Ariane 6

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

15 August 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

Exploration · NASDAQ:AMZN · Satellites · Science · Space · Technology