Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation News

Spaceflight Now • Will Robinson-Smith

SpaceX launches EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather and Sentinel-4 air quality satellite, lands Falcon 9 at sea

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched July 1 at 5:04 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, placing EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) into geostationary transfer orbit with the Copernicus Sentinel-4 air quality payload. The first-stage booster successfully landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

2025-07-01T09:45:45.498646-07:00

Associated Press

Japan’s H-IIA Rocket Retires after 50th Launch with GOSAT-GW Climate Satellite

2025-06-28T10:03:00.053295-07:00

Spaceflight Now

SpaceX Starship Upper Stage Destroyed in Texas Static-Fire Explosion

2025-06-18T23:23:08.167767-07:00

Ars Technica

NASA Hot-Fires First $100 Million RS-25 Engine, Clearing Propulsion Hurdle for SLS

2025-06-27T07:00:57.028713-07:00

Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation News Timeline

Via Satellite

Orbex and Exolaunch Partner to Deliver End-to-End Smallsat Launch Services UK’s Orbex and Germany’s Exolaunch have forged a strategic alliance to offer integrated small satellite launch services on Orbex Prime and Proxima vehicles, combining mission management, payload integration and dedicated orbital rockets under a single contract.

2025-07-01T14:22:39.848263-07:00

Orbex and Exolaunch Partner to Deliver End-to-End Smallsat Launch Services

Space Intel Report

Latitude left out of French government’s small-launch awards In March 2024, the French government awarded development contracts to four domestic rocket firms under a grant program, casting Latitude as an outsider in the official roster of state-backed launch providers and underscoring its uphill battle to secure Paris’ support.

2025-07-01T14:15:18.126103-07:00

Latitude left out of French government’s small-launch awards

Spaceflight Now

❗️

SpaceX launches EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather and Sentinel-4 air quality satellite, lands Falcon 9 at sea SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched July 1 at 5:04 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, placing EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) into geostationary transfer orbit with the Copernicus Sentinel-4 air quality payload. The first-stage booster successfully landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

2025-07-01T09:45:45.498646-07:00

SpaceX launches EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather and Sentinel-4 air quality satellite, lands Falcon 9 at sea

Live Science

ChatGPT-Style AI Models Excel in Spacecraft Piloting Contest In a recent research competition, developers trained AI models, including ChatGPT variants, to autonomously pilot simulated spacecraft. Top-performing models not only completed orbital maneuvers but outperformed traditional guidance algorithms, highlighting a potential leap toward unmanned deep-space exploration driven by AI.

2025-07-01T08:52:39.343987-07:00

ChatGPT-Style AI Models Excel in Spacecraft Piloting Contest

European Spaceflight

Sidereus Space Dynamics Readies Solaris Test Bench to Prime EOS Launcher for 2026 Debut Sidereus Space Dynamics is set to complete its Solaris Test Bench this summer, establishing a dedicated ground facility to validate the propulsion, stage separation and avionics performance of its EOS launch system ahead of a planned first flight in 2026.

2025-07-01T07:55:56.406776-07:00

Sidereus Space Dynamics Readies Solaris Test Bench to Prime EOS Launcher for 2026 Debut

Payload

Russian Engineers and AI Team Up to Develop Reusable Rocket in Dubai A startup based in Dubai is leveraging sophisticated computing systems and Russian aerospace engineers to develop a reusable launch vehicle. The venture aims to achieve rapid turnaround, positioning itself to challenge established providers in the commercial space sector.

2025-06-30T05:23:18.070362-07:00

Russian Engineers and AI Team Up to Develop Reusable Rocket in Dubai

satnews

Arianespace to launch CO3D and MicroCarb climate satellites on July 25 via Vega C On July 25, 2025, Arianespace will launch a pair of climate-monitoring satellites – Airbus Defence and Space’s CO3D constellation and CNES’s MicroCarb – aboard its Vega C rocket to map atmospheric CO₂ sources and sinks globally, with MicroCarb’s spectrometer integrated by Thales Alenia Space UK under a UK Space Agency partnership.

2025-06-29T20:22:19.357467-07:00

Arianespace to launch CO3D and MicroCarb climate satellites on July 25 via Vega C

Space.com

Blue Origin flies six tourists, including space’s 750th traveler, on 13th crewed New Shepard mission Blue Origin on June 29 launched a reusable New Shepard booster from its West Texas site, carrying six paying passengers – including the 750th person ever to fly to space – on a 10-minute suborbital trip. It marks the 13th crewed flight and third in under three months.

2025-06-29T08:14:41.507150-07:00

Blue Origin flies six tourists, including space’s 750th traveler, on 13th crewed New Shepard mission

Create a free account to see more recent Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation stories.