Falcon 9 launches ESA’s Euclid space telescope

A European mission to unravel some of the biggest mysteries in the universe is underway thanks to a launch from an American rocket. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:12 a.m. Eastern July 1 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The rocket deployed its payload, the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft, 41 minutes later after placing it on a trajectory to the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point. The rocket’s booster, on its second flight after launching the Ax-2 private astronaut mission in May, landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. “It was really a fantastic launch,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher at a post-launch briefing. “This is a very important mission for the European Space Agency.” The two-ton Euclid spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, will spend a month traveling to the L-2 point, 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth in the direction opposite the sun. Once there, it will undergo a two-month commissioning period before beginning its science mission. Carole Mundell, ESA’s director of science, said that commissioning work includes turning on the two main instruments on the spacecraft and calibrating the data, while also confirming the thermal stability of the system. “The optics are so precise we should have diffraction-limited images, so we want to make sure we are getting that quality of images and that our spectra are as we expect.” The 1.4-billion-euro ($1.5 billion) mission will spend six years conducting a detailed survey of one third of the sky using a visible camera and near-infrared spectrometer and photometer. Astronomers will use those observations of millions of galaxies to test the validity of various models for dark matter and dark energy, which together comprise 95% of the universe.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off July 1 carrying ESA’s Euclid cosmology spacecraft. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

Scientists involved with the mission are optimistic that Euclid’s observations will help them understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy. “It’s a really great time to be a cosmologist,” said Henk Hoekstra, a member of the 2,000-person Euclid Consortium of scientists and engineers who have worked on the mission, during a pre-launch briefing June 30. “The launch of Euclid really changes cosmology into the future.”

Euclid will collect a massive amount of data: an estimated 170 petabytes (one petabyte is 1,000 terabytes) over its planned six-year mission. That will be augmented by complementary surveys by several ground-based telescopes. Nine data centers, eight in Europe and one in the United States, will archive the data.

Although Euclid was developed for cosmology, project scientists say the data should be useful for a wide range of other studies, from objects in our solar system to the evolution of galaxies. “This dataset will be transformational across a huge range of astrophysics projects,” said Jason Rhodes, chair of the Euclid Consortium Board. “This is data that is going to be mined by astrophysicists for decades to come.”

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, under development for launch in 2027, will perform dark energy studies similar to Euclid. “It will be doing similar science but in a different way,” said Nicola Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, after the launch. She said the two missions should be complementary in much the same was as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter missions to study the sun. “The partnership with Euclid and Roman is going to unlock so much of our dark universe.”

While NASA is a partner with ESA on Euclid, providing infrared detectors for one of its instruments, the launch took place from Florida because of a contract ESA signed with SpaceX. ESA turned to the Falcon 9 after losing access to the Soyuz rocket, originally selected to launch the mission, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

“We owe them a huge thanks. Without them our satellite would be sitting on the ground for two years,” Mike Healy, head of science projects at ESA, said of SpaceX before the launch.

The first discussions with SpaceX were in May of 2022, he said, followed by feasibility studies and testing to ensure Euclid was compatible with the Falcon 9. While ESA announced in October its intent to launch Euclid and another mission, Hera, on the Falcon 9, the agency did not sign a final contract with SpaceX until the end of January.

“We had to squash what we normally do in three years into five months,” he said of the switch to the Falcon 9. That required dealing with a number of challenges ranging from technical issues of integrating the spacecraft with the rocket to dealing with U.S. export control policies.

“I’m very happy with the relationship we have with SpaceX,” said Giuseppe Racca, Euclid project manager at ESA, before the launch. “They are incredibly skilled in problem solving. It’s a most valuable experience.”

SpaceX begins 2023 with Transporter-6 launch

After a record-setting year of launch activity in 2022, SpaceX kicked off the new year Jan. 3 with a Falcon 9 launch of more than 110 smallsats. The Falcon 9 lifted off on the Transporter-6 dedicated smallsat rideshare mission at 9:56 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40. The rocket’s first stage, making its 15th flight, landed back at the Cape’s Landing Zone 1 eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The rocket’s upper stage started releasing its 114 payloads into sun-synchronous orbit nearly an hour after liftoff, a process involving 82 individual deployments that took more than a half-hour to complete. SpaceX was able to confirm 77 of the deployments in real time. The largest single customer on the launch, in terms of number of satellites, was Planet, which had 36 of its SuperDove imaging satellites on board. Planet has now launched more than 500 satellites, mostly cubesats like the SuperDoves. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off Jan. 3 on the Transporter-6 dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. Credit: SpaceX webcast

Some of the other major payloads on Transporter-6 included:

- Six LEMUR cubesats for Spire, which operates a constellation for collecting weather and tracking data;
- Four imaging satellites for Satellogic, which has slowed the deployment of its constellation after revenues fell short of projections in 2022; 

- Four radio-frequency intelligence satellites for Luxembourg-based Kleos and the BRO-8 radio-frequency intelligence satellite for French startup Unseenlabs;
- Three synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites for Iceye and two SAR satellites for Umbra;
- Two satellites for Lynk, which is developing a constellation to provide direct-to-handset connectivity services; Twelve SpaceBee internet-of-things satellites for SpaceX-owned Swarm Technologies;
- Gama Alpha, the first satellite by French company Gama to test solar sail technologies;
- The Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather Systems (EWS) technology demonstration cubesat for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command.

