Key Facts

• SpaceX’s Launch Frenzy: SpaceX notched its 500th Falcon booster landing on Sept. 5 during a Starlink mission, the company’s 111th launch of 2025, keeping it on pace for a record ~170 launches this year spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com. The veteran booster (B1069) flew its 27th mission, underscoring SpaceX’s rapid reusability practice spaceflightnow.com.
• ISS Gets a Dragon Boost: In a first for ISS operations, a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft reboosted the station’s orbit using new trunk-mounted thrusters. The Sept. 3 test firing raised the ISS by ~1 mile, demonstrating a capability to reduce reliance on Russia’s Progress for orbital maintenance space.com. NASA confirmed this Dragon reboost will be used periodically through fall 2025 ts2.tech ts2.tech.
• Unannounced Spy Sat Launch: Israel’s surprise launch of the Ofek-19 spy satellite on Sept. 2 briefly panicked residents who mistook the Shavit rocket for a missile. Officials soon clarified the secretive launch, which placed Ofek-19 in orbit to bolster Israel’s high-resolution surveillance capabilities keeptrack.space keeptrack.space. The incident highlighted the need for real-time satellite tracking to avoid public confusion during defense operations keeptrack.space keeptrack.space.
• NASA & NOAA’s Solar Mission: NASA is gearing up for a Sept. 23 launch of three new Sun-studying spacecraft – the IMAP probe, NOAA’s SWFO-L1 space-weather observatory, and the Carruthers Geocorona imager – all riding a single Falcon 9 ts2.tech ts2.tech. After launch, they will cruise ~1 million miles sunward to the Earth–Sun L1 point to map the heliosphere’s boundary and improve solar storm warnings ts2.tech ts2.tech. “Combining these missions will help us better understand the Sun’s impact on Earth’s habitability,” noted former NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen ts2.tech.
• Commercial Space Stations & ISS Future: NASA issued a new call for industry input on the next phase of commercial space stations, as part of its plan to transition from the ISS to private successors. The request for feedback (due Sept. 12) will inform Phase 2 of NASA’s Commercial LEO Development program, which will fund design and demos of orbital stations via competitive Space Act Agreements nasa.gov nasa.gov. “The American space industry is booming. Insight from these innovative companies will be invaluable as we chart the next phase of commercial space stations,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial LEO program nasa.gov nasa.gov. In ISS news, NASA will cover Roscosmos’s Progress 93 cargo launch set for Sept. 11 to deliver food, fuel, and supplies; the uncrewed freighter will dock at the ISS and stay for ~6 months nasa.gov.
• Blue Origin’s Big Month: Blue Origin announced its second New Glenn heavy-lift rocket is targeting a Sept. 29 launch (mission NG-2) to send NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes toward Mars ts2.tech ts2.tech. After a partially successful inaugural flight in January (which reached orbit but lost its booster), Blue Origin aims to launch and land New Glenn’s first stage this time ts2.tech. This high-profile mission is crucial for Blue Origin’s commercial ambitions and will deliver NASA science payloads to study Mars’ magnetosphere.
• Rocket Lab & Emerging Players: Rocket Lab opened a new launch complex (LC-3) at Wallops, Virginia in August as it prepares for its larger Neutron rocket’s debut aviationweek.com. The company also completed a $275 million acquisition of sensor-maker GeoST, and is supporting a responsive U.S. Space Force mission (Victus Haze), signaling its expansion as an “all-service” space provider aviationweek.com. In Australia, startup Gilmour Space is poised for the maiden flight of its Eris rocket later this month – a milestone for Australia’s nascent launch industry ts2.tech ts2.tech.
• China’s Launch Surge: China carried out three orbital launches in 48 hours. A Long March 3C lifted off Sept. 5 (02:35 UTC) from Xichang – the rocket, with an added YZ-1 stage, flew east from the site carrying a classified Shiyan-29 satellite test payload nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. Hours later, a private firm Galactic Energy launched a Ceres-1 rocket on Sept. 5 (11:35 UTC) from Jiuquan, delivering a small commercial payload to LEO ts2.tech ts2.tech. On Sept. 6, China’s state-owned CASC launched a Long March 6A from Taiyuan, deploying a batch of SatNet “Group 11” communications satellites – part of China’s planned broadband mega-constellation en.wikipedia.org. These launches reflect both China’s rapid state-led program and the rise of its private launch sector.
• ISRO’s Ambitious Roadmap: Fresh off recent successes, India’s ISRO has outlined a bold 20-year space roadmap. Plans include a crewed lunar landing by 2040, a lunar base by 2047 (with mining facilities and crewed rovers), and a new heavy-lift 119 m Lunar Launch Vehicle (LMLV) by 2035 to enable these goals asiaone.co.in asiaone.co.in. Prime Minister Modi confirmed India will partner with Japan (JAXA) on a Chandrayaan-5 Moon rover mission in 2028 targeting the lunar south pole spacefoundation.org spacefoundation.org. ISRO also announced an “Announcement of Opportunity” inviting scientists worldwide to study data from 2023’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and rover m.economictimes.com. (Separately, ISRO continues investigating a PSLV launch failure from May 2025 that lost an EOS-09 Earth observation satellite ts2.tech.)
• Space Policy & Collaboration: Space policymakers are grappling with the new space race dynamics. In Washington, a Senate hearing on Sept. 3 titled “There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise: Why Congress and NASA Must Thwart China in the Space Race” underscored U.S. concerns about China’s lunar ambitions spacefoundation.org. NASA officials insist Artemis III is on track to put astronauts (including the first woman) on the Moon in 2025, and Administrator Bill Nelson – visiting Tokyo – stressed that the U.S. must “not cede leadership at the Moon” amid China’s advances ts2.tech. Indeed, China is reportedly accelerating its crewed Moon landing plans (targeting around 2030), potentially setting up a 21st-century lunar race ts2.tech. Meanwhile international cooperation continues: e.g. U.S. and Mongolian legislators met to discuss space collaboration spacefoundation.org, and Canada’s Canadensys unveiled prototypes for the country’s first lunar rover (to launch in 2029) spacefoundation.org.
• Commercial Deals: Amazon’s broadband mega-constellation Project Kuiper (a forthcoming Starlink rival) won its first airline client, JetBlue, for in-flight Wi-Fi services spacefoundation.org. This comes as Amazon prepares to launch its first Kuiper demo satellites. Satellite operator Viasat, recovering from a malfunction of its ViaSat-3 F1 satellite, has scheduled October for the launch of ViaSat-3 F2 on an Atlas V. The new high-throughput satellite will more than double network capacity and help bridge the gap left by the failed unit ts2.tech. On the Earth observation front, Finnish firm ICEYE secured ~$10 million from Poland’s development bank to enhance its SAR imaging satellite constellation spacefoundation.org.
• Tackling Space Junk: With 40,000+ debris objects now tracked in orbit (and hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments) nasaspaceflight.com innovationnewsnetwork.com, new solutions are emerging. Europe’s ESA has selected Spanish startup PERSEI Space to test an electrodynamic tether device for propellant-free deorbiting of satellites nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. The demo unit (E.T.PACK) will launch in 2026 on a Vega-C, aiming to prove that a conductive tether can passively slow a defunct satellite by generating drag against Earth’s magnetic field – no fuel required nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. “Our EDT technology addresses both challenges with a single elegant solution,” PERSEI’s team explains, noting the same tether can also produce Lorentz-force thrust to maintain or raise orbits without propellant nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. In the U.S., Southwest Research Institute unveiled a micrometeoroid & orbital debris (MMOD) sensor that detects high-speed impacts on spacecraft hulls innovationnewsnetwork.com innovationnewsnetwork.com. This real-time impact monitoring could one day form an “orbital debris early warning” network – if one satellite is struck, it could warn others in similar orbits to take evasive action innovationnewsnetwork.com innovationnewsnetwork.com. SwRI is now developing a flight-ready version of this system to help satellites “survive” the worsening debris environment innovationnewsnetwork.com innovationnewsnetwork.com.
• Science & Exploration Breakthroughs: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delivered a dazzling new vista of a star-forming region, revealing “thousands of newborn stars” sparkling in the Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357). The image, released Sept. 5, shows the young cluster Pismis 24 embedded in a massive cloud of dust and gas – a “star-birth” scene about 5,500 light-years away in Scorpius heraldextra.com heraldextra.com. Meanwhile, a long-standing Jovian puzzle was solved: scientists finally detected the auroral footprint of Callisto, Jupiter’s fourth largest moon. NASA’s Juno probe caught a faint ultraviolet glow from Callisto’s magnetic interaction during a lucky orbital alignment, confirming that all four Galilean moons create aurora “footprints” in Jupiter’s poles ts2.tech ts2.tech. The discovery, published Sept. 1 in Nature, “completes the family portrait” of Jovian moon auroras and had eluded even Hubble until now ts2.tech ts2.tech. In interplanetary news, astronomers are buzzing over Comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third-ever interstellar object known (after ’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov). Using the Gemini South telescope in Chile, researchers captured the comet sprouting a growing tail as it nears the sun – “both a scientific milestone and a source of wonder,” said team leader Karen Meech space.com space.com. The comet will make a brief pass through our solar system, giving scientists a rare look at material from another star system before 3I/ATLAS heads back into interstellar space space.com space.com.

