BlueBird 6, built by Texas company AST SpaceMobile, lifted off atop an LVM3 rocket from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre Tuesday at 10:25 p.m. EST (0325 GMT and 8:55 a.m. India Standard Time on Dec. 24).

The LVM3 deployed BlueBird 6 about 324 miles (521 kilometers) above Earth 15.5 minutes after launch as planned.

AST SpaceMobile is building a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that beam broadband service directly to standard smartphones on the ground.

The company has now launched six operational satellites to orbit, five of them aboard a single SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2024. Those previous spacecraft, BlueBirds 1 through 5, feature 693-square-foot (64.4 square meters) communication arrays — the largest ever unfurled in LEO.

BlueBird 6 will break that record, and by a healthy margin. It's the first of AST SpaceMobile's next-generation BlueBirds, whose arrays cover nearly 2,400 square feet (223 square meters) apiece.

Tuesday's liftoff was the ninth overall for the three-stage, 143-foot-tall (43.5 m) LVM3, which is India's most powerful rocket. It debuted in December 2014 and has a 100% success rate to date.

BlueBird 6, which tips the scales at about 13,450 pounds (6,100 kilograms), was the heaviest payload that the LVM3 has ever hauled to LEO, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 11 p.m. ET on Dec. 23 with news of successful launch and satellite deployment.

The company launched its Hanbit-Nano rocket from the Alcantara Space Center in Brazil on Monday at 8:13 p.m. EST (10:13 p.m. local time in Brazil; 0113 GMT on Dec. 23).

It was the first-ever orbital launch attempt by a South Korean company. And, as often happens on debut liftoffs, something went wrong: The 57-foot-tall (17.3 meters) rocket came crashing back to Earth about a minute after liftoff, according to Space Orbit, which was following the launch.

It's unclear at this early stage what caused the failure. Innospace did not immediately provide an update on X, and the company cut off its webcast in the wake of the incident, shortly after announcing that an anomaly had occurred.

Hanbit-Nano is a two-stage rocket whose first stage burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and paraffin. The upper stage comes in two configurations; one burns LOX and paraffin while the other employs LOX and liquid methane.

The rocket is designed to deliver up to 198 pounds (90 kilograms) of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit from Brazil. On the debut launch, the Hanbit-Nano was carrying five small satellites for customers from Brazil and India, as well as three additional technology-demonstrating payloads.

Innospace was founded in 2017. The company, which currently employs about 260 people, has developed all of its launch technology in-house, company CEO Kim Soo-jong told Space.com in October at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.

Innospace's vision doesn't end with getting Hanbit-Nano online. The company is also developing larger, more powerful rockets called Hanbit-Micro and Hanbit-Mini.

Monday's launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 17), but Innospace pushed it back several times, due to a technical issue and bad weather forecasts.

Rocket Lab launched its 21st and final mission of the year over the weekend, sending a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

An Electron rocket carrying the QPS-SAR-15 satellite, nicknamed Sukunami-I, lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Sunday (Dec. 21) at 1:36 a.m. EST (0636 GMT; 7:36 p.m. local time in New Zealand).

The launch, which the company called "The Wisdom God Guides," went well: Electron's "kick stage" deployed Sukunami-I into a circular orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth as planned.

Once it's up and running, the satellite will join the Earth-observing constellation operated by Japanese company iQPS. Its spacecraft view our planet using synthetic aperture radar, meaning they can peer through clouds and get good looks at night as well as during the day.

"The Wisdom God Guides" was Rocket Lab's sixth launch in 2025 for iQPS and its seventh for the company overall. And the Japanese company has booked an additional five Electron launches in 2026, according to Rocket Lab.

Sunday's flight was the last of the year for Rocket Lab. It has now launched 21 missions in 2025, adding to the company's single-year record. The previous high, set last year, was 16.

All of this year's launches were successful. Eighteen were orbital launches with the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron. The other three involved HASTE, a modified, suborbital version of Electron designed to let customers test hypersonic technologies in the final frontier.

"Our new record of annual launches and the breadth of upcoming missions go to show how much of a global impact Electron continues to have on the space industry, and we're looking forward to another year of continued execution in 2026," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

"In 2026, we're expanding Electron’s global reach with more multi-launch constellation deployments, dedicated missions for domestic civil space and international space agencies in Japan and Europe, and both suborbital and orbital launches with defense applications for hypersonic technology and national security," he added.

The seventh-ever mission of Japan's H3 rocket did not go according to plan.

The H3 launched from Tanegashima Space Center on Sunday (Dec. 21) at 8:51 p.m. EST (0151 GMT and 10:51 a.m. local Japan time on Dec. 22), carrying a navigation satellite known as Michibiki 5, or QZS-5, aloft.

"However, the second stage engine’s second ignition failed to start normally and shut down prematurely," officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a statement early Monay morning (Dec. 22). "As a result, QZS-5 could not be put into the planned orbit, and the launch failed."

The 10,580-pound (4,800 kilograms) Michibiki 5 was supposed to be part of Japan's homegrown Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), a navigation network in geosynchronous orbit high above Earth.

"This system is compatible with GPS satellites and can be utilized with them in an integrated fashion," Japanese officials wrote in a description of the QZSS project.

"QZSW can be used even in the Asia-Oceania regions with longitudes close to Japan, so its usage will be expanded to other countries in these regions as well," they added.

The first QZSS satellite, a pathfinder, launched in September 2010. The system currently consists of four operational spacecraft, but Japan wants it to grow, as Sunday's unsuccessful launch shows. Indeed, the network will eventually consist of 11 spacecraft, if all goes according to plan.

The two-stage H3 rocket was developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It's the successor to the H-2A, a workhorse launcher that retired in June after a quarter-century of orbital service.

The H3 failed during its debut launch in March 2023 but bounced back with five consecutive successes — until Sunday night. JAXA has set up a task force headed by agency chief Hiroshi Yamakawa to help get to the bottom of the Michibiki 5 launch anomaly.

"We would like to express our deepest apology to many people and entities, particularly those related to the QZS-5, local organizations and the public, who had high expectations for this project," JAXA officials wrote in Monday morning's update.

Update for 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 22: Innospace is aiming to launch the Spaceward mission today (Dec. 22) at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Dec. 23) after delays caused by a technical issue and bad weather.

South Korean startup Innospace is set to attempt its first orbital launch today (Dec. 22), and you can watch the action live.

Liftoff is currently scheduled for 8 p.m. EST (10 p.m. local time and 0100 GMT on Dec. 23) from the Alcantara Space Center in Brazil. Innospace's Hanbit-Nano rocket will aim to insert five small satellites for customers from Brazil and India into a 186-mile-high (300 kilometers) orbit and mark a first for a private Korean company.

Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of Innospace, or directly via the company. Coverage will begin at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT).

"Hanbit-Nano has been successfully rolled out from the integration facility and transported to the launch pad ahead of liftoff. Preparations for the Spaceward mission are right on track," Innospace said Wednesday (Dec. 16) in a post on the social media platform X.

The 57-foot-tall (17.3 meters) rocket is designed to be able to launch 198 pounds (90 kilograms) into a sun-synchronous orbit from Brazil. The rocket's first-stage hybrid engine burns paraffin and liquid oxygen while the upper stage uses methane and liquid oxygen or paraffin and liquid oxygen, depending on its configuration.

Innospace CEO Kim Soo-jong told Space.com at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia, in October that the company was established in 2017 and employs 260 people.

"All of our technology is developed by ourselves. The engineers are Korean, and the development is fully indigenous," Kim said. "Korea has built an ecosystem to develop a launch vehicle. We work with more than 100 supply-chain companies in South Korea," he added.

Kim said Innospace is very focused on the global market. "We already have around 14 contracts with global satellite companies."

A lot is riding on this first launch. Kim said that Hanbit-Micro, an advanced model of Hanbit-Nano that can carry 375 pounds (170 kg) to orbit, is set to begin commercial flights early next year, should all go according to plan.

Today's launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 17), but Innospace pushed it back two days to replace a part in the cooling system of the rocket's first stage. Bad weather forced an additional delay.

An Electron rocket carrying four "DiskSats" lifted off from Rocket Lab's pad on Wallops Island, Virginia on Thursday at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT).

The launch, which Rocket Lab called "Don't Be Such a Square," kicked off the Space Test Program (STP)-S30 mission for the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command.

STP-30 will operate the first-ever DiskSats, a new type of spacecraft developed by The Aerospace Corporation with funding help from NASA. At 40 inches wide by just 1 inch thick (102 by 2.5 centimeters), each DiskSat has the approximate dimensions of a manhole cover.

That odd shape could lead to greater performance in the final frontier for small satellites, which have traditionally employed the boxy "cubesat" form factor.

DiskSats "could offer more power and surface area for instruments, providing more opportunities for NASA to expand upon target mission objectives for small spacecraft," agency officials wrote in a description of the new tech.

"With its ability to fly continuously with one face pointing at the Earth, the DiskSat can also have a very low drag, making them capable of very-low-altitude missions (less than 300 kilometers or 185 miles) such as those necessary for some Earth-observation missions," NASA added.

The DiskSats won't be flying so low on their inaugural mission, however. The Electron deployed the quartet at an altitude of 342 miles (550 km) about 55.5 minutes after launch as planned, according to Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab initially planned to launch "Don't Be Such a Square" in April 2026 but expedited it at the Space Force's request, the company said in an emailed statement.

The mission was Rocket Lab's 20th of 2025, extending the company's single-year launch record. The previous high was 16, set in 2024. Most of these have been orbital flights of the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to Earth orbit. But three were suborbital missions conducted by HASTE, a modified version of Electron that lets customers test hypersonic technologies in the space environment.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:18 a.m. ET on Dec. 18 with news of successful launch and satellite deployment.

SpaceX launched two more batches of Starlink satellites today (Dec. 17), in a pair of launches from both U.S. coasts.

First up was a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 of the broadband internet relay units (Group 6-99) into low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The satellites were successfully deployed about an hour and five minutes after the 8:42 a.m. EST (1342 GMT) liftoff on Wednesday.

"Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed," SpaceX reported on social media.

The Florida flight's first stage booster (B1094) completed its sixth flight, landing on the "Just Read the Instructions" droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Then came 27 more Starlink satellites (Group 15-13), riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Lifting off at 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 GMT or 7:27 a.m. PST local time), the mission was on track to deploy its payload about an hour after leaving the ground.

The California flight's first stage booster (B1063) performed its 30th propulsive landing, touching down on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean.

The California flight's first stage booster (B1063) performed its 30th propulsive landing, touching down on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean.

The 56 (in total) Starlink satellites launched on Wednesday add to SpaceX's megaconstellation, which now numbers more than 9,400 units in orbit. The network provides access to the internet to areas around the globe where other options for connectivity is sparse, as well as enables in-flight wifi and cell-to-satellite service on select carries.

Wednesday's dual launches were SpaceX's 164th and 165th Falcon 9 flight of the year.

MAVEN (short for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution") has been silent since Dec. 4, despite repeated efforts to hail the spacecraft, NASA announced in an update on Monday (Dec. 15). And a fragment of tracking data recovered on Dec. 6 delivered a bit of additional bad news.

"Analysis of that signal suggests that the MAVEN spacecraft was rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars," NASA officials wrote in the update. "Further, the frequency of the tracking signal suggests MAVEN's orbit trajectory may have changed."

MAVEN launched in November 2013 and arrived in Mars orbit 10 months later, tasked with studying Mars' atmosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun.

MAVEN's prime mission lasted one Earth year, and the spacecraft delivered in that time. Its data helped scientists understand how (and when) the Red Planet lost its once-thick atmosphere, which allowed liquid water to flow on Mars billions of years ago.

The orbiter just kept going after that, gathering loads of information about the Red Planet — for example, its dust storms, winds and auroras, for example.

MAVEN also serves as a communications link between mission control and NASA robots on the Martian surface — at the moment, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.

But MAVEN isn't the only orbiter that plays this relay role; NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey do as well, along with the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. And those four other spacecraft are still going strong.

"For the next two weeks of scheduled surface operations, NASA is arranging additional passes from the remaining orbiters, and the Perseverance and Curiosity teams have adjusted their daily planning activities to continue their science missions," NASA officials wrote in the update.

Europe's towering Ariane 6 rocket is gaining momentum in the heavy-lift launch market.

The first pair of Galileo navigation satellites to launch on an Ariane 6 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Wednesday (Dec. 17) at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT; 2:01 a.m. local time in Kourou).

Galileo Launch 14 (L14) is sending the spacecraft pair to join 26 other active satellites in the constellation, which is Europe's equivalent to the Global Positioning System (GPS) used by the United States

The L14 satellites are scheduled to deploy about 3 hours and 20 minutes after liftoff and will then spend three days unfolding their solar arrays and running checks on critical systems. The two satellites will then enter a four-month drift and positioning phase before settling into their final orbital position to begin operation.

The Galileo constellation circles Earth at an altitude of 14,429 miles (23,222 kilometers). To date, most of the 1,610-pound (730 kilograms) spacecraft have been launched aboard Europe's Ariane 5, which retired in 2023, or the Russian-built Soyuz rocket, an arrangement that Europe ended following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Europe tapped SpaceX's Falcon 9 to fly Galileo satellites after the invasion, but now that Ariane 6 is operational, the continent can loft those missions without depending on outside launch providers.

This was the fifth-ever launch of the Ariane 6, which completed four successful flights over the past year, with its most recent lifting off just over a month ago.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:14 a.m. ET on Dec. 17 with news of successful liftoff.

Japan will launch a new navigation satellite to orbit tonight (Dec. 16), and you can watch the action live.

An H3 rocket is scheduled to launch the Michibiki 5 spacecraft from Tanegashima Space Center today at 9:10 p.m. EST (0210 GMT and 11:10 a.m. local Japan time on Dec. 17).

You can watch it here at Space.com, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), or directly via the agency. Coverage will begin at 8:15 p.m. EST (0115 GMT).

The 10,580-pound (4,800-kilogram) Michibiki 5 will be part of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Japan's homegrown navigation network in geosynchronous orbit.

"This system is compatible with GPS satellites and can be utilized with them in an integrated fashion," Japanese officials wrote in a description of the QZSS project.

"QZSW can be used even in the Asia-Oceania regions with longitudes close to Japan, so its usage will be expanded to other countries in these regions as well," they added.

Five QZSS satellites have reached orbit to date, starting with a pathfinder that launched in September 2010. That spacecraft, called Michibiki 1, was replaced by Michibiki 1R, which flew in October 2021.

Michibiki 5 will make QZSS a five-satellite system. But the launches won't end there: The constellation will eventually consist of 11 spacecraft, if all goes to plan.

Tonight's launch will be the seventh to date for the two-stage H3, the successor to Japan's workhorse H-2A, which retired this past June after 24 years of service.

The H3 failed during its debut launch in March 2023, resulting in the loss of the ALOS-3 Earth-observing satellite. But the medium-lift rocket bounced back strong, acing its next five missions, including a February 2025 launch that sent another Michibiki satellite to orbit.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:05 p.m. ET on Dec. 16 with news of the launch scrub.

At the 3rd Annual Spacepower Conference, held in Orlando, Florida from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told attendees that Space Force is adopting new naming schemes for each of its different mission areas that will "cement the identities of space weapon systems" much like the names of iconic aircraft, such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II or F-22 Raptor, have done for the U.S. Air Force.

But while symbols for some of Space Force's mission areas will be similarly borrowed from real-life animals, others are more mythological in nature, Saltzman said. "These include Norse Pantheon, representing the power and dominance of orbital warfare; mythological creatures, conjuring the cunning and adaptability of cyber warfare systems; constellations, reflecting the reach and enduring connection of satellite communications; and ghosts, evoking the silent presence of space domain awareness, just to name a few," Saltzman said at the conference.

Seven different naming categories were chosen, one for each of Space Force's mission areas:

• Orbital warfare: Norse pantheon
• Electromagnetic warfare: Snakes
• Cyber warfare: Mythological creatures
• Navigation warfare: Sharks
• Satellite communications: Constellations
• Missile warning: Sentinels
• Space domain awareness: Ghosts

After announcing the new naming scheme, Saltzman explained two specific names that had been chosen for specific spacecraft. The first, a communications satellite in geostationary orbit previously known as the Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On system, will now be known as as Ursa Major.

"The Big Dipper — as you all know, part of the Ursa Major constellation — famously points to Polaris, our north star, always linking us to our most important missions," Saltzman said.

Another spacecraft operated by Space Force's 1st Space Operations Squadron (1 SOPS) used to track satellites in high orbits will now be taking a name from Norse mythology: Bifrost.

"Bifrost is a bridge between Earth and the realm of the gods," Saltzman explained, "just as the Bifrost system in low Earth orbit bridges the divide between the Earth and the higher geostationary orbit of the other 1 SOPS systems."

Saltzman stressed that the new naming scheme will help the newest branch of the U.S. military establish its own identity. "These symbols conjure the character of the systems, the importance of their mission, and the identity of the Guardians who employ them," Saltzman said. The new names will serve as "a way to own the identity of our space systems as they enter the joint fight," he added.

Unlike the U.S. Air Force's iconic aircraft or the U.S. Army's ground vehicles such as tanks, the public rarely gets a glimpse at Space Force's assets in orbit. This is partly by design; many of Space Force's spacecraft are highly classified, which can make it difficult for the service to communicate its missions and capabilities both to the public and throughout the U.S. armed services.

SpaceX launched 29 Starlink satellites from Florida early Monday morning, marking the 100th Falcon 9 flight from

The rocket lifted off at 12:25 a.m. EST (0525 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The two-stage SpaceX launch vehicle reached space about 8 minutes and 40 seconds after leaving the ground.

The Falcon 9's upper stage then deployed the 29 Starlink broadband internet relay satellites (Group 6-82) after about an hour, following a coast period and a second firing of its single Merlin engine.

"Falcon 9 lifts off from Florida for the 100th time in 2025," SpaceX wrote on social media. "Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed."

Meanwhile, the rocket's first stage completed it use, separated and used its engines to fly back to the Atlantic Ocean and the autonomous drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." The landing on four deployable legs completed the booster's (B1092) ninth flight.

Monday's launch from Florida followed another successful Starlink deployment flown from California the day before. The east coast mission was SpaceX's 163rd Falcon 9 flight in 2025, with another scheduled for Tuesday (Dec. 16) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Dec. 15 to note the number of Falcon 9 flights from Florida in 2025.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) sent another batch of Amazon's internet satellites to orbit on Tuesday morning (Dec. 16).

A ULA Atlas V rocket carrying 27 Amazon Leo spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday at 3:28 a.m. EST (0828 GMT).

Amazon Leo, previously known as Project Kuiper, is Amazon's planned satellite-internet megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The network will eventually consist of about 3,200 satellites, which will reach orbit on more than 80 launches performed by a variety of rockets. Six of those missions had been completed before Tuesday, lofting 153 Project Leo satellites to the final frontier. (Those numbers don't count a test mission that carried two prototype satellites to LEO in October 2023.)

Tuesday's launch was the fourth Project Leo mission for the Atlas V, a venerable and highly dependable rocket that debuted in August 2002. ULA is phasing out the Atlas V in favor of a new vehicle called Vulcan Centaur, which has three missions under its belt to date.

All went according to plan on Tuesday: the 27 Amazon Leo satellites were deployed on schedule, during a 15-minute stretch beginning about 20 minutes after liftoff. We didn't get to see that milestone, however; ULA cut off its webcast about five minutes into the flight.

When it's up and running, Project Leo will beam internet connectitvity down to people around the globe. It will compete with SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation, which already provides service to customers using more than 9,000 satellites in LEO. And that number is growing all the time; SpaceX has launched more than 3,000 Starlink satellites so far in 2025 alone.

Interestingly, SpaceX is helping to build out the Project Leo network; its Falcon 9 is among the rockets that Amazon has tapped to launch the megaconstellation, along with Arianespace's Ariane 6, Blue Origin's New Glenn and ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.

Editor's note: This article was updated Dec. 15, at 9:45 a.m. EST (1445 GMT) to reflect the most recent launch window availability, then again at 3:37 a.m. EST on Dec. 16 with news of successful liftoff, then again at 11:40 a.m. EST with news of satellite deployment.

Almost 10 years to the day since it successfully landed its first rocket stage, SpaceX today (Dec. 14) recovered its 550th Falcon 9 booster.

The touchdown came after the rocket's first stage had lofted 27 Starlink satellites into space, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday at 12:49 a.m. EST (0549 GMT or 9:49 p.m. PST local time on Dec. 13).

The Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage was on track to deploy the satellites into low Earth orbit about an hour after they left the ground.

Unlike the first Falcon 9 first stage landing in on Dec. 21, 2015, which arrived back on land, Sunday's booster (B1093) fired one of its nine Merlin engines and deployed its four landing legs to come to rest atop the autonomous drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

The flight marked the stage's ninth trip to space and back.

With the addition of the 27 satellites (Group 15-12), the Starlink megaconstellation now has over 9,300 active units out of the more than 10,000 that have been launched since 2019. The Starlink network provides broadband internet access to regions around the world, as well as enables wifi on airlines and cell-to-satellite access on select providers.

Sunday's launch was SpaceX's 162nd Falcon 9 flight in 2025, and 580th overall.

For the 300th time this year, a rocket has lifted off for Earth orbit.

SpaceX on Thursday (Dec. 11) launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The broadband internet relay spacecraft entered Earth orbit about eight and a half minutes after leaving the ground at 5:01 p.m. EST (2201 GMT).

The Starlink satellites (Group 6-90) were on track to be deployed into the SpaceX megaconstellation about an hour into the flight.

The Falcon 9's first stage (Booster 1083) completed its 16th mission, landing back on the autonomous droneship "Just Read the Instructions," stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Starlink network now numbers more than 10,000 satellites, with more than 9,100 active and in use. The commercial service provides internet access to underserved areas around the world, as well as enables cell-to-satellite and airline WiFi for select carriers.

Thursday's launch was SpaceX's 161st Falcon 9 flight of the year, 606th mission overall and marked the 300th orbital launch attempt worldwide, according to the website Next Spaceflight.

The "Hungry Hippo"-style fairing opens and closes like a clamshell (or the jaws of the colorful game pieces in the "Hungry Hungry Hippos" children's boardgame) and is a novel approach to launch vehicle reusability. While Rocket Lab's workhorse (but expendable) Electron rocket has quickly gained momentum in the small launch market, Neutron is built to compete with SpaceX's heftier Falcon 9 — the only orbital launch vehicle with a proven track record of reusability.

SpaceX, too, has implemented its own recovery and refurbishment plans for Falcon 9 fairings, but the two halves of the shell protecting the rocket's payload on its way to orbit are still designed to split apart and fall back to Earth independently of each other, and of Falcon 9's first stage. Neutron's first stage, by contrast, will open its top like a giant mouth to spit out the vehicle's entire second stage and payload, and will then close the two halves back together before descending back through Earth's atmosphere to land and fly again.

With qualification tests now complete, Neutron's fairing section has been shipped to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, where it will be mated to the rocket ahead the vehicle's debut launch.

“A rocket like Neutron has never been built before, and we’re doing it at a pace and price point that’s going to bring the innovation and competition needed in today’s industry,“ Rocket Lab Vice President for Neutron Shaun D’Mello said in a Dec. 8 statement.

The company hails Neutron as “the world’s largest carbon composite launch vehicle,“ and said the new rocket's fairing underwent extensive tests before it was finally deemed ready for flight.

Before departing Rocket Lab's California-based test facility, the fairing was exposed to 275,000 pounds of external force to simulate dynamic pressures during launch, rapid cycling of the open and close mechanisms to ensure faster-than-necessary operations, software integration and load forces exceeding 125% design requirements.

Once the fairing is incorporated with Neutron's first stage, Rocket Lab will perform a series of prelaunch tests, including a static hotfire of the nine Archimedes engines that power the reusable booster. Neutron will stand 141 feet (43 meters) tall with a 23-foot (7 m) diameter, and is expected to deliver up to 28,700 pounds (13,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit.

An Electron rocket was scheduled to launch the "Bridging the Swarm" mission from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site tonight at 7:55 p.m. EST (0055 GMT and 1:55 p.m. local New Zealand time on Dec. 16).

But when the time came, the Electron's first-stage engines failed to fire up as planned. After the abort, the company declined to recycle for another attempt, citing a short launch window.

"We're standing down from today's launch attempt after an abort on ignition. As usual, we have back up opportunities in the coming days though so we'll be back with a new T-0 date shortly," Rocket Lab said via X this evening.

Tonight's abort further delays the "Bridging the Swarm" launch. It was originally supposed to fly last Wednesday (Dec. 10), but Rocket Lab delayed things to perform further checkouts.

"Bridging the Swarm" will launch a single satellite for the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) — NEONSAT-1A, an advanced Earth-observation spacecraft designed to monitor natural disasters throughout the Korean Peninsula.

KAIST already operates one such satellite — NEONSAT-1, which flew to orbit on an Electron in April 2024. But the goal is to build that fleet out over the next few years, and NEONSAT-1A is part of that vision.

The new spacecraft "will be deployed to validate KAIST’s advanced satellite's capability, boost operational utility and pave the way for the single NEONSAT satellite to become a constellation — thus fulfilling the mission's name, 'Bridging the Swarm,'" Rocket Lab wrote in an emailed statement on Dec. 9.

If all goes to plan on "Bridging the Swarm," the Electron will deploy NEONSAT-1A into low Earth orbit, 336 miles (540 kilometers) above our planet, about 54 minutes after launch.

Rocket Lab expedited the "Bridging the Swarm" launch, deciding to conduct the mission on a fast timeline, the company announced in the Dec. 9 statement.

"This launch rescheduling is a demonstration of Rocket Lab's operational efficiency, responsiveness, and flexibility to meet the ever-evolving needs of its customers, while continuing to launch more missions every year to support a growing manifest," Rocket Lab wrote.

Thanks to the sensor issue and launch abort, however, "Bridging the Swarm" has had to spend a few more days on Earth than Rocket Lab had originally planned.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:20 p.m. ET on Dec. 10, then again at 11 p.m. ET, with news of the scrub and the reason for it. It was updated again at 4 p.m. ET on Dec. 15 with news of the new launch date of Dec. 15, then again at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 15 with news of the launch abort.

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) is one of only three NASA missions currently in operation around Mars, and one of five spacecraft serving as a communications relay for the space agency's rover missions on the Martian surface.

During routine operations on Dec. 6, NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) lost communications with MAVEN as it orbited behind the planet. This type of loss of signal (LOS) is anticipated by NASA's tracking systems, which usually reestablish connections with distant spacecraft after they are temporarily blocked by planetary bodies. As MAVEN was expected to emerge from Mars' far side, however, DSN failed to reacquire a signal, according to a Dec. 9 NASA update. "The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation," NASA wrote in the statement.

MAVEN launched on a ULA Atlas V rocket in Nov. 2013, equipped with instruments to measure the evolution of Mars' atmosphere and its interaction with solar winds. The orbiter arrived 10 months later, and has remained operational in Martian orbit for the last decade.

In addition to its scientific mission, MAVEN also serves as a critical link to the small handful of missions on the Martian surface. MAVEN works in tandem with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Odyssey, as well as the European Space Agency's Mars Express (MEX) and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) to provide planet-wide communications relay coverage for missions like the NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

Data from MAVEN indicated a nominal trajectory and normal operating status for the spacecraft's systems prior to its disappearance behind the Red Planet, according to NASA. Assuming the satellite's orbit remained unaffected by whatever caused the communications anomaly, NASA and DSN operators can continue attempts to ping the spacecraft along its predicted orbit as they work to determine a cause and subsequent solution.

NASA's statement indicated more information would be shared on MAVEN's status as it becomes available.

The launch of a new batch of SpaceX Starlink satellites lit up the predawn sky in southern California today (Dec. 10) as the company marked its 160th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket this year.

Lifting off at 6:40 a.m. EST (1140 GMT or 3:40 a.m. PST local time) Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base's Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), the 27 broadband internet satellites (Group 15-11) were deployed into low Earth orbit just over an hour into the flight.

"Deployment of 27 Starlink satellites confirmed," SpaceX officials posted to social media.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket completed its 18th flight, landing back on the autonomous droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" positioned in the Pacific Ocean.

The Starlink megaconstellation now numbers more than 9,000 operational satellites, including the more than 3,000 launched just this year. The network provides access to the internet to areas around the world where there was no or sparse coverage, as well as enables WiFi access on commercial airliners and cell-to-satellite service on select providers.

Wednesday's launch was SpaceX's 165th overall launch of 2025 (including Starship test flights) and the 605th mission in the company's history.

China continues to make big advances in the final frontier.

The nation just launched three Long March rockets in less than 19 hours, setting a new national mark for liftoff cadence.

In addition, the trio pushed China's orbital-launch tally for 2025 to 83, extending another record. The previous yearly high for the country, set last year, was 68. (Eighty-three is not a global record, however; SpaceX has launched 159 orbital missions in 2025 so far by itself.)

The flurry began Monday (Dec. 8) at 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 GMT), when a Long March 6A rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. That mission successfully sent a batch of broadband satellites to low Earth orbit for the Guowang ("national network") megaconstellation.

Then, at 10:41 p.m. EST on Monday (0341 GMT on Tuesday, Dec. 9), the mysterious Yaogan 47 spacecraft took flight atop a Long March 4B from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Yaogan 47 is a classified satellite that will be used by the Chinese military.

The tripleheader wrapped up on Tuesday at 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT) with the launch of another classified satellite, known as TJSW-22, on a Long March 3B from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China.

All three of these launches took place on Tuesday Beijing time, as noted by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned entity that operates the Long March family of rockets.

"This was the third successful launch of China's Long March rockets today, setting a new record of three launches in one day," CASC officials said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the TJSW-22 liftoff (in Mandarin; translation by Google).

A total of five orbital launches have now occurred in the 24-hour stretch beginning with Monday's Guowang liftoff. The other two were SpaceX Falcon 9 missions — a Monday evening flight lofted a batch of the company's Starlink satellites and the NROL-77 launch for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office happened on Tuesday afternoon.

That's not a 24-hour record, however: Between April 28-29 of this year, six different rockets launched toward orbit in a span of just 18 hours — a Long March 5B, two Falcon 9s, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V, an Arianespace Vega C and Alpha, a vehicle built and operated by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace. All but Alpha were successful.

SpaceX just launched a secret payload for the U.S. military.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off into cloudy skies from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (Dec. 9) at 2:16 p.m. EDT (1916 GMT) on a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called NROL-77.

The NRO, which is part of the Department of Defense, operates the United States' fleet of spy satellites.

Those spacecraft and their missions tend to be classified, and NROL-77 is no exception. The NRO's press kit, which you can find here, says the mission "carries a national security payload designed, built and operated by NRO."

There are no details, though the kit does reveal that the mission patch features a flying squirrel, along with the words "Another One Gone — Today, Tomorrow and Beyond'."

"The flying squirrel is a symbol of hard work and endurance — always active gathering foundational knowledge from the space domain for the nation and its allies," NRO officials wrote in the press kit. "Every mission counts, every decision matters, and every advancement propels us further. 'Another One Gone — Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond' embodies the relentless pursuit of excellence."

NROL-77 was the third mission that SpaceX has launched this year for the NRO and U.S. Space Systems Command, according to the company. However, it was the seventh Falcon 9 flight of 2025 carrying the "NROL-" prefix. The others — NROL-153, NROL-57, NROL-69, NROL-192, NROL-145 and NROL-48 — launched between January and September.

The Falcon 9's first stage successfully landed back at Cape Canaveral 8.5 minutes after launch today as planned. It was the fourth mission for this particular booster, which is designated 1096.

We don't know when and where the Falcon 9's upper stage will deploy the NROL-77 payload. SpaceX's mission description doesn't provide that information, and the company cut its webcast off shortly after booster landing at the request of the NRO.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:28 p.m. ET on Dec. 9 with news of successful launch and booster landing.

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just set a new record for a "flight-proven" booster, landing for the 32nd time after helping loft Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

The company's Booster 1067 lifted off on Monday (Dec. 8), accelerating an upper stage and 29 broadband internet satellites skyward. The 5:26 p.m. EST (2226 GMT Dec. 8) launch from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida proceeded as planned after a one-day stand down due to poor weather conditions.

The first stage climbed towards space for about two and a half minutes before separating from the upper stage and then making a propulsive return to Earth. It landed on the autonomous droneship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 32nd use is another step toward SpaceX's goal of flying its Falcon 9 first stages 40 times.

The Falcon 9 upper stage, meanwhile continued on its climb and, after a coast and a second firing of its Merlin engine, was expected to deploy the Starlink satellites (Group 6-92) about an hour after leaving the ground.

There are now more than 9,100 operational relay units in the Starlink network, which provide access to broadband internet to regions around the world that do not have other means of connecting. The service also supports WiFi connectively on commercial airliners and cell-to-satellite service on select carriers.

Monday's launch from Florida was SpaceX's 158th Falcon 9 launch of the year and 510th reflight of a first stage since 2017. The company launched another set of 29 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday (Dec. 7).

SpaceX launched a new batch of its Starlink satellites today (Dec. 7).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 29 internet broadband relays lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:58 a.m. EST (1758 GMT or 9:58 a.m. PST local time) on Sunday.

About nine minutes later, the rocket's second stage reached low Earth orbit. After a coast and second engine burn, the Starlink satellites (Group 11-15) were set to be deployed an hour after leaving the ground.

To plan, the Falcon 9's first stage (B1088) completed its 12th flight, making a propulsive landing on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX's Starlink constellation, which now totals more than 9,100 operational satellites, provides internet access to areas around the world where other means of connecting are either sparse non existent. The service also supports wifi on commercial airliners and cell-to-satellite connections for mobile providers.

Sunday's launch from Vandenberg was SpaceX's 115th Starlink launch and 157th Falcon 9 flight of the year,

Rocket Lab launched a Japanese technology-demonstrating satellite on Saturday night (Dec. 13).

A 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron rocket launched the "RAISE and Shine" mission from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Saturday at 10:09 p.m. EST (0309 GMT and 4:09 p.m. local New Zealand time on Sunday, Dec. 14).

That was a delay of seven days; Rocket Lab originally targeted the night of Dec. 6 but pushed things back to allow time for additional checkouts.

"RAISE and Shine" is the first flight that Rocket Lab has contracted directly with JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). It's part of a two-flight deal with the Japanese space agency; the second mission is a rideshare launch scheduled for early next year.

The California-based company has a long history with Japan overall, however, launching more than 20 missions to date for companies based in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Saturday's launch sent JAXA's Rapid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite-4, known as RAISE-4, to a circular orbit 336 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth. It was deployed there on schedule, about 54.5 minutes after launch.

The satellite's full name tells us broadly what it will do up there. RAISE-4 "will demonstrate eight technologies developed by private companies, universities, and research institutions throughout Japan," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.

"RAISE and Shine" continues a record-breaking year for Rocket Lab, which has now launched 19 missions in 2025. Sixteen of them have been orbital flights. The other three were suborbital launches with HASTE, a modified version of Electron designed to help customers test hypersonic technologies in the final frontier.

Rocket Lab's previous single-year launch record was 16, set in 2024.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:45 a.m. ET on Dec. 7 with the new launch date of Dec. 8, then again at 11:15 a.m. ET on Dec. 8 with the new target date of Dec. 11, then again at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 11 with the new target of Dec. 13. It was updated with news of successful liftoff at 10:20 p.m. ET on Dec. 13, then again at 11:10 p.m. ET with news of satellite deploy.

SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Thursday (Dec. 4), sending 28 of them up from California's central coast.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 28 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday at 3:42 p.m. EST (2042 GMT; 12:42 p.m. local California time).

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth 8.5 minutes later, landing in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." It was the fourth flight for this particular booster, which is designated 1097.

The Falcon 9's upper stage continued carrying the 28 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit, where they will be deployed about an hour after liftoff, if all goes to plan.

They'll join a megaconstellation that's by far the largest ever assembled. SpaceX currently operates more than 9,000 Starlink satellites and has launched more than 10,000 of them over the past 6.5 years.

Today's launch was the 156th Falcon 9 liftoff of 2025, extending SpaceX's single-year record. More than 70% of them have been Starlink missions.

Chinese company Landspace launched its 216-foot (66-meter) stainless steel Zhuque-3 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert in northern China on Tuesday (Dec. 2). The reusable, methane-liquid-oxygen-powered rocket successfully placed its expendable second stage in orbit, according to a statement from Landspace.

But after making a successful reentry, the rocket's first stage booster appeared to lose an engine during its landing burn and catch fire before crashing into the ground in a spectacular explosion. "An anomaly occurred as the first stage approached the designated recovery zone. No personnel safety issues occurred," Landspace wrote on social media. The company is now investigating the anomaly to discover its root cause.

Despite the landing failure, Landspace is hailing the test flight as a success, adding in its social media post that "China's first rocket recovery attempt achieved its expected technical objectives." These include verifying Zhuque-3's recovery system, engine throttling, and attitude control. Stills from videos of the crash landing show that the first stage landed within just meters of its target landing zone.

Zhuque-3 resembles SpaceX's dependable Falcon 9 rocket; both rockets feature a reusable first stage and an expendable upper stage and are powered by nine engines.

Zhuque-3's Tianque-12A engines are powered by a mixture of liquid methane and liquid oxygen (methalox), however, while the Falcon 9's Merlin engines burn liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene.

Zhuque-3's payload capacity is similar to Falcon 9's as well, able to loft 40,350 pounds (18,300 kilograms) to low Earth orbit (LEO). Falcon 9, meanwhile, can send 50,265 pounds (22,800 kg) to LEO.

A Landspace previous rocket, Zhuque-2, became the world's first methane-powered rocket to reach orbit in July 2023. SpaceX's Raptor engine, which powers its Super Heavy booster and its Starship second stage vehicle, also burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

The Zhuque rockets are named for the vermillion bird from Chinese mythology that represents the fire element in Taoist five-element cosmological system.

The U.S. Air Force has given SpaceX permission to develop Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as a launch site for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. All 11 of the giant vehicle's test flights to date have flown from Starbase, SpaceX's facility in South Texas.

SLC-37 could end up hosting up to 76 Starship launches and 152 landings every year, provided the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration determines that the airspace impacts aren't too onerous.

The approval, delivered via a Nov. 20 Record of Decision (RoD), wraps up a long and drawn-out environmental review that included a series of public hearings.

Some people in those hearings raised concerns about the impact of Starship launches on the diverse flora and fauna of the Space Coast. In the RoD, Air Force officials said they will "implement mitigation measures to avoid, minimize or compensate for" any such environmental ill effects.

Those measures will help safeguard on-site populations of threatened and/or vulnerable species such as the southeastern beach mouse, Florida scrub-jay, tricolored bat and eastern indigo snake, according to the RoD.

SLC-37 was built to support NASA's Apollo program, which put 12 people on the moon between 1969 and 1972. The site consists of two pads, A and B, though the former never hosted any launches.

SLC-37B served as the jumping-off point for eight Saturn I and Saturn IB missions from 1964 to 1968, the last of which launched the Apollo 5 mission to low Earth orbit. Pad B then lay fallow until 2002, when it began hosting launches of Delta IV rockets, the last of which flew from the site in April 2024.

SpaceX is next in line to use the facility. It plans to launch Starship from both SLC-37A and SLC-37B as well as historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

"With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support America’s national security and Artemis goals as the world’s premiere spaceport continues to evolve to enable airport-like operations. We’d like to thank the Department of the Air Force (@usairforce), 45th Space Force (@SLDelta45), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife (@USFWS) for their effort on the environmental review," SpaceX wrote in an X post on Monday (Dec. 1).

In that post, the company also said that Starship-related construction at SLC-37 has already begun.

Starship, a two-stage vehicle that stands more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is designed to be completely and rapidly reusable. SpaceX believes the vehicle will help humanity settle Mars and establish a footprint on the moon. As SpaceX noted in that X post, NASA is invested in the vehicle, choosing it as the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program of moon exploration.

Twenty-nine newly-launched Starlink satellites are now in low Earth orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the internet broadband relay units lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (Dec. 2). The Starlink satellites were successfully deployed 1 hour and 5 minutes after the 5:18 p.m. EST (2218 GMT) liftoff.

"Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed," SpaceX posted to social media.

The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, Booster 1077 (B1077), completed its ascent and then returned to Earth for a propulsive landing on the autonomous drone ship, "A Shortfall of Gravitas," stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 25th flight for the rocket, according to a mission description on SpaceX's website.

The Starlink satellites (Group 6-95) joined the more than 9,100 operational relays forming SpaceX's megaconstellation.

Tuesday's launch was the 155th Falcon 9 flight of 2025, out of SpaceX's 160 missions in total this year (to date).

A Russian spaceflyer was pulled from SpaceX's next astronaut mission for violating U.S. national security regulations, according to a media report.

Oleg Artemyev, of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, had been manifested on SpaceX's Crew 12, a four-person mission scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station (ISS) as early as February.

Fellow cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev recently took his place, a "decision made in connection with Oleg Artemyev’s transfer to another job," Roscosmos officials said today (Dec. 2) in a statement (in Russian; translation by Google). But that's not the whole story, according to the Russian investigative site The Insider.

This morning, The Insider reported that Artemyev, 54, was apparently removed from Crew 12 for violations of ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), a U.S. law that seeks to safeguard national security by restricting the dissemination of sensitive information and technology.

"The cosmonaut allegedly photographed SpaceX documentation and then 'used his phone' to export classified information," The Insider wrote (in Russian; translation by Google), citing the work of launch analyst Gregory Trishkin.

"My contacts confirm that a violation occurred and an interdepartmental investigation has been launched," Trishkin told The Insider. "Removing someone from a mission two and a half months before the mission without a clear explanation is more of an indirect sign, but it's indicative. It's very difficult to imagine a situation in which an experienced cosmonaut could inadvertently commit such a gross violation."

The Insider also cited a Sunday (Dec. 1) report by a Russian-spaceflight channel on Telegram called "Yura, Forgive Me!" According to that report, the violations occurred last week, when Artemyev was training at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. He allegedly photographed SpaceX engines and other sensitive tech with his phone.

Crew 12 is the 12th operational astronaut mission that SpaceX will fly to the ISS under a contract with NASA. Space.com reached out to SpaceX and NASA for comment about the Artemyev situation but has not yet heard back.

Artemyev has spent a total of 560 days in space across three long-duration missions to the ISS, which launched in March 2014, March 2018 and March 2022.

That last flight lifted off just a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, kicking off a war that continues to this day. In July 2022, Roscosmos posted photos of Artemyev and two of his cosmonaut colleagues on the ISS holding the flags of two Russian-backed separatist territories in Ukraine. NASA and the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) condemned the photo op, stressing that the orbiting lab should not be used as a platform for wartime propaganda.

Crew 12 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 15. It will send Fedyaev, ESA's Sophie Adenot and two as-yet-unnamed astronauts to the ISS for a roughly six-month stay.

The three astronauts of China's Shenzhou 20 mission were set to depart the nation's space station on Nov. 5, but that same day, a surprise statement from China's Manned Spaceflight Agency (CMSA) announced the crew would be staying aboard the orbital lab for a little longer. Their spacecraft had been damaged after a suspected debris strike left a crack in the spacecraft's viewport, making a return to Earth in it too risky.

As a result, the three Shenzhou 20 astronauts later returned to Earth in their relief crew's spacecraft on Nov. 14. However, this left the three-person relief crew of the Shenzhou 21 mission, temporarily without a lifeboat that could bring them home in the event of an emergency. China launched a new craft on Nov. 22, bringing an end to the temporary emergency aboard Tiangong. And now, on Dec. 1, the CMSA has announced it will bring the damaged Shenzhou 20 craft home to Earth for inspection in order to "generate meaningful real-world experimental data for subsequent missions," according to state news agency Xinhua. A return date has not yet been announced.

Xinhua cited CMSA officials who went into greater detail about the damage the Shenzhou 20 craft suffered, describing "penetrating cracks" caused by a piece of debris less than a millimeter in size that struck the craft at "extremely high speed."

With this in mind, officials acted out of caution to bring the craft home uncrewed to avoid the possibility of a worst-case scenario in which these cracks could spread due to the pressure and heat of reentry. This could have caused the outer pane of the viewport to potentially detach and cause a total structural failure.

China's Shenzhou 21 crew will now spend the remainder of its six-month mission aboard Tiangong, carrying out scientific experiments and outreach. They will be relieved by the Shenzhou 23 crew, which is expected to launch in April 2026.

China's recent Shenzhou 20 incident echoes last year's somewhat similar situation with the astronauts of Boeing Starliner's first crewed test flight, who were left aboard the ISS without a dedicated ride home. The difference, however, was that there was a plan in place to bring that crew home in the event of an emergency; they could have squeezed into extra seats inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Still, some spaceflight experts say these incidents are a "wake up call" for the need for dedicated space rescue services and increased international cooperation to avoid future disasters during these types of emergencies.

SpaceX has now launched 60 missions from California this year.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Tuesday (Dec. 2) from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Golden State's central coast at 12:28 a.m. EST (0528 GMT; 9:28 p.m. local California time on Dec. 1).

The Falcon 9 carried 27 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit, where they will join more than 9,000 other spacecraft in the huge and ever-growing broadband megaconstellation.

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the 20th mission for this particular booster, which is designated B1081.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, deployed the 27 Starlink satellites about 62 minutes after launch.

Tuesday's liftoff was SpaceX's 60th of the year from Vandenberg, according to SpaceflightNow. That's impressive, but the company's East Coast operations are even more prolific: Ninety-four Falcon 9 missions have lifted off so far in 2025 from Florida's Space Coast. (SpaceX flies out of pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which are next door to each other).

The company has also launched five suborbital test flights of its Starship megarocket so far this year. All of these missions have lifted off from Starbase, the company's site in South Texas.

SpaceX kicked off the first day of the last month of the year by lighting up Florida's Space Coast with an early morning launch.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA Kennedy Space Center's Complex 39A at 2:44 a.m. EST (0744 GMT) on Monday (Dec. 1).

About nine minutes later, the mission reached its preliminary orbit, setting up the Starlink satellites (Group 6-86) to be deployed about an hour later.

"Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed," SpaceX noted on social media at 3:50 a.m. EST (0850 GMT).

In the interim, the Falcon's first stage booster (B1095) returned from its fourth flight to make a propulsive landing on the autonomous droneship "Just Read the Instructions" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 29 Starlink satellites add to SpaceX's broadband internet network, which now has just over 9,100 operational units in low Earth orbit, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Monday's launch was SpaceX's 153rd Falcon 9 flight of the year, of which 110 have carried Starlink satellites. In total, SpaceX has dedicated 331 missions to date to populating its megaconstellation since 2019.

Europe's Vega C rocket launched for the sixth time ever today (Dec. 1), sending a powerful Earth-observation satellite to orbit.

South Korea's KOMPSAT-7 spacecraft lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega C rocket today at 12:21 p.m. EST (1721 GMT; 2:21 p.m. Kourou time).

The rocket deployed KOMPSAT-7 on schedule about 44 minutes after liftoff, into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) 358 miles (576 kilometers) above Earth.

Spacecraft in SSOs circle Earth's poles and pass over the same patch of the planet at the same solar time each day. This ensures consistent lighting conditions at each of those spots, making SSOs popular destinations for Earth-observing missions.

The 3,990-pound (1,810-kilogram) KOMPSAT-7 was built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It's the successor to KOMPSAT-3A, which launched to Earth orbit in March 2015.

The new satellite will be "one of the world’s most advanced ultra-high-resolution optical satellites," according to the press kit provided by the France-based company Arianespace, which operates the Vega C.

"It is designed to support detailed observation of the Korean Peninsula and to meet the growing national demand for high-quality satellite imagery," adds the press kit, which you can find here.

KOMPSAT-7 also features "optical data transmission technology — a first for a Korean satellite — to enable real-time processing of large-volume Earth-observation imagery via electro-optical modules and onboard storage/processing systems," Arianespace wrote.

Today's mission, which Arianespace called VV28, was the sixth for the four-stage, 115-foot-tall (35-meter-tall) Vega C, which was developed by the European Space Agency.

Five of the medium-lift rocket's six launches have been successful. The lone failure occurred on the Vega C's second mission, which lifted off in December 2022.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 1 with news of successful liftoff, then again at 1:10 p.m. ET with news of satellite deployment.

There's some spaceflight action on tap on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), but you'll have to get up pretty early to catch it.

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch from the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thanksgiving at 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT; 2:27 p.m. local time), sending NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev toward the International Space Station (ISS).

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency's YouTube. Coverage will start at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 GMT).

If all goes according to plan, the trio's Soyuz spacecraft will reach the ISS a little over three hours after launch, docking with the orbiting outpost's Rassvet module at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT). NASA will cover that milestone as well, beginning at 6:45 a.m. EST (1145 GMT).

The hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS are expected to open around 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT). You can watch that activity, and the welcome ceremony that will follow it, beginning at 9:50 a.m. EST (1450 GMT).

The Thanksgiving launch will kick off the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov has been to orbit once before, living on the ISS from October 2020 to April 2021.

The trio will spend about eight months aboard the station as members of the orbiting outpost's Expedition 73 and Expedition 74 missions.

"During his stay aboard station, Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth," NASA officials wrote in a statement.

"He will help install and test a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, support experiments to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency and grow semiconductor crystals in space, and assist NASA in designing new re-entry safety protocols to protect crews during future missions," they added.

The Thanksgiving liftoff will be the second launch in three days headed for a crewed outpost in low Earth orbit. On Monday night (Nov. 24), China launched an uncrewed Shenzhou capsule, which will be the ride home for the three astronauts currently living on the Tiangong space station. That trio was without a lifeboat for 10 days; their own vehicle took home the previous Shenzhou astronauts, whose spacecraft was damaged by a space-debris strike.

SpaceX scrubbed the planned launch of 140 satellites, all aboard the same Falcon 9 rocket, just over 15 minutes before their planned liftoff from a seaside pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The company did not disclose a reason for the delay. The next opportunity to launch the mission, called Transporter-15, will be Friday (Nov. 28), at 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT).

"There are a thousand ways that a launch can go wrong and only one way that it can go right," a SpaceX spokesperson said during live launch commentary. "So, given that, we are overly cautious on the ground, and if the team or the vehicle sees anything that looks even slightly off, we'll stop the countdown."

Transporter-15 is a SpaceX rideshare mission designed to carry dozens of small satellites into orbit for a variety of customers. SpaceX initially hoped to launch the mission on Nov. 19, but has seen repeated delays for the flight.

The satellites riding aboard the Falcon 9 are an ecclectic mix of commercial satellites, Earth-observation spacecraft and other vehicles. The Earth imaging company Planet Labs, for example, has 36 small "SuperDove" satellites riding alongside two of its larger Pelican Earth-observation satellites. The European Space Agency, meanwhile, has a pair of HydryoGNSS satellites on board to monitor Earth's water cycle.

Two launch providers, ExoLaunch and SEOPS, each have a collection of different spacecraft aboard Transporter-15 for various clients. Varda, a company that launches experiments that can return to Earth on reentry capsules, will fly its fifth spacecraft, called W-5, on the mission. And there are dozens of other satellites representing companies from around the world, including Taiwan and Italy.

The Falcon 9 rocket on Transporter-15 includes a first stage that has flown 29 times before. If all goes well, the first stage will return to Earth after liftoff to land on SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean so it can be returned to shore for eventual reuse.

The homegrown Nuri lifted off from Naro Space Center today (Nov. 26) at 11:13 a.m. EST (1613 GMT; 0113 on Nov. 27 Korea Standard Time).

The 155-foot-tall (47 meters) rocket carried an Earth-observation satellite called CAS500-3 and a dozen ride-along cubesats to orbit.

If all goes to plan, CAS500-3 ("Compact Advanced Satellite 500 3)" will be deployed into a sun-synchronous orbit 373 miles (600 kilometers) above Earth.

Once it's up and running, the 1,100-pound (500 kilograms) satellite will study our planet's auroras and another atmospheric phenomenon known as airglow. CAS500-3 will also measure magnetic fields and plasma, according to a statement from the Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA), which was established in May 2024.

The 12 rideshare cubesats were provided by a range of companies and academic and research institutions and will perform a variety of tasks in orbit.

The three-stage Nuri is the first fully indigenous South Korean orbital rocket. A previous launcher, called Naro-1, reached orbit but employed a modified Russian Angara rocket as its first stage.

Nuri failed during its debut flight in October 2021 but bounced back with two consecutive successes, in June 2022 and May 2023. Today's launch continued that streak, and was special in other ways as well.

"The fourth launch of Nuri is significant because it is the first launch since the establishment of the KASA and the first launch in which a system-integration company took charge of the overall production and assembly of launch vehicle components and jointly participated in launch operations," KASA Administrator Yoon Young-bin said in the same statement.

Three Chinese astronauts finally have a reliable way to get home from orbit.

The uncrewed Shenzhou 22 spacecraft arrived at Tiangong space station today (Nov. 25) at 2:50 a.m. EST (0750 GMT and 3:50 p.m. Beijing time), about 3.5 hours after launching to orbit atop a Long March 2F/G rocket.

Shenzhou 22 is an unprecedented mission for China — an emergency flight mounted on a short timeline to help out three astronauts who have been "stuck" on Tiangong for the past 10 days.

Those astronauts arrived at the station Oct. 31 for a six-month stay. Their mission, Shenzhou 21, took over from the three-astronaut Shenzhou 20 flight, which was scheduled to come home on Nov. 5.

But things got complicated when Shenzhou 20's departure was delayed after inspections revealed a crack in the window of the crew's return spacecraft. The damage, likely inflicted by a space debris strike, made the Shenzhou 20 vehicle unfit to carry astronauts on the harrowing trip down through Earth's atmosphere, Chinese space officials determined.

So, the Shenzhou 20 trio came home in the newly arrived Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, touching down safely on Nov. 14. That solution solved one problem but created another, leaving the Shenzhou 21 crew without a safe way to get home in the event of an emergency.

China is prepared for such eventualities, however. The nation keeps a backup Long March 2F/G rocket and Shenzhou capsule in a state of near-readiness at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert and can fast-track a launch should the need arise.

China activated this contingency plan in the wake of the Shenzhou 20 debris strike, getting the uncrewed rescue mission off the ground just 20 days later.

Shenzhou 22 provides "a successful example for the international aerospace field in efficiently responding to emergencies," the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement today.

"The success of this mission fully demonstrates the advantages of the new national system, profoundly interprets the concept of 'life first, safety first' in China's manned spaceflight, comprehensively verifies the scientific reliability of the 'one-for-one, rolling backup' strategy for China's space station mission, and practically tests the rapid response and emergency handling capabilities of the entire project," CMSA officials added.

The damaged Shenzhou 20 capsule, meanwhile, is still docked to Tiangong. It "will remain in orbit to conduct relevant experiments," according to the CMSA statement. That space stay will have to end in the next five months or so, however; Shenzhou 20 occupies a docking port that will be needed by the next crewed flight to Tiangong, Shenzhou 23, which is expected to launch in April 2026.

Three Chinese astronauts won't be "stranded" in orbit for much longer.

A Long March 2F/G rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China tonight (Nov. 24) at 11:11 p.m. EST (0411 GMT and 12:11 p.m. on Nov. 25 Beijing time).

The rocket sent the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft toward China's Tiangong space station in low Earth orbit, on a dramatic and unprecedented rescue mission.

Shenzhou missions typically fly three astronauts to Tiangong, where they stay for six-month stints. However, the Shenzhou 22 vehicle is uncrewed, because it will serve as the ride home for the orbiting outpost's three current residents.

Those astronauts are flying on the Shenzhou 21 mission, which arrived at Tiangong on Halloween night. But the spacecraft they rode up on is already gone; it was pressed into service to take their predecessors, the Shenzhou 20 trio, home on Nov. 14.

The Shenzhou 20 astronauts were supposed to leave Tiangong on Nov. 5, but inspections revealed a crack in the window of their spacecraft, the apparent consequence of an impact by a piece of space debris. Chinese space officials delayed the crew's departure to analyze the issue, then ultimately deemed the Shenzhou 20 craft unsafe to take astronauts down to Earth.

So, for the past 10 days, the Shenzhou 21 astronauts have been in a somewhat precarious position: Should Tiangong suffer a serious problem, they have no way to safely evacuate.

That is about to change. Provided that Shenzhou 22 docks with Tiangong as planned about 4.5 hours after launch, the Shenzhou 21 astronauts will serve out the remainder of their half-year mission aboard the outpost. They will be relieved by the three astronauts of Shenzhou 23, which is expected to launch in April 2026.

The Shenzhou 20 capsule will need to leave before Shenzhou 23 arrives to free up a docking port. Chinese space officials have said the damaged spacecraft will remain in orbit for a spell to host some experiments, but they have not yet announced a timeline for its departure.

The Shenzhou ordeal follows on the heels of another "stranded astronaut" saga. Boeing's Starliner astronaut taxi experienced problems shortly after its June 2024 launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on its first-ever crewed flight, which was supposed to last just 10 days or so. NASA ultimately decided to bring the vehicle home uncrewed in September of that year, which happened without incident.

The two Starliner astronauts, NASA's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, ended up staying on the ISS for more than nine months (though they were never actually stranded, as at least one functional "lifeboat" spacecraft was always attached to the ISS during their stay). The duo ultimately came home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in March of this year.

The two off-nominal situations have increased calls in some quarters for a "space rescue service" — one that could help astronauts in need in a timely fashion, whichever country they may represent.

Update for Nov. 25: China successfully launched the Shenzhou 22 rescue ship for the three stuck astronauts on the Tiangong Space Station late Nov. 24 EST (Nov. 25 Beijing Time). Shenzhou 22 successfully docked at Tiangong early on Nov. 25.

China will launch an empty spacecraft to the Tiangong space station overnight tonight (Nov. 24), to provide a lifeboat for its 3 stranded astronauts currently living and working aboard.

A Long March 2F/G rocket is scheduled to launch the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft today, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in China's Gobi Desert. Liftoff is scheduled during a 30-minute launch window that begins at 11:11 p.m. EST (0411 GMT, Nov. 25; 11:11 a.m. Beijing Time).

Chinese state media channels confirmed the launch online, and indicated that propellant loading for the rocket was completed early Friday morning. The Shenzhou 22 mission patch was also revealed Monday, with images of the Long March 2F rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft rising from China's Great Wall to the Tiangong space station in the stars - symbols that showcase, "a sense of 'ready to launch' and a steadfast belief in 'mission accomplished,'" according to China Manned Space.

The three astronauts aboard Tiangong currently have no way of departing the station, either in an emergency or at the end of their crew rotation. The spacecraft that ferried the Shenzhou 21 crew to space was repurposed to return their predecessors, Shenzhou 20 astronauts, after the Shenzhou 20 return vehicle was struck by space debris. Now, Shenzhou 21 Taikonauts Zhang Lu, Zhang Hongzhang and Wu Fei are stuck in orbit until a new vessel arrives.

The three astronauts began their stint aboard Tiangong after a successful launch Oct. 31. Their arrival kicked off departure procedures for the Shenzhou 20 crew, who had been scheduled to return to Earth Nov. 5. Just before their departure, however, the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft was struck with debris.

Out of an abundance of caution, Chinese officials made the decision to return the Shenzhou 20 crew aboard the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft that had just arrived. The astronauts successfully landed Nov. 14, and the Shenzhou 21 crew has now gone without a ride home for the past 10 days.

The Shenzhou 20 spacecraft still remains docked with Tiangong, but it will either need to be repaired and returned to Earth or abandoned on orbit to free up the docking port before the Shenzhou 23 mission arrives to relieve the station's current crew.

With the launch and subsequent arrival of the empty Shenzhou 22 spacecraft, Shenzhou 21 astronauts aboard Tiangong are expected to serve through the remainder of their crew rotation, and be relieved by Shenzhou 23 sometime in April 2026.

SpaceX introduced a new Falcon 9 rocket into its fleet on Sunday (Nov. 23), with he launch of 28 satellites for its Starlink megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.

The launch, from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, took place on Sunday at 3:48 a.m. EST (0848 GMT or 12:48 a.m. PST local time). The Starlink satellites were successfully deployed one hour and 19 minutes into the flight.

In the interim, the Falcon 9's first stage, Booster 1100 (B1100) made its first touchdown on a drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," stationed in the Pacific Ocean. The landing occurred about eight and a half minutes after the rocket's launch, according to a page about the flight on the SpaceX website.

The Starlink satellites (Group 11-30) added to the more than 9,000 units that comprise the commercial broadband internet network.

Sunday's launch was the second Starlink mission in as many days, following a flight from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday. That liftoff had been SpaceX's 150th Falcon 9 launch of the year.

SpaceX reached another milestone with the launch of 29 more Starlink satellites for its broadband internet low Earth orbit constellation.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:53 a.m. EST (0753 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 22). One hour and five minutes later, the Starlink satellite were deployed from the Falcon's upper stage.

"Falcon 9 completes its 150th launch of 2025," SpaceX posted to social media. "Deployment of 29 Starlink satellites confirmed."

The Falcon 9's first stage (Booster B1080) returned for a ninth time to a successful landing and recovery, in this case on the droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, according to a SpaceX page about the mission.

The 29 Starlink satellites (Group 6-79) added to the SpaceX-owned network, which now numbers more than 9,000 active units out of the over 10,400 launched since 2019, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

In addition to being SpaceX's 150th Falcon 9 launch of this year, Saturday's mission was the 568th flight of the company's launch vehicle since 2010.

On Thursday (Nov. 20), SpaceX rolled out Booster 18, the first stage of the company's first "Version 3" Starship megarocket, to begin its first round of tests ahead of the vehicle's next flight test. V3 will take the torch from Starship V2, which wrapped up a year of growing pains with two consecutive test-flight successes, in August and October of this year.

Now, it seems, V3 will have some growing pains of its own. SpaceX announced that tests on the new booster would begin at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas in a Nov. 20 post on X. "The first operations will test the booster's redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength," the company said. But by Friday morning (Nov. 21), the booster sported signs of serious damage.

In a post on X Friday morning, a user by the name of Starship Gazer, whose profile describes nearly half a decade of documenting Starship's development, posted an image of Booster 18 with much of the bottom portion of the vehicle crumpled like an empty soda can.

It appears in the photo that whatever propulsion and structural integrity tests SpaceX performed overnight did their job, and found some faults in the stainless-steel vehicle.

"Very significant damage to the entire LOX [liquid oxygen] tank section," Starship Gazer said in the post.

It's still too early to know what exactly went wrong, according to SpaceX.

"Booster 18 suffered an anomaly during gas system pressure testing that we were conducting in advance of structural proof testing. No propellant was on the vehicle, and engines were not yet installed. The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause. No one was injured as we maintain a safe distance for personnel during this type of testing. The site remains clear and we are working plans to safely reenter the site," the company wrote on X on Friday.

Visually, Starships V2 and V3 appear very similar. V3 stands a bit taller, though — about 5 feet (1.5 meters) taller than V2 — and also features an integrated "hot stage" ring, the structure that connects Starship's two stages. (V2's hot stage ring was a separate component that fell from both Starship stages after separation.) The new booster has also been overhauled to fly under the power of SpaceX's upgraded Raptor 3 engines. Additionally, V3 boosters will sport only 3, instead of 4, grid fins for aerodynamic descent stability control, each of which will be about 50% larger than their V2 counterparts.

The latest mishap stands to slow SpaceX's gained momentum after a rocky year of test flights for Starship V2. That rocket launched five times in 2025, but only managed to reach its mission goals during the last two.

SpaceX did succeed in catching returning Super Heavy boosters back at the launch pad during the first two Starship flights of the year, using the tower's "Mechazilla" chopstick-like mechanical arms. The company then managed to relaunch one of those boosters on a subsequent flight in May. And, while the third Starship launch of 2025 resulted in the loss of both Super Heavy and Ship (the vehicle's upper stage), its final two flights of the year were deemed complete successes; with Ship's deployment of a set of Starlink satellite mass-simulator payloads, safe reentry through Earth's atmosphere and soft splashdown of both stages at their respective target zones at sea.

Recent successes notwithstanding, Starship's setbacks in the first half of the year, and now this new incident with V3 before it even gets off the ground, raise some questions about the spacecraft's readiness for SpaceX's biggest current customer.

NASA has contracted SpaceX to use Starship as the lunar lander for the agency's Artemis 3 mission, which will return astronauts to the surface of the moon for the first time sinc 1972. NASA is targeting 2027 for that mission, but recent reports on internal SpaceX timelines push those estimates to no earlier than 2028.

How the failure of Booster 18 will affect that timeline, and what it means for the V3 booster design as a whole, is yet to be seen, but NASA may not be waiting around to find out. Even before V3 rolled out for testing, the space agency had begun eyeing other moon lander options in light of SpaceX's delayed progress in developing Starship.

Starship was also recently criticized by former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, during a Sept. 3 Senate Commerce Committee hearing led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and titled "There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise." In his remarks, Bridenstine criticized Starship's design architecture and stressed the number of milestones it still needs to achieve before being qualified to land humans on the moon.

For example, before flying any Artemis astronauts, SpaceX still must demonstrate in-orbit cryogenic fuel transfer between Ship upper stages vehicles and land at least one uncrewed Ship on the moon. One of Bridenstine's harshest criticisms focused on what SpaceX estimates it will take to accomplish those feats. After launching the Starship lunar lander to Earth orbit, it could take a dozen or so additional Starship launches to supply the lander with enough fuel to make the journey. (The exact number is a matter of debate, as SpaceX and NASA have made different estimates.)

Now, those goal posts will sit on the back burner as SpaceX determines how best to fuel its V3 booster on the ground without buckling under the pressure.

Rocket Lab launched a satellite for a mystery customer on Thursday morning (Nov. 20).

The liftoff, which occurred at 7:43 a.m. EST (1243 GMT) from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site, came as something of a surprise. The company formally announced the impending launch of its workhorse Electron rocket less than five hours ahead of time.

The mission, called "Follow My Speed" was a complete success, Rocket Lab announced via X on Thursday morning.

"Today's 'Follow My Speed' mission marks 18 launches with 100% mission success for 2025 — more than any other year in Electron's history — making our rocket the most frequently flown orbital small launch vehicle in the world," the company said in another Thursday X post.

Fifteen of those 18 launches have been orbital missions. The other three were suborbital flights involving HASTE, a modified version of the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron that allows customers to test hypersonic technologies in the space environment.

We don't know much about "Follow My Speed."

Rocket Lab described the mission in vague terms only, saying that its goal was "to deploy a single satellite for a confidential commercial customer."

Keeping things so close to the vest isn't exactly odd for launch companies, who regularly loft national-security payloads or commercial satellites with sensitive, proprietary tech. Rocket Lab, for example, launched five satellites for a confidential customer just three months ago.

Another SpaceX launch, another milestone.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight (Nov. 20) at 10:39 p.m. EST (0339 GMT on Nov. 21), carrying 29 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites to orbit.

It was the 100th liftoff of the year from the Sunshine State, a nice round number that had never been reached before.

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes after liftoff tonight, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX droneship "Just Read the Instructions." It was the 23rd flight for this particular booster, which carries the designation 1080.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the Starlink craft toward low Earth orbit, where they'll be deployed about 65 minutes after launch.

'SpaceX is responsible for the vast majority of this year's record-breaking rocket traffic from the Space Coast, which features two side-by-side spaceports: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Elon Musk's company has now launched a total of 149 Falcon 9 missions in 2025, more than 90 of them from Florida. (The others have flown from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.) That total, which increases every other day or so, is a record; the previous high, set in 2024, was 132 Falcon 9 launches.

SpaceX has also launched five suborbital test flights of its giant Starship Mars rocket in 2025, all of them from its Starbase site in South Texas.

The milestone occurred on Nov. 13, during the launch of NASA's twin ESCAPADE Mars probes from Florida's Space Coast. New Glenn's first stage came back to Earth about nine minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on Blue Origin's drone ship "Jacklyn."

The booster looked pristine, its white, gold and blue livery sparkling in the afternoon sun. It was quite a departure from the baseline visual most of us have of a landed rocket — consider a soot-streaked SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, for instance, its char marks worn like a badge of honor.

But there's a simple explanation for the difference between a landed Falcon 9 and a landed New Glenn — their respective propellants.

SpaceX's Merlin engines, which power both stages of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, run on liquid oxygen and RP-1, a rocket-grade form of kerosene. Kerosene creates soot when it burns, and Falcon boosters therefore fly through self-generated clouds of this gunk when they come back down to Earth.

New Glenn's BE-4 first-stage engines, on the other hand, burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, a combo known as methalox. Methane combustion doesn't generate appreciable soot, so the big rocket came home clean last week. (New Glenn's upper stage features two BE-3U engines, which are powered by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.)

SpaceX has developed a methalox engine of its own, by the way — Raptor, which powers the company's next-gen Starship megarocket. Starship is designed to help humanity settle Mars, and methane makes sense as a fuel for a Red Planet rocket, according to company founder and CEO Elon Musk: It can be produced on Mars from components in the planet's atmosphere.

Blue Origin will soon find out if the landed New Glenn booster is in as good a shape as it looks: The rocket just made it back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36, where the company will inspect and refurbish it.

The plan is to fly the booster again, and again ... and again.

Each New Glenn first stage is designed to launch at least 25 times, in fact. That level of reuse would be quite a feat, but Blue Origin is following a trail that SpaceX has blazed. Multiple Falcon 9 boosters have dozens of flights under their belts, and one has launched a record 31 times. That soot is just a cosmetic issue, after all.

Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company announced today (Nov. 20) that it's upgrading New Glenn, a partially reusable heavy lifter that aced its second-ever mission just last week. On that flight, New Glenn sent NASA's twin ESCAPADE Mars probes on their desired trajectory, and the rocket's first stage landed successfully on a ship at sea.

"The enhancements span propulsion, structures, avionics, reusability and recovery operations, and will be phased into upcoming New Glenn missions beginning with NG-3," Blue Origin wrote in an update today. (NG-3 is the rocket's third mission, which is expected to launch early next year.)

New Glenn's reusable first stage is powered by seven of Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, and its second stage features two BE-3Us. According to the update, both of these engines are getting an upgrade, which will boost the first stage's thrust from 3.9 million to 4.5 million pounds per foot (17,219 to 19,928 kilonewtons) and the upper stage's from 320,000 to 400,000 pounds per foot (1,423 to 1,779 kN).

"Additional vehicle upgrades include a reusable fairing to support increased flight rates, an updated lower-cost tank design and a higher-performing and reusable thermal protection system to improve turnaround time," Blue Origin said.

Today's update also includes some even bigger news: Blue Origin plans to build a "super-heavy" version of the rocket, which it calls New Glenn 9x4. The name is a nod to the increased number of engines — nine BE-4s on the first stage and four BE-3Us up top.

New Glenn 9x4 will be capable of lofting 77 tons (70 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit, compared to 50 tons (45 mt) for the original "7x2" variant. The new rocket will also have an even bigger payload fairing — one that's 28.5 feet (8.7 meters) wide, compared to an initial 23 feet (7 m).

That baseline 23-foot-wide fairing was already a space industry standout. For example, the payload fairing of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is 17 feet (5.2 m) across.

Today's update doesn't give a timeline for the development of New Glenn 9x4 (which could really use a catchier name). But it does stress that the new rocket won't displace its older cousin.

Both New Glenn variants "will serve the market concurrently, giving customers more launch options for their missions, including megaconstellations, lunar and deep-space exploration, and national security imperatives such as Golden Dome," Blue Origin wrote.

SpaceX's workhorse rocket soared into space from the California coast after more than a week of delays, carrying more than 100 spacecraft to orbit before making a landing at sea.

The veteran Falcon 9 rocket launched SpaceX's Transporter-15 rideshare mission Friday (Nov. 28) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff occurred at about 1:45 p.m. EST (1845 GMT) from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-4E, about a half hour into a 57-minute window. The mission had been delayed since Nov. 19, with SpaceX calling off a launch attempt on Wednesday, just 15 minutes before liftoff.

Transporter-15 should take just over 2.5 hours to deploy all of its 140 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit, where each will begin its own, individualized mission. The first-stage booster's flight, meanwhile, took just over 8 minutes,

The mission continues SpaceX's increasing frequency of rideshare launches, and follows on the heels of the late-summer liftoff of the Transporter-14 flight, which delivered dozens of cubesats, tech demos and research craft into low Earth orbit (LEO).

Not all of Transporter-15's payloads were confirmed or identified before launch. But among those that were we found notable contributions from organizations like the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), as well as companies and organizations like Planet Labs, SEOPS, Leaf Space and various universities and educational institutions.

ESA's HydroGNSS-1 and HydroGNSS-2 satellites are flying as part of the agency's first Scout mission. They will study Earth's water cycle using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry measurement technique to quite literally "scout for water," according to ESA.

Taiwan launched its FORMOSAT-8A Earth-imaging satellite, as well as three domestically built cubesats: Bellbird-1, Black Kite-1 and TORO-8U-1, from Tron Future Tech, Rapidtek Technologies Inc. and Pyras Technology Inc., respectively. They are designed to test high-speed data transferal communications, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and conduct remote sensing to monitor algae, plankton and ocean health.

The Pelican imaging satellites 5 and 6, as well as 36 SuperDoves in the "Flock 4H" group, all built by the California-based firm Planet Labs, are also riding on the Transporter-15 mission. Planet Labs' expanding Earth-observation Pelican network is designed to "efficiently capture fleeting and emerging events, especially those that may anticipate new patterns or risks," the company's website says. The accompanying SuperDoves will join Planet Labs' PlanetScope monitoring mission.

SEOPS is using the Transporter-15 flight to demonstrate its custom payload integration capabilities with the deployment of a wide range of student-built, scientific and commercial spacecraft. Those vehicles include four payloads managed by Alba Orbital. Also flying is Hungary's HUNITY, a new "pocketqube" platform for even smaller cubesats, measuring as small as 2 inches (5 centimeters). Two of these pocketqubes are SARI-1 and SARI-2 from the Saudi space agency, which will perform telemetry, IoT experiments and other research. Alba is also flying the ANISCSAT mission from Azerbaijan, which will study environmental conditions in LEO.

SEOPS is managing two cubesats for CS3, called WISDOM and Mauve. WISDOM, part of ESA’s NAVISP program, will test collision avoidance and deorbiting technologies using a 6U cubesat that will separate into two individual 3U spacecraft, while Mauve, a 16U cubesat, will conduct ultraviolet astronomy using a 13-cm telescope.

SEOPS is also handling NASA’s 3UCubed-A, designed to measure precipitating electrons and ultraviolet emissions at Earth's poles, SatRev's PW-6U Earth-imaging satellite for customers in the agricultural and energy industries, and TRYAD-1 and 2, lightning observation satellites built by students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Auburn University, and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

A large portion of the satellites on Transporter-15 will be supported by Leaf Space. In a demonstration of its growing ground infrastructure, the Italian company will add 31 of Transporter-15's payloads to its Leaf Line ground station network — roughly 30% of the launch's total spacecraft. Those 31 will join 140 spacecraft that utilize the network, operated by various commercial customers who rely on Leaf Space for tracking and telemetry data.

You can see a full list of the 140 satellites on Transporter-15 on SpaceX's mission website.

Due to the large number of payloads and the diversity of their missions, the Falcon 9's second stage will feature a longer-than-usual deployment process, beginning about 55 minutes after launch and lasting about 2 hours and 43 minutes.

SpaceX's Transporter-15 mission is the 30th flight for the first-stage booster (called B1071), which has previously launched 18 Starlink missions, four rideshare missions, five national security missions and two missions carrying Earth-observation satellites.

The mission also appeared to be a reflight of the payload fairing, the clamshell-like nose cone protecting the satellite payload. The fairing appeared weathered from past flights much like the first-stage booster. SpaceX said the company planned to retrieve the fairing halves from the sea to recover and reuse them.

"Those fairings will make their way back to Earth for recovery," a SpaceX spokesperson said during live launch commentary.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Nov. 28 to include new photos and confirmation of SpaceX's successful Transporter-15 launch.

The HASTE suborbital rocket lifted off Tuesday (Nov. 18) at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, on a mission for the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

The launch, which Rocket Lab named "Prometheus Run," was a success, "advancing national interests in safeguarding the homeland through the testing of advanced technologies for missile defense," Rocket Lab wrote in a description of the flight.

HASTE is a modified suborbital version of Rocket Lab's 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron launcher, which gives small satellites dedicated rides to orbit. That lineage is in the newer vehicle's name, which is short for "Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron."

HASTE debuted in June 2023 and has now flown a total of six times. The rocket serves as a testbed, providing "reliable, high-cadence flight test opportunities needed to advance hypersonic and suborbital system technology development," according to Rocket Lab's website.

We don't know much about the technologies that got tested on "Prometheus Run," which isn't terribly surprising given that the U.S. military booked the flight.

"Led by MDA, the mission deployed a government-provided primary payload developed by the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and multiple secondary payloads by federal and industry partners, which tested key technologies for missile defense applications," Rocket Lab's postflight statement reads.

"Prometheus Run" launched within 14 months of its booking, the company added — a pretty quick turnaround for a government-sponsored test flight.

"Accessing the commercial and non-traditional ecosystem is a key enabler to accelerating progress in the hypersonics community of interest, particularly for closing mission timelines and driving towards mass and affordability," Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, director of DIU’s Emerging Technology Portfolio, said in the same statement. "Working with MDA to demonstrate commercially-focused sub-orbital launch services is a great example of that axiom."

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites in a nighttime liftoff from Florida's Space Coast on Tuesday (Nov. 18).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 29 Starlink spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday at 7:12 p.m. EST (0012 GMT on Nov. 19).

About 8.5 minutes later, the rocket's first stage touched down in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." It was the 12th launch and landing for the booster, which carries the designation 1085.

The rocket's upper stage deployed the 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit as planned about 65 minutes after launch, SpaceX announced via X.

Once they're up and running, the newcomers will push the number of operational Starlink craft above 9,000. That count currently stands at 8,979, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

So far in 2025, SpaceX has launched 148 Falcon 9 missions, 107 of which have been devoted to building out the Starlink megaconstellation.

The company has also launched five suborbital test flights of its giant Starship rocket this year. Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ended an order designed to help alleviate strain on air traffic control operators. The directive — which went into effect Nov. 10 and was a result of the recent government shutdown — relegated commercial launch traffic to nighttime hours in order to avoid airspace closures around spaceports in Florida, California and the Delmarva area.

Now that the record-long shutdown has ended and the U.S. government is open for business once again, the FAA has ended those restrictions.

The order officially ended on Monday (Nov. 17) at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT), an FAA statement said, allowing normal operations at the National Airspace System (NAS) to resume.

“Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS and allows us to return to normal operations,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in the statement.

The order primarly affected SpaceX, by far the most prolific American launch company. SpaceX has been lofting Starlink missions to expand its growing wireless internet megaconstellation in low Earth orbit every few days; it has already launched more than 100 Starlink missions this year.

SpaceX wasn't totally grounded while the order was in place, though. The company managed to launch four after-hours missions during the week-long restriction phase, including three Starlink missions and the Sentinel-6B ocean mapping satellite.

A few other launches were also affected, though not unduly. For example, NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission, which lifted off on the second-ever flight of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket, got an exemption from the FAA to launch during daylight hours on Nov. 13.

In a post on X, Transportation Secretary and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said, "The FAA has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers. Now we can refocus our efforts on hiring and building the state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve."