Launch Preview: Chinese failure opens busy international launch salvo

Date:
Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:49:20 +0000

Description:
The week of Aug. 10 opened with an extraordinary Monday, four launches across three countries The post Launch Preview: Chinese failure opens busy international launch salvo appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

The week of Aug. 10 opened with an extraordinary Monday, four launches across three countries in fewer than twelve hours. China launched first, but failed, with a Chang Zheng 7A carrying an undisclosed payload from Wenchang. The vehicle exploded during first stage flight.

A SpaceX launch with Starlink Group 10-19 from Cape Canaveral follows. Next, Japans H3 is set to loft the satellite that completes its Michibiki
navigation constellation from Tanegashima, and LandSpace closes the day with its second attempt to recover ZhuQue-3.

Three more Falcon 9 flights fill the back half of the week, including a classified mission from Vandenberg and Globalstars long-awaited first constellation refresh from the Cape. Seven launches are on the manifest, spanning three countries and four vehicles.



Chang Zheng 7A | Unknown Payload

Monday opened with a launch from China. A Chang Zheng 7A (CZ-7A) lifted off from Launch Complex 201 (LC-201) at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, tracking east, a trajectory consistent with a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) insertion.

However, the vehicle failed during the Max Q stage of first stage flight. China's Long March 7A has exploded during first stage flight. https://t.co/8Ije1oeWe7 pic.twitter.com/qNa1nIYH6T

NSF NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) August 10, 2026



At around 58 m tall with four strap-on boosters and a GTO capacity of 7,000 kg, the Chang Zheng 7A has carried a range of high-orbit payloads since entering service in 2021, most of them communications or navigation satellites.

This was the vehicles 18th mission overall and its fourth of 2026, and the 188th orbital launch attempt worldwide this year.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-19



A few hours after the Long March lifts off from Wenchang, Falcon 9 takes the pad at Floridas Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) with its payload of Starlink v2 Mini satellites heading northeast to a standard mid-inclination shell. Booster B1085 is flying for its 18th time, with landing targeted on drone
ship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. This will be Falcon
9s 93rd mission of 2026 and the 189th orbital launch attempt worldwide this year.

H3 | Michibiki No.7

The third departure of Monday comes from the Tanegashima Space Center, where H3 lifts off at 19:23 UTC, carrying Michibiki No. 7, the seventh and final satellite in Japans Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS). Designed to provide high-precision positioning augmentation across Japan and the Asia-Oceania region, QZSS operates from a combination of inclined geosynchronous and geostationary orbits that keep at least one satellite near vertical over the Japanese islands at all times.

Michibiki No. 7 completes the constellation at its seven-satellite
operational design, a milestone the Cabinet Office has been building toward since the first Michibiki launched in 2010. With seven satellites in orbit, QZSS graduates from a GPS augmentation service to a fully independent
regional navigation system, with four satellites simultaneously visible from Japan at all times. Built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, the satellite
is listed at approximately 4,900 kg heading to geosynchronous transfer orbit. This will be the 190th orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2026.

The flight also carries the second of two SACHI payloads, the Situational Awareness Camera Hosted Instrument, developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the US Space Force under a bilateral cooperation agreement with Japan. The first flew aboard QZS-6 in February 2025; this mission sends its companion to join it in geosynchronous orbit, where the two will watch over the
surrounding space environment from an altitude unavailable to sensors in
lower orbits. Hosting US military sensors on Japanese navigation satellites reflects the depth of space security cooperation between the two allies. H3-22S prepares to launch Michibiki 6 from Tanegashima Space Center. (Credit: JAXA)

ZhuQue-3 | Y2

Monday night closes with the second flight of LandSpaces ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3), Chinas first privately developed reusable orbital rocket, lifting off from Launch Area 96B at Jiuquan with an undisclosed payloadat 23:37 UTC. The 66-meter, stainless steel, methane-fueled vehicle was built from the start
for recovery, with a nine-engine first stage designed to return to a
downrange landing pad. This is the 191st orbital launch attempt of 2026 and LandSpaces second recovery attempt.

The first ZQ-3 flight, Y1, on Dec. 3, 2025, cleared every major milestone before the final one. Nine TQ-12A engines carried the vehicle through a clean ascent and staging, and the second stage reached a 142 x 1,402 km orbit. The first stage made it back to the pad almost. An engine ignition anomaly
during the landing burn sent the booster into the ground in a fireball just meters from the center of the landing circle. LandSpace attributed the
failure to the engine ignition sequence during the landing phase and has
since applied corrections informed by data from Y1.

Flight 2 flies the same fundamental configuration, refined based on what the first mission revealed. The landing target remains the downrange pad at
Minqin County. View from the launch tower as LandSpace ZhuQue-3 launches on Dec. 3. (Credit: LandSpace)

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-49

Starlink Group 17-49 departs Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) on Wednesday morning, carrying 24 V2 Mini satellites into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). SSO shells push Starlink coverage into high latitudes where the mid-inclination constellation runs thin.

The booster assignment for this flight is B1103 on its fifth, with a 26-day turnaround. The first stage will recover on droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific. This will be Falcon 9s 94th mission of 2026 and the 192nd orbital launch attempt worldwide this year.

Falcon 9 | R-1

Falcon 9 returns to SLC-4E three days later with a mission designated as R-1, carrying an undisclosed payload. The flight will follow a southeastern trajectory from Vandenberg into low-Earth orbit (LEO). The drop zones match previous Starlink Group 15 flights closely enough that observers have pegged it as a batch of satellites built on SpaceXs Starshield platform, for a US government customer, though nothing has been confirmed.

The booster assignment is unknown at the time of writing; landing will target drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific. This will be Falcon 9s 95th mission of 2026 and the 193rd orbital launch attempt worldwide this
year. Falcon 9 launch and landing (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

Falcon 9 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1

A 15-minute window opens on Saturday, Aug. 16, at 9:12 PM EDT (Aug. 16 at 01:12 UTC) for Globalstars 2-R Mission 1. Lifting off from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), Falcon 9 will carry nine of 17 new second-generation satellites headed to the 1,410 km, 52-degree orbit Globalstar has operated since its original constellation launched in the late 1990s. The tight window is characteristic of a mission threading a specific orbital plane.

The first stage will return to Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40) at Cape Canaveral rather than fly downrange to a drone ship. Booster B1090 is making its 14th flight on a 42-day turnaround; the remaining eight satellites under the contract are set to fly on a second Falcon 9 later in 2026. This will be Falcon 9s 96th mission of 2026 and the 194th orbital launch attempt worldwide this year.

The mission carries weight beyond the numbers. Globalstar reserves 85 percent of its network capacity for Apples Emergency SOS via Satellite service, introduced with the iPhone 14 in 2022 and extended across subsequent iPhone generations. The 17 satellites under this contract, built by MDA with buses supplied by Rocket Lab, are intended to sustain and grow that capacity
through the middle of the next decade. Each satellite is also expected to support Globalstars broader Band 53 terrestrial-spectrum services.

The corporate backdrop has shifted considerably since the contract was originally signed. Amazon announced in April 2026 that it would acquire Globalstar outright in a deal valued at approximately $11.57 billion, folding the company into its Amazon Leo satellite business ahead of an expected 2027 close. Amazon has pledged to continue supporting Apple services through the transition. These nine satellites will fly under the old Globalstar banner, but the network they join is being built for a different owner.

(Lead image: The H3 rocket returns to flight. Credit: JAXA)

The post Launch Preview: Chinese failure opens busy international launch
salvo appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/08/launch-preview-081026/


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