Launch Roundup: New Glenn, Viasat, & Sentinel-6B highlight busy week of launches

Date:
Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:43:41 +0000

Description:
This weeks launch schedule features two high-profile launches that were
pushed back after scrubs from The post Launch Roundup: New Glenn, Viasat, & Sentinel-6B highlight busy week of launches appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

This weeks launch schedule features two high-profile launches that were
pushed back after scrubs from last week, as well as the Sentinel-6B mission and two Starlink missions for SpaceX. A suborbital Electron HASTE mission
from Wallops is also scheduled.

New Glenns second launch, featuring the Mars-bound ESCAPADE payload, is now scheduled to launch no earlier than Wednesday, Nov. 12. The Viasat-3 F2 mission, launching on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V, is scheduled
for the next day, with two Starlink launches following the day after on Friday, Nov. 14. The Electron and Sentinel launches are expected to end out the week on Sunday and Monday, respectively.



Transporter-15s launch is now scheduled for no earlier than Nov. 22, and
other launches have had their times rescheduled due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown; a deal to end the shutdown is currently being worked out in Washington. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency notice on Thursday, Nov. 6, banning launches from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM local time.

The FAA issued the ban, which is scheduled to take effect on Monday, Nov. 10, due to staffing issues caused by air traffic controllers and other government employees going without pay during the government shutdown. However, when the shutdown ends, it is expected that the FAA will lift the ban when staffing levels improve.



New Glenn | ESCAPADE

Blue Origin has scheduled the launch of the Escape and Plasma Acceleration
and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, the second-ever flight of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, for Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 2:50 PM EST (19:50 UTC) from Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. The launch window closes at 4:17 PM EST (21:17 UTC). This attempt follows a scrub on Sunday, Nov. 9, due to weather issues.

New Glenn, with the Glenn Stage 1 (GS1) first stage booster named Never Tell Me The Odds , will fly due east out of the Cape, placing the two ESCAPADE probes, named Blue and Gold, on a trajectory to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point
2 (L2), located 1.5 million km from Earth. GS1 will attempt a landing on Blue Origins Landing Platform Vessel 1 (LPV-1) barge, named Jacklyn after Jeff Bezos mother, out in the Atlantic. New Glenn on the pad at LC-36 before its first launch attempt on Nov. 9. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

The probes were built to study Mars, but since the launch does not fall in
the normal transfer window that occurs every 26 months, the spacecraft will study space weather at L2 before flying to Mars during the 2026 Mars transfer window.

ESCAPADE, a mission led by NASA and the University of California, Berkeley, will send two Rocket Lab-built probes into orbit around Mars for a three-year primary mission to study the Martian magnetosphere and how the solar wind interacts with it and Mars thin atmosphere.

This marks the second flight for New Glenn, and the rockets second flight in 2025. A successful booster landing on Jacklyn would also mark the first time
a New Glenn booster has successfully landed. Blue Origin hopes to fly more
New Glenn rockets with an improved cadence in 2026. The Atlas V 511 and Viasat-3 F2 on SLC-41. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

Atlas V 551 | Viasat-3 F2

ULAs fifth launch of the year and Atlas Vs fourth is now scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 13, at 10:00 PM EST (03:00 UTC on Friday, Nov. 14) following launch scrubs caused by issues with a liquid oxygen vent valve during launch attempts on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and Thursday, Nov. 6. These issues caused the Atlas V to roll back to the vehicle integration facility building at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41).

Atlas V will launch from SLC-41, located at CCSFS, and fly on a due east trajectory. The launch window for this mission lasts until 12:05 AM EST on Friday, Nov. 14 (05:05 UTC).

Atlas V will loft the Viasat-3 F2 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The Atlas V 551, the most powerful variant of the Atlas V
family, uses five solid rocket boosters and a five-meter wide fairing along with a single-engine Centaur upper stage. The variant, affectionately known
as the Bruiser at ULA, is needed to lift the 6,400 kg Viasat-3 F2 to GTO. Rendering of the Viasat-3 platform in orbit. (Credit: Viasat)

The Viasat-3 F2 satellite, manufactured by Boeing and based on the 702P+ platform, is designed to add up to one terabit per second of network capacity to the companys network. This particular satellite, operating in the Ka-band, will serve the Americas and is designed to offer download speeds of over 100 megabits per second. There are also over 1,000 steerable spot beams for connectivity to mobile platforms.

Viasat-3 F2 is the second satellite of this constellation to fly. The
Viasat-3 F1 satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on May 1, 2023, and was itself intended to serve the Americas. However, Viasat-3 F1 suffered an anomaly during its antenna deployment sequence, reducing its capacity by around 90 percent. The Viasat-3 F1 satellite during pre-launch processing. (Credit: Viasat)

Viasat-3 F1 is still used for government and aviation customers and will be moved to support Europe, the Middle East, and Africa after Viasat-3 F2 is operational. The forthcoming Viasat-3 F3 will serve the Asia-Pacific region.

The Viasat-3 F2 launch vehicle will mark the final Atlas V mission to fly a satellite to geosynchronous orbit. There are 11 Atlas V missions left after this flight, all of them either Atlas V 551s for Project Kuiper missions or Atlas V N22s for Boeing Starliner flights.



Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-89

The first Falcon 9 launch of the week is the Starlink Group 6-89 mission, scheduled to fly on Friday, Nov. 14, at 10:01 PM EST (03:01 UTC on Saturday, Nov. 15) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window lasts until 2:01 AM EST on Friday, Nov. 14 (07:01 UTC).

Starlink Group 6-89, flying with Falcon booster B1092, will fly on a
southeast trajectory with 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites on board. B1092 will land atop SpaceXs A Shortfall of Gravitas autonomous droneship out in the Atlantic. This launch will be the 145th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the first of the day from the Florida coast.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-85

The second Falcon 9 launch of the week, scheduled for Friday, Nov. 14, is Starlink Group 6-85. Liftoff is set at 10:01 PM EST (03:01 UTC on Friday,
Nov. 15) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at CCSFS note that this time will likely change, as this mission is scheduled to launch at the same time
as Starlink Group 6-89. Like Starlink Group 6-89, this missions window lasts until 2:01 AM EST Saturday, Nov. 15 (07:01 UTC).



Booster B1078 will be supporting this mission on its 24th flight. Falcon 9 will fly on a southeasterly trajectory with 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites on board.

The booster will attempt to land atop SpaceXs Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic. This launch will mark the 146th Falcon 9 launch of 2025.

Electron HASTE | Van

Rocket Lab is set to fly a HASTE suborbital hypersonic research mission,
named Van, from Launch Complex-2 (LC-2) at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The flight is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 16, at 7:45 AM EST (12:45 UTC), with the rocket flying due east over the Atlantic.

Rocket Labs HASTE missions are designed to conduct research testbed flights, studying hypersonic flight for military applications. Four of these missions have flown, and Van will be the fifth. At least one more HASTE mission, Dart AE, could be flown before the end of the year.

This flight is the third from LC-2 in 2025, after the Jenna and Justin HASTE missions in September. It will be the 17th Electron launch of 2025, breaking Rocket Labs record of 16 flights for Electron in 2024. Rocket Lab could fly several additional Electrons before the end of 2025 as the company prepares for the first flight of its medium-lift Neutron rocket. Sentinel-6B during prelaunch processing before its launch from VSFB. (Credit: USSF 30th Space Delta)

Falcon 9 | Sentinel-6B

The Copernicus Programme, run by the European Commission, and SpaceX are scheduled to launch the Sentinel-6B Earth-observation satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California on Monday, Nov. 17. Falcon 9 will liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 9:21 PM PST (05:21 UTC on Monday, Nov. 17). The launch window lasts for 20 minutes, ending at 9:32 PM PST (05:32 UTC on Tuesday).

The launch of Sentinel-6B should not be affected by the FAA staffing issues, since licensing is acquired through NASA, and the launch was procured through NASAs Launch Services Program. Illustration of Sentinel-6B in orbit. (Credit: NASA)

Falcon 9 booster B1097 will fly on a southeast trajectory to place
Sentinel-6B in a 1,336 km altitude circular orbit inclined 66 degrees to the equator. After stage separation, B1097, flying on its third mission, will conduct a return-to-launch-site landing and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), which is located directly adjacent to SLC-4E.

Sentinel-6B will study ocean topography and monitor sea levels using radar altimetry in cooperation with NASA and other agencies worldwide. The mission will ensure sea level data continuity from 1992 until at least 2030 with the aging Jason-3 and Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich satellites in orbit. This flight will mark the 147th Falcon 9 launch of 2025.

(Lead image: New Glenn launches on its first mission, NG-1, in January 2025. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)



The post Launch Roundup: New Glenn, Viasat, & Sentinel-6B highlight busy week of launches appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/11/launch-roundup-111125/


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