The Weekly Rocket Report #31

06/16/2025-06/22/2025

Ricky Whitmore

Space Writer

Hello my friends, welcome back to the Weekly Rocket Report. A lot slower week this week than it was supposed to be, had quite a few delays. That being said, let’s get into the action.

The week begins Monday night on the California coast. Falcon 9 carried the 26 satellites of Starlink Group 15-9 to orbit. Following a good stage separation the booster returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.

Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 15-9. Photo Credit: SpaceX.

Next up was yet another launch from Falcon 9. Starlink Group 10-18 launched from the Cape and successfully deployed its 28 satellites to orbit, and the booster landed down range on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.

Next on the list we have an uncommon vehicle, a Russian Angara. Angara A5 took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Its payload was a Cosmos payload, which is the name given to secretive, or failed Russian missions. All that is known about this mission was it succeeded, and it is a secret military payload. The last mission was Cosmos 2588, so it is worth assuming that this payload will be Cosmos 2589.

Angara A5 launches Cosmos 2589 (likely). Photo Credit: https://x.com/katlinegrey.

Final launch of the week was from China. A Long March 3B/E blasted off carrying ChinaSat 9C, a communication satellite replacing an existing ChinaSat 9 satellite.

That’s all for this week everyone. Looking ahead to next week we have Atlas V (again), Electron (Again), maybe Axiom? (Again). We’ll see how it all pans out and we will be back 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)