Launch week: June 2–8, 2026

Six confirmed orbital launches are on the manifest for June 2–8. SpaceX runs three Falcon 9 Starlink flights, China sends two back-to-back missions from different pads on successive days, and South Korea's Agency for Defense Development returns for the first full-configuration orbital attempt of its solid-fuel SLV. The week would have been seven launches, but Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was destroyed in a static-fire explosion on May 28 — the June 4 Amazon Leo mission is cancelled.

All times UTC. Windows and status are subject to change; verify final T-0 with operator webcasts before the countdown.

Booster B1090 is on its 12th flight, with a 78-day turnaround since its previous mission. The 29-satellite batch replenishes LEO shell 10. 2 Note: Spaceflight Now lists T-0 as 09:02 UTC, but the 4:02 a.m. EDT window converts to 08:02 UTC; Next Spaceflight's time of 08:02 UTC is consistent with the EDT conversion and is used here.

The polar SSO trajectory from Vandenberg targets shell 17. Booster B1088 reaches its 16th flight on a 38-day turnaround. This mission was pushed one day from its original June 2 slot. 2

This is the 24th Long March 6A mission overall and the vehicle's fifth flight of 2026. The payload identity is not publicly confirmed; China's commercial broadband constellation SpaceSail (sometimes described as China's Starlink analog) has used the same launch vehicle and site in previous deployments. CASC typically issues a brief post-launch statement within an hour of liftoff.

The June 5 Long March 8 launch follows the June 4 Long March 6A by fewer than 18 hours, from a different site (Wenchang vs. Taiyuan) and on a heavier vehicle. Both Next Spaceflight entries carry the same probable-SpaceSail annotation — if accurate, the two consecutive launches may represent a coordinated multi-orbital-plane deployment, SpaceSail spreading satellites across different inclinations in a single 24-hour window. This is the 7th Long March 8 mission overall and the vehicle's third flight of 2026.

This is the mission-critical launch of the week for anyone tracking national launch programs. The ADD SLV has accumulated two sub-orbital stage tests (March and December 2022) and one partial-vehicle orbital test without the second stage (December 2023). 6 Sunday is the first attempt with the complete four-stage vehicle.

A successful orbital insertion would give South Korea an indigenous solid-fuel rapid-response launch capability — the kind of quick-turnaround military satellite access that currently requires coordination with foreign launch providers. The offshore Jeju platform allows a southeastward trajectory over open ocean, clear of the Korean Peninsula. The vehicle name remains provisional; DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration, South Korea) is the expected official confirmation channel post-launch.

This mission was listed for June 1 in last week's roundup and slipped to June 8; no reason for the delay has been publicly disclosed, which is standard for military launch programs.

B1067 reaches its 35th flight on this mission — the highest reuse count in SpaceX's current active fleet. The booster has flown on a 70-day turnaround from its previous Starlink mission. SpaceX has not set an upper limit on booster reuse, and B1067 is the leading data point for how far the Block 5 design can be pushed. 2

Blue Origin's New Glenn NG-4 rocket exploded during a static-fire test at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), Cape Canaveral, on May 28 at approximately 01:00 UTC (9:00 p.m. EDT on May 28). The vehicle was completely destroyed. 8 All personnel were accounted for and safe; the 48 Amazon Leo satellites had not yet been transported to the pad for integration and were undamaged.

NG-4 was scheduled to carry 48 Amazon Project Kuiper satellites to LEO no earlier than June 4 — the first of 24 contracted missions Blue Origin holds with Amazon. That launch is now cancelled.

The USGS detected the explosion as a magnitude 2.5 seismic event, recorded at stations up to 135 miles away. LC-36 sustained severe damage: one lightning protection tower collapsed and the transporter-erector was damaged. 9 Initial inspections of hardware stored in the integration facility — including components from NG-2 and NG-3 — found them in acceptable condition, according to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp on May 31.

LC-36 is Blue Origin's only orbital launch facility. After SpaceX's AMOS-6 pad explosion in September 2016, restoring SLC-40 took roughly 15 months before the next Falcon 9 launch. 8 A comparable recovery timeline for LC-36 puts New Glenn's next launch attempt no earlier than mid-2027 at the optimistic end.

The downstream effects extend well beyond launch cadence. Amazon's Kuiper constellation deployment — intended to compete with SpaceX Starlink — has no confirmed alternative launch path at this scale for the interim. NASA's Artemis program also relies on Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, which requires a functioning New Glenn for delivery. New Glenn's ongoing NSSL (National Security Space Launch) certification process is interrupted.

The FAA confirmed the static-fire test was not within the scope of any active launch license, so no new FAA investigation was opened under standard launch-licensing procedures. The Department of Defense awarded Blue Origin its first NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) mission contract — covering a launch window of October 2027 to March 2028 — after the explosion, a sign that the government expects Blue Origin to eventually return to flight.

Five missions remain unconfirmed for the June 2–8 window and are tracking toward various points in June. None has a firm date as of June 1.

Three of the five carry context that investors and hobbyists alike should keep tracking. Isar Aerospace's Spectrum has been attempting its second launch since January after a sequence of scrubs (pressurization valve issue in January, weather in March, composite pressure vessel leak in April); a successful orbital insertion from continental Europe would mark a new chapter for the European commercial launch industry. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher has called it "a clear signal of Europe's burgeoning commercial space transportation services." 15

The Swift Rescue Mission is the other standout. NASA awarded Katalyst Space Technologies a $30 million contract to build a robotic servicing spacecraft capable of capturing and rebooting an observatory that was never designed for on-orbit servicing, with a target from contract award to launch of under eight months. 16 A Pegasus XL launch — the first since 2021 — makes this the first Pegasus flight in five years.