Weekly Rocket Report
11/25/2024-12/01/2024
Ricky Whitmore
Space Writer
Hello and welcome back everyone, to another installment of the Weekly Rocket Report. Another busy week for us to discuss so let's hop in.
The week started off with something we’ve never seen before, a Starlink Mission! Jokes aside, the 23 satellites of Starlink Group 12-1 rode atop a Falcon 9 early Monday morning. The booster, which broke the record for turn around time at just under 14 days, landed successfully on SpaceX’s drone ship “Just Read the Instructions’.
Tuesday morning began with intrigue. The Chinese company Landspace launched their first ZhuQue-2E, an enhanced version of their ZhuQue-2 rocket. The payloads, Guangchuan 01-02, are test satellites for Low Earth Orbit communication.
ZhuQue-2E launches Guangchuan 01-02. Photo Credit: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight
Tuesday night concluded with a continuation of the Starlink missions for the week. Starlink Group 6-76 and its 24 satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9. The booster was recovered successfully, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas”.
After a few days without rocket launches Russia broke the streak, launching Kondor-FKA n2. The radar Earth observation satellite rode a modified Soyuz 2.1a rocket to sun synchronous orbit. The craft lifted off from Site 1S at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, marking only the 4th flight all year from the space port.
Soyuz 2.1a launches Kondor-FKA n2. Photo Credit: Roscosmos
Saturday saw 3 launches, the first of which was the final Starlink mission for the week. Starlink Group 6-65 saw Falcon 9 launching another 24 satellites into orbit, and sending its first stage back down to land on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”.
Next up was another Falcon 9 launch, this time from Vandenberg and this time NROL-126. The classified reconnaissance satellite was vaulted into space, and the rocket's first stage returned to Earth, landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”.
Falcon 9 launches NROL-126. Photo Credit: SpaceX
The final launch of the week was something we actually have not seen before! China launched the Demo Flight of its new Long March 12 rocket Saturday morning. The test launch was by all accounts successful, which means we will likely see the rocket entered into regular service.
Long March 12 launches on its Demo Flight. Photo Credit: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight
And there you have it, another week of launches. We have some interesting ones to look forward to next week such as another attempt for the Japanese rocket KAIROS, and Vega-C getting back into the mix. But we will cover that 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)