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Space News 26 June 2025 - 1 July 2025

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
SpaceX’s Wild Week: Double Launches, Debris Controversy & a Crane Collapse Rock the Space Giant (28-30, June, 2025)

SpaceX’s Wild Week: Double Launches, Debris Controversy & a Crane Collapse Rock the Space Giant (28-30, June, 2025)

On June 28, SpaceX launched back-to-back Falcon 9s from Cape Canaveral (27 Starlink satellites) and Vandenberg (26 Starlink satellites), with boosters landing on the droneships “A Shortfall of Gravitas” and “Of Course I Still Love You.” These two Starlink launches in a single day pushed SpaceX’s active constellation to over 7,900 satellites in orbit. SpaceX boosters have been flown as many as 5–8 times each. A July 1 doubleheader is planned on the Space Coast with two Falcon 9 missions from Florida within hours of each other. A Starship test explosion in Texas scattered debris to Tamaulipas and the Gulf
30 June 2025
Space News Roundup: Satellite Internet, Climate Monitoring, and the Expanding Role of Space Technology (June 30, 2025) / Updated: 2025, June 30th, 14:21 CET

Space News Roundup: Satellite Internet, Climate Monitoring, and the Expanding Role of Space Technology (June 30, 2025) / Updated: 2025, June 30th, 14:21 CET

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, now has over 5 million customers in 125 countries, with rivals including Eutelsat OneWeb, Globalstar, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper and government-led IRIS2 and QianFan programs. Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile formed SatCo, a Luxembourg-based joint venture aiming to deliver direct-to-device satellite connectivity across Europe by 2026, integrating with 4G/5G networks. MTG-S1, Europe’s next-generation Meteosat Third Generation Sounder, carries the Sentinel-4 payload for air quality and atmospheric monitoring over Europe and North Africa, and will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 with major European industry partners Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, GMV, and SENER. Japan’s GOSAT-GW climate satellite
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
Quiet Goodbye, Bold Hello: Japan’s H3 Rocket Takes the Torch from H-2A to Slash Costs and Double Cadence

Quiet Goodbye, Bold Hello: Japan’s H3 Rocket Takes the Torch from H-2A to Slash Costs and Double Cadence

Japan’s H-2A completed its 50th and final launch on June 28, 2025, carrying the GOSAT-GW climate-monitoring satellite, after a 49-for-50 success rate (98%). Over its service, H-2A lofted payloads including SELENE (Kaguya), Akatsuki, Hayabusa 2, and the Emirates Mars Mission. H3, Japan’s next-generation launcher, is designed to be more cost-effective and flexible, standing about 57–63 meters tall with a 5.2-meter first-stage core and up to 6.5 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit. The H3 uses LE-9 engines in configurations of two or three with an expander-bleed cycle, the first main-stage application of this cycle, delivering about 1,470 kN thrust per
29 June 2025
ForgeStar-1: Pioneering the UK’s Orbital Chip Foundry in Space

ForgeStar-1: Pioneering the UK’s Orbital Chip Foundry in Space

ForgeStar-1 launched on June 12, 2025 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, marking the UK’s first in-space manufacturing mission. The Welsh-built ForgeStar-1 is a fully retrievable, reusable space factory designed to survive re-entry and be reused for multiple missions. The Pridwen deployable heat shield protects ForgeStar-1 during atmospheric re-entry and will be demonstrated as a key proof-of-concept. On-Orbit Steering and the Aether software provide real-time tracking and predictive mapping to guide the satellite’s re-entry into a controlled corridor. ForgeStar-1 functions as an autonomous Microgravity Foundry, performing crystal growth and thin-film deposition without human operators. The mission
29 June 2025
SpaceX Wins $81.6 Million U.S. Space Force Deal to Launch WSF-M2 Weather Satellite in 2027

SpaceX Wins $81.6 Million U.S. Space Force Deal to Launch WSF-M2 Weather Satellite in 2027

The USSF-178 task order is an $81.6 million NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 award to SpaceX to launch WSF-M2 on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg SFB in the first half of FY2027, including a BLAZE-2 rideshare. This award marks SpaceX’s third consecutive Lane 1 win under NSSL Phase 3, following two earlier Lane 1 awards totaling $733.5 million for SDA and NRO missions. WSF-M2 is the second Ball Aerospace–built microwave weather satellite, following WSF-M1 (USSF-62) which flew on a Falcon 9 on 11 April 2024, with Ball renamed to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems after the 2024 acquisition. Each
29 June 2025
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
Space News Digest: June 2025 / Updated: 2025, June 29th, 00:31 CET

Space News Digest: June 2025 / Updated: 2025, June 29th, 00:31 CET

Rocket Lab completed two Electron launches within 48 hours at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, including the Get the Hawk Outta Here mission that deployed four satellites: three Hawkeye 360 RF geolocation microsatellites and the Kestrel-0A experimental satellite. Amazon expanded Project Kuiper by launching 27 new satellites into low Earth orbit, while SpaceX’s Starlink added 80 satellites in a single week, pushing its active constellation past 7,900. Japan marked the 50th and final H-2A launch by deploying the GOSAT-GW greenhouse gas and water-cycle satellite, part of a fleet that achieved 66 launches (63 successful) over 31 years. South Korea’s
29 June 2025
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
June 2025 Science Breakthroughs and Projects: Medicine, Space, Climate, AI & More

