The Weekly Rocket Report #23
04/21/2025-04/27/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello All, welcome back to the Weekly Rocket Report! We had a week full of Falcons and Long Marches this week so let’s jump right into the action.
The first flight of the week was Monday with Falcon 9 launching CRS SpX-32. This launch carried a dragon capsule full of food, supplies, and other cargo to the International Space Station. Following stage separation the booster returned back to LZ-1 at the Cape.
Falcon 9 launches CRS SpX-32 to the ISS. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
The next launch came later Monday evening with Falcon 9 launching Bandwagon-3 from the Cape. This was the 3rd launch in the bandwagon rideshare program, which carries payloads to mid inclination orbits. This mission saw all 3 payloads successfully deployed to orbit, and the first stage booster return to land at LZ-2.
Across the Pacific, China launched Shenzhou 20, their 15th crewed space flight. The Long March 2F/G rocket carried Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie to the orbiting Tiangong Space Station for a roughly 6 month stay.
Long March 2F/G on the pad before the launch of Shenzhou 20. Photo Credit: https://x.com/CNSAWatcher
Thursday evening saw the launch of Falcon 9 carrying 28 satellites on Starlink Group 6-74. Following launch the booster separated and returned to land on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” and all satellites were successfully deployed in orbit.
To China once more, where a Long March 3B/E launched Tianlian-2 05. The payload was a relay satellite, which was successfully deployed to orbit.
The final launch of the week was once again, Falcon 9. Starlink Group 12-23 launched Sunday from the Cape. Following staging the booster flew back to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”. The 23 satellites were deployed successfully.
That’s all for the week everyone. Next week is shaping up to be a very interesting week with lots of different rockets launching. Look forward to launches from Firefly Alpha, Atlas V, and Vega C in addition to the usual Falcons and Long Marches. I’ll be back to break it all down next week, on the Weekly Rocket Report!
As always feel free to write to me at rickyew2112@gmail.com, or find me on X @Rickyew2112
Sic Itur Ad Astra
(Thus They Journey to the Stars)