94
.Three rockets at the moment are scheduled to launch from the U.S. this week. SpaceX is planning to launch a plethora of web satellites, with two Starlink missions and one mission for Amazon’s Mission Kuiper on the corporate’s launch manifest. United Launch Alliance was additionally anticipated to launch a navigation expertise demonstrator and a labeled House Pressure payload atop essentially the most highly effective configuration of the corporate’s new Vulcan rocket to this point, however this has now been delayed till subsequent week.
Internationally, in New Zealand, Rocket Lab continued its fast launch cadence with the launch of an Electron carrying an Earth statement satellite tv for pc. China now has a Jielong-3 launch scheduled for Friday.
Electron | The Harvest Goddess Thrives
The primary launch of the week was scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 03:45 UTC, nevertheless, Electron skilled a maintain within the countdown 11 minutes and 16 seconds earlier than liftoff. No purpose for the maintain was offered, however Rocket Lab launched Electron efficiently at 05:10 UTC.
Electron launched a 100 kg payload in the direction of a low Earth orbit (LEO) from Launch Advanced 1B (LC-1B) on the firm’s launch facility on the Mãhia Peninsula in New Zealand. This was Electron’s eleventh mission of 2025, and the 69th Electron mission in whole.
LAUNCH! Rocket Lab Electron launches QPS-SAR-12 (“The Harvest Goddess Thrives”) from LC-1B, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand.
Overview:https://t.co/LFq6ndNxzt
RL Stream:https://t.co/6MD6bFbFJj pic.twitter.com/9J59xlkeH2
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) August 5, 2025
This mission, the fourth of eight for Japanese Satellite tv for pc firm iQPS, will deploy a single Q-shu Pioneers of House – Artificial Aperture Radar (QPS-SAR) satellite tv for pc. The mission is called “The Harvest Goddess Thrives,” or KUSHINADA-I, for the Japanese goddess of harvest and prosperity. Electron delivered QPS-SAR-12 to a 575 km round Earth orbit, the place it should turn out to be a part of the QPS-SAR constellation, offering high-resolution artificial aperture radar pictures and Earth monitoring companies globally.
Electron is a two-stage rocket with an elective kick stage. The primary stage options 9 Rutherford sea-level engines, every producing 21 kN of thrust at liftoff and peaking at 25 kN (5,600 lbf) in flight. The second stage features a Rutherford vacuum engine that produces 25.8 kN (5,800 lbf) of thrust. Each variants of Rutherford are powered by electrical pumps as an alternative of conventional gasoline generators. The kick stage makes use of an unspecified bi-propellant fuel-powered Curie engine. Each the Rutherford and Curie engines are largely 3D-printed, and the 2 major levels are of a carbon-composite development.
Falcon 9 | Mission Kuiper (KF-02)
The primary Falcon 9 launch for this week is scheduled to launch on Thursday, Aug. 7, at 10:01 AM EDT (14:01 UTC) from House Launch Advanced 40 (SLC-40) on the Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station (CCSFS) in Florida. Falcon 9 will ship one other batch of 24 Mission Kuiper web satellites into LEO, marking the second launch by Falcon 9 for Mission Kuiper.
The primary Mission Kuiper mission launched in October 2023 with two prototype satellites launching aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V. Seventy-eight manufacturing satellites have since launched aboard each Atlas V and Falcon 9 rockets.
A brand new Falcon 9 booster, B1091, shall be supporting this mission. Following stage separation, the booster will land on certainly one of SpaceX’s east coast droneships, A Shortfall of Gravitas.
Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m diameter, 70 m tall two-stage rocket. 9 Merlin 1D engines energy the primary stage booster, whereas the second stage makes use of a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the primary and solely reusable orbital rockets in service right this moment, with one Falcon booster having flown 29 flights. The 2 payload fairings are additionally recovered and reused after flight.
The launch of a Jielong -3 rocket is now anticipated from The Oriental Spaceport Launch Ship (Space 1), stationed in Chinese language Coastal Waters within the Yellow Sea, on Friday, August 8, at 16:30 UTC.
