This week included three launches scheduled for Wednesday and the third Electron rocket to fly within 12 days. SpaceX kicked off the week with the launch of a classified mission on Monday. Two Starlink missions also flew alongside two others from China this week. Firefly Aerospace postponed the sixth flight of its Alpha rocket, following a delay due to range constraints earlier in the month, which will now be pushed into April.
Following a scrub on Monday due to unfavorable winds, and a second on Saturday, Isar Aerospace attempted the first orbital launch by a European rocket from continental Europe on Sunday. This maiden launch of its Spectrum rocket was the inaugural orbital launch from the Andøya Spaceport in Norway but the vehicle experienced attitude control issues early into the first minute of flight.
This week also marked the conclusion of the first quarter of 2025 and, with it, new turnaround records and a revised annual cadence target for SpaceX. Booster B1088 set a new first-stage turnaround record of just over nine days on last week’s NROL-57 mission from Vandenberg on March 21. This quickly followed the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH mission from the same pad at SLC-4E on March 11 and was a notable improvement on the previous booster turnaround record of 14 days.
The company also set a pad turnaround record at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on March 15. The Starlink Group 12-16 mission launched from SLC-40 just two days, eight hours, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds after the Starlink Group 12-21 mission from the same pad, breaking the previous record by nearly six hours. This launch also set another record for SpaceX, marking its third launch in 12.5 hours following the Crew-10 and Transporter-13 missions.
SpaceX recently revised its goal to launch 180 times this year in reaction to recent challenges regarding the loss of booster B1086 and the increased refurbishment time for some of its recovered Falcon 9 boosters. The company’s new target of 170 averages out to 14 monthly launches. Pending how volatile this week’s schedule proves to be, SpaceX looks to complete the first quarter with 38 launches across its fleet. This puts the company only a handful of launches away from meeting its revised cadence goal, with plenty of time to catch up.
Rocket Lab is ahead of last year’s cadence, with five Electron launches in the first quarter of 2025. Two of these launches occurred last week within three days of each other. This week’s launch has set another company record with three launches within two weeks. Electron will finish the quarter as the second most launched rocket of the year and is on course to surpass last year’s record of 14 orbital launches. As the month comes to a close, there will have been 67 orbital launch attempts worldwide, a six percent increase from the previous year.
Patch for Rocket Lab’s “Finding Hot Wildfires Near You” mission. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Electron/Curie | Finding Hot Wildfires Near You
Rocket Lab launched its third Electron in two weeks on Wednesday, March 26, at 15:30 UTC from Launch Complex 1B (LC-1B) at the company’s launch facility in New Zealand. “Finding Hot WildFires Near You” marked a significant achievement in rapid launch cadence for Rocket Lab, with the payloads onboard being lofted within four months of signing the launch services contract. The mission deployed the latest group of eight satellites for OroraTech’s OTC-P1 constellation into a 550 km SSO.
Thermal infrared cameras enable satellites to monitor wildfires globally and support a faster response to safeguard forests, communities, and critical infrastructure. Combining real-time data with AI algorithms, the technology delivers early detection of hotspots from over 25 satellite and ground data sources for customers that include governments and industry partners. The company plans to increase the constellation to 100 satellites by 2028. This mission will bring the total number of satellites launched by Electron to 224.
Chang Zheng 3B/E | Tianlian-2 04
A Chang Zheng 3B/E (CZ-3B/E) launched on Wednesday, March 26, at 15:55 UTC from Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. This is one of three active pads at Xichang, situated in the Sichuan Province of southwestern China, and one of two that conduct orbital launches. LC-2 is commonly used to loft satellites into geostationary orbits, including those for the Beidou navigation constellation.
On board was the fourth of the latest generation of Tianlian-2 communications relay satellites, based on the DongFangHong-4 satellite bus. These satellites are comparable to NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), providing data and communications to ground stations from crewed spacecraft in LEO, such as the Shenzhou vehicles and the Tiangong space station. The satellites remove communication blind spots and will help to build bandwidth as well as capacity for the increasing volume of data being transmitted as China moves towards its lunar explorations.
Booster B1063 successfully landed on the deck of the droneship Of Course I Still Love You (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-7
Starlink Group 11-7, the first of two scheduled Starlink missions this week, took flight from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at VSFB in California. Liftoff took place at the top of a typical four-hour launch window which opened on Wednesday, March 26, at 3:11 PM PDT (22:11 UTC). This mission had been delayed from the weekend and flew on a southeast trajectory carrying another batch of Starlink v2-Mini satellites to LEO.
The booster for this mission was B1063 on its 24th flight, which landed successfully downrange on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific. B1067 is currently the only active booster with more flights, at 26. Booster B1063 first flew back in November 2020 and has since lofted the DART mission, Transporter 7, three missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, and numerous Starlink missions across most shells in the constellation. It was also the booster supporting the Starlink Group 9-3 mission in which the second stage suffered a rare liquid oxygen leak and wasn’t able to execute its second ignition.
To date, every Starlink Group 11 mission has flown from VSFB, with another due to fly this Sunday evening.
