Skip to content
ContentLora

    Tip: press / anywhere to search.

    ● Developing story

    Space exploration tracker: milestones, launches and discoveries

    This tracker logs verified milestones in space exploration and astronomy. As of October 10, 2026, the latest are Starship's first orbital flight on September 28, Roman's launch on August 30 and NASA's October 9 call for commercial space station plans.[1][2][3] Next up is Japan's MMX mission to Mars's moon Phobos, scheduled (not yet launched) for October 20, 2026 Japan time, which is October 19 in US time zones, followed by the crewed Artemis III lander test in 2027.[4][5]

    Editor reviewedUpdated Space exploration and astronomySpaceScience

    What we know

    • Artemis II flew four astronauts around the Moon, April 1–10, 2026[30]
    • NASA's first planned crewed landing is Artemis IV, at the lunar South Pole, in 2028[31]
    • Starship reached orbit for the first time on September 28, 2026[1]
    • Starship Version 3 flew suborbital tests on May 22 and July 24, 2026[9]
    • Congress did not fund the existing Mars Sample Return programme for fiscal 2026[32]
    • Rubin's 10-year survey was announced as started on June 30, 2026[29]
    • Roman launched on August 30, 2026[2]
    • MMX is scheduled to launch on October 20, 2026 (JST), with a backup window to November 7[4]
    • India's PSLV failed twice in a row, in May 2025 and January 2026[13]
    • The NASA Exoplanet Archive listed 6,445 confirmed exoplanets on October 10, 2026[33]
    • Independent reanalyses found no significant evidence for DMS on K2-18 b[28]

    What we don't know yet

    • Whether MMX launches on its October 20 (JST) date or later in its backup window
    • Whether SpaceX can demonstrate ship-to-ship propellant transfer in time for Artemis III in 2027
    • Which lander, SpaceX's or Blue Origin's, will fly the first Artemis landing
    • When Chang'e-7 will get a new launch window, and whether China's crewed landing stays on track for 2030
    • Whether India's first uncrewed Gaganyaan flight happens in the fourth quarter of 2026 as targeted
    • How much Congress will appropriate for NASA in fiscal 2027
    • Whether any commercial space station will be crewed before the ISS's planned 2030 retirement
    • Whether any mission will be funded to return Perseverance's samples
    Story status

    Story status

    State
    developing
    Started
    2021-12-25
    Timeline entries
    28
    Last entry

    Timeline data (JSON)

    What this tracker covers

    This page follows the modern era of space exploration and astronomy, dated here from the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021.[6] Entries focus on 2024 to 2026 and are tagged by how well they are verified. For background, start with the crash course.

    The year so far

    Starship. SpaceX flew three Version 3 test flights in 2026. Flight 12 on May 22 debuted the new vehicle from a second pad at Starbase.[7] Its booster crashed after a failed boostback burn, while the Ship reached space on five of its six engines.[8] On Flight 13, on July 24, the Ship deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital path, relit an engine in space and floated intact after splashdown.[9] Flight 14 then reached orbit on September 28.[1] Details are on the spacex-starship page.

    NASA. At its March “Ignition” event NASA paused Gateway in its current form and announced the SR-1 Freedom nuclear-electric mission to Mars, due to launch before the end of 2028.[10][11] Roman, launched in August, switched on its main camera in September and pointed its coronagraph at the sky for the first time on September 22.[12]

    Other launchers. India’s PSLV-C62 failed on January 12, losing the EOS-N1 satellite and its co-passengers. It was the rocket’s second consecutive third-stage failure.[13] In Europe, the first four-booster Ariane 6 flew on February 12, lifting 32 Amazon Leo satellites, and Vega-C launched two ESA Earth-observation satellites on September 14.[14][15] In the US, Blue Origin lost a New Glenn rocket in a pad explosion on May 28.[16]

