After the successful flights of an Atlas V 501 carrying the US Air Force X-37B/OTV 1 (FLIGHT 2) minispaceplane and of the Taepodong-3 (Uhna-3) carrying the North Korea’s Kwangmyongsong 3-2 spacecraft there are just three launches left.
According to the Flightglobal/Ascend SpaceTrak database, the Chinese Long March 2D rocket launch carrying the Gokturk 2 reconnaissance spacecraft for Turkey will take place on 19 December. On the same day, an Ariane 5 ECA launch carrying the Mexsat 3 and Skynet 5D communication satellites is due to launch from its Kourou launch site. Also on 19 December, a Russian manned Soyuz FG launch vehicle carrying the manned Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft to the International Space Station |(ISS), will lift off from the Baikonur Spaceport located near Tyuratam, Kazakhstan.
