Previous Spaceflight Launches
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Firefly Alpha | FLTA004 Fly the Lightning
Firefly Aerospace | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Dec. 22, 2023, 5:32 p.m.
Status: Launch was a Partial Failure
Mission:
Firefly’s Alpha rocket will launch Lockheed Martin’s new wideband Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) technology integrated on a Terran Orbital Nebula satellite bus. Developed within Lockheed Martin Space’s Ignite organization using a proprietary design, the ESA payload will demonstrate faster on-orbit sensor calibration to deliver rapid capabilities to U.S. warfighters.
Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2573 (Bars-M No. 5?)
Progress Rocket Space Center | RussiaPlesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
Dec. 21, 2023, 8:48 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
Note: Payload identity uncertain, possibly Bars-M #5 or a similar satellite as the insertion orbit is similar. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a successor for the Komtea class of area surveillance satellites. The original Bars project was halted in the early 2000s. In 2007, TsSKB-Progress was contracted for Bars-M, for which reportedly the Yantar-based service module was replaced by a new developed advanced service module. The Bars-M satellites feature an electro-optical camera system called Karat, which is developed and built by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association (LOMO), and a dual laser altimeter instrument to deliver topographic imagery, stereo images, altimeter data and high-resolution images with a ground resolution around 1 meter.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit
New Shepard | NS-24
Blue Origin | United States of AmericaCorn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA
Dec. 19, 2023, 4:42 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
Twenty-fourth flight of New Shepard carrying the same 36 science and research payloads and tens of thousands of postcards from Club For Future that flew on the failed NS-23 flight.
Suborbital NS-4 - Flight Proven ( ) Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-34
SpaceX | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Dec. 19, 2023, 4:01 a.m.
Hyperbola-1 | DEAR-1
iSpace | ChinaJiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Dec. 17, 2023, 7 a.m.
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Arktika-M No.2
Progress Rocket Space Center | RussiaBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Dec. 16, 2023, 9:17 a.m.
Long March 5 | Yaogan 41
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | ChinaWenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China
Dec. 15, 2023, 1:41 p.m.
Electron | The Moon God Awakens (QPS-SAR-5)
Rocket Lab | United States of AmericaRocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
Dec. 15, 2023, 4:05 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
QPS-SAR-5 is a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite that will join a constellation after QPS-SAR-6 already in orbit. iQPS’s satellites are small, high-performance SAR satellites that use a lightweight, large, stowable antenna to collect high resolution images of Earth, even through clouds and adverse weather conditions.
Low Earth Orbit 42 - Maiden Flight South Pacific
Long March 2F/G | Chinese Reusable Space Vehicle
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | ChinaJiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Dec. 14, 2023, 2:12 p.m.
Long March 2D | Yaogan 39 Group 05
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | ChinaXichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China
Dec. 10, 2023, 1:58 a.m.
