SpaceX

Landing Zone 4

CSG-3 is an Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency, part of a reconnaissance constellation using synthetic aperture radars operating in the X-band.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | CSG-3

Vandenberg SFB

Space Launch Complex 4E

Falcon 9 Block 5

Launch Date: January 2, 2026 (PST)
Launch Time: 6:09 p.m. PST (January 3, 2026, 0209 UTC, 03:09 CET)
Launch Window: Instantaneous
Launch Site: SLC-4E - Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Targeted Orbit: Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Launch Inclination: South
Launch Status: Scheduled and announced

Mission: CSG-3 (SkyMed Second Generation - Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation)
Launch Provider: SpaceX
Launcher System: Falcon 9 (Booster 1081 - Turnaround time 26 days)
Flight for the Booster: 21
Previous Flights of the Booster: 20 - Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, NROL-48, and 11 Starlink missions
Booster landing: LZ-4 (Landing Zone 4) - Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA

Price: $69,75 million (without payloa...

English

GO! - SpaceX - Falcon 9 - CSG-3 - SLC-4E - Vandenberg SFB - Space Affairs Live

Unofficial Re-stream

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket from California carrying the Cosmo-SkyMed 2nd Generation Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 6:09 p.m. PST (9:09 p.m. EST / 0209 UTC)

The first-stage booster, tail number B1081, flying for a 21st time, will return to a touchdown at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.

Live commentary will be provided starting about 30 minutes prior to launch.

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Live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from California with Earth observation satellite for Italy

Unofficial Webcast

COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation Mission

Official Webcast

Livestream on X

A Shortfall of Gravitas

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

Space X Starlink Mission Patch

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-88

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Space Launch Complex 40

Launch Date: January 4, 2026
Launch Time:  12:00 a.m. EST (0500 UTC, 06:00 CET)
Launch Window:  Open until 3:17 a.m. EST.
Launch Site: SLC-40 - Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA
Targeted Orbit: LEO (Low Earth Orbit) 
Launch Inclination: Southeast
Launch Status: Scheduled and announced

Mission: Starlink 6-88
Launch Provider: SpaceX
Launcher System: Falcon 9 (Booster B1101)
Flight for the Booster: First flight
Previous Flights of the Booster: None
Droneship: A Shortfall Of Gravitas

Price: $69,75 million (without payload)
Diameter: 3,7 m
Height: 70 meters
Payload to Orbit: 22,800 LEO / 8,300 GTO
Lift-Off Thrust: 7,607 kilonewtons
Fairing: Diameter 5,2 meters / Height 13 meters
Stages: 2

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is targeting the launch of 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orb...

GO! - SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlink 6-88 - SLC-40 - Cape Canaveral SFS - Space Affairs Live

SpaceX launch of a batch of 29 Starlink v2-mini satellites for their second-generation high-speed low earth orbit internet satellite constellation.

Launch Window:
Current T0: January 2 - 7pm Eastern.

Mission: Falcon 9 launch of 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into orbit.
Launch location: Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Earth.
Target orbit: Low-Earth Orbit (LEO); 257x268km 43° orbit
Booster: B1101-1
Booster history: New booster!
Booster recovery: A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG)
Fairing recovery: Unknown
Rocket trajectory: Southeast passing northeast of the Bahamas.
Payload mass: Approximately 17 tonnes
Stats:
  - SpaceX's 611th launch overall.
  - SpaceX's 172nd and last launch of the year.
  - SpaceX's 15th and last launch of the month.
  - Earth'...

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink 6-88

Starlink Mission

Just Read the Instructions

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-96

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-97

ISRO

Small Earth observation satellite from NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) for an "Indian strategic user", details TBD.

This launch will also carry 18 other ride-share payloads.

