rocket report

Welcome to Edition 8.06 of the Rocket Report! After years of disappointing results from SPACs and space companies, it is a good sign to see Firefly’s more traditional initial public offering doing so well. The company has had such a long and challenging road over more than a decade; the prospect of their success should be heartening to the commercial space industry.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Virgin Galactic delays resumption of spaceflights. The Richard Branson-founded company plans to resume private space tourism trips in the autumn of 2026 after its Delta spacecraft’s first commercial flight, a research mission that was delayed from summer 2026 to also occur in the fall, Bloomberg reports. Virgin Galactic announced an updated timeline on Wednesday, when it reported quarterly financial results that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Revenue was about $410,000 for the second quarter.

Waiting on Delta … The company paused commercial operations in June 2024 to focus on developing the upgraded Delta vehicle, which is being optimized for reusability and faster turnaround time between flights. Virgin Galactic had been selling seats on the Delta spacecraft for about $600,000 and said that it plans to raise prices when ticket sales resume in the first quarter of 2026. The company also recently adjusted the size of its in-house engineering team and reduced the overall headcount by 7 percent to control costs.

Firefly is a big hit with investors. Shares in the Cedar Park, Texas-based space company began trading at $70 on the NASDAQ stock exchange midday Thursday under the symbol FLY, jumping from their initial public offering price of $45, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company sold more than 19 million shares in the listing, raising $868 million. Bankers and traders are closely tracking the stock’s performance as a sign of both the US IPO market strength and investor interest in space companies. The offering will allow the company to accelerate production and its launch cadence, Firefly CEO Jason Kim said in an interview.

Time to build and fly … “We have to execute,” said Kim, who led a Boeing satellite business before taking the top role at Firefly last year. “We’ve got a really strong backlog.” Firefly’s listing comes five months after it successfully guided its Blue Ghost lander to the lunar surface, carrying scientific gear to research moondust and ground temperatures. The NASA-funded mission marked the first fully successful private moon landing, following misfires on three other flights handled by competitors. The company’s next challenge is to prove that its other vehicles can work as well, including the Alpha rocket.

iRocket says it has signed a huge deal. A largely unknown small launch startup, iRocket, says it has signed a multi-year agreement with SpaceBelt KSA valued at up to $640 million. iRocket will support up to 30 satellite launches, providing mission planning, propulsion systems, and integration services to help establish a secure, autonomous space communications network across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.

Yes, but … iRocket says the agreement represents a significant commercial milestone. However, since its founding in 2018, New York-based iRocket hasn’t released much information on any technical progress toward a first flight of the Shockwave launch vehicle. It is difficult to know how much (if any) money changed hands with this agreement.

Indian space startup builds 3D-printed engine. The Chennai-based startup Agnikul Cosmos has announced the successful development of the world’s largest single-piece 3D-printed Inconel rocket engine, Business Today reports. The engine, printed in one go without any welds, joints, or fasteners, represents a leap in additive manufacturing for aerospace, the company said.

Earned a patent … Agnikul also said it has been granted a US patent for the design and manufacturing process of single-piece rocket engines. “Means something to have a completely Indian-origin design patented in the US—a nation that has built some of the most complex engines in this industry,” the company said. Agnikul is developing a small-lift booster that can put about 100 kg to low-Earth orbit.

Skyrora wins first UK launch license. Skyrora became the first British commercial rocket manufacturer to secure a launch license from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, paving the way for its Skylark L suborbital rocket to lift off from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands, Payload reports. Derek Harris, Skyrora’s business development lead, said this test flight could take place as early as May 2026.

Waiting on launch pads … Skyrora said it could launch sooner if it opted to fly from an international launch pad. That’s the route it took in 2022, when it launched a rocket from Iceland’s mobile Langanes launch site. “Unfortunately, we are still technically locked out of SaxaVord,” Harris said. “What is still open to us is Oman, and Australia, or even going back to Iceland…[but] it would be a sad indictment of what’s going on with the government funding if we have to go elsewhere to launch it.”

The Philippines condemns China’s rocket launch. A top Philippine security official on Tuesday condemned China’s latest rocket launch, which caused suspected debris to fall near a western Philippine province, the AP reports. Authorities said the incident sparked alarm and posed a danger to people, ships, and aircraft. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the suspected Chinese rocket debris that fell near Palawan province Monday night, following a launch of the medium-lift Long March 12.

No NOTAMs it seems … China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Long March-12 rocket that lifted off Monday night from a commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan successfully carried a group of Internet satellites into pre-set orbit. It was not immediately clear whether Chinese authorities had notified nearby countries, such as the Philippines, of possible debris from its latest rocket launch. Philippine aircraft and vessels were deployed on Tuesday to search for the rocket debris.

Crew-11 mission launches from Florida. The next four-person team to live and work aboard the International Space Station departed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center last Friday, taking aim at the massive orbiting research complex for a planned stay of six to eight months, Ars reports. Spacecraft commander Zena Cardman leads the mission, designated Crew-11, with three others aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule: veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of Japan, and Oleg Platonov of Russia.

Au revoir to an old friend … The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage booster detached and returned to a propulsive touchdown at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a few miles south of the launch site. This was the 53rd and final rocket landing at LZ-1 since SpaceX aced the first intact recovery of a Falcon 9 booster there on December 21, 2015. SpaceX will move onshore rocket landings to new landing zones to be constructed next to the two Falcon 9 launch pads at the Florida spaceport. Landing Zone 2, located adjacent to Landing Zone 1, will also be decommissioned and handed back over to the Space Force once SpaceX activates the new landing sites.

NASA says it will move a space shuttle. The head of NASA has decided to move one of the agency’s retired space shuttles to Houston, but which shuttle remains unclear, Ars reports. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who earlier this year introduced and championed an effort to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, issued a statement on Tuesday evening applauding the decision. The senator did not state which of NASA’s winged orbiters would be making the move.

Playing coy for no clear reason … The legislation that required Duffy to choose a “space vehicle” that had “flown in space” and “carried people” did not specify an orbiter by name, but the language in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed into law last month was inspired by Cornyn and fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s bill to relocate Discovery. It is unclear why the choice of orbiters is being kept a secret. According to the bill, the decision was to be made “with the concurrence of an entity designated” by the NASA administrator to display the shuttle. Cornyn’s release only confirmed that Duffy had identified the location to be “a non-profit near the Johnson Space Center.”

SpaceX begins offering Starship services to Mars. On Thursday, Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, announced that the company has begun selling rides to Mars. “Get on board! We are going to Mars! SpaceX is now offering Starship services to the red planet,” Shotwell said on X. As part of the announcement, Shotwell said SpaceX has signed a “first of its kind” agreement with the Italian Space Agency.

Racing the Giro d’Mars … The president of the Italian Space Agency, Teodoro Valente, confirmed the news, saying the first Starship flights to Mars (which will, of course, be uncrewed) will carry Italian experiments. “The payloads will gather scientific data during the missions. Italy continues to lead in space exploration!” Valente wrote on X. Left unsaid, of course, is when such flights will take place. It is difficult to see Starship now being ready for a late 2026 window, but early 2029 seems plausible.

ULA will eventually test reuse technology. On Thursday, ahead of the first Vulcan launch of a national security payload next week, United Launch Alliance chief executive Tory Bruno spoke with reporters about various topics, NASA Spaceflight reports. A highlight was ULA’s progress on SMART Reuse, a system aimed at recovering and reusing booster components to reduce costs. Bruno announced that the critical design review for key components is complete, paving the way for building flight-like hardware for certification.

Testing remains a ways away … As development progresses, ULA plans to relocate more components to the aft section of the booster for recovery. “By the time that path is finished, pretty much the only thing being discarded from the booster will be the fuel tanks,” he said. Experimental flights incorporating SMART Reuse could begin as early as 2026, or at least by 2027, but only when aligned with customer needs. One wonders when actual engine recovery and reuse might begin.

Next three launches

August 8: Falcon 9 | Project Kuiper KF-02 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 13: 40 UTC

August 8: Jielong 3 | Undeclared payload | Offshore site, Chinese coastal waters | 16: 30 UTC

August 10: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-4 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 03: 43 UTC

Welcome to Edition 8.05 of the Rocket Report! One of the most eye-raising things I saw this week was an online update from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center touting its work on cryogenic propellant management in orbit. Why? Because until recently, this was a forbidden research topic at the space agency, as propellant depots would obviate the need for a large rocket like the Space Launch System. But now that Richard Shelby is retired…

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Australian launch goes sideways. Back-to-back engine failures doomed a privately developed Australian rocket moments after liftoff Tuesday, cutting short a long-shot attempt to reach orbit with the country’s first homegrown launch vehicle, Ars reports. The 82-foot-tall (25-meter) Eris rocket ignited its four main engines and took off from its launch pad in northeastern Australia, but the rocket quickly lost power from two of its engines and stalled just above the launch pad before coming down in a nearby field. The crash sent a plume of smoke thousands of feet over the launch site, which sits on a remote stretch of coastline on Australia’s northeastern frontier.

Setting expectations … Gilmour Space, the private company that developed the rocket, said in a statement that there were no injuries and “no adverse environmental impacts” in the aftermath of the accident. The launch pad also appeared to escape any significant damage. The company’s cofounder and CEO, Adam Gilmour, spoke with Ars a few hours after the launch. Gilmour said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome of the Eris rocket’s inaugural test flight, which lasted just 14 seconds. “I didn’t expect that we would get to orbit,” he said. “Never did. I thought best case was maybe 40 seconds of flight time, but I’ll take 14 as a win.” (submitted by zapman987 and Tfargo04)

Firefly seeks to go public. Firefly Aerospace seeks to raise more than $600 million through a public stock offering, an arrangement that would boost the company’s market valuation to nearly $5.5 billion, according to a document filed with the SEC on Monday, Ars reports. The launch of Firefly’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) comes as the company works to build on a historic success in March, when Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander touched down on the surface of the Moon. Firefly plans to sell 16.2 million shares of common stock at a price of between $35 and $39 per share. Under those terms, Firefly could raise up to $631.8 million on the public market.

A lot of financial needs … In a statement, Firefly said it will use the funds to pay off a “substantial” amount of debt and support dividend payments and “for general corporate purposes.” Firefly’s general corporate purposes include a spectrum of activities, and some are going better than others. Firefly is deep into the capital-intensive development of a new medium-class rocket named Eclipse in partnership with Northrop Grumman, which made a $50 million strategic investment into Firefly in May. And Firefly is developing a spacecraft line called Elytra, a platform that can host military sensors and other payloads and maneuver them into different orbits.

Air Force tests new ICBM. It’s been half a decade since the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a sole-source contract to develop a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the LGM-35 Sentinel. The missiles will carry thermonuclear warheads and are intended to replace all 450 Minuteman III missiles starting in 2029. This week, the Air Force announced that testing of the rocket’s second stage motor in a vacuum chamber to simulate high-altitude conditions is going well. “This test reflects our disciplined digital engineering approach and the continued momentum behind the Sentinel program,” said Brig. Gen. William S. Rogers of the Air Force.

Real-world tests to validate models … The stage-two motor is one of three booster segments that make up the three-stage Sentinel missile. According to the Air Force, this test is part of a series intended to qualify the stage-two design and validate predictive performance models developed in a digital engineering environment. The data gathered from the test will be used to refine design elements and reduce technical risk as the program moves toward production. The milestone follows the stage-one rocket motor test conducted in March at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Promontory, Utah.

Starship debris clouds future of SpaceX Bahamas landings. In a new report, Reuters provides additional details about the deal between SpaceX and the Bahamas to land Falcon 9 first stages there and why it still may go sideways. The Bahamas rocket-landing deal, which unlocked a more efficient path to space for SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9, was signed in February last year by Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper. Sources told the publication that the quick approval created tension within the Bahamian government, with some officials expressing misgivings about a lack of transparency in the negotiations.

Landing agreement on hold … SpaceX’s deal with the Bahamas, the government said, included a $1 million donation to the University of Bahamas, where the company pledged to conduct quarterly seminars on space and engineering topics. The company must also pay a $100,000 fee per landing. In April, the landing agreement was put on hold after the explosion of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, whose mid-flight failure sent hundreds of pieces of debris washing ashore on Bahamian islands. Local activists have increased criticism of the Falcon 9 landing agreement since then, which remains under review. (submitted by Tom Nelson)

A single cloud delays Crew 11 launch. The SpaceX Crew-11 mission was a little more than a minute away from the planned launch Thursday onboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft when cumulus clouds popped up in just the right spot to trigger a scrub, Spaceflight Now reports. The four astronauts, led by NASA’s Zena Cardman, are bound for the International Space Station when they leave Earth.

