The Weekly Rocket Report #50
11/03/2025-11/09/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Welcome everyone, to the 50th Weekly Rocket Report! We had a hell of a week (though not quite as exciting as it could have been) so let’s jump right into the action!
We begin the week Tuesday afternoon with the launch of Ariane 6 carrying Sentinel-1D. Sentinel is an advanced imaging satellite designed to track things like sea ice, glaciers, and oil spills no matter the conditions in atmosphere. This launch created somewhat of a buzz on the US east coast as the fuel dump from the second stage prior to entering the atmosphere created a bright spiral shape in the sky. Given the launch trajectory from French Guiana, straight north, a good chunk of the eastern seaboard was able to witness the phenomenon.
Ariane 6 launches Sentinel-1D. Photo Credit: ESA.
Moving on to Electron, which launched from Mahia Peninsula Wednesday afternoon on a mission called “The Nation God Navigates”. The payload on this mission was a SAR satellite, launched on behalf of iQPS.
Electron launches “The Nation God Navigates”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
A few hours later came a launch from Falcon 9, launching Starlink Group 6-81 from the Cape. 29 payloads were deployed successfully and the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
The following day saw another Starlink launch, this time from Vandenberg. Falcon 9 blasted off carrying the 28 satellites of Starlink Group 11-14 to orbit. Following stage separation the booster landed down range on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 11-14. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
Now to China, which had quite a busy weekend with two launches Saturday and two launches Sunday. Saturday began with Long March 11H launching from a barge off the Chinese Coast. The rocket was carrying Shiyan 32 01-03, three satellites designed for “orbital technological testing”.
Later Saturday came the launch of a Kinetica 1, from the Jiuquan Launch Center. The CAS Space built rocket was carrying Chutian-2 01&02 2 satellites built by CASIC for VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit) testing.
BREAKING: We interrupt this Chinese launch coverage to bring you, a Starlink Mission! Falcon 9 launched Starlink 10-51 from the Cape in the early morning hours of Sunday. 29 satellites were deployed successfully and the rocket's booster returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
Back to China for our 2 Sunday launches, beginning with the 3rd launch of Long March 12. After blasting off from the Wenchang Launch Center the rocket placed another batch of SatNet communication satellites on the mission, dubbed SatNet LEO Group 13.
Long March 12 launches SatNet LEO Group 13. Photo Credit: CNSA.
Finally, we close the week with Ceres 1. The launch from Galactic Energy was carrying Jilin-1 High Resolution-4C and other payloads. However, the rocket failed to reach orbit. During the final burn, the engine on the 4th stage shut down early, causing the rocket and its payload to not reach its intended orbit.
There’s the week everyone, exciting indeed 7 days, with launches from 7 different rockets, Falcon 9, Ariane 6, Long March 11, Long March 12, Ceres 1, Electron and Kinetica 1. And it was almost even more exciting, as we should have had a launch from Atlas V and New Glenn, though those have been delayed into next week for various reasons (More about New Glenn here: https://www.theweeklyspaceman.com/articles/new-glenn-is-ready-to-fly-again). On a separate note, I recently wrote an article about the launch restrictions put in place by the FAA (which technically went into place today) linked here: https://www.theweeklyspaceman.com/articles/n9oubxnwis59lisrelkc31gh8zjj5p. However it appears there has been some progress on the shutdown, and the Senate may have reached some agreement on passing a funding bill. That being said the restrictions may only last a few days to a week as things start to re-open and re-staff.
A Final note, as I said this is Weekly Rocket Report #50 for me, which is crazy. Time really flies, and its wild to think I have already done 50 of these (along with a few other articles). As always, I appreciate anyone and everyone who reads these. The trend will continue on and I will see you all back here next week for #51 of 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)