Spaceflight Daily Report, Sunday 16th August 2026

Image credit: CMSA

Launch of Globalstar 2-R Mission 1

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 0112 UTC, or 2112 Saturday evening local time (EDT). This was carrying Globalstar 2-R Mission 1, a batch of eight satellites to replenish Globalstar's satellite telephone and data transfer constellation. This was the 678th flight of the Falcon 9, and the 14th flight of booster B1090, which performed a boostback burn and successfully landed at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 40. [Source: SpaceX]

Launch of USSF-366

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg in California at 0150 UTC, or 1850 Saturday evening local time (PDT). At just 38 minutes, this is the new record for the shortest gap between two Falcon launches, albeit from different launch sites. This was carrying USSF-366, a classified mission consisting of 23 communications satellites for the United States Space Force. This was the 679th flight of the Falcon 9, and the 18th flight of booster B1088, which successfully landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. [Source: SpaceX]

Launch of Guowang Group 24

SAST, a subsidiary of CASC, launched a Long March 12 (Chang Zheng 12) from Wenchang in Hainan at 0410 UTC, or 1210 local time (CST). This was carrying SatNet LEO (Guowang) Group 24, a batch of 9 satellites for the China Satellite Network Group's internet constellation. This was the 7th flight of the Long March 12, and the 9th flight of the Long March 12 family. Notably, the Long March 12 uses the same YF-100 engines as the recently failed Long March 7A, meaning the engines are still clear to fly and likely weren't the cause of the failure. [Source: SAST]

Tiangong Activities

CMSA published their weekly video on the activities of the crew of the Tiangong space station. Zhu Yangzhu, Lai Ka-Ying, and Zhang Zhiyuan performed research into electroencephalography, motion intuition, and emergency decision-making, and took blood samples. They maintained fluid physics experiments, practised simulated manual docking procedures, conducted medical training, and completed an emergency drill simulating a depressurisation event. [Source: CMSA]