PSLV-DL | EOS-N1 and others

Satish Dhawan Space Centre

Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad

PSLV-DL

Isar Aerospace

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

Spectrum | Flight Two

Andøya Spaceport

Orbital Launch Pad

Spectrum

Rocket Lab

The NeonSat-1A, carrying a high-resolution optical camera, is designed to test the constellation capabilities of the South Korean government's Earth observation micro-satellite constellation NeonSat (New-space Earth Observation Satellite), in particular technology improvements identified from operations of NeonSat-1 after its launch in April 2024. These technologies will in turn be incorporated into the next 10 NeonSat under construction, as well as providing more site re-visiting capabilities along with NeonSat-1.

The NeonSat constellation is the first satellite system developed by the government using a mass-production approach for precise monitoring of the Korean Peninsula, lead by the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea’s leading university dedicated to science and technology. Designed to capture near-real time natural disaster monitoring for the Korean peninsula, KAIST’s NEONSAT constellation is a collaboration across multiple Korean academic, industry, and research institutions, including SaTReC, which is leading the program’s system design and engineering. 

The NEONSAT program is funded by the Korean government’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).

Bridging The Swarm Patch

Electron | Bridging The Swarm (NeonSat-1A)

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1

Electron

First uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

LVM-3 | Gaganyaan-1

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad

Gaganyaan

Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (GSLV Mk III)

12th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Maiden Flight of Starship V3

Starship IFT patch

Starship | Flight 12

Starbase

Orbital Launch Pad 2

Starship V3

China Rocket Co.

Possibly an Earth observation satellite for the Pakistan government's SUPARCO, details TBD.

Smart Dragon 3 | Unknown Payload

Sea Launch

Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship

Smart Dragon 3

Unknown

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.

First Starlink launch to feature a Falcon 9 booster landing within The Bahamas waters operationally, after the trajectory was tested during launch of Starlink Group 10-12 in February 2025.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-36

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.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | BlueBird Block 2 #2

Blue Origin

Jacklyn

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

New Glenn | Blue Moon Pathfinder

Launch Complex 36A

New Glenn

The Pandora small satellite was selected in 2021 as an inaugural mission in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program. It includes a 0.45-meter telescope that will improve our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres by disentangling exoplanet signals from their host stars, as well as studying host star variability with long-duration observations of 20 unique planets through visible-light photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy.

Also launching on this launch are ride-share payloads under the "Falcon 9 Twilight mission", including satellites from Spire Global and Kepler Communications.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Pandora / Twilight rideshare mission

Galactic Energy

First test launch of Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket.

Ceres-2 Y1

Ceres-2 | Demo Flight

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Launch Area 95A

Ceres-2

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.

Vulcan | USSF-87

Space Launch Complex 41

Vulcan

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.

GSLV Mk II | IRNSS-1L (NVS-03)

GSLV Mk. II

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

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.

QZS-5 to 7 Patch

H3-22 | Michibiki 7 (QZS-7)

Tanegashima Space Center

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2

H3-22

Gregory R. Wiseman

Victor J. Glover

Jeremy Hansen

Christina Koch

NASA

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.

Artemis II Patch

SLS Block 1 | Artemis II

Kennedy Space Center

Launch Complex 39B

Orion

SLS Block 1

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center

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.

Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Elektro-L No.5

Baikonur Cosmodrome

81/24 (81P)

Proton-M Blok DM-03

Jessica Meir

Jack Hathaway

Sophie Adenot

Andrei Fedyaev

Landing Zone  at SLC-40

SpaceX Crew-12 is the twelfth crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Crew-12

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-12

Unknown Pad

Crew Dragon 2

Space One

Third flight of the KAIROS launch vehicle. 

4 satellites will be on board:

* TATARA-1R
* SC-Sat1a
* HErO
* AETS-1

KAIROS | Flight 3

Space Port Kii, Japan

Space One Launch Pad

Kii-based Advanced & Instant ROcket System

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.

This launch carries 21 satellites manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A

Skyroot Aerospace

First launch of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-I launch vehicle, with several cubesats on board. Payload identities TBD.

Vikram-I | Demo Flight

Vikram-I

Northrop Grumman Space Systems

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.

Minotaur IV | STP-S29A

Space Launch Complex 8

Minotaur IV

Rocket Launches Today