Launches & Spacecraft

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Feb. 7, 2025. The mission returned the Falcon to flight after an upper stage issue.

The FAA has cleared the Falcon 9 rocket to return to flight, freeing NASA and SpaceX to target Feb. 11 for the launch of the Crew-12 astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

For the fourth time in the last 19 months, the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket experienced a problem during a mission. How long will the vehicle be grounded this time?

Follow Space.com's rocket launch blog for the latest on when the next rocket launch will be and how to follow it live.

Crew-12's timeline has been unusually dynamic.

SpaceX has temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 rocket after an upper stage failed to deorbit as planned during a Feb. 2 launch. Will the issue affect the company's Crew-12 astronaut mission?

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026.

Ground-based observations suggest the former geostationary inspector satellite suffered a fragmentation event months after retirement, raising new concerns about debris in high Earth orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites lifted off from California on Jan. 29, 2026. The company repeated the feat the next day with 29 satellites from Florida.

Rocket Lab launched a South Korean disaster-monitoring satellite from New Zealand on Thursday (Jan. 29), about six weeks later than originally planned.