12 launches in September 2021 — sortable by date with provider, vehicle, pad, and outcome.
Updated
| Date (UTC) | Mission | Provider | Vehicle | Status | Pad | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 03, 01:59 UTC | Firefly Alpha | FLTA001 (Maiden Flight) | Firefly Aerospace | Firefly Alpha | Failure | Space Launch Complex 2W | — |
| Sep 07, 03:01 UTC | Long March 4C | Gaofen-5-02 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 4C | Success | Launch Complex 9 | — |
| Sep 09, 11:50 UTC | Long March 3B | ChinaSat 9B | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 3B/E | Success | Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) | — |
| Sep 09, 19:59 UTC | Soyuz 2.1v | Razbeg 1 (Kosmos 2551) | Russian Space Forces | Soyuz 2.1v | Success | 43/4 (43R) | — |
| Sep 14, 03:55 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-1 | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Space Launch Complex 4E | — |
| Sep 14, 18:07 UTC | Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 10 | Arianespace | Soyuz 2.1b Fregat-M | Success | 31/6 | — |
| Sep 16, 00:02 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inspiration4 | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Launch Complex 39A | — |
| Sep 16, 06:39 UTC | Hapith I | Test Flight | TiSPACE | Hapith I | Failure | Pad 1 | — |
| Sep 20, 07:10 UTC | Long March 7 | Tianzhou-3 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 7 | Success | 201 | — |
| Sep 27, 06:19 UTC | Kuaizhou 1A | Jilin-1-02D | ExPace | Kuaizhou 1A | Success | Launch Area 95A | — |
| Sep 27, 08:20 UTC | Long March 3B/E | Shiyan 10 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 3B/E | Success | Launch Complex 3 (LC-3/LA-1) | — |
| Sep 27, 18:12 UTC | Atlas V 401 | Landsat 9 | United Launch Alliance | Atlas V 401 | Success | Space Launch Complex 3E | — |
First flight of the new Firefly Alpha small sat launcher developed by Firefly Aerospace. It will carry Firefly’s DREAM (Dedicated Research & Education Accelerator Mission), which includes various payloads like cubesats, personal items, pictures, DNA samples and more to inspire young people to pursue STEM education.
Gaofen (GF) is a series of Chinese civilian remote sensing satellites for the state-sponsored program China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS). GF 5 is configured with six types of payloads, including visible and short-wave infra hyper-spectral camera, spectral imager, greenhouse gas detector, atmospheric environment infrared detector at very high spectral resolution, differential absorption spectrometer for atmospheric trace gas, and multi-angle polarization detector, with designed lifespan of 8 years. The satellite is based on the SAST-5000B bus. The instruments are: * Advanced Hyperspectral Imager (AHSI) * Visual and Infrared Multispectral Sensor (VIMS) * Greenhouse-gases Monitoring Instrument (GMI) * Atmospheric Infrared Ultraspectral (AIUS) * Environment Monitoring Instrument (EMI) * Directional Polarization Camera (DPC)
Zhongxing-9B (ChinaSat 9B) is a Chinese communications satellite, that will replace the Zhongxing-9A satellite in orbit. The latter was launched in 2017, but the CZ-3B launch vehicle suffered a partial failure, and the satellite had to burn a large amount of fuel to reach its nominal orbit. ZX-9B will be used to retransmit television to the Chinese, as well as to provide television communications with Chinese islands, and ships sailing near the coast. The satellite will also be used to broadcast the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in 8K.
The Russian Razbeg 1 is small military satellite optical reconnaissance satellite. It was built by NPP VNIIEM. It is likely the same satellite identified in earlier reports as Zvesda. The 250 kg satellite was reportedly inspired by the US American commercial Earth imaging satellites of the SkySat 1 series. It features a camera built by the Belarusian company OAO Peleng with a maximum ground resolution of 0.9 meters in panchromatic mode.
A batch of 51 satellites for Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 34 satellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which is intended to provide global Internet broadband service for individual consumers. The constellation is planned to have around 648 microsatellites (of which 60 are spares), around 150 kg each, operating in Ku-band from low Earth orbit.
Inspiration4 is the world’s first all-commercial astronaut mission to orbit. Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, is donating the three seats alongside him aboard Dragon to individuals from the general public - Medical Officer Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and pediatric cancer survivor; Mission Specialist Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer; and Mission Pilot Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, entrepreneur, and trained pilot. The Inspiration4 crew received commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. They will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will remain in a 575 km high orbit for three days before reentering Earth's atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of Florida. During their multi-day journey in orbit, the Inspiration4 crew will conduct scientific research designed to advance human health on Earth and during future long-duration spaceflights. For this mission, Crew Dragon is configured to feature an observation dome in place of docking port to provide views to the crew.
The first Hapith I launch will be testing TiSPACE's hybrid rocket engine technology in preparation for the future Hapith V launch vehicle. Targeting 250 km altitude, the test launch campaign will also support of the development of the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch.
Second cargo delivery mission to the Chinese large modular space station.
Jilin-1 is a series of Chinese commercial remote sensing satellites.
Classified test satellite which suffered an anomaly during launch. The launch vehicle has not been confirmed to be responsible for the failure.
Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey to continue the Landsat program's critical role in monitoring, understanding and managing the land resources needed to sustain human life. Landsat 9, like Landsat 8, has a higher imaging capacity than past Landsats, allowing more valuable data to be added to the Landsat global land archive. Its operational orbit is a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km for a mission lifetime of at least 5 years.