SpaceX's Falcon Heavy returned to flight this week, marking its first mission of 2026 by launching a heavy-lift payload for the US Space Force.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that the Aerospace Forces launched the Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region.

Russia's Soyuz-2.1a rocket, named the Victory Rocket in honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, was launched on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft, the Russian Space Corporation (Roscosmos) said.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Russia's Soyuz rocket successfully launched two Iranian satellites into orbit, marking a significant milestone in the growing space cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.