Launch

NASA launched the Artemis II mission on April 1, 2026 at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a ~10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon. The SLS core stage and Orion spacecraft performed nominally, with solar array deployment confirmed shortly after separation. On April 2, the crew completed a 5-minute, 55-second translunar injection burn that set Orion on course to reach a maximum distance of approximately 252,021 miles from Earth — surpassing the Apollo 13 record. The mission is a crewed test flight, not a lunar landing, and is intended to validate Orion life support, navigation, and deep-space systems ahead of Artemis IV.

On April 1, 2026, SpaceX submitted a confidential draft registration statement to the SEC, confirmed by Bloomberg and CNBC, targeting a June Nasdaq listing. Initial valuation guidance was $1.75 trillion with a targeted $75 billion raise; by April 6 investor testing-the-waters meetings pushed the target above $2 trillion — what would be the largest IPO in history, tripling Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion 2019 record. The company merged with Elon Musk's xAI in February 2026, combining space, satellite, and AI assets. Starlink generates an estimated $8.2 billion in annual revenue. Public S-1 expected in late April–May, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic listings.

SpaceX booster B1067 completed its record-breaking 34th launch and landing on March 30, 2026, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 5:15 p.m. EDT with 29 Starlink satellites on the Starlink 10-44 mission. The booster recovered on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. B1067 entered the fleet in June 2021 and has supported crewed missions including Crew-3 and Crew-4, two NASA CRS cargo flights, and 23 Starlink batches. The record eclipses the previous mark of 33 flights set by the same booster one month earlier.

SpaceX launched 119 payloads to sun-synchronous orbit on March 30, 2026 at 4:02 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard Falcon 9 booster B1093, making its 12th flight. Deployments began 55 minutes after liftoff across a four-burn upper-stage sequence. The mission brought SpaceX's cumulative rideshare program total past 1,600 satellites launched. Exolaunch was the largest integrator with 57 payloads for more than 25 customers across 12 countries; SEOPS Space manifested 19 payloads. Notable customers included ICEYE (6 SAR satellites, 2 for Poland's POLSARIS constellation), HawkEye 360 (3 satellites), Spire Global (10 satellites), Muon Space (3 Vindlér RF monitoring satellites for Sierra Nevada Corp), Bellatrix Aerospace, EnduroSat, Satlantis, and ArkEdge Space.

Isar Aerospace's second Spectrum rocket, mission "Onward and Upward," reached T-3 seconds before engine ignition at Andøya Spaceport in Norway on March 25, 2026 when the countdown was aborted. A range violation by an unauthorized vessel delayed the window, during which propellant temperatures rose outside acceptable margins — forcing the scrub. The mission was designed as a qualification flight to SSO carrying five cubesats and one Dcubed experiment, supported by ESA's Boost! programme. No new launch date has been announced.

K2 Space CEO Karan Kunjur announced on March 19-20, 2026 that the GRAVITAS satellite (2 metric tons, 40m solar wingspan, 20kW generation) had been shipped to the SpaceX launch facility ahead of its Transporter rideshare launch. The satellite carries 12 payloads including DoD customers, under a $60M Space Force STRATFI contract. GRAVITAS features the most powerful Hall-effect thruster ever flown (20kW, krypton-fed) — roughly 4× more powerful than anything previously flown in space. Mission tiers: (1) deploy solar arrays and establish comms; (2) operate customer payloads; (3) orbit-raise LEO→MEO using electric propulsion, the first such raise ever attempted. K2 raised $250M Series C at $3B valuation in December 2025, and $450M total funding.

Following repairs in the VAB, the Artemis II SLS/Orion stack rolled out again on March 19–20, 2026, completing the ~4-mile journey to LC-39B in ~10 hours. The crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 27 and entered quarantine. Launch is targeted for no earlier than 6:24 PM EDT on April 1, 2026 — the first human deep-space mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 launched on February 13, 2026 at 5:15 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral SLC-40, aboard Dragon "Freedom" on a Falcon 9. Commander Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway (NASA), mission specialists Sophie Adenot (ESA — Epsilon mission, first 2022 ESA career astronaut to fly) and Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos) docked at ISS on February 14 at 3:15 p.m. EST in a Valentine's Day arrival. The mission restored ISS to a standard seven-person crew following the early medical evacuation of Crew-11 in January. Crew-12 will conduct eight months of science including pneumonia bacteria cardiovascular research, on-demand IV fluid generation for future space missions, and plant health monitoring.

Arianespace launched the Ariane 64 for the first time on February 12, 2026 (VA267 / LE-01), deploying 32 Amazon Leo satellites from Kourou, French Guiana. The four P120C booster configuration carried ~20 metric tons — the heaviest payload ever lifted by a European launch vehicle and double the Ariane 62's LEO capacity. The mission is the first of 18 contracted Ariane 6 launches for Amazon Leo (the largest Arianespace commercial contract ever). Total Amazon Leo constellation: 212 satellites after this flight. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher: "Europe's fleet of rockets is now complete." Amazon Leo VP Rajeev Badyal: "Three new heavy-lift rockets joining our manifest this year."

