A Soyuz 2.1b rocket lifted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia today (July 25) at 1:54 a.m. EDT (0554 GMT; 8:54 a.m. Moscow time), carrying Russia's Ionosfera-M 3 and 4 satellites toward Earth orbit. The Soyuz also carried 18 secondary payloads, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com, including an Iranian communications satellite called Nahid-2.

Everything went well in the early stages of the launch, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos streamed live. The webcast ended about 10 minutes after launch, however, so news of satellite deployments will have to come via updates from the agency.

The first two Ionosfera-M satellites launched from Vostochny in November 2024. Spacecraft 3 and 4 will round out the mini constellation, which flies about 509 miles (820 kilometers) above Earth.

"The quartet is designed to monitor space weather phenomena, such as the impact of solar wind on the near-Earth space affecting civilian and military systems," RussianSpaceWeb wrote.

As their name suggests, the Ionosfera satellites focus on the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere that ranges from about 50 to 400 miles (80 to 645 km) in altitude. The ionosphere interacts strongly with the sun, which explains the layer's name: its atoms and molecules are ionized (have had electrons stripped away) by solar radiation.

Ionosfera-M 3 and 4 are headed for an orbital plane perpendicular to that of their two brethren, "thus greatly expanding the three-dimensional coverage of the Earth's magnetosphere," according to RussianSpaceWeb. "The second pair would also include for the first time the Ozonometr-TM instrument for measuring levels of ozone in the upper atmosphere."

The 17 cubesats flying on the Soyuz this morning are all Russian-built and will conduct remote-sensing and other work in orbit.

One of them is a 16U cubesat and the other 16 are 3U craft, according to RussianSpaceWeb. A "U" is the standard cubesat unit; it consists of a cube measuring 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) on a side.

Tianzhou 9 launched July 14 atop a Long March 7 rocket at 5:34 p.m. EDT (2134 GMT; 5:34 a.m. on July 15 China Standard Time), sending the spacecraft into orbit. Just over three hours later, at 8:52 p.m. EDT (0052 GMT; 8:52 p.m. China Standard Time on July 15), Tianzhou 9 docked at the rear docking port of the Tiangong space station's Tianhe core module, according to China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA.

Packed aboard Tianzhou 9 was 7.2 tons (6.5 metric tons) of cargo, including 1.65 tons (1.5 metric tons) of food for the three Shenzhou 20 mission astronauts, who arrived at Tiangong on April 24, and the Shenzhou 21 crew, expected to launch to the space station around October to begin their own six-month-long stay in orbit.

Also aboard Tianzhou 9 were two new sets of Feitian extravehicular spacesuits, which have been upgraded with greater durability and mission lifetime; core muscle exercise equipment for astronaut fitness; and scientific payloads for various fields of research.

Astronaut core strength was highlighted as key to performance and health while in orbit and for recovery back on the ground, as well as for grand future plans.

"The stronger [our astronauts are], the longer and farther we can go. Core strength is crucial not only for space station operations but also for future missions to the moon," Li Yinghui, researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told China Central Television, regarding the 287-pound (130 kilograms) core exercise device.

Among the science payloads were three sets of samples for cellular biology experiments. These are bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells for studying bone loss caused by the prolonged absence of gravitational stimulation, cells derived from failing hearts with the aim of developing therapeutic measures, and samples related to anti-aging research.

Another experiment will involve cutting-edge biotechnology, using human pluripotent stem cells to build miniature brain-like organoid models on chips roughly the size of a credit card, hosted in the biotechnology experiment cabinet onboard the Wentian lab module.

The Tianzhou 9 spacecraft itself features a number of upgrades over previous models. It has the greatest payload volume of any of the Tianzhou spacecraft so far launched by China. It is also more easily prepared for space launch in the event of an emergency.

"Tianzhou 9 is the first cargo spacecraft capable of emergency launch, able to be launched to the space station within three months if required. This is the significance of an emergency response spacecraft," Li Zhiyong, a member of the Tianzhou spacecraft development team with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), told CCTV.

The first Tianzhou vehicle launched in April 2017 and docked with Tiangong 2, a prototype lab used as a stepping stone toward building the three-module Tiangong, which was constructed across 2021 and 2022.

Tiangong is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station. China has suggested, however, that it will expand the orbital outpost in the coming years.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two powerful communications satellites today (July 22), then aced its landing on a ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT), carrying SES' O3b mPOWER 9 and 10 satellites toward medium Earth orbit (MEO), about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) above our planet.

That was a day later than originally planned. SpaceX tried to launch the mission Monday (July 21) but aborted the try 11 seconds before liftoff, for reasons that the company did not immediately explain.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned today roughly 8.5 minutes after launch, touching down on the SpaceX droneship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the sixth launch and landing for this particular booster, which is designated B1090.

If all goes according to plan today, the Falcon 9's upper stage will continue carrying the two mPOWER satellites to MEO, deploying them there across a seven-minute stretch about two hours after liftoff.

Luxembourg-based SES's mPOWER constellation currently consists of eight high-throughput satellites, which reached orbit on four Falcon 9 launches from December 2022 to December 2024.

mPOWER is operational now, providing internet service to customers around the world. But the constellation will continue growing, to a total of 13 satellites. Each is built by Boeing and weighs about 3,750 pounds (1,700 kilograms).

"The remaining three O3b mPOWER satellites are currently being manufactured and are scheduled for launch over the next 12 months," SES representatives wrote in a brief update earlier this month.

Today's launch was the 89th Falcon mission of the year already. SpaceX also has three other liftoffs under its belt this year — test flights of its Starship megarocket, which took place in January, March and May.

SpaceX aborted the launch of two communications satellites just before liftoff on Monday evening (July 21).

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with two of SES' O3b mPOWER internet spacecraft was set to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:27 p.m. EDT (2127 GMT) on Monday.

But it didn't quite happen: SpaceX called an abort just 11 seconds before liftoff. The launch window extended for another 90 minutes or so, but the company soon decided to stand down for the day.

"Standing down from today’s launch of the @SES_Satellites O3b mPOWER mission and now targeting tomorrow, July 22 for liftoff. Vehicle and payload remain healthy," SpaceX said via X on Monday evening.

At the time of this article's publication, the company had not yet explained what caused the abort.

The two-hour launch window on Tuesday opens at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT). SpaceX will stream the action live via its website and X account, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff.

Luxembourg-based SES' mPOWER constellation consists of eight satellites in medium-Earth orbit, all of which have been launched by SpaceX.

The network is already operational, but it's not complete; it will eventually feature 13 spacecraft.

The twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) Mars probes had been scheduled to launch last October, on the first-ever flight of Blue Origin's huge, partially reusable New Glenn rocket.

But NASA took the two spacecraft off that flight in September, citing the possibility of a cost-increasing launch delay. That delay did in fact come to pass; New Glenn ended up debuting on Jan. 15, successfully carrying a test version of Blue Origin's Blue Ring spacecraft platform to Earth orbit. The company aimed to land New Glenn's first stage on a ship at sea as well but failed in the attempt.

The ESCAPADE mission, meanwhile, continued in its state of limbo, without a publicly announced launch date.

But that has now been cleared up. On Thursday (July 17), Blue Origin announced that ESCAPADE will launch the second-ever flight of New Glenn, which is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 15 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

That's later than the company had originally planned; Blue Origin had been eyeing late spring for the flight, known as NG-2, but pushed it back last month.

"This will be an exciting mission for New Glenn and Mars exploration. ESCAPADE is not only New Glenn’s first interplanetary mission, it’s also the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to study the Martian magnetosphere. And, we hope to land and recover our booster for the first time. Mars, here we come. Thank you to @NASA for riding with us to space," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said via X on Thursday.

ESCAPADE won't be the only payload flying on NG-2; the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn will also carry a technology demonstration for satellite-communications company Viasat, according to Blue Origin.

The two ESCAPADE probes were built by California-based company Rocket Lab. They're known as Blue and Gold, the colors of the University of California, Berkeley, whose Space Sciences Laboratory will manage the $80 million mission for NASA.

That mission "will analyze how Mars’ magnetic field guides particle flows around the planet, how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, and what processes control the flow of energy and matter into and out of the Martian atmosphere," NASA wrote in a description of ESCAPADE.

"The observations will reveal the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time," they added.

SpaceX added 24 new Starlink satellites to its orbital network on a Friday night (July 18) launch from California.

The company's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:52 p.m. local (11:52 p.m. EDT or 0352 GMT on July 19) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. At about nine minutes into the flight, the booster's upper stage delivered the two dozen satellites to space.

The flight deployed the Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit an hour later, according to a SpaceX update posted to the X social media network.

The Falcon 9 first stage successfully completed its 14th mission by landing on "Of Course I Still Love You," an autonomous droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch was the was SpaceX's 88th Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and 516th completed mission.

With Friday's group (17-3), the Starlink network now includes over 7,965 active units out of the more than 9,200 satellites launched since 2019. SpaceX's service provides broadband internet access to areas where other connectivity is not available, as well as direct-to-cell capabilities for select phones and providers.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 10:00 a.m. EDT on July 19, 2025 to add SpaceX's confirmation that all 24 satellites were deployed as planned.

Europe doesn't want to be left out of the space plane party.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding the development of a hypersonic space plane pathfinder, which will start flying by 2031 if all goes according to plan.

The work is being done via a research program called Invictus, which is led by the consulting firm Frazer-Nash. Invictus will leverage technology developed by the English company Reaction Engines Ltd., which aimed to build a huge space plane called Skylon but went bankrupt last year.

The key piece of Invictus tech is a "pre-cooler," which Reaction Engines built and tested for its Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE). SABRE combined aspects of jet and rocket propulsion; it was designed to pull oxygen out of the air during flight at lower levels of Earth's atmosphere, reducing the need to carry propellant and therefore increasing efficiency.

"Aircraft that fly at hypersonic speeds — more than 5 times the speed of sound — face extremely high temperatures due to shock heating and the friction from the air. Typical aircraft engines cannot operate in these conditions, as the air is too hot to handle," Frazer-Nash representatives said in a statement.

This pre-cooler solves this problem, cooling "the air before it reaches the engine, allowing conventional aircraft engines to travel at hypersonic speeds," Frazer-Nash added.

Invictus isn't a huge project; its funding is 7 million pounds (about $9.4 million US at current exchange rates), according to the company. But it could have a big impact on European spaceflight, according to ESA.

"Hypersonic flight is not just the next frontier of aerospace — it is the gateway to a new paradigm of mobility, defense, and space access," Tommaso Ghidini, head of the Mechanical Department at the agency, said in the same statement.

"With Invictus, Europe is seizing the opportunity to lead in technologies that will redefine how we move across the planet and reach beyond it," he added. "By mastering reusable, air-breathing propulsion, we are laying the foundation for aircraft that take off like planes and reach orbit like rockets — revolutionizing both terrestrial and orbital transportation."

The plan calls for the Invictus team — a consortium led by Frazer-Nash that includes Spirit AeroSystems and Cranfield University, among other partners — to deliver "the concept and elements of preliminary design of the full flight system" 12 months from now.

The "full flight system" will be a reusable vehicle that takes off from, and lands on, a runway like an airplane. It will be up and running by early 2031, if all goes to plan, and could have a variety of uses and applications.

"We look forward to seeing how the work develops and the opportunity it presents for boosting economic growth and national security," Tony Forsythe, head of space technology at the U.K. Space Agency, said in the same statement.

Invictus isn't the only European space plane in development. Last month, for example, the French government and the French company Dassault Aviation announced plans for a demonstrator called VORTEX.

Space planes are experiencing something of a resurgence after the retirement of the most famous such vehicle — NASA's space shuttle — in 2011. The U.S. military operates a robotic orbital space plane called the X-37B, for example, and China has a similar vehicle, called Shenlong. Virgin Galactic flies a suborbital space plane for tourism and research purposes.

A number of other companies are developing space planes as well, including Sierra Nevada Corp., Dawn Aerospace and Radian Aerospace.

What is it?

The massive, dark circular payload adapter was carefully lowered from Test Stand 4697 to Test Stand 4705 for storage, after successfully completing initial structural tests. The next stage is for flight engineers to run quality checks on the adapter before building the final device.

