The Weekly Rocket Report #63

02/02/2026-02/08/2026

Ricky Whitmore

Space Writer

Hello all, it is Weekly Rocket Report time once again!  Four launches to cover this week from around the world, let’s get into it shall we?

We begin with a Falcon 9 launch from the West Coast of the US.  The rocket was carrying Starlink Group 17-32 and its 25 satellites to orbit.  Following staging Falcon’s booster returned to land on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean. 

Next up is a launch from Russia, their first launch of 2026.  Soyuz 2.1b took to the skies Thursday afternoon carrying an unconfirmed Cosmos payload.  Cosmos 2600 would be the next in numerical order, as the most recent launch was Cosmos 2597-2599 on an Angara rocket back in November.  However, it is unknown (as of this writing) how many payloads Soyuz was carrying.

Friday saw an interesting launch out of China, a Long March 2F/T, and true rocket nerds know what that means.  The Long March 2 variant is only ever used for launching the experimental spaceplane, China’s response to Boeing’s X-37B.  This will be the 4th launch of China’s secretive spaceplane, which will spend months in orbit before returning to a runway in China. 

The final launch of the week returns on to Falcon 9, this time launching 25 satellites on the mission Starlink Group 17-33.  Following stage separation the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”. 

Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 17-33. Photo Credit: SpaceX.

That is all for this week everyone.  We have an interesting week next week to look forward to, a Vulcan launch (3:30AM makes me sad), the first Proton launch in quite some time, and the debut flight of the Ariane 64 variant.  I look forward, as always to discussing it you all next week, 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)