Launch week: August 3-9, 2026
Eight orbital launch entries sit in the August 3-9 UTC window, led by SpaceX's BlueBird and Starlink flights plus Japan's rescheduled QZS-7 mission, with payload and webcast uncertainty clearly marked.
Eight launch entries currently sit inside the August 3–9, 2026 UTC window. SpaceX has three, China-linked providers have three with undisclosed payloads, and Japan's H3 plus Isar Aerospace's Spectrum fill out the week. The calendar was checked at 09:00 UTC on Monday, August 3; dates marked
NET or TBD are not locked appointments. 12NET means no earlier than. All times below are UTC.Quick schedule
| UTC date and time | Mission / payload | Vehicle and operator | Site and pad | Payload and destination | Status and webcast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4, 08:50; window 08:44–09:09 | Unknown Payload | Long March 8A / CASC | Wenchang Space Launch Site, Commercial LC-1 | Payload and orbit undisclosed | Candidate; no stream listed. 3 |
| Aug 4, 14:00; window 14:00–18:00 | Starlink Group 17-53 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / SpaceX | Vandenberg SFB, SLC-4E | 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to sun-synchronous orbit | Scheduled after delays from Aug 1–3. SpaceX webcast. 24 |
| Aug 5, 02:35; window 02:27–02:48 | Unknown Payload | Jielong 3 / Chinarocket listing | Haiyang Oriental Spaceport, offshore launch location | Payload and destination orbit undisclosed | Candidate; the source flags payload and vehicle identity uncertainty; no stream listed. 5 |
| Aug 5, 07:42; window closes 09:18 | BlueBird 11 to 13 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / SpaceX | Cape Canaveral SFS, SLC-40 | Three AST SpaceMobile Block 2 satellites to low Earth orbit | Scheduled. SpaceX webcast. 26 |
| Aug 7, 07:30–09:00; 04:30–06:00 JST | Michibiki 7 / QZS-7 | H3-22S / JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | Tanegashima Space Center, Yoshinobu Launch Complex | Japan's QZSS navigation satellite to geostationary transfer orbit | Officially rescheduled; mission-specific stream not yet announced. JAXA H3 F9 countdown page. 78 |
| NET Aug 6; time TBD | Onward and Upward | Spectrum / Isar Aerospace | Andøya Rocket Range, Orbital Launch Pad | Five cubesats and one non-separable ESA Boost! experiment to sun-synchronous orbit | Provisional date only; no direct stream URL confirmed. Coverage link listed by the schedule: NASASpaceflight mission article. 19 |
| Aug 8, 14:00; window 14:00–18:00 | Starlink Group 17-38 | Falcon 9 Block 5 / SpaceX | Vandenberg SFB, SLC-4E | 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to sun-synchronous orbit | Scheduled after delays from Aug 6–7. SpaceX webcast. 210 |
| Aug 9, 11:00; window 11:00–14:00 | Unknown Payload | Long March 7A / CASC | Wenchang Space Launch Site, LC-201 | Payload and destination orbit undisclosed | Candidate; the mission record flags vehicle and payload identity uncertainty; no stream listed. 11 |
Mission cards
Long March 8A unknown payload
- Vehicle and operator: Long March 8A, listed by Next Spaceflight under CASC.
- UTC window: August 4 at 08:50, with a 08:44–09:09 window. 3
- Site and pad: Commercial Launch Complex 1 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, China. 3
- Payload and destination: Neither the payload nor its target orbit is disclosed. The mission record also keeps the payload and vehicle identities uncertain, so this is a calendar placeholder rather than a mission profile. 3
- Live stream: No mission stream is listed in the fetched record.
Starlink Group 17-53
- Vehicle and operator: Falcon 9 Block 5, SpaceX.
- UTC window: August 4 at 14:00, with the window open from 14:00 to 18:00. 4
- Site and pad: Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. 4
- Payload and destination: Twenty-four Starlink V2 Mini satellites for SpaceX's low Earth orbit broadband constellation, targeting a sun-synchronous orbit. 4
- Status: Spaceflight Now lists it as delayed from August 1, 2, and 3. The current mission detail carries the August 4 target and assigns booster B1063 for its 34th flight. 24
- Live stream: SpaceX mission page.
Jielong 3 unknown payload
- Vehicle and operator: Jielong 3, shown under a Chinarocket listing; the same record flags vehicle identity uncertainty.
- UTC window: August 5 at 02:35, with a 02:27–02:48 window. 5
- Site and pad: Haiyang offshore launch location at the Haiyang Oriental Spaceport, China. 5
- Payload and destination: The payload and destination orbit are not disclosed. The source explicitly marks both payload and launch-vehicle identity as uncertain. 5
- Live stream: No public stream is listed in the fetched mission record.
BlueBird 11 to 13
- Vehicle and operator: Falcon 9 Block 5, SpaceX.
- UTC window: August 5 at 07:42; the mission page gives a window closing at 09:18. 6
- Site and pad: Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. 6
- Payload and destination: Three AST SpaceMobile Block 2 BlueBird satellites, identified as FM6 to 8, are headed to low Earth orbit. The spacecraft are intended for AST SpaceMobile's space-based cellular broadband service. 6
- Status: The launch remains on the current dated schedule. The Falcon 9 first stage is assigned to land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. 6
- Live stream: SpaceX mission page.
Michibiki 7 / QZS-7
- Vehicle and operator: H3-22S, operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japanese launch program.
- UTC window: JAXA's official schedule sets August 7, 04:30–06:00 Japan Standard Time, which is 07:30–09:00 UTC. 7
- Site and pad: Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. 7
- Payload and destination: Michibiki 7 is a Quasi-Zenith Satellite System navigation spacecraft for Japan, targeting geostationary transfer orbit. The mission record also identifies a U.S. Space Force Situational Awareness Camera Hosted Instrument. 8
- Status: The launch was rescheduled after the earlier H3 F9 postponement; JAXA's June notice is the controlling date for this week's calendar. 7
- Live stream: No mission-specific webcast was posted in the fetched record. JAXA's H3 F9 countdown page is the best official page to monitor.
Onward and Upward
- Vehicle and operator: Spectrum, Isar Aerospace's second test flight.
- UTC window: The current launch list places it at NET August 6, but the opened mission detail gives only “No Earlier Than August, 2026”; no liftoff time is locked. 19
- Site and pad: Orbital Launch Pad at the Andøya Rocket Range in Nordland, Norway. 9
- Payload and destination: The flight is listed with five cubesats — CyBEEsat, TriSat-S, Platform 6, FramSat-1, and SpaceTeamSat1 — plus the non-separable Let It Go experiment. The target is a sun-synchronous orbit under the ESA Boost! program. 9
- Live stream: The schedule labels the webcast destination “NASASpaceflight.com,” but no direct stream URL was available in the fetched record. Keep the mission article on the watch list.
Starlink Group 17-38
- Vehicle and operator: Falcon 9 Block 5, SpaceX.
- UTC window: August 8 at 14:00, with a 14:00–18:00 window. 10
- Site and pad: Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. 10
- Payload and destination: Twenty-four Starlink V2 Mini satellites are assigned to sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. 10
- Status: Spaceflight Now lists the flight as delayed from August 6 and 7. Booster B1093 is assigned to its 16th flight, with a planned landing on Of Course I Still Love You. 210
- Live stream: SpaceX mission page.
Long March 7A unknown payload
- Vehicle and operator: Long March 7A, listed under CASC; the mission record flags both the vehicle and payload identity as uncertain.
- UTC window: August 9 at 11:00, with an 11:00–14:00 window. 11
- Site and pad: LC-201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, China. 11
- Payload and destination: Neither the payload nor the destination orbit is public in the mission record.
- Live stream: No public stream is listed.
Watch priorities
BlueBird 11 to 13 is the week's clearest payload story. It is a three-satellite deployment for AST SpaceMobile, with a firm UTC time and an official SpaceX webcast rather than a generic channel link. 612
Michibiki 7 / QZS-7 is the week's most important government navigation mission. JAXA has published a real launch window and a reserved period beginning August 8, so viewers can calendar the August 7 slot while keeping the following dates open if the launch moves. 7
The busiest stretch runs from the Long March 8A at August 4, 08:50 UTC through BlueBird 11 to 13 at August 5, 07:42 UTC: four entries fall inside roughly 23 hours when Starlink 17-53 and Jielong 3 are included. The Chinese entries have no public payload identities, so they are useful cadence markers but poor candidates for mission-specific analysis. 3456
For calendar reminders, treat Onward and Upward differently from the firm SpaceX and JAXA entries. It is inside the week only because the live schedule currently says NET August 6; its detail page still provides no day-and-time appointment. 19
Coverage notes
The dated list follows the current-week entries in the opened Next Spaceflight and Spaceflight Now schedules, with JAXA's official QZS-7 notice taking precedence for that mission's date and time. No separately dated launch inside August 3–9 appeared in the NASA events, ESA Ariane, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, or ISRO pages checked for this edition. That means “eight entries” is a count of the current dated or explicitly NET week entries, not a claim that every operator has published a complete public manifest. 1314151617
Space schedules move. Recheck the operator page before setting an alarm, especially for the three payload-unknown Chinese missions and Spectrum's date-only entry. The three SpaceX webcast links above are mission pages; for every other entry, the absence of a direct stream in this issue means no mission-specific link was announced in the fetched schedule record, not that no broadcast will appear later.
References
- 1Next Spaceflight - Launches
nextspaceflight.com
- 2Spaceflight Now - Launch Schedule
spaceflightnow.com
- 3Next Spaceflight - Long March 8A unknown payload
nextspaceflight.com
- 4Next Spaceflight - Starlink Group 17-53
nextspaceflight.com
- 5Next Spaceflight - Jielong 3 unknown payload
nextspaceflight.com
- 6Next Spaceflight - BlueBird 11 to 13
nextspaceflight.com
- 7JAXA - QZS-7 launch schedule
global.jaxa.jp
- 8Next Spaceflight - Michibiki 7
nextspaceflight.com
- 9Next Spaceflight - Onward and Upward
nextspaceflight.com
- 10Next Spaceflight - Starlink Group 17-38
nextspaceflight.com
- 11Next Spaceflight - Long March 7A unknown payload
nextspaceflight.com
- 12SpaceX - BlueBird 11-13 mission
spacex.com
- 13NASA - Events
nasa.gov
- 14ESA - Ariane launch archive
esa.int
- 15Rocket Lab - Launches
rocketlabusa.com
- 16Blue Origin - Missions
blueorigin.com
- 17ISRO - Launch Missions
isro.gov.in
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.