Space launches

NS-36 is the 15th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 36th in the New Shepard program's history.

Third of a three launches contract for Amazon's Kuiper low Earth orbit satellite internet constellation, with 24 satellites on board.

Weather concerns

Cumulus Cloud Rule, Lightning Rule, Surface Electric Field Rule

Details TBD.

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.

Tranche 1 Transport Layer C is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Details TBD.

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

First flight of the upgraded Japanese HTV-X spacecraft designed to resupply the International Space Station.

Communications Satellite for the Indian Navy, replacing GSAT-7 for secure real-time links between Indian warships, submarines, aircraft, and shore-based command centers across the Indian Ocean.

Second of two new-generation satellites built by Airbus to provide secure communications to the Spanish government, its allies, and various international organizations.

The ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites is expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1-Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage high levels of flexibility to dynamically direct capacity to where customers are located.

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

Sentinel-1D carries an advanced radar technology to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface as part of the Sentinel-1 constellation.

Maiden flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn launch vehicle carrying the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE), a dual-spacecraft mission to study ion and sputtered escape from Mars. The spacecrafts' scientific goals are to understand the processes controlling the structure of Mars' hybrid magnetosphere and how it guides ion flows; understand how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through Mars' magnetosphere; and understand the processes controlling the flow of energy and matter into and out of the collisional atmosphere.

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (launched November 2020) and Sentinel-6B make up the Sentinel-6 mission, also known as Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS), which is a partnership between NASA, NOAA, ESA, and EUMETSAT. This mission continues the long-term global sea surface height data record begun by first Jason satellites in 1992.

CAS500-3 is a South Korean Earth observation satellites to be used by the Ministry of Science and ICT for space technology verification and space science research.

Soyuz MS-28 will carry three cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikayev and Oleg Platonov.

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

KOMPSAT-7 and 7A are the follow-up satellites of KOMPSAT-3A, whose mission is to provide high-resolution satellite images to satisfy South-Korea's governmental and institutional needs.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

KOMPSAT-7 is the follow-up model of KOMPSAT-3A whose mission is to provide high-resolution satellite images to satisfy South-Korea’s governmental and institutional needs.

Ninth of ten GPS III missions.

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve optimal high-elevation visibility in urban canyons and mountainous areas. The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation.

The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation in inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits.

Elektro-L is a series of meteorological satellites developed for the Russian Federal Space Agency by NPO Lavochkin. They are designed to capture real-time images of clouds and the Earth's underlying surface, heliogeophysical measurements, collection and translating hydrometeorological and service data.

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Demonstration Flight for Russia's new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle. Details TBD.

Payload consists of two satellites for Europe's Galileo navigation system.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning, Navigation and Timing) demonstrator mission will feature a 10-satellite constellation demonstration mission that will assess how a low Earth orbit fleet of satellites can work in combination with the Galileo and EGNOS constellations in higher orbits that provide Europe’s own global navigation system.

This launch will lift 2 “Pathfinder A” satellites built by Thales Alenia Space and GMV to a 510 km altitude Low Earth Orbit.

Demonstration flight of the Astrobotic Griffin lander and its engines, initially contracted for the cancelled NASA VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission. The vacated payload spot will now host the FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) lunar rover from Astrolab.

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS and will be used for military and civilian use. Located at a geosynchronous orbit, the system will be operated by the Indian government.

STP-S30 is a complex mission that will deliver research experiments and technology demonstrations to orbit for the DoD and contribute to future space systems development. The projected primary payload, DISKSat, will demonstrate sustained very low earth orbit (VLEO) flight and test a unique, 1-meter diameter, disk-shaped satellite bus that is designed to increase on-orbit persistence.

The Globalstar global mobile communications network offers global, digital real time voice, data and fax services via its Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. The constellation operates in a 1410 km orbit inclined at 52 degrees.

In early 2022, Globalstar contracted with MDA for the construction of 17 new 3rd generation satellites to replenish the existing constellation. Rocket Lab is sub-contracted to build the satellites' buses and the launch dispensers.

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched.

This launch will feature a single satellite.

The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite designed by TsSKB-Progress.

In 2012, the development of the Arkon-2M radar satellite was stopped and instead the development of the Obzor-R was initiated.

The satellite features the BRLK X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar as the imaging instrument with a ground resolution of 500 m.

First low-altitude hop test of a Themis demonstrator, with a targeted altitude up to 100 m.

Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

45 satellites will be carried on each Vulcan launch.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

24 satellites for Rivada's internet constellation.

Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

Project Kuiper is a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that will offer broadband internet access, this constellation will be managed by Kuiper Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. This constellation is planned to be composed of 3,276 satellites. The satellites are projected to be placed in 98 orbital planes in three orbital layers, one at 590 km, 610 km and 630 km altitude.

HawkEye 360 is a a space-based civil global intelligence satellite network using radio frequency (RF) technology to help monitor transportation across air, land and sea and assist with emergencies, and to provide civil SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) mission.

The constellation of small satellites (named Hawk ) will collect information on specific radio signals worldwide to provide high-precision radio frequency mapping and analytics from Low Earth orbit (LEO).

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

BlackSky Gen-3 Earth-imaging satellites

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.

Four space situational awareness (SSA) satellites for Canadian company NorthStar Earth and Space.

Four space situational awareness (SSA) satellites for Canadian company NorthStar Earth and Space.

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.

Note: Name of payload is provisional.

Fifth launch of an ultimately 5 reconnaissance satellites for the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), with 1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite on this launch.

They will be launched to low Earth orbit between 600 and 700 km by 2025, enabling South Korea’s military to observe the nuclear-armed neighbor’s key military facilities every two hours with 30-50 centimeters resolution imagery, according to a 2019 report produced by the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning.

