The beat never stops! SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The first stage completed its 23rd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
152 SpaceX (a new record)
71 China
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 152 to 119.
Two launches on opposites sides of the globe this evening.
First, SpaceX launched another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. The first stage completed its 12th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Next (November 19th local time), China placed three classified satellites into orbit, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. China’s state-run press would only say the satellites were for “space environment exploration and related technology verification,” an utterly meaningless statement. That state-run press also said nothing about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
151 SpaceX (a new record)
71 China (a new record)
14 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 151 to 118.
SpaceX tonight successfully launched Sentinal-6B, a NASA radar satellite designed to measure the global sea level, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The first stage completed its 3rd flight, landing back at Vandenberg.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
150 SpaceX (a new record)
70 China
14 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 150 to 117.
Note that until SpaceX began to up its launch rate significantly in 2022, the entire global rocket industry — run entirely by governments — never completed more than 135 successful launches in a single year, and usually failed to make 100 launches. SpaceX is now proving that those global numbers over more than a half century were indicative of the failure of those governments. Those governments controlled everything, and so they prevented innovation, competition, and new ideas.
The transition to capitalism and freedom since 2010 has finally begun to open up space for everyone.
SpaceX yesterday completed two launches, placing a total of 58 Starlink satellites into orbit.
First, a Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 29 Starlink satellites. The first stage completed its 8th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Four hours later, a second Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, carrying another 29 Starlink satellites. Its first stage completed its 24th flight, also landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
149 SpaceX
70 China
14 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 149 to 117.
Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
According to a press release earlier this week from the Uzbekistan government, it has signed an agreement with the American space station startup Vast to possibly fly its astronauts on Vast’s Haven-1 space station, scheduled for launch early next year for a three year mission that will include four two-week manned occupancies.
The parties discussed prospects for long-term cooperation with Vast, including participation in joint scientific research, personnel exchange programs, and the involvement of Uzbek specialists in upcoming missions following the successful launch of the Haven-1 orbital station.
Discussions also covered the potential involvement of Uzbek scientists and engineers in research on artificial gravity, life support systems, and orbital architecture within the framework of the Haven-2 project, the proposed successor to the International Space Station.
Neither Vast nor Uzbekistan apparently made any firm commitments to fly astronauts to Haven-1, but the agreement clearly laid the groundwork for doing so, if not on Haven-1 then on Vast’s follow-up much larger station, Haven-2. At the moment Vast has not yet announced any of passengers or crew for the four Haven-1 manned missions, so there clearly is room for an astronaut from Uzbekistan, assuming it is able and willing to pay the freight.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
Note: My original post mistated the time of launch. Below is a corrected text:
SpaceX tonight at 10:21 pm (Eastern) successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its third flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
I specify the launch time because it occurred just outside the FAA’s so-called curfew banning all launches from 6 am to 10 pm local time, due to the government shutdown and a shortage of air traffic controllers to coordinate aviation and rocket launches. Though the Senate today voted to end the shutdown, that shutdown has not yet ended, and won’t until the House passes the Senate budget version and Trump signs it.
Thus, it appears Blue Origin has negotiated an exemption for its now planned launch of New Glenn on November 12, 2025 in the afternoon.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
147 SpaceX (a new record)
70 China
14 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 147 to 115.
Note that I had made an error in entering my numbers earlier this week in regards to China, and have now corrected the mistake, thus revising the numbers in the last few launch reports.
SpaceX today successfully launched another 28 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 8th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
ULA for the second day in a row was forced to scrub a launch of a Viasat communications satellite due to “a reoccurrence of the issue with the Atlas V booster liquid oxygen tank vent valve.” No new launch data has as yet been announced.
The contrast between these two rocket companies here is truly striking. In the past two days SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 has launched twice, like clockwork, while ULA can’t get off the ground because of a valve issue, the kind of niggling problem that routinely scrubs its launches. It is thus rare that ULA launches on time, on schedule, as planned.
SpaceX’s launch however sets a new record for successfully launches in a single year by the entire world, 257, breaking the record set last year. These numbers are two to five times what the global launch industry managed annually for most of the space age, and signal the renaissance in rocketry brought on by Elon Musk and SpaceX. Nor I think have we reached peak numbers. Not even close.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
145 SpaceX (a new record)
67 China
14 Rocket Lab
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 145 to 112.
In separate announcements this week, officials from Arianespace and SpaceX revealed their launch plans for the rest of this year and next.
First, Arianespace officials revealed yesterday that it is hoping to do six to eight Ariane-6 launches in 2026.
During a post-flight conference following the launch of Sentinel-1D, Arianespace CEO David Cavaillès stated that while the company preferred to wait until next year to reveal details about its 2026 launch manifest, it was aiming to double its launch cadence. He added that a cadence of between six and eight next year “will be great.”
If the company does manage eight Ariane 6 flights in 2026, it will already be close to reaching the stated maximum launch cadence of between nine and ten flights per year. When asked if this cadence could be increased, Cavaillès explained that the decision would be driven by customer demand.
Since customer demand for Ariane-6 has been quite low, because of its high cost, don’t expect this launch rate to rise much higher. Arianespace’s only big contract is 18 launches for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation. Once that is completed it is not clear where much future business will be coming from, even with some bureaucrats lobbying the European Space Agency to require its members to use it. There are too many cheaper options available now, with many more coming on line, both in America and Europe.
Next, a SpaceX official noted at a conference this week that the company hopes to complete another 25 to 30 Falcon 9 launches before the end of the year.
“We’re aiming for around 170 — between 165 and 170 — which means 25 to 30 more launches to go,” Kiko Dontchev, the company’s vice president of launch, said during a Wednesday session at the Space Economy Summit 2025.
