A new type of controllable orbital transfer vehicle built by Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. made its debut today when SpaceX sent dozens of satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX’s Transporter-5 mission, which is part of the company’s rideshare program, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:35 p.m. ET (11:35 a.m. PT):to send 59 small spacecraft to space. Minutes after stage separation, the Falcon 9’s reusable first-stage booster made a rare land-based touchdown at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1, not far from the launch site.

The piggyback spacecraft were to be deployed from the rocket’s upper stage into low Earth orbit, or LEO, over the course of a little more than an hour.

One of those spacecraft is Spaceflight’s Sherpa-AC1, the latest in the company’s line of Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles, also known as space tugs.

Sherpa tugs are designed to go out from their launch vehicles and deliver an assortment of small satellites to different orbits. The tugs can also carry hosted payloads, which do their thing while remaining attached to the tug....

It’s been nine months since we last saw a new Starship prototype exit the SpaceX factory in Boca Chica, Texas. The unfinished rocket, designated S24, is slated for qualification testing, but the Elon Musk-led company still needs regulatory approval to launch the fully stacked system.

The rollout of prototype S24 is a potential sign that SpaceX is on track to perform the first orbital flight test of the fully stacked Starship rocket later this year, as Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, has promised. That SpaceX will attempt 12 Starship launches in 2022—another Musk promise—seems overly optimistic at the moment, but nuttier things have happened.

The sudden appearance of Starship prototype S24 is thus a welcome sign from the company. The unfinished unit left the SpaceX factory at the Boca Chica facility yesterday and was transported to a testing area. A video posted to NASASpaceflight’s YouTube channel showed the new prototype being rolled out, providing several clear views of the behemoth. The prototype will need to pass some basic qualification tests, namely pressure and cryogenic proof tests. Should all go well, S24 will then be moved to Suborbital Pad A for further evaluation, as Teslarati explains:...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday approved a final environmental assessment of the proposed SpaceX Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket program in Boca Chica, Texas after requiring more than 75 conditions.

The FAA published a finding of "No Significant Impact" but is placing some limitations on launches and requiring steps to limit environmental impacts, the agency said, clearing a hurdle to the program.

"One step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship," SpaceX tweeted soon after the decision.

The FAA noted completing the environmental review does not guarantee issuance of a vehicle operator license, which is contingent upon meeting FAA requirements for safety, risk and financial responsibility....

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 for its 13th flight on Friday, setting a new record for the most times one of its rockets have ventured off into space and returned safely back on Earth.

The two-stage booster, known as B1060, ignited its nine Merlin engines at 12:09pm while on Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

B1060 previously launched the US Space Force’s GPS III-3 satellite, Turksat-5A, the Transporter-2 rideshare mission and completed nine Starlink missions....

SpaceX Starship's Super Heavy Rocket is ready for what could be its final launch pad test before a likely orbital test flight in July.

The massive Super Heavy Booster 7, which has 33 Raptor engines, was transported to its orbital launch pad on June 23.

An enormous robotic arm mounted the rocket to the launch pad.

A huge amount of work was required for the company to reach this point due to the large number of Raptor rocket engines in the Super Heavy....

In a bit over 2hrs you can Watch Live as SpaceX Attempts Its 25th Cargo Mission to the Space Station.

NASA is already shifting attention to its next telescope project: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Yesterday, NASA announced that SpaceX has been contracted to provide launch services for the Roman Space Telescope, which is set to blast off in October 2026.

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA reminds us of its continued efforts to image and study the mysteries of space. As such, the administration is gearing up for its next big telescope, named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and NASA just got one step closer to getting it off the ground. NASA announced yesterday that it has entered a contract with SpaceX in which the California-based space company will provide launch services for the Roman Space Telescope. More specifically, the contract stipulates that the telescope will be launched aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with launch costs at a hefty $255 million....

A huge piece of space debris appears to have fallen from the sky and landed on sheep farm in Australia.

On July 9, locals across the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales heard a bang, ABC Australia reported. It was heard for miles, by those as far away as Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra.