Government & Agency Developments

NASA, ISS and International Partners

NASA kept busy on multiple fronts. On Sept. 5, NASA announced it will broadcast the launch and docking of Roscosmos’s Progress 93 cargo ship next week, as the Russian freighter carries ~3 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station nasa.gov. This Progress launch (scheduled for Sept. 11 from Baikonur) and its six-month stay at the ISS come as NASA also tests new ways to maintain the station’s orbit. Notably, a SpaceX Dragon CRS-33 cargo vehicle performed the first-ever reboost of the ISS using its own engines on Sept. 3. Ground controllers fired Dragon’s new thruster kit for over 5 minutes, raising the ISS altitude by roughly a mile ts2.tech space.com. This successful test inaugurates a new capability for station-keeping – one that NASA plans to use regularly this fall – and reduces dependence on Russia’s Progress for routine boosts ts2.tech. “The test comes as NASA seeks alternatives to rely less on Russia’s vehicles for station-keeping,” agency officials noted ts2.tech. The station’s Expedition 73 crew (7 astronauts from Roscosmos, NASA, and JAXA) continued science operations ranging from bone-loss studies to cardio experiments space.com. They also engaged in STEM outreach, answering questions from students in New York via a live Earth-to-space Q&A on Sept. 5 – with JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui sharing that “humankind is always in need of a frontier” when asked why we explore space.com.

Looking beyond ISS, NASA is actively preparing for the Moon and Sun. At Kennedy Space Center, engineers are assembling the Artemis II Orion spacecraft and SLS megarocket for a late-2024 crewed flight around the Moon ts2.tech. NASA even invited amateur astronomers and ham radio operators to help track Artemis II during the mission as a citizen-science exercise ts2.tech. The agency reaffirmed that Artemis III – which aims to land astronauts near the lunar south pole, including the first woman on the Moon – is still slated for 2025. However, insiders acknowledge schedule pressures, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has been underscoring the geopolitical stakes of Artemis. During a visit to Japan this week, Nelson stressed the importance of the U.S. “not ceding leadership at the Moon,” implicitly referencing China’s accelerated lunar efforts ts2.tech. (In fact, a U.S. Senate hearing on Sept. 3 explicitly discussed the need to “thwart China in the space race”, reflecting Washington’s anxiety about a 21st-century Moon race spacefoundation.org.)

On the Sun-studying front, NASA announced an ambitious heliophysics rideshare mission: on Sept. 23, a SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch three probes – NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe), the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s SWFO-L1 – to travel to the L1 Lagrange point, ~1.5 million km sunward ts2.tech. From that vantage point, IMAP will sample solar wind particles and map the edges of the heliosphere, Carruthers will image Earth’s extended exosphere, and SWFO will become NOAA’s first operational space-weather sentinel at L1 ts2.tech ts2.tech. By combining these into one launch, NASA and NOAA save costs and aim to have a holistic “watchtower” on solar activity. “This combined mission will help us better understand the Sun’s impact on Earth’s habitability,” noted Thomas Zurbuchen, emphasizing improved warning capability for geomagnetic storms ts2.tech. Given the Sun’s activity is ramping up toward its 2025 solar maximum, timing is critical. The launch is set for late September from Cape Canaveral, after which the trio will cruise for ~3 months to reach the L1 point ts2.tech.

Elsewhere, ESA (European Space Agency) and other partners had notable developments. While ESA did not conduct any launches on Sept. 5–6, the agency highlighted progress on future missions and technology. Through its Boost! “Flight Ticket” initiative, ESA selected the Spanish startup PERSEI Space for an upcoming demonstration of an electrodynamic tether system to deorbit satellites without fuel nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. This experiment, slated to fly as a secondary payload on a Vega-C launch in 2026, will test whether a 30-meter conductive tether can generate drag against Earth’s magnetic field to safely pull a defunct satellite out of orbit nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. The tech can even be run in reverse (with onboard current) to produce thrust for orbit-raising – potentially a game-changer for space debris mitigation and satellite life extension. ESA’s support indicates high-level confidence in such sustainable orbital technologies. In science, ESA’s JUICE spacecraft (launched 2023) is en route to Jupiter and welcomed news of Juno’s discovery of Callisto’s aurora, which JUICE will further investigate in the 2030s ts2.tech. Meanwhile, Japan’s space agency JAXA has its SLIM lunar lander cruising toward the Moon (after a late-August launch) in a bid to demonstrate pinpoint landing near lunar pits. Japan is also collaborating with India: on Aug. 29, Indian PM Modi confirmed ISRO and JAXA will join forces on Chandrayaan-5, a lunar polar exploration mission slated for 2028 spacefoundation.org. This continues the trend of international partnerships on Moon missions (following India’s Chandrayaan-3 and 4 and the broader Artemis Accords framework).

ISRO (India) did not conduct any launches in the first week of September, but it made global headlines with long-term plans. In late August (National Space Day in India), ISRO unveiled an ambitious 2040 roadmap: it plans a Bharatiya (Indian) space station by 2035, a crewed Moon landing by 2040, and even a lunar base by 2047 asiaone.co.in asiaone.co.in. The roadmap includes developing a giant Lunar Module Launch Vehicle (LMLV) – a 119-meter rocket capable of lofting 80 tons to LEO – by the mid-2030s to enable these crewed missions asiaone.co.in asiaone.co.in. ISRO is also considering a Moon sample return mission by 2040 spacefoundation.org. In the near term, ISRO’s next launch attempts will likely await resolution of a May 2025 PSLV failure (the rocket’s third stage underperformed, causing the loss of an Earth observation satellite) ts2.tech. Investigations into that anomaly are ongoing, and ISRO has paused major launches pending fixes. On the science side, ISRO opened up data from its successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander mission (which soft-landed on the Moon in 2023) for worldwide research. An Announcement of Opportunity issued Sept. 1 invites scientists to propose studies using Chandrayaan-3’s lander and rover data m.economictimes.com, potentially yielding new lunar science and engaging the global scientific community.

Roscosmos (Russia) continued to support ISS operations but faced constraints. The Russian agency’s next mission is the Progress MS-30 (Progress 93 in NASA numbering) cargo ship, set to launch Sept. 11 from Baikonur. NASA confirmed it will provide live coverage as the uncrewed Progress carries about 3 tons of supplies to the ISS and docks two days later nasa.gov. The spacecraft will remain attached for ~6 months before burning up with station trash nasa.gov. On the crew side, three Roscosmos cosmonauts are currently aboard ISS Expedition 73, and the next Soyuz crew rotation (Soyuz MS-28) is expected later in fall. Roscosmos did not launch any orbital missions on Sept. 5–6, but Russia has a Soyuz-2.1a launch scheduled for Sept. 13 from Plesetsk (likely a military satellite) and continues development of its new Amur methane-fueled rocket and the Luna-26 lunar orbiter for later this decade. Notably, Russia’s space budget remains under pressure due to geopolitical sanctions and the costly war in Ukraine, leading to some project delays. Despite this, Russia signaled interest in extending ISS operations to 2028 (in step with NASA), even as it pursues plans for an independent Russian orbital station in the 2030s.

International Collaboration & Space Policy

Geopolitics and cooperation both colored the space news. The Artemis Accords – the U.S.-led framework for peaceful exploration – continued to gain support (most recently with Germany signing in late August, bringing total signatories to over 30 nations). On Sept. 5, U.S. and Mongolian lawmakers met to discuss cooperation in space, energy, and minerals spacefoundation.org, following Mongolia’s announcement of its first astronaut selection earlier this year. Canada made strides in its own lunar efforts: Canadensys Aerospace revealed the first prototypes of a Canadian lunar rover on Aug. 31, aiming to deliver it to the Moon by 2029 as part of NASA’s Artemis program or a commercial lander mission spacefoundation.org. This would mark Canada’s first rover on another world and build on its contributions of the iconic Canadarm robotic arms.

In the United States, space security and regulation are hot topics. Besides the Senate hearing on China, the U.S. Space Force graduated its first class of dedicated space warfare officers, a year-long training program to prepare leaders for an era of “contested” space domains keeptrack.space keeptrack.space. The Space Force also launched an initiative to use small GEO satellites for tactical communications (the PTS-G program), marking a shift toward resilient constellations of smaller, distributed military sats keeptrack.space. On the regulatory side, momentum is building for space traffic management and debris rules. The FAA is expected to finalize orbital debris mitigation regulations for upper stages by late 2025, and Congress has been considering legislation to empower the Office of Space Commerce with space traffic coordination duties reddit.com. In late August, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released draft guidelines on “Responsible Space Behavior”, calling for measures to reduce debris and avoid satellite collisions (part of a broader push to establish norms of conduct in orbit). Internationally, China’s Guangdong province announced plans to establish a major commercial space hub by 2028, supporting launch sites and satellite production in southern China spacefoundation.org. This regional investment aligns with Beijing’s strategy to foster a domestic SpaceX-equivalent and commercial industry, even as national projects like the Tiangong space station and crewed Moon program forge ahead.

Not all collaboration is peaceful: as noted, space is increasingly entangled with defense. India’s PM Modi just launched “Mission Sudarshan Chakra,” an initiative to develop indigenous missile defense and space-defense systems keeptrack.space keeptrack.space. And Turkey is showcasing its emerging satellite and missile tech to global markets, aiming to become a bigger player in defense and aerospace exports keeptrack.space. These developments underscore how space capabilities – from spy satellites to anti-satellite weapons – are now central to national security strategies, potentially complicating international norms. The United Nations did convene talks in early September on preventing an arms race in outer space (PAROS), but concrete progress remains slow. Nonetheless, spacefaring nations universally agree on at least one point: the orbital debris problem must be managed to keep space sustainable for all.

