Seven launches are scheduled worldwide this week, together with the thirteenth flight check of SpaceX’s Starship and the launch of a brand new crew to the Worldwide House Station. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is predicted to launch three Starlink missions and a mission for the U.S. House Pressure’s House Improvement Company.
Internationally, a Chinese language Chang Zheng 7A is about to launch an unknown payload, whereas India is aiming to conduct the maiden flight of a Vikram-I rocket earlier than the tip of the week.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-14
A SpaceX Falcon 9 is about to launch on Monday, July 13, at 6:17 PM PDT (Tuesday, July 14, at 01:17 UTC). The rocket will launch from House Launch Complicated 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg House Pressure Base (VSFB) in California, scheduled to raise off one minute into the one-hour launch window that ends at 7:17 PM PDT.
Falcon 9 will loft 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites right into a low-Earth orbit (LEO), flying on a southeasterly trajectory at a 70.01-degree inclination. SpaceX’s autonomous droneship, Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, will help the booster touchdown downrange within the Pacific Ocean. Booster B1093 is supporting this mission, flying its twelfth Starlink mission. B1093 has additionally supported the Tranche 1 Transport Layer B and C and Transporter 16 missions.
Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m-diameter, 70 m-tall two-stage rocket. 9 Merlin 1D engines energy the primary stage booster, whereas the expendable second stage makes use of a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been the primary orbital rockets to realize common reuse, with a Falcon booster having not too long ago flown 36 flights. The 2 payload fairings are additionally recovered utilizing specialised restoration vessels and reused after flight.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-45
A second Falcon 9 is predicted to launch on Tuesday, July 14, at 4:21 AM EDT (08:21 UTC), this time from House Launch Complicated 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station in Florida. A batch of 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites make up the payload for this mission, which is able to fly a northeasterly trajectory to a 53.16-degree orbital inclination LEO.
Booster B1080, flying for the twenty eighth time, will help this mission. B1080 has beforehand supported 21 Starlink missions, in addition to the Axiom Mission 2, Euclid, Axiom Mission 3, CRS-30, Astra 1P/SES-24, and CRS NG-21 missions. SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship can be stationed some 640 km downrange to help B1080’s touchdown and return.
The subsequent crewed mission to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 14:47 UTC. NASA astronaut Anil Menon, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, will launch to the Station atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Web site 31/6 on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Following launch, Soyuz will undertake a two-orbit, three-hour rendezvous with the ISS, finally conducting an autonomous docking to the Russian Prichal module.
Three new Worldwide House Station crew members will launch aboard a Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft on Tuesday, July 14, to affix the Expedition 74 crew the identical day stay on @NASA+. Extra… pic.twitter.com/8yqQh47gzA
— Worldwide House Station (@Space_Station) July 11, 2026
The Soyuz 2 rocket has two main variants: Soyuz 2.1a, the bottom model, and Soyuz 2.1b, which makes use of a extra highly effective third stage. The Soyuz 2.1a is powered by 4 RD-107A engines on the primary stage (organized across the second, core stage), a single RD-108 engine on the core stage, and an RD-0110 engine on the third stage. Every stage makes use of liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.
This would be the 91st Soyuz 2.1a mission since 2004, and the fourth of 2026.
Falcon 9 | Tranche 1 Transport Layer E
The third Falcon 9 launch of the week is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, at 1:32 PM PDT (20:32 UTC) from SLC-4E at VSFB in California. Launching at first of a 47-minute launch window, the mission will loft one other payload for the U.S. House Pressure House Improvement Company’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer — a constellation offering assured, resilient, low-latency navy information and connectivity worldwide.
Falcon 9 will fly a southerly trajectory to ship the payload right into a polar orbit. Following launch, the booster, B1103, will land atop Of Course I Nonetheless Love You downrange within the Pacific. This mission will mark B1103’s fourth flight, with the booster beforehand supporting two Starlink missions and the NROL-179 mission.
Starship/Super Heavy | Starship Flight 13
Lately printed notices point out that Starship’s thirteenth flight check is scheduled to launch on Thursday, July 16, at 5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC). A two-hour and eleven-minute launch window is offered for the mission. Ship 40 and Booster 20 will function the automobiles for this flight.
SpaceX has extensively examined each Booster 20 and Ship 40 in readiness for this mission, which is predicted to repeat the flight profile of Flight 12 and, like all flight assessments to date, be suborbital. SpaceX hopes that the varied points that led to a booster abort following stage separation on Flight 12 can be overcome, and that Ship 40 can construct on Ship 39’s profitable in-space operations, reentry, and touchdown throughout Flight 12.
Neither car will survive the flight. Booster 20 is predicted to carry out a smooth splashdown within the waters off Starbase, whereas Ship 40 is predicted to reenter Earth’s ambiance and land within the Indian Ocean. This mission will mark the second Starship flight check of 2026, coming practically two months after Flight 12.
Chang Zheng 7A | Unknown Payload
A Chinese language Chang Zheng 7A (CZ-7A) is predicted to launch from Launch Complicated 201 (LC-201) on the Wenchang House Launch Web site in Hainan, China, on Friday, July 17, at 11:00 UTC. Launch Hazard Notices point out that the flight will journey due east and {that a} two-hour launch window is offered. The payload for this mission won’t be made public till after the launch.
Standing 58 m tall, the CZ-7A has three phases, with the primary stage that includes 4 strap-on liquid-fueled boosters. The primary two phases and the 4 boosters all use liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellants, whereas the third stage burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Vikram-1 has been modeled, simulated, examined, and certified. And a few questions can solely be answered in flight. This episiode follows the crew to Sriharikota, the place the launch marketing campaign is near completion and with every passing day, Vikram-1 strikes one step nearer to flight.… pic.twitter.com/E2TZNgUXCU
— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) July 11, 2026
Vikram-I | Aagaman (Demonstration Flight)
This delayed demonstration flight of the Vikram-I rocket is now scheduled for Saturday, July 18, from the First Launch Complicated on the Satish Dhawan House Centre in India. The four-hour launch window opens at 05:00 UTC. The rocket, developed by Skyroot Aerospace, will launch on a southeasterly trajectory at a 60-degree inclination to LEO, carrying 4 payloads, together with certainly one of Skyroot’s personal satellites.
Vikram-I is a four-stage small-lift expendable rocket, with its first stage, Kalam 1,000, utilizing strong propellants and producing 1,000 kN of thrust at liftoff. The car’s second and third phases, Kalam 250 and Kalam 100, additionally use strong propellants; the fourth stage has 4 Raman-I engines fueled by dinitrogen tetroxide and monomethylhydrazine. The rocket can ship 350 kg to LEO and 260 kg to a Solar-synchronous polar orbit.
(Lead picture: A Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
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