Spaceflight Daily Report, Friday 2nd October 2026

Crew-12 pose for a portrait ahead of their departure next week. Image credit: NASA/Anil Menon

International Space Station Activities

The crew of the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, having docked to the forward port of the International Space Station's Harmony module late last night, opened the hatch and joined the rest of the station's crew at 0119 UTC this morning. Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov are expected to spend around five months aboard the station. The station's crew were off duty for most of today, as they will be working over the weekend. With the arrival of Crew-13, the preceding Crew-12 mission (Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev) will make preparations to head back to Earth, possibly as soon as Monday. The crew of the Soyuz MS-29 mission (Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina, and Anil Menon) will remain on the station along with Crew-13. Meir is expected to pass command of the station to Dubrov on Sunday. [Source: NASA]

Launch of NROL-97

SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 0354 UTC, or 2354 local time (EDT). This mission was designated NROL-97, and it was carrying a classified payload for the United States National Reconnaissance Office. This was the 14th flight of the Falcon Heavy. It was the 2nd and 4th flight of side boosters B1104 and B1072, which each performed a boostback burn and returned to land at Cape Canaveral's landing zones 1 and 2. It was the first and only flight of the expendable central booster, B1106. [Source: SpaceX]

Other notes

UPDATE: North Korea launched a ballistic missile that reached space on this day. See 13th October 2026 for details.

UPDATE: UARX Space's OSSIE satellite, launched on Transporter-18 yesterday, deployed all of its remaining payloads today. See the Transporter-18 launch manifest for details of what they are. [Source: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT]

Spaceflight Daily Report, Thursday 30th July 2026

Image credit: ESA

Launch of TJSW-27A and B

CASC/SAST launched a Long March 6A (Chang Zheng 6A) from Taiyuan in Shanxi at 0100 UTC, or 0900 local time (CST). The classified experimental payloads are designated TJSW-27A and B. They have entered an orbit characteristic of time-delay-of-arrival electronic surveillance satellites. This was the 42nd flight of the Long March 6 family of rockets, and the 26th flight of the 6A configuration. [Source: SAST]

Launch of NROL-95

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 0710 UTC, or 0310 local time (EDT). The classified payload was contracted by the US National Reconnaissance Office and designated NROL-95. It is also thought to be a time-delay-of-arrival electronic surveillance satellite, belonging to the fourth generation of the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS). It was the 671st flight of the Falcon 9, and the 7th flight of booster B1096, which performed a boostback burn and successfully landed at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 2. [Source: SpaceX]

Themis Test

ESA announced today that ArianeGroup and SSC Space carried out a wet dress rehearsal last week of Themis, a demonstration vehicle for the agency's future plans to build a reusable rocket. This brings the organisation a step closer to being able to carry out a hop test of the vehicle. ArianeGroup are hoping to develop a reusable heavy-lift rocket by the 2030s, while their subsidiary MaiaSpace is on track to develop a smaller reusable rocket by the late 2020s. [Source: ESA]

International Space Station Activities

The crew of the International Space Station carried out routine research and maintenance as well as practising procedures for the first of several upcoming spacewalks. [Source: NASA]

NASA Confirms MS-30 Crew

NASA have confirmed the crew of the Soyuz MS-30 mission to the International Space Station in March 2027, which has already been circulating in Russian sources for a few months. Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin will be mission commander and this will be his second spaceflight after taking part in MS-22 in 2022, where he ended up getting stuck on the station for longer than expected due to a micrometeorite striking the Soyuz spacecraft that was meant to take him home. Joining him will be Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, also on his second spaceflight having previously visited the station as part of SpaceX Crew-7 in 2023, and American astronaut Deniz Burnham, for whom this will be her first spaceflight. [Source: NASA]

Spaceflight Daily Report, Friday 19th June 2026

Image credit: ESA

Launch of NROL-179

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 out of Vandenberg in California at 0850 UTC, or 0150 local time (PDT). The classified payload, NROL-179, was an undisclosed number of small spy satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office, part of its "Proliferated Architecture" constellation in low Earth orbit. This was the 654th flight of the Falcon 9 and the 3rd flight of booster B1103, which performed a boostback burn and landed back at Vandenberg's Landing Zone 4. [Source: SpaceX]

Announcement of START Mission to Apophis

Tsinghua University in China have announced the Student-led Threatening Asteroid Reconnaissance of Tsinghua, or START for short, a low-cost mission that will attempt to briefly intercept asteroid Apophis from a high Earth orbit during its close approach to the planet in April 2029. Earth will cause a tidal effect on the asteroid as it passes, and START hopes to image material moving across its surface to gain a better understanding of these tidal forces. The mission is aiming to launch on a Zhuque-3 rocket in early 2028. [Source: SpaceNews]

Space Rider Drop Test

The European Space Agency have revealed that they aborted a drop-test of their prototype Space Rider uncrewed spaceplane back in May due to an anomaly. During the test, a full-scale prototype of the spacecraft was meant to be dropped from a Chinook helicopter and brought to a safe landing under its parafoil, but something went wrong and now they are planning to try again no earlier than October. The real version of the spacecraft is aiming to launch on its inaugural flight in 2028 aboard a Vega C rocket. [Source: European Spaceflight]

NASA did not publish an International Space Station blog post today.