Satellite Launches & New Missions

Despite being just two days, Sept. 5–6 saw a flurry of launch activity worldwide, led by SpaceX and China:

• Starlink Mega-Constellation: SpaceX’s Starlink deployment continued at breakneck pace. On Sept. 5, a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center lofted 28 Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit on mission Starlink 10-57 spaceflightnow.com. The pre-dawn launch trailed dramatic clouds in the Florida sky and ended with booster B1069 nailing SpaceX’s 500th landing milestone on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com. Just two days prior (Sept. 3), SpaceX had launched Starlink 10-22 from Cape Canaveral – the 75th orbital launch from Florida’s Space Coast this year ts2.tech ts2.tech – and on Sept. 2 it flew Starlink 17-8 from California using a brand-new Falcon 9 booster ts2.tech. In fact, out of 100+ Falcon launches in 2025 so far, only 7 have used new boosters ts2.tech, as the vast majority reuse veteran rockets. SpaceX’s rapid cadence (often multiple launches per week) set record turnaround times between missions and between booster reuses. In late August, SpaceX even managed two launches just 56 hours apart from the same pad, showcasing unprecedented operational tempo ts2.tech. By now, over 1,900 Starlinks have been launched in 2025 alone ts2.tech, swelling the constellation to well above 5,000 active satellites. This has prompted both awe at the technical achievement and concern from astronomers over night-sky impacts and orbital crowding ts2.tech. SpaceX says it aims to use Starlink revenues to fund its Starship and Mars ambitions, and it has started piloting space-based cellular service with certain Starlink satellites as well.
• Ofek-19 (Israel): In a covert move, Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Israel Aerospace Industries conducted a surprise launch of the Ofek-19 reconnaissance satellite on Sept. 2. The launch, which was unannounced until after liftoff, used a Shavit-2 rocket flying from Palmachim airbase in a rare westward (Mediterranean) trajectory ts2.tech. Many Israelis who saw the mysterious streak in pre-dawn skies feared it was a missile attack, prompting panicked calls until authorities confirmed it was a planned satellite launch ts2.tech keeptrack.space. The confusion was short-lived, and Ofek-19 reached orbit successfully. It joins Israel’s exclusive Ofek series of military spy satellites, which operate in retrograde low Earth orbits. Ofek-19 reportedly carries improved imaging sensors (likely sub-0.5 meter resolution) to enhance Israel’s surveillance of regional threats keeptrack.space keeptrack.space. Israeli officials, in hindsight, stressed the importance of public communication for such launches ts2.tech – real-time tracking data could have allayed fears. The incident also underscores how space launch notifications (or the lack thereof) can have immediate civil defense implications. Strategically, Ofek-19 bolsters Israel’s independent recon capabilities at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. The country typically launches these small satellites using its own Shavit rocket to maintain secrecy and sovereignty (rather than using foreign launchers). With Ofek-19 now in orbit, Israel can likely retire an older satellite and maintain an active constellation of at least two or three high-resolution spy satellites at any given time.
• China’s Triple Launch: China’s state and private launch providers had a busy 48 hours. First, in the early hours of Sept. 5 Beijing time, a Long March 3C rocket blasted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This mission (with an optional YZ-1 upper stage) is believed to have carried a Shiyan-29 experimental satellite to orbit nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. Shiyan satellites are a series of Chinese tech-demo payloads, and the secrecy around this launch suggests it may be related to military signals intelligence or new satellite bus testing. Later on Sept. 5, Galactic Energy, one of China’s rising commercial launch companies, launched its Ceres-1 solid-fueled rocket from Jiuquan at 11:35 UTC en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org. The payload was unofficial, but Chinese media hinted it was a small Earth observation satellite for a commercial client. This marks Galactic Energy’s fifth orbital launch of 2025, as the startup competes with others like Expace and CAS Space in China’s burgeoning small-launch market. Finally, on Sept. 6, China launched a bigger vehicle: a Long March 6A from Taiyuan at 16:35 UTC en.wikipedia.org. The Long March 6A, distinguished by its four solid strap-on boosters, lofted a batch of communications satellites designated “SatNet LEO Group 11.” These are part of China’s government-backed Guowang (SatNet) constellation – a planned network of hundreds of low-orbit satellites to provide global broadband, akin to Starlink. The LM-6A launch was reportedly successful, placing the satellites into orbit to join previous “Group 09” and “Group 10” deployments earlier in 2025 spacelaunchschedule.com. With these missions, China has conducted ~50 launches so far in 2025, keeping pace with its record-setting 2021–2022 launch rate. It reflects a dual-track approach: state rockets like Long March serve national programs (often lofting batches of government satellites, as with SatNet), while a crop of private firms handle smaller, quick-turnaround missions. Notably, Chinese launch ventures have also seen failures this year, but none occurred during this two-day window – all September 5–6 launches were nominal.
• Global Launch Roundup: Other players made news around this time even if they didn’t launch on these exact days. In Europe, Arianespace didn’t have a launch on Sept. 5–6, but it did announce that the Ariane 6 development is reaching a critical phase. The second hot-fire test of the Ariane 6 core stage (with the full Vulcain engine firing) was reportedly completed successfully in late August, and Arianespace now targets late 2025 for the debut launch of Ariane 6 carrying a Meteosat weather satellite ts2.tech. This is a sigh of relief for Europe, which has lacked its own launch capability since Ariane 5’s retirement in 2023 and faces delays in Ariane 6 and Vega-C. Also in Europe, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in Germany and SaxaVord spaceport in Scotland jointly announced a planned UK orbital launch by late 2025 nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com – potentially the first vertical orbital launch from UK soil, using RFA’s new small rocket. In Australia, Gilmour Space’s upcoming Eris rocket maiden flight (expected in mid-September) will carry several small satellites into orbit ts2.tech, marking the first Australian-built orbital launch vehicle to reach space if successful. And in the United States, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is preparing an Atlas V 551 to launch Amazon’s Project Kuiper prototypes in mid-September (the “Protoflight” mission carrying the first two Kuiper satellites) – a highly anticipated mission for Amazon’s broadband constellation. ULA is also inching toward the debut of its next-gen Vulcan Centaur rocket; Vulcan’s first launch, carrying a commercial lunar lander, has been delayed but is tentatively expected by end of 2025. Notably, no major launch failures occurred in the first week of September, a welcome break after some high-profile issues earlier in the year (e.g. the mentioned Viasat-3 payload loss in April, and India’s PSLV anomaly in May). The global launch cadence in 2025 remains extremely high – by early September, the world had seen nearly 200 orbital launch attempts year-to-date nasaspaceflight.com, on track to surpass last year’s record. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 accounts for a large chunk of these, but Chinese Long March rockets, Russia’s Soyuz, and emerging commercial rockets are all contributing to what has been called the “New Space Boom.”

