Launches & Spacecraft

SpaceX launched the first mission of 2026 tonight (Jan. 2), sending an Italian Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

"Some will not change behavior until something bad happens."

Iran has launched a trio of new satellites into space with the help of a Russian rocket, the country's state media reported Sunday (Dec. 28).

We saw quite a few milestones notched in the final frontier this year. But there were a number of failures as well, some of them quite dramatic.

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

China overcomes human spaceflight emergency and makes leaps with lunar hardware tests

An Indian LVM3 rocket successfully launched the massive BlueBird 6 smartphone satellite for AST SpaceMobile to orbit on Tuesday night (Dec. 23).

The South Korean startup Innospace failed during its first orbital launch attempt, which sent five satellites aloft on Dec. 22 from Brazil.

Rocket Lab launched its 21st and final mission of the year over the weekend, sending a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

A Japanese H3 rocket suffered an anomaly during the launch of a navigation satellite on Sunday night (Dec. 21), resulting in the loss of the spacecraft.