It’s a quiet week in rocket launches this week, with just two missions locked in. Nevertheless, they are missions of a more interesting variety. Wednesday will see Roscosmos launch a cargo mission to the space station, and Thursday will see SpaceX launch 52 Starlink satellites.
Wednesday, October 26
The first launch of the week will take off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, will launch a Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the 82nd Progress cargo delivery ship to the International Space Station (ISS). This will help astronauts on the ISS carry on performing their work in space. The mission is due for launch at 12:20 a.m. UTC and can be viewed on YouTube.
Thursday, October 27
The final launch of the week will take place on Thursday at 12:30 a.m. UTC at the Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX will launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets carrying 52 Starlink satellites. These will be used to bolster the satellite-based internet constellation to better serve locations on Earth. As always, SpaceX will live stream the event on its website and because it’s a Falcon 9, you’ll get to see the first stage land again.
Recap
The first launch we had over the last week was a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites to orbit.
Next up, 36 OneWeb satellites were ferried into orbit on an Indian GSLV Mk-III rocket. OneWeb tapped India for its launches after the company had issues with the Russian government confiscating its satellites.
The final launch we have is a Soyuz 2.1b carrying the Skif-D demo satellite and three Gonets-M comms satellites from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.
That's all we've got this week, be sure to check in next time!
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