Launch Schedule

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the GPS III-8 mission for the U.S. Space Force. The satellite, formally identified as GPS III Space Vehicle 10 (GPS III SV10) and named ‘Hedy Lamarr’ after the actress and inventor of frequency-hopping technology, will be launched into a medium Earth orbit. A little more than 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1095, launching for a seventh time, will land on the drone ship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from April 20.

Updated: April 19

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of 25 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. More than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number B1100, launching for an eighth time, will land on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: April 17

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch a batch of eight satellites for JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program. This is the second of two planned missions for this program.

Updated: April 17

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of 25 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. More than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number B1088, launching for a 15th time, will land on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: April 17

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, launched Soyuz 2.1a rocket with the Progress MS-34 spacecraft on a journey to the International Space Station. Referred to as Progress 95 by NASA, the cargo vehicle will bring supplies and science components to the orbiting outpost.

Updated: April 17

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch a batch of 29 broadband internet satellites for Amazon Leo’s low Earth orbit constellation. This is the seventh out of nine Atlas 5 rockets purchased by Amazon to fly its satellites.

Updated: April 17

An Arianespace-built Ariane 6 rocket, flying in a 64 configuration, will launch 32 Amazon Leo satellites into low Earth orbit. This will be the second flight of an Ariane 64 rocket, which features four boosters. The mission is designated as VA268 by Arianespace and Leo Europe 02 (LE-02) by Amazon. This is the second in a series of 18 Ariane 64 launches procured by Amazon to launch its Amazon Leo satellites (previously called Project Kuiper).

Updated: April 17

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of 25 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. More than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number B1071, launching for a 33rd time, will land on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: April 17

An Avio Vega-C rocket will launch the Smile mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The Smile (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is set to deploy from the rocket 57 minutes after liftoff and deploy its solar arrays within 10 minutes after that. It has a planned mission life of three years and will operate in a highly elliptical Earth orbit. According to ESA, “Smile will use four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun. This will improve our understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms and the science of space weather.” Delayed from April 9 “due to a technical issue… on a subsystem component production line after VV29 launcher integration.”

Updated: April 13

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: December 22

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: April 09

A Spectrum rocket from Isar Aerospace will launch on its second test flight. The two-stage rocket is carrying five CubeSats onboard: CyBEEsat from TU Berlin, TriSat-S from the University of Maribor, Platform 6 from EnduroSat, FramSat-1 from NTNU, and SpaceTeamSat1 from TU Wien Space Team. The sixth and final announced payload is an experiment called “Let it Go” from Dcubed. Exolaunch is responsible for managing payload integration and deployment. Delayed from Jan. 21 due to a pressurization valve issue. Delayed from March 23 due to strong winds. Delayed from March 25 due to boat in the keep out zone. Delayed from April 9 due to leak in composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV).

Updated: April 10

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