Launch Roundup: Falcon 9 launches customer payloads; China flies resupply mission to Tiangong
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches OneWeb's latest batch of broadband satellites
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday, February 27, 2023, at 2:58 p.m. EST, to deploy 40 OneWeb broadband satellites into orbit. The mission, known as OneWeb Launch 16, was the 16th launch for OneWeb, a company aiming to create a global constellation of satellites to provide high-speed internet access from space.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage successfully landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
This marked the first launch of a Falcon 9 since the rocket experienced an anomaly during a static fire test on January 19, 2023. The anomaly caused damage to the rocket's second stage, forcing SpaceX to conduct additional inspections and replace the affected components.
Long March 7 rocket sends cargo spacecraft to China's Tiangong space station
A Long March 7 rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China on Monday, February 13, 2023, at 11:38 a.m. CST, to deliver the Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft to the Tiangong space station. The Tianzhou 6 is carrying supplies and fuel for the three astronauts currently living on Tiangong.
This was the fourth launch of a Long March 7 rocket in 2023 and the 46th launch of a Long March 7 rocket overall.
The launch was also the first cargo mission to Tiangong since the Tianzhou 5 cargo spacecraft docked with the space station in November 2022. The Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong space station on February 15, 2023.
Other launches in the past week
- A Minotaur I rocket launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia on February 22, 2023, to deploy two U.S. Space Force satellites into orbit.
- A Soyuz-2.1a rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on February 24, 2023, to deliver three Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut to the International Space Station.
- An Electron rocket launched from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on February 25, 2023, to deploy 20 Spire Global satellites into orbit.
