NASA Spaceflight
• Alejandro Alcantarilla Romera, Chris Bergin
SpaceX is recovering Ship 40 from the Indian Ocean after its soft landing on Flight 13, while Ship 41 moves toward engine testing at Massey’s. Teams are also advancing Pad 2 work, with a potential Flight 14 targeted as early as late August.
Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation
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SpaceX is recovering Ship 40 from the Indian Ocean after its soft landing on Flight 13, while Ship 41 moves toward engine testing at Massey’s. Teams are also advancing Pad 2 work, with a potential Flight 14 targeted as early as late August.
SpaceX’s new Starfall program signals growing demand for microgravity research and manufacturing while adding a powerful entrant to the emerging reentry sector. The initiative could provide customers with another pathway to conduct experiments in orbit and return materials to Earth, alongside startups developing similar capabilities.
Telesat will provide secure Military Ka-band connectivity across Canada’s Arctic to the Canadian Armed Forces under the Enhanced Satellite Communications Project–Polar program. The contract, the largest in Telesat’s six-decade history, expands the Lightspeed constellation to 225 satellites and includes 27 additional MDA Space-built AURORA satellites valued at C$474 million.
Kreios Space will use a Kongsberg NanoAvionics microsatellite bus to demonstrate air-breathing electric propulsion in very low Earth orbit in 2028, targeting sustained operations despite atmospheric drag. Separately, Rubicon Space Systems completed hot-fire testing of its 5-newton ASCENT monopropellant thruster ahead of planned 2027 on-orbit operations.
High activity
SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company will provide investors with new visibility into Starlink’s growth, AI and Starship spending, financial guidance and the impact of a major share unlock. The coverage also highlights launch capacity reserved for Starlink and complications surrounding a possible Tesla merger.
With a Falcon 9 upper stage expected to impact the moon this week, NASA and SpaceX are examining ways to prevent similar lunar collisions in the future. The effort highlights the need to account for spent launch hardware beyond Earth orbit and during deep-space missions.
High activity
The first full week of August features six missions on the global launch calendar, with activity spanning Asia and the United States. SpaceX accounts for three Falcon 9 flights—two Starlink missions and one deploying satellites for AST SpaceMobile—alongside multiple Chinese missions.
High activity
ArianeGroup has decided to keep launch startup MaiaSpace operating after the company’s losses pushed shareholders’ equity into negative territory. The decision preserves MaiaSpace’s continued participation in the launch market while highlighting the financial pressure facing the venture.
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