Spaceflight Daily Report, Friday 16th October 2026

The spacecraft docked to the ISS. Image credit: NASA.

Launch of USSF-481

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg in California at 0001 UTC, or 1701 Thursday evening local time (PDT). This was carrying USSF-481, a classified mission for the United States Space Force, likely to be a batch of 17 Starshield-based electronic surveillance satellites. This was the 697th flight of the Falcon 9, and the 28th flight of booster B1081, which successfully landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. [Source: SpaceX]

International Space Station Activities

Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina (both MS-29, Roscosmos) finished their weeklong study with the Teledroid controller. Anil Menon (MS-29, NASA), Jessica Watkins (Crew-13, NASA), Luke Delaney (Crew-13, NASA), and Joshua Kutryk (Crew-13, CSA) spent today unpacking the Cargo Dragon (CRS-35) which arrived yesterday, starting with the time-sensitive frozen samples. Sergey Teteryatnikov (Crew-13, Roscosmos) underwent a VR balance and orientation test, inspected some hydraulics, and serviced an oxygen generator. [Source: NASA]

Other notes

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have completed a series of separation tests for the Gaganyaan crew module ahead of its planned uncrewed test flight later this year. [Source: ISRO]
• Blue Origin have provided an update on their plans to increase New Glenn's launch cadence, stating that the upper stage production facility in Florida will be completed in summer 2027 and the company is acquiring two new droneship landing barges. [Source: Blue Origin]
• UPDATE: ION SCV Absolute Andreas, launched on Transporter-18, deployed Planet Labs' Flock 4J-5, -6, and -8 Earth observation satellites today. Additionally, ION SCV Alluring Alexander deployed Indian company TakeMe2Space's MOI-1A, and German company Ethereal's OSIRIS-E. [Source: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT]