The Weekly Rocket Report #52
11/17/2025-11/23/2025
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello my friends welcome back, to The Weekly Rocket Report! Lots of Falcons to discuss this week as well as a few other rocket appearances, lets get into the action.
The first launch of the week came from Falcon 9 launching Sentinel-6B from Vandenberg. Sentinel is a program designed to measure ocean levels across the globe, and is worked on by many partners including NASA, NOAA, and ESA. Following staging the Falcons booster performed an RTLS (return to launch site) landing successfully at LZ-4.
Next up we had a suborbital launch from Wallops Island. Electron blasted off carrying payloads designed to test missile defense applications, on a mission called “Prometheus Run”. Electron has performed a number of suborbital test flights from Wallops this year, though there does seem to be more information available about this one than previous suborbital flights.
Electron launches “Prometheus Run”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
Moving on to the Cape we have our first Starlink mission for the week, Starlink Group 6-94. Falcon 9 carried 29 satellites to orbit on this flight, and the rocket’s booster returned to Earth, landing down range on the drone ship “A Shortfall Of Gravitas”.
To China now, where a Long March 2C carried Shijian 30 A-C to orbit from the Jiuquan Launch Center. The 3 payloads are described as being for “space environment measurements”, by the Chinese government.
Speaking earlier, of Electron, the rocket saw another launch this week, this time from the Mahia Peninsula. This mission, titled “Follow My Speed”, was an orbital mission and was carrying an imaging satellite for BlackSky.
Back to the Cape, and back to Falcon 9, Starlink Group 6-78 was launched Thursday night. 29 satellites were taken to orbit, and the booster returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 6-78. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
China had another launch this week, this time with Long March 3B/E. The rocket was carrying TJSW-21, a satellite that is claimed by the Chinese to be for “Communications”.
Long March 3B/E launches TJSW-21. Photo Credit: Weibo.
We finish the week with two more Starlink missions. Starlink 6-79 blasted off from the Cape Saturday morning, with 29 satellites riding Falcon 9 to orbit. The booster flew back to land on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
Starlink 11-30 meanwhile blasted off from Vandenberg on Sunday morning, with Falcon 9 carrying 28 more satellites to orbit. The rocket’s booster returned to land on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
That’s it for now rocket fans, another busy week of launches. There are some interesting launches on the docket next week, with KSLV, Angara, Vega C and Soyuz making appearances alongside the typical slate of Falcon 9s. I will of course see you all back next week to break down all the launches, 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)