Launch week: October 5 - 11, 2026
Four dated launches fill the October 5-11 UTC week: a Space Development Agency mission scrubbed on its first attempt and now targeting Tuesday, South Korea's first Nuri flight of the year, an undisclosed Long March 12, and a Starlink batch from Vandenberg.
Four dated orbital launches fill the October 5 – 11, 2026 UTC week: two Falcon 9 flights from Vandenberg, South Korea's first Nuri launch of the year, and an undisclosed Long March 12 from Wenchang. The first of them was meant to fly on Monday morning; SpaceX stopped the countdown inside its final minute and is now targeting Tuesday. That slip is the only thing in the week still moving, so it is also the one entry worth re-checking before you set an alarm. 12
All times below are Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
NET marks a target that has not been fixed, meaning no earlier than; TBD marks a field nobody has announced yet.Quick schedule
| UTC date and window | Mission and vehicle | Operator | Launch site and pad | Payload and destination | Status and webcast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6, 08:17 Delayed from October 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A (T1TL-A) Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpaceX for the Space Development Agency | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, SLC-4E | 21 Northrop Grumman data-transport satellites to a polar low Earth orbit, the fourth plane of the SDA's Transport Layer; booster B1103 flies for the sixth time and lands at Landing Zone 4 | Delayed. The October 5 countdown was scrubbed in its final minute; the next attempt is NET October 6 at 08:17 UTC. Live webcast on SpaceX's mission page. 23 |
| Oct 7, 03:23 Window opens 03:23, closes 04:23 | NeonSat-2 to 6 & Others Nuri (KSLV-2) | KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) | Naro Space Center, South Korea, LC-2 | Five NeonSat Earth-observation microsatellites for Korean Peninsula monitoring, plus ten rideshare payloads, to a sun-synchronous orbit | Go for launch. No webcast listed yet. 45 |
| Oct 9, 19:25 Window opens 19:20, closes 19:49 | Unknown Payload Long March 12 | CASC | Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan, Commercial LC-2 | Not disclosed; Next Spaceflight marks the mission identity as uncertain and gives no orbit, on a southeast trajectory | Go for launch. No webcast announced. 6 |
| Oct 10, 23:00 Window opens 23:00, closes October 11 03:00 | Starlink Group 15-25 Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpaceX | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, SLC-4E | 27 Starlink V2-mini satellites to low Earth orbit; booster B1088 flies for the 20th time and lands on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You | Go for launch. Live webcast on SpaceX's mission page from about 22:50 UTC. 78 |
Mission cards
SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A: scrubbed in the last minute
SpaceX's Falcon 9 was counting down toward 08:18 UTC on Monday, October 5, when the launch director aborted the count inside its final minute, as the rocket moved into its automated startup sequence. SpaceX gave no immediate reason. The next attempt is
NET 08:17 UTC on Tuesday, October 6 (1:17 a.m. PDT) from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The company's mission page still carries the original October 5 targeting. 239The payload is 21 satellites built by Northrop Grumman, forming the fourth orbital plane of the Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer — part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a mesh of optically linked satellites meant to carry military data and missile-tracking traffic. This is the fourth of nine Tranche 1 missions the Falcon 9 will launch for the SDA. 39
Booster B1103 flies for the sixth time, after NROL-179, T1TL-E and three Starlink missions. It does not fly downrange: about seven and a half minutes after liftoff it lands vertically at Landing Zone 4, back at Vandenberg, and SpaceX warns that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms. The webcast opens about ten minutes before liftoff on SpaceX's mission page and on X at @SpaceX. 9
Nuri: Korea's first launch of the year
KARI targets 03:23 UTC on Wednesday, October 7 for a Nuri flight from LC-2 at the Naro Space Center, with the window closing at 04:23 UTC. The vehicle is the KSLV-2 Nuri, a three-stage launcher that has flown four times and is making its fifth flight. 45
The primary payload is five NeonSat satellites, a government Earth-observation constellation built for near-real-time monitoring of the Korean Peninsula. The programme is led by the Satellite Technology Research Center at KAIST and funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and is the first Korean satellite system designed for mass production rather than one-off builds. The five satellites, about 500 kilograms in total, go to a sun-synchronous orbit. Ten smaller rideshares fly with them. 45
No webcast has been listed yet — Next Spaceflight still shows one as not available — so KARI's own channels are the place to watch for a stream and for confirmation that the window holds. 4
