The Weekly Rocket Report #27
05/19/2025-05/25/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello and Happy Memorial Day to those who celebrate. We have a pretty busy week of launches to discuss, so lets begin.
First up this week is another launch Galactic Energy. Early Monday morning a Ceres 1S took off from a barge off the Chinese Coast. The payload was 4 Tianqi satellites, which are internet communication satellites.
Ceres 1S launches Tianqi 16-18 & 20. Photo Credit: https://x.com/OrbitaHoy
Staying in China Tuesday morning where a Long March 7A blasted off from the Wenchang Launch Center. All that is known about the payload, ChinaSat 3B is that it’s a geostationary communication satellite.
The first Falcon 9 of the week came Tuesday night with the launch of Starlink Group 12-15. After stage separation the booster returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”. The 23 Starlink satellites were deployed successfully.
To China one final time this week, for a launch of Kinetica 1. This is the first launch from CAS Space since a failed Kinetica in December of 2024. The payload for this particular launch was 6 satellites, listed below:
* Taijing-3-04
* Taijing-4-02A
* Xingrui-11
* Xiguang-1 02
* Xingjiyuan-1
* Cube-108 001
Kinetica 1 launches 6 Satellites. Photo Credit: https://x.com/OrbitaHoy
Friday began with an early morning launch from Russia, as Soyuz 2.1b lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The payload, Cosmos 2588 is a secretive Russian Military satellite.
Soyuz 2.1b launches Cosmos 2588. Photo Credit: https://x.com/OrbitaHoy
We finish the week with 2 Starlink launches. The first launch on Friday successfully put 27 more satellites in orbit. Following separation, the booster that launched Starlink Group 11-16 landed on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Finally Saturday saw the launch of 23 satellites aboard Starlink Group 12-22. Following stage separation
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 12-22. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
That’s all for this week folks. Looking ahead to next week I see a Starship launch on the docket for tomorrow, which on its own is enough to fill a weeks worth of excitement. But we also have some Falcons, Long Marches and an Electron to look forward to. I will of course see you back here next week to break it all down 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)