Space News & Blog Articles

Rocket Lab conducted a wet dress rehearsal tanking test of its Electron rocket at Pad A at its launch complex in New Zealand on May 26 ahead of the ‘Full Stream Ahead’ mission for BlackSky. Image: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab is back at the pad in support of its customer, BlackSky, and the next launch for its Gen-3 satellite constellation. Teams are looking to launch the mission, dubbed ‘Full Stream Ahead,’ from Pad A at Rocket Lab’s launch complex in Mahia, New Zealand, at 11:57 a.m. NZT on June 3 (7:57 p.m. EDT, 2357 UTC on June 2).

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on May 31, 2025, on the Starlink 11-18 mission. Image: SpaceX.
SpaceX closed out May with its 16th Falcon 9 launch of the month. The Saturday afternoon launch from the company’s West Coast launch pad carried 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to a low Earth orbit.

Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, appears before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Update May 31, 11:40 p.m. EDT: Added comments from President Trump and Jared Isaacman.

File: A Falcon 9 stands ready to launch the Starlink 12-5 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Image: Spaceflight Now.

SpaceX is watching an active period of solar activity as it hopes to launch 23 Starlink satellites in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning.

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster 1075 touches down on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love you,’ during the Starlink 11-16 mission. This marked the 450th landing of a Falcon booster to date. Image: SpaceX via broadcast

Update May 23, 7 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed its first stage booster on the droneship.

SpaceX conducted a long-duration, six-engine static fire test on the Starship upper stage, tail number S35, that will be used on the Starship Flight 9 mission. Image: SpaceX

A return to flight for SpaceX’s Starship program could be a just a holiday weekend away, after the Federal Aviation Administration gave the company the go ahead.

A group of beachgoers at Cape Canaveral look on as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took to the skies to begin the Starlink 12-22 mission on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

With hundreds of people looking on along the shores of Florida’s Space Coast, SpaceX launched its 45th Starlink launch of the year, which took off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 17-1 mission on May 27, 2025. Image: SpaceX

Update May 27, 2:09 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 Starlink satellites.

A SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy rocket stands stacked at Pad A at Starbase, Texas, ahead of the Starship Flight 9 mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is gearing up for a critical flight test for its Starship program. Launch teams are preparing to send the world’s largest rocket on its ninth test flight for the fully integrated vehicle on Tuesday eventing.

SpaceX’s Starship upper stage, tail number S35, is shown in an uncontrolled reentry during the Starship Flight 9 mission on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Image: SpaceX via livestream

SpaceX hit another roadblock on its quest to “make life multiplanetary.” During the ninth flight of its integrated Starship-Super Heavy rocket on Tuesday, the vehicle once again failed to complete a full flight as intended, losing its ability to control its orientation a little more than 20 minutes into the flight.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the Starlink 10-32 mission on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Update May 28, 11:04 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed Starlink satellite deployment.

NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center, the center’s Launch Pads 39A and 39B, and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida’s Atlantic coast are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above on May 27, 2024. Image: NASA

Anyone who spends even a short number of days near Florida’s Space Coast can tell that the rate of launches is ramping up dramatically year over year.

The GPS III-7 Space Vehicle 08 pictured as it was encapsulated inside a pair of SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairings. Image: SpaceX

The latest addition to the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation is set to be launched into medium Earth orbit on Friday afternoon.

New Falcon 9 booster 1095 lifts off from Cape Canaveral on May 20, 2025, on the Starlink 12-15 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein.
SpaceX launched a brand-new Falcon 9 booster Tuesday after an abort halted its first attempt 24 hours earlier. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, with 23 Starlink satellites aboard, came at 11:19 p.m. EDT (03:19 UTC).

SpaceX froze the countdown of its Falcon 9 about 2.5 minutes ahead of the planned launch of the Starlink 12-15 mission on Monday, May 19, 2025. A reason for the abort wasn’t given before SpaceX ended its broadcast. Image: SpaceX via livestream

Update May 20, 12:14 a.m. EDT: SpaceX scrubbed its planned launch.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 15-3 mission. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is moving ahead with expansion plans at Vandenberg Space Force Base that will double its West Coast launch cadence and enable Falcon Heavy rockets to fly from California.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of Starlink satellites from California after sunrise Friday morning. If all goes well on the mission, the company will have launched more than 1,000 of its broadband internet satellites this year.

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon’s surface following touchdown on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Image: Intuitive Machines

The third attempt to land on the Moon for Houston-based Intuitive Machines is coming up in less than a year and the company said Tuesday it understands how to stick the landing on the next go around.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-67 mission on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX returned to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday afternoon with its Falcon 9 rocket. The company launched of its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites on the 475th Falcon 9 rocket to date.

[Left] Ax-4 Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski [Right] have been training to live and work aboard the space station for the past eight months in preparation for their mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than June 8, 2025. Image: Axiom SpaceThe debut of the fifth and planned final Dragon spacecraft is going to take a bit longer. The vehicle, tail number C213, will won’t be ready to support the flight of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station until next month.

A streak shot of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as it took flight from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday, May 12, 2025. Image: SpaceX

Update May 13, 12 a.m.: SpaceX confirms successful deployment of the Starlink satellites.