The Weekly Rocket Report #68

03/09/2026-03/15/2026

Ricky Whitmore

Space Writer

Hello everyone, welcome back once again, to The Weekly Rocket Report.  This week saw China get back into the launch order again, after an entire month of not launching a single rocket, a rarity in the modern age.  Let’s break down that, and the other launches for the week shall we?

The week begins early Tuesday morning with a Cape Falcon 9 launch.  The SpaceX workhorse was carrying EchoStar XXV, a massive broadcasting satellite, adding to numerous EchoStar satellites already in orbit.  Following stage separation the rocket’s booster returned to Earth, landing down range on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”. 

The next launch, Wednesday evening, was an exciting one.  Firefly Alpha took to the skies from Vandenberg on a mission called “Stairway to Seven”.  The small rocket was carrying a demo payload for Lockheed Martin, but more importantly tested many important systems and structures for the upcoming Alpha Block II vehicle.  The mission was a complete success, given Alpha a much-needed win amongst a mixed bag of launch failures in its past. 

Alpha launches “Stairway to Seven”. Photo Credit: Firefly Aerospace”.

Thursday takes us to China for back to back launches, the first of which saw Long March 8A carrying SatNet LEO Group 20 to orbit.  This mission added 9 more satellites to orbit. 

Launch number to on Thursday came from Long March 2D, which carried Shiyan 30 03&04 to orbit.  Shiyan 30 is reported by the Chinese Government to be a pair of Earth Observation Testing satellites. 

Moving back to the US on Friday where Falcon 9 carried 25 more satellites to orbit on the mission Starlink Group 17-31.  The rocket deployed its satellites successfully, and returned its first stage successfully, it landed on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”. 

Saturday saw another Falcon 9 carrying another Starlink mission, this time Starlink Group 10-48.  The mission deployed 29 satellites to orbit, and returned its booster to the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”. 

Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 10-48. Photo Credit: SpaceX.

The final launch of the week took place from China, and Long March 6A.  The rocket carried Yaogan 50-02, a military “remote sensing” satellite to orbit. 

 And there we have the launches for the week everyone.  Interesting to see China get back into the mix after an unusually long break in the action.  Definitely great to see Alpha get a successful mission in.  Next week looks exciting, more launches from China, including ZhuQue2, a mission from Spectrum, and a Progress mission.  I’ll see you all back here next week to discuss it, 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)