SpaceX

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Emerging Technologies

By Robert Wall, Vivienne Machi
The world is headed for a period of launcher abundance as the New Glenn expands rocket choice in the heavy-lift segment.
Commercial Space

By Guy Norris
The company created fireworks with its latest Starship flight test—just not the celebratory kind, as rocket debris caused commercial flight diversions.
Commercial Space

By Matthew Fulco
The rivalry between the U.S. and China in space is set to intensify in 2025 as they increase rocket launches and satellite constellation construction.
Commercial Space

By Guy Norris
Several commercial airline flights in the northern Caribbean briefly entered holding patterns due to debris from the test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

By Robert Wall
SpaceX is pressing ahead with plans for another Starship test flight as it investigates the loss of the upper stage during the most recent development mission.
Operations & Safety

By Guy Norris
SpaceX’s Starship program saw mixed results on Jan. 16: tthe second recovery of the booster.but the loss of the first upgraded Block 2 upper-stage variant.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
Defense Research and Development Canada has launched three formation-flying microsatellites as part of its Arctic surveillance technology demonstration mission.
Commercial Space

By Matthew Fulco
Led by France’s Tikehau Capital, the late-stage funding round was also joined by a trio of other venture capital (VC) firms.
Commercial Space

By Vivienne Machi
The connection took place Dec. 18 and is the only optical link attempted thus far, an SDA spokesperson said in a Jan. 15 email.
Satellites

By Thierry Dubois, Robert Wall
To make up ground it is losing to SpaceX, China and others, Europe is looking to infuse greater competition into its space launch industry.
Commercial Space

By Vivienne Machi
The El Segundo, California-based company’s W-2 capsule carries a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Commercial Space

By Adrian Schofield
Qantas has had to incur significant delays on some of its flights across the Indian Ocean due to the re-entry of SpaceX rocket launches in the area.
Airlines & Lessors

By Vivienne Machi
NROL-153 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:53 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex-4 East.
Satellites

By Thierry Dubois
The details of the European Launcher Challenge are still in the works.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
The revised plan shaves billions from projected program costs.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Irene Klotz
The 2024 launch rate surpassed the 223 orbital launch attempts in 2023, the previous record.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost vehicle will share the ride with another lunar lander owned by Japan’s iSpace.
Space Exploration

By Garrett Reim
Human brainpower is becoming the era’s chief bottleneck.
Emerging Technologies

By Irene Klotz
Either option would cut the flagship $11 billion Mars Sample Return mission’s cost by at least 30% and as much as 47%.
Space Exploration

By Irene Klotz
An FAA airspace advisory is in effect for New Glenn-1 (NG-1) launch attempts from Jan. 6-12 from Cape Canaveral SFS.
Commercial Space

By Vivienne Machi
ULA flew two flights for its Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle in 2024, on Jan. 8 and Oct. 4.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
Nelson leaves NASA Jan. 20 with the rest of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Irene Klotz
The nomination of entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA may prove to be a turning point.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Irene Klotz
The return of U.S. astronauts to the Moon won’t happen until at least mid-2027, says NASA.
Budget, Policy & Regulation