Two launches last night, by China and Rocket LabThe high pace of rocket launches this year continued last night, but in a rare exception this time it had nothing to do with SpaceX.
First, the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace successfully placed six radar satellites into orbit, its upgraded version of its Zhuque-2 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in China’s northwest.
No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. Unlike its larger Zhuque-3 rocket, which has not yet flown but is being designed as a copy of a Falcon 9 with its first stage able to return to Earth vertically, the Zhuque-2 has no such ability.
Next, Rocket Lab successfully placed a commercial radar satellite into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the company’s two launchpads in New Zealand. This launch was the third by Rocket Lab for the satellite company iQPS, and is the second in an eight-satellite launch contract with the company.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
59 SpaceX
27 China
6 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 59 to 45.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The high pace of rocket launches this year continued last night, but in a rare exception this time it had nothing to do with SpaceX.
First, the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace successfully placed six radar satellites into orbit, its upgraded version of its Zhuque-2 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in China’s northwest.
No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. Unlike its larger Zhuque-3 rocket, which has not yet flown but is being designed as a copy of a Falcon 9 with its first stage able to return to Earth vertically, the Zhuque-2 has no such ability.
Next, Rocket Lab successfully placed a commercial radar satellite into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of the company’s two launchpads in New Zealand. This launch was the third by Rocket Lab for the satellite company iQPS, and is the second in an eight-satellite launch contract with the company.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
59 SpaceX
27 China
6 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 59 to 45.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Site:
https://i-qps.net/project/#report
IPQS has purchased launches from quite a variety of companies before settling on Rocket Lab.
1) PSLV
2) Falcon 9
3) & 4) Epsilon Rocket No. 6 (Japan)
5) Rocket Lab
6) Falcon 9
7) SpaceX Bandwagon (ride share)
8) SpaceX Transporter-11 (ride share)
9) Rocket Lab
10) Rocket Lab
Site:
https://i-qps.net/project/#report
IPQS has purchased launches from quite a variety of companies before settling on Rocket Lab.
1) PSLV
2) Falcon 9
3) & 4) Epsilon Rocket No. 6 (Japan)
5) Rocket Lab
6) Falcon 9
7) SpaceX Bandwagon (ride share)
8) SpaceX Transporter-11 (ride share)
9) Rocket Lab
10) Rocket Lab
Willi Kusche: That’s a very revealing chronology. It shows how India and Japan started off as competitors, but have fallen away to SpaceX and Rocket Lab, with Rocket Lab eventually winning out because its Electron can place IPQS’s satellites in their correct orbit, as primary payload.
Or to put it more bluntly, American enterprise wins again.
To add some more detail to Willi’s list:
QPS-SAR-2 launched on the Transporter-1 mission, QPS-SAR-6 launched on the Transporter-8 mission, and QPS-SAR-7 launched on the Bandwagon-1 mission.
The Epsilon launch vehicle launching QPS-SAR-3 and QPS-SAR-4 failed causing these two satellites (as well as others) to be lost.
QPS-SAR-6 launched before QPS-SAR-5. This is because QPS-SAR-5 was originally booked on the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne. After Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy, iQPS signed a rapid launch contract with Rocket Lab. It ended up being that Rocket Lab could get their satellite to orbit when the other guys could not, so iQPS rewarded them with more business.
Or, as Robert might say, ain’t capitalism grand?
Several times I have heard people suggest that SpaceX be given various world problems to solve, but I have disagreed with many of these suggestions. I think Willi Kusche’s comment is further evidence that SpaceX is not the solution to all the world’s problems.
SpaceX’s low launch prices have presented a challenge to the world’s launch services to find better efficiencies in order to reduce their own prices so that they can compete. SpaceX has provided inexpensive launches for smallsats with their ride-share launches, each launch taking dozens of small satellites into similar orbits. An alternative to low prices is to provide better service, such as taking smallsats to individual orbits that best suit the operators’ needs. This last part is a strength of Rocket Lab, which has also worked to keep launch prices low.
Robert Zimmerman has noted several times that there is a growing demand for launch services. There is a growing number of launch companies trying to fill this demand, as more companies are beginning to want to launch than the available launchers. This year, several non-U.S. launch companies are trying to break into the launch market. They are currently applying the lessons learned in their early attempts at launch, and many of them will soon succeed and help to satisfy the growing demand for their services.
NASA and government space are no longer the future of the American space effort. Commercial space is, and NASA’s role might be to facilitate the private use of space resources. NASA may be able to provide some of the more advanced explorations, but private commercial space will provide most of the benefits of using space to we earthlings, making profits as rewards for finding the best uses of those resources.