The Weekly Rocket Report #69
03/16/2026-03/22/2026
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello all, it is time once again for The Weekly Rocket Report! We have quite a busy week to go over, so lets jump right into the fray.
The week begins in China with the first Kuaizhou launch of 2026. Kuaizhou 11 carried 8 satellites to orbit early Monday morning. All of these were small, rideshare payloads, being carried to Sun Synchronous Orbit.
Next up we have Falcon 9 beginning the US action for the week. Starlink Group 17-24 blasted off Tuesday morning carrying 25 satellites to orbit. Following a successful staging, the booster returned to Earth, and touched down on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
About 8 hours later another Falcon 9 lifted off, carrying 29 satellites on the mission Starlink Group 10-46. The rocket’s first stage was recovered successfully, after touching down on the drone ship “A Shortfall Of Gravitas”.
Falcon 9 launches Starlink Group 10-46. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
Thursday included yet another Starlink Mission, this time Starlink Group 10-33. This mission saw Falcon 9 loft 29 more satellites to orbit, and return its booster to the drone ship “Just Read The Instructions”.
Friday afternoon saw two rocket launches, the first of which came from Rocket Lab. Electron lifted off from the Mahia Peninsula on a mission called “Eight Days A Week”. The rocket was carrying Strix-6, an imaging satellite for Synspective.
Electron launches “Eight Days a Week”. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
Launch two on the day was once again, Falcon 9, and once again, Starlink. Starlink Group 17-15 carried 25 more satellites to orbit, and returned its booster home, with it landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Now we move to Sunday, 3 launches, 3 rockets, 3 countries, and it all begins with Soyuz. Soyuz 2.1a lifted off from a newly restored Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Sunday morning. The rocket was carrying Progress MS-33, a bulk payload of cargo and supplies bound for the International Space Station.
Moving to the US where a Falcon 9 took to the skies, carrying the 29 satellites of Starlink Group 10-62. The satellites were deployed successfully and the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, touching down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
The final rocket of the week launched from a barge off the Chinese Coast. That rocket was Jielong 3, which carried 10 CentiSpace-1 navigation satellites.
There we go everyone, a busy week for the space programs of the world. Nice to see that Baikonur 31/6 is reopen and servicing the ISS once again. We are supposed to see a Spectrum launch next week so I am looking quite forward to that, hopefully it goes. Whatever happens I will be back to cover it all, 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)