BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Florida’s Space Coast closed out 2025 with a record 109 rocket launches.
And the pace isn’t expected to let up in 2026. Florida Tech professor Dr. Don Platt told Eyewitness News “I think that we’re going to see a little bit more variety in what’s flying in the Florida skies in 2026.”
In addition to SpaceX’s fleet of falcon 9 rockets – the company could launch its first Starship from Florida before the end of the year.
Additionally, ULA is expected to pick up its launch cadence as the company transitions from its Atlas V to its Vulcan Centaur Rocket.
And NASA will launch four astronauts on an Orion spacecraft atop the agency’s SLS rocket no later than April. The Artemis II mission will take those astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon.
“I would say that that’s probably the biggest global space activity in 2026, if successful with a return to humanity to deep space for the first time since 1972 and that is a very important next step towards humans on the surface of the moon,” said Platt.
NASA is also working with multiple companies to launch uncrewed Commercial Lunar Payload Services
In Low Earth orbit, 2026 could bring the launch of the first privately built space station- Vast’s Haven-1. NASA plans to retire the International Space Station in 2030.
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