SpaceX

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 15-3 mission. Image: SpaceX SpaceX is moving ahead with expansion plans at Vandenberg Space Force Base that will double its West Coast launch cadence and enable Falcon Heavy rockets to fly from California. Last week, the Department of the Air Force issued its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which considers proposed modifications from SpaceX to Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg. At the heart of the request are three key items: Modifying the pad to support the launches of both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets Constructing two new landing pads adjacent to SLC-6 Increasing SpaceX’s permitted launch cadence from Vandenberg from 50 launches to 100 The trans...

[Left] Ax-4 Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski [Right] have been training to live and work aboard the space station for the past eight months in preparation for their mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than June 8, 2025. Image: Axiom SpaceThe debut of the fifth and planned final Dragon spacecraft is going to take a bit longer. The vehicle, tail number C213, will won’t be ready to support the flight of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station until next month. The fourth private astronaut mission was most recently scheduled to launch no earlier than May 29 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, in an update f...

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon’s surface following touchdown on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Image: Intuitive Machines The third attempt to land on the Moon for Houston-based Intuitive Machines is coming up in less than a year and the company said Tuesday it understands how to stick the landing on the next go around. During a first quarter earnings call, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Altemus, said the mission team performed a “comprehensive post-mission review” which included independent reviewers and external experts alongside the company’s internal teams. He said there were three main issues that prevented their Nova-C lander, named Athena, from landing upright near the Moon’s South Pole on March 6: Laser altimeter ...

A model of the final version of Vast’s Haven-1 space station is shown with a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked. The model was on display at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado in April 2025. Image: Will Robinson-Smith/Spaceflight Now Space habitation company, Vast, is now one year away from being able to stake its claim as the first commercial space station in history. The company based in Long Beach, California, aims to launch its single-module Haven-1 space station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in May 2026. To that end, it completed both its primary structure and qualification article and is moving into manufacturing the flight version. “We’ve locked the design, we’ve released those drawings to our manufacturing CNC shop and we are welding it with a view to start integrati...

The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to most areas of discretionary spending, including to NASA. The requested cuts come, ironically, on National Space Day. If adopted as proposed, America’s space agency is facing a 24.3 percent funding cut, dropping it from about $24.8 billion in FY25 to $18.8 billion in FY26. The agency was hoping for a funding increase to get a number of programs back on track following two years of what amounted to spending cuts due to budgets being held at FY24 spending levels. That loss in spending will be felt most deeply by the space and Earth science divisions, which would see a loss of $2.3 and $1.2 billion...