Previous Spaceflight Launches
Filter by Agency, Locations or Vehicles
Show All Launches
New Shepard | NS-15
Blue Origin | USACorn Ranch, USA
April 14, 2021, 4:49 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Suborbital
Fifteenth flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. During the mission, astronaut operational exercises will be conducted in preparation for human space flight. The primary operations will entail Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entering into the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts will climb the launch tower, get into their seats, buckle their harnesses, and conduct a communications check from their seat with CAPCOM, the Capsule Communicator. The tower operations team will prepare the capsule cabin for launch and then briefly close the capsule hatch. The astronauts will then exit the capsule prior to launch. Post-landing, the astronauts will get inside the capsule to rehearse hatch opening, and exiting the capsule at the landing site. Inside the capsule during the flight will be Mannequin Skywalker, along with more than 25,000 postcards on behalf of Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit organization
Suborbital NS-4 - Flight Proven ( ) Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas
Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-18
Progress Rocket Space Center | RUSBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
April 9, 2021, 7:42 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Human Exploration
Soyuz MS-18 begins expedition 65 by carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, they will rendezvous to the station where they will remain for their 6 month stay.
Low Earth Orbit
Long March 4B | Shiyan-6-03
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | CHNTaiyuan, People's Republic of China
April 8, 2021, 11:01 p.m.
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 23
SpaceX | USACape Canaveral, FL, USA
April 7, 2021, 4:34 p.m.
Long March 4C | Gaofen-12-02
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | CHNJiuquan, People's Republic of China
March 30, 2021, 10:45 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Earth Science
Gaofen is a series of civilian Earth observation satellites developed and launched for the China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS), a state-sponsored programme aimed to develop a near-real time, all-weather, global surveillance network consisting of satellite, near-space (stratosphere) airships, and aerial observation platforms.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Starship SN11 | 10 km Flight
SpaceX | USASpaceX Space Launch Facility, TX, USA
March 30, 2021, 1 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission: Suborbital
The SN11 Starship prototype performed a test flight similar to SN8, SN9 and SN10. It launched up to an altitude of 10 km or 33,000 ft and did a belly flop maneuver followed by a controlled descent, but got destroyed during the landing maneuver.
Suborbital SN11 - Maiden Flight SpaceX Starship Landing Pad
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 5
Progress Rocket Space Center | RUSVostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation
March 25, 2021, 2:47 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Communications
A batch of 36 satellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which is intended to provide global Interned broadband service for individual consumers. The constellation is planned to have around 648 microsatellites (of which 60 are spares), around 150 kg each, operating in Ku-band from low Earth orbit.
Polar Orbit
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 22
SpaceX | USACape Canaveral, FL, USA
March 24, 2021, 8:28 a.m.
Electron | They Go Up So Fast
Rocket Lab Ltd | USAOnenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
March 22, 2021, 10:30 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Dedicated Rideshare
The Electron rocket will carry seven satellites to low Earth orbit: one Earth-observation satellite for BlackSky, two Internet-Of-Things (IoT) nanosatellites for companies Fleet Space and Myriota, a technology demonstration satellite for the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space, a weather satellite pathfinder technology demonstration from Care Weather technologies, a technology demonstrator for the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command as well as Rocket Lab’s in-house designed and built Photon Pathstone spacecraft which will operate on orbit as a risk reduction demonstration to build spacecraft heritage ahead of Rocket Lab’s mission to the Moon for NASA later this year.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | CAS500-1 & rideshare
Progress Rocket Space Center | RUSBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
March 22, 2021, 6:07 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission: Earth Science
CAS500-1 is the first of two 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. More than a dozen other satellites are included as secondary payloads, among them being the first spacecraft by the Catalan Space Agency.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit
