Spaceflight Daily Report, Tuesday 3rd November 2026

Kinetica 2 lifts off. Image credit: CAS Space.

Launch of SpaceSail Polar Group 21

CAS Space launched a Kinetica 2 from Jiuquan at 0015 UTC, or 0815 local time (CST). This was carrying SpaceSail (Qianfan) Polar Group 21, a batch of 18 satellites for Shanghai Spacecom's internet constellation and the 17th batch overall. This also makes CAS Space the third commercial launch provider to put satellites in orbit for the SpaceSail constellation, after LandSpace and Orienspace. This was only the 2nd flight of the Kinetica 2. CAS Space intends to eventually begin recovering and reusing the three-core first stage, but no recovery attempt was made on this flight. [Source: CAS Space]

International Space Station Activities

Pyotr Dubrov (MS-29, Roscosmos) set up Earth observation equipment. Anna Kikina (MS-29, Roscosmos) transferred water into the station from the Progress MS-35 cargo spacecraft, and serviced the ventilation system. Sergey Teteryatnikov (Crew-13, Roscosmos) completed a 24 hour health monitoring session that began yesterday, then evaluated AI tools. Anil Menon (MS-29, NASA) and Joshua Kutryk (Crew-13, CSA) continued preparations for Thursday's spacewalk. Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney (both Crew-13, NASA) continued studying the part they will play in assisting the spacewalkers too. Watkins, Delaney, and Menon also transferred cargo in and out of Cargo Dragon CRS-35 and voted in today's US midterm elections via electronic ballot. [Source: NASA, Anil Menon]

Other notes

• Starfish Space, who operate the Otter 24C servicing spacecraft launched on Transporter-18 and carrying out NASA's "Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability" (SSPICY) mission, have announced that they have irrecoverably lost communications with the spacecraft. [Source: Starfish Space]
• The Long March 12 scheduled for 5th November has been postponed to the 8th or 9th of November. [Source: CNSPACE]
• The debut launch of the South Korean Mir rocket appears to have been postponed again. [Source: Cosmic Penguin]
• The launch of USSF-432 aboard a Falcon 9 has been pushed back to 7th November. [Source: SpaceX]
• The launch of USSF-627 aboard a Falcon 9 has been scheduled for 10th November. [Source: SpaceX]