Two Chinese rockets, a pair of Russian missions, a trio of Falcon 9 launches, a New Shepard, an Electron, and the long-awaited tenth flight of Starship were scheduled to fly this week. In Russia, a Soyuz rocket launched a modernized version of the Vostok capsule that flew crewed missions in the 1960s from Baikonur, while an Angara rocket took flight from the Russian military launch site in Plesetsk.
Before Starship Flight 10’s scrub, SpaceX flew one Starlink mission and a national security mission featuring the X-37B, and successfully launched a Cargo Dragon flight to the International Space Station. Both X-37 and Cargo Dragon were scheduled to launch from Florida, while Starlink Group 17-6 flew from California.
One Chinese rocket launched from Jiuquan and another flew from Wenchang, while New Shepard will launch from west Texas with a date to be determined after Saturday’s and Tuesday’s scrubs. Later on Saturday, an Electron launched from New Zealand.
CAS Space of China flew its second Kinetica 1 mission of 2025 this week. The flight of Kinetica-1 Y10 took place on Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 07:35 UTC. Launching from Site 130 at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China, the mission flew on a southward trajectory carrying seven satellites to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
Kinetica 1, also known as Lijian-1, Â is a 31 m tall, 2.65 m diameter, four-stage rocket that first flew in July 2022. All four stages utilize solid fuel and solid rocket motors, and Kinetica-1 is the largest entirely solid-fueled launch vehicle in the Chinese launch industry.
Two Mexican femtosatellites, massing less than 100 grams each, were onboard and the operator has confirmed nominal separation. ThumbSat 1 and 2 are CAS Space’s first international commercial mission, and these satellites are meant to make space more accessible to students and citizen scientists in Mexico. ThumbSat-1 has a selfie payload, and ThumbSat-2 carries an artistic payload.
The other payloads on this flight are not yet known. This flight was the eighth overall mission for Kinetica-1 and came just days after the ZhuQue-2 launch failure that forced a short delay in launches from Jiuquan.
The Bion-M no. 2 spacecraft being integrated before launch. (Credit: Roscosmos)
Roscosmos successfully launched the Bion-M no. 2 mission aboard a Soyuz 2.1b rocket from Site 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 17:13 UTC. The Soyuz took a northeast trajectory, lofting the Bion-M spacecraft to a 300-370 km altitude, high-inclination low-Earth orbit (LEO) that might be used for the future Russian ROS space station.
The 6,300 kg Bion-M is derived from the Vostok spacecraft that launched Yuri Gagarin to space on April 12, 1961, as well as several other Soviet cosmonauts in the early days of the Space Race. The Soviet — and later Russian — program kept using the Vostok’s basic design for various uncrewed missions, as it is capable of returning to Earth intact with biological experiments or other cargo.
The Soviet program flew many biological research missions, known as Bion, and reconnaissance satellites, known as Zenit, derived from the Vostok, and invited NASA to fly joint uncrewed biological research missions aboard these spacecraft in the early 1970s. The first joint NASA-Soviet biological research mission flew aboard Kosmos 782 — known as Bion 3 — in 1975.
Bion-M no. 1 after its return to Earth in 2013. (Credit: Institute of Medical and Biological Problems)
The current Bion-M spacecraft uses the same reentry capsule design as the Vostok, but is attached to a service module derived from the Yantar spacecraft. This service module offers maneuvering capability, and its solar panels support mission durations of up to six months. The original Bion spacecraft used service modules more directly derived from the Vostok spacecraft.
Bion-M’s first flight, in 2013, flew a German-built aquarium with fish as well as mice, gerbils, geckos, snails, and microorganisms for 30 days before returning to Earth with a landing in Orenburg, Russia. Bion-M1 notably featured experiments from NASA, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Poland, and other countries.
Bion-M no. 2 is flying 75 mice and studying how these mice are affected by radiation on the molecular level. What’s more, 1,000 fruit flies are onboard, along with plants and microorganisms. The mission is scheduled to last for 30 days before the spacecraft returns to Earth. This flight was the fourth Soyuz 2.1b launch of 2025.
Angara 1.2 launches Cosmos 2577 & 2578. (Credit: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation)
A Russian Angara 1.2 rocket has flown an unknown payload for the Russian Ministry of Defence from Plesetsk in Russia’s far north. Launch took place on Thursday, Aug. 21, at 08:32 UTC from Site 35/1 at Plesetsk Cosmodrome, with Angara flying the payload to a polar orbit.
