Two launches last night, by China and Rocket Lab
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.
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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.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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.