Space Race Heats Up: Starship’s Next Launch, New Glenn’s Mars Mission & More – Global Space News Roundup (Aug 15–16, 2025)
Launch & Rocket Updates Satellite Missions & Science Updates Space Agencies & Policy Developments
Techquake Weekend: Tariffs, Rocket Failures & a 1,000-Mile EV – Global Tech News Roundup (Aug 15–16, 2025)
Consumer Technology Enterprise IT & Software Telecommunications Cybersecurity Automotive Technology Space Technology Semiconductors & Hardware Fintech & Crypto Biotechnology & Health Tech Robotics & Tech Culture Sources: Reuters, TechCrunch, FDA, FierceBiotech, company press releases, and other reputable outlets as cited above techcrunch.com reuters.com reuters.com reuters.com. This report covers major tech developments around the world from August 15–16, 2025, spanning consumer gadgets, enterprise IT, telecom, cybersecurity, automotive, space, semiconductor policy, fintech, biotech, and more – everything except AI.
Space Showdown: Starlink Doubleheader, Vulcan’s Debut, Ariane 6 Triumph & Cosmic Discoveries (Aug 14–15, 2025)
On Aug. 14, 2025, SpaceX launched two Falcon 9 missions 12 hours apart, first from Vandenberg with 24 Starlink satellites and then from Cape Canaveral with 28 Starlink satellites, with deployments confirmed and boosters recovered at sea (one on its 10th flight). These back-to-back flights brought SpaceX’s 2025 Falcon 9 count to 99 and pushed the Starlink megaconstellation to over 8,100 active satellites in orbit. California’s Coastal Commission unanimously vetoed SpaceX’s plan to raise Vandenberg’s annual Falcon 9 launches from 50 to 95, with the U.S. Space Force signaling a possible override and SpaceX suing the commission. ULA’s Vulcan Centaur
All the Ways You Can Go to Space: Commercial, Government, and Emerging Opportunities
In July 2021, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo carried a full crew above 80 km. In 2023, Virgin Galactic began commercial service for private space tourists. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital flights cross the Kármán line at about 100 km and last 10–15 minutes. The first Blue Origin seat was auctioned for $28 million, with routine prices in the few hundred-thousand-dollar range. SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in September 2021 was the first all-civilian orbital flight, with a four-person crew trained for about six months. Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission in April 2022 carried three private customers paying about $55 million per seat for a
Space Race Heats Up: Epic Launches, Lunar Showdowns & Breakthrough Tech (Aug 12–13, 2025 Roundup)
Rocket Launch Triumphs: New Heavy-Lifters and Constellation Boosts Lunar Missions & Spaceflight Milestones: Moon Race Intensifies Next-Gen Satellite Tech & Services: Innovation in Orbit Space Policy & International Developments: Safety, Funding, and Collaboration Sources: Spaceflight Now spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com spaceflightnow.com; Space.com space.com space.com; Space & Defense spaceanddefense.io; Reuters reuters.com reuters.com; Space.com (B. Tingley) space.com space.com; Space.com (M. Wall) advanced-television.com advanced-television.com; Spaceflight Now spaceflightnow.com; Reuters (Kyivstar/Starlink) reuters.com reuters.com; Aerospace Corp. aerospace.org aerospace.org; Via Satellite satellitetoday.com; Keeptrack Brief keeptrack.space keeptrack.space; Slashdot/Reuters (Crew-10) science.slashdot.org science.slashdot.org.
