Launch Preview: Array of international launches planned this week

Six missions are scheduled to launch from launch sites across the globe this week. After SpaceX flew its last planned Falcon 9 Starlink mission from Florida, the veteran medium-lift rocket is expected to lower its launch cadence from the triple-digit pace achieved in the middle of this decade. All future Falcon 9 Starlink launches are planned to fly from California, including this week’s missions. Internationally, Rocket Lab is flying an increasing number of Electron small-satellite launches each year. Electron’s next mission will start the week off from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Missions are also scheduled to launch from China, India, and Norway. Pallas-1 | Demo Flight This week features the debut flight of Pallas-1, Galactic Energy’s medium-lift rocket, developed on the heels of its operational Gushenxing-1, also known as Ceres-1, a small-satellite launcher. Pallas-1’s demonstration flight is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 02:00 UTC from the Pallas-1 Launch Pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Pallas-1, also known as Zhishenxing-1, will take a southward trajectory suitable for payloads using a Sun-synchronous orbit. The two-stage rocket, powered by seven company-developed Welkin rocket engines in the first stage, stands over 49 m tall and is over three meters in diameter. Like the Falcon 9, Pallas-1 uses kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants. Also like the Falcon 9, Pallas-1 will use grid fins and landing legs to enable landing and recovery for reuse, though no landing appears to be scheduled for this flight. Pallas-1 is capable of carrying up to 5,000 kg to a 400 km low-Earth orbit, or 3,000 kg to a 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit, a smaller payload capacity than the Falcon 9. Pallas-1 is the latest in a series of partially reusable Chinese rockets to fly, while Galactic Energy is also developing the Pallas-1B, which will use three cores like the Falcon Heavy to deploy up to 17,500 kg to low-Earth orbit. A StriX synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite in Synspective’s facilities. (Credit: Synspective) Electron | Owl Around The World The next scheduled launch of the week is Rocket Lab’s “Owl Around The World” mission for the Japanese company Synspective. Electron will launch from the company’s private spaceport at the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 11:30 UTC. There are backup launch opportunities as far out as Sept. 14. “Owl Around The World” will launch eastward from Launch Complex-1 (LC-1), lofting the StriX-9 satellite into a mid-latitude 575 km circular orbit inclined 38 degrees to the equator. The 100 kg synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite, the 11th launched by Rocket Lab, is capable of observing at a resolution of one to three kilometers and a swath width of 10 to 30 km. Synspective has flown exclusively with Rocket Lab and has an additional 16 flights booked with the company up to 2030. This flight is the 15th Electron launch of 2026 as Rocket Lab is on pace to exceed 20 missions this year. Starlink satellites before deployment in orbit. (Credit: SpaceX) Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-23 The first Starlink flight of the week, like all future Starlink v2 Mini missions, is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 12:46 AM PDT (07:46 UTC). The launch window lasts until 4:46 AM PDT (11:46 UTC). Booster B1063, on its 35th mission, will take a southeast trajectory, flying 27 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to a low-Earth orbit inclined 70.01 degrees to the equator. The booster, which is the current west coast-based flight leader, will land on Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific for the 675th Falcon 9 recovery attempt. The veteran booster started its career with the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich mission and has also launched the DART, Transporter 7, Iridium-9 & OneWeb #19, Tranche 0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, NROL-149, NAOS, and 25 Starlink missions. This flight will be the 102nd Falcon 9 mission of 2026 if schedules hold. GSLV F16 launches with the joint NASA/ISRO NISAR mission. (Credit: ISRO) GSLV Mk II | EOS-05 (GISAT-1A) The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), after a rocky start to 2026 with January’s EOS-N1 PSLV-DL failure, is returning to launch operations with only its second flight of the year. GSLV Mk II F17 is scheduled to fly from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 21:25 UTC. The rocket will follow an eastward trajectory, placing the 2,367 kg EOS-05 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. The three-stage, 49.13 m-tall GSLV Mk II uses a solid-rocket motor for its core stage, four hypergolic liquid-fueled strap-on boosters, and a hypergolic liquid-fueled second stage. A cryogenic upper (third) stage using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellants is also used. The EOS-05, also known as the GISAT-1A, is an imaging satellite designed to observe the entire Indian landmass every 30 minutes at a resolution of 42 m in visible and near-infrared light. A notable EOS-05 application is providing rapid imagery during disasters such as this week’s glacier-collapse-induced flash flood in the Himalayas. EOS-05 is a replacement for the EOS-03, also known as GISAT-1, a satellite lost during a GSLV Mk II launch failure in August 2021. This flight is the 19th overall mission of the GSLV Mk I and II series. Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket awaits its maiden launch on the pad at Andøya Spaceport. (Credit: Isar Aerospace, Brady Kenniston for NSF) Spectrum | Onward and Upward Isar Aerospace’s long-delayed “Onward and Upward” flight of its Spectrum small satellite launcher is now set for Friday, Sept. 4, at 20:00 UTC from the Orbital Launch Pad at the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway. The launch window lasts for 60 minutes, ending at 21:00 UTC. After Spectrum’s first flight last year, which ended in failure, Isar Aerospace investigated the cause and modified the vehicle. “Onward and Upward” was initially scheduled to launch in January 2026, but the flight was delayed due to a pressurization valve issue. This flight was also attempted in March, April, and June but was postponed due to various issues. Once “Onward and Upward” lifts off, the rocket will take a northwest trajectory suitable for payloads using a Sun-synchronous orbit. Spectrum is capable of 700 kg to a Sun-synchronous orbit or 1,000 kg to a low-Earth orbit; for this flight, “Onward and Upward” is carrying five CubeSats and one non-separable experiment. The five CubeSats are TU Berlin’s CyBEEsat, the University of Maribor’s TriSat-S, EnduroSat’s Platform 6, NTNU’s FramSat-1, and TU Wien Space Team’s SpaceTeamSat1. Dcubed is providing the “Let It Go” experiment, which will remain with the second stage. This flight will mark Spectrum’s second launch. Isar Aerospace, based in Ottobrunn, Germany, and its Spectrum rocket received a European Launcher Challenge contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) worth roughly $229 million this month. Spectrum currently has eight missions scheduled beyond this flight. Starlink Group 17-35 launching on board F9 B1103-1 from VSFB on April 6. (Credit: SpaceX) Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-24 The last flight of the week, Starlink Group 15-24, is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 6, at 3:59 AM PDT (10:59 UTC) from SLC-4E at VSFB. The launch window lasts until 7:59 AM PDT (14:59 UTC), and the flight will take a southeast trajectory used by all Group 15 flights with recovery on Of Course I Still Love You. Flying for the 19th time, booster B1088 started its career with the NROL-126 mission, which also carried Starlink satellites, along with 13 dedicated Starlink flights. The booster has also flown the Transporter 12, SPHEREx & PUNCH, NROL-57, and USSF-366 missions to date. This flight will be the 103rd launch of the Falcon 9 this year. SpaceX will begin launching Starlink v3 satellites using Starship in the near future, and VSFB will host a greater share of Falcon 9 launches as a result. The Falcon 9 launch rate peaked last year and is expected to decline from this year onward. (Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF) The post Launch Preview: Array of international launches planned this week appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.