In another busy week of launches, SpaceX launched four Falcon 9 missions — four are Starlink missions; a fifth, the Transporter 15 rideshare mission, was expected but has now been pushed back to next week.
Internationally, China has launched three rockets from Jiuquan and Xichang, including an uncrewed mission to the Tiangong space station. The maiden flight of the South Korean company Innospace‘s Hanbit-Nano rocket, which was also expected to launch from Brazil late in the week, has been postponed until December
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-94
The first SpaceX Falcon 9 mission of the week launched successfully on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7:12 PM EST (Wednesday, 00:12 UTC). Starlink Group 6-94 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida, carrying 29 v2 Mini Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The booster supporting this mission was B1085. Flying for the 12th time, B1085 has previously supported the Crew-9, GPS III-7, Blue Ghost Mission 1 & HAKUTO-R M2, Fram2, SXM-10, MTG-S1/Sentinel-4A, and five Starlink missions. B1085’s first flight was on Aug. 8, 2024.
Falcon 9 flew on a southeasterly trajectory before landing atop one of SpaceX’s two east coast droneships, A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed approximately 640 km downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, just north of the Bahamas.
Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m diameter, 70 m tall two-stage rocket. Nine Merlin 1D engines power the first stage booster, while the second stage utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are two of three reusable orbital rockets in service today, with one Falcon booster having flown 31 flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after flights, on this occasion by fairing recovery vessel Doug, approximately 750 km downrange.
Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S | Shijian 30 A-C
The first of the three Chinese rockets this week was a Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S launching from Site 401 (SLS-2) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The launch window opened at 03:52 UTC on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Liftoff occurred at 04:01 UTC, leaving a further 18 minutes in the window.
The payload for Shijian 30 consisted of three Chinese “Space Environment Measurement” satellites (A-C) , which were deployed into LEO.
Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S is a three-stage rocket based on the core two-stage Chang Zheng 2C (CZ-2C), which is, in turn, derived from the DF-5 ICBM. It utilizes storable propellants, specifically nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. The YZ-1S designation indicates the use of a solid rocket motor third stage.
Rocket Lab Electron | Follow My Speed
A last minute announcement from Rocket Lab advised that an Electron would launch out of the company’s LC-1A at the Mãhia Peninsula facility in New Zealand. Rocket Lab is targeting liftoff on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 12:16 UTC. This launch attempt was aborted at T-2:24 due to an issue with the launch abort key in Mission Control. Following a recycle, Electron launched successfully at 12:43 UTC – the 76th flight of an Electron. The kick stage was placed into a transfer orbit pending circularisation of the orbit and satellite deployment.
The payload is believed to be a Generation 3 satellite for BlackSky Technology, the third for the Gen-3 constellation of Earth-imaging satellites. This information is gleaned from the mission badge and previous similar mission profiles.
Electron is a two-stage rocket with an optional kick stage. The first stage features nine Rutherford sea-level engines, each producing 21 kN of thrust at liftoff and peaking at 25 kN (5,600 lbf) in flight. The second stage utilizes a Rutherford vacuum engine that produces 25.8 kN (5,800 lbf) of thrust. Both variants of Rutherford are powered by electric pumps instead of traditional gas turbines. The kick stage employs an unspecified bi-propellant Curie engine. Both the Rutherford and Curie engines are largely 3D-printed, and the two main stages are of a carbon-composite construction.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-78
Falcon 9 operations switched back to the east coast on Thursday, Nov. 20, for the Starlink Group 6-78 mission, which launched at 10:39:30 PM EST (Friday, 03:39:30 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center.
Booster B1080, supporting this flight, flew a southeasterly trajectory to place the 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into a 43-degree inclination orbit. The booster landed successfully on Just Read The Instructions, one of SpaceX’s two east coast droneships.
This launch will mark the 149th Falcon 9 mission of 2025. Booster B1080 will be making its 23rd flight, having previously supported missions for Axion 2, Euclid, Axion 3, CRS-30, Astra 1P/SES-24, CRS-21, and 16 Starlink missions.
Starlink Group 6-78 also marked the record-breaking 100th orbital launch from all Florida launchpads in 2025.
Chang Zheng 3B/E | Tongxin Jishu Shiyan 21
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China supported the launch of a Chang Zheng 3B/E on Friday, Nov. 21, at 10:55 UTC. The payload for this mission was Tongxin Jishu Shiyan 21, a communication technology test satellite.
The Chang Zheng 3B (CZ-3B) rocket has three stages and stands 56.3 m tall. The CZ-3B/E variant utilizes four strap-on boosters. All stages and boosters are powered by highly toxic, yet stable, hypergolic propellants.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-79
Another Falcon 9 mission lifted off on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 2:53 AM EST (07:53 UTC) from SLC-40 at CCSFS. The Starlink Group 6-79 mission launched another batch of Starlink v2 Mini satellites andded into the constellation’s Group 6 shell.
The booster for this flight, B1090, followed a southeasterly trajectory out of Florida before landing on A Shortfall of Gravitas, one of SpaceX’s east coast droneships.
B1090 was flying for the ninth time, having previously supported missions for O3b mPOWER 7 & 8, Crew-10, Bandwagon-3, Starlink Group 6-67, Starlink Group 10-18, O3b mPOWER 9 & 10, CRS-33, and Starlink Group 10-59. The first flight of B1090 was on Dec. 17, 2024.
This mission marked the 150th Falcon 9 mission of 2025.
The maiden flight of Innospace’s Hanbit-Nano microlauncher was due to take place on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 18:00 UTC. The Spaceward mission was to launch from the South Korean company’s dedicated Innospace Pad at the Alcântrara Launch Center in Maranhâo, Brazil. Hanbit-Nano will attempt to place eight payloads into a LEO at an altitude of 300 km. This mission has now been postponed to no earlier than Dec. 17, 2025.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 28 @Starlink satellites to orbit from California https://t.co/kCIWhhQSkA
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 23, 2025
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-30
The final Falcon 9 mission for this week launched successfully at 12:48 AM PST on Sunday, Nov. 23 (08:48 UTC), 48 minutes into the 4-hour launch window. Starlink Group 11-30 lifted 28 v2 Mini satellites into LEO, following a southeasterly trajectory from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The Starlink Group 11-30 mission was supported by booster B1100 on its maiden flight.
After ascent and stage-separation, the booster landed atop SpaceX’s west coast droneship Of Course I Still Love You. This mission served as the 569th Falcon 9 mission overall and the 151st of 2025. Furthermore, this mission will mark the 277th orbital launch attempt of 2025.
Chang Zheng 2F/G | Shenzhou 22
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) launched a Chang Zheng 2F/G (CZ-2F/G) onTuesday, Nov. 25, at 04:11:42 UTC from Site 901 (SLS-1) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. Atop the booster was the Shenzhou 22, an uncrewed mission to the Tiangong space station.
Shenzhou 22 had originally been designated to transport the Shenzhou 22 crew to Tiangong in 2026. However, the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft was used by the Shenzhou 20 crew for their return trip, when their own vehicle was possibly damaged by space debris. Consequently, Shenzhou 22 will now be utilised as the station’s standby crew ship. The crew of the Shenzhou 21 mission are Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang.
CMSA indicated that the vehicle was carrying a quantity of food, and other provisions to Tiangong despite the short-notice nature of the mission, as upmass supply is a highly valuable resource in the project and must be utilized fully every time.
The CZ-2F/G rocket consists of two stages with four additional strap-on boosters. All of the engines are propelled by hypergolics.
(Lead image: Atlas V launches ViaSat-3 F2 from Florida. Credit: Jerry Pike for NSF)
