Upcoming Spaceflight Launches
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Ariane 64 | Comet Interceptor
ArianeGroup | FranceGuiana Space Centre, French Guiana
TBD August, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
ESA's Comet Interceptor consists of three spacecraft which will be positioned at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, where they will wait for a long-period comet or an interstellar object to come by. Once the desired target appears, the spacecraft will separate and perform a flyby of the target, compiling a detailed 3D profile of a comet.
Heliocentric N/A
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SEOPS Waymaker-1
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD September, 2028
Vulcan | USSF-70
United Launch Alliance | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
TBD September, 2028
Falcon Heavy | ExoMars 2028 Rosalind Franklin rover
SpaceX | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
TBD October, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
ExoMars 2028 is a second mission of two-part European Space Agency astrobiology project to search for evidence of life on Mars. The primary objective is to land the rover at a site with high potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the very early history of the planet. The rover is expected to travel several kilometers during its mission. The European rover will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth. It will collect samples with a drill down to a depth of 2 m and analyze them with next-generation instruments in an onboard laboratory. Underground samples are more likely to include biomarkers, since the tenuous martian atmosphere offers little protection from radiation and photochemistry at the surface.
Heliocentric N/A
Epsilon S | SOLAR-C
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | JapanUchinoura Space Center, Japan
TBD November, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
SOLAR-C is a Japan-led international mission with the cooperation by the US and European countries. It aims to gain new insights into the fundamental physical mechanisms driving solar plasma dynamics by performing three simultaneous UV observations. The first consists to observe the broad range of temperatures, spanning over three orders of magnitude from the 10,000 Kelvin chromosphere to the million Kelvin corona, and even to the 15 million Kelvin solar flares. The second consists to resolve the elemental structures at high spatial (0.4 arcsec) and temporal (1 sec) resolution and trace their evolutions by increasing the ability to collect the solar UV rays 10 to 30 times as much as before. The third consists to conduct a high dispersion spectroscopy (equivalent to a velocity resolution of 2 km/s) to obtain spectroscopic information that enables quantitative diagnostics (such as velocity, temperature, density, ionization degree, and abundance). By combining the three observations, SOLAR-C can analyze the dynamically evolving solar atmospheres over a wide altitude range from the chromosphere to the corona while resolving elemental structures.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Vega-C | Altius
Avio S.p.A | ItalyGuiana Space Centre, French Guiana
TBD December, 2028
Spectrum | AOS-Demo & Precursor
Isar Aerospace | GermanyAndøya Spaceport
TBD December, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Two satellites for the Norwegian Space Agency’s Arctic Ocean Surveillance (AOS) program. AOS-Demo will be built by thr Norwegian engineering company Eidel to demonstrate maritime monitoring technologies. AOS-Precursor will be built by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace as the first operational satellite of the system to track maritime activities in the Arctic.
Sun-Synchronous OrbitFalcon 9 Block 5 | Al Yah 5
SpaceX | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
TBD December, 2028
Falcon 9 Block 5 | WSF-M2 & BLAZE-2 (USSF-178)
SpaceX | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
TBD December, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
Second Weather System Follow-on (WSF) satellite. WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on - Microwave) is the next-generation operational environmental satellite system for the Department of Defense (DoD), to replace the microwave wavelength weather forecasting capabilities of the DMSP satellites. Ball Aerospace has been selected in late November 2017 to be the prime contractor for 2 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) weather satellites with a passive microwave imaging radiometer instrument and hosted Government furnished energetic charged particle (ECP) sensor space weather payload developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The radiometer leverages the Ball-built Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument. This mission will improve weather forecasting over maritime regions by taking global measurements of the atmosphere and ocean surface. The launch will also include BLAZE-2, a launch opportunity for operational, research, development, and prototype small satellites from across the DoD.
Polar OrbitSpectrum | ELSA-M
Isar Aerospace | GermanyAndøya Spaceport
TBD December, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:
ELSA-M (End of Life Services by Astroscale – Multiple) is Astroscale’s commercial satellite service designed to remove inactive satellites from orbit. It is the world's first End-of-Life (EOL) service for prepared, full-sized commercial end customers, harnessing magnetic capture for multiple satellite removals. The in-orbit demonstration mission is a partnership programme led by Astroscale and supported by the UK Space Agency, ESA, and the commercial satellite operator Eutelsat through the Sunrise Partnership Project, a public–private partnership between ESA and Eutelsat Group. The mission will safely approach and dock with a Eutelsat OneWeb communications satellite at its end of life, then remove it from orbit. This world first commercial ‘de-orbit as a service’ demonstration showcases the technologies and operational capability needed to reduce collision risk in Earth’s increasingly crowded Low Earth Orbit.
Polar OrbitLong March 3B/E
Shijian 31
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaClassified experimental Chinese satellite of unknown purposes (officially described for "spatial environment detection" purposes).
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 17-54
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USAA batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Kinetica 1
8 x Jilin-1
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China8 Earth observation satellites for the Jilin-1 commercial Earth observation satellites constellation: * High Resolution-04D 01-02 * High Resoluti…
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 10-54
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USAA batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
H3-30
H3-30 Test Flight
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, JapanTest flight of the H3-30 variant of the H3 launch vehicle with 3 LE-9 engines in the first stage and no SRBs. The flight will carry a dummy main payl…
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 17-44
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USAA batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Electron
Curveball
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 (Launch Area 0 C) - Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USASub-orbital launch under Rocket Lab’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) program, details TBD.
Long March 5
TJSW-25
101 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of ChinaChinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.
Zhuque-2E Block 2
2 x SatNet DTC test satellites
Launch Area 96A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaA pair of demonstration satellites for Direct-To-Cell (DTC) communications from Low Earth Orbit for SpaceSail and China Mobile: * SpaceSail DTC 01…
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 10-35
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USAA batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
