Launches & Spacecraft

China overcomes human spaceflight emergency and makes leaps with lunar hardware tests

An Indian LVM3 rocket successfully launched the massive BlueBird 6 smartphone satellite for AST SpaceMobile to orbit on Tuesday night (Dec. 23).

The South Korean startup Innospace failed during its first orbital launch attempt, which sent five satellites aloft on Dec. 22 from Brazil.

Rocket Lab launched its 21st and final mission of the year over the weekend, sending a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

A Japanese H3 rocket suffered an anomaly during the launch of a navigation satellite on Sunday night (Dec. 21), resulting in the loss of the spacecraft.

Follow Space.com's rocket launch blog for the latest on when the next rocket launch will be and how to follow it live.

The South Korean startup Innospace will attempt its first orbital launch from Brazil's Alcântara Space Center on Monday (Dec. 22), and you can watch the action live.

Rocket Lab launched four "DiskSats" for the U.S. Space Force just after midnight on Thursday (Dec. 18), adding to the company's busy 2025.

SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 rockets, each carrying Starlink satellites, from Kennedy Space Cener in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Dec. 17, 2025.

Europe's Ariane 6 rocket launched a pair of Galileo satellites just after midnight on Wednesday (Dec. 17), adding to the continent's geopositioning constellation.