The Weekly Rocket Report #29
06/02/2025-06/08/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello and happy Monday space fans! It’s time for your Weekly Rocket Report!
The week begins with Electron launching a mission called “Full Stream Ahead”. The payload was an imagery satellite for BlackSky, a regular customer of Electron. Electron has been launching at a relatively high cadence this year and is very much on track to break its launch record from 2024.
Electron launches “Full Stream Ahead”. Image Credit: Rocket Lab.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming, Falcon 9, Starlink Group 12-19. Falcon 9 successfully delivered the 23 satellites to orbit, and its first stage returned to Earth and landed on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
Moving on from Falcon 9 to… Falcon 9. Wednesday saw the launch of Starlink Group 11-22 and its 27 satellites to orbit. Following stage separation, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing down range on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Next up this week is a Long March 6A from China. The payload on this launch was a batch of SatNet communication satellites, for Group 4 of its constellation. The full SatNet communication constellation will supposedly consist of 13,000 satellites.
Long March 6A launches SatNet LEO Group 04. Image Credit: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight.
Back to the States we had another Falcon 9 launch Saturday, though this time not a Starlink Mission. Falcon 9 carried SXM-10 to orbit. This satellite was built by Maxar to boost the SiriusXM Radio network. After the first stage did its job, it separated and returned to land on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
Falcon 9 launches SXM-10. Image Credit: SpaceX.
Finally, we close out the week with one more Falcon 9, this time launching Starlink Group 15-8. After blasting off from the California coast the rocket carried its 26 satellites into orbit, meanwhile the rocket's first stage flew back to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
That is all the launches for this week my friends, looking ahead to next week I see another Electron on the docket, more of that increased launch cadence I mentioned earlier. Axiom 4 should get off the ground in the early stages of the week, as well as another launch of Atlas V with more Kuiper sats. If you know anything about me, you know I’m always excited for a good ULA Launch. Whatever does or doesn’t happen you can come and read about it here, 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)