Forecasters for the win? … On Wednesday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 90 percent chance for favorable weather at launch. Meteorologists said there was a low probability for interference from cumulus clouds, but that proved to be enough to stymie a launch attempt. As a meteorologist, I feel like I should apologize for my colleagues. Another attempt is likely Friday, although weather conditions will deteriorate somewhat.

Mysterious rocket engine undergoes testing. The Exploration Company has successfully completed a six-week test campaign of the oxygen-rich preburner for its Typhoon rocket engine, European Spaceflight reports. With co-financing from the French space agency CNES, The Exploration Company began work on its Typhoon rocket engine in January 2024. The reusable engine uses a full-flow staged combustion cycle and is designed to produce 250 metric tons of thrust, which is comparable to a SpaceX Raptor. On Thursday, the company announced that it had completed a series of 16 hot-fire tests of the oxygen-rich preburner for the Typhoon engine.

What is the engine for? … At this point, the Typhoon engine does not have a confirmed application, as it is far too powerful for any of the company’s current in-space logistics projects. According to information provided to European Spaceflight by the company, The Exploration Company partnered with an industrial prime contractor to submit a proposal for the European Space Agency’s European Launcher Challenge. While unconfirmed, the company’s contribution to the bid likely included the Typhoon engine.

India’s GSLV delivers for NASA. A $1.5 billion synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, a joint project between NASA and the Indian space agency ISRO, successfully launched into orbit on Wednesday aboard that nation’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, Ars reports. The mission, named NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), was subsequently deployed into its intended orbit 464 miles (747 km) above the Earth’s surface. From this Sun-synchronous orbit, it will collect data about the planet’s land and ice surfaces two times every 12 days.

A growing collaboration … After Wednesday’s launch, the spacecraft will undergo a three-month commissioning phase. The NISAR mission is notable both for its price tag—Earth observation missions typically cost less because they do not need to be hardened for long-duration flight in deep space—as well as the partnership with India. In terms of complexity and cost, this is the largest collaboration between NASA and ISRO to date and could set a template for further cooperation in space as part of the Artemis program or other initiatives.

You can now see a Merlin engine at the Smithsonian. The National Air and Space Museum welcomed the public into five more of its renovated galleries on Monday, including two showcasing spaceflight artifacts, Ars reports. The new exhibitions shine a modern light on returning displays and restore the museum’s almost 50-year-old legacy of adding objects that made history but have yet to become historical.

The mighty Merlin … Among the artifacts debuting in “Futures in Space” are a Merlin engine and grid fin that flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Sian Proctor’s pressure suit that she wore on the private Inspiration4 mission in 2021, and a mockup of a New Shepard crew module that Blue Origin has pledged to replace with its first flown capsule when it is retired from flying. It’s great to see elements of the Falcon 9 rocket in the museum. Although the booster is still active, it is by far the most-flown US rocket in history, and the Merlin engine is the most reliable rocket engine over that timeframe.

Reason Foundation calls for termination of SLS. A libertarian think tank, the Reason Foundation, has published a new report that is deeply critical of NASA’s Artemis program and its use of the Space Launch System Rocket and Orion spacecraft. “NASA needs to bite the bullet and end its use of obsolete, non-reusable launch vehicles and sole-source, cost-plus contracts,” the report states. “It should shift to state-of-the-art reusable spacecraft and public-private partnerships like those now transporting cargo and people between Earth and the International Space Station.”

How to get to the Moon … The report estimates that canceling the SLS rocket, its ground systems, Orion, and the Lunar Gateway would save NASA $5.25 billion a year. The authors posit several different architectures for a lunar lander that would be ready sooner and be compatible with existing rockets. This includes a novel plan to use Crew Dragon, with legs, as a lander. It is not clear how much impact the report will have, as Congress seems to want to fly the SLS indefinitely, and the Trump administration seeks to cancel the rocket after two more flights.

NASA is finally interested in propellant depots. This week NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center posted an update noting its recent work on developing and testing technology to manage cryogenic propellants in space. Teams at the field center in Huntsville, Alabama tested an innovative approach to achieve zero boiloff storage of liquid hydrogen using two stages of active cooling, which could prevent the loss of valuable propellant. “Technologies for reducing propellant loss must be implemented for successful long-duration missions to deep space like the Moon and Mars,” said Kathy Henkel, acting manager of NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project, based at NASA Marshall.

If only this had been done earlier … This is great, obviously, as long-term storage of liquid propellants such as oxygen, hydrogen, and methane are critical to the strategies of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other companies working to develop reusable and more cost-effective space transportation vehicles. However, it is somewhat ironic to see NASA and Marshall promoting this work after it was suppressed for a decade by US Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican. As Ars has previously reported, in order to protect the Space Launch System rocket, Shelby directed NASA to end its work on storage and transfer of cryogenic propellants, going so far as to say he would fire anyone who used the word ‘depot.’ Well, we will say it: Depot.

Next three launches

August 1: Falcon 9 | Crew-11 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 15: 43 UTC

August 2: Electron | JAKE 4 suborbital flight | Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia | 01: 45 UTC

August 4: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-30 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 04: 11 UTC

Welcome to Edition 7.49 of the Rocket Report! You may have noticed we are a little late with the report this week, and that is due to the Juneteenth holiday celebrated in the United States on Thursday. But that hasn’t stopped a torrent of big news this week, from exploding Starships to significant reuse milestones being reached in Asia.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Honda stamps passport to the skies with a hopper. An experimental reusable rocket developed by the research and development arm of Honda Motor Company flew to an altitude of nearly 900 feet (275 meters) Tuesday, then landed with pinpoint precision at the carmaker’s test facility in northern Japan, Ars reports. Honda’s hopper is the first prototype rocket outside of the United States and China to complete a flight of this kind, demonstrating vertical takeoff and vertical landing technology that could underpin the development of a reusable launch vehicle.

A legitimately impressive feat… Honda has been quiet on this rocket project since a brief media blitz nearly four years ago. Developed in-house by Honda R&D Company, the rocket climbed vertically from a pedestal at the company’s test site in southeastern Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, before landing less than a meter from its target. Honda said its launch vehicle is “still in the fundamental research phase,” and the company has made no decision whether to commercialize the rocket program. (submitted by Fernwaerme, TFargo04, Biokleen, Rendgrish, and astromog)

European launch companies seek protection. In a joint statement published on Monday, Arianespace and Avio called for European missions to be launched aboard European rockets, European Spaceflight reports. The statement warned that without “sustained support,” European rocket builders risked losing out to institutionally backed competitors from the US.

Seeking to permanently embed European preference… “Major space powers support their industries through stable and guaranteed institutional markets, enabling long-term investments, innovation, and the preservation of leadership,” explained the statement. The pair argues that Europe risks falling behind not due to a lack of technical capability but because of structural market weaknesses. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Increasing launch cadence may threaten ozone layer. The rapidly growing number of rocket launches could slow the recovery of the ozone layer, a new study in the journal Nature finds. The ozone layer is healing due to countries phasing out CFCs, but rocket launches could slow its recovery if the space industry continues growing, Radio New Zealand reports. “At the moment, it’s not a problem because the launches happen too infrequently,” said University of Canterbury atmospheric scientist Laura Revell, one of the authors of the study. “As we get more and more launches taking place—because there are companies out there with very bold ambitions to increase launch frequency—this is potentially going to be a problem.”

Forecasting a lot of growth in launch… In a conservative growth scenario, about 900 total launches a year, there is some ozone loss but not significant amounts,” said Revell. “But when we look at a more ambitious scenario, when we looked at the upper limits of what might be launched in future—around 2,000 launches year—we saw levels of ozone loss that are concerning in the context of ozone recovery,” she said. Ozone losses are driven by the chlorine produced from solid rocket motor propellant and black carbon, which is emitted from most propellants, the study says. (submitted by Zaphod Harkonnen)

Space may soon be pay-to-play with the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration may soon levy fees on companies seeking launch and reentry licenses, a new tack in the push to give the agency the resources it needs to keep up with the rapidly growing commercial space industry, Ars reports. The text of a budget reconciliation bill released by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) earlier this month calls for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST, to begin charging licensing fees to space companies next year.

The price of poker keeps going up… The fees would phase in over eight years, after which the FAA would adjust them to keep pace with inflation. The money would go into a trust fund to help pay for the operating costs of the FAA’s commercial space office. Cruz’s section of the Senate reconciliation bill calls for the FAA to charge commercial space companies per pound of payload mass, beginning with 25 cents per pound in 2026 and increasing to $1.50 per pound in 2033. Subsequent fee rates would change based on inflation. The overall fee per launch or entry would be capped at $30,000 in 2026, increasing to $200,000 in 2033, and then be adjusted to keep pace with inflation.

Landspace tests Zhuque-3 rocket. Chinese launch startup Landspace carried out a breakthrough static fire test Friday as it builds towards an orbital launch attempt with its Zhuque-3 rocket, Space News reports. The Zhuque-3’s nine methane-liquid oxygen engines ignited in sequence and fired for 45 seconds, including gimbal control testing, before shutting down as planned. The successful test lays a solid foundation for the upcoming inaugural flight of the Zhuque-3 and for the country’s reusable launch vehicle technology, Landspace said.

Similar in design to Falcon 9 … Friday’s static fire test used a first-stage identical to the one intended for Zhuque-3’s inaugural flight, planned for later this year, and covered the full ground-based launch preparation and ignition sequence, including propellant loading, tank pressurization, staged engine ignition, steady-state operation and a programmed shutdown. Payload capacity to low Earth orbit will be 21 metric tons when expendable, or up to 18,300 kg when the first stage is recovered downrange. Alternatively, it can carry 12,500 kg to LEO when returning to the launch site.

Kuiper launch scrubs due to hardware issue. United Launch Alliance and its customer, Amazon, will have to wait longer for the second launch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites following a scrub on Monday afternoon. “United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 551 carrying Amazon’s second Project Kuiper mission, Kuiper 2, is delayed due to an engineering observation of an elevated purge temperature within the booster engine,” ULA said in a statement. “The team will evaluate the hardware, and we will release a new launch date when available.”

Back to the VIF in a spiff… On Tuesday, ULA rolled the Atlas V rocket back to its Vertical Integration Facility to address the issue with the nitrogen purge line on the vehicle. In addition to this mission, ULA has six more Atlas 5 rockets that have been purchased by Amazon to fly satellites for its constellation. As of Friday morning, ULA had not set a new launch date for the Kuiper 2 mission, but it could take place early next week. (submitted by ElllPeaTea)

Varda’s next launch will use in-house spacecraft. Varda Space Industries is preparing to launch its fourth spacecraft, W-4, on a SpaceX rideshare mission scheduled to launch as soon as June 21 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Space News reports. The Los Angeles-based startup manufactures pharmaceuticals in orbit and returns them to Earth using specialized reentry capsules.

No longer using Rocket Lab… For its first three missions, Varda had partnered with Rocket Lab to use its Photon spacecraft for in-space operations. However, with W-4, Varda is debuting its first spacecraft built entirely in-house. The company is consolidating design and production internally in an effort to shorten the timeline between missions and increase flexibility to tailor vehicles to customer requirements. Varda decided that vertical integration was essential for scaling operations. (submitted by MarkW98)

Vandenberg becomes SpaceX west. One of the defining events early in the history of SpaceX is when the company was effectively booted from Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2005 after completing the first successful test firing of the Falcon 1 rocket there. This set the company off on a long romp to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean before acquiring a launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. When SpaceX finally returned to Vandenberg half a decade later, it had the Falcon 9 rocket and was no longer the scrappy upstart. Since then, it has made Vandenberg its own.

Falcons flying frequently… According to Spaceflight Now, on Monday, SpaceX launched the 200th overall orbital flight from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a batch of 26 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Among the 199 previous orbital launches from SLC-4E, 131 of them were Falcon 9 rockets. The pad was first occupied by the Atlas-Agena rocket shortly after the Air Force Western Test Range activated in May 1964. SpaceX is currently going through the review process for acquiring SLC-6 as well to use for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

China tests launch abort system. China carried out a successful pad abort test early Tuesday for its next-generation crew spacecraft for moon and low-Earth orbit missions, Space News reports. Footage of the test shows the escape system rapidly boosting the Mengzhou spacecraft away from the ground. Around 20 seconds later, the vehicle reached a predetermined altitude. The return capsule separated from the escape tower, and its parachutes deployed successfully. China is planning to conduct an in-flight escape test at maximum dynamic pressure later this year.

No longer reliant on the rocket… According to the agency, Mengzhou shifts from the traditional model of “rocket handles abort, spacecraft handles crew rescue,” as used by the Shenzhou, to a system where the Mengzhou spacecraft takes full responsibility for both abort control and crew safety. “The success of this test lays an important technical foundation for future crewed lunar missions,” a Chinese statement read. “Development work on related spacecraft, such as the Long March 10 launch vehicle and the lunar lander, is progressing steadily and will proceed to further testing as scheduled.” (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Another Starship explodes unexpectedly. SpaceX’s next Starship rocket exploded during a ground test in South Texas late Wednesday, dealing another blow to a program already struggling to overcome three consecutive failures in recent months, Ars reports. The late-night explosion at SpaceX’s rocket development complex in Starbase, Texas, destroyed the upper stage that was slated to launch on the next Starship test flight. The powerful blast set off fires around SpaceX’s Massey’s Test Site, located a few miles from the company’s Starship factory and launch pads.

A major anomaly … SpaceX confirmed the Starship, numbered Ship 36 in the company’s inventory, “experienced a major anomaly” on a test stand as the vehicle prepared to ignite its six Raptor engines for a static fire test. These hold-down test-firings are typically one of the final milestones in a Starship launch campaign before SpaceX moves the rocket to the launch pad. The company later said the failure may have been due to a composite overwrap pressure vessel, or COPV, near the top of the vehicle. On Thursday, aerial videos revealed that damage at the test site was significant but not beyond repair. (submitted by Tfargo04)

ArianeGroup will lead reusable engine project. The French space agency CNES announced Tuesday that it had selected ArianeGroup to lead a project to develop a high-thrust reusable rocket engine, European Spaceflight reports. The ASTRE (Advanced Staged-Combustion Technologies for Reusable Engines) project will also include contributions from SiriusSpace and Pangea Aerospace.

Company will take a test and learn approach… The project aims to develop a full-flow staged combustion methalox reusable rocket engine capable of producing between 200 and 300 tonnes of thrust, placing it in roughly the same class as the SpaceX Raptor engine. According to the agency, the goal of the project is “to equip the French and European space industry with new capabilities for strategic applications.” (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Next three launches

June 21: Falcon 9 | Transporter-14 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 21: 19 UTC

June 22: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-23 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 05: 47 UTC

June 23: Atlas V | Project Kuiper KA-02 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 10: 54 UTC

Welcome to Edition 7.47 of the Rocket Report! Let’s hope not, but the quarrel between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk may be remembered as “Black Thursday” for the US space program. A simmering disagreement over Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill” coursing its way through Congress erupted into public view, with two of the most powerful Americans trading insults and threats on social media. Trump suggested the government should terminate “Elon’s governmental contracts and subsidies.” Musk responded with a post saying SpaceX will begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft used to transport crew and cargo to the International Space Station. This could go a number of ways, but it’s hard to think anything good will come of it.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Blue Origin aces suborbital space shot. Blue Origin, the space company founded and owned by Jeff Bezos, launched six people to the edge of space Saturday, May 31, from Bezos’ ranch in West Texas, CBS News reports. A hydrogen-fueled New Shepard booster propelled a crew capsule, equipped with the largest windows of any operational spaceship, to an altitude of nearly 65 miles (105 kilometers), just above the internationally recognized boundary between the discernible atmosphere and space, before beginning the descent to landing. The passengers included three Americans—Aymette Medina Jorge, Gretchen Green, and Paul Jeris—along with Canadian Jesse Williams, New Zealand’s Mark Rocket, and Panamanian Jaime Alemán, who served as his country’s ambassador to the United States.

If you missed it … You wouldn’t be alone. This was the 32nd flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, and the company’s 12th human flight. From a technical perspective, these flights aren’t breaking any new ground in human spaceflight or rocketry. However, each flight provides an opportunity for wealthy or well-connected passengers to view Earth from a perspective only about 700 people have seen before. That’s really cool, but most of these launches are no longer newsworthy, and it takes a devoted fan of spaceflight to tune in to a New Shepard flight on a summertime Saturday morning. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Momentum for Amentum. The US Space Force awarded Jacobs Technology a contract worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide engineering and technical services at the nation’s primary space launch ranges, as the military seeks to modernize aging infrastructure and boost capacity amid a surge in commercial space activity, Space News reports. Jacobs Technology is now part of Amentum, a defense contractor based in Chantilly, Virginia. Amentum merged with Jacobs in September 2024. The so-called “Space Force Range Contract” covers maintenance, sustainment, systems engineering and integration services for the Eastern and Western ranges until 2035. The Eastern Range operates from Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, while the Western Range is based at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Picking from the menu … The contract represents a significant shift in how space launch infrastructure is funded. Under the new arrangement, commercial launch service providers—which now account for the majority of launches at both ranges—can request services or upgrades and pay for them directly, rather than having the government bear the costs upfront. This arrangement would create a more market-driven approach to range operations and potentially accelerate modernization. “Historically, the government has fronted these costs,” Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, Space Launch Delta 45 Commander and Eastern Range Director, said June 3 in a news release. “The ability of our commercial partners to directly fund their own task order will lessen the financial and administrative burden on the government and is in line with congressionally mandated financial improvement and audit readiness requirements.”

Impulse Space rakes in more cash. This week, an in-space propulsion company, Impulse Space, announced that it had raised a significant amount of money, $300 million, Ars reports. This follows a fundraising round just last year in which the Southern California-based company raised $150 million. This is one of the largest capital raises in space in a while, especially for a non-launch company. Founded by Tom Mueller, a former propulsion guru at SpaceX, Impulse Space has test-flown an orbital maneuvering vehicle called Mira on two flights over the last couple of years. The company is developing a larger vehicle, named Helios, that could meaningfully improve the ability of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to transport large payloads to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in the Solar System.

Reacting to the market … The Mira vehicle was originally intended to provide “last-mile” services for spacecraft launched as part of rideshare missions. “The reality is the market for that is not very good,” said Eric Romo, the company’s CEO. Instead, Impulse Space found interest from the Space Force to use Mira as an agile platform for hosting electronic warfare payloads and other military instrumentation in orbit. “Mira wasn’t necessarily designed out of the gate for that, but what we found out after we flew it successfully was, the Space Force said, ‘Hey, we know what that thing’s for,'” Romo said. Helios is a larger beast, with an engine capable of producing 15,000 pounds of thrust and the ability to move a multi-ton payload from low-Earth orbit to geostationary space in less than a day. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Falcon rockets surpass 500 flights. SpaceX was back at the launch pad for a midweek flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This particular flight, designated Starlink 11-22, marked the company’s 500th orbital launch attempt with a Falcon rocket, including Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy, Spaceflight Now reports. This milestone coincided with the 15th anniversary of the first Falcon 9 launch on June 4, 2010. The day before, SpaceX launched the 500th Falcon rocket overall, counting a single suborbital flight in 2020 that tested the Dragon spacecraft’s abort system. The launch on Wednesday from California was the 68th Falcon 9 launch of the year.

Chasing Atlas … The soon-to-be-retired Atlas rocket holds the record for the most-flown family of space launchers in the United States, with 684 launches to date, beginning with Atlas ICBMs in the Cold War to the Atlas V rocket flying today. In reality, however, the Atlas V shares virtually nothing in common with the Atlas ICBM, other than its name. The Atlas V has new engines, more modern computers, and a redesigned booster stage that ended the line of pressure-stabilized “balloon tanks” that flew on Atlas rockets from 1957 until 2005. The Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy share more heritage, all using variants of SpaceX’s Merlin engine. If you consider the Atlas rocket as the US record-holder for most space launches, SpaceX’s Falcon family is on pace to reach 684 flights before the end of 2026.

SpaceX delivers again for GPS. The Space Force successfully sent its latest GPS III satellite to orbit Friday, May 30, demonstrating the ability to prepare and launch a military spacecraft on condensed timelines, Defense News reports. The satellite flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. GPS III, built by Lockheed Martin, is the latest version of the navigation and timing system and is designed to provide improved anti-jamming capabilities. It will broadcast additional military and civilian signals.

More anti-jamming capability … The launch was the second in a series of Rapid Response Trailblazer missions the Space Force is running to test whether it can quickly launch high-value satellites in response to national security needs. The goal is to condense a process that can take up to two years down to a handful of months. The first mission, which flew in December, reduced the time between launch notification and lift off to around five months—and the May 30 mission shortened it even further, to around 90 days. In addition to demonstrating the launch could be done on an accelerated timeline, Space Force officials were motivated to swap this satellite from United Launch Alliance’s long-delayed Vulcan rocket to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in order to add more tech to the GPS constellation to counter jamming and spoofing. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

An autopsy on Reaction Engines. An article published by the BBC this week recounts some of the backstory behind the bankruptcy of Reaction Engines, a British company that labored for 35 years to develop a revolutionary air-breathing rocket engine. According to the vision of the company’s leaders, the new engine, called SABRE, could have powered a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane or hypersonic vehicles within the atmosphere. If an engine like SABRE could ever be mastered, it could usher in a new era of spaceplanes that can take off and land horizontally on a runway, instead of launching vertically like a rocket.

A little too quixotic … But Reaction Engines started in an era too soon for true commercial spaceflight and couldn’t convince enough venture capital investors that the idea could compete with the likes of SpaceX. Instead, the company secured a handful of investments from large aerospace companies like Boeing, BAE Systems, and Rolls-Royce. This money allowed Reaction Engines to grow to a staff of approximately 200 employees and kept it afloat until last October, when the company went into administration and laid off its workforce. “A few people were in tears,” Richard Varvill, the company’s chief engineer, told the BBC. “A lot of them were shocked and upset because they’d hoped we could pull it off right up to the end.” It was galling for Varvill “because we were turning it around with an improved engine. Just as we were getting close to succeeding, we failed. That’s a uniquely British characteristic.” (submitted by ShuggyCoUk)

Draconian implications for Trump’s budget. New details of the Trump administration’s plans for NASA, released Friday, May 30, revealed the White House’s desire to end the development of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket engine that could have shown a new way of exploring the Solar System, Ars reports. The budget proposal’s impacts on human spaceflight and space science have been widely reported, but Trump’s plan would cut NASA’s space technology budget in half. One of the victims would be DRACO, a partnership with DARPA to develop and test the first nuclear thermal rocket engine in space.

But wait, there’s more … The budget proposal not only cancels DRACO, but it also zeros out funding for all of NASA’s nuclear propulsion projects. Proponents of nuclear propulsion say it offers several key advantages for sending heavy cargo and humans to deep space destinations, like Mars. “This budget provides no funding for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion and Nuclear Electric Propulsion projects,” officials wrote in the NASA budget request. “These efforts are costly investments, would take many years to develop, and have not been identified as the propulsion mode for deep space missions. The nuclear propulsion projects are terminated to achieve cost savings and because there are other nearer-term propulsion alternatives for Mars transit.” Trump’s budget request isn’t final. Both Republican-controlled houses of Congress will write their own versions of the NASA budget, which must be reconciled before going to the White House for President Trump’s signature.

Blue Origin CEO says government should get out of the launch business. Eighteen months after leaving his job as a vice president at Amazon to take over as Blue Origin’s chief executive, Dave Limp has some thoughts on how commercial companies and government agencies like NASA should explore the Solar System together. First, the government should leave launching things into space to private industry. “I think commercial folks can worry about the infrastructure,” he said. “We can do the launch. We can build the satellite buses that can get you to Mars much more frequently, that don’t cost billions of dollars. We can take a zero, and over time, maybe two zeros off of that. And if the governments around the world leave that to the commercial side, then there are a lot more resources that are freed up for the science side, for the national prestige side, and those types of things.”

Do the exotic … While commercial companies should drive the proverbial bus into the Solar System, NASA should get back to its roots in research and exploration, Limp said. “I would say, and it might be a little provocative, let’s have those smart brains look on the forward-thinking types of things, the really edge of science, planning the really exotic missions, figuring out how to get to planetary bodies we haven’t gotten to before, and staying there.” But Limp highlighted one area where he thinks government investment is needed: the Moon. He said there’s currently no commercial business case for sending people to the Moon, and the government should continue backing those efforts.

Hurdles ahead for Rocket Cargo. The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the military for details on a proposal to build a rocket test site in a remote wildlife refuge less than 900 miles from Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi Public Radio reports. The Air Force announced in March that it planned to prepare an environmental assessment for the construction and operation of two landing pads on Johnston Atoll to test the viability of using rockets to deliver military cargo loads. While the announcement didn’t mention SpaceX, that company’s Starship rocket is on contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory to work on delivering cargo anywhere in the world within an hour. Now, several conservationists have spoken out against the proposal, pointing out that Johnston is an important habitat for birds and marine species.

Scarred territory … For nearly a century, Johnston Atoll has served dual roles as a wildlife refuge and a base for US military operations, including as a nuclear test site between 1958 and 1963. In March, the Air Force said it anticipated an environmental assessment for its plans on Johnston Atoll would be available for public review in early April. So far, it has not been released. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a Freedom of Information Act request about the project. They say a determination on their request was due by May 19, but they have not received a response. The center filed a lawsuit last week to compel the military to rule on their request and release information about the project.

Getting down to business at Starbase. SpaceX’s rockets make a lot of noise at Starbase, but the machinations of setting up Texas’ newest city are in motion, too. After months of planning, SpaceX launched the city of Starbase on May 29 with its first public meeting chaired by Mayor Robert Peden and the City Commission at The Hub, a building owned by SpaceX, ValleyCentral.com reports. During the meeting, which lasted about 80 minutes, they hired a city administrator, approved standard regulations for new construction, and created a committee to guide the community’s long-term development. Voters approved the creation of Starbase on May 3, incorporating territory around SpaceX’s remote rocket factory and launch site near the US-Mexico border. SpaceX owns most of the land in Starbase and employs nearly everyone in the tiny town, including the mayor.

Property rights and zoning … “The new city’s leaders have told landowners they plan to introduce land use rules that could result in changes for some residents,” KUT reports. In a letter, Starbase’s first city administrator, Kent Myers, warned local landowners that they may lose the right to continue using their property for its current use under the city’s new zoning plan. “Our goal is to ensure that the zoning plan reflects the City’s vision for balanced growth, protecting critical economic drivers, ensuring public safety, and preserving green spaces,” the letter, dated May 21, reads. This is a normal process when a city creates new zoning rules, and a new city is required by state law to notify landowners—most of which are SpaceX or its employees—of potential zoning changes so they can ask questions in a public setting. A public meeting to discuss the zoning ordinance at Starbase is scheduled for June 23.

Next three launches

June 7: Falcon 9 | SXM-10| Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 03: 19 UTC

June 8: Falcon 9 | Starlink 15-8 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 13: 34 UTC

June 10: Falcon 9 | Axiom Mission 4 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 12: 22 UTC

Welcome to Edition 7.46 of the Rocket Report! As I write this, the date is May 29. From a meteorological standpoint, “spring” ends in fewer than three days. Summer lasts from June 1 through August 31. Consider this a public service announcement for launch companies targeting “spring” and “summer” launches for various missions.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Xodiac rocket makes its final flight. Originally built by Masten Space Systems, the suborbital Xodiac rocket had flown 175 successful missions before a flight from Mojave, California, on Wednesday. But now, it will fly no more. “While the vehicle remained within its planned flight envelope, it detected an anomalous condition and commanded a flight termination,” said Astrobotic, which acquired Masten a couple of years ago. “This resulted in a rapid descent and caused a loss of the vehicle upon impact with its launch pad.”

Now entering the Xogdor waiting room … There were no injuries or significant damage to the company’s infrastructure in Mojave. The vehicle is essentially a hopper and has been used in recent years by various customers, including companies building commercial lunar landers, to test their hazard-detection systems. Astrobotic has been working on a larger version of Xodiac, which it is calling Xogdor.

Chinese firm tests Grasshopper-like rocket. Chinese private rocket firm Space Epoch said Thursday it had successfully run a flight recovery test, Reuters reports. Beijing-based Space Epoch, or SEPOCH, said its Yuanxingzhe-1 verification rocket was launched at 4: 40 am from a sea-based platform off the waters of the eastern province of Shandong. The rocket soared upward, its engines briefly shutting down after the peak of its trajectory, then reigniting as it began its vertical descent to enter the Yellow Sea in a circle of fire, a video posted on Space Epoch’s WeChat account showed.

Chasing the Falcon 9 … The flight lasted 125 seconds, reaching a height of about 2.5 km (1.6 miles), the company said. Last year, another Chinese launch company, LandSpace, completed a 10-km (6.2-mile) VTVL test, marking China’s first in-flight engine reignition in descent. Both companies are pushing to make debut tests of their reusable rockets later this year.

Florida company aims to acquire F-4 Phantoms for launch. Starfighters International, a company best known for doing air shows, is now seeking to move into air launch. Based at Kennedy Space Center, the company is in the process of acquiring a dozen F-4 Phantoms, a Cold War-era fighter jet, TWZ reports. Starfighters International is seeking to acquire the F-4 aircraft from South Korea.

Press F-4 to doubt? … Based upon the information in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is considering both a suborbital and orbital launch capability for small satellites, which would fly to space on a small rocket deployed from the F-4 Phantom. In my experience, air-based launch systems always seem like a better idea on paper than in reality. Perhaps there is some potential for hypersonics here, but I would be shocked to ever see a satellite launched into orbit from a fighter jet. (submitted by Biokleen)

Rocket Lab acquires Geost. Rocket Lab is expanding deeper into the defense sector with the acquisition of Geost, a supplier of electro-optical and infrared sensor payloads used in US military satellites, Space News reports. In a deal announced Tuesday, Rocket Lab will acquire Geost from the private equity firm ATL Partners for $125 million in cash and $150 million in stock, with an additional $50 million in potential cash payments tied to revenue targets in 2026 and 2027.

Seeking mil money … The acquisition gives Rocket Lab access to satellite sensor technology used by the US Department of Defense for missile-warning systems and space surveillance—capabilities that could help it win lucrative Pentagon contracts. “The acquisition of Geost will bring on board critical technology and payloads that are relied upon by the Department of Defense,” said Rocket Lab’s chief executive, Peter Beck. Rocket Lab has been seeking to expand its military contracts in recent years, and this move is consistent with that.

Northrop names rocket, invests in Firefly. Northrop Grumman announced Thursday that it is investing $50 million into Firefly Aerospace to further development of a medium-lift rocket. The company also revealed that the rocket will be named “Eclipse.” The rocket will be capable of launching up to 16,300 kg of cargo to low-Earth orbit or 3,200 kg of cargo to geosynchronous transfer orbit, and initially it will likely be used for Cygnus cargo missions to the International Space Station.

A match made in heaven? … Eclipse will use the same first stage Firefly is developing for the Northrop Grumman Antares 330 rocket. Both launch vehicles will use seven of Firefly’s Miranda engines. The new rocket is expected to make its debut no earlier than 2026 (and, if history is any guide, probably later). “Eclipse gives customers the right balance of payload capacity and affordability,” Northrop Vice President Wendy Williams said in a statement. “Our partnership with Firefly builds on our capacity to provide crucial space-based communication, observation, and exploration for civil and national security customers.”

China launches asteroid mission. A Chinese spacecraft built to collect specimens from an unexplored asteroid and return them to Earth launched Wednesday from a military-run spaceport in the country’s mountainous interior, Ars reports. The liftoff aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang launch base kicked off the second mission in a series of Chinese probes to explore the Solar System. This mission, designated Tianwen-2, follows the Tianwen-1 mission, which became the first Chinese spacecraft to land on Mars in 2021.

Sending samples home … China has two objectives for Tianwen-2. First, Tianwen-2 will fly to a near-Earth asteroid designated 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, or 2016 HO3. Once there, the spacecraft will retrieve a rocky sample from the asteroid’s surface and bring the material back to Earth in late 2027 for analysis in labs. After the spacecraft releases its sample carrier to land on Earth, Tianwen-2 will change course and head to a mysterious comet-like object found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Next Kuiper launch gets a June date. United Launch Alliance said Thursday that an Atlas V rocket will launch its second batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites next month. The Atlas V 551 rocket launch is planned for 2: 29 pm ET on June 13 from Space Launch Complex-41, pending range approval.

A speedy turnaround … Amazon also confirmed that it has finished processing the Kuiper satellites for the launch, saying all 27 spacecraft have been integrated onto the rocket. Getting to space in June with this mission will mark an impressive turnaround from Amazon, given that its KA-01 mission, also with 27 Internet satellites, launched on April 28.

SpaceX set to launch another GPS satellite. SpaceX is gearing up to launch a Global Positioning System satellite for the US military on Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, marking another high-profile national security mission that shifted from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan to the Falcon 9 rocket, Space News reports. The launch of GPS III SV-08—the eighth satellite in the GPS III constellation—was originally assigned to United Launch Alliance but was switched to SpaceX as the military prioritizes getting advanced anti-jamming capabilities into orbit as quickly as possible.

Gotta go fast … This marks the second consecutive GPS III satellite to be switched from ULA to SpaceX, following December’s launch of GPS III SV-07. ULA’s Vulcan, which received certification to launch national security missions, continues to face delays and has accumulated a backlog of military launches. In a press call this week, Space Force officials said the mission was executed on an unusually accelerated timeline. Launch planning for GPS III SV-08 kicked off in February, with Lockheed Martin receiving a formal request on February 21 and SpaceX following on March 7, just under three months ahead of liftoff. That’s an extraordinary pace for a national security launch, they said, which typically takes 18 to 24 months from contract award.

Another Starship launch, another second-stage issue. SpaceX made some progress on another test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket Tuesday, finally overcoming technical problems that plagued the program’s two previous launches, Ars reports. But minutes into the mission, SpaceX’s Starship lost control as it cruised through space, then tumbled back into the atmosphere somewhere over the Indian Ocean nearly an hour after taking off from Starbase, Texas, the company’s privately owned spaceport near the US-Mexico border. During the rocket’s two previous test flights—each using an upgraded “Block 2” Starship design—problems in the ship’s propulsion system led to leaks during launch, eventually triggering an early shutdown of the rocket’s main engines.

Not great, not terrible … On both flights, the vehicle spun out of control and broke apart, spreading debris over an area near the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The good news is that that didn’t happen on Tuesday. The ship’s main engines fired for their full duration, putting the vehicle on its expected trajectory toward a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. For a short time, it appeared the ship was on track for a successful flight. The bad news is that Tuesday’s test flight revealed more problems, preventing SpaceX from achieving the most important goals Musk outlined going into the launch, including testing Starship’s reentry tiles.

Elon Musk talks Starship version 3. In an interview with Ars Technica, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he expects that an upgraded version of Starship—essentially Block 3 of the vehicle with upgraded Raptor engines—should fly before the end of the year. The business end of the rocket will have a sleek look: “The upgraded Raptors have a complete redesign of the aft end of the booster and the ship,” Musk said. “So, because we don’t need the heat shield around the upper portion of the engine, it greatly simplifies the base of the booster and the ship. It’ll look a little, frankly, naked, especially on the booster side, because the engines will just be there, like, not with stuff around them.”

A difficult upgrade to work through … “This is a design change that I really had to push the team very hard to do, to get rid of any secondary structure, and any parts that could get burned off because there will be no heat shield,” Musk added. “So it’ll be very clear when we have a Raptor 3. Version 3 of the Ship and Booster has quite a radical redesign.” Given the challenges that version 2 of Starship has faced with its recent flights, an upgrade in the overall design appears to be much-needed.

Next three launches

May 30: Falcon 9 | GPS III SV-08 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 17: 23 UTC

May 31: New Shepard | NS-32 | Launch Site One, West Texas | 13: 30 UTC

May 31: Falcon 9 | Starlink 11-18 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 20: 01 UTC