Flying Magazine
• Jack Daleo
SpaceX has moved Starship Flight 14 to no earlier than Sept. 28, pending regulatory approval, after initially targeting Sept. 22. The roughly 10-hour mission would be Starship’s first orbital flight and attempt to deploy 26 V3 Starlink satellites, marking a major test of the vehicle’s launch and in-space operations.
Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation
Latest source-backed stories
High activity
NASA intends to order additional Boeing Starliner missions and help certify a new rocket, signaling continued agency support for the crew capsule despite its troubled development. The approach would preserve Starliner as part of NASA’s human-spaceflight and transportation architecture while requiring further certification work.
High activity
SpaceX has moved Starship Flight 14 to no earlier than Sept. 28, pending regulatory approval, after initially targeting Sept. 22. The roughly 10-hour mission would be Starship’s first orbital flight and attempt to deploy 26 V3 Starlink satellites, marking a major test of the vehicle’s launch and in-space operations.
As SpaceX winds down the Falcon 9 launch program, rival launch providers say the market is approaching a reset. Their view challenges the launch industry’s prevailing price-per-kilogram model and signals a potential shift in how providers compete and structure commercial launch offerings.
China conducted four launches in quick succession from the Jiuquan and Hainan spaceports, along with a maritime mission in the East China Sea. The pace and mix of launch locations highlight the country’s expanding ability to distribute missions across land-based and sea-based infrastructure.
United Launch Alliance is preparing to return Vulcan to flight with an Amazon Leo mission, but the Space Force will conduct a separate review before permitting the rocket to resume national security launches. The process adds an additional gate between Vulcan’s commercial return and military mission certification.
The SpaceX team responsible for landing Falcon 9 boosters received the inaugural Neil Armstrong Space Prize at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15. The award recognizes the team’s achievement in developing and executing reusable rocket-landing operations.
Valor Equity Partners, one of SpaceX’s largest institutional backers, has returned approximately $8.5 billion worth of shares in the rocket and artificial-intelligence company to its investors. The transaction highlights the scale of private-market liquidity available to major commercial space investors.
High activity
Satellite operators and space startups are reassessing their exposure to SpaceX as Falcon 9’s role in the commercial market comes under scrutiny. At the same time, Rocket Lab’s proposed Iridium acquisition, spectrum-focused strategies and direct-to-device partnerships highlight intensifying competition across launch, connectivity and satellite services.
Create a free account to see more recent Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation stories and keep bookmarks in one place.