Tech Shockers: Space Force Rocket Triumph, Massive Data Leaks & Gadget Surprises (Aug 12–13, 2025)
ULA launched its first operational Vulcan rocket on the USSF-106 mission from Cape Canaveral, a 198-foot launcher boosted by four solid boosters and BE-4 engines that reached geosynchronous transfer orbit. Google teased the Pixel 10 Pro Fold in a teaser video released a week before its official launch event. Leaks suggest the iPhone 17 Pro will use a redesigned antenna system inspired by the Apple Watch to improve cellular connectivity and reduce dropped calls. Samsung unveiled a 115-inch micro-LED TV, the first to use microscopic LEDs for each color, priced around $32,000 in South Korea. Disney’s ESPN and Fox will
Space Marvels, Climate Alarms & Medical Milestones: Major Science News (Aug 11–12, 2025)
Space & Astronomy Climate & Environment Medicine & Health Physics & Materials Science Technology & Innovation Sources: This report is based on science news and press releases from Aug. 11–12, 2025 (and surrounding dates) by reputable outlets and institutions, including Nature nature.com unr.edu, Scientific American scientificamerican.com, ScienceDaily sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com, NASA science.nasa.gov, Reuters reuters.com, Euronews/AP euronews.com, university press releases unr.edu psu.edu, and others. Each story’s details and expert quotes are drawn from the primary sources cited above. All facts are verified and presented as reported in those sources, covering major scientific developments announced on the given dates.
Historic Splashdowns, Lunar Leaps & Billion-Dollar Space Deals (Aug 8–9, 2025)
NASA’s Crew-10 astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov completed a 146-day mission with a splashdown off the California coast at 11:33 a.m. ET on Aug. 9, 2025, the first crewed West Coast splashdown under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. China completed the first full-scale test of the Lanyue (“Embrace the Moon”) crewed lunar lander in Hebei on Aug. 6, 2025, validating its ascent and descent engines ahead of a 2030 lunar mission. ULA’s Vulcan rocket is slated for its first national-security launch with mission USSF-106 as early as Aug. 12, 2025, marking Vulcan’s inaugural national-security and Post-Certification
Apollo 13’s “Successful Failure”: The Epic Journey of Jim Lovell, NASA’s Legendary Commander
Apollo 13, commanded by Jim Lovell, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970 at 2:13 PM EST with Jack Swigert replacing Ken Mattingly 48 hours before launch due to measles exposure, suffered an oxygen-tank explosion on April 13, and splashed down in the Pacific near Samoa on April 17. Aquarius, the Lunar Module designed for two men for 2 days on the Moon, was pressed into service as a lifeboat for three astronauts for four days. Oxygen Tank 2 exploded and Tank 1 began leaking in the Service Module, knocking out two of Apollo 13’s three fuel cells
Space Race Heats Up – Major Launches, Lunar Breakthroughs, and Billion-Dollar Deals (7–8 Aug 2025)
Crew-10, comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov, is targeting undocking on Aug 8, 2025, with splashdown off the California coast on Aug 9, 2025, marking the first crewed California splashdown under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program after a five-month science mission. China completed the first full-scale test of its crewed lunar lander ‘Lanyue’ at a Hebei facility, validating its ascent and descent engines for a 2030 crewed lunar mission and bolstering plans for a joint International Lunar Research Station with Russia by 2035. ULA’s Vulcan rocket is slated to perform its first
Space Race Shake-Up: NASA Kills Moon Probe, Record Launches & Billion-Dollar Deals (Aug 4–5, 2025 Roundup)
NASA formally ended the Lunar Trailblazer mission on July 31 after a Feb. 26 liftoff, a ~$94 million low-cost orbiter meant to map lunar ice with two novel instruments that lost contact the day after launch and showed misaligned solar panels draining the batteries. NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity marked 13 years on Mars, with software upgrades enabling it to drive and relay data to orbiters simultaneously, extending science hours after 4,600 Martian days. NASA’s Artemis II astronauts will orbit the Moon in about six months, marking the first crewed lunar flyby in 53 years. ISS Crew-11 Dragon docked at the
Space Race Heats Up: Big Launches, Bold Missions & Surprising Discoveries (July 30–31, 2025)
NISAR was launched on July 30, 2025, by ISRO and NASA using a GSLV rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 5:40 p.m. IST, costing $1.5 billion, with dual L-band and S-band radars to map the entire planet every 12 days. The NISAR mission will provide freely available data to aid global climate and disaster monitoring and is described as a pathfinder for U.S.-India space cooperation. China launched the sixth batch of Guowang low-Earth broadband satellites on July 30 with a Long March 8A from the new Hainan commercial spaceport, as part of a planned 13,000-satellite constellation. SpaceX launched 19