Chang Zheng 7A on the pad at LC-201 of the Wenchang Space Launch Site (Credit: CASC)
The first Chang Zheng 7A (CZ-7A) to fly since last August carried Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-16, a classified satellite described as being for communication technology testing. Liftoff took place on Saturday, March 29 from LC-201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center, shortly into its 68 minute launch window, at 16:05 UTC. Previous launches of this vehicle type had also carried other classified TJSW and ChinaSat communication satellites into a geostationary transfer orbit.
The CZ-7A is a three-stage variant of the CZ-7 which is used to loft Tianzhou cargo missions to the Tiangong space station. The vehicle stands 60 m high with a 4.2 m diameter fairing. The first stage is powered by YF-100 engines that burn liquid kerosene and oxygen as propellant, and is complemented by four side boosters.
Spectrum ascends from the pad at Andøya Spaceport (Credit: NSF, Isar Aerospace)
Spectrum | Going Full Spectrum
Isar Aerospace attempted the first-ever orbital launch attempt of a European rocket from continental Europe (outside of Russia). Delayed from last weekend, an attempt on Monday had been scrubbed due to unfavorable winds, and a second attempt was scrubbed on Saturday due to weather restrictions. The vehicle lifted off the pad on its third launch attempt on Sunday, March 30, at 10:30 UTC.
Spectrum experienced attitude control issues, however, just after it started its pitch-over manoeuver, early into the first minute of flight. Isar Aerospace confirmed the vehicle was terminated 30 seconds into flight and that the it fell into the sea. It also noted that the launch pad infrastructure appears to remain intact.
The company’s two-stage Spectrum launch vehicle made its maiden flight from the Andøya Spaceport on the Norwegian island of Andøya. The spaceport has supported over 1,200 suborbital and sounding rocket launches since 1962 and is now planning to support up to 30 orbital missions per year.
The launch was intended to take a northwest trajectory out of Andoya, which would place a payload in a retrograde orbit. This demonstration flight, however, was carrying no deployable payload and instead delivered valuable in-flight data to inform future iterations of the vehicle.
Spectrum stands 28 m high with a two-meter diameter and can deliver 1,000 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO) or 700 kg to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Nine 3D-printed Aquila engines on the first stage burn liquid propane and oxygen as propellants. The second stage is powered by a single vacuum-optimized Aquila engine, which is capable of in-orbit restarts. The company notes that these high-pressure turbopump-fed engines have been designed in-house and offer clean propulsion that delivers the highest density-specific impulse of all carbon fuels.
Starlink Satellites are deployed during the Group 12-8 mission. (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-80
A Falcon 9 flew the delayed second Starlink mission of the week, Starlink Group 6-80, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday, March 31 at 5:52 PM EDT (19:52 UTC). Weather constraints had delayed an attempt the previous day on Sunday, March 30, repeatedly pushing the launch towards the end of its four-hour window before the mission was eventually scrubbed.
A higher than usual batch of 28 Starlink v2-Mini satellites was lofted into LEO aboard this mission. Ahead of this launch, 71 previous Starlink missions had carried satellites into the Group 6 shell — by far the largest of the Starlink shells. Satellites within the Group 6 shell operate in a 43-degree orbit at an altitude of 559 km. The booster supporting this mission was B1080 on its 17th flight, which landed on the autonomous droneship Just Read The Instructions approximately eight minutes into the mission after flying on a southeasterly trajectory.
B1080 has been active since May 2023, making its debut on the Axiom 2 mission and going on to loft Axiom 3 as well as the Euclid Telescope. This booster has also supported two cargo missions to the ISS with CRS-30 and the Northrop Grumman CRS NG-21 missions. B1080 also recently flew SpaceX’s 400th orbital mission last November, when it lofted Starlink Group 12-1, setting a new booster turnaround time in the process, which has since been beaten by B1088.
Illustration of Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 satellite bus technology demonstrator in orbit. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)
Firefly Aerospace had planned the sixth launch of its Alpha rocket this week after standing down from last week’s attempt due to an unspecified range conflict. Alpha was then expected to launch from Space Launch Complex 2W (SLC-2W) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California during a 68-minute launch window that opened on Sunday, March 30 but the company is now planning to launch no earlier than April.
A technology demonstrator for Lockheed Martin’s LM400 satellite bus is flying on this mission as the primary payload. This versatile new mid-sized satellite bus can accommodate a variety of missions, including remote sensing, communications, imaging, and radar operations.
The LM400 Pathfinder will help prove the technology in orbit and contribute towards risk reduction before flying customer missions. While this demonstrator will be deployed to LEO, the platform is adaptable to multiple orbits and launch configurations, catering to military, civil, and commercial applications.
Payload encapsulation of Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 in mid-March. (Credit: Firefly Aerospace)
This flight marks the first of up to 25 flights for Lockheed Martin as part of a multi-launch agreement with Firefly, which will span the next five years. The two-stage expendable Alpha vehicle stands just under 30 m in height and can deliver 1,030 kg to LEO. Four high-performance Reaver engines on the first stage burn liquid kerosene and oxygen in a tap-off cycle, while a single Lightning engine using the same technology powers the upper stage.
NASASpaceflight is providing launch live stream production services for Firefly Flight A006.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
