Europe and India prep for Sun corona observation PROBA 3 mission - TWIRL #190

The TWIRL logo in front of the Sun

We have lots of rocket launches coming up this week but the most interesting will be ISRO's launch of PSLV carrying the European Space Agency's PROBA 3 mission which consists of two satellites flying in formation to observe the Sun's corona.

Tuesday, 3 December

Who: CNSA
What: Long March 3B/E
When: 05:56 UTC
Where: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China
Why: China will use a Long March 3B/E rocket to launch the Shiyan 10-04 experimental test satellite. It could enter a Molniya-type elliptical Earth orbit. This is a highly elliptical orbit that enables coverage over high latitudes.

Who: Roscosmos
What: Soyuz 2.1b
When: 16:00 - 19:00 UTC
Where: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
Why: Roscosmos will use this launch to launch the eighth Lotos-S1 military satellite and possibly another military payload. The Lotos-S1 satellite will be part of the Liana electronic intelligence network.

Wednesday, 4 December

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 00:29 - 04:29
Where: California, US
Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 to launch 20 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit. They will be designated Starlink Group 9-14 and include 13 newer direct-to-cell satellites. The first stage of the Falcon 9 will likely perform a landing so that it can be reused.

Who: ExPace
What: Kuaizhou 1A
When: 04:50 UTC
Where: Xichang Satellite Launch Center
Why: ExPace will launch its Kuaizhou 1A rocket with an unknown payload

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 08:29 - 12:29 UTC
Where: Florida, US
Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 to launch 24 Starlink satellites into orbit. This batch is known as Starlink Group 6-70. You can use this designator on apps like ISS Detector to identify these satellites if they are visible in the night sky after they're in orbit. The first stage of the rocket will likely perform a landing too.

Who: ISRO
What: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
When: 10:38 UTC
Where: Dhawan Space Centre, India
Why: This mission will be interesting, the PSLV will launch the dual-satellite PROBA 3 mission for the European Space Agency (ESA). The two satellites will fly just 150 meters apart. The mission consists of the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). The Occulter will be used to cast a shadow onto the Coronagraph telescope so that the faint solar corona in visible, ultraviolet, and polarised light for many hours at a time.

Who: Arianespace
What: Vega C
When: 21:20 UTC
Where: French Guyana
Why: In this mission the Vega C rocket will be launched to orbit the ESA Sentinel 1C Earth observation satellite. This satellite will be able to look at areas of land of up to 700 km at a resolution of 5 to 25 meters. It'll also have C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities.

Thursday, 5 December

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 16:10 - 18:00 UTC
Where: Florida, US
Why: SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying the SXM 9 radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM's digital audio radio service (DARS). It's set to replace the partially failed SXM 7 satellite. We could see the first stage of the Falcon 9 perform a landing so it can be reused.

Saturday, 7 December

Who: SpaceX
What: Falcon 9
When: 21:24 UTC
Where: California, US
Why: SpaceX will launch 23 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit for this mission. This batch of sats is known as Starlink Group 11-2. The first stage of the Falcon 9 will probably perform a landing.

Recap

The first launch we had last week was a Falcon 9 from SpaceX carrying Starlink Group 9-13 to a low Earth orbit. The first stage of the rocket successfully launched on a droneship.

Next, China launched a Long March 2C rocket from Jiuquan Launch Satellite Center carrying the SuperView Neo 2-03 and SuperView Neo 2-04 remote sensing satellites. They'll be used in fields like natural resources, urban safety, emergency management, and maritime affairs, providing users "with rich data products and diverse application services."

The third launch was an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab. In this mission, the company launched the Kinéis 11-15 satellites. The mission was called "Ice AIS Baby" and the satellites will be used for IoT purposes.

For the fourth mission, we were back with SpaceX launching more Starlink satellites with a Falcon 9 rocket. This was Starlink Group 12-1. After the launch, the first stage of the rocket landed on a droneship so that it could be used again.

The next launch is pretty interesting, LandSpace, a Chinese company, launched the ZhuQue-2E carrying two satellites from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This is the first time this particular rocket has been launched.

Next was another Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX carrying 24 Starlink satellites designated Starlink Group 6-76. It seems like the company has the landings perfected as the first stage of this rocket was able to land on a droneship too.

Russia next, the country launched a Soyuz 2.1a carrying the Kondor FKA 2 satellite into orbit. This satellite will be used for civilian Earth observation.

SpaceX has been super busy this week. It launched Starlink Group 6-65 which consists of 24 satellites. These satellites will beam internet connectivity to customers on Earth. This mission also saw the first stage of the rocket land on a droneship.

The final mission we saw was also a Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX. This time it included a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office and a group of 20 Starlink satellites. Despite the extra payload, the company still landed the first stage of the rocket.