A busy stretch of orbital launches is on the calendar for the final days of September, with five missions scheduled across China, New Zealand, and the United States. The week's lineup, laid out in a launch preview from NASASpaceflight, pairs state-run Chinese rockets with commercial vehicles from Rocket Lab and SpaceX, and it includes a first attempt by SpaceX to put a batch of its newer Starlink satellites into orbit from its Starship vehicle.
China leads the schedule with two launches. A Chang Zheng 8A is set to lift off from Wenchang on September 23, a medium-lift rocket from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation capable of carrying about 9,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The payload and target orbit have not been disclosed. It would be the sixth flight of the rocket this year. A day later, a Chang Zheng 6A is due to launch from Taiyuan on September 24, marking the 27th flight of that vehicle overall and its eighth of 2026. Like the first mission, its payload and orbit remain unknown.
Rocket Lab is scheduled to fly an Electron from Māhia, New Zealand, on September 26. The mission carries a Synspective StriX radar satellite, and the flight would be the 97th for Electron overall and the 18th of the year. The same day, SpaceX plans a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for a classified mission designated USSF-385 for the U.S. Space Force. The first stage, booster B1100, is expected to make its tenth flight and be recovered by a droneship in the Pacific Ocean.
The most closely watched event may be Starship Flight 14, planned from Starbase in Texas on September 28. The vehicle is to carry 26 Starlink v3 satellites, and the mission would be the first attempt to deploy Starlink satellites into orbit with Starship. The ship is expected to splash down off the coast of Chile after the flight. Taken together, the week's launches show the steady growth of orbital activity, with both government and commercial operators keeping a fast pace.
We rewrote this story on 4 November 2026 after an editorial review.
Credit. Based on reporting by Eleanor Day for NASASpaceflight. Is this your work? Write to us.
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