The Weekly Rocket Report
12/16/2024-12/29/2024
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Rocket Report! Sorry for the delay, took the week off for the Holiday. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This week we will be recapping this past week and the week before to make up for it. So, strap in for a long ride and let’s begin!
Starting off on Monday December 16th we have a Long March 5B, which launched SatNet LEO Group 1. The payload was a group of 10 LEO communication satellites, adding to one a few Chinese communication satellite constellations.
Next up is another Long March launch, this time a Long March 2D. The rocket launched PIESAT-2 9-12. These 4 satellites are radar earth observation satellites.
The final launch for Monday saw a Falcon 9 taking off from SLC 40 at the Cape. The payload on board was GPS III-7 part of the Navstar program by Lockheed Martin. The rocket's first stage landed down range on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
Tuesday the 17th was another busy day, starting off with a morning Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg. The mission, NROL-149, consisted of a batch of 22 reconnaissance satellites. The Falcon’s first stage successfully returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.”
Falcon 9 launches NROL-149. Photo Credit: SpaceX.
Later that day came a second Falcon 9 launch, this time from the Cape in Florida. O3b mPOWER 7-8 lifted blasted towards the sky, later returning its first stage to the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
Tuesday evening brought the much anticipated second launch of the KAIROS rocket. KAIROS, built by the Japanese company “Space One” attempted a launch earlier in the year. The launch failed very shortly, with the rocket disintegrating before it even cleared the mountains surrounding Spaceport Kii. This launch faired a bit better though still not successful. The rocket lost control after its first stage engine experience issues about a minute and a half into flight.
The next launch of the week came Thursday, when the Chinese Company “Galactic Energy” launched a Ceres 1S rocket from a barge off the Chinese Coast. The mission, officially called “Loong” was carrying 4 small LEO based internet satellites.
Sticking in China, Friday morning saw the launch of a Long March 3B rocket. The mission, called TJSW-12 is shrouded in secrecy. The Chinese government has stated that the payload was a communication satellite.
Falcon 9 was back in the mix for a Saturday morning launch. The mission, called Bandwagon-2 is part of SpaceX’s rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 sent 30 payloads into orbit, and the first stage booster landed back at LZ-4 not far from where it launched.
The final launch of the week was also 2024’s final Electron launch. The mission, called “Owl the Way Up” was the latest in a long line of Electron launches for the company “Synspective”. These Synspective launches consist of StriX satellites which provide SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Data to governments and other groups around the world.
Electron just before the launch of Owl The Way Up. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab.
Moving on to week number two of the Marathon:
The first launch of this week came Monday morning with something we rarely go a week without seeing, a Starlink Mission! A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying 21 Starlink satellites on Starlink Group 12-02. The first stage landed down range on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
Early Christmas morning (EST) saw a launch from the Russian Soyuz 2.1b. Resurs-P No,5 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a commercial Earth observation satellite.
Moving on to Thursday evening when a Kinetica 1 rocket blasted away from the Jiuquan Satellite Center in China. The rocket was carrying 11 payloads to orbit, but it unfortunately did not make it there. The rocket’s 3rd stage lost attitude control just after ignition causing a mission failure.
Saturday morning Falcon 9 was back in action, with another Starlink Mission, Group 11-3 to be exact. The mission blasted off from Vandenberg and carried its 22 satellites to orbit, while the first stage later landed on the drone ship “Of Course I still Love You”.
The final launch of our marathon came early Sunday morning with another Falcon 9. This time the rocket was carrying 4 payloads, part of the “From One to Many” mission for Astranis. The four satellites are designed for satellite internet connectivity.
And there you have it folks, a 2 week stretch with lots of exciting launches! Sorry again for my absence, and once again I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you all a very happy new year! See you back here next week, and next year for another installment of 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)