June 2025 Science Breakthroughs and Projects: Medicine, Space, Climate, AI & More

In a Nature study, cancer cells were shown to siphon mitochondria from nearby nerve cells via microscopic tubes, a mechanism called mitochondrial hijacking that promotes metastasis. A separate Science News report described tumor DNA detectable in blood years before diagnosis, boosting early cancer screening prospects. An in vivo “exercise in a pill” approach in mice used a molecule that mimics workout benefits, improving metabolic health. Casgevy, the CRISPR-based sickle-cell gene therapy approved in late 2024, has begun treatment in over 90 patients globally. CRISPR Therapeutics’ CTX310, an in vivo ANGPTL3-targeting CRISPR therapy, produced dose-dependent triglyceride reductions up to 82% and
Major Astronomy News in June 2025: Webb’s Exoplanet Discovery, Rubin’s First Images, Space Missions & More

Major Astronomy News in June 2025: Webb’s Exoplanet Discovery, Rubin’s First Images, Space Missions & More

The James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged a Saturn-mass exoplanet, TWA 7 b, about 0.3 Jupiter masses at 50 AU from its star, marking Webb’s first direct exoplanet discovery. The missing baryon problem was resolved using 69 fast radio bursts, showing about 76% of ordinary matter lies in hot intergalactic gas, ~15% in halos around galaxies, and ~9% in galaxies. Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein), the largest Oort Cloud comet, showed CO outgassing jets at 16.6 AU with a nucleus about 140 km across, observed by ALMA. Solar Orbiter delivered the first views of the Sun’s south pole from an inclination
28 June 2025
Texting From Space: The T-Mobile–Starlink ‘T-Satellite’ Launch Heralds the Direct-to-Device Era

Texting From Space: The T-Mobile–Starlink ‘T-Satellite’ Launch Heralds the Direct-to-Device Era

In August 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced the Coverage Above and Beyond partnership to end mobile dead zones by connecting standard smartphones to Starlink satellites, branded as T-Satellite with Starlink, aiming to cover roughly 500,000 square miles of the U.S. Starlink Gen2 satellites feature Direct to Cell antenna arrays that enable direct-to-device connectivity with unmodified 4G/5G smartphones, effectively emulating a space-based cell tower. The first batch of six direct-to-cell capable Starlink satellites was launched in January 2024 on a Falcon 9 rocket. In March 2024 the FCC issued rules for non-terrestrial networks and, in November 2024, granted SpaceX conditional approval
This Week in Space: New Frontiers, Private Astronauts, and the Next Era of Observation / Updated: 2025-06-28 08:00

This Week in Space: New Frontiers, Private Astronauts, and the Next Era of Observation / Updated: 2025-06-28 08:00

China’s Zhongxing-9C satellite was launched on June 20, 2025, atop a Long March 3B from Xichang, marking the full localization of Chinese broadcast satellites in the 582nd Long March flight. SpaceX launched the Starlink 10-34 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, deploying 27 Starlink satellites and bringing the active constellation to nearly 8,000, with the booster marking its fifth flight. Rocket Lab’s Get The Hawk Outta Here mission placed four HawkEye 360 satellites into orbit, including three microsats for RF geolocation and the experimental Kestrel-0A. EarthDaily launched its first satellite to begin a ten-satellite constellation delivering AI-powered daily global
28 June 2025
Today in Space / June 28, 2025 0:00

Today in Space / June 28, 2025 0:00

SpaceX’s Starship suffered a further explosion during a static-fire test at Starbase, Texas, as the company has now completed nine Starship test flights with a record launch cadence in 2024–2025. SpaceX’s Axiom-4 mission docked with the International Space Station, marking India’s return to human spaceflight after 41 years as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to reach the ISS, with Peggy Whitson leading a two-week, 60+ experiment research phase. NASA and Northrop Grumman conducted the Booster Obsolescence Life Extension (BOLE) solid rocket motor test for the Artemis program, which ended with a nozzle explosion but yielded data for
28 June 2025
SpaceX: Mid-2025 Comprehensive Report (June 27th, 2025)

SpaceX: Mid-2025 Comprehensive Report (June 27th, 2025)

Summary of Recent Developments (Mid-2025) SpaceX’s Starship vehicle lifting off on its ninth test flight from Starbase, Texas in May 2025. Starship is the company’s next-generation, fully-reusable rocket system under development. In summary, by mid-2025 SpaceX is breaking launch records, advancing Starship’s development amid regulatory hurdles, expanding its Starlink network, and securing a growing share of civil and commercial space contracts. The following sections provide an in-depth analysis of the company’s history, technology, strategy, competition, and outlook. Company Background and History Founding and Vision: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the audacious
Space Technology News Roundup: Satellites, Launches & Deep Space Updates / Updated: 2025-06-27 16:54

