Plus: Rocket Lab launches for an undisclosed customer
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: SpaceX will try to launch Starship again, Rocket Lab launched five satellites for an undisclosed customer Saturday and the big business of small satellites.
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Top Stories
SpaceX will try again to launch Starship after a scrub Sunday. SpaceX called off the Flight 10 launch of Starship from its Starbase facility in South Texas roughly 30 minutes before the planned 7:45 p.m. Eastern launch time. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said that a liquid oxygen leak in ground equipment caused the scrub. The suborbital test flight comes as the company faces increased pressure to overcome problems in the vehicle's development. Those issues have caused mission-ending failures on the previous three launches, dating back to January, as well as the loss of a Starship upper stage in ground testing in June. [CBS]
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on a mission that will include reboosting the station's orbit. The CRS-33 Dragon launched Sunday at 2:45 a.m. Eastern on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, docking with the ISS at 7:05 a.m. Eastern this morning. The spacecraft is carrying 2,300 kilograms of supplies and experiments for the station. It also has a "reboost kit" installed in the trunk section consisting of Draco thrusters and propellant that will be used to maintain the station's orbit instead of the station's own thrusters or Progress spacecraft. The use of the reboost kit is for now a one-time event, although NASA did not rule out using it on future Dragon missions if needed. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab launched five satellites for an undisclosed commercial customer Saturday. An Electron launched from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 6:45 p.m. Eastern Saturday, deploying the five satellites into low Earth orbit about an hour later. Rocket Lab offered few details about the satellites beyond that they were for a "confidential commercial customer." Rocket Lab carried out a similar launch for an undisclosed customer in June with a single satellite, which turned out to be a Lyra IoT smallsat for EchoStar. At that time, Rocket Lab said the undisclosed customer would fly a second launch later in the year. [SpaceNews]
Astranis has found that small GEO satellites can be a big business. In a recent interview, Astranis CEO John Gedmark said the company is seeing interest in its satellites from enterprise customers, ranging from companies to governments, who want dedicated private networks rather than leasing capacity on larger GEO satellites. The company launched four small GEO satellites in December, two of which have now entered service, and has the capacity to produce up to 24 satellites annually. [SpaceNews]
India's space agency ISRO performed the first drop test of its Gaganyaan crewed spacecraft Sunday. In the test, the crew capsule was carried aloft under a helicopter and dropped from an altitude of three kilometers. The capsule deployed its parachutes as planned and splashed down in the ocean off the coast from the Sriharikota spaceport. The test was a key milestone before the first uncrewed launch of Gaganyaan late this year. [Indian Express]
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Other News
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Friday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:04 a.m. Eastern, putting 24 satellites into orbit. It was the 27th Falcon 9 launch devoted to Starlink so far this year from California. [Spaceflight Now]
Russia launched a classified military payload on an Angara rocket last week. The Angara 1.2 rocket lifted off at 5:32 a.m. Eastern Thursday on what the Russian military said was a successful launch of defense payloads. Four satellites, thought to be optical reconnaissance spacecraft, were tracked from the launch, three in low circular orbits and a fourth in a more elliptical orbit. [Russian Space Web]
Blue Origin scrubbed a New Shepard suborbital payload launch Saturday. The NS-35 mission was set to lift off Saturday morning from the company's West Texas launch site, but Blue Origin postponed the launch shortly before the scheduled liftoff time, citing an avionics issue with the vehicle. The company has not set a new launch date. The NS-35 mission is carrying more than 40 payloads, but no people. [Space.com]
The launch of an AST SpaceMobile satellite from India might not occur until next year. The BlueBird Block 2 satellite is now scheduled to launch on an Indian GSLV rocket in the first quarter of 2026, the head of the Indian space agency ISRO said Saturday. He did not give a reason for the delay. The launch was originally planned for early this year but slipped several times. The Block 2 satellites are much larger than AST SpaceMobile's existing satellites, and the company plans to deploy several dozen of them into low Earth orbit for direct-to-device services. [WION]
Stratospheric ballooning company Urban Sky won a STRATFI contract from the U.S. Air Force. The company said Friday it received a Strategic Funds Increase, or STRATFI, contract from the Air Force Research Lab and AFWERX, which includes $15 million in R&D funding and $15 million in orders from government customers. Urban Sky is matching that money with $30 million from its Series B round raised in February. It said the funds will be used to mature balloon technologies that can be used for imaging and communications applications in place of, or complementing, satellite services. [SpaceNews]
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The Week Ahead
Monday: Wenchang, China: Scheduled launch of a Long March 8A carrying an undisclosed payload at 3:05 p.m. Eastern. Starbase, Texas: Rescheduled launch of SpaceX's Starship/Super Heavy vehicle on its tenth test flight at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Monday-Wednesday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 1:49 a.m. Eastern. Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 6:53 a.m. Eastern. Washington/Online: NIST and the Office of Space Commerce hold a second seminar on Building an In-Space Circular Economy. Wednesday-Friday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday:
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