NASA Spaceflight
• Bastiaan Vellekoop, Chris Bergin
SpaceX has moved Starship Ship 41 to the launch site for stacking with Booster 21. The vehicle’s heat shield includes two tiles recovered from Ship 40 after Flight 13, marking the first use of flown tiles in the Starship program.
Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation
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SpaceX has moved Starship Ship 41 to the launch site for stacking with Booster 21. The vehicle’s heat shield includes two tiles recovered from Ship 40 after Flight 13, marking the first use of flown tiles in the Starship program.
Europe’s launch sector will convene in Brussels on Sept. 23 for the second EU Access to Space Conference, where Ariane 6’s path to higher annual flight rates is expected to take center stage. The meeting highlights the policy and industrial decisions needed to expand Europe’s launch capacity.
Falling launch costs and a rising launch cadence are turning orbital data centers from a speculative idea into a potential commercial business. The concept is also creating unsettled intellectual-property questions as companies consider how ownership and protection of data-center technologies would work in orbit.
Planet Labs plans to launch its first German-built satellite on a German rocket in early 2027, supported by expanded Berlin production. Separately, Exolaunch has contracted a dedicated SpaceX Starship mission for 2029, while China completed four orbital launches in 45 hours to advance competing LEO broadband constellations.
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SaxaVord has abandoned plans for a shared suborbital launch rail, leaving HyImpulse to bring and operate its own launch system for the second flight of its SR75 rocket. The change adds infrastructure responsibility to HyImpulse’s launch campaign and alters the planned operating model at the spaceport.
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Demand for launch capacity is intensifying as SpaceX begins winding down its flagship rocket, while competitors work to increase their own flight cadence. The resulting supply crunch is making it more difficult for customers to secure rides to orbit and could sharpen competition among launch providers.
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SpaceX plans to wind down commercial Falcon 9 launches in the next few years, forcing satellite operators and launch customers to reassess access to orbit. The shift could reshape launch procurement, scheduling and competitive dynamics across the commercial space market.
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SpaceX is preparing Starship’s first orbital flight, with the Super Heavy booster at the launch pad and liftoff targeted for Sept. 28 pending FAA approval. Separately, Exolaunch and Space Cargo have contracted to fly the disk-shaped Starfall reentry capsule on commercial Starship missions in 2028 and 2029.
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