Missions

SES uses O3b mPOWER to provide broadband capacity for mobility, government, telecoms and enterprise customers. The final three Boeing-built satellites undergo orbit raising and initialisation before joining the service fleet.

Next: Service entry for satellites 11, 12 and 13, expected by mid-2027

Concept artwork: YFarmX / ChatGPT Image 2

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The third Sentinel-3 spacecraft carries four science instruments to extend observations of oceans, land, ice and the atmosphere. Routine operations are managed jointly by ESA and EUMETSAT on behalf of the European Commission.

Next: Launch and early orbit phase checks over the coming days, followed by commissioning of its four instruments

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The Fluorescence Explorer will measure plant fluorescence to study vegetation activity and environmental stress. ESA targets global maps at 300-metre resolution from 814 km altitude.

Next: Launch and early orbit phase checks over the coming days, followed by commissioning

Concept artwork: YFarmX / ChatGPT Image 2

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NASA reported on 14 September that the first trajectory correction used about 18 kg of fuel against a 200 kg allocation. The resulting lifetime projection also assumes savings during the upcoming correction and orbital insertion. The original fuel budget covered a five-year primary mission and five-year extension.

Next: Second mid-course correction planned later in September; L2 insertion expected around early December 2026

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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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Perseverance remains active in and around Jezero Crater, continuing its search for signs of ancient microbial life and caching samples for a possible future return to Earth. NASA's mission page highlights the Sapphire Canyon sample, drilled from the Cheyava Falls rock, whose potential biosignatures were confirmed in a peer-reviewed Nature paper in September 2025. The page's running totals (over 30 kilometres driven, 24 rock and regolith samples plus one air sample) carry an October 2024 stamp, so current figures are higher.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, restyled

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Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater since landing on 6 August 2012 and NASA still lists it as an active mission. It has collected 42 powderised rock samples with the drill on its robotic arm and recently found organic molecules never seen before on Mars. NASA's page records the rover reaching its 4,740th Martian day on 6 December 2025, when it captured a rare night-time view using LED lights on its arm.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, restyled

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Webb continues routine science operations from its orbit around the second Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. NASA released anniversary images on 6 July 2026 to mark four years of science, and on 15 July 2026 announced the discovery of a giant exoplanet hidden in the Beta Pictoris system. The observatory remains listed as an active mission covering every phase of cosmic history.

Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/Northrop Grumman, restyled

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Europa Clipper launched on 14 October 2024 and is travelling 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometres) to reach Jupiter in April 2030, having completed a Mars gravity assist in 2025. NASA states the next milestone is an Earth flyby on 3 December 2026, which gives the spacecraft its final push towards Jupiter. Once in orbit it will conduct 49 close flybys of Europa to assess whether the icy moon could support life.

Next: Earth gravity assist flyby on 3 December 2026

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, restyled

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JUICE launched on 14 April 2023 and has completed its lunar-Earth flyby (August 2024) and Venus flyby (August 2025), after the team resolved an anomaly on the Venus approach. ESA's most recent stories, from February to April 2026, describe the spacecraft's rare observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS made with its science and navigation cameras. Its route lists Earth flybys in September 2026 and January 2029 before arrival at Jupiter in July 2031 for 35 flybys of the icy moons.

Next: Earth gravity assist flyby, closest approach 27 September 2026 on ESA's flight-dynamics mission calendar

Image: Don-vip, Wikimedia France, CC BY-SA 4.0, restyled

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BepiColombo, ESA's joint mission with JAXA, is listed as in operation and en route to Mercury after completing its sixth and final Mercury flyby on 8 January 2025. On 24 June 2026 the team received signal confirmation that the spacecraft's solar electric propulsion system had shut down successfully, closing out the powered portion of the cruise. ESA states arrival at Mercury in November 2026, with routine science operations from its two orbiters beginning in early 2027.

Next: Mercury orbit insertion on 21 November 2026, with routine science operations beginning in early 2027

Image: ESA, C. Carreau, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, restyled

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NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, launched on 30 July 2025 on ISRO's GSLV-F16 and has entered its science phase. ISRO's site notes that S-band SAR data products are now available to users, and the agency is running training on SAR data analysis alongside its wider programme. The dual-frequency radar observatory maps changes to Earth's land and ice surfaces.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, restyled

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China's Tiangong station remains in continuous crewed operation. The programme's official site records the in-orbit handover between the Shenzhou-21 and Shenzhou-23 crews, described as the eighth crew gathering in Chinese spaceflight history, completed on 28 May 2026, with the returning Shenzhou-21 crew of three arriving in Beijing on 30 May 2026 for medical checks and recuperation. The English-language site's ticker carries the station's orbital parameters dated 27 July 2026, confirming routine operations today.

Illustration: Shujianyang, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, restyled

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China's next lunar mission, Chang'e-7, has been postponed. The assembled stack completed vertical transfer to the launching area at Wenchang on 19 August 2026, but on 23 August the China Manned Space Agency announced that, on the principle of prudence, reliability and absolute success, and after comprehensive assessment, the mission does not meet launch conditions and its launch, in Xinhua's English wording, 'cannot take place during the planned window this year'. No reason was detailed and no new date was given. The mission combines orbiting, landing, roving and hopping to survey the environment and resources of the lunar south pole, including permanently shadowed craters.

Next: Launch of Chang'e-7 from Wenchang on the Long March-5 Y14; the agency says the mission cannot fly in this year's planned window and has announced no new date

Illustration: YFarmX, generated concept artwork of the mission class, not the actual spacecraft

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SpaceX flew Starship's thirteenth flight test on 24 July 2026, the second flight of the next-generation vehicle, from Pad 2 at Starbase with all 33 Raptor engines powering the Super Heavy booster. The company confirmed deployment of 20 Starlink V3 satellites for the first time, a successful in-space Raptor engine relight, Super Heavy's splashdown in the Gulf, and Starship's splashdown in the Indian Ocean after a banking manoeuvre that mimics the final approach for a future return-to-Starbase catch. SpaceX described the flight as providing priceless data across air, space and sea.

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

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Vast's Haven-1, a single-module commercial station designed for four-person, two-week missions, is targeted to launch in 2027 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, with crews arriving by Dragon. The primary structure has completed welding, pressure and load testing, docking hardware fit checks were finished in October 2025, and the Vast Control Unit flight computer entered electromagnetic compatibility testing in April 2026 as integration continues at Long Beach. Vast's Haven Demo pathfinder satellite, launched in November 2025, achieved mission success and was deorbited in February 2026.

Next: Launch targeted for 2027 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, with crew transported by Dragon

Images courtesy of Vast

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The Expedition 75 crew began the week of 14 September with lead-free soldering and human research, alongside Earth photography and life-support maintenance. The station continues its programme of experiments in microgravity.

Next: SpaceX Crew-13 launch, no earlier than late September 2026

Image: NASA, 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; the company has announced no return-to-flight date.

Next: Return to flight, no date announced; Blue Origin said modified valve hardware would be ready by the end of August 2026

Image: US Space Force/Samuel Becker, restyled

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Jonathan McDowell's independent tracking catalogue recorded 11,112 working Starlink satellites in orbit as of its 15 September 2026 update (10:59 UTC), comprising 3,173 first-generation and 7,939 second-generation spacecraft. The first 20 third-generation V3 satellites deployed from Starship's thirteenth flight test on 24 July 2026; that flight flew a suborbital trajectory, so the catalogue records them as a deployment demonstration rather than satellites entering service. The fleet serving customers today remains the first two generations, launched on Falcon 9.

Next: Further V3 deployments on future Starship flights; no confirmed date

Image: NSF NOIRLab/CTIO/AURA/DELVE, CC BY 4.0

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The US Space Force completed the GPS III block on 21 April 2026 with the launch of the tenth satellite, stating the constellation now stands at 32 active spacecraft with added redundancy. Lockheed Martin, which builds the satellites in Denver, is under contract for 12 next-generation GPS IIIF spacecraft, and says GPS IIIF will add a Regional Military Protection signal with over 60 times the anti-jam capability of legacy vehicles for qualified military users.

Next: GPS IIIF production, 12 satellites under contract at Lockheed Martin

Image: US Air Force, restyled

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Firefly Aerospace's mission page now states Blue Ghost Mission 2 will launch no earlier than 2027 on a Falcon 9, moved from the earlier late-2026 wording; NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services overview page still lists the mission under 2026, and this record follows the launching company's own date. The mission targets America's first landing on the Moon's far side, near Nassau crater. The Blue Ghost lander carries six international payloads, including NASA's LuSEE-Night radio telescope and the UAE's Rashid Rover 2, while Firefly's Elytra orbiter deploys ESA's Lunar Pathfinder communications relay en route. The mission follows the first Blue Ghost, which completed the first fully successful commercial lunar landing in March 2025.

Next: Launch no earlier than 2027 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, on Firefly's own page; NASA's CLPS overview still lists 2026

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, restyled

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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has operated continuously since March 2006, and NASA marked its twentieth anniversary at Mars on 23 June 2026 with the orbiter still listed as an active mission. Its HiRISE camera passed its 100,000th image in December 2025, and the spacecraft continues studying the atmosphere and surface while relaying data for Perseverance and Curiosity. It is now the senior spacecraft of a thinner fleet: NASA declared MAVEN ended on 3 June 2026 after contact was lost the previous December.

Image: NASA/JPL, restyled

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Gaia's scientific observations ended on 15 January 2025 after nearly eleven years mapping the galaxy, and ESA passivated the spacecraft into a retirement orbit around the Sun on 27 March 2025. The mission continues on the ground: Data Release 4, targeted for 2 December 2026, is the first built from the full 5.5-year primary survey and spans more than 130 data products, over half of them new. A final legacy catalogue is expected around 2030.

Next: Gaia Data Release 4, targeted 2 December 2026

Illustration: ESA/ATG medialab, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, restyled

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