The Weekly Rocket Report #47
10/13/2025-10/19/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello my friends and welcome back to The Weekly Rocket Report! After a few slower weeks we have quite a busy one to go over this week so let’s get to it.
The first launch came early Monday morning with China launching Shiyan 31. The satellite, reportedly for an “imaging demonstration” launched aboard a Long March 2D rocket.
Monday evening came a lunch we had all been waiting some time for, Starship flight 11. The launch was successful with both the booster and the ship successfully splashing down in the Gulf and Indian Ocean respectively. During the flight the upper stage completed many test objectives including mock payload deployment, and in space engine re-light. This flight was also slated to be the final flight of Starship V2, with V3 set to take the stage for flight 12.
Starship just following stage separation. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
A few hours after Starship was a launch from Falcon 9, carrying (KF-03), Falcon’s third launch of Amazon’s project Kuiper satellites. This flight carried 24 satellites to orbit, and following stage separation the rocket’s booster landed back down range on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
Tuesday afternoon we got to see Electron take back to the skies, and back to orbit, as their last few launches have all been suborbital. This mission, called “Owl New World” was carrying an Earth observation satellite called STRIX. These satellites are built by Synspective, and this was the first of a ten launch contract for Electron, after launching multiple times for the same company prior to this launch.
Electron launches “Owl New World”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
Moving on we go back to Falcon 9, which launched Tranche 1 Transport Layer C on Wednesday evening. This is another addition to the US Military constellation seeking to provide connectivity to warfighting platforms stationed across the world. There were 21 payloads on board, and the rocket’s first stage did indeed return to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Now let’s rip through some more internet satellites shall we? Starting off Wednesday night, we had Long March carrying up a batch of satellites to add to SatNet’s ever growing constellation, in SatNet LEO Group 12.
Next up was Falcon 9, launching Friday Morning carrying 28 satellites as part of Starlink Group 10-52. The rocket’s first stage was recovered, after landing on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
Moving back to China, Long March 6A blasted off carrying G60 Polar Group 18. This mission carried 18 satellites on behalf of China’s Spacesail Technologies.
Staying in China, CAS Space got into the mix launching a Kinetica 1 rocket carrying 3 payloads. The first of these was an Earth observation satellite called PRSC-HS1 designed by SUPARCO. The other 2 payloads were AIRSAT 03-04, 2 SAR satellites built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Kinetica 2 launches PRSC-HS1 & AIRSAT-03/04. Photo Credit: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight.
The weekend closed out with 2 more Starlink launches, within 2 hours of each other. The first of these was Starlink Group 10-17, which launched from the Cape, sent 28 satellites to orbit, and sent its first stage booster back to the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 10-17. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
The final launch of the week was Starlink Group 11-19, which launched from Vandenberg, took 28 satellites to orbit, and returned its booster back to Earth where it landed on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
What a week we had indeed. Lots of launches to keep be busy, though I wasn’t able to watch every one of them. Next week looks like a lot more of the same, more Falcons, more Starlink. I’ll be back 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)