Launch Schedule for week of January 13, 2020

[WesL]

A few items of interest for this week.

Jan 14 - Multiple payloads on a Long March 2D rocket
8:53 pm central
China will be launching multiple payloads via a Long March 2D rocket from their Taiyuan launch facility.

Jan 16 - Eutelsat Konnect and GSAT 30 on a Ariane 5 rocket
3:00 pm central
Delayed launch of the Eutelsat Konnect and GSAT 30 communication satellites from the Kourou, French Guiana.

Jan 18 - SpaceX Crew Dragon Abort Test via Falcon 9 rocket
Launch window opens at 7:00am central
This will be one to watch. In the race to restore America's ability to launch astronauts from U.S. soil, SpaceX will be taking the next step to certify their Crew Dragon capsule by blowing up a Falcon 9 rocket. The purpose of the test to ensure that the Crew Dragon's reworked in flight abort system can safely remove astronauts from catastrophic failure of the Falcon 9. This will be the last major test for SpaceX as they work toward their crewed Demo-2 flight later this year.

 

[WesL]

Weather looks good for SpaceX’s launch abort test.

 

[WesL]

NASA's WB-57 just landed at Kennedy Space Center. Will be used to in support of SpaceX's launch abort test schedule to take place tomorow morning. Very cool aircraft.

 

[TCLwx]

Looks like the launch abort test has been bumped to tomorrow (Sunday).

 

[WesL]

Successful launch abort test. Really a thing of beauty.

 

[StormStalker]

I should have worn my SpaceX shirt today. Glad this test went as planned. Seems they are slowly getting one step closer to a manned flight to the ISS.

 

[WesL]

I didn't get to publish the new launch schedule for this week but SpaceX is launching their 4th Starlink mission tomorrow morning. The completed the static fire today and should go for launch at 10:59am central tomorrow (11/21)




In other news, Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX is likely to conduct the second SpaceX Crew Dragon flight with astronauts between April and June.

Elon Musk says first SpaceX launch with NASA astronauts likely between April and June

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spoke alongside NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Sunday.

www.cnbc.com

 

[WesL]

Sounds like the Starlink 3 mission might be scrubbed today due to poor recovery conditions for the first stage.

 

[WesL]

Scrub - new date and time coming soon for Startlink 3 mission (technically the 4th mission)