Year’s 100th Launch, Starliner Delays, NASA PREFIRE-1 Mission
The 100th orbital launch attempt of 2024 took place on Saturday, May 25, when Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. This marked the first launch of NASA’s PREFIRE-1 mission, which will study the heat loss from Earth’s polar regions and provide data on our changing climate.
Earlier in the week, China conducted two launches within a day. On Monday, May 20, a Long March 2D rocket carried four Beijing-3 Earth observation satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The following day, a Kuaizhou 11 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, deploying four satellites, including the Wuhan-1.
SpaceX maintained its high cadence with multiple Starlink and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launches:
- On Wednesday, May 22, a Falcon 9 launched the classified NROL-146 mission for the NRO from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
- Later that day, another Falcon 9 launched the Starlink Group 6-62 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
- On Thursday, May 23, SpaceX launched the Starlink Group 6-63 mission from Kennedy Space Center.
Looking ahead, SpaceX is scheduled to launch the Starlink Group 6-60 mission no earlier than Monday, May 27, from Cape Canaveral. Additionally, a Chinese commercial company, Galactic Energy, plans to conduct a sea launch of its Ceres-1 rocket carrying four “Internet of Things” satellites, although the launch has been delayed to no earlier than May 29.
Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) mission has faced multiple delays and hurdles leading up to its anticipated launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Initially scheduled for May 25, the CFT launch was first scrubbed on May 6 due to a faulty pressure relief valve on the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage. After replacing the valve, a helium leak was discovered in Starliner’s Service Module, specifically within one of the reaction control system thrusters responsible for precision attitude control.
Following extensive testing and checks to ensure the helium leak would not pose any danger during flight and that sufficient redundancy was available, NASA, Boeing, and ULA teams set a new target launch date of June 1 at 12:25 PM EDT (16:25 UTC). However, this launch time remains contingent upon the successful completion of a delta flight readiness review ahead of the launch attempt.
Throughout the delays, astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunil “Suni” Williams remained in quarantine, although they were permitted to leave their quarantine site temporarily during repair and inspection periods. On launch day, following rollout and fueling of the Atlas V, the crew will suit up, visually inspect the booster, and board the Starliner capsule “Calypso” before final checkouts and liftoff.
This mission carries significant milestones, marking the 100th Atlas V flight and the first to carry a crew. If successful, it will certify Starliner for regular crew rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS), providing redundancy alongside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Suni Williams will also become the first female astronaut to fly on the maiden crewed flight of an orbital vehicle.
Upon reaching orbit, Starliner will dock at the forward port of the ISS’s Harmony module, the same port vacated by SpaceX’s Crew-8 Dragon in preparation for Starliner’s arrival. The capsule is expected to remain docked at the ISS for approximately seven days before returning to Earth.