    What to watch next

    • MMX launch, October 20, 2026 (JST). Japan’s mission is scheduled to lift off on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima at 04:41 Japan time, which is October 19 in the US. Backup dates run to November 7.[4] It aims to collect a sample from Phobos no earlier than December 2028 and return it in 2031.[17] This entry will be updated after the launch attempt.
    • Starship Flight 15 and propellant transfer. As of late September, SpaceX had not moved propellant between two vehicles. Musk had floated a tower catch of the Ship on Flight 15, provisionally no earlier than October 19.[18] Ship-to-ship transfer is a prerequisite for the lunar lander.[19]
    • New Glenn’s return to flight. Blue Origin aims to fly again by the end of 2026, which gates the first Blue Moon lander mission.[16][20]
    • Gaganyaan. India targets its first uncrewed Gaganyaan flight, carrying the Vyommitra robot, in the fourth quarter of 2026, and its first crewed flight by 2027.[21]
    • Commercial stations. NASA’s station proposals are due December 8, 2026, and Vast says Haven-1 is targeted for 2027.[3][22]
    • Fiscal 2027 budget. Congress has yet to settle NASA’s funding after the White House proposed a 23 percent cut.[23]
    • Artemis III in 2027. A crewed Orion is to dock with one or both commercial landers in low Earth orbit, ahead of the Artemis IV landing in 2028.[5]
    • China. A new window for Chang’e-7, and first flights of the Mengzhou spacecraft and Lanyue lander on the road to a 2030 crewed landing.[24][25]
    • Roman and Rubin science. Roman’s first surveys and Rubin’s first year of alerts will feed dark energy, exoplanet and solar-system studies.[26][27]

    How entries are tagged

    Confirmed entries rest on a primary source or several independent reports. Reported entries rest on one credible outlet. Disputed entries are claims that credible sources contest.[28] Where sources disagree on a date, as with the start of Rubin’s survey, the entry says so.[29]

    Timeline

    27 confirmed1 disputed

    1. confirmed

      NASA calls for commercial space station proposals[3]

      Proposals are due December 8, with awards expected in spring 2027.

    2. confirmed

      Webb finds the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst[50]

    3. confirmed

      Starship reaches orbit for the first time on Flight 14[1][49]

      The Ship lost one of six engines on ascent but reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites.

    4. confirmed

      Roman's coronagraph sees cosmic light for the first time[12]

    5. confirmed

      Vega-C launches ESA's FLEX and Sentinel-3C together[15]

    6. confirmed

      Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches on Falcon Heavy[2]

    7. confirmed

      Ariane 6 launches Europe's MTG-I2 weather satellite[48]

    8. confirmed

      China says Chang'e-7 cannot launch in its 2026 window[24]

    9. confirmed

      Starship Flight 13 deploys Starlink V3 satellites and floats intact after splashdown[9]

    10. confirmed

      Rubin Observatory's 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time officially starts[29]

      NOIRLab announced the start on June 30; Rubin's own website dates the survey to July 2026.

    11. confirmed

      NASA names the Artemis III crew[47]

    12. confirmed

      Blue Origin loses a New Glenn rocket in a pad explosion[16][20]

      Blue Origin aims to return to flight by the end of 2026; the first Blue Moon lander mission is expected to slip.

    13. confirmed

      Starship Version 3 debuts on Flight 12[7][8]

      The Ship reached space on five of six engines; the booster failed its boostback and crashed in the Gulf of Mexico.

    14. confirmed

      White House proposes 23 percent NASA cut for fiscal 2027[23]

    15. confirmed

      Artemis II launches four astronauts around the Moon[30][46]

      The crew splashed down off San Diego on April 10 after reaching 252,756 miles from Earth.

    16. confirmed

      NASA's "Ignition" event pauses Gateway and announces a Mars nuclear mission[10][11]

    17. confirmed

      New study explains K2-18 b without dimethyl sulfide[45]

    18. confirmed

      NASA Inspector General finds Artemis landers behind schedule[43][44]

    19. confirmed

      NASA restructures Artemis; first landing moves to Artemis IV in 2028[5][42]

    20. confirmed

      First four-booster Ariane 6 launches 32 Amazon Leo satellites[14]

    21. confirmed

      Congress passes fiscal 2026 NASA funding, rejecting deep science cut and ending Mars Sample Return[41][32]

    22. confirmed

      India's PSLV-C62 fails, the rocket's second failure in a row[13]

      A third-stage anomaly cost the EOS-N1 satellite and its co-passengers.

    23. confirmed

      Starship Flight 11 closes out the vehicle's second version[40]

    24. confirmed

      NASA's confirmed exoplanet count reaches 6,000[39]

    25. confirmed

      NASA announces potential biosignature in Perseverance's Sapphire Canyon core[37][38]

      The announcement is confirmed; a biological origin is not. Non-biological explanations cannot be ruled out.

    26. confirmed

      Webb confirms galaxy MoM-z14 at redshift 14.44[36]

      Seen about 280 million years after the Big Bang.

    27. disputed

      Team reports 3-sigma hint of DMS on exoplanet K2-18 b[35][28]

      Independent reanalyses later found no statistically significant evidence for the gas.

