On the heels of a busy launch week, this week saw a number of launches – and attempts – from around the globe. SpaceX was expected to launch five Falcon 9 missions, including a rideshare and the delayed Axiom-4 crewed mission. However, Axiom-4 was pushed back from June 22 for additional analysis and is now out of the week.
The rarely-flown Angara A5 rocket from Russia launched a military payload. The last ever flight of the H-IIA, Japan’s long-time medium-lift workhorse, was on the schedule, as was a Blue Origin crewed suborbital launch, now scrubbed twice. Both H-IIA and NS-33 launches are out of the week.
A pair of Falcon 9 launches were scheduled from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, while two Falcon 9s were scheduled from Florida; all have flown now. The New Shepard NS-33 crewed launch was to fly from West Texas but was postponed to June 22. NS-33’s Sunday attempt was scrubbed as well and the next launch opportunity is being evaluated.
Angara flew an unknown payload from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in far northern Russia. Rocket Lab also announced an Electron launch from Mahia, New Zealand which was scrubbed on Friday, June 20, and subsequently pushed to Tuesday, June 24 and then scrubbed again, while the ULA KA-02 mission flew on Monday, June 23.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-9
The first Falcon 9 launch of the week from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) took place on Monday, June 16, at 8:36 PM PDT (03:36 UTC on Tuesday, June 17), within a four-hour window. The launch window ended at 9:51 PM PDT (04:51 UTC June 17).
The booster, B1093-3, flew on a southeast trajectory and landed successfully on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific. The second stage took a batch of 26 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into orbit; the launch was visible throughout Southern California and into Arizona.
This flight was the 74th Falcon 9 launch of 2025, as the company works toward flying its Falcon rocket family up to 170 times this year.
A stack of Starlink satellites, including a Direct-To-Cell satellite at the top. The deployable antenna and its hinge can clearly be seen in this image. (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-18
The next Starlink flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) launched on early Wednesday, June 18, at 1:38 AM EDT (05:38 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40). The four-hour launch window ended at 5:38 AM EDT (09:38 UTC).
The booster, B1090-5, flew on a northeast trajectory from SLC-40, unlike most recent Starlink flights, which fly southeast trajectories. The booster landed safely on Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic, while the second stage carried a batch of 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to orbit.
This flight was the 75th Falcon 9 flight of 2025.
Angara A5 being processed for flight. (Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense)
Angara A5/Briz-M | Unknown Payload
The Russian Armed Forces launched a secret spacecraft aboard an Angara rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far north. Launch happened Thursday, June 19, at 03:00 UTC from Site 35/1 at Plesetsk, Russia’s primary military spaceport.
The Angara A5/Briz-M is the replacement for the Proton heavy-lift vehicle that served the Soviet and Russian space efforts for decades. The rocket took an eastward trajectory, but little is known about the orbit or the payload. There has been speculation that the payload may go to geosynchronous orbit.
This was the fifth overall flight of the Angara A5 and the first flight of 2025 for the rocket. Angara was designed as a modular family of rockets with different payload and orbit capabilities, and the A5 uses five core stages strapped together along with a second stage.
For this flight, the Briz-M acted as the vehicle’s third stage. The Briz-M is a liquid-fueled stage and uses storable but toxic hypergolic propellants. It is capable of up to eight restarts in flight, allowing for payload deployments in various orbits and higher orbital altitudes.
Chang Zheng 3B/E |Zhongxing 9C
China’s only scheduled launch of the week flew from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. A Chang Zhang 3B/E (CZ-3B/E) launched on Friday, June 20, at 12:37 UTC from Launch Complex 3 (LC-3) at Xichang. The rocket flew on an eastward trajectory, injecting its payload in a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The CZ-3B/E is one of China’s workhorses for launching geosynchronous orbiting satellites, and the Zhongxing 9C – internationally known as ChinaSat 9C – replaces the Zhongxing 9 launched 17 years ago this month. Geosynchronous orbit is widely used by communication, weather, and intelligence-gathering satellites.
This flight is the 10th mission of the Chang Zheng 3 series in 2025 and the 169th mission overall for the rocket.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-23
The second Falcon 9 launch from CCSFS SLC-40 this week is another Starlink mission. Starlink Group 10-23 successfully launched on Monday, June 23, at 1:58 AM EDT (05:58 UTC). The window lasted until 5:47 AM EDT (09:47 UTC).
SpaceX aborted Sunday’s launch attempt at T-58 seconds and scrubbed due to poor connectivity to the flight termination system.
The booster, B1069-25, took a northeast trajectory from SLC-40, similar to Starlink Group 10-18. The booster landed safely on A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic, while the second stage took a batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites to orbit.
This flight was the 76th Falcon 9 launch of 2025.
The Transporter 14 payload before encapsulation. (Credit: SpaceX)
The second Falcon 9 launch of the week from VSFB featured a rideshare mission for small payloads, part of SpaceX’s Transporter series that flies to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Transporter 14 launched on Monday, June 23, at 2:25 PM PDT (21:25 UTC) from SLC-4E, at the start of a window ending at 3:15 PM PDT (22:15 UTC).
The booster, B1071-26, was to conduct a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) near SLC-4E, but that was changed to what became a successful downrange recovery on Of Course I Still Love You. The second stage continued on its southward trajectory to SSO.
Notable payloads included a Celestis payload aboard The Exploration Company’s Nyx prototype capsule that orbited Earth with remains of people who have signed up for “space funerals.” This capsule orbited Earth for three hours before it was to splash down in the ocean off Hawaii; the remains will be sent to the families as a keepsake.
Nyx also had other payloads on board, including MayaSat-1. MayaSat-1, developed in Slovenia, contains 980 unique biological samples enclosed in a 1U CubeSat that will remain aboard Nyx’s capsule. The Exploration Company calls Nyx’s flight “Mission Possible”.
The Mission Possible spacecraft before its shipment to the United States. (Credit: The Exploration Company)
The Celestis capsule, named Mission Possible, was not the only payload on this mission designed to return to Earth. The Varda Space W-4 capsule was also aboard and will manufacture pharmaceuticals before landing at an Australian test range.
Other spacecraft included the NASA PADRE 12U CubeSat, intended to study polarization from solar flares in X-rays, as well as 45 payloads to be flown by the German company Exolaunch. The company flew payloads from the United States, the United Kingdom, and 13 other countries worldwide. Transporter 14 flew 70 payloads overall and finished deployment around two hours and 40 minutes after launch.
This flight was the 77th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the fourth of this week.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists the Kuiper 2 mission payload atop the Atlas V rocket in the Vertical Integration Facility-G (Credit: ULA)
Atlas V 551 | Project Kuiper KA-02
United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Atlas V Kuiper KA-02 launch successfully occurred on Monday, June 23 at 6:54 AM EDT (10:54 UTC) from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) at CCSFS. The launch window extended until 7:23 AM EDT (11:23 UTC).
The Atlas V 551, the most powerful variant of the rocket and one of only two configurations that are still operational, took a northeast trajectory prior to deploying 27 Kuiper broadband satellites to low-Earth orbit. This flight was the second operational Project Kuiper mission since KA-01’s flight back in April.
The flight was delayed from Monday, June 16 after ULA noted an issue with an elevated purge temperature inside the booster’s engine. ULA chief executive officer Tory Bruno noted a possible issue with a GN2 – gaseous nitrogen – purge line that could not be resolved within the count.
This mission was the second one for the Atlas V of 2025, as the type flies out its manifest before retirement. Amazon signed a contract with ULA for a number of Kuiper launches using the company’s Atlas V and Vulcan rockets, as part of its effort to quickly launch the Kuiper constellation before a critical deadline in mid-2026.
Electron|Symphony In The Stars
Rocket Lab’s “Symphony In The Stars” mission, launching a single satellite for a confidential customer, was rescheduled for Tuesday, June 24 due to bad weather in the Mahia Peninsula area of New Zealand that scrubbed its first launch attempt. Launch was to be from LC-1B at 07:00 UTC, but Rocket Lab stood down to allow for additional checkouts. No new date was set.
The rocket will take a southerly path which would support a sun-synchronous orbit. These orbits are commonly used by Earth observation, reconnaissance, and science satellites. This mission’s payload will be deployed in a 650 km circular orbit, and there is another launch scheduled for this customer – thought to possibly be EchoStar’s Lyra constellation -before the end of this year.
This flight is the ninth for Electron in 2025, as Rocket Lab is on a pace to possibly exceed last year’s record of 16 Electron flights. The company also aims to fly the medium-lift Neutron as soon as the end of this year to expand its space launch offerings.
The final H-IIA being prepared for flight. (Credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)
The very last H-II family mission was scheduled to fly on Monday, June 23, at 16:33 UTC from the LA-Y1 launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, but that has now been pushed back out of the week. The 50th and final flight of the H-IIA will take a southward trajectory to launch the GOSAT-GW Earth observation satellite to SSO.
GOSAT-GW is designed to monitor greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, in Earth’s atmosphere, in addition to measuring the total amount of Earth’s water on the surface and in the atmosphere.
This flight is the only H-IIA flight of 2025 as its successor, the H3 family, ramps up its operations following four successful flights in 2024. The H-IIA finishes its career with launches of notable payloads like the United Arab Emirates Hope probe to Mars and the XRISM observatory. Out of 50 orbital launch attempts, the H-IIA successfully flew 49 missions.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
