This week of Dec 16, 2018 is yet another busy week of space launches and other space activities, all squeezed in to finish before the year-end holiday week.
Here is some info about the missions and pointers on how to watch the launches. NASA will be hosting several events for its missions, which can all be viewed online.
|
LAUNCH VEHICLE |
MISSION |
LAUNCH SITE |
DATE/TIME (EST) |
1 |
Rocket Lab Electron |
Cubesats; ELaNa 19 mission for NASA |
Launch Complex 1; Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand |
Sun, Dec 16, 1:33 a.m. |
2 |
ISRO GSLV Mk.2 |
GSAT 7A military comm satellite |
Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India |
Wed, Dec 19, 5:40 a.m. |
3 |
Arianespace Soyuz ST-A |
CSO-1 European military satellite |
Kourou, French Guiana |
Wed, Dec 19, 11:37 a.m. |
4 |
SpaceX Falcon 9 |
GPS III-SV01 satellite |
Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
Tue, Dec 18, 9:11 a.m.
Thu, Dec 20, 9:03 a.m.
Sat, Dec 22, 8:55 a.m.
|
5 |
ULA Delta IV-Heavy |
NROL-71 military satellite |
SLC-6, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California |
Fri, Dec 7, 11:19 p.m.
Sat, Dec 8, 11:15 p.m.
Wed, Dec 19, 8:44 p.m.
Thu, Dec 20, 8:31 p.m.
Sun, Dec 30
|
6 |
Russian Proton-M/Briz-M |
Blagovest 13L communications satellite |
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan |
Thu Dec 20, 7:15 p.m. |
7 |
China Long March-11 |
Hongyun satellite |
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center |
Fri Dec 21, 6:51 p.m. |
8 |
Blue origin New Shepard |
NASA Science Payloads |
Texas |
Fri Dec 21
Early 2019
|
Other Space Activities this Week
|
MISSION |
SITE |
DATE/TIME (EST) |
9 |
ISS Crew Return |
Kazakhstan |
Thu Dec 20 |
10 |
Mars InSight Lander |
Mars |
Wed Dec 19 |
Other Space Activities By Year End
|
MISSION |
SITE |
DATE/TIME (EST) |
11 |
New Horizons arrival at and flyby of Ultima Thule |
Kuiper Belt |
New Year’s Eve |
12 |
Chang’e-4 landing on the far side of the moon |
The Moon |
First week of Jan 2019 |
1. Rocket Lab ELaNa 19 mission for NASA (Sun, Dec 16, 1:33 a.m. EST)
Rocket Lab successfully launched 10 Cubesats for NASA from its launch facility in New Zealand its Electron rocket constructed out of 3D-printed parts.
This mission included 10 Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa)-19 payloads. www.nasa.gov/...
2. Indian Space Agency GSAT 7A military comm satellite, (Wed, Dec 19, 5:40 a.m. EST)
The Indian space agency (ISRO) had a successful launch of the GSAT 7A military communications satellite on Dec 19. spaceflightnow.com/...
3. Arianespace Soyuz ST-A CSO-1 French military satellite (Wed, Dec 19, 11:37 a.m. EST)
A Soyuz rocket launched a French optical surveillance satellite for the French military from Arianespace’s launch complex in French Guiana.
4. SpaceX Falcon 9 GPS III SV01 satellite (Sat, Dec 22, 8:55 a.m. EST)
SpaceX launch of the Air Force GPS III SV01 from Florida has been postponed again. New time is Sat Dec 22 at 8:55 a.m. EST. No booster recovery due to some tight Air Force regulations for this mission.
5. ULA Delta IV-Heavy NROL-71 satellite (Sun, Dec 30)
The launch of the NROL-71 (spy) satellite by ULA (United Launch Alliance) using a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from SLC-6, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, has been scrubbed and postponed multiple times. Now postponed to Sun Dec 30.
Check out diary www.dailykos.com/… for some earlier coverage.
Here is a video describing the mission -
6. Russian Proton Blagovest 13L Mission (Thu Dec 20, 7:15 p.m.)
A Russian Proton-M rocket carried the Blagovest 13L communications satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Thu evening EST.
7. China Long March-11 Hongyun satellite (Fri Dec 21, 6:51 p.m. EST)
This satellite is the first of a set of 156 satellites planned by China to offer Internet service, similar to SpaceX’s StarLink system, which uses a much larger number of satellites — 12,000!
8. Blue Origin (now scheduled for 2019)
The launch of Blue Origin’s spacecraft carrying 10 NASA science payloads has been postponed again, now into 2019.
9. ISS Crew Return (Thu Dec 20)
3 crew members made it safely back to Earth from the International Space Station early Thu morning.
10. Mars InSight Lander (Wed Dec 19)
Mars InSight lander has been busy since landing few weeks ago, surveying its neighborhood and deploying its seismometer.
11. New Horizons arrival at and flyby of Ultima Thule (New Year’s Eve)
New mystery about Ultima Thule -
Epilogue
It has been a very productive year for space launches and space missions. We are all looking forward to an exciting 2019, with new crewed spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing, more satellite launches, progress by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic and further inroads into the trip to the Moon and Mars.
Wishing Peace and Joy to everyone on Earth and in space.