With 11 launches scheduled worldwide, this week’s launch roundup is among the busiest of 2025 so far. SpaceX is expected to conduct four missions with the workhorse Falcon 9, including the crewed Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard took six humans to suborbital space this week. Internationally, the first-ever domestically built Australian rocket launched unsuccessfully, while four launches from China are scheduled to take place. Then, a joint science mission between NASA and ISRO launched from India.
iSpace’s Shuangquxian 1 rocket launched on its eighth flight on July 29 after a year-long hiatus following a failure on its seventh mission. The four-stage, approximately 21 m tall rocket will liftoff from Site 95A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The launch window opens at 4:03 UTC and closes at 5:00 UTC, with liftoff expected at 4:10 UTC.
The payload for this mission was initially unknown, but it was later revealed to be Kunpeng-03. This satellite is a commercial Earth observation satellite capable of capturing images with a resolution of under 1 meter. With four failures out of its seven flights, iSpace hopes the upgrades over the last year will restore the rocket’s reliability and bring its success rate back up to 50%.
After multiple attempts to launch Gilmour Space’s Eris rocket for its inaugural mission, the company launched the Eris rocket on July 29 at 22:35 UTC. The launch took place at the Bowen Orbital Spaceport, located at Abbot Point in Australia, but there appeared to be an engine issue shortly after launch. The rocket veered off course and crashed into the ground near the launch pad. Before the launch, delays had been due solely to unfavorable weather conditions, including strong upper wind, which made Gilmour hesitant to proceed with the launch of the vehicle.
There was a strong sense of pride and confidence in Eris among Australians. The rocket’s central emblem displays that the three-stage launcher is “Australian-made.” The main reason for this pride is that TestFlight1 had been set to become the first orbital launch from Australian soil performed by a domestically built vehicle. Even with the result, Gilmour Space seems excited about the first flight taking off from the pad and reaching beyond the top of the tower.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-29
The week’s first batch of Starlink satellites launched to LEO atop a Falcon 9 on July 29 at 11:37 PM EDT (3:37 UTC on July 30). Starlink Group 10-29, comprised of 27 Starlink v2 Mini satellites, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Falcon booster B1069 completed its 26th flight after a refurbishment period of just 37 days. This booster propelled the second stage into space before landing on SpaceX’s droneship, Just Read the Instructions, downrange in the Atlantic.
CASC’s Chang Zheng 8 launched successfully on July 30 at 7:49 UTC, carrying nine Guowang communications satellites into LEO. Lifting off from Commercial LC-1 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, the Guowang communication satellites are part of China’s planned megaconstellation of internet satellites. With 13,000 satellites designed for this constellation in both low-Earth and geostationary orbits, this service could rival SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, but only within China. This mission will be the sixth overall for the Chang Zheng 8A and the third of this year.
Chang Zheng 8A is transported to the launch pad. (Credit: CCTV/CASC)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and NASA launched the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) atop a GSLV Mk II rocket. Liftoff occurred at 12:10 UTC on July 30 from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. NISAR will map Earth’s elevation four to six times a month at a resolution of five to 10 m. This satellite will specifically focus on ecosystem disturbances, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, and ice sheet collapses.
Concept image of NISAR over California. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA contributed the L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high-rate telecommunications system, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem. ISRO provided the satellite bus, the S-band SAR, and launch services. NISAR’s launch marked GSLV Mk II’s 18th mission overall and the second of 2025. It also marked ISRO’s 99th launch, approaching the significant milestone of 100 launches, which the organization is expected to reach later this year.
PRSC-S1 launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China on July 31. Launching from the Mobile Launcher Pad, ExPace’s Kuaizhou 1A rocket flew this Earth observation satellite on a southeast trajectory for its 30th mission. The launch window opens at 1:51 UTC and lasts until 2:39 UTC, with liftoff scheduled for 2:00 UTC.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 13-4
This week’s second batch of Starlink satellites launched on the Starlink Group 13-4 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Faclon lifted off at 11:35 AM PDT (18:35 UTC) on Thursday, July 31. Booster B1071 landed on SpaceX’s autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific Ocean, 38 days after its last mission.
This launch marked Falcon’s 500th recovery attempt, highlighting the company’s strong commitment to reusability.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpaceX Crew-11
After a scrub on July 31 that came down to the final seconds before launch, what was supposed to be the final launch of July 2025 is now the first mission in August. SpaceX and NASA are launching the Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Aug 1 at 11:43 PM EDT (15:43 UTC). Launching from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, four astronauts lifted off on Crew Dragon to the International Space Station for a six-month mission focused on science and research. The four-person crew is comprised of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman (commander) and Mike Fincke (pilot), along with JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui (mission specialist) and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platanov (mission specialist).
Booster B1094 flew its third mission, and due to SpaceX not renewing the lease on Landing Zone 1, the booster performed the final return-to-launch-site landing at SpaceX’s LZ-1 shortly after stage separation. Crew Dragon C206 Endeavour continued to the ISS for the sixth time after 515 days of refurbishment.
Blue Origin launched New Shepard for its 34th mission and 14th human flight, carrying six people to suborbital space. Successfully launching from Launch Site One in West Texas on Aug 3 at 7:42 AM CDT (12:42 UTC), New Shepard carried Arvi Bahal, Gökhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, J.D. Russell, and H.E. Justin Sun on capsule RSS First Step and booster NS4 for its sixth mission of the year.
H.E. Justin Sun, who won the bid for the first-ever seat on New Shepard but was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, finally redeemed his ticket and flew on this mission. Additionally, J.D. Russell flew on his second New Shepard mission, his previous one being on NS-28.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-30
Another Starlink mission is launched on Aug 4 at 3:57 AM EDT (07:57 UTC) from SLC-40 at CCSFS. This mission carried 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to a low-Earth orbit with a 53.1-degree inclination. The booster B1080 guided these satellites on a northeastern path until about eight minutes into flight, when the second stage took over and the first stage successfully landed on one of SpaceX’s autonomous droneships, Just Read the Instructions.
On Aug. 4, a Chinese Chang Zheng 12 launched from Commercial LC-2 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China at 10:21 UTC, carrying an unknown number of Guowang satellites to LEO. Given that this is the second launch of a group of Guowang communications satellites this week, the constellation is expected to expand rapidly in the coming months. Should launches continue at this rate, the constellation will likely fulfill its goal of deploying 13,000 satellites into orbit and becoming a reliable internet provider for the Chinese people.
(Lead image: A close-up of Crew Dragon C210 Endurance atop Falcon 9 on a previous flight. Credit: SpaceX)
