Launch Schedule – Spaceflight Now

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch four DiskSats to a circular, low Earth orbit at an altitude of 550 km (342 mi). The mission is also designated as U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Test Program (STP)-S30. It’s supported in part by NASA and the Aerospace Corporation.

Updated: December 17

Commercial company Innospace will launch its first Hanbit-Nano rocket on the Spaceward mission. The two-stage, 21.8-meter-tall (71.5 ft) rocket will carry eight payloads to an altitude of 300 km (186.4 mi) at an inclination of 40 degrees. Five satellites will be deployed and three experimental devices will remain fixed to the upper stage. The vehicle was inspected by the Korea AeroSpace Administration and the Brazilian Air Force. Delayed from Dec. 17 “to replace a component in the first-stage oxidizer feed system following an anomaly.”

Updated: December 17

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into a low Earth orbit. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, believed to be tail number B1101, launching for its first time, will land on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from Dec. 19 & 20.

Updated: December 17

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the third satellite in the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation series on behalf of the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence. The satellite will operate in a Sun-synchronous orbit at 620 km (385 mi) in altitude an inclination of 97.8 degrees. These satellites are designed to have a dual Earth observation purpose, serving both civil and military applications. Its planned end of life date is in December 2032. Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1081, flying for a 21st time, will return to land for a touchdown at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Updated: December 17

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch a technology demonstration satellite for the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The Neonsat-1A is an Earth observation satellite designed as a precursor to KAIST’s Neonate constellation, which is described as being “Designed to capture near-real time natural disaster monitoring for the Korean peninsula.” It will be deployed into a circular low Earth orbit at 540 km (336 mi) at an inclination of 97.4 degrees. Scrubbed attempt on Dec. 10/11. Launch aborted Dec. 15/16 after engine ignition, but before liftoff.

Updated: December 16

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will launch the first Long March 12A rocket. This will be CASC’s first attempt to fly an orbital-class rocket with a reusable first stage booster. It will target a vertical landing on a landing zone pad located about 250 km (155 mi) downrange. Delayed from Dec. 16/17.

Updated: December 15

An H3 launch vehicle, a rocket developed through a partnership between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will launch the Michibiki No. 5, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-5). This will be the eighth launch of an H3 rocket. Delayed from Dec. 6/7 “due to the occurrence of a need to check onboard equipment on the second stage.” Delayed from Dec. 16/17 due to ground systems issue that caused an abort in the final minute of the count.

Updated: December 17

An H3 launch vehicle, a rocket developed through a partnership between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will launch the Michibiki No. 7, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-7). This will be the ninth launch of an H3 rocket.

Updated: December 01

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will launch an Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed flight of the program. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will perform a lunar flyby during a roughly 10-day mission that will see their capsule, ‘Integrity’, splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: December 01

A Proton-M rocket from Roscosmos will launch the Elektro-L No. 5 weather satellite, which will operate in a geostationary Earth orbit. Delayed from Dec. 15 due to an upper stage issue.

Updated: December 14

A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch on its second demonstration flight with Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle for the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser is a lifting body resupply spacecraft that will launch on top of a rocket and land on a runway. This will be the Dream Chaser’s first flight to space. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly in the VC4L configuration with four GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters, a long-length payload fairing, and two RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. Delayed from August 2022, December 2023, January 2024,  April 2024 and September 2024. Delayed from 2025.

Updated: September 16

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station. Originally planned as the first post-certification flight with a four-person crew, this will instead be an uncrewed cargo flight to test changes to the vehicle made in the aftermath of the Crewed Flight Test that launched in 2024.

Updated: November 24

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Dragonfly mission, which consists of a rotorcraft designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) that will explore Saturn’s icy moon, Titan. The mission was originally selected in 2019 and went through multiple plan iterations across fiscal years 2020 through 2022. It passed its Preliminary Design Review in March 2023 and then its Critical Design Review in April 2025. The mission has a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion, of which, $256.6 million was awarded to SpaceX to provide launch services and other mission related costs. The 20-day launch window opens on July 5, 2028.

Updated: April 25