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Tianwen 1 | Long March 5
It's that season! With a previous United Arab Emirates launch to Mars and NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 mission, China has decided to join the party! We have a unique window of opportunity where the orbits of Earth and Mars line up perfectly! Tianwen 1 consists of an orbiter, lander and rover. After a previous failed attempt, this will mark China's first time attempting to land on Mars! It will also be the first non US-American or Soviet/Russian rover on the surface of Mars.
SSMS POC | Vega
A return-to-flight for Arianespace's Vega launch vehicle. It will carry the SSMS-POC dispenser with mulitple satellites. Launch from ESA's Kourou site in French Guiana will happen in early September.
JCSAT-17 & GEO-KOMPSAT-2B | Ariane 5 ECA
Arianespace SA is a launch provider company, which is majority-owned by its parent company “ArianeGroup”, a combined undertaking between Airbus and the French group Safran. For this mission, in particular, Arianespace is getting paid by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation to put both of their satellites into an orbit only 35,786 km (22,236 miles).
Solar Orbiter | Atlas V 411
We are going back to our star!! Solar Orbiter is a spacecraft build by the European Space Agency to study the inner heliosphere and its overall effects on solar radiation. How's it gonna get there? The launch provider, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has this job. Their mighty Atlas V rocket will soar into the Floridian skies propelling Solar Orbiter to on its 3.5 year journey to the Sun.