Launch Preview: Soyuz to launch crew to ISS, Starship to fly another test flight

Date:
Mon, 13 Jul 2026 20:29:32 +0000

Description:
Seven launches are scheduled worldwide this week, including the 13th flight test of SpaceXs Starship The post Launch Preview: Soyuz to launch crew to
ISS, Starship to fly another test flight appeared first on
NASASpaceFlight.com .

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

Seven launches are scheduled worldwide this week, including the 13th flight test of SpaceXs Starship and the launch of a new crew to the International Space Station. SpaceXs Falcon 9 is expected to launch three Starlink missions and a mission for the U.S. Space Forces Space Development Agency.

Internationally, a Chinese Chang Zheng 7A is set to launch an unknown
payload, while India is aiming to conduct the maiden flight of a Vikram-I rocket before the end of the week.



Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-14

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is set to launch on Monday, July 13, at 6:17 PM PDT (Tuesday, July 14, at 01:17 UTC). The rocket will launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California, scheduled to lift off one minute into the one-hour launch window that ends at 7:17 PM PDT.

Falcon 9 will loft 24 Starlink v2 Mini satellites into a low-Earth orbit (LEO), flying on a southeasterly trajectory at a 70.01-degree inclination. SpaceXs autonomous droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, will support the booster landing downrange in the Pacific Ocean. Booster B1093 is supporting this mission, flying its 12th Starlink mission. B1093 has also supported the Tranche 1 Transport Layer B and C and Transporter 16 missions.



Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m-diameter, 70 m-tall two-stage rocket. Nine Merlin 1D engines power the first stage booster, while the expendable second stage uses a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy were the first orbital rockets to achieve regular reuse, with a Falcon booster having recently flown 36 flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered using specialized recovery vessels and reused after flight.

Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-45

A second Falcon 9 is expected to launch on Tuesday, July 14, at 4:21 AM EDT (08:21 UTC), this time from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape
Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A batch of 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites make up the payload for this mission, which will fly a northeasterly trajectory to a 53.16-degree orbital inclination LEO.

Booster B1080, flying for the 28th time, will support this mission. B1080 has previously supported 21 Starlink missions, as well as the Axiom Mission 2, Euclid, Axiom Mission 3, CRS-30, Astra 1P/SES-24, and CRS NG-21 missions. SpaceXs A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship will be stationed some 640 km downrange to support B1080s landing and return.

Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-29

The next crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 14:47 UTC. NASA astronaut Anil Menon, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, will launch to the Station atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Following launch, Soyuz will undertake a two-orbit, three-hour rendezvous with the ISS, ultimately conducting an autonomous docking to the Russian Prichal module. Three new International Space Station crew members will launch aboard a Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft on Tuesday, July 14, to join the Expedition 74 crew the same day live on @NASA +. More https://t.co/0GxxFhDHvR pic.twitter.com/8yqQh47gzA

International Space Station (@Space_Station) July 11, 2026



The Soyuz 2 rocket has two major variants: Soyuz 2.1a, the base version, and Soyuz 2.1b, which uses a more powerful third stage. The Soyuz 2.1a is powered by four RD-107A engines on the first stage (arranged around the second, core stage), a single RD-108 engine on the core stage, and an RD-0110 engine on
the third stage. Each stage uses liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.

This will be the 91st Soyuz 2.1a mission since 2004, and the fourth of 2026.

Falcon 9 | Tranche 1 Transport Layer E

The third Falcon 9 launch of the week is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, at 1:32 PM PDT (20:32 UTC) from SLC-4E at VSFB in California. Launching at the start of a 47-minute launch window, the mission will loft another payload for the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agencys Tranche 1 Transport Layer a constellation providing assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide.

Falcon 9 will fly a southerly trajectory to deliver the payload into a polar orbit. Following launch, the booster, B1103, will land atop Of Course I Still Love You downrange in the Pacific. This mission will mark B1103s fourth flight, with the booster previously supporting two Starlink missions and the NROL-179 mission.



Starship/Super Heavy | Starship Flight 13

Recently published notices indicate that Starships 13th flight test is scheduled to launch on Thursday, July 16, at 5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC). A two-hour and eleven-minute launch window is available for the mission. Ship
40 and Booster 20 will serve as the vehicles for this flight.

SpaceX has extensively tested both Booster 20 and Ship 40 in readiness for this mission, which is expected to repeat the flight profile of Flight 12
and, like all flight tests thus far, be suborbital. SpaceX hopes that the various issues that led to a booster abort following stage separation on Flight 12 will be overcome, and that Ship 40 can build on Ship 39s successful in-space operations, reentry, and landing during Flight 12.

Neither vehicle will survive the flight. Booster 20 is expected to perform a soft splashdown in the waters off Starbase, while Ship 40 is expected to reenter Earths atmosphere and land in the Indian Ocean. This mission will
mark the second Starship flight test of 2026, coming nearly two months after Flight 12.



Chang Zheng 7A | Unknown Payload

A Chinese Chang Zheng 7A (CZ-7A) is expected to launch from Launch Complex
201 (LC-201) at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China, on Friday, July 17, at 11:00 UTC. Launch Hazard Notices indicate that the flight will travel due east and that a two-hour launch window is available. The payload for this mission will not be made public until after the launch.

Standing 58 m tall, the CZ-7A has three stages, with the first stage
featuring four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters. The first two stages and the four boosters all use liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellants, while the third stage burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Vikram-1 has been modeled, simulated, tested, and qualified. And some questions can only be answered in flight. This episiode follows the team to Sriharikota, where the launch campaign is close to completion and with each passing day, Vikram-1 moves one step closer to flight. pic.twitter.com/E2TZNgUXCU

Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) July 11, 2026



Vikram-I | Aagaman (Demonstration Flight)

This delayed demonstration flight of the Vikram-I rocket is now scheduled for Saturday, July 18, from the First Launch Complex at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. The four-hour launch window opens at 05:00 UTC. The rocket, developed by Skyroot Aerospace, will launch on a southeasterly trajectory at
a 60-degree inclination to LEO, carrying four payloads, including one of Skyroots own satellites.

Vikram-I is a four-stage small-lift expendable rocket, with its first stage, Kalam 1,000, using solid propellants and generating 1,000 kN of thrust at liftoff. The vehicles second and third stages, Kalam 250 and Kalam 100, also use solid propellants; the fourth stage has four Raman-I engines fueled by dinitrogen tetroxide and monomethylhydrazine. The rocket can deliver 350 kg
to LEO and 260 kg to a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.

(Lead image: A Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)



The post Launch Preview: Soyuz to launch crew to ISS, Starship to fly another test flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/07/launch-preview-071326/


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