China's crewed Moon landing program
China says it aims to land taikonauts on the Moon by 2030, using a plan that calls for two launches and a rendezvous in lunar orbit. The Long March-10 rocket, the Mengzhou crew spacecraft and the…
Space threads tagged launch
Rocket Lab Electron
Rocket Lab's Electron has now flown 99 missions: the 98th, 'We're Not Hawking Around,' placed HawkEye 360's Cluster 16 and all three satellites in orbit, and the 99th, 'The Sea God Surveys,' launched…
Starship
Starship Flight 15 is now targeted for no earlier than November 12, after Booster 22 and Ship 42 completed static-fire tests; it is meant to attempt the first catch of both stages. SpaceX is also…
Artemis III
NASA has stacked the Artemis III core stage between its boosters and still aims for a summer 2027 launch. The 14-day Earth-orbit mission would dock Orion with both SpaceX and Blue Origin prototype…
Falcon 9 retirement
SpaceX is winding down commercial Falcon 9 launches as Starship takes over, closing new commercial reservations and ending retail Transporter and Bandwagon rideshare bookings after the 2028 manifest,…
New Glenn
Blue Origin's only New Glenn launch pad was wrecked by a May 28 static-fire explosion, and its rebuilt launch tower is now fully stacked again. The company says the pad should activate in…
Starbase Louisiana: SpaceX's $100B Gulf Coast spaceport
SpaceX plans a $100 billion, ten-pad Starship launch site on roughly 125,000 acres in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, targeting construction in 2027 and a first launch in 2029, though the realistic date…
Artemis IV
NASA is still assembling Artemis IV hardware, with its 130-foot liquid-hydrogen tank moved to the vertical assembly building at Michoud for roll-ring attachment and priming. The revised plan targets…
Moon-base logistics: NASA's $30B permanent lunar base + bulk launch procurement
NASA is moving toward a $30 billion permanent lunar base, a program that would buy launch capacity in bulk and send up to 60 tons of equipment to the Moon's surface starting 2029. It is weighing…
PLD Space Miura 5
PLD Space has begun system-level testing of Miura 5, with the first three vehicles in manufacturing. It now aims for the rocket's first orbital launch in the first half of 2027, after dropping an…
JAXA's MMX: Phobos mission launched, ride on the H3
JAXA's MMX probe launched from Tanegashima Space Center aboard an H3 rocket on October 20 local time (October 19 Eastern), bound for Mars's moon Phobos. JAXA then reported that the mission completed…