Florida’s Space Coast entered October without a firm date for its next scheduled rocket launch following SpaceX’s NROL-97 mission, which lifted off on a Falcon Heavy rocket at 11:54 p.m. Oct. 1 from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The NROL-97 mission carried a national-security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch headed northeast, and sonic booms were expected.
The next listed mission is NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 cargo flight to the International Space Station. A Falcon 9 rocket is slated to send a Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but its October launch date, time, trajectory and sonic-boom outlook had not been announced.
Other upcoming Space Coast missions remain without firm schedules. NASA’s uncrewed Boeing Starliner-1 cargo and system-validation mission is listed no earlier than December. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Pathfinder mission, which would use a New Glenn rocket to send a lunar lander carrying NASA payloads, is also listed as to be announced from Launch Complex 36.
Sierra Space’s uncrewed Dream Chaser spaceplane is expected to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket from Launch Complex 41 no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the schedule.
Launch dates and times can change for a range of reasons. Through the end of September, 56 rockets had launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in 2026. That is below the record 109 orbital launches Florida’s Space Coast hosted in 2025, but above the 31 launches recorded during all of 2021.