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Exploration News 28 June 2025 - 2 September 2025

Space Race Heats Up: SpaceX Launch Blitz, Lunar Reactor Gambit & Mars’ Ancient Secret Revealed

Space Race Heats Up: SpaceX Launch Blitz, Lunar Reactor Gambit & Mars’ Ancient Secret Revealed

Key Facts SpaceX Shatters Launch Records and Starlink Surges SpaceX began September by making history on the launch pad. The company slated five Falcon 9 launches in one week, aiming to deploy four batches of Starlink satellites (over 100 new satellites total) and one commercial payload nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. On Sept. 2, a Falcon 9 from California carried 24 Starlink v2 minis to orbit, followed hours later by another Falcon 9 from Florida with 28 more Starlinks nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com. This rapid-fire cadence – using boosters flying on their 14th and even 27th missions nasaspaceflight.com nasaspaceflight.com – highlights SpaceX’s reuse prowess. In
2 September 2025
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You Won’t Believe What Just Happened in Space – August 23–24 Space News Roundup

You Won’t Believe What Just Happened in Space – August 23–24 Space News Roundup

Rocket Launches and Mission Highlights Space Industry and Global Policy Developments Scientific Breakthroughs and Space Research Each of these stories from August 23–24, 2025 showcases the remarkable breadth of space news in just a 48-hour window – from record-setting launches and novel spacecraft capabilities, to industry shake-ups and policy shifts, to cosmic discoveries rewriting textbooks. It’s a vivid reminder that the space sector is firing on all cylinders: rockets are roaring, regulations are evolving, and researchers are unveiling the cosmos’ deepest secrets. In short, the final frontier had a very eventful weekend – and the sky is no longer the
24 August 2025
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Space Race Heats Up: Vulcan’s Milestone Launch, Ariane 6 Success, and Mega-Constellations Surge (Aug 13-14, 2025)

Space Race Heats Up: Vulcan’s Milestone Launch, Ariane 6 Success, and Mega-Constellations Surge (Aug 13-14, 2025)

Vulcan Centaur debuted on its first national security mission, USSF-106, launching from Cape Canaveral on August 12, 2025 at 8:56 p.m. EDT and is powered by two BE-4 engines while carrying the NTS-3 satellite. The USSF-106 mission deployed the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) and marks the Defense Department’s shift to flying critical military satellites on domestic rockets powered by U.S.-made engines. Ariane 6 mission VA264 delivered MetOp-SG A1 to a 800 km polar sun-synchronous orbit after a 2:37 a.m. CEST launch from Kourou on August 13. MetOp-SG A1 is Europe’s next-generation polar-orbiting weather satellite, built by Airbus for ESA/EUMETSAT and
14 August 2025
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Space News Explosion: Solar Sails, Interstellar Visitors, and the Race to Dominate the Final Frontier / Updated: 2025, July 12th, 00:00 CET

Space News Explosion: Solar Sails, Interstellar Visitors, and the Race to Dominate the Final Frontier / Updated: 2025, July 12th, 00:00 CET

The SWIFT satellite constellation uses advanced solar sails to deliver earlier, more accurate space weather warnings. In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe yielded the closest-ever images of the Sun’s corona and CMEs, vastly improving space weather predictions. SpaceX’s Starlink now has nearly 6,000 satellites in orbit and has regulatory approval to operate in India. Firefly Aerospace aims for an IPO around $2 billion, leveraging its Alpha rocket, Blue Ghost lunar lander, and Northrop Grumman partnerships. The Crew-11 mission will launch on July 31, sending four astronauts—two from NASA, one from JAXA, and one from Roscosmos—to the ISS aboard Crew
12 July 2025
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 23:59 CET

Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 23:59 CET

On July 5, 2025, the unpiloted Progress 92 spacecraft docked with the ISS Poisk module, delivering about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to Expedition 73 and remaining docked for six months before disposal. NASA’s New Horizons, now 9.1 billion kilometers from Earth, demonstrated the first interstellar navigation test using stellar parallax, achieving about 40 million kilometers of position uncertainty. Astronomers detected interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1), the third such object observed, currently between the asteroid belt and Jupiter at about 130,000 mph with live online observations. NWA 16788, the largest Martian meteorite at 24.5 kilograms and representing 6.5%
5 July 2025
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Space News Digest: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 00:00 CET

Space News Digest: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 5th, 00:00 CET

Starlink has over 4.6 million users and a constellation of nearly 7,900 satellites in orbit as of mid-2025. The EU Space Act would unify space regulation with debris mitigation, cybersecurity, and environmental standards, with existing Starlink satellites exempt through 2030 but future deployments subject to the Act. France’s SNCF plans to deploy satellite internet on trains by combining terrestrial 4G/5G with LEO connectivity, with Starlink and Eutelsat as leading providers. Boeing won a 2.8 billion US Space Force contract to develop two ESS satellites, with options for two more, targeted for deployment between 2031 and 2033. MTG-S1, the Meteosat Third
5 July 2025
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Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 2nd, 00:00 CET

