This month has had over twenty rocket launches worldwide with some failures and hundreds of satellites placed into orbit. Here's a recap for September 2023. All dates are relative to UTC and this article may take a little while to load as where possible a relevant image is used.
September 1st - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-13
The first launch of the month happened a few hours in from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A Falcon 9 lifted off carrying twenty-two more Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit with booster B1077 making its seventh flight and landed downrange on the SpaceX drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas'.
September 2nd - PSLV-XL with Aditya-L1
India launched its first solar observatory on the 2nd of September to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 (L1). Aditya-L1 is a solar observatory made to study the upper atmosphere of the Sun as well as coronal mass ejections and solar flares. You can read more about Aditya-L1 here.
September 2nd - Falcon 9 with SDA Tranche 0B
Also on the 2nd of September was the launch of the second Tanche 0 mission for the Space Development Agency. The booster for this mission was B1063 making its thirteenth flight and landed back in California at Landing Zone 4.
September 4th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-12
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/oLysbrAl9e
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2023
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites on the 4th of September atop of a Falcon 9 from Florida. The booster for this mission was B1073 making its tenth flight and landing downrange on the SpaceX drone ship 'Just Read the Instructions'.
September 4th - Crew 6 return to Earth
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Steve, @Astro_Woody, Andrey, and @Astro_Alneyadi! pic.twitter.com/ph27m0wP30
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2023
Crew 6 returned to Earth after spending one hundred and eighty-five days in space. The crew was Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg, Sultan Al Neyadi, and Andrey Fedyaev. The Crew 6 mission flew on Crew Dragon Endeavour for its fourth flight.
September 5th - Ceres-1S with four Tianqi Satellites
Galactic Energy launched its Ceres-1 for the first time at sea off the coast of the Shandong province in eastern China. The payloads onboard were four Tianqi satellites for a commercial satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.
September 6th - Long March 4C with Yaogan 33-03
A Long March 4C lifted off from Launch Area 4 in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center carrying the Yaogan 33-03 payload. Not much is known about the satellite but it was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit.
September 7th - H-IIA with XRISM and SLIM
On the 7th of September a H-IIA lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying the XRISM space telescope and the SLIM Lunar lander. XRISM is an X-ray astronomy spacecraft and SLIM is a lunar lander. You can read more about the spacecrafts and their missions here.
September 8th - SpaceShipTwo for Galactic 03
Virgin Galactic launched SpaceShipTwo for another commercial human spaceflight mission carrying customers Ken Baxter, Timothy Nash, and Adrian Reynard into space for a few minutes. The mission had no live stream at the request of the customer.
September 9th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-14
SpaceX launched twenty-two more Starlink satellites on September 9th for its Starlink space-based internet Constellation. The booster for this mission was B1076 making its seventh flight on this mission and successfully landed downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas'. The mission was also SpaceX's 150th landing in a row which you can read about here.
September 10th - Long March 6A with Yaogan 40
September 10th had a Long March 6A lift-off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carrying three satellites for Yaogan 40 into polar orbit. The satellites are officially reported as for 'Electromagnetic environment probing' purposes.
September 10th - Atlas V for NROL-107 SILENTBARKER
On the 10th of September 2023 a United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida in the 551 configuration carrying the NROL-107 SILENTBARKER payload. The mission is fairly secretive but you can read more about the satellite and its mission here.
September 12th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 7-2
Yet more Starlink satellites were launched by SpaceX atop of Falcon 9 on the 12th of September, this time from SLC-4E in California. The booster for this mission was B1071 making its eleventh flight and landed on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.
September 15th - Firefly Aplha with VICTUS NOX
Firefly launched their Alpha rocket on the 15th of September to demonstrate to the United States Department of Defense and Space Force that the company could launch a rapid response mission within 24 hours of receiving notice. This launch was also fairly secretive but you can read more about the satellite and its mission here.
September 15th - Soyuz 2.1a withSoyuz MS-24
Roscosmos launched its first crew in over a year to the International Space Station on the 15th of September with the spacecraft docking a little over three hours after launch. Soyuz MS-24 carried three crew, they are; Loral O'Hara, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolay Chub. To read about what caused the year-long delay and how long the crew will be staying you can read the article about it here.
September 16th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-16
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites atop of Falcon 9 to grow its space-based internet constellation. The booster for this mission was B1078 making its fifth flight and landed downrange on the drone ship 'Just Read the Instructions'.
September 17th - Long March 2D with Yaogan 39 Group 02
More Yaogan satellites were launched from China on the 17th of September, this time from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Not much is known about the three payloads other than that their in low Earth orbit.
September 19th - Electron for 'We Will Never Desert You'
We're honing in on the issue experienced on our 41st launch and we look forward to sharing an update soon.
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) September 27, 2023
With a factory full of rockets, launch pads ready & an experienced team, we’re poised to resume launches and deliver on a busy manifest as soon as corrective measures are… pic.twitter.com/15XUSyFMAr
Rocket Lab launched its forty-first Electron mission on the 19th of September but experienced a failure during second stage flight. The payload for the mission was a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Capella Space. Rocket Lab is still investigating the cause of the failure.
September 20th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-17
September 20th saw twenty-two more Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX atop of Falcon 9. The booster for this mission was B1058 making its seventeenth launch and landed downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas'. B1058 is the first booster to make seventeen flights of a Falcon 9 booster.
September 21st - Ceres-1 with Jilin-1 04B
Ceres-1 experienced its first failure during first stage flight while launching from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The mission was intended to place new high-resolution earth observation satellites as part of the Jilin-1 constellation.
September 24th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-18
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites from SLC-40 in Florida to improve its space-based internet constellation. The booster for this mission was B0160 making its seventeenth flight and landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions'. This was the second booster to reach seventeen flights and the 200th time a booster has been reused which you can read more about here.
September 24th - OSIRIS-REx samples return
The OSIRIS-REx returned its sample return canister after seven years in space and almost three years after collecting samples from asteroid Bennu. You can read more about OSIRIS-REx and its mission here.
September 25th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 7-3
Falcon 9 launched twenty-one more Starlink satellites from SLC-4E in California to grow its space-based internet constellation. The booster for this mission was B1075 making its sixth flight and landing downrange on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You'.
September 26th - Long March 4C with Yaogan 33-04
More Yaogan satellites were launched on September 26th into sun-synchronous orbit atop of a Long March 4C. Yaogan 33-04 is believed to be a Chinese military remote-sensing satellite.
September 27th - Soyuz MS-23 crew returns to Earth
The Soyuz MS-23 crew returned to Earth on the 27th of September after a year in space due to a coolant issue on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. With the return of the crew, Frank Rubio now holds an American space record of 371 days in space uninterrupted.
September 27th - Qased with Noor-3
Iran launched its Qased rocket with the Noor-3 military satellite and another unknown satellite into 450km earth orbit. The launch was performed by The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force.
September 30th - Falcon 9 with Starlink Group 6-19
SpaceX ended the launches for the month by launching twenty-two more Starlink Satellites atop of Falcon 9 from SLC-40 in Florida. The booster for this mission was B1069 making its tenth flight and landing on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas'.
Summary
And that's it for this month! As per usual you can send any feedback or suggestions to me via the links on my author page.
Authors' spaceflight image of the month
