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• Jeff Foust
Boeing says it remains in coordination with NASA to determine when the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle can fly its next mission to the International Space Station as a cargo flight. The update centers on scheduling decisions tied to readiness and mission planning.
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Boeing says it remains in coordination with NASA to determine when the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle can fly its next mission to the International Space Station as a cargo flight. The update centers on scheduling decisions tied to readiness and mission planning.
NASA has secured the fuel supply for its next-generation Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, positioning the observatory for an August launch. The fueling milestone advances Roman’s final countdown work, building on its recent arrival at Kennedy Space Center for prelaunch servicing.
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The European Space Agency has opened a call to examine the feasibility of repurposing Lunar Link—a communications system originally developed for NASA’s now-paused Gateway space station—into a dedicated lunar communications capability. The effort targets a future-focused architecture for lunar connectivity.
SpaceX’s Starship completed its 13th test flight, described as going “pretty well,” with an accompanying set of highlights from the mission. A separate weekly recap also points to broader momentum around moon-lander/rover concepts, AI-enabled engineering, and large-scale launch and communications funding.
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command awarded Sphinx Defense a $287 million Other Transaction Authority agreement to develop and complete prototype mission-planning application software for Phase 3 of the Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) system. Separately, SES Space & Defense announced a connectivity collaboration with Starlab for space-station communications.
Orbes has announced an agreement (July 27) to send Exo-ORB—an approximately 12U, under-26kg, free-flying satellite—on-board customer infrastructure to gather imagery of an uncrewed Symphony Space station. The company positioned Exo-ORB as a “ready-to-go” inspection platform launched via customer systems.
SpaceX flew the 13th Starship test flight, culminating in the first time an intact Starship was put in the water. The milestone follows earlier flight attempts as SpaceX works through iterative Starship test objectives toward reusable operations.
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Roscosmos and NASA confirmed the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft returned safely on July 26, 2026, bringing Expedition 74’s joint U.S.-Russian crew—NASA astronaut Chris Williams plus Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev—down to Kazakhstan after 241 days aboard the ISS. Expedition 75 is set to run into spring 2027.
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