According to SpaceFlightNow, there are nearly a dozen launches scheduled this month. This includes launches from around the world, including India, China, Kazakhstan and French Guiana. Here are some of the more notable launches taking place throughout September.
Sept. 3: SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida
SpaceX has had a busy year not only launching rockets into space, but also safely returning a few of those rockets so they can be re-used for future flights. The company's busy schedule will continue in September with two launches: one from California and the other from Florida.
The first launch is slated for Sept. 3 and will take to the air from their normal launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. However, this launch may be delayed due to lingering rain following Tropical Depression 9. This launch will send a communications satellite into orbit for Spacecom of Israel and will likely entail another landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The company's second launch of the month will take place on the opposite side of the country from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
This mission will launch around Sept. 20 and will deliver 10 Iridium communication satellites into orbit.
This launch is one of the most anticipated launches of the month as the United Launch Alliance (ULA) launches NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission into space. This is a long-term mission and over the next few years will travel to an asteroid, collect surface samples and return those samples to Earth. The samples are not expected to return to Earth until 2023, but once they return they will help give scientist a better understanding of asteroids. The Sept. 8 launch will take place in the evening, making it a very photogenic launch for those in attendance.
Mid-September: Long March 2F launch from Jiuquan, China
Over the past several months, China has announced ambitious plans for its space program involving the construction of a new space station and a rover mission to Mars in 2020. The nation will take a step forward in these plans this month when the country launches Tiangong 2, a mini-space station laboratory module. This will be the first of several pieces for their upcoming space station with another piece being launched in October to dock with the Tiangong 2. The launch will likely take place around the middle of September from Jiuquan, China, delayed from earlier in the year.
Late September: Antares launch from Wallops Island, Virginia
Later in the month, rocket launches will return to the Northeast as an Antares rocket blasts off from the Wallops Island launch facility along the coast of southeast Virginia. This will be the first major launch from the facility in nearly two years following a rocket explosion on the launch pad back in 2014. The pad has been repaired and is ready to host major rocket launches once again.
Wallops Island is a great space for people all across the eastern United States to experience the thrill of a launch without having to travel all the way down to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The best viewing areas range from southern New Jersey to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but people have seen the rocket launch as far away as Canada!The exact date of the Antares launch has yet to be announced, but it is currently scheduled for sometime in the second half of September.
This launch was originally scheduled for late May, but has been delayed several times for a variety of reasons. There is the chance that it may be pushed back to October, so if you are planning on heading to Wallops Island for the launch, keep an eye on flight schedules.
While the return of launches from Wallops Island is exciting, the mission itself is not all that spectacular. It is just a routine resupply mission for the International Space Station, sending supplies, food and scientific experiments to the crew aboard the International Space Station.
September 23: Soyuz rocket to send new crew to the ISS
Not only are fresh supplies headed to the Space Station later this month, but so is a new crew!
On Sept. 23, the next Expedition crew will blast off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. The new crew will consist of NASA Astronaut R. Shane Kimbrough and Russian Cosmonauts Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko and Sergey Nikolaevich Ryzhikov.
The Soyuz capsule will remain docked to the ISS while the crew is on board acting as an emergency escape pod if something goes wrong. As long as everything goes as planned, the crew will be returning to Earth on Feb. 25, 2017.
Other notable launches:
Sept. 8: GSLV launch from Sriharikota, India delivering a geostationary weather satellite into orbit.
Sept. 15: Vega launch from Kourou, French Guiana, delivering a reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the Peruvian government.
Sept. 26: PSLV launch from Sriharikota, India delivering India's ScatSat1 spacecraft into orbit. This will help tropical cyclone forecasting.
Source: Accuweather
Joined Stellar Hub as an editor in the summer of 2016.
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