August 17, 2026 Updated August 18, 2026 at 5:47 am ET The FAA predicts that commercial rocket launches will increase dramatically over the next decade. NASA’s Artemis lunar missions and commercial satellite deployments are driving the increase in launches. Florida and California, the top launching states, have already experienced record years in rocket activity. The US government is considering easing regulations and using offshore platforms to meet growing demand. In April, people around the world paused their days to collectively watch in awe as four intrepid astronauts were launched into space toward the moon aboard NASA’s most powerful rocket ever created. That mission, known as Artemis II, captivated the public for 10 days as three Americans and one Canadian took a trip around the moon and back to Earth. For many observers, Artemis II marked the beginning of a new era of space exploration in which NASA aims to return Americans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. But while the mission has undoubtedly been the most notable launch of 2026 – reigniting public interest in human spaceflight in a way not seen since the Apollo era – it is not an isolated case. These days, rockets are launched almost every day from US soil, most without people on board. In fact, so far in 2026, only one other mission (a joint NASA and SpaceX mission launched on February 13 to the International Space Station known as Crew-12) has sent astronauts to space. Rocket launches in the United States have become so routine that most barely merit news headlines. Meanwhile, Americans have become so accustomed to them that most hardly bat an eyelid even when SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket several times a week and then makes it look easy to return its first-stage booster for a landing on a ship in the middle of the ocean. USA TODAY Shopping: Shop deals on tech, home, fashion, beauty and more curated by our editors. They are only expected to fly more and more frequently in the coming years. Here’s why rocket launches are predicted to increase dramatically in the United States, and what that means for Americans and the spaceflight industry. The FAA predicts that commercial rocket launches will increase over the next decade. As NASA cedes more and more spaceflight missions to commercial companies that were once the purview of government space agencies, those types of missions have steadily increased year after year. For example, SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company founded by technology mogul Elon Musk, has launched its Falcon 9 rocket hundreds of times from California and Florida, making it by far the most active rocket in the world. The 230-foot, two-stage rocket is not only used to carry SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites into Earth orbit, but is also used to propel astronauts to the space station and is contracted for a variety of commercial, civil and military payload deployments. Now, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, says the rate of rocket launches in the United States is expected to grow over the next decade. The FAA predicts nearly 4,300 launches between fiscal years 2026-2036, and spaceflight will increase annually from more than 200 per year to more than 500, according to the agency’s 10-year forecast released in July. Florida, California has a record year in 2025 for rocket launches. The projection should not surprise even casual observers of the U.S. spaceflight industry. Florida and California, the most frequently launched states, saw record years in 2025. Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, Southern California, hosted a record 71 rocket launches last year, thanks to SpaceX and its workhorse Falcon 9. The base is on track to break that record in 2026 after reaching its 50th launch on July 21, about two months earlier. than in 2025. In Florida, where rockets are launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Brevard County, rocket number 51 has just arrived. took off on August 11. The state may be behind its 2025 pace, when a record 109 rocket launches were conducted, but that’s only because SpaceX is prioritizing preparing Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for flight tests of its mammoth Starship rocket, according to FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network. exclusively from SpaceX’s Starbase headquarters in South Texas in 13 flight tests starting in 2023. The two-stage spacecraft is vital not only to Musk’s personal dreams of colonizing Mars, but also to NASA’s Artemis lunar ambitions. Why are rocket launches increasing in the United States? Artemis lunar missions and Starlink satellite deployments drive surge The upcoming surge in rocket launches is due to a variety of circumstances that have increased demand for launch providers to increase their cadence. Most notably, NASA is competing against China to return Americans to the moon under its Artemis campaign. The next mission under the complex program, Artemis III, would set the stage for a manned moon landing as early as 2028 known as Artemis IV. From there, NASA seeks to use a series of manned and unmanned missions to build a $20 billion lunar base by 2032 near the South Pole, where rotating crews of astronauts can live and work long-term. Then, there’s the fact that more and more aerospace companies are looking to get into the satellite deployment business that SpaceX has seemingly cornered with its lucrative Starlink venture, which has grown into a massive constellation. Space tourism also remains a profitable industry, with Virgin Galactic looking to capitalize on Blue Origin’s two-year hiatus from the sector as Jeff Bezos’ company focuses on its towering New Glenn rocket and lunar landers. What other aerospace companies are stepping up? SpaceX and Blue Origin have largely become household names, thanks not only to each other’s prominence in the aerospace industry, but also to the famously wealthy men who founded them. However, many other launch providers are on the rise. Here’s a look Look at what some of the most prominent companies are planning for the coming years: Blue Origin suffered a huge setback in late May when its New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36. The company has since begun efforts to restore those operations and on August 12 announced that it would develop a second, larger launch pad at nearby Launch Complex 36B for a larger version of New Glenn, critical for a variety of future missions. Rocket Lab probably won’t debut its Neutron rocket in 2026 — in Virginia, after all, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility — but the California-based company is already signing agreements with the Department of Defense and other commercial companies for the medium launch. rocket services.Firefly Aerospace announced on August 11 that it had reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin to continue launching the Texas company’s low-lift Alpha rocket through 2031, which has only taken off seven times since 2021. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, appeared to ground its new Vulcan rocket amid an “anomaly” observed during a mission in February. But ULA is still launching its tried-and-true Atlas V, primarily on missions to help Amazon build its own new satellite constellation. Trump administration seeks to loosen regulations on commercial spaceflight President Donald Trump and his Republican administration have long sought to remove regulations on the commercial spaceflight industry. The proposal, officials said, builds on the groundwork Trump laid in August 2025 when he signed an executive order aimed at making it easier and faster for commercial providers like SpaceX to obtain licenses to launch rockets. However, critics say such regulations are designed not only to protect the environment but also to ensure the safety of the public. The United States is considering offshore launches to meet demand. Of course, only a limited number of spaceports in the United States are equipped to handle the growing need for rockets to launch on a variety of missions, and officials say the backlog is already growing. For that reason, the Department of the Interior is now considering converting some offshore locations into launch pads. The department issued a request for information (an opportunity for the public to comment on the idea) in early July before submitting a specific proposal. Inactive offshore oil and gas platforms, for example, could be transformed into offshore launch sites, easing pressure on crowded coastal launch facilities by moving rocket flights away from populated areas. “It’s actually not as far-fetched an idea as you might think,” George Nield, a consultant and former Federal Aviation Administration official who oversaw commercial space transportation, told The Washington Post. “We are running out of space and places to fly from.” Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at elagatta@usatodayco.com.