…All together, “we’ll get to 2,400, 2,200 [metric tons launched] or something like that, which is absurd in the grand scheme of where things have been,” he added. Historically, that is close to the global record for metric tons launched to space by all companies and nations — about 2,500 metric tons in 2024, according to Jonathan’s Space Report, compiled by astronomer Jonathan McDowell.
In other words, SpaceX hopes its Falcon 9 rocket will this year alone place in orbit almost the same tonnage launched previously by everyone in the three-quarters of a century since Sputnik.
Cavaillès’ forecast means the company is likely to get very close to its prediction for launches at the beginning of the year, 180, that also included its Superheavy/Starship test launches. Quite an amazing achievement.
And as Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
The beat goes on! Three different American companies attempted launches today, with two successfully getting off the ground while the third was forced to scrub due to an unspecified technical issue.
First Rocket Lab successfully launched another radar satellite for the Japanese company Q-Shu Pioneers (iQPS), its Electron rocket lifted off from one of Rocket Labs’ two New Zealand launchpads. This was the fifth launch out of a total eleven-launch contract that Rocket Lab has from Q-Shu. The launch also tied Rocket Lab’s record for the most successful orbital launches in a single year, 14, set in 2024.
Next, SpaceX launched another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first stage completed its fifth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The launch once again set a new annual launch record for SpaceX.
Only about two hours later, ULA attempted to launch a Viasat communications satellite using its Atlas-5 rocket, also lifting off from Cape Canaveral. At T-minus 4 minutes however there was an unplanned hold. After trouble-shooting the problem for almost an hour, they scrubbed the launch with only a few minutes left in the launch window. They will try again tomorrow.
With the two successful launches, the world’s global launch industry tied the record that was set last year for the most successful orbital launches in a single year, 256. That record will certainly be passed in the next few days.
What is more significant is that until 2020, the industry struggled to reach 100 launches per year. Since then the numbers have skyrocketed, led mostly by SpaceX’s overwhelming success.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
144 SpaceX (a new record)
67 China
14 Rocket Lab (tying its previous record)
13 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 144 to 112.
The beat goes on: Since yesterday there were two more successful rocket launches, from India and SpaceX.
First, SpaceX last night launched its fourth Bandwagon mission carrying 18 mid-sized smallsat payloads, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first stage completed its third flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The fairings completed their 11th and 13th flights respectively.
Bandwagon rideshare missions are dedicated missions by SpaceX. SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program provides small satellite operators with regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions to mid-inclination orbits for ESPA-class payloads, starting at $300,000 per mission and including up to 50kg of payload mass.
Among these payloads two were most notable, a South Korean military surveillance satellite and a demo module for the space station startup Vast. With the latter, the company will use this unmanned orbiting prototype to test operations to prepare for the launch in the spring of its full-sized manned demo station, Haven-1.
Next India’s space agency ISRO today launched its largest rocket, LVM3, lifted off from its Sriharikota spaceport, carrying the heaviest payload India had yet launched, a government communications satellite.
It appears the LVM-M3 has finally be given a real name. Previously ISRO called it the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). When it was upgraded to a more powerful version intended for India’s manned program, the name was revised to LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark 3). News reports today referred to the rocket now as Bahubali, calling it a “nickname.”
In all of ISRO’s missions the agency routinely uses very generic official names, but appears to eventually accept nicknames that the press uses, such as Chandrayaan for its moon missions, Mangalyaan for its Mars orbiter, Gaganyaan for its manned missions, and now Bahubali for this rocket. Increasingly however the Modi government seems to be pushing to use these names instead of those generic titles.
This was India’s third launch in 2025. The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
143 SpaceX (a new annual record)
66 China
13 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 143 to 109.
The lawsuit originally filed in 2023 against Amazon because it favored other less reliable rockets, including Blue Origin’s forever-delayed New Glenn, instead of using SpaceX to launch its Kuiper constellation of satellites, got a new hearing yesterday after the suit was dismissed in February.
The suit is now being pursued a pension fund that apparently invested in the Kuiper constellation, and claims Jeff Bezos used his influence to convince Amazon to avoid using SpaceX when it signed launch contracts with ULA, Arianespace, and Blue Origin in 2022, even though none of those rockets were even operational at the time. Even now they appear unable to meet Amazon’s launch requirements.
Amazon has until 2026 to send up the first 1,600 satellites and three more years to launch the next batch. That broader backdrop barely came up during the appeal proceedings, which zoomed in on allegations that the board made no effort to oversee self-dealing by Bezos as he directed billions from Amazon to his own rocket company, Blue Origin, despite SpaceX’s superior capabilities.
Vivek Upadhya, counsel for the pension fund, stressed the “billions of dollars flowing directly from Amazon to a company owned and controlled by Amazon’s CEO and chairman.” The sheer scale of the conflict of interest made the Blue Origin contract “a truly exceptional transaction” requiring attentive board supervision, regardless of the actual role Bezos played in negotiations, according to Upadhya. “Delaware law doesn’t require that directors harbor some innate suspicion” before taking steps to manage conflicts, but the board “failed to lift a finger,” he said.
Following the filing of the 2023 lawsuit, Amazon signed SpaceX to a three-launch contract, which SpaceX has now completed. Meanwhile, only ULA has managed any of the other launches, three also. As for Arianespace and Blue Origin, it is not clear when either will begin doing any Kuiper launches.
It does appear Amazon’s board played favorites here, and did so in a way that was harmful to the company’s bottom line. Whether this can be proved to the satisfaction of the court however is very uncertain.
SpaceX once again broke its annual record for successful launches today, placing 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its 15th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
141 SpaceX (a new record)
65 China
13 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 141 to 107. The U.S. launch total in 2025, now 159, is also a new record.