Several of the payloads on Transporter-6 are orbital transfer vehicles that will later deploy satellites. They include two ION vehicles from D-Orbit, the second Vigoride tug from Momentus and Launcher’s first Orbiter vehicle.

Transporter-6 is the sixth in a series of smallsat rideshare missions by SpaceX, which performed the first two Transporter missions in 2021 and three in 2022. The company said in August that it continues to see strong demand for the services despite the rise in small launch vehicles that offer dedicated launch options for smallsats. All of SpaceX’s Transporter missions for 2023 are full, the company said then, although last-minute opportunities may arise.

A record 2022

Transporter-6 was the first orbital launch globally in 2023. It comes after a record 2022, when there were 186 orbital launch attempts, 40 more than 2021. A total of 179 launches were successful, compared to 136 in 2021.

Orbital launch activity has doubled in just the last five years. In 2017 there were 86 successful orbital launches in 90 attempts. SpaceX is responsible for much of that growth, having gone from 18 launches in 2017 to 61 in 2022, while Chinese launches increased from 18 in 2017 to 64 in 2022.

With the exception of New Zealand, which went from the first Rocket Lab Electron launch in 2017 to nine in 2022, other countries saw flat or reduced launch activity over the last five years. That includes Europe, which went from 11 launches in 2017 to 6 in 2022, and Japan, which had seven launches in 2017 but only a single, unsuccessful Epsilon launch in 2022.

SpaceX, whose 61 launches in 2022 were nearly double the 31 launches it conducted in 2021, will attempt to set another launch record in 2023. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has suggested the company will attempt as many as 100 launches in 2023, a total that likely include its Starship vehicle, whose first orbital launch is expected some time this year.

Spaceflight’s chemically powered space tug heads for launch

Spaceflight shipped its Sherpa-LTC2 orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) Aug. 10 to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where it will make a second attempt to debut the chemically powered space tug on a SpaceX launch. The Seattle-based company’s first Sherpa-LTC, which has more powerful thrusters for dropping satellites off in specific orbits post-launch faster than the other tugs it has deployed, leaked propellant in December after integrating with SpaceX equipment at Cape Canaveral. That led to SpaceX dropping the OTV from a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in January, forcing Spaceflight to find alternative launches for 10 cubesats set to hitch a ride on it. Benchmark Space Systems provided the non-toxic propulsion subsystems for both OTVs. The upcoming SpaceX launch will be the first time Benchmark’s Halcyon Avant bi-propellant thrusters have flown in space. Spaceflight CEO Curt Blake said Sherpa-LTC2 has “gone through all kinds of checks to get things right” ahead of its launch in September. Ahead of its four-to-five-day journey via truck from Seattle to Cape Canaveral, the OTV was integrated with a payload for Boeing’s Varuna Technology Demonstration Mission (Varuna-TDM). The demonstrator aims to test V-band communications for a proposed constellation of 147 non-geostationary broadband satellites.

“Potential customers and industry partners will have the opportunity to participate in preliminary evaluations of this service, which is intended to provide unprecedented levels of connectivity across the globe to government and commercial customers,” a Boeing spokesperson said.

California-based Astro Digital designed and built the payload, and booked the launch from Spaceflight on behalf of Boeing for what will be a dedicated mission. Astro Digital also provided the command and control system for Spaceflight’s Sherpa-LTC2.

SpaceX is slated to launch the OTV as part of a mission to deploy a batch of Starlink broadband satellites that Spaceflight expects will launch to low Earth orbit this fall.

If the mission goes according to plan, the Sherpa-LTC2 will deploy from Falcon 9 around 310 kilometers above the Earth, from where the OTV will ignite and transport its customer payload to a 1,000-kilometer low Earth orbit.

Frayed SpaceX relationship

Spaceflight has relied on SpaceX launches to deploy its expanding line of next-generation space tugs.

The first of these was a Sherpa-FX, which has no propulsion, that made its debut as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-1’s rideshare mission in January 2021

SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission then deployed a Sherpa-FX2 and a Sherpa-LTE — Spaceflight’s first OTV with electric propulsion — later that year in June.

After the Sherpa-LTC was removed from SpaceX’s Transporter 3 flight in January 2022, Spaceflight had planned to launch a Sherpa-FX on its next rideshare flight in April.

However, SpaceX decided to remove the tug from its Transporter 4 mission following concerns about environmental factors affecting the satellites installed on the OTV.

About a week later, SpaceX said it would no longer work with Spaceflight after currently manifested missions.

Blake declined to discuss Spaceflight’s relationship with SpaceX, or what would be its last OTV to fly with the company.

To broaden its options, Spaceflight announced Aug. 8 an agreement to launch future space tugs on Arianespace’s Vega launch vehicles, including its next-generation Vega C rocket.
Spaceflight said it signed a deal to access Vega with Italy’s SAB Launch Services — which also provides launch services on other European launchers — to cover launches starting as soon as next year.

