A regularly updated listing of planned orbital missions from spaceports around the globe. Dates and times are given in Greenwich Mean Time. “NET” stands for no earlier than. “TBD” means to be determined.
See our Launch Log for a listing of completed space missions since 2004.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch the second of five dedicated flights on behalf of French Internet-of-Things company Kinéis. Electron and the Curie upper stage will add five more satellites to Kinéis’ planned 25-satellite constellation. It will be the 53rd flight of the Electron rocket. The mission is nicknamed “Kinéis Killed the RadIOT Star’. Delayed from Sept. 16/17 due to poor weather.
Updated: September 17
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. Following stage separation, the first stage booster is due to land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’
Updated: September 18
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Dragon spacecraft carrying a new crew of four to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will return to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Following the decision to return the Starliner astronauts aboard the Crew 9 Dragon, the mission will now be commanded by Nick Hague. He will be accompanied aboard the Dragon Freedom by Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov to start a six-month expedition to the station. Delayed from Aug. 18 due to the extension of the Starliner Crew Flight Test mission and delayed from Sept. 24 & 25 for separation between launches from pad 40.
Updated: September 18
The second flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket will carry ballast and a collection of small payloads. ULA changed this mission when it became clear the original payload, Sierra Space Dream Chaser cargo ship, would not ready for launch. This second test flight is needed to gain certification from the U.S. military to fly national security payloads.
Updated: September 12
A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., H-2A rocket will launch an intelligence-gathering satellite called the Information Gathering Satellite Radar 8 (IGS-Radar 8). Historically, these satellites have launched in pairs, labeled IGS-Optical and IGS-Radar. The IGS-Optical 8 spacecraft launched on Jan. 12, 2024. Delayed from Sept. 16 due to poor weather.
Updated: September 18
SpaceX will launch the Hera European Space Agency mission to study the Didymos binary asteroid system that was impacted by the DART mission in September 2022.
Updated: September 01
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Europa Clipper to begin its journey to the Galilean moon of the same name. Europa, a moon believed to have a saltwater ocean on its surface, is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons. It’s also the sixth closest to the planet. This Falcon Heavy rocket will be flown in a fully expendable configuration, bringing an end to the side booster, tail numbers B1064 and B1065, after they each flew on five previous Falcon Heavy missions.
Updated: September 12
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch the company’s Blue Ring spacecraft, which is capable of both hosting and deploying multiple payloads. Blue Origin will attempt to land the first stage booster on its sea-based landing platform, ‘Jacklyn.’
Updated: September 11
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.
Updated: July 12
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch a pair of identical spacecraft on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. The two satellites, named Blue and Gold, will make a roughly 11-month journey to Mars where they will then perform about an 11-month science mission while orbiting the Red Planet. Blue and Gold were manufactured by Rocket Lab over about 3.5 years and carry science experiments from the University of California, Berkeley. This launch of the New Glenn rocket will also feature a landing attempt on its landing barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from October 13.
Updated: September 11
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