After nearly a decade of design work, engineering trials, and countless ground tests, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft soared into the sky for the first time on Oct. 28, marking a landmark achievement for the agency’s Quesst mission and the future of commercial supersonic flight.

Just one week after the triumphant launch and landing of its New Glenn booster—which successfully deployed NASA’s ESCAPADE mission on a trajectory to Mars—Blue Origin is already looking to the future. On November 20, the aerospace company announced a significant evolution of its launch vehicle family, including immediate performance boosts for its current rocket and plans for a massive new variant: the New Glenn 9x4.

China appears to be preparing a critical launch later this month to send a replacement spacecraft to the Tiangong space station, after a debris strike left its current return vehicle damaged and unusable.

The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted temporary restrictions on commercial space launches that had been implemented as a result of the recent U.S. government shutdown.

 United Launch Alliance (ULA) executed a smooth late-night launch Thursday, sending a powerful communications satellite into orbit for California-based Viasat aboard one of its final Atlas V rockets. Liftoff occurred at 10:04 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41, marking another milestone for the workhorse rocket as it heads toward retirement.

 Blue Origin notched a milestone in its heavy-lift ambitions on Thursday with the successful launch of its second New Glenn rocket, a towering 321-foot behemoth designed to anchor Jeff Bezos’ long-term vision for reusable spaceflight. The mission dispatched two small NASA satellites onto a complex, years-long journey to Mars, where they will study how the Sun has slowly stripped the planet of its atmosphere.

SpaceX closed a major chapter in its Starship development program on Monday evening, launching what appeared to be a nearly flawless suborbital test flight with its upgraded Version 2 Starship-Super Heavy rocket. The mission, designated Integrated Flight Test-11 (IFT-11), marked the final flight of this iteration of the world’s tallest and most powerful rocket as the company transitions to the next generation — Starship Version 3.

SpaceX is preparing for the next chapter in its ambitious Starship test campaign, with the Flight 11 mission poised to launch Monday evening from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The test, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Eastern (2315 UTC), will mark another crucial step in refining the fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle designed to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The U.S. Space Force has selected Blue Origin to construct a new state-of-the-art payload processing facility (PPF) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, expanding America’s capacity to prepare spacecraft for launch. The project aims to strengthen the nation’s on-orbit capabilities and streamline the pre-launch process for military, commercial, and allied missions.

SpaceX has moved the Super Heavy booster, the first stage of its colossal Starship rocket, to the launch pad at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas, signaling preparations for the next major test flight.

Oct. 9: SpaceX has postponed the planned launch of 24 Amazon Project Kuiper broadband satellites due to deteriorating weather conditions along Florida’s Space Coast. The mission, originally slated for Thursday night, is now scheduled to lift off no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 12, at 8:41 p.m. EDT (0041 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

In a bold step for spacecraft servicing, NASA has awarded Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, a $30 million contract to raise the orbit of the agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The robotic servicing mission, planned for spring 2026, will be the first attempt by a commercial spacecraft to capture and reposition a government-owned satellite that was never designed for in-orbit servicing.