SpaceX Launch, Artemis Accords & a ‘5-Hour Year’ Planet: Space Roundup (July 23–24, 2025)
In the past 48 hours, the space sector has seen a flurry of activity – from a Falcon 9 roaring to orbit with science satellites to policymakers charting new courses for exploration. Major space agencies and private firms notched successes, announced plans, and even spotted extreme new worlds. Here’s your comprehensive roundup of the latest satellite launches, mission milestones, commercial ventures, astronomical discoveries, and policy moves from July 23–24, 2025. Vandenberg Space Force Base, California – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA’s TRACERS mission, deploying twin satellites that will probe how the Sun’s solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field spaceflightnow.com. Liftoff came at 2:13 p.m. EDT after a one-day delay caused by a regional FAA power outage that halted the initial attempt spaceflightnow.com. In a testament to reusable rocketry, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster returned for a pinpoint landing at Vandenberg, marking SpaceX’s 479th booster recovery spaceflightnow.com. Riding along with the TRACERS pair were five small rideshare satellites carrying experiments ranging from next-gen communication terminals to sensors studying Earth’s radiation budget spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com.
