The orbital launch manifest for the week of Dec. 16 through Dec. 22 has been one of the busiest yet, with 10 of the 12 planned launches worldwide succeeding. SpaceX planned to launch seven Falcon 9 missions this week, with five customer missions, one rideshare mission, and one Starlink mission.
Outside of the U.S., three orbital launches were scheduled out of China with the Chang Zheng 5B, Chang Zheng 2D, and Ceres-1S rockets. Rocket Lab has launched its Electron rocket on the Owl The Way Up mission, and private Japanese launch company Space One attempted a second launch of its Kairos rocket.