Launch Roundup: Starlink missions fill launch manifest, Biomass and Alpha launch

Date:
Tue, 29 Apr 2025 21:51:12 +0000

Description:
This weeks schedule includes up to six Starlink launches from Florida and California. Arianespace launched The post Launch Roundup: Starlink missions fill launch manifest, Biomass and Alpha launch appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

This weeks schedule includes up to six Starlink launches from Florida and California. Arianespace launched the Biomass satellite aboard a Vega C from Kourou, and Firefly Aerospace attempted to launch its first Alpha rocket of the year.

SpaceX has already launched 50 times this year and celebrated its 250th dedicated Starlink mission last week. As the week began, SpaceX had launched 8,367 Starlink satellites into orbit. Of these, 1,103 have re-entered and 7,264 remain in orbit. This total includes 600 Direct-to-Cell satellites,
with approximately 400 of these currently in active service.





Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 12-10

Starlink Group 12-10 launched atop a Falcon 9 on Monday, April 28, at 10:34
PM EDT (Tuesday, April 29, at 02:34 UTC). The mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) in Florida, carrying a mix of v2 Mini and Direct-to-Cell satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The unconfirmed booster, thought to be B1094 on its maiden flight, flew on a southeasterly trajectory to place the payload into an orbit inclined 43 degrees. Starlink Group 12 has a nominal altitude of 559 km. Following separation, the booster successfully made a controlled landing on SpaceXs autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, a few miles north of the Bahamas. This flight was the 50th Falcon 9 mission
of 2025.

Falcon 9 is a 3.9-meter diameter, 70-meter-tall two-stage rocket. The first stage booster is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines, while the second utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the first and only reusable orbital rockets in service today, with one Falcon booster having flown twenty-seven flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after flight. The Biomass satellite ships from Toulouse to Kourou (Credit: Airbus)

Vega-C | Biomass

The first launch of a Vega-C rocket in 2025 took place on Tuesday, April 29, at 09:15 UTC from the Ensemble de Lancement Vega (ELV) at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. Vega-C delivered the Biomass satellite to a Sun-synchronous orbit at 660 km altitude, flying on a northwesterly
trajectory out of Kourou.

The Biomass satellite was built by Airbus Defence and Space and masses at
1170 kg. It is the seventh in a series of Earth Explorer missions from ESAs Earth Observation Programme, and carried the first satellite-mounted P-band synthetic aperture radar into orbit. P-band radar enables signals to
penetrate forest canopies, giving observers the most accurate global survey
of forest height and biomass, a proxy for stored carbon.

In addition, the Biomass mission will map subsurface geology in deserts, the ice structure of ice sheets, and the topography of forest floors. The satellite is expected to operate for at least five years. Vega C launches Biomass from Guiana Space Center (Credit: Arianespace)

The satellite features a 12 m diameter fine mesh reflector, which is
supported by a 7.5 m long boom. The delicate reflector will be slowly
unfurled once the satellite is in orbit, using an umbrella-like mechanism.
The unfurling will take approximately 20 minutes, but it can only occur once the boom has been fully extended. The boom-extending process takes three days from start to finish, with the boom extending one segment at a time in an operation scheduled to coincide with the satellites maximum visibility to ground stations.

The Arianespace Vega-C , which first flew in July 2022, is an enhanced
version of the earlier Vega rocket. It features new, larger first and second stages, upgrades to the third and fourth stages, and a wider payload fairing. A P120C solid rocket motor powers the first stage, the same motor used in Ariane 6 boosters, providing a measure of commonality across Arianespaces fleet, intended to help drive down costs. The second stage is a Zefiro Z40, instead of the smaller Zefiro Z23 used on the original Vega.



Alpha | Message In A Booster

Firefly Aerospace launched its FLTA006 Message In A Booster mission on its second attempt from Space Launch Complex-2W (SLC-2W) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. Alpha took flight on Tuesday, April 29, at 6:37 AM PDT (13:37 UTC). The company had previously scrubbed the day before, following several holds while the team worked an issue with ground support equipment.