Space Technology & Science Highlights

Space Safety and Debris Mitigation

With Earth orbit more crowded than ever, space agencies and companies are racing to develop tools for orbital sustainability. One major focus is dealing with orbital debris, which ranges from dead satellites to paint flakes hurtling at 28,000 km/h. NASA tracks over 34,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm, and an estimated 900,000 fragments between 1–10 cm are in orbit nasaspaceflight.com. Even tiny millimeter-size bits – numbering in the tens of millions – can damage spacecraft. This growing debris field raises the risk of cascading collisions (the “Kessler Syndrome”) that could render low Earth orbit unusable innovationnewsnetwork.com innovationnewsnetwork.com. During this period, several innovative debris solutions made news:

• Electrodynamic Tethers: The European startup PERSEI Space (based in Spain) is preparing to demonstrate a cutting-edge electrodynamic tether (EDT) system to passively deorbit satellites at end-of-life. As mentioned, ESA awarded PERSEI a launch slot through its Flight Ticket Initiative – meaning the EDT demo will hitch a ride to orbit in 2026 nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. PERSEI’s system, called E.T.Pack, involves attaching a long conductive tape or tether to a satellite. Once deployed, this tether interacts with Earth’s magnetic field and the plasma in orbit to generate a small electrical current. The result is a Lorentz force that gradually slows the spacecraft – acting like an invisible brake, causing the orbit to decay without any thruster burn nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. Fascinatingly, the process can be reversed by driving current through the tether: then the Lorentz force provides positive thrust to raise or maintain the orbit nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. “The same system that can deorbit satellites at mission completion can also provide propellant-free station-keeping and orbital adjustments,” PERSEI’s technical team explained nasaspaceflight.com. This propellant-free mobility is seen as a game-changer – a satellite could theoretically remain operational indefinitely, limited only by hardware lifetime, not fuel. The 2026 test will attach an EDT to a small satellite and verify the drag and thrust effects in practice. If successful, such tethers could become standard-issue on future satellites, ensuring they can self-dispose when their mission is done (mitigating debris) or even prolong their useful life by offsetting orbital decay. ESA’s support highlights how seriously agencies are treating debris mitigation; it also represents a boost for Europe’s space-tech startups scene.
• Debris Impact Detection: On the other side of the debris challenge is shielding active spacecraft from collisions. The U.S. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced on Aug. 19 a successful lab test of its new MMOD (Micrometeoroid & Orbital Debris) impact sensor innovationnewsnetwork.com. SwRI’s system places a network of thin, sensitive films or fiber-optic sensors on the surface of a spacecraft. When a high-speed particle strikes, the system instantly detects the impact location, size, and possibly the impactor’s characteristics innovationnewsnetwork.com. To validate it, SwRI engineers used a light gas gun to fire tiny projectiles at sensor-laden panels, simulating orbital debris hits innovationnewsnetwork.com. The idea is that a satellite equipped with this “smart skin” could not only record strikes (helping engineers understand damage in real time), but also share that information. “One of the most promising aspects of the SwRI system is its potential to contribute to an orbital early warning network,” said the research team innovationnewsnetwork.com. For example, if a satellite in a certain orbit detects a debris hit, it could send an alert to others in similar or trailing orbits to be on guard or perform avoidance maneuvers innovationnewsnetwork.com. While this system cannot prevent debris collisions, it can help spacecraft survive them and operators respond proactively innovationnewsnetwork.com. SwRI is now advancing the sensor toward a flight-ready prototype innovationnewsnetwork.com. In the coming years, we may see constellations integrate such sensors, effectively creating a crowdsourced space traffic monitoring network that complements ground-based radar and telescopes.
• Active Debris Removal & Policy: Not directly in these two days, but relevant, is the progress on active debris removal missions. Europe’s ClearSpace-1, a mission to capture and deorbit a defunct Vega rocket stage, passed critical design reviews this summer and is slated for launch in 2026. Japan’s JAXA, with startup Astroscale, is planning a debris removal demo as well. In policy news, the U.S. FCC’s 5-year deorbit rule for low-orbit satellites (adopted in late 2022) officially took effect in 2025 – meaning any new satellite in LEO must have a plan to deorbit within 5 years of mission end. There’s also talk of an international “Orbital Debris Mitigation Accord” that would set global best practices, but that’s in early diplomatic stages. All told, the space community is treating orbital debris with a new urgency, recognizing that sustainable use of space hinges on containing this hazard.

