July 25, 2026

SpaceX Starship Megarocket Hits Key Milestones in ‘Lucky 13’ Test Flight as Big Hurdles Loom (Source: CNN)
SpaceX completed a test flight of its Starship megarocket, following an aborted launch attempt last week in which several engines failed to ignite at liftoff. The test flight, called Flight 13, hit several key milestones before concluding with a controlled splashdown of the upper Starship spacecraft in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy rocket booster, which detached from Starship two minutes into the flight, made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf.

Flight 13 marked the second, and a more successful, test for this version of Starship, called V3. During the first flight of a Starship V3 rocket in May, a series of engine outages caused the rocket to underperform. SpaceX is facing intense pressure to get Starship ready for a crucial NASA test flight next year that could pave the way for the next moon landing. (7/24)

FAA Rule Could Unlock U.S. High-Speed Flight Testing (Source: Aviation Week)
Support for the FAA’s proposal to lift the ban on overland supersonic flight and replace it with a sonic boom noise limit is not just coming from the nascent U.S. commercial high-speed aircraft market. Starfighters Space operates a fleet of seven ex-military Lockheed F-104 supersonic fighters. The company operates from two locations. At NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it can fly supersonically 12-18 mi. offshore and comply with the existing ban. But the second base at Midland International Air and Space Port in Texas requires overland flights.

“This [proposed rule] really helps us at Midland, and that’s important because there are eight locations around Midland where we can do business, including Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range [New Mexico], and the Utah Test and Training Range and Nellis AFB [Nevada],” says CEO Tim Franta. Starfighters is working with Texas to gain certification for a high-speed corridor, a triangle linking Midland to White Sands and Spaceport America, continuing across the top of the state and back to Midland.

“One of the problems with U.S. testing for hypersonics is oftentimes we are getting single points of data,” he says. “[With the new rule] we can fly two, four flights in the same day and get more data points. That’s better for the customer. It’s better for us.” Starfighters Space’s F-104s can fly for another 12 years, Franta says, but the company is in the process of acquiring a second supersonic type, which it dubs Platform 2. (7/24)

Air Force Assumes Control of GPS Receiver Program (Source: Space News)
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has taken over the Military GPS User Equipment program to address delays and technical issues in fielding jam-resistant GPS receivers. The program, previously managed by the Space Force, has faced years of setbacks in developing and integrating M-code receivers, which provide secure positioning, navigation and timing. The Air Force's management aims to streamline development and integration across military platforms. (7/24)

NASA to Support New Glenn Hot Fire Testing at Stennis Space Center (Source: Via Satellite)
NASA and Blue Origin have agreed to conduct second stage hot fire testing for the New Glenn rocket at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to advance work on the Artemis program. NASA announced Friday the agreement is an annex to a reimbursable Space Act Agreement signed earlier this month. Blue Origin will conduct hot fire testing at the B-2 test stand, targeted to begin this fall. The stand has a long history of supporting Moon missions and was built to test the Saturn V rocket stages used during the Apollo Program. (7/24)

ULA Deals with Financial Challenges Caused by Vulcan Grounding (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance’s corporate parents have provided a guaranteed loan to help the company address “financial challenges” tied to the ongoing Vulcan grounding. The support is intended to bridge the period of constrained launch activity and associated cost pressures. Last year those parent companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, were seeking a buyer for ULA, which has been struggling to win launch contracts in competition with SpaceX. (7/24)

European Union Grants US Request to Restrict Satellite Images of Iran War Region (Source: Ars Technica)
The European Union has granted a U.S. request to restrict access to satellite images covering the Iran war region. The move comes amid reports of delays to Copernicus satellite pictures as tensions escalate and Washington steps up its posture involving Iran. (7/24)

Lockheed Martin Interested in Venus Aerospace's RDRE Engine Tech (Source: Ars Technica)
Venus Aerospace and Lockheed Martin have entered a collaboration agreement for the evaluation of Houston-based Venus’s rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) technology. The companies hope to achieve “precision fire” capabilities with efficiencies that translate into longer flight ranges and higher speeds. Lockheed Martin is the Pentagon’s largest contractor, responsible for supplying the military with thousands of tactical and strategic missiles.

Venus Aerospace’s RDRE tech works by generating thrust as a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel, sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer to produce a supersonic shockwave. The company completed a low-altitude flight test of the RDRE last year. The RDRE architecture has the potential to improve propulsion efficiency while reducing complexity. There’s a lot of work to do to scale Venus’s engine from an experimental prototype to a combat-ready missile platform. (7/24)

Lightning Strikes Chinese Rocket After Launch (Source: Ars Technica)
China launched one of its most successful rockets Thursday, sending a Long March 3B launcher to orbit with a Tianlian data relay support to link Mission Control with the country’s Tiangong space station. The Long March 3B is a dependable rocket, with nearly 120 flights since entering service in 1996. But the rocket was tested on Thursday when a bolt of lightning struck the vehicle shortly after liftoff from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. The rocket continued the climb into space without incident. (7/24)

Lunar Outpost Plans to Send NVIDIA Chips to the Moon (Source: Payload)
The chip race and the race back to the Moon race have just crossed paths. Lunar Outpost, the Colorado-based lunar rover startup, announced plans to fly NVIDIA chips on its upcoming lunar missions. Lunar Outpost will carry an NVIDIA Jetson AI chip on its MAPP rover for the company’s Lunar Voyage 2 mission, which is planning to launch this year. Lunar Outpost is relying on NVIDIA chips to give more autonomy to its rovers, and greater onboard processing power to compress and send large data files. (7/24)

ESA Awards ispace €65M Contract to Build and Deliver MAGPIE Rover to the Moon (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA has awarded a contract to Luxembourg-based ispace-Europe to complete the development of the MAGPIE lunar rover and deliver it to the surface of the Moon in 2029. The Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration (MAGPIE) is being developed under ESA’s Small Missions for Exploration initiative. The rover will explore the Moon’s south pole, characterizing volatile deposits and searching for water ice that could be used to support a sustained human presence on the Moon. (7/24)

Firefly Aerospace Selects Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics to Provide Rover for Lunar Mission (Source: Blue Origin)
Firefly Aerospace and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, today announced Honeybee was contracted by Firefly to provide the lunar rover for the company’s recently awarded NASA task order to explore the Gruithuisen Domes on the Moon’s near side in 2028. Once deployed on the Moon by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, Honeybee’s rover will carry NASA instruments to investigate the unique composition of the Gruithuisen Domes – a part of the Moon that has never been explored. (7/24)

Office of Space Commerce to Move Ahead on Mission Authorization (Source: Space News)
The Commerce Department is moving ahead with plans to implement a voluntary mission authorization system for novel space activities that are not regulated by other agencies. Multiple Congresses and administrations have failed to agree on a “mission authorization” regime for space activities not already regulated by existing law. This new Space Commerce Certification could make it easier for industry to navigate the complex government environment, but does not appear to be a complete solution. The process is built on a “presumption of approval” to “keep regulations out of the way and make it easy and fast” for companies to get through government requirements. (7/24)

Sacknoff Prize Offered for Space History (Source: Space 3.0)
The Sacknoff Prize is an annual award that encourages original research by university students in the field of space history. The winner receives an $850 cash prize, publication in the peer-reviewed journal Quest, a one-year Quest subscription, and an invitation to present at the Society for the History of Technology's Aerospace Special Interest Group (Albatross) annual meeting. Full details and the application/flyer are here. (7/24)

SpaceX Progress on Florida Starship Launches (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
When enough Starship test missions have flown that the spacecraft is at an acceptable working level, it will then shift to Florida with the first missions flying from Launch Complex 39-A. The launch tower has been nearing completion adjacent to the complex’s existing launch pad, now reserved solely for Falcon Heavy missions. SpaceX had been using the launch site for Falcon 9 rockets until this year, shifting all of their flights over to Launch Complex 40 to allow more focus on completing the initial Starship launch infrastructure at KSC.

SpaceX ultimately is aiming for as many as 120 flights a year from across the three launch pads in Florida, a number that has raised criticism for its impact on commercial airspace. Also of concern has been its sonic boom potential during both booster landings and upper stage Starship return-to-launch-site flights that would bring it across Central Florida similar to how the space shuttle used to land back at KSC.

Meanwhile, work continues on the massive Gigabay manufacturing plant that will pump out Starship upper stages and Super Heavy boosters right on KSC property, adjacent to the Hangar X where it preps Falcon 9 rockets for launch. The first rocket hardware will be shipped over from Texas, but be processed at Gigabay before it gets into the manufacturing side of things. (7/23)

Lockheed Martin Posts Revenue/Earnings Growth with Missile Production Strength (Source: Defense Daily)
Higher sales of air defense interceptors and a surface-to-surface missile, coupled with the absence of losses on several contracts that hit the company a year ago, helped drive revenue and earnings growth at Lockheed Martin [LMT] in the second quarter, the company reported on Thursday. The company’s Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) segment posted strong double-digit top and bottom-line increases. (7/23)

Retired Astronauts Promote Voting and Democracy (Source: Space.com)
This past year, a group of retired NASA astronauts teamed up for a single cause: to defend the U.S. constitution. They banded together as part of a non-profit, non-partisan activist organization called Astronauts for America. So far, they have been speaking out, using their astronaut expertise, platforms, cultural relevance and role model status to speak out in support of "science, evidence-based decision-making, public service and the rule of law," their website reads. Now, as the group announced at an event at the California Science Center's new air and space center — home to the shuttle Endeavour — they're hitting the road on a campaign tour of colleges called "Vote for Freedom." (7/23)

Whipsmart to Fund Space Ventures (Source: Space News)
Space startup veteran Mark Matossian has joined forces with a software engineer and a best-selling author to establish Whipsmart Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on space and deep tech. Whipsmart will identify “pivotal technologies that can close a business plan” and help companies make the leap from laboratories to scaling up, said Matossian, who led Iceye U.S., program management, satellite production and launch for Terra Bella, and co-founded Lonestar Data Holdings. (7/23)