Launch & Space Events

The Chinese Academy of Science (CAS)' Pathfinder-1 satellites is built for in-orbit validation of critical technologies for the upcoming main missions of CAS' "Origins” Space Science Program, which consists of 4 upcoming astronomical observatory missions to be launched by 2030: * Discovering the Sky at the Longest wavelength (DSL * Solar Polar Orbit Observatory (SPO) * Earth 2.0 (ET) * Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) The mission consists of a main satellite and 3 sub-satellites, the later of which flies in formation to demonstrate a low frequency radio astronomy interferometry instrument. The main satellite also contains the following science instrument: * Very Large Area Gamma-ray Space Telescope Pathfinder (VLAST-P) * a magnetometer (MHI) * an upper atmosphere LiDAR (HiRAL) * a Langmuir Probe (LMP) * a space weather monitor (SWEM)

A classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of rocket stage drop zones being exact fits with previous Starlink Group 15 launches.

Details TBD.

Note: Launch vehicle name is provisional. First orbital full version launch of the South Korean military small satellite launch vehicle, after 2 sub-orbital tests of individual stages on 30 March and 30 December 2022, and 1 orbital test flight without the 2nd stage on 4 December 2023. Details TBD.

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude. 45 satellites will be carried on each Vulcan launch.

15th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle and 4th flight of Starship V3. Second Starship flight to deploy satellites (a group of Starlink satellites known as Starlink Group 31-2) into stable Low Earth Orbit and first ever to attempt returning the Starship 2nd stage back to the launch site. The ship is expected to fly at an altitude approximately 275 km above Earth and complete approximately 14 orbits around the planet for more than 22 hours, with the ship expected to attempt returning back to Starbase, Texas on its launch pad by pad arms catching. The booster’s primary test objective on Flight 15 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing by pad arms catching. This will also be the 1st Starship V3 booster to attempt returning to its launch site. Starship will deliver 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit for the second time, which aim to greatly expand the network's capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 Tbps of capacity to the constellation. 3 of the satellites have been modified with a suite of cameras to scan Starship’s heatshield and transmit imagery down to operators.

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

A classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of rocket stage drop zones being exact fits with previous Starlink Group 15 launches.

A classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of ascent rocket stage drop zones being fits with previous SDA Transport Layer launches.

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group. The constellation will eventually consists of 13000 satellites.

The Chinese Academy of Science (CAS)' Pathfinder-1 satellites is built for in-orbit validation of critical technologies for the upcoming main missions of CAS' "Origins” Space Science Program, which consists of 4 upcoming astronomical observatory missions to be launched by 2030: * Discovering the Sky at the Longest wavelength (DSL * Solar Polar Orbit Observatory (SPO) * Earth 2.0 (ET) * Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) The mission consists of a main satellite and 3 sub-satellites, the later of which flies in formation to demonstrate a low frequency radio astronomy interferometry instrument. The main satellite also contains the following science instrument: * Very Large Area Gamma-ray Space Telescope Pathfinder (VLAST-P) * a magnetometer (MHI) * an upper atmosphere LiDAR (HiRAL) * a Langmuir Probe (LMP) * a space weather monitor (SWEM)

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group. The constellation will eventually consists of 13000 satellites.

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.

A classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite bus, based on locations of rocket stage drop zones being exact fits with previous Starlink Group 15 launches.

Share-ride of 4 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, details TBD.

3 Chinese military “remote sensing” satellite of unknown purposes.

18 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with funding backed by the Shanghai local government. Initial constellation will consist of 1296 satellites by 2027 with long term plans to expand it to 12000 satellites.

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS and will be used for military and civilian use. Located at a geosynchronous orbit, the system will be operated by the Indian government.