The payload adapter plays an important role in spacecraft launches, as it connects the spacecraft or satellite to a launch vehicle. Without an adapter, the two parts of the spacecraft can't interface.

Where is it?

The payload adapter was initially tested and is being stored at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Why is it amazing?

The payload adapter is just one piece of equipment that is being tested as part of NASA's planned Artemis IV mission. This crewed lunar mission will focus on the first lunar space station, Gateway, according to NASA. The international hub will allow astronauts to study both the moon and the planets beyond, especially Mars.

To get the astronauts to Gateway, NASA plans to launch the crew using the Orion spacecraft with an upgraded SLS rocket. Before that happens, all launch materials, from boosters to payload adapters, have to be thoroughly tested and cleared for takeoff.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the upcoming Artemis IV mission and the Gateway hub on the moon.

SpaceX sent 26 more Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Tuesday (July 15), after a launch from southern California.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:05 p.m. PDT (10:05 p.m. EDT or 0205 GMT July 18), escaping the fog and cloud cover blanketing Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The satellites (Group 15-2, according to SpaceX's website) entered orbit about eight and a half minutes later and were on track to be deployed after a second burn of the Falcon's upper stage about an hour into the mission.

The rocket's first stage, having flown to space and back, made a successful landing on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean. The stage, referred to by SpaceX by its serial number, B1093, last flew in June on the third of what is now its four total Starlink flights.

Tuesday's launch added to SpaceX's megaconstellation, which numbers more than 7,950 active Starlink satellites. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has approved SpaceX to launch a total of 12,000 units, though the company seeks to launch upwards of 30,000 additional spacecraft.

SpaceX launched the third batch of satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband megaconstellation early on Wednesday morning (July 16).

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 24 Kuiper craft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT).

Wednesday, by the way, is the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. That famous NASA mission put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin down on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

Project Kuiper is Amazon's version of Starlink, the broadband megaconstellation that SpaceX operates in low Earth orbit (LEO). Kuiper will eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites, which will be lofted on more than 80 launches over the coming years. (The Starlink network, which is already up and running, consists of nearly 8,000 satellites — and that number is growing all the time.)

Wednesday morning's launch was the third such mission. The first two Kuiper liftoffs were performed by United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, in April and June of this year.

During Wednesday's mission, which SpaceX called KF-01, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth 8.5 minutes after launch as planned. It landed on the SpaceX droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the first launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. That's a rarity, as SpaceX is known for its rocket reuse; one of the company's Falcon 9 boosters has a whopping 29 launches under its belt.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 24 Project Kuiper satellites to LEO. They'll be deployed at an altitude of 289 miles (465 kilometers) over a nearly eight-minute span that begins roughly 56 minutes after launch. The Kuiper craft will later raise their orbits to their final altitude of 392 miles (630 km).

Editor's note: This story was updated at 3 a.m. EDT on July 16 with news of successful launch and rocket landing.

SpaceX aims to launch the 10th test flight of Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, about three weeks from now, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Monday (July 14).

It will be the fourth launch of the year for Starship, whose two stages — the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage — are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

It's been a bumpy path to the launch pad for Flight 10. The Ship upper stage originally slated to fly the mission exploded on a test stand at SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas on June 18, during preparations for a common prelaunch engine trial.

SpaceX soon determined a likely cause — the failure of a pressurized nitrogen tank in Ship's nosecone area. The company is now working to get a different Ship vehicle ready for Flight 10.

Ship has also had some in-flight issues recently: SpaceX lost the vehicle on Flight 7, Flight 8 and Flight 9, which launched in January, March and May of this year, respectively.

Super Heavy has performed better. On Flight 7 and Flight 8, for example, the booster successfully returned to Starbase, where it was caught by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms. Flight 9 featured the first-ever reuse of Super Heavy, putting the Flight 7 booster back into action. (SpaceX didn't attempt to catch the booster again; it broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico during Flight 9, shortly after initiating a landing burn.)

SpaceX plans to employ the chosticks recovery strategy for both Super Heavy and Ship over the long haul, making the reuse of each stage more efficient.

China just sent a new batch of supplies toward its Tiangong space station.

A Long March 7 rocket lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island this evening (July 14) at 5:34 p.m. EDT (2134 GMT; 5:34 a.m. on July 15 China Standard Time), carrying the Tianzhou 9 freighter skyward.

Tianzhou 9 is hauling about 7.2 tons (6.5 metric tons) of cargo to Tiangong, which is currently occupied by the three astronauts (or taikonauts, as China calls them) of the Shenzhou 20 mission.

Among the supplies are food, fuel and a variety of hardware and scientific equipment, including two spacesuits.

"These brand-new spacesuits feature an extended operational lifespan, from three years of 15 spacewalks previously to four years of 20 spacewalks," the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported.

"Tianzhou 9 will also bring a set of core muscle training device[s] to further upgrade the space station's gym, which will help taikonauts counteract muscle atrophy in microgravity," the outlet added.

As its name suggests, Tianzhou 9 is the ninth cargo mission that China has launched to support its astronauts in low Earth orbit.

The first Tianzhou lifted off in April 2017 and docked with Tiangong 2, a prototype space lab that tested technology ahead of the construction of the larger Tiangong outpost. The other Tianzhous have either met up with Tiangong proper or its core module, which launched in April 2021.

China finished building the three-module Tiangong space station in October 2022. The outpost is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station, but that could change: China has voiced a desire to expand Tiangong in the coming years.

SpaceX launched a mystery satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) from Florida's Space Coast early Sunday morning (July 13).

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Sunday at 1:04 a.m. EDT (0504 GMT), on a mission SpaceX called Commercial GTO-1.

The company didn't identify the payload, though it's believed to be an Israeli communications satellite called Dror-1 .

"Dror-1 is a geostationary communication satellite built and developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)," NextSpaceflight.com wrote.

"It is intended to meet the satellite communication needs of Israel for the next 15 years," the outlet added. "Dror-1 is comprised primarily of local Israeli technologies developed at IAI, including an advanced digital communication payload and 'smartphone in space' capabilities, to provide communication agility throughout the satellite’s lifetime in space."

Geostationary orbit lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth. At this altitude, orbital speed matches our planet's rotational speed, so spacecraft in this path "hover" over the same patch of Earth continuously.

The Falcon 9's first stage, designated B1083, came back to Earth as planned on Sunday. It touched down about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the 13th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. That description did not give an estimated time for the deployment of the Commercial GTO-1 satellite.

Chinese commercial launch firm Landspace is preparing for the first flight of its Zhuque-3 rocket, with a debut launch targeted for the final quarter of 2025.

Zhuque-3 is a stainless steel rocket with a reusable first stage that Landspace hopes can earn contracts to launch satellites for China's megaconstellation projects. The company carried out launch and landing tests last year, with one of the hops reaching around 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) in altitude before executing a powered descent and safe landing.

The Zhuque-3 first stage is powered by nine Tianque-12A methane-liquid oxygen engines self-developed by Landspace. The company carried out a 45-second hot fire test of the first stage last month, successfully firing all nine engines in sequence.

The successful test has now paved the way for a first orbital launch in the final quarter of 2025, according to a CCTV report.

Zhuque-3, which is named for the vermillion bird from Chinese mythology, is designed to carry up to 40,350 pounds (18,300 kilograms) to low Earth orbit (LEO) in reusable mode. The first Zhuque-3 rockets will stand around 217 feet (66 meters) tall, before possibly being extended by around 33 ft (10m) and upgraded with Tianque-12B engines.

The rocket could mark a major breakthrough for Chinese reusable launchers and also boost the country's overall capabilities. By comparison, China's current most powerful rocket is the expendable Long March 5 series rocket, which can carry around 55,100 lbs (25,000 kg) to LEO. SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9, meanwhile, can haul about 50,265 pounds (22,800 kg) to LEO, according to its specifications page.

Landspace is one of China's earliest commercial rocket companies. Its first launch, with the solid propellant Zhuque-1, failed on its first and only launch in 2018, with the company pivoting to focus on the methane-liquid oxygen propellant Zhuque-2. That rocket would, in July 2023, become the first rocket using this propellant mix to reach orbit.

The Zhuque-3 faces a number of competitors, with commercial counterparts Space Pioneer, iSpace, Galactic Energy and Orienspace, as well as the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., among those working on their own reusable rockets.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off with the broadband internet units (Group 10-28) at 4:21 a.m. EDT (0821 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. About nine minutes later, the satellites reached space and, 50 minutes after that, were deployed into orbit.

"Deployment of 28 Starlink satellites confirmed," SpaceX announced on the X social media network.

In the interim, the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage (Booster 1077) completed its 22nd flight to and from space, landing on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX's Starlink network provides broadband internet access to areas across the globe where other types of coverage is unavailable or is disabled. Through a partnership with T-Mobile, it has also started providing direct to cell service, which SpaceX has enabled for the flash flooded areas in Texas.

"In support of those impacted by flooding in Texas, Starlink is providing Mini kits for search and rescue efforts – ensuring connectivity even in dead zones – and one month of free service for thousands of customers in the region, including those who paused service so they can reactivate Starlink during this time," the company wrote on X.

"The Starlink team and T-Mobile have also enabled basic texting (SMS) through our Direct to Cell satellites for T-Mobile customers in the areas impacted by flooding in Texas. This includes Kerr County, Kendall County, Llano County, Travis County and Comal County. Additionally, anyone in the impacted areas with a compatible smartphone will be able to receive emergency alerts from public safety authorities," Space wrote.

At a coastal site on the southeastern tip of Newfoundland, a brand-new rocket is nearly ready for flight. It was built entirely in Canada, fueled by kerosene and ambition, and spearheaded by a startup with its eyes on orbit. NordSpace is on track to conduct the first commercial liquid-fueled rocket launch in Canadian history — a suborbital shot scheduled for mid-August.

Rooting for the company behind the scenes is ProtoSpace, an aerospace manufacturing arm of Canadian firm Protocase, boasting "high-velocity" production and delivery of specialized space-grade components within two to three days, compared to industry norms of weeks or months.

Together, NordSpace and ProtoSpace represent a growing push to establish a domestic space industry in Canada that supports its own launch infrastructure, source manufacturing and orbital launch capability.

"Canada has played a long and important role in space," NordSpace CEO and co-founder Rahul Goel told Space.com. "We've kind of mainly been playing a participatory role instead of a leadership one, and one of the biggest gaps in our value chain has always been launch," he said.

Despite a storied history in robotics and space contributions — Canadarm, Dextre, RADARSAT and others — Canada has never launched anything to orbit from its own soil. NordSpace aims to change that.

NordSpace's Taiga rocket isn't going to reach orbit when it launches in August, but it's a big step toward the company's ultimate goal. Taiga is a small, liquid-fueled, hypersonic launch vehicle capable of carrying just over 110 pounds (50 kilograms) above the Karman Line. This summer's shakedown cruise will be a low-altitude demonstration of Taiga's capabilities.

"We get this win under our belts, and then we'll attempt the second flight later this year or early next year to demonstrate its full capability," Goel said.

That capability extends beyond just NordSpace's launch vehicle. Part of Taiga's success will point to a larger accomplishment NordSpace is hoping to achieve: Proving that it's possible to launch a Canadian-built rocket, carrying Canadian payloads, from a Canadian spaceport.

Slow and steady

NordSpace has set what it regards as a steady, realistic pace for itself as it keeps its eyes on orbit. The company plans to follow this summer's launch with a second Taiga flight in 2026 — a full hypersonic "Space Shot" mission. After that comes Tundra, an orbital vehicle comparable to Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, which will be capable of launching 1,100 pounds (500 kg) to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 550 pounds (250 kg) to sun-synchronous orbit. NordSpace hopes to debut Tundra in late 2027.

NordSpace's Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) in Newfoundland is located at 46 degrees latitude, allowing the range to potentially support a wide variety of launch inclinations. Goel says the company will launch Tundra as a pathfinder vehicle within the small payload market for a couple of years while simultaneously developing an even bigger rocket.

