China just boosted its geostationary communications satellite fleet.
A Long March 7A rocket lifted off from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island at 7:57 a.m. EDT (1157 GMT, or 7:57 p.m. Beijing time) on June 29. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s main space contractor, declared the mission a complete success.
The payload, called ChinaSat-3A (Zhongxing-3A), is destined for geostationary orbit22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers) above Earth. It is described briefly as a communication and broadcasting satellite, which will provide voice, data, radio and television transmission services, according to Chinese state media.
A Long March 7A rocket launches the ChinaSat-3A satellite on June 29, 2024. (Image credit: CCTV)
The satellite was designed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), while the rocket was provided by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). Both are major CASC subsidiaries.
State-owned ChinaSat satellites provide communications for China for various purposes, including television broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband internet services. Some ChinaSat satellites are also thought to provide communications for China’s military.
Most ChinaSat satellites have launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on Long March 3B rockets from Xichang, in south-central China. The Long March 7A is more capable; it can deliver 15,000 pounds (7,000 kilograms) to GTO, compared to 12,100 pounds (5,500 kg) for the Long March 3B. The 7A may be slowly replacing the older 3B or being used to launch a ChinaSat using larger DFH satellite bus than previous missions.
The June 29 launch was China’s 30th of 2024. The country is planning around 100 launches this year, according to CASC, including approximately 30 missions conducted by commercial launch service providers.
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One of these, Space Pioneeraimed to launch its first Falcon 9-like Tianlong-3 rocket this year. However, the company suffered a disastrous, not-so-static hot fire test over the weekend, seeing an accidental launch that destroyed its intended flight hardware.
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Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China’s rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter@AJ_FI.
Boeing’s Starliner space capsule docked at the International Space Station.(Image credit: ESA)
Boeing’s Starliner capsule is performing well enough on its first-ever astronaut mission that it will likely be able to stay in orbit beyond the initially envisioned 45-day limit, NASA says.
Starlinerwhich launched on June 5, is docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on an indefinite mission extension. The spacecraft is in good shape and rated to leave the ISS in case of emergency. But both NASA and Boeing are trying to understand why some of Starliner’s reaction control system (RCS) thrusters experienced issues in the leadup to docking with the ISS on June 6, and why several helium leaks have sprung up in the capsule. As such, Starliner will stay in space until at least later in the summer as testing and analyses continue. For example, a new round of thruster tests on the ground will begin soon, perhaps as early as today (July 2).
Testing on June 15 in orbit was unable to find the root cause of the issues, although agency officials stressed on Friday (June 28) that progress has been made: the helium leaks have stabilizedand all but one of the errant thrusters is rated for use to come back to Earth. (Starliner has 28 thrusters altogether in its RCS; five were misbehaving, and of those five, only one will be taken offline during undocking.)
Since the RCS is in Starliner’s service module, which will be jettisoned before entry, descent and landing, the extra time in orbit will let teams take their time in understanding how to proceed. This will be crucial for any service module design changes that will be needed for future, six-month ISS rotation missions that Starliner performs as soon as 2025. But to give ground teams time for testing, NASA says Starliner needs to stay docked for more than 45 days, which was the initial outside limit for this mission. The good news is the spacecraft looks good to go for perhaps double that amount of time — or more.
“We talked about a 45-day limit, limited by the crew module batteries on Starliner, and we’re in the process of updating that limit,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters during the Friday teleconference.
“We’ve been looking at those batteries and their performance on orbit. They’re getting recharged by station, and that risk hasn’t really changed. So the risk for the next 45 days is essentially the same as the first 45 days,” he said.
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Starliner, in fact, is rated to stay as long as 210 days on orbit once operational missions begin, he pointed out. But, as this is only Starliner’s third mission in space, and its first with astronauts, NASA had been unsure about the battery performance in orbit before now.
When Space.com asked how long the mission could continue, Stich said, “We haven’t decided how long to extend it yet.” Starliner has 12 different batteries, he explained. Before this flight, similar batteries sat on the ground for a year and were then tested to make sure there were no defects, and none were found.
“What we really are doing now is looking at the performance of the battery in flight. We don’t see any degradation in any of the cells where the batteries are,” he added.
Boeing’s Starliner is seen docked to the International Space Station during Crew Flight Test in June 2024. (Image credit: NASA)
The current Starliner mission, called Crew Flight Test (CFT), was originally supposed to last about 10 days. It features two NASA astronauts: Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Both are former U.S. Navy test pilots with decades of experience working in developmental missions like this spaceflight.
Wilmore told Space.com on May 1, prior to launch, that the Navy gave the astronauts skills highly relevant to CFT, such as testing how systems work together. “Well, goodness, that’s really the reason that we are here,” he said, reflecting on the duo’s thousands of hours of piloting experience. Later, he added their experience has been “invaluable for the process” in working on Starliner.
CFT was meant to examine the unexpected in space, and has flexibility built into it in terms of scheduling. The extra ground testing will be performed at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico to attempt to duplicate how the RCS thrusters were used during the flight and especially during the docking. (NASA waved off the first docking attempt on June 6 but authorized the second one a few hours later.)
Williams and Wilmore, meanwhile, are supporting the ISS astronauts on other tasks while standing by for the results of the White Sands testing, which will take no less than two weeks. Recent NASA blog posts have detailed the CFT astronauts’ work on ISS maintenance: orbital plumbing for a few days, then more recently organizing items in the Permanent Multipurpose Module.
Williams and Wilmore also worked in the Japanese Experiment Module on Monday (July 1) “to disassemble an empty NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in preparation of upcoming NanoRacks missions,” NASA officials wrote Monday (July 1.)
Starliner’s first two space missions were uncrewed. The first, in December 2019, failed to reach the ISS due to computer glitches that stranded it in the wrong orbit. The second, in May 2022, reached the ISS safely after Boeing made dozens of fixes, but Starliner’s thrusters experienced a few issues; that’s another reason NASA and Boeing are taking their time with CFT’s return, to see why the spacecraft’s thrusters misbehaved in both 2022 and 2024.
Boeing is one of two suppliers for ISS astronaut missions, with the other being SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company uses its Crew Dragon capsule, which is based on the SpaceX’s cargo Dragon vehicle. Crew Dragon had a more rapid path to orbit: one uncrewed mission in 2019, followed by an astronaut flight test in 2020. Dragon has sent 11 crews to the ISS since then, most of them on six-month operational crew rotation missions for NASA.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].
Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth’s reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, “Why Am I Taller?”, is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada’s Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada’s Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada’s Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace
Lord Jagannath and His siblings -Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra have fully recovered from the illness after a secret treatment on the occasion of ‘Anabasara Dwadasi’ on Wednesday.
As per the tradition, a team of senior Daita servitors including Patimohapatra went to the royal palace in a ceremonial procession called ‘Rajprasad Bije’ and appraised the Gajapati King Dibyasingha Deb about the recovery of the deities from fever.
Gajapati is known as the foremost servitor of Lord Jagannath.
“Servitors, all the officials and employees of Srimandir Temple Administration, district administration and police administration are fully ready for the smooth conduct of all the rituals during the upcoming Rath Yatra. Now, we will pray for the Lord’s blessings only,” said the Gajapati.
“A large number of devotees are expected to witness the Rath Yatra this year. The State government is fully prepared to take all the measures for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the festival this year,” he added.
After the ‘Snana Purnima’ rituals, the Holy Trinity fell ill and entered into Anasara Pindi for 14 days.
During this 14-day quarantine period, the deities reside in the Anasara Pindi. They undergo treatment with natural herbs, special Phuluri oil and Dasamula herbal medicines during the period.
The Phuluri oil used in the rituals during the Anasara period is specially prepared by the Basa Odia Matha every year. The oil is prepared with a combination of flowers, sandalwood powder, Bena Chera, rice and camphor.
During this Anasara period, devotees are not allowed to have darshan of the sibling deities. The doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum remain closed, and traditional Pattachitra paintings of the deities are worshipped.
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Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha FLTA005 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) in support of the “Noise of Summer” mission. Image: Firefly Aerospace / Sean Parker
Update 9:30 p.m. EDT: Firefly puts launch on hold to allow “more time to evaluate data and test systems from the first attempt.” No new launch date has been announced.
Firefly Aerospace is taking more time before launching its fifth Alpha rocket following a last minute ground systems issue Monday night. This will be Firefly’s first mission with NASA as the customer. When it launches, the two-stage, 29.48 meter (96.7-foot) tall rocket will send eight CubeSats from multiple universities and NASA centers to a sun-synchronous Earth orbit.
In a social media post, the company stated that it’s standing down “to give the team more time to evaluate data and test systems from the first attempt.”
“We will work closely with the range and our NASA customer to determine the next launch window,” Firefly wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
On Monday, the mission countdown reached T-8 seconds when the first abort call came through. It was described as a “ground support issue.”
Launch teams made the call to recycle to T-19 minutes and aimed for the end of the 30-minute launch window at 9:33 p.m. PDT (12:33 a.m. EDT, 0433 UTC). However, once the countdown reached about T-10 minutes and 12 seconds, a second abort call was made and Firefly ultimately decided to scrub the launch attempt.
“The team has identified the solution and is working quickly to meet our next launch window on July 2nd,” Firefly wrote on social media.
The Alpha FLTA005 mission, also nicknamed “Noise of Summer,” is part of the $9.8 million Venture-Class Launch Services Demo 2 (VCLS Demo 2) contract awarded by NASA in December 2020. It along with Astra Space Inc. ($3.9 million) and Relativity Space Inc. ($3 million) were awarded firm fixed-price contracts to connect small satellites with newer rockets.
The idea, according to NASA is that these “small satellites can tolerate a higher level of risk than larger missions and will demonstrate – and help mitigate – risks associated with the use of new launch vehicles providing access to space for future small spacecraft and missions.” The contract is funded in part through the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in partnership with NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP).
Astra launched its VCLS Demo 2 mission in February 2022, which ended in failure shortly after stage separation.Meanwhile, Relativity ended its Terran 1 rocket program prior to launching its VCLS Demo 2 mission. Presumably, it will lobby to fly that mission using its forthcoming Terran R rocket, which is set to debut in 2026.
In May, NASA classified Firefly’s Alpha rocket as “Category 1” on a three-tier risk tolerance barometer. It defines this category as “High Risk – New, common rocket configuration with little or no prior demonstrated flight history.”
Technicians from the University of Maine prepare CubeSat MESAT-1 for integration at Firefly’s Payload Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California on Monday, April 22, 2024. MESAT-1, along with seven other payloads, will be integrated into a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) 43 mission as part of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative and Firefly’s Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract. Image: NASA
NASA refers to this flight as ELaNa 43 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 43) mission. The eight CubeSats onboard are part of the agency’s CubeSate launch Initiative (CSLI), which it describes as “an ongoing partnership between the agency, educational institutions, and nonprofits, providing a path to space for educational small satellite missions.”
Alpha FLTA005 is carrying the following payloads, which will be deployed to a sun-synchronous Earth orbit:
CatSat – University of Arizona, Tucson
KUbeSat-1 – University of Kansas, Lawrence
MESAT-1 – University of Maine, Orono
R5-S4, R5-S2-2.0 - NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Serenity – Teachers in Space
SOC-i – University of Washington, Seattle
TechEdSat-11 (TES-11) – NASA’s Ames Research Center, California’s Silicon Valley
Their functions range from CatSat’s demonstration of a deployable antenna for high-speed communications to MESAT-1’s study of temperatures to “determine phytoplankton concentration in bodies of water to help predict algal blooms,” to the R5-S4 and R5-S2-2.0 satellites, which are looking at how to build leaner CubeSats.
“In the near term, R5 hopes to demonstrate new processes that allows for faster and cheaper development of high-performance CubeSats,” said Sam Pedrotty, R5 project manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a statement. “The cost and schedule improvements will allow R5 to provide higher-risk ride options to low-Technology Readiness Levels payloads so more can be demonstrated on-orbit.”
A rendering of the timeline of Firefly Aerospace’s “Noise of Summer” mission using its Alpha FLTA005 rocket. Graphic: Firefly Aerospace
Alpha returns to flight
The last time an Alpha rocket launched was on Dec. 22, 2023, when it launched the “Fly the Lightning” mission on behalf of customer, Lockheed Martin. That mission ended in a partial failure when an issue with the upper stage caused the rocket to fall short of placing the satellite into its intended orbit.
In February, the company submitted its mishap investigation report to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which included both a mishap investigation team and an independent review team to determine the root cause of the issue. Firefly determined that it was an error within the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) software that didn’t correctly communicate with the upper stage’s reaction control system (RCS) thrusters.
“We’re proud of the combined team’s ability to work together to achieve this positive outcome,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, in a statement. “Looking ahead, the important long-term outcome is the rapid, thorough maturation of Alpha as the dependable one metric ton class rocket the market is demanding, which Firefly is dedicated to and is delivering.”
Firefly Aerospace launches the Alpha FLTA004 rocket on the “Fly the Lightning” mission on behalf of Lockheed Martin. Image: Firefly Aerospace / Trevor Mahlmann
Lockheed Martin was not deterred by the partial mishap, as evidenced by its recent investment in Firefly’s Alpha rockets as a ticket to space. In early June, it signed a multi-launch deal with Firefly for 15 confirmed launches and up to 10 addition missions through 2029. The first launch on Alpha FLTA006 is set to launch later this year from Vandenberg.
“Our customers have told us they need rapid advancement of new mission capabilities,” said Bob Behnken, Director, Ignite Technology Acceleration at Lockheed Martin Space, in a statement. “This agreement with Firefly further diversifies our access to space, allowing us to continue quickly flight demonstrating the cutting-edge technology we are developing for them, as well as enabling our continued exploration of tactical and responsive space solutions.”
During a ribbon cutting ceremony marking key expansions at its manufacturing facilities in Cedar Park, Texas, in late February, Weber told the crowd that Alpha FLTA005 is the first of a handful of missions this year.
“We are launching the Alpha rocket four times this year with real missions that matter in the world that we operate in. Not test payloads or we’re going to try it and see what happens, real contracts with real customers, commercial and government,” Weber said. “And then, we’re gonna come back next year and do it six to eight times again and then on we go.”
During that presentation, Weber said that Alpha FLTA007 will be the first launch of their Elytra orbital vehicle “in the September/early October timeframe.” The payloads that will attach to that spacecraft have not been announced.
Introducing Elytra: Our line of highly mobile and scalable orbital vehicles. Formerly known as our Space Utility Vehicle, Elytra offers more robust on-orbit solutions, including mobility, hosting, delivery, and servicing across cislunar space and beyond. pic.twitter.com/bjJw969yBB
Firefly also announced that it secured launch space in both Virginia and Sweden within the past month. It said Pad-0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, will be ready to support both the Alpha rocket as well as the Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV) (in partnership with Northrop Grumman) in early 2025. It took over the space formerly used by Northrop Grumman’s Antares 220+ rocket.
A partnership with the Swedish Space Company (SSC) will allow it to begin launching from the new spaceport at Estrange Space Center in Sweden beginning in 2026.
“We’re pleased to announce this historic collaboration that will have a huge impact on the global launch market, not least in Europe and the U.S.,” said Charlotta Sund, CEO at SSC, in a statement. “Reducing the current gap of orbital launch sites in Europe, this collaboration strengthens the transatlantic link between Sweden and the U.S. whilst offering unique space capabilities for the Swedish NATO membership. We’re looking forward to releasing this competitive and well-proven launch service at Esrange in northern Europe.”
Firefly signed an agreement in 2019 to use SLC-20 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and announced plans to standup an Alpha manufacturing facility at Exploration Park, near the gates to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. However, the company stated that it is primarily focusing on Wallops for its East Coast launch position for now.
“With Firefly conducting all its Alpha missions in a rapid cadence for its customers, it is prioritizing operations on Wallops Island while maintaining its relationship at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Wallops also answers the market demand for diverse launch locations and easing launch schedule constraints on the East Coast,” Firefly said to Spaceflight Now in a statement.
“This path allows Firefly to leverage existing infrastructure on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, including the vehicle and payload processing facilities, to rapidly meet the needs of its customers. Along with the resiliency to launch schedules, Wallops Island also enables operational efficiencies across vehicle lines since Firefly’s Medium Launch Vehicle will launch from the same pad.”
During a factory tour in February 2024, Adam Oakes, Firefly’s vice president of launch vehicles, said being able to launch from Wallops will be a big asset, especially when it comes to the launch of the MLV, which will take over launching the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station.
“I think the government is looking for resilient access to space and Florida’s one hurricane away from being delayed some amount of time,” Oakes said. “So flying from Wallops is a unique differentiator, I’ll say, for that vehicle. It’s very cost-competitive compared to the current Falcon 9 system and Dragon and actually, delivers more cargo than what the Falcon 9 cargo system will deliver. So, we’re pretty excited about that.”
