Launch Roundup: ULA to launch Kuipers second batch of satellites, SpaceX to launch Axiom crew to ISS

Date:
Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:22:43 +0000

Description:
SpaceX will launch Axiom Spaces fourth private crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) The post Launch Roundup: ULA to launch Kuipers second batch of satellites, SpaceX to launch Axiom crew to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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

SpaceX will launch Axiom Spaces fourth private crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this week. The flight will debut the fifth and final Crew Dragon capsule, and will further increase the record for cumulative time spent in space by an American astronaut.

SpaceX also has three Starlink missions planned for the week, while Rocket
Lab will launch the fourth batch of imaging satellites for its Japan-based customer. Four launches are scheduled within 24 hours on a busy Friday, including a launch from China and the second batch of satellites for Amazons Project Kuiper megaconstellation.



SpaceX celebrated the 500th launch of a Falcon rocket last week with the Starlink 12-19 mission, which was also the companys 70th launch of the year and its first for June. SpaceX achieved a total of 17 launches in May, with
16 Falcon 9 launches and the ninth test flight of Starship.



Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 12-24

The first of three Starlink missions scheduled for the week will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. Onboard will be another batch of 23 Starlink satellites, presumed to include a mix of the v2 Mini and Direct-to-Cell variants of the satellites. Liftoff is expected at the top of a typical four-hour window, which opens at 9:05 AM EDT (13:05 UTC) on Tuesday, June 10.

The booster supporting this mission has not yet been confirmed. It is
expected to land on the deck of the autonomous droneship Just Read The Instructions, which will be stationed downrange, approximately eight minutes into the mission.

At the start of the week, SpaceX had launched 8,851 Starlink satellites, of which 6,715 are in their operational orbits.



Falcon 9 | Axiom Mission 4

Axiom Space is returning to the International Space Station (ISS) this week
on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). This will be the seventh private Dragon mission
and the 18th crewed launch for SpaceX. Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday, June 11, at 8:00 AM EDT (12:00 UTC) from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida,

Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, is commanding the mission her second commercial human spaceflight, having flown on the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) mission a little over two years ago. Joining her are Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, serving as pilot, and two mission specialists: European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts Sawosz Uznaski-Winiewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

This mission will serve as Crew Dragon C213s maiden flight, during which it
is expected to be named by the crew. SpaceX has indicated this will be the last Crew Dragon capsule to be manufactured. Dragon will remain docked at the ISS for up to 14 days while the crew conducts 60 scientific studies and activities for multiple countries around the world. These experiments heavily focus on human health, plant and microbial biology, and the effects of microgravity, and include technology demonstrations from Axiom Space, ISRO, and ESA. The Ax-4 crew in the Crew Dragon C213 capsule. (Credit: SpaceX)

Upon the completion of the mission, Dragon will splash down off the coast of California and will be recovered by one of SpaceXs recovery ships. Booster B1094 is supporting this mission on its second flight, having launched Starlink Group 12-10 to orbit just 42 days before Ax-4. B1094 will perform a return-to-launch-site landing shortly after liftoff, touching down on the concrete pad at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1).

Peggy Whitson already holds the record for the longest cumulative time in space by an American astronaut, which will grow with this mission. The flight features several additional milestones: Shubhanshu Shukla will become Indias second astronaut to reach space since 1984; Sawosz Uznaski will become the second Polish astronaut to reach space since 1978; and Tibor Kapu will become Hungarys second astronaut to reach space since 1980. The mission is also expected to set the record for the most research activities conducted during an Axiom Space mission to date. Electron launches a Gen-3 satellite for BlackSky on June 3. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

Electron | The Mountain God Guards

Rocket Lab is set to launch its 66th Electron mission on Wednesday, June 11, from Launch Complex 1A (LC-1A) at the companys Mahia launch facility in New Zealand. The 50-minute launch window opens at 3:15 AM NZST (15:15 UTC). Onboard will be another small high-performance QPS-SAR satellite for its Japan-based customer, the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS). iQPS intends to build a constellation of 36 satellites capable of monitoring specific points on Earth every 10 minutes. This satellite will join three others, all delivered via Electron, in an orbit 575 km in altitude.

