There are two launches from China to start this week, the first of which will be the 95th launch attempt of the year worldwide. If all goes to plan, this week should see the 100th launch of 2024, which is likely to be Starlink 6-63 on Thursday. SpaceX has already passed 50 launches this year and will continue its high cadence with the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) NROL-14 mission.
This classified payload’s launch has been rescheduled from last week. SpaceX will also continue to launch Starlink missions, with two scheduled this week. The launch cadence had previously been slightly hindered on the east coast while one of the autonomous drone ships was undergoing maintenance, but it is now likely to be back in service by the end of the week.
Rocket Lab is conducting the first of two rapid succession launches for a NASA science mission, both from New Zealand. The first of these is expected to launch on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) mission has been further delayed and is now expected to launch no earlier than Saturday of this week.
Lastly, a Chinese sea launch is scheduled to take place Saturday, with four internet satellites aboard. Long March 2D | Beijing-3 C1~C4 The first launch of the week took place on Monday, May 20, at 03:06 UTC from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. The two-stage Long March 2D carried four Beijing-3 Earth observation satellites for Chinese EO satellite operator 21AT (Twenty First.
