Launches

NASA's Artemis II mission launched on 1 April 2026 and returned on 10 April 2026, a crewed lunar flyby lasting 9 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes, the first crewed flight of NASA's deep space systems. NASA's own overview now describes a restructured plan: Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, becomes a low Earth orbit demonstration of one or both commercial landers, while Artemis IV carries the first crewed lunar landing, targeted for early 2028. Artemis V is expected by late 2028, with missions roughly annual thereafter.

Next: Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, a demonstration mission in low Earth orbit to test one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin

Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky, restyled

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SpaceX flew Starship's 14th flight test on 28 September 2026 from Pad 2 at Starbase, its first attempt to reach orbit. One of the booster's 33 Raptors shut down on the climb; the booster relit 31 of 33 engines for its boostback, which was designed to burn through the remaining liquid oxygen to test performance limits, and 11 of 13 for its landing burn before splashing down in the Gulf, where its flight termination system was fired as a demonstration. One of the ship's Raptor Vacuum engines shut down early, the other five burned longer to reach the planned path, and a single sea-level Raptor then put Starship into orbit around Earth for the first time. After all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed, SpaceX shortened the time on orbit out of caution, flew the first deorbit burn and landed the ship on target in the northern Pacific at one of two pre-coordinated zones. Flight 13 on 24 July 2026 had deployed the first 20 V3 satellites on a suborbital path.

Next: Flight 15, on a date SpaceX will set; Flight 14's boostback was designed to test the booster's limits ahead of future return-to-launch-site missions

Image: Jenny Hautmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, restyled

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New Glenn's debut on 16 January 2025 reached orbit but lost the booster on landing. The second flight, on 13 November 2025, carried NASA's ESCAPADE spacecraft towards Mars and achieved the first successful booster landing; the third, on 19 April 2026, reused and landed that booster again, but the FAA's closure statement records a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and caused a second-stage thrust anomaly, leaving the AST SpaceMobile payload in the wrong orbit. On 28 May 2026 the next vehicle was destroyed in a hotfire test explosion at Launch Complex 36. On 5 August 2026 chief executive Dave Limp said the anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections, with modified valve hardware ready by the end of that month. On 29 September 2026 NASA added Blue Origin's New Glenn 9×4 launch service to the NASA Launch Services II contract under its annual on-ramp clause, making it available for future NASA missions; the contract's ordering period runs through June 2030. On 16 October Blue Origin described restoration of LC-36A, construction of LC-36B, plans for additional pads and an Environmental Assessment requesting an increase in the permitted LC-36 rate from 12 to 50 launches a year.

Next: Restoration of LC-36A and construction of LC-36B; the wider infrastructure programme targets higher launch capacity

Image: US Space Force/Samuel Becker, restyled

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