Orbex, the Scottish microlauncher developer, filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on February 11, 2026, after Series D fundraising and M&A discussions (including a potential acquisition by The Exploration Company, blocked by the UK government) both collapsed. The company, which had received over £26M in UK government-backed loans and was developing the Prime propane/LOX microlauncher, ceased trading on February 18 with approximately 150 jobs lost. FRP Advisory was appointed as administrators, citing 20+ prospective interested parties. Skyrora, the Edinburgh-based competitor with the only UK domestic launch license, immediately expressed interest in acquiring up to £10M in select Orbex assets including the Sutherland Spaceport.

On February 11, 2026, China successfully conducted a combined maximum dynamic pressure abort test of the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft and the first powered flight of the Long March 10A rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan. The Mengzhou capsule abort system executed clean separation from the LM-10 first stage at ~11km altitude at maximum dynamic pressure. Four historic firsts: first ignition of LM-10 in prototype configuration; first maximum dynamic pressure abort test of a Chinese crewed spacecraft; first maritime splashdown of both a Chinese crewed capsule and rocket first stage; first use of the new Wenchang lunar mission launch pad. The LM-10 first stage recovered at sea after a controlled splashdown — demonstrating first-stage reuse capabilities. Recovery crews retrieved the capsule 80 minutes after liftoff.

Rocket Lab completed its 81st Electron launch on January 30, 2026, deploying South Korea's NEONSAT-1A Earth observation satellite to a 540km SSO for the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The "Bridging The Swarm" mission was Rocket Lab's second launch in eight days and set a 100% mission success record for 2026. NEONSAT-1A carries a high-resolution optical camera for near-real-time disaster monitoring of the Korean Peninsula. It is the second satellite in a planned 11-satellite government constellation (NEONSAT-1 launched April 2024). CEO Peter Beck: "Two launches in eight days is a strong start to the year."

ISRO successfully launched the PSLV-C62 mission carrying the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite and 18 co-passenger satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 12 January 2026.

On December 31, 2025, Space Forge confirmed its ForgeStar-1 satellite successfully generated plasma in low Earth orbit — the first commercial free-flying orbital plasma generation ever achieved outside the ISS. The miniature manufacturing furnace reached temperatures above 1,000°C in microwave-induced plasma, validating conditions for gas-phase crystal growth of wide-bandgap semiconductors (GaN, SiC, AlN, diamond). ForgeStar-1 launched June 2025 on SpaceX Transporter-14 and operates at ~540km LEO. The Pridwen heat shield onboard will also test controlled demise technology. The satellite is not designed to return materials to Earth — that capability is planned for ForgeStar-2.

South Korean startup Innospace launched its Hanbit-Nano rocket from Brazil's Alcântara Space Center on December 22, 2025 — the first-ever commercial orbital launch attempt by a South Korean private company, and the first commercial launch from Alcântara. The 17.3-metre, hybrid-propulsion rocket lifted off normally at 8:13 p.m. EST carrying eight payloads (five satellites, three hosted experiments) from customers in Brazil, India, and South Korea. Approximately 30 seconds into flight an anomaly occurred and the vehicle fell within the pre-designated safety zone with no injuries or ground damage. CEO Kim Soo-jong wrote to shareholders that critical flight data was gathered and that the company plans a second attempt in H1 2026. Innospace shares dropped 29% on December 23.

LandSpace launched the inaugural flight of its ZhuQue-3 reusable methalox rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on December 3, 2025. The second stage successfully reached a planned 200 x 200 km orbit inclined at 55 degrees — a significant milestone for Chinese commercial launch. However, the first-stage landing attempt approximately 390 km downrange in Wuwei County, Gansu, failed after an anomalous combustion event during the final landing burn. LandSpace confirmed that key phases of the recovery sequence — high-altitude gliding, grid fin deployment, attitude adjustment, and reentry burn — performed as designed, providing valuable data for the next attempt.

Orbital Matter's Replicator CubeSat — carrying a polymer 3D printer designed to work in vacuum and microgravity — flew as a secondary payload on Ariane 6's inaugural flight on July 9, 2024. The 3U CubeSat deployed successfully from the rocket, becoming the first in-orbit demonstration of open-space 3D printing outside the ISS. Separation confirmed and deployment achieved; two-way communications not confirmed as of July 25. Main objective of proving launch survivability and demonstrating the technology concept validated.

NASA's Space Launch System launched for the first time on November 16, 2022, carrying an uncrewed Orion capsule on a 26-day mission to distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. Orion splashed down December 11 in the Pacific. Heat shield showed unexpected but non-critical ablation patterns during reentry — triggering months of analysis before Artemis II crew clearance.