Space Exploration & Scientific Discoveries

Even amid the flurry of launches and industry news, the cosmic frontier continues to deliver awe-inspiring discoveries and milestones:

• Webb Telescope’s Cosmic Nursery: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) provided another show-stopping image, this time of a stellar nursery. Released on Sept. 5, the image peered into NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula, in the constellation Scorpius. Webb’s infrared eyes revealed an exquisite vista teeming with “thousands of newborn stars” of various sizes and colors, some still swaddled in glowing clouds of gas heraldextra.com. At the center of the scene is Pismis 24, a young star cluster containing some extremely massive, bright stars that are carving cavities in the nebular gas. The AP’s Marcia Dunn described the snapshot as a “breathtaking view of a star-birth center” about 5,500 light years away heraldextra.com. Because Webb observes infrared light, it can see through dust clouds that obscured previous telescopic views, unveiling star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image also showcases a towering wall of gas and dust – so massive it extends beyond Webb’s field of view – with stars emerging like “sparkling gems” along its edges. This nebula has earned the Lobster nickname due to its appearance in wide-field photos, but Webb’s close-up focuses on the Pismis 24 area. Such observations aren’t just pretty pictures; they allow astronomers to study how stellar feedback (radiation and winds from hot young stars) sculpts star-forming clouds. Webb’s data will help explain how star clusters form and disperse, and how many massive stars can form in a cluster (addressing, for instance, an earlier Hubble-based controversy over the true brightness – and thus mass – of the biggest Pismis 24 stars). This latest image adds to Webb’s growing gallery of cosmic nurseries, following its famous Pillars of Creation and Carina Nebula views. It’s another reminder of Webb’s power as the world’s premier space observatory, now nearly two years into its mission and operating flawlessly at Lagrange point L2.
• Jupiter’s Auroral Mystery Solved: A decades-long mystery about Jupiter was finally put to rest. Since the 1990s, scientists have observed that three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons – Io, Europa, and Ganymede – each create a distinct “footprint” in Jupiter’s polar auroras science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. These appear as glowing spots or streaks in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, caused by electric currents linking the moons to Jupiter’s magnetic poles. But the fourth moon, Callisto, had never had its footprint clearly detected sci.news sci.news. Callisto orbits farther out, and its effect was expected to be fainter and often masked by Jupiter’s main auroral oval. Multiple attempts using Hubble Space Telescope failed to spot it sci.news sci.news. Now, NASA’s Juno spacecraft – orbiting Jupiter since 2016 – has definitively observed Callisto’s elusive auroral signature ts2.tech ts2.tech. The breakthrough came during Juno’s 22nd orbit back in Sept. 2019, when conditions aligned perfectly: a strong solar wind event disturbed Jupiter’s magnetosphere and briefly shifted the auroral patterns science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov, and Juno’s trajectory crossed the magnetic field lines connecting Callisto to Jupiter science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. Juno’s ultraviolet spectrograph recorded a “faint but distinct” ghostly glow in the polar aurora where Callisto’s flux tube maps to the atmosphere sci.news sci.news. At the same time, Juno’s particle instruments measured the associated streams of electrons and electromagnetic waves. Put together, the data “finally confirms that all four Galilean moons leave their mark on Jupiter’s atmosphere, and that Callisto’s footprints are sustained much like those of its siblings,” scientists reported sci.news sci.news. The findings, published in Nature Communications on Sept. 1, complete the “family portrait” of Jovian auroral footprints sci.news sci.news. Beyond the cool factor of solving a planetary mystery, this has broader implications: it shows that even a distant moon like Callisto (which has a weak interaction compared to volcanic Io) can generate electrodynamic coupling with its planet. This insight will inform our understanding of exoplanets too – for instance, gas giants in other systems might show auroral clues of their moons. The timing is perfect as ESA’s JUICE mission is en route to Jupiter (arriving 2031) to study Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, and NASA’s Europa Clipper will arrive in 2030 – both will benefit from Juno’s discoveries as they plan their observations of Jupiter’s magnetic environment.
• Interstellar Visitor 3I/ATLAS: Comet 3I/ATLAS continues to captivate astronomers as it journeys through our solar system. Discovered on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS survey in Hawaii space.com space.com, this comet is an interstellar object, meaning it originated around another star and is just passing through our neighborhood – a rare event. It’s only the third known interstellar visitor after ‘Oumuamua (2017) and Borisov (2019) space.com space.com. What’s exciting is that 3I/ATLAS was discovered well before its closest approach, giving scientists a chance to organize observations. And indeed, a team led by Karen Meech (University of Hawaii) has been using the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile to monitor the comet. On Aug. 27, they captured a stunning image of a tail forming on 3I/ATLAS space.com space.com. As the comet nears the sun, solar radiation is heating its ices, causing sublimation of gas and release of dust – thus, a classic cometary tail is growing space.com. “We were excited to see the growth of the tail, suggesting a change in the particles from the previous images,” said the team, noting it confirms the comet is now actively outgassing space.com space.com. By early September, 3I/ATLAS had brightened to around magnitude 14–15, still too faint for most amateur telescopes but under intense scrutiny by professionals. It will make its closest pass by the sun (perihelion) in late September and then zip by Mars in October skyatnightmagazine.com. NASA has pointed Hubble and the Webb telescope at 3I/ATLAS as well, hoping to glean its composition – initial spectral data suggests it’s releasing carbon dioxide and water, similar to normal comets science.nasa.gov. The significance of 3I/ATLAS is huge: each interstellar object is like a messenger from another solar system, potentially carrying building blocks from an alien star’s planets. Scientists are rushing to compare 3I’s behavior and makeup to Borisov’s (which was very much like a typical comet from our system) and to figure out if 3I/ATLAS might even be a fragment from a tidal disruption of a larger object (some theorize it could be a piece of an extra-galactic dwarf planet). Regardless, as Karen Meech put it, “this image is both a scientific milestone and a source of wonder” – a reminder that our solar system is not isolated, and occasionally we get visitors from the far reaches of the galaxy space.com space.com. Public enthusiasm is high too: observatories hosted live webcasts of the comet, and some have nicknamed it “Atlas” after the survey (though officially it’s 3I). If technology allowed, one could imagine a future mission to intercept an interstellar comet, but for now, astronomers are making the most of remote observations. Each new piece of data from 3I/ATLAS helps enrich our understanding of the diversity of cometary bodies in the universe.
• Mars and Beyond: While no new Mars missions launched in this narrow window, groundwork is being laid for upcoming adventures. In late August, NASA announced the crew assignments for the Mars Sample Return campaign, set to retrieve the samples cached by Perseverance rover – but that mission’s timetable may slip into the 2030s amid budget concerns. Closer in time, Japan’s MMX mission to Martian moon Phobos is on track for a 2025 launch, and this week the MMX team tested the rover that will explore Phobos’s surface (a tiny rover jointly developed with Germany and France). Back on Earth, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is just weeks away from delivering asteroid samples (on Sept. 24), a prelude to more asteroid and comet missions planned. And in human spaceflight, NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-7 safely returned to Earth on Sept. 4 after a six-month ISS stint (with astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi performing the first spacewalk by an Emirati during the mission). The next crew rotation, Crew-8, was officially scheduled for February 2026, and interestingly NASA confirmed that mission will reuse a Dragon capsule for the sixth time, a record for crew vehicles ts2.tech. This signifies NASA’s growing confidence in SpaceX’s refurbishment process – a stark change from the Space Shuttle era when orbiters flew at most 39 times over decades. On the horizon, Boeing’s Starliner is still awaiting its first crewed flight (delayed into 2026), and Artemis II astronauts continue training for their Moon fly-around. In short, humanity’s journey to the Moon, Mars, and beyond is progressing steadily, even as robotic explorers like Webb, Juno, and others deliver new wonders from across the cosmos.