Long March 12: an undisclosed payload out of Wenchang
The week's only Chinese flight is dated for 19:25 UTC on Friday, October 9, with a half-hour window running 19:20 to 19:49 UTC from Commercial LC-2 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan. 6
There is almost nothing to say about it beyond the time. Next Spaceflight lists it only as an unknown payload and flags the mission identity itself as uncertain; CASC has published no notice; and no webcast is announced, which is normal for Chinese state launches. If you keep a launch log, treat the entry as a dated slot rather than a named mission. 610
Starlink Group 15-25: a four-hour window to close the week
SpaceX opens a window at 23:00 UTC on Saturday, October 10 that runs to 03:00 UTC on Sunday, October 11, for 27 Starlink V2-mini satellites from SLC-4E at Vandenberg. It is the widest window of the week, which is what a Starlink plane can get when the target orbit is not tightly coupled to a single pass. 78
Booster B1088 flies for the 20th time, after NROL-126, Transporter-12, SPHEREx, NROL-57, USSF-366 and 14 earlier Starlink missions, and lands on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific. SpaceX again warns of possible sonic booms over Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. The webcast opens about ten minutes before liftoff, and the satellites deploy a little over an hour after it. 7
Watch priorities
- SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A, October 6 at 08:17 UTC. The week's only national-security launch and the one that already slipped once. The moment to watch comes after the second stage is gone: the first stage lands at Landing Zone 4 about seven and a half minutes after liftoff. 39
- Nuri, October 7 at 03:23 UTC. Korea's first Nuri flight of 2026 and only the fifth flight of the vehicle, carrying five government Earth-observation satellites. Worth watching for the launch alone if a stream appears, because Korean launches are rare. 4
- Long March 12, October 9 at 19:25 UTC. The week's one wildcard: a firm-looking time with no payload, no orbit and no stream. Follow it only as a calendar entry. 6
- Starlink Group 15-25, October 10 at 23:00 UTC. The most forgiving window of the week, four hours long, and the 20th flight of a booster on a Pacific droneship landing. 7
Operator tracking notes
- NASA. No launch of its own inside the window. Its next flight is CRS SpX-35, a Dragon cargo run to the International Space Station, listed for October 13 at 10:33 UTC from Cape Canaveral. 111
- ESA. Nothing dated inside the window. The next European flight is Amazon Leo LE-04 on an Ariane 64 from ELA-4 at the Guiana Space Centre, still listed for October with no day and no stream. 1213
- SpaceX. Two launches inside the window, both from Vandenberg, plus CRS SpX-35 just after it on October 13. Bandwagon-5 and Starship Flight 15 remain listed for October with no dates. 1114
- Rocket Lab. Nothing dated. Its next mission is Aspera for NASA from Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula, still listed for 2026 with no date. 15
- Blue Origin. Nothing dated, and no date to offer. New Glenn has not flown since NG-3 on April 19; the NG-4 vehicle was lost on the pad during a static-fire test at Launch Complex 36 on May 28, which heavily damaged the site and left the vehicle's future dates listed as
TBDwhile the pad is rebuilt. RocketLaunch.Live's Blue Origin feed still names a Eutelsat mission with no date. 1617 - ISRO. Nothing dated. The agency's launch-missions table again lists completed flights only, most recently GSLV-F17 with EOS-05 on September 4. Next Spaceflight shows GSLV Mk II with NVS-03 and an SSLV flight with AayulSAT-1A, both
NETOctober with no day. 11141819 - Suborbital. Nothing dated inside the window. The next Esrange sounding-rocket campaign is listed for a window running October 28 to November 23. 10
References
- 1Spaceflight Now - Launch Schedule
spaceflightnow.com
- 2Next Spaceflight - SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A
nextspaceflight.com
- 3Spaceflight Now - SpaceX scrubs SDA T1TL-A
spaceflightnow.com
- 4Next Spaceflight - NeonSat-2 to 6 & Others
nextspaceflight.com
- 5Space Launch Schedule - Nuri NeonSat-2 to 6
spacelaunchschedule.com
- 6Next Spaceflight - Unknown Payload, Long March 12
nextspaceflight.com
- 7SpaceX - Starlink Mission
spacex.com
- 8Next Spaceflight - Starlink Group 15-25
nextspaceflight.com
- 9SpaceX - SDA's Fourth Tranche 1 Mission
spacex.com
- 10
- 11Space Launch Now - SpaceX launch schedule
spacelaunchnow.app
- 12European Spaceflight - European rocket launch schedule 2026
europeanspaceflight.com
- 13Next Spaceflight - Amazon Leo (LE-04)
nextspaceflight.com
- 14Next Spaceflight - current launch manifest
nextspaceflight.com
- 15Rocket Lab - launches
rocketlabusa.com
- 16Wikipedia - List of New Glenn launches
en.wikipedia.org
- 17RocketLaunch.Live - Blue Origin schedule
rocketlaunch.live
- 18ISRO - Launch Missions
isro.gov.in
- 19Next Spaceflight - NVS-03 (IRNSS-1L)
nextspaceflight.com
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