Please note: Launch dates are subject to change. Please DO NOT schedule travel based on launch dates you see here.
December 2025
December 19, 1:45 p.m. EST (1845 GMT): South Korean company Innospace will launch a HANBIT-Nano rocket on its maiden flight. The mission will carry five small satellites from the Brazilian space agency.
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December 20, 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT): Blue Origin will launch its New Shepard rocket on the NS-37 mission carrying a crew of six on a suborbital flight. This will be New Shepard's ninth launch of 2025, and 16th crewed flight.
December 20, 7:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT): The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch an unknown payload on a Long March 5 rocket. The mission will liftoff from Pad 101, at the Wenchang Space Launch Center, China (WSLC), in China.
December 21, 1:12 a.m. ET (0612 GMT): Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket from the company's Pad B, at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The mission will launch a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite for iQPS. The spacecraft will join iQPS’ growing constellation to deliver frequent high-resolution Earth-imaging of specific locations around the globe.
Dec 21, 8 pm ET (0000 GMT Dec. 22): The Ursid meteor shower is active between Dec. 13 to Dec. 26 and will peak on Dec. 22. The best time to look out for Ursids is the evening of Dec. 21 through dawn.
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Read More: Ursid meteor shower 2025: Everything you need to know
December 23, 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT): Roscosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1a rocket with the Obzor-R No.1 satellite, an X-band radar earth observation probe. The mission will liftoff from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in Russia.
December 23, 10:24 p.m. EST (0324 GMT, Dec. 24): The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch a SpaceMobile BlueBird Block 2 communications satellite aboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3), previously known as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) rocket. The mission will liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
December 25, 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT): The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch an unknown payload on a Long March 8A rocket. The mission will liftoff from the Wenchang Space Launch Center, China (WSLC), in China.
December 26, 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT): The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch a the Fengyun-4C meteorological satellite on a Long March 3B/E rocket. The mission will liftoff from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in China, and deliver the satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit.
December 27, 9:09 p.m. EST (0209 GMT, Dec. 28): A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG-3) mission for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence. The mission will lift off from Space Launch Complex-4E (SLC-4E), at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, and deliver the satellite to low Earth orbit.
December 28, 12:00 a.m. EST (0500 GMT): A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO), from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, in Florida. SpaceX's megaconstellation of LEO Starlink satellites provides low-cost internet to locations around the globe, with nearly seven thousand currently in the orbital network.
NET December: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will launch the MICHIBIKI 5 mission, carrying the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-6) aboard the 5th H3 Launch Vehicle (H3 F5: Flight No.5). Liftoff will take place from Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan. QZS-5 is part of a Japanese navigation satellite constellation, operating in elliptical geosynchronous orbits. The satellite is designed to augment GPS signals to otherwise unreachable locations; using its orbit to relay signals to canyons and mountainous terrain.
NET December: Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The Bridging The Swarm mission will launch NeonSat-1A, an Earth observation satellite from the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
NET December: The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, a Moscow-based space manufacturer, will launch a Proton-M rocket with the Elektro-L No.5 Earth-imaging satellite. Liftoff will occur from launch complex 81/24 (81P) at Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.
NET December: Private Chinese space launch company Galactic Energy is expected to launch a demonstration flight of its new Ceres 2 rocket. The mission will liftoff from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in China.
NET December: The Chinese company iSpace is expected to launch an unknown payload aboard a solid propellant-fueled Hyperbola-1 rocket.
NET December: NordSpace will launch the first test flight of its suborbital Taiga rocket. The mission will launch from Space Launch Complex-02 (SLC-02) at the company's Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX), in Newfoundland, Canada. The mission, "Getting Screeched In", will launch Taiga on a low-altitude flight to test its primary systems.
2026
January
NET 2026: Northrup Grumman will launch the EWS OD-1 payload for the United States Space Force. The Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System (EWS) Operational Demonstration-1 (OD-1) is a weather satellite made by General Atomics launching into low-Earth obit (LEO) on a Minotaur IV rocket from Space Launch Complex-8 (SLC-8) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), in California.
NET 2026: United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch Sierra Space's Dream Chaser space plane aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket. The mission will launch from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida. the first-ever winged commercial spaceplane, to the International Space Station.
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Read more: ULA delays Dream Chaser space plane launch to certify Vulcan Centaur rocket for US military missions
February
NET Feb. 5: NASA's Artemis 2 mission is expected to launch no earlier than Feb. 5, during a window open several days each month through April 2026. Artemis 2 will send three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut around the moon for the humanity's first lunar excursion in more than 50 years. The mission will launch the crew aboard an Orion spacecraft on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, on a free-return trajectory lunar flyby to the moon and back to Earth.
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NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover, NASA mission specialist Christina Koch and CSA mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will fly around the moon on a roughly 10-day-long mission.
NET 2026: NordSpace will launch the second test flight of its suborbital Taiga rocket. The mission will launch from Space Launch Complex-02 (SLC-02) at the company's Atlantic Spaceport Complex, in Newfoundland, Canada.
Q1 2026: Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket with NASA's Aspera smallsat satellite. Aspera will examine hot gas in the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium. The mission will study the inflow and outflow of gas from galaxies, a process thought to contribute to star formation.
NET May 2026: California-based startup Vast Space plans to loft its Haven-1 outpost aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than May 2026. Haven-1 — which will eventually be incorporated as a module into a larger space station, and will be followed in quick succession by Vast-1, a four-person jaunt to the new station that could last up to 30 days. Vast-1 will also launch atop a Falcon 9, and its astronauts will ride on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
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Read more: SpaceX and Vast want ideas for science experiments on Dragon spacecraft and Haven-1 space station
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