Following the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship on Tuesday, eight additional orbital launches were planned worldwide. Rocket Lab launched an experimental hypersonic testbed payload using a modified Electron from Wallops. What’s more, a second Electron launched a batch of nanosatellites into low-Earth orbit from New Zealand less than 24 hours later.
Meanwhile, SpaceX continued to launch Starlink missions aboard Falcon 9 rockets this week as the company pushes to meet its end-of-the-year targets for Falcon 9’s launch cadence. SpaceX continues to trim its turnaround times for Falcon boosters, pads, and recovery vessels and is currently launching almost every other day.
In Russia, Roscosmos flew a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Progress MS-29, atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Blue Origin flew a suborbital New Shepard mission, and China closed out the week with the launch of an unknown payload aboard a Chang Zheng 2C rocket.