The Weekly Rocket Report #62
01/26/2026-02/01/2026
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Well everyone, it is time once again for The Weekly Rocket Report. 5 launches to report on this week, which feels a bit slow. Imagine 10-15 years ago, thinking 5 rocket launches in a week was slow? Anyway:
We begin the week with Falcon 9 and the launch of GPS III SV09. The new GPS satellite was successfully inserted in orbit and the Falcon 9 booster returned successfully to Earth, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
We also saw a launch from Falcon 9 on Thursday, this time carrying Starlink Group 17-19. The mission’s 25 satellites were deployed successfully, and the rocket’s booster flew back to Earth and landed on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 17-19. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
Later Thursday evening came a launch from Electron on a mission called “Bridging the Swarm”. The small rocket was carrying NeonSat-1A, a small satellite designed to test the capabilities of a constellation of Earth observation satellites operated by South Korea.
Electron launches ”Bridging the Swarm”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
One more Falcon 9 for the week, this one launching Starlink Group 6-101. This mission added 29 more satellites to the ever-growing constellation. Following stage separation the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth and landed on the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
We close out the week with a launch from Long March 2C. The payload on this rocket was AlSat 3B, an Earth observation satellite for the Algerian Space Agency.
There we have another week of rocket launches everyone. Artemis II has officially been pushed back into March so that’s a bummer, but we do still have things to look forward to in the meantime Things like a Vulcan launch, another launch from the Chinese Spaceplane, and the first launch of the Ariane 64 variant. I will of course be here to cover it all as usual, 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)