SpaceX HLS LEO Demo

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Human Exploration

Low Earth Orbit Launch Complex 39A Starship Pad Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

The Starship HLS pathfinder spacecraft in support of NASA's Artemis III mission in Low Earth Orbit will be a Version 3 vehicle equipped with a docking mechanism, but with no crew cabin or environmental control systems on board. This Starship HLS will launch after the Artemis III Orion has launched into LEO aboard SLS, and has completed its demonstrations with Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. Once docked, Orion and Starship will spend about a day connected for checkouts and testing.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Aug. 22, 2026, 12:37 a.m.

Added launch.


Starship

Family:
Configuration: N/A

Starship (unknown version)

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    124.4 m
  • Diameter
    9.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    9.0 m
  • Launch Mass
    5000.0 T
  • Thrust
    80807.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Starship
  • Family
  • Variant
    N/A
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Starship
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    100000.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 715 Failures: 15 Pending: 128

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A Starship Pad


Kinetica 1
Success
14 hours, 8 minutes ago
9 satellites
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Share-ride of 9 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, details TBD.


Falcon 9
Success
16 hours, 24 minutes ago
Starlink Group 15-27
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2D
Success
1 day, 7 hours ago
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.


Electron
Success
1 day, 14 hours ago
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
3 days, 1 hour ago
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
3 days, 15 hours ago
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 17 hours ago
USSF-259
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

USSF-259 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield …


Long March 12
Success
3 days, 17 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 25
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
4 days, 4 hours ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Gravity-1
Success
4 days, 20 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #16
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …