The Weekly Rocket Report #16

03/03/2025-03/09/2025

Ricky Whitmore

Space Writer 

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Weekly Rocket Report.  It was a short week with only three launches. 

We begin the week on Thursday in French Guiana with the second ever launch of Ariane 6.  The new and improved rocket from Arianespace launched CSO-3, a French spy satellite, into orbit. 

Ariane 6 lifts off carrying CSO-3. Photo Credit: Arianespace.

Thursday evening came the event that had been exciting space fans all week, the 8th flight of SpaceX’s Starship.  The vehicle ripped off the pad Thursday evening and roared into space.  Following separation, the booster flew back down to the launch pad where it was successfully caught by the chop stick arms on the launch tower.  Unfortunately, shortly after the booster catch, the ship’s telemetry data showed one Raptor Vac, and all 3 Sea Level Raptor Engines cutting out on from the ship.  The ship then entered an uncontrollable spin and communication of the vehicle was eventually lost completely.  As of this writing SpaceX has not announced a reason for the failure of the upper stage. (Click here to learn more about Starship Flight 8.)

Starship’s Super Heavy Booster returns to be caught by the launch tower on Flight 8. Photo Credit: SpaceX.

The last launch of the week took place in China.  A Long March 3B/E launched TJSW-15 Sunday afternoon from the Xichang Launch Center.  The payload is stated to be a communications satellite, but as with many things said by the Chinese Military, that is up for debate.    

One thing to touch on for the week was the lunar landing attempt by the Athena Lander.  The craft, built by Intuitive Machines made its landing attempt on Thursday afternoon.  Sadly, following a touchdown call, it was stated that the lander’s engine was still firing, and the call for shutdown was not officially made until over a minute later.  After a time, where teams sent commands to the craft, and interpreted data it sent back, it was confirmed that the Athena lander had in fact landed on the moon, but sideways.  If you remember this is the same fate that beset the company’s first lunar lander as well.  The lander’s solar panels were not in a position to charge and so the lander has officially shut down, ending the mission prematurely. 

That pretty well covers the week everyone.  Like I said, short week but Thursday was a whirlwind of a day.  I find it slightly ironic that the of the 3 events Thursday, the one that people were least excited about, was the only one that was completely successful.  That being said, I have no doubt that SpaceX and Intuitive Machines will solve their respective issues in the future.  As for next week there are some highlight launches to look forward to including Falcon 9 launches of SPHEREx/PUNCH and Crew 10, as well as a Firefly Alpha launch.  So, with that to look forward to, I will look forward to covering it all for you 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)