SpaceX launch activity this cycle features a string of Falcon 9 missions deploying batches of Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites from both the West Coast and Cape Canaveral launch pads.
At Vandenberg Space Force Base Falcon 9s are slated to loft 24-satellite batches from SLC-4E using boosters that include B1103, B1100 and B1082, each planned to return to the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.
From Cape Canaveral a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 will deliver 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites while another Falcon 9 will carry nine HIBLEO-4 satellites for Globalstar, with first stages targeting recovery on A Shortfall of Gravitas.
Several missions have recorded schedule slips and refreshes, with some boosters listed under updated tail numbers and others delayed from earlier planned attempts, as noted in the manifest.
SpaceX will also fly a Starship-Super Heavy test that is designated the 12th integrated flight and the first using the version 3 hardware.
The Starship mission will launch Ship 39 as the upper stage atop Booster 19, conduct a suborbital trajectory, and deploy 20 Starlink simulator satellites along the flight path, including two payloads designed to relay imagery of the vehicle heat shield.
SpaceX will not attempt to recover the Super Heavy booster at the launch site for this flight, marking a focused test of flight and stage performance.
Other Launches And Long Range Missions
Rocket Lab plans an Electron mission named Viva La StriX to place a Synspective StriX synthetic aperture radar satellite into a circular 572 kilometer orbit at 44.8 degrees inclination, the company’s ninth mission for that customer.
United Launch Alliance is preparing an Atlas 5 mission to carry 29 Amazon Leo satellites to low Earth orbit, with the launch delayed while a flight component is repaired, and described as the penultimate Amazon mission on Atlas 5.
ULA also lists a Vulcan Centaur demonstration flight carrying Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle to the International Space Station, with the vehicle described as a lifting body resupply spacecraft that will land on a runway.
An Atlas 5 flight is scheduled to carry Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on an uncrewed cargo mission to test changes made after the crewed flight test, replacing an earlier plan for a post-certification crewed flight.
Isar Aerospace plans a Spectrum second test flight carrying six small payloads managed by Exolaunch, after earlier delays caused by a pressurization valve issue, strong winds, a boat in the keep-out zone, and a COPV leak.
Firefly Aerospace intends to debut the Alpha Block 2 configuration with larger liquid oxygen tanks increasing the rocket length by two meters, and SpaceX lists a Falcon Heavy mission to launch NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft built by Johns Hopkins APL with a 20-day launch window and program funding details including a reported $3.35 billion lifecycle cost and $256.6 million awarded to SpaceX for launch services.