"By the end of the decade, we're doing at least one launch a month," Goel said. "We think that's a lot more reasonable than new companies coming out of the gate who say they're going to launch 50 times a year."

In the 2030s, NordSpace plans to scale to Titan, a 5-ton-to-LEO reusable rocket aimed at matching the capabilities of launch vehicles like SpaceX's Falcon 9.

"We're really treating Canada as a pathfinder market," Goel said. He estimates ASX can support several launches a year, just with Canadian payloads. In fact, Canadian payloads — specifically, national security payloads — are one of the driving motivations for Canada to support its own orbital launch capabilities.

"They're the ones who really are sending the strongest demand signals," Goel said, referring to Canada's equivalent to the Department of Defense. He added that the gist of the message he's hearing is, "We're not excited about relying on foreign partners, no matter how close they may be, to get our assets to space…We have all these payloads that kind of just sit on shelves. Let's just toss them on your rocket and get them up there."

Goel said that NordSpace could be positioned to address an international launch market sometime "in the tail end of the early 2030s."

Manufacturing and innovation

NordSpace is developing all of its rockets in-house, including the engines powering them. Taiga's first-stage Hadfield engines and second-stage Garneau engines are 3D printed, regeneratively cooled, additively manufactured and tested at NordSpace's own facility, two hours east of its headquarters.

While NordSpace is building its rockets, ProtoSpace is helping to speed up Canadian innovation and manufacturing to support a budding rocket and aerospace industry.

At first, Goel assumed NordSpace would need to import a lot. Then he and his team looked around. "When we started NordSpace, we had no idea that we'd identify — 10 minutes within our radius — about five companies that are providing mission-critical components to the engine assemblies for Raptor and Merlin," Goel said.

Merlin engines power SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launchers, and Raptors power the company's new Starship rocket.

Doug Milburn serves as chairman for ProtoSpace, which specializes in "high-velocity mass custom manufacturing" — known for delivering certified ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and Canadian Goods Program-compliant aerospace parts in days instead of weeks.

"Those who win in innovation are those who get velocity," Milburn explained to Space.com. He warns companies of hampering their own progress by stifling engineering teams' momentum with multiple purchasing routes for an increasing amount of smaller, more specialized parts required for whatever project they take on.

ProtoSpace serves the entire private space ecosystem. The company's philosophy is "long lead times extend your projects, complicates scheduling, and drains your focus and momentum. Slower projects cost more, and this is a drag on your organization's overall success," according to the ProtoSpace website.

"The minute you start getting in the way of your development team's velocity, you've just thrown a wrench into things; you've upped your costs and you've dropped your odds of success," Milburn explained. "We play for a bunch of the big guys," he said, "and then we have these incredibly exciting startups like Rahul and his company."

Rethinking regulation

Milburn says Canada's aerospace sector is more extensive than it's given credit for. "The bulk of what's done can get done in Canada," he said. But getting a rocket off the ground in Canada isn't just about manufacturing and assembling the parts. NordSpace and companies like ProtoSpace must navigate a regulatory system that's still finding its footing.

"If they're going to regulate private space the way that they regulate general aviation in Canada, then the thing's just dead in the ground," Milburn said. He thinks the "we can't do this in Canada" sentiments he hears from regulators are the "natural reaction in a country that is naturally risk averse." The nation is also lacking some of the most critical regulatory components to allow companies like NordSpace to move forward with progress.

Canada doesn't yet have a fully realized launch licensing system. So, NordSpace chose to push the envelope deliberately — applying for a commercial orbital-class license even for its suborbital demo.

Goel says his company wanted to force its Taiga launch to be regulated under commercial space launch requirements. While this requires significantly more boxes to check for the upcoming flight than would otherwise be necessary for a suborbital launch, NordSpace wanted to make sure all parties involved would have a confident understanding of the regulatory procedures. "So by the time in 2027 when we're ready for orbital, we're not stuck on the pad because the regulators aren't able to actually regulate this thing, even if they wanted to," Goel said.

Goel agrees with Milburn's "risk averse" observation of Canada, but hopes NordSpace can help change that. "Maybe we can tweak that over time, especially with the success of launch," Goel said. "I think that'll send a strong signal." He hopes the signal resonates throughout the country, but doesn't expect the gospel to spread all at once.

"In Canada, [if] you mentioned to anybody that you're building a rocket engine and you want to test it on their farm or on an industrial plot, they're just going to have an allergic reaction to it right away," Goel said. "We got kicked out of every location you can imagine."

Goel ultimately purchased an old mine for NordSpace's propulsion test site, and hopes it will one day be shared with other companies.

NordSpace isn't building for a space industry of one. Its 150-acre (60 hectares) ASX coastal site will include two launch pads, one specifically designated for third-party use.

"We're building two pads… one to offer to somebody else," Goel said. "Ideally," he added, "a domestic launch partner, but also foreign [partners], too."

"It's very challenging," he said, reflecting on his efforts to bring NordSpace to this point. "You have an entrepreneur who's a crazy kind of space geek his whole life, spent the last decade acquiring his own small fortune…but getting to this point right now, investing it all back in Canada is really the only way."

"I consider it a tremendous responsibility to create infrastructure that other Canadians can leverage," Goel said. "It's also a good sales opportunity for us."

Space agency starter pack

Unlike in the U.S., Canadian companies aren't bound by ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), making NordSpace's business model and technology attractive to global markets, according to Goel.

"In a lot of ways, we can copy and paste this model to other nations that are looking to develop their own sovereign launch capabilities and sovereign space programs, but don't have the technical capability, manufacturing and industrial base," he said.

The NordSpace CEO says the company is already in talks with nations like Kenya, the Philippines, Peru and others.

"I don't want this to seem like a story where a bunch of people did something that seemed impossible," Goel said. "This is possible."

"This is not a multi-billion-dollar project," he added. "We can do this for sub-$100 million easily."

Goel sees NordSpace as more than a business — it's a national statement.

"I'm really trying to make sure that this is a story that doesn't just have the economic, security and environmental impact that we hope it does, but it really becomes a symbol for Canada, for what we can do in all sorts of domains, not just space," Goel said. "I think space has this ability to inspire unlike anything else."

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) Rocket Cargo Vanguard (RCV) program had eyed Johnston Atoll, part of a remote chain about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) west-southwest of Hawaii's main island, as the location to build two rocket landing pads. Now, DAF is suspending those plans as it considers alternative sites, according to a report from Stars and Stripes.

In March, the Air Force announced its intent to perform an environmental assessment of the atoll, following objections from the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). The remote island chain is surrounded by 570,000 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers) of ocean and has become a critical resting point for dozens of species of seafaring bird populations. In light of the protests, the Air Force initially delayed the completion of its environmental assessment, and it has now decided to look elsewhere to house the RCV program infrastructure.

The RCV plan called for the construction of "two commercial rocket landing pads" to support up to 10 touchdowns per year. The program aims to identify and mature commercial launch vehicles capable of rapidly delivering up to 100 tons of cargo anywhere on Earth. SpaceX, while not specifically named in the plan, is currently the only company currently developing such a rocket, and is assumed to be the program's top candidate.

"The Department of the Air Force has elected to hold the preparation of the Johnston Atoll Environmental Assessment for a proposed rocket cargo landing demonstration on Johnston Atoll in abeyance while the service explores alternative options for implementation of the rocket cargo Vanguard program at a location other than Johnston Atoll,” said Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls, according to Stars and Stripes.

The ABC requested that the Air Force prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement "to better assess the potential hazards posed by the project." The military's decision whether to restart the environmental assessment or cancel it outright has yet to be officially made, but will be announced in the Federal Register, according to Stars and Stripes.

An official reason for the decision was not stated, nor whether the move is related to the ABC's objections.

Johnston Atoll was in use by the U.S. military as a nuclear weapons testing and chemical weapons disposal site until 2004. Simultaneously, the island chain was designated a refuge for native bird populations in 1926, but suffered environmental degradation until the military's departure 20 years ago. Since then, restoration efforts have helped raise the atoll's bird population back to nearly 1.5 million. The ABC and other groups have raised concerns that the addition of two giant rocket landing zones, along with the infrastructure needed to support them, could undo the past two decades of progress.

DAF considered three other sites as a part of the RCV program, Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island and Wake Island, all of which already support ongoing U.S. military operations. But the Air Force chose Johnston Atoll, deeming it "the only location that meets all operational requirements over the duration of the four-year reentry and landing test program," a DAF notice says.

Notably, Kwajalein Atoll is where SpaceX conducted the first tests of its Falcon rocket. Now, standing over six times taller than its infant Falcon 1, SpaceX's newest rocket, Starship, currently holds the title for the world's largest, most powerful launch vehicle. Its development, though, seems to have hit a snag over the past six months.

Starship's three most recent launches, flying an upgraded version of vehicle's upper stage, have all ended in the destruction of the upper stage.

Built to carry the kind of high-capacity payloads DAF is hoping to have delivered as a part of the RCV program, Starship is central to SpaceX’s commitments to NASA, the Department of Defense, and the company's long-term vision to make human life interplanetary.

This is the first prompt researchers used to see how well ChatGPT could pilot a spacecraft. To their amazement, the large language model (LLM) performed admirably, coming in second place in an autonomous spacecraft simulation competition.

Researchers have long been interested in developing autonomous systems for satellite control and spacecraft navigation. There are simply too many satellites for humans to manually control them in the future. And for deep-space exploration, the limitations of the speed of light mean we can't directly control spacecraft in real time.

If we really want to expand in space, we have to let the robots make decisions for themselves.

To encourage innovation, in recent years aeronautics researchers have created the Kerbal Space Program Differential Game Challenge, a sort of playground based on the popular Kerbal Space Program video game to allow the community to design, experiment and test autonomous systems in a (somewhat) realistic environment. The challenge consists of several scenarios, like a mission to pursue and intercept a satellite and a mission to evade detection.

In a paper to be published in the Journal of Advances in Space Research, an international team of researchers described their contender: a commercially available LLM, like ChatGPT and Llama.

The researchers decided to use an LLM because traditional approaches to developing autonomous systems require many cycles of training, feedback and refinement. But the nature of the Kerbal challenge is to be as realistic as possible, which means missions that last just hours. This means it would be impractical to continually refine a model.

But LLMs are so powerful because they're already trained on vast amounts of text from human writing, so in the best case scenario they need only a small amount of careful prompt engineering and a few tries to get the right context for a given situation.

But how can such a model actually pilot a spacecraft?

The researchers developed a method for translating the given state of the spacecraft and its goal in the form of text. Then, they passed it to the LLM and asked it for recommendations of how to orient and maneuver the spacecraft. The researchers then developed a translation layer that converted the LLM's text-based output into a functional code that could operate the simulated vehicle.

With a small series of prompts and some fine-tuning, the researchers got ChatGPT to complete many of the tests in the challenge — and it ultimately placed second in a recent competition. (First place went to a model based on different equations, according to the paper).

And all of this was done before the release of ChatGPT's latest model, version 4. There's still a lot of work to be done, especially when it comes to avoiding "hallucinations" (unwanted, nonsensical output), which would be especially disastrous in a real-world scenario. But it does show the power that even off-the-shelf LLMs, after digesting vast amounts of human knowledge, can be put to work in unexpected ways.

This article was originally published in LiveScience. Read the original article here.

More recently, the Chinese Tiangong Space Station was fully completed, with its third and final module, the Mengtian, added on Oct. 31, 2022. Tiangong sits at the same height as the ISS.

What is it?

The ISS is a joint venture between NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other organizations. It's been continuously inhabited since 2000 and serves as a microgravity laboratory for research in biology, physics, medicine and earth sciences. The ISS is significantly larger than the Tiangong Space Station, as the ISS has 16 modules while Tiangong only has three.

As China was excluded from the ISS program, it created its own space station, Tiangong, which shows the nation's prowess in space exploration. Tiangong, which means "Heavenly Palace" in Chinese, was built by the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA) and provides a platform for scientific research for countries not involved in the ISS program.

Where is it?

These two photographs were taken from space, about 250 miles (402 km) from Earth.

Why is it amazing?

These two photos were taken by a Maxar WorldView Legion satellite from low-Earth orbit. In a tweet, Maxar Technologies discussed how their satellites could capture these images with crisp clarity as both space stations continue to move in their respective orbits.

It's difficult to photograph something moving as quickly as the ISS or the Tiangong Space Station. The ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) and the Tiangong moves at a similar rate. Being able to capture the detail on both space stations shows the timing and engineering capabilities of the Maxar satellite.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the ISS, the Tiangong Space Station, and observation satellites as companies like Maxar continue to study Earth from space.

What is it?

The Vega-C rocket — a more powerful variant developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by the French company Arianespace — took off its inaugural launch on July 13, 2022.

The Vega-C failed on its next launch, in December 2022, and battled technical issues on its way back to the pad. The rocket aced its third-ever flight in December 2024 and succeeded on its next liftoff as well, in April of this year.

Where is it?

The Vega-C rocket is on a launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre, northwest of Kourou in French Guiana.

Why is it amazing?

The Vega-C is made of four stages, which help the rocket overcome Earth's gravity and get its payloads to space. The first stage, or P120C, is the rocket's main booster. Fueled with solid propellant, it helps provide the main thrust to lift the rocket off the pad.

The Zefiro-40 second stage is also solid-fueled and helps increase the rocket's speed after the first stage.

The Zefiro-9 is the Vega-C rocket's third stage, and burns through around 10 tons of solid propellant, according to ESA. Vega-C's fourth stage is known as AVUM+.

The third stage highlighted in this photo is being added for the upcoming Vega-C flight VV27, which plans to take several CO3D satellites into space. These satellites are part of a larger satellite creating a 3D map of our planet from low Earth orbit.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the European Space Agency's many different research projects, along with satellites in space.

A Russian cargo spacecraft launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) this afternoon (July 3), hauling several tons of cargo to the orbiting lab.

A Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 3:32 p.m. EDT (1932 GMT; 12:32 a.m. on July 4 local time in Kazakhstan), sending the uncrewed Progress 92 freighter aloft.

Progress 92 is hauling about three tons of food, fuel and other supplies to the ISS. If all goes according to plan, the robotic freighter will dock with the orbiting lab's Poisk module on Saturday (July 5) at 5:27 p.m. EDT (2127 GMT).

NASA will provide a livestream of rendezvous and docking activities via NASA+ beginning at 4:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT) on Saturday. Space.com will simulcast the stream if the agency makes it available.

Progress 92 will take the place of the Progress 90 vehicle, which undocked from the same Poisk port on Tuesday (July 1) after a roughly seven-month stay. Progress 90 will burn up in Earth's atmosphere shortly — the same fate that awaits Progress 92 about six months from now.

Progress 91, which launched on Feb. 27, remains at the station, docked to its Zvezda service module.

Progress is one of three cargo ships that ferry supplies to the ISS these days. The other two are private American vehicles: Northrup Grumman's Cygnus and SpaceX's Dragon.

Like Progress, Cygnus is designed for one-time use, ending its space stays with a fiery death dive. But Dragon is reusable and can therefore haul scientific samples and other materials from the ISS safely back down to Earth.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:50 p.m. ET on July 3 with news of successful launch.

The milestone mission lifted off with 27 Starlink satellites at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) today from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The rocket entered space about nine minutes after leaving the ground and deployed the new units for SpaceX's broadband internet network 55 minutes later.

On the way to orbit, the Falcon 9's most-flown first stage, Booster 1067, separated from its upper stage and flew back to a landing on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 29th successful recovery for this stage, three more than any other in SpaceX's fleet.

It was the 472nd Falcon 9 first stage landing since December 2015, and the 439th reuse of a SpaceX rocket.

The 27 satellites (Group 10-25) added to the more than 7,900 active Starlink relays in low Earth orbit. The Starlink megaconstellation — the largest in history — provides broadband internet access and limited direct-to-cell service in remote areas around the world.

SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 rocket on June 4, 2010. Since then, the vehicle has gone through five major revisions, leading to the current Block 5 model that is used to launch satellites, robotic planetary missions and astronauts. The most-launched U.S. rocket in history, of its 500 missions, all but five all but five have been fully successful.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just launched an advanced European weather satellite and aced its landing on a ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (July 1) at 5:04 p.m. EST (2104 GMT), carrying the MTG-Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit.

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes later, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster (which is designated B1085), according to a SpaceX mission description. Among the booster's previous flights were the Fram2 private astronaut mission, the Crew-9 flight to the International Space Station for NASA and a January 2025 launch that sent two private landers toward the moon: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience.

The Falcon 9's upper stage deployed MTG-S1 about 35 minutes after liftoff today as planned. The satellite will now make its way to geostationary orbit (GEO), which lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth.

At this altitude, orbital speed matches Earth's rotational speed, meaning satellites there "hover" over the same patch of the planet continuously. For this reason, GEO is a popular destination for weather and reconnaissance spacecraft.

MTG-S1 is the second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites to take flight. The first was MTG-I (MTG Imager), which launched atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket in December 2022.

The MTG spacecraft are operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), an international group based in Germany that has 30 member states.

After undergoing a checkout period, MTG-S1 will use its infrared sounder instrument "to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases that are used to generate 3D maps of the atmosphere, improving the accuracy of MTG's weather prediction," European Space Agency (ESA) officials said in a mission description.

The satellite "will provide coverage of Europe and part of northern Africa on a repeat cycle of 15 minutes, providing meteorologists with a complete weather picture of the region, complementing data on cloud formation and lightning from MTG-I," they added.

MTG-S1 also carries an instrument for another mission: Copernicus Sentinel-4, which is part of the European Union's Earth-observation program.

The instrument is an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer, which will monitor air quality over Europe and North Africa every hour, according to ESA officials.

"The spectrometer delivers high-resolution data on gases that affect the quality of the air we breathe, including a wide range of atmospheric trace gases and pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde," they wrote in the mission description.

"The mission will complement the Sentinel-5 and Sentinel-5P missions, which provide daily observations of the Earth from their polar orbits."

Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:40 p.m. ET on July 1 with news of successful satellite deployment.

Gilmour Space has replaced Eris-1's toppled top hat and is ready for another launch attempt.

The Australian company's first rocket was ready to fly in May, but an early trigger of the vehicle's fairing  —  the shell at the top of the rocket that protects payloads during launch  —  nixed that try. Now, a month and a half later, Eris-1 is back at the launch pad awaiting liftoff.

Gilmour is currently targeting no earlier than (NET) July 2 for the debut launch of Eris-1, from Pad 1 at the company's Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland. Liftoff is currently expected during a window that opens July 2 at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT; 7:30 a.m. local time on July 3).

Popping its top too early wasn't the first major delay Eris-1 faced this year. Gilmour was prepared to launch Eris-1 as early as March, but Tropical Cyclone Alfred prevented that first attempt from taking place.

May's setback had nothing to do with Mother Nature.

Eris-1's payload fairing system was triggered when neighboring components created a feedback charge during a routine vehicle shutdown that engaged the single-use deployment protocols and ejected the protective shell from the launch vehicle.

"While shutdowns are a normal part of launch operations, this issue didn’t appear during previous tests. That’s because the fairing separation system is single-use and isn’t activated to maintain its reliability and ensure safety," Gilmour said in an update.

Since its founding by brothers Adam and James Gilmour in 2015, Gilmour Space has grown to more than 200 employees in support of its operations and spaceport on the Queensland coast.

Eris-1 stands a modest 82 feet (25 meters) tall and is designed to launch up to 474 pounds (215 kilograms) to sun-synchronous orbits. The rocket's debut mission, TestFlight1, will be the first of several as Gilmour Space qualifies the new vehicle's systems.

Keeping a realistic view of its expectations, Gilmour's founders have stressed that any measure of success for the Eris-1 flight will be considered a success.

"Whether we make it off the pad, reach max Q, or get all the way to space, what's important is that every second of flight will deliver valuable data that will improve our rocket's reliability and performance for future launches," they said in a press release in February.

The July 2 launch will not be streamed, but Gilmour Space will provide updates via its social media channels.

American companies launched 21 commercial space missions in June 2025, which was a new record for a single month, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The old record of 20 was set in November 2024.

"Operations during the record month include 21 launches conducted by four operators: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance," FAA officials said in an emailed statement.

"These occurred in California, Florida, Texas and New Zealand, and involved orbital, suborbital and commercial human spaceflight missions," they added. (California-based Rocket Lab's primary launch site is on New Zealand's North Island.)

SpaceX was by far the busiest of the four operators, launching 15 of the month's 21 missions. Twelve of those 15 flights were devoted to building out the company's Starlink broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.

June continued a very active 2025 for SpaceX, which has launched 81 missions so far this year. The company is therefore on pace to break its single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs, which was set in 2024. (Those numbers don't count the suborbital test flights of SpaceX's new Starship megarocket, which launched four times in 2024 and has flown three times so far this year.)

SpaceX was also responsible for one of June's two human spaceflight missions — Ax-4, which sent four private astronauts toward the International Space Station on June 25.

The month's other crewed mission was NS-33, a suborbital tourist flight by Blue Origin that launched and landed on June 29.

When Europe began planning for its first rover to land on Mars in the early 2000s, NASA was its partner of choice. Somehow, that alliance proved troubled. NASA withdrew from the ExoMars project in 2012 after the Obama administration eliminated its funding for the mission. Russia's space agency Roscosmos stepped in, committing to provide a rocket, a landing module and a few other bits and pieces.

After several delays and budget overruns, the project was finally on schedule to launch in September 2022. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine meant that cooperation had to end. NASA stepped back in 2024, offering to help ESA make it to the launch pad by 2028. The Trump budget cuts now mean Europe may have to go it alone, possibly facing further delays.

NASA was to provide a launcher, a propulsion system to slow down the ExoMars landing module during its descent, and radioisotope heaters to keep the rover warm in the cold Martian night. Europe doesn't have fully developed replacements for either of these technologies, however, and insiders think it may not be able to get them ready for the 2028 launch window.

ESA refused to comment on the situation, but sources familiar with the development told Space.com that although technical capabilities to replace the missing elements exist in Europe, the "launch clock is ticking" and a delay beyond 2030 would be likely. That could result in further complications as some aspects of the mission might have to change as the alignment between Earth and Mars that takes place about every two years doesn't always occur at the same distance.

"If there is a delay which means missing the 2028 launch window, a concern is that the approach and entry, descent and landing requirements for a 2031 launch and its selected landing site will be different," one source said. "So, a delay by about 26 months might not immediately solve the mission's problems."

The ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin after a British chemist who studied the structure of DNA, has a unique scientific proposition. It carries a 6-foot (2-meter) drill, which can access soil layers much deeper below the Martian surface than NASA's prolific sample-collector Perseverance can. Because Mars only has a very thin atmosphere, its surface is constantly battered with radiation from the sun, which would have most likely destroyed any living organisms a long time ago. If any life has ever been on Mars, it (or traces of it) would have more likely survived deeper below the planet's surface.

Europe conceived the mission in 2003, initially eyeing a 2011 launch window. The work of an entire generation of scientists now hangs in balance once again, having barely recovered from the fallout of the Ukraine invasion.

"Rosalind Franklin has been a roller coaster ride all the time since 2003 and it's still a roller coaster at the moment," Andrew Coates, a professor of physics at University College London, told Space.com "But we're hoping that it will get to its destination."

Coates led the team that designed and built the multi-spectral stereoscopic panoramic camera on top of the Rosalind Franklin rover's mast, which should help the rover determine the best spots to drill for traces of life. The instrument has been mostly ready for a 2018 launch date and has ever since been sitting together with the rover in a clean room of the lead contractor Thales Alenia Space, waiting to launch.

If NASA ends up pulling out of the mission (which may still change as the U.S. Congress might not support the administration's budget choices), ESA will be scrimping to find a few hundred million dollars to develop the missing technologies and get the aging rover to the red planet.

In November 2022, the council of ESA member states allocated 360 million euros ($417 million) to the stranded ExoMars mission. Earlier this year, 150 million euros went to Airbus to build a new landing platform.

Europe currently doesn't have a rocket capable of sending a spacecraft to Mars, although two sources told Space.com that the more powerful version of Ariane 6 could be capable of that, even though it might require some tweaks to accommodate the payload. Ariane 6 has so far launched twice, both times in its less powerful two-booster configuration.

Arianespace, which operates the rocket, has not responded to Space.com's request for comment.

One source told Space.com that while ESA has begun looking into the development of throttleable retrorockets and radioisotope heater units, neither of these projects is currently on track to produce flight-ready hardware within the needed timescale.

Many in the European Mars science community keep hoping that the U.S. Congress, which will ultimately decide about the NASA budget, thwarts the cuts.

"I still believe we will be drilling on Mars before I retire, and I am not 25 anymore," another source told Space.com.

Coates told Space.com that NASA's investment into ExoMars is "very small compared to the scientific return" the mission promises and that the mission still has an undisputed value despite the technology becoming somewhat outdated.

"No other agency is actually thinking of doing this," Coates told Space.com, adding that ExoMars "can still make the most important discovery ever" — that is, to answer the question whether we are alone in the solar system.

While the U.S. Congress is expected to debate Trump's proposed NASA budget for months, ESA member states representatives are set to meet in November this year in Bremen, Germany, with ExoMars likely top of the agenda.

In the meantime, the rover is getting periodic checks in Thales Alenia Space's facility in Turin, while its engineering model is being taken out for regular outings in the adjacent Mars yard.

Overall, 19 ESA science missions are going to feel the squeeze if Trump's budget proposal passes the congress. Among the hardest hit would be the early-stage development projects including the gravitational wave detector LISA, or Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, the Venus orbiter EnVision and NewAthena X-ray space telescope.

ExoMars is Europe's first attempt to place a rover on the surface of Mars. Its previous two attempts to soft-land on the Red Planet's surface failed. The experimental Schiaparelli lander, which was to test the descent and landing system for the Rosalind Franklin rover, crashed in 2016 due to a motion sensor failure. The British Beagle 2 lander was lost upon landing, only to be discovered in satellite images in 2015. The photographs revealed that one of the lander's solar panels failed to deploy, keeping its communications antenna covered and unable to send and receive signals.

Blue Origin sent its 70th person into space today (June 29) on its 13th rocket flight to carry passengers.

The company's New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle lifted off Saturday at 9:39 a.m. CDT (10:39 a.m. EDT or 1439 GMT) from its Launch Site One in West Texas. On board were husband and wife Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno, Jr., Owolabi Salis and James Sitkin.

Carl Kuehner became Blue Origin's astronaut number 70, which based on prior precedent, was determined by the seat on board the New Shepard capsule that he assigned for the flight. He also became the 750th person in history to reach space, as recorded by the Association of Space Explorers' Registry of Space Travelers.

The 10-minute NS-33 mission — numbered such as this was Blue Origin's 33rd New Shepard flight overall — went to plan, with both the propulsion module (Tail 5) making a safe vertical landing and the crew capsule, named "RSS Kármán Line," returning the passengers to a parachute-slowed, air thruster-cushioned touchdown not far from where they launched.

For about three minutes as the gumdrop-shaped capsule reached its apogee, or highest point away from Earth, the Kuehners, Larson, Rescigno, Salis and Sitkin experienced weightlessness and saw the curvature of the planet set against the stark blackness of space.

The flight reached a 345,044 feet (105.2 km) above the ground, surpassing the Kármán Line, the internationally-accepted boundary between Earth and space at 62 miles high (100 kilometers).

Flying along with the crew were more than 1,000 physical and digital postcards designed by students and the public, as collected by The Museum of Flight in Seattle and Parkcrest Elementary in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The cards are part of an on going project by Blue Origin's non-profit organization Club For the Future.

As with all New Shepard fights, the cost per seat on NS-33 was not disclosed. The passengers included an environmentalist, the chairman of a real estate development firm, the former CEO of a public transportation company, an electrical wire and cable distributor, and two attorneys.

The six NS-33 passengers dubbed themselves "The Solstice 33," as they were originally scheduled to launch on the summer solstice (June 21) but were delayed by poor weather conditions. Their flight brought the total number of people who have flown on suborbital flights to 123, according to the Association of Space Explorers.

Japan launched a dual-purpose satellite to monitor sea temperature and greenhouse gases.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Saturday (June 28) conducted its 50th and final launch of the H-2A rocket, taking the GOSAT-GW dual-purpose satellite to space. The mission lifted off from Yoshinobu Launch Complex (LP-1) at the Tenegashima Space Center in Japan at 12:33 p.m. EDT (1633 GMT; 1:33 a.m. June 29, local time in Japan).

The Greenhouse Gas and Water Cycle Observation Satellite (GOSAT-GW) is the latest in Japan's efforts to observe changes in water cycles and greenhouse gases. GOSAT-GW has joined its predecessors in Earth orbit: GCOM-W2, which launched in 2012 and is known as "SHIZUKU," and GOSAT-1, which launched in 2009 and is known as "IBUKI."

GOSAT-GW is equipped with two main instruments.

The first is known as the Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMSR), and will measure water cycles and fluctuations in sea surface temperatures. The second is the Greenhouse Gases Observation Sensor (TANSO), and will monitor components such as carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere to measure climate change.

Japan's H-2A rocket, built for JAXA by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was capable of launching payloads into a geostationary orbit around Earth and to orbit around the moon. It also launched the Akatsuki spacecraft to study Venus in 2010, though the spacecraft failed to properly enter Venusian orbit.

H-2A first launched in 2001. During its nearly 25 years in operation, the rocket experienced only a single launch failure, giving the vehicle a 98% success rate. After 50 missions, the launch vehicle is now being retired to make way for Japan's H3 rocket, which offers comparable performance at a lower cost.

SpaceX launched two Starlink missions on Saturday (June 28).

Two Falcon 9 rockets carrying the broadband internet satellites lifted off at 12:26 a.m. and 1:13 p.m. EDT (0426 and 1713 GMT) on Saturday, the first from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the second from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The new additions for SpaceX's megaconstellation (Group 10-34 and Group 15-7) each reached low Earth orbit about 9 minutes after they left the ground and were deployed approximately an hour later.

In the interim, the Falcon rockets' first stages (boosters B1092 and B1088) flew back to droneships. On the east coast, the landing was on "A Shortfall of Gravitas," completing the booster's fifth flight. In the Pacific Ocean, the stage touched down on "Of Course I Still Love You," ending its eighth flight to space and back.

The early morning launch carried 27 Starlink satellites and the afternoon liftoff lofted 26 more of the relay satellites, expanding SpaceX's network to more than 7,900 active units, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

What is it?

The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that often carries cargo, Starlink satellites, or crew members in its corresponding Dragon spacecraft. Its reusable system aligns with SpaceX's mission to make spaceflight less costly, and thus more accessible.

When the rocket's first stage booster returns to Earth for launch site landings, the stage's boost back burn can sometimes create these plumes of exhaust high in the atmosphere.

Where is it?

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is currently headed for the International Space Station.

Why is it amazing?

The Ax-4 launch is a mission of "firsts," as it carried the first ever-people from India, Hungary and Poland into space, including pilot Shubhanshu Shukla and mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu. Leading the team is former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, currently Axiom's director of human spaceflight.

Ax-4 was not easy to get off the ground, however. The mission faced two weeks of delays since its original launch date of June 11, 2025. These delays were caused by high winds as well as leaks on both the launch vehicle and the ISS.

But finally, on the morning of June 25, 2025, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched, ferrying the crew toward the ISS. Once there, the astronauts will spend two weeks in orbit and conduct over 60 experiments before returning back to Earth.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the Ax-4 mission and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as the private spaceflight sector continues to expand into our night skies.

Rocket Lab has launched a quartet of satellites for Virginia-based company Hawkeye 360.

An Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab's Pad-A at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand today at 1:28 p.m. EDT (1728 GMT; 5:28 a.m. local New Zealand time on June 27). The rocket carried Hawkeye 360's "Get the Hawk Outta Here" mission.

Inside Electron's payload fairings were three radio frequency geolocation microsatellites and a fourth experimental satellite dubbed "Kestrel-0A". The group was released into a polar low-Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of about 320 miles (520 kilometers).

Hawkeye 360 specializes in providing radio frequency geospatial analytics. The constellation trio aboard Get the Hawk Outta Here is designed to triangulate the origin of radio frequencies across the globe and is part of the company's "Cluster 12." The satellites will fill a "critical coverage gap," according to Rocket Lab's mission description, granting Hawkeye 360 the ability to "extract RF intelligence in regions of strategic interest."

Kestrel-0A, meanwhile, is designed to "evaluate emerging capabilities and future technology enhancements," according to Rocket Lab.

Get the Hawk Outta Here is the second of three missions for Hawkeye 360 that Rocket Lab plans to launch. In total, Rocket Lab will ultimately deliver 15 satellites to LEO for Hawkeye 360. The first mission, dubbed "Virginia Is For Launch Lovers," served as Electron's debut mission and launched in Jan. 2023 from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia.

This mission marks the 67th overall launch of Electron and ninth launch of 2025 for Rocket Lab — and the company shows no signs of a slowing cadence.

Rocket Lab still has at least half a dozen launches left on its docket for this year, including the debut of its larger, more powerful Neutron rocket that's designed to be partially reusable. Rocket Lab also flies a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE, which serves as a testbed for hypersonic technologies.

SpaceX deployed a new group of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Wednesday (June 25), just hours after sending a visiting crew to the International Space Station from a nearby launch pad in Florida.

The 27 satellites in Starlink group 10-16 separated from their Falcon 9 rocket about an hour after their 3:54 p.m. EDT (1954 GMT) launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX confirmed they were successfully dispatched in an social media update.

During the ride to space, as planned, the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returned to Earth and touched down on the droneship "Just Read The Instructions," which was positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 20th recovery for booster B1080.

It was also the second Falcon 9 first stage to be recovered in about seven hours. The Starlink launch was preceded by the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew taking flight from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31 a.m. EDT (0631 GMT) earlier on Wednesday.

Just as the arrival of the newly-named Crew Dragon "Grace" will expand the space station's complement from seven to 11 astronauts and cosmonauts, the Starlink launch has grown the broadband internet megaconstellation to more than 7,800 active relays.

SpaceX ultimately plans to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites, if not as many as four times more, if given the go to do so.

The Florida footwear company Syntilay aims to design a shoe in space by mid- to late 2026, showcasing some new technology and blazing a trail for others to follow.

"The purpose of this is to push the boundaries of what's possible," Syntilay founder and CEO Ben Weiss told Space.com.

"​​We've heard about making new materials in space and stuff like that, but the average consumer hasn't really benefited from a lot of these innovations yet," he added. "We can, I think, incentivize and increase the interest in this category and make it more practical for people, which is something that I think has been missing."

Syntilay — whose name is based on the word "scintillate" — already uses artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D printing to develop and produce its shoes here on Earth. So moving the design process to low Earth orbit (LEO) shouldn't be too much of a stretch, Weiss said.

The company is part of a commercial mission led by OrbitsEdge and Copernic Space that will take crypto mining and accessible AI-powered computing into the final frontier, via a satellite that will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early 2026.

Syntilay will use AI agents on board that satellite to design a shoe in microgravity — something that has never been done before. That design will be beamed down to Earth, where it will be manufactured to create "an exclusive 3D-printed shoe collection, each pair tokenized and authenticated via the Copernic Space platform," OrbitsEdge and Copernic Space wrote in a statement.

"I think it's going to produce something that's truly amazing, that breaks the mold of what's possible. And I think we're really excited to see what it makes," Weiss said.

The goal is to have the space-designed shoes ready to sell by September 2026 at the latest, he added.

The new space project could also help Syntilay carve out a bigger niche for itself in a competitive market, said company advisor Joe Foster, who co-founded Reebok back in 1958.

"It's, 'How do we find a different way in?' and it was the same when we started Reebok," Foster told Space.com.

"We were very small," he added. "We had to look for what we call white space. White space was somewhere where we could make a difference, where we could be part of it, as against just chasing the big boys. And so this is looking for white space that is actually in space. So what better space can you get?"

Whitson's comments were followed by remarks by her crewmates, delivered in their native language. Ax-4 pilot Shubhanshu "Shuks" Shukla with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and mission specialists Sławosz "Suave" Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and the European Space Agency (ESA) and Tibor Kapu of the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut program are each their country's second citizen to fly into space after a hiatus of more than 40 years.

It has become tradition for the first astronauts to fly on a U.S. commercial crew vehicle to have the honor of naming it. In this case, SpaceX's Crew-10 had originally been assigned to launch aboard the new capsule (referred to previously by its SpaceX serial number, 213). A decision by NASA to advance their launch date, though, resulted in their trading spacecraft with Ax-4.

"Yes, we had thought about it, but maybe even more significantly, we had been lobbied by many different people who had ideas for us," said Crew-10 commander Anne McClain with NASA, replying to a question from collectSPACE.com about her crew's chosen name as part of a pre-launch briefing in March. "So I would like to recognize our excellent flight director, Allison [Bolinger], and her "Athena" flight control team, as she was really lobbying for a name."

"We're not going to share what we would have named the capsule, but we have told the next crew that may potentially fly it that we are now the lobbyists, lobbying them to give it our name," McClain said.

It was not immediately known if "Grace" was Crew-10's (or Bollinger's) preferred moniker. Prior to entering orbit, all that Whitson would say about the name was that it had some relation to "Joy," the plush baby swan toy that she and her Ax-4 crewmates picked out as their zero-gravity indicator. Swans are often described as being graceful.

"What started with 'Joy' now continues on with 'Grace,'" Paul Wizikowski, a strategic space storyteller at Axiom Space, said on the company's live webcast.

Grace now joins the prior Crew Dragons: Endeavour, Resilience, Endurance and Freedom.

"Endeavour" was the first SpaceX spacecraft to fly humans. Christened by its first two crew members, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken reached Earth orbit on May 30, 2020, and revealed their name for Capsule 206. "Endeavour" was inspired by the effort that it took for a commercial company to launch astronauts and to honor the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour, Hurley's and Behnken's first ride into orbit (on separate missions).

Four months later, after NASA certified SpaceX to begin regular missions to rotate the crew aboard the International Space Station, astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi lifted off on "Resilience." The four Crew-1 members named Capsule 207 in light of the global pandemic that challenged the teams at SpaceX and NASA to complete the spacecraft and launch their mission.

Capsule 210 was named "Endurance" as a further nod to the then-ongoing pandemic and the tenacity to push beyond it. Crew-3 members Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer also acknowledged this history behind the moniker. Ernest Shackleton and his shipmates crossing Antarctica in 1914 became trapped in ice, forcing them to endure months of hardships before being rescued.

"Freedom," or Capsule 212, was named by Crew-4 members Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti. In addition to celebrating a human right, "Freedom" was borrowed from the name that the first American to fly into space, Alan Shepard, gave his Mercury capsule in 1961.

The tradition of U.S. astronauts naming their spacecraft dates back to the Mercury and Apollo programs. NASA's Gemini capsules were not named and the space shuttle orbiters were christened by a write-in campaign, committee vote or student contest.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Grace" is the first human-rated spacecraft to fly under that name. A small "hopper" designed by Intuitive Machines to jump across the moon's surface was also named "Grace" in honor of Grace Hopper, a pioneer in mathematics and computer programming. A new orbiting observatory planned for launch in 2027, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, carries the name of NASA's first chief of astronomy.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

A newborn Dragon has just roared into space.

SpaceX's newest Dragon spacecraft launched on its debut mission this morning (June 25), sending the four-person Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for Houston-based company Axiom Space.

Ax-4's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 2:31 a.m. EDT (0631 GMT) this morning from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

As is tradition, the crew of a spacecraft's first launch are awarded naming rights. That honor fell to Ax-4 for this new Dragon; the astronauts named it "Grace," which they revealed once they reached the orbit.

Originally slated to launch June 11, the mission has faced two full weeks of delays. High altitude winds postponed Ax-4's first attempt. A leak in the launch vehicle caused another delay, but the most recent, and longest standing holdup of the launch was a leak aboard the ISS.

The station's aftmost module, Zvezda, has experienced an ongoing leak for more than five years now, but has remained stable during that time. Last week, a change in the pressure data that monitors the leak prompted NASA to delay Ax-4 while they monitored the issue. Monday, June 23, NASA announced Ax-4's new launch date, but did not provide a definitive update on the leak.

Ax-4 is commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is currently Axiom's director of human spaceflight. She's joined on the mission by pilot Shubhanshu Shukla and mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu.

This is the first spaceflight for the latter trio, who are also the first from their countries— India, Poland and Hungary, respectively — to fly a mission to the ISS. Ax-4 is Whitson's fifth launch to orbit, and will bring her cumulative time spent in space to nearly 700 days, extending her own record as the United States' most-flown astronaut.

The Ax-4 quartet will spend about two weeks aboard the orbiting lab, where they'll conduct more than 60 science experiments and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) outreach events — the highest number on any Axiom mission to date.

Shortly after sunset Tuesday evening, the Ax-4 crew boarded a pair of Tesla Model X SUVs outside KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building and departed for the sleeping Dragon awaiting them at the launch pad. With the crew safely strapped in and Dragon's hatch closed, the SpaceX mission operators polled "go" to begin fast-fueling Falcon 9's kerosene-liquid oxygen propellant at T-45 minutes.

At liftoff, the rocket's nine Merlin engines carried the Falcon 9 high into the starry Florida sky, pushing through Earth's atmosphere to complete its first phase of flight within the first two minutes. At approximately T+2.5 minutes, Falcon 9 executed main engine cutoff, followed immediately by stage separation and ignition of the rocket's second-stage engine and the first stage's initial boostback burn.

As the Falcon 9's second stage continued to carry Dragon and the Ax-4 crew into low-Earth orbit (LEO), the rocket's first stage headed back toward the Space Coast. The booster, with the tail number B1094, performed a second deceleration burn and final landing burn, touching down safely about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) downrange of Pad 39A, on SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the second flight of B1094, which launched the Starlink 12-10 mission April 28.

About a minute later, the Falcon 9's second stage completed its orbital insertion and deployed Dragon to begin the final leg of Ax-4's journey to the space station.

The crew shared images of their mission's zero-g indicator, a plush baby swan toy named Joy.

Poland, Hungary and India have all had astronauts fly to space before, but never to the ISS.

The Ax-4 crew will spend about 14 days aboard the space station. They'll live and work alongside the seven long-term occupants of ISS Expedition 73, which consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers and Jonny Kim, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Kirill Peskov and Alexey Zubritsky.

Whitson voiced excitement for the mission and the opportunities created by flying with such a diverse crew during an Ax-4 press conference in January.

"It has been more than 40 years since the first person from India, Poland and Hungary has been to space, and through this commercial space opportunity we are accelerating the national space programs in each of these three countries and creating new pathways for technological advancements," Whitson said at the time. "I'm sure this crew is going to be inspiring a whole new generation of young people."

This is the second Axiom astronaut mission to the ISS that has been sponsored in part by another national government or the European Space Agency (ESA). Of the 60 experiments to be carried out by the Ax-4 crew, 17 are being supported by ESA and Poland, and 25 through Hungary's orbital astronaut program HUNOR.

"Each country who comes brings something different than what we have in the normal suite of what we see for our research," said NASA's ISS program manager Dana Weigel during a May 20 Ax-4 press call. "It really expands the breadth of what we can do with research and the number of countries, institutions, academic organizations, etc., who participate."

Shukla was born in 1985 — one year after the first Indian in space, Rakesh Sharma, launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on the Indo-Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission.

"I was deeply, deeply impressed by him," Shukla said during January's crew conference, referring to Sharma. Shukla is a pilot in the Indian Air Force, and was selected as one of the four astronauts for the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, which is slated to launch sometime in 2027.

Uznański-Wiśniewski has been inspired by space his whole life, he told reporters in January. He was born on April 12, 1984 — the 23rd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic first flight to space.

"For as long as I can remember, every year for my birthday, my mom was always wishing me a happy 'Cosmo day,'" he told reporters. "I was always interested in how the world works around us."

He's now a member of ESA's Astronaut Reserve Class of 2022 and an accomplished scientist and engineer, including a stint as engineer in charge of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Kapu, the youngest of the group, was born in 1991. A mechanical engineer with a master's degree in polymer technology, Kapu's work focused on space radiation protection at an aerospace technology company until his selection by HUNOR's astronaut program.

"Our goal with the [HUNOR] program is to gain our foothold in the space community, to contribute to the global space industry and academia in all the ways we can, and to sit at the same table with the giants, with the bigger players," Kapu said in January.

The Ax-4 quartet will spend a little more than a day catching up to the ISS; Dragon is scheduled to dock with the dorsal port of the station's Harmony module at approximately 7:00 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Thursday, June 26.

A livestream of the mission's rendezvous procedures will begin a couple hours prior to docking, and will continue through hatch opening between Dragon and the ISS. That will be followed by a short welcome ceremony for the Ax-4 crew.

Ax-4 will remain docked to the ISS for about two weeks, as the crew work their way through the mission's gamut of science and technology demonstrations. Their return is scheduled sometime during the second week of July, and will be dependent, in part, on weather in the Dragon's splashdown zone.

The return of Ax-4 will be the second crew recovery of a Dragon off the United States' West Coast. SpaceX shifted its recovery efforts to the Pacific after several instances of debris from Dragon's discarded trunk survived atmospheric reentry, and crashed into Earth during previous splashdowns off the coast of Florida.

Today (June 24), ispace released a statement detailing just what went wrong with the lander, named Resilience. The company said the spacecraft's laser range finder, or LRF, experienced an anomaly that prevented Resilience from obtaining valid measurements of its distance from the lunar surface. This prevented the moon lander from decelerating at the proper rate, causing it to crash.

The Resilience moon lander made that "hard landing" on June 5 as it tried to touch down near the Mare Frigoris region of the moon's near side, also known as the "Sea of Cold." It was the second time ispace lost a lander while coming down onto the lunar surface; in April of 2023, the company lost its Hakuto-R lander in a similar way.

ispace is still unsure what caused the anomaly in Resilience's laser range finder, but identified four possible direct causes.

For one, the company says it's possible the reflectivity of the lunar surface "exhibited unexpected properties," preventing the spacecraft from determining its correct altitude.

Another possibility is that the angle of the laser relative to the lunar surface "contributed to the reduced reflectivity," or that lower laser power on Resilience likewise made the range finder's reflectivity too low for the spacecraft to sense its surroundings correctly.

ispace said it's also possible the spacecraft simply didn't perform at high speeds as well as expected, or that radiation could have degraded the performance of the spacecraft. All four of these possibilities were ruled to be "likely causes" of Resilience's crash.

Some two weeks after Resilience's hard landing, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spied the lander's gravesite from its perch in orbit around the moon. LRO was able to see a dark smudge on the moon's surface, which was created when the lander kicked up a "halo" of lunar regolith, or moon dust.

ispace is already planning corrective actions in light of the loss of its second moon lander. The company plans to strengthen the testing and verification of its landing sensors, including its laser range finders, and find ways to improve its landing system hardware.

ispace has already planned to include further vision-based landing sensors on its next two upcoming moon lander missions. Those missions, known as Mission 3 and Mission 4, respectively, will use a much larger, more capable lander known as Apex 1.0.

The 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15, 2025 alongside another moon lander built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. That lander, named Blue Ghost, successfully landed on March 2, marking the second-ever successful soft moon landing of a private spacecraft.

Blue Ghost operated for two weeks as designed, finally losing power when the sun set on March 16, depleting its solar cells of their power source.

SpaceX just launched another big fleet of satellites to the final frontier.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 70 payloads for a variety of customers lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today (June 23) at 5:25 p.m. EDT (2125 GMT; 2:25 p.m. local California time), on a rideshare mission known as Transporter 14.

Transporter 14 is lofting microsats, cubesats and reentry capsules, including one that's carrying cremated remains and human DNA on a memorial mission.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth today as planned, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean about 8.5 minutes after liftoff.

It was the 26th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. That's close to the company's reusability record, which currently stands at 28 flights.

The rocket's upper stage, meanwhile, continued powering its way to low Earth orbit, where it has a lot of work to do: It will deploy the menagerie of payloads over a nearly two-hour span that begins roughly 54 minutes after launch.

Those payloads include private Earth-observing satellites, such as Capella Space's Capella-17 synthetic aperture radar craft, and Starfish Space's Otter Pup 2, which will attempt to perform the first-ever commercial docking in LEO later this year.

Transporter 14 is also carrying the fourth reentry capsule for California company Varda Space, which is working to manufacture pharmaceuticals and other goods in space and return them to Earth.

Also aboard the Falcon 9 upper stage is The Exploration Company's new Nyx reusable spacecraft, which is flying a memorial mission in cooperation with the space-burial company Celestis.

Nyx — the final payload to be deployed today — is carrying cremated remains and/or DNA from about 150 people. If all goes to plan, the spacecraft will circle Earth two or three times and then be recovered.

As its name suggests, Transporter 14 is the 14th mission in SpaceX's rideshare series. The first of these, Transporter 1 back in January 2021, set a single-launch record, sending a whopping 143 satellites to orbit.

The company also operates another rideshare program called Bandwagon, which has three missions under its belt to date.

Different computer models were used to predict the reentry. But why were they divergent, and how can we improve our ability to nail down the "whereabouts and when" as a space object crashes into Earth's atmosphere?

The long and troubled history of the would-be Venus spacecraft, known as Kosmos-482, can shed some light on these key questions, scientists say. So, let's have a look.

Down and out

On May 10 of this year, the egg-shaped Kosmos-482 descent module, weighing roughly 1,091 pounds (495 kilograms), likely fell into ocean waters.

According to calculations by specialists from TsNIIMash, part of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the spacecraft entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and fell into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.

The hardware was lofted in the spring of 1972 to study Venus, but due to a malfunction of its rocket's upper stage, it remained in a high elliptical orbit around Earth, gradually closing in on our planet.

The probe was one of a pair of Venus atmospheric landers hurled skyward during their respective go-to-Venus launch windows.

The twin Venera-8 spacecraft was launched a few days earlier, sent onward to become the first station to land on the illuminated side of Venus, successfully transmitting data on temperature and pressure from the planet's surface.

Lost in space

Meanwhile, the botched probe that failed to get from Earth to Venus was "renamed" Kosmos-482.

According to the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI), a few months later, Kosmos-482 was purposely split into a descent module and a flight module. The flight module "left orbit" (fell to Earth) in 1981, an IKI posting adds.

As for the descent module's nosedive to Earth, Oleg Korablyov, head of the department of planetary physics at IKI, said it should have had sufficient heat protection.

"If it could be found," Korablyov said, "it would be very interesting to study it in order to understand the effects of long-term exposure to cosmic radiation on structural materials."

Will it float?

Russian space historian Pavel Shubin is floating the idea that Kosmos-482's Venus landing hardware might be found bobbing in ocean waters.

Shubin placed the last orbit of the station on a sea traffic map, noting where it entered and where it could have flown.

Shubin's posting reads (in Russian; translation by Google): "The capsule has no aerodynamic quality, so it should land along the route. Maybe someone will find it. The question is in the buoyancy of the station. It turns out to be at the limit, but it still looks like it should float in seawater. If it sinks, there is no chance of finding it. Although it can withstand a kilometer of water" (in the event the object has sunk out of sight).

That said — and apologies to TV's David Letterman — will it float?

Open source

Marco Langbroek is a leading satellite tracker and lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He and astrodynamicist Dominic Dirkx created an open-source TU Delft Astrodynamics Toolkit (Tudat) that they used to predict when and where the wayward Venus probe would come down.

Langbroek and Dirkx wrote an informative post mortem on the descent craft's interesting reentry and the confusion it left in The Space Review, which you can find here.

"And now it has finally reentered," Langbroek and Dirkx wrote. "The big question on everybody's mind is: Where did it reenter, and when exactly?"

Different estimations

Several organizations followed the doomed probe, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the European Space Agency (ESA) and The Aerospace Corporation, Langbroek and Dirkx explain. All of these groups posted somewhat different reentry estimates.

Langbroek said it is very likely that the space leftover survived reentry through Earth's atmosphere intact, before impacting at an estimated speed of 65 to 70 meters per second after atmospheric deceleration.

"Maybe, one day, something odd with Cyrilian markings will wash up on an Australian or Indian beach," Langbroek and Dirkx write.

Stacked imagery

Ralf Vandebergh, also of the Netherlands, is a photographer specialized in imaging small objects orbiting Earth, tracking spacecraft and producing informative images using small to moderate aperture telescopes.

Vandebergh stacked imagery data captured from his first observation of the errant spacecraft in 2011, followed by processing of more recent observations. All results pointed to the existence of an "attached structure" to the Kosmos-482 descent craft. He speculated that, perhaps, the descent vehicle had deployed its parachute. Whatever the case, that appendage is now long gone following reentry.

Vandebergh published his pre-reentry Kosmos-482 photo assessment here.

Unhelpful physics

"In general, reentry predictions have a certain amount of challenge. You're trying to pinpoint something that is coming down that's moving really fast," said Marlon Sorge, executive director of The Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS).

CORDS offers expertise regarding space debris and space traffic management and maintains a reentry database that documents objects and payloads that plow into Earth's atmosphere, such as Kosmos-482.

"Being off even a little bit represents hundreds or thousands of kilometers in distance on the surface of the Earth," Sorge told Space.com. Also at play, he said, are some "unhelpful physics." For example, solar activity affects the density of Earth's atmosphere, which then impacts when and where an object is going to reenter.

Real-time unknowns

Gregory Henning, a CORDS project leader, pointed out other issues that make reentry predictions tricky as well.

"You don't know real-time how that object is behaving," Henning said. "Is it tumbling? Have pieces broken off? Is it in a stable orientation? So you don't really know real-time what kind of surface area the object is presenting to the atmosphere."

The spherical nature of the descent part of Kosmos-482 was a literal "odd ball" in terms of a reentry. Keep in mind that it was built to enter and endure a punishing plunge into the atmosphere of Venus.

The Venus lander was made to withstand the extremely harsh conditions of Venus' hostile atmosphere, ESA experts have said, and was designed to take 300 G's of acceleration and 100 atmospheres of pressure.

"I have not seen anything that would suggest that there were any sightings. But again, being a design to survive a Venus entry, it's fairly likely that it could have survived," Sorge said. "That means you wouldn't see the whole spectacular display of a breakup and a bunch of pieces flaming down that make other reentries so noticeable," he said.

Vexing problem

"All models are wrong, and some are useful," said Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, a company that monitors activity in space to reveal threats to safety and security.

The reentry of space objects has been a vexing problem since the beginning of the space age, McKnight told Space.com, because there are at least three physical phenomena that all have large uncertainties.

Those phenomena combine to represent the total uncertainty of where and when an object is finally going to meet its ultimate return to Earth, McKnight said.

Bulges and dips

At the crux of reentry question marks are atmospheric density profiles, the orientation of the space object, along with the way that it melts, vaporizes, and (perhaps) breaks up.

"The density of the atmosphere changes drastically for a given reentry point in space based upon the solar flux/activity, time of day, etc. There are diurnal bulges and dips in the atmosphere that change during the course of the day, which also are affected by solar storms that occur, overlaid on top of the background solar activity," said McKnight.

The transit of these fluctuations also varies as Earth progresses through seasons of the year, he added.

Magic altitude

When a space object reaches a "magic altitude" of 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth, substantial heating starts to occur, McKnight said. "The orientation of the space object is critically important to accurately assess how the heating and drag effects will accelerate," he said.

Toss into the mix that certain forces exerted on the space object cause an incoming object to rotate.

"This may even cause there to be a net lifting effect that would delay the reentry of the space object," said McKnight. This is sometimes called skipping, because it's analogous to a thrown stone skipping over the surface of a pond.

McKnight said that he's been working in aerospace engineering, space safety, and space operations since 1986. "Reentry physics and predictions in that domain have advanced the least over that timeframe," he concluded.

A SpaceX booster made its 25th flight early Monday morning (June 23), sending 27 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Florida.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 1:58 a.m. EDT (0557 GMT) from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Although three flights short of the record (26, at time of writing), the Falcon's first stage (B1069) achieved its mission and returned to make another landing on "A Shortfall of Gravitas," a droneship positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.

This was SpaceX's 465th landing, according to a counter on the company's website.

The rocket's upper stage, meanwhile, continued to climb into space and ultimately deployed the Starlink satellites (Group 10-23) about an hour into the flight.

Sunday's launch was the 277th mission devoted to expanding the Starlink megaconstellation, which now has more than 7,800 active relays circling the planet, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

The Starlink network provides broadband speed connectively around the globe, especially in remote areas where other means of internet access are not possible or available. SpaceX is using the revenue from Starlink sales to help underwire its efforts to make humanity multiplanetary.

Amazon's second big batch of internet satellites has taken flight.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (June 23) at 6:54 a.m. EDT (1054 GMT), carrying 27 spacecraft for Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation toward low Earth orbit (LEO).

The launch came a week later than originally planned; it had been scheduled for June 16 but was delayed by an Atlas V engine issue.

An Atlas V also launched the first batch of Kuiper craft, sending 27 of them aloft from Cape Canaveral on April 28 (as well as two prototype Kuiper satellites, which flew in October 2023).

And there will be many more such liftoffs. The Project Kuiper constellation will eventually consist of more than 3,200 satellites, which will go up on about 80 more launches in the coming years.

ULA will do most of the lifting; Amazon booked eight Atlas V launches and 38 rides on its replacement, the Vulcan Centaur. But Project Kuiper satellites will also fly on rockets built by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and European launch provider Arianespace.

"Those agreements comprise the largest commercial procurement of launch capacity in history, and support thousands of suppliers and highly skilled jobs across the U.S. and Europe," Amazon wrote in a Project Kuiper description.

The company hopes to start providing internet service with the constellation later this year.

Project Kuiper will compete with SpaceX's Starlink, which already provides service to customers around the world using more than 7,600 operational satellites in LEO.

Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever assembled, and it's growing all the time; SpaceX has already launched 55 Starlink missions this year alone.

And these aren't the only two broadband projects underway in LEO. For example, China has already launched spacecraft for two different megaconstellations, Guowang ("National Network") and Qianfan ("Thousand Sails"). Both of these networks will feature more than 10,000 satellites, if all goes according to plan.

The 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) vehicle exploded on a test stand at SpaceX's Starbase site late Wednesday night (June 18) as the company was preparing to ignite its six Raptor engines in a "static fire" trial.

A day later, SpaceX narrowed in on a likely cause.

"Initial analysis indicates the potential failure of a pressurized tank known as a COPV, or composite overwrapped pressure vessel, containing gaseous nitrogen in Starship's nosecone area, but the full data review is ongoing," the company wrote in an update on Thursday (June 19).

"There is no commonality between the COPVs used on Starship and SpaceX's Falcon rockets," the company added. So, launches of the workhorse Falcon 9, which has already flown 75 times in 2025, should not be affected.

The Starship explosion did not cause any reported injuries; all SpaceX personnel at Starbase are safe, according to the update. People living around the site, which is near the border city of Brownsville, shouldn't be worried about contamination from the incident, SpaceX said.

"Previous independent tests conducted on materials inside Starship, including toxicity analyses, confirm they pose no chemical, biological, or toxicological risks," the company wrote. "SpaceX is coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies, as appropriate, on matters concerning environmental and safety impacts."

That said, the explosion did damage the area around the test stand, which is at Starbase's Massey site (not the orbital launch mount area, from which Starship lifts off).

"The explosion ignited several fires at the test site which remains clear of personnel and will be assessed once it has been determined to be safe to approach," SpaceX wrote in the update. "Individuals should not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue."

Wednesday night's explosion occurred during preparations for Starship's 10th flight test, which SpaceX had hoped to launch by the end of the month. (Static fires are common prelaunch tests, performed to ensure that engines are ready to fly.) That timeline will now shift to the right, though it's not clear at the moment by how much.

The incident was the latest in a series of setbacks for Starship upper stages. SpaceX lost the vehicle — also known as Ship — on the last three Starship flight tests, which launched in January, March and May of this year.

Starship's first stage, called Super Heavy, has a better track record of late. For example, on Flight 7 and Flight 8, the huge booster successfully returned to Starbase, where it was caught by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms as planned.

An Electron rocket topped with a single spacecraft lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Saturday at 3:08 a.m. EDT (0708 GMT; 7:08 p.m. local New Zealand time).

"MISSION SUCCESS and payload deployment confirmed! Music to our ears for the 'Symphony In The Stars' mission and Electron's 68th launch," Rocket Lab officials wrote on social media.

The mission, which Rocket Lab called "Symphony in the Stars," sent the satellite to a circular orbit 650 kilometers (404 miles) above Earth.

"Symphony in the Stars" is the first of two missions for "a confidential commercial customer," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description. The second of those flights is expected to launch this year as well.

And that's pretty much all of the information the company has revealed about Saturday's mission; for example, we don't know what the satellite will do once it reaches orbit.

"Symphony in the Stars" was the tenth mission of 2025 and 68th liftoff overall for Electron, a 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) rocket that gives small satellites dedicated rides to orbit.

Rocket Lab is also developing a larger, partially reusable rocket called Neutron, which is expected to debut sometime this year.

Editor's note: This article was updated Saturday, June 28 after the mission successfully launched.

The company was testing a Starship upper stage at its Starbase site in South Texas on Wednesday night (June 18), to prepare for the megarocket's upcoming 10th flight test.

But something went very wrong, as video captured by NASASpaceflight.com shows: The vehicle exploded, sending a massive fireball high into the dark Texas skies.

SpaceX acknowledged the incident in an X post early on Thursday morning (June 19), noting that it occurred around 11 p.m. local time (midnight EDT and 0400 GMT on June 19).

"A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," SpaceX added in the post. "Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue."

SpaceX is developing Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, to help humanity colonize Mars, among other ambitious exploration tasks.

The vehicle consists of two elements, both of which are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable — a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply Ship.

It was Ship that exploded on Wednesday night, on a test stand at Starbase's Massey site (not the orbital launch mount, from which Starship liftoffs occur). According to NASASpaceflight, which closely monitors Starship activity at Starbase, the anomaly occurred just before Ship was set to perform a static-fire test.

Static fires are common prelaunch tests, in which a rocket's engines are briefly ignited while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground. SpaceX had already conducted a static fire with this Ship, though that trial involved just one of its Raptor engines; this test may have been intended to fire up all six of them.

SpaceX has also already static-fired the Flight 10 Super Heavy booster, successfully igniting all 33 of its Raptors.

Wednesday night's explosion continued a string of setbacks for Starship upper stages. Ship has broken apart on the last three Starship test flights, which launched in January, March and May of this year.

On Flight 7 and Flight 8, the "rapid unscheduled disassembly" occurred less than 10 minutes after liftoff. Ship flew significantly farther on Flight 9; SpaceX lost contact with the vehicle about 46 minutes after liftoff, and its pieces are likely resting on the Indian Ocean seabed.

Super Heavy has performed better. On Flight 7 and Flight 8, for example, the booster returned to Starbase after launch for a dramatic catch by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms. The Flight 7 Super Heavy flew again on Flight 9, notching a major reusability milestone for the Starship program. (SpaceX did not attempt to recover the booster on Flight 9, and it broke apart as it was coming in for a planned "hard splashdown" in the Gulf of Mexico.)

SpaceX is still looking into what happened on Flight 9, an investigation overseen by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. So there was not yet an official target launch date for Starship Flight 10 — and, if there had been, it would now have to be revised after the events of Wednesday night.

Japanese automaker Honda successfully launched and landed a prototype reusable rocket on Tuesday (June 17), marking a big step toward future spaceflight capabilities.

The 56-second vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) test took place Tuesday at Honda's facility in Taiki, Hokkaido, often dubbed Japan's "space town." The rocket, developed by Honda R&D, reached an altitude of 271.4 meters (890 feet) and touched down just 37 centimeters (14.6 inches) from its target, according to a company statement.

The experimental reusable rocket measures approximately 20.7 feet in length (6.3 meters) and 33.5 inches (85 centimeters) in diameter. It has a dry weight of 1,984 pounds (900 kilograms) and a wet weight of 2,893 pounds (1,312 kg), according to Honda's statement.

Honda said it achieved its intended objectives for the launch and landing while obtaining data during the ascent and descent. The company will next work toward a suborbital launch, though the program's commercial future is unknown.

"Although Honda rocket research is still in the fundamental research phase, and no decisions have been made regarding commercialization of these rocket technologies, Honda will continue making progress in the fundamental research with a technology development goal of realizing technological capability to enable a suborbital launch by 2029," the company said.

The carmaker revealed back in 2021 that it aims to go seriously off-road, announcing a successful combustion test for its reusable engine for the experimental rocket. The company has also partnered with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore technologies needed for human space exploration.

The company joins a number of other rocket firms emerging in Japan, including Interstellar Technologies and Space One, the latter of which suffered two launch failures last year. Meanwhile, Innovative Space Carrier (ISC) plans to conduct its own hop test later this year.

Twenty-eight new SpaceX Starlink satellites are now in low Earth orbit, having launched from Florida early Wednesday morning (June 18).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the broadband internet relays lifted off at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 28 satellites (Group 10-18) were deployed about an hour after the launch, as confirmed by SpaceX.

At just 8 minutes into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage successfully touched down on the droneship "Just Read the Instructions." The landing marked the completion of Booster B1090's fifth trip to space and back.

Wednesday morning's launch comes just two days after SpaceX sent 26 Starlink satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California. The company now has more than 7,777 active internet relays circling Earth.

SpaceX is currently working to deploying a total of 12,000 Starlink satellites, but has plans, if approved, to grow the megaconstellation to more than 34,000 units in orbit.

SpaceX launched 26 Starlink satellites from California on Monday evening (June 16).

A relatively new Falcon 9 rocket, making only its third flight, lifted off at 8:36 p.m. PDT local (11:36 p.m. EDT or 0336 GMT June 17) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The satellites (Group 15-9, according to SpaceX's website) reached low Earth orbit about eight and a half minutes later and were on track to be deployed after a second burn of the Falcon's upper stage at approximately an hour into the mission.

In the interim, the rocket's spent first stage made a successful landing on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" stationed in the Pacific Ocean. The stage, referred to by SpaceX by its serial number, B1093, last flew in May on the second of what is now its three total Starlink flights.

Monday's launch followed a similar Starlink deployment from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday (June 13). That mission (12-26) included the last satellites needed to complete SpaceX's first generation direct-to-cell constellation.

"Working with cellular providers around the world, direct to cell enables unmodified cellphones to have connectivity in the most remote areas," read a company social media post noting the milestone.

Though Monday's launch did not include direct to cell enabled satellites, it did add to the overall Starlink broadband internet network, which now numbers more than 7,760 active units.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch Amazon's second group of satellites for its Kuiper internet satellite constellation today (June 16), and you can watch the action live.

The 27 satellites, riding atop a ULA Atlas V rocket, are scheduled to lift off at 1:25 p.m. EDT (1725 GMT) today from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

You can watch it live here at Space.com courtesy of ULA, or directly via the company. Coverage will begin 20 minutes before liftoff.

The forecast calls for a 75%  chance of acceptable weather conditions, with cumulus cloud cover being the primary concern (as of the time this article was published).

Should all proceed to plan, the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket's two RD-180 engines and five side-mounted solid rocket boosters will power the first one minute and 46 seconds of flight. The boosters will then separate, followed by the jettison of the fairing that shields the Kuiper satellites at three minutes after launch.

The RD-180 engines will cut off at about 4 minutes, 23 seconds, and then the booster and upper stage will separate. A Centaur engine will thrust the satellites the rest of the way into orbit, cutting off at 18 minutes.

The Atlas V rocket, flying in its 551 configuration, is outfitted with a medium-length protective fairing and five solid rocket boosters.

Amazon describes the goal of its Project Kuiper as "to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world." Amazon's first launch of 27 satellites in April. also on an Atlas V, began the network, which aims to have more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit after 83 launches on the Atlas V, ULA's Vulcan, Blue Origin's New Glenn and Arianespace's Ariane 6 rockets.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the broadband internet satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, lifted off at 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The launch proceeded to plan, with the Falcon 9's first stage (the booster designated B1078) completing its 21st flight. Deploying its four landing legs, the stage touched down on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean.


The Falcon's second or upper stage continued firing and was on track to deploy the new Starlink satellites (known as Group 12-26) an hour and five minutes after leaving the ground. Once in place, the spacecraft will become part of the space-based network, now totaling more than 7,600 units.

The direct-to-cell-capable satellites enable certain smart phones and select service providers' networks to access the Starlink constellation directly, especially in places where ground-based coverage is not available.

SpaceX has now launched 73 Falcon 9 missions in 2025, of which 55 have been in support of the Starlink service. Friday's mission followed a Starlink launch on Thursday evening from California, which marked the 500th overall completed Falcon mission.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 26 of the company's Starlink internet satellites lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday (June 12) at 9:54 p.m. EDT (6:54 p.m. PDT local time, or 0154 GMT on June 13).

The satellites were deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO) about an hour later as planned, the company announced via X. And, with that success, SpaceX's Falcon rocket family hit a very significant round number.

"Falcon completes its 500th overall mission! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team for making the impossible possible on the road to rapidly reusable rockets!" SpaceX said in another X post on Thursday night.

And speaking of reusability: The Falcon 9's first stage, serial B1081, came back to Earth on Thursday night, touching down on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," which was stationed off the coast of Southern California. It was the 15th launch and landing for the booster, according to SpaceX's web page for the 15-6 mission.

SpaceX's record for reusing a Falcon 9 first stage stands at 28 launches.

The 26 newly launched spacecraft will soon join more than 7,600 active satellites in the Starlink megaconstellation, the largest satellite network ever assembled.

SpaceX, led by billionaire Elon Musk, bills the Starlink service as "high-speed internet around the world" and its satellite megaconstellation does now reach around the planet. A growing number of the spacecraft support direct-to-cell capabilities, enabling texting and internet service from certain smart phones and service providers.

With Thursday's launch in the books, SpaceX has now launched 72 Falcon 9 missions in 2025, of which 54 have been in support of the Starlink service.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m. ET on June 13 with the news that this was the 500th completed Falcon mission overall for SpaceX.

An Electron rocket topped with the QPS-SAR-11 spacecraft lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Wednesday at 11:31 a.m. EDT (1531 GMT; 3:31 a.m. on June 12 local New Zealand time).

The Electron did its job, deploying the satellite into a circular orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth roughly 51 minutes after launch as planned.

Rocket Lab called this mission "The Mountain God Guards." That's a reference to the QPS-SAR-11 satellite's nickname, Yamatsumi-1, which honors a Japanese god of the mountains.

Yamatsumi-1 will join iQPS' synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation, which views targets on Earth in all weather conditions, day and night.

"To date, 10 QPS-SAR satellites have been launched, and iQPS aims to establish a constellation of 36 satellites," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description, which you can find here.

"This will enable the delivery of a 'NearReal-Time Data Provisioning Service,' allowing for the observation of specific regions worldwide at an average interval of 10 minutes," the company added. "This will make it possible to collect continuous images as data, and to accumulate data not only on 'Stationary Objects' such as land and buildings, but also on 'Moving Objects' such as vehicles, ships, and cattle and livestock."

"The Mountain God Guards" was the the eighth mission of 2025 and 66th overall flight for the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to orbit.

Rocket Lab has now launched four missions for iQPS (which is short for "Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space"), and there are more to come: Today's flight was the third of eight contracted missions for iQPS expected to lift off in 2025 and 2026, according to Rocket Lab.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:35 p.m. ET on June 11 with news of successful satellite deployment.