TV programs, hence the Enterprise Flight name given to one of the payloads.
The booster, SRBs and fairings are not expected to survive re-entry or to be recovered on this mission.
Orienspace Gravity-1 | Jilin-1 Gaofen 05 x3
The first launch of a new vehicle from Orienspace -Gravity-1. NOTMARs published recently indicate a likely launch date of Jan. 9 at around 04:00 UTC. This launch will take place from the dedicated launch vessel Dongfang Hangtiangang.
The all solid rocket booster will launch from a location in the Yellow Sea near Haiyang.
Gravity-1 launcher wrapped in a thermal coat aboard launch vessel. Credit: Orienspace
While details remain unconfirmed, it is said that the payload consists of 3 small satellites of the Jilin-1 Gaofen 05 series:
Langfang Kongjina-1 廊坊空间一号
Taian (Xingshidai-16) 泰安号（星时代-16)
Jilin-1 Gaofen 05 吉林一号高分05
CAS Space Kinetica-1 | Third Flight
Initially believed to be a five-satellite rideshare mission, this will be the third launch of this solid rocket from CAS Space and is scheduled for launch from Site 130 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China on Jan. 10 at 02:00 UTC. It is clear that something is launching at this time, but two other payload candidates have also been suggested: Gusehnxing-1 Y10 and Lijian-1 Y3. Currently, however, much is unknown about this mission.
(Lead image: ULA Vulcan stands ready for rollout. Credit: ULA)