Conclusion: The first week of September 2025 showcased the full spectrum of space activity – record-setting commercial launches, pivotal policy moves, international intrigue, cutting-edge tech demos, and profound scientific discoveries. In just 48 hours, we saw a space station literally get a boost, a stealthy spy sat launch that doubled as a civilian scare, rockets roaring on three continents, and breakthroughs from the depths of Jupiter’s auroras to the birth-cries of distant stars. It’s a vivid reminder that the global space sector is more dynamic than ever. As one era (the ISS and traditional government programs) gradually yields to another (commercial stations and mega-constellations), collaboration and competition are intensifying on the new high frontier. The next generation of missions – from Mars probes riding New Glenn to commercial space stations, from Moon landings by multiple nations to debris-cleaning tethers – are already on the horizon, ensuring that space news will only get more exciting in the days to come.

Sources: Spaceflight Now spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com; Space.com space.com space.com; NASASpaceFlight space.com ts2.tech; KeepTrack Space keeptrack.space keeptrack.space; NASA press releases nasa.gov ts2.tech; Space Foundation spacefoundation.org spacefoundation.org; AsiaOne asiaone.co.in asiaone.co.in; Science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov; Sci.News sci.news sci.news; AP News heraldextra.com heraldextra.com; Space.com space.com space.com; Innovation News Network innovationnewsnetwork.com innovationnewsnetwork.com; Satellite Today ts2.tech; SpaceNews; Breaking Defense; and more. All information is as of Sept. 6, 2025.