🌕 Sierra Space has been awarded a contract by NASA to explore how its LIFE inflatable habitat could be repurposed for staging, transport, and storage on the Moon. The study contract falls under NASA’s NextSTEP-2 Appendix R initiative. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/05...

The FAA is requiring an investigation for the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mishap. This only applies to the Ship loss, the Super Heavy vehicle loss was under a test objective cover

ULA says that the launch of Kuiper 2 Mission for Project Kuiper, the second batch of production satellites for Amazon, on an Atlas V 551 rocket is planned for June 13, 2025, pending range approval. Liftoff scheduled for 2:29 p.m. EDT with a 30-min window, from SLC-41, Florida

The FAA approved license modifications for the SpaceX #Starship Flight 9 mission. However, SpaceX may not launch until the FAA either closes the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation or makes a return to flight determination. The FAA is reviewing the mishap report #SpaceX submitted on May 14.

The FAA has just released the following statement about SpaceX's Starship Flight 9:

🚀 A Firefly's Alpha rocket launch from Vandenberg suffered a mishap during stage separation. 🛰️ The #FLTA006 mission was carrying Lockheed Martin's LM 400 tech demo satellite. As of now, it is unclear whether the payload has reached orbit. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/04...

🛰 ULA successfully launched the first batch of 27 satellites for Amazon's Kuiper commercial constellation. 🚀 The Atlas V 551 rocket lifted off from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral, carrying the satellites to low Earth orbit. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/04...

🚀 Today, Arianespace successfully launched the #VV26 mission from French Guiana. 🌍 Vega-C carried ESA’s Earth Explorer #Biomass satellite, which will provide unprecedented insights into the world’s forests and their role in Earth’s carbon cycle. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/04...

The US Space Force has awarded the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract to SpaceX for $5.9B, United Launch Alliance for $5.3B, and Blue Origin for $2.3B: www.defense.gov/News/Contrac...

ULA's launch of Kuiper 1, the first production satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, with an Atlas V 551 rocket, is planned for April 9, 2025. The launch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EDT at the opening of a three-hour window, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fl

🚀 Last night, #SpaceX launched #Fram2, the first human spaceflight into polar orbit. 🌎 The planned three-to-five-day private mission will support polar and space environment studies, advance long-duration spaceflight and human health research. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/04...

The FAA closes the investigation on #Starship Flight 7:

🚀 The US Space Force has selected @rocketlabusa.com and Stoke Space to participate in the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program. The IDIQ contract has a maximum value of $5.6 billion, with an ordering period until 2029. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

"If a plane doesn't throw away its doors to deliver cargo, why should our rocket?" says Rocket Lab on X today. Interesting because, reading feels like 2016 again, with a certain CEO of a certain company trying to pursue fairing recovery (and reuse) while getting mocked by everyone...

🧑‍🚀 After much controversy, SpaceX's #Crew9 mission safely splashed down off the coast of Florida. The Crew Dragon capsule is carrying NASA's astronauts Nich Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Willmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

🌌 Among the most notable #Euclid results is a classification survey that has cataloged over 380,000 galaxies and identified 500 gravitational lens candidates, leveraging a combination of artificial intelligence and citizen science contributions. 📸Credits: ESA

🚨 @esa.int's Euclid mission released its first major batch of survey data, including a preview of Euclid’s deep fields. This data release consists of three large mosaics that contain 26 million galaxies, some as far as 10.5 billion light-years away. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

Intuitive Machines confirmed today, in a press release, that #Athena landed 250 meters from the planned landing site in a crater. The lander is on its side, and the solar panels are not charging the batteries. The mission is thus concluded, and teams are analysing all collected data.

🚀 SpaceX launched the height #Starship flight test, and it hasn't gone as planned with the second consecutive losses of the upper stage early in the flight. However, the tower catch maneuver was successfully validated again. An analysis of what happened: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

Official SpaceX words: "The vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today's flight test to better understand root cause"

🚀 Today Arianespace launched the first Ariane 6 commercial mission carrying the CSO-3 Earth Observation satellite for French government. 🛰️The Composante Spatiale Optique constellation provides high-quality optical imagery for France's defense needs. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

If any Rocket Lab investor is following me and is willing to talk with me for a story, please contact me here or write to me at [email protected] If you wish to contact me anonymously, write to me at [email protected]

🛰️ Yesterday, NASA's Europa Clipper probe conducted a gravity assist around Mars, reaching a minimum distance of 884 kilometers from the Red Planet’s surface. During the close flyby, the spacecraft tested some of its important scientific instruments. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

🌕 This morning, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 softly touched down on the surface of the #Moon, carrying 10 scientific payloads for #NASA. On its first attempt, Firefly became the first company to complete a fully successful lunar landing. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/03...

From the FAA: "After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open. The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation."

