With 10 launches scheduled from around the world, this week’s launch manifest is among the busiest of 2025 so far. SpaceX is expected to launch four missions atop its workhorse Falcon 9, including the crewed Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station.
Rocket Lab’s suborbital Electron, HASTE, is also set to launch from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia mid-week. Internationally, four launches are scheduled to fly from China, and a joint science mission between NASA and ISRO is to be launched from India.
Shuangquxian 1 | Unknown Payload
iSpace’s Shuangquxian 1 rocket is scheduled to launch 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 is currently unknown. Shuangquxian 1 is capable of carrying up to 300 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO). 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%.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-29
The week’s first batch of Starlink satellites is set to launch to LEO atop a Falcon 9 on July 29 at 11:30 PM EDT (3:30 UTC on July 30). Starlink Group 10-29, comprised of 27 Starlink v2 Mini satellites, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Falcon booster B1069 will be making its 26th flight after a refurbishment period of just 37 days. This booster will propel the second stage into space before landing on SpaceX’s droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic.
Scheduled to launch on July 30 at 7:50 UTC is CASC’s Chang Zheng 8A, which is expected to carry an undisclosed number of Guowang communications satellites into LEO. Launching 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 are expected to launch the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) atop a GSLV Mk II rocket. Scheduled to liftoff 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.
NASA is contributing the L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high-rate telecommunications system, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem. ISRO is providing the satellite bus, the S-band SAR, and launch services.
Concept image of NISAR over California. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NISAR’s launch will mark GSLV Mk II’s 18th mission overall and second of 2025. It will also mark ISRO’s 99th launch, approaching the significant milestone of 100 launches, which the organization is expected to reach later this year.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 13-4
This week’s second batch of Starlink satellites is set to launch on the Starlink Group 13-4 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:39 AM EDT (15:39 UTC) on Wednesday, July 30. Booster B1071 will attempt to land on SpaceX’s autonomous droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific Ocean, 37 days after its last mission.
This launch will mark Falcon’s 500th recovery attempt, highlighting the company’s strong commitment to reusability.
Rocket Lab is launching a suborbital mission, JAKE 4, on its Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test (HASTE) testbed on July 30 at 9:45 PM EDT (21:45 UTC). The launch will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. HASTE is a suborbital variant of Electron that will not reach orbit. The payload for this mission is a highly secretive government payload.
HASTE-modified Electron rocket launching from Wallops. (Credit: Rocket Lab)
JAKE 4 is believed to be a hypersonic reentry missile. This missile is thought to be equipped with an air-breathing engine, allowing it to maneuver accurately to its target, whether on land or in the air. Rocket Lab has completed three HASTE missions to date, demonstrating a growing market demand for launching payloads to suborbital space at hypersonic speeds.
Another unknown payload is scheduled to launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China on July 31. Launching from the Mobile Launcher Pad, ExPace’s Kuaizhou 1A rocket is expected to fly this unknown payload 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 | SpaceX Crew-11
The final launch of July 2025 will be SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 31 at 12:09 PM EDT (16:09 UTC). Launching from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, four astronauts will be launched to the orbiting laboratory for a six-month mission full of 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 will be flying its third mission and perform a return-to-launch-site landing at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) after stage separation. Crew Dragon C206 Endeavour will fly to the ISS for the sixth time after 515 days of refurbishment.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-4
SpaceX is expected to launch the third Starlink mission of the week on Saturday, Aug. 2, at 7:05 PM PDT from SLC-4E in California. Falcon 9 will launch 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to a SSO. Booster B1088 will be performing its ninth flight after a 35-day turnaround time. It will return to Earth shortly after liftoff, landing on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You droneship.
On Aug. 4, a Chinese Chang Zheng 12 will launch from Commercial LC-2 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, carrying an unknown number of Guowang satellites to LEO. The launch window opens at 10:14 UTC and closes at 10:42 UTC, with a planned liftoff at 10:20 UTC.
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)
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