2026 in spaceflight
This article documents expected notable spaceflight events during the year 2026.
In 2026, as part of a Mars sample-return mission, NASA plans to launch the Sample Retrieval Lander. Later in the year, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch the Earth Return Orbiter, which will transport the retrieved samples from Mars to Earth.
NASA's NEO Surveyor, scheduled to launch in the first half of 2026, is expected to be capable of detecting at least 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 ft), a goal mandated by the US Congress in 2005.[1]
Orbital launches[]
Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | |||
Remarks | ||||||||
March[] | ||||||||
March (TBD)[3] | SLS Block 1B | Kennedy LC-39B | NASA | |||||
Artemis 4 | NASA | Selenocentric (NRHO) | Crewed lunar landing | |||||
International Habitation Module (I-HAB)[4] | ESA | Selenocentric (NRHO) | Lunar Gateway component | |||||
Third crewed Orion flight. First launch of the SLS Block 1B variant with the Exploration Upper Stage. Delivery of I-HAB to the Lunar Gateway.[2] | ||||||||
June[] | ||||||||
H1 2026 (TBD)[6] | TBA | TBA | TBA | |||||
NEO Surveyor | NASA | Sun–Earth L1 | Infrared astronomy Near-Earth object detection |
|||||
Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM).[5] | ||||||||
July[] | ||||||||
July (TBD)[7][8] | Commercial launch vehicle | TBA | TBA | |||||
Sample Retrieval Lander | NASA / ESA | TMI to Martian Surface | Mars sample-return | |||||
Lander component of the NASA–ESA Mars sample-return mission. It will carry the ESA's Sample Fetch Rover and the Mars Ascent Vehicle. | ||||||||
October[] | ||||||||
October (TBD)[7][8] | Ariane 6 | Kourou ELA-4 | Arianespace | |||||
Earth Return Orbiter | ESA | Areocentric | Mars sample-return | |||||
Orbiter component of the NASA–ESA Mars sample-return mission. It will collect the sample return canister delivered into orbit by the Mars Ascent Vehicle and carry it back to Earth. | ||||||||
To be determined[] | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[9] | Amur | Vostochny | Roscosmos | |||||
Sfera × ?[10] | Roscosmos | Low Earth | Communications | |||||
Maiden flight of Amur, a partially reusable methane-powered launch vehicle. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[11] | Angara A5P | Vostochny Site 1A | Roscosmos | |||||
Orel | Roscosmos | Low Earth | Crewed flight test | |||||
2026 (TBD)[12] | Ariane 62[13] | Kourou ELA-4 | Arianespace | |||||
PLATO | ESA | Sun–Earth L2 | Exoplanetary science | |||||
2026 (TBD)[14] | Epsilon | Uchinoura | JAXA | |||||
JAXA | Low Earth | Technology demonstration | ||||||
2026 (TBD)[15] | Epsilon S[16] | Uchinoura | JAXA | |||||
JAXA | Low Earth (SSO) | Heliophysics | ||||||
Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[17] | Falcon Heavy | Kennedy LC-39A | SpaceX | |||||
SpaceX GLS-2 | SpaceX / NASA | Selenocentric (NRHO) | Gateway logistics | |||||
Second Dragon XL resupply mission to the Lunar Gateway. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[14] | H3 | Tanegashima LA-Y2 | MHI | |||||
IGS-Optical Diversification 2 | CIRO | Low Earth (SSO) | Reconnaissance | |||||
2026 (TBD)[18] | Long March 5DY | Wenchang | CASC | |||||
TBA | CNSA | Low Earth | Flight test | |||||
First flight of China's triple-core crew launch vehicle for moon missions. Previously known as the 921 rocket. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[19] | Nuri (KSLV-II) | Naro LC-2 | KARI | |||||
TBA | TBA | Low Earth (SSO) | TBA | |||||
Fifth planned launch of Nuri, and the first with solely commercial payloads. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[20] | Soyuz-2.1a | Vostochny Site 1S | Roscosmos | |||||
Obzor-R №2[21] | Roscosmos | Low Earth (SSO) | Earth observation | |||||
2026 (TBD)[22] | Soyuz-2.1b / Fregat | Baikonur | Roscosmos | |||||
№4[23] | Roscosmos | Molniya | Meteorology | |||||
H2 2026 (TBD)[25][26] | Vega-C | Kourou ELV | Arianespace | |||||
