Launch cadence slows in 2025's first week, but will bounce back soon

Space Technologies

Good morning,

It’s been a slow week in space—at least in terms of launches. SpaceX launched two Falcon 9s and China launched a Long March 3B/E. That’s the fewest launches in a week that we’ve seen in quite some time.

Speaking of launches, Jonathan McDowell ran the numbers. SpaceX accounted for 138 of 145 space launches from the United States in 2024. That's a full 95%. Europe had only three launches, New Zealand had 13 launches, and China had 68 launches last year. Notably, Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 rocket led China's commercial launch sector with five launches.

Now as quiet as this week has been, the coming week will be full of excitement. Two lunar landers will launch, one from Firefly and one from ispace aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s Starship will launch for the seventh time, and—perhaps most exciting of all—we’ll get to see Blue Origin’s first launch of the New Glenn superheavy rocket! It would be great for the space economy to have another reliable option to get…