In widespread with many Chinese language launches, the payload is unlikely to be recognized till simply after the launch.
The Jielong-3 rocket consists of 4 solid-fueled rocket levels. It’s 31.8 m tall with a diameter of about 2.65 m. The payload fairing is 3.35 m in diameter and offers the rocket its very front-heavy form. Of the 145 t of mass at liftoff, about 71 t is the stable motor of the primary stage.
In distinction to different stable rockets of China, comparable to Chang Zheng 11 (Lengthy March 11), this rocket isn’t “chilly launched” from the barge. Chilly launched implies that the rocket is expelled from a launch tube on the barge, after which ignited within the air. For Jielong-3, the ignition occurs on the barge itself. It produces 2,000 kN of thrust at liftoff. It’s launched on a grid, straight over the ocean, so the water of the ocean is used as a suppression system for the launch car.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-4
A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 7:05 PM PDT (Sunday, 02:05 UTC) from House Launch Advanced 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg House Pressure Base in California. The fourth batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink constellation’s polar shell will fly due south to be delivered into Solar-synchronous orbit.
After the launch and stage separation, booster B1093 will land on SpaceX’s west coast droneship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, which shall be stationed downrange within the Pacific Ocean.
B1093, which shall be making its fifth flight, was first flown on April 7, 2025, on the Starlink Group 11-11 mission. The booster has additionally supported the Starlink Group 15-5, Starlink Group 15-9, and Starlink Group 15-2 missions.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-20
A Falcon 9 will launch from SLC-40 at CCSFS on Sunday, Aug. 10, at 8:16 AM EDT (12:16 UTC). Starlink Group 10-20 will launch atop booster B1085 and can fly northwest, carrying a payload of 28 satellites for insertion into LEO.
B1085 shall be making its tenth flight, having beforehand supported the Starlink Group 10-5, Crew-9, Starlink Group 6-77, GPS III-7, Blue Ghost Mission 1 & HAKUTO-R M2, Fram2, Starlink Group 6-93, SXM-10, and MTG-S1/Sentinel-4A missions. The booster’s first flight was on Aug. 20, 2024.
After launch, the booster will land atop the Simply Learn the Directions droneship, which shall be stationed roughly 640 km downrange within the Atlantic Ocean. The droneship shall be returned to Port Canaveral, the place the booster shall be offloaded to be ready for its subsequent flight.
United Launch Alliance is getting ready for a landmark launch. The licensed Vulcan rocket will quickly carry out its first U.S. nationwide safety mission, an intricate marathon lasting over seven hours to ship two satellites greater than 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above Earth.
Be taught extra… pic.twitter.com/JwHa9JzsBU
— ULA (@ulalaunch) July 25, 2025
Vulcan VC4S | USSF-106 (NTS-3 & Others)
Vulcan’s first launch of 2025 is now scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 12, at 7:59 PM EDT (23:59 UTC). The US House Pressure 106 (USSF-106) and NTS-3 payloads shall be delivered into geosynchronous orbit from House Launch Advanced 41 (SLC-41) on the CCSFS in Florida.
NTS-3 is a expertise demonstration navigation satellite tv for pc with an experimental sign generator that’s designed to be reprogrammed on-orbit to enhance efficiency, overcome interference, and defend from countermeasure assaults. A labeled USSF payload may also be launched on this mission.
Vulcan is ULA’s expendable heavy-lift rocket with twin BE-4 major engines and, on this mission’s VC4S configuration, 4 side-mounted GEM 63XL stable rocket boosters. Standing at 61.6 m in peak and 5.4 m in diameter, the two-stage rocket can raise 11,693 kg to geosynchronous switch orbit.
The Vulcan rocket will deploy the U.S.-106 mission on to geosynchronous (GEO) orbit utilizing the high-performance Centaur V upperstage.
This shall be Vulcan’s first mission of 2025, and its third mission in whole. This may also be ULA’s third mission of 2025.
(Lead Picture: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit score: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