📸 Stunning photo of Earth from the Athena lunar lander on its way to the Moon. Behind is visible the Falcon 9 upper stage and some payloads deployed. Intuitive Machines is targeting a lunar landing opportunity on March 6.

Katy Perry is flying on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-31 Mission. She joins Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez.

🚀 Last night, #SpaceX successfully launched Intuitive Machines' second mission towards the Moon. 🌕 The Nova-C lander is carrying a bunch of important payloads, including the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1), as part of NASA's CLPS. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

SpaceX closes the investigation into Starship Flight 7 failure and eyes February 28th for next launch. Article ⬇️

NASA has selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 to launch the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, which will detect and observe asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth. The firm fixed price is ~$100 mln, which includes launch service and other mission related costs

🚀 Isar Aerospace completed all static fire tests of Spectrum's first and second stages, qualifying the vehicle for its maiden launch. The company is now waiting for approval and licensing from the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

This was an interesting one to write

After reports of Blue Ghost missing the LOI2 burn, which per FCC filings should've been completed around Feb. 17 at 09:09 UTC, Firefly confirms that they delayed the burn 24h. "LOI2 is not a time critical burn. We delayed it 24 hours so that our team has more time to plan the maneuver."

✈️ With the second and last test flight of the XB-1 aircraft, Boom demonstrated supersonic commercial flight without an audible sonic boom. Now the company will focus on the development of Overture, the potential successor of the iconic #Concorde. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

From Vast: "Haven-1 primary structure qualification article at Vast’s Mojave test site, with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lighting up the evening sky—Haven-1’s future ride." Wow...

🚀 Today, CASC carried out the inaugural flight of the Long March 8A rocket from Wenchang, marking #China's seventh orbital launch of 2025. 🛰️ The mission deployed a second batch of 10 satellites for the future SatNet LEO (Guowang) constellation. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

NASA has selected SpaceX to provide the launch service for the agency’s Pandora mission, which will study at least 20 known exoplanets and their host stars to find out how changes in stars affect our observations of exoplanet atmospheres

🤝 US company Momentus Inc. has secured an expansion of contract from DARPA agency that will support an in-orbit demonstration of large-scale structure assembly. 🛰️ The mission is set to launch in 2026 aboard a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

🔭 Today, @esa.int shared a major discovery made by the European #Euclid telescope: a stunning Einstein Ring around Galaxy NGC 6505. 🌌 The rare phenomenon is made up of light, distorted by gravity, from a bright galaxy 4.42 billion light-years away. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

No news from the FAA, in the meantime...

🚀 Today, a #RocketLab' Electron successfully launched a new batch of five satellites to LEO for the French Kinéis. 🛰️ This is the fourth mission out of five planned to deliver the constellation, developed to enhance global IoT connectivity. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

🚀 Recently, ATMOS received approval from the FAA for the first test flight of its Phoenix capsule in April 2025. Phoenix will launch aboard #SpaceX Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission and test its inflatable heat shield during atmospheric reentry. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

🚀 Yesterday, #Russia launched the Kosmos 2581 satellite aboard the last #Soyuz 2.1v rocket. The mission also marked the retirement of the historic NK-33 engine, developed in the 1960s for the N1 rocket and lately bought by Aerojet. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/02...

🔬 Today, #NASA shared for the first time the results of the analysis of the sample collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission on the asteroid Bennu in 2020. 🧬 Scientists discovered several chemical compounds that are key for the formation of life. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/01...

🚀 Today, @esa.int announced that Ariane 6 has been selected to launch the Plato mission in 2026. 🪐 Plato will discover, analyze, and catalog hundreds of exoplanets orbiting orbiting in habitable zones around more than 200.000 Sun-like stars. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/01...

🛰 Today, Arianespace announced that Ariane 6 has been selected to launch the Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite in 2025. 🚀 Meanwhile, the rocket is ready on the launch pad for its second mission, VA263, which will carry the French CSO-3 satellite. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/01...

Voyager Technologies (fka Voyager Space) confidentially filed to IPO, with an expected valuation between $2-3 billion: www.wsj.com/finance/defe...

🤝 Redwire announced the acquisition of the US defense company Edge Autonomy for $925 million. 🛰️ Redwire aims to lead in multi-domain autonomous technology, combining innovative space infrastructure with combat-proven autonomous airborne platforms. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/01...

🛰️ On Thursday, ISRO achieved a major milestone with the successful in-orbit docking between two spacecraft as part of the #SpaDeX demonstration mission, launched in 2024. India thus becomes the fourth nation to acquire this key space capability. Read more: www.spacevoyaging.com/news/2025/01...

🚨 The FAA is requiring #SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the loss of #Starship during launch operations on Jan. 16. "There are no reports of public injury, and the FAA is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Caicos."