Spectrum lifts off from Andøya Space in Norway on its maiden flight, March 30, 2025. Credit: Isar Aerospace/Wingmen Media–S. Fischer
Mission Highlight: Onward and Upward
German launch startup Isar Aerospace is targeting Thursday, March 19, at 4:00 p.m. EDT for the second flight of its Spectrum launch vehicle from the company’s dedicated launch complex at Andøya Space in northern Norway. The mission, titled Onward and Upward, represents a return to flight nearly 12 months after Spectrum’s maiden launch failed — and will be the rocket’s first flight carrying customer payloads.
Spectrum is a two-stage, liquid-oxygen-and propane-fueled rocket capable of delivering up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit, designed and manufactured almost entirely in-house near Munich. On March 30, 2025, its first flight, and the first orbital launch from the European continent, ended roughly 30 seconds after liftoff. According to the company, the accidental opening of a vent valve (valves used to control pressure on the ground during fueling) in flight led to a loss of attitude control. Isar Aerospace has since implemented corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.
The company originally targeted a Jan. 21 return to flight, but stood down from that attempt after a new issue with a pressurization valve arose. After resolving the problem, Isar announced a new window opening no earlier than March 19.
Unlike the first flight, which had no payload, Onward and Upward will carry five CubeSats and one nonseparable experiment, from European universities and companies through the European Space Agency’s Boost! program, which supports microlauncher development. While the rocket is carrying customer hardware, Isar Aerospace still considers this a qualification flight — a critical step toward establishing Europe’s independent access to orbit.
Other missions this week
On Monday, March 16, SpaceX is targeting 10:42 p.m. EDT for the launch of Starlink Group 17-24 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 booster is expected to land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
On Tuesday, March 17, SpaceX will launch the Starlink Group 10-46 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:26 a.m. EDT. The booster will target a landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic.
On Thursday, March 19, the East Coast Starlink cadence continues with Starlink Group 10-33 launching from Cape Canaveral at 6:35 a.m. EDT. The booster is expected to land on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.
Later on Thursday, March 19, Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand at 1:45 p.m. EDT. The Eight Days a Week mission — Electron’s 84th flight — will deploy a single StriX synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese company Synspective, which is building a constellation of up to 30 small SAR spacecraft capable of imaging the Earth day or night regardless of weather. Rocket Lab has been the exclusive launch provider for the StriX constellation since 2020.
On Friday, March 20, SpaceX returns to the West Coast with the Starlink Group 17-15 mission from Vandenberg at 5:48 p.m. EDT. The booster will land on Of Course I Still Love You.
On Sunday, March 22, Russia’s Roscosmos will launch the Progress MS-33 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT. The uncrewed spacecraft will deliver approximately 2.5 tons of supplies, including propellant, water, food, and scientific equipment.
Closing out the week on Sunday, March 22, SpaceX will launch Starlink Group 10-62 from Cape Canaveral at 10:43 a.m. EDT, with the booster landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
Last week’s recap
The previous week saw three orbital launches, led by SpaceX’s continuing Starlink deployment campaign and a Chinese military satellite mission.
On Thursday, March 13, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 17-31 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, with the booster landing on Of Course I Still Love You. The following day, on Friday, March 14, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 10-48 from Cape Canaveral, with a booster recovery on Just Read the Instructions.
On Saturday, March 15, China conducted two launches. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carrying the Yaogan 50-02 remote-sensing satellite into low Earth orbit, joining the Yaogan 50-01 spacecraft launched in January. Later that day, a Kuaizhou-11 solid rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, carrying eight satellites in a rideshare mission.
Looking ahead
On Tuesday, March 24, SpaceX is targeting 7:03 p.m. EDT for the launch of Starlink Group 17-17 from Vandenberg, with the booster landing on Of Course I Still Love You.
On Monday, March 30, United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch an Atlas V 551 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 3:31 a.m. EDT carrying the next batch of satellites for Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper). The LA-05 mission will be the fifth Atlas V launch for Amazon’s growing broadband constellation, which aims to deliver high-speed internet from low Earth orbit. Amazon is on an aggressive deployment timeline, with its FCC license requiring half of its planned 3,232 satellites to be in orbit by mid-2026.