Two launches this morning
In the last six hours two different American companies successfully completed launches from the same spaceport.
First, SpaceX placed another 28 Starlink satellites in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the first stage completing its 22nd flight by landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The company also has another Starlink launch for this evening.
Next, ULA placed 27 more of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites into orbit, its Atlas-5 rocket also lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Amazon now has 129 Kuiper satellites in orbit. It needs to get another 1,471 in orbit by July 2026 in order to meet its licence requirements by the FCC. While ULA appears to be ramping up regular launches for Amazon, having a contract for 46 launches (having so far completed three in 2025), the contracts for Blue Origin’s New Glenn (27 launches), and ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6 (18 launches) are more uncertain. Neither company has achieved any launches on their contracts, and it is not clear when either company, especially Blue Origin, will ever begin regular launches.
This was ULA’s fourth launch in 2025, so it does not yet qualify for the leader board in the 2025 launch race. The company says it hopes to launch about eight more times this year, but based on its present launch pace of about one launch every three months, that seems unlikely. As for the Atlas-5 rocket, ULA now has twelve rockets in left in stock before the rocket is retired for good. Most I think are reserved for Kuiper launches.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 124 to 95.
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
In the last six hours two different American companies successfully completed launches from the same spaceport.
First, SpaceX placed another 28 Starlink satellites in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the first stage completing its 22nd flight by landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The company also has another Starlink launch for this evening.
Next, ULA placed 27 more of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites into orbit, its Atlas-5 rocket also lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Amazon now has 129 Kuiper satellites in orbit. It needs to get another 1,471 in orbit by July 2026 in order to meet its licence requirements by the FCC. While ULA appears to be ramping up regular launches for Amazon, having a contract for 46 launches (having so far completed three in 2025), the contracts for Blue Origin’s New Glenn (27 launches), and ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6 (18 launches) are more uncertain. Neither company has achieved any launches on their contracts, and it is not clear when either company, especially Blue Origin, will ever begin regular launches.
This was ULA’s fourth launch in 2025, so it does not yet qualify for the leader board in the 2025 launch race. The company says it hopes to launch about eight more times this year, but based on its present launch pace of about one launch every three months, that seems unlikely. As for the Atlas-5 rocket, ULA now has twelve rockets in left in stock before the rocket is retired for good. Most I think are reserved for Kuiper launches.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
124 SpaceX
55 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 124 to 95.
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
ULA launch–
I hate to complain but, lousy tracking & on-board video for this launch. And I dislike their phony baloney animation. They need to punch their production-values a bit, “good video is priceless,” and it costs so little.
Robert Zimmerman,
In the line comparing SpaceX’s launch total to that of the rest of the world, you’ve attributed SpaceX 125 launches, not the 124 shown right above in the individual rankings. 124 is correct.
Wayne,
Yeah, the amateur-night production values of ULA launch webcasts almost seem designed to underline the point that ULA is your father’s – and grandfather’s – launch services company. These webcasts are in color but have a retro black-and-white feel to them. Even the intern on this webcast seems like he stepped right out of mid-1950s Central Casting. I kept waiting for him to say something like, “Gosh-a-rooney.”
There is also an unseemly amount of self-congratulation and undeserved self-applied superlatives in the happy chat. Not as much as there is in Blue Origin webcasts of New Shepard launches, thank God, but it’s interesting that SpaceX does little or none of that in its own webcasts. I guess when you actually are numero uno you can just let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
Dick Eagleson: Typo fixed. Thank you.
As for the self-congratulatory commentary on both ULA and Blue Origin telecasts, it is a terrible mistake on their part. It only highlights their weaknesses rather than magnify their strengths.
Even when SpaceX was only beginning to do Falcon 1 launches in the 2000s it kept its commentary to a minimum. It let what happened speak for it, and that quiet confidence did more to sell the company than anything.