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites mass 100 kg and utilise a lightweight, large stowable antenna to collect high-resolution images of
the Earth through all weather conditions. This will be the fourth mission for this customer, following the The Lightning God Reigns and The Sea God Reigns missions earlier this year, which form part of an eight-launch contract with iQPS that runs through 2026.

Rocket Lab also launched The Moon God Awakens for the company in December 2023. At the completion of this mission, Electron will have launched 227 satellites into space. Backup launch opportunities exist through June, should the launch be delayed for any reason. Starlink satellites are released during Starlink Group 15-5, which launched from SLC-4E on May 16. (Credit: SpaceX)

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-6

The second Starlink mission of the week, Starlink Group 15-6, will be the fifth mission to launch into the Group 15 shell. The mission is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space
Force Base in California on Thursday, June 12. The four-hour launch window opens at 6:46 PM PDT (01:46 UTC on June 13).

The flight will carry a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) after flying on a southerly trajectory. Following deployment, the satellites will make their way into a 535 km orbit, inclined 70 degrees. The booster supporting this mission has not yet been confirmed. It is expected to land on SpaceXs droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. Chang Zheng 2D on the pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. (Credit: CCTV)

Chang Zheng 2D | Unknown Payload

A Chinese Chang Zheng 2D (CZ-2D) is expected to launch from Site 9401 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China on Friday, June 13. The 33-minute launch window opens at 3:55 PM CST (07:55 UTC), but details surrounding the payload are unclear ahead of launch.

This will be the fifth flight of a CZ-2D in 2025, and the 99th overall flight of the CZ-2D as it approaches its centenary launch. The previous flight, almost a month to the date, lofted the initial 12 satellites for ADA Spaces Space Computing Constellation into a Sun-synchronous orbit.



Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 12-26

The third Starlink mission of the week, and the second mission to launch from SLC-40, is scheduled for Friday, June 13. Falcon 9 will loft another batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites into LEO for the Starlink Group 12-26 mission during a four-hour launch window that opens at 7:45 AM EDT (11:45 UTC). The vehicle will take a southeasterly trajectory before deploying the satellites, which will move to a 559 km orbit, inclined 43 degrees. Neither the booster nor the droneship supporting this mission has been confirmed.

Atlas V 551 | Project Kuiper KA-02

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is planning to launch the second batch of 27 Kuiper satellites to LEO on Friday, June 13, from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) in Florida. The 30-minute launch window opens at 2:29 PM EDT (18:29 UTC). The mission will, again, utilise a heavy-lift Atlas V in its 551 configuration, using five solid rocket boosters, a 5.4 m fairing, and one RL-10 engine on the Centaur upper stage. Satellites are deployed three at a time over 15 minutes at approximately 450 km in altitude.



Amazons Project Kuiper plans to launch a global broadband constellation of over 3,200 satellites across 98 orbital planes to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet. The first batch of satellites was successfully launched in late April, over a year behind initial projections. In July 2020, the FCC authorised Kuiper to deploy 1,618 satellites half of the constellations
first phase by the end of July 2026.

Six additional Kuiper launches are planned on Atlas V 551 rockets, which extend into 2026. Additional flights have been booked aboard ULAs Vulcan Centaur, Blue Origins New Glenn, Arianespaces Ariane 6, and SpaceXs Falcon 9 to meet Kuipers deployment target, which requires three batches of 27 satellites to be launched per month. Around 578 satellites are required in orbit for Kuiper to begin offering internet service.

(Lead image: Atlas V launches the first operational batch of Kuiper satellites in April 2025. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)



The post Launch Roundup: ULA to launch Kuipers second batch of satellites, SpaceX to launch Axiom crew to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/06/launch-roundup-061025/


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Science News (1337:1/100)