Sign in Subscribe
Space

🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-06-21 22:00 UTC

⚡ TL;DR

An M6.8 solar flare erupted from the Sun today alongside a coronal mass ejection shock signature, making space weather the headline story of June 21. The launch queue is busy, with two SpaceX Falcon 9 missions already green-lit this week and a diverse roster of vehicles preparing to fly before month's end.

🚀 LAUNCHES

UPCOMING THIS WEEK

  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 launched Starlink Group 17-28, a batch of 24 Starlink broadband satellites, earlier today June 21 at 15:12 UTC with Go for Launch status. [1]
  • China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has a Long March 7A mission marked Go for Launch targeting June 23 at 02:10 UTC; payload details remain undisclosed. [2]
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 is Go for Launch for Starlink Group 17-45, carrying another 24 satellites, with liftoff targeted June 25 at 02:48 UTC. [3]

LATER IN JUNE (NET JUNE 30)

  • Rocket Lab Electron will fly "The Grain Goddess Provides," delivering iQPS Launch 7, a synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese imaging company iQPS. [4]
  • Rocket Lab Electron will also fly "Ten Owl Of Ten," the tenth StriX-series SAR satellite for Japanese imaging company Synspective. [5]
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 is scheduled to launch nine Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 satellites to a 1,410 km, 52-degree inclination orbit for the Globalstar mobile communications constellation. [6]
  • Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket will make its second test flight, "Onward and Upward," carrying five cubesats including CyBEEsat from TU Berlin and TriSat-S from the University of Maribor under ESA's Boost! program. [7]
  • Deep Blue Aerospace is targeting a sub-orbital demonstration launch of its Nebula-1 rocket on its first-ever test flight. [8]

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

ACTIVE FLARE AND CME SHOCK TODAY

  • NOAA SWPC issued an R2 Moderate radio blackout alert at 19:30 UTC on June 21 after X-ray flux crossed the M5 threshold at 19:27 UTC. [9]
  • The flare was confirmed as class M6.8 with an optical class of 2b, peaking at 19:29 UTC and originating from active region at location S07E55, which is still rotating toward Sun-center. [10]
  • NOAA issued a Type II Radio Emission alert at 19:51 UTC, with the shock front estimated at 380 km/s, indicating a coronal mass ejection is associated with the M6.8 event; CME arrival timing and Earth impact assessment are pending.
  • HF radio operators on the sunlit side of Earth should expect moderate signal degradation; if the CME has an Earth-directed component, a geomagnetic watch may follow in the coming days given the source region geometry. [10]

📎 Sources

  1. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-28 — Launch Library 2
  2. Long March 7A | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  3. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-45 — Launch Library 2
  4. Electron | The Grain Goddess Provides (iQPS Launch 7) — Launch Library 2
  5. Electron | Ten Owl Of Ten (StriX Launch 10) — Launch Library 2
  6. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 (x 9) — Launch Library 2
  7. Spectrum | Onward and Upward — Launch Library 2
  8. Nebula-1 | Demo Flight — Launch Library 2
  9. Space Weather Message Code: ALTXMF — NOAA SWPC Alerts
  10. Space Weather Message Code: SUMXM5 — NOAA SWPC Alerts

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260621-22-v8 · 2026-06-21 22:00 UTC

Read next