Polar orbits are commonly used by reconnaissance satellites as they allow satellites to cover virtually all of Earth’s surface. The Plesetsk launch site is Russia’s equivalent of Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), which is used for many U.S. national security missions. The Angara 1.2 can carry up to 2,400 kg to a polar SSO.
The Angara 1.2 uses a single universal rocket module (URM-1) as its first stage, compared to the Angara 5 that uses one URM-1 as the core and four URM-1s as strap-on boosters. The URM-1 uses one RD-191 engine with liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants, and these propellants are also used on the second stage. This flight is the second Angara 1.2 mission of 2025.
X-37B after returning from orbit. (Credit: U.S. Space Force)
The U.S. Space Force’s USSF-36 mission successfully launched aboard a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) on Thursday, Aug. 21, at 11:50 PM EDT (03:50 UTC). Following launch, which saw Falcon 9 fly to the northeast, B1092-6 safely performed a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2).
B1092’s career started with the Starlink 12-13 mission, and the booster also has flown NROL-69, CRS-32, GPS III SV08, and Starlink 10-34. The CRS-32 launch was from LC-39A while the others were from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).
Landing Zone 2 will be used for all future RTLS missions until landing pads are built at LC-39A and Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40). Landing Zone 1 is expected to be no longer used for Falcon landings, with the pad hosting its last landing during the launch of the Crew-11 mission.
Unlike other USSF missions, the primary payload for USSF-36 is known. A X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is flying the program’s eighth mission since the OTV-1 mission in 2010 aboard an Atlas V. OTV Vehicle 1 will be making its fourth flight, after it flew the OTV-1, OTV-3, and OTV-6 missions.
Unlike OTV-7, the last X-37B flight, which was launched by a Falcon Heavy in December 2023, OTV-8 flew into LEO. OTV-8 will perform demonstrations of high-bandwidth inter-satellite laser link communications and navigation using the highest performing quantum inertial sensor in space.
This flight was the 101st Falcon 9 launch of 2025, as SpaceX works to fly up to 160 missions this year. It was also the first flight from LC-39A since Crew-11 launched on Aug. 1.
Starlink satellites are released during Starlink Group 15-5, which also launched from SLC-4E on May 16. (Credit: SpaceX)
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-6
The lone Starlink mission this week launched successfully on Friday, Aug. 22, at 10:04 AM PDT (17:04 UTC) from Space Launch Complex-4E (SLC-4E) at VSFB. The four-hour launch window lasted until 12:44 PM PDT (19:44 UTC). This flight, like other Group 17 launches, flew on a southerly trajectory from SLC-4E to place 24 satellites in SSO.
The booster, B1081-17, performed a safe recovery on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You droneship. B1081’s career started with the Crew-7 mission, and it has flown the CRS-29, PACE, Transporter 10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter 13, TRACERS, and eight Starlink missions.
B1081 has the distinction of not only flying a crewed spacecraft but also flying from all three of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch facilities on both coasts. Starlink Group 17-6 was the 102nd Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the company’s 545th mission overall, counting all launch vehicle families.
An Electron rocket at the launch pad in New Zealand on a prior mission. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
Electron | Live, Laugh, Launch
Rocket Lab added a launch with an EchoStar satellite and at least one confidential customer to this week’s busy manifest. An Electron successfully launched  from one of the two pads at Launch Complex 1 from Rocket Lab’s private spaceport at Mahia, New Zealand on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 22:42 UTC.
The rocket took a southward trajectory and launched five payloads to a sun-synchronous orbit. The EchoStar Lyra 2 is known to be on board this flight, and Lyra 2 plus four other satellites were released into a circular orbit at 655 km altitude for confirmed mission success.
The Lyra 2 is one of four satellites for EchoStar’s low-Earth orbit constellation that will serve Internet of Things, machine-to-machine, and other data users. This flight was the 12th Electron launch of 2025 and the 70th overall launch of the type.
Falcon 9 lifts off from LC-39A carrying the CRS-26 mission and Cargo Dragon C211 to resupply the ISS. (Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)
The next launch in the International Space Station’s (ISS) regular schedule of Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) missions was SpaceX’s CRS-33 mission, which launched successfully on Sunday, Aug. 24, at 2:45 AM EDT (06:45 UTC) from SLC-40 at CCSFS. The launch window is instantaneous.
Falcon 9 flew on a northeast trajectory to launch Cargo Dragon C211 to the ISS, which flies in a LEO inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. The booster, B1090-7, was safely recovered on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic. The booster started its career with the O3b mPOWER 7 & 8 mission, and also has flown Crew-10, Bandwagon-3, O3b mPOWER 9 & 10, and two Starlink missions, all from Florida.
Cargo Dragon C211 uses a trunk capable of performing reboost burns for the Station, and carried more than 2,200 kg of supplies and experiments to orbit on its way to ISS. Experiments that are being flown onboard include an engineered liver tissue study, an investigation into the effects of microgravity on bone marrow stem cells, and an orbital data center experiment involving a Red Hat Device Edge platform.
This flight was the 103rd Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the second CRS Cargo Dragon mission of the year.
Rendering of the CZ-8A rocket to launch this week. (Credit: CCTV)
Chang Zheng 8A | SatNet LEO Group 10
China successfully completed a second orbital launch this week, with a Chang Zheng 8A (CZ-8A) rocket from Commercial LC-1 at Wenchang on Hainan Island. The flight launched on Monday, Aug. 25 at 19:08 UTC.
The flight took a southeast trajectory, and the payload was nine SatNet LEO Group 10 broadband satellites. The CZ-8A is a newer medium-lift launcher that could replace earlier rockets based on ICBM technology. This flight was the fourth CZ-8A mission of 2025 and the seventh overall mission of the rocket type.
Ship 37 rolls into the launch site for a second time. (Credit: Jack Beyer for NSF)
The Starship program looks to recover from recent setbacks as Ship 37, mounted to Booster 16, was scheduled to fly from Pad 1 at Starbase, Texas, on Sunday, Aug. 24 but was scrubbed due to a ground systems issue. The flight had been scheduled for 6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC) then pushed back into the window before the scrub. Another attempt on Monday, Aug. 25 was scrubbed due to a violation of the anvil cloud rule. Starship will use a similar flight path to previous launches, flying eastward over the Gulf and Caribbean.
Booster 16 will be directed to a splashdown off the coast of Brownsville as it conducts tests during its descent, including a possible engine-out scenario. These tests will inform future catches of the Block 3 boosters that will fly with Raptor 3 engines.
Ship 37 was initially set to fly on Flight 11, while Ship 36 and Flight 10 were working toward a launch in late June or July. However, Ship 36 exploded on the test stand at Masseys just before it was supposed to perform a six-engine static fire, forcing SpaceX to reassign Ship 37 to Flight 10.
The explosion knocked the Massey’s Test Facility out of service for at least several months for static fire testing. To work around the lack of testing infrastructure, SpaceX designed a mount to static fire Ship 37 on the orbital launch mount at Pad 1. Ship 37 conducted a single-engine and a six-engine static fire test at the launch pad, but an issue with an engine necessitated an engine swap.
After Ship 37 completed a spin prime test with its new engine, the launch pad was reconfigured to host a full stack. Flight 10’s objectives are the same as the earlier Starship flights of 2025 that did not complete the needed tasks. On this flight, Ship 37 is carrying eight dummy Starlink satellites to be deployed, and SpaceX will attempt to get valuable reentry data before a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
This will be the fourth Starship flight of 2025 and the penultimate flight from Pad 1 in its current configuration. This flight would also be the first entirely successful Block 2 flight if Ship 37 splashes down intact in the Indian Ocean, as SpaceX is preparing Block 3 for its debut early next year.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-27 mission lifts off (Credit: Blue Origin)
Blue Origin added a suborbital launch of the crew-capable New Shepard to the schedule. A New Shepard rocket was scheduled to fly from Launch Site One in the desert of west Texas on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 5:30 AM MDT (11:30 UTC), and NS-35 will be an uncrewed research flight. However, the launch was scrubbed due to an avionics issue on the rocket. Another attempt on Tuesday was also scrubbed for the same reason and a new launch date is to be announced.
The New Shepard capsule will be lofted to a suborbital trajectory with an apogee over 100 km, which is the Karman line boundary that the Federation Aeronautique Internationale recognizes as where space starts. The capsule will land in the desert under parachutes while the booster will land on a concrete pad. Both elements are reusable.
The capsule for this flight is the RSS H.G. Wells, which is dedicated to uncrewed missions. H.G. Wells will fly atop the NS5 booster for the second time this year. The capsule and booster were used during the NS-29 uncrewed lunar gravity research mission back in February.
There are over 40 research payloads on board NS-35, including 24 experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. Institutions such as Oklahoma State University, University of Florida, Carthage College, Teledyne, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and others are represented, while Blue Origin’s Club for the Future nonprofit is flying thousands of postcards.
While most New Shepard flights as of late have been crewed, some flights have hosted remotely controlled experiments. This is the seventh New Shepard flight of 2025.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from SLC-40. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
