2026 – Page 7 – Spaceflight Now

Crew 11 safely splashes down after shortened mission

January 15, 2026 William Harwood

Four space station crewmates undocked and plunged back to Earth Thursday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast six days after NASA ordered them home early because of a medical issue.

NASA, SpaceX conduct ‘medical evacuation’ Crew-11 return to Earth

January 14, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The three astronauts and cosmonaut are scheduled to undock from the space station at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and splashdown off the coast of California at 3:41 a.m. EST (0841 UTC).

SpaceX breaks pad turnaround record at Cape Canaveral with midday Starlink launch

January 14, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The Starlink 6-98 mission added 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to the low Earth orbit constellation. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 1:08 p.m. EST (1808 UTC).

U.S. Space Force switches rockets for upcoming GPS satellite launch

January 13, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The change will allow the U.S. Space Force to expedite the process of building out its GPS constellation in medium Earth orbit. The launch date for the next satellite, GPS III Space Vehicle 09, could be within weeks.

ISS gains new commander as Crew-11 prepares midweek departure

January 13, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke took over command of the International Space Station on Dec. 7, 2025. He and the rest of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission will undock from the ISS on Jan. 14.

SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

January 12, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The Starlink 6-97 mission was the fifth Falcon 9 rocket launch of 2026, a rate of roughly one flight every 2.5 days. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 4:08:20 p.m. EST (2108:20 UTC).

India’s PSLV suffers second consecutive launch failure, 16 satellites lost

January 12, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The anomaly Monday morning local time came less than a year after a previous issue that caused the failure of the PSLV-C61 mission.

SpaceX deploys NASA’s Pandora, other smallsats amid 1st ‘Twilight’ rideshare mission

January 10, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The flight included 40 deployment events for a variety of payloads, including NASA’s Pandora spacecraft. Liftoff from pad 4E happened at 5:44 a.m. PST (8:44 a.m. EST / 1344 UTC).

L3Harris announces $845 million majority sale of Space Propulsion and Power Systems business

January 9, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The deal with AE Industrial Partners is expected to close in the second half of 2026. L3Harris will retain full control over the RS-25 engine.

Crew-11 to cut mission short and return to Earth due to medical issue

January 9, 2026 William Harwood

In keeping with the agency’s strict medical privacy policy, NASA officials have not identified the astronaut in question or provided any details about the nature of the medical issue.