Two cargo resupply missions have launched to the International Space Station this week. A Russian Soyuz launched the Progress MS-32 spacecraft Thursday, to be followed on Sunday by a Falcon 9 carrying Northrop Grumman’s new Cygnus XL vehicle.
In addition to Cygnus XL, Falcon 9 launched one Starlink mission and two customer missions. Russia and China have also launched satellite missions during the week, although one has now slipped into next week.
A Chang Zheng 7A (CZ-7A) launched on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 02:00 UTC from LC-201 at Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China. The CZ-7A flew a Chinese military remote sensing satellite — Yaogan 45 —- due east out of Wenchang into medium Earth orbit.
Standing 58 m tall, the CZ-7A has three stages, with the first stage featuring four strap-on boosters. The first two stages and the four boosters use liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 propellants, while the third stage burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. This was the fourth CZ-7A flight of 2025, and the 12th flight of the CZ-7A variant since its debut in 2020.
Falcon 9 | Tranche 1 Transport Layer B
SpaceX launched the Tranche 1 Transport Layer B mission on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 7:12:10 AM PDT (14:12:10 UTC) from Space Launch Complex (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California.
LAUNCH: SpaceX Falcon 9 B1093-6 launches SDA's Tranche 1 Transport Layer B from SLC-4E, Vandenberg.
Overview:https://t.co/t6EIS1eSJm
Live: https://t.co/KdyOmwJIjy pic.twitter.com/Fx0NVxGiQ6
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 10, 2025
The customer for this mission is the Space Development Agency (SDA), a direct-reporting unit of the U.S. Space Force. This mission serves as the first of six Tranche 1 Transport Layer missions to launch on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg. Falcon 9 carried 21 York Space Systems provided satellites on a due south trajectory towards a polar orbit. SDA’s Transport Layer will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to a full range of warfighter platforms.
Following liftoff, the booster, B1093, landed atop the west coast droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific Ocean. B1093 was making its sixth flight on this mission, having previously flown five Starlink missions into the Group 11, 15, and 17 shells.
Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m diameter, 70 m tall two-stage rocket. Nine Merlin 1D engines power the first stage booster, while the second stage utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the first and only reusable orbital rockets in service today, with one Falcon booster having flown 30 flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after flight.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, at 15:54 UTC, a Russian cargo resupply mission, Progress MS-32 , launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from Site 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Progress cargo spacecraft was launched atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, flying northeast to deliver 7,280 kg of cargo, including food, water, and science experiments, to the orbiting laboratory.
MS-23 is expected to dock with ISS on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 17:27 UTC.
The Soyuz-2.1a is one of three active variants in the Soyuz family of rockets. The first stage consists of four liquid-fueled boosters, which are mounted radially around a central core, which makes up the second stage of the rocket.
A previous Roscosmos Progress cargo spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on July 5, 2025, (Credit: NASA)
Each of the four boosters is powered by an RD-107A engine, burning RG-1 propellant – a highly-refined form of kerosene similar to RP-1 – and liquid oxygen. Each RD-107A is equipped with two smaller vernier engines to assist in controlling the rocket’s flight.
The center core, designated Blok-A, is the second stage of the rocket. It utilizes a single RD-108A engine, derived from the RD-107A, with four vernier engines instead of the two. A single RD-0110 engine powers the third stage.
Following two attempts to beat the Florida weather on Monday and Tuesday, Nusantara Lima launched on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 9:56 PM EDT (Friday, 01:56 UTC). Previous attempts had seen controllers push the T-0 time back into the launch window several times on each occasion looking to find a gap in the weather, but to no avail. This launch had also been delayed to the very end of the launch window, again in respect of the weather, which was only 45% favorable.
The Nusantara Lima mission placed an Indonesian high-throughput telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite is being launched to replace an earlier version that failed to reach the required orbit following launch aboard a Chinese Chang Zheng 3B rocket in 2020.
Falcon 9 booster B1078 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida and flew due east before landing atop the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship.
B1078 was flying for the 23rd time, having previously supported the Crew-6, O3b mPower 3 & 4, Starlink Group 6-4, Starlink Group 6-8, Starlink Group 6-16, Starlink Group 6-31, USSF-124, Starlink Group 6-46, Starlink Group 6-53, Starlink Group 6-60, Starlink Group 10.2, Starlink Group 10-6, Bluebird-1, Starlink Group 10-13, Starlink Group 6-76, Starlink Group 12-6, Starlink Group 12-9, Starlink Group 12-16, Starlink Group 6-72, Starlink Group 6-84, Starlink Group 12-26, and Starlink Group 10-26 missions. The booster’s first flight was on March 2, 2023.
A second Soyuz launched on Saturday, Sept. 13, during a launch window between 02:10 and 03:30 UTC, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, according to TASS, the Russian news agency. This mission utilized the more powerful Soyuz 2.1b with the Fregat-M upper stage to launch a Glosnass-K satellite navigation system payload due east into medium-Earth orbit. While Glonass was not specifically named in the report, TASS reported that the military satellite payload was successfully deployed as well as Mozhayets-6, a small experimental satellite built by the Mozhaiskiy Military Space Academy in St.-Petersburg.
Soyuz 2.1b features a more powerful third stage than Soyuz 2.1a. Four RD-107A engines power Soyuz 2.1b on the first stage (arranged around the second, core stage), a single RD-108A engine on the core stage, and an RD-0124 engine on the third stage. Each stage uses liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-10
The Starlink Group 17-10 mission launched on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 10:55 AM PDT (17:55 UTC) from SLC-4E at VSFB in California. Falcon 9 flew due south to place the payload of 24 Starlink satellites into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit.
Supporting this mission was booster B1071, making its 28th flight since February 2, 2022 when it launched NROL-87. Since then, B1071 has launched 16 Starlink and 10 other customer missions.
Following the mission, B1071 landed successfully atop SpaceX’s east coast droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific Ocean.
A second cargo resupply mission to the ISS launched on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 8:11:48 PM EDT (22:11:48 UTC). A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the first Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL from SLC-40 at CCSFS.
Cygnus XL is being flown to replace the previous Cygnus spacecraft — NG-22 — which was damaged in transit from Northrop Grumman’s facilities to the Kennedy Space Center. The new Cygnus XL is a stretched version of the previous model, allowing for more volume and up to 1,300 kg of additional mass to be transported to the ISS. Built in France and Italy by Thales Alenia Space, the Cygnus XL flying on this mission is named in honour of naval aviator and astronaut William “Willie” C. McCool.
Cygnus XL will be berthed to ISSon Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 10:35 UTC.
The booster supporting this mission was B1094, making its fourth flight. After flying northeast, the booster separated from the second stage and performed a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2). B1094 first flew on April 29, 2025, supporting Starlink Group 12-10, and has since supported the Axiom Mission 4 and Crew-11 missions.
Chang Zheng 2C/YZ-1S | Unknown Payload
A Chinese Chang Zheng 2C (CZ-2C) equipped with the YZ-1S optional third stage was scheduled to launch from Site 9401 (SLS-2) at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China. Liftoff is now targeted for Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 01:05 UTC.
Payload information is not likely to be available until shortly after the launch, but indications are that the mission will fly southeast from the launch site.
CZ-2C is a two stage rocket that utilises storable propellants, consisting of nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. The design is based on a DF-5 ICBM.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
