This week nearly saw two secret spaceplanes launched within days of each other. After ground systems concerns and then weather delays, the US Department of Defense’s X-37B vehicle had its OTV-7 launch on the Falcon Heavy USSF-52 mission scrubbed from its initial planned attempt on Dec. 11. Starlink Group 6-34 was also scrubbed that same day and again a day later due to high-level ground winds, during what turned out to be quite a volatile week for planned launches.

As we go to press, a double header looks to be back on, this time on the evening of Dec. 28 with both a Falcon Heavy and a different Falcon 9 launch scheduled within four hours of each other. If the current schedule stays as-is SpaceX is also on track to complete its 300th mission in the last week of the year or the first week of the new year, depending on how schedules pan out and the way to count this said number of missions.

China launched two of its tallest active rockets this week within a fraction over 24 hours of each other. The Chang Zheng 2F/T launched China’s own equally secretive CSSHQ spaceplane on Dec. 14 for its third flight. This was followed the next day by the first and only launch this year of a Chang Zheng 5 carrying the Yaogan 41 reconnaissance satellite from the Wenchang space launch center into a high elliptical orbit.

At 52 and 57 meters tall, respectively, these are beaten in height by the less frequently flown Chang Zheng 2F/G at 58.3 meters. This is next slated to launch the crewed Shenzhou 18 mission to the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station in May next year.

[Here’s some bonus footage of a Falcon 9 landing this morning. ~ Beege]

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on Landing Zone 4 pic.twitter.com/IqF6yq2KVW

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 24, 2023