SpaceX

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
Startup Inversion has raised a $44 million in a Series A round to fund development of a reentry capsule that could carry payloads on orbits around Earth.
Commercial Space

By Matthew Fulco
Taiwanese manufacturers in SpaceX’s supply chain are shifting some satellite component production to Southeast Asia, driven by business and geopolitics.
Commercial Space

By Vivienne Machi
Lockheed Martin is preparing to launch its next technology demonstration spacecraft in 2025, with an eye toward U.S. programs and the international market.
Satellites

By Irene Klotz
With President-elect Donald Trump in attendance, SpaceX’s sixth Starship-Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from its launchpad at 5 p.m. EST.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
NASA plans to add uncrewed missions to both SpaceX and Blue Origin’s Human Landing System service contracts to deliver a lunar rover and a habitat to the Moon.
Space Exploration

By Matthew Fulco
Drone manufacturer AeroVironment will purchase defense tech company BlueHalo in an all-stock deal valued at $4.1 billion.
Supply Chain

By Robert Wall
The election of Donald Trump to another term as U.S. president has become a rallying point for the European space sector to strengthen sovereign capabilities.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Mark Carreau
NASA says it has received a favorable “clean” assessment of its fiscal 2024 financial statements for the 14th year in a row in an independent review .
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Thierry Dubois
As threats in space proliferate, governments have been seeking to bolster their awareness of what is taking place there.
Operations & Safety

By Irene Klotz
Terms of the contracts were not disclosed, nor how many launches each company was awarded.
Commercial Space

By Brian Everstine
The Defense Department on Nov. 14 issued its latest annual report on UAP from its All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
Space Exploration

By Irene Klotz
Under the contract, Rocket Lab will launch two dedicated missions for the commercial customer beginning in mid-2026 from Wallops Island, Virginia.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX plans to step up the cadence of Starship-Super Heavy flight tests, with a sixth launch designed to build on last month’s successful booster landing catch.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
Hegseth would succeed Lloyd Austin, a retired Army four-star general.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Mark Carreau
The challenges are even more relevant because of a constrained federal budget environment.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Mark Carreau
The Nov. 8 operation had already been set when the resupply mission docked to the U.S. segment of the ISS earlier this week.
Operations & Safety

By Garrett Reim
A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship delivered a cold welding experiment to the International Space Station (ISS) on Nov. 5.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX said it would try to launch another Starship-Super Heavy vehicle as early as 5 p.m. EST Nov. 18.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Mark Carreau
The SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft docked to the U.S. segment of the ISS on Nov. 5 to deliver 6,000 lb. of supplies, station hardware and research material.
Operations & Safety

By Irene Klotz
Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A followed a Falcon 9 scrub Nov. 3 at the neighboring Cape Canaveral SFS Space Launch Complex 40.
Operations & Safety

By Garrett Reim
The new constellation will expand cellular service for Apple users, Globalstar disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 1.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
SpaceX CRS-31 is scheduled to launch on the Falcon 9 rocket with the Cargo Dragon capsule from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 4 .
Operations & Safety

By Joe Anselmo, Irene Klotz, Guy Norris
SpaceX’s Starship booster “catch” at the launchpad wowed the space world, but big hurdles remain to launching humans to Mars in 2028.
Check 6

By Mark Carreau
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) made special mention during its fourth-quarter session of how mission management openly addressed safety concerns.
Space Exploration