The project is lead by the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), with input from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Hanwha Systems and Thales Alenia Space.

Five Astranis MicroGEO communications satellite to be inserted in a custom geostationary orbit, from where they conduct on-orbit maneuvers to reach their individual slots.

The 5 satellites include:

* Apco 1 & Apco 2 (Mexico)

* Thaicom-9 (Thailand)

* 1x for Orbith (Argentina)

* 1x for Orbits Corp (Philippines)

This is a Crew Dragon flight for a private company Axiom Space. The mission will carry a professionally trained commander alongside three private astronauts to and from the International Space Station for a month.

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched.

This launch will feature 4 satellites.

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, required to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage in the United States, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring as large as 2400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest satellites ever commercially deployed in Low Earth orbit once launched.

This launch will feature 4 satellites.

CAS500-2 is the second of two similar South Korean Earth observation satellites. These spacecraft feature the AEISS-C imaging system with a ground resolution of 0.5 m in panchromatic mode and 2 m in color mode.

CAS500-4 is a wide area Earth-observation satellite with a wide-area electro-optical camera (swath width of 120 km and resolution of 5 m) to be mainly used by the Rural Development Administration and the Korea Forest Service for observing crops, agricultural water resources and forest resources.

Tranche 1 Transport Layer A is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

Tranche 1 Transport Layer D is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

Tranche 1 Transport Layer E is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation, which will provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms from Low Earth Orbit satellites.

The constellation will be interconnected with Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISLs) which have significantly increased performance over existing radio frequency crosslinks. It is expected to operate over Ka band, have stereo coverage and be dynamically networked for simpler hand-offs, greater bandwidth and fault tolerance.

Classified US Space Force carrying two payloads directly to geostationary orbit.

True Anomaly’s Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle (AOV) will support U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission with operations in orbit proximity with another spacecraft built by Rocket Lab National Security.

The spacecraft, once completed, will remain on call until the U.S. Space Force provides the notice to launch. The Firefly team will then have 24 hours to transport the payload fairing to the pad, mate the fairing to the Alpha rocket, fuel the rocket, and launch within the first available window.

First of up to 25 launches of Low Earth Orbit technology demonstration satellites to be built and operated by Lockheed Martin.

TacSat is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance spacecraft with a mission to prove specialized sensing and communications capabilities on orbit. The satellite will participate in exercises that highlight cross-domain kill-web connectivity, enabling timely execution of tactical space missions.

TacSat will host a proven Lockheed Martin infrared sensor on board that brings previously developed technology to space for the first time. This sensor produces high quality imagery and it can interface with federated Battle Management Command & Control (BMC2) combat systems to provide joint forces with a comprehensive view of threats.

The satellite will also feature Lockheed Martin’s first 5G.MIL® payload on orbit. This provides cellular-like networking for military space assets, making satellite constellations more resilient. It also helps enable seamless connectivity with tools in the air, at sea and on land.

Launch operation will also again demonstrate responsive space pre-launch operation capabilities.

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve optimal high-elevation visibility in urban canyons and mountainous areas. The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation.

The navigation system objective is to broadcast GPS-interoperable and augmentation signals as well as original Japanese (QZSS) signals from a three-spacecraft constellation in inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits.

No description.

Payload is a scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicle developed by by Australian company Hypersonix.

No description.

No description.

No description.

Tenth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.

China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.

First flight of the Miura 5 launch vehicle.

First flight of Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander.

Maiden flight of Orbex's Prime rocket from Sutherland Spaceport. This flights marks the first vertical orbital launch attempt from the United Kingdom, and the first orbital launch attempt from Scotland.

RISAT-2A is the third in the series of radar imaging RISAT satellites. The satellite carries a sophisticated synthetic aperture radar that operates at 5.35 GHz in C band.

First flight of the Skyrora XL launch vehicle

Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.

Second test flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle, carrying several cubesats as part of the European Space Agency's “Boost!” program.

Telescope satellite for Scout Space, a startup specializing in space domain awareness through in-space observation.

Payload consists of a single 30 kg NASA payload to be delivered to a 500 km orbit with a 41 degrees inclination.

The ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites is expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1-Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage high levels of flexibility to dynamically direct capacity to where customers are located.

Tenth of ten GPS III missions.

USSF-87 will launch two identical Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites GSSAP-7 and GSSAP-8 directly to a near-geosynchronous orbit approximately 36,000 km above the equator.

Data from the GSSAP will uniquely contribute to timely and accurate orbital predictions, further enabling space flight safety including satellite collision avoidance.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission as part of the Artemis program. Artemis II will send a crew of 4 - 3 Americans and 1 Canadian around the moon and return them back to Earth.

The mission will test the core systems of NASA's Orion spacecraft including the critical life support system, among other systems which could not be tested during Artemis I due to the lack of crew onboard.

Dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.

QuickSounder is the first satellite mission of the Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which aims to replace the current Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of polar orbit weather satellites. This pathfinder mission will demonstrate NOAA's ability to launch a small satellite within 3 years, flying a refurbished Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instrument to polar orbit.

STP-S29A is a mission under the U.S. Department of Defense's Space Test Program (STP) that will deliver technology demonstrations to orbit and contribute to future space system development, with this launch delivering up to 200 kg of STP cubesats to Low Earth Orbit.

The main payload will be STPSat-7, an ESPA class satellite based on the Aegis Aerospace M-1 satellite bus used on the STPSat-4 mission for hosting research and technology demonstration payloads for the Department of Defense (DoD). One of the payload is U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Lightsheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument, used to detect and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital debris with lasers in orbit.