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A few years ago the US Space Force proposed extending space situational awareness beyond geostationary orbit. The main reason; China has published their long-range goals, which included the domination of activities in cislunar (and even Mars) space like they have tried to do with the South China Sea (link...). This is being taken seriously because they are actively developing a Starship-like vehicle, Long March-9, and the Chinese military runs their space program. At first the US effort was given a whimsical name, Cislunar Highway Patrol (CHPs), but now things are getting more serious. Both DoD and NASA are working on nuclear propulsion for both robotic and human missions in cislunar space, and now the satellites to monitor that domain are on the way; Oracle..

TWIRL 51: This week could see the fourth launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy by Paul Hill Continuing the trend of a quiet week, the week starting February 7 will be no different from what we’ve seen from the rocket launch schedule since the new year – just a handful of launches. On Thursday, we will see the launch of more OneWeb satellites atop a Soyuz rocket and as early as Friday we could see the fourth launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket – a rocket that hasn't lifted off since 2019. Thursday, February 10 The first launch is due to take place quite late in the week, Arianespace will launch one of its Soyuz ST-B rockets from French Guiana carrying 34 OneWeb internet communication satellites. The Soyuz rocket is slightly different from the Russian variant as this one is equipped with a flight termination system and pyrotechnic igniters on the boosters and first-stage engines. Once in place, the OneWeb satellites will sit at 1,200 km above the Earth and beam internet connectivity down to the planet. They will sit in a near-polar orbit and have a lifespan of more than 7 years before they have to be replaced. Friday, February 11 The next launch of the week is currently scheduled for no earlier than Friday but there's a chance we may not see it this week. SpaceX is preparing to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time since 2019. The mission is dubbed USSF-44 and is being carried out for the U.S. Space Force. While the rocket will be carrying two payloads, we only know that one is called TETRA 1 and that this is a MicroSat that will be a prototype for future satellites. As no confirmed launch date has been set, it’s impossible to say what time or even what day it will happen at the moment. Recap The first launch of the week took place on Monday. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CSG-2 satellite for the Italian Space Agency. Following the launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage landed back on the ground ready to be reused. On Wednesday, SpaceX had another launch. This time, a Falcon 9 rocket carried a payload into space as part of the NROL-87 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. You can see the launch below. Finally, on Thursday, SpaceX launched yet another Falcon 9 rocket carrying 49 of its Starlink satellites. These satellites will join the Starlink constellation and beam internet connectivity back to the Earth.

TWIRL 48: Atlas V rocket to carry U.S. Space Force mission by Paul Hill It’s still quite soon after the holidays so people won’t be surprised to learn we have yet another quiet week ahead of us. SpaceX will be launching more Starlink satellites and a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is set to launch some space surveillance satellites for the U.S. Space Force, the organisation created by Donald Trump towards the end of his presidency. Tuesday, January 18 The first launch of the week comes from SpaceX. The Elon Musk-run company will be flying up 49 Starlink satellites into a polar low Earth orbit. They will join the rest of the Starlink constellation to beam internet back down to customers on Earth. The launch is slated for 12:16 a.m. UTC from Florida. If you want to watch the event, you should be able to find a stream on SpaceX’s website or YouTube channel. Wednesday, January 21 The final launch of the week is ULA’s Atlas V carrying Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites for the U.S. Space Force. There will be two satellites going up, GSSAP 5 and GSSAP 6 named Hornet 5 and Hornet 6 respectively. The satellites were developed covertly by the Air Force and Orbital Sciences to assist with U.S. Strategic Command space surveillance operations. It’s unclear what time the launch is happening at but we do know it will also take off from Florida. If anyone streams the event, it will be United Launch Alliance but it’s not clear if it will be live due to the military payload. Recap The first launch of the week took place on Thursday when a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Transporter-3 rideshare mission carrying 105 small spacecraft. The final launch also took place on Thursday when Virgin Orbit performed an air launch of the LauncherOne rocket from a transport plane it has dubbed Cosmic Girl.