FORUM | ESA | Low Earth (SSO) | Earth observation | |||||
Ninth Earth Explorer mission for ESA's Living Planet Programme. FORUM is baselined for launch on the Vega-C, and will fly in a loose sun-synchronous formation with MetOp-SG A1.[24] | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[27] | TBA | TBA | TBA | |||||
Axiom Lab (AxL) | Axiom Space | Low Earth (ISS) | ISS assembly / Commercial habitat | |||||
Third Axiom module. | ||||||||
2026 (TBD)[28][29] | TBA | Baikonur or Vostochny | Roscosmos | |||||
Ekspress-AMU6 | RSCC | Geosynchronous | Communications | |||||
2026 (TBD)[30] | TBA | Cape Canaveral | TBA | |||||
GPS IIIF-01 | U.S. Space Force | Medium Earth | Navigation | |||||
First GPS IIIF satellite. A total of 22 GPS satellites are planned to be launched from 2026 to 2034. |
Suborbital flights[]
Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
Remarks | |||||||
March (TBD)[31] | Improved Orion | Esrange | MORABA / SNSA | ||||
REXUS-37 | DLR / SNSA | Suborbital | Education | ||||
March (TBD)[31] | Improved Orion | Esrange | MORABA / SNSA | ||||
REXUS-38 | DLR / SNSA | Suborbital | Education | ||||
September (TBD)[31] | VSB-30 | Esrange | MORABA | ||||
MAPHEUS-17 | DLR | Suborbital | Microgravity research | ||||
October (TBD)[31] | VSB-30 | Esrange | SSC | ||||
S1X-M18 | SSC | Suborbital | Microgravity research | ||||
SubOrbital Express Microgravity flight opportunity 18. | |||||||
November (TBD)[31] | VSB-30 | Esrange | MORABA | ||||
TEXUS-64 | DLR / ESA | Suborbital | Microgravity research | ||||
November (TBD)[31] | VSB-30 | Esrange | MORABA | ||||
TEXUS-65 | DLR / ESA | Suborbital | Microgravity research |
Deep-space rendezvous[]
Date (UTC) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
July | Hayabusa2 | Flyby of (98943) 2001 CC21[32] |
Extravehicular activities (EVAs)[]
Start Date/Time | Duration | End Time | Spacecraft | Crew | Remarks |
---|
Orbital launch statistics[]
By country[]
For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.
Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures |
Remarks |
---|
By rocket[]
By family[]
Family | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By type[]
Rocket | Country | Family | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By configuration[]
Rocket | Country | Type | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By spaceport[]
Site | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By orbit[]
Orbital regime | Launches | Achieved | Not achieved | Accidentally achieved |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transatmospheric | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Low Earth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Geosynchronous / transfer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Medium Earth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
High Earth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Heliocentric orbit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Including planetary transfer orbits |
Notes[]
References[]
- ^ "H.R. 1022 (109th): George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act - Original text". GovTrack. 27 June 2005. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
- ^ "FY 2022 Budget Estimates – Gateway – Program Projects – International Habitat (I-Hab)" (PDF). NASA. 6 May 2021. p. 97 (DEXP-67). Retrieved 9 July 2021.
Delivery of I-Hab to the Gateway will be via the SLS Block 1B launch vehicle with Orion providing orbital insertion and docking.
- ^ "NASA's Management of the Gateway Program for Artemis Missions" (PDF). OIG. NASA. 10 November 2020. p. 3. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
Artemis IV is scheduled to launch in March 2026 (as of August 2020).
- ^ "Thales Alenia Space on its way to reach the Moon". Thales Group (Press release). 14 October 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
I-HAB is slated for launch in 2026.
