NASDAQ:RKLB 29 June 2025 - 4 September 2025

Starship’s First Orbital Success: SpaceX’s Starship finally broke its streak of test failures in spectacular fashion. On Aug. 26, the 403-foot reusable rocket system completed its tenth test flight and achieved several firsts. After launching from Starbase, Texas, the Starship upper stage reached space and successfully deployed payloads – ejecting 8 dummy Starlink satellites about 30 minutes into flight from its innovative internal dispenser reuters.com. This marked the first-ever satellite deployment by Starship, turning the page on a series of early-flight mishaps that had plagued the program. The mission then put Starship’s redesigned heat shield through a trial-by-fire: the vehicle endured a blazing reentry over the Indian Ocean, testing new hexagonal thermal tiles needed for full reusability reuters.com. Finally, the Starship executed a controlled engine-guided descent into the ocean west of Australia, touching down vertically on the water’s surface reuters.com reuters.com. As expected, the 171-foot ship toppled over and was destroyed after splashdown, but by that point it had met all major objectives reuters.com. This mission demonstrated crucial capabilities – orbital staging, payload deployment, and high-speed reentry – that SpaceX needs to eventually recover Starships intact.

SpaceX Reboosts the ISS: In the early hours of Aug. 24, SpaceX’s 33rd Cargo Dragon mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying over 5,000 pounds of supplies – and a special new “boost” module to raise the International Space Station’s orbit ts2.tech ts2.tech. The uncrewed Dragon lifted off at 2:45 a.m. EDT Sunday atop a Falcon 9, beginning a day-long journey to the ISS nasa.gov. “Commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station deliver science that helps prove technologies for Artemis lunar missions and beyond,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, noting this flight will test “3D printing metal parts and bioprinting tissue in microgravity” to aid future Moon and Mars crews nasa.gov. The Dragon is packed with dozens of experiments and general cargo for the station’s Expedition 73 crew nasa.gov spaceflightnow.com.

India and NASA Launch Climate-Tracking Satellite: In a landmark collaboration, India’s space agency ISRO and NASA launched the $1.5 billion NISAR Earth-observation satellite on July 30. A Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 5:40 p.m. IST, carrying the first joint NASA-ISRO radar imaging mission nasa.gov reuters.com. NISAR will map the entire planet every 12 days with dual L-band and S-band radars, detecting land and ice movements as small as a centimeter reuters.com. ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan hailed the mission’s global benefits, saying “the entire globe is going to benefit from this great accomplishment,” and noting that NISAR’s freely available data will aid worldwide climate and disaster monitoring reuters.com. NASA officials called NISAR a “pathfinder” for U.S.-India cooperation in space reuters.com. This success comes amid India’s broader space ambitions – fresh off the Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing, India is preparing its first crewed Gaganyaan mission and even planning to build a national space station by 2035 reuters.com.