A few hours ago, the Sentinel-1C satellite, part of the Copernicus / GMES, was launched from the Kourou spaceport, in French Guiana, atop a Vega-C rocket. After about 1 hour and 44 minutes, the satellite regularly separated from the rocket’s last stage and started sending signals. Its final orbit in low Earth orbit will be at an altitude of about 693 kilometers.
It was the afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the sixth test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 13 and the Starship identified as Starship 31 or Ship31 or simply S31.
A confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts from the Shenzhou 19 mission reached the Chinese space station Tiangong with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about 6.5 hours earlier atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. They form the 8th crew of the Chinese space station and will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission.
A few hours ago, NASA’s Europa Clipper space probe blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. After just over an hour, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and set off on its route that will take it into deep space, to Europa, Jupiter’s moon with an icy surface that hides an ocean of liquid water to understand if it’s habitable.
SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the fifth test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 12 and the Starship identified as Starship 30 or Ship30 or simply S30.
Each test leads to new changes to the vehicles’ systems, and this was also true after the fourth test conducted on June 6, 2024. The scheduled breakthrough was in the test of the system called Mechazilla, the structure attached to the launch pad that also has the purpose of capturing the Super Heavy when it returns after launching the Starship.