Space Technology News Roundup: Satellites, Launches & Deep Space Updates / Updated: 2025-06-27 16:54

ESA’s Biomass satellite, the first with a P-band SAR, released its initial high-resolution images and enables 3D mapping of forest structure for carbon accounting. Rocket Lab’s 67th Electron launch deployed four satellites—three HawkEye 360 Cluster 12 microsatellites and the experimental Kestrel-0A—marking the ninth Electron mission in 2024. Amazon’s Project Kuiper added 27 satellites to reach a total of 54, launched on an Atlas V, intensifying competition with SpaceX’s Starlink. WISeSat.Space plans a 100-satellite secure LEO constellation by 2027 to deliver encrypted IoT connectivity using post-quantum encryption. Finland acquired its first military SAR satellites from ICEYE, expanding independent reconnaissance and surveillance
27 June 2025
Beaming the Watts Down: NASA × Ascent Solar’s Thin-Film Array Sets the Stage for Space-to-Earth Power Transmission

Beaming the Watts Down: NASA × Ascent Solar’s Thin-Film Array Sets the Stage for Space-to-Earth Power Transmission

The space-based solar power (SBSP) concept was proposed in 1968 by Peter Glaser to place satellites in orbit and beam power to Earth. In 2023 Caltech’s Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1) conducted three beaming tests in May, June, and July 2023 using the MAPLE flexible array to show ground reception of orbital power. In June 2025, Ascent Solar announced a 12-month Collaborative Agreement with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Glenn Research Center (GRC) to develop thin-film PV arrays for power beaming. Ascent’s copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) thin-film modules achieve about 15.7% production efficiency, with the Titan line targeting 17%+ efficiency
Technology Trends 2025: Global Innovations in AI, Green Tech, Space, and More (Updated: June 27th, 2025)

Technology Trends 2025: Global Innovations in AI, Green Tech, Space, and More (Updated: June 27th, 2025)

The global AI market is estimated at $758 billion in 2025 and is projected to rise to multiple trillions in the next decade. Apple’s 2025 software enables an iPhone to run a local large language model for Siri, marking edge AI in consumer devices. The AI semiconductor market is projected to exceed $150 billion in 2025 as cloud data centers invest heavily in AI processors. In May 2025, scientists delivered the world’s first personalized CRISPR gene therapy to a one-year-old boy with a rare genetic disease, halting disease progression. In June 2025, Insilico Medicine announced positive Phase II results for
State of Space and Satellite Technologies in 2025 (Updated: June 27th, 2025)

State of Space and Satellite Technologies in 2025 (Updated: June 27th, 2025)

Artemis I launched on November 16, 2022, marking NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) first flight and sending an uncrewed Orion around the Moon. The global space economy reached about $570 billion in 2023, with roughly 80% of that value produced by commercial activities. As of 2025, there are over 11,000 active satellites serving Earth, out of about 45,000 tracked objects including debris. In 2024 there were 259 orbital launches globally, with the United States conducting 154 and SpaceX responsible for 90. SpaceX conducted its first orbital Starship test on April 20, 2023 from Boca Chica, Texas; the flight ended with

Stock Market Today

SMIC stock set for results test this week as Hong Kong market reopens

SMIC stock set for results test this week as Hong Kong market reopens

8 February 2026
SMIC shares closed up 0.22% at HK$67.60 on Friday in Hong Kong. The board will announce unaudited results on Feb. 10, and shareholders vote Feb. 12 on acquiring the remaining 49% of SMNC. The register of members closes Feb. 9–12. SMIC plans to pay mainly with new RMB shares.
MediaTek stock price drops 3.4% as Taiwan market shuts; what investors watch next week

MediaTek stock price drops 3.4% as Taiwan market shuts; what investors watch next week

8 February 2026
MediaTek shares closed down 3.4% at NT$1,710 on Friday in Taipei, with 11.8 million shares traded before the market shut for the weekend. The company said it will double investment in data-center chips and advanced packaging, while warning of rising supply chain costs. Fourth-quarter sales rose 8.8% to NT$150.2 billion, but net income slipped 3.6%. Investors face uncertainty ahead of the Lunar New Year break and a weaker tech sector mood.
Arm Holdings stock rallies into weekend on AI spending hopes — Monday’s next test

Arm Holdings stock rallies into weekend on AI spending hopes — Monday’s next test

8 February 2026
Arm Holdings’ U.S. shares jumped 11.6% Friday to $123.70, capping an 18% two-day rebound amid a rally in chip stocks tied to AI data-center spending. The gains followed Arm’s fiscal Q3 revenue beat, but executives warned memory shortages could cut royalty revenue by up to 2% as smartphone chip shipments are expected to fall 7% in 2026. Investors now await Arm’s “Arm Everywhere” event on March 24.
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