Three launches, two by SpaceX and one by Russia
The global rocket industry completed three launches since last night.
First, SpaceX placed 27 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 lifting off last night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage (B1093) completed its 15th flight (29 days after its previous mission), landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
SpaceX then followed up with a morning launch, placing 29 more Starlink satellites in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first stage (B1080) completed its 28th flight (32 days after its previous mission), landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. This launch tied this booster for ninth place with the space shuttle Columbia in the rankings for the most reused launch vehicles.
Finally, Russia successfully placed one American and two Russian astronauts into orbit, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from Russia’s Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz capsule docked with the Prichal module on the Russian half of ISS several hours later, beginning an eight month mission for this crew.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
85 SpaceX
45 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
9 Russia
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 85 to 78.
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“”Their Soyuz capsule is scheduled to dock with ISS””
Anytime I read the phrase ‘docking with ISS’ and Russia, I cringe. Are they going to dock using the very problematic Russian docking port?
In a common sense world, they would go to huuge efforts to use any other port.
This docking was not with Zvezda but with the Prichal module, in a very different place and without the leak or stress fracture issues.
Zvezda is only used by Progress freighters.