    28. confirmed

      Chang'e-6 returns the first samples from the Moon's far side[34]

      China's lander touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on June 1 and its capsule landed in China on June 25.

    Questions readers ask

    When does MMX launch?

    JAXA has scheduled it for 04:41 on October 20, 2026, Japan time (October 19 in the US), on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima, with backup dates to November 7. It had not launched as of October 10.[4]

    How many Starship flights have there been in 2026?

    Three, all with the new Version 3 vehicle. Flights 12 (May 22) and 13 (July 24) were suborbital, and Flight 14 reached orbit on September 28.[7][9][1]

    When did Rubin's survey start?

    NOIRLab announced on June 30, 2026 that the 10-year survey had officially started. Rubin's own website says July 2026, so the sources differ slightly.[29]

    Sources

    Each numbered claim is a statement we checked against the sources listed with it. Status shows how well established it is.

    1. [1]

      On September 28, 2026, Starship reached orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight and deployed 26 Starlink satellites, despite one of the Ship's six engines failing during ascent. confirmedas of 2026-09-28

    2. [2]

      NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center at 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30, 2026. confirmedas of 2026-08-30

    3. [3]

      On October 9, 2026, NASA invited US companies to submit plans to design, build, certify and operate commercial low Earth orbit stations, with proposals due December 8 and awards expected in spring 2027. confirmedas of 2026-10-09

    4. [4]

      As of October 10, 2026, JAXA had scheduled MMX to launch on H3 Launch Vehicle No. 10 from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at Tanegashima at 04:41:03 JST on October 20, 2026 (October 19 in US time zones), with a backup window from October 21 to November 7; the spacecraft is due to reach Mars in August 2027. confirmedas of 2026-10-08

    5. [5]

      On February 27, 2026, NASA changed Artemis III into a 2027 crewed mission in low Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial lunar landers, ahead of a first landing on Artemis IV in 2028. confirmedas of 2026-02-27

    6. [6]

      The James Webb Space Telescope, a joint NASA/ESA/CSA mission, launched on December 25, 2021 and orbits the Sun about 1.5 million km from Earth at the second Lagrange point (L2). confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    7. [7]

      On May 22, 2026, SpaceX launched Starship Flight 12, the first flight of Starship Version 3 and the first Starship mission since October 2025, from a newly completed second pad at Starbase, Texas. confirmedas of 2026-05-23

    8. [8]

      On Flight 12 a Super Heavy engine shut down at liftoff, the booster failed to complete its boostback burn and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, and the Ship lost one of its six engines but reached space, deployed 22 payloads (20 dummy Starlink satellites and two camera-equipped Starlinks), skipped a planned in-space engine relight and made its planned ocean landing. confirmedas of 2026-05-23

    9. [9]

      On July 24, 2026, Starship Flight 13 deployed 20 Starlink Version 3 satellites on a suborbital path (they re-entered as planned), relit one of the Ship's Raptor engines in space, and made a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, where the Ship floated intact for the first time; the booster hit the Gulf of Mexico harder than planned after only five of 13 engines fired for its landing burn. confirmedas of 2026-07-25

    10. [10]

      At its March 24, 2026 "Ignition" event NASA said it intended to pause the Gateway lunar-orbiting station in its current form, shift focus to lunar surface infrastructure and repurpose applicable equipment; in April 2026 Administrator Jared Isaacman defended his decision to cancel Gateway before the House Science Committee. confirmedas of 2026-04-22

    11. [11]

      NASA's March 24, 2026 Ignition announcements included launching the SR-1 Freedom nuclear-electric spacecraft to Mars before the end of 2028 to deploy the Skyfall Ingenuity-class helicopters, a three-phase plan to build a Moon Base, and targeting up to 30 robotic Commercial Lunar Payload Services landings starting in 2027. confirmedas of 2026-03-24

    12. [12]

      In September 2026 NASA activated Roman's Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera whose images each cover a patch of sky larger than the full Moon, and on September 22 the Coronagraph Instrument made its first observation of cosmic light, while Roman travelled toward the second Lagrange point (L2). confirmedas of 2026-09-30

    13. [13]

      On January 12, 2026, India's PSLV-C62 failed when its third stage suffered a roll-rate disturbance and flight-path deviation, losing the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite and its co-passengers (16 satellites in total, according to Spaceflight Now); it was the PSLV's second consecutive failure, after PSLV-C61 in May 2025 also had a third-stage problem. confirmedas of 2026-01-12

    14. [14]