Blake said Spaceflight is “very close to identifying specifics” for the customers and Vega missions that would use Sherpa, with the first launch likely around the end of 2023 or early 2024.

Spaceflight and SAB are also partnering to offer customers access to shared integration and storage facilities across Europe and the United States.

Blake said Spaceflight is talking to “a number of” other launch providers, and “getting close to finalizing deals to launch OTVs on various launch vehicles.”

Growing space tug family

Meanwhile, Spaceflight has been working through its remaining manifest with SpaceX to develop its space tug product line.

In May 2022, the company debuted Sherpa-AC (attitude control), a version for hosting payloads, on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 mission.

SpaceX is slated to launch a Spaceflight space tug in mid-2023 when it is set to deploy a Sherpa EScape (Sherpa-ES), which is designed to swing around the moon to deliver payloads in geostationary orbit.

According to Blake, its next OTV to fly could be the initial Sherpa-LTC that is under refurbishment.

“It’s a possibility,” he said, “we’ve got some customers that want to go, and we’re trying to find the capacity right now.”

A large portion of those are new vehicles, he added.

SpaceX Crew Dragon test firing results in cloud of smoke, called 'anomaly'

A cloud of smoke was seen at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday, which SpaceX and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine described as an "anomaly" that occurred during a test firing of the Crew Dragon capsule's thrusters. Bridenstine tweeted that the nation's planned space missions with crews will move forward safely. The test firing was a preliminary event leading to a return to manned launches from the United States, which hasn't happened since the last space shuttle lifted off in 2011. The smoke was first reported by Florida Today, which had a photographer shooting a surf fest nearby in Cocoa Beach. "This is why we test," Bridenstine said in a tweet about the test firing. Neither SpaceX nor NASA gave immediate updates on the status of the capsule, which was scheduled for its first flight with a crew this year. SpaceX in a statement to UPI said, "Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test. Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners." SpaceX calls Dragon "a free-flying spacecraft designed to deliver both cargo and people to orbiting destinations." Currently Dragon has been carrying cargo to space, but it was designed from the beginning to carry humans. The first demonstration flight under NASA's Commercial Crew Program launched on March 2. The spacecraft successfully docked with the space station. The Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from Earth orbit, and beyond.

Toward the base of the capsule and contained within the nose cone are the Draco thrusters, which allow for orbital maneuvering. It was those thrusters that were being test-fired Saturday.

Jim Williams, spokesman for the Air Force's 45th Space Wing, said in a statement the anomaly "was contained and there were no injuries."

NASASpaceflight.com reported that significant delays, if they occur, might threaten to throw NASA's entire crew program into doubt because Boeing Starliner, a competing program, also is dealing with setbacks.

NASA has been relying on multimillion-dollar paid seats on Russia's Soyuz rocket and capsule to get to the International Space Station for years.

SpaceX carries out first commercial launch of Falcon Heavy

SpaceX carried out its first commercial launch on Thursday with its Falcon Heavy rocket easing a Saudi telecoms satellite into orbit. The bright white rocket rose with a roar and spewed thick gray smoke on the ground as it made its way up into clear blue skies over Cape Canaveral, Florida, trailing a long plume of orange fire. About 34 minutes after liftoff, the shiny silver satellite was successfully deployed. Staff in the control room cheered and clapped. Earlier, boisterous spectators chanted along with the launch announcer who counted down the final 10 seconds before liftoff. The Falcon Heavy rocket exerts 5.1 million pounds of thrust -- that of more than a dozen jetliners, SpaceX said. The rocket carried a Saudi Arabian satellite operated by Arabsat, a year after sending SpaceX founder Elon Musk's slick red Tesla roadster into orbit as a test. The Falcon Heavy had been scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday but that was delayed because of strong winds in the upper atmosphere. The job was to place the six-ton Arabsat-6A satellite into geostationary orbit about 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the Earth. It went off without a hitch. The satellite is designed to provide television, internet, telephone, and secure communications to customers in the Middle East. Less than 10 minutes into the flight, the rocket's three boosters detached from the Falcon Heavy on schedule. Two of them, as planned, landed safely back on pads at Cape Canaveral, to a roar of approval from the crowd. It was quite a spectacle, with the boosters coming down gently, and vertically, fiery end first.

A third landed, also as planned, on a barge out in the Atlantic.

"Three for three boosters today," a SpaceX webcast commentator said.

SpaceX has two operational rockets: the Falcon 9, which with 21 launches in 2018 dominates the US market, and the Falcon Heavy, which as its name suggests is designed to lift much heavier payloads into more distant orbits.

It consists of the equivalent of three Falcon 9 rockets combined, tripling its thrust.

In Falcon Heavy's first launch, in February 2018, a dummy dubbed Starman was placed behind the wheel of Musk's roadster, which is currently orbiting the Sun somewhere between Earth and Mars.

Since then, the US military and private clients have signed contracts for Falcon Heavy launches, and NASA has raised the possibility it may use the rocket for its planned missions to the Moon.