This year has been a bumper one for space launches, with Artemis I, a giant weather satellite and the first private flight to the International Space Station among the big milestones for 2022.
So what does 2023 have in store?
Well, following the excitement of the James Webb Telescope and asteroid-smashing DART mission launching in 2021, plus the world’s most powerful ever rocket blasting off this November, the attention turns somewhat to Britain next year.
That’s because the country’s first ever orbital space launch on UK soil is due to launch from Cornwall as early as next month.
This year has been a bumper one for space launches, with Artemis I (pictured), a giant weather satellite and the first private flight to the International Space Station highlighting the iconic milestones for 2022. So what does 2023 have in store? MailOnline takes a look below.
The beginning of Virgin Orbit’s operations at Newquay Airport has been put back and back but should finally get under way in the New Year.
On top of that, what are some of the other important launches scheduled for 2023? MailOnline takes a look…
Spaceport Cornwall – Virgin Orbit
Target date: January 2023
After months of delays, Spaceport Cornwall is scheduled to finally host the first ever space launch from the UK in January.
It had been hoped that Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747, Cosmic Girl, would take-off, soar to 35,000 feet and launch the rocket on December 14.
But this has slipped until after Christmas because of technical and regulatory challenges in getting ready for the launch.
Lift-off: After months of delays, Spaceport Cornwall is scheduled to finally host the first ever space launch from the UK in January.
It had been hoped that Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747, Cosmic Girl, would take-off, soar to 35,000 feet and launch the rocket on December 14. But this has slipped until after Christmas
Dan Hart, the company CEO, said in a statement: ‘With licences still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical work needed to establish system health and readiness, and a very limited available launch window of only two days, we have determined that it is prudent to retarget launch for the coming weeks to allow ourselves and our stakeholders time to pave the way for full mission success.’
When Virgin Orbit and its passenger satellites have been licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority, Cosmic Girl will release a 70-foot rocket called LauncherOne that will go into low Earth orbit to deploy mini cube-shaped satellites (‘cubesats’).
Once deployed, the satellites will deliver high-tech imaging sensors, allowing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to monitor Earth and its oceans.
Spaceport Cornwall is a new UK spaceport just outside of Newquay, officially opened in September 2022.
It is located at Cornwall Airport Newquay, an active civilian airport with passenger flights around the UK and Europe.
The site will be one of the only places in the world where you can be on a passenger airplane and look out your window to see a launch to space about to happen.
Spaceport Sutherland & Shetland
Target date: 2023?
Cornwall will not be the UK’s only rocket launch site. Plans are also progressing in Scotland for similar ventures in the county of Sutherland and from Shetland.
But unlike Newquay’s horizontal launchpad, these will be vertical ones.
The company Orbex plans to launch ‘micro’ satellites from Space Hub Sutherland near Tongue and has submitted an application to the Civil Aviation Authority for a licence.
Pictured: The new Prime Rocket unveiled by British aerospace company Orbex in 2019. It is designed to deliver small satellites into low-Earth orbit from the Scottish Highlands
Orbex has also temporarily installed a launchpad at a test site near Kinloss, Moray, close to the firm’s headquarters in Forres, Scotland
Work to build the £17.5 million Sutherland spaceport was due to begin this year, with the hope of a first launch in 2023.
Orbex has also temporarily installed a launchpad at a test site near Kinloss, Moray, close to the firm’s headquarters in Forres, Scotland.
This is the first rocket launch platform to be built in the UK in over 50 years, weighing in excess of 40 tonnes.
In Shetland, the construction of a spaceport is ahead of schedule after beginning in March.
The UK’s first vertical rocket launches are due to lift off from the site next year.
Starship maiden launch
Target date: First half of 2023
It may have been billed as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, but SpaceX’s highly-anticipated Starship rocket is yet to make it into orbit.
Plagued by a series of delays, blast-off has felt just a few months away since the beginning of the year, only for these hopes to be dashed every time.
It may have been billed as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, but SpaceX ‘s highly-anticipated Starship rocket (pictured) is yet to make it into orbit
SpaceX is planning to carry humans using a two-stage spacecraft composed of Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster
Elon Musk had said in September that his $216 million (£189 million) ultra-super-heavy rocket could finally launch to space the following month, although this did not materialise and it has now been pushed to 2023.
SpaceX originally planned to launch Starship into orbit in January of this year, but was forced to delay following an environmental assessment of the Boca Chica launch site in Texas.
Experts believe it has a good chance of launching in the first quarter of next year.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Launch
Target date: February 15, 2023
SpaceX will launch its sixth NASA crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-February 2023.
Strengthening its ties with the US space agency, Crew-6 will see Elon Musk’s firm fire two NASA astronauts, a United Arab Emirates astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX will launch its sixth NASA crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-February 2023. Pictured is Crew-5, left to right, NASA Astronaut and Commander Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata
The Dragon spacecraft that will take them there is currently undergoing refurbishment at SpaceX’s Dragonland facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station but is expected to be ready soon
The Dragon spacecraft that will take them there is currently undergoing refurbishment at SpaceX’s Dragonland facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station but is expected to be ready soon.
SpaceX has opened up a new way for NASA to get to the ISS via a US firm, and this is already mission six of a commercial program that first successfully launched astronauts to the orbital laboratory in May 2020.
It signalled a new era for the US space agency, with its human transport needs just above the Earth in future to be purchased from private companies, such as SpaceX.
NASA’s Stephen Bowen will serve as the commander and Woody Hoburg as pilot for the mission.
OTHER LAUNCHES PLANNED FOR 2023 (PART ONE)
Masten Space Systems Commercial Lunar Payload Services Flight
Suite of eight payloads – with nine science and technology instruments – being delivered to the lunar South Pole.
Target date: Landing is due to take place in the coming weeks
Firefly Aerospace Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations delivered to a non-polar region of the moon’s surface.
Target date: Landing is due to take place in the coming weeks
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket
Target date: Late 2023
Built to rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, New Glenn is Blue Origin’s follow-up launch vehicle to the current New Shepard, which has transported people into space.
Named after the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, New Glenn is a single heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying people and payloads to Earth orbit and beyond.
It is a two-stage rocket with a diameter of 23ft (7 metres) and features a reusable first stage built for 25 missions.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had planned to launch it for the first time in 2020, then 2021 and finally delayed it to the end of 2022, but all has gone quiet on that front recently.
It was not helped by Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket suffering a malfunction and having to abort a mission mid-flight over the Texas desert in September.
The rocket experienced what appeared to be a propulsion failure about one minute after lift-off and the Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating.
It means 2023 is when it will likely launch, and probably late in the year at that.
Built to rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, New Glenn (shown) is Blue Origin’s follow-up launch vehicle to the current New Shepard, which has transported people into space
It was not helped by Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket (pictured) suffering a malfunction and having to abort a mission mid-flight over the Texas desert in September .
Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO)
Target date: Early 2023
It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, and it’s not as exciting or exotic as some of the other launches on this list, but NASA’s first Earth Venture Instrument mission is no less important.
The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution satellite, or TEMPO, will measure the pollution over North America.
From Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it will be the first space-based instrument to keep an hourly check on air pollutants.
TEMPO will ultimately be part of a constellation of instruments measuring air quality over the Northern Hemisphere that will also include the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4, which is currently in development.
source:dailymail