      On February 12, 2026, the first Ariane 6 with four boosters (Ariane 64) launched 32 Amazon Leo satellites; ESA says the four-booster version can lift about 21.6 tonnes to low Earth orbit, more than double the 10.3 tonnes of the two-booster version. confirmedas of 2026-02-12

    15. [15]

      Europe's Vega-C rocket launched ESA's FLEX and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellites together on flight VV30 on September 14, 2026 (local time in French Guiana). confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    16. [16]

      Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded on the pad at Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral, during a static-fire test on May 28, 2026, ahead of a planned Amazon Leo launch; on June 30 Blue Origin said early findings pointed to the rocket's first stage and that it aimed to return to flight by the end of 2026 without rebuilding the same pad. confirmedas of 2026-06-30

    17. [17]

      JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch from Tanegashima on October 19, 2026 (EDT), to collect a sample from Phobos no earlier than December 2028 and return it to Earth in 2031. confirmedas of 2026-10-08

    18. [18]

      As of September 29, 2026, SpaceX had not yet transferred propellant between two vehicles in space; Elon Musk had said SpaceX may try to catch a Ship with the launch tower on Flight 15, provisionally no earlier than October 19, and SpaceX was building three Starship pads in Florida. reportedas of 2026-09-29

    19. [19]

      SpaceX's lunar lander plan requires launching a propellant storage depot to low Earth orbit followed by more than 10 Starship tanker flights, starting more than 200 days before crew launch. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    20. [20]

      Blue Origin lost a New Glenn rocket during hotfire testing at Launch Complex 36 on May 28, 2026, which was expected to delay its first Blue Moon lander mission; Blue Origin and NASA leaders suggested a return to flight by the end of 2026. reportedas of 2026-06-06

    21. [21]

      In August 2026 India's government said the first uncrewed Gaganyaan test flight, carrying the half-humanoid robot Vyommitra on the human-rated HLVM3 rocket, was targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, with two more uncrewed flights and the first crewed flight targeted by 2027 and the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    22. [22]

      As of October 2026, Vast's website said Haven-1 was targeted to launch in 2027 (company statement). confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    23. [23]

      The White House's fiscal 2027 budget request, released April 3, 2026, proposed cutting NASA by $5.6 billion (23 percent), including a cut of roughly 46 to 47 percent to science, with human exploration the only part of the agency not reduced. confirmedas of 2026-04-23

    24. [24]

      On August 23, 2026, the China Manned Space Agency said Chang'e-7 did not meet launch conditions and could not launch during its planned 2026 window. confirmedas of 2026-08-23

    25. [25]

      China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030 and has tested its Long March-10 rocket and Mengzhou crew spacecraft, with maiden flights of Mengzhou and the Lanyue lunar lander still to come as of May 2026. confirmedas of 2026-05-23

    26. [26]

      Roman has a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's, carries a Wide Field Instrument and a Coronagraph, and is designed to address dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    27. [27]

      Rubin takes an image about every 40 seconds, collects about 10 terabytes of data a night, produces up to seven million alerts a night that stream to automated alert brokers, will revisit each point in the sky about 800 times over the decade, and will release its billions of catalogued objects openly; its public alerts had already led to hundreds of transient discoveries before the survey began. confirmedas of 2026-06-30

    28. [28]

      A May 2025 joint reanalysis of all Webb data on K2-18 b found insufficient evidence for DMS or DMDS, with other molecules such as ethane fitting equally well, attributed marginal preferences to limiting the molecules modelled and to sensitivity to small changes between data reductions, and estimated about 25 more MIRI transits would be needed for a decisive test. confirmedas of 2025-05-19

    29. [29]

      NSF NOIRLab, which operates Rubin with SLAC, announced on June 30, 2026 that the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time had officially started after a period of system optimization and an operational readiness review; Rubin Observatory's own website dates the start of the survey to July 2026. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    30. [30]

      Artemis II launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, and splashed down on April 10, 2026, after a mission of 9 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    31. [31]

      NASA describes Artemis IV as the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole, targeted for 2028. confirmedas of 2026-06-09

    32. [32]

      Congress's fiscal 2026 spending agreement did not support the existing Mars Sample Return programme, instead providing $110 million for a Mars Future Missions effort that keeps some sample-return technologies alive. confirmedas of 2026-01-16

    33. [33]

      As of October 10, 2026 the NASA Exoplanet Archive listed 6,445 confirmed planets, of which 4,781 were found by the transit method, 1,203 by radial velocity, 292 by microlensing and 97 by direct imaging. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    34. [34]

