Astronomy Prints 🌌: Editor’s Choice: A busy week for launchers

08/20/2025

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By Dan Robitzski

Aug. 12 was a big day for some long-awaited flights around the world.

First, after years of development and certification delays, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket completed its first flight for the National Security Space Launch program (NSSL). The rocket successfully completed the Space Force's USSF-106 mission, carrying the $250 million Navigation Technology Satellite-3 into orbit.

Now that Vulcan is up and running, ULA can get to work clearing its more than two dozen-mission backlog for the NSSL. And beyond the importance of getting those missions accomplished, that means the Space Force again has a two-provider posture, where contracts with ULA and SpaceX offer what the military refers to as assured access to space.

The same day, Ariane 6 successfully completed its third launch. The European rocket deployed the MetOp-SG-A1 weather satellite — the first in a second generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites for the European weather satellite agency Eumetsat — into polar orbit.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex-41 on Aug. 12 at 8:56 p.m. EDT on its first U.S. national security mission, known as USSF-106, for the U.S. Space Force. Credit: United Launch Alliance

SIGNIFICANT DIGIT

Nearly $3B

The amount in losses that SpaceX is able to apply against taxes it owes in future years, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, explaining how the company can pay little to no taxes despite nearly 84% of its revenue coming from federal contracts.

Starship 10

SpaceX has scheduled the tenth launch of Starship/Super Heavy for no earlier than Aug. 24 from its Starbase facility in Texas. After four explosive failures in a row, the upcoming suborbital flight will attempt many of the same milestones planned for previous flights, including deployment of Starlink mass simulators and an in-space engine relight.

Trending This Week

Blue Origin is offering NASA a version of its Blue Ring spacecraft as a Mars relay satellite called the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter. It would serve as a communications relay between the Earth and spacecraft in Mars orbit or on the surface.

Rocket Lab USA announced it has completed its $275 million acquisition of Geost, a U.S. supplier of electro-optical and infrared sensor payloads used in military satellites, expanding its role as a defense space systems contractor.

China's CAS Space delivered seven satellites to orbit Aug. 19, including a pair of Mexican femtosats that marked the company's first launch of payloads for a Latin American client.

Firefly Aerospace has signed an agreement with Space Cotan, the Japanese company that operates Hokkaido Spaceport, to study potential launches of its Alpha rocket from the new Japanese commercial spaceport.

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