The Weekly Rocket Report #51
11/10/2025-11/16/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello all and welcome back to The Weekly Rocket Report! Today we explore the first week of flights under the night launch restrictions imposed by FAA due to the government shutdown. The shutdown has since ended but the restrictions persist, and likely will for a little while until FAA is fully back up and running. Let’s explore the week shall we?
The week began, as it often does, with a Starlink launch. Falcon 9 launched 29 satellites to orbit as part of Starlink Group 6-87. Following stage separation the rocket’s booster flew back to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
Thursday was a great day for rocket launch enthusiast and began with the second launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. The rocket flew a completely successful mission, launching its payload straight to orbit, and successfully landing its booster on the drone ship “Jacklyn” stationed in the Atlantic. The payload for the mission was ESCAPADE, a pair of twin NASA spacecraft sent to Mars to study the planet’s Magnetosphere. Also riding along was a small payload from Viasat, which remained attached to the vehicle’s second stage, a testbed for NASA’s Communications Services Project. For more on the New Glenn flight see here: https://www.theweeklyspaceman.com/articles/new-glenn-successfully-launches-escapade-nails-historic-landing
New Glenn launches ESCAPADE. Photo Credit: Dave Limp @ Blue Origin.
Speaking of Viasat, the other launch Thursday came from United Launch Alliance. An Atlas V roared from SLC-41 carrying ViaSat-3 F2, a network communication satellite which is being added to the existing constellation of Ka band satellites. This marks the final payload for Atlas V that isn’t associated with Project Kuiper or the Starliner project, as the rocket is slowly phased out.
Atlas V launches ViaSat-3 F2. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance.
Friday night came with another Falcon 9 launch, this time launching Starlink Group 6-89. The mission saw 29 starlink satellites deployed successfully and the rocket’s first stage return to Earth, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall Of Gravitas”.
The final launch of the week was another Falcon 9, and another Starlink mission. Starlink Group 6-85 lifted off from the Cape early Saturday morning, deploying 29 satellites to LEO. Following separation of the stages the booster flew back to Earth, landing in the Atlantic aboard the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
SpaceX launches back to back Starlink Missions, Group 6-89 and 6-85. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
There you go everyone, the week of launches. In the United States, this week was Veteran’s Day, and I want to personally extend my heartfelt thanks to any and all Veterans who have served. It was great to finally see New Glenn off the ground again, a shot to Mars with a successful booster landing on flight two is a hell of an accomplishment. Next week looks like a lot of Falcon launches, with a potential launch for Hanbit-Nano, the launch vehicle from Brazil, which still no one seems to be talking about. It will be interesting for sure, and we will be back here to talk about it all on The Weekly Spaceman.
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)