      China's Chang'e-6 landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon's far side on June 1, 2024, and its capsule returned the first far-side samples to Earth on June 25, 2024. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    35. [35]

      In April 2025 a team led by Nikku Madhusudhan reported Webb mid-infrared evidence at 3-sigma significance for dimethyl sulfide and/or dimethyl disulfide, possible biosignature gases, in the atmosphere of the sub-Neptune K2-18 b. confirmedas of 2025-04-16

    36. [36]

      In 2025 a team used Webb spectroscopy to confirm the galaxy MoM-z14 at redshift 14.44, seen about 280 million years after the Big Bang, and found bright galaxies at that epoch to be more than 100 times more common than pre-Webb models predicted. confirmedas of 2025-05-16

    37. [37]

      In September 2025 NASA said a Perseverance rock core called Sapphire Canyon, drilled in July 2024 from the Cheyava Falls rock in Jezero Crater, contains a potential biosignature, reported in a peer-reviewed Nature paper. confirmedas of 2025-09-10

    38. [38]

      NASA scientists said the mineral "leopard spots" in the Cheyava Falls rock can also form without life, and that although non-biological explanations are less likely they cannot be ruled out. confirmedas of 2025-09-10

    39. [39]

      NASA's count of confirmed exoplanets reached 6,000 in September 2025, with more than 8,000 further candidates awaiting confirmation; the tally is kept by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech/IPAC. confirmedas of 2025-09-17

    40. [40]

      Starship's first integrated flight was on April 20, 2023, and Flight 11 on October 13, 2025 was the final test of the second version of the vehicle. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    41. [41]

      Congress's fiscal 2026 appropriations bill, passed in January 2026, gave NASA about $24.4 billion, including $7.25 billion for science, rejecting a proposed 47 percent cut to science. confirmedas of 2026-01-16

    42. [42]

      In its February 2026 update NASA said it would standardize the SLS rocket on its current Block 1 configuration rather than develop evolved variants, and aim for at least one lunar surface landing every year after Artemis IV. confirmedas of 2026-02-27

    43. [43]

      NASA's Inspector General found in March 2026 that the SpaceX and Blue Origin lander contracts had grown by only 6 percent and less than 1 percent respectively, but that both companies had schedule delays and SpaceX's lander would not be ready for a June 2027 lunar landing. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    44. [44]

      NASA had obligated $6.9 billion for Human Landing System development since 2019 and estimated it would spend $18.3 billion through fiscal year 2030, according to a March 2026 Inspector General audit. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    45. [45]

      A March 2026 study coupling climate and photochemistry models with new laboratory opacity data supported a sub-Neptune interpretation of K2-18 b without DMS and found no strong evidence for a water-rich interior. confirmedas of 2026-03-20

    46. [46]

      At their farthest point the Artemis II crew were 252,756 miles from Earth. confirmedas of 2026-04-10

    47. [47]

      On June 9, 2026, NASA named the Artemis III crew as Randy Bresnik (commander), ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (pilot), Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, for a roughly two-week mission in low Earth orbit in 2027. confirmedas of 2026-06-09

    48. [48]

      Ariane 6 flew a third Amazon Leo mission (VA269, with four upgraded P160C boosters) on June 17, 2026, and launched the MTG-I2 weather satellite (VA270) on August 27, 2026. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    49. [49]

      Flight 14 was the third Starship launch of the vehicle's Version 3, and its Super Heavy booster made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. confirmedas of 2026-09-28

    50. [50]

      In October 2026 a team using Webb reported in Science that it had identified the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst yet seen, FRB 20240304B, a small star-forming dwarf galaxy seen about 3 billion years after the Big Bang. confirmedas of 2026-10-08

    Revision history (2)
    1. Page created.
    2. Added Starship Flights 12 and 13, India's PSLV-C62 failure and Gaganyaan target, Ariane 6 and Vega-C launches, NASA's Ignition announcements, Roman commissioning and Webb's FRB result; resolved Rubin's start date; gave MMX's scheduled time and backup window.

    Created Oct 10, 2026. Last reviewed by an editor on Oct 10, 2026. Next scheduled review: Oct 20, 2026.

    Cite this page

    "Space exploration tracker: milestones, launches and discoveries." ContentLora, updated Oct 10, 2026. https://contentlora.com/events/space-exploration-tracker

    Spotted an error? Suggest a correction or emailcorrections@contentlora.com.

    Keep exploring

    ☰ Contents