This flight was the sixth launch of an Alpha rocket, the second for this customer, Lockheed Martin, and the first of up to 25 flights for Lockheed Martin as part of a multi-launch agreement with Firefly spanning the next
five years. Lockheed Martins versatile new mid-sized LM400 satellite bus can accommodate a variety of missions, including remote sensing, communications, imaging, and radar operations. This was the largest payload carried by an Alpha rocket to date.

The mission reached second-stage engine cutoff and was expected to deploy its payload during an expected loss-of-signal period. However, Firefly Aerospace has since confirmed that a mishap occurred during stage separation, which impacted the second-stage Lightning engine nozzle. Following an initial assessment, the company announced that Alpha had not reached orbital velocity and that the stage and payload had safely impacted the Pacific Ocean, north
of Antarctica. Render of the Lockheed Martin LM400 tech demonstration.
(Credit Lockheed Martin)

The LM400 Pathfinder was designed to demonstrate the technology in orbit and contribute to risk reduction before flying customer missions. While this demonstrator was expected to be deployed to LEO on this mission, the bus is adaptable to multiple orbits and launch configurations, catering to military, civil, and commercial applications.

The two-stage expendable Alpha vehicle stands just under 30 m in height and can deliver 1,030 kg to LEO. Four Reaver engines on the first stage burn liquid kerosene and oxygen in a tap-off cycle, while a single Lightning
engine using the same technology powers the upper stage.

NASASpaceflight provided launch livestream production services for Firefly Flight A006.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-75

Starlink Group 6-75 is expected to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday, May 1, at 9:51 PM EDT (01:51 UTC on May 2), with the launch window remaining open
for a further four hours if required.



The booster and recovery assets for this mission are not yet known; however, the booster is expected to land on one of SpaceXs autonomous droneships stationed approximately 640 km downrange, southeast of the launchpad.

Falcon 9 will likely carry a mix of v2 Mini and Direct-to-Cell satellites
into LEO. The payload will be delivered into an orbit with an inclination of 43 degrees, at a nominal altitude of 530 km. This mission will be the 248th Falcon 9 launch from SLC-40, the most frequently used pad by SpaceX for its Falcon 9 missions, and Falcon 9s 469th mission overall.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-3

Continuing this weeks Starlink missions, Starlink Group 15-3 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at VSFB in California. The four-hour launch window opens on Friday, May 2, at 2:27 PM PDT (18:27 UTC).

While the booster has yet to be announced, the mission will fly on a southeasterly trajectory to place the payload into LEO. Starlink Group 15
uses an orbit inclined at 70 degrees. The booster is expected to land on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You , stationed downrange in the Pacific Ocean.



Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-93

A second Falcon 9 launch from SLC-40 is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, at
9:40 PM EDT (Sunday, May 4, at 01:40 UTC) on the Starlink Group 6-93 mission.

Following a southeasterly trajectory into orbit, Falcon 9 will deploy a batch of Starlink satellites into the Group 6 shell. No booster or recovery vessel details are known at this time. Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-84

The final Falcon 9 launch of the week is scheduled for Sunday, May 4, at 4:48 AM EDT (08:48 UTC). The Starlink Group 6-84 mission will launch from LC-39A
at KSC in Florida. The booster and recovery assets supporting this launch
have not yet been announced.

The flight will follow a similar trajectory to the Starlink Group 6-75
mission launched earlier in the week, targeting an orbit inclined at 43 degrees with a nominal altitude of 530 km. This will be the 95th orbital launch attempt globally, and the 53rd Falcon 9 mission of 2025.

(Lead image: Falcon 9 lofting Starlink 12-23 to space. Credit: Julia
Bergeron for NSF)



The post Launch Roundup: Starlink missions fill launch manifest, Biomass and Alpha launch appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/04/launch-roundup-042925/


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