Often when a rocket is launched, parts of the craft break away from the main payload and these fall back down to Earth. Most of these pieces burn up when the hit the atmosphere. Larger pieces that make it through the atmosphere tend to land in the ocean, which makes up two thirds of the Earth's surface. But on occasion, they can hit land.

Sheep farmer Mick Miners then came across a strange, charred object on his ranch, south of Jindabyne, on July 25. "I didn't know what to think, I had no idea what it was," Miners told ABC Australia.

He found the 10 foot chunk of metal wedged into the ground in a remote part of his sheep paddock.

He was not the only one. His neighbor, Jock Wallace also found some strange debris in the area.

"I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud," Wallace told ABC. "I think it's a concern, it's just fallen out of the sky. If it landed on your house it would make a hell of a mess."

Serial numbers were noted on the charred, pieces of debris.

Australian National University College of Science astrophysicist Brad Tucker told ABC News that the debris is likely from the trunk section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launched in 2020, and the debris may have fallen as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Tucker told ABC that is may have been the largest piece of space debris to fall in Australia for decades—the last time was in 1979, when NASA's Skylab space station fell in Western Australia....

South Korea's first lunar orbiter successfully launched on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, Seoul said Friday, with the payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space.

Danuri -- a portmanteau of the Korean words for "Moon" and "enjoy" -- was on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX. It aims to reach the Moon by mid-December....

....During its mission, Danuri will use six different instruments, including a highly sensitive camera provided by NASA, to conduct research, including investigating the lunar surface to identify potential landing sites.

One of the instruments will evaluate disruption-tolerant, network-based space communications, which, according to South Korea's science ministry, is a world first....

The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun preliminary technical discussions with Elon Musk's SpaceX that could lead to the temporary use of its launchers after the Ukraine conflict blocked Western access to Russia's Soyuz rockets.

The private American competitor to Europe's Arianespace has emerged as a key contender to plug a temporary gap alongside Japan and India, but final decisions depend on the still unresolved timetable for Europe's delayed Ariane 6 rocket...

SpaceX has received approval from the US Space Force to launch top secret spy satellites with its reusable Falcon Heavy rocket, Bloomberg first reported.

The launches will come under the National Security Space Launch mission, the Space Force told Bloomberg in a statement. The first Falcon Heavy launch is expected to go ahead between October and December and will send a satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office — an agency that builds and operates spy satellites, the Space Force said....

Elon Musk's SpaceX has landed another $1.4 billion contract to send astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years.

The announcement means SpaceX will spearhead five more astronaut missions under the space agency's commercial crew program - which would bring the space company to 14 total missions awarded by NASA worth almost $5 billion.

Under NASA's existing contract, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and reusable Falcon 9 rocket will send cargo and up to four astronauts to the ISS....

...In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX as part of its commercial crew program. The value of Boeing's share is $4.2 billion.

However, Boeing has yet to launch its Starline spacecraft....

SpaceX performed a static fire test of a prototype Starship rocket on Thursday, in which all six raptor engines were engaged. The eight-second test appeared to go well, save for the problematic brush fire that ensued.

...Video of the scene, as captured by NASASpaceflight (the static fire test starts at 5:35:00 in the video above), showed an unusually tall fire near the rocket, and wider angles revealed brush fires several hundred feet from the stand. Superheated debris from the test even reached a SpaceX dumpster, setting its contents on fire, according to Teslarati. The fires, which affected a protected habitat, required fire crews to come in and fight the flames.

The Crew-5 mission will send NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada to the International Space Station aboard the Dragon Endurance capsule. They'll be joined by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

The quartet is currently set to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center as soon as noon ET (9 a.m. PT) on Wednesday. Before Ian bombarded Florida, the launch had been planned for Monday, but it was pushed to Tuesday and then pushed back again by another day.

NASA is continuing to monitor the impacts of Ian in the region and could adjust the launch date again. A backup launch window has already been reserved for Thursday....