H3 – Spaceflight Now

March 18, 2026

Breaking News

[ March 16, 2026 ] Space launches 29 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket on St. Patrick’s Day morning Falcon 9
[ March 16, 2026 ] SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California Falcon 9
[ March 14, 2026 ] NASA Administrator teases further Artemis program updates in one-on-one interview Artemis
[ March 13, 2026 ] NASA ready for another shot at launching Artemis 2 moon mission Artemis
[ March 13, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 25 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base Falcon 9

H3 rocket suffers upper stage anomaly, fails to correctly deploy navigation satellite

December 22, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Dec. 22 launch was the fourth and final flight of an H3 rocket in 2025.

Japanese space science missions facing delays after H3 rocket failure

April 11, 2023 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Japanese X-ray telescope and robotic lunar lander has been delayed to no earlier than August, and the launch schedule for another Japanese mission to return samples from a moon of Mars is in doubt as engineers investigate the failure of Japan’s first H3 rocket last month.

Phobos sample return mission enters development for 2024 launch

February 20, 2020 Stephen Clark

Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday.