India's first private orbital rocket launches Saturday from Dhawan Space Centre
Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-I lifts off July 18 with 350 kg to LEO, marking India's entry into the private orbital launch market and testing a novel four-stage solid-hypergolic architecture.
Rocket Lab launches hypersonic test mission for DoD
Rocket Lab flies an Electron-family rocket on a classified military hypersonic test for the Defense Department, cementing its position as the primary small-rocket provider for suborbital DoD missions.
NASA fires 120-kW thruster, setting U.S. electric propulsion record
NASA's JPL tested a lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster at 120 kilowatts, the highest power electric propulsion system ever fired in the U.S., advancing deep-space mission architecture.
Rocket Lab books record Neutron backlog before first flight
Rocket Lab signed its largest contract ever, five Neutron and three Electron dedicated launches, pushing backlog to $2.2B and proving the medium-lift market will pay full price for a working alternative to Falcon 9.
AST wins 248-satellite license as its prime launch partner gets grounded
The FCC authorized AST SpaceMobile's full 248-satellite constellation on April 21, but three days earlier New Glenn suffered an upper-stage failure that will ground the rocket, the vehicle designed to deploy most of AST's satellites by 2026.
SpaceX Files for IPO: $1.75 Trillion Valuation, National Security Moat
SpaceX submitted a confidential IPO filing to the SEC on April 1, seeking a $1.75 trillion valuation and up to $75 billion in capital. The filing values a merged aerospace-AI enterprise built on military launch dominance and Starlink's near-10-million-user base.
Artemis II Crew Boards for Moon Launch Today; Heat Shield Untested at Reentry
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are boarding Orion for a crewed lunar flyby launch at 6:24 p.m. EDT today—the first humans beyond low Earth orbit in 54 years, and the first real test of a redesigned heat shield that failed post-flight analysis on the uncrewed Artemis I.
Private space station developer and commercial astronaut services company supporting NASA and DoD missions.
Commercial space station and human spaceflight company building commercial infrastructure and services in low Earth orbit.