Rocket Launches Live 2026/27 – Countdown & Streams

Rocket launches — in short

Rockets lift off every few days all year round, but the date announced is almost never final. Whether a launch actually happens is decided by the launch window, the weather at the spaceport and the technical status of the vehicle. Below you will find a countdown to the next launches, the status of each mission and a link to the stream, and further down — an explanation of how to read this data and what is coming in 2026 and 2027.

Element	What to check
T-0	The moment of liftoff. We give it in UTC and in the local time of the launch site — streams usually run on UTC.
Status	“Confirmed” means the operator has confirmed the time. “Approximate date” is often only a month or a quarter.
Launch window	The interval in which a launch is possible — from a few seconds (ISS missions) to several hours.
Scrub	A launch called off before engine ignition. Usually weather or a fault — the next attempt can come the following day.
Visibility	You will not see the liftoff itself. What can be seen are satellites already in orbit — above all the Starlink “train” a few days after launch.

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Table of contents

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The main sections of this guide: the live countdown, how to read a launch schedule, where to watch a liftoff, what is visible from Europe, the missions of 2026/27 and the launch sites.

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Contents

• LIVE: next rocket launches and countdown
• How to read a launch schedule: T-0, launch window, scrub
• What the launch statuses mean
• Where to watch a rocket launch live
• Can a rocket launch be seen from Europe
• Programmes and missions 2026/27 — what is really coming
• Where rockets launch from: the most important spaceports
• FAQ: rocket launches
• Read also

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LIVE: next rocket launches and countdown

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How to read a launch schedule: T-0, launch window, scrub

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A rocket launch schedule looks like a simple list of dates, but every entry carries several pieces of information that decide whether it is worth setting an alarm.

T-0 is the moment the engines ignite. Everything that happens earlier is described as "T minus": T-4 hours is propellant loading, T-45 minutes is usually the flight director's final decision, T-10 seconds is the ignition sequence.

The launch window is the interval in which a launch is physically possible. For missions heading to the International Space Station it can be instantaneous — literally a few seconds, because the rocket has to hit the plane of the station's orbit. For satellites going to geostationary orbit the window can be several hours long. The shorter the window, the greater the chance that a single thunderstorm cloud pushes the launch back by a full day.

A scrub is a launch called off before ignition: because of weather, a fault or a ship in the drop zone. It is a normal part of spaceflight, not a failure. The next attempt can come as soon as the following day, if the window repeats.

A hold is a pause in the countdown, often planned so the teams have time for checks. An automatic hold a few seconds before T-0 means the computer has detected a parameter outside limits.

The practical conclusion: a launch date is a forecast, not a promise. For missions marked as approximate, realistic slips are counted in weeks, not hours.

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What the launch statuses mean

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Every launch in the schedule above carries a status label. Here is how to read them:

• Confirmed — the operator has confirmed a specific T-0 time. This is the most reliable category, although a scrub can still happen here.
• Provisionally confirmed — the date is known and likely, but has not yet passed final approval.
• Approximate date — only the month or the quarter is known. The time in the schedule is then a technical value, not a real target.
• Hold — the countdown is stopped; the decision to resume comes within minutes or hours.
• In flight — the rocket has lifted off and the flight is under way.
• Success / failure — the status after the mission has ended.

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Where to watch a rocket launch live

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Every launch in the schedule for which the operator has made a stream available carries a "Live stream" link. Beyond that, it is worth knowing the standing sources:

• SpaceX — the stream usually starts 5–15 minutes before T-0 for Falcon 9 and about an hour earlier for crewed missions.
• NASA — for major missions the stream begins several hours before launch and covers propellant loading and crew ingress.
• ESA and Arianespace — streams from Kourou, usually with English commentary as well.
• China's CASC — streams are sometimes announced at the last moment or not at all; some launches are only shown after the fact.

Practical advice: for a launch with a short window, turn the stream on 15 minutes early. For missions with a long window it is better to check in shortly before T-0 itself, because countdowns are often held.

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Can a rocket launch be seen from Europe

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No. All active orbital spaceports lie thousands of kilometres from the places where most people in Europe live, and a rocket disappears below the horizon within a few minutes. From Europe you will see neither a launch from Cape Canaveral, nor from Baikonur, nor from Kourou.

What can be seen is what stays in orbit. The most recognisable effect is the Starlink "space train" — a string of bright points moving across the sky a few days after launch, before the satellites spread out to their target orbits. It is visible to the naked eye, usually in the first hour after dusk or just before dawn. A Starlink pass tracker will tell you when a pass will be visible over your location.

The second visible effect is a pass of the International Space Station — a very bright point moving steadily and without twinkling. If you are not sure what you are looking at overhead, a guide to lights in the night sky will help.

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Programmes and missions 2026/27 — what is really coming

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The table below collects the events that matter most. The "date certainty" column is the key one here: confirmed means a date given by the agency, approximate means that only the year or the quarter is known.

Mission	Who	Planned date	Date certainty
Starship, flight 14 — first attempt at an orbital trajectory	SpaceX	no earlier than 22 September 2026	likely
Crew-13 — ISS crew rotation	NASA and SpaceX	end of September 2026	likely
MMX — sample return from Phobos, with the European Idefix rover	JAXA	no earlier than 19–20 October 2026	likely
BepiColombo — orbit insertion at Mercury	ESA and JAXA	21 November 2026	confirmed
Hera — arrival at the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos	ESA	November 2026	likely
Europa Clipper — Earth gravity assist	NASA	3 December 2026	confirmed
PLATO — telescope searching for Earth-like planets	ESA	January 2027	likely
Artemis III — Orion rendezvous with landers in Earth orbit	NASA	2027	approximate
Gaganyaan-4 — India's first crewed flight	ISRO	early 2027	approximate
Chang'e-7 — lander, rover and mini-hopper at the Moon's south pole	CNSA	2027	approximate

Three things worth knowing, because older texts online get them wrong.

First, Artemis II has already flown — the mission lifted off on 1 April 2026 and ended with splashdown on 10 April, after nine days of flight. The four-person crew circled the Moon and on the way broke the record for human distance from Earth, set by Apollo 13.

Second, Artemis III in 2027 is not a Moon landing. After the programme was reworked over the turn of winter and spring 2026, the mission is to be a demonstration in Earth orbit: a crewed Orion rendezvousing and docking with the SpaceX and Blue Origin landers. The first human landing has been moved to Artemis IV, planned for 2028.

Third, Chang'e-7 did not launch in August 2026 — the launch was called off a few hours before the window because of a typhoon, and the mission was moved to 2027.

The European thread is also worth noting. In September 2026 a private European rocket reached orbit for the first time launching from continental Europe — from the Norwegian spaceport at Andøya. A Polish contribution in the coming years is the SAWA mission, a satellite monitoring space weather, with Creotech Instruments as prime contractor for ESA; launch is planned for 2029. No further mission for a Polish astronaut has been announced since the IGNIS flight of 2025.

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Where rockets launch from: the most important spaceports

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The launch site explains half of the schedule. Spaceports are built close to the equator, because the Earth's rotation gives a rocket free velocity, and so that the first stage falls over water.

Spaceport	Country	What launches from here	Why there
Cape Canaveral and KSC	USA, Florida	Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, crewed ISS missions	Close to the equator, launch out over the ocean, the busiest site in the world
Vandenberg	USA, California	Polar orbits, Earth observation satellites	Launch south over the Pacific
Starbase	USA, Texas	Starship	SpaceX's own facility, test flights over the Gulf of Mexico
Kourou	French Guiana	Ariane 6, Vega-C	Europe's spaceport, 5 degrees from the equator
Baikonur	Kazakhstan	Soyuz	The oldest active orbital spaceport
Wenchang, Jiuquan, Xichang	China	Long March, missions to Tiangong, the lunar programme	Wenchang is closest to the equator, launches out to sea
Tanegashima	Japan	H3, the MMX Phobos sample-return mission	An island in the south of the country, launch over the ocean
Satish Dhawan	India	PSLV, LVM3, and in time Gaganyaan	East coast, launch over the Bay of Bengal
Andøya, Esrange, SaxaVord	Norway, Sweden, Shetland	Small European rockets, polar orbits	The active orbital spaceports closest to continental Europe

From a European perspective the last group is the most interesting. Andøya recorded its first successful orbital launch in September 2026 and is the only active orbital spaceport you can reach from continental Europe without crossing an ocean. These are the places we will cover in separate guides: how to get there, where to stand and when it is worth planning a trip to watch a launch at all.

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FAQ: rocket launches

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Read also

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If you are interested in one particular day, check rocket launches today — the same list narrowed to the next 48 hours. Planning to see a launch in person? Start with the Cape Canaveral viewing guide. For everything else worth looking up at, see sky phenomena and our live tools. A few days after a launch you can follow the new satellites in the Starlink tracker.

LIVE

Guide

Is there a rocket launch today

Today’s launch times, statuses and stream links — with a live countdown.

Check today’s launches

FLORIDA

Guide

Where to watch launches at Cape Canaveral

Free and paid viewing spots, getting there, weather and common mistakes.

See the viewing spots

HUB

Calendar

Sky phenomena

Meteors, eclipses, full moons and conjunctions — the calendar for the whole year.

Open the calendar

SATELLITES

Tool

Starlink tracker

When the satellite train passes after the latest launch, and at what time.

Check the passes

TOOLS

Hub

Live tools

Aurora and storm radars, earthquake maps, moon phases and NLC.

Open the tools

If you care about one specific day, check rocket launches today. And if you want to watch a liftoff in person, start with Cape Canaveral: viewing spots, costs and spare days.