An artist’s rendering of Rocket Lab’s Tracking Layer Tranche 3 (TRKT3) program satellites, which are built on its Lightning satellite platform. Image: Rocket Lab
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded roughly $3.5 billion to four companies to begin building out the third generation of its low Earth orbit constellation.
An overhead view of Aerospace’s DiskSat during launch preparations. Image: Rocket Lab
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched four novel satellite buses minutes after midnight from Virginia on Thursday.
Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, appears before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Jared Isaacman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be NASA’s newest administrator on Wednesday afternoon.
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Starlink 7-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is preparing for the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It’s set to be the second out of two planned flights that day, following a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida scheduled for just hours before.
File: A Falcon 9 booster stands ready for the Starlink 12-2 mission at launch complex 39A. Image: Spaceflight Now.
Update Dec. 16, 7:50 p.m. EST (0050 UTC): SpaceX pushed back the T-0 liftoff time.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket stands at Launch Complex 1 ahead of the flight of the ‘Bridging the Swarm’ mission for the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Image: Rocket Lab
Update Dec. 16, 1:26 am EST (0626 UTC): Rocket Lab said they aborted the mission on Dec. 15/16 after “one of Electron’s thousands of sensors noticed out-of-family data and called time on lift-off, exactly as it was designed to do. Team is working the straightforward fix now and will select a new launch date shortly.
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket stands at the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the launch of the Leo Atlas 04 (LA-04) mission. This is the first launch of Amazon’s broadband internet satellites since its rebrand from ‘Project Kuiper’ to ‘Amazon Leo.’ Image: John Pisani / Spaceflight Now
United Launch Alliance is preparing for its final launch of 2025, a predawn flight of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying 27 satellites for Amazon’s recently re-branded Leo broadband internet service.
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the first stage booster, 1067, stands at Launch Complex 39A on Aug. 27, 2025, ahead of the 30th flight of this booster. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Monday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
SpaceX is preparing to launch its 580th Falcon 9 rocket to date with a late night flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday night.
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in launch position at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base at sunset. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX will attempt to complete its 550th successful booster landing as part of a late night launch from Vandenberg Space Force Station on Saturday.
New Glenn thunders away from its launch pad in near perfect weather conditions. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.
One of Blue Origin’s oft repeated phrases is that the company is paving a road to space with its New Glenn rocket. The company, established by Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is about halfway through creating one important lane in that road: launching national security missions.
a–d, Simulated exposure for Hubble (a), SPHEREx (b), Xuntian (c) and ARRAKIHS (d) space observatories, showing sectors affected by satellite trail contamination. The satellite trails represent the effects of the planned satellites using the orbital and physical parameters of the announced constellations to be operational by 2040. Background galaxies were modelled on the basis of previous studies. Graphic: Borlaff et al via Nature
One of the biggest impacts to the low Earth orbit environment in the near-term and long-term future are satellite megaconstellations, according to a new study, published in the journal Nature. Companies, like Amazon, OneWeb and SpaceX, along with governments, like China and the United States are keen on the idea of controlling hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of satellites that serve a connected purpose.
A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.
SpaceX is set to launch another batch of 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit on its Falcon 9 rocket Thursday afternoon.
File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is aiming for pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday morning. The flight will be the 160th of a Falcon 9 rocket so far in 2025.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) to begin the NROL-77 mission on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office on Dec. 9, 2025. Image: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now
Update Dec. 9, 2:44 p.m. EST (1944 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster at the landing zone.
The Soyuz MS-27/73S spacecraft carrying NASA’s Jonny Kim and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station Monday evening as the two spacecraft were sailing 262 miles above eastern Mongolica. Image: NASA
A NASA astronaut and two cosmonaut crewmates strapped into their Soyuz ferry ship Monday evening, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to an on-target landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan early Tuesday to wrap up an eight-month mission.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in the launch position at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 7, 2025, ahead of flying the Starlink 6-92 mission. SpaceX is using the Falcon 9 booster, 1067, which will make its record breaking 32nd flight. Image: Adam Bernstein / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX is set to achieve a couple notable milestones with its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on the Starlink 11-15 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 7, 2025. Image: SpaceX
Update Dec. 7, 3 p.m. EST (2000 UTC): SpaceX confirms deployment of the 28 Starlink satellites.
The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. Image: ESA / NASA / T. Pesquet
After 25 years of continuous human presence, the International Space Station is heading into its final half decade of planned habitation.
File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands in launch position at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base ahead of the launch of the NROL-57 mission. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is preparing for lunchtime launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday afternoon.
Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team use a crane to lift and secure NASA’s Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, for the agency’s Artemis 2 mission. Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The four astronauts who are to fly a loop around the Moon next year on the Artemis 2 mission were supposed to board their Orion capsule on Nov. 19 for a launch day rehearsal, but a problem with the spacecraft’s hatch delayed the practice run, NASA told Spaceflight Now.
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