Key Takeaways:
- The SpaceX Starship's tenth flight test was scrubbed due to a ground system issue, with a rescheduled launch attempt planned.
- Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-35 mission, carrying scientific payloads including student experiments, was scrubbed due to an avionics issue.
- The preceding week saw a high volume of launches, including multiple SpaceX Falcon 9 missions, a Chinese CAS Space Kinetica 1 launch, a Russian Soyuz 2.1b launch, a Russian Angara 1.2 launch, and a Rocket Lab Electron launch.
- Upcoming launches include several SpaceX Falcon 9 missions for Starlink and other payloads, a CASC Long March 8A launch, and a planned Rocket Lab Electron suborbital launch (date pending).
Mission highlight: A weekend of scrubs for Starship and New Shepard
SpaceX was forced to scrub the highly anticipated tenth flight test of its Super Heavy Starship vehicle on Sunday, August 24, due to an undisclosed ground system issue. The call came just 30 minutes before liftoff from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas. The delay is the latest setback for the program, which has seen multiple in-flight failures this year and is under pressure to prove the vehicle’s reliability for NASA’s Artemis moon missions. SpaceX is now targeting Monday, August 25, for the next launch attempt, with the window opening at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
It was a similar story in West Texas, where Blue Origin also scrubbed the Saturday launch of its NS-35 New Shepard mission due to an issue with the booster’s avionics. The uncrewed suborbital flight is dedicated to science and research, carrying more than 40 payloads. The manifest includes 24 student-led experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, covering topics from space farming to medicine in microgravity. The capsule will also carry thousands of postcards from Blue Origin’s nonprofit, Club for the Future. A new launch date has not yet been announced.
Watch the Starship launch live!
Last week’s recap
Last week saw eight launches around the globe. The action began Monday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the Starlink Group 17-5 mission from California. On Tuesday, a Chinese CAS Space Kinetica 1 rocket successfully deployed seven satellites. Mid-week launches included a Russian Soyuz 2.1b carrying the Bion-M n°2 biosatellite on Wednesday from Kazakhstan, followed by two launches on Thursday: a Russian Angara 1.2 rocket with a classified Cosmos payload and a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the clandestine USSF-36 (OTV-8) mission with the X-37B spaceplane. The week continued with another SpaceX Starlink Group 17-6 mission on Friday from California and a Rocket Lab Electron launching the Live, Laugh, Launch mission from New Zealand on Saturday. The week concluded with SpaceX launching the CRS SpX-33 cargo resupply mission to the ISS early Sunday morning.
Other missions this week
Kicking off the week’s manifest on Monday afternoon, a CASC Long March 8A rocket is scheduled to launch an unknown payload from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China at 3:05 p.m. EDT.
On Tuesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 is set to launch the NAOS (LUXEOSys) Earth observation satellite for Luxembourg from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, which includes other rideshare payloads, is scheduled for 2:53 p.m. EDT. The first-stage booster will attempt a landing at Landing Zone 4, adjacent to the launch pad at Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4.
Early Wednesday morning, SpaceX will launch the Starlink Group 10-11 batch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon 9 at 1:49 a.m. EDT.
Just a few hours later, another Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the Starlink Group 10-56 satellites at 6:53 a.m. EDT.
On Friday evening, SpaceX is back in action on the West Coast, launching the Starlink Group 17-7 mission from Vandenberg at 10:05 p.m. EDT.
The week’s launch activity concludes Saturday morning with the fourth SpaceX Starlink mission of the week. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the Starlink Group 10-14 batch from Cape Canaveral at 7:38 a.m. EDT.
Looking ahead
Next week is shaping up to be a quieter week. Rocket Lab is scheduled for a suborbital launch of its Electron rocket from Virginia carrying the JAKE 4 payload, though a firm date in August has not yet been set. Looking into September, SpaceX is targeting September 8 for the launch of the Nusantara Lima communications satellite.