Space News Roundup: July 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 2nd, 00:00 CET

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images from Cerro Pachón, Chile, featuring galaxies and the Trifid Nebula, and will generate 10 million alerts per night with the world’s largest digital camera. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged a Saturn-mass exoplanet orbiting the star TWA 7. MTG-S1, a 1.8-ton satellite carrying the Sentinel-4 instrument, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and will provide 3D atmospheric maps every 30 minutes along with hourly air-quality data. The MethaneSAT satellite, funded by EDF and Bezos Earth Fund and launched in March 2024, has lost power and is likely not recoverable, marking
2 July 2025
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Space News Digest: July 1, 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 1st, 12:02 CET

Space News Digest: July 1, 2025 / Updated: 2025, July 1st, 12:02 CET

The Vera Rubin Observatory began its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) with first light and a 3.2-gigapixel camera, aiming to image the southern sky every few days and catalog over 40 billion objects. Perseverance completed its 30th Martian rock analysis on a sample named Kenmore, using the gaseous Dust Removal Tool to study its interior mineralogy. Perseverance detected clay-bearing bedrock on Jezero Crater’s rim, suggesting ancient water activity about 4 billion years ago. Curiosity captured a 360-degree panorama of Gale Crater, providing detailed context for ongoing geological investigations. FireSat plans deployment of over 50 satellites by 2029; FIRENET
1 July 2025
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Space News Roundup: Breakthroughs, Challenges, and New Frontiers (June 30, 2025) / Updated: 2025, July 1st, 00:00 CET

Space News Roundup: Breakthroughs, Challenges, and New Frontiers (June 30, 2025) / Updated: 2025, July 1st, 00:00 CET

NASA’s SWOT satellite, launched in 2022, has revealed over 100,000 previously unknown seafloor features, more than doubling the number of known seamounts from 44,000 to over 100,000. ESA’s Biomass satellite, equipped with a pioneering P-band radar, enables direct measurement of above-ground biomass and was scheduled to launch in April 2025. Muon Space and Earth Fire Alliance’s FireSat constellation will provide 20-minute global wildfire surveillance with six infrared channels, capable of detecting fires as small as 5 meters, with full deployment by 2030. NOAA delayed the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program data cutoff to July 31, 2025 due to cybersecurity concerns, to
1 July 2025
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SpaceX Wins $81.6 Million U.S. Space Force Deal to Launch WSF-M2 Weather Satellite in 2027

Space News Roundup – June 29, 2025

Japan’s H-2A rocket completed its 50th and final mission on June 28 (US time), launching the GOSAT-GW (“Ibuki”) greenhouse gases and water-cycle satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit with an official 98% reliability rate for the H-2A family. Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-33 flight from Launch Site One in West Texas on June 29 carried six space tourists, including a husband-and-wife team, with Carl Kuehner becoming the 750th person in space. SpaceX conducted a rapid-fire Falcon 9 doubleheader—one launch from Cape Canaveral just after midnight on June 28 and a second from Vandenberg 13 hours later—deploying dozens of Starlink satellites and
29 June 2025
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Space News Digest: June 2025 / Updated: 2025, June 29th, 07:59 CET

Space News Digest: June 2025 / Updated: 2025, June 29th, 07:59 CET

Space Coast launches set records with 93 launches in 2024 and up to 156 projected for 2025, driven by SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin. SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation has surpassed 7,900 satellites in orbit. Two Falcon 9 missions deployed 53 Starlink satellites within 13 hours, marking SpaceX’s 81st launch of 2025 and the 468th booster recovery. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has 54 satellites in orbit toward a planned 3,200-satellite constellation, with AWS data processing integration. Japan’s H-2A rocket completed its 50th and final mission, deploying the greenhouse gas monitoring satellite GOSAT-GW, as the H3 rocket begins to replace H-2A. The Vera C.
29 June 2025
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June 2025 Space News: Breakthroughs, Missions, and the Expanding Frontier / Updated: 2025, June 28th, 16:00 CET

June 2025 Space News: Breakthroughs, Missions, and the Expanding Frontier / Updated: 2025, June 28th, 16:00 CET

Shubhanshu Shukla became India’s 634th person in space, traveling to the ISS on the Axiom-4 mission after a 28-hour journey and a 41-year hiatus. NASA and Roscosmos are conducting investigations as four astronauts arrive at the ISS amid a mysterious air leak detected in the Russian Zvezda module. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory achieved first light with a 3,200-megapixel camera, discovering over 2,000 asteroids in 10 hours and planning to image the entire sky every few nights for a decade. The James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged its first exoplanet, TWA 7b, a Saturn-mass world about 111 light-years away. Japan’s
28 June 2025
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