Plus: Our new Europe Report
By Mike Gruss
It's mid-November, which means it's the time of year when launch records start falling.
On a day-to-day, or even week-to-week basis, it's easy to lose track of the overall launch cadence. Now, with roughly seven weeks left in 2025, it's a good time for a check-in.
Rocket Lab expected to have a single test of Neutron in 2025. That's now slipped to 2026.
Blue Origin's second New Glenn launch is expected … imminently.
United Launch Alliance had about 20 missions on the manifest for 2025 last fall. They've launched four times.
Arianespace said last September it planned to launch the Ariane 6 six times in 2025. It has launched three.
And predictably, it looks to be another big year for SpaceX.
SpaceX leadership said they were eyeing launching about 180 times in 2025. Here's how the numbers are looking:
✔ A SpaceX executive said at a conference recently that he expected the company to finish the year with 165 to 170 Falcon 9 launches, which would be a record. ✔ A Starlink launch Monday was the 94th orbital mission so far this year from the Cape, breaking 2024's record of 93 launches. ✔ That followed another record, from October, when SpaceX launched eight Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg. That equalled the company record for launches there in a month set in September.
In addition, a pair of launches Saturday were China's 69th and 70th of the year, breaking the record of 68 orbital launch attempts set by that country last year.
And the year's not over yet.
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SIGNIFICANT DIGIT
| 21 | The number of European Union member states and other European countries who have expressed interest in adopting the service that AST SpaceMobile announced this week. The U.S. company has registered plans with international regulators via Germany for a sovereign, space-based network that would provide broadband directly to devices across Europe. | | |
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EYES ON EUROPE
| Today, SpaceNews is launching a new Europe Report newsletter. You can sign up here.
In this morning's edition, we talked about the upcoming European Space Agency ministerial To get a sense of what to keep an eye on, I asked Emma Gatti, a SpaceNews correspondent in Europe who will be covering the ministerial, what she'll be watching for. She pointed to three countries, France, Germany and Italy.
Here's what she said:
"France faces political turbulence — will its ESA budget hold to maintain its position as the second-biggest contributor? Germany, the leading contributor to ESA's budget, has just earmarked €35 billion for space security — but this budget is not for ESA. Will this backfire and compromise Germany's leading position? Italy could tip the balance if the two big sisters decide to focus on national programs instead."
Emma pointed to other questions as well: "Will ESA relaunch with a bolder human exploration strategy?" "Will the introduction of the ERS-EO program eat into the budgets of other EO missions?" "Which countries will invest in supporting Ariane 6 and Vega-C versus reusable programs (FLPP, Space Rider)?" "And which of the smaller players will seize the moment to expand their role?" Then there's a series of programs Emma is watching: IRIS² ("likely safe"), ERS ("new and uncertain"), FLPP ("an evergreen"), and E3P – "the largest single pot, spanning lunar to Mars exploration."
That's a lot to keep track of. But this is exactly why we're launching the Europe Report — to unpack the decisions and debates driving Europe's next chapter in space. | | |
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