SpaceX opens 2026 with Falcon 9 launch of Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed radar satellite

The first orbital launch of 2026 lifted off from the California coast on Jan. 2, when a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried Italy’s newest radar Earth‑observation satellite into a polar orbit and then returned its first stage to a landing a few miles from the pad.

A milestone mission from Vandenberg

The evening launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base marked the 21st flight for the rocket’s first‑stage booster, a sign of how deeply hardware reusability is now embedded in global launch operations. For Italy, the mission put a third satellite into its COSMO‑SkyMed Second Generation constellation, a dual‑use system that serves both national defense and civilian monitoring needs.

At 6:09 p.m. Pacific time, the Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E, arcing south over the Pacific. About 13 minutes after liftoff, the COSMO‑SkyMed Second Generation Flight Model 3—known as CSG‑3—separated from the rocket’s upper stage into a roughly 620‑kilometer, sun‑synchronous orbit. Eight and a half minutes after launch, the first stage executed a return‑to‑launch‑site landing at nearby Landing Zone 4, sending a sonic boom across the central California coast.

It was the first orbital launch anywhere in the world in 2026 and SpaceX’s first mission of the year, ahead of a planned Starlink launch from Florida two days later.

Italy’s long-running bet on all-weather radar imagery

The satellite now circling Earth is part of a decades‑long effort by Italy to maintain its own high‑resolution, all‑weather view of the planet.

COSMO‑SkyMed—short for Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation—began in the 1990s as a joint civil‑military program funded by Italy’s space, research and defense ministries. The first generation of four satellites launched between 2007 and 2010, all carrying X‑band synthetic aperture radar instruments capable of imaging day or night and through cloud cover.

The second generation, known as CSG, is designed to take over as those original spacecraft age and to expand the system’s capabilities. CSG‑1 launched in 2019 on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. CSG‑2 followed in February 2022 on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. CSG‑3, built like its predecessors by Thales Alenia Space, brings the constellation closer to its planned four‑satellite configuration.

Thales Alenia Space—a joint venture between France’s Thales and Italy’s Leonardo—describes CSG as “a state‑of‑the‑art Italian dual‑use radar Earth observation constellation” delivering “the highest level of performance in terms of security and sustainability.” The company says the upgraded radar can acquire two high‑resolution images of areas hundreds of kilometers apart at the same time, a capability aimed at improving responsiveness for both defense and disaster‑response users.

Ownership of the satellites is shared between the Italian Space Agency and the Ministry of Defense. The ground segment is operated by Telespazio, another Leonardo‑Thales joint venture, which manages tasking and data distribution to military, government and commercial customers.

Dual-use benefits—and growing scrutiny

Italian officials have long presented COSMO‑SkyMed as a flagship for the country’s space and defense industry.

“It is one of the most outstanding examples of cooperation between Defense, the Italian Space Agency and national industry,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in remarks released around the launch, calling the program “a model of public‑private synergy” that generates “strategic value for the country.”

Crosetto and other officials have emphasized that strategic value in both security and civil terms. The constellation provides Italy and its NATO partners with independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance over sensitive regions, including the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa and Eastern Europe. It can track ship movements, monitor borders and observe critical infrastructure regardless of weather.

At the same time, COSMO‑SkyMed data have been used for civilian purposes, including mapping earthquakes and floods, tracking wildfires, monitoring glaciers and ice caps, and assessing oil spills. Radar imagery is also used in agriculture, helping to monitor soil moisture and crop conditions, and in the insurance and energy sectors. Program partners say the system has produced millions of images since it became operational more than a decade ago.

The dual‑use nature of the constellation is central to how Italian authorities justify and fund it. By emphasizing “security and sustainability” in official messaging, they present the satellites as tools for climate adaptation and disaster resilience as much as for military surveillance.

As more governments field similar constellations—and as commercial firms build their own synthetic aperture radar networks—the volume and precision of data available to militaries and intelligence services is expanding rapidly. Civil liberties advocates and some researchers have warned that the spread of high‑resolution, persistent satellite monitoring could outpace transparency and governance. Public information about how military‑civil systems like CSG are tasked, how long data are stored and with whom they are shared is limited, particularly when national security is involved.

Europe’s launch gap, SpaceX’s reuse advantage

CSG‑3’s route to orbit highlights another tension—between Europe’s stated desire for “space sovereignty” and its dependence on American launch providers.

Europe’s own heavy‑lift rocket program has faced delays and cost pressures. With the retirement of Ariane 5 and continuing work to bring Ariane 6 and the Vega C small launcher into regular service, European institutions and governments have increasingly turned to commercial providers for access to space. Italy chose SpaceX for both CSG‑2 and CSG‑3, sending its most sophisticated radar satellites into orbit from U.S. soil.

For SpaceX, the CSG‑3 mission is another example of how its Falcon 9 fleet has become a default option for governments as well as commercial customers.

The rocket used for the flight, first‑stage booster B1081, is one of the most flown orbital‑class rocket stages in service. Before carrying CSG‑3, it launched NASA’s Crew‑7 mission to the International Space Station, a cargo resupply flight to the station, two NASA science missions—the PACE ocean color satellite and the TRACERS magnetospheric mission—as well as two classified payloads believed to be for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and several batches of SpaceX’s own Starlink internet satellites.

By late 2025, SpaceX had flown 165 orbital missions in a single year, more than any other launch provider, and recorded more than 500 landings and reflights of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. Some individual cores have surpassed 30 flights.

The CSG‑3 launch did not set a new reuse record; at 21 missions, B1081 trails the company’s most‑flown boosters. But sending a high‑value government satellite aloft on such a well‑used first stage signals how fully reuse has been normalized in the eyes of customers.

What comes next

With CSG‑3 on orbit and a fourth satellite planned, Italian officials say the country will be better equipped to track a warming Mediterranean, respond to natural disasters and contribute imagery to NATO and European partners, even as the first generation of COSMO‑SkyMed spacecraft nears retirement.

For SpaceX, the first orbital launch of 2026 was the opening move in another year of intensive operations. For Italy, it was the latest step in a two‑decade effort to keep its own eyes on an increasingly turbulent planet—even if those eyes still need an American rocket to reach space.