2026 Launch Schedule Outlook: Every Major Mission to Watch
A complete preview of the 2026 spaceflight calendar — Artemis II, Starship operational flights, Mars sample return progress, lunar landers, and record commercial launch cadence.
2026 is shaping up to be the busiest year in the history of spaceflight. Between SpaceX, the Artemis program, China, India, Europe, and a flood of new commercial launchers, the global launch rate is on track to crack 300 successful orbital missions for the first time ever.
This is your top-down guide to what is launching, when, and why each mission matters.
Crewed missions in 2026
- Artemis II
- First crewed flight of NASA's Artemis program — a lunar flyby on Orion
- Crew-10 / Crew-11
- Continuing rotation of US, ESA, JAXA, and partner astronauts to the ISS via Falcon 9 + Crew Dragon
- Soyuz MS missions
- Ongoing Russian crew rotations
- Shenzhou flights
- China's Tiangong space station crew exchanges
- Polaris Program
- Continued private Crew Dragon flights
Starship operational flights
Starship is moving past test flights and into operational missions. 2026 includes Starlink V2 batch deployments, additional propellant-transfer demonstrations, and HLS Starship un-crewed lunar landing rehearsals on the path to Artemis III.
Watch for the first paying commercial Starship payloads, and SpaceX testing rapid reuse of both Super Heavy boosters and Starship upper stages.
Robotic exploration milestones
- CLPS lunar landers — at least four commercial Moon landing attempts (Intuitive Machines, Firefly, Astrobotic-class missions)
- Mars Sample Return — continued architecture work and the first hardware contracts of the redesigned mission
- JUICE — ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer continues its long cruise, with gravity assists
- Europa Clipper — first full-year of cruise data, inbound Mars flyby
- BepiColombo — final Mercury approach
New rockets debuting or maturing
- Vulcan Centaur
- Ramping cadence with NSSL national security launches
- Ariane 6
- Ramping commercial cadence after first flights in 2024–2025
- New Glenn
- Multiple operational flights and reuse demonstrations
- Neutron
- Rocket Lab's reusable medium-lift expected first flight
- Terran R
- Relativity's reusable medium-lift, debut window
- MLV
- Firefly Aerospace medium-lift, late 2026 target
Constellation deployments
- Starlink V2 — continued ramp using both Falcon 9 and Starship
- Project Kuiper — Amazon scaling to several launches per month
- Iridium NEXT replenishment — early planning
- Chinese Guowang and Qianfan constellations — heavy launch cadence
How to follow the schedule
Launchcast tracks every announced launch in real time, with countdown timers, T-0 push alerts, weather updates, ISS pass alerts, and synchronized haptic launch moments. The 2026 calendar is unprecedented — make sure you don't miss a flight.
Frequently asked questions
How many rockets will launch in 2026?
Industry trackers project 280–320 successful orbital launches in 2026, the highest year in history, with SpaceX likely accounting for more than half.
When is Artemis II launching?
Artemis II is currently targeted for the second half of 2026 and will be the first crewed flight of NASA's Artemis program — a lunar flyby aboard Orion.
How many Starship flights in 2026?
SpaceX has not committed to an exact number, but the FAA has authorized expanded annual cadence at Starbase. Expect operational Starlink deployments and HLS demonstration flights.
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