SpaceX’s 10th test flight of its towering Starship rocket on Tuesday (Aug. 27) offered engineers valuable data — and sparked a burst of speculation. Observers noticed an unusual orange discoloration on the second stage of the vehicle as it made a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, raising questions about the integrity of its heat shield.
SpaceX finally notched a major win on Tuesday evening, pulling off what appeared to be the most successful Starship test flight to date after three consecutive failures. The company’s massive Super Heavy-Starship rocket system, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, soared from Starbase in Texas at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (7:30 p.m. ET), and more than an hour later, both the booster and upper stage splashed down in their designated oceans as planned.
A SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday, bringing more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, science experiments, and hardware — plus one very popular menu item: 1,500 tortillas, the go-to bread substitute for astronauts dining in microgravity.
SpaceX fans will have to wait a bit longer to witness the highly anticipated 10th test flight of the company’s Starship megarocket.
Rocket Lab notched another milestone in its launch history on Saturday evening (Aug. 23 U.S. time), successfully deploying five satellites for a confidential customer in a mission shrouded in secrecy.
SpaceX successfully launched its latest Cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday morning, delivering vital supplies, science experiments, and a new propulsion system designed to assist with orbital maintenance.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared into the night sky late Thursday (Aug. 21), carrying the U.S. military’s mysterious X-37B spaceplane on its eighth mission. Liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center occurred at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 UTC on Aug. 22), marking the latest chapter in a program cloaked in secrecy since its debut in 2010.
SpaceX has taken another step toward its next milestone launch, moving its towering Super Heavy booster to the pad at Starbase in South Texas in preparation for the company’s 10th Starship test flight, currently scheduled for Sunday evening (Aug. 24).
ASA is preparing to introduce its newest class of astronaut candidates next month, a symbolic step as the agency edges closer to its first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century. The reveal comes just weeks before a series of briefings designed to build momentum for Artemis II, the mission slated to send astronauts around the Moon no later than April 2026.
Russia has revived its storied space-biology program with the launch of the Bion-M No. 2 biosatellite, carrying a miniature ecosystem of living organisms into orbit. The spacecraft lifted off today (Aug. 20) atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:13 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT; 10:13 p.m. local time).
For decades, astrochemists have puzzled over an interstellar riddle: where is all the sulfur? Despite being one of the universe’s most abundant elements and essential to the chemistry of life, sulfur has been conspicuously scarce in astronomical observations. A new international study may finally reveal where this elusive element has been hiding.
Firefly Aerospace may soon expand its launch footprint to Asia, with its Alpha rockets potentially taking flight from the northern shores of Japan.