- ^ Smith, Marcia (19 January 2020). "NASA's New NEO Mission Will Substantially Reduce Time to Find Hazardous Asteroids". Space Policy Online. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
- ^ Talbert, Tricia (11 June 2021). "NASA Approves Asteroid Hunting Space Telescope to Continue Development". NASA. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ a b Cowart, Justin (13 August 2019). "NASA, ESA Officials Outline Latest Mars Sample Return Plans". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ^ a b Wall, Mike (29 July 2019). "Bringing Pieces of Mars to Earth in 2031: How NASA and Europe Plan to Do It". Space.com. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ^ "Russia to launch first reusable rocket with payload in 2026". TASS. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- ^ "Russia's new Amur rocket to carry Sfera next-generation satellites as first payload". TASS. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- ^ "Определен срок по��ета российского корабля "Орел" с экипажем на МКС" [The scheduled time for the first crewed flight of the Russian spacecraft Orel to the ISS has been determined]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). 13 February 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Planet-hunting eye of PLATO". ESA. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
- ^ "Mission Operations". ESA. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
- ^ a b "宇宙基本計画工程表 (令和2年度改訂)" [Space Plan Schedule (2020 Revision)] (PDF) (in Japanese). Cabinet Office. 15 December 2020. p. 30. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
- ^ "NASA Approves Heliophysics Missions to Explore Sun, Earth's Aurora". NASA (Press release). 29 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "Instruments | Next-generation solar-observing satellite Solar-C_EUVST". NAOJ. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "Report No. IG-21-004: NASA's Management of the Gateway Program for Artemis Missions" (PDF). OIG. NASA. 10 November 2020. pp. 5–7. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ Jones, Andrew (17 December 2021). "China's new rocket for crewed moon missions to launch around 2026". SpaceNews. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
- ^ Lee, Kyung-tae (25 October 2021). "[누리호 발사] 내년 5·10월 추가 발사…2026년 위성시대 본격 돌입" [[Launching Nuri] Additional launches in May/October next year… The satellite era begins in earnest in 2026]. NewsPim (in Korean). Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ "Запуск новейшего российского радиолокационного спутника отложили на год" [The launch of the newest Russian radar satellite was postponed for a year]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). 29 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter (9 September 2019). "Obzor-R". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
- ^ Report on the status of current and future Russian meteorological satellite systems. CGMS-49. Roscosmos / Roshydromet. 11 May 2021. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 27 August 2021 – via the Internet Archive.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter (28 February 2021). "Arktika-M 1, 2, 3". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
- ^ "Earth Explorer 9 Candidate Mission FORUM – Report for Mission Selection" (PDF). ESA. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ Status of the Current and Future ESA Earth Observation Missions and Programmes. CGMS-49. ESA. 14 May 2021. pp. 36–37. Retrieved 27 August 2021 – via the Internet Archive.
- ^ "A new satellite to understand how Earth is losing its cool". ESA. 24 September 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ Axiom Space [@Axiom_Space] (30 November 2020). "The Axiom Lab module is the next step for astronaut-tended manufacturing & research in space. What industries could you reshape in microgravity?" (Tweet). Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ Shulgin, Dmitry (21 January 2021). "Российский «Экспресс» набирает обороты" [Russian "Ekspress" gaining momentum]. RSCC (in Russian). p. 5. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
- ^ Holmes, Mark (15 October 2020). "Russian Space Leaders Split on GEO vs LEO at SatComRus". Via Satellite. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
- ^ Erwin, Sandra (23 February 2021). "L3Harris gets $137 million contract for GPS digital payloads". SpaceNews. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Esrange Space Center EASP Launching Programme" (PDF). Swedish Space Corporation. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
- ^ "はやぶさ2、次のミッションは小惑星「1998KY26」…JAXA". The Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 13 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
External links[]
Spaceflight portal
- Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
- Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
- Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
- Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
- Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report".
- McDowell, Jonathan. "Jonathan's Space Report".
- Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
- Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
- Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
- Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
- "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
- "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- "Space Calendar". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- "Space Information Center". JAXA.
- "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).
- 2026 in spaceflight
- Spaceflight by year