#^Launch Preview: SpaceX and Chinese missions fill busy launch manifest
The week of May 11 brings nine launches across the United States and China, spanning government and commercial operators on both sides of the Pacific. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 accounts for four missions: a Cargo Dragon resupply flight to the International Space Station, a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload from Vandenberg, a Starlink mission, and a commercial communications deployment for Globalstar. What’s more, SpaceX’s Starship could launch on its 12th flight as soon as Friday.
China adds four more launches to the manifest, with CASC flying a Chang Zhang 6A from Taiyuan and a Chang Zheng 8 from Wenchang, while the commercial sector contributes back-to-back missions on the Zhuque-2E and Kinetica 1 rockets out of Jiuquan.
Falcon 9 | NROL-172SpaceX opens the week on the west coast with the launch of NROL-172, a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) mission carrying the 12th batch of satellites for the agency’s proliferated architecture constellation. Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, May 11, at 7:13 PM PDT (02:13 UTC on May 12). The satellites on this mission are believed to be Starshield spacecraft, a government-variant of SpaceX’s Starlink platform developed in partnership with Northrop Grumman for intelligence-gathering in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The NRO’s proliferated architecture program, which began launching in May 2024, represents a fundamental shift in how the agency thinks about space reconnaissance. Rather than a small number of large, expensive, and highly capable satellites, the new constellation distributes hundreds of smaller spacecraft across LEO to achieve higher revisit rates, greater resilience against the loss of individual assets, and the delivery of actionable data in minutes rather than hours. With roughly half a dozen missions planned for 2026 and the contract running through 2029, NROL-172 is one installment in a sustained build-out.
Falcon 9 atop SLC-4E ahead of NROL-172. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX will end its live webcast shortly after booster landing per the NRO’s standard protocol, and the number of satellites aboard will not be publicly disclosed. Falcon booster B1103, flying for the second time, will land on droneship
Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific following stage separation, flying a polar or high-inclination trajectory consistent with reconnaissance orbital profiles.
Chang Zheng 6A | Unknown PayloadTuesday, May 12, brings another Chang Zheng 6A (CZ-6A) launch from Launch Complex 9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, with liftoff set for 11:55 UTC. The payload being launched is currently unknown. Based on the CZ-6A’s consistent role at Taiyuan over more than 20 missions, this flight most likely carries another batch of satellites for either the GuoWang/SatNet LEO internet constellation or the G60 Qianfan LEO internet constellation. China is planning to deploy hundreds of additional GuoWang satellites in 2026 alone as it races to build out broadband megaconstellation coverage in parallel with Starlink.
The CZ-6A is a medium-lift launch vehicle combining a two-stage liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen core with four solid-propellant strap-on boosters. Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, it is China’s first rocket to blend solid and liquid propulsion technologies in a single vehicle and can place at least 4,000 kg into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Every CZ-6A flight to date has launched from Taiyuan, making the facility the hub of China’s megaconstellation deployment effort.
Falcon 9 | CRS-34SpaceX will launch the 34th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under its CRS-2 contract with NASA on Tuesday evening, with Falcon 9 lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:16 PM EDT (23:16 UTC). Dragon C209, flying for the sixth time, will carry thousands of pounds of science investigations, crew provisions, and Station hardware to the orbiting laboratory. Following an approximately 38-hour transit, Dragon is expected to dock at the ISS on May 14.
The CRS-34 science manifest includes several high-interest investigations. A project will assess how well ground-based microgravity simulators replicate on-orbit conditions, informing NASA’s design of future training and hardware-testing programs. A bone scaffold built from wood will be evaluated for its potential to produce new treatments for osteoporosis and other fragile bone conditions, which worsen in the low-gravity environment of space. Equipment is also flying to study how red blood cells and the spleen change during extended spaceflight, alongside a new instrument to monitor the charged-particle environment near Earth, which poses risks to power grids and satellites. A fundamental investigation into the physics of planet formation rounds out the major science payloads.
Booster B1096, which last flew on January 28, will make its sixth flight on this mission and perform a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40), located directly adjacent to SLC-40. Dragon C209 heads to the station freshly refurbished from its previous CRS flight, with cargo loaded into both the pressurized capsule and the unpressurized trunk section.
ZhuQue-2E | Unknown PayloadChinese commercial launch company LandSpace is scheduled to fly its ZhuQue-2E rocket from Launch Area 96A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 03:00 UTC on Wednesday, May 13. The payload onboard has not been publicly identified. LandSpace is a Beijing-based private launch company founded in 2015, and the Zhuque-2E is its current operational vehicle, carrying commercial satellite customers to LEO and SSO.
The Zhuque-2E, where the E denotes an enhanced variant, burns liquid oxygen and methane propellants, making it one of a small number of methalox rockets now flying commercially anywhere in the world. It differs from the baseline Zhuque-2 by using upgraded TQ-12A engines on the first stage with higher thrust and improved specific impulse, and a new TQ-15A engine on the second stage that replaces both the upper-stage main engine and the separate vernier thruster system, handling attitude control through its own gimbal capability. The vehicle is capable of lifting 6,000 kg to a 200 km LEO or 4,000 kg to a 500 km SSO. Jiuquan’s Launch Area 96A has seen six orbital launch attempts, all from this and related commercial vehicles.
ZhuQue-2E launches from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. (Credit: CCTV)
Kinetica 1 | Unknown PayloadCAS Space will launch a Kinetica 1 rocket from Launch Area 130 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 04:30 UTC on Friday, May 15. The payload for this mission is not publicly disclosed. CAS Space is a spin-off of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and operates the Kinetica 1, also designated Lijian-1, as its primary launch vehicle for commercial customers seeking access to LEO and SSO.
Kinetica 1 is a solid-propellant small-lift rocket and among the largest Chinese solid-propellant launchers in active service. Standing 30 m tall with a liftoff mass of 135 tonnes, the four-stage vehicle is capable of placing approximately 2,000 kg into LEO or 1,500 kg into SSO. Its first stage is derived from DF-31 ballistic missile technology, a heritage shared with several other Chinese commercial solid launch vehicles. The fairing has a diameter of 3.35 m. With 12 orbital launch attempts logged from Launch Area 130, the pad has become a regular part of Jiuquan’s commercial manifest.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-37SpaceX will add a Starlink batch to an already dense Friday with a Falcon 9 launch from SLC-4E at Vandenberg at 7:00 AM PDT (14:00 UTC). Starlink Group 17-37 will carry a batch of 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to SSO, continuing the ongoing constellation expansion that has become a near-weekly fixture of the Vandenberg manifest. Booster B1097, flying for the ninth time, will land on droneship
Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific following stage separation.
Ship 39 and Booster 19 on the pad at Starbase ahead of Flight 12. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
Starship/Super Heavy | Flight 12The 12th integrated flight test of SpaceX’s Starship is currently targeting no earlier than Friday, May 15, with a window opening at 5:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC). The date remains fluid, and SpaceX has not officially confirmed a target date. Flight 12 will be the maiden flight of the rocket’s Block 3 configuration, pairing Super Heavy Booster 19 with Ship 39, and will also mark the inaugural launch from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase in Texas.
Block 3 represents the most significant hardware leap in the Starship program to date. Booster 19 is the first Super Heavy to fly with Raptor 3 engines, which offer higher thrust and improved specific impulse compared to Raptor 2 while simplifying the engine’s external plumbing. Booster 19 also trades the four grid fins used on every previous Super Heavy for three larger ones, and introduces an integrated interstage in place of the separate ring structure seen on earlier boosters. Ship 39 is carrying more propellant than any previous Starship upper stage and comes equipped with docking hardware for on-orbit propellant transfer, the capability NASA is counting on to fuel SpaceX’s Human Landing System (HLS) lander for future lunar landing missions under the Artemis program.
Both vehicles have cleared full-duration static fire testing, the FAA has signed off on the flight, and an FCC license covering communications through October 2026 is in hand. The mission profile is suborbital, with the flight following a southeastern trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean before a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The recovery plans for Booster 19 have not yet been disclosed.
Falcon 9 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1SpaceX wraps its busy week with a commercial communications launch for Globalstar, carrying nine new satellites to LEO from SLC-40 at 8:50 AM EDT (12:50 UTC) on Sunday, May 17. This is the first of two planned Falcon 9 flights carrying new Globalstar satellites, part of a 17-satellite contract with MDA Space to replenish a constellation that has provided global mobile voice, data, and fax services from a 1,410 km orbit inclined at 52 degrees for over two decades. Apple is funding the bulk of the refresh program, having agreed to cover approximately 95% of network upgrade costs, including satellites and launch, in exchange for Globalstar reserving the majority of its capacity to support Apple’s satellite messaging service.
In early 2022, Globalstar contracted with MDA to build 17 new satellites to sustain the existing constellation. Rocket Lab was subcontracted to build the satellite buses and launch dispensers, meaning this Falcon 9 mission carries hardware with significant Rocket Lab involvement. The nine satellites on this first mission represent the opening installment of that 17-satellite order, with a second Falcon 9 flight carrying the remaining eight penciled in for later this year.
Booster B1090 will be flying for the 12th time and land atop droneship
A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic roughly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The last time B1090 flew was March 17. Once the second stage completes a coast phase and relights for a second burn, the satellites are expected to begin deploying around an hour after launch.
Chang Zheng 8 | Unknown PayloadChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will fly a Chang Zheng 8 (CZ-8) from Commercial Launch Complex 1 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Sunday, May 17, at 14:40 UTC. The payload is not publicly identified. This pad, distinct from the government-side Wenchang facilities used for crewed missions and heavy-lift vehicles, has supported nine orbital launch attempts and is oriented toward commercial and civil satellite customers.
Built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the CZ-8 draws its first stage and strap-on boosters from the same kerosene and liquid oxygen propulsion heritage as the Chang Zheng 7, mating them to a liquid hydrogen upper stage for the final push to orbit. Variants in the series span a range of payload capacities for SSO and LEO missions, and the family has become one of CASC’s primary vehicles for commercial and constellation missions from Wenchang. Its appearance at the close of a week that already includes two other Chinese launches underlines the pace China’s space sector is sustaining through 2026.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
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Launch Preview: SpaceX and Chinese